Astronomy 106 Aliens Class Schedule

All class listings are approximate as the schedule may shift.

Sep. 9 : Aliens Really? Historical perspective aliens in popular culture Fermis Paradox Sep 16 : The challenges of interstellar travel Scales of the Universe Rockets how do they work Practical considerations of interstellar travel Sep 23 : How do we know what is out there? Light what is it? Science in action : spectroscopy Sep 30 : Life - Basic Facts What is Life? What is it made of? What does life need to survive? What could aliens be like? composition, layout, habitat, future of humanity? Oct 7 : Where do the elements of life come from? Where do organic molecules form? Stellar evolution Content of clouds Planet formation Oct 14 : Development of life on the Earth Development of simple life Oct 21 : Development of life on the Earth Development of complex life Development of intelligence Mass extinctions Oct 28 : The Drake Equation A framework for thinking about extraterrestrial life Number of stars in the galaxy Properties of stars Habitable zone Nov 4 : What are planets like? Properties of planets in the solar system Mass, size, distance from star, composition Results from fly-bys / landers Comparative planetology Venus, Earth, Mars Nov 11 : Planets around other stars I. How do we find planets around other stars Doppler, transit, equations Nov 18 : Planets around other stars II. Results from planet searches Hot Jupiters, parameters, distance from stars, eccentricities, can a solar system survive the formation of a Hot Jupiter

Small worlds, Kepler results and an estimate of the number of planets per star with a planet in the Habitable Zone Dec 2 : Drake Equation Redux Group activity in class Class will split into a number of groups, define estimates for each part of the Drake equation and discuss what the result might mean Dec 9 : Exo-engineering, and communication with other civilizations How can planets remain in the Habitable Zone? Dyson spheres/swarms Colonization does it make sense? Communication with other civilizations How far have signals gone? How radio / optical? What should we say? Should we try to communicate?