ASTR 1010 Syllabus

Astronomy of the Solar System

Dr. Cassandra Hall

University of Georgia, Spring 2023

Syllabus last updated: Thu 05 Jan 2022

Syllabus invalid for any other term than Spring 2023

Instructor Information 2
How to contact me 2
TA Information 2
Class Information and office hours 3
Prerequisites 3
How to succeed in this course 3
Study technique for this course 4
Course Objectives 5
Course materials and textbook 5
Assessment 6
Extra Credit 7
Grade scale 7
Academic Honesty 7
Late policy, missed exams, and extensions 8
Attendance policy 8
Lecture materials 8
Additional resources 8
COVID-19 9
Equality, diversity and inclusivity statement 9
Land acknowledgement 9
Course schedule (NB subject to change during course) 9

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Instructor Information

• Dr. Cassandra Hall

Assistant Professor of Computational Astrophysics
Department of Physics & Astronomy and Center for Simulational Physics
University of Georgia

• Most students call me Dr. Cass. You can call me Cass, Dr. Cass, Dr. Hall or Professor
Hall - whatever you feel comfortable with. Please do not call me Mrs/Ms/Miss Hall, these
are not prefixes I use. My pronouns are she/her.

How to contact me

• Email: [email protected]
• Here is an example email. If you need to contact me, follow this format so I can help you
as quickly as possible.

My email address

What class and what you need help with

Salutation

Who you are

Your query

About you - helps me know your

base knowledge
Chemistry major vs Spanish major
may need different help

TA Information

• TAs will grade most of your homework - for grading queries, please contact them.
• TA contact details:
• TBC

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Class Information and office hours

For the Spring 2022 term, class and office hours are both in the Physics Building. If you are
reading this syllabus in any other term, this may not be correct.

• Class : Room 202, Tuesday and Thursday: 08:00am - 09:15am.

• Office Hours: Room 207, Tuesday 09:15am - 10:15am, Thursday 02:50pm - 03:50 pm.

Prerequisites

Astronomy is a physical science. For all practical purposes, astronomy and astrophysics are
synonyms, this course covers astrophysics at an appropriate level for non-science majors. We
will discuss elements of mathematics, physics, and chemistry in this course, and you will
need to understand some challenging concepts such as conservation of mass and energy.
Although maths is kept to a minimum, you will need to be able to do the following four things,
which were taught in middle school and high school:

• Rearranging equations: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra-home/alg-basic-eq-

ineq/alg-old-school-equations/v/solving-for-a-variable
• Scientific notation: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/in-in-class-7th-math-cbse/
x939d838e80cf9307:exponents-and-powers/x939d838e80cf9307:large-numbers-in-standard-
form/v/scientific-notation-old

• Basic trigonometry:
• https://www.khanacademy.org/math/trigonometry/trigonometry-right-triangles#trig-
solve-for-a-side
• https://www.khanacademy.org/math/trigonometry/trigonometry-right-triangles#trig-
solve-for-an-angle

• Logarithms: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra2/x2ec2f6f830c9fb89:logs/
x2ec2f6f830c9fb89:log-intro/v/logarithms

How to succeed in this course

For any college-level course, you should study a minimum of 3 hours per 1 hour of class per
week. For ASTR1010, that means studying 7.5 hours a week in addition to the mandatory,
assessed homeworks.

Focus on understanding concepts and how to do things. In this course, I will ask you to apply
the knowledge you gain in class to questions/problems you have never seen before.
Don’t panic! You have all the information you need to do that when it happens.

Ask questions.

Engage in class - answer questions, discuss with your group, etc. If you are participating
virtually because of COVID, you can still ask questions.

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Study technique for this course

About 75% of this class tends to be Freshman, and about 90% of the class is a non-science
major. In general, to succeed in a STEM subject at college, you must do as many practice
questions as possible. Reading the slides and textbook alone is not enough, since this is
generally passive. You need to test and challenge your conceptual understanding to actively
learn.

Effectively studying for science, engineering and mathematics based courses may be
different to what you are use to. In subjects such as English, reading assigned texts may form the
bulk of a successful study guide (I do not know for sure, don’t quote me!).

1. Read through the lecture slides (20% of your study time)

2. Read through the textbook (20% of your study time)
3. Practice questions (60% of your study time)

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Course Objectives

1) Provide a basic knowledge of our Solar System. To do this, we need to put our Solar System
into context, so we will also learn about other Solar Systems, and where we fit in on a
galactic scale.
2) Understand the basics of the four fundamental forces of nature (gravity, electromagnetism,
strong nuclear and weak nuclear force).
3) Learn to think like a scientist.

AT THE END OF THE COURSE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING:

1. Distance scales - where the Earth fits compared to all the structure in the Universe.

2. The impact that the Earth’s motion has on where the stars, the solar system planets and
the Sun appear in the sky, and why we have seasons.

3. What the force of gravity does, how it acts, and Newton’s and Kepler’s laws.

4. How light from objects in the Universe such as stars and galaxies can tell us what
objects are made up of and how they move.

5. How telescopes work, the different kinds, and the main parts of telescope.

6. How stars and planets form.

7. How the solar system planets are all different, but have some similarities.

8. What the atmospheric composition is of all the solar system planets, how they are
different, and why they are different.

9. Why the Sun shines, and why it will not shine forever.

10. How we know the interior structure of the Earth.

11. What tectonic plates are, and how this is related to the magnetic field of the Earth.

12. How we search for planets around other stars.

13. What the planets around other stars are like.

14. Whether or not you think we are alone in the Universe, based on material in this course.

Course materials and textbook

•Scientific calculator (must have square root function, powers, logs, etc)

•Course textbook:

•21st Century Astronomy: The Solar System, 4th edition [Kay, Palen, Smith,
Blumenthal, 2013, ISBN 10: 0393918785 /ISBN 13: 9780393918786].

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 •Available used from places such as abebooks.com for around $5-$20. You are
welcome to use e-text versions of the 4th, 5th or 6th editions that exist on the
internet. You are also welcome to use 5th and 6th print editions. I have not chosen to
use these since they are much more expensive. You can use them if you want, they
cover the same material, but the page numbers will not match to what we use.

Assessment

You will be assess on both lecture and textbook content. The textbook sometimes covers
material that we don’t have time for in class, so it’s very important you do the suggested
readings, and ask questions if something doesn’t make sense.

Assessment for the Fall 2022 term is as follows:

• Nine homeworks, each worth 6% of your final grade. Work in groups of five or
less. If you don’t have a group by the second week of term, let the TAs know and
they can help you find one. Do not work together in larger groups - it is ineffective for
your learning You cannot work in larger groups, copying without working it out
yourself is not allowed, and collaboration outside of your group is also not permitted.
Any of this is a violation of UGA’s academic honesty policy, and is reported to the
honesty office. My policy is that everything is reported first time, no second chances.

• Each homework is done through the eLC https://uga.view.usg.edu/d2l/login

• Each homework focuses on the preceding 3-4 lectures, but can (and does) ask you
about anything covered in the course so far.

• Midterm (23%) : This is a pen and paper exam. You will need a scientific calculator.
5 pages of notes (10 sides) allowed. They can be handwritten, typed, or some

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 combination of the two. Any font size. No paper larger than US Letter/ A4. You can fit
as much on there as you want.

• Final (23%): This is a pen and paper exam. You will need a scientific calculator. 5
pages of notes (10 sides) allowed. They can be handwritten, typed, or some
combination of the two. Any font size. No paper larger than US Letter/ A4. You can fit
as much on there as you want.

Extra Credit

There is one way to earn extra credit in this course:

• Extra credit will be earned by participating in in-class activities, so you are strongly
encouraged to attend class.

Grade scale

• A is for a score of 90.00 or above,

•A- is for the range 87.00 – 89.99,
•B+ is for 84.00 – 86.99,
•B is for 80.00 – 83.99,
•B- is for 77.00 – 79.99,
•C+ is for 74.00 – 76.99,
•C is for 70.00 – 73.99,
•C- is for 60.00 – 69.99,
•D is for 50.00 – 59.99,
•and F is for any average below 50.00.

Academic Honesty

All students are expected to know, understand, and follow UGA’s academic honesty policy.
https://honesty.uga.edu/Academic-Honesty-Policy/

I have a zero-tolerance policy for academic dishonesty. All instances are reported and will result in
failure of the course.

You can work together on assessed homeworks in small groups of 5 or less. You cannot work
together in larger groups or as a whole class.

Here are some examples of dishonesty that will result in course failure and reporting to UGA:

• Using a phone at any point during the midterm or final.

• Requesting, receiving, or giving assistance on an assessed homework in a group chat
with people outside of your selected homework study group.
• Requesting, receiving, or giving assistance on an assessed homework to anyone
outside of your selected homework study group.
• Asking for assessed homework assistance in a group chat with more than 5 people.
• Being in a group chat where any of the above is happening.
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Late policy, missed exams, and extensions

Fairness and honesty are very important to me. Extensions are generally not granted, and late
work receives a zero. Extensions are granted if there is documented evidence of a genuine
reason beyond your control as to why work is late. This is to be fair to everyone else who did get
work in on time. Examples of accepted evidence included a doctor’s sick note, a police report, a
positive COVID test e.t.c. Fabricating a reason for requesting an extension is very bad form, is
often found out (I do follow up on evidence!) and a direct violation of UGA’s academic honesty
policy. All instances are reported to UGA’s academic honesty office, and you only get one
warning before it leaves a permanent mark on your transcript. So, please don’t do this.

If you have a genuine reason for requesting an extension, I will of course work with you and do
my best to help you, I care very deeply about your success in my class and am happy to try and
work out alternative arrangements where possible.

If you miss a midterm exam due to extenuating circumstances, evidence such as a doctor’s
note, police report, e.t.c. is required. Upon receipt, a later exam (such as the final) will then used
to count for that grade. There will be no make up exam.

If you miss the final, there will be no make up exam. You will be awarded an incomplete for the
course, and will sit the final next term as long as Dr. Cassandra Hall is teaching ASTR 1010 the
next term. It is the responsibility of the student to contact Dr. Hall to arrange this, Dr. Hall will not
arrange it automatically for the student.

Attendance policy

None. Whether you attend class or not, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed using
the ELC, the syllabus, and speaking to classmates.

Significant extra credit is earned randomly during class, so it is in your best interest to attend.

Lecture materials

All materials are on the ELC.

Additional resources

The ELC contains over 100 extra resources for ASTR1010. They are broken into “Chapter
quizzes” and “Learn by doing”, and you will find them in the “content” part of the course. These
are intended for self-directed study - please use them regularly and pick topics that are relevant
or that you are struggling with.

As you will note from the syllabus, each lecture we focus on one chapter. It is good practice at
the end of the lecture to go through the chapter quizzes and see if you are able to answer the
questions.

The ELC will tell you what you got wrong, and you can keep going until you get them all right.

If appropriate, there will be additional maths practice for each homework as well. These will be
called “Practice homeworks”, and will be short. For practice of conceptual questions for each

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assessed homework, please refer to “Chapter quizzes” and pick the relevant chapters for the
homework.

COVID-19

Don’t come to class if you are sick. I don’t take attendance, so rest up until you feel better and
use the ELC to get the class notes.

Equality, diversity and inclusivity statement

Everyone has the right to an inclusive, collegial, and encouraging work and study environment
regardless of their race, sex, social status, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion or
disability status. Any instances of discrimination, bullying or sexual harassment will be treated in
the strongest possible terms, including seeking prosecution where appropriate. Please let me know
your preferred pronouns. If you tell me and I get it wrong, call me out on it. Mine are she/her.

Science is supposed to be objective. In an ideal world, it would be. However, most of scientific
history has been written by the voice of the privileged. For centuries, women were barred from
higher education institutes. Black people were denied education at all. LGBT+ people faced
persecution and would lose their job if their orientation became known. Indigenous Americans were
forcibly removed from their land. As such, much of scientific history is white washed, straight
washed, and mostly written by men. Therefore, both covert and overt biases may exist, despite the
intended scientific objectivity of course material. I encourage students to let me know how either
my behaviour or this course may be improved in light of this information. We all have a
responsibility to be better, and to do better.

Land acknowledgement

I acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory and homelands of the following Indigenous
American peoples:

• Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East)

• S’atsoyaha (Yuchi)
• Mvskoke (Muscogee / Creek)

This land was not given freely. It remains unceded. I acknowledge that lives, languages, traditions,
religions and history were lost through acts of coercion and genocide by settlers. I stand in
solidarity with protectors of the land, and those who advocate for access to healthcare, land
rights, and education for indigenous Americans.

Course schedule (NB subject to change during course)

The course schedule will be altered if at any point the instructor deems it beneficial to your
learning. Note that lecture slides contain information that is not present in the textbook, and you
will be examined on both textbook and lecture content.

Items with a question mark(?) are approximate dates or have not been finalised yet. All topics
subject to change, attend the lecture to be sure of the material.

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Date Lecture Chapter Topic HW?
1 Ch.1 Why learn astronomy? Intro to distance. HW0 available.
Tue 10 Jan 2023
2 Ch. 2 The motion of the Earth
Thu 12 Jan 2023
3 Ch. 2 The motion of the Earth HW1 available.
Tue 17 Jan 2023
4 Ch. 3 The motion of astrophysical objects HW0 due.

Thu 19 Jan 2023

5 Ch. 3 The motion of astrophysical objects HW1 due.

Tue 24 Jan 2023

6 Ch. 4 Gravity and astrophysical orbits

Thu 26 Jan 2023

7 Ch. 4 Gravity and astrophysical orbits HW2 available.

Tue 31 Jan 2023

8 Ch. 5 The electromagnetic spectrum

Thu 02 Feb 2023

9 Ch. 5 The electromagnetic spectrum HW2 due.

Tue 07 Feb 2023

10 Ch. 6 Astronomical tools
Thu 09 Feb 2023
11 Ch. 6 Astronomical tools HW3 available.
Tue 14 Feb 2023
12 Ch. 7 Formation of planet systems
Thu 16 Feb 2023
13 Ch. 7 Formation of planet systems HW3 due.
Tue 21 Feb 2023
14 Ch. 8 Terrestrial planets and the moon
Thu 23 Feb 2023
15 Ch. 8 Terrestrial planets and the moon HW4 available.
Tue 28 Feb 2023
Midterm exam. 8am - 9am Physics
Thu 02 Mar 2023 Room 202
Tue 07 Mar 2023 Spring Break - No class
Thu 09 Mar 2023 Spring Break - No class
16 Ch. 9 Terrestrial planets atmosphere HW4 due.
Tue 14 Mar 2023
17 Ch. 9 Terrestrial planets atmosphere
Thu 16 Mar 2023
Tue 21 Mar 2023 18 Ch. 10 Giant planets HW5 available.
19 Ch. 10 Giant planets
Thu 23 Mar 2023
Tue 28 Mar 2023 20 Ch. 11 Moons and rings HW5 due.
21 Ch. 11 Moons and rings HW6 available.
Thu 30 Mar 2023
Tue 04 Apr 2023 22 Ch. 12 Dwarf planets

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 23 Ch. 12 Dwarf planets HW6 due.
Thu 06 Apr 2023
Tue 11 Apr 2023 25 Ch. 14 Our star
26 NA Exoplanets and their detection HW7 available.
Thu 13 Apr 2023
27 NA Exoplanets and their detection
Tue 18 Apr 2023
28 Ch. 24 Life in the universe HW8 available.
Thu 20 Apr 2023 HW7 due.
29 Ch 24 Life in the universe
Tue 25 Apr 2023
30 NA Is anyone out there? HW8 due.
Thu 27 Apr 2023
NO CLASS
Tue 02 May 2023
FINAL EXAM. 8am-11am Physics
Thu 04 May 2023 Room 202
Grades due 12 noon
Mon 15 May 2023

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