Discoveries in Planetary Science

  • Planetary science is a field that is still evolving rapidly, and it can take several years for new advances to work their way into college textbooks.
  • These slide sets seek to bridge this gap by providing content in the form of 3-slide presentations that can be incorporated into college lectures.
  • The slide sets are targeted at the Introductory Astronomy undergraduate level.
  • Each slide set consists of three slides:
    1. a description of the discovery
    2. a discussion of the underlying science
    3. a presentation of the big picture implications of the discovery
    A fourth slide includes links to associated press releases, images, and primary sources.
  • Topics will span all subdisciplines of planetary science.

Slide Sets

Released April 2010:
Venus May Have Active Volcanism (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
Buried Glaciers at Mars (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
A Sunlit Lake on Titan (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
One Moon (Phoebe) Coats its Neighbor (Iapetus) in Dust (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
Possible `Water World' at 40 Light Years (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
Released December 2009:
First Rocky Exoplanet Detected (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
Water Found on the Moon (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
Another Impact on Jupiter (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
An Ocean Below Enceladus' Icy Crust? (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
Asteroid Detected Before Impact (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
Will the World End Before Finals? (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
Released April 2009:
Mars Sulfur Cycle (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
The First Images of Exoplanets (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
Methane in the Martian Atmosphere (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
The Chaotic Early Solar System (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)
Volcanoes on Mercury (PowerPoint, 1 page, PDF)

Acknowledgments

This project is funded by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. Slide sets are created by David Brain (UC Berkeley) and Nick Schneider (University of Colorado at Boulder).

Many thanks to the following scientists who helped to review the slide sets before their release: Bill Bottke, Mark Bullock, Joe Burns, Shane Byrne, David Charbonneau, Tilmann Denk, Joe Dufek, Doug Duncan, David Grinspoon, Candy Hansen, Joe Harrington, Jim Head, Jack Holt, Brian Hynek, Dana Hurley, Bruce Jakosky, Peter Jenniskens, Jonathan Lunine, Tom McCollom, Alessandro Morbidelli, David Morrison, Glenn Orton, Didier Queloz, Sean Raymond, Sara Seager, Amy Simon-Miller, Sue Smrekar, John Spencer, Ellen Stofan, Dmitri Veras, Don Yeomans, and Jim Zimbelman.

Contact

For questions, comments, or to submit your discovery for consideration, please contact dpsdisc@aas.org.

Planetary scientists with recent or upcoming results of broad interest are encouraged to submit them for consideration by providing an initial draft using this PowerPoint Template.

238Pu: Write to your Congressperson

Lend your support to the restart of the production of Plutonium-238. You can find all the details, and an example letter here. It only takes a few minutes.

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Discoveries in Planetary Sciences

PowerPoint slide sets highlighting new advances for astronomy educators.

Fall DPS 2010

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Planetary Science Decadal Survey

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