Discovering Jupiter: The Amazing Collision in Space

Introduces the planet Jupiter and the comet known as Shoemaker-Levy 9, and describes what was learned when the comet hit the planet, the first time such an event has been witnessed by scientists

Gr 3-6--An engaging, if crowded, commemoration of 1994's most dramatic astronomical event--the crash of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter. Berger begins with a discussion of the planet's history, structure, visible features and major moons, as well as a look at the rest of the solar system, a deluge myth involving the god Jupiter, and a brief disquisition on comets. He then introduces readers to the three astronomers, Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy, who discovered the fragmented comet in 1993, and describes how scientists used not just Earth-based instruments, but also three fortuitously placed spacecraft to observe the cataclysmic effects of the multiple collisions. A profusion of full-color photos and paintings--sometimes too many: three separate images of Halley's comet, for instance--effectively illustrate points made in the text, but their reproduction is slightly murky. Consider this title as a newsy supplement to Seymour Simon's Jupiter (Morrow, 1985; o.p.) or Elaine Landau's Jupiter (Watts, 1991); its uneven level of detail, lack of an index or source notes, and sometimes hurried writing (Berger never explains why he's so sure the dinosaurs' extinction was caused by a comet, and not some other celestial object) keep it behind the front rank.-John Peters, New York Public Library

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.