Planetary Systems: A Very Short Introduction

Description

For many decades, we were only familiar with our own system of planets, the Solar System, orbiting our Sun. Now we know that it is just one among a vast range of planetary systems around distant stars. This book explores the nature and variety of planetary systems, how they are formed, and how they die.

• Introduces the latest developments in understanding the formation and properties of planetary systems
• Shows how scientists are beginning to lift the veil on the question of whether we are alone in the Universe
• Discusses what planets are made of, and where the ingredients come from
• Describes what happens at The End of the Universe
• Part of the Very Short Introduction series - over ten million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, Halley Professor of Physics, University of Oxford

Raymond T. Pierrehumbert is the Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, having previously served on the faculties of the University of Chicago, Princeton, and MIT. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and was a lead author on the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. His work on the fundamental physics governing planetary climate over more than three decades has dealt with Earth's climate over deep time, anthropogenic global change over the next millennium, climate of Solar System bodies, and the climates of the newly discovered exoplanets. He is the author of Principles of Planetary Climate, (2010).

Table of Contents

1:Beginnings
2:Creation revealed
3:Beautiful theories, ugly facts
4:What are planets made of?
5:A grand tour of exoplanets
6:Planetary climate and habitability
7:How it all ends
Further Reading
Index

Reviews

"Named by the Lunar and Planetary Institute as a 'New and Noteworthy' book." - Lunar and Planetary Institute