ASTRO 3301 - Exoplanets & Planetary Systems

(PBS-AS)

Spring. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisite: PHYS 1112 or PHYS 1116 and PHYS 2213 or PHYS 2217, MATH 1120, MATH 1220 or MATH 1920 or permission of instructor.

L. Kaltenegger, J. Lunine.

Hundreds of planets around other stars have been discovered over the past two decades, and many more discoveries are sure to come. How are these discoveries made and what are the properties of these exoplanets and their systems? How exotic can we expect exoplanets to be? Is our solar system a typical planetary system or something unusual? How common are planets like Earth? How might we determine whether exoplanets can host life, or do host life? These and other issues related to planetary formation and evolution will be discussed.