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From breathtaking full-color photographs to detailed explanatory diagrams to expert essays, fascinating sidebars, and informative fact boxes, the New Solar System is not just an easy-to-use, solidly reliable reference, but also a visually stunning, invitingly browsable volume guaranteed to fire the imagination of even the most casual reader.

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Top Ten New Solar System Stories From the new National Geographic book, The New Solar System: Ice Worlds, Moons, and Planets Redefined 1.Good-bye, Pluto Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet leaves the solar system with eight major worlds. 2.Hello, dwarf planets Haumea, Makemake, Eris, and other newly christened dwarf planets expand the solar system family. 3.Water on Mars The case for life on Mars gets a boost when a flotilla of spacecraft finds not only ice, but evidence of ancient rivers and floods on the red planet. 4.Target: Earth A large asteroid or comet will strike the Earth: The question is simply "when?" Recently established Near-Earth Asteroid programs are scrambling to find out. 5.Ocean moons Far from being icy rocks, some big moons of the outer solar system are proving to contain subsurface saltwater oceans, potential havens for life. 6.Titan's mysteries unveiled For the first time, a probe has descended through the thick atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, exposing a world of methane lakes and hydrocarbon dunes. 7.The new frontier Cutting-edge telescopes have finally seen into the solar system's third frontier: the Kuiper belt and beyond, filled with peculiar worlds. 8.Closing in on another Earth No, we're not alone. Hundreds of planets have been found circling other stars, and we're closing in on finding one in the crucial "habitable zone." 9.Life from comets? The notion that comets brought life to Earth, once scorned, has gained new ground with the discovery of organic chemicals on Halley and other comets. 10.The heat-death of the Earth The sun, as it turns out, gets just a little brighter each year. This cheerful finding means Earth will become an uninhabitable desert long before the sun dies-unless we manage to move it. Excerpted from The New Solar System: Ice Worlds, Moons, and Planets Redefined by Patricia Daniels All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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CHOICE Review

Daniels, an astronomy/science writer, in conjunction with National Geographic, has produced a sumptuously illustrated book describing the history, composition, and exploration of the solar system. Aimed at a general audience, the text is highly readable and contains numerous side notes providing fascinating anecdotes and facts about the planets, the sun, and astronomers. The book is organized into seven chapters. It begins with a historical perspective on the discovery of the planets and then, starting with the sun, moves out to the edge of the solar system, and concludes with dwarf planets and a discussion of extraterrestrial life and exoplanets. Every page contains an illustration or image, with the majority in full color. A glossary at the end provides valuable definitions for nonexperts. Readers need to be aware that some current information, including recommended Web sites, will become outdated in the next few years due to the rapid changes in space exploration and astronomy. This book is valuable for all readers intrigued with the exploration of the solar system, as even casual browsers will find chapters of interest. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. S. A. Russell Gonzalez University of Florida

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Patricia Daniels has written extensively on history and science, including National Geographic Pocket Guide to the Constellations and National Geographic Encyclopedia of Space.

Robert Burnham is a science writer at the Mars Space Flight Facility of Arizona State University. He is the author of Great Comets and the Reader's Digest Children's Atlas of the Universe.