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AST80015 Planetary Science
Course/s with Unit:
A unit of study in the Graduate Certificate of Science (Astronomy), Graduate Diploma of Science (Astronomy) and Master of Science (Astronomy). Credit Points:
12.5 Credit Points Duration:
One semester Contact Hours:
Equivalent to 60 hours Campus:
Off-campus Prerequisites:
AST80005 Exploring the Solar System, or equivalent. Corequisites:
Nil. Learning and Teaching Structure:
Online delivery mode, contact via newsgroups & email. Assessment:
Assessable newsgroup contributions (30%), online tests (20%) and project (50%). Aims:
This Unit will provide students with a detailed understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of planetary science - combining astronomy, geology, chemistry, and atmospheric science. It will investigate the origins and evolution of our Solar System, the terrestrial and giant planets, planetary atmospheres and surface phenomena. Objectives:
After successfully completing this Unit, students should be able to:
- appreciate that planetary science is an inter-disciplinary field involving astronomy, physics, chemistry and geology;
- understand planetary orbits and the nature of gravity in shaping our Solar System;
- understand planetary atmospheres, surfaces and interiors and specifically what they can teach us about planet formation;
- research an astronomy topic in depth, using dependable sources of astronomical information on the internet and refereed journal articles.
- An introduction to the interdisciplinary field of planetary science
- Orbital dynamics: 2, 3 and N-body problems; perturbations and resonances; tides; dissipative forces
- Solar heating and radiative equilibrium
- Planetary atmospheres: thermal structure, composition, meteorology, photochemistry, escape
- Planetary surfaces: morphology, mineralogy, cratering
- Planetary interiors: modelling internal structure, terrestrials and giants
- Magnetospheres: dipole magnetic fields, plasma, planetary magnetospheres
- Debris: meteorites, asteroids, comets and planetary rings
- Planet formation and the origin of the Solar System
For information about the textbook, follow this link.
