The first version of this book (The Solar System, by T. Encrenaz, J. -P. Bibring and M. Blanc) appeared in 1987, as a co-edition between InterEditions and Editions du CNRS. That version was translated and published by Springer-Verlag in 1990, and revised in 1995. As the prefaces to the various editions have suggested, the aim of this book is to ex amine the Solar System analytically, as a whole, primarily by studying the physical and chemical processes that have been responsible for the formation and evolution of the objects within it. Since this work first appeared, planetology has undergone major developments in all its aspects, which have revealed with even greater clarity the extreme diversity of the objects that have been explored. New planetary space missions have suc­ ceeded in enriching the database at our disposal. Specifically, we should mention Magellan and Venus; Galileo and Jupiter; Ulysses and the heliosphere; Mars Global Surveyor and Mars; Soho and Cluster and solar-terrestial relationships. The HST and ISO observatories in space, as weIl as large telescopes on the ground have provided observations at very high spatial and spectral resolution, and have carried out photometry of ever fainter objects, which is how it was possible to detect the first trans-Neptunian objects that inhabit the Kuiper Belt.