Learning Goals

Studying this chapter will enable you to

	Discuss the importance of comparative planetology to solar system studies.
	Describe the overall scale and structure of the solar system.
	Summarize the basic differences between the terrestrial and the jovian planets.
	Identify and describe the major nonplanetary components of the solar system.
	Describe some of the spacecraft missions that have contributed significantly to our knowledge of the solar system.
	Outline the theory of solar-system formation that accounts for the overall properties of our planetary system.
	Account for the differences between the terrestrial and the jovian planets.