Seven Wonders beyond the Solar System

February 1, 2011

Gr 5-8-These titles highlight some of the universe's more awesome natural features. In Solar System, Miller introduces the largest known galaxy, nebula (the Tarantula Nebula), and star (red hypergiant VY Canis Majoris), along with a pulsar, a supernova's cloud, a galactic supercluster, and Gliese 581D-until recently considered to be the most earthlike exoplanet yet discovered. His tally of chief wonders among our solar system's Gas Giants includes Saturn's rings, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, and the moon Europa's probable underground seas. Rocky Planets opens with the solar system's largest volcano, Olympus Mons on Mars, and closes with "Life on Earth." Related objects or features come in for shorter notices throughout, and each volume ends with an annotated resource list plus an invitation to readers to add an eighth wonder of their own choosing. Some of the broad array of artists' conceptions and processed space photos are uninformative illustrative filler, and a few minor errors, such as a confusion between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea in Rocky Planets, creep in. Still, both newly starstruck readers and confirmed students of the heavens will find plenty to marvel over in these volumes.-John Peters, formerly at New York Public Library

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