Formation and evolution of the Solar System depletion period that brought the asteroid belt down close to its present mass is thought to have followed when Jupiter and Saturn entered a temporary 2:1 orbital resonance (see below). The inner Solar System's period of giant impacts probably played a role in the Earth acquiring its current water content (~6 kg) from the early asteroid belt. Water is too volatile to have been present at Earth's formation and must have been subsequently delivered from outer, colder parts of the Solar System. The water was probably delivered by planetary embryos and small planetesimals thrown out of the asteroid belt by
Hidden states of matter exists in equilibrium, but is not immediately apparent or easily observed. Using ultrashort laser pulses impinging on solid state matter, the system may be knocked out of equilibrium so that not only are the individual subsystems out of equilibrium with each other but also internally. Under such conditions, new states of matter may be created which are not otherwise reachable under equilibrium, ergodic system evolution. Such states are usually unstable and decay very rapidly, typically in nanoseconds or less. The difficulty is in distinguishing a genuine hidden state from one which is simply out of thermal equilibrium. Probably the first