Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
'Icy Worlds of the Solar System is an excellent little book … the coverage is remarkably wide … a book that will richly reward readers for the time they devote to it.' The Journal of the British Astronomical Association
'This book would be a good introduction for undergraduate students, as well as appealing to those with a layman's interest.' Spaceflight
'… there is much of value in this volume. … To the majority of us ice is most familiar in a gin and tonic, as a surface for skating or an irritant on the winter morning commute, but this useful book provides a unifying theme that should be of interest to all geologists and astrobiologists.' Geological Magazine
'This book would be a good introduction for undergraduate students, as well as appealing to those with a layman's interest.' Spaceflight
'… there is much of value in this volume. … To the majority of us ice is most familiar in a gin and tonic, as a surface for skating or an irritant on the winter morning commute, but this useful book provides a unifying theme that should be of interest to all geologists and astrobiologists.' Geological Magazine
Product Description
Earth is the only planet known to have liquid water, and water ice has been present over parts of the Earth for much of its history. Scientists have only recently come to understand how widespread the presence of ice is in our solar system. Deposits of water ice may exist in unexpected places, such as in the polar craters of Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun. Other ices, such as methane ice and nitrogen ice, abound in our solar system. This book focuses on the occurrence and significance of ices, and considers 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. This accessible text will be of interest to students and professionals in planetary science, geology, and related areas.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
We know more about the ice on Earth than on any other planet. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
We know more about the ice on Earth than on any other planet. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An astronomer's must-have,
By WeatherNerd (Wales) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Icy Worlds of the Solar System (Hardcover)
Ice may not be the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about planets like Mercury, the Moon, or even the Earth. Yet ice is a feature of all these worlds. Indeed, the term 'ice', as the book explains, includes solid phases of elements like sodium, carbon monoxide, and sulphur!
Ice is important not just as a shaper of planetary surfaces, but was probably, at least partly, the source of the very atmospheres now in existence. There is mounting evidence that icy meteorites and comets delivered a large fraction of the water now present as oceans and vapour on Earth. On Mars, large fractions of its entire atmosphere long ago froze-out in the ice caps and below the surface of that globally subzero world. On the Moon, recent Clementine and Lunar Prospector data reveals a low neutron flux from permanently shadowed craters, circumstantially indicating the presence of water. In the outer Solar System, ice forms thick layers - up to 100km on Jupiter's moon, Europa, harbouring below it what is almost certainly an ocean of water - and possibly life. This is a book that the authors can be proud of. In a writing style that never loses the reader's interest or understanding, they have put together a free-flowing account of the role of ices in the solar system. The text is well-supported by numerous high quality images, some of which I hadn't previously seen. Definitely one for the 'wish list', this. [I originally wrote a full review for this book for 'Astronomy Now' magazine]
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
History and significance of ice in our solar system,
By Jill Malter - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Icy Worlds of the Solar System (Hardcover)
This is an recent, well-written, and very readable book about ice in our solar system. Pat Dasch clearly did a fine job as editor.
There is an introduction by Jonathan Lunine. We see the significance of solar system ice as the source of the Earth's water and of life. Robert Bindschadler then has a section on ice on Earth. He explains that Ice is 2 % of the Earth's water. Glaciation began 2.3 billion years ago, when the Earth was half its present age. And there's much more on the nature and history of our planet's ice. There's clearly no reason to study ice on Venus, so Bryan Butler discusses the potential for finding ice on Mercury and the Moon. He thinks it is likely that ther are significant ice deposits on Mercury in permanently shaded regions in polar craters there. And there may be some on the Moon as well. Next is a section by Tobias Owen on the role of icy planetesimals and indigenous rocks in providing our Earth with an atmosphere. After that, Michael Mellon discusses the nature of the Martian polar caps. Ice can exist only near the poles on Mars; nearer the equator, it simply sublimates. Paul Schenk then covers the solar system's icy satellites, including the terrain of the Jovian moons. And John Stansberry tells us about Triton, Pluto, and the Kuiper Belt. The final chapter is by Dale Cruikshank, on comets. As we discover, comets appear to have supplied the Earth with a significant amount of water. If we humans are going to explore the solar system, the amount of water on these surfaces may be of critical importance to us. In addition, the mechanisms that cause Earth to have as much water as it does may be present in other stellar systems, which could indicate something about the chances of life elsewhere in the Galaxy. This is an interesting book for laymen and scientists, and I recommend it. |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Science & Nature > Astronomy & Cosmology > Astronomy
- Books > Science & Nature > Astronomy & Cosmology > Solar System
- Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Aeronautics & Aerospace
- Books > Science & Nature > Physics > Applied Physics > Astrophysics
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Astronomy & Cosmology > Solar System
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
