Thinking About Planet Earth

The Earth is an amazing blue planet because it has had large amounts of liquid water at its surface for at least the past 3,800 million years. Our planetary system is now known to be just one of many others related to some of the 200,000 million stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Discs of dust and volatiles around other stars, from which planetary systems have formed, have been imaged and analysed. Through provided readings of recent scientific articles, student research projects, seminars, and student-chaired discussion groups, participants in this course will explore selected topics such as observations of circumstellar disks, extra-solar planets, the Solar System, prospects for the discovery of life on other planets, the Universal Phylogenetic Tree (Tree of Life), human origins and where humans may be headed in the future.

Professors K. Tait and G. Srinivasan, Department of Geology

Section L0291