PY4A03 Planetary and Space Science
Lecturers: Prof. Peter T. Gallagher (Physics) and Prof. Ian Sanders (Geology)
Course Aims
This is an upper-level undergraduate module for Senior Sophister (4th year) astrophysics students. The aim of the course is to introduce students to the physical and chemical mechanisms responsible for structuring our Solar System and other planetary systems. At the end of the course, the student will know: The properties of the Solar System; how to estimate the mass of the solar nebula; describe solar system formation theories; explain the formation and properties of planetary atmospheres and magnetospheres; explain the physics of the Sun and solar wind. The module contains 22 lectures delivered over a single term and is worth 5 ETCs.
Lecture Schedule and Notes
* Dr. Ian Sander's (Department of Geology) lecture notes on meteorites and the early solar system.
Tutorials
Past Exam Questions
Recommended Books
References
- Kepler discovers first Earth-sized exoplanets (Nature, December 2011)
- Planetary science: A whiff of mystery on Mars (Nature, January 2010)
- SPATIALLY RESOLVED SPECTROSCOPY OF THE EXOPLANET HR 8799c (Janson et al., ApJL, 2010)
- Deep Solar Minimum - Sun plunging into the deepest solar minimum in a century (NASA, March 2009)
- Solar Wind Loses Power, Hits 50-year Low (NASA, September 2009)
- Astronomy: The rock that fell to Earth (Nature, March 2009) and The impact and recovery of asteroid 2008 TC3 (Jenniskens et al., Nature, 2009).
- Martian Atmospheric Erosion Rates (Barabash et al., Nature, 2007).
- Asteroids: When planets migrate (Minton & Malhotra, Nature, 2009).
- The distribution of mass in the planetary system and solar nebula (Weidenschilling, Astro. Space. Sci., 1977).
- The Surface Density Distribution in the Solar Nebula (Davis, ApJL, 2005).