Stardust to Planets: A Geological Tour of the Solar System

McSween gives new life to the standard ``Grand Tour'' of astronomy by keeping his eyes on the rocks--the geologic facts of the solar system. As Voyager and other satellite space probes , functioning like electronic geologists, send back electronic information about planetary bodies, the author and other planet scientists have analyzed the data. Head of the Geological Sciences department at the University of Tennessee, McSween avoids the temptation to use these shards of information as any sort of ``cosmologist's stone'' to advance a vision of the origins of the universe, although his few generalizations line up with the Big Bang theory. This well-written report from a working planetary scientist achieves his goal of demonstrating how ``geologic perspective can provide a new understanding of our cosmic neighborhood.'' It offers an enlightening balance to the spate of books by theoretical physicists and cosmologists. (July)