Planetary Science
Classification, Atmospheres & Habitability
Planetary Classification
Rocky, Atmospheric & Gas Giant Bodies
How worlds are categorised by composition, atmosphere, and temperature. Covers rocky bodies, water worlds, ammonia worlds, Earth-likes, and the Sudarsky gas giant classes.
Habitable Zones
The Goldilocks Zone & Liquid-Water Worlds
Where in a system can a planet hold liquid water? How HZ distance scales dramatically with stellar luminosity, and why M-dwarfs and O-types both struggle to host life.
Atmospheres
Composition, Pressure & the Greenhouse Effect
Atmospheric structure and the physics that determine surface conditions. Compares Mars, Earth, Titan, Venus, and Jupiter to show how scale height and composition shape every world.
Planetary Interiors
Differentiation, Cores & Tidal Heating
What lies beneath the surface. Half-sphere cross-sections of Mercury, Earth, Mars, Europa, and Jupiter showing layered cores, mantles, and the heat sources that keep some worlds active.
Magnetospheres
Magnetic Fields, Solar Wind & Auroras
How a planet's dynamo creates a magnetic shield against the solar wind. Bow shock, magnetotail, polar cusps, and the auroras lit by particles that leak through.
Rings & Moons
Ring Structure, Shepherds & Moon Systems
Saturn-like ring systems with their bands, gaps, and shepherd moons. How ring divisions form via orbital resonance and why rings are paper-thin yet vast.
This module treats planets as layered environments: composition, atmosphere, heat, magnetism, orbital context, and surface conditions all combine into a world profile.
The topics connect scientific classification with the practical cues explorers use when judging habitability, mapping value, landability, and visual character.