This book is filled with the knowledge about our solar
system that resulted from all this exploration, whether by
spacecraft or by telescopes both in space and earth-bound.
It could not have been written 50 years ago as almost everything
in this Encyclopedia was unknown back then. All
of this new knowledge is based on discoveries made in the
interim by scientist-explorers who have followed their inborn
human imperative to explore and to understand. Many
old mysteries, misunderstandings, and fears that existed
50 years ago about what lay beyond the Earth have been
eliminated.