11. How the solar system formed
11.1 Planet formation
11.1.1 What stages to circumstellar disks go through?
11.1.2 When do gas giant planets form?
11.1.3 When do terrestrial planets form?
11.1.4 What was the Late Heavy Bombardment?
11.2 Evidence for planets around stars other than the sun
11.2.1 How can we detect planets by measuring stellar Doppler shifts?
11.2.2 What other means do we have to detect, or at least infer the existence, of planets around other stars?
12. The Solar System
12.1 Overview of the solar system
12.1.1 Terrestrial planets, list and chief characteristics
12.1.2 Giant planets, list and chief characteristics
12.1.3 What are the trends in planet properties within the solar system, as the distance from the sun increases? What produced them?
13 Exploring planets: besides telescopes, what means have we used to explore planets (and the moon)?
14. The Earth
14.1 Interior of Earth
14.1.1 Why it has a core, how we know the core is molten
14.1.2 Layers of the earth, their basic characteristics
14.1.3 Plate tectonics, what they are, how they work
14.1.4 What produces the magnetic field of the earth?
14.2 Earth's atmosphere
14.2.1 Where did it come from
14.2.2 How has life affected it
15. Properties of the planets
15.1 The moon
15.1.1 How it formed
15.1.2 Age of the moon and how it is determined
15.1.3 How the cratering rate has changed over time
15.2 Mercury
15.2.1 Evidence for great heat during formation
15.2.2 Range of surface temperatures, why it is so large
15.3 Venus
15.3.1 Comparison with Earth
15.3.2 Surface features, composition
15.3.3 Venus greenhouse, how it works, what it does
15.3.4 Greenhouse on Earth, how it works
15.3.5 What effect are humans having on the earth's greenhouse effect?
15.4 Mars
15.4.1 Canals - what are they?
15.4.2 Geology - plate tectonics, volcanos
15.4.3 Weather - atmosphere
15.4.4 Evidence for water
15.5 Jupiter
15.5.1 Size compared with other planets, nature of the interior and "surface"
15.5.2 Internal energy and its effect on weather
15.5.3 Jupiter's magnetic field and what it tells us about the inside of the planet
15.5.4 What the surface of Jupiter is like
15.6 Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
15.6.1 Similarities and differences in internal structure between Saturn and Jupiter
15.6.2 How the internal structures of Uranus and Neptune differ from Jupiter and Saturn, and why
16. Smaller members of the solar system
16.1 Jupiter's moons
16.1.1 Io characteristics
16.1.2 Europa characteristics
16.1.3 Ganymede, Callisto, trend in properties with distance from Jupiter
16.2 Outer planet moons
16.2.1 Titan unique characteristics
16.2.2 Triton unique characteristics
16.2.3 Composition of smaller moons
16.3 How rings are formed
16.4 Pluto
15.4.1 How it was discovered
16.4.2 Relation of Pluto to system of small icy objects in outer solar system
16.4.3 Why Pluto was stripped of its former status as a planet
16.5 Solar system debris
16.5.1 Four major types (list)
16.5.2 Asteroids
16.5.2.1 Why they didn't form into a planet
16.5.2.2 What they are made of
16.5.3 Meteors - where they come from, what they are made of
16.5.4 Comets
16.5.4.1 How they are different from asteroids
16.5.4.2 Where they come from, how they get into the inner solar system
16.5.5 Kuiper Belt - what it is
17. Conditions for life
17.1 Long term climate
17.1.1 Size of variations in output of the sun
17.1.2 Solar cycle and climate
17.1.3 How we measure temperature for millions of years ago
17.1.4 Greenhouse effects and climate changes
17.1.5 Causes and effects of changes orbital geometry and tilt affecting the severity of the seasons
17.1.6 Other effects on the climate
17.2 Habitable zones
17.2.1 What is a "habitable zone"
17.2.2 List the most important conditions required to make life as we know it possible (11 of them)
18. Is life "out there"?
18.1 How life formed on Earth
18.1.1 Earliest forms of life
18.1.1.1 When did life first appear (that we have evidence for)
18.1.1.2 What form was the earliest life we know about?
18.1.1.3 What are the four key steps in getting to early life as we know it?
18.1.1.4 What role do errors in making copies play in forming life?
18.2 Life on Mars
18.2.1 Have we found evidence for life on Mars?
18.2.2 Why will we continue to look for it?
18.3 Advanced life
18.3.1 How long did take to get to cells without nuclei to cells with nuclei?
18.3.2 What was the Cambrian Explosion? How long from cells with nuclei to it?
18.3.3 How does sex assist in the development of complex life forms?
18.4 Mass extinctions
18.4.1 What role does chaos play in asteroid bombardment of the earth?
18.4.2 How is destruction spread over the Earth after a large impact?
18.4.3 Have we seen anything similar to the events leading to mass extinction on other planets?
18.5 Emergence of intelligent life
18.5.1 What is convergent evolution?
18.5.2 What is the encephalization level?
18.5.3 How has the encephalization level of the most "brainy" animals changed over the history of life on earth
18.5.4 Can we expect a similar pattern wherever complex life exists?
18.6 Contacting other civilizations
18.6.1 Why it is difficult to visit others
18.6.2 The Drake Equation, what (if anything) it tells us
18.6.3 Why we look for signs of radio transmissions by other civilizations