Exploring Saturn [Hardcover]

Dan Bortolotti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 6, 2003 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

An illustrated preview to the Cassini-Huygens mission arriving at Saturn in 2004.

Exploring Saturn is a lively, informative way for students to fully appreciate and understand the Cassini orbiter's historic rendezvous with the ringed planet in 2004. It features Cassini's 4-year mission details including the breakaway Huygens probe that will plummet to Saturn's largest moon, Titan -- the only moon in our solar system with an atmosphere. The data gathered from the Cassini-Huygens mission will help scientists to unravel Saturn's many mysteries, answer questions about Earth's formation, and investigate the possibility of life on other planets.

Exploring Saturn tells the remarkable story of discovering Saturn and its moons. Ancient astronomers estimated with surprising accuracy the distance, weight, and composition of Saturn using little more than observation and elementary physics. The book includes the latest findings from NASA as well as stunning color images from the Hubble Space Telescope, Voyager and Pioneer probes.

Included are practical website resources and a six-year schedule and location guide for backyard observations of the planet. The informative text is lively and conversational-easily accessible by students and amateur astronomers.

(20031025)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-9-Nicely timed to coincide with the planned arrival of the Cassini-Huygens probe in the Saturnian system this summer, Bortolotti's introduction to the sixth planet pairs eye-catching photos and artists' renditions with lively discussions of what we know, don't know, and hope to find out soon. Opening with a coherent capsule history of how early modern astronomers simplified Ptolemy's "wickedly complicated model" of the solar system, the author then lays out Saturn's probable origins and inner structure, provides tantalizing glimpses of those mysterious rings, and describes each moon in turn-including one, as yet unnamed, discovered in 2003. He then covers the Cassini-Huygens mission in detail, closes with a series of summary charts, and caps it all off with a first-class Webliography. The illustrations, which range from Galileo's first crude sketch of Saturn's "handles" and other early art to photos of the probe before its departure and plenty of stunning space photographs from earlier missions or the Hubble, add a crowd-pleasing blend of hard information and eye candy. Serious students and casual browsers alike will have trouble putting this down.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-8. This appealing presentation features a well-organized and engaging text as well as many exceptionally clear, colorful illustrations: photographs, space-telescope images, paintings, and drawings. Before discussing what is known about the planet, its rings, and its moons, Bortolotti explains how the information about Saturn has been collected,^B beginning with the ancients' observations and including the Cassini-Huygens explorer, which was launched in 1997 and will reach the planet and its main moon, Titan, in 2004. Students who wish to follow this planetary explorer and its four-year orbit of Saturn will find a good, basic introduction to the mission's goals and equipment. A section on observing Saturn includes pictures of how it will look from Earth during each year from 2003 to 2010. The volume ends with charts of facts about Saturn's ring system, its many moons, and how it compares with Earth. Though the absence of an index is regrettable, the lively writing and excellent illustrations make this very accessible. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Firefly Books (September 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1552977668
• ISBN-13: 978-1552977668
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 9.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,528,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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