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Astronomy 2e

For Further Exploration

Astronomy 2eFor Further Exploration

Note: Resources about exoplanets exoplanets (planets that orbit other stars) can be found in The Birth of Stars and the Discovery of Planets outside the Solar System.

Articles

Meteors and Meteorites

Alper, J. “It Came from Outer Space.” Astronomy (November 2002): 36. On the analysis of organic materials in meteorites.

Beatty, J. “Catch a Fallen Star.” Sky & Telescope (August 2009): 22. On the recovery of meteorites from an impact that was seen in the sky.

Durda, D. “The Chelyabinsk Super-Meteor.” Sky & Telescope (June 2013): 24. A nice summary, with photos and eyewitness reporting.

Garcia, R., & Notkin, G. “Touching the Stars without Leaving Home.” Sky & Telescope (October 2008): 32. Hunting and collecting meteorites.

Kinsman, T. “Micrometeorite Hunter.” Sky & Telescope (February 2020): 14. On collecting and identifying magnetic micrometeorites.

Kring, D. “Unlocking the Solar System’s Past.” Astronomy (August 2006): 32. Part of a special issue devoted to meteorites.

Loomis, I. “Excavating Cosmic Fossils.” Astronomy (August 2020): 28. On studying micrometeorites and what they can tell us.

Rao, J. “A New Meteor Shower.” Sky & Telescope (May 2022): 34. On the breakup of Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 and whether it will lead to a meteor shower.

Shubinski, R. “Secrets of the Meteorites.” Astronomy (May 2022): 52. Finding and analyzing rocks that fall from space.

Evolution of the Solar System and Protoplanetary Disks

Ansdell, M. “Revising the Story of Planetary Formation.” Sky & Telescope (May 2020): 34. Modern theories on how a planetary system forms around a star.

Bakich, M. “Our Solar System’s Origins.” Astronomy (January 2021): 40. How a cloud of raw material gave birth to the Sun and planets.

Barbuzano, J. “Earth’s Wellspring.” Sky & Telescope (March 2023): 34. Where did Earth’s water come from, if comets didn’t bring it all?

Cendes, Y. “The Sun’s Lost Siblings.” Astronomy (July 2020): 44. Trying to identify the stars that formed from the same nebula as the Sun.

Emspak, J. “New Insights into How the Solar System Formed.” Astronomy (May 2018): 22. Violence and chaos in the early days.

Redd, N. “Cataclysm in the Early Solar System.” Astronomy (February 2020): 28. On what studies of the Moon and Mars reveal about the early history of the planets.

Redd, N. “How Did We Get the Asteroid Belt.” Sky & Telescope (March 2021): 22. Modern ideas of how it formed and grew, connecting its story with the history of the solar system.

Talcott, R. “How the Solar System Came to Be.” Astronomy (November 2012): 24. On the formation period of the Sun and the planets.

Websites

Meteors and Meteorites

American Meteor Society: http://www.amsmeteors.org/. For serious observers.

British and Irish Meteorite Society: http://www.bimsociety.org/meteorites1.shtml.

Center for Meteorite Studies: https://meteorites.asu.edu/meteorites. This Center at Arizona State University has information for beginners under the tab "Meteorites."

How to Observer a Meteor Shower: https://www.astronomy.com/observing/how-to-observe-a-meteor-shower/. From Astronomy magazine.

Meteors: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/celestial-objects-to-watch/meteors/. A collection of articles on meteor observing from Sky & Telescope magazine.

Nine Planets Meteorites and Meteors Page: http://nineplanets.org/meteorites.html.

Some Interesting Meteorite Falls of the Last Two Centuries: http://www.icq.eps.harvard.edu/meteorites-1.html.

Evolution of the Solar System and Protoplanetary Disks

Circumstellar Disk Learning Site: http://w.astro.berkeley.edu/~kalas/disksite/index.html. By Dr. Paul Kalas.

Disk Detective Project: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/ssilverberg/disk-detective. The WISE mission is asking the public to help them find protoplanetary disks in their infrared data.

How Are Solar Systems Born: https://www.icds.psu.edu/how-are-solar-systems-born/. A summary of current research from Penn State University.

Videos

Meteors and Meteorites

How to Observe Meteor Showers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBF4wFhw2Kg. Friendly, animated guided tour to meteor showers and watching them from the California Academy of Sciences (4:02).

Meteorites and Meteor-wrongs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQO335Y3zXo. Video with Dr. Randy Korotev of Washington U. in St. Louis (7:05).

Rare Meteorites from London’s Natural History Museum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Rsk-ywN44. A tour of the meteorite collection with curator Caroline Smith (18:22). Also see a short news piece about a martian meteorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EMR2r53f2s (2:54).

What Is a Meteor Shower (and How to Watch Them): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNmgvlwInCA. Top tips for watching meteor showers from the At-Bristol Science Center (3:18).

Evolution of the Solar System and Protoplanetary Disks

How Solar Systems Form: https://ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/buac18-912-sci-ess-solarsystemformation/solar-system-formation/. From PBS Learning Media to accompany a show about the mission to Asteroid Bennu, this is a quick introduction to how our solar system got organized (6:01).

Origins of the Solar System: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/origins-solar-system.html. Video from Nova ScienceNow narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson (13:02).

Revolutionary ALMA Image Reveals Planetary Genesis: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1436a/. New observations of the disk around the star HL Tau and what they reveal about planet formation (5:25).

Simulating the Origin of the Solar System: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXq1i3HlumA. From the California Academy of Sciences, this section of a planetarium show features dramatic simulations (4:21).

Where Do Planets Come From?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdIJUdZWlXo. Public talk by Anjali Tripathi in March 2016 in the Center for Astrophysics Observatory Nights Series (56:14).

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