Description
Oxford University Press Moons A Very Short Introduction by David A Rothery
Proving to be both varied and fascinating, moons are far more common than planets in our Solar System. Our own Moon has had a profound influence on Earth, not only through tidal effects, but even on the behaviour of some marine animals. Many remarkable things have been discovered about the moons of the giant outer planets from Voyager, Galileo, Cassini and other spacecraft. Scientists have glimpsed volcanic activity on Io, found oceans of water on Titan and captured photos of icy geysers bursting from Enceladus. It looks likely that microbial life beyond the Earth may be discovered on a moon rather than a planet. In this Very Short Introduction David Rothery introduces the reader to the moons of our Solar System, beginning with the early discoveries of Galileo and others, describing their variety of mostly mythological names and the early use of Jupiter's moons to establish position at sea and to estimate the speed of light. Rothery discusses the structure, formation and influence of our Moon and those of the other planets and ends with the recent discovery of moons orbiting asteroids, whilst looking forward to the possibility of finding moons of exoplanets in planetary systems far beyond our own. Salient FeaturesIntroduces the reader to the moons of our Solar System, their discovery and naming Explains the nature and influence of our Moon Provides an up to date account detailing what we know about the nature and formation of other planets' moons from Voyager, Galileo and other spacecraft Part of the bestselling Very Short Introductions - over seven million copies sold worldwide