Prof: Mike Brown
         158 S. Mudd
         mbrown@caltech.edu
         395-8423

Notes

• 1. The materials from which planets are formed (4/2)
• 2. Material behavior, high pressure physics (4/4)
• 3. Beyond the Fermi gas (4/7)
• 4. Phase transitions in rock and ice (4/9-11)
• 5. Thermal properties of materials (4/14)
• 6. Transport properties (4/21)
• 7. Generic planetary models (4/22)
• 8. The gravity field (4/23)
• 9. Gravity response theory (4/25)
• 10. Moments of inertia (4/??)
• 11. Heat (5/2)
• 12. Convection (5/5)
• 13. Thermal histories: terrestrial planets (5/7)
• 14. Thermal histories: icy & gas planets (5/8)
• 15. Differentiation: terrestrial planets (5/13)
• 16. Core formation (5/14)
• Unfortunately, we are not going to have time to cover planetary magnetism in detail, which is an extremely important process in planetary interiors. I encourage you to read Chapters 17 , 18 , and 19 .
• 20. Mercury and Venus (5/16)
• 21. Earth and Moon (5/19)
• 22. Mars (5/21)
• 23. Giant planets. Be sure to read the Guillot paper. (5/23)
• 24. Icy bodies. Be sure to read the Showman and Malhotra paper. (5/28)
• 25. Titan, Triton, and Pluto (5/30)
• Class presentations will be made during the exam week.

Homework

• Homework 1, due 4/10
• Homework 2, due 4/17 (ignore the due date printed on the problem set!)
• Homework 3, due 4/24 (ignore the due date printed on the problem set!)
• Homework 4, due 5/8 In addition, do the last problem from Homework 3
• Homework 5, due 5/15
• There are no more homeworks; you should be devoting your time to your class project.

Class Projects

You need to pick a topic for your class project by Friday the 18th of April. A wide range of suggestions is given here , or you are free to choose your own.