The origins, habitats, and atmosphere of the inner planets are explored in this set. Topics include a comparison of Venus, Earth and Mars, Interplanetary travel, and the Gemini Program. Essays selected from Salem's The Solar System (2009).

The essays in this set discuss Saturn's Ring System, Uranus' Tilt, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, and Neptune's Great Dark Spots. Also included are the moons of Io, Callisto and Ganymede. Essays selected from Salem's The Solar System (2009).

This volume considers the Moon and it's origin, history and exploration, as well as various comets, asteroids, meteors and meteorites and other space debris and their effects on the universe. Essays selected from Salem's The Solar System (2009).

What are meteorites? Where do they come from? Are they a threat? What are they made of? How common are they? As centuries have passed, our knowledge of these extraterrestrial objects has advanced immensely, and today, the scientific study of meteorites provides a wealth of information about the solar system. Meteorites reveal clues to some of the greatest scientific enigmas:

• the origin of life on Earth
• the mass extinction of species
• the nature and composition of asteroids
• the conditions during the formation of the solar system
• the dust from stars that died long before our Sun formed.

Written by a team of experts, Meteorites is an accessible, comprehensive guide that features over two hundred full-color photographs, diagrams and graphs. Look no further for a wonderful introduction to these powerful, yet mystifying, objects. Brigitte Zanda is Associate Professor at the Mineralogy Laboratory of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, and Adjunct Member of the Graduate Faculty at Rutgers University. Following on from her PhD in Geochemistry, she has written many papers in Meteoritics and Planetary Science and other journals, and is a member of the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. Monica Rotaru is Department Chief of Earth Sciences at the Palais de la découverte in Paris, where she organizes scientific exhibitions. After her PhD in geochemistry, she has conducted research in climatology and written television science documentaries.

This volume, together with Volumes 22 and 23 of the same series, contains Euler's contributions to the theory of the movement of the sun and especially of the moon. Time and again Euler worked on the program of applying Newton's principles of mechanics to improve our unterstanding of the movement of the celestial bodies. Euler's monumental "Theoria motuum Lunae nova methodo pertractata" of 1772 (his "Second Theory of the Moon") forms Volume 22, whereas Volume 23 mainly contains his early Astronomical Tables and his "First Theory of the Moon" of 1753. In the present volume the reader will find early papers by Euler pertaining to the preparation of his Astronomical Tables, a series of articles written between his two Theories of the Moon, and finally three substantial essays closely related to his "Second Theory of the Moon." The texts are reprinted in the original language most commonly French or Latin.

Over the past decade, asteroids have come to the forefront of planetary science. Scientists across broad disciplines are increasingly recognizing that understanding asteroids is essential to discerning the basic processes of planetary formation, including how their current distribution bespeaks our solar system's cataclysmic past. For explorers, the nearest asteroids beckon as the most accessible milestones in interplanetary space, offering spaceflight destinations easier to reach than the lunar surface. For futurists, the prospects of asteroids as commercial resources tantalize as a twenty-first-century gold rush, albeit with far greater challenges than faced by nineteenth-century pioneers. For humanity, it is the realization that asteroids matter. It is not a question of if - but when - the next major impact will occur. While the disaster probabilities are thankfully small, fully cataloging and characterizing the potentially hazardous asteroid population remains unfinished business. Asteroids IV sets the latest scientific foundation upon which all these topics and more will be built upon for the future. Nearly 150 international authorities through more than 40 chapters convey the definitive state of the field by detailing our current astronomical, compositional, geological, and geophysical knowledge of asteroids, as well as their unique physical processes and interrelationships with comets and meteorites. Most importantly, this volume outlines the outstanding questions that will focus and drive researchers and students of all ages toward new advances in the coming decade and beyond.

The early development of life, a fundamental question for humankind, requires the presence of a suitable planetary climate. Our understanding of how habitable planets come to be begins with the worlds closest to home. Venus, Earth, and Mars differ only modestly in their mass and distance from the Sun, yet their current climates could scarcely be more divergent. Only Earth has abundant liquid water, Venus has a runaway greenhouse, and evidence for life-supporting conditions on Mars points to a bygone era. In addition, an Earth-like hydrologic cycle has been revealed in a surprising place: Saturn's cloud-covered satellite Titan has liquid hydrocarbon rain, lakes, and river networks.
Deducing the initial conditions for these diverse worlds and unraveling how and why they diverged to their current climates is a challenge at the forefront of planetary science. Through the contributions of more than sixty leading experts in the field, "Comparative Climatology of Terrestrial Planets" sets forth the foundations for this emerging new science and brings the reader to the forefront of our current understanding of atmospheric formation and climate evolution. Particular emphasis is given to surface-atmosphere interactions, evolving stellar flux, mantle processes, photochemistry, and interactions with the interplanetary environment, all of which influence the climatology of terrestrial planets. From this cornerstone, both current professionals and most especially new students are brought to the threshold, enabling the next generation of new advances in our own solar system and beyond.
Contents
Part I: Foundations
Jim Hansen
Mark Bullock
Scot Rafkin
Caitlin Griffith
Shawn Domagal-Goldman and Antigona Segura
Kevin Zahnle
Part II: The Greenhouse Effect and Atmospheric Dynamics
Curt Covey
G. Schubert and J. Mitchell
Tim Dowling
Francois Forget and Sebastien Lebonnois
Vladimir Krasnopolsky
Adam Showman
Part III: Clouds, Hazes, and Precipitation
Larry Esposito
A. Maattanen, K. Perot, F. Montmessin, and A. Hauchecorne
Nilton Renno
Zibi Turtle
Mark Marley
Part IV: Surface-Atmosphere Interactions
Colin Goldblatt
Teresa Segura et al.
John Grotzinger
Adrian Lenardic
D. A. Brain, F. Leblanc, J. G. Luhmann, T. E. Moore, and F. Tian
Part V: Solar Influences on Planetary Climate
Aaron Zent
Jerry Harder
F. Tian, E. Chassefiere, F. Leblanc, and D. Brain
David Des Marais

The emphasis of Planetary Atmospheres is on comparative aspects of planetary atmospheres, generally meaning comparison with the Earth, including atmospheric composition, thermal structure, cloud properties, dynamics, weather and climate, and aeronomy. The goal is to look for common processes at work under different boundary conditions in order to reach a fundamental understanding of the physics of atmospheres. As part of a general Physics course, the material is chosen to emphasise certain aspects that will be of broad topical interest:
- evolutionary processes, setting the Earth in its context as a planet and a member of the Solar System
- the properties of atmospheres that affect the climate near the surface of each planet
- measurement techniques and models, where the same experimental and theoretical physics is applied under different conditions to investigate and explain atmospheric behaviour.
These might be thought of as the astronomical, environmental, and technical sides of the discipline respectively.
The book covers the basic physics of planetary atmospheres in a single text for students or anyone interested in this area of science. The approach is the same as in the author's previous book Elementary Climate Physics: an overview, followed by more detailed discussion of key topics arranged by physical phenomenon and not planet by planet as usually found in this field. There is an emphasis on acquiring and interpreting measurements, and the basic physics of instruments and models, with key definitions and some historical background in footnotes and in the glossary at the end of the book.

Take a new look at the world around you. What is a planet? Is there life on Mars? What makes Earth so special? Questions about our Solar System have fascinated us for centuries. Based on the latest scientific research, The Story of the Solar System will help you see the planets around us in a whole new light. Using colourful and easy-to-follow infographics, each planet becomes a character with a story of its own to tell, from Jupiter the King of the Solar System to ice oddity Uranus and outlier planet-but-not-a-planet Pluto. As Space Scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock shows us, the story of Earth is best understood as part of its larger family, and The Story of the Solar System will bring that family to life. The BBC is the world's oldest and most recognised public service broadcaster, with a mission to enrich people's lives through programming that informs, educates and entertains. At the heart of that mission is great storytelling, and The Story Of guides use those tools to bring big subjects to life. With engaging infographics and illustration, accessible language and simple timelines, The Story Of will help you discover new worlds.

The text takes all of the features that have made Arny Explorations a top-selling textbook and applies them under a stars-first approach.

This new edition continues to offer the most complete technology/new media support package available. That technology/new media package includes: 6 NEW Interactives; PowerWeb (web-based research and interactive quizzing - very current); Online Learning Center (that allows instructors to take their course to the web if they choose); and a new CD-ROM that offers new and different text material/animations/links to even further enhance student comprehension.

The Juno mission to Jupiter is one of the most ambitious, daring and challenging solar system exploration missions ever conceived. Next to the Sun, Jupiter is the largest object in our solar system. As such, it is both a record and driver of the formation and evolution of the planets -- no other object in our solar system can tell us more about the origin of planetary systems. Understanding the details of giant planet formation, structure, composition and powerful magnetospheric environment required a new perspective close up and over the poles of Jupiter -- an orbit never before attempted. Juno was specifically designed for this challenge, entering into the harshest planetary environment known in the solar system. This volume describes the mission design, scientific strategies and instrument payload that enable Juno to peer deep into Jupiter's atmosphere and reveal the fundamental process of the formation and early evolution of our solar system. In these papers, the Juno instrument teams describe their investigations, which include gravity radio science, microwave radiometers, magnetometers, an infrared imager auroral mapper, an ultraviolet imager and spectrograph, a visible light imager known as JunoCam, low and high energy particle detectors and plasma wave and radio electromagnetic sensors. The articles also describe a radiation monitoring experiment and the extensive laboratory measurements undertaken to assist with the analysis and interpretation of Juno's pioneering investigation of Jupiter's deep atmosphere. Originally published in Space Science Reviews, Volume 213, Issue 1-4, November 2017

Planet Earth is part of our Galactic environment, not just the product of it, and it is still today influenced by phenomena related to Galactic forces. Specifically, our planet is affected by its near environment, in particular the small bodies in the Solar System. This book reviews the processes which cause the collisions of these small bodies with the Earth as well as the consequences of such collisions. The various articles take the reader through the Galaxy-Solar System connection to the orbital dynamics of the small bodies and to their number and distribution in near-Earth space. The hazards of the impacts of small bodies on Earth are evaluated, and the geophysical records of such impacts are discussed. The book takes the reader to the forefront of research on both impact cratering and the origin and evolution of small bodies in the Solar System. Thus it brings together two subjects, geophysics and astronomy, which are usually discussed in separate volumes but are closely knit together in this particular area of research.

This volume discusses the evolutionary paths linking planets and their atmospheres to their origin within circumstellar disks. It reviews the main phases of this evolution, summarizes what we understand and what are the important open questions, and suggests ways towards solutions. Dust accretion within disks generates planet cores, while gas accretion on these cores leads to the diversity of their fluid envelopes. The formation of planetary proto-atmospheres and oceans is an essential product of planet formation. A fraction of the planets retain their primary proto-atmosphere, while others lose it and may form a "secondary" atmosphere. When the disk finally dissipates, it leaves us with the combination of a planetary system and a debris disk. Using the next generation of observing facilities, we will be able to reconstruct more accurately the evolutionary paths linking stellar genesis to the possible emergence of habitable worlds. Originally published in Space Science Reviews, Volume 205, Issue 1-4, December 2016

This book develops the statistical mechanics of the formation of gravitating cosmogonical bodies in the investigation of our solar system and other exoplanetary systems. The first part of the text acquaints the reader with the developing statistical theory of gravitating cosmogonical body formation. Within the framework of this theory, the models and evolution equations of the statistical mechanics are proposed, while well-known problems of gravitational condensation of infinite distributed cosmic substances are solved on the basis of the proposed statistical model of spheroidal bodies. The second section of the book details theoretical and practical approaches to investigating the solar system and other exoplanetary systems. In particular, it considers a new universal stellar law (USL) for extrasolar planetary systems connecting the temperature, the size and the mass of each star. Within the framework of the developed statistical theory, a new law (generalizing the famous law of O. Schmidt) for the distribution of planetary in the solar system is also provided.

The volume begins with contributions on solar modelling, starting with the Standard Model. The experimental results on solar neutrinos precedes recent theoretical ideas on neutrino masses. Helioseismology is presented from both a theoretical and an experimental point of view, describing recent resul

The quantity of numbered minor planets has now well exceeded a quarter million. The new sixth edition of the "Dictionary of Minor Planet Names," which is the IAU s official reference work for the field, now covers more than 17,000 named minor planets. In addition to being of practical value for identification purposes, the "Dictionary of Minor Planet Names" provides authoritative information on the basis of the rich and colorful variety of ingenious names, from heavenly goddesses to artists, from scientists to Nobel laureates, from historical or political figures to ordinary women and men, from mountains to buildings, as well as a variety of compound terms and curiosities.

This sixth edition of the "Dictionary of Minor Planet Names" has grown by more than 7,000 entries compared to the fifth edition and by more than 2,000 compared to the fifth edition, including its two addenda published in 2006 and 2009. In addition, there are many corrections, revisions and updates to the entries published in earlier editions. This work is an abundant source of information for anyone interested in minor planets and who enjoys reading about the people and things minor planets commemorate."

When the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, they made a very important discovery. During their landing on the surface of the Moon, the exhaust gases released from the Lunar Module landing rockets caused large amounts of surface dust to move into the thin lunar atmosphere, causing obscuration of the lunar surface. Once they landed, they found that the surface of the Moon was covered with several inches of very fine, tiny particles composed of sharp, glassy material. The lunar dust stuck to everything it came in contact with, and, once on the lunar surface, the dust eroded their spacesuits, caused overheating on equipment and instrumentation, compromised seals on their spacesuits and on lunar sample collecting boxes, irritated their eyes and lungs, and generally coated everything very efficiently. On the return to Earth in the Apollo Command Module, lunar dust inadvertently brought aboard floated freely in their cabin causing problems. Now, 50 years later, humans will return to the Moon in the Artemis Program, as early as 2024. This book summarizes what we know about lunar dust, its structure and chemical composition, its impact on human health, and how to reduce/mitigate its effects on future human exploration. The four dozen contributors to the 14 chapters in the book are planetary scientists, engineers, mission planners, medical researchers and physicians from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as universities and industry from the United States, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.

Drawing together leading observational astronomers, atmospheric researchers and public policy analysts, including Edward Teller, David Morrison, and Eugene Shoemaker, the discussions in this volume provide a detailed look at the probability and implications of an impact of an asteroid or comet with the Earth. The chapters are based on discussions held at the Erice International Seminar on Planetary Emergencies in 1993, which reached the following conclusions: cosmic impacts have already played a significant role in the evolution of the Earth itself and of life on the Earth; while the threat of such a large impact is minuscule in any one year, the consequences are so grave that one should continue to study the threat; a small impact is considerably more probable and carries the additional threat of being mistaken for a nuclear explosion at a time of international tension, with dire consequences; and that it is necessary to gather data on objects near the Earth, or in orbits that may bring them near Earth and to publish these data openly and internationally.

The interdisciplinary field of Astrobiology constitutes a joint arena where provocative discoveries are coalescing concerning, e.g. the prevalence of exoplanets, the diversity and hardiness of life, and its increasingly likely chances for its emergence. Biologists, astrophysicists, biochemists, geoscientists and space scientists share this exciting mission of revealing the origin and commonality of life in the Universe. The members of the different disciplines are used to their own terminology and technical language. In the interdisciplinary environment many terms either have redundant meanings or are completely unfamiliar to members of other disciplines. The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology serves as the key to a common understanding. Each new or experienced researcher and graduate student in adjacent fields of astrobiology will appreciate this reference work in the quest to understand the big picture. The carefully selected group of active researchers contributing to this work and the expert field editors intend for their contributions, from an internationally comprehensive perspective, to accelerate the interdisciplinary advance of astrobiology. This new edition offers ~300 new entries. Many entries were expanded or supplemented by figures supporting the understanding of the text. Especially in the field of astrochemistry there is a huge body of new results that have been taken into account in this new edition. The synonyms and keywords have been carefully revisited. Many were added, redundant ones deleted.

"Are there other planetary systems like ours? Other planets like ours? Is there life elsewhere in the Universe?" So asks Dr. Lew Allen Jr. in the foreword. In December of 1992, theorists, observers, and instrument builders gathered at the California Institute of Technology to discuss the search for answers to these questions. The international conference, entitled "Planetary Systems: Formation, Evolution, and Detection" and supported through NASA's newly formed TOPS (Toward Other Planetary Systems) programme, was the first of a series of conferences uniting researchers across disciplines and political boundaries to share thoughts and information on planetary systems. The conference was sponsored by NASA, hosted by JPL at Caltech, and endorsed by the 1992 International Space Year Association. These proceedings include discussions of topics ranging from stellar, disk, and planetary formation to new ways of searching for other stellar systems containing planets. The authors represent a range of nationalities, disciplines, and points of view. The second international conference took place in December of 1993.

Eclipses have captured attention and sparked curiosity about the cosmos since the first appearance of humankind. Having been blamed for everything from natural disasters to the fall of kings, they are now invaluable tools for understanding many celestial as well as terrestrial phenomena. This clear, easy-to-understand guide explains what causes total eclipses and how they can be used in experiments to examine everything from the dust between the planets to general relativity. A new chapter has been added on the eclipse of July 11, 1991 (the great Hawaiian eclipse). Originally published in 1995. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Thirty-five million years ago, a meteorite three miles wide and moving sixty times faster than a bullet slammed into the sea bed near what is now Chesapeake Bay. The impact, more powerful than the combined explosion of every nuclear bomb on Earth, blasted out a crater fifty miles wide and one mile deep. Shock waves radiated through the Earth for thousands of miles, shaking the foundations of the Appalachians, as gigantic waves and winds of white-hot debris transformed the eastern seaboard into a lifeless wasteland. Chesapeake Invader is the story of this cataclysm, told by the man who discovered it happened. Wylie Poag, a senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, explains when and why the catastrophe occurred, what destruction it caused, how scientists unearthed evidence of the impact, and how the meteorite's effects are felt even today. Poag begins by reviewing how scientists in the decades after World War II uncovered a series of seemingly inexplicable geological features along the Virginia coast. As he worked to interpret one of these puzzling findings in the 1980s in his own field of paleontology, Poag began to suspect that the underlying explanation was the impact of a giant meteorite. He guides us along the path that he and dozens of colleagues subsequently followed as--in true scientific tradition--they combined seemingly outrageous hypotheses, painstaking research, and equal parts good and bad luck as they worked toward the discovery of what turned out to be the largest impact crater in the U.S. We join Poag in the lab, on deep-sea drilling ships, on the road for clues in Virginia, and in heated debates about his findings. He introduces us in clear, accessible language to the science behind meteorite impacts, to life and death on Earth thirty-five million years ago, and to the ways in which the meteorite shaped the Chesapeake Bay area by, for example, determining the Bay's very location and creating the notoriously briny groundwater underneath Virginia. This is a compelling work of geological detective work and a paean to the joys and satisfactions of a life in science. Originally published in 1999. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In the second millennium b.c., Babylonian scribes assembled a vast collection of astrological omens, believed to be signs from the gods concerning the kingdom's political, military, and agricultural fortunes. The importance of these omens was such that from the eighth or seventh until the first century, the scribes observed the heavens nightly and recorded the dates and locations of ominous phenomena of the moon and planets in relation to stars and constellations. The observations were arranged in monthly reports along with notable events and prices of agricultural commodities, the object being to find correlations between phenomena in the heavens and conditions on earth. These collections of omens and observations form the first empirical science of antiquity and were the basis of the first mathematical science, astronomy. For it was discovered that planetary phenomena, although irregular and sometimes concealed by bad weather, recur in limited periods within cycles in which they are repeated on nearly the same dates and in nearly the same locations. N. M. Swerdlow's book is a study of the collection and observation of ominous celestial phenomena and of how intervals of time, locations by zodiacal sign, and cycles in which the phenomena recur were used to reduce them to purely arithmetical computation, thereby surmounting the greatest obstacle to observation, bad weather. The work marks a striking advance in our understanding of both the origin of scientific astronomy and the astrological divination through which the kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia were governed. Originally published in 1998. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

With this revised edition of THE SOLAR SYSTEM, author Mike Seeds' goal is to help you use astronomy to understand science -- and use science to understand what we are. Fascinating and engaging, this text will help you answer two fundamental questions: What are we? How do we know? Crafting a story about astronomy, Seeds shows you how to ask questions to gradually puzzle out the beautiful secrets of the physical world and our place in it. This edition addresses the newest developments and latest discoveries in the exciting study of astronomy, including new data on Jupiter's ring system; new observations of the shapes of stars; new evidence of dark energy, quasars, and galaxy collisions; and a look inside supernova explosions.