This chapter covers all of the solar system that is not the planets or the Sun: meteorites, asteroids, and comets. I group them all together as ``solar system fluff'' because the objects are much smaller than planets and most moons. The ``fluff'' may be small in size but certainly not in importance. We get clues of the origin of the solar system from these small objects. The chapter will end with the current model for the formation of the solar system and explorations of other planetary systems. The vocabulary terms are in boldface.
last updated: 21 May 2001