Course materials for WBAS002-05 — Introduction to Planetary Science, a 5 ECTS mandatory course for 2nd-year BSc Astronomy students at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen.
Lecturer: Tim Lichtenberg
The lecture notes are available as a Jupyter Book at:
https://formingworlds.github.io/IntroductionToPlanetaryScience/
The course covers 14 lectures spanning the full breadth of planetary science:
- Introduction & History of Planetary Science
- Planet Formation & Orbital Dynamics
- Planetary Heat & Energy Transport
- Chemical Differentiation & Magnetospheres
- Atmospheres I — Composition, Structure, & Energy Balance
- Atmospheres II — Clouds, Weather, & Climate
- Planetary Surfaces
- Planetary Interiors
- Rocky Planets — Earth & Venus
- Rocky Planets — Mercury & Mars
- Gas & Ice Giants
- Meteorites, Asteroids, & Comets
- Exoplanets — Detection, Demographics, & Characterisation
- Synthesis — Solar System in Context & Astrobiology
Requires Python 3.12+.
pip install .
make html # Build HTML → book/_build/html/
make pdf # Build PDF via pdfhtml
make pdflatex # Build PDF via XeLaTeXThis work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Third-party figures may carry their own licenses — see individual captions for attribution.