Solar System Astronomy

3 units

Designed for the nonscience major, this course deals with the planets, their moons and rings, comets, meteorites and interplanetary dust particles. In order to understand both classical astronomy and the results obtained from modern telescopes and the space program, basic scientific ideas (including optics and the laws of motion) are reviewed first. There will also some discussion of astronomical history to show how we have arrived at our present ideas of the structure and evolution of the solar system.