Astronomy 221: Stars and Planets
Instructor: Heather Morrison,
hlm5@cwru.edu, Sears 558, phone 368 6698
Admininistrative stuff: grading scheme, textbook
Class calendar:
Problem Set 1: due 5pm, Tuesday August 31
Articles chosen so far:
Problem Set 2: due 5pm, Thurs Sept 23.
Problem Set 3: due 5pm, Monday Oct 11.
Problem Set 4: due 5pm, Monday Nov 1.
Problem Set 5: due in class, Thurs Nov
11.
Problem Set 6: due 5pm, Thurs Dec 2
Course Outline:
1. THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Overview of the Formation of the Solar System
Aug 24 notes
Physical Processes: Gravity. Meteorites and Asteroids: orbits.
Sep 7 notes Physical Processes: Radiation Pressure.
Comets, Meteorites and Asteroids: Composition, dating, origins.
Oort cloud and Kuiper belt.
Physical Processes: Collisions and Giant Impacts
Earth impacts (Prof Mihos notes)
Structure and surface of Mercury (Prof Mihos notes)
The Moon: structure (Prof Mihos notes)
Physical Processes: Tidal Forces
Tides and tidal evolution: Earth/Moon system and evolution,
Mars' moons, Io. Mercury's spin-orbit coupling.
Gravitational tides (Prof Mihos notes)
The Roche limit: Giant planet rings and moons.
Physical Processes: Gravity vs Pressure.
Atmospheric equilibrium, scale height of atmospheres
Interiors of the giant planets Interiors of terrestrial planets. Heat budgets.
The Earth: internal structure,
temperature and pressure, plate tectonics and
seismology.
Tectonics on other terrestrial planets
Heat budgets for planets
Physical processes: atmospheres
Where do atmospheres come from? giant vs terrestrial planets
How do planets lose atmospheres? Jeans escape
Greenhouse effect (notes from Prof Mihos)
2. ASTRONOMICAL TECHNIQUES
Telescopes and Instrumentation
14 Oct: Telescopes
Fall Break Oct 19
3. STARS: PHYSICS AND LIFE CYCLES
Physical Processes: Blackbody Radiation
Measuring brightness and color for stars
The HR diagram: temperature vs luminosity
The stellar luminosity function
Stars - measuring mass and size.
Binary stars.
The Sun -- nuclear fusion reactions
Review of hydrostatic equilibrium.
The interstellar medium and star formation
Star formation, pre- main sequence
evolution
Stellar evolution for low mass
stars.
Evolution for higher-mass stars.
Supernovae
Moulton 1905: On the Formation of the Solar
System -- Gazy.
See 1909: On the Cause of the Remarkable Circularity of the orbits of the
Planets .... -- Ben
Luyten 1939: On the Origin of the Solar System -- Cameron
Kirkwood 1880: The Cosmogony of Laplace -- Jason
Larmour 1936: Regarding the Origins of the Solar System -- Beth
Gunn 1932: On the Origin of the Solar
System -- Max
Miller 1925: The Story of the Earth -- Parker
See 1909: Origin of the Lunar Terrestrial System ... -- Mo
How did it happen? What constraints do we have? Reading: Kutner
Section 27.1
Aug 26 notes
more Aug 26 notes
Kepler and Newton's Laws. Orbits. Energy and escape velocity
Moon formation (Prof Mihos notes)
Origin of Earth's atmosphere, Carbon-Silicate cycle
Winds and their causes:
Hadley cells
14 Oct: More on telescopes, something on
detectors
See also the description in Carroll and Ostlie pp530-534.