REVIEWS: LIVES OF THE PLANETS

UNIVERSE TODAY

3 December 2007

It's no mean feat to translate scientific information into material that's readily digestible to the average person. The challenge lies in keeping to the facts while making a story worth reading. Richard Corfield in his book Lives of the Planets – A Natural History of the Solar System wonderfully succeeds in making such a translation. In a planet by planet tale, he provides to the reader an engaging review of the information we've accumulated.

For the average graduate of our primary schooling system, there's little unknown about the solar system. Nine planets with some exotically different characteristics revolve about our Sun. But, with a little digging, our solar system gets quite involved. Big moons and small planets, rings galore and volcanic eruptions, life and lifeless are only a few special descriptors that can arise. And, since humanity's space age got underway, we've added a close probe's-eye view of all the planets and many of the dwarf planets and satellites. Yet, for those who've left school, many of these great discoveries have passed by with nary a nod.

Apparently trying to counter this morass of the disinterested, Corfield sweeps through the solar system in a fine literary journey. Using simple but entertaining words, he takes a planet by planet approach. As is common for literary books that encompass the solar system, he begins with a description of the Sun and its relevance to Earth's early human occupants. For example, he reveals the magic of Stonehenge and the Aubrey stones. Afterwards, his narration expands with humanity's expanding knowledge. Galileo and his twinkling telescopes quickly give way to the Genesis mission of 2001 that attempted to sample the solar wind. Corfield uses this same historical progression as his chapters progress along from planet to planet. However, though this treatment is typical for books about our solar system, it's Corfield's style that makes this one more of a pleasure.

This special style has two components that make this book apt for those who've fallen away from science. The first is special tuning toward the human interest, that is, an anthropocentric sense. The lure of finding life, water oceans and other liveable planets arises again and again. Corfield picks away at the perceived uniqueness of humanity, the potential of the solar system and the grand potential of the universe. We may be alone, we may not. Should we go exploring? What value is there from being curious? These and other questions fall to the wayside as the chapters unfold.

The second component welcoming component of this book is Corfield's style of writing and his choice of words. For example, the Opportunity rover landed 'smack-bang on the Martian prime meridian' or 'the entropy gradient – a pocket of winding-up in a universe that is running down' brings lots of imagination into the narrative. Added to this are moments for common culture. For example, the crew of the starship Enterprise get mentioned and Corfield provides a sound lambasting of those who laud the lunar landing as a hoax. Yet, it's this attention to detail that makes this book worthy. For, the reader will readily recall how the book's passages reflect innumerable twenty second sound bites over the years and, thus, they will come to realize the comprehensive, cohesive picture of science's progress.

However, blending science into common prose isn't without its pitfalls. Too much science and too little prose can make the wording stiff. At times, this book reads as if Corfield had a list of facts that just needed to make it into a chapter. These passages come across like a text book rather than a story. Fortunately, these seldom occur. But, to Corfield's credit, he doesn't use his stories to mask ignorance. He provides extensive detail about objectives, designs, results and problems so as to easily convince the reader of the accuracy of the book's contents that's based upon the breadth of his own knowledge.

Many people today consider space sciences and exploration to be a waste of time and money. Hopefully, there are many more who maintain an open mind and are willing to believe humanity's future includes more than Earth. These willing to and interested in thinking beyond the day to day will enjoy this book and its synopsis of the natural history of the solar system that humanity's pieced together.

In a short span of ten thousand years, people have amassed more technical knowledge than any other creature before us on Earth. Though we've been looking up and beyond the Earth's horizon, only within the last few hundred years have we gotten information to satisfy our curiosity. Richard Corfield in his book Lives of the Planets – A Natural History of the Solar System gives the reader an easy to read yet information packed review. With it, the reader can discover that personal knowledge can accrue simply by picking up and reading a book.

INFODAD.COM

16 August 2007

The notion of writing a biography of inanimate (well, mostly inanimate) objects is an outlandish one, and Richard Corfield deserves a great deal of credit for not only tackling the idea but also doing so with great success. Planet by planet, celestial object by celestial object, Corfield explores our solar system in a particularly attractive way. The science here is impeccable, but the stories are so fascinating that the facts are almost beside the point (even though they really are the point). Corfield writes as if wanting to introduce readers to a fascinating group of slightly dotty relatives, each having enough quirks and oddments to be worth…well, a full chapter in a book.

There is a poetic sensibility to Corfield’s work that removes it immediately from the realm of dry science. Mercury is “the piper at the gates of dawn,” Jupiter “the eye of the universe.” Earth and its moon are “the Wizards of Earthsea,” a perfect description that borrows quite deliberately from Ursula LeGuin’s novel of the same name. In fact, Corfield makes very effective references to a variety of fictional works in order to explain scientific facts. For example, he points out that for many years, “The scientific thinking…suggested that Mercury’s proximity to the sun would make it the mineral treasure house of the solar system. It was an idea that permeated the science fiction of the time, too, as in Isaac Asimov’s classic short story ‘Runaround.’” Then Corfield shows how later scientific research debunked earlier beliefs – and then, as if coming full circle, he explains why it is possible that “when the time comes for human interstellar travel, we will head to Mercury…for the metals necessary to build our starships.”

This is fascinating material, presented by Corfield as if he has made the personal acquaintance of each part of our solar system and wants to give readers an informal introduction. It’s not just the stuff “out there” that gets this treatment, either – the stuff on Earth gets it, too: “Stonehenge is a Stone Age supercomputer whose read-only memory consists of thirty-five megaliths, each weighing more than twenty-five tons. Its RAM is an enigmatic set of concentric holes in the ground, its monitor is a solitary megalith standing some distance apart from the others, and its hard drive is a 5 trillion-ton sphere that rotates once every twenty-four hours.” Can you think of Stonehenge as just a mysterious collection of rocks after reading this description?

Corfield, a Visiting Senior Lecturer and Researcher in the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research at the Open University, carries his stylistic flair to the farthest reaches of our little bit of the universe. His Mars chapter refers to two separate SF works – it is entitled “The Martian Chronicles,” after Ray Bradbury, and has several sections that refer to Asimov’s “The Bicentennial Man.” But in many ways his discussions of the less-known planets are the most intriguing of all. “The Harmonies of the Ice Giants: Uranus and Neptune” begins by noting that “the greatest astronomical discovery of the eighteenth century was made by a man whose first love was music,” then regales readers with mysteries: the most varied terrain in the entire solar system is on the Uranian moon Miranda; Uranus has a magnetic field in a strange corkscrew shape, and it spins on its back – the poles get more energy from the sun than the equator does. What wonders are here, and what wondrous descriptions! Although there may be no life as we know it elsewhere in the solar system, Corfield makes the very rocks scattered throughout the sun’s gravity well come alive themselves.

SCIENCEAGOGO

21 June 2007

Another book about the solar system? Well, yes, but don't let that fool you into believing that it is not a very good launch pad for the lay-reader who wants to get to grips with their celestial environment. Corfield, a researcher at the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research at the Open University, does a most admirable job as galactic tour guide; systematically pointing out details of known planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and a whole lot more. Corfield also addresses what our early ancestors thought of all that bright, twinkly stuff in the sky. It really is amazing that from these early, predominantly superstitious, ideas on the solar system, we have made the advances that we have. Corfield documents some of the remarkable generalist space explorations of the last forty years and waxes lyrical about more recent missions, such as the Saturn and Titan-bound Cassini project. Given this enthusiasm, it should come as no surprise that Corfield considers the billions spent on space travel a worthwhile endeavor. Corfield is a very capable writer, and The Lives Of Planets is an informative and easy to read guide to the solar system.

irishastronomy.org

29 September 2007

The aim of this new book is to explain how humanity developed her understanding of our own solar system and provider the reader with the latest information from the most recent space missions.

The book is divided into 10 logical chapters which cover the following: The Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth & Moon, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune, and, Pluto & The Kuiper Belt. The layout of the book is entirely based around just the text with photos & diagrams limited to the middle 16 pages in glossy colour format.

In general, Richard commences each chapter with humanity's understanding of each planet from a few hundred years ago and brings the reader right up to date with recent results from the latest space probes, including Cassini, The Huygens probe, the Martian Rovers etc. So, the reader gets a good understanding of how our knowledge of each planet has improved over time.

The nature of Richard's writing is such that it's quite easy to read resulting in a real page-turner. It's clear that he is not only quite knowledge in this whole area (he's a visiting lecturer and researcher in the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research at the Open University) but he also has a great enthusiasm for the subject, which makes for a book that's not only a joy to read but also contains lots of interesting nuggets of information on each solar system body. The style of his writing is such that he can intermingle the factual content into fascinating stories behind the people & space missions that gave us our knowledge of the solar system. For example, the chapter on Jupiter covers topics such as Galileo Galilei; developing the flight paths of the "Grand Tour", the rivalry between the NASA contractors who built the Voyager & Pioneer space probes; and the Galileo space probe to mention but a few.

To keep a long review short, this is the best astronomy-related book I've read in several years and I would not hesitate in giving it two thumbs up.

JAMES RANDI EDUCATIONAL FORUM

4 December 2007

A perfect gift for yourself or your older family member! I am seriously reccomending this book for your mom or dad because I know I really needed this update on our neighbors in the solar system. Throw out what I learned in high school and college!

Taking each planet in turn, Corfield gives us the latest update on our neighbors!

He doesn't "dumb down" the information, but he makes is accessable and interesting. Not only do you get what we know NOW, but also how we know it. Interesting space "gossip", such as the Russians saw Venus as "their" planet and we saw Mars as "ours", and a good blasting to the moonhoaxers on page 99, keeps you turning the pages long after your bedtime (I stayed up late to finish it, I really enjoyed every page).

There are great photographs included, and a good history of the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft programs. Including the behind the scenes stuff. I'm buying this for my mom, because she recently asked me "but why isn't Pluto a planet anymore?" Corfield answers the question with a thoughtful detailed answer that finally cleared it up for me.

I could go on and on. But for someone that needed the updated material (we've learned so much in such a sort amount of time) this book was wonderful. Over and over I kept thinking "wait, this isn't what I learned in school!" Very enjoyable.

LIBRARY JOURNAL

14 August 2007

Corfield is a visiting senior lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research at the Open University, UK, which oversaw both the Beagle 2 Mars mission and the Huygens mission to Titan. But instead of writing a textbook, he imparts his personal, witty style to chronicle the transition of planetary science from a largely descriptive realm to one that is increasingly experimental. Corfield puts current understanding in historical perspective, exploring the mythology and the knowledge that humankind has built since asking those first questions about the night sky. In discussing the sun, Earth and its moon, the planets, asteroids, and the Kuiper belt, Corfield demonstrates his considerable knowledge of space missions and data collection, and with personal anecdotes and an almost conversational tone, he manages to convey a lot of serious science in a page-turning narrative. As enjoyable as Dava Sobel’s The Planets but with more detail on current research and less focus on cultural context, this book is highly recommended for public libraries of all sizes and undergraduate science libraries.

SCIENCE NEWS

Third Quarter 2007

Within the past 20 years, astronomical exploration has vastly increased the understanding of Earth's planetary neighbors. In an effort to capture and distill this new knowledge, Corfield tours the solar system planet by planet, explaining what is known about these foreign worlds—from the solar observations of Stonehenge's creators to present-day robotic missions. He details the major contributors to planetary science and the satellite missions sent to planets such as Mercury, Venus, and Mars. These missions have helped dispel ancient myths about the planets and have revealed new information about the existence of subterranean water and atmospheric conditions as well as about the planets' surface features. Corfield concludes by outlining efforts to explore the very edges of the solar system and the ongoing search for other planets within and beyond it.

THE SPACE REVIEW

Posted 7 January 2008

There have been countless books written over the years about the solar system, which makes it difficult for new authors to have their efforts stand apart. Certainly, the pace of discoveries throughout the solar system leaves writers with no shortage of new materials for their books, but the structure of many books remains the same: a chapter for each planet, plus sections on asteroids, comets, and other miscellaneous features of the solar system. Is there a way to break that mold and provide a little different review of the solar system? That’s the attempt made by Richard Corfield in the book Lives of the Planets.

At first glance, Lives of the Planets follows the standard formula for solar system books. Corfield, a visiting senior lecturer and researcher at the UK’s Open University, starts with a chapter about the Sun and works his way out from there, from Mercury to Pluto (which still merits a chapter despite being officially demoted from planethood in 2006, although it has to share it with the Kuiper Belt and extrasolar planets). The asteroids get a chapter of their own, wedged between Mars and Jupiter, although Uranus and Neptune have to share one chapter.

However, Corfield diverges from that formulaic approach in the content of each chapter. Rather than a review and regurgitation of information about each world, Corfield treats each chapter as a more-or-less standalone essay, allowing him to riff on any number of topics related to it. The chapter on the Sun, for example, discusses topics as wide-ranging as Stonehenge and global warming, while the one on asteroids tackles both the discovery of the first asteroids to the threat some asteroids pose to the Earth. Other chapters focus more on the exploration of these worlds by robotic spacecraft, ranging from the Soviet Venera missions to Venus to the ill-fated Beagle 2 mission to Mars.

Corfield is a clever writer who integrates some science fiction and pop culture references in the book, particularly in the titles of subheadings of the chapters (examples: “Turning Japanese” about the Hayabusa asteroid mission, “Pinball Wizard” about the use of gravity-assist maneuvers to hurtle spacecraft into the outer solar system.) Sometimes, though, his attempt to be colorful borders on hyperbole: when plans for a “grand tour” of the outer solar system were canceled in 1971, Corfield writes, “Congress was in no mood to hand out $750 million checks to a bunch of slide rule-carrying Californian longhairs who liked building spacecraft better than helicopter gunships.” And was the decision to send Voyager 1 past Titan, whose clouds prevented the spacecraft’s camera from observing the surface, really “one of the worst moments in the history of unmanned space exploration”? It certainly seems like there have been more ignominious moments over the last several decades.

Corfield deserves credit for keeping Lives of the Planets from being yet another standard review of the solar system. What’s missing here, through, are any new insights or overarching theme for this book—other than that the last half-century of space exploration has revolutionized our understanding of the solar system, something that is hardly novel to most people. That’s a theme that’s likely to persist in books about the solar system for decades to come.

BOOK PAGE: LOOK, UP IN THE NIGHT SKY

Posted Summer 2007

Since his childhood in the 1960s, author Richard Corfield has been fascinated with rocket travel and the vastness of outer space. Now a planetologist, Corfield offers his latest book, Lives of the Planets: A Natural History of the Solar System. In this accessible yet still very challenging overview of the current state of humankind's knowledge of the sun, the planets, asteroids and other heavenly bodies, Corfield deftly interpolates the important formative observations of the great early sky-watchers and physical theorists (Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Laplace, etc.). Yet the bulk of his text concerns the vast amounts of information gathered in the past 30 years by such unmanned deep-space probes as those in the Pioneer, Voyager and Galileo series.

Indeed, the spirit of such imaginative stargazers as the late Carl Sagan infuses this volume, with its enthusiastic technical descriptions of the sun and the nearer planets but more so of the further planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune—and its tantalizing consideration of the possibilities for carbon-based life that might one day be found amid the swirling mix of gaseous elements that make up much of what we know of our star system. (Titan, a moon of Saturn, emerges as a strong candidate for Sagan-like contact.)

Corfield brings us up-to-date on the recent debate over Pluto's planetary status, offering an explanation of its 2006 redefinition as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union, its size (Pluto is smaller than our moon) and its maverick orbit being key deciding factors. Corfield also cues us in to the fact that Neptune, like Saturn, has rings (who knew?), and that the scientific community, now looking past poor Pluto, has focused its far-reaching gaze on such trans-Neptunian bodies as Eris and its moon, Dysnomia. Along the way, the author discusses in detail the competitive efforts between the two key California exploratory agencies, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Ames Research Center, which, in addition to the European Space Agency, have been primarily responsible for collecting much of the ongoing research data and photographic evidence. This thoughtfully conceived contemporary primer is a must-read for general readers with an interest in astronomy.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Posted October 2007

In his wonderfully written exploration of the solar system, Richard Corfield, a planetary scientist at the Open University in England, describes the fascination with Venus, "the greenhouse in the sky," in the early days of space probes:

"On December 14, 1962, [the U.S. spacecraft] Mariner 2 grazed Venus, skimming past the planet at a distance of only 21,000 miles…. The results were unequivocal…. The surface of Venus is… as hot as the interior of a self-cleaning oven… no global oceans, no swamps, no giant tree ferns, no enormous insects, and no amphibian-like creatures crawling their way toward sentience.

"One immediate effect of the news from Mariner 2 was that America lost all interest in Venus…. In startling contrast, the Soviet focus on Venus intensified… the message from the Central Committee was clear: the Soviet space establishment was to focus the attention of its nascent unmanned space program on this nearby, bright planet that glimmers so temptingly in the evening sky, with the goal of landing a probe on it. Such an order was nothing if not audacious for, at this time in the early 1960s, no one had even landed a probe on the moon."

NEW SCIENTIST

Posted 7 July 2007

THIS enjoyable, insightful and well-researched romp through the solar system underlines the successes of the early space age while lamenting the transition from the money-is-no-object space race to today's parsimonious space dawdle. Despite this, we are now beginning to fathom the natural history of the planets. Corfield's emphasis is on the huge benefits of comparative planetology, a scientific discipline less than two decades old that allows us to appreciate the different natures of the planets, and helps us better understand the history and possible future of our own.

COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

Posted Summer 2007

The solar system may be shrinking - what with the recent demotion of Pluto from full-fledged planet to "dwarf planet" - but the number of books about our celestial neighborhood continues to grow.

In the case of Richard Corfield's new book, "Lives of the Planets," this is a good thing, though I will admit some initial skepticism, particularly after Dava Sobel produced a similar and very fine book in 2005.

But while Sobel could, at times, wax a bit too lyrical about the solar system, Corfield generally sticks to the science and the facts, which befits his status as a working researcher at Open University in England. Still, his enthusiasm for the subject is obvious and infectious. And the subject, even stripped to basic, layman science, is wondrous to behold.

Like Sobel, Corfield divides his book into the obvious chapters, beginning with the sun. But his professional training, which includes studies in botany, zoology, paleontology and climatology, ensure that his approach will be diverse. There is, for example, the usual recitation of facts about the sun: It's a solitary yellow dwarf star of the spectral type G2. It contains about 98 percent of the mass of the solar system and could hold 1.3 million Earths. It is middle-aged.

But Corfield blends in lots of other information, from how Stonehenge was conceived and built to track solar movements and predict astronomical movements (a Stone Age supercomputer, so to speak) to the current debate over the influence of sunspot cycles on the Earth's climate. (He thinks there's a strong connection between the spots and climate change, but says more research is needed.)

From the center of the solar system, Corfield blazes outward, with stops at Mercury, Venus, Earth and the moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Because much less is known about Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and beyond, they share chapters.

If there is an overarching theme to "Planets," it is the unsurprising notion that space exploration is a necessary and noble human endeavor. The solar system is our neighborhood, and we should know it, Corfield argues, and he diligently expounds upon the various historical missions to different planets and places, from the Soviet Venera probes to Venus in the 1960s to the American Pioneer probes a decade later (Pioneer 10 and 11 have since left the solar system, the first artificial objects to do so) to the Martian rovers, still hard at work.

There are many books on the solar system. New ones seem to pop up with the frequency of extrasolar planets. (At last count, there were 243.) There is talk of sending humans to Mars by 2030, though it's probably more fanciful than fact. "Lives of the Planets" is a worthy diversion while you wait.

BOOKLIST

Posted Summer 2007

"Modulated for a general audience, Corfield's tour of the solar system rides on space missions dispatched to the planets. Proceeding from the sun outward to Pluto - planet or not, a spacecraft is speeding toward it right now - Corfield balances the technological with his scientist's eye for the geophysical questions these space projects were intended to answer. After pioneering reconnaissance supplied a basic idea of a planet's appearance and hospitability to life, subsequent missions, as Corfield explains, were designed with more precise goals in mind. Corfield describes these aims and analyzes how well they have been met - obtaining atmospheric and surface information about Venus and discovering if life did or does exist on Mars. He then expands his findings into descriptions of the sun, each planet, the asteroids, and the outer limits of the solar system, from where the Voyager spacecraft are currently sending data. The author also poses the questions that future missions will pursue, such as determining a possible ocean on Jupiter's Europa. A clear and enthusiastic introduction to our cosmic neighborhood."

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