The Planets: Photographs from the Archives of NASA

I just got my copy of this very nice book. The cover is gorgeous but no dust jacket. The wonderful picture of Saturn is printed right on the hard cover. Like DK books. Love it. Dust covers flop around and annoy me. I decided not to review the contents. Other reviewers have already done that. I'm very visually stimulated and it's that aspect I'm writing about. I have so many books about astronomy and space. But I wanted an updated book about the planets that includes Pluto. This one does. So, if you're wondering . . . Yes! The terrific color photos that intrepid Horizons space craft took ARE in here. Another book I just got that has equally beautiful photos of Pluto and even several different ones from this book, is CHASING NEW HORIZONS, and it has much more text. The cover on it is also gorgeous with a photo of Pluto color enhanced. But the main feature of it's cover is a shimmer and raised letters. And you can see stars around Pluto. It's almost like you're seeing it out your space craft window. Beautiful! It's funny to me the debate about Pluto being a planet or not. I was born in 1956. Pluto looks exactly the way it did then, and aeons before. Pluto hasn't changed. Humans did. It's noteworthy to know that the vast majority of PLANETARY SCIENTISTS think of Pluto as a planet still. So do I. It's just this organization that is pushing for reclassification. When you look at Pluto now and see it's active geology, I don't know why you'd bother trying to reclassify it. One thing is for sure. We ought to be building these wonderful space craft one right after another and exploring the cosmos as fast as we can. New Horizons stunned us with these findings about Pluto. There is no telling what lies in the oceans of some of these mysterious bodies in space. I'm certain that much good will come of our curiosity if we could ever get our silly political differences solved on our own planet and move forward. If I were fortunate enough to have found a way to become a billionaire (Jeff Bezos) I'd first help humanity and the other species that need saving, and then spend as much as I could in cooperation with other billionaires supporting these space missions! Life is short. I can't think of a life more worthy spent.

Great pictures. Learned a lot. Have always been fascinated by space and what is in it. Would recommend to any space buff.

Great pictures of our solar system. The detail is amazing. Great descriptions of the planetary images. Easy to read. Didn't want the book to end.

This book has wonderful pictures and a paragraph or two talking point about each. Beautiful and informative. I would say it is geared towards the armchair, casual interest in astronomy type person. My only complaint would be not enough information on the scale of images, but I am happy I have it.

Beautiful images. Worth every penny if you’ve got a grandchild studying science.

Great pictures. Nice book. Good value

This book takes you on a visual tour of our Solar System with incredible photographs of all it's members: the sun, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, etc. The pictures were taken by satellites and fly-by probes and landers. It is as if you are actually standing on the surface of many of the planets and looking at an alien horizon! As awesome as these worlds are, it makes you realize there is no other planet like Earth with it's oceans of water, oxygen atmosphere, and abundant life forms.

Hermoso!