Solar System: A Panorama

The closest and most extensively studied planetary system, our solar system provides the foundation for understanding the characteristics of planetary and sub-planetary bodies and the processes that shape them. This chapter surveys the diversity of objects orbiting our Sun and what they tell us about the origins and evolution of the solar system. The numerous small bodies populating specific orbits, from the asteroid belt to the far reaches of the Oort cloud, encode information on the solar system's age and the initial conditions in the solar nebula. The surfaces and atmospheres of the planets and their satellites reveal how the same fundamental physical processes produced bodies with vastly different characteristics, from the dry, metal-dominated composition of Mercury through the storm-wracked hydrogen atmosphere of Jupiter. Finally, the search for liquid water and temperate climates elsewhere in the solar system, past or present, provides context for understanding the origin of life on Earth and the potential for life's existence elsewhere in the Universe.