Planetary Geology

Planetary Geology
Author: Claudio Vita-Finzi
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Planets
ISBN: 9781780460383

Recent planetary missions by NASA, the European Space Agency, and other national agencies have reaffirmed that the geological processes which are familiar from our studies of Earth also operate on many solid planets and satellites. Common threads link the internal structure, thermal evolution, and surface character of both rocky and icy worlds. Volcanoes, impact craters, ice caps, dunes, rift valleys, rivers, and oceans are features of extra-terrestrial worlds as diverse as Mercury and Titan. The new data reveal that many of the supposedly inert planetary bodies were recently subject to earthquakes, landslides, and climate change and that some of them display active volcanism. Moreover, our understanding of the very origins of the solar system depends heavily on the composition of meteorites from Mars reaching the Earth and of rock fragments found on the Moon. Planetary Geology provides the student reader and enthusiastic amateur with comprehensive coverage of the solar system viewed through the eyes of Earth scientists. Combining extensive use of imagery, the results of laboratory experiments, and theoretical modeling, this comprehensively updated second edition (previously published in paperback and now available in hardback) presents fresh evidence that, to quote the first edition, planetary geology now embraces conventional geology and vice versa. *** " . . . a much improved version of what was already a good book. The new text is some 20 percent longer . . . color illustrations have been dispersed throughout . . . and the information presented is brought right up to the minute with numerous injections of new scientific results from the many space missions that have been conducted since the first edition appeared. Recommended." - Choice, Vol. 51, No. 07, March 2014~

Planetary Geology

Planetary Geology
Author: Angelo Pio Rossi
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2017-11-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 331965179X

This book provides an up-to-date interdisciplinary geoscience-focused overview of solid solar system bodies and their evolution, based on the comparative description of processes acting on them. Planetary research today is a strongly multidisciplinary endeavor with efforts coming from engineering and natural sciences. Key focal areas of study are the solid surfaces found in our Solar System. Some have a direct interaction with the interplanetary medium and others have dynamic atmospheres. In any of those cases, the geological records of those surfaces (and sub-surfaces) are key to understanding the Solar System as a whole: its evolution and the planetary perspective of our own planet. This book has a modular structure and is divided into 4 sections comprising 15 chapters in total. Each section builds upon the previous one but is also self-standing. The sections are: Methods and tools Processes and Sources Integration and Geological Syntheses Frontiers The latter covers the far-reaching broad topics of exobiology, early life, extreme environments and planetary resources, all areas where major advancements are expected in the forthcoming decades and both key to human exploration of the Solar System. The target readership includes advanced undergraduate students in geoscience-related topics with no specific planetary science knowledge; undergraduates in other natural science domains (e.g. physics, astronomy, biology or chemistry); graduates in engineering and space systems design who want to complement their knowledge in planetary science. The authors’ backgrounds span a broad range of topics and disciplines: rooted in Earth geoscience, their expertise covers remote sensing and cartography, field mapping, impact cratering, volcanology and tectonics, sedimentology and stratigraphy exobiology and life in extreme environments, planetary resources and mining. Several generations of planetary scientists are cooperating to provide a modern view on a discipline developed from Earth during and through Space exploration.

Introduction to Planetary Science

Introduction to Planetary Science
Author: Gunter Faure
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2007-05-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1402055447

This textbook details basic principles of planetary science that help to unify the study of the solar system. It is organized in a hierarchical manner so that every chapter builds upon preceding ones. Starting with historical perspectives on space exploration and the development of the scientific method, the book leads the reader through the solar system. Coverage explains that the origin and subsequent evolution of planets and their satellites can be explained by applications of certain basic principles of physics, chemistry, and celestial mechanics and that surface features of the solid bodies can be interpreted by principles of geology.

Planetary Geoscience

Planetary Geoscience
Author: Harry Y. McSween
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2019-07-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1107145384

The ideal textbook resource to support a one-semester capstone course in planetary processes for geoscience undergraduates.

Planetary Astrobiology

Planetary Astrobiology
Author: Victoria Meadows
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0816540063

Are we alone in the universe? How did life arise on our planet? How do we search for life beyond Earth? These profound questions excite and intrigue broad cross sections of science and society. Answering these questions is the province of the emerging, strongly interdisciplinary field of astrobiology. Life is inextricably tied to the formation, chemistry, and evolution of its host world, and multidisciplinary studies of solar system worlds can provide key insights into processes that govern planetary habitability, informing the search for life in our solar system and beyond. Planetary Astrobiology brings together current knowledge across astronomy, biology, geology, physics, chemistry, and related fields, and considers the synergies between studies of solar systems and exoplanets to identify the path needed to advance the exploration of these profound questions. Planetary Astrobiology represents the combined efforts of more than seventy-five international experts consolidated into twenty chapters and provides an accessible, interdisciplinary gateway for new students and seasoned researchers who wish to learn more about this expanding field. Readers are brought to the frontiers of knowledge in astrobiology via results from the exploration of our own solar system and exoplanetary systems. The overarching goal of Planetary Astrobiology is to enhance and broaden the development of an interdisciplinary approach across the astrobiology, planetary science, and exoplanet communities, enabling a new era of comparative planetology that encompasses conditions and processes for the emergence, evolution, and detection of life.

Introduction to Planetary Geomorphology

Introduction to Planetary Geomorphology
Author: Ronald Greeley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2013-02-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0521867118

Featuring hundreds of images, this textbook explores the geological evolution of planets and moons for undergraduate students in planetary science.

Planetary Surface Processes

Planetary Surface Processes
Author: H. Jay Melosh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 533
Release: 2011-08-25
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1139498304

Planetary Surface Processes is the first advanced textbook to cover the full range of geologic processes that shape the surfaces of planetary-scale bodies. Using a modern, quantitative approach, this book reconsiders geologic processes outside the traditional terrestrial context. It highlights processes that are contingent upon Earth's unique circumstances and processes that are universal. For example, it shows explicitly that equations predicting the velocity of a river are dependent on gravity: traditional geomorphology textbooks fail to take this into account. This textbook is a one-stop source of information on planetary surface processes, providing readers with the necessary background to interpret new data from NASA, ESA and other space missions. Based on a course taught by the author at the University of Arizona for 25 years, it is aimed at advanced students, and is also an invaluable resource for researchers, professional planetary scientists and space-mission engineers.