Astronomy 161 Introduction to Solar System Astronomy Prof. Paul Martini

Unit 5: Earth and Moon

Lecture 25: Age of the Earth [Feb 10] Section 7.4, Foundations 7.1

Lecture 26: Earth's Interior [Feb 11] Section 7.5-7.7

Lecture 27: Earth's Atmosphere [Feb 15] Section 8.3, Foundations 8.1

Lecture 28: The Moon [Feb 17] Section 7.3,7.4

Related Readings:

Readings from 21st Century Astronomy as noted above

Web links for Further Exploration in Unit 5

Interior of the Earth from the US Geological Survey

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released a Summary for Policymakers (PDF) with a synthesis of their results from 2007.

This website on the Origin of the Moon has a great movie that illustrates how the Moon probably formed. It was constructed from a high-resolution computer simulation.

The links to the lectures reproduce the electronic overheads shown in class for each of the lectures. In some cases they have additional text and links covering supplemental material or graphics. Online lecture notes are made available starting the week in which the lectures occur, but some notes may not be accessible until later in the week if I am having problems translating them into a web-accessible form.

Please feel free to print out copies of these lecture outlines in advance of class, so you can follow along with the lecture. Many students find this helps them listen without the pressure of taking down detailed notes of their own, but while still making additional notes in the margins to highlight particularly emphasized points.

See A Note about Graphics to learn why some of the graphics shown in the lectures are not reproduced with these notes.

Students looking to explore these topics further using the Internet might want to look at Prof. Richard Pogge's Selected Astronomical Internet Links for this unit.

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Updated: 2010 February 16
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