The Cambridge Guide to the Solar SystemRichly 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. |
Contents
| 1 | |
2 The new closeup view from space | 36 |
3 Atmospheres magnetospheres and the solar wind | 80 |
rocky worlds | 117 |
stepping stone to the planets | 158 |
a dense battered world | 201 |
the veiled planet | 220 |
the red planet | 247 |
11 Uranus and Neptune | 348 |
small worlds in the solar system | 365 |
13 Colliding worlds | 391 |
14 Comets | 408 |
15 Beyond Neptune | 435 |
Part 5 Origin of the solar system and extrasolar planets | 445 |
| 461 | |
| 463 | |
Common terms and phrases
asteroid belt asteroids astronomers atmosphere atoms axis belt billion years ago bright Callisto carbon dioxide Cassini clouds collision comet comet Halley core Courtesy of NASA/JPL crust dark detected diameter distance dust Earth Enceladus equatorial Europa flows flyby Focus formed Galileo Galileo spacecraft Ganymede giant planets global gravitational heat helium Hubble Space Telescope hydrogen impact basins impact craters infrared inside Jupiter Jupiter's kelvin kilograms kilometers lava layer light liquid water located lunar magnetic field magnetosphere Mars Martian mass density material Mercury Mercury's meteorites meters methane molecules molten Moon Moon’s motion move Neptune objects observed ocean orbital period outer particles percent planetary Pluto polar poles pressure radar radiation radio radius regions rings rock rotation satellite Saturn solar system solar wind space spacecraft speed star Sun’s sunlight surface telescope temperature terrestrial tidal Titan ultraviolet Uranus and Neptune velocity Venus volcanoes Voyager water ice wavelengths