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？外面还能有更多的我们（生命）吗？然而，我们太阳系的当前状态很大程度上取决于其形成过程的细节，但目前人们对其知之甚少。这一过程发生在 45 亿年前，但许多线索仍然存在，其中一些线索出现在意想不到的地方。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。太阳和行星等大型天体当然也很重要，但在其一生中经历了巨大的变化。想想地球：它经历了巨大的物理、化学、地质甚至生物过程。较小的天体在地质上很安静，自早期以来基本上没有变化。许多从较大物体上被抹去的关键信息在较小物体上仍然“僵化”。

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.