Other Worlds / Their Nature, Possibilities and Habitability in the Light of the Latest Discoveries

The author surveys the solar system's planets and minor bodies, explaining their physical properties, orbits, atmospheres, and surface features as known around 1900, and evaluates their habitability. Chapters consider Mercury's extreme temperature contrasts and peculiar rotation, Venus's dense atmosphere and climatic stability, Mars's polar caps, canals, and potential irrigation, and the diverse asteroids; additional material addresses observational methods, spectroscopic evidence, planetary origins, and the prospects for interplanetary communication, often using accessible charts and imaginative descriptions of how the heavens would appear from those worlds.