The Cambridge Guide to the Solar System

by Kenneth R. Lang

• ISBN13: 9780521198578
• ISBN10: 0521198577
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Richly illustrated with full-color images, this book is a comprehensive, up-to-date description of the planets, their moons, and recent exoplanet discoveries. This second edition of a now classic reference is brought up to date with fascinating new discoveries from 12 recent Solar System missions. Examples include water on the Moon, volcanism on Mercury's previously unseen half, vast buried glaciers on Mars, geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus, lakes of hydrocarbons on Titan, encounter with asteroid Itokawa, and sample return from comet Wild 2. The book is further enhanced by hundreds of striking new images of the planets and moons. Written at an introductory level appropriate for undergraduate and high-school students, it provides fresh insights that appeal to anyone with an interest in planetary science. A website hosted by the author contains all the images in the book with an overview of their importance. A link to this can be found at www.cambridge.org/solarsystem.

Table of Contents

Changing Views and Fundamental Concepts

Evolving perspectives: a historical prologue

The new, close-up view from space

The invisible buffer zone with space: atmospheres, magnetospheres and the solar wind

The Inner System - Rocky Worlds

Third rock from the Sun: restless Earth

The Moon: stepping stone to the planets

Mercury: a dense battered world

Venus: the veiled planet

Mars: the red planet

The Giant Planets, Their Satellites and Their Rings - Worlds of Liquid, Ice and Gas

Jupiter: a giant primitive planet

Saturn: lord of the rings

Uranus and Neptune

Remnants of Creation - Small Worlds in the Solar System

Asteroids and meteorites

Colliding worlds

Comets

Beyond Neptune

Origin of the Solar System and Extrasolar Planets

Brave new worlds

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.