UCD Geology

GEL 163

Spring Quarter 2008
Geology (GEL) 163
Planetary Geology and Geophysics

Assistant Professor Qing-zhu Yin
530-752-0934    yin@geology.ucdavis.edu
Physics/Geology 082A
Office Hours: Fridays 10-11 am in Physics/Geology 082A (basement)

 Course materials will be posted on the Geology course website:
http://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/~gel163
and is linked from my.ucdavis.edu)

Class Hours: MWF 9-10 am
Physics/Geology Building room 185


[ syllabus ] [ lecture notes ] [ supplementary reading ] [ problem sets ]

Overview: Solar System is our own backyard. It is a tiny speck in the vast Universe in which we are part of. But this is where we live. It is where life on Earth developed. And it gives us our only vantage point from which to view the rest of the Universe.

In an era of large number of extrasolar planets are discovered, the objects in our Solar System are close enough to allow us to see “close up” the splendor and diversity of the planets. This helps us to understand “what makes the Solar System tick”, and to gain insight into how other planetary systems must evolve all over the Universe.

 “Why is the Solar System the way it is?” To answer this fundamental question, we have to address more detailed questions such as: how were the planets made? why do they look so different? Do the planets have the same internal structures? Does their surface appearance change with time? The answers to these questions lie in the physical and chemical processes that act on the bodies within the Solar System.

This class will cover topics in planetary geology and geophysics; that is, the principles of physics and chemistry that shape the major and minor planetary bodies of the solar system in which we reside. 

The emphasis in this class is on understanding comparative planetary processes, and on understanding the observations that provide information about the structure and processes of the solar system.

The class will be structured around lectures supplemented by in-class discussion, and research projects (for graduate students). This will allow us to focus on key topics of interest that illustrate the overall principles of planetary geology and geophysics.


Textbook: An Introduction to the Solar System, by Neil McBride and Iain Gilmour (Cambridge University, 2003-2004, Paperback available) —Required ($65 for a new paperback)

Reference Book: The Planetary Scientist’s Companion, by Katharina Lodders and Bruce Fegley, Jr. (Oxford University Press, 1998) —Strongly recommended ($19.95 for new paper back)

Both available at the UC Davis Bookstore, about 10 copies left on the bookshelves right now.

Other reading: Some additional reading assignments will be placed on the web, as needed.


Grading:

There will be 5-6 problem sets, one midterm and a final exam. For graduate student, an extra term paper is required to meet the graduate studies requirement. For selection of topics for the term paper, please come to talk to me.


Guidelines:
Homework must be turned in on time!

NO EXCEPTIONS!


Tentative Schedule of Topics: (subject to change)
One theme per week, two lectures each week.

  Week  
Topic
 1
a. The big picture context for the origin and formation of the Solar System;
b. A tour of the Solar System
 2
The internal structure of the terrestrial planets
 3
Planetary volcanism - Ultima Thule?
 4
Planetary surface processes
 5
Atmospheres of terrestrial planets
 6
The giant planets
 7
Minor bodies of the Solar System
8
Meteorites: a record of formation
9
The origin of the Solar System
10
Review Period
11
Final

  Week  
Lecture Summary

1

March 31, 2008
Lecture 1: Introduction to the course.

  • A brief history of the Universe
  • Why the Solar System the way it is?
  • Physical and Chemical Processes that shape the Planetary Systems.
  • How many planets are out there?
  • Comparative Planetology: Planetary Diversity
  • Develop appreciation for and learn to be a good citizen and steward of the planet Earth!

April 2, 2008
Lecture 2: The big picture context for the origin and formation of the Solar System

    • Big Bang
    • 10^11 galaxies moving away from each other
    • 10^11 stars in each galaxy
    • Typical star formation region
    • Sphere of gas and dust: put a spin on it!
    • Protoplaneatry Disk (“Proplyd”)
    • Conservation of angular momentum: planets exist to protect the central star!)
    • Movies, more movies (animation-imagination vs. simulation-serious calculations)
    • Disk and bipolar output: theory and observations

April 4, 2008
Lecture 3:

  • Planetary News of the Week (Graphite Whiskers growth in bipolar output of the disk: Science magazine, April 4, 2008 issue).
  • Planet formation:
    Three stages for terrestrial planets:
    • 1.     Stage I: From dust to mountain sized boulder
      2.     Stage II: Runaway growth and Oligarchic growth, planetary embryos
      3.     Stage III: Giant impacts through merging planetary embryos
  • For gas giants: core accretion model vs. fragmentation/gravitational instability model (will come back to it in the Giant Planet Chapter)
  • Recycling in the Universe: Dying stars generate debris (new matters)>stored and collected in the interstellar medium (ISM)>processed and consumed by newly forming stars and planet>live finite life and die again (the bigger the star, the shorter its lifetime) >new enriched matters generated into ISM-> on and on…
  • Recycle the Universe > Multiverse?

2

April 7, 2008
Lecture 4:

  • A grand tour of the Solar System

April 9, 2008
Lecture 5:

  • A grand tour of the Solar System (continued)
  • Lecture 5 (Chapter 1 Summary)

April 11, 2008
Lecture 6: Internal Structure of Terrestrial Planets

  • Layered structure developed from early differentiation of the planet: magma ocean
  • Rock samples from the top 200 km
  • Detecting layered structure from seismology
  • Bulk and shear modulus, Vp and Vs, how do we know outer core is liquid?
  • Snell’s law
  • S-wave and P-wave shadow zones
  • Discontinuities

3

April 14, 2008
Lecture 7

  • Inner core’s super-rotation: due to anisotropy of inner core.
  • Two observables (Vp, Vs), three unknowns (K-bulk modulus, G (or mu)-shear modulus, and rho-density): add I (moment of inertia to describe the distribution of density of rotating body)
  • Moment of inertia factor C=I/MR^2 (for spherical body of a uniform density C=0.4)
  • C variations among planets and satellites. What does a small C imply (e.g Moon)? What about C value close to 0.4?

Supplementary reading (*required reading; **optional reading, recommended only)

  • *The contribution of seismology (handout in the class)
  • *The density within the Earth (handout in the class)
  • **Erskine Williamson, Extreme Conditions, and the Birth of Mineral Physics by Russell J. Hemley (Physics Today, April, 2006 pdf, posted on the class website)

April 16, 2008
Lecture 8: The internal structure of the terrestrial planets (3) — Chemistry of Planetary Interiors

  • Chemical Differentiation of the Planet
  • CI for bulk solar system and bulk planet composition
  • Cosmochemical classification of elements: refractory, main component, moderately volatile, and high volatile elements
  • Nebular Differentiation and Condensation Sequence
  • Geochemical classification of elements: lithophiles, siderophiles, chalcophiles, atmophiles/hydrophiles
  • Compatible and incompatible elements
  • Chemical Differentiation of the Planet
  • Geochemical spider diagram construction (Exercise 2.3, page 39)
  • Major elements, minor elements and trace elements
  • Partition coefficient: D=Csolid/Cmelt (D>1 compatible, D<1 Incompatible in solids)
  • Batch melting equation
  • Nucleus structure and binding energy
  • Isotopes and radioactive decay
  • Decay Energy
  • Heat sources from 26Al and 60Fe in the early solar system for minor bodies

April 18, 2008
Lecture 9

  • Adams-Williamson equation: a homogeneous self-compression model (derivation)
  • 80 years of efforts to correct for departure from the simple case:
    1. Temperature
    2. Compositional change
    3. Phase change
  • Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM)
  • Thermal evolution (10Ma) of small bodies (50km)
  • Radioactive heat for Earth history (238U, 235U, 40K, 232Th)
  • Earth’s heat budget
  • Heat transfer on Earth (and other planets): Conduction, Convection and Advection
  • Summary of Chapter 2

4

Problem Set #1 due date is Monday, April 28 in class.

April 21, 2008
Lecture 10: Planetary Volcanism – Ultima Thule?

  • Information from Planetary Volcanism
  • Volcanism and Plate Boundaries (on Earth)
  • Cryovolcanism and live example from Enceladus
  • Discussion Point 3.1 (p.86)
  • Decompression Melting
    • Solid state convection, rising plume, lithospheric thinning

(no additional heat is required to trigger the melting)

  • Hydration Melting
    • Subduction zone
    • Batch melting equation and source composition
    • Initiation of melting
    • Modification of magma composition: crystallization and assimilation
    • Significance of Komatiite: large degree melting in the early history of the Earth
    • Effusive and Explosive Volcanism, VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index)
    • Lava flow dynamics
    • Explosive volcanism and viscosity of magma, SiO2 content
    •  “Mushroom cloud” formation
    • Terminal Velocity
    • Factors affecting extraterrestrial volcanism:

                       i.     Gravity
                      ii.     Atmospheric Density
                     iii.     Surface and atmospheric temperature
                     iv.     Tectonic styles

    • Examples:
      • Carbonatite flow on Venus
      • Why Earth does not have Olympic Mons as Mars does
      • Io’s evolving surface (changes annually)
        • Surface heat flow: 30 times of Earth
        • Deposition of volcanic material at global rate of 1 cm/y

    April 23, 2008
    Lecture 11: Planetary Surface Processes (I)

    • Planetary News of the Week: Freehold Township, NJ meteorite fall
    • Viewing Impact Structure
    • NEAs (Near Earth Asteroids), PHA (Potentially Hazardous Asteroids)
    • Impact structure or volcanic origin?
    • Mass extinctions, impact and volcanic trap worldwide.
    • Chixculub structure, Yucatan, Mexico
    • Discussion point: if impact cratering is a ubiquitous process, why does the Earth show so lilt evidence of it
    • Erosion, volcanism, crustal deformation and destruction
    • Impact velocity: hypervelocity
    • Case about the Moon and Meteor crater
    • Gene Shoemaker (1960, 1963) and his arguments for impact origins of Meteor crater.
    • Impact Experiments
    • Nuclear tests and SPH code (smooth particle hydrodynamic code)
    • Computer Simulations
    • Impact stages:
      • Contact and Compression
      • Excavation, Modification
      • Central rebounds and concentric rings
    • Discussion point: why is the impact process so different from most other geological processes?
    • Additional effects of impacts:
      • Vacuum
      • Ejecta, Escape (planets throwing stones at each other)
      • Atmospheric heat up by reentering debris, global wildfire, acid rain

    April 25, 2008
    Lecture 12: Planetary Surface Processes (II)

    • Additional effects of impacts:
      • Tsunamis
    • Impact tracers
    • Roundness of impact craters
    • Experiments show that elliptical craters are formed only by nearly tangential hit (less than 10 degree).
    • Factors affecting crater morphology
      • Size and velocity of the impactor
      • Composition of impactor and target rock
      • The strength and porosity of the impactor
      • Angle of impact
      • The gravity of the target planet
    • Crater morphology

        1.     Microcrater
        2.     Simple Crater
        3.     Complex Crater (transition between 2 and 3 scales with planets gravity) Features include central rebound peaks, flat floor filled by impact melt, multi-terraced crater wall, continuous ejecta mantle, discontinuous ejecta apron, secondary craters and crater chains.
        4.     Elongate crater (low angle<10 degree)
        5.     Multi-ring basins (none observed on Earth)

    • Type of impactors
      • Asteroids and comets: velocity, source, composition, density, delivery mechanism
      • Cometary impactors from KBOs (TNOs) and Oort Cloud
      • Can outer planets experience asteroid impacts?
      • Oort cloud comet and close encounter with nearby stars
      • The ratio of asteroid to cometary impactors
    • Nature of targets (three examples)
      • Permafrost target on Mars
      • Viscous relaxation and planetary interiors (case from Venus and Europa)
      • Martian sand dunes and impact structure.

    5

    April 28, 2008
    Lecture 13: Planetary Surface Processes (III)

    • Latest from MESSENGER mission to Mercury: the “spider” Carolis Basin
    • Odd craters on Saturn’s Moon: Hyperion
    • Crater counts and relative vs. calibrated chronology
      1. Examples from the Moon
      2. How it applied to other planetary surfaces
    • Many complicating factors, still extremely useful tool in planetary exploration
    • Saturation
    • Higher impact flux for Mars.
    • Fluvial and Aeolian process on Mars
    • Lunar Cataclysm: building the case for a solar system wide phenomena
    • Evidence for Mars too?
    • Identification of impact events with Cr isotopes
    • Why element Ir and Cr so favorable?
    • Summary of Chapter 4

    April 30, 2008
    Lecture 14: Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets (I)

    • The concept of habitable zone
    • Origins of planetary atmosphere?
    • How do planets retain the atmosphere?
    • Escape velocity for Earth, and for the Solar System? Launch speed
    • Molecular speed and temperature
    • How gravity affects planetary atmospheres
    • Determining planetary atmospheric composition
      • Gas chromatography
      • Mass spectrometry
      • Spectroscopy

    May 2, 2008
    Lecture 15: Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets (II)

    • Black body radiation
    • Planck Function
    • Wien’s displacement law
      • Examples from the Sun, the Earth and Cosmic Microwave Background
    • Emission and Absorption
    • Quantum energy levels for atoms and molecules
    • Absorption of radiation by atmospheric gases
    • Vibrational frequency and electric dipole for heteronuclear diatomic molecules.
    • Composition of the atmospheres among terrestrial planets
    • Total inventory vs. the amount in the atmosphere: sources vs. sinks
    • Factors affecting the composition of the atmosphere
    • Oxidized/oxidizing atmosphere of terrestrial planets vs. reduced/reducing atmosphere of giant planets and satellites.
    • Concept of column mass
    • What we have controls over the Earth’s atmosphere, what we do not.
    • Atmospheric structure
    • The outer atmosphere
    • Temperature profile of Venus, Earth, and Mars compared

    6

    May 5, 2008
    Lecture 16: Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets (III)

    • Atmospheric pressure variations
    • Atmospheric motion
    • Adiabatic lapse rate for dry air and wet air
    • How a parcel of air rises
    • Temperature profile of Venus
    • Differential heating of planets
    • Hadley cell, conservation of angular momentum and trade wind
    • Slow and retrograde rotation of Venus and their effects on its trade wind
    • Earth and Venus compared
    • Seasonal condensation flow on Mars
    • Earth’s energy budget and transfer
    • Planetary Albedo
    • Solar luminosity and radiant flux
    • Solar constant, planetary insolation, and effective temperatures of planetary surfaces
    • How albedo affects the planetary surface temperature
    • The greenhouse effects
    • Runaway greenhouse for Venus
    • CO2 rise for Earth’s atmosphere

    May 7, 2008
    Lecture 17: Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets (IV)

    • Stratosphere and ozone layer
    • Ozone production and destruction: Chapman scheme
    • Ozone holes
    • Cloud formation
    • Venus and Mars compared
    • Saturation vapor pressure curve for water and CO2
    • Will CO2 condense on Mars? How about Earth?
    • Ionosphere and magnetosphere
    • IMF (interplanetary magnetic field) and solar wind
      • Moon (no magnetic field, no atmosphere)
      • Venus (no magnetic field, but thick ionosphere)
      • Mercury (no atmosphere but magnetic field)
      • Earth (has both magnetic field and ionosphere)
    • Aurora Borealis, Aurora Australis and Geomagnetic storms
    • Question 5.12: Transport of greenhouse gas to Mars

    The Giant Planets (I)

    • An extrasolar system with three Neptune-mass planets and an asteroid belt discovered in 2006
    • How atmosphere and interior of gaseous planets defined: 1bar above and below
    • The internal structure of giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
      • P, T range, phases and phase change boundaries, and Earth-mass ranges 

    May 9, 2008
    Midterm exam (close book)

    7

    May 12, 2008
    Lecture 18: The Giant Planets (II)

    • Basic data: mass, mass distribution, magnetic field, surface temperature
      • Strange magnetic field for Uranus and Neptune and their possible explanation
      • Basic requirement of generating planetary magnetic field:
        • Fluid
        • Electrically conducting
        • Motion
      • The medium:
        • Earth: molten iron in the outer core
        • Metallic hydrogen for Jupiter and Saturn
        • NH4+, H3O+ and OH- for Uranus and Neptune
    • Excess heat problems for Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune (but not Uranus)
      • Possible explanations and problem with He segregation model for Saturn
      • Jupiter’s observed heat flux vs. radiogenic heat flux: is radiogenic heat responsible for Jupiter’s excess heat?
    • Metallic bonding and metallic hydrogen
    • Phase change of H2 to metallic hydrogen is gradual, therefore the boundary between molecular H2 and metallic hydrogen is not expected to be sharp.
    • Atmospheric composition and structure
    • Data sources for composition
    • Model calculations: chemical equilibrium using solar composition under range of P, T conditions
    • Observed abundances and calculated abundances at different P, T conditions.
    • Clouds formation and drop in abundance of H2O, H2S, and NH3 for Jupiter and Saturn
    • CH4 abundance and cloud formation for Uranus and Neptune.
    • Where did all NH3, H2O gone on Uranus and Neptune?
    • Reduced nature of gaseous giants’ atmosphere

    May 14, 2008
    Lecture 19: The Giant Planets (III)

    • True color for Jupiter and strange molecules responsible for it
    • How winds in the gas giants defined: how the planetary rotation is determined
    • Winds speed variation for Jupiter and Saturn from polar region to equator
    • The causes for the banded features on Jupiter
    • Planetary News: (Nature, Feb. 22, 2007): Exoplanet HD209458b has silicate clouds
    • Great Red Spot on Jupiter: has been around at least 170-300 years; the feature is evolving
    • Great White Spot on Saturn: due to ammonia condensation when two streams of different velocity meet at Saturn’s equator (where the wind speed is highest: 500 m/s)
    • Uranus and Neptune’s negative wind speed at equator: more solar radiation at the polar region, convective cell starts at the polar region, hence the negative wind speed
    • Magnetic field of Jupiter: Io’s plasma torus (several million amps current!!)
    • Blue aurarae in Jupiter due to hydrogen (compared to red-green-purple from oxygen and nitrogen on Earth)
    • UV aurarae for Saturn
    • Magnetic field characteristics for Uranus and Neptune

    Lecture 19b: Minor bodies of the Solar System (I)

    • Kepler’s first law
      • Eccentricity
      • Conic sections and functions: governing equations and eccentricity variations
    • Kepler’s second law
    • Kepler’s third law
    • Orbital inclination: i
    • Orbital parameters: semi-major axis (a), eccentricity (e), and inclination (i)

    May 16, 2008
    Lecture 20: Minor bodies of the Solar System (II)

    • Total mass of asteroid belt: ~1/1000 of Earth mass
    • Asteroid belt in i vs. a plot: (notice the pronounced emptiness at 2.5 AU, other places
    • Kirkwood caps and orbital resonance
    • Gaps and their position in Saturn’s rings
    • Asteroid:
    • Orbits of NEAs (Near Earth Asteroids): PHAs (Potentially Hazardous Asteroids)
    • Cumulative number of asteroids vs. diameters: similarity with the crater records
    • Taxonomic classes of asteroids: S, C, M, E, their relative heliocentric distances and possible relationships with different meteorite classes
    • Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR): Gaspra, Ida, Eros, Mathilde and their density contrast, and porosity differences
    • Light curves of asteroids
    • Dawn’s mission to Vesta and Ceres
    • Rubble piles of Itokawa asteroid:
    • Orbital characteristics
    • Hayabusa’s sample return mission: have been there, done that, and now on the way home!? Bon Voyage!
    • What we have learned already about Itokawa
    • The layout of the solar system (mass wise)
    • Surface density of the solar system: Kuiper’s thought-experiment
    • Centaurs: stray from the outer solar system
    • 1992QB1: the first Kuiper Belt Object (other than Pluto and Charon)
      • Jane Luu (1963-

    8

    May 19, 2008
    Lecture 21: Minor bodies of the Solar System (III)

    • The Titius-Bode “Law”
      • Cases for its success (Ceres, Uranus)
      • Cases when it breaks down (Neptune, and Pluto)
    • Modified “Law” for satellites
      • No physical meaning
    • Tidal effects
    • Differential force equations: proportional to 1/r3, rather than 1/r2 for force
      • In Vector form
    • The shape of tidal bulge on Earth: football Earth
      • Why two tides per day
      • Spring tides and neap tides
    • The Earth-Moon dynamic system
      • Earth rotation slows down
      • Moon orbital speed moves up
      • Net torque, angular momentum transfer
      • What will be the ultimate configuration?
    • Earth-Moon Distance Evolution over time
    • Consequence of tidal interaction between Earth and Moon
    • Some interesting cases
      • Moon: 1 to 1 synchronous rotation
      • Two moons of Mars: Phobos and Deimos
      • Galilean moons of Jupiter, plus Amalthea inside Io
      • Most of Saturn’s moon
      • Pluto and Charon has reached the final stage of tidal evolution (mutual synchronous rotation)
      • Some binary stars
      • Communication satellites
    • Conseuqences of some odd behavior
      • Triton’s retrograd orbit and consequences
      • Phobos’ orbital period outruns Mars rotation
    • Tidal disruption and Roche limit
    • Saturn’s ring and Roche limit calculations
    • Io reached 1:1 synchronous rotation, why still tidal heating?
    • Satellite liberation: Kepler’s second law

    May 21, 2008
    Lecture 22: Minor bodies of the Solar System (IV)

    • Three distinct class of KBOs (Plutinos, Classical Objects and Scattered Disc Objects)
      • Earth mass KBOs, and 0.001 Earth mass Asteriods
    • Diverse reflectance spectra
    • Comets: components and its relation to the Sun’s position
    • Planetesimals:
      • Asteroids (rocky, inner solar system)
      • Comets (icy, outer solar system)
        • They are both leftovers from the planetary formation processes
    • Why comets are interesting objects in terms of the origins of the solar system?
    • Orbital characteristics of the comets: long- and short-period comets
      • inclination, eccentricity, prograde vs retrograde etc.
    • Replenish mechanism: KBOs->Centaurs->Short-period comets
    • Impact speed of comets with the Earth: prograde vs. retrograde comets
    • IDPs (Interplanetary Dust Particles)
      • Imagine if someone looks at our solar system from “other Earths out there”, what they will see?
    • Collection of IDPs: Satellites; High Altitude Aircraft; Polar Ice
    • Scientific Importance of IDPs
    • Classification of IDPs

    May 23, 2008
    Lecture 23: Minor bodies of the Solar System (V)

    • Stardust mission: mines of scientific data
    • Orbital evolution of particles in the solar system
    • Gravitational influence
    • Radiation pressure: in its nutshell, phonons got momentum, it exert pressure
      • Which direction is the radiation pressure pushing the small submicron particles?
      • Example of dust tails of comets
    • Poynting-Robertson Drag:
      • Angular momentum change and timescale for a Sunward spiral
    • Yarkovsky effect: (for 10cm-10 km sized bodies)
      • Possible utilities of Yarkovsky effects

    9

    May 28, 2008
    Lecture 24: The Origin of the Solar System (I)

    • Cycling of stellar materials
    • Laplace’s disc (nebula) theory
    • Angular momentum problem of the solar system
    • Bipolar diffusion: observations (many examples)
    • Typical star forming region
    • Learn to make numbers live: Earth mass = 3x10-6 of Solar Mass, Jupiter mass=0.001 Solar mass
    • Solar nebula disks similar to ours: observed examples
    • Nebular theory in its nutshell
    • Holes in the sky?
    • How big (massive) is a star-forming giant molecular cloud?
    • Jeans’ mass and fragmentation of molecular cloud
    • Collapse of molecular cloud and free fall time: derivation of density only dependence
      • Other forces that may assist or against the collapses
    • Why supernova trigger is likely?
    • T Tauri phase and stellar winds
    • When nuclear fusion start, stars ignite, the collapsing force is counter balanced
    • Key stages in solar system formations: 4 steps
    • Key stages in the terrestrial planet formation in the disc

    10

    June 2, 2008
    Lecture 25: The Origin of the Solar System (II)

    • Minimum mass solar nebula (MMSN) vs Massive Solar Nebular model
    • Viscous drag and angular momentum transfer:
      • mass inward, angular momentum outward
    • Condensation sequence for chemical elements
    • Volatile and refractory elements revisited
    • Coagulation of grains: fluffy dust or icy grains helps.
    • Timescale of coagulation progressively longer toward outer region
      • Three reasons:
        • Decrease in column mass (surface density)
        • Lower collision frequency in low density region
        • Flared disk in the outer region means it takes longer to settle to the mid-plane
    • Disk mass structure
    • Calculating icy+rocky vs. nebular mass ratio, and rocky/icy mass ratio
    • How water is incorporated into the terrestrial planet region?
    • T Tauri phase of the nebular disk evolution
    • From dust to planetesimals: not-so-well-understood (yet) processes
    • How to date the process with Mn-Cr chronometer?
    • Next step: from planetesimal to planets
    • Gravitational focusing
      • (Separate notes posted on the website)
      • Impact factor b
      • Gravitationally-enhanced cross-section for collision
      • Gravitational enhancement factor (gravitational focusing factor)
      • Safronov number
      • Particle-in-a-box problem
      • Timescale for orderly growth, when Safronov number is 1 (way too long)
      • Timescale for runaway growth: da/dt is proportional to a^2
      • Isolation mass, Hill’s radius
    • End product of stage II accretion: planetary embryos, Mars-sized body in the solar nebula
    • Final stages: gravitational few body problem (~20 or so Mars-sized bodies merges into Venus or Earth sized planets).
    • George Wetherill (1925-2006) and his growth model
    • Planetary growth in the inner Solar System
    • Final masses of planetary embryos

    June 4, 2008
    Lecture 26a: The Origin of the Solar System (III)

    • Core accretion model for giant planets (traditional or standard view)
    • Planetary Migration:
      • Three requirements for migration
        • Moving in and out of the KBOs
        • Observation of “hot Jupiters” in the region where there is not enough disk mass to form giant planets
        • Geochemical requirement for forming giant planets in cold outer region of the solar nebula
    • Migration in a nutchell (Neptune, Jupiter and minor body interactions)
    • Expansion plan for the solar system
    • Type I (no gap) (10^5  y timescale) and Type II (with gap) migration (10^6 y timescale) of the extrasolar system
    • Timetable of Solar System formation:
      • Terrestrial planets
      • Jupiter, Saturn
      • Uranus, Neptune
      • Disk gas
    • End products of planetary system with
      • massive disk
      • medium disk
      • light disk
    • Theoretical prediction vs. currently biased observation for extrasolar planets
    • Many Earth-like “habitable” planets should be out there (probability >10%)
    • Search is on-going/planned for the next 20 years (TPF, Darwin etc)
    • Painted picture of planetary beginning: swift and violent

    Lecture 26b: Meteorites: Records of Formation

    • Meteorite, Meteor, Meteroird
    • Finds, Falls, and Terrestrial Ages
      • Antarctic Expedition and its favorable conditions for meteorite recovery
      • Sahara Desert Expedition
      • More than doubling the entire recovery in human history
    • How meteorite is traced back to asteroid belts?
      • e.g. Neuschwanstein and Pribram
    • Fusion curst and ablation processes upon atmospheric entry
      • Fireball above stratosphere
      • Cosmic spherules
      • What happens to very small particles?
    • Meteorite Classes: iron, stony-iron, and stony meteorites and their respective proportions of meteorite classes: (5%, 1%, 90%)
    • Anatomy of Cosmic Sediments: CAIs, chondrules, and fine-grained matrix (containing organic matters, presolar grains, and waters)
    • What is chondrules? What is CAIs?
    • Compound chondrules
    • Ordinary chondrites,
    • Carbonaceous chondrites,
    • Enstatite chondrites
    • Achondrites (i.e. without chondrules, differentiated objects).
    • Origins of meteorites from rocky planetesimals (coming from different parts of interiors of its parent bodies)
    • Vesta connection with HEDs (basaltic achondrites)
    • REE pattern of Juvinas: magma ocean on Vesta?
    • Widmanstaetten pattern and slow, variable cooling rates for irons
    • Other inclusions in iron meteorites: phosphorous, sulfide, graphite and silicates
    • Current ongoing ET accretion rate: 10^8 kg per year
    • Meteorite classes and connection with asteroid types
    • Allende and Murchison: their significance in cosmochemistry
    • What is chondritic composition
    • Different classes of carbonaceous chondrites: CI, CM, CV, CR, CO, CK etc.
    • E-chondrites: contains mineral enstatite, hence the name reduced meteorites,
    • Ordinary chondrites: H (high Fe), L (low Fe, 5-10% metallic iron) and LL (very low Fe, <2% metallic iron)
    • X-wind model and its attempt to explain origins of CAIs, chondrules, and extinct radio-activities:
    • Testing X-wind models:
    • In favor: 10Be in the early solar system; CAI materials in comets (Stardust found it!)
    • Against: magnetic properties of chondrules and CAIs; Uniform single value of 26Al argue against irradiation origin of 26Al and other extinct radioactivities.
    • Organic matters in carbonaceous chondrite matrix materials: sugars and amino acids: building blocks for proteins and nucleic acids
    • ET delivery and triggering mechanism to origins of life
    • Heat sources for asteroids: all things considered and what is left as viable source?
    • Radioactive, radiogenic, stable isotopes: differences and conceptual overlaps
    • Chronology in the early solar system: sequence of events
    • Oxygen isotopes revisited:
    • Heterogeneities in the Galaxy
    • Heterogeneities in the presolar oxide grains recovered from meteorites
    • Heterogeneities in the solar system matters.

    Final Exam:

    June 9, Monday 6:00-8:00 p.m. Phys/Geol Room 185


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