Product Description
Author William Hartmann has fully updated this text, which retains a comparative approach to the principles of planetology, including organization by physical topic rather than by planet. This unique approach promotes an understanding of the unifying principles and processes that cause similarities and differences among the moon and planets. This edition features findings and photos from Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor missions as well as information on new discoveries about Mars, such as underground ice and possible glacial features. The author also includes new results about the "Tagish Lake fireball," material from the landing of the NEAR spacecraft on asteroid Eros, and updates on satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. The text's unique math boxes provide flexibility to teach planetary science at a descriptive level or at a moderately advanced level involving algebra and elementary calculus.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 2 reviews)

Overpriced and ineffective

The most important things for you to know if you are considering buying this book are that it is boring, there's not a drop of color ink in the whole book, and that the concepts presented are rarely put into a useful context. The book is a very dry read which is inexcusable because it actually addresses some very interesting concepts. And at nearly two hundred dollars (one of the most expensive books I've ever purchased), there's no reason that the whole thing is printed in grayscale. Full color photos depicting similar things as the gray photos in the book are many many times as fascinating. Finally, the complicated (and sometimes simple) math and physics behind many of the phenomena explained in this book are usually not included or, at best, left as a footnote. For this reason, the complicated concepts addressed cannot be understood from the most fundamental viewpoint and leave the reader without the ability to really apply the ideas to modeling or predicting real-world situations. I'm sorry that I do not have a recommendation for a better book, as this is the first (of hopefully many and better) book I have read on the topic. Hope this isn't required reading for you, like it was for me.
December 09, 2008

A Solar System Reference Book for the Rest of Us!

The first time I read this book was when one of my graduate teachers asked me to review it. While he thought it to basic for graduate-level work, I have used this book ever since, for students of all ages. Well written and illustrated with black-&-white pictures as well as the author's own well-respected artwork, it covers so much in such a small book it's hard to believe. The appendix of plantary data is up-to-date & comprehensive, lacking only some of the more esoteric elements (like the moment of inertia factor and J2 moment - if you don't know what those are, you won't miss them). Best at an undergraduate level, no math is required; all the math is set aside in boxes from the text, ready to use when the reader is ready but not required for a firm understanding of the subject at hand. And while it's clearly written as a textbook, it's far better reading than your average college text on the subject. While there are many "overview" books on the market, this is one of the best in my opinion; while I like and use more flashy texts like "The New Solar System", this is the one that I go back to again & again to review the basics or perform a simple calculation.
March 28, 2000

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

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

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

Planetary Sciences
by Imke de Pater, Jack J. Lissauer

The Cambridge Guide to the Solar System
by Kenneth R. Lang

Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences
by Mary L. Boas