Solar System Voyage
In the last few decades, the exploration of our solar system has revealed fascinating details about the worlds that lie beyond our Earth. This lavishly illustrated book invites the reader on a journey through the solar system. It starts by locating our planetary system in the Universe, then describes the Sun and its planets, the large satellites, asteroids and comets. With photographs and information from the latest space missions, the reader will discover the lunar plains scarred by asteroid impacts, the frozen deserts of Mars and Europa, the continuously erupting volcanoes of Io and the giant geysers of Triton; he will cross the rings of Saturn, plunge into the clouds of Venus and Titan, and survive the spectacular crash of the comet Shoemaker-Levy into Jupiter, to emerge with a greater appreciation of the hospitable planet we call home.
- Fully illustrated throughout with spectacular photographs
- Written by the author of Majestic Universe, Glorious Eclipses, and Space Odyssey
- French edition received the Astronomical Book of the Year prize in 1997 at the Astronomy Festival at Haute-Maurienne/Vanoise
Reviews & endorsements
"The solar system is spectacular, especially when viewed close-up in this oversized book. The text describes, in general and understandable language expertly translated from the French by Storm Dunlop, our neighborhood in the universe." Science Books & Films
Product details
November 2002Hardback
9780521807241
248 pages
263 × 365 × 30 mm
2.355kg
22 b/w illus. 233 colour illus. 7 tables
Out of stock in print form with no current plan to reprint
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. A star lost in infinite space
- 2. The Sun, our Star
- 3. Mercury: baked by the heat of the Sun
- 4. Venus: a vision of hell
- 5. The Moon: setting foot on another world
- 6. Mars: a trip to the desert planet
- 7. Phobos and Deimos: pebbles in the sky
- 8. Gaspra: our first asteroid
- 9. Jupiter: planet of storms
- 10. Shoemaker-Levy: timetable to collision
- 11. Io: the volcano planet
- 12. Europa: the hidden ocean
- 13. Saturn: the Lord of the Rings
- 14. Titan: an Earth in hibernation
- 15. Enceladus and the worlds of ice
- 16. Uranus: a recumbent giant
- 17. Halley: the great traveller
- 18. Neptune: the great blue sea
- 19. Triton: volcanoes of ice
- 20. Pluto and Charon: planets in limbo
- Appendices.