Grades
Half of your grade will be determined from your exam scores and half from homeworks (including the weekly
reading assignment). Your lowest exam and homework scores (one of each) will be dropped.
Collaboration
You are encouraged to study and work on homework assignments with other students, and you are
encouraged to get help from the professor and TAs, but you must write out your own answers and
make the assigned observations yourself. If you copy another homework or let someone copy yours,
both of you will receive zero credit.
Schedule
Week of:
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Reading:
Topics:
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Friday Exams:
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Jan 15:
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Ch 1
Exploring the Solar System
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Jan 22:
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Ch 2
Origin of the Solar System
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Jan 29:
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Ch 6
Role of Collisions
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Feb 2
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Feb 5:
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Ch 7+8
Mercury + Venus
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Feb 12:
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Ch 9
Earth
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Feb 19:
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Ch 10
Moon
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Feb 23
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Feb 26:
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Ch 11
Mars
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Mar 5:
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Ch 12
Surfaces and Interiors
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Mar 19:
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Ch 13
Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets
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Mar 23
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Mar 26:
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Ch 14
Interiors of the Giant Planets
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Apr 2:
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Ch 15
Atmospheres of the Giant Planets
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Apr 9:
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Ch 16
Planetary Rings
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Apr 13
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Apr 16:
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Ch 17+20
Io + Titan
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Apr 23:
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Ch 21+24
Pluto + Comets
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Apr 30:
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Ch 28
Extrasolar Planets
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May 4
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Positions of Planets
- Mercury is visible the first half of February about 45 minutes after sunset in the west just above
where the Sun set. Venus is just above it and is brighter.
- Venus is up in the evening all semester. It is moving away from the Sun in the sky, so setting later, later in the semester.
- Mars is up in the southeast before sunrise all semester.
- Jupiter at first rises late in the evening, but rises earlier later in the semester. It is bright, but rather far south in the sky.
- Saturn is high in the sky around midnight early in the semester. It is up earlier later in the semester. The star following
it across the sky is Regulus in the constellation Leo.
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