Harry McSween is Chancellor Professor Emeritus at the University of Tennessee. His research on meteorites and Mars has resulted in hundreds of scientific papers. He has authored/co-authored six books on planetary science, including the textbook Planetary Geoscience (Cambridge, 2019) and was co-investigator on four NASA spacecraft missions. He has received awards from the US National Academy of Sciences, Meteoritical Society, and American Geophysical Union, and is the namesake for an asteroid.

1. Introduction to Cosmochemistry; 2. Nuclides and Elements - The Building Blocks of Matter; 3. Origin of the Elements; 4. Solar System and Cosmic Abundances - Elements and Isotopes; 5. Presolar Grains - A Record of Stellar Nucleosynthesis and Processes in Interstellar Space; 6. Meteorites and Interplanetary Dust - A Record of Nebular and Planetary Processes; 7. Element Fractionations by Cosmochemical and Geochemical Processes; 8. Stable-Isotope Fractionations by Cosmochemical and Geochemical Processes; 9. Radioisotopes as Chronometers; 10. Chronology of the Early Solar System; 11. The Most Volatile Elements and Compounds - Ices, Noble Gases, and Organic Matter; 12. Planetesimals - Leftover Planetary Building Blocks; 13. Chemistry of Planetesimals and Their Samples; 14. Geochemical Exploration - The Moon and Mars as Case Studies; 15. Cosmochemical Models for the Formation and Evolution of Solar Systems; Appendix: Analytical Techniques Commonly Used in Cosmochemistry; References; Index.