EENS 1410: Our Neighborhood in the Galaxy

We will explore the Solar System in this class. Lecture material will provide both overviews of the bodies in the planetary bodies and more detailed examination of fundamental geologic processes like volcanism, tectonism, and impact cratering. Our bias will be towards the rocky inner planets, but we will not leave asteroids or the outer Solar System out. An emphasis will be placed throughout on how observations of the Solar System are made, and in this context the class will also develop a visible light spectrometer so that we can understand the essential engineering, physics, and data associated with this fundamental observational technique.