Chemistry of the Solar System

This book is an appealing, concise, and factual account of the chemistry of the solar system. The authors have set the scene by including entertaining historical accounts on how ideas developed, and together with new discoveries, shaped our current understandings. Engaging with a broad readership, the text includes basic facts about the chemical composition of the different bodies in the solar system, the major chemical processes involved in the formation of the Sun, planets, and small objects, and the chemical processes that determine their current chemical make-up. The book summarizes compositional data but focuses on the chemical processes and where relevant, it also emphasizes comparative planetology. There are numerous informative summary tables which illustrate the similarities (or differences) that help the reader to understand the processes described. Data are presented in graphical form which is useful for identifying common features of the major processes that determine the current chemical state of the planets. The book will interest general readers with a background in chemistry who will enjoy reading about the chemical diversity of the solar system's objects. It will serve as an introductory textbook for graduate classes in planetary sciences but will also be very popular with professional researchers in academia and government, college professors, and postgraduate fellows.

The Elements in the Solar System; Meteorites; The Solar Nebula; The Bodies in the Inner Solar System; Terrestrial Atmospheric Chemistry; The Greenhouse Effect and Biogeochemical Cycles on Earth; The Outer Solar System; Appendix A Table Abundances of Nuclides in the Solar System; Appendix B Table of Average Element Concentrations in Major Chondritic Meteorite Groups; Appendix C Review of Chemical Kinetics; Subject Index