Solar system evolution


Class project

project writeup



Problem sets:

Problem set #1 - Solar system

Problem set #2 - Timelines

Problem set #3 - Comets and Meteorites

Problem set #4 - Impact Craters

Problem set #5 - Planet Temperature

Problem set #6 - Moon

Moon

Seismic detection of the lunar core, Science, vol. 331, p. 309-312, 2011, R. C. Weber, P-W. Lin, E. J. Garnero, Q. Williams, and P. Lognonne.


Mars

Hf-W-Th evidence for rapid growth of Mars and its status as a planetary embryo, Nature, vol. 473, p. 491-493, 2011, N. Dauphas & A. Pourmand.

Building a planet in record time, News and Views, Nature, vol. 473, p. 460-461, Alan Brandon.

Cratering

Impact cratering on Earth: A history of controversy, Audeliz Matias

Earth Impact Effects Program: A web-based computer program for calculating the regional environmental consequences of a meteoroid impact on Earth, G. S. Collins, J. Melosh and R. A. Marcus

How the Sun shines, Nobel prize lecture, John N. Bahcall

The once and future Sun, Richard W. Pogge

The genesis of planets., Scientific American, May, 2008. Pg 50-59, Douglas N. C. Lin.

Initiation of clement surface conditions on the earliest Earth, N. H. Sleep and P. S. Neuhoff, PNAS, vol. 98, 3666-3672, 2001. (pdf)

Plate Tectonics through Time Treatise on Geophysics, N. H. Sleep, vol. 9, 145-169, 2007. (pdf)

EVOLUTION OF THE CONTINENTAL LITHOSPHERE, Norman H. Sleep, Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2005, 33:369-93. (pdf)

Did Earthquakes Keep the Early Crust Habitable? Norman H. Sleep and Mark D. Zoback, Astrobiology, vol. 7, 2007. (pdf)

H2-rich fluids from serpentinization: Geochemical and biotic implications, N. H. Sleep, PNAS, 2004. (pdf)

Palaeoproterozoic ice houses and the evolution of oxygen-mediating enzymes: the case for a late origin of photosystem II, J. L. Kirschvink and R. E. Kopp, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B, vol. 363, p. 2755-2765, 2008. (pdf)

Was the Paleoproterozoic Snowball Earth a biologically-triggered climate disaster?, Kopp, R.E., Kirschvink, J.L., Hilburn, I.A. & Nash, C.Z., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 102: 11131-11136, 2005. (pdf)

Search for past life on Mars: Possible relic biogenic activity in Martian meteorite ALH84001, D. S. McKay and others, Science, vol. 273, pp. 924-930, 1996. (pdf)

Mars, panspermia, and the origin of life: Where did it all begin?, J. L. Kirschvink and B. P. Weiss, Palaeontologica Electronica, 2002. (pdf)

The search for life in our solar system and the implications for science and society, C. P. McKay, Philos. Trans. of the Roy. Soc., v. 369, p. 594-608, 2011. (pdf)

Acidication, anoxia, and extinction: A multiple logistic regression analysis of extinction selectivity during the Middle and Late Permian, Geology, vol. 39, 1059-1062, 2011, M. E. Clapham and J. L. Payne, (pdf)

Niches of the pre-photosynthetic biosphere and geologic preservation of Earth's earliest ecology, Norman H. Sleep and Dennis K. Bird, (pdf)

Evolutionary ecology during the rise of dioxygen in the Earth's atmosphere, Norman H. Sleep and Dennis K. Bird Philosophical Trans. B., 2008. (pdf)

Possible presence of high-pressure ice in cold subducting slabs, Craig R. Bina & Alexandra Navrotsky, Nature, 408, 844-845, 2000 (pdf)

L. Elkins-Tanton, What makes a habitable planet?, EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, vol. 94, no. 16, 16, April 2013. (pdf)

The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems, National Academies press, 2007. (pdf)

J. F. Kasting, Essay Review: Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee's "Rare Earth", Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 44, 117, 2001. (pdf)

J. F. Kasting, Habitable planets: What are we learning from Kepler and ground based searches, Astrobiology, Vol. 11 2011. (pdf)

S. Naoz, W. M. Farr, Y. Lithwick, F. A. Rasio, and J. Teyssandler Hot Jupiters from secular planet-planet interactions, Nature, vol. 473, pp. 187-198, 2011.

J. I. Lunine, B. Macintosh, and S. Peale, The detection and characterization of exoplanets, Physics Today, May 2009, pp. 46-51 (pdf)

Project Cyclops: A design study of a system for detecting extraterrestrial intelligent life, NASA, 1971 (pdf)

M. J. Holman and others inc, Jason Steffen, Kepler-9: A system of multiple planets transiting a sun-like star, confirmed by timing variations, Science, vol. 330, 51, 2010. (pdf)

N. M. Batalha and others inc, Jason Steffen, Kepler's first rocky planet: Kepler-10b Astrophysical Journal, 729:27, 2011. (pdf)

J. J. Lissauer and others inc, Jason Steffen, A closely packed system of low mass, low density planets transiting Kepler-11, Nature, vol. 470, 33, 2011. (pdf)

D. W. Latham and others inc, Jason Steffen, A first comparison of Kepler planet candidates in single and multiple systems, Astrophysical Journal, 732:L24, 2011. (pdf)

Jason H. Steffen and others, Kepler constraints on planets near hot Jupiters, PNAS, in press, 2012. (pdf)

Nick B. Cowan, D. S. Abbot, and A. Voight, A false positive for ocean glint on exoplanets: The latitude-albedo effect, Astrophysical Letters Journal, in press, 2012. (pdf)

David Brin, Mystery of the great silence, in, First Contact: The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss, 1990.