The Secret Lives of Planets

Starred review from June 1, 2020
Astronomer Murdin (Universe: Exploring the Astronomical World) takes the reader on an awe-inspiring tour of the solar system’s most noteworthy celestial bodies, delving into their quirks, secrets, and possible futures. (One such prediction: one day life may be discovered on Mars that has originated from fragments of Earth thrown up into space by meteorite hits.) To smooth out the ride for nonscientists, Murdin makes inventive use of earthbound analogy, as when he remarks on Jupiter’s “distinct belly, like a dissolute monarch: the planet visibly bulges at the equator, and is flattened at the poles,” or describes two of Saturn’s ring moons as “shaped somewhat like ravioli, with a central, white, smooth, spherical body circumscribed by a raised equatorial ridge, corresponding to the pinched edge.” Also pleasing is the way he interweaves topics including history, mythology, and linguistics, into astronomy. He discusses how the planets’ names preserve the ancient world’s beliefs about their namesake gods— “Mercury moves quickly; Venus is the beautiful goddess of love; Mars is warlike red in colour”—and how the planets’ astrological significance have come to be reflected in words such as martial, mercurial, and venereal, which are the “fossil relics of astrology.” Murdin’s fondness for his subject is evident throughout this elegant, imaginative survey and should be contagious to all who encounter it.

July 15, 2020
A smooth survey of the planets and satellites. With nations reviving an interest in human space exploration, this expert overview by Murdin, emeritus professor of astronomy at Cambridge, is a welcome description of what's out there. The author, who was part of a team that discovered Cygnus X-1, a galactic X-ray source thought to be the first accepted as a black hole, discusses planets (once nine, now eight), some interesting moons, and several miscellaneous bodies. The nearest four planets--Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars--are small and rocky, while the distant four--Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune--are large and gassy. Mercury resembles the moon, airless and cratered but larger and hotter. As hot as melting lead, cloud-covered Venus resembles an Earth with its greenhouse gases out of control. Barren and cold with almost no atmosphere, Mars may be barely tolerable. Hopefully, we will know in a decade or two. Massive Jupiter and Saturn are the "gas giants." Not so massive but colder, Uranus and Neptune are "ice giants." Even further, colder, tiny, and with a wacky orbit, Pluto has been demoted to the considerable family of dwarf planets. Earth receives the longest chapter. Many readers take comfort that it orbits in the "Goldilocks Zone," the distance from the sun where liquid water can exist. But life also requires a large magnetic field to fend off solar radiation--Earth's won't last forever--as well as an atmosphere with greenhouse gases. With none, it freezes; with too much, it overheats. Earth's huge moon stabilizes the planet's axis and seasons. Since human life requires liquid water, the author focuses intently on that topic. Mars contains almost none, but several moons of Jupiter and one of Saturn contain oceans beneath their surfaces. Another moon of Saturn, Titan, has an atmosphere as well as rivers and oceans of methane. Astronomers, science fiction writers, and Murdin remain fascinated by methane-based life. Satisfying popular science, just right for the budding astronomer in the household.

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September 1, 2020
In this highly readable survey of the planets from Mercury outward, astronomer Murdin summarizes the scientific knowledge about each. Mercury's orbit was a puzzle that Newton could not solve, but Einstein did. Mercury's cratered surface, like the Moon's, exhibits evidence of massive asteroid bombardment 3.9 billion years ago. What caused this event remains a mystery, but it could have been due to orbital migrations of Jupiter and Saturn. The bombardment must have affected Venus, but radar shows that it has been entirely resurfaced by volcanism, an appropriate complement to Venus' infernal atmosphere. Touching on what makes Earth congenial to life, Murdin proceeds to Mars and the effort to learn what happened to its water. With one culprit being a failure of Mars' magnetic field, Murdin warns that Mars' fate awaits Earth if its field vanishes. Of the gas giants, Murdin notes such phenomena as "metallic" hydrogen within Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus' 90-degree axial tilt, and Neptune's "wrong" orbit. And then there are their fascinating moons. A first-rate introduction to the solar system.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)