NEW!Several students have convinced me that I was too harsh in my grading of the term papers. I have therefore added five points to everyone's term paper score (except for those students who didn't turn it in). Thanks to those of you who brought this to my attenion. (9 May 2010)

NEW! I know the semester is over, but I just can't resist: Check this out. (9 May 2010)

NEW! Distribution of scores on the term paper is now posted. (6 May 2010)

NEW! Guidelines for the final exam are now available. Please remember that the final is on Thursday, May 6, from 12:30-2:30 pm, sharp. Please do not be late! (29 Apr 2010)

NEW! Germs and Mars (also here). (29 Apr 2010)

NEW! Homework 5 solution and distribution of scores is now posted. Distribtion of scores in the course so far also available. (27 Apr 2010)

NEW! Course evaluations now available. Please do this. Totally anonymous! Helps me and future students a lot. (26 Apr 2010)

NEW! Reminder: Term papers should (1) explicitly be related to astrobiology; (2) be a science paper, which means based on rigorous evidential arguments; and (3) go beyond material that we have covered or will cover in class. Update (4/26): It is hard to say what is the right amount of footnoting/referencing. Try to not do too much nor too little. If you have specific questions, please ask me. (15 Apr 2010)

NEW! Check out this article from today's Arizona Daily Sun. (27 Apr 2010)

NEW! Here comes the Sun. (26 Apr 2010)

NEW! Steven Hawking says to watch out. (26 Apr 2010)

NEW! Really interesting Arizona story in the New York Times today. (22 Apr 2010)

NEW! Hey, give me a hand with these rings!. (20 Apr 2010)

NEW! More ash spew. (20 Apr 2010)

NEW! President Obama has another way to save the planet. (20 Apr 2010)

NEW! No office hours on April 13 (today) or April 21 (next Wednesday). Plan ahead. (13 Apr 2010)

NEW! Stuff happening in the world: volcanoes, meteors, planets, Presidents, and iPhone apps. (15 Apr 2010)

NEW! Life-as-we-don't-know-it on Titan. (13 Apr 2010)

NEW! No office hours on April 13 (today) or April 21 (next Wednesday). Plan ahead. (13 Apr 2010)

NEW! Distribution of scores in the course so far. (13 Apr 2010)

NEW! Distribution of scores on the midterm is now available. Solutions available too. (12 Apr 2010)

NEW! Homework #5 (last one of the semester) is now available -- due April 22. (12 Apr 2010)

NEW! Solutions for homework #4 now available. Distribution of scores too. (12 April 2010)

NEW! Undersea robot! Hello, Europa. (8 Apr 2010)

NEW! New hominid species in Africa (but mostly I like the picture). (8 Apr 2010)

NEW! Update the periodic table! (7 Apr 2010)

NEW! Don't forget: Homework #4 is due Thursday. (6 Apr 2010)

NEW! Sports update. (6 Apr 2010)

NEW! Wocka wocka wocka. (6 Apr 2010)

NEW! Those wacky jellyfish. (6 Apr 2010)

NEW! I think this is entrancing. My sister sent it to me. (6 Apr 2010)

NEW! Shuttle launched -- only three more launches left, ever. (6 Apr 2010)

NEW! What would you like to see on Mars? (6 Apr 2010)

NEW! Which way are you moving relative to this bumper sticker? (2 Apr 2010)

NEW! By this point, everyone who gave me a term paper topic proposal should have a reply. Let me know if you are expecting a reply but haven't received one. (1 Apr 2010)

NEW! Graded midterms coming .. soon. My replies to your term paper proposals should be done by tonight. (1 Apr 2010)

NEW! A really big bang. (1 Apr 2010)

NEW! I guess this is not an April Fool's joke, but it's hard to be sure. (1 Apr 2010)

NEW! Can life on Titan thrive without water? (25 Mar 2010)

NEW! The Flake equation. (25 Mar 2010)

NEW! What can you learn from a single bone? (25 Mar 2010)

NEW! Homework #4 is now available (a bit earlier than expected). (24 Mar 2010)

NEW! Term paper proposal due by Thursday: A few sentences, and put your email address on it. (1) Make sure your topic is related to astrobiology. (2) Make sure you go beyond the material that we've covered (or will cover) in the class. (23 Mar 2010)

NEW! Snowball Earth in the news. (23 Mar 2010)

NEW! Peter Smith, lead investigator of the NASA Mars Phoenix mission, will be giving a talk on Monday, March 29, at 4pm in LA 135. (Cookies at 3:30 pm). (22 Mar 2010)

NEW! No class on March 30. Also, no office hours on March 30 or 31. See you on April 1. (22 Mar 2010)

NEW! No office hours today. (24 Mar 2010)

NEW! More stuff: The Universe at many wavelengths. Also, unexpected shrimp and the full article. (23 Mar 2010)

NEW! Storm chasing this afternoon. (22 Mar 2010)

NEW! I'm not going to make it to work today, Wednesday, which means I'm not going to make it to my office hours. If you came looking for me with questions, please email me instead. My apologies for the inconvenience. (10 Mar 2010)

NEW! Go to Mars before the semester ends! (9 Mar 2010)

NEW! What will happen to education in this state? This affects you! Have an opinion? Call someone. (9 Mar 2010)

NEW! NAU Society of Physics Students is sponsoring Pi day on Wednesday, March 10 (because March 14 is during Spring Break -- do you get it?), at 4pm in this room. I am planning to be there, and the money goes to a good cause. (9 Mar 2010)

NEW! Homework #3 distribution of scores and solution set are now available. (9 Mar 2010)

NEW! Yikes! (8 Mar 2010)

NEW! Guidelines for preparing for next week's midterm are now available. (4 Mar 2010)

NEW! This is just cool. (4 Mar 2010)

NEW! Is methane in the Earth's atmosphere on the rise? (4 Mar 2010)

NEW! Either the Chilean earthquake changed the rotation rate of the Earth, else it didn't. (4 Mar 2010)

NEW! Homework #2 distribution of scores and solutions are now available. (2 Mar 2010)

NEW! When stars go boom. (2 Mar 2010)

NEW! No office hours on Wednesday, March 3. I do have office hours today, Tuesday, March 2. (2 Mar 2010)

NEW! Astronomy is entering the information age. (2 Mar 2010)

NEW! Your semester term paper assignment is now available. (21 Feb 2010)

NEW! Homework #3 is now available: assigned 23 February, due 4 March. (21 Feb 2010)

NEW! Remember: No class on Thursday, Feb 25. What to do with you free time? Review your notes, work on Homework #3, or start to think about your term paper. (21 Feb 2010)

NEW! Homework #2 due date extended to 23 Feb 2010. (16 Feb 2010)

NEW! Isotopes in the news. (18 Feb 2010)

NEW! Neat pictures that Tim sent me. (17 Feb 2010)

NEW! I will probably not issue formal midterm grades via LOUIE for this class because there will not be many grades by the deadline of March 5. Please let me know if this is bothersome or confusing or disappointing to you. (17 Feb 2010)

NEW! Solutions and distribution of scores for Homework #1 are now available. (16 Feb 2010)

NEW! Another article considering the future of American spaceflight. (15 Feb 2010)

NEW! Maybe the laws of physics really were meant to be broken after all. (15 Feb 2010)

NEW! Homework #2 due date extended to 23 Feb 2010. (16 Feb 2010)

NEW! I'm not done grading homework #1, but I'm getting there. In the meantime, homework #2 is now available. Update: I'm still not done grading homework #1, so I am extending the deadline for homework #2 to Feb 23. (9 Feb 2010; updated 11 Feb 2010)

NEW! NASA looks at the Sun. (11 Feb 2010)

NEW! More evidence for water on Enceladus. (9 Feb 2010)

NEW! Opinion about the new NASA directions by Steven Weinberg. (4 Feb 2010)

NEW! Physics and the Olympics. (4 Feb 2010)

NEW! More evidence on dinosaur colors -- check out this hairdo! (4 Feb 2010)

NEW! More about NASA's budget for next year. (1 Feb 2010)

NEW! Reminder: Homework 1 due on Thursday, office hours Tuesday and Wednesday. Don't forget about the sage advice and homework help page. (2 Feb 2010)

NEW! On the east coast, six more weeks of winter. (2 Feb 2010)

NEW! More wacky stuff. (2 Feb 2010)

NEW!President Obama changes NASA's lunar mission.See here, here, and here. (1 Feb 2010)

NEW! XKCD weighs in on Spirit. (29 Jan 2010)

NEW! Mommy, what color were dinosaurs? (29 Jan 2010)

NEW! What is the future direction of NASA? (28 Jan 2010)

NEW! Carl Sagan knew lots about the definition of life (but did he predict YouTube?). (28 Jan 2010)

NEW! Kira's nifty planetarium website (i.e., "What's in the sky?"). (28 Jan 2010)

NEW! A Mars rover, no longer to rove. Meg found the official press release, which has a somewhat different spin to it. (28 Jan 2010)

NEW! Some sage advice about homework #1 is now available. (28 Jan 2010)

NEW! The first homework assignment is now posted. (25 Jan 2010)

NEW! Welcome back! In the news: the Large Hadron Collider and Free Spirit. (25 Jan 2010)

NEW! No office hours today. I'm at home playing with the kids/shoveling. I'm available by email. (20 Jan 2010)

NEW! No office hours today -- I'm going to go home and shovel. (19 Jan 2010)

NEW! Were you cold this morning? Try some anti-freeze in your veins! (19 Jan 2010)

NEW! I love articles like this. (14 Jan 2010)

NEW! The Earth narrowly missed getting hit by an asteroid two days ago. Don't worry, it happens all the time ... (14 Jan 2010)

NEW! New planet, I'm looking at you. (14 Jan 2010)

NEW!AST 184L exists. It's a great lab class, being taught by Professor Koerner this semester. At the moment, the class is full, but there may be openings if some people cannot make the field trip dates (last three weekends before the end of term week). If you're interested, go to the first meeting of the class this coming Friday to be on the waiting list. And: Must love camping! (11 Jan 2010)

NEW! Crossing the genes of a virus and you! (12 Jan 2010)

NEW! Seeing back in time with the Hubble Space Telescope. (12 Jan 2010)

NEW! NASA's Kepler spacecraft finds some Earth-like exoplanets .. and some strange ones, too. (7 Jan 2010)

NEW! Liquid oceans on Saturn's moon Titan! (7 Jan 2010)

NEW! Welcome to the course! (7 Jan 2010)

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