Write a short paper (roughly 2 pages single-spaced or 4 pages double spaced) about a topic in astronomy that you are interested in. Ideally, this should be a subject that we might have touched on, but not gone into depth on, but you can also choose other topics of interest. The goal is to go beyond what we have talked about in class, not just to rehash something we've covered. Also, you should try to address the scientific aspects of your topic: consider how things have been learned and why they are interesting for understanding your topic, not just a dump of facts on your topic.

The point of the assignment is to get you to practice some basic research techniques. As a result, each paper should cite at least two different references. At least one of these references cannot be an Internet source: it should be from some published material, e.g. a magazine, journal, or book. If you have trouble finding reference sources, you can consult with me or with staff at the Science Library.

Please recall that plagiarism is a serious offense. It is your responsibility to understand what plagiarism means, to be aware that both intentional and unintentional plagiarism is prohibited, and to be aware that plagiarism extends to material found online. See http://www.nmsu.edu/~vpsa/SCOC/misconduct.html for more information.

Some possible topics might be:

Detail the role of each of the following people in the "Heliocentric revolution" (that is the change-over from the Geocentric view of the Universe to the Heliocentric view): Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo
Discuss some of the current experiments being done to try to detect dark matter
Describe the nature and properties of black holes.
Describe the mission, and discoveries of the "Martian rovers" (Spirit and Opportunity)
Describe the strange and peculiar satellites (moons) of Saturn as viewed by the Cassini mission. (Not including Titan)
Describe the mission and the results of the Huygens probe that penetrated the atmosphere and landed on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan.
Explore the recent discoveries of large Kuiper belt objects (e.g., "UB313") and Pluto's relationship with them, including a brief discussion of the "New Horizons" mission.
Discuss the four "Galilean" satellites of Jupiter, and the possibility that one (or more) of them may be a possible host for life, and how NASA is planning to search for that life.
Discuss recent discoveries of planets around other stars.