astronomy

On habitability

• what makes a planet habitable or, which earth traits should we steal
  • star traits
  • planet traits
    • lotta water
    • plate tectonics and supercontinent cycle
    • axial tilt and seasonal variation
  • moons?

The universe

• where did stuff come from?
  • big bang, primordial nucleosynthesis and recombination
• what existed in the early universe?
• processes of collapse and accretion
  • formation of the first stars
  • population and other forms of nucleosynthesis
• the large scale structure of the universe
• what is present in the universe today?
  • stars > stellar clusters > galaxy > clusters > superclusters > filaments > voids
  • stars < planets and other simple bodies
  • intergalactic/interstellar/interplanetary medium, cosmic dust, nebulae

Where do we get the elements?

• nucleosynthesis
  • supernova
  • neutron star
  • black hole
  • cosmic ray spallation

Stars

formation, evolution, life cycle

Planetary systems

what kind of stars support planets

planetary disks

how it probably went on earth

what kinds of bodies exist in a system

• definition of a planet
• types of planets
• satellites
• asteroids
• comets
• belts, clouds
• moons

Orbital mechanics

Building

Star

• stellar class -> mass, radius, luminosity, effective temperature
• main sequence lifetime
• surface flux, radiant flux at 10 parsecs
• bolometric magnitude, absolute & apparent + bolometric correction; angular diameter

System parameters

• the ice/snow/frost line
• equivalent earth irradiance
• Kopparapu et al studies on greenhouse limits

Planet

mass caps

• 2.0 ± 0.7 (chen & kipping 2016)
• 2.0 (zeng et al 2016)

radius caps

• 1.48 +0.08 -0.04 (rogers 2015)
• 1.23 +0.44 -0.22 (chen & kipping 2016)
• 1.5 (lopez & fortney 2014)

• 1.2 (simpson 2016)

• gravity, density

• escape velocity

• orbital radius, eccentricity, apses, etc
• orbital period, tropical year

• sidereal day, solar/synodic day

• other orbital characteristics

• axial tilt/obliquity; variation, precession
• radiant flux or solar irradiance, equilibrium temperature, mean global surface temperature
• albedo
• distance to horizon

Moons

• how massive should your moon system be
• radius, composition, mass, gravity, density
• roche limit, hill sphere
• orbital radius & period; synodic period
• angular diameter, apparent magnitudes
• tidal forces

The rest of the system

• etc
• resonances & titius-bode law
• colouration

put star chart generator in technology > astronomy section

Sources

• Bradley W. Carroll & Dale A. Ostlie, An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, 2nd edition. Pearson, 2014.
  • Bradley W. Carroll & Dale A. Ostlie, “The Celestial Sphere” in An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, 2nd edition. Pearson, 2014.
• Eric Chaisson & Steve McMillan, Astronomy: A Beginner’s Guide, 8th edition. Pearson, 2017.
• Pankaj Jain, An Introduction to Astronomy and Astrophysics. CRC Press, 2015.
• Hannu Karttunen, Pekka Kröger, Heikki Oja, Markku Poutanen, & Karl J. Donner, Fundamental Astronomy, 5th edition. Springer: 2007.
• Ian Morison, Introduction to Astronomy and Cosmology. Wiley, 2008.
• Michael A. Seeds & Dana E. Backman, Foundations of Astronomy, 11th edition. Brooks/Cole, 2011.