Icy Worlds Of The Solar System

Author : Michael Carroll
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030281205
Total Pages : 166 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ice Worlds of the Solar System written by Michael Carroll and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-10-23 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although there is a chance that certain planets may be habitable for life, the moons of planets might have even more to offer. The icy moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have taught us important lessons about new volcanic forms—cryovolcanism—and the bizarre landscapes sculpted by those erupting geysers. Glaciers, ice mountains, and vast canyons mold the faces of these worlds of ice and thunder. Yet, many ice moons and dwarf planets, including Ceres and Pluto, are in fact sea worlds, hiding deep oceans beneath their ice crusts. This book explores the frozen worlds beyond Mars, delving into the interior forces of migrating ice diapirs, seafloor volcanism and tidal friction, which help form the landscapes found above and biologically friendly environs buried below. It covers the latest research in the field and includes interviews with today’s foremost authorities, including astrobiologists Chris McKay (NASA Ames), Ralph Lorenz (Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory) and Karl Mitchell (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). Original art by the author enhances the concepts explored in the text, recreating some of the most remarkable landscapes on icy planets and moons.

Author : Natalie Starkey
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472960386
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Fire and Ice written by Natalie Starkey and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating look at extraterrestrial volcanoes in our Solar System. The volcano – among the most familiar and perhaps the most terrifying of all geological phenomena. However, Earth isn't the only planet to harbour volcanoes. In fact, the Solar System, and probably the entire Universe, is littered with them. Our own Moon, which is now a dormant piece of rock, had lava flowing across its surface billions of years ago, while Mars can be credited with the largest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons, which stands 25km high. While Mars's volcanoes are long dead, volcanic activity continues in almost every other corner of the Solar System, in the most unexpected of locations. We tend to think of Earth volcanoes as erupting hot, molten lava and emitting huge, billowing clouds of incandescent ash. However, it isn't necessarily the same across the rest of the Solar System. For a start, some volcanoes aren't even particularly hot. Those on Pluto, for example, erupt an icy slush of substances such as water, methane, nitrogen or ammonia, that freeze to form ice mountains as hard as rock. While others, like the volcanoes on one of Jupiter's moons, Io, erupt the hottest lavas in the Solar System onto a surface covered in a frosty coating of sulphur. Whether they are formed of fire or ice, volcanoes are of huge importance for scientists trying to picture the inner workings of a planet or moon. Volcanoes dredge up materials from the otherwise inaccessible depths and helpfully deliver them to the surface. The way in which they erupt, and the products they generate, can even help scientists ponder bigger questions on the possibility of life elsewhere in the Solar System. Fire and Ice is an exploration of the Solar System's volcanoes, from the highest peaks of Mars to the intensely inhospitable surface of Venus and the red-hot summits of Io, to the coldest, seemingly dormant icy carapaces of Enceladus and Europa, an unusual look at how these cosmic features are made, and whether such active planetary systems might host life.

Author : Pat Dasch
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521640480
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Icy Worlds of the Solar System written by Pat Dasch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-08-26 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientists have only recently come to believe that the presence of ice is widespread in our solar system. Focusing on the occurrence and significance of water ice, and ices formed by other materials, this volume considers the implications of the reservoirs of water ice for the presence of life elsewhere in our solar system, and for habitability by human explorers who may venture to these distant worlds in the future. Pat Dasch is a consultant in the space industry specializing in policy and public outreach issues. She has written, published, and broadcast on a wide variety of space-related issues for the past twenty years. From 1997-2001 she served as Executive Director of the Washington, DC-based National Space Society.

Author : Patricia Daniels
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 1426204620
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The New Solar System written by Patricia Daniels and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From breathtaking full-color photographs to detailed explanatory diagrams to expert essays, fascinating sidebars, and informative fact boxes, the New Solar System is not just an easy-to-use, solidly reliable reference, but also a visually stunning, invitingly browsable volume guaranteed to fire the imagination of even the most casual reader.

Author : Bernard Henin
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319934767
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Exploring the Ocean Worlds of Our Solar System written by Bernard Henin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-03 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last 25 years, planetary science experienced a revolution, as vast oceans of liquid water have been discovered within the heart of the icy moons of our Solar System. These subsurface oceans lie hidden under thick layers of ice. We call them ocean worlds. Some of these icy moons, such as Ganymede, may hold two to three times more liquid water than all the water present on Earth, while others, such as Enceladus and Europa, are thought by astrobiologists to be our best hope of finding extraterrestrial life. In this book, we will explore and compare a variety of Solar System ocean worlds, meeting in the process 22 of the most intriguing objects, from the giant asteroid Ceres to the enigmatic, distant Sedna. In doing so, we will also encounter the multiple spacecraft that brought back most of what we know of these worlds (Pioneers, Voyagers, Cassini-Huygens, etc.), as well as the latest scientific research on this new topic. We will also entertain the possibility of life on each of these ocean worlds by assessing their habitability, as ultimately, these ocean worlds might hold the key to answering the fundamental questions in life: How did life appear? Where do we come from? Is there life out there? With the contributions of leading planetary scientists from NASA, ESA, and other institutions, this book aims to be the go-to reference for anyone wanting to know more about this fascinating topic.

Author : Paul M. Schenk
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 0816537070
Total Pages : 535 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Enceladus and the Icy Moons of Saturn written by Paul M. Schenk and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2018-11-27 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With active geysers coating its surface with dazzlingly bright ice crystals, Saturn’s large moon Enceladus is one of the most enigmatic worlds in our solar system. Underlying this activity are numerous further discoveries by the Cassini spacecraft, tantalizing us with evidence that Enceladus harbors a subsurface ocean of liquid water. Enceladus is thus newly realized as a forefront candidate among potentially habitable ocean worlds in our own solar system, although it is only one of a family of icy moons orbiting the giant ringed planet, each with its own story. As a new volume in the Space Science Series, Enceladus and the Icy Moons of Saturn brings together nearly eighty of the world’s top experts writing more than twenty chapters to set the foundation for what we currently understand, while building the framework for the highest-priority questions to be addressed through ongoing spacecraft exploration. Topics include the physics and processes driving the geologic and geophysical phenomena of icy worlds, including, but not limited to, ring-moon interactions, interior melting due to tidal heating, ejection and reaccretion of vapor and particulates, ice tectonics, and cryovolcanism. By contextualizing each topic within the profusion of puzzles beckoning from among Saturn’s many dozen moons, Enceladus and the Icy Moons of Saturn synthesizes planetary processes on a broad scale to inform and propel both seasoned researchers and students toward achieving new advances in the coming decade and beyond.

Author : Alan Stern
Publisher : Wiley-VCH
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pluto and Charon written by Alan Stern and published by Wiley-VCH. This book was released on 1998 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rave reviews for Pluto and Charon: Ice Worlds on the Ragged Edge of the Solar System The story of the quest to understand Pluto and the resulting transformation of our concept of the diminutive planet from that of solar-system misfit to king of the Kuiper Belt is told in this book by Alan Stern and Jacqueline Mitton. Stern, a Plutophile to the core, is one of the most energetic, talented, and savvy planetary astronomers in the business today. Mitton, trained as an astronomer, is an experienced writer and editor of scientific books for nonscientists. Together they have created an immensely informative book . . . Written in an engaging and informal style, Pluto and Charon takes the reader step by step from the discovery of the ninth planet in 1930 to the current understanding of Pluto and its moon, Charon.-Sky & Telescope More than a book summarizing what we know about [the] planet, [Pluto and Charon is] about how far and how fast astronomical technology has come since 1965 . . . Stern and Mitton use the narrative of Pluto research to explain in comfortable, everyday language how such work is done . . . One of the nice touches in the book is that Stern and Mitton tell us something about each astronomer.-Astronomy Pluto and Charon presents the exploration of the ninth planet-written as a vivid historical account-for anyone with an interest in science and astronomy . . . the authors describe in simple language the methods researchers use to explore the universe and the way ever-improving instrumentation helps their knowledge advance.-Physics Today

Author : National Geographic
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781426207525
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The New Solar System written by National Geographic and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the new technologies and discoveries that are showing us an ever more detailed vision of the solar system, in a resource that also includes diagrams, maps, essays, sidebars, and fact boxes.

Author : Kevin Hand
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691227284
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Alien Oceans written by Kevin Hand and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inside the epic quest to find life on the water-rich moons at the outer reaches of the solar system Where is the best place to find life beyond Earth? We often look to Mars as the most promising site in our solar system, but recent scientific missions have revealed that some of the most habitable real estate may actually lie farther away. Beneath the frozen crusts of several of the small, ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn lurk vast oceans that may have existed for as long as Earth, and together may contain more than fifty times its total volume of liquid water. Could there be organisms living in their depths? Alien Oceans reveals the science behind the thrilling quest to find out. Kevin Peter Hand is one of today's leading NASA scientists, and his pioneering research has taken him on expeditions around the world. In this captivating account of scientific discovery, he brings together insights from planetary science, biology, and the adventures of scientists like himself to explain how we know that oceans exist within moons of the outer solar system, like Europa, Titan, and Enceladus. He shows how the exploration of Earth's oceans is informing our understanding of the potential habitability of these icy moons, and draws lessons from what we have learned about the origins of life on our own planet to consider how life could arise on these distant worlds. Alien Oceans describes what lies ahead in our search for life in our solar system and beyond, setting the stage for the transformative discoveries that may await us.

Author : David A. Rothery
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108356427
Total Pages : 441 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book An Introduction to the Solar System written by David A. Rothery and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-11 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ongoing advances in Solar System exploration continue to reveal its splendour and diversity in remarkable detail. This undergraduate-level textbook presents fascinating descriptions and colour images of the bodies in the Solar System, the processes that occur upon and within them, and their origins and evolution. It highlights important concepts and techniques in boxed summaries, while questions and exercises are embedded at appropriate points throughout the text, with full solutions provided. Written and edited by a team of practising planetary scientists, this third edition has been updated to reflect our current knowledge. It is ideal for introductory courses on the subject, and is suitable for self-study. The text is supported by online resources, hosted at www.cambridge.org/solarsystem3, which include selected figures from the book, self-assessment questions and sample tutor assignments, with outlines of suggested answers.