J. Brit. Astron. Assoc., 108, 1, 1998, p.45

Encyclopedia of Planetary Sciences

by James H. Shirley & Rhodes W. Fairbridge (Eds.)

Chapman and Hall, 1997. ISBN 0-412-06951-2. Pp xxvii + 990 + CD-ROM, £175.00 (hbk).

reviewed by John Rogers & Richard McKim

The title justly sums up this massive tome. Over 5cm thick, and with small dense print, it is by far the most detailed reference book about the physics of planets and satellites. Each entry is written by an expert and has a bibliography of books and research papers (not all of them by the author of the entry!). It is almost entirely based on spacecraft data, and is pitched at space scientists in a mostly dry and technical style, so it will be tough going for most amateurs. Nevertheless, many of the entries are packed with important information. There are over 450 entries covering the following groups of topics: each major planet, the larger satellites, and the Sun; asteroids, comets, and meteorites; geology and geophysics; orbital and collisional processes; magnetospheric processes; techniques; biographies; and spacecraft past and future. Entries seem to have been completed between 1994 and 1996, although a surprisingly long description of Mars Observer survives with an editorial note describing how contact was lost in 1993.

Thus, many of the entries are quite up-to-date review articles. If you want to know how impact craters acquire their shapes, or how infrared spectroscopy works, or what drives Io's volcanoes, these entries will tell you. The encylopedia did fail the test of one obscure question: at what pressure level in Earth's atmosphere do noctilucent clouds appear? We hunted through several likely-sounding sections without finding a mention, until we came across NLCs under 'Mesosphere' - but still did not find the answer. However, we could have found NLCs much more quickly by just using the very comprehensive indexes. The obvious omission is anything about historical ground-based observations. For example, the chapter on Jupiter's Atmosphere is focused on mathematical atmospheric dynamics (the author's specialty), with summaries of Voyager observations, but nothing about features visible from Earth apart from brief references to Peek's book (cited as 1981 although it in fact dates from 1958). There is more about Neptune's visible appearance than Jupiter's. The chapters on Mars and Mars' Atmosphere do not even acknowledge that anything significant has been observed from Earth at all (although canals are discussed). The brief mentions of history in the introductions to some entries are not always accurate; for example, Jupiter's Systems I and II do not date from the 17th century, and Io does have surface features resolvable from Earth. There are 65 biographies, from Thales to Van Allen (many of them written by Patrick Moore), and they include a few BAA luminaries. However these biographies, and Moore's entry on the history of planetary science (~1600-1900), seem intended by the editors as just a gesture of cultural seasoning in what is essentially a spacecraft-dominated book. There is nothing to connect them with the scientific entries, and nothing about the important planetary observations and the historical record that amateur observers have supplied. In discussing observations at ultraviolet, infrared, and radio wavelengths, the authors tend to forget the wealth of knowledge gained from the visible appearance of the planets.

We found a few more technical mistakes in our browsing. Plate 24a does not show the Great Red Spot as claimed; Figure H2 does not show Comet Halley 'on 7 January 1987... approaching perihelion'; and Figure F1 (for the Forbush effect) does not exist. The black-and-white text illustrations are economical and mostly technical (although space is regrettably found for one of those wildly disproportioned fantasies that a NASA computer puts out as purported pictures of Venus). In contrast, the 32 colour plates show remarkable and sometimes unfamiliar images of the planets, as well as global geological maps, and examples of virtuoso image-processing. A plate with images of the auroral ovals on Earth, Venus, and Jupiter, is just one of the gems in this collection.

There is also a CD-ROM included, with over 200 spacecraft images. They are a beautiful selection, though apparently largely random; at least they are not all the familiar public-release images. Many are primary (monochrome) Viking or Voyager or Magellan images which we did not remember seeing before. Those of 'Wind streaks in Memnonia' and 'Dust storm in Thaumasia' are especially evocative, as is the Clementine colour picture of Earth. However, there are no detailed maps of the planets or moons - a regrettable omission, since even physicists should know what is actually on these worlds. It would have been a better use of the CD-ROM to provide large-scale maps, which could not be printed in the book, rather than these images. The CD-ROM can operate itself on Macintosh or Windows or in HTML, and the images can also be downloaded in GIF or TIFF format.

Few amateurs will have the need or the resources to buy this book themselves, but those with serious questions about planetary science would do well to consult a library copy.


Dr John Rogers and Dr Richard McKim are the Directors of the BAA's Jupiter and Mars Sections, respectively.

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