The Formation of the Solar System

This fully-updated second edition remains the only truly detailed exploration of the origins of our Solar System, written by an authority in the field. Unlike other authors, Michael Woolfson focuses on the formation of the solar system, engaging the reader in an intelligent yet accessible discussion of the development of ideas about how the Solar System formed from ancient times to the present.
Within the last five decades new observations and new theoretical advances have transformed the way scientists think about the problem of finding a plausible theory. Spacecraft and landers have explored the planets of the Solar System, observations have been made of Solar-System bodies outside the region of the planets and planets have been detected and observed around many solar-type stars. This new edition brings in the most recent discoveries, including the establishment of dwarf planets and challenges to the ‘standard model’ of planet formation — the Solar Nebula Theory.

While presenting the most up-to-date material and the underlying science of the theories described, the book avoids technical jargon and terminology. It thus remains a digestible read for the non-expert interested reader, whilst being detailed and comprehensive enough to be used as an undergraduate physics and astronomy textbook, where the formation of the solar system is a key part of the course.

Michael Woolfson is Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at University of York and is an award-winning crystallographer and astronomer.
Contents:

Introduction
Introduction to the Second Edition
Prologue: The Dreamer
General Background:

Theories Come and Theories Go Measuring Atoms and the Universe

Enlightenment:

Greek Offerings
The Shoulders of Giants

The Solar System: Features and Problems:

The Sun and the Planets
Satellites and Rings
Smaller Bodies of the Solar System
The Problem to be Solved

Early Theories:

The French Connection
American Catherine-Wheels
British Big Tides
Russian Cloud Capture — With British Help
German Vortices — With a Little French Help
McCrea's Floccules
What Early Theories Indicate

New Knowledge:

Disks Around New Stars
Planets Around Other Stars
What a Theory Should Explain Now The Return of the Nebula:

The New Solar Nebula Theory: The Angular Momentum Problem
Making Planets Top-Down
A Bottom-Up Alternative
Making Planets Faster
Wandering Planets
Back to Top-Down

Making Stars:

This is the Stuff that Stars are Made Of Making Dense Cool Clouds
A Star is Born, Lives and Dies

Capture:

Close to the Madding Crowd
Close Encounters of the Stellar Kind
Ever Decreasing Circles
How Many Planetary Systems?
Starting a Family
Tilting — But not at Windmills

The Biggish Bang Hypothesis:

The Terrestrial Planets Raise Problems
A Biggish Bang Theory: The Earth and Venus
Behold the Wandering Moon
Fleet Mercury and Warlike Mars
Gods of the Sea and the Nether Regions
Bits and Pieces — Asteroids, Comets and Dwarf Planets
Making Atoms with a Biggish Bang
Is the Capture Theory True?

Epilogue: An Autumn Evening

Readership: Professionals and general readers interested in astronomy and cosmology.
Key Features:

It explains the science in a narrative style using a minimum number of equations while preserving scientific integrity
In developing the progress of ideas historically it shows how components of failed theories can be incorporated in new theories, making positive contributions to the subject
It includes all the most recent observations that must be accounted for in any viable theory