Alien Seas: Oceans in Space

Good

Hmmm…absolutely recommended

From Sea to Shining Sea -- Across the Solar System

In this relatively concise volume, the reader can nevertheless travel across our solar system as did the seafaring explorers of our own planet's historic past, discovering new harbors and vistas. Although the Earth and the moon called Titan are the only places we know of with oceans at their surface, many seas may well have been present on other planets in the past. Still others apparently lurk beneath their ice-covered surfaces even today. The authors have brought together experts on each planet and several large moons to contribute chapters on the seas that are and the seas that might have been. James Cameron provides a fitting Forward, with personal and fascinating descriptions of his first-ever forays into the deepest part of Earth's ocean, the Challenger Deep. But a sea is a sea if it is liquid, or fluid. For Earth, it is water; for Titan, it is closest to what we would call liquefied natural gas, almost as cold as liquid nitrogen. For volcanic bodies, which are in abundance, it has been the molten rock forming lava lakes and ponds. For Mars, and even Earth and Titan, it is also vast "seas of sand" in deserts, forming dunes reminiscent of waves, many of which march onward, flowing around obstacles in their path. The chapters are somewhat uneven in the technical depth versus imaginative speculations that are presented, a reflection of the personal choices of its various authors, who must walk the line between fact and conjecture to maintain their scientific integrity. Nowhere else, however, can a reader find this information without it being strongly slanted in one direction or the other. And nowhere else can be found the wonderful collection of space art paintings of seas on other worlds. I highly recommend this book for those who are intrigued by space exploration, including the planets we are only beginning to discover around other stars. Whether amateur explorer, young student, or even the professional, "Alien Seas" provides a fascinating introduction to ...