Lectures will be a combination of Powerpoint presentations and whiteboard derivations. In most cases, Powerpoint slides will be posted here as PDF files after the class.
These summaries and notes are not a substitute for attending lectures!
In-class worksheets can be found on the Assignments page.
Class Notes
Lecture 1 – 8/22/2016 (Course overview, scope of planetary sciences)
Lecture 2 – 8/24/2016 (Solar system survey: Sun, giant planets)
Lecture 3 – 8/26/2016 (Solar system survey: terrestrial & minor planets)
Lecture 4 – 8/29/2016 (Solar system survey: satellites/rings; Solar system formation intro)
Lecture 5 – 8/31/2016 (Ellipses, Kepler’s laws, Newton’s laws)
Lecture 6 – 9/2/2016 (Bound/unbound orbits, orbital elements)
Lecture 7 – 9/7/2016 (Hohmann transfer, restricted 3-body problem, Lagrange points, tadpole/horseshoe orbits, Hill sphere)
Lecture 8 – 9/9/2016 (Axisymmetric gravity fields, tides)
Lecture 9 – 9/12/2016 (Roche limit, resonances, radiation pressure)
Lecture 10 – 9/14/2016 (Illustrations of tidal forces & torques, Poynting-Robertson drag)
Lecture 11 – 9/16/2016 (Electromagnetic spectrum, blackbody radiation, solid angle)
Lecture 12 – 9/19/2016 (Integrating Planck’s radiation law, Stefan-Boltzmann law, luminosity, Bond albedo, emissivity, phase angle)
Lecture 13 – 9/21/2016 (Equilibrium temperature, greenhouse effect; Conduction: Fourier’s law, thermal skin depth, thermal inertia)
Lectures 14-16 – 9/23,26,28/2016 (Zachary Meeks – Plasma physics, solar wind, interplanetary magnetic field, planetary magnetospheres)
Lecture 17 – 10/3/2016 (Electron energy levels)
Lecture 18 – 10/5/2016 (Radiative transfer, electron energy levels of the elements, Intro to electronic transitions in solids)
Lecture 19 – 10/7/2016 (Hydrostatic equilibirum, isothermal atmospheres, convection)
Lecture 20 – 10/12/2016 (Atmospheric scale height, constraints on thermal structure)
Lecture 21 – 10/14/2016 (Atmospheric thermal structure, constraining composition with spectra [including Mars methane])
Lecture 22 – 10/17/2016 (Atmospheric composition, clouds)
Lecture 23 – 10/19/2016 (ExoMars arrival at Mars; clouds, photochemistry)
Lecture 24 – 10/21/2016 (Meteorology, where do atmospheres come from?)
Lecture 25 – 10/24/2016 (Atmospheric sources and losses)
Lecture 26 – 10/26/2016 (Zachary Meeks – Icy moons)
Lecture 27 – 10/28/2016 (Zachary Meeks – Midterm review)
Lecture 28 – 10/31/2016 (Surfaces intro; impact cratering)
Lecture 29 – 11/2/2016 (Impact cratering Part 2)
Lecture 30 – 11/4/2016 (Impact cratering Part 3, crater count ages)
Lecture 31 – 11/7/2016 (Gravity-driven processes)
Lecture 32 – 11/11/2016 (Tectonic processes)
Lecture 33 – 11/14/2016 (Aeolian processes)
Lecture 34 – 11/16/2016 (Volcanic, fluvial, & glacial processes)
Lecture 35 – 11/18/2016 (Planetary bulk densities, Earth’s interior structure, hydrostatic equilibrium; worksheet on estimating central pressure)
Lecture 36 – 11/21/2016 (Interiors: moment of inertia, equation of state, heat sources, constituent relations, gravity fields)
Lecture 37 – 11/28/2016 (Isostasy; cloud collapse and planetary accretion)
Lecture 38 – 12/5/2016 (Giant planet growth, migration; moon formation)
