Planets

Recently I finished reading Dava Sobel's The Planets. The book is about (duh) planets, but what distinguishes it from what has gone before (and there is a lot of that) is the wonderful blend of literary skill and science. For example, the chapter about Mars is written as if a mars meteorite is telling its story (for those curious about exactly which meteorite, the answer is ALH84001. For more about it, go here). And the chapter about Jupiter blends Astrology, Astronomy and Galileo (who separated them) in the most entertaining way. I usually scoff at mentions of Astrology, but didn't this time. I also learned quite a bit. Some interesting facts..

• Sun contains the 99.9% mass of the solar system (it converts about 700 million tonnes of Hydrogen to Helium per second), and on the planetary side, Jupiter is more massive than twice the rest of the planets put together.


• Venusian surface has been extensively mapped, and in concert with the ancient identification Venus has with femininity, all the surface features have been named after Goddesses, mythical giantesses and heroines (both real and invented). There is only one exception to this rule, a mountain range named after James Clerk Maxwell.


• The person who makes maps of Mars is called an Areographer. (Ares: Olympian God of war, Mars: Roman God of War, Simple). Wouldn't have imagined there is a word for that.


• The New Horizons spacecraft (launched in 2006, and which will make a flyby to Pluto in 2015) carries some the ashes of the discoverer of Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh.


• The far side of moon might be the safest place in the Solar System from radio noise from Earth.

Overall, the writing reminded me of the master of popular science writing, Carl Sagan. We would be much better off with more writers like Sobel and more books like The Planets.

Enjoy!