AST 223 Schedule for Fall 2008
Week/homework Date Content Reading
What is a Planet?
Due Sept. 15
Sept. 8

Introduction to the course

 

Here Comes the Sun
for the visually-inclined
OR
How the Sun Works
for the mathematically-inclined
Do one, not both!
Due Sept. 22

Sept. 15
Solar system formation
Absolute age, elements
The Sun
Chs. 2 and 3
Hartmann excerpt
Lissauer
Bodenheimer
Arnett
Brownlow
Papaloizou
cool images of sunspots
Age of the Solar System
Due Sept. 29
Sept. 22

Meteorites
Meteorite Impact, pts. 1 and 2 (NOVA video)
ANSMET meteorites

Ch. 26
Meteorite classification

Impact structures
Impact hazards
Near Earth Objects
Dinosaur extinctions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Mercury conference
OR
What's Mercury Made of?
Due: Oct. 6

Sept. 29

Mercury

Ch. 7
MESSENGER mission site
other Mercury links

Venus Map

Due: Oct. 27

Oct. 6 Venus

Ch. 8
Guide to interpreting radar images
Venus Geology Images

no class -- Oct. break Oct. 13 n/a n/a
Venus exercise Oct. 20 work on Venus homework n/a
Mars craters
Due: Nov. 3

Oct. 27

Mars
Mars Exploration Rovers

Guest speaker: Jay Dickson, water on Mars

Ch. 11
Tanaka
NASA 79730
McSween
Sheehan Chs. 11-14
Moon Map
Due: Nov. 10
Nov. 3
Moon and Earth Ch. 10
Pieters

Jupiter and Saturn
Jupiter_Saturn homework
LAST HOMEWORK!
Due: Nov. 17

Nov. 10

Jupiter, Saturn, and their rings

Chs. 14 and 15
Bibliography
On Titan's Pictures
Images; Lunine
Kuiper Belt, the Movie
Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Newsletter
Current plotted positions
Images of Icy Moons
Outer Planet Satellites
Galileo Probe News
NEAR spacecraft results
Stardust spacecraft

Extraterrestrial Life in the solar system


Nov. 17
closed book quiz
Adrian Ponce, guest speaker  

Neptune, Uranus, Pluto and the Kuiper belt

Nov. 24

Guest speaker: Tim Spahr, Minor Planets Center
Asteroids and Meteorites
Comets

Chs. 24 and 25

Marcy & Butler
Extra-solar planets news
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia

Geologic time scale on Mars

Dec. 1
last quiz closed book

Caleb Fassett, crater counting

 

 

This page was created by Darby Dyar and is maintained by Darby Dyar and Rebekah Robson-May.
Last updated on 10 November, 2008 .