Who are we? How did the Earth come about? Are there other inhabited worlds? These ancient questions gave rise to the science of cosmogony - its two directions: 1) the planetary system and life - a matter of chance; 2) all this is a natural phenomenon. The latter became the basis for the search for “brothers in mind”, stimulated the beginning of space flights... But by the middle of XX in . planetary cosmogony has reached a dead end, from which it was led by the outstanding Russian scientist O. Yu. Schmidt. The book tells a dramatic story of the birth and development of his ideas, which became the foundation of modern world planetary cosmogony. On its basis, a new author's theory of the origin of comets is given, hypotheses of the origin of tectites, chondrules, the phenomenon of flashing stars are proposed; the actual problem of "comet-asteroid danger" is considered. The book is designed for astronomers, geophysicists, meteorite researchers and anyone who is interested in these problems.