Solar System: A Visual Exploration of All the Planets, Moons, and Other Heavenly Bodies That Orbit Our Sun―Updated Edition
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An astonishing journey through space and time. Experience all the wonders of our interplanetary neighborhood through fascinating text, original graphics, and stunning photographs. Never before have the wonders of our solar system been so immediately accessible to readers of all ages. Award-winning writer and broadcaster Marcus Chown combines science and history to explore the planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and more, as well as the historical figures who aided in their discoveries. From the explosive surface of the sun to the thrilling missions to Mars—including the journey of Mars rover Perseverance in 2020; from the gargantuan rings of Saturn to the volcanoes of Io; from the latest images of Pluto from NASA's New Horizons probe, to a simulation of what the Oort Cloud might look like, Solar System offers a window seat from which to view the beauty and magnificence of space. Read more
Publisher : Black Dog & Leventhal
Publication date : May 10, 2022
Edition : Revised
Language : English
Print length : 224 pages
ISBN-10 : 0762480734
ISBN-13 : 39
Item Weight : 2.8 pounds
Dimensions : 10.3 x 0.95 x 10.45 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #225,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #26 in Comets, Meteors & Asteroids #39 in Mars #269 in Cosmology (Books)
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Top Amazon Reviews
Solar System: A Visual Exploration of the Planets, Moons, and Other Heavenly Bodies that Orbit Our Sun by Marcus Chown "Solar System" is the visually stunning book about our solar system. This perfect coffee table book is adorned with hundreds of striking high quality images and graphics and complimented with fascinating facts. Award-winning author and former astronomer Marcus Chown provides the words behind the pictures and educates the public on the awe-inspiring wonders of our Solar System. This elegant 224- page book covers the planets, moons, asteroids, dwarf planets and other components of our Solar System. Positives: 1. An absolute visual treat. High quality photos on high-quality binding does this dazzling book justice. 2. An accessible book for the masses. A great book for all ages. 3. A great format for a book of this kind. The author provides a topical narrative and a fact sheet on the right hand of the page. The fact sheet is basically a "vital statistics" of each astronomical body. Providing information such as: size, mass, surface temperature, mean density, maps, etc...Great stuff! 4. The book was published in late 2011 so it's current. 5. Not only is the book visually stimulating it is quite enlightening too. The author inserts interesting topics throughout the book. Einstein vs. Newton as an example. 6. Interesting tidbits throughout, like how to spot of a planet. 7. Every planet is obviously covered but each planets most significant moons too and some are quite fascinating. 8. This is the kind of book that can satisfy the curiosity of a child. As a child, I loved reading my Encyclopedia this may have the same effect on your children. 9. Great topics, is there life on Mars? 10. The Asteroid Belt. Killer asteroids. 11. The planet that never was. 12. The fascinating moon of Europa! 13. The safest moon to travel to is... 14. The mesmerizing rings of Saturn. Interesting stuff! 15. The most stunning rock bodies of our Solar System. 16. The mystery of the missing moon. 17. Dark matter...enlighten me. 18. The Kuiper Belt. 19. Dwarf planets. 20. The Oort Clouds and how we know it even exists. 21. Comets! Negatives: 1. If you are looking for an in-depth book about astronomy look elsewhere. 2. No notes, references, bibliography or even web links to speak of. 3. The metric system is used which is common in physics to do so. 4. A section on space ships would have added value. 5. A glossary of terms never hurts. In summary, this is the perfect coffee table top book about our solar system. I was looking for the perfect book to adorn my living room table top and I absolutely found it in this gem. The high-quality pictures are absolutely stunning and the author does a wonderful job of providing concise and lucid words to describe the photos and graphs illustrated. This is the perfect book to give as a gift as it will provide hours of visual fun while enlightening the reader on the basics of astronomy. If you are looking for a visual astronomical treat to put on your table, you won't do much better than this book. A high recommendation. Recommendations: "Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier" by Neil deGrasse Tyson, "About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang" by Adam Frank, "Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . ." and "Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax"" by Philip Plait, "Wonders of the Universe" by Brian Cox, and "Cosmos" Carl Sagan.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2012 by Book Shark
Excellent book about our solar system! Much information is in this book that has more than likely been left out from you science classes in elementary-high school. The pages are black and have white text (which I think is the best way for a book to be written, especially a space book) and contains beautiful images of an incredible amount of details about our solar system. Being that this is a book about science, some of the information is already slightly outdated, like the picture of Pluto, although New Horizons is mentioned in the book but the book was made a few years before the fly-by took place during this year, and newer planetary fly-bys are & will be taking place, which will give us even clearer pictures that what this book provides, however there are many clear pictures in the book as it is and a wealth of information about what each is composed of, gravitational info, etc. Overall, it's a wonderful book & may require reading twice or more due to the wealth of information given.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2015 by Veronica Snow
"Solar System" exhaustively describes the components of our solar system, starting with a general overview of its explosive origins, then moving on to the description of the sun and of the other celestial bodies. Included are the planets, beginning with Mercury - the closest body to the sun - on to Venus, the Earth, Mars, etc. and their satellites, (for those who do have satellites). Also covered are the components of the Asteroid Belt, the components of the Kuiper Belt, Pluto, the dwarf planets, the Oort cloud and the comets. The illustrations include images of the planets and their orbits, planet and moon globes, cross sections showing the interior structure of the sun, of each planet and some satellites, planet and moon maps, scale maps (size of each celestial body as compared to a familiar object, ranging in size from the earth down a human being), as well as separate photographs of the same planets, the satellites, etc. They are by far the best part of the book for several reasons: (1) Many of them are original photographs collected by space probes over the past thirty years. These are actually of such high quality that they could very well be the next best thing to the direct observation. (2) They are abundant and wide-ranging, sufficiently so that they could almost describe the subject without the help of the accompanying text. (3) They are attractive. In addition to being in color with well-defined details, the various celestial bodies are presented against a black background, which contributes to the sensation that we are observing objects originating from outer space. (4) They extend in scale from whole disc images taken by ground based or space telescopes, to microscopic views of rock structures. (5) They were taken by using the entire spectrum of sensors available to probe planetary surfaces, atmospheres and magnetic fields, thus including, photographs taken within the wavelength ranges of visible, ultraviolet and infrared light, and also of x-rays and radio emissions. The text - particularly when compared to the quality of the photographs - is somewhat disappointing, particularly so at the beginning, as it consists of often shorter poorly descriptive paragraphs . The white against a black background (a plus when dealing with the photographs) makes it sometimes difficult to read. Still, once we accept that the quality of the photos is difficult to match, the information provided by the text is more than sufficient. Included are descriptions of: (1) the Orbital Data (distance from the sun or planet - when describing the satellites, orbital period, length of day, orbital speed, orbital eccentricity, orbital inclination, axial tilt); (2) the Physical Data (diameter, mass, volume, gravity, escape velocity, surface temperature, mean density); (3) the Atmospheric Composition. Inaccuracies are few and minor. For example, on page 115, under Physical Data, Jupiter has two mean densities, 0.690 g/cm3 and 1.33 g/cm3. Spelling errors are also few. Worth mentioning - as a recurrent inaccuracy - is that "Orbital Inclination" under Orbital Data in the title section of each planet/satellite is spelled correctly when describing Mercury, Phobos and Deimos. It is printed as Orbit Incination for all the other planets and celestial bodies. Despite the relatively poor text - when compared to the images - and the very minor inaccuracies, this is a beautiful book. My knowledge about astronomy has always been reasonably extensive for an amateur. But I have acquired a considerable amount of additional information by reading the "Solar System". The ease of presentation, along with the many illustrations, make the process of learning dramatically easier. I could not put the book down and was sorry when I reached the end.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2012 by Claudia Gasparrini Etheridge
Format: Hardcover
i like how they have maps and use 3d modles they use good information and pictures. and i like the newtons creadle to but mercury is actualy a little lighter and not brown venus is almost fully white you colud add more asteroids and have better pictures of ceres and vesta. titans surface is gray and so is venus .and neptune is way to dark thats the origional false color image. makemake is actually tan. haumea and quaoar have rings. eris moon is called dysnomia. thats not sedna. and what about orcus gonggong varda ixion. other stuff is in the pictures
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Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2026 by Lola LaRue
In the tradition of The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe comes a new book from the same publisher, this time covering details of the entire solar system. While my bookshelf has many books on astronomy, this is by far the most beautiful (and updated) book I have purchased or seen to date. To start, it indeed follows the new scientific line that there are 8 major planets and 5 dwarf planets, but it goes so much further. Great photos include a full page photo of the first directly detected alien planet, and a special page for each of the major features in our solar system. Just like in The Elements, each page includes hard data. In the case of the Solar System, you can read the length of day, axial tilt, diameter, mass, volume, gravity, escape velocity, surface temperature, atmospheric composition and mean density. The side of each page indicates temperature and density on a relative scale. For easy comparison, you can flip back and forth between various celestial bodies. The book begins with some of the most stunning photos of the sun that NASA has created to date thanks to the new SDO. The book describes new details on the physics of the sun that may be unfamiliar even to seasoned astronomers. There is even fascinating history, such as the magnetometer images of the solar flare in 1859 and how nobody believed the scientist who discovered it. The book tells the story of the sun's composition and how people thought the sun was made of iron until quantum theory. Indeed, each page continues like the pages on the sun, including scientific facts, history of our exploration, and stunning photos, including many I have not seen before. The collection is oustanding in all respects. I especially appreciated the amount of data on planetary moons, including photos of many of the larger ones. Large asteroids and minor planets get the same treatment as major planets, with full pages and orbital data. Scale drawings show Eros, Gaspra, and Ida in comparison to known sizes, like Manhattan. Rounding out the book is a detailed index, and every photo is fully documented in the back of the book to indicate where it originated. If you wanted to research a photo in greater detail, the Credits in the back give you the information to look into it some more. Highly recommended to those looking to learn, and for those who know a lot already, you will appreciate the presentation and photos. As I said, some of these photos I have not seen before, and I believe were prepared just for this book. A hearty 5 star recommendation.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2011 by Joel Avrunin
As many have said, the graphics are fantastic and the content is very detailed and well organized. I got it for my three year old and I'm sure it'll be one of his favorites for a long time. So here's the criticism. It's similar to what people said about the Feynman physics lectures in that if you already know the basic content, the ancillary interpretation allows a new, better, base understanding and lots of interesting factoids for the advanced reader. However, someone looking at it for the first time might get confused by the Mollweide projections (particularly of non-spherical objects, where it's not done correctly) and the content of Brian May's Ph.D. thesis. Also, portraying Jonathan Swift as a skill amateur astronomer is just stretching too far. I would have like to have seen a little better basic introduction and delineation between pure fact and tongue-in-cheek space humor.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2014 by Professor Useful
Such a great book! The pictures are glorious and set off nicely on black pages. Info is very helpful, although as other reviews mentioned, this would not be a good read for someone who needs large text. The white text on black background is readable, but not easy to read and is written for a 12+ age group...although pictures are good enough to adapt it for reading aloud to all ages.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2015 by karrots
A very important book which describes the importance of Earth's moon to the development of life on Earth. Simply, if Earth's moon was not there, we would not be here. This book, on pages 67-77, which ends with "Thank your lucky stars," "Without the moon, would we be here? Almost certainly not." In short, why?, because the moon acts as a weather stabilizer for the planet Earth over "geologic time," "deep time," of hundreds of millions of years. Without the moon, Earth would wobble like a slowing top (which is what happens to Mars) causing "catastrophic climate change. Life on Earth could never have evolved without a stable climate over billions of years." This is the first book I have read that tells it like it is, although I am sure there are other books which discuss this crucial issue regarding developing life on Earth. It is not the Earth that is unique, but Earth's large moon that is unique, which has allowed life as we know it to grow. This information is worth the price of admission alone. The rest of this wonderful book contains a lot of useful information and great pictures as well. Buy it and Enjoy!
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Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2015 by bowonwing