Product Description
Planetary Sciences presents a comprehensive coverage of this fascinating and expanding field at a level appropriate for graduate students and researchers in the physical sciences. The book explains the wide variety of physical, chemical and geological processes that govern the motions and properties of planets. Observations of the planets, moons, asteroids, comets and planetary rings in our Solar System, as well as extrasolar planets, are described, and the process of planetary formation is discussed.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 2 reviews)

An outstanding textbook on planetary science

What's the best book to use as a text in a senior-year course on planetary science? This one gets my vote! It seems to cover everything.

After a nice introductory chapter comes the first test for this book: a 20-page chapter on dynamics with 5 pages of exercises. And this book does a great job. It explains Lagrangian points, orbital resonances, the chaotic nature of the orbit of Pluto, tides, the Yarkovski effect, and so on. And it just gets better after that, with more than 70 pages on planetary atmospheres (structure, composition, clouds, winds, photochemistry, escape). This is followed by hefty sections on planetary surfaces, planetary interiors, and planetary magnetospheres, each of which discuss the individual planets and satellites separately.

Next is a chapter on meteorites, along with radiometric dating. A chapter on asteroids: their orbits, size distribution, collisional evolution, surfaces, structures, and asteroid observing techniques. And a chapter on comets, including their origins and constraints on planetary system formation theories.

We return to dynamics for the ensuing chapter, on planetary rings: thicknesses, resonances, density waves, and shepherding. Following that is a chapter on planet formation, followed by a short concluding chapter on extrasolar planets.

The exercises are instructive and useful throughout. I learned a great deal of material from this book, even though it was nowhere near my first exposure to planetary science.
November 15, 2004

Great book

This is a superb book, if a little complex. You do need some mathematical and physics background to really follow all the topics. Well written, and having taken a class from Imke de Pater at Cal, a great representation of her work.
January 05, 2004

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Physics and Chemistry of the Solar System, Volume 87, Second Edition (International Geophysics)
by John S. Lewis

Solar System Dynamics
by Carl D. Murray, Stanley F. Dermott

Encyclopedia of the Solar System, Second Edition
by Lucy-Ann McFadden, Paul Weissman, Torrence Johnson

The Planetary Scientist's Companion
by Katharina Lodders, Bruce Fegley

The New Solar System
by Andrew L. Chaikin
by J. Kelly Beatty, Carolyn Collins Petersen, Andrew Chaikin