This volume, number 16 in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI, reviews the present knowledgeonmanyaspectsofthehistoryofthesolarsystem. Itfocuses onisotopic signatures ofvolatile elements as tracers for the evolutionary processes during the formation of the Sun and the planets from an interstellar molecular cloud and, in tum, illuminates how the isotopic compositions of present-day solar system ob jects had been established. This integrated collection of articles complements the information provided by previous ISSI volumes such as From Dust to Terrestrial Planets and Chronology and Evolution of...

Mars is about one-eighth the mass of the Earth and it may provide an analogue of what the Earth was like when it was at such an early stage of accretion. The fur- ther growth of the Earth was sustained by major collisions with planetesimals and planets such as that which resulted in the formation ofthe Earth's moon (Hartmann and Davis, 1975; Cameron and Ward, 1976; Wetherill, 1986; Cameron and Benz, 1991). This late accretionary history, which lasted more than 50 Myr in the case of the Earth (Halliday, 2000a, b), appears to have been shorter and less catastrophic in the case of Mars (Harper...

This volume, number 16 in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI, reviews the present knowledgeonmanyaspectsofthehistoryofthesolarsystem. Itfocuses onisotopic signatures ofvolatile elements as tracers for the evolutionary processes during the formation of the Sun and the planets from an interstellar molecular cloud and, in tum, illuminates how the isotopic compositions of present-day solar system ob jects had been established. This integrated collection of articles complements the information provided by previous ISSI volumes such as From Dust to Terrestrial Planets and Chronology and Evolution of...

Comet nuclei are the most primitive bodies in the solar system. They have been created far away from the early Sun and their material properties have been altered the least since their formation. Thus, the composition and structure of comet nuclei provide the best information about the chemical and thermodynamic conditions in the nebula from which our solar system formed.
In this volume, cometary experts review a broad spectrum of ideas and conclusions based on in situ measurement of Comet Halley and remote sensing observations of the recent bright Comets Hale-Bopp and...