This useful resource deals with satellite orbits, showing how the wide range of available orbits can be used in communications, positioning, remote-sensing, meteorology, and astronomy.

Starting from Mars outward this concise handbook provides thorough information on the satellites of the planets in the solar system. Each chapter begins with a section on the discovery and the naming of the planet’s satellites or rings. This is followed by a section presenting the historic sources of those names. The book contains tables with the orbital and physical parameters of all satellites and is illustrated throughout with modern photos of the planets and their moons as well as historical and mythological drawings. The Cyrillic transcriptions of the satellite names are provided in a register. Readers interested in the history of astronomy and its mythological backgrounds will enjoy this beautiful volume.

Uranus occupies a unique niche in the history of western thought; for while the planets from Mercury to Saturn had been known since pre-antiquity, Uranus was the first to be discovered, in 1781, through scientific investigation. Contemporary investigation of Uranus culminated in the Voyager 2 encounter in 1986. The results of that achievement, as well of concurrent research on the planet, are reviewed by 84 international authorities in this massive volume. Because Uranus' remoteness has prevented its being studied as intensively by earth-based observation as have other members of the solar system, most of what is known about the planet—its magnetic field and magnetosphere and satellites—were learned from the Voyager data, which is viewed here from a variety of perspectives. While the book is intended to serve as a comprehensive review, it also reports a substantial amount of original research results not previously published.

In this, the first history of artificial satellites and their uses, Helen Gavaghan shows how the idea of putting an object in orbit around the earth changed from science fiction to indispensable technology in the twinkling of an eye. Focusing on three major areas of development - navigational satellites, communications, and weather observation and forecasting - Gavaghan tells the remarkable inside story of how obscure men and women, often laboring under strict secrecy, made satellite technology possible. "...a gripping read." -NEW SCIENTIST

Since the Space Age began a quarter-century ago, astronomers have been able to reach out and often touch celestial bodies that formerly could only be dimly viewed from afar. Probes have flown by or landed on many of the planets. Astronauts have made direct observations from Earth orbit and on the Moon. Most important, a host of satellites in Earth orbit have recorded the emissions of X-ray, infrared, and ultraviolet radiation from distant sources normally invisible beneath the atmosphere. And when the Space Telescope goes aloft, man's vision of the cosmos will be extended further still. The essays in this book describe the results of twenty-five years of space observation, summarize what has been learned so far, and speculate on the possibilities that are now within grasp. Leo Goldberg provides a point of departure by describing what astronomy was like when it was limited to peering at the night sky through Earthbound telescopes. Goldberg also expresses the hopes astronomers had for discovery in the anticipated Age of Space. The chapters that follow reveal what has been discovered about the geological features of the inner planets (James W. Head, III), the Moon (John A. Wood), the giant planets as seen during the close encounters of the Voyagers (Bradford A. Smith), and the Sun (Randolph H. Levine). The next chapters document the first ventures into deep space and describe the understanding of a previously invisible universe revealed by ultraviolet sources (Andrea K. Dupree) and X-ray sources within the Milky Way (Jonathan E. Grindlay) and beyond (Paul Gorenstein). George B. Field, who chaired the National Academy of Science committee charged with developing priorities for U.S. astronomical research in the 1980s, discusses the future of space astronomy. An epilogue by Ursula B. Marvin describes a planet body that until recently had never been seen from the vantage point of space: the Earth itself. The editors and most of the contributors are affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. James Cornell also edited, with Alan P. Lightman, Revealing the Universe: Prediction and Proof in Astronomy (MIT Press paperback).

The planet Venus is the closest neighbour to the Earth and in several respects similar to our globe. It revolves around the Sun at an average distance of 0. 72 astronomical units, in an elliptical orbit of eccentricity 0. 007. The corresponding 3 numbers for the Earth are 1 and 0. 017. The mean density of Venus is 5. 2 g/cm , 3 that of the Earth 5. 5 g/cm . Venus’ acceleration of gravity at its equator is 8. 9 2 2 m/s , compared with 9. 8 m/s at the Earth. The escape velocity is 10. 4 km/s, while the corresponding ?gure of the Earth is 11. 2 km/s. Although the mass of Venus is somewhat smaller than that of the Earth – the ratio is M /M =0. 815 V E – the diameters of the two planets are almost the same. In other words, Venus is indeed a sister planet of the Earth. In earlier times, when almost nothing was known about the physical con- tions of Venus, the similarity appeared even stronger than today. Not only was Venus’ period of rotation thought to be close to that of the Earth, it was also p- sible (and indeed common) to imagine intelligent life on Venus.

For centuries, astronomers have placed a special interest on the other planets of the solar system. But with the advent of spacecraft and the tremendous missions undertaken by the Voyager and Cassini probes, astronomers have discovered that the natural satellites of the planets—the solar system's moons—are some of the most extraordinary places imaginable. There are moons with towering geysers, erupting volcanoes, and subterranean oceans of warm, mineral-rich water. Some of the highest mountains and deepest canyons can be found on the moons. There are moons that have shattered into pieces and then reassembled. There is even a moon where it rains rocket fuel. Recently, scientists have turned to the moons for answers in their investigations of the origins of the solar system and the evolution of life on our own planet. Featuring full-color, scientifically accurate illustrations by NASA artist Ron Miller, Natural Satellites: The Book of Moons chronicles these investigations and the questions we have yet to answer in our exploration of the solar system's moons.