When Lunik powered its way out of the earth"s atmosphere in 1959 it set in motion the exploration of space. It also rekindled the age-old question of whether we"re alone in the universe. BBC television producers David McNab and James Younger"s The Planets charts our discovery of the other planets in our solar system and examines the possibilities of finding life elsewhere in the universe. For 4,000 years the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Greeks, the Arabs and the Europeans had gazed at bright points of light in the night sky and stumbled towards an understanding of our corner of the Universe. McNab and Younger take up the story with Galileo before looking at the rapid scientific developments of the 20th century and the exploration of the moon, the giant planets and the sun. It"s not only a story of rovers, orbiters, satellites and rockets, it"s a story of geology on a scale which dwarfs any comparisons with earth. Experts from around the world were consulted in researching the book--American and Soviet astronauts and cosmonauts, geologists, astronomers and astrophysicists. Illustrated with wonderful photographs of planets, astronauts and spacecraft, The Planets is a perfect introduction to the wonders of the solar system.