The planets / David McNab and James Younger
Publisher: London, New Haven : Yale University Press, 1999Description: 240 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) 29 cm001: 7738ISBN: 0300080441Subject(s): Younger, James | Space | Space explorationDDC classification: 523.4 MCNItem type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | MAIN LIBRARY Book | 523.4 MCN (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 070373 |
Browsing MAIN LIBRARY shelves, Shelving location: Book, Collection: PRINT Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)
No cover image available | No cover image available | No cover image available | ||||||
523.1 REE Universe : the definitive visual guide / | 523.2 BEA The new solar system | 523.2 MOO The moon | 523.4 MCN The planets / | 523.7 NIC Sun | 523.8 MEN Field guide to the stars & planets | 523.8 MOO Stars and space / |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
During the last forty years, human beings have broken free of the Earth and ventured out to other worlds orbiting the Sun. We have visited every planet except Pluto, discovered dozens of new moons in orbit around other planets, and put to rest myths and fantasies that have been accepted for centuries. This magnificent book chronicles our planetary travels, explains the creation and evolution of each planet, and tells how our understanding of the solar system has developed from the first stargazers in ancient times to Galileo to the present.
In an engaging narrative that draws on interviews with U.S. and Soviet scientists and astronauts, state-of-the-art computer graphics, and space race archives, David McNab and James Younger reveal the wonders of the planets. With the help of striking pictures from the Apollo, Voyager, Pioneer, and Viking space missions, the authors describe planetary marvels: volcanoes three times the size of Mount Everest, worlds with seas of methane, rivers of lava longer than the Nile, clouds of sulfuric acid, and frosts of pure shining metal. They also investigate the possibilities of life elsewhere in the solar system, present a new perspective on the Sun and on Earth's atmosphere, and speculate about the evolution of the solar system over the next five billion years--to what may be its death.
The book, which is a companion volume to a highly regarded, eight-part Arts and Entertainment television series, invites us on an amazing adventure, one that will stretch the imagination to its limit.
Copublished with BBC Worldwide
Includes bibliographical references and index
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
School Library Journal Review
YA-A companion volume to the highly regarded, eight-part A & E television series by the same name. Amazing pictures from the space missions as well as computer graphics complement the highly informative and entertaining text. Sidebars abound with interesting tidbits about our solar system. Beginning with the story of the Kansas farm boy turned amateur astronomer who went on to discover the last planet in our solar system, the authors introduce each of the planets and the humans who have spent their entire lives bringing us closer to them. There is a fascinating narrative of "A field trip on the Moon" that chronicles the Apollo 15 mission and what the astronauts actually did as they walked about the moon's surface. The authors explain the implications of the latest information we've obtained about the planets and the Sun from the various space probes. They also look at the newest discoveries about the crust of the Earth. A book that has such a readable style and a wealth of up-to-date information is bound to be a valuable addition to any astronomy collection.-Cynthia J. Rieben, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Booklist Review
The exotic natures of Earth's companions in the solar system are exuberantly displayed here. Although the emphasis is on space-age photography, the authors' text efficiently supports the visuals with contextual explanations of the discoveries. And, rather than dryly recite the Mercury-to-Pluto litany, they instead organize the text around commonalities: the planets' birth out of a condensing nebula, their accretion into either hard rocks or gas giants, their volcanism, their atmospheres, and their congeniality, past or present, to life. A chapter with bright orange images announces a tour into knowledge of the Sun and the titanic dynamism of its radiation and weather. Withal the science, it is the space missions that made possible the scientific discoveries that excite the authors, and they refreshingly give the Russians' Venera probes the pioneering primacy they deserve but don't often receive in American space books. This one is of British provenance, and its association with a TV series to be broadcast on A&E in fall 1999 should enhance its intrinsic popularity. --Gilbert TaylorThere are no comments on this title.