PHYS 3510 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Percival Lowell, Friedrich Bessel, 51 Pegasi
Document Summary
Summary of topics to be covered during this course. Class discussion on strategies for finding extra-terrestrial. Searching for life on mars, europa, enceladus, titan, etc. Earth was long thought to be the only world . For thousands of years, the five naked-eye planets have been known. However, the nature of these apparently star-like objects was largely unknown until the advent of the telescope. In 1609, galileo showed that the moon is a world with mountains, valleys, craters, etc. He also speculated that the lunar maria might be oceans of water. Johannes kepler suggested that the moon had an atmosphere and inhabitants! The planet venus is the closest thing to an earth twin within our solar system. It is very similar in size to the. Earth, and only 28% closer to the sun. As recently as the 1950"s, scientists thought that venus likely had a tropical climate (warm and wet), making it conducive to life.
