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Venus Revealed: A New Look below the Clouds of Our Mysterious Twin Planet. David H. Grinspoon
ICARUS
130, 556 (1997) IS975818
ARTICLE NO.
BOOK REVIEW should be emphasized. First, Mariner 2 ended 4 years of failure (from October 1958 to December 1962) by the United States to successfully launch and complete a space mission. This is a lesson in perseverance for NASA and space scientists today. Second, Mariner 2 also showed that the high microwave brightness temperatures, previously discovered by Earth-based observations, were due to Venus’s hot surface. This discovery stimulated theoretical modeling, observations, and experimental studies of venusian atmosphere–surface interactions, which are ultimately responsible for the global sulfuric acid cloud layer and control the composition of Venus’s atmosphere. Grinspoon gives a popular account of this key result from Mariner 2 and also describes the subsequent American Mariner and Pioneer Venus and Russian Venera and Vega missions. In some cases his descriptions brought back memories of anecdotes about the early Russian Venera missions that I remember from John Lewis’ lectures at MIT in the 1970s. Grinspoon comes closer to his own research when he describes the results from the American Magellan radar mapping mission in the early 1990s. He presents popular descriptions of the major results from Magellan and attempts to relate them to venusian geology, geophysics, atmospheric chemistry, and physics. Although this attempt is marred by some oversights, omissions, and misplaced emphasis on discredited concepts, it gives the literate layman a feeling of what has been accomplished and what remains to be done. In summary, David Grinspoon presents a popular account of Venus that will be of interest to the scientifically inclined members of the general public and will hopefully lift the veil that has hidden our sister planet from the public’s imagination and interest.
Venus Revealed: A New Look below the Clouds of Our Mysterious Twin Planet. David H. Grinspoon. Addison– Wesley, Reading, MA, 1997. 355 pp., $27.50. It seems that Mars has always been more popular with the public than Venus. At the end of the last century, H. G. Wells called upon the Martians to invade the Earth in his classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds. In the late 1930s Orson Welles revived fears of invasion from Mars with his infamous radio broadcast of the same book. More recently, numerous science fiction stories, books, television shows, such as My Favorite Martian, and films, such as Mars Attacks, have captured the public imagination. At present, the latest results from the Mars Pathfinder mission are reported on the nightly news, newspapers, magazines, and heavily visited Internet web sites. Viewed in this context, David Grinspoon’s recent book Venus Revealed is a welcome attempt to ignite public interest in Venus, and to show that the secrets of our sister planet are no less interesting than those of the Red Planet. Grinspoon has written a popular account of Venus that is aimed at scientifically literate laymen, rather than his fellow scientists. He starts with a description of mankind’s historical perceptions of Venus and then briefly reviews telescopic observations since Galileo’s discovery of the phases of Venus. Grinspoon also presents a capsule history of science fiction dealing with Venus. Although less extensive than the science fiction literature dealing with Mars, venusian science fiction has been no less imaginative, with Zsa Zsa Gabor having been cast as a female venusian scientist in a 1958 science fiction film. Grinspoon next describes the long and interesting history of American and Russian spacecraft missions to Venus. Looking back 35 years later, it is difficult to realize that the first successful American space mission to any Solar System body (including the Moon) was the Mariner 2 flyby of Venus in December 1962. The importance of this mission cannot be understated and several points not discussed in detail by Grinspoon
556 0019-1035/97 $25.00 Copyright 1997 by Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
Bruce Fegley, Jr. Planetary Chemistry Laboratory Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Washington University St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899
130, 556 (1997) IS975818
ARTICLE NO.
BOOK REVIEW should be emphasized. First, Mariner 2 ended 4 years of failure (from October 1958 to December 1962) by the United States to successfully launch and complete a space mission. This is a lesson in perseverance for NASA and space scientists today. Second, Mariner 2 also showed that the high microwave brightness temperatures, previously discovered by Earth-based observations, were due to Venus’s hot surface. This discovery stimulated theoretical modeling, observations, and experimental studies of venusian atmosphere–surface interactions, which are ultimately responsible for the global sulfuric acid cloud layer and control the composition of Venus’s atmosphere. Grinspoon gives a popular account of this key result from Mariner 2 and also describes the subsequent American Mariner and Pioneer Venus and Russian Venera and Vega missions. In some cases his descriptions brought back memories of anecdotes about the early Russian Venera missions that I remember from John Lewis’ lectures at MIT in the 1970s. Grinspoon comes closer to his own research when he describes the results from the American Magellan radar mapping mission in the early 1990s. He presents popular descriptions of the major results from Magellan and attempts to relate them to venusian geology, geophysics, atmospheric chemistry, and physics. Although this attempt is marred by some oversights, omissions, and misplaced emphasis on discredited concepts, it gives the literate layman a feeling of what has been accomplished and what remains to be done. In summary, David Grinspoon presents a popular account of Venus that will be of interest to the scientifically inclined members of the general public and will hopefully lift the veil that has hidden our sister planet from the public’s imagination and interest.
Venus Revealed: A New Look below the Clouds of Our Mysterious Twin Planet. David H. Grinspoon. Addison– Wesley, Reading, MA, 1997. 355 pp., $27.50. It seems that Mars has always been more popular with the public than Venus. At the end of the last century, H. G. Wells called upon the Martians to invade the Earth in his classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds. In the late 1930s Orson Welles revived fears of invasion from Mars with his infamous radio broadcast of the same book. More recently, numerous science fiction stories, books, television shows, such as My Favorite Martian, and films, such as Mars Attacks, have captured the public imagination. At present, the latest results from the Mars Pathfinder mission are reported on the nightly news, newspapers, magazines, and heavily visited Internet web sites. Viewed in this context, David Grinspoon’s recent book Venus Revealed is a welcome attempt to ignite public interest in Venus, and to show that the secrets of our sister planet are no less interesting than those of the Red Planet. Grinspoon has written a popular account of Venus that is aimed at scientifically literate laymen, rather than his fellow scientists. He starts with a description of mankind’s historical perceptions of Venus and then briefly reviews telescopic observations since Galileo’s discovery of the phases of Venus. Grinspoon also presents a capsule history of science fiction dealing with Venus. Although less extensive than the science fiction literature dealing with Mars, venusian science fiction has been no less imaginative, with Zsa Zsa Gabor having been cast as a female venusian scientist in a 1958 science fiction film. Grinspoon next describes the long and interesting history of American and Russian spacecraft missions to Venus. Looking back 35 years later, it is difficult to realize that the first successful American space mission to any Solar System body (including the Moon) was the Mariner 2 flyby of Venus in December 1962. The importance of this mission cannot be understated and several points not discussed in detail by Grinspoon
556 0019-1035/97 $25.00 Copyright 1997 by Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
Bruce Fegley, Jr. Planetary Chemistry Laboratory Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Washington University St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899