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Imagining Other Earths
课程
en
英语
160 时
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- 8 序列
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课程详情
教学大纲
- Week 1 - Introduction
This short lecture introduces the Professor, the basic outline of the course and its goals. - Week 1 - The Universe is Big!
One of the most striking features of the universe is its enormous size. The lecture discusses the structure of our Solar System, the new dwarf planets, and the distance to the nearest stars. The lecture then moves outwards to the scales of our galaxy and the ... - Week 2 - What is Life?
This lecture introduces different approaches to defining life, a necessary step if we are going to search for life. We then introduce the basic building blocks of biochemistry. One potential way of detecting life is through its byproducts like Methane. We disc... - Week 3 - Why is Mercury Hot?
This lecture uses energy balance to determine the effective temperature of planets. The lecture introduces the idea of temperature, black body spectrum and luminosity. We then calculate the location of the habitable zone, the range of distances where planets a... - Week 4 - Snowball Earth
Planet temperatures depend on the albedo of the planet (its reflectivity) and the transparency of its atmosphere. This lecture introduces the basic physics behind global warming, discusses how non-linear feedbacks can exacerbate its effects, and describes how ... - Week 5 - Planetary Atmospheres
This lecture begins by introducing the basic physics of gases, liquid and solids. The lecture then describes how the balance between gas pressure and gravity shapes the structure of planetary atmospheres. - Week 6 - Mercury and Venus
This lecture discusses some of the remarkable properties of the two innermost planets, Mercury and Venus. We discuss how Mercury, a very hot planet, can have ice at its poles. We describe its surprisingly strong magnetic field. We discuss the structure of Venu... - Week 7 - Mars
Mars may be the other planet in the Solar System that hosts life. This lecture introduces the basic properties of Mars, Mars’ atmosphere and its seasons. We discuss Martian exploration, the search for water and methane on Mars and potential signature of life. ... - Week 8 - The Moon
By studying the properties of the Moon, we learn not only about its history but about the formation history of the Earth. This lecture discusses the physics of craters and the tidal interactions between the Earth and the Moon. We then apply the physics of tide... - Week 9 - Small Bodies of the Solar System
This lecture begins by discussing comets and asteroids, remnants of the formation of our Solar System. We discuss how collisions of comets and asteroids with Earth have shaped its history. The lecture then discusses the moons of Jupiter and Saturn—these moons ... - Week 10 - Kepler’s Law and Search for Extrasolar Planets
This lecture shows how Kepler’s Law, the relation between a planet’s Period and the radius of its orbit, can be understood in terms of the physics of gravity. We then see how we can use observations of star’s motions (and Kepler’s Law) to detect extrasolar pla... - Week 11 - Kepler and Transits
Transits have been an important event for astronomy for over 400 years. This lecture describes the transit of Venus and how it was used to measure the size of our Solar System. This lecture then discusses how NASA’s Kepler mission observes planetary transits a... - Week 12 - Einstein and the Search for Planets
Einstein’s theory of General Relativity tells us that mass curves space and deflects light. Thus, observations of light deflection can tell us about the distribution of mass. Microlensing observations use this effect to detect planets around distant stars. We ... - Week 13 - Properties of Stars
Stars are remarkably simple objects: their mass and age determine the basic properties. This lecture discusses how we determine the distance and luminosity of stars and how this relates to the Star’s size and temperature. - Week 14 - Stellar Evolution
Like planets, the structure of stars are shaped by the balance between gravity and pressure. Nuclear fusion, the energy source at the star’s interior, converts Hydrogen to heavier elements. This lecture introduces these concepts and shows how nuclear burning d... - Week 15 - Quantum Mechanics and Fingerprinting Planets
This lecture introduces the Pauli exclusion principle, which requires that only one electron can be in any state. We use this principle to understand the properties of materials and the atomic lines seen in planetary and stellar structure. - Week 16 - Optics and Imaging Planets
This lecture introduces the basic of optics, explains how lenses and telescopes work, and then discusses the challenges of imaging planets around bright stars. - Week 17 - Formation of the Earth and the Origin of Water
This lecture discusses the physics of star and planet formation. Because of the conservation of angular momentum, collapsing gas clouds form disks that then fragment to eventually form planets. We observe a tremendous diversity of planetary systems which impli... - Week 18 - Biochemistry of Life
This lecture discusses the building blocks of life. We focus first on the importance of water as a medium for life and then discuss how amino acids are the building blocks of complex proteins. We then discuss the role of RNA and DNA in reproduction and protein... - Week 19 - Is Earth Special? Origin of Life
This lecture describes our efforts to understand the origin of life on Earth. While it is relatively easy to synthesize amino acids, we do not yet understand how this building blocks are assembled into complex cells. The lecture ends with an exploration of the... - Week 20 - Evolution of Life
The basic principles of evolution (selection, mutation, and heritability) do not depend on the details of biochemistry. Thus, we can expect evolutionary principles to apply in extrasolar life. We discuss the role of sex in evolution and discuss how we can use ... - Week 21 - Extremophiles
Extremophiles are life forms that flourish in extreme environments—regions of very high (or low) temperatures, acidities, and even intense radioactivity. The lecture describes some of these fascinating life forms including the bacterial mats of Yellowstone and... - Week 22 - Extinctions
There have been at least 5 mass extinctions in the Earth’s history. These extinctions were events that wiped out most of life on the planet and drove a large fraction of all life forms into extinction in a very short period of time. The most famous of these ex... - Week 23 - What makes a Habitable Planet?
This lecture discusses some of the requirements for habitability. We discuss the faint Sun problem—the ancient Sun was much colder yet the Earth was still habitable and discuss the range of planetary systems that might be able to host life. We conclude by desc... - Week 24 - Habitable Zone, Fermi Paradox & SETI
The final lecture discusses the search for technologically advanced life in the Galaxy. We describe the “Fermi Paradox”: if technologically advanced life is common, then it would have long ago spread through the Galaxy. Thus, we might have expected to have alr...
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讲师
David Spergel
Charles Young Professor of Astronomy on the Class of 1897 Foundation and Chair
Department of Astrophysics
编辑
普林斯顿大学（Princeton University），又称普林斯顿大学，是一所美国私立大学，位于美国新泽西州普林斯顿镇。它成立于 1746 年，是美国第四古老的高等教育机构。
在大多数国际排名中，该校都名列世界顶尖大学之列，享有极高的声誉1。它是常春藤联盟的成员，与哈佛大学和耶鲁大学有着历史性的竞争关系2。
该校曾培养出 65 位诺贝尔奖得主、15 位菲尔兹奖得主、21 位国家科学奖得主、11 位国家人文奖得主、3 位美国总统和 12 位美国最高法院大法官。
平台
Coursera是一家数字公司，提供由位于加利福尼亚州山景城的计算机教师Andrew Ng和达芙妮科勒斯坦福大学创建的大型开放式在线课程。
Coursera与顶尖大学和组织合作，在线提供一些课程，并提供许多科目的课程，包括：物理，工程，人文，医学，生物学，社会科学，数学，商业，计算机科学，数字营销，数据科学 和其他科目。
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