Systematic survey of the spheres

Abstract

Progress in our understanding of the Solar System has been extremely rapid over the past decade. It has been fuelled by the discoveries of extrasolar planets, the Kuiper Belt and myriad distant planetary satellites, by spacecraft fly-bys of asteroids and comets, by the in situ exploration of Mars, and by the advent of fast computers and efficient numerical algorithms. To the great benefit of students and practitioners alike, the appearance of advanced textbooks has been almost equally rapid. The most recent offering is Physics of the Solar System, a wellwritten and comprehensive overview of the diverse bodies that surround the Sun and of the intricate interplay between them. Physics of the Solar System is much broader in scope than two other recent advanced textbooks, Solar System Dynamics by Carl Murray and Stanley Dermott (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and Alessandro Morbidelli’s Modern Celestial Mechanics (Taylor & Francis, 2002). These titles focused primarily on orbital dynamics, a topic that accounts for only about half of Physics of the Solar System,which manages to cover it clearly and succinctly by outlining many derivations rather than providing full details. Preceding the orbital dynamics is an opening section that emphasizes the physical states of planetary bodies, including their rotation, gravitational fields, tidal distortions and heat budgets, and another that focuses on magnetospheres and atmospheres. The volume concludes with several chapters devoted to issues relevant for artificial satellites. The book is more focused and deeper than Planetary Sciences (Cambridge University Press, 2001) by Imke de Pater and Jack Lissauer, but is less broad, containing no chemistry and only a limited discussion of geological topics. Physics of the Solar System is tightly written, fun to read and should appeal to experts in the field and new graduate students alike. Within its covers abound a wealth of interesting and little-known nuggets of planetary lore that, although available in the scientific literature, have not appeared in an accessible text before.For instance, it is well known that planets move along elliptical paths around the Sun and that these orbits precess (or rotate) slowly in space under the influence of weak gravitational perturbations from the books and arts