The Planets

258 Pages·2014·53.67 MB·English

by  DK Publishing

s m i t h s o n i a n
US_002_003_192_970_Title.indd 3 16/07/14 10:44 AM
CONTENTS
6 Foreword 64 Venus mapped
66 Destination Maxwell Montes
LONDON, NEW YORK, MELBOURNE,
MUNICH, AND DELHI 8 FAMILY OF THE SUN 68 The planet of love
Senior Editor Ben Morgan 10 Our place in space 70 Missions to Venus
Senior Designer Smiljka Surla
12 Around the Sun 72 Earth
Project Editor Lizzie Davey
Editors Ann Baggaley, Ruth O’Rourke-Jones, Steve Setford
14 Birth of the solar system 74 Earth structure
US Editor Christine Heilman
Designers Kathy Gammon, Spencer Holbrook, Fiona Macdonald,
16 Formation of the planets 76 Tectonic Earth
Simon Murrell, Steve Woosnam-Savage
Editorial Assistant Olivia Stanford 18 Size and scale 78 Earth’s changing surface
Illustrators Peter Bull, Infomen, Maltings Partnership,
Kees Veenenbos 20 Our solar system 80 Water and ice
Managing Editor Paula Regan
Managing Art Editor Owen Peyton Jones 82 Life on Earth
Producer, Pre-Production Nikoleta Parasaki
22 OUR STAR 84 Earth from above
Senior Producer Mary Slater
DK Picture Library Rob Nunn
24 The Sun 86 Our planet
Jacket Editor Maud Whatley
Jacket Designer Mark Cavanagh
26 Sun structure 88 The Moon
Jacket Design Development Manager Sophia MTT
Publisher Sarah Larter 28 Storms on the Sun 90 Moon structure
Art Director Phil Ormerod
Associate Publishing Director Liz Wheeler 30 Sun rays 92 Earth’s companion
Publishing Director Jonathan Metcalf
32 The solar cycle 94 Moon mapped
First American Edition, 2014 34 Solar eclipses 96 Destination Hadley Rille
Published in the United States by DK Publishing
4th floor, 345 Hudson Street 36 Story of the Sun 98 Earthrise
New York, New York 10014
38 Missions to the Sun 100 Lunar craters
14 15 16 17 18 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
001—192970—Sept/2014 102 Highlands and plains
Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley Limited
40 ROCKY WORLDS 104 Story of the Moon
All rights reserved
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part 42 Neighboring worlds 106 Missions to the Moon
of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means 44 Mercury 108 Apollo project
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise),
46 Mercury structure 110 Mars
without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner
and the above publisher of this book.
48 Mercury up close 112 Mars structure
Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited.
50 Mercury mapped 114 Mars mapped
A catalog record for this book is available from
the Library of Congress.
52 Destination Carnegie Rupes 116 Water on Mars
ISBN: 978-1-4654-2464-8
54 The winged messenger 118 Destination Valles Marineris
DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk
for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. 56 Missions to Mercury 120 Martian volcanoes
For details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets, 345 Hudson
Street, New York, New York 10014 or [email protected]. 58 Venus 122 Destination Olympus Mons
Printed and bound in China by Leo Paper Products
60 Venus structure 124 Dunes of Mars
Discover more at
62 Venus up close 126 Polar caps
www.dk.com
128 The moons of Mars 164 Destination Enki Catena 206 Neptune structure
130 The Red Planet 166 King of the planets 208 The Neptune system
132 Missions to Mars 168 Missions to Jupiter 210 Destination Triton
134 Roving on Mars 170 Saturn 212 The blue planets
136 Exploring Mars 172 Saturn structure 214 Voyagers’ grand tour
138 Asteroids 174 Saturn’s rings
140 The asteroid belt 176 Destination Saturn’s rings 216 OUTER LIMITS
142 Near-Earth asteroids 178 Saturn up close 218 The Kuiper belt
144 Missions to asteroids 180 Saturn in the spotlight 220 Dwarf planets
182 The Saturn system 222 Comets
146 GAS GIANTS 184 Saturn’s major moons 224 Comet orbits
148 Realm of giants 186 Destination Ligeia Mare 226 Missions to comets
150 Jupiter 188 Cassini’s view 228 Cosmic snowballs
152 Jupiter structure 190 Destination Enceladus 230 Prophets of doom
154 Jupiter up close 192 Lord of the rings 232 Worlds beyond
156 The Jupiter system 194 Missions to Saturn
158 Io 196 Uranus 234 REFERENCE
159 Europa 198 Uranus structure 236 Solar system data
160 Galilean moons 200 The Uranus system 244 Glossary
162 Ganymede 202 Destination Verona Rupes 248 Index
163 Callisto 204 Neptune 255 Acknowledgments
Consultants Authors David W. Hughes is Emeritus Professor of
Maggie Aderin-Pocock, MBE, is a space scientist, Heather Couper, CBE, is a former head of the Astronomy at the University of Sheffield, UK.
an honorary research associate at University Greenwich Planetarium in London, and past He has published over 200 research papers on
This trademark is owned by the Smithsonian College London, and co-host of the BBC TV series president of the British Astronomical Association. asteroids, comets, meteorites, and meteors, and
Institution and is registered in the United The Sky at Night. Asteroid 3922 Heather is named after her. has worked for the European, British, and Swedish
States Patent and Trademark Office.
space agencies.
Ben Bussey is a planetary scientist and physicist at Robert Dinwiddie specializes in writing
Smithsonian Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. educational and illustrated reference books Giles Sparrow is an author and editor specializing
Established in 1846, the Smithsonian—the A specialist in remote sensing, he participated in on scientific topics. in astronomy and space science. He is a Fellow of
world’s largest museum and research the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous–Shoemaker the Royal Astronomical Society.
(NEAR) mission and is co-author of The John Farndon is the author of many books on
complex—includes 19 museums and galleries
Clementine Atlas of the Moon. science, nature, and ideas. He has been shortlisted Carole Stott is an astronomer and author who has
and the National Zoological Park. The total
four times for the children’s Science Book Prize. written more than 30 books about astronomy and
number of artifacts, works of art, and
Andrew K. Johnston is a geographer at the space. She is a former head of astronomy at the
specimens in the Smithsonian’s collection is
Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Nigel Henbest is an astronomer, former Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London.
estimated at 137 million. The Smithsonian is a
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum editor of the Journal of the British Astronomical
renowned research center, dedicated to public in Washington, DC. He is author of Earth from Association, and author. He has written more Colin Stuart is a writer specializing in physics
education, national service, and scholarship in Space and co-author of the Smithsonian Atlas than 38 books and more than 1,000 articles and space. He is a Fellow of the Royal
the arts, sciences, and history. of Space Exploration. on space and astronomy. Astronomical Society.
Martian crater
Spacecraft such as NASA’s Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter give us an intimate
view of worlds we can only dream of visiting
in person. This image of a meteorite crater
in the Arabia Terra region of Mars reveals
incredible details, including “painted” stripes
formed where dust has cascaded down the
slope toward the center.
FOREWORD
The amazing diversity of worlds in our solar system
has inspired people for generations. Our immediate
neighborhood in space includes a star powered by nuclear
fusion, large worlds of swirling gases, smaller planets
made of rock and metal, and countless tiny bodies.
In the farther reaches of the solar system, four large
gas planets orbit the Sun: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune. Four smaller terrestrial planets orbit closer
to home: Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury. Also nearby
is the main belt of asteroids. Other tiny, ice-covered
bodies, mostly found in the realms beyond the planets,
orbit in a few distinct groups at the edge of the Sun’s
gravitational influence.
Although it is small compared to the Sun and the gas
planets, the most important place to us is, of course, Earth.
It is the only world so far found to support life, and in our
exploratory missions across the solar system we have yet
to find anywhere quite like home.
People have stood on only one other world besides
Earth. Astronauts reached the surface of the Moon in the
1960s in one of the greatest stories of human enterprise.
We have also sent spacecraft to other planets, acquiring a
vast amount of data. Our robotic machines crawl over the
surface of Mars and return images of a dusty, dry world,
but one that reminds us of the desert landscapes on Earth.
Venus, cloaked in thick, hot clouds, seems a very alien
place in comparison. Other intriguing places that continue
to fascinate us include Europa and Enceladus, ice-covered
moons of outer planets that both contain layers of liquid
water under the surface.
The exotic beauty of our solar system has captured
the imagination of people everywhere. This book shows in
detail what each world has in common, what sets each
apart from the others, and how they all fit together within
our small region of the universe. I hope that The Planets
fulfills part of your dreams of discovery.
Andrew K. Johnston
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum