Salem Press

Solar System
Publisher's Note

The Solar System covers 180 features of Earth's solar system, including every major body and phenomenon: from the astrophysics of the Sun, the major features of every planet, their satellites, and small bodies such as comets and asteroids, to scientific methodologies, interplanetary phenomena, and related topics in stellar astronomy and cosmology. Authoritative and essential to the core curriculum in astronomy and Earth sciences, these three volumes offer both students and general library patrons detailed basic information on all major aspects of Earth's solar system. No other general reference dedicated to the solar system is this complete and up to date, incorporating the latest perspectives offered by space telescopes, interplanetary probes, and planetary missions.

Scope and Coverage
The essays are designed to meet the needs of both general readers and students enrolled in courses in the Earth sciences (with 25 topics on Earth's geology, geophysics, and astrophysics alone), as well as astronomy, planetology, and cosmology. The original edition, more than a decade old, here receives a complete overhaul. For this new edition, we have added 58 topics and have thoroughly expanded every essay, from the text through the bibliographies, to bring the coverage up to date.

The result is the most thorough reference available on our expanding understanding of Earth's universal neighborhood. All of the original 122 essays, as well as the 58 new topics, were reviewed and updated by Professors David G. Fisher and Richard R. Erickson of Lycoming College's Department of Astronomy. They not only have added key developments of the past decade but also have scrutinized and heavily edited the existing text to ensure current accuracy—often increasing the lengths of old essays by more than a third. Such revision and expansion were essential in order to take into account the many planetary and interplanetary missions that have exponentially increased our knowledge of the solar system—from Pioneer and Voyager to the data from Galileo, the Hubble Space Telescope, Cassini-Huygens, NASA's New Horizons program, and the latest Mars rovers.

Organization and Format
Coverage is presented in an A-Z format--from "Archeoastronomy" and "Asteroids" through "Venus's Volcanoes" and "White and Black Dwarfs"--and is supplemented by several hundred photos. For those wishing instant access to essays grouped by planetary system, a Category Index appears in the front of every volume.

The set's essays fall into one or more of the following categories: the Cosmological Context (13), Earth (25), the Jovian System (7), Life in the Solar System (5), Mars (11), Mercury (1), Natural Planetary Satellites (24), Neptune (6), Planets and Planetology (62), the Saturnian System (6), Scientific Methods (13), Small Bodies (16), the Solar System as a Whole (9), the Stellar Context (14), the Sun (20), Uranus (6), and Venus (5).

Every essay ranges in length from 2,000 to 5,000 words (3 to 7 pages) and offers not only a complete overview of the topic but also an assessment of knowledge gained, methods of study, or applications. Each essay displays standard ready-reference top matter and subsections:

• Essay Title: Topic name, from "Archeoastronomy" and "Asteroids" through
  "Mars: Possible Life" to "X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Astronomy."
• Categories: Lists scientific subdisciplines relevant to standard
  undergraduate curricula.
• Significance: Summarizes that importance of the topic and current state
  of our knowledge.
• Overview: Rehearses the main facts about the topic.
• Knowledge Gained or Methods of Study or Applications: Headed as
  appropriate, this section details how the topic is investigated, what
  scientific knowledge we have accumulated, or the uses of the knowledge
  we have gained.
• Context: Addresses the topic from the larger perspective of the history of
  solar system science and is relevance for humankind.
• Byline: All essays are signed by the scholars who wrote them; these
  experts are also listed, with their academic affiliations, in the front
  matter to Volume 1.
• Further Reading: An annotated selection of the most important print
  resources for further study.
• See also: Lists cross-references to other essays in The Solar System
  covering related topics.

Special Features
Several special resources and finding aids enhance coverage and access to the set's contents. Each volume's front matter includes both a Complete List of Contents (A-Z) and a Category Index (with essays arranged by area of the solar system studied). The set is lavishly illustrated with more than 300 photos, sidebars, tables, and lists. Finally, a Glossary, General Bibliography, list of Web Sites, and full Subject Index round out the set.

The Editors and Contributors
Salem Press extends its appreciation to all involved in the development of this work. Special thanks go to the set's editors, David G. Fisher and Richard R. Erickson of Lycoming College's Department of Astronomy, along with their assistant, graduate student Jennifer Campbell, who performed much of the manuscript editing. Professor Fisher is Professor of Physics and Astronomy as well as an accomplished spaceflight historian. In the latter capacity, Dr. Fisher served as co-editor of Salem Press's three-volume USA in Space, Third Edition (2006). He has published extensively on spaceflight history (concerning not only American robotic and crewed space programs but also but Soviet/Russian and other international space projects), physics, and physics education, and popular science topics. Professor Erickson is Associate Professor of Astronomy and Physics and Director of the Detwiler Planetarium at Lycoming College. Dr. Erickson has professional interests in and has published articles and papers concerning stellar dynamics, nearby stars, variable stars, galactic structure, relativity and cosmology, impacts and extinctions, and the modeling of the physics of impact events.

The essays were written and are signed by more than eighty scientists, scholars, and other experts, a list of whom will be found in the following pages, accompanied by their academic affiliations. Without their contributions, a project of this magnitude would not be possible.