Oxygen In The Solar System

Volume 68 of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry reviews Oxygen in the Solar System, an element that is so critically important in so many ways to planetary science. The book is based on three open workshops: Oxygen in the Terrestrial Planets, held in Santa Fe, NM July 20-23, 2004; Oxygen in Asteroids and Meteorites, held in Flagstaff, AZ June 2-3, 2005; and Oxygen in Earliest Solar System Materials and Processes (and including the outer planets and comets), held in Gatlinburg, TN September 19-22, 2005. As a consequence of the cross-cutting approach, the final book spans a wide range of fields relating to oxygen, from the stellar nucleosynthesis of oxygen, to its occurrence in the interstellar medium, to the oxidation and isotopic record preserved in 4.56 Ga grains formed at the Solar System's birth, to its abundance and speciation in planets large and small, to its role in the petrologic and physical evolution of the terrestrial planets. Contents: Introduction Oxygen isotopes in the early Solar System - A historical perspective Abundance, notation, and fractionation of light stable isotopes Nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution of oxygen Oxygen in the interstellar medium Oxygen in the Sun Redox conditions in the solar nebula: observational, experimental, and theoretical constraints Oxygen isotopes of chondritic components Mass-independent oxygen isotope variation in the solar nebula Oxygen and other volatiles in the giant planets and their satellites Oxygen in comets and interplanetary dust particles Oxygen and asteroids Oxygen isotopes in asteroidal materials Oxygen isotopic composition and chemical correlations in meteorites and the terrestrial planets Record of low-temperature alteration in asteroids The oxygen cycle of the terrestrial planets: insights into the processing and history of oxygen in surface environments Redox conditions on small bodies, the Moon and Mars Terrestrial oxygen isotope variations and their implications for planetary lithospheres Basalts as probes of planetary interior redox state Rheological consequences of redox state

The goals of the 10th International Space Conference on “Protection of Materials and Structures from Space Environment” ICPMSE-10J, since its inception in 1992, have been to facilitate exchanges between members of the various engineering and science disciplines involved in the development of space materials, including aspects of LEO, GEO and Deep Space environments, ground-based qualification, and in-flight experiments and lessons learned from operational vehicles that are closely interrelated to disciplines of the atmospheric sciences, solar-terrestrial interactions and space life sciences. The knowledge of environmental conditions on and around the Moon, Mars, Venus and the low Earth orbit as well as other possible candidates for landing such as asteroids have become an important issue, and protecting both hardware and human life from the effects of space environments has taken on a new meaning in light of the increased interest in space travel and colonization of other planets. And while many material experiments have been carried out on the ground and in open space in the last 50 years (LDEF, MEEP, SARE, MISSE, AOP, DSPSE, ESEM, EURECA, HST, MDIM, MIS, MPID, MPAC and SEED), many questions regarding the environmental impact of space on materials remain either poorly understood or unanswered. The coming generations of scientists will have to continue this work and tackle new challenges, continuing to build the level of confidence humans will need to continue the colonization of space. It is hoped that the proceedings of the ICPMSE-10J presented in this book will constitute a small contribution to doing so.

This volume reveals the latest knowledge of the composition and nature of our solar family. Here you'll discover what lies beyond the orbit of Pluto, which solar body is the most volcanically active, and which solar system bodies have atmospheres and may harbour primitive life.

This book is aimed at several distinct audiences: first, the upper division science major who wants an up-to-date appreciation of the present state of the planetary sciences for 'cultural' purposes; second, the first-year graduate student from any of several undergraduate disciplines who intends to take graduate courses in specialized areas of planetary sciences; and third, the practicing Ph. D. scientist with training in physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, meteorology, biology, etc., who has a highly specialized knowledge of some portion of this material, but has not had the opportunity to study the broad context within which that specialty might be applied to current problems in this field.

Explores the relationship between the Sun and the three outer planets of the solar system from the point of view of a planetary scientist, examining the role of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto as recorders of the formation of the solar system.

The planets closest to the Sun—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—include the world we know and its closest neighbors. However, despite our proximity, these rocky, silicate-based planets still represent so many mysteries yet to discover. Through a trove of images and a narrative bursting with detail, The Inner Solar System imparts what is known about this small corner of the Galaxy, and piques reader interest in the unknown.

This book is an appealing, concise, and factual account of the chemistry of the solar system. It includes basic facts about the chemical composition of the different bodies in the solar system, the major chemical processes involved in the formation of the Sun, planets, and small objects, and the chemical processes that determine their current chemical make-up. The book summarizes compositional data but focuses on the chemical processes and where relevant, it also emphasizes comparative planetology. There are numerous informative summary tables which illustrate the similarities (or differences) that help the reader to understand the processes described. Data is presented in graphical form which is useful for identifying common features of the major processes that determine the current chemical state of the planets. The book will interest general readers with a background in chemistry who will enjoy reading about the chemical diversity of the solar system's objects. It will serve as an introductory textbook for graduate classes in planetary sciences but will also be very popular with professional researchers in academia and government, college professors, and postgraduate fellows.