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A study of Earth's closest planetary neighbor describes the recent discoveries made by the Magellan space probe about Venus, a world long-shrouded in an impenetrable cloud, and discusses the possibility that Venus was once much like Earth in terms of climate and habitability.
- Sales Rank: #1846510 in Books
- Published on: 1997-01-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 6.25" w x 1.25" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 355 pages
Amazon.com Review
In a book that is as much romantic as purely scientific, David Harry Grinspoon combines historical perspective on the nearby planet Venus and data from recent observations, notably the Magellan spacecraft's detailed mapping of the planet's surface and gravitational field. In a lighthearted way, Grinspoon conveys the vast body of knowledge that scientists have recently acquired about the planet that is often called our "twin," despite its metal-melting surface temperatures and runaway greenhouse effect. (Could we learn something about our own climate in observing that of Venus?) In a fun though perhaps overconfident section, Grinspoon even argues that the likelihood that life once existed on Venus is as high as for Mars--an intriguing possibility, especially if evidence that life once existed on Mars becomes stronger.
From Publishers Weekly
University of Colorado-Boulder planetary scientist Grinspoon clearly loves the subject of this exemplary work, the unfolding of our knowledge of "Earth's Twin." As a principal scientist on the recent Magellan mission to Venus, he quite naturally focuses on that project's discoveries, but his book is rich as well in anecdotes about correct and incorrect speculations, blind alleys and spectacular surprises as human knowledge of our sister planet grew over the centuries. Grinspoon himself winds up speculating about non-carbon-based life on Venus and about the possibility that carbon-based life began there and migrated here on meteorites four billion years ago. Though some might view this concept as outrageous, his irreverent style and his admission that he is indulging in a flight of fancy with serious intent make his final chapter, like all his others, great fun as well as greatly informative. At important points in the book, Grinspoon leaves Venus and returns to Earth, highlighting the way people do-and love-science, the relationship between big science and national defense projects, the vagaries of government funding and, most important, our role as custodians and manipulators of our fragile environment. His book is full of quirky facts, references to popular culture, clever similes and inventive and revealing metaphors and analogies. Even the footnotes are entertaining. But Grinspoon remains true to his serious purpose, concluding that "the most important benefit of planetary explanation will be self-knowledge.... We should treasure every bit of knowledge and insight Venus can provide. It's the only twin we've got." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Perhaps outshone of late by headline-grabbers like Mars and Jupiter, our sister planet seems ovedue for some attention. Grinspoon (astrophysical sciences, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, and a principal scientist on the Magellan space probe mission to Venus) has fashioned his book as a kind of prolonged undergraduate lecture, loosely organized and accessible. His talky-cutesy approach, however, works against him. That is unfortunate, as the book offers considerable information on the orbital, geological, and atmospheric processes of Venus gathered through Earth-based observations and various U.S. and Soviet probes. Grinspoon's discussion of Venus in light of comparative planetology is easy enough to understand, touching on acid rain, plate tectonics, and cometary impacts; yet one quickly tires of the professor's effort to charm with his enlightened politics and his impulsive, largely frivolous footnoting. Patient readers may find it useful; impatient ones will do well by skipping about the text; libraries may prefer to wait for a less exasperating treatment.?Patrick Dunn, East Tennessee State Univ. Libs., Johnson City
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
a journey from star gazing to comparative planetology
By David Forel
Venus Revealed is among the best books I have ever read because it is a conversation between author and reader. The author gently takes the reader on a long arc of understanding the importance of exploring Venus. The beginning is simply observing the repeating cycles of its appearance in the night and morning skies. Mythology and ancient beliefs of the unknown world are here. After a while, satellite and ground-based observations are introduced as "what is known today." Interpretation of these data and comparative planetology come next. The comparisons are primarily to Earth and Mars.
It seems to me that it is a human need to find life elsewhere. Feeding that need, a lot of the book is about whether there is life on Venus or in its atmosphere. Part of this discussion is based on the Gaia Hypothesis, that the planet is "alive" in the sense that the biosphere and the entire rest of the planet coexist and are one giant feedback of life. (I am not quoting the author.) I am skeptical, but the author made it palatable. After all, volcanoes that erupt material from the mantle, provide some of the most fertile agricultural soil. Birds use the magnetic core to navigate.
I think the author introduced Gaia to expand the reader's understanding of what is life and what is a planet. He is giving us permission to accept that when we finally do find life on a different planet, it has no need to be like our life. And, we should respect it because it will be symbiotic with that planet.
The book is old (1997), but I found it thoughtful today.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Possible fusion fuel forever from Venus. Interesting book
By Thomas Erickson
Venus revealed is a good book. As an amateur astronomer of over 40 years I have viewed Venus many many times with my 20 inch telescope. I have seen the phases of Venus but no detail due to complete covering of clouds in the Venus atmosphere.
The book has no heavy math. David Grinspoon did a good job keeping the information interesting and not dry. However some of his footnotes were goofy and childish and slowed down the reading.Much information is giving as to the atmosphere of Venus and lack of water and a huge sulfur cycle. Volcanoes are discussed and various images of the Venus landscape from the Magellan spacecraft are shown. Pictures of a huge Russian spacecraft are shown.
We learn Venus is a hell planet that life as we know it can not survive with over 800 degrees F , a crushing 100x pressure over Earth's atmospheric pressure. Also the atmosphere is mostly CO2 with a sulphuric acid rain. A deadly planet.
Liked the ancient Mayan history on worshiping Venus and history of exploration of Venus by Russian and American spacecraft.
An outstanding segment is the discovery of Deuterium (heavy hydrogen...a neutron added) 100x the concentrations on Earth. I was excited Mars had 5-6X the deuterium concentration found on Earth, but its fantastic Venus has 100X the deuterium concentration. We see Venus leaking hydrogen out into space but the deuterium goes out much slower as its heavier.
Ive been following Fusion reactor progress for years. We now have the "break even" mark....we are 50% there. The temperature inside is millions of degrees. Unfortunately containment has not been reached... less than a nanosecond. With Deuterium fuel we would have unlimited power for millions of years. Think of the advancement for mankind. We need more money for research to achieve containment.
Now the problem of future Deuterium harvesting from Venus. So many problems. Crushing 100X Earth's atmospheric pressure, sulfuric acid rain, almost 100% CO2...totally lethal. 800 plus degrees F., hot enough to melt lead, aluminum and some other metals. How would we do it? I don't have the answers but what a fuel find for the future! Totally fascinating to think about. If anyone knows of a book that discusses the possible Deuterium harvesting of Venus please let me know.
Venus Revealed could have been a 5 star book. A few downers. Big one...no bibliography. Small one... silly childish footnotes. No color prints. Some of the prints reference the different colors seen but unfortunately all pictures are in black and white. I'm glad I bought the book but what a teaser with no bibliography. Really would of liked finding more information on possible deuterium harvesting from Venus. A good 4 star book.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent, highly readable book on all things Venus
By Tim F. Martin
_Venus Revealed_ by David Harry Grinspoon is a well-written, witty, thoroughly researched book on our nearest planetary neighbor, the planet Venus, often thought of as Earth's twin due to its roughly same size and mass. Grinspoon covered the history of human perception of the planet, the observation of Venus by scientists from the ground through the centuries, what the amateur astronomer can see and learn about the planet, the saga of the numerous probes to orbit the planet as well as it enter its atmosphere and even land on its surface, current understandings of the atmosphere and geology of Venus, and speculations on whether or not Venus has or had life and the future of human exploration of the planet. There are two inserts in the book, one a color insert that included a color image of the surface of Venus made by the Soviet _Venera 13_ lander in March 1982 as well as several global and regional topographic maps made by the _Pioneer Venus Orbiter_ and _Magellan_, and a black and white insert which included more Soviet lander images of the ground of Venus as well as numerous close-ups taken by _Magellan_ of a wide variety of Venusian surface features. In the text of the book itself I really liked the various diagrams included, including schematics of the sulfur cycle on Venus and a diagram of typical cloud structure. _Magellan_ images are dominant in the book, an extraordinary space probe that peeled back the "bright, unyielding clouds" with "gentle radar fingers," revealing massive amounts of new information for Venus scientists to ponder and debate over.
Venus has long attracted human attention, as it is the brightest object in the night sky after the full moon. Though the planet was noticed by virtually every human culture, no civilization paid it more mind than the Classic Maya (A.D. 300-900). They felt they owed their very existence to Venus (whom they called Kukulcan) - a debt that they paid back in human sacrifices - and based their entire calendar on the 260-day Venus appearance interval. Mayan astronomers were able to chart the appearance, disappearance, and reappearance of Venus in the night skies with incredible accuracy, so much that the Mayan Venus Calendar has an error of only two hours in five hundred years of elapsed time.
The "solid citadel of clouds" that protected Venus from observation made it into a "tabula rasa," a blank slate that was inscribed by the wishes and dreams of observers for centuries. Grinspoon documented the many speculations about Venus being a swamp or ocean world, referencing both the serious speculations of astronomers such as Percival Lowell and the flights of fancy of popular literature and film. So little was known about the planet that even its rate of rotation wasn't resolved until 1962, when Earth-based radar images established that one day on Venus equaled 117 Earth days (and that it rotated in a backward or retrograde direction, with the sun rising in the west and setting in the east). Passive radio observations in 1956 that showed the planet emitting massive amounts of microwave radiation lead to the first real understanding of just how hot Venus was, as researchers began to infer that this was heat radiation from the surface, eventually establishing the surface temperature at 900 degrees Fahrenheit (so hot that an observer on the Venusian surface at night could see thanks to the glowing of the red-hot ground).
I enjoyed his coverage of the Venusian atmosphere the most of anything in the book. Though the planet-wide cloud cover looks basically bright and featureless even from orbit, images taken with ultraviolet filters have revealed that the atmosphere is dynamic and volatile, an intricate and complex swirl of high-contrast, fast-moving tiny splotches and huge, planet-wide streaks. The identity of this material, so dark in the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum that its it responsible for absorbing nearly half the solar energy received by Venus, is still unknown and is simply called the unknown ultraviolet absorber. Its existence though has allowed scientists to study and model patterns of atmospheric circulation, an atmosphere that at the upper levels circles the planet at 200 miles per hour, circling the planet in four days (dubbed superrotation), while at the same time is virtually motionless at the surface. Explaining this phenomenon has presented another major challenge offered us by Venus, one not yet answered.
The atmosphere is unlike anything seen on Earth; immense cloud banks of sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid cover the planet, not very dense and relatively transparent but incredibly vast, towering up to an altitude of 44 miles from the cloud base at 33 miles. They are concentrated into three discrete layers - each layer with a different mixture of droplet sizes - and separated by relatively clear air between. The nature of the droplets in the lowest cloud layer (called Mode 3 droplets) is uncertain, as they are not spherical in shape, may be crystalline, and appear to contain far more chlorine than sulfur (as well as perhaps other substances).
Grinspoon gave the reader a tour of the surface, from the "continents" of Africa-sized Aphrodite Terra along the equator and Australia-sized Ishtar Terra near the north pole to the wide plains to the great variety of volcanoes on the planet, some of which are probably active. Volcanic landforms cover some 90% of the surface, ranging in size from small shield volcanoes (often less than 12 miles across), so numerous that they gather in clusters of a hundred or so in immense shield fields, to odd six to forty mile across pancake dome volcanoes to still larger ones. Many features appear unique to Venus, such as ticks (volcanoes with flanks scalloped by landslides such that the ridges appear to be the jutting legs of an insect), arachnoids (volcanic domes surrounded by spider-web like patterns of fractures and ridges), and anemonae (volcanoes with petal-like lava flows extending outward from them). Other features include the odd circular coronae and intensely deformed areas called tessera.
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