Combining the latest astronomical results with a historical perspective, Solar System: Between Fire and Ice takes you on a fabulous tour of our intriguing Solar System. Not content with a conventional discourse restricted to the major and minor bodies, astronomers Hockey, Bartlett, and Boice venture beyond the limits of our system to look at exoplanets and to consider future trends in space exploration and tourism. They discuss not only what scientists know about planets, asteroids, and comets but how the discoveries were made. With extensive teaching experience, their accessible prose clearly explains essential physical concepts. Lavishly illustrated as well as carefully researched, Solar System: Between Fire and Ice delights the eyes as well as feeding the mind. Detailed appendices provide additional technical data and resources for your own on-line voyage of discovery. Whether you are an educated layperson, student, teacher, amateur astronomer, or merely curious, you will come away having learned the most up-to-date knowledge and enjoyed the process. The authors bring a unique perspective to this subject, combining their years of experience in research, teaching, and history of planetary science. Prof. Thomas Hockey is a professor of astronomy, specializing in planetary science and the history of science. Dr. Jennifer Bartlett is an astronomer with a forte in dynamical motions of asteroids with liberal arts teaching experience. Dr. Daniel Boice is an active research astronomer in planetary science, especially comets, with considerable teaching experience. "In the 1980s and 90s the Viking and Voyager missions provided droves of exciting information, generating a new level of public interest. Textbooks were rewritten and scientists worked to understand the data during mission poor period that followed. In recent times, however, we have entered a new era. There has been a multinational effort to expand our knowledge of the Solar System. Data from these missions has been freely shared and has again raised the level of public interest. Within this era of renewed interest, it is appropriate, as is done in this book, to provide the public with an effort to present an integrated view of our Solar System and questions that the discovery of extrasolar planets have raised with regard to the Solar System as a whole." Professor Reta Beebe, recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal "I understand this book to be aimed at a general audience, but I can also see its use as a text in astronomy classes, especially in a community school or situations where students typically resist reading the textbook. The writing is light and entertaining, and will engage students, yet it thoroughly covers all the basic concepts of a typical Astro 101 class." - Dr. Katy Garmany, winner of the American Astronomical Society’s Annie J. Cannon Award.

Predicted long ago to be present on the surface of planetary bodies by theoreticians and recently shown by interplanetary spacecraft and ground- based instruments to be ubiquitous in the Solar System, ices in a broad sense have become an extremely important subject in planetary research. Ices found on objects formed in the remote parts of the Solar System contain a message about the composition and mode of formation of our planetary system. There are also objects that contain icy materials that bear signatures of past events on a geological timescale. Their study is one of the best means of inquiring about the origins, accessing the past and anticipating the future of our Solar System. The reviews in this book collect together a series of papers covering the physics and chemistry of ices, as well as the geology of icy surfaces. They present an extensive summary of their chemical and physical properties relevant to planetary astronomy. They also provide an overview of planetary bodies that contain ices and the outstanding problems of the field. Audience: The book is intended to become a reference for researchers and graduate students. It is accessible to senior graduate students with a background in planetary science.

The role of laboratory research and simulations in advancing our understanding of solar system ices (including satellites, KBOs, comets, and giant planets) is becoming increasingly important. Understanding ice surface radiation processing, particle and radiation penetration depths, surface and subsurface chemistry, morphology, phases, density, conductivity, etc., are only a few examples of the inventory of issues that are being addressed by Earth-based laboratory research. As a response to the growing need for cross-disciplinary dialog and communication in the Planetary Ices science community, this book aims to achieve direct dialog and foster focused collaborations among the observational, modeling, and laboratory research communities.

Ices in the Solar-System: A Volatile-Driven Journey from the Inner Solar System to its Far Reaches details the evolution of ice on planetary bodies within the Solar System, including terrestrial planets and the Moon, Ceres and other dwarf planets or volatile asteroids, icy Galilean and Saturnian satellites, Triton and disparate Uranian moons, and Pluto, other Kuyper belt objects and comets. The book provides a view of different ice types throughout the Solar System, i.e., H2O, CO2, CH4, etc., that characterize icy processes on disparate bodies. Ice and icy processes at micro through macro scales are discussed. The book geographically spans the major planetary bodies of the Solar System, covering surface and subsurface geologies, geophysics and geochemistry of ices to answer questions such as the nature and extent of water ice and different frozen volatile species, how do ices give us clues to interiors and oceans, and more. - • Draws a pan solar-system view of various ice species • Identifies and addresses outstanding and sometimes puzzling questions about these ices • Describes the dynamic relationships between these ices and the geological history of the planets, moons, and smaller bodies where they occur • Studies these relationships using multiple analytical-scales and techniques

Audouin Dollfus Observatoire de Paris, Section de Meudon, 92195 Meudon, FRfu~CE The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and, in particular, its Department of Scientific Affairs headed by Dr. C. Sinclair, actively supports new fields of science. The recent exploration of the outer parts of the Solar System by spacecraft focused the attention of a large community of scientists on the problem of ices, which playa major role in the accretionary processes in space except for the close neighborhood of the Sun and of other stars. NATO responded to this new interest by agreeing to sponsor an Advanced Research Workshop "Ices in the Solar System", provided a proper organizing body could be set up. It was a pleasure to organize such a workshop jointly with Profes sor Roman Smoluchowski who had earlier organized similar conferences. I knew from the experience of others who managed such meetings in the past that there would be much work, but the opportunity of cooperating with Smoluchowski was very attractive and convinced me to agree. If well organized, the whole project promised to be more than rewarding for a large community of scientists, both in the short run and in the long run, by clarifying certain outstanding questions in astrophysics. It became clear that a well-organized international conference would attract top scientists and help unravel many fundamental problems.

The role of laboratory research and simulations in advancing our understanding of solar system ices (including satellites, KBOs, comets, and giant planets) is becoming increasingly important. Understanding ice surface radiation processing, particle and radiation penetration depths, surface and subsurface chemistry, morphology, phases, density, conductivity, etc., are only a few examples of the inventory of issues that are being addressed by Earth-based laboratory research. As a response to the growing need for cross-disciplinary dialog and communication in the Planetary Ices science community, this book aims to achieve direct dialog and foster focused collaborations among the observational, modeling, and laboratory research communities.

Although there is a chance that certain planets may be habitable for life, the moons of planets might have even more to offer. The icy moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have taught us important lessons about new volcanic forms—cryovolcanism—and the bizarre landscapes sculpted by those erupting geysers. Glaciers, ice mountains, and vast canyons mold the faces of these worlds of ice and thunder. Yet, many ice moons and dwarf planets, including Ceres and Pluto, are in fact sea worlds, hiding deep oceans beneath their ice crusts. This book explores the frozen worlds beyond Mars, delving into the interior forces of migrating ice diapirs, seafloor volcanism and tidal friction, which help form the landscapes found above and biologically friendly environs buried below. It covers the latest research in the field and includes interviews with today’s foremost authorities, including astrobiologists Chris McKay (NASA Ames), Ralph Lorenz (Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory) and Karl Mitchell (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). Original art by the author enhances the concepts explored in the text, recreating some of the most remarkable landscapes on icy planets and moons.

Long before Galileo published his discoveries about Jupiter, lunar craters, and the Milky Way in the Starry Messenger in 1610, people were fascinated with the planets and stars around them. That interest continues today, and scientists are making new discoveries at an astounding rate. Ancient lake beds on Mars, robotic spacecraft missions, and new definitions of planets now dominate the news. How can you take it all in? Start with the new Encyclopedia of the Solar System, Second Edition.This self-contained reference follows the trail blazed by the bestselling first edition. It provides a framework for understanding the origin and evolution of the solar system, historical discoveries, and details about planetary bodies and how they interact—and has jumped light years ahead in terms of new information and visual impact. Offering more than 50% new material, the Encyclopedia includes the latest explorations and observations, hundreds of new color digital images and illustrations, and more than 1,000 pages. It stands alone as the definitive work in this field, and will serve as a modern messenger of scientific discovery and provide a look into the future of our solar system.· Forty-seven chapters from 75+ eminent authors review fundamental topics as well as new models, theories, and discussions· Each entry is detailed and scientifically rigorous, yet accessible to undergraduate students and amateur astronomers· More than 700 full-color digital images and diagrams from current space missions and observatories amplify the chapters· Thematic chapters provide up-to-date coverage, including a discussion on the new International Astronomical Union (IAU) vote on the definition of a planet· Information is easily accessible with numerous cross-references and a full glossary and index