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PHYS 214 - Planets and Life


Index to lecture notes

PHYS 214 notes will appear here as the course is being taught.

Lecture 1 (pdf) (ppt): Course outline, supplemental information, the Drake Equation.

Lecture 2 (pdf) (ppt): Astronomical measurements, distances, units, Celestial Sphere & the Seasons. Note movies will need to be downloaded from here.

Lecture 3 (pdf) (ppt): Parallax, the magnitude system, atomic absorption and emission, Doppler shift.

Lecture 4 (pdf) (ppt): Cosmology, expansion of the Universe, Hubble's Law, size of the observable Universe, Olber's Paradox, geometry of the Universe

Lecture 5 (pdf) (ppt): From the earliest moments following the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies. Movies can be downloaded here, here, and here.

Lecture 6 (pdf) (ppt): Philosophical discussions, selection effects and the Cosmological Anthropic Principle

Lecture 7 (pdf) (ppt): Video: PBS Origins series: Back to the Beginning

Lecture 8 (pdf) (ppt): Stars: stellar properties & classification, fusion and the p-p chain

Lecture 9 (pdf) (ppt): Star formation, stellar evolution, supernovae and the rate of formation of stars (R)

Lecture 10 (pdf) (ppt): Defintion of habitable zones, calculation of the radiation balance model, HZ predicted by the radiation balance model, model shortcomings

Lecture 11 (pdf) (ppt): Effect of albedo, luminosity of star on the HZ, greenhouse effect and more realistic estimates of the HZ, galactic habitable zones

Lecture 12 (pdf) (ppt): Formation of planets, solar nebular theory, differentiation of the protostellar disk, matching predictions to observations

Guest lecture (only png available at this time) Slides 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

Lecture 13 (pdf) (ppt): Jovian planets, properties, relevance to life on Earth, possibilities for life in the outer solar system

Lecture 14 (pdf) (ppt): Terrestrial planets

Lecture 15 Video: PBS Origins series: Where are the Aliens?

Lecture 16 (pdf) (ppt): Detecting extrasolar planets, brown dwarfs versus large planets, Kepler's Laws of planetary motion, Doppler technique

Lecture 17 (pdf) (ppt): Alternatives to the Doppler technique: lensing, transits, direct detection Future prospects for exoplanet surveys, constraining P_p and n_E

Lecture 18 (pdf) (ppt): Classification of life, reproduction, evolution. Transfer of information between generations. Thermodynamics of life.

Lecture 19 (pdf) (ppt): Carbon vs Silicon based life, alternative solvents to water. Biochemistry of LAWKI, sugars to DNA.

Lecture 20 (pdf) (ppt): Creation of the first cells, prokaryotic cell versus the eukaryotic cell. Geological timelines and influence of environment, including oxygen.

Guest lecture (pdf) (ppt): Guest lecture by Virginia Walker on extremophiles.

Lecture 21 (pdf) (ppt): Midterm review

Lecture 22 (pdf) (ppt): Earth History: Formation of Moon, supply of water, evolution of atmosphere, plate tectonics, snowball Earth. Movies can be downloaded from here and here.

Lecture 23 (pdf) (ppt): Rare Earth Hypothesis: might we actually be alone? Components of the REH, criticisms.

Lecture 24 (pdf) (ppt): Looking for life on Mars: Viking lander experiments & more recent missions. Martian meteorite controversy. You can download the movies from here and here

Lecture 25 (pdf) (ppt): Titan: Atmosphere composition, geography, possibility of life. Value of space missions, Cassini-Huygens mission.

Lecture 26 (pdf) (ppt): Jupiter's icy moons, with a focus on Europa. Subsurface ocean, possibility for life, energy source (tidal heating). Future missions. You can download the movies from here and here

Lecture 27 (pdf) (ppt): Constraining pl,pi,pc,T: probability arguments for a high pl, open questions in evaluating pi, speculation on pc. Comparison to human decisions. You can download the movie here.

Lecture 28 (pdf) (ppt): Estimates from the Drake Equation, N under different assumptions. Issues to look out for. Average distance of civilizations apart. Time to colonize galaxy

Lecture 29 Video: PBS Cosmos series: Encyclopedia Galactica

Lecture 30 (pdf) (ppt): SETI: history, search methodologies, possible message encoding methods. Funding questions, future outlook.

Lecture 31 (pdf) (ppt): Very speculative ideas on civilizations, Kardashev classification, Dyson spheres, possible human futures.

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