ASTRONOMY 2212 The Solar System: Planets, small bodies and new worlds Fall 2017 Class Meetings: Tuesday & Thursday 11:40 12:55 Class Location: Space Sciences Building Room 105 Instructor: Philip Nicholson (pdn2@cornell.edu) General: The course is intended primarily for science and engineering students who would like to obtain knowledge of our solar system and an understanding of how it works based on the application of simple physical principles. Prerequisites: The course assumes that every student has some knowledge of basic physics and mathematics including calculus at the level of Math 1110 or 1910 or at least is co registered in one of these courses or a higher level one. Text: The New Solar System, 4 th edition by J.K. Beatty, C.C. Petersen, and A. Chaikin. The chapters in this book give a very good descriptive background for much of the material in the course. Chapters on the Saturn system, Mercury, Pluto and comets are out of date.
Reference: Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013 2022 National Academies survey of planetary science 2011 Can be downloaded from: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13117 Additional reference books: Discovering the Solar System, 2nd Edition, Wiley Books, 2007, by Barrie Jones Second hand copies are available on Amazon for about $15. Contains some math but no calculus.
WEB site: The course WEB site can be found at: http://astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro2212 PDF versions of the lectures will be available on this site. However, additional material may also be discussed in class. The lectures are intended to be a more quantitative supplement to the chapters in the Textbook, which are excellent but deliberately nonmathematical. Course requirements: Instructor: Mid term exam 20% Final exam 30% Problem sets 30% Project 20% Philip Nicholson Room 418 Space Sciences pdn2@cornell.edu Tel: ext 5 8543 Office hours: Tues 2 5 pm & Thurs 3 4 pm.
PROJECT: Oral or poster presentation during last two classes on some topic to be selected and approved by the instructor. Students are encouraged to work on this in small teams of 2 3 people, depending on the size of the class. A one or two page summary is due on November 9. The final report is just your presentation slides or poster. Text for the course: The New Solar System edited by J.K. Beatty, C.C. Petersen, and A. Chaikin. The chapters in this book give a very good descriptive background for much of the material in the course. Chapters on the Saturn system, Mercury, Pluto and comets are now out of date but still contain a good background which will be supplemented by more up to date material in lectures. The book is out of print but second hand copies can be obtained cheaply through Amazon. Make sure that you get the 4 th edition 1999 or 2000.
Reference book for the course: This is the most recent decadal survey of planetary science in the US, and serves as a kind of blueprint for NASA s future missions. It has some good summaries of the state of knowledge in many key areas, as of 6 years ago when it was written.
Our emphasis is on how things work in the solar system Examples: Our solar system Its architecture and is it typical of other planetary systems? Orbits, spins, tides clues to dynamical evolution. The Sun What processes keep it shining and for how long? How do we know the age of the solar system? Radioactivity & meteorites. Greenhouse warming How does it work and when is it good or bad? Volcanism and sub surface oceans on outer planet satellites how do we know? Comets, asteroids and meteorites: keys to the past? Big questions underlying planetary exploration: Did life arise anywhere else in our solar system or in other planetary systems? Are there Earth like planets in other planetary systems? (YES!) What can we learn about the Earth by studying other planets?
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF LECTURES Date Day of Week Topic Lecturer Aug 22 Tuesday Intro Geography of the solar system PN Aug 24 Thursday Historical Astronomy PN Aug 29 Tuesday Orbital mechanics I PN Aug 31 Thursday Kroch Library visit RMC staff Sep 05 Tuesday Radiation, temperatures PN Sep 07 Thursday Telescopes PN Sep 12 Tuesday The Sun Sep 14 Thursday Meteorites & radioactive dating Sep 19 Tuesday Primitive bodies I: asteroids PN Sep 21 Thursday Inner planets & Moon I (surfaces) PN Sep 26 Tuesday Inner planets & Moon II (interiors) PN Sep 28 Thursday Mars PN Oct 03 Tuesday Mercury & Moon PN Oct 05 Thursday Venus PN Oct 10 Tuesday Fall break Oct 12 Thursday Prelim Oct 17 Tuesday Terrestrial planet atmospheres Oct 19 Thursday Giant Planets I (atmospheres)
Oct 24 Tuesday Giant planets II (interiors) PN Oct 26 Thursday Orbital mechanics II: Resonances & Tides PN Oct 31 Tuesday Planetary rings MEM? Nov 2 Thursday Outer Planet Satellites I RT Nov 7 Tuesday Satellites II & Pluto PN Nov 9 Thursday Titan SB? Nov 14 Tuesday Primitive bodies II: Comets & KBOs PN/SB Nov 16 Thursday Extra solar planets II (detection) PN Nov 21 Tuesday Extra solar planets I (properties) PN Nov 23 Thursday Thanksgiving Nov 28 Tuesday Future missions AH? Nov 30 Thursday Review session/extra lecture PN USEFUL WEB SITES www.jpl.nasa.gov lots of recent spacecraft and ground based results. Click on missions to get information about past, current and future missions. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov complete lists of up to date orbital elements, physical characteristics, and discovery circumstances of planetary bodies. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html on line searches for journal articles www.library.cornell.edu go directly to e journals accessible at Cornell