ASTRO 3301 - Exoplanets & Planetary Systems

(PBS)

Fall. 3 credits.

Prerequisite:

PHYS 1112

PHYS 1116

and

or permission of instructor.

J. Veverka and D. Campbell.

This course addresses the question: “How Typical is the Solar System?” Hundreds of planets around other stars have been discovered during the past decade. How are these discoveries helping us understand how our Solar System and our planets formed and evolved? How representative is our Solar System of planetary systems in general? How exotic can we expect exoplanets to be? How common are planets like Earth? Besides Earth, what other potential repositories are there for life in our Solar System? These and other issues related to planetary formation and evolution will be discussed.