AST 223 Schedule for Fall 2003
Week/homework Date Content Reading
What is a Planet? (BE)
(due Sept. 16)
Sept. 9

Introduction to the course

 

Here Comes the Sun (IF)
for the visually-inclined
O R
How the Sun Works (BF)
for the mathematically-inclined

Do one, not both!
(due Sept. 28)

Sept. 14
Sept. 16
Solar system formation
Absolute age, elements
The Sun
Chs. 2 and 14
Hartmann excerpt
Lissauer
Bodenheimer
Arnett
Brownlow
Papaloizou
cool images of sunspots
Orbits & Motions (NS)
OR
Age of the Solar System (BE)
(due Sept. 30)
Self-study:
Sept. 21 and 23

Orbits and motions

Orbits and Motions handout
Ch. 8

Mercury conference (BF)
OR
What's Mercury Made of? (IF)
Due Oct. 7

Sept. 28
Sept. 30 (class meets in Merrill 2 this day only)

Mercury

Ch. 4

Mercury Lecture Notes (imperfectly formatted -- sorry!)

Venus Map (BF)
Everyone does same homework!
Due Oct. 19

Oct. 5
Oct. 7
(no class Oct. 12)

Oct. 14
Venus

Ch. 5
Guide to interpreting radar images
Venus Geology Images

Earth homework DO NOT DO
(no homework because of exam)

Oct. 19
Oct. 21

Earth

Ch. 6
Midterm review sheet Oct. 28 EXAM  

Moon Map (NS)
Due Nov. 9
Oct. 26
Nov. 2
Moon Ch. 3
Pieters
Mars craters (IF)
Due Nov. 30

Nov. 4
Nov. 9
Nov. 11 (no class)

Mars
Mars Exploration Rovers

Ch. 7
Tanaka
NASA 79730
McSween
Sheehan Chs. 11-14
Jupiter and Saturn
Missions to Icy Bodies (NS)
Due. Dec. 9
Nov. 16
Nov. 18
no class Nov. 23 or 25 (Amherst College is closed)
Nov. 30

Jupiter, Saturn, and their rings

Ch. 10

On Titan's Pictures

Comets, Asteroids, and Meteorites

Dec. 2

Dec. 7

 

Asteroids and Meteorites

Comets (guest lecture by Martha Hanner)



Ch. 13, 9
Bibliography
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

Final review sheet
Dec. 9

Neptune, Uranus, Pluto and the Kuiper belt

Ch. 11
ANSMET meteorites
Marcy & Butler
Extra-solar planets news
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia

Dec. 14

Final Exam

 

 

This page was created by Darby Dyar and is maintained by Darby Dyar and Rebekah Robson-May.
Last updated on 21 January, 2005 .