Planets [Hardcover]

Giles Sparrow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2008

For millennia the planets have fascinated mankind. But only in the last 40 years have those wandering points of light in the night sky been revealed in all their glory, unmasked by a fleet of satellites and interplanetary probes: Cassini, Deep Space I, Galileo, Hubble Space Telescope, Magellan, Mariner, Mars Global Surveyor, NEAR Shoemaker, Stardust, SOHO, TRACE, Viking, and Voyagers I & II, to name but a few. And the closer we look, the more wonderful they are: Venus' clouds are laced with sulphuric acid; water once flowed over Mars' deserts; on Jupiter wind speeds reach 10,000 kph (6,000 mph) and storms rage for centuries; Saturn is surrounded by a swarm of 34 moons; and diamonds rain from Neptune's skies. Moving out from the Sun, every planet and moon is visited in a journey that takes us a full light year out into space, to the very fringes of the solar system where the Sun is no longer the brightest star in the sky. With nearly 200 spectacular images, The Planets follows the tracks of robotic rovers over Mars, plunges through Titan's atmosphere on the back of the Hugyens probe, smashes into a comet with Deep Impact, and discovers the frozen planets that lurk at the edge of our solar system, beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Giles Sparrow studied Astronomy at University College London, and Science Communication at Imperial College. He has acted as consultant and contributor on numerous popular science books, and is the author of, amongst others, The Universe and How to See it (Readers' Digest, 2001). He was recently a major contributor to Universe (Dorling Kindersley, 2005).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Quercus (October 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847246311
• ISBN-13: 978-1847246318
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,640,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply stunning, April 9, 2007

By 

Tim Witort "TRW" (Delhi, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Planets: A Journey Through the Solar System (Hardcover)

This book contains some of the most stunning images of the sun and the planets in our solar system. The quality of the paper and printing is excellent. Each of the planets is covered with a brief but informative page of current information (late 2006) accompanied by very high resolution images from the latest probes and satellites. If you have any interest in astronomy or science in general, this book will not disappoint. I picked it up at a local store on clearance for ten bucks and was amazed at the beauty of the book as I went through it. I'm planning on picking up one or two more copies to give as gifts. Being a long-time photographer and amatuer astronomer, I'm not easily impressed with most books of this type, but Sparrow did a great job assembling this information and these images.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doorway to a fascination with science, November 7, 2007

By 

NYKr "strngerinastrngeland" (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Planets: A Journey Through the Solar System (Hardcover)

My 8 year old son spends hours and hours and hours and hours...did I say hours and hours? ...looking at this book. He scrutinizes every photo and every word on every page, and there's always something new to find. If you ask him what his favorite planet or moon is, he'll give you a different answer every day. This is an extraordinary book for budding young minds, no child can resist it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Beautiful, October 4, 2007

By 

Olivia - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Planets: A Journey Through the Solar System (Hardcover)

I looked through this while waiting for an appoinment. I am so glad that they kept me waiting so that I could finish this book. The images of the planets of our solar system in this book are among the most stunning I have ever seen. Each image is accompanied by a brief description on the bottom that does not intrude into the photography. Satisfies both of my interests of astronomy and photography. Now I am waiting for my own copy!