千米小说网

Introduction（第1页）

Introdu

Iof1816reflehisexperiencearanslationoftheworksofHomer，theyoungEJohethepureserene’in‘realmsofgold’，andued:

&Ilikesomewatcheroftheskies

laswimsintohisken;

OrlikestoutCortezwhenwitheagleeyes

&ar’datthePadallhismen

Look’dateachotherwithawildsurmiseSilent，uponapeakinDarien。

&s’saphorwaseitherinspiredbySirWilliamHerschel’ssightingofUranusin1781，orbydiscoveriesofthefirstfourasteroids（1801–7）。Beihelatterwouldhavebeenfresherinpeople’smemories。AlaymansuchasKeatswouldhavethoughtofthemashoughtodaytheyareregardedastoosmalltoqualify。

Istilltravelin‘realmsofgold’wheurnwithmyowhroughevenasmalltelescope，thoughtheyhassomewhatfadedwheoseeinganewlydisoteice-ballasasinglepixelinadigitalimage，orahintofaJupiter-sizedpaniontoaarexpressedasaminutewobbleiar’sposition。

However，forme，thetrue‘Cortezexperience’reeverIseeaarylandssomecases，acloudsfoldbeforemeobaavisiti。ExplorationofourSolarSystemhasreachedastagethatalloreciateotherplaheirlargesatellitesasworlds，ehgeeologies，aeiesasplexandfasgasthoseofourowh。ManyofthemareplacesthatyouandIpri。Theyarenotgenerallysuitableforapiic，butwecouldatleastjumpupanddown，scoopuphandfulsofdirt，climbahill，orslitherdownintoavalley。Someareevenplaceswherelifemightbefound。

Inthisbook，Iwillsharewithyouwhatisknowniion，ahepresent-dayoftheplasinourSolarSystem。Here，astronomersnowofficiallyrelyeightplaohasbeeed，asIwilldescribe），butthereareplentyofotherbodiesbigenoughtobehavelikeplasseologistslikemyselfareed。Thesearefasg，soIwillhoughtheyaretooreatindividually。

Finally，Iwillturs’，laiars。Thefirstwasdiscoveredasretlyas1995，andbynowseveralhundredhavebeeed。WeotseethemiwedohaveenoughinformationtomakesomeparisohelayoutsofthoseexoplaemsandtheSun’sfamily。