The secret lives of planets : a user's guide to the solar system / Paul Murdin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Murdin, Paul, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Solar system--Popular works.

Solar system.

Genre:

Popular works.

Physical Description:

280 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Hodder & Stoughton, 2019.

Summary:

We have the impression that the solar system is perfectly regular like a clock, or a planetarium instrument. On a short timescale it is. But, seen in a longer perspective, the planets, and their satellites, have exciting lives, full of events - for example, did you know that Saturn's moon, Titan, boasts lakes which contain liquid methane surrounded by soaring hills and valleys, exactly as the earth did before life evolved on our fragile planet? Or that Mercury is the shyest planet? Or, that Mars' biggest volcano is 100 times the size of Earth's, or that its biggest canyon is 10 times the depth of the Grand Canyon, or that it wasn't always red, but blue? The culmination of a lifetime of astronomy and wonder, Paul Murdin's enchanting new book reveals everything you ever wanted to know about the planets, their satellites, and our place in the solar system.

Contents:

Order, chaos and uniqueness in the solar system

Mercury : bashed, bashful and eccentric

Venus : an ugly face behind a pretty veil

Earth : balanced equanimity

The Moon : almost dead

Mars : the warlike planet

Martian meterorites : chips off the old block

Ceres : the planet that never grew up

Jupiter : hard hearted

The Galilean satellites : siblings of fire, water, ice and stone

Saturn : lord of the rings

Titan : animation suspended

Enceladus : warm hearted

Uranus : bowled over

Neptune : the misfit

Pluto : the outsider who came in from the cold.

Notes:

Includes index.

Other Format:

Ebook version :

ISBN:

9781529319415

1529319412

OCLC:

1103978753

Publisher Number:

99984134195