Solar System B

[Zula2010]

[AstroClarinet]

Some more information about the event:

Topics

• 2021-2022: Planet formation and structure
• 2022-2023: Habitability

In the 2021-2022 season, the event will cover planet formation and structure. We’ll explore how objects in our Solar System formed, and how their formation processes affected their structures. We’ll have all sorts of objects, but there will be a slight emphasis on gaseous planets and the gaseous-rocky transition. For the 2022-2023 season, our plan is to shift our focus to habitability. Here, we’ll examine what it means for an object to be habitable, and the event will focus more on terrestrial planets and moons, like Mars and Europa, as well as a slight emphasis on astrobiology and astrochemistry. By organizing the event like this, I can ensure that we cover as broad of a range of objects as possible.

Inclusion of Extrasolar Systems/Planets
For the first time ever, this event will include a small amount of objects that are outside of our Solar System. It's a significant change, so I want to discuss some of the reasons behind it:

• We know Earth better than any planet in the Solar System, and we know our Solar System better than any extrasolar system in the universe. Closely studying objects in our Solar System helps us better understand planet formation and structure for all objects.
• Our Solar System only has eight planets, and these eight planets cannot completely describe the incredible diversity of planet types that exist in the universe. When we research planet formation and structure within the Solar System, we need to know that our theories are general enough to apply to all planets, not just the eight in our Solar System.
• Astronomical processes take a long time, so we need to study extrasolar systems to better understand the past, present, and future of our own Solar System. Imagine taking a photo of a thirteen-year-old person right now – based on that photo alone, it’d be impossible to learn about that person’s entire lifespan, right? When we study our Solar System, we’re essentially looking at a photo of how it is right now. By including extrasolar systems that are different ages than our own Solar System, we can look at numerous "snapshots" and begin to piece the whole story together.
• We want this event to better align with current research in the field. This way, students will be examining these topics in the same way that a researcher would, and if a student goes on to study planetary science in the future (say, at university), the information they learned in this event will be more useful.

Nevertheless, I want to stress that this event is first and foremost about our Solar System, and the inclusion of these extrasolar systems/objects is only to provide other "data points" to compare and contrast objects in our Solar System with. These objects will supplement the Solar System objects, and will not be a large part of the event.

What stuff is important in this event?
This stuff is important:

• Image analysis
• Identifying and interpreting features on objects
• Explaining trends and concepts in their own words
• Showing how objects in our Solar System fit into general theories of planet formation and structure

This stuff is not important:

• Trivia (e.g., names of random scientists, dates, locations, etc.)
• Complicated numerical calculations
• Needlessly specific values for objects’ physical characteristics

To summarize, focus on the science!

Resources
Online resources will be very important in this event, particularly for image interpretation and analysis, which will be the bulk of the event. After you have a solid foundation with the basics of the event, textbooks may become more useful. These are two that I recommend:

• Astrophysics of Planet Formation by Phillip J. Armitage (2020)
• Fundamental Planetary Science by Jack J. Lissauer (2019)

[megrimlockawesom]

This year it's gonna be tough considering that none of the existing Scioly resources are useful and it's all gonna have to be external research

[Zula2010]

This year it's gonna be tough considering that none of the existing Scioly resources are useful and it's all gonna have to be external research

Unofficial, but I would say that Astronomy (Division C) resources from 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 would be useful, as well as previous years of Solar System where objects like Triton, Iapetus, and Pluto were on the rules.

[megrimlockawesom]

is there a good source of images for exoplanets? I've been scouring the NASA image library for some of them and have come up empty handed

[Zula2010]

is there a good source of images for exoplanets? I've been scouring the NASA image library for some of them and have come up empty handed

I recommend looking through research papers. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu, https://arxiv.org, and https://scholar.google.com are some pretty good resources for that.

[Mich]

There are many different sources that provide information about the objects covered in this event. For example, two different sources may provide two different orbital eccentricities of Venus. Which one should I trust?

[Adi1008]

There are many different sources that provide information about the objects covered in this event. For example, two different sources may provide two different orbital eccentricities of Venus. Which one should I trust?

Typically, I'd say that sources from government agencies (like NASA or ESA) are probably the most "trustworthy". Even among these, there's some variation, so it may be useful to put down a range of values (e.g., 0.1 to 0.2) or an average.

At a deeper level, I don't think you should worry too much about minute details like this for an event like Solar System. Pieces of information like the specific value of the eccentricity of an orbit or the exact radius of a planet don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, and a good test will focus on the science of the event, not memorizing random numbers about objects. A good exam will test concepts at a deep level and force you to put everything together so that you can solve problems using your knowledge of physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, etc., even if you haven't explicitly seen something like that before.