The Cambridge Guide to the Solar SystemThe Cambridge Guide to the Solar System provides a comprehensive, funamental, and up-to-date description of the solar system. It is written in a concise, light and uniform style, without being unnecessarily weighted down with specialized materials or the variable writing of multiple authors. It is filled with vital facts and information for astronomers of all types and for anyone with a scientific interest in the Earth, our Moon, all the other planets and their satellites, and related topics such as asteroids, comets, meteorites and meteors. The language, style, ideas and profuse illustrations will attract the general reader as well as professionals. A thorough report for general readers, it includes much compact reference data. Metaphors, similes and analogies will be of immense help to the lay person or non-science student, and they add to the enjoyment of the material. Vignettes containing historical, literary and even artistic material make this book unusual and interesting, and enhance its scientific content. Kenneth Lang is professor of astronomy in the Physics and Astronomy Department at Tufts University. He is the author of several astrophysics books, including The Sun from Space (Springer Verlag, 2000), Astrophysical Formulae: Radiation, Gas Processes, and High Energy Physics (Springer Verlag, 1999), Sun, Earth and Sky (Copernicus Books, 1997), Astrophysical Data: Planets and Stars (Springer Verlag, 1993), and Wanderers in Space: Exploration and Discovery in the Solar System (Cambridge, 1991), |
Contents
The new closeup view from space | 36 |
The invisible buffer zone with space atmospheres magnetospheres | 73 |
The inner system rocky worlds | 106 |
stepping stone to the planets | 156 |
a dense battered world | 193 |
the veiled planet | 208 |
the red planet | 235 |
The giant planets their satellites and their rings worlds | 286 |
lord of the rings | 316 |
Uranus and Neptune | 337 |
Remnants of creation small worlds in the solar system | 358 |
Asteroids and meteorites | 384 |
Colliding worlds | 410 |
Further reading | 430 |
Directory of web sites | 436 |
Common terms and phrases
Apollo asteroid belt asteroids astronomers atmosphere atoms axis belt billion years ago bright Callisto carbon dioxide clouds collision comet Comet Halley core cosmic Courtesy of NASA crust dark detected diameter distance dust Earth energy equatorial Europa flows formed Galileo Galileo spacecraft Ganymede gases giant planets gravitational heat helium highlands hydrogen impact craters inside Jupiter Jupiter's kelvin kilograms kilometers lava layer liquid water located lunar magnetic field Mars Mars Global Surveyor Martian mass density material Mercury meteorites meters methane molecules molten Moon Moon's motion move NASA Neptune objects ocean orbital period outer oxygen ozone particles percent planetary Planitia polar cap poles pressure produce radar radiation radio radius regions rings rock rotation satellite Saturn Section solar system solar wind space spacecraft stars Sun's sunlight surface telescope temperature terrain terrestrial tidal Titan Triton Uranus and Neptune vapor Venus volcanoes Voyager water ice wavelengths