Is there another Earth? Find out with this online course

By Anusha
Is there another Earth?

Princeton University is offering an online course called "Imagining Other Earths". This 12-week-long course will begin from February 3rd 2014 onwards.

 

About the Course:
Over the past two decades, astronomers have discovered over a thousand planets around nearby stars. Based on our current knowledge, it seems likely that there are millions of stars in the Galaxy that host Earth-sized planets in Earth-like orbits. What is the range of conditions for these planets to host life? In this course, students will engage with a wide range of concepts in astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology and physics with a focus on developing the background they will use need to think further about this profound question. You will explore the origin and evolution of life on Earth, particularly in extreme environments, the properties of planets and moons in our Solar System, the properties of stars and the newly discovered extrasolar planets.

Course assignments include two short papers describing proposed space missions to study nearby planets and to search for extrasolar planets and a final paper. In the final paper, students will have an opportunity to invent their own planetary system and describe it in terms of either the astronomy of how it was discovered, the properties of their planet and its host star, or the biology of life in the system. Papers will be circulated and evaluated by fellow students as part of the learning experience in the course; this will provide opportunities to develop students' abilities to think like a scientist by applying principles of scientific thinking, to learn new ideas from other students, and to creatively make new connections across different sciences and parts of the course.

David Spergel will be the course instructor.

The course will have a workload of 5-7 hours/ week.

It will be taught in English and the subtitles will be available in English.

For further details and to register click here

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