Syllabus

Please check both this page and syllabus every week; they will keep being updated. In case some dates are in disagreement in different places on these pages, please notify the lecturer. Normally the syllabus takes precedence.
Urgent messages will be sent to you via Quercus, as well as comments on your submitted assignments. However Quercus does not provide updates. Only this page and the syllabus spell out all the rules & the conduct of this course. Please make a bookmark for this webpage.

General information

LEFT: The first known visitor from interstellar space known as 1I/2017 U1 (Oumuamua). 1I stands for 1st Interstellar. Discovered in 2017 by a military Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii at a distance of 0.22 AU from Earth, the object came from the direction of the constellation Lyra, cruising through interstellar space at 26.33 km/s. Its classification as a small comet vs. asteroid ejected from another planetary system has changed over time: c,a,c,neither.
RIGHT: A visitor from Oort Cloud has been spotted in March 2022 by Californian astronomers. The Green Comet or C/2022 E3 (ZTF) flew closest to us on 1 Feb 2023, at a safe distance of 0.28 AU. Green light was due to a complex interaction of UV sunlight with C₂ molecules it ejected (among others). This comet was initially classified as an asteroid, and may or may not become interstellar after this passage through the inner Solar System.

As indicated there, this course deals with the origin, structure and lives of planets, both in our solar and the other (extrasolar) planetary systems. In fact, we know many more of the latter kind, although not so intimately. Starting from basic physical principles and utilizing mathematics as a language, we will build a basic understanding of how planets form, function, and evolve. We will confront the presented theories with assorted observational facts, including some of the newest discoveries. Yet we put emphasis not on the observational but the theoretical and conceptual astrophysical aspects of such current issues as: mechanisms of formation of the solar and extrasolar planetary systems, physics of dusty circumstellar disks etc. At the end of the course, we will consider some basic astrobiology issues.

Course and textbook

"Fundamental Planetary Science: Physics, Chemistry and Habitability" by Jack J. Lissauer and Imke de Pater (2013, 2019). I will mention where to find the book in the tutorial.
Be careful not to confuse it with the book "Planetary Sciences" (by the same authors), which is a different, graduate-level, version of the book I mention in the section on other books.
You don't have to read the whole book. Several chapters might give you another angle on or another wording of issues than Lectures, but they are not required reading. Only Chapter 15 is obligatory, please read it.

There are some other books worth reading listed on a subpage. They are not obligatory but some you may find them interesting, and can be good choices for extra book reading (activity points, see next subsection).

Marking Scheme:

Grading is standard: minimum percentage marks for letter grades (for orientation only, since grades are reported as percentages)
A+ 90%, A 85%, A- 80%, B+ 77%, B 73%, B- 70%, C+ 67%, C 63%, C- 60%, D+ 57%, D 53%, D- 50%, F 49% or less.

*)- the activity points are awarded for participation in lectures and tutorials, and asking questions. Full points will be awarded for coming to office hour and sharing the knowledge gained from reading an optional book, if the level of the book is appropriate, subject concerns planetary systems, and I find that you understood the book. Examples of appropriate books are linked in the previous section. Email me the author and title of a book that is not on the list of recommended books, or show it in person. It will need to be approved (scope, level).

Email and TA contact

Preferably use mail.utoronto.ca service, avoid sending mail from gmail. UTSC mailer has problems with responding to gmail. Please mention your student number when discussing your personal questions or marks (the temporary results file only lists the last digits of your student number, not your name.) Do not send email or comments to me via Quercus (I rarely check things there, and it's impossible for me to reply.)

Homework problems

General info

Please remember to number the pages and sign all of them with your name and last 3 digits of student number, say, "...123". Write legibly; very messy homeworks cannot be graded. Please give enough details IN WORDS of the solution procedure. It's as important as the correct final answer. And don't forget to follow the guidelines on what a decent solution must contain (below) soch as physical units checks.

Everything you submit and the comments by the marking TA will be visible on Quercus. It will allow multiple submission of the files before deadline, so if you have corrections to your solution please post an updated file before the deadline (so it's not marked as late). You will be able to see and check a computational/calculational solution against a published one. This will make long explanations by the marker (TA) unnecessary, so don't expect very detailed comments on Quercus. Individual problems will have a nominal point value displayed, abd the TA will summarize your marks relative to these max scores. But the eventual "out of" or maximum score for a given task will be decided by the lecturer, and sometimes slightly re-adjusted toward the end of the course in your favor. Check the preliminary results file further down on this web page. The "out of" line gives the number of points yielding 100% mark for a given task.

What does full solution require

1. A sketch of the situation
2. Analytical part - manipulation of symbols to find the required relationships between quantities
3. Units checks
4. If units are ok (then & only then) substitute the constants and values, calculate the results
5. Decide whether results make sense (e.g., is the order of magnitude ok?)
6. Write up final version clearly, putting student # on 1st page. Explain in a few words what you're doing, don't just write equations.

Deadlines. Time: the beginning of first lecture (13:00).

🤔   Four problem sets

If there are misprints or anything else unclear about the problem set and/or access to it, please ask immediately and allow up to a day for an answer. It is too late to ask one day before the due date.
Set A1. Due Thu 30 Jan. . Formulation Prob. set 1, PDF . Solutions: cf. this PDF .
Set A2. Due Thu 13 Feb. Formulation: In this PDF . Use summary of facts on orbital motion from A1. Solutions: cf. this PDF.
Set A3. Due Thu 13 March. Problem formulation: In this PDF. Solutions of A3: this PDF
Set A4. Due Thu 27 March. Last set: this PDF. Solutions: this PDF

😞   Note on plagiarism

Lectures (pdf + animations)

Tutorials

Brief FAQ

Q: What is the format of the final exam?
A: Exactly the same as midterm, just longer. The level of difficulty is also the same. 2/3 of final are from the post-midterm material, 1/3 from pre-midterm material.

Q: Are exams open-book?
A: No they are not. Electronic devices except calculator are also prohibited.

Q: Are own notes allowed at exams?
A: YES, own handwritten (not photocopied) notes are allowed: 4 pages at midterm, 8 pages at the final. That's pages, not sheets! You decide if the notes are single-sided or double-sided, and what to write in them. (There is no need to copy tables of planetary data, since all the constants needed for the solution will be provided in the exam.) You retain the midterm notes, you can re-use them durin the final exam.

Q: Until when can I drop the course without academic penalty?
A: Until about 25 March or so, google the UTSC sessional dates listing.

Q: Is my presence at *all* lectures and tutorials required?
A: It isn't enforced or mandatory, but it IS VERY helpful to attend both the lectures and the tutorials. Since the lectures DO NOT follow literally any books, except for sometimes quoting the assorted fragments of our textbook 1 (book no.1 above), your advantages are many: (i) the points for participation (see Marking section), (ii) you get information beyond what's in the textbook and posted materials, some of which may be *very* valuable at test/exam. I strongly encourage and expect you to engage and take own notes (I do write some things on the blackboard or whiteboard). For example, most of the (exo)planetary system theory is not yet found in any undergraduate textbooks, so hearing it presented in our meetings will be helpful. We will be discussing solutions to home assignments and solving new problems during the tutorials.

Q: Will there be recordings of lectures made available and can't I just use them instead of coming to in-person meetings (lectures, tutorials)?
A: Recordings of 2022/2023 lectures will be posted in Media Gallery on Quercus. There were occasional glitches when the session was not recorded at full length. The course is in-person, so you should not primarily rely on recordings but attend all the lectures. You will also have the current PDF lecture notes below. Re-download them every week, since a samll part of each file is normally updated or expanded shortly before and sometimes after the lecture.

Q: I have a schedule conflict with another course. Can I skip all the lectures (or all tutorials)?
A: If you have a scheduling conflict, a fair advice would be: preferably drop the other course, or if need be, this course. If you cannot follow this advice, you'll have to rely on recordings, which are not guaranteed to be full and of high quality, especially of the tutorials, which are impossible to record well. Having said that, some classrooms from 2025 will have better cameras in the back of the room, which should do a decent recording semi-automatically. We'll see if this miracle occurs or not.

Q: Is this page going to be always visible or should I download things I need from it to my computer?
A: It did happen once that the 'planets' server became unreachable 2 days before the exam. The networking problem was solved in the last minute, but put a lot of stress on those who did not download the preperatory material ahead of time. Set up a directory on your computer and download or refresh lecture notes and other files you may need (syllabus etc.) need every week, e.g. during the lecture.

Midterm exam - general info & preparation

Everything that was in the lectures and tutorials (and assignments) up to day 6 can be the subject of midterm exam, so study the notes up to and including L10 and days 1-6 of recordings, including tutorials.

Midterm Quiz will be testing notions and facts discussed in Lectures. The texbook can provide additional clarifications but is not required for the midterm. (This may not be the case in the final exam, so don't throw the Lissauer/de Pater book away!)

Own handwritten notes and calculators will be allowed at midterm. Nothing else is allowed, no electronic devices during the exam. Quiz usually takes about 20 min. You decide what to do first, quiz or written part. But remember that they carry approximately the same weight, so probably doing Quiz first makes more sense.

A training set of quiz questions is provided below. This version has about 50% of answers provided. Not sure if the scope exatly covers all lectures up to the SPH simulation of star cluster formation in L10 (the required material are all lectures up to this point). PDF.
Next I provide a set of sample written problems . Just like the Quiz, to prepare well for the exam, please solve the unsolved items with or without the lecture notes and texbook in hand. Problems without solutions . And here is the set of the problems with most answers or hints provided, but you should use it after you find your own solutions: problems-with-solutions .

Remember that a fully solved problem (in exam or assignment) may require all 6 points listed earlier in the section on homeworks.

Midterm on 27 Feb 2025 (16:00-17:00)

Instructions and preparation for the final exam on ?? April

For the quiz, review the files of lecture notes, your own notes, and/or recordings of lectures. As for the Lissauer+DePater textbook, please only read chapter 15. Read it thoroughly.
Sample quiz questions, many solved, is before the exam in this PDF file. For credit, remember to circle incorrect word(s) in case you choose N as answer. No attempt to cover all the lectures equally is made in this file.

As far as the written problems are concerned, please also remember to check the preparatory material for the midterm and all the posted homeworks & their solutions. I'm not including those things in the problems below, although I have covered most of the course material in preparation file for the Quiz.
The problems WITHOUT solutions, PDF file . The problems WITH solutions, PDF file .

Final exam 2025

Sample of Ostlie & Carroll

Your points

Interesting links

• 1. The Green Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) has a disconnection event in its ion tail in 2023. link
• 2. Solar Views = multimedia including some movies, link
• 3. The extrasolar planets Wiki, link
• 4. The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia, link
• 5. Theory of Planetary Systems group at Stockholm, link
• 6. Giant Planets Orbiting Faraway Stars - an article by Geof Marcy and paul Butler, link
• 7. Have Aliens Found Us? Article in New Yorker. link
• 8. The first planet discovered around a normal sun-like star. link
• 9. A leading astronomical article/abstract database ADS from Harvard, link
• 10. Solar System Orery, link
• 11. Webb Space Telescope site
• 12. STScI Digital Sky Survey search form. Input ANY object's designation to get coordinates and .GIF picture, link
• 13. Migration Type III. Multimedia presentation by P. Artymowicz, link
• 14. KITP/UCSB 2004 conference on Planet Formation (abstracts, streaming audio & video) link
• 15. The new controversial definition of a planet, link
• 16. Upper mass limit for stars upheld!, link ...or maybe at 140 solar masses
• 17. First image of a planet around a sun-like star: link
• 18. First image of three planets around HR 8799 (also on wiki)
• 19. A bizzare sprinkler object: a dying star LL Pegasi in the constellation of a winged horse link (also here) .
• 20. A remarkably rich planetary system around HD 10180: 6+ superearths with no known giants link1, link2
• 21. Young stars with planet-forming disks in Orion link1, and listen to some theoretical concepts in link2,
• 22. Artist's impression of exoplanet HD209458b
• 23. Where did the Earth's atmosphere come from?
• 24. Where did the Earth's oceans come from? From degassing of meteorites? Or maybe from comets like Hartley 2 ?
• 25. Water around TW Hydrae
• 26. Kuiper belt and the solar system research. link
• 27. A big comet (probably 18 km equiv. diameter) from Oort cloud: C/2017 K2 PanSTARRS
• 28. Trappist-1 system - seven terrestrial-class planets around nearby star wiki page
• 29. AB Aur b imaged(?). A young star AB Aur (1...3 Myr age) may have a planet that formed far out in the disk
  from the disk breakup. The only 'proof' for now is the motion of a warm blob in the disk announced on 4 April 2022, though. See wiki page about the huge uncertainty of the mass of the planet!
• 30. First interstellar comet 2I Borisov was shedding nickel as it zipped between orbits of Mars and Jupiter in 2020. Link
• 31. Comet 2I/Borisov (originally designated C/2019 Q4 Borisov), an interstellar guest to our solar system. It had a clearly hyperbolic orbit (e = 3.3570)!