Far-Out Guide to Uranus

* Reviews *

Unique Uranus—tilted onto its side, with a winter lasting twenty-one years—is one of the planets explored in this Far-Out Guide to the Solar System series, offering a multitude of facts to report-writers, focusing on what scientists know and the many perplexing questions still to be answered. Young researchers will learn how distant Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer and telescope maker William Herschel. In 1986, Voyagers 1 and 2 (robotic spacecraft) passed by Uranus, measuring the gas giants temperatures, wind speeds, and gravity, and finding ten new moons. In one of the boxed Far-Out Facts scattered through the text, readers discover that Uranuss moons are named for characters from Shakespeare or John Milton—including two Herschel discoveries called Oberon and Titania. Three pages of Fast Facts add more information; for example, Earth telescopes discovered eleven more moons between 1997 and 2003. A Uranus Timeline of Exploration and Discovery introduces a section about further discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope beginning in 1990. Astronomers could now see Uranuss turbulent weather, its dazzlingly bright layer of clouds, and two outer rings. Surprisingly, they observed Uranuss rings changing rather quickly: one disappearing and a new one forming. Illustrations are photos (color when possible) and computer-generated paintings. An especially interesting photo shows the oddly ridged and wrinkled surface of Uranuss moon Miranda. Whats next for Uranus? No missions are planned. Though Hubble will stop functioning in 2014, new discoveries will be made using technology like adaptive optics (flexible mirrors controlled by computers) in telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Included are a helpful glossary and a list of books, a Uranus movie, and websites about Uranus explorations, the solar system, and planet-watching., Children's Literature