ASTR220

Collisions in Space

Fall 2003

NOTICE TO VISITORS: Material on this website is Copyright © 2003 by Derek C. Richardson and must not be reproduced without my express permission.

What's New?

12/11: REMINDER: Final Exam Dec 15 at 8 am! 12/11: HW#4 solutions added. Final exam review sheet posted. 12/03: Class #25 notes added. Guest lecturer (Chris Reynolds) 12/09! 12/02: Class #24 notes added. 11/25: HW#3 solutions added. Quiz & solutions posted. Happy holidays! 11/24: Class #23 notes and homework #4 added. Outline tweaked one last time. 11/20: Class #22 notes added (no movies). 11/19: Outline tweaked. 11/19: Added new link (NASA Planetary Photojournal) -- check it out! 11/18: REMINDER: Quiz Nov 25! 11/18: Class #21 notes added. 11/12: Class #20 notes added. 11/11: Class #19 notes added.

Syllabus

The complete syllabus is available in HTML, PDF, or Postscript format. Some useful excerpts:

Lectures: Tuesday, Thursday 11h00-12h15, CSS 2400 Required Text: Powell, Night Comes to the Cretaceous (1998) Recommended Text: Bennett et al., The Cosmic Perspective (any edition) Professor: Dr. Derek C. Richardson Office: CSS 1249 Phone: 301-405-8786 E-mail: astr220@astro.umd.edu Office Hours: After class most days, by appointment, or drop by Teaching Assistant: Raquel Fraga-Encinas Office: CSS 0252 Phone: 301-405-1553 E-mail: astr220@astro.umd.edu Office Hours: TBA

Note: The syllabus documents are unchanged from the start of classes.
Check this page for any syllabus updates.

Course Outline

Click on the links (where available) for the lecture notes.
(Note movies are not included.)

Images in the notes were collected from a variety of internet and private sources,
including Freedman & Kaufmann, Universe, 6th Edition (2002).
THESE NOTES MAY NOT BE REDISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PERMISSION.

No. Date Lecture Reading #1 Sep. 2 Introduction to the course [ppt] #2 4 The structure and formation of the solar system [ppt] #3 9 Craters in the solar system [ppt] Preface & Prologue #4 11 The physics of collisions and crater formation [ppt] #5 16 The Earth's Moon [ppt] Chapters 1-3 -- 18 Cancelled: Hurricane Isabel! #6 23 The nature of modern impactors: Comets and asteroids [ppt] Chapters 4-7 #7 25 Two spectacular cases: SL9 and Tunguska [ppt] #8 30 Geological ages, life on Earth, and mass extinctions [ppt] #9 Oct. 2 The K-T impact (the Alvarez theory) [ppt] Chapters 8-10 #10 7 Other mass extinctions [ppt] #11 9 Nova episode ("The Doomsday Asteroid") and TLC excerpt ("Crater of Death") #12 14 Night Comes to the Cretaceous: In-class book discussion Chapters 11-13 #13 16 Future impacts and assessment of risk [ppt] #14 21 Pre-exam review -- 23 Midterm Exam #15 28 Introduction to stars: The Sun [ppt] #16 30 Other stars [ppt] #17 Nov. 4 Stellar evolution, Part I [ppt] #18 6 Stellar evolution, Part II [ppt] #19 11 The EM spectrum and the discovery of compact objects [ppt] #20 13 The Milky Way [ppt] #21 18 Other galaxies [ppt] #22 20 Galaxy collisions & galaxy formation [ppt] #23 25 The mass of galaxies and the need for dark matter [ppt] -- 27 Thanksgiving! #24 Dec. 2 Supermassive black holes [ppt] #25 4 Active galactic nuclei [ppt] #26 9 Wormholes and timewarps (guest lecture) #27 11 Discussion and class review

Final Exam: Monday, Dec. 15, 2003, 08h00-10h00, CSS 2400
(check here for the official version)

Homework

HW# Date Assignment Solutions Assigned Due 1 Sep 9 Sep 25 handout [doc] solns [doc] 2 Sep 25 Oct 9 handout [doc] solns [doc] 3 Nov 4 Nov 18 handout [doc] solns [doc] 4 Nov 25 Dec 9 handout [doc] solns [doc]

Remember: Homework must be readable, stapled, and signed.
Show all your work! Late homework will be penalized.

Old Exams

Date Review Exam Midterm 2003 HTML doc HTML doc Final 2003 HTML doc HTML doc

(solutions available by request)

Miscellaneous

Handouts given in class:

Handout #1 Physical properties of the planets [doc] Handout #2 Formation of the solar system [doc] Handout #3 Energy and impacts [doc] Handout #4 Proportionalities and ratios [doc]

Quizzes given in class:

Quiz #1 Quiz [doc]; solutions [doc] Quiz #2 Quiz [doc]; solutions [doc]

The Observatory Open House takes place in the evening on the 5th and 20th of every month.
Typically there is a popular lecture followed by viewing through the telescopes. Check it out!

Useful Links

The Geologic Time Scale Department of Astronomy Homepage University of Maryland Homepage Deep Impact (UMD space mission) Astronomy Picture of the Day Hubble Pictures (latest) NASA Planetary Photojournal What's Up? (from Sky & Telescope) Heavens Above! When is the Space Station visible? The Astronomy Workshop The Nine Planets Online astronomy course: The Solar System Online astronomy course: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology Bad Astronomy! Impact Hazards! Orbit Visualization Tool (NEO Program) Galaxy Crash Java Lab Xplns: A planetarium program for Linux Xephem: Another planetarium program for Linux KStars: Yet another planetarium program for Linux (KDE) OLD LINKS... 9/2: 2003 QQ47 potentially hazardous asteroid! (full story)