ASTRO 3301 - [Exoplanets and Planetary Systems]

(PBS-AS, PHS-AS)

Spring. Not offered: 2023-2024. Next offered: 2024-2025. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisite: PHYS 1112 or PHYS 1116 and PHYS 2213 or PHYS 2217, MATH 1120, MATH 1910 or MATH 1920 or permission of instructor.

L. Kaltenegger.

More than five thousand planets circling other stars have been discovered over the past two decades, and many more discoveries are sure to come. With the recent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 2021) astronomers will be able to probe the atmosphere of potential Earth-like planets for the first time.

How are these discoveries made and what are the properties of these exoplanets and their systems? How exotic can exoplanets to be? Would you survive on them? Is our solar system a typical planetary system or something unusual? How common are planets like Earth? How can we determine whether exoplanets can host life, or do host life? These and other issues related to planetary formation and evolution will be discussed in the course.