[.ca] The New Solar System (ISBN 0521645875)

Warm science:
Through its many iterations the editors have managed to tie substantiated facts with brand new discoveries quite seemlessly. The writing avoids the mistake of taking you on a "ride" through the solar system and instead focuses on facts and inferences. It bugs me when writers throw too much opinion your way trying to paint the night sky in your head. Instead, you get to do all that painting yourself. The illustrations and tables are also very good. The tie together the body of text pretty well. I'm not any kind of engineer or photographer, so when the included visual aids bring the words to life like this, it makes the reading time valuable. What I really wanted was an all-encompasing text reference of our home planetary family. What I got was all that and a little more. It's well worth the dollars of initial investment. If we want a greater understanding of who we are and where we come from, careful study of our observable neighborhood qualifies as a good investment of time.

Thorough planetology book for the non-expert public:
This is a very thorough book, covering many important aspects of planetology. Its level of depth is very adequate to its intended public, that of non-expert but "science-literate" people. Although slightly out-of-date (it's been 5 years since its publication), most of its content is still considered correct. It is a shame that its Amazon average customer review has been degraded by Robert M Carto's unfortunate reviews. Unfortunate because they represent the opinion of someone who believes in the theories of Immanuel Velikovsky. Velikovsky's theories are considered unscientific by the vast majority of astronomy professional researchers (including myself) who have read them.

Obsolete Edition:
This was a great Fourth edition when published back in 1999. NASA and the science of astronomy have learned much since then. When the new information is incorporated in a Fifth Edition, we will look forward to the new theories and data.

Fascinating tour of the solar system:
I greatly enjoy reading about astronomy, especially the science behind it. I purchased and read this book because I wanted to learn more in detail about our own solar system. This book does indeed give the reader a fascinating tour of our solar system. It explains in detail many facts and theories regarding our solar system, which would seldom be found in a more general astronomy book. Before reading this book I had no idea how fascinating our solar system is! Specifially, this book starts out by discussing exploring our solar system, and theories about the origin. It also has chapters devoted to the sun, planetary magnetospheres, cometary reservoirs, and the role of collisions. Then it has a chapter devoted to each terrestrial planet (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), and to the moon. It also discusses characteristics of both the terrestrial planets and giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). It also discusses planetary rings, moons of the giant planets, and Pluto and Charon, and patterns and relationships between bodies in the solar system. Then it discusses comets, asteroids, and meteorites. Then it brings up the question of life in the solar system. In the final chapter it tells about discoveries of planets in other planetary systems, and discussing techniques for discovering extrasolar planets (planets which orbit other stars besides the sun). I will caution that sometimes this book gets into very detailed science, and can be difficult to understand. I had to read many parts very carefully in order to get it. Also, it was published back in 1999, so it doesn't take into account the most recent discoveries. But nevertheless, I found the science very fascinating to learn about, and enjoyed being given a tour of the solar system through this book. I recommend this book for everyone who wants to learn in detail about solar system.

An excellent source book:
"The New Solar System" is an excellent source book for anyone that is interested in our solar system. The book is just absolutely gorgeous, and the pictures and illustrations help bring the information to life. Inside its covers, this book contains a good spread of information on just about every single major body in our system. Everyone who worked on this item did an excellent job; the layout is very well done making it easy to find whatever information you are looking for. If you just want to have one guide to the solar system, this is the book for you.