Planetary Vistas

The word “landscape” can mean picture as well as natural scenery. Recent advances in space exploration imaging have allowed us to now have landscapes never before possible, and this book collects some of the greatest views and vistas of Mars, Venus’s Titan, Io and more in their full glory, with background information to put into context the foreign landforms of our Solar System. Here, literally, are ''other-worldly'' visions of strange new scenes, all captured by the latest technology by landing and roving vehicles or by very low-flying spacecraft.

There is more than scientific interest in these views. They are also aesthetically beautiful and intriguing, and Dr. Murdin in a final chapter compares them to terrestrial landscapes in fine art.

Planetary Vistas is a science book and a travel book across the planets and moons of the Solar System for armchair space explorers who want to be amazed and informed. This book shows what future space explorers will experience, because these are the landscapes that astronauts and space tourists will see.