Solar System Voyage
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 10/17/2002
EAN 9780521807241, ISBN10: 0521807247
Hardcover, 248 pages, 36.6 x 26.4 x 3 cm
Language: English
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.
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.