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, or by appointment.
Lecture 1 (7 Jan) - Introduction; Earth history.
Lecture 1 slides.
Required reading (paper in italics will be summarized at the start of the Tue 14 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 (9 Jan) - From Earth history to the circumstellar habitable zone.
Lecture 2 slides.
Required reading:
Sections 3.1-3.6 of Kasting & Catling Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 2003.
Lecture 3 (14 Jan) - 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.
Recommended review material:
Faint Young Sun, Controls on Atmospheric CO2, and Habitable Zone sections from Kasting 2019.
Optional reading:
Part of Langmuir and Broecker, chapter 16. Carbon isotopes essentials (only the optional-reading pages are included in the pdf).
Lecture 4 (16 Jan) - Volatile supply.
Lecture 4 slides.
Required reading:
Sections 4.4 from McSween et al chapter 4.
Sections 5.1-5.2 from McSween et al chapter 5.
Sections 1.1, 1.2, and all of section 3 from Meech and Raymond 2020.
Homework 1
Homework 1.
Lecture 5 (21 Jan) - Volatile delivery, continued.
Lecture 5 slides.
Required reading:
Section 7 from Morbidelli et al. 2012.
p. 251-257 from Langmuir_and_Broecker, chapter 9.
"Supply of Water on Earth" passages from Genda 2016.
Optional reading:
Marty et al. 2016.
Raymond et al. 2004.
Dauphas and Morbidelli 2014.
Paper for presenters.
Sections 1 and 2.1 from Zahnle and Catling 2017.
Lecture 6 (23 Jan) - Volatile loss, continued.
Lecture 6 slides.
Suggested reading, as an "on-ramp" to the required reading:
Catling and Zahnle 2009.
Required reading (paper in italics will be summarized by students):
The main text (not the appendices) from Lehmer et al. 2017.
Optional reading (topics addressed):
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 7 (28 Jan) - Volatile loss wrap-up.
Lecture 7 slides.
Optional reading from Lecture 7:
Watson et al. 1981.
Homework 2
Homework 2.
Lecture 8 (30 Jan) - Runaway greenhouse.
Lecture 8 slides.
Required reading:
Section 2 of Goldblatt and Watson 2012.
Pierrehumbert on the gray-gas runaway greenhouse.
Suggested reading:
Yang et al. 2013.
Hamano et al. 2013.
Lecture 9 (4 Feb) - Outer edges of the habitable zone.
Lecture 9 slides.
Lecture 10 (6 Feb) - 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.
Homework 3
Homework 3.
Homework 4
Homework 4.
Lecture 13 (18 Feb) - Long-term climate stability.
Lecture 13 slides.
Lecture 14 (20 Feb) - Biological feedbacks --> Mars.
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:
Planavsky 2014.
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.
Bowen et al. 2013 (sections 1-3 only).
West et al. 2005.
Edmond and Huh 2003.
Frieling et al. 2016.
Lecture 15 (21 May) - Climate stabilization on Early Mars.
Lecture 15 slides.
Required reading:
Hynek 2016.
Suggested reading:
Haberle et al. 2017.
Wordsworth 2016.
Grotzinger et al. Science 2014.
Homework 5
Homework 5.
Homework 6
Homework 6.
Later lectures.
Lecture 16 was a continuation of lecture 15.
Lecture 17 slides.
Lecture 18 slides.
Lecture 19 slides.
Selected chapters from McSween et al.'s "Planetary Geoscience" textbook (some will be assigned as reading during the course).
McSween et al. chapter 8. (sections 8.1, 8.3, 8.4, and 8.7)
McSween et al. chapter 1.
McSween et al. chapter 4.
McSween et al. chapter 5.
McSween et al. chapter 6.
McSween et al. chapter 9.
McSween et al. chapter 13.
McSween et al. chapter 14.
McSween et al. chapter 15.
McSween et al. chapter 16.
McSween et al. chapter 17.