A brief survey of the solar system

These lectures review the physical and chemical characteristics of the objects found in the solar system today, with an attempt made to identify features that can be used to shed light on the processes involved in the origin and evolution of the entire system. Attention is also given to the debris left over from the formation process - the bodies that were too small or in the wrong place to become incorporated into planets. Included here are comets, asteroids, meteoroids, and the small satellites whose orbits suggest that they might be captured bodies. There is also a treatment of the origin and evolution of the planetary atmospheres. The search for exterrestrial intelligence is discussed.