From Dust to Life

The Origin and Evolution of Our Solar System

John Chambers, Jacqueline Mitton

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780691175706, 9780691145228
• eBook ISBN: 9781400885565
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Science History

The remarkable story of how our solar system came to be

The birth and evolution of our solar system is a tantalizing mystery that may one day provide answers to the question of human origins. From Dust to Life tells the remarkable story of how the celestial objects that make up the solar system arose from common beginnings billions of years ago, and how scientists and philosophers have sought to unravel this mystery down through the centuries, piecing together the clues that enabled them to deduce the solar system's layout, its age, and the most likely way it formed.

Drawing on the history of astronomy and the latest findings in astrophysics and the planetary sciences, John Chambers and Jacqueline Mitton offer the most up-to-date and authoritative treatment of the subject available. They examine how the evolving universe set the stage for the appearance of our Sun, and how the nebulous cloud of gas and dust that accompanied the young Sun eventually became the planets, comets, moons, and asteroids that exist today. They explore how each of the planets acquired its unique characteristics, why some are rocky and others gaseous, and why one planet in particular—our Earth—provided an almost perfect haven for the emergence of life.

From Dust to Life is a must-read for anyone who desires to know more about how the solar system came to be. This enticing book takes readers to the very frontiers of modern research, engaging with the latest controversies and debates. It reveals how ongoing discoveries of far-distant extrasolar planets and planetary systems are transforming our understanding of our own solar system's astonishing history and its possible fate.

INDEX

1992 QB1, 248, 250

1999 RQ36, 271

2008 TC3, 84

51 Pegasi, 15

achondrites, 82–83

Adams, John Couch, 38, 39

Airy, George Biddell, 38

Alfvén, Hannes, 54

alpha elements, 95

alpha particles, 95, 97–98

alpha radiation, 62

Andromeda galaxy, 52

angular momentum, 49; angular momentum problem, 50, 51, 55; of Earth-Moon system, 172; of solar system, 3, 48, 54

Apollo missions, 86, 169, 177, 183

archaea, 192

Archean era, 191, 197, 199

Aristarchus of Samos, 23

Aristotle, 23, 24, 28, 29

asteroid belt, 7, 36, 123, 225–26, 228–31, 234–36, 266, 273

asteroid families, 231–33

asteroids, 7, 8, 35, 36, 42; collisions between, 77, 79, 90, 226–29, 265, 273–74; C-type, 85, 229, 237; D-type, 229, 261; as meteorite parent bodies, 76, 77, 83–85, 150, 241; near-Earth, 79; orbits of, 229, 232; P-type, 229; satellites of, 236; shapes of, 236; space missions to, 236–41; S-type, 85, 229, 239; Trojan, 7, 42, 259, 260, 261. See also asteroid belt; asteroid families

Astraea, 36

astronomical unit, 5, 19, 20

atomic mass, 65, 92, 93

atomic number, 65, 93

atomic weight, 92, 93, 94

atoms: first, 98; structure of, 64

Babinet, Jacques, 49

Babylonian astronomy, 22

bacteria, 192

Baptistina family of asteroids, 233

Becquerel, Henri, 61

Beta Pictoris, 125, 126, 127

beta radiation, ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• One: Cosmic Archaeology
• Two: Discovering the Solar System
• Three: An Evolving Solar System
• Four: The Question of Timing
• Five: Meteorites
• Six: Cosmic Chemistry
• Seven: A Star Is Born
• Eight: Nursery for Planets
• Nine: Worlds of Rock and Metal
• Ten: The Making of the Moon
• Eleven: Earth, Cradle of Life
• Twelve: Worlds of Gas and Ice
• Thirteen: What Happened to the Asteroid Belt?
• Fourteen: The Outermost Solar System
• Fifteen: Epilogue: Paradigms, Problems, and Predictions
• Afterword to the 2017 Edition
• Glossary
• Sources and Further Reading
• Index