During the last 40 years, human beings have broken free of the Earth and ventured out to other worlds orbiting the Sun. We have visited every planet except Pluto, discovered dozens of new moons in orbit around other planets and put to rest the myths and fantasies that have been accepted for centuries. This magnificent book chronicles our planetary travels, explains the creation and evolution of each planet and tells how our understanding of the Solar System has developed from the first star-gazers in ancient times to Galileo and up to the present.

In an engaging narrative that draws on interviews with U.S. and Soviet scientists and astronauts, state-of-the-art computer graphics, and space-race archives, David McNab and James Younger reveal the wonders of the planets. With the help of striking pictures from the Apollo, Voyager, Pioneer and Viking space missions, the authors describe planetary marvels: volcanoes three times the size of Mount Everest, worlds with seas of methane, rivers of lava longer than the Nile, clouds of sulphuric acid and frosts of pure shining metal. They also investigate the possibilities of life elsewhere in the Solar System, present a new perspective on the Sun and on the Earth's atmosphere and speculate about the evolution of the Solar System over the next five billion years - to what may be its death.


Part One:
Different Worlds

From out of nowhere, through the swirling fog, a world the size of the Earth's moon looms into view. Its surface is glowing with lakes of bubbling lava, and a torrent of impacting meteorites sends white-hot rock spraying high up into its wispy jacket of sulphur-green clouds.