Ice, Rock, and Beauty: A Visual Tour of the New Solar System - Paperback

by C. Murray (Other), David Brodie (Author)

This stunning collection of images provides a new look at the Solar System made possible by recent exciting missions such as Cassini as well as by other probes and by Earth-based imaging. The book takes advantage of the rich pool of images that is available to tell a story of the Solar System that has not been told before. The images, all from the public domain but not hitherto gathered into a coherent collection, are supported by text and graphics. Each main image is accompanied by a graphic showing the location in the Solar System of the featured object. All of these graphics are based in a template providing a simple representation of the Solar System. The text itself is not extensive, allowing page design to have a high priority. The book is intended for anybody who lives in solar orbit and takes a general interest in the solar neighborhood.

Back Jacket

Ice, Rock, and Beauty is a book for anybody who lives in the solar neighborhood, and takes an interest in its significance to us as residents.

Human experience of the Solar System is changing rapidly. Techniques of observation from Earth-based telescopes continue to develop, while missions such as Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, and the Hubble Space Telescope have yielded many stunning images.

So although most people have some knowledge of the essential structure of the Solar System, relatively few are familiar with the amazing diversity of objects that travel with and amongst the planets in their journeys around the Sun.

The book gathers images from a rich pool, many from national and international organizations such as NASA and ESA, some directly from academic astronomers, and a few from private individuals. Together they tell a story of the Solar System, and of its beauty, that has not been told before.

Author Biography

David Brodie is the author of several successful educational textbooks and his travel writing has been published in the national press. He has initiated and run 'art-science' projects on neuroscience and on particle physics, resulting in significant national exhibitions.