Predicted long ago to be present on the surface of planetary bodies by theoreticians and recently shown by interplanetary spacecraft and ground- based instruments to be ubiquitous in the Solar System, ices in a broad sense have become an extremely important subject in planetary research. Ices found on objects formed in the remote parts of the Solar System contain a message about the composition and mode of formation of our planetary system. There are also objects that contain icy materials that bear signatures of past events on a geological timescale. Their study is one of the best means of inquiring about the origins, accessing the past and anticipating the future of our Solar System.
The reviews in this book collect together a series of papers covering the physics and chemistry of ices, as well as the geology of icy surfaces. They present an extensive summary of their chemical and physical properties relevant to planetary astronomy. They also provide an overview of planetary bodies that contain ices and the outstanding problems of the field.
Audience: The book is intended to become a reference for researchers and graduate students. It is accessible to senior graduate students with a background in planetary science.

I - Physics and Chemistry of Ices.- Physical chemistry of ices in the outer solar system.- Thermal conductivity of solar system ices, with special reference to Martian polar caps.- Rheology of planetary ices.- Thermodynamical properties of high pressure ices. Implications for the dynamics and internal structure of large icy satellites.- Clathrate hydrates on earth and in the solar system.- Metamorphism of solar system ices.- Amorphous water ice. A solar system material.- Reflectance spectroscopy of icy surfaces.- Optical properties of ices from UV to infrared.- Microwave properties of ice and snow.- UV Photochemistry of ices. The role of photons in the processing of ices.- Chemistry of ice induced by bombardment with energetic charged particles.- Sputtering and desorption from icy surfaces.- II - Ices in the Primitive Solar Nebula and in Comets.- From interstellar dust to comets: distributed CO in comet Halley.- Trapping of gases in water ice and consequences to comets and the atmospheres of the inner planets.- Origin and evolution of comets, icy planets and satellites.- Composition and physical properties of comets.- III - Ices in the Terrestrial Planets.- Terrestrial snow studies from remote sensing in the solar spectrum and the thermal infrared.- Polar stratospheric clouds on Earth. A review of particle thermodynamics, nucleation and growth kinetics.- Mars CO2 ice polar caps.- IV - Ices in the Outer Planets and Satellites.- to icy satellite geology.- Geodynamics of icy satellites.- Geologic landforms and processes on icy satellites.- Ices on the satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.- Ices on Io - composition and texture.- Surface-atmosphere interactions on Titan.- The surface compositions of Triton, Pluto and Charon.- Pluto and the Kuiper disk.- Therings of the outer planets.- Ices in the giant planets.- Atmospheric ices.- Surface/atmosphere interactions and volatile transport (Triton, Pluto and Io).- Contributing Authors.