The Planets

Front Cover
Viking, 2005 - Science - 270 pages
With her blockbuster New York Times bestsellers Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel used her rare and luminous gift for weaving difficult scientific concepts into a compelling story to garner rave reviews and attract readers from across the literary spectrum. Now, in The Planets, Sobel brings her full talents to bear on what is perhaps her most ambitious subject to date--the planets of our solar system.

The sun's family of planets become a familiar place in this personal account of the lives of other worlds. Sobel explores the planets' origins and oddities through the lens of popular culture, from astrology, mythology, and science fiction to art, music, poetry, biography, and history. A perfect gift and a captivating journey, The Planets is a gorgeously illustrated study of our place in the universe that will mesmerize everyone who has ever gazed with awe at our night sky.

Watch a Windows Media trailer for this book.

Watch a Quicktime trailer for this book.

From inside the book

Contents

MODEL WORLDS
1
GENESIS
13
MYTHOLOGY
29
Copyright

9 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2005)

Dava Sobel is an award-winning former science writer for The New York Times. The author of the bestselling Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, Sobel's work has also appeared in Audubon, Discover, Life, and The New Yorker.

Bibliographic information