4.1: A Planet by Any Other Name
Welcome, students, to a new year in Astronomy 401! I trust that you have rested your brains well over the holiday and that you are ready once again to explore the heavens. Last year we focused exclusively on planet Earth, but this year we will branch out further and…
4.2: Mercury
Are we all here? Good! We will start our imaginary tour of the solar system with Mercury. As we get close, I’ll project on the screen images of Mercury as seen by Mariner 10 and other Muggle space probes. Counting down: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, …
Seeing Venus from Earth
Oops! I must have miscalculated slightly, because our spaceship isn’t as near to Venus as I’d hoped. As we make the final approach, though, it gives me just enough time to share some fast facts about the planet often called Earth’s sister.
Named after the…
4.4: Mars - Visiting the Red Planet
You may have noticed that the area around the Astronomy Tower looks different from its usual appearance. I have charmed it to look like the surface of Mars. Imagine that we are all travelling in a spaceship and are finally reaching our destination - the Red Plan…
4.5 Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System
As I mentioned last week, we are taking a different route to Jupiter from the one that Muggle missions have taken. Instead of moving away from the Sun while passing Jupiter, we will be at aphelion in our orbit - that is, at the farthest distance …
Please gather round as we approach another planet on our journey through the Solar System. Here we are, close enough to Saturn that we can see it the way the Cassini orbiter did in 2008.
Saturn, pictured in natural colour approachingequinox, photographed byCassiniin July 2008; the dot in the bot…
Uranus
Contrary to the opinion of some Muggles and at least one well-known wizard, the name of the planet is usually pronounced with the accent on the first syllable (YOO-ruh-nus). It was named after the Greek god of the sky, the father of Cronus (whose Roman name is Saturn) and grandfather of Zeu…
4.8: Beyond Neptune
The Kuiper Belt
The Kuiper Belt
Source: here
Well, here we are at the Kuiper Belt, which you can now see. It was named after the astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who did research about objects beyond Pluto. The Kuiper belt is a ring centred on the Sun, extending from Neptune&rs…
Astronomy 401 is about the solar system. Lesson 1, which is a historical overview about how the planets were discovered and named, has been published. So has Lesson 2, which is about Mercury. So has Lesson 3, which is about Venus. So has Lesson 4, which is about Mars. So has Lesson 5, which is about Jupiter. So has Lesson 6, which is about Saturn. So has Lesson 7, which is about Uranus and Neptune. So has Lesson 8, which is about objects beyond Neptune.
Course Prerequisites:
- ASTR-301
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