Exoplanets: A Visual Guide to the Worlds Outside Our Solar System

by Wendy Bjazevich, David Miles (Illustrator)

You know all about the planets near Earth, but what about the planets outside our solar system? How are they discovered? Could there be life? Find out in  Exoplanets ! “The saturated colors of pop art marry with swirling watercolors and sharp geometric shapes in this picture book that’s perfect for budding scientists.”― Foreword Reviews NASA has confirmed the existence of over 5,000 exoplanets (planets that lie outside of our solar system), and that number is growing! Exoplanets , the first book of its kind for kids, is a visually packed guidebook to the exoplanets of our universe. You’ll learn the four main types of exoplanets, techniques scientists use to discover them, the probability of finding life as we know it beyond Earth, plus detailed information about dozens of some of the most fascinating exoplanets discovered so far, from water worlds to planets that are literally evaporating! It’s a thrilling journey, and it all begins in Exoplanets ! From The 5,000-plus planets found so far include small, rocky worlds like Earth, gas giants many times larger than Jupiter, and “hot Jupiters” in scorchingly close orbits around their stars. There are “super-Earths,” which are possible rocky worlds bigger than our own, and “mini-Neptunes,” smaller versions of our system’s Neptune. Add to the mix planets orbiting two stars at once and planets stubbornly orbiting the collapsed remnants of dead stars. “It’s not just a number,” said Jessie Christiansen, science lead for the archive and a research scientist with the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech in Pasadena. “Each one of them is a new world, a brand-new planet. I get excited about every one because we don’t know anything about them.”

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Childrens, Picture Books

39 pages, Hardcover

First published May 16, 2023

Reviews

[Shoshana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous illustrations

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent resource for kids who are just getting into astronomy, also for adults who just want the concepts boiled down to their absolute essentials. Topics include methods for finding extrasolar planets—most methods unfortunately still involve mostly inference—including radial velocity and astrometry. Direct photography has of course been achieved—and is only likely to get better thanks to new methods of coronographic occlusion. But, as any fan of space art knows, paintings harness the imagination of the artist and excite the imagination of the nascent scientist sometimes more than real images. Heck, looking through even the most high-powered telescopes at distant objects usually only yields small “button-shaped blears,” as I think Henry Cavendish once called them.
Also included is a quick taxonomy of the various kinds of exoplanets out there, including the earthlike, or terrestrials, orbiting in what exoplanetary scientists call “The Goldilocks Zone.” Some of these things would require one to travel at the speed of light for a year to reach them, but what are roughly six-trillion miles between friends?
The illustrations—done in what look like a mixture of watercolors and acrylics—are as bright, luminous, and varied as the wandering stars they depict. Your oxidized, rusty reds are well-represented, as are your icy-blues for the clathrate ice planets and greenish hazes for the methanes.
An excellent book to have readily at hand, either on the coffee table or on the toilet’s water tank, when you, the kids, or a guest, need a quick reminder how big and beautiful the universe is. The publisher also has a “matching,” program, in which each book you purchase means they’ll send one, free of charge, to a kid at risk of analphabetism.
Teach a man to fish and all that. Or just think, if Isaac Asimov’s father’s candy store hadn’t had that magazine rack to spark the young boy’s imagination, science fiction would be much worse off.

[Sharon Archer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re mildly interested in a topic, a kids book is a really fun way to explore.

I actually didn’t realize it was a kids book!!