S14: Chemistry of the interstellar medium

Conveners:	Sara Russell	(sara.russell@nhm.ac.uk)
	Uli Ott	(ott@mpch-mainz.mpg.de)
Keynote:	Alexander G.G.M. Tielens	(Moffett Field, CA)

The session will focus on establishing the state-of-knowledge of the stellar sources that made up solar system material and how this was processed within the interstellar medium. The keynote talk will discuss the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium based on astronomical observations and modelling. The session will also discuss the chemistry of the presolar interstellar environment based on evidence from meteorites, interplanetary dust particles and samples returned from the NASA Stardust sample return space mission. Studies of the composition of circumstellar grains found in meteorites (such as carbides, graphite, refractory oxides and silicates) will be relevant to this session. Discussion of the characterisation of phases such as organic molecules from extraterrestrial materials that may have formed directly and/or have been processed in the interstellar medium will also be welcomed. The nature of stellar inputs into solar system materials and how interstellar materials have been processed by shock, radiation and other events in the interstellar medium will be discussed. Talks on isotope anomalies that may have a presolar origin and on the origin of short-lived isotopes present in the early solar system will also be relevant.

S15: From dust to planetesimals - Solar system processes and their timescales

Conveners:	Andreas Pack	(a.pack@mineralogie.uni-hannover.de)
	Mario Trieloff	(trieloff@min.uni-heidelberg.de)
Keynote:	Martin Bizzarro	(Copenhagen)

Meteorites provide unique sources of information about physical and chemical processes in the solar nebula prior and contemporaneous to formation of early planetesimals. Recent advances in isotope chronology allow detailed dating of these processes, namely the formation of refractory inclusions and chondrules, processing of dust in the protoplanetary disk and accretion of the first differentiated and chondritic planetesimals.

Contributions shall include results of meteorite research and experimental petrology with respect to solar nebula processes and the astrophysical environment of protoplanetary disks. Objective of the session is to give a cross-section through advances in the field of cosmochemistry that help understanding the early stages of formation of the solar as well as extrasolar planetary systems.

S16: From planetesimals to planets: Growth and differentiation

Conveners:	Francis Albarède	(albarede@ens-lyon.fr)
	Erik Asphaug	(asphaug@es.ucsc.edu
	Thorsten Kleine	(kleine@erdw.ethz.ch)
Keynote:	W. Benz	(Bern)

This symposium seeks contributions about processes relevant to the accretion and early differentiation of terrestrial planets. We seek contributions from diverse fields including trace element and isotope geochemistry and dynamical modelling that illuminate the timescales, conditions and processes involved in the early stages of planetary evolution. A particular aim of this session will be to put constraints from these diverse fields into a larger framework. Welcome contributions include (i) the application of short- and long-lived isotopes to constrain the timing and processes involved in planetary accretion and differentiation, (ii) the application of stable isotopes to identify processes prevailing during planetary accretion and differentiation, (iii) trace element constraints on planetary differentiation, (iv) dynamical simulations and astronomical observations for the timescales and processes of early accretion, and (v) models examining the collisional growth of planetesimals and planets.

S17: Impact - From the nano- to the macro-scale

Conveners:	Wolf Uwe Reimold	(Uwe.Reimold@museum.hu-berlin.de)
	Alexander Deutsch	(deutsca@uni-muenster.de)
Keynotes:	J. Wright Horton jr.	(Reston)
	Achmed El Goresy	(Bayreuth, Germany)

Impact cratering has been a fundamental process throughout the evolution of the Solar System. It has played a vital role from initial accretion to planet formation, to surface modification. Evolution of life on earth has been subject to impact disruption. This interdisciplinary session will cover a wide range of aspects of impact cratering and shock metamorphism, both in nature (Earth and other Solar System bodies) and experiment. Discussion of geological, mineralogical, and chemical studies is encouraged. Specific topics to be addressed, inter alia, are: the ultimate nature of shock effects, high pressure phases, impact craters in the Solar System, terrestrial craters: case studies and new discoveries, drilling into impact craters, recent ICDP-IODP projects, experimental approaches to simulate shock metamorphism and cratering, and modeling of impact processes.

S18: Space missions: Probing comets, asteroids, planets & moons

Conveners:	Tilman Spohn	(Tilman.Spohn@dlr.de)
	Athena Coustenis	(Athena.Coustenis@obspm.fr)

Space exploration becomes increasingly important to study the origin and evolution of planetary bodies in the solar system, in order to place our Earth in the context of planetary formation processes in general. This session will focus on results and plans of space missions to small bodies in the solar system (NEAR, ROSETTA, DAWN) and the ongoing and forthcoming missions to the inner and outer planets. Particularly welcomed are contributions from sample return missions (e.g. STARDUST, GENESIS, HAYABUSA).