Table of Contents

The Unity of the Universe
The Sun and Other Stars
The Planets
The Terrestrial Planets
The Major Planets and Pluto
The Moon
Satellites and Rings
Asteroids
Comets
Meteorites
Dust in the Solar System
Theories of the Origin of the Solar System
Special Topics:
Basic Mineralogy, Geochronology-Radioactive Dating, The Virial Theorem, The Jeans Critical Mass, Free-Fall Collapse, The Evolution of Protostars, The Equilibrium of Stars on the Main Sequence, Energy Production in Stars, Evolution of Stars Away from the Main Sequence, The Chandrasekhar Limit, Neutron Stars and Black Holes, Planets Around Other Stars, Solar-system Studies to the beginning of the XVIIth Century, Newton, Kepler's Laws and Solar System Dynamics, The Formation of Commensurate Orbits, The Atmosphere of the Earth, The Physics of Planetary Interiors, The Transfer of Heat, Seismology-the Interior of the Earth, Moments of Inertia, The Gravitational Field of a Distorted Planet, Precession of the Earth's Spin Axis, Intrinsic Planetary Magnetism, Magnetic Interactions Between Planet and Star, Planetary Albedoes, The Physics of Tides, Darwin's Theory of Lunar Origin, The Roche Limit and Satellite Disruption, Tidal Heating of Io, The Ram Pressure of a Gas Stream, The Trojan Asteroids, Heating by Accretion, Perturbation of the Oort Cloud, Radiation Pressure and the Poynting-Robertson Effect, Analyses Associated with the Jeans Tidal Theory, The Viscous-Disk Mechanism for the Transfer of Angular Momentum, Magnetic Braking of the Spinning Sun, The Safronov Theory of Planet Formation, The Eddington Accretion Mechanism, Life on an Hospitable Planet, The Role of Space Vehicles, Planetary Atmospheric Warming, Migration of Planetary Orbits, Interactions in an Embedded Cluster
Appendix
Physical Constants
Solutions to problems
References
Index

Supplementary materials available at www.lpi.usra.edu: Planetary Science World Wide Web Sites

Reviews

"This is a strong contender for a text suitable for an undergraduate course in planetary science pitched at exactly the right level for an undergraduate physics or astronomy student At the end of each chapter and topic there are one or two problems, well chosen to illustrate the material and to reinforce the reader's understanding if I were teaching a course on the solar system, I would certainly have this book on my desk and use it frequently." - Jeremy B Tatum in The Observatory" a useful contribution to the literature The figures are clear and there are a few colour plates. The chapters and most of the topics end with one or two questions to which full answers are given - a welcome feature." "Their book elegantly combines physics, mathematics, geophysics and astronomy . . . The second part is refreshingly unusual, concentrating on 41 planetary science topics . . . The mathematical and physical approach is elegant, relevant and at a typical second-year university level. This book encourages understanding and not mere assimilation of data." - David Hughes in New Scientist, March 2003 "The authors take the information we know of our Solar System to form the basis of a generalized planetary science, which can then be applied to any external star system. . . The material would be appealing to students in physics, astronomy, geology or other science majors looking for a comprehensive overview of planetary science. Even though this book is meant to be used as a textbook, the interested individual will find it engaging and instructive. Highly recommended for academic collections." - E-STREAMS, Vol. 5, No. 11 "Overall the book achieves its goal of providing a basic text in planetary science, while providing instructors a fair amount of flexibility in drawing basic course material from the text, as well as providing a useful reference for students. It also has a relatively large number of problems and exercises to illustrate the basic concepts ... the book is quite useful as is, and could very nicely serve as a basic text on which to build an advanced undergraduate or graduate-level course in planetary science." -Robert H Brown, Departments of Planetary Sciences and Astronomy, University of Arizona