The Planets: A seminar series on our Solar System
The seminars are given by Dr. Jane Luu, MIT, USA.
When: September - December 2015, Tues & Thurs, 12:15 - 13:00, except for the first lecture
Where: Most of the seminars will take place in room 3.003 the Technology Building, with a few exceptions as will be announced.
This seminar series will provide an overview of the current understanding of the planets and other members of our solar system. It will cover all the planets, their satellites, meteorites, rings, asteroids, comets, and focus on the main physical processes operating on these bodies. There will be 2 45-min lectures per week, for a total of 12 weeks. The lectures will be in English, unless the lecturer makes miraculous progress in learning Norwegian.
No particular knowledge of space physics and only basic knowledge of calculus is needed. The seminar series will be suitable for everyone interested in learning more about the planet system.
A rough overview of the lectures is the following (this may change):
Topic |
Number of lectures |
Overview: the contents of the solar system |
1 |
Orbital motion |
1 |
Cratering and the Moon |
1 |
Meteorites |
1 |
Formation of the Solar System, part 1 |
2 |
Formation of the Solar System, part 2 |
1 |
Planetary geology - Earth |
2 |
Planetary geology - Mercury, Venus, Mars |
2 |
Atmosphere - Earth |
2 |
Atmosphere - Giant planets |
2 |
Icy satellites |
2 |
Rings |
1 |
Asteroids |
1 |
Comets |
1 |
Pluto and the Kuiper Belt |
2 |
Exoplanets |
1 |
Summary - Farewell lecture |
1 |
About the lecturer:
Dr. Jane Luu is an expert in planetary astronomy, and she has previously taught at Harvard University (USA) and Leiden University (the Netherlands). Together with Prof. David Jewitt, she discovered the Kuiper belt, leading to the demotion of Pluto. The discovery later won them the Kavli Prize and the Shaw Prize in 2012 and she is visiting the Department of Physics this fall semester on a Fulbright scholarship.