What If the Moon Didn't Exist?: Voyages to Earths That Might Have Been (Paperback)

by Neil F. Comins (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Comins, an astronomy professor at the University of Maine, inverts the anthropic principle of cosmology--suggesting that the universe evolved in order to produce life as we know it--and envisions an array of biosystems that would likely have occurred if particular events had not taken place. The first of these, after describing how our moon was formed from the impact of an asteroid on the molten earth, posits the characteristics of life that might have evolved without the moon's influence, e.g., diminished tidal changes would have reduced the number of species. The first few of these speculations are intriguing; then the device becomes boring, relying on a kind of "wow!" response that readers of popular science will find hard to sustain. Many of these scenarios are necessarily vague. Posing a supernova explosion only 50 light years away, Comins notes that food-chain relationships would break down and nature would have to "rebuild" the "hierarchies of life." BOMC and QPB alternates; Newbridge Book Club dual selection.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
The questioning title of this book sounds like the product of a child's naive curiosity. In reality, however, it is entirely possible that a moon might not have formed in Earth's orbit, and without our nearest astronomical neighbor this planet would have been a quite different world indeed. For example, without the moon's gravitational influence upon the Earth's tides, the planet would rotate considerably faster so that a day would last approximately eight hours. Astronomer Comins considers several equally plausible and equally fascinating planetary scenarios. For instance, what if the Earth had less mass? What if a star exploded near the Earth? What if the Earth's ozone layer were depleted? In doing so, he has produced a very witty, entertaining, and thought-provoking work of popular science that is appropriate for high school, public, and undergraduate library collections alike. Recommended.
- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Libs., Bozeman
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060925566
• ISBN-13: 978-0060925567
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #537,893 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly interesting, May 29, 2002

By	absent_minded_prof (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What If the Moon Didn't Exist?: Voyages to Earths That Might Have Been (Hardcover)

In this book, Neil Comins walks a fascinating tightrope between science and science fiction. He presents ten carefully detailed scenarios, in which intriguing astronomical "what ifs" are asked. Each scenario is alloted about 25 or 30 pages, on average. The title scenario, dealing with a posited Earth without a moon, is the longets essay, weighing in at 50 pages.

One of my favorite sections is the chapter pondering "what if" the Earth were struck by a black hole. Comins generously approaches this question from two completely distinct vantage points. First, he asks what would happen if we were hit by a stellar mass black hole. Second, he delves into how things might be if we were hit by a primordial black hole, formed at the beginning of the universe, with a mass about the same as that of the moon. Comins also asks great questions about how things might be if a local star went supernova; how the Earth might fare if the Moon's orbit was closer to us; and what Earthly life might be like if the Earth were tilted on it's axis perpendicular to its orbit, like Uranus.

This book is really interesting. It isn't exactly science fiction -- just speculation. Comins sticks very close to known science, with no departures at all. When necessary, he includes little essays about Stephen Hawking's theories, etc, to help us understand the sound foundation of his theorizing.

If you know any "absent-minded professor" children, or an adult with a bent in this direction, then I recommend the living daylights out of this book... To clarify that -- the highest praise I can give this book is that I wish I discovered it when I was about 10-13 years old. I remember my summer vacations when I was about that age, when my friends would plant me in deep, deep, deep left field during whiffleball games. I had to at least go out in the field, to save face, but I usually wanted to be thinking about science. Whichever team was actually at bat, I was the designated deep-cubed left fielder for the duration of the game. I'd sit there and daydream, and mumble to myself about astronomy or fantasy, until my friends eventually let me know when the game was over. One summer I spent those afternoons thinking about "The Lord of the Rings." Another summer it was Carl Sagan's "Dragons of Eden" (which I also recommend). Another summer it was the science chapters from "The Book of Lists." This book would have been just as fascinating, and would have kept me happily spaced out in dreamland for months. In my book that's high praise. I would also recommend this for science teachers, at any level from elementary school to high school. Two thumbs way up.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Exploration of a Little-Considered Subject, April 26, 2000

By	Tcaalaw "Tcaalaw" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What If the Moon Didn't Exist?: Voyages to Earths That Might Have Been (Hardcover)

While, as a reviewer below noted, this book occasionally suffers from digression, the author's decision to take on subjects rarely talked about in popular terms more than compensates for that minor flaw. While much of what Mr. Comins discusses in this book has been covered in other works, those have been overwhelmingly targeted at people with a strong grasp of astronomy, while Mr. Comins has succeeded in producing a book that novices as well as the more experienced can enjoy.

However, the book is not solely limited to astronomical phenomena. It also contains a very enlightening chapter on the feasibility of organisms using forms of electro-magnetic radiation other than visible light for purposes of seeing. Superman's x-ray vision will never seem quite the same once you know that his eyes would have to be ten-thousand times the size of regular human eyes in order to be able to process an image at the same level of resolution.

I would also strongly recommend this book to people who like alternate histories, or who enjoy writing "hard" science fiction. I have found it to be a very valuable reference work for my own writing.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, August 31, 2004

By	Victoria (Honolulu, Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What If the Moon Didn't Exist?: Voyages to Earths That Might Have Been (Hardcover)

This book is absolutely fascinating! The scenarios that writer describes are realistic. Yes, its possible that Moon didn't form or that the Sun was much more massive or Earth could have been tilted. Well, now we get to find out what Earth would have been like under any of those conditions and its definately not boring!