Discovery and Classification in Astronomy

Steven J. Dick served as the NASA Chief Historian from 2003 to 2009 and was the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace at the National Air and Space Museum from 2011 to 2012. He has worked as both an astronomer and historian of science. Minor planet 6544 Stevendick is named in his honor.

'A highly accessible collection of narrative case studies that explore how the discipline of astronomy has gone about detecting new classes of phenomena and then has decided if, indeed, these new classes are in fact new, or whether they are actually variations or extremes of previously known classes. The bold ambition of the book, to craft a systematic hierarchical classification of all astronomical phenomena, to aid in forming and reforming taxonomies for future discoveries of new astronomical phenomena is, indeed, a goal that should be of great interest to scientists, historians, sociologists and philosophers.' David H. DeVorkin, National Air and Space Museum

• Preface; Abbreviations; Introduction: the natural history of the heavens and the natural history of discovery; Part I. Entrée: 1. The Pluto affair; Part II. Narratives of Discovery: 2. Moons, rings, and asteroids: discovery in the realm of the planets; 3. In Herschel's gardens: nebulous discoveries in the realm of the stars; 4. Dwarfs, giants, and planets (again!): the discovery of the stars themselves; 5. Galaxies, quasars, and clusters: discovery in the realm of the galaxies; Part III. Patterns of Discovery: 6. The structure of discovery; 7. The varieties of discovery; 8. Discovery and classification; Part IV. Drivers of Discovery: 9. Technology and theory as drivers of discovery; Part V. The Synthesis of Discovery: 10. Luxuriant gardens and the master narrative; 11. The meaning of discovery; Appendix I; Appendix II.