Unmasking Europa: The Search for Life on Jupiter's Ocean Moon - Tapa blanda

From the reviews:

"Unmasking Europa ... brings you face to face with the surface scars of this tiny Jovian moon and tells the story of how our scientific understanding of this enigmatic world has developed. ... Through clear descriptions of unfamiliar terms, usefully annotated diagrams, and beautiful colour plates, the story of Europa is made accessible to anyone, even without a prior knowledge of planetary science." (Emily Baldwin, The Observatory, Vol. 129 (1210), June, 2009)

"The icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa, cut by dramatic faults and other irregularities, caps a hidden ocean about 100 kilometers deep. Greenberg (planetary sciences, Univ. of Arizona) believes the crust is relatively thin ... . his explanations of how tides influenced the Europan crust are generally elegant and interesting. The book includes a few Web sites with images of Europa. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates, two-year technical program students, and general readers." (B. M. Simonson, Choice, Vol. 46 (8), April, 2009)

"The book is a very clear and accessible exposition of the Europa observations, and of how movements of the ice crust could have produced them. ... the author is gratified that his ‘thin-ice’ model of Europa is now gaining credence, which may well indicate, as he believes, that correct arguments must ultimately win over the scientific community. ... this book can be recommended as a good non-technical synopsis of our present understanding of the satellite ... ." (Journal of the British Astronomical Association, April, 2009)

"It is written by Richard Greenberg ... . His arguments that the thick ice interpretation on Europa is flawed sound convincing ... . The new book is stripped of much of the mathematical and geologic terminology used in the original in order to reach a wider audience. ... the author is spending more time describing the process of discovery of Europa’s secrets." (Unmanned Spaceflight, October, 2008)

"Centauri Dreams readers already know of my admiration for Richard Greenberg’s ... Unmasking Europa: The Search for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon(Copernicus). It’s a lively and challenging book, one which Greenberg used to take sharp issue with many of his colleagues, and ... when I reviewed the book, the animated back and forth makes for a fascinating look at how planetary science gets done. ... Read Unmasking Europa for a close look at the Europan surface as seen through Voyager and Galileo imagery ... ." (Centauri Dreams, October, 2009)

“This book ... recounts the fierce friction between the personalities leading the Galileo mission and publishing their interpretations of what they saw. ... the story-telling is first-rate and elegantly explains not just the processes at work on this intriguing little world but also the rivalries and political manoeuvring of Big Science. ... Unmasking Europa is a gripping story of the exploration of a new world and the often heated debates within science, and is absolutely stuffed with gorgeous images of strange Europan landscapes.” (Lewis Dartnell, Astrobiological Society of Britain, March, 2009)

This book features firsthand accounts of Galileo’s mission to Jupiter and stunning images of Europa's surface. It tells the inside story of a very human enterprise in science that lead to the discovery of a fantastic new world that might well harbor life.