Timing/Location: Tu/Thurs from 10:00 to 11:45 in E&MS D236 (and occasionally Friday 2-3:30 in D250)
Course Goals: To provide a quantitative, graduate-level investigation of the physical processes controlling the formation of planets and satellites in this (and other) solar systems.
Texts: Most of the course will consist of close reading of journal articles, but Lissauer and DePater Planetary Sciences (2nd ed.) will be used heavily, and some use may be made of Murray and Dermott Solar System Dynamics.
(Approximate) Course Outline
Week 1 (4 Jan): Overview, gravity & orbits. Notes.
- Excerpts from L&DP, Chapter 2
- A good overview, J.E. Chambers, Planet Formation, Treatise Geochem. Vol. 1, pp.461-475, 2005.
- Problem Set #1
Week 2 (11 Jan): Disks and migration. Notes.
- Lecture on Fri, 2-3:30 in D250 instead of Tuesday
- Order-of-magnitude scalings, in D.J. Stevenson, Formation and early evolution of the Earth, in Mantle convection, ed. W.R. Peltier, Gordon & Breach, pp. 817-873, 1989.
- An excellent one-page summary by A.P. Boss, Temperatures in protoplanetary disks, Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 26, 53-80, 1998.
- Section 4 of Hartmann et al., Ap. J. 495, 385-400, 1998 is useful.
- Problem Set #2
Week 3 (18 Jan): Condensation and chemistry. Notes
- Lecture on Fri, 2-3:30 in D250 instead of Tuesday
- P. Cassen, Models for the fractionation of moderately volatile elements in the solar nebula, Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 31, 793-806, 1996.
- Alexander et al. (2001) provide a good overview, and Drake & Righter (2002) are good on silicate bodies.
- Problem Set #3
Week 4 (25 Jan): Solid body accretion. Notes
- Chambers has an outstanding summary in a currently unpublished chapter.
- Problem Set #4
Week 5 (1 Feb): Obliquity and precession. Notes
- A useful set of powerpoint slides courtesy of Bruce Bills
Week 6 (8 Feb): Effects of impacts. Notes.
- Stevenson again is an excellent order-of-magnitude summary.
- Rubie et al. is lengthier but has useful introductory material.
- Problem Set #5
Week 7 (15 Feb): Clocks. Notes.
- Russell et al. provide a good discussion of both isotopic and astrophysical constraints.
- Kleine et al. tell you more than you can possibly want to know about the Hf-W system
- Problem Set#6
Week 8 (22 Feb): Gas giant accretion. Notes.
- Another Stevenson article provides an excellent discussion.
Week 9 (1 Mar): Satellite accretion
Week 10 (8 Mar): No lectures – LPSC