The study of the Solar system, particularly of its newly discovered outer parts, is one of the hottest topics in modern astrophysics with great potential for revealing fundamental clues about the origin of planets and even the emergence of life. The three lecturers of the 35th Saas-Fee Advanced Course, which have been updated and collected in this volume, cover the field from observational, theoretical and numerical perspectives.

This volume gives a comprehensive and integrated overview of current knowledge and understanding of the processes occurring during the first 100 million years of the solar system, when the terrestrial planets formed. It is the result of a workshop at ISSI, where planetary scientists, astrophysicists, and cosmochemists exchanged their data, interpretations, and ideas on theoretical models.
The book provides a broad synthesis of ground- and space-based observations, laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical considerations dealing with the collapse of molecular clouds...