PROFESSOR
G. F. (Fritz) Benedict
Office: RLM 16.222
Phone: 471-3448
Office Hours: MW 11:00 - 12:00 noon, or by appointment
fritz@astro.as.utexas.edu
Homepage

TEACHING ASSISTANTS
TBD
RLM: TBD
Phone: 471-TBD
Office Hours: TBD


COURSE OUTLINE & SCHEDULE


REQUIRED TEXTS
The Search for Life in the Universe by Goldsmith and Owen
Extraterrestrial Life - An Astronomical Perspective by Barnes and Benedict (available only on the class web site)

CLASS WEB SITE
In addition to providing access to one of the texts used in the course (Barnes and Benedict), it will also contain the PowerPoint presentations given in class and links to other web sites containing supporting material.
Link through my home page: http://clyde.as.utexas.edu/GFBDefault.html

Class Participation
The only stupid question is the one you didn't ask. If you don't understand something I said, interrupt me.

Outside Reading
None assigned. You are encouraged to exercise your growing astronomical and ETL vocabulary by reading a newspaper or weekly news magazine. In particular every week most of the articles in Science News are germane to our explorations.

HOMEWORK
Five homework assignments, handed out in class. You are encouraged to work in teams on the problems, but you must write up the results of each problem set individually.

GRADING

Class attendance
My lectures are meant to illuminate concepts discussed in the texts or to introduce more recent ideas and facts not presented in the texts. The assigned reading is voluminous. You can gauge what I consider to have importance based on what I talk about in class. Guess what tends to show up more often on the exams? Finally, attendance is rewarded. How, other than the (generally) interesting lectures? The class web site is password protected. I announce a new password during each lecture.

Instructor attendance
Astronomers travel. I am an astronomer. Therefore, I travel. During these rare absences I will either invite in a guest lecturer, give an exam, or show a relevant piece of animated eye candy.