'A deft, frequently dramatic tour' Nature'A wonderfully clear and readable book . . . Gives a splendid overview of our Sun's planetary system, including its history and exploration'Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell*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...

We have entered a new age of exploration and discovery, enabling us to probe ever more distant reaches of space and greatly advance our knowledge of the Universe. Today, telescopes peer not only into outer space, but also into the deep past.Paul Murdin takes us on an original and breathtaking journey across the lifetime of the Universe, from the first milliseconds of the Big Bang right up to our present moment and even beyond. Murdin draws on the latest discoveries in astronomy to ...

An inside guide by astronomer Paul Murdin revealing everything you need to know about the planets, their satellites and our place in the solar system.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 co...

Ghid de utilizare a sistemului solar„Un adevărat tur de forţă!" - NatureTrăim cu impresia că sistemul nostru solar funcţionează cu precizia unui ceasornic sau a unui telescop. Şi, pe termen scurt, aşa şi este. Dar, dacă îi studiem întreaga istorie, vom descoperică planetele din care este alcătuit au vieţi foarte interesante, pline de evenimente neprevăzute.Spre exemplu, ştiaţi că pe Titan, satelitul lui Saturn, se găsesc lacuri de metan lichid înconjurate de d...

[the text below needs editing and we must be careful not to say things about Dan Brown's book that could get Springer in legal trouble]Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code, was first published in 2003; its sales have reached 40 million worldwide. The book mixes a small spice of fact into a large dollop of fiction to create an entertaining novel of intrigue, adventure, romance, danger and conspiracy, which have been imaginatively worked together to cook up the successful bestseller....

How did our universe come to exist? Why do stars shine? Is there life beyond the Earth?For millennia, humans have looked to the celestial sphere to explain the cosmos,first recording the movements of the Moon 25,000 years ago. Since the Enlightenmentand the dawn of the space age, scientists have been unravelling cosmic mysteries, andraising astonishing new questions for future generations to answer. Today we live inan age of unprecedented astronomical revelation, f...

This book applies the latest scientific discoveries and theories to enquire whether life exists on other planets and, if so, what forms it might take. Could there be, elsewhere, life as advanced as here on Earth, or are we more likely to find much more primitive life forms, or even no life at all? Can science tell us whether there is something out there? Or are we the sole living organisms in a desolate and boundless cosmos? This is an impeccably thorough review of the evidence, making acc...

This book relates the history of asteroid discoveries and christenings, from those of the early pioneering giants of Hersehel and Piazzi to modern-day amateurs. Moving from history and anecdotal information to science, the book's structure is provided by the names of the asteroids, including one named after the author.Free from a need to conform to scientific naming conventions, the names evidence hero-worship, sycophancy, avarice, vanity, whimsy, erudition and wit, revealing the h...

The word “landscape” can mean picture as well as natural scenery. Recent advances in space exploration imaging have allowed us to now have landscapes never before possible, and this book collects some of the greatest views and vistas of Mars, Venus’s Titan, Io and more in their full glory, with background information to put into context the foreign landforms of our Solar System. Here, literally, are 'other-worldly' visions of strange new scenes, all captured by the latest technology by lan...

The first modern edition of Aphra Behn's translation of a charming and witty dialogue by the French writer Bernard de Fontenelle. Although over three hundred years old, Fontenelle's dialogues in a garden over five nights are still a surprisingly painless way to learn about the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars, even though new planets were later discovered and modern science has filled out many details Fontenelle could not have known. This is no lecture, but a conversation with the ...