Samuel Taylor Coleridge was only twenty-five when he wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but it turned out to be an astonishingly prescient poem. This tale of a journey that begins in high hopes and good spirits, leads to a profound encounter with darkness, alienation, loneliness and dread, and finally sees its protagonist return home to a renewal of faith and vocation, foreshadowed the shape of Coleridge's own life. Summoning us to join him on a fantastic voyage through Coleridge's life and work, academic, priest and poet Malcolm Guite draws out the uncanny clarity with which image after image and event after event in the poem became emblems of what Coleridge was later to suffer and discover. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is of course more than just one individual's story: it is also a profound exploration of the human condition and, as Coleridge himself explained, our 'loneliness and fixedness' -- a prophetic parable about our place in a natural world that scares us in its immensity but which we assume we can control. Yet the poem ultimately offers hope, release and recovery; and Guite draws out the continuing relevance of Coleridge's life and writing to our own age.

How were the features on the Moon created?. What is the evidence for past or future life on Mars? What might cause the Earth to become as hot and steamy as Venus? . Why do some say that a colliding asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago? From the earliest of times the human race has pondered upon the nature of the Heavens. The moons and planets have changed from mere points of light to fascinating, diverse worlds. Spacecraft have visited all the planets known to ancient people. Human beings have visited the Moon, and robot spacecraft have landed on Venus and Mars. This book presents the result of this captivating voyage of discovery, recording more than two decades of extraordinary accomplishments. The voyage starts with the still, silent and lifeless Moon. Then on to the contrasting world of Mars with its towering volcanoes and deep canyons. The exploration continues across asteroid belts and icy comets to the outer planets where Voyager II revealed cyclonic storms, liquid hydrogen and helium rain and the beautiful pink and blue dynamic world of Neptune. This book includes numerous photos from spacecraft as well as a few works of modern art. They provide the best available metaphors and images of the previously invisible worlds.

2022 marks the 45th anniversary of the Voyager probe launches. Launched into space in 1977, these twin probes explored the farthest reaches of the Solar System before venturing on a one-way journey beyond, all the while testing the bounds of science, robotic exploration and our collective imagination. This heavily revised commemorative book takes a comprehensive look at their incredible achievements, future potential and overall legacy. Chronicled herein is an epic journey to unveil the mysterious outer reaches of the Solar System for the first time. The book recounts the Voyagers’ travels through the asteroid belt and past the giant gaseous planets Jupiter and Saturn, as well as Voyager 2’s forays near the distant ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Each chapter details in full the game-changing scientific data and glorious imagery they sent back to Earth. This new edition incorporates all the new data we have learned in the nearly 20 years since its original publication, discussing how the knowledge first gleaned with Voyager has been built upon in subsequent decades by Cassini, Juno and New Horizons. The Voyager probes captured imaginations around the world; now is an opportune time to reflect on their unparalleled quest across the edges of the Solar System and the enigmatic interstellar medium beyond.