Planetary Systems: Formation, Evolution, and Detection: Proceedings of the First International Conference, held in Pasadena, California on December 8–10, 1992

`Are there other planetary systems like ours? Other planets like ours? Is there life elsewhere in the Universe?' So asks Dr. Lew Allen Jr. in the Foreword. In December of 1992, theorists, observers, and instrument builders gathered at the California Institute of Technology to discuss the search for answers to these questions. The International Conference, entitled `Planetary Systems: Formation, Evolution, and Detection' and supported through NASA's newly formed TOPS (Toward Other Planetary Systems) program, was the first of a series of conferences uniting researchers across disciplines and political boundaries to share thoughts and information on planetary systems. The conference was sponsored by NASA, hosted by JPL at Caltech, and endorsed by the 1992 International Space Year Association.
These proceedings include discussions of topics ranging from stellar, disk, and planetary formation to new ways of searching for other stellar systems containing planets. The authors represent a wide range of nationalities, disciplines, and points of view. The second international conference took place in December of 1993.

Bernard F. Burke is William A. M. Burden Professor of Astrophysics, Emeritus in the Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was the co-discoverer of radio noise from Jupiter, and he was later involved in the development of very-long-baseline interferometry. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Leiden and the University of Manchester, is a member of the National Academy of Science, and is on the governing board of the National Science Foundation.

Rahe, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, USA.