Solar System Astronomy

我们的太阳系包含了一些最基本问题的答案。我们的起源是什么？会有更多像我们一样的生命存在吗？然而，我们太阳系的现状在很大程度上取决于我们对其形成过程知之甚少的细节。这个过程发生在45亿年前，但许多线索仍然存在，有些在不太可能的地方。起源问题的基础是我们太阳系的小天体：小行星、彗星和流星体。像太阳和行星这样的大天体当然也很重要，但在它们的一生中已经受到了实质性的改变。以地球为例：它所经历的物理、化学、地质甚至生物过程是巨大的。较小的天体在地质上是安静的，自早期以来基本保持不变。许多从较大的尸体上被抹去的关键信息在较小的尸体上仍然“石化”。

Our solar system contains the answers to some of our most fundamental questions. What is our origin? Could there be more of us (life) out there? Yet the current state of our solar system depends critically on the details of its as-yet-poorly understood formation process. This process occured 4.5 billion years ago but many clues remain, some in unlikely places. Fundamental to the question of origins are the small bodies of our solar system: asteroids, comets and meteoroids. The large bodies such as the Sun and planets are also important of course but have been subjected to substantial alteration over their lifetimes. Consider the Earth: the physical, chemical, geological and even biological processing it has undergone is tremendous. Smaller bodies, being geologically quiet, have remained largely unchanged since early times. Much key information that has been erased from the larger bodies remains "fossilized'' in the smaller ones.