The Solar System: Exploring the Sun, Planets and Their Moons

by Robert Harvey

Overview

Featuring more than 200 intriguing images taken by space probes travelling billions of kilometres from Earth, The Solar System is an exhilarating exploration of the mysteries of our local planetary space. Within the span of a human lifetime, our spacecraft have visited all eight planets of the Solar System, together with several dwarf planets, asteroids and comets. We have mapped the surface of Mercury and Venus in exquisite detail, landed rovers on Mars, placed orbiters around Jupiter and Saturn, and parachuted to the surface of Titan. Our emissaries have visited icy worlds five billion kilometres from home and continued onwards to reach interstellar space. The pictures and science returned by these intrepid travellers have transformed our understanding of the Solar System in which we live.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838861698
Publisher:	Amber Books
Publication date:	10/14/2022
Series:	Amazing Places Landscape
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	11.62(w) x 8.62(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Harvey BA ARPS EFIAP CENV CSCI MCIWEM is a Chartered Natural Scientist and an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society. He chases elusive astronomical phenomena around the world and leads landscape astrophotography tours and courses in Britain and overseas.

Table of Contents

Contents includes:

Introduction

THE SUN
Contains most of the Solar System’s mass

MERCURY AND VENUS
Closest planets to the Sun
Impact craters and ridges on Mercury’s surface
Venus is hottest planet, with numerous volcanoes

EARTH AND MOON
The only planet where life is know to exist
Only planet with plate tectonics Asteroids

MARS
Iron oxide in the soil gives it a red appearance
Atmosphere mainly carbon dioxide Surface volcanoes
Rift valleys
Two satellites: Deimos and Phobos

JUPITER AND ITS MOONS
2.5 times the mass of all other planets combined
79 satellites, including: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa
Great Red Spot Cloud bands

SATURN AND ITS MOONS
Ring system
82 confirmed satellites, including Titan
(second-largest moon in Solar System) and Enceladus

URANUS AND NEPTUNE
Uranus has 27 known satellites, including:
Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel,
and Miranda
Neptune has 14 satellites: The largest, Triton, is geologically active,
with geysers of liquid nitrogen
Neptune trojans

MINOR PLANETS, ASTEROIDS AND COMETS
Dwarf planets – Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake and Haumea
Asteriod belt
Kuiper belt
Centaurs
Comets
Scattered disc

Index