A three year-old child recently asked me if I could tell him the names of all the planets - in order from the sun. He had the first three already in mind but needed help with the remainder. And no, this anecdote is not an excuse to boast about grandchildren. Indeed, I don't think this child was much more precocious than most - well, maybe a little. The point is that the Space Age has truly permeated the consciousness of our whole society and planets have supplanted dinosaurs in the imaginations of the play-school set.

And the interest has infected adults as well. Meteorite fever gripped Alberta recently when a meteor exploded high above the Alberta Tar Sands scattering debris over the prairie near Lloydminster. One farmer can hardly believe his popularity and the citizens of Edmonton are still talking about the fiery ball that lit up their skies in the early winter twilight.

University Earth Science and Geology lectures now routinely introduce planetary science into the curriculum. Whole courses are dedicated to the subject and some departments consider themselves to be earth and planetary science disciplines while others are in close collaboration with Physics and Astronomy Departments. Seldom do we hear colloquia speakers who do not include some application of their research to worlds other than our own.

This growing interest in planetary science has created a little challenge for our more experienced, but earth-bound, APGO members, who graduated before astronomy entered the geo-science curricula. Some may have a little catching up to do. Three new publications, aimed at a general readership, should help to bridge this educational gap, in a relatively painless manner.

Dava Sobel's The Planets is a good start for a systematic, well-organized, and comprehensive discussion of our solar companions. This graceful little book with its inventive illustrations reads like a luminous travel-guide to the solar system. Planet by planet, the reader is taken through a history of human scholarship. Classical mythology is the starting point. Then, medieval earth-centred concepts of astronomy which were followed by the struggle for fresh ideas during the Renaissance. And finally a whole new space-age description of the sun and its satellites as beamed back to us by contemporary spacecraft.

In the interest of continuity, foot notes are avoided, but a glossary and further details are located at the end.

The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space explains theories from astronomy and space physics, using the familiar CBC broadcasting style of relevant questions and short pithy answers. In contrast to Dava Sobel, Jim Lebans has ventured well beyond our own galaxy into far-flung reaches of the outer universe in a truly a heroic effort to expand on Douglas Adam's famously playful conclusion that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42.

To this end, 42 questions have been posited. "Where does space begin?", "Can I run fast and jump into orbit?", "Is there life in our solar system?", "Why are the stars blue?", "Can we surf on a gravity wave?" to mention only a few. The responses are lucid, humorous, and well-grounded in scientific research.

Broadcaster Bob McDonald, in writing the introduction, has actually summarized the conclusion:"Of all the planets we've seen, none of them is like the little blue marble we call home. The biggest lesson we've learned from our travels in space is the value of what we left behind. We live on the crown jewel of the Solar System - not too hot, not too cold, with a breathable atmosphere and liquid water bathing most of the surface. Many space enthusiasts speak of the need to live on other planets in case this one becomes uninhabitable. That isn't going to happen. The planets are very, very far away, difficult to reach and more difficult to survive on. If anything, the planets have shown us how inhospitable the Earth could become if the climate changes in the extreme."

And finally, a figurative journey, camera in hand, to outer space. The idea of an earth-orbiting telescope was first mooted in 1946 and became a reality in the spring of 1990 when the Hubble Space Telescope was launched to beam back cosmic information to researchers on the home planet. Gems of Hubble is a collection of 60 images with commentary by two science journalists. Rings of Saturn, clouds of Venus, the birth of a new star, black holes and galaxies of long ago - vivid colourful illustrations of our universe to supplement Sobel's lyrical narrative and Quirk's & Quarks solid theory.

And what about our three year old’s query? Dava Sobel’s book was the greatest help when we hung a set of colourful model planets from the ceiling. The package of soft plastic replicas, purchased at the Edmonton Telus Science Centre, came without identifying information and the adults in the group had to consult the toddler to get them correct!