Physics of Solar System

Thursday 9:00-10:00, Bragg
Friday 9:00-10:00, Bragg

Albert Zijlstra (Alan Turing Building, 3.138)

Lecture notes, worked examples, Tutorial sheets, example exam papers, and supplementary material are available from this web page.

Lecture notes will be added a few days after the lecture.

recently added Lecture 12, solutions to Tutorial 2, Tutorial 3

notices



The Manchester astronomical society has public lectures of interest
[ Craters on Phobos ]

Topics


Lecture 1: Introduction. (See here for high resolution figures of abundances)
Lecture 2: Basic facts and observations; History; Tour of the Solar System
Lecture 3: Coordinate systems and time keeping
Lecture 4: Planetary motions; synodic and siderial periods

Supplementary information:
  • Tour of the Solar System : Slide show shown during the lecture
  • Inventory of the Solar System : images and basic information on each planet
  • "The nine planets": an out-of-date name but up-to-date information

    • Views of Distant Earth     		[ Earthrise ]
    2. A matter of gravity

    Lecture 4: Kepler's laws
    Lecture 5: Newton's law of gravity
    Lecture 6: binary motion; Properties of orbits; observational evidence
    Lecture 7: Gravitational potential; virial theorem
    Lecture 8:Tidal forces; Lunar and solar tidal force; height of the tides; Resonance
    Lecture 10: Tidal friction and tidal heating; Evolution of the Moon; Tidal forces in the solar system; Roche limit; The kamikaze comets
    Lecture 11: Orbits; Reduced mass; Energy and velocities
    Lecture 12: Hohman transfer orbits; Slingshots; Capture cross sections; Lagrangians points; Lisajous and horsehoe orbits
  • an animation of Our 'second Moon' Cruithne taken from its home page
    		• [ Forces on Io ]
    3. The Sun

    The Sun: basic data. Freefall time scale; Kelvin Helmholtz time scale. Hydrostatic equilibrium.
    Nuclear reactions; energy transport
    Surface of the Sun; Black body radiation; granulation, sunspots and mass ejections     		[ The Sun ]
    4. Planetary atmospheres

    Atmospheres: introduction. Albedo and optical depth.
    Temperatures. Scale height of the atmosphere. Escape: why the Moon has no atmosphere
    Composition. Reducing versus oxidizing atmospheres; Clouds on Earth and elsewhere
    		[ Ice clouds on Mars ]

    5. Planetary surfaces

    Impact craters
    Isotope dating
    		[ Craters on Mercury ]


    6. Planetary interiors

    Earthquakes and the liquid cores; Heat generation: formation energy, gravitational settling, radioactivity
    Heat generation; Composition of terrestrial planets and gas giants     		[ Mercury interior]

    7. Origin

    The formation of the solar system
    		[ Late heavy bombardment ]

    Worked examples

    1. Earth's radius; Coordinates
    2. Solar System travel
    2. Tidal stability of a hot Jupiter

    Tutorial sheets

    You will need the lists of physical constants. Parameters of the planets were given out during the first lecture: the hand-out is available on request during the lectures.

    Tutorial sheet 1 (handed out during Lecture 5) with short answers and full solutions
    Tutorial sheet 2 (handed out during Lecture 8) with short answers and full solutions
    Tutorial sheet 3 (handed out during Lecture 12) with short answers

    Recommended books


    For background, descriptive reading (but not required for the exam)
    Two other books give more physics, covering all of astrophysics.