Astronomy 9601A
Solar System and Planetary Astronomy
Fall 2011

This is a graduate course designed to introduce the student to the basics required to do research in planetary astronomy. Topics include planet formation, orbital and dynamical processes in the Solar System, isotopes and cosmochemistry, meteorites, asteroids and comets, planetary interiors and atmospheres as well as other Solar System processes such as impacts and tides.

Instructor:
Paul Wiegert
Room 238, Physics and Astronomy Building (PAB)
You can reach me via e-mail at pwiegert[at]uwo[dot]ca (replace the [at] and [dot] and put in the @ and . symbols) or by phone at 661-2111x81327. When contacting me by e-mail, please use your UWO e-mail account. Other accounts (such as hotmail and yahoo) are often tagged as spam and may not reach me.

Textbook The required textbook is "Planetary Sciences" Cambridge University Press 2010 (Second edition), by de Pater and Lissauer, available at the UWO Bookstore.

Lecture times : the course has 3 class hours per week.

Time and location: scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00-10:30am in PAB 232. The first meeting will be Thursday Sept 15 at 10am. This will be a short (0.5 hour) meeting to discuss the course outline and other details. The first actual class will be 0900-1030 Tuesday Sept 20.

Approximate course content (subject to revision!):
Week#TopicChapterDates [2011]
1Solar System Dynamics 2 week of Sep 19
2Planetary Atmospheres 4 week of Sep 26
3Planetary Surfaces 5 week of Oct 3
4Planetary Interiors 6 week of Oct 10
5Mid-term Exam (in class) - week of Oct 17
6 Meteorites8 week of Oct 24
7 In-class presentations - week of Oct 31
8Asteroids 9 week of Nov 7
9 Comets10 week of Nov 14
10Extrasolar Planets 12 week of Nov 21
11Planet formation 13 week of Nov 28
12Final exam - week of Dec 5

First class: The outline of the course and student topics will be discussed on this day.

Office Hours: My usual office hours are Mondays 3:30-4:30pm. You are welcome to drop by at this times. If this time is not convenient, you can also send me e-mail or talk to me after class if you would like to arrange a meeting.

Tests and exams: There will be one midterm test plus a final exam. Each midterm or exam will generally test all the material taught up to that point.

Assessment
a) Class Presentation & Review Paper (12.5+12.5=25%)
b) Assignments (four total) (25%)
c) Mid-Term Exam (20%)
d) Final (30%)
Please note: final course marks may need to be adjusted in order to conform to department policy.

Review paper (due 4:30pm Fri Dec 2 2011): This paper will be in the form of a literature review of a specific, focused topic taken from the course. Students can choose their topic; the review should be at least 2000 words (maximum 3000 words), double spaced, 12 point font. References, tables and figures are not included in the total word count. More details will be given in class.

Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing (such as footnotes or citations). The assignments should not include lengthy quotes from other authors even if properly referenced. Plagiarism or excessive quotation may result in a zero on the assignment. More information and a description of what plagiarism is can be found at www.plagiarism.org.

References should be in APA format, described here and here.

Class Presentations (week of Oct 31): This will consist of a 10-15 minute (max) presentation by the student related to their review paper topic. The presentation should clearly summarize the major results of the review, its implications and significance. The electronic presentation is also to be submitted. Marking for each presentation will be based on the following:

Assessment for the Class Presentation:

1. Content (35%)
Organization (0-20) ______
Relevance and logic of ideas presented (0-20)____
Comprehension and knowledge of field (0-30) ______

2. Presentation (25%)
Visual aids, legibility and clarity (0-20) ______
Diction (enunciation, volume, clarity) (0-20) ______
Effective use of allotted time (0-5) ______
General style, liveliness, stage presence (0-5) ______

3. Presentation Slides (40%)
Clarity (0-30) ________
Logic and relevance of figures/tables to talk (0-40) ________

Assignments: There will be four problem-solving assignments throughout the term. These will consist of problems at the end of the chapter and/or questions handed out in class.

Mid-term exam: The mid-term exam will consist of a closed-book examination at approximately the level of the term assignments. A formula sheet will be provided and two hours allotted for completion of the exam.

Course Policies

  • Missed assignments: Late assignments will receive a 10% deduction per 24 hours period (or fraction thereof) that they are late. Late assignments submitted during the weekend will be considered to have been submitted at 8am the following Monday.

  • Missed midterm test: Documentation must be provided to the instructor in order for you to receive permission to write a make-up. This process should be begun by your bringing the documentation to your student counselling office. If you miss the make-up, again documentation must be provided, and your mark will be pro-rated.

  • Missed final exam: Documentation must be provided to the academic counselors in your faculty in order for you to receive permission to write a make-up (usually scheduled the day following the end of the exam period: plan your travel accordingly!). If you miss the make-up, again documentation must be provided, and you will then write the exam at the next sitting of this course's final exam (typically one year later).

  • Illness or other serious circumstances: If you are unable to meet a course requirement due to illness or other serious circumstances, you must provide valid medical or other supporting documentation to the Dean's office as soon as possible and contact your instructor immediately. It is the student's responsibility to make alternative arrangements with their instructor once the accommodation has been approved and the instructor has been informed. In the event of a missed final exam, a "Recommendation of Special Examination" form must be obtained from the Dean's Office immediately. For further information please see the medical section of the Academic Handbook.
    A student requiring academic accommodation due to illness should use the Student Medical Certificate when visiting an off-campus medical facility or request a Record's Release Form (located in the Dean's Office) for visits to Student Health Services. The form can be found here.

  • Religious holidays: A student who, due to unavoidable conflicts with religious holidays which (a) require an absence from the University or (b) prohibit or require certain activities (i.e., activities that would make it impossible for the student to satisfy the academic requirements scheduled on the day(s) involved), is unable to write examinations and term tests on a Sabbath or Holy Day in a particular term shall give notice of this fact in writing to his or her Dean as early as possible but not later than November 15th for mid-year examinations and March 1st for final examinations, i.e., approximately two weeks after the posting of the mid-year and final examination schedule respectively. In the case of mid-term tests, such notification is to be given in writing to the instructor within 48 hours of the announcement of the date of the mid-term test. The instructor(s) in the case of mid-term tests and the dean in the case of mid-year and spring final examinations will arrange for special examination(s) to be written at another time. In the case of mid-year and spring final examinations, the accommodation must occur no later than one month after the end of the examination period involved. It is mandatory that students seeking accommodations under this policy give notification before the deadlines, and that the Faculty accommodate these requests. The list of approved dates is given in the UWO calendar.

    Academic misconduct

  • Cheating University policy states that cheating is a scholastic offence which can result in an academic penalty (which may include expulsion from the program). If you are caught cheating, there will be no second warning. Cheating includes having available any electronic devices other than a watch. You may not have a cell phone accessible during tests or exams, even to use it as a watch. Complete information on the University policies on academic offenses can be found in the Undergraduate section of this document.
    Computer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams may be subject to submission for similarity review by software that will check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that may indicate cheating.

  • Plagiarism Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing (such as footnotes or citations). Plagiarism is a major academic offence. For more details, see this document.
    All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for the detection of plagiarism. All papers submitted will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between The University of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com ( http://www.turnitin.com ).

  • Accessibility Statement Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 661-2111 x 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.

  • Other Advice for successful performance The class notes are provided on the web but do not necessarily include everything which might be tested. Some explanations given in class might not appear in the class notes but are testable material. To do well in this course, you must do the weekly readings from the textbook. Some of the midterm and exam questions will come from the textbook but will not have been addressed in class.
    Class notes:

    Class notes:

    (password protected)