AST 301: Cosmic Catastrophes (AKA Collisions)

Spring 2019

TuTh 1:00-2:20, Frey 309

Instructor: James Lattimer james.lattimer@stronybrook.edu
Office: ESS 449, office hours Tu, W, Th 2:30 - 3:30
Additional assistance by appointment.

Course URL is http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/lattimer/AST301/

Printable version of the syllabus
Lecture notes are posted here.
Grades will be posted on Blackboard.

Required texts:"Cosmic Catastrophes" by Wheeler, "Disturbing the Solar System" by Rubin and "Extreme Explosions: Supernovae, Hypernovae, Magnetars, and Other Unsual Cosmic Blasts" by Stevenson.
Some supplementary material (not required): "The Life and Death of Planet Earth" by Ward and Brownlee, "Rare Earth" by Ward and Brownlee, and "Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets" by Steel. Supplementary books and Stevenson's book (not needed until the last half of the course) were not ordered, but can easily be found on Amazon.com or other online booksellers. They are provided as assistance for homework problems and for class reports.
Prospectus: This course will focus on collisions that occur in the solar system, ranging from those in the early solar system, which affected planetary orbits and spins and also produced the Earth's moon, through the impactors, including meteorites, asteroids and comets, that threaten the Earth today. In addition, other catastrophic events occuring both in the solar system and in the rest of the universe that could affect life on Earth are explored. Within the solar system, besides impacts, these include solar activity, tectonic and volcanic activity, magnetic field reversals, ice ages, and human activity. The effects of climate change, and mankind's role in causing them, are discussed. External threats investigated include radiation and shocks from supernovae, explosions on neutron stars (magnetars), gamma-ray bursts, and mergers involving neutron stars. We will explore if these events could have affected the Earth in the past. Risk assessment is an important component of this course; should we try to prevent or mitigate climate change and impacts? The uneven and often irrational human response to various risks is an important aspect of this question, so will examine the relative risks posed by power generation by coal, oil and nuclear power, radiation, automobile accidents, and guns in order to place terrestrial and extra-terrestrial catastrophes in context.
Exams: There are no exams for this course.
Homeworks: There will be 10 homework assignments that will count for 40% of your final grade. There is a homework due every week except for the first week, weeks involving vacations, and weeks in which a report is due. Homeworks will be posted on Blackboard about one week before their due date. Completed homeworks must be submitted to Blackboard before the due date and time; multiple submissions are accepted if you want to revise your submission. Late homeworks are downgraded and will not be accepted later than 1 week following the due date. I am not opposed to persons working on homeworks together, especially for researching, but this must be limited to discussions and not writing. The submitted homeworks are to be your own creation and you must not plagiarize from one another or from your sources.
Reports: Three class reports will each count 20% of the total grade. The due dates for the reports are March 8, April 5 and May 3 and are to be submitted to Blackboard as PDF files. Late papers will be downgraded 1 letter grade for each week they are overdue. We may want to discuss your reports, so you may be expected to give a short oral summary of your report to the class during the two or three classes following the due date; I will assign these dates after you submit your report to Blackboard. These summary presentations should be about 15 minutes in length, and you can use the blackboard or present a power-point style presentation. It is easiest to prepare a few slides in PDF format which you should send me prior to your presentation so that my computer will be used to project them. Your paper grade will be based primarily, but not exclusively, on your written report.
Suggested topics for the first term papers are posted here, or you can propose to me alternate topics relevant to the lecture material for the first 4 weeks. Suggested topics for the second and third topics will be posted during weeks 4 and 7, respectively; again you my propose alternate topics relevant to the lecture material from weeks 5 - 8 and 9 - 14, respectively.
The suggested length for a report should be 8 - 12 double-spaced typed pages, not counting figures and tables, but this is not a hard and fast rule. They must be uploaded to Blackboard as PDF documents. I am happy to discuss your paper or look at an outline during office hours or other arranged times at your convenience. For each paper, it is expected that you should find appropriate sources. Books and magazine or newspaper articles are acceptable, as are internet web pages if you identify them and conclude they are providing reliable information. TV documentaries are not acceptable sources of information. You should not use biased, inaccurate or non-scientific sources (examples are Fox News, the Heritage Foundation, Breibart News, or the Bible) unless you are making a point and have a scientific source to compare with. Your report should not use the required or supplementary texts as primary references; this will lead to downgrading. Footnotes and detailed referencing are not required, but your paper must include a bibliography containing the sources from which material was taken. If you use figures or tables, you must identify their source. The papers will be graded on the basis of originality, effort, clarity, and relevance to the course. Book reports or rehashes of class notes or readings are not acceptable.
Plagiarism - Copying from currently or previously submitted papers or homeworks, copying directly from the WWW without attribution, or copying part of an article or book without reference will result in an "F" for the report or homework and a complaint will be filed with the student judiciary.

If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your ability to carry out assigned course work, contact the staff in the Disabled Student Services Office (DSS), 128 Educational Communications Center, 632-6748/9. DSS will review your concerns and determine with you what accommodations are necessary and DSS will advise me. All information and documentation of disability is confidential.
Stony Brook University expects students to maintain standards of personal integrity that are in harmony with the educational goals of the institution; to observe national, state, and local laws and University regulations; and to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of Judicial Affairs any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, and/or inhibits students' ability to learn.
Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Any suspected instance of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Academic Judiciary. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website.

The lecture schedule is approximate and the lectures will be updated as they are presented. We will not follow the textbooks rigorously in sequence, but I will announce the relevant chapters associated with each lecture.
LECTURE NOTES

Red = no class

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

January 2015

27 28 29 30 31 1 2

February 2015

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 1 2

March 2015

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

April 2015

31 1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 1 2 3 4

May 2015

5 6 7 8 9 10 11