From Dust to Terrestrial Planets: Proceedings of an ISSI Workshop, 15–19 February 1999, Bern, Switzerland(9 Space Sciences Series of ISSI)

This volume gives a comprehensive and integrated overview of current knowledge and understanding of the processes occurring during the first 100 million years of the solar system, when the terrestrial planets formed. It is the result of a workshop at ISSI, where planetary scientists, astrophysicists, and cosmochemists exchanged their data, interpretations, and ideas on theoretical models. The book provides a broad synthesis of ground- and spaced-based observations, laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical considerations dealing with the collapse of molecular clouds to proto-planetary disks and their subsequent evolution. Emphasis is given to the evolution of the disk and the relevant timescales characterizing the underlying (magnetohydro)dynamical, (astro)physical, and (geo)chemical processes responsible for the current distribution and composition of the material in the solar system. Papers in this volume cover the topics of proto-solar disk formation and evolution, formation of the most original compounds and first solids and their subsequent accretion into planetesimals, planetary embryos, and ultimately into planets. The book is intended to provide scientists in space physics and geophysical research with an up-to-date status report on current understanding of terrestrial planet formation, and also to serve the advanced graduate student with introductory material on this active field of research.

Table of Contents:
From Dust to Terrestrial Planets — Introduction; Timescales for the Formation of Terrestrial Planets.- Disk Formation, Stability, and Evolution.- Triggering Protostellar Collapse, Injection, and Disk Formation.- Protostellar Disk Formation and Early Evolution.- Solar Nebula Magnetohydrodynamics.- Observational Constraints on Transport (and Mixing) in Pre-main Sequence Disks.- Beta Pictoris and Other Solar Systems.- Temperature and Pressure Gradients in the Solar Nebula.- Formation of Compounds and First Solids.- The Beginning: Swift and Violent.- Short-lived Radionuclides in Meteorites: Constraints on Nebular Timescales for the Production of Solids.- The Extinct Radionuclide Timescale of the Early Solar System.- Short-lived Radioactivities and the Birth of the Sun.- Protostellar Winds and Chondritic Meteorites.- Kinetics of Gas-grain Reactions in the Solar Nebula.- The Solar System D/H Ratio: Observations and Theories.- On the 53Mn Heterogeneity in the Early Solar Nebula.- Are There Chemical Gradients in the Inner Solar System?.- Formation of Planetesimals And Planetary Embryos.- Laboratory Experiments on Preplanetary Dust Aggregation.- Low Velocity Collisions and the Growth of Planetesimals.- Formation of Planetesimals and Accretion of the Terrestrial Planets.- Planetary Accumulation with a Continuous Supply of Planetesimals.- Formation And Evolution Of Planets.- Disks, Extrasolar Planets, and Migration.- An Oxygen Isotope Mixing Model for the Accretion and Composition of Rocky Planets.- Hf-W Chronometry and Inner Solar System Accretion Rates.- On the Isotopic Composition of Primordial Xenon in Terrestrial Planet Atmospheres.- Minor Bodies: Spectral Gradients and Relationships with Meteorites.- Epilogue.- List of Acronyms.- Author Index.- List of Participants.