What makes a planet habitable?
GEOS 22060 / GEOS 32060 / ASTR 45900
Class: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30am-10:50am. Hinds 180.
Class handout (including homework policies, grading policy, e.t.c.).
Office hours: Thursdays, 11am-noon. Hinds 467.
Note that there will be no class on Thursday 4 April.
Lecture 1 (2 Apr) - Introduction; Earth history.
Lecture 1 slides.
Required reading (paper in italics will be summarized at the start of the Tue 10 lecture):
Sections 1-3 of Knoll et al. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 2016.
Optional reading:
Section 3 of Carter Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 1983.
Sections 1, 2.1, 3, and 6 of Olson et al. 2018.
National Research Council "Weird Life Report 2007".
Lecture 2 (5 Apr) - From Earth history to the circumstellar habitable zone.
Lecture 2 slides.
Required reading (paper in italics will be summarized at the start of the Tue 16 lecture):
Sections 3.1-3.6 of Kasting & Catling Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 2003.
Lecture 3 (11 April) - Atmospheric science essentials: greenhouse effect.
Lecture 3 slides.
Required reading:
Sections 1.1.1-1.1.2.2 and 1.1.2.6-1.1.2.6 of Catling and Kasting, chapter 1.
Sections 1-2 from Forget and Leconte 2014.
Optional reading:
Part of Langmuir and Broecker, chapter 16. Carbon isotopes essentials (only the optional-reading pages are included in the pdf).
Homework 1 issued (due in my mailbox in Hinds, 4pm Wed 19 April).
Lecture 4 (16 April) - Volatile delivery.
Lecture 4 slides.
Lecture 5 (18 April) - Volatile delivery, continued.
Lecture 5 slides.
Required reading (paper in italics will be summarized at the start of the Thu 25 lecture):
Section 7 from Morbidelli et al. 2012. (presenters should also assimilate the findings of the ROSETTA comet orbiter/lander as summarized in Marty et al. 2016 from the optional reading)
p. 251-257 from Langmuir_and_Broecker, chapter 9.
"Supply of Water on Earth" passages from Genda 2016.
Sections 1-2 from Forget and Leconte 2014.
Optional reading:
Marty et al. 2016.
Raymond et al. 2004.
Dauphas and Morbidelli 2014.
Homework 2 issued (due in my mailbox in Hinds, 4pm Wed 26 April).
Lecture 6 (17 Apr) - Volatile loss.
Lecture 6 slides.
Required reading (paper in italics will be summarized at the start of the Tue 30 lecture):
Introductory page, 5.2.-5.5, and 5.10.1-5.10.3 from Catling and Kasting ch. 5.
Sections 1 and 2.1 from Zahnle and Catling 2017.
Section 5 (but not 5.2.1 or 5.2.2) from Zahnle et al. 2007.
Suggested reading, as an "on-ramp" to the required reading:
Catling and Zahnle 2009.
Lecture 7 (19 Apr) - Volatile loss, continued.
Lecture 7 slides.
Required reading (paper in italics will be summarized by students):
The main text (not the appendices) from Lehmer et al. 2017.
Optional reading (uploaded in response to discussion in class):
Tu et al. 2015. (How active, in terms of XUV flux, are young Sun-like stars?).
Lichtenberg et al. 2019. (The Solar System gathered an unusually high dose of Al-26, a short-lived heat-producing radioactive element. What happens to planet formation around stars with a more typical dose of initial Al-26?).
Dong et al. 2018.(Effect of solar/stellar-wind erosion on planetary atmospheres).
Lecture 8 (30 Apr) - Runaway greenhouse.
Lecture 8 slides.
Required reading:
Section 2 of Goldblatt and Watson 2012.
Suggested reading:
Yang et al. 2013.
Hamano et al. 2013.
Pierrehumbert on the gray-gas runaway greenhouse.
Lecture 9 (2 May) - Runaway greenhouse wrap-up, Outer limits of the habitable zone.
Lecture 9 slides.
Required reading:
Sections 3.2-3.4 and section 6 of Pierrehumbert et al. 2011.
Optional reading:
Roe and Baker 2010.
Wordsworth and Pierrehumbert 2013.
Homework 3
Lecture 10 (7 May) - Long-term climate stability.
Lecture 10 slides.
Required reading:
Main text of Maher and Chamberlin 2014.
Optional reading:
Supplementary Information of Maher and Chamberlin 2014.
Maher 2010.
Caldeira and Kasting 1992.
Lecture 11 (9 May) - Long-term climate stability, continued.
Lecture 11 slides.
Required reading: None from this lecture.
Optional reading, to be presented Thursday 16 May:
Planavsky 2014.
Other optional reading:
Galy et al. 2015. A neat compilation of present-day terrestrial particulate organic matter deposition rates, plus informed speculation as the response of these rates to increased tectonic uplift.
Homework 4
Lecture 12 + make-up lecture (14 May) - Tests, extensions, and alternatives for long-term climate stability.
Lecture 12 + make-up lecture slides.
Required reading:
Bowen et al. 2013 (sections 1-3 only).
Optional reading:
West et al. 2005.
Edmond and Huh 2003.
Frieling et al. 2016.
Lecture 14 (16 May) - Nutrient supply.
Lecture 14 slides.
Required reading:
All of section 11.2.2 from Beerling and Butterfield chapter from Fundamentals of Geobiology.
Sections 2.3.2, 2.3.3, 2.4, and 2.7 from Falkowski chapter from Fundamentals of Geobiology.
Optional reading:
Rothman 2017.
Wallman and Aloisi 2012.
Optional reading to be presented on Thu 23:
Turbet et al. 2018.
Homework 5.
Lecture 15 (21 May) - Climate stabilization on Early Mars.
Lecture 15 slides.
Required reading:
Hynek 2016.
Suggested reading:
Haberle et al. 2017.
Optional reading based on discussion in lecture:
Wordsworth 2016.
Papers for student presenters:
Grotzinger et al. Science 2014.
Spencer and Nimmo 2014.
Lecture 16 (23 May) - Ice-covered oceans.
Lecture 16 slides.
Required reading: None for this lecture.
Optional Reading:
Spencer and Nimmo 2014 (will be presented by students).
Glein et al. accepted.
Lecture 17 (28 May) - Ice-covered oceans, continued.
Lecture 17 slides.
Required reading: None for this lecture.
Optional Reading:
Waite et al. 2017.
Supplementary to Waite et al. 2017. (the Supplementary is particularly nutritious for this paper).
Postberg et al. 2018.
Homework 6
Lecture 18 (30 May) - Ice-covered oceans, concluded.
Lecture 18 slides.
Required reading:
sections 15.1 and 15.3 of Catling and Kasting ch. 15.
Lecture 19 (4 June) - Exoplanet habitability.
Lecture 19 slides.
Required reading: None, read the required sub-chapters from Catling and Kasting from last lecture.
Review session (6 June).
Review Session.