The New Solar System (Paperback)

by J. Kelly Beatty (Editor), Carolyn Collins Petersen (Editor), Andrew Chaikin (Editor), Andrew L. Chaikin (Author) "THE EXPLORATION OF our solar system has stimulated one of the most important scientific revolutions of the last third of the 20th century, comparable in..." (more)
Key Phrases: plate tectonism, protosatellite disk, terrestrial planetary bodies, Hubble Space Telescope, Comet Shoemaker-Levy, Comet Hale-Bopp (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A well-illustrated tour of our solar system...The authors' discussions of what we don't know about these phenomena are bound to arouse the curiosity of the general reader, and their explanations of what we do know are supplemented with informative colorful photographs, diagrams, and suggestions for further reading." Science News

"The glossy pages, lavish color diagrams and photos, and large (but not thick) size of this splendid book will attract even those readers who are not interested in complex details of the solar system." The Book Report

"...an entertaining and highly informative popular work on the diverse nature of our solar system." Lunar and Planetary Institute Bulletin

Product Description
As the definitive guide for the armchair astronomer, The New Solar System has established itself as the leading book on planetary science and solar system studies. Incorporating the latest knowledge of the solar system, a distinguished team of researchers, many of them Principal Investigators on NASA missions, explain the solar system with expert ease. The completely-revised text includes the most recent findings on asteroids, comets, the Sun, and our neighboring planets. The book examines the latest research and thinking about the solar system; looks at how the Sun and planets formed; and discusses our search for other planetary systems and the search for life in the solar system. In full-color and heavily-illustrated, the book contains more than 500 photographs, portrayals, and diagrams. An extensive set of tables with the latest characteristics of the planets, their moon and ring systems, comets, asteroids, meteorites, and interplanetary space missions complete the text. New to this edition are descriptions of collisions in the solar system, full scientific results from Galileo's mission to Jupiter and its moons, and the Mars Pathfinder mission. For the curious observer as well as the student of planetary science, this book will be an important library acquisition. J. Kelly Beatty is the senior editor of Sky & Telescope, where for more than twenty years he has reported the latest in planetary science. A renowned science writer, he was among the first journalists to gain access to the Soviet space program. Asteroid 2925 Beatty was named on the occasion of his marriage in 1983. Carolyn Collins Petersen is an award-winning science writer and co-author of Hubble Vision (Cambridge 1995). She has also written planetarium programs seen at hundreds of facilities around the world. Andrew L. Chaikin is a Boston-based science writer. He served as a research geologist at the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Earth and Planetary Studies. He is a contributing editor to Popular Science and writes frequently for other publications.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 430 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 4 edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521645875
• ISBN-13: 978-0521645874
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,281 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A system whose parts must be studied comparatively., August 12, 1999

By	Ed Flaspoehler (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

The explosion of information in the field of planetary science in recent years has made it very difficult for the lay person to keep up with the latest knowledge and theories about the part of the universe in which we live. From the time the space program took off in the late 60's until today, NASA has sent an ever increasing number of missions to study our star and the planets of our Solar System.

The first edition of The Solar System, published in 1981, was a way for those interested in planetary science to catch up with a burgeoning amount of research. Since the Third Edition of The New Solar System was published in 1990, there have been so many developments in planetary science, that the new Fourth Edition is nearly twice as large as its predecessor.

This book is neither a text book nor a coffee table took. It lies somewhere in between. Its 28 chapters cover every aspect of Solar System research, from the Sun to Pluto, and all the planets, satellites, comets, atmospheres, and asteroids in between. The final chapter gives a census of the rapidly growing number of known worlds around other stars. Up-to-date tables of planetary, satellite, and small-body characteristics, a glossary of terms, suggested readings and references, and an index complete the book.

This is not a book by one person or a group of editors. Instead, it is a collection of chapters drawing together the talents of a multitude of planetary experts into one place. The list of luminaries contributing to this edition include David Morrison on Exploring the Solar System, Paul Weissman on Cometary Reservoirs, Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker on The Role of Collisions, and William K. Hartman on Small Worlds: Patterns and Relationships.

The theme of the book is that the Solar System is no longer a place of isolated bodies, but is instead an interrelated whole, indeed, a system, whose parts must be studied comparatively. The aim of the editors has been to encourage their authors to make neither sweeping generalizations nor detailed analyses. Instead, they have striven to make this book enjoyable reading for those with either a casual or professional interest. And, it seems, they have succeeded. The chapters are presented in a logical sequence, from an overview of the Solar System, through a discussion of each of the planets and their major features. But this does not mean that the book can only be read from cover to cover. Each chapter is independent, and a reader looking for information on a specific area of interest, say Mars, can easily study only that chapter without feeling that he is missing something.

There is a wealth of beautiful NASA and other photos supplementing the text, as well as clearly drawn and colorful diagrams by illustrator Sue Lee. In fact, it is possible to glean an incredible amount of information just by reading the picture captions. And the whole thing is supplemented with the superb paintings and drawings of artist Don Davis, who is famous for his work on the Cosmos TV series and the movie Contact.

This edition of The New Solar System is a welcome addition to Sky Publishing Corporation's catalog of astronomy books. As with all Sky Pub products, it is expertly laid out and beautifully printed. To use a phrase from another industry, it has good hand. If you are interested in the current state of knowledge about planetary science, The New Solar System, Fourth Edition, will be a welcome addition to your library.

Ed Flaspoehler, REFLECTOR Editor, Astronomical League

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous New Views and Descriptions, July 4, 2000

By	Theodore G. Mihran (Schenectady, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Three books on our solar system have appeared in the past year or so. Each has its own "flavor". I will review them in turn, but browsers should be aware of the other books, so they are listed here: See "Solar System Dynamics," C. D. Murray and S. F. Dermott, and "The Planetary Scientist's Companion," by Katharina Lodders and Bruce Fegley, Jr.

The present volume, a tremendously handsome production, is replete with gorgeous and stimulating closeup photographs of planets and their satellites. They give a glimpse of what the earth could have been like --- but thank goodness, isn't!

Many scientific theories, physical descriptions, and graphs are given describing geological and atmospheric conditions on the various solar bodies. However, they are not accompanied by a single equation. This will be a boon to some readers, but a bust to others. In my case, seeking as I was a discussion of planet formation and the Titius/Bode Law for planetary positions, it was disappointing not to find mathematical details.

But this loss is more than compensated for by the interest generated by what the book does deliver so well --- the fact that "planets are places," as Carl Sagan liked to say, and not just moving dots in the night sky. And it is inspiring to realize that ours is the first generation to get to know them intimately as a result of space probes by Russia and the United States.

I can think of no better birthday or Christmas gift for the amateur astronomer or the serious young science student than this stunning and awe-inspiring collection of photographs and scientific descriptions of the oldest objects around us, our "new" solar system.

That is not to say that the volume will not also be useful to more advanced scientists. But the scientific content is contained in detailed graphs, tables, and qualitative textual descriptions rather than in the definitive shorthand of mathematical equations. (For the latter, in spades, see Murray and Dermott).

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warm science, March 5, 2002

By	"goalieump" (Burien, WA United States) - See all my reviews

Through its many iterations the editors have managed to tie substantiated facts with brand new discoveries quite seemlessly. The writing avoids the mistake of taking you on a "ride" through the solar system and instead focuses on facts and inferences. It bugs me when writers throw too much opinion your way trying to paint the night sky in your head. Instead, you get to do all that painting yourself.
The illustrations and tables are also very good. The tie together the body of text pretty well. I'm not any kind of engineer or photographer, so when the included visual aids bring the words to life like this, it makes the reading time valuable.
What I really wanted was an all-encompasing text reference of our home planetary family. What I got was all that and a little more. It's well worth the dollars of initial investment. If we want a greater understanding of who we are and where we come from, careful study of our observable neighborhood qualifies as a good investment of time.