Atmospheric Chemistry: Planets and Life Beyond Earth

University of Leeds via FutureLearn

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Details

This course may be unavailable.

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Provider

FutureLearn
Pricing

Free Online Course (Audit)
Languages

English
Certificate

$49.00 Certificate Available
Duration & workload

2 weeks, 2 hours a week
Sessions

Finished
Level

Beginner

Found in

Overview

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Discover the extraordinary world of atmospheric chemistry.

On this course you will learn about planetary atmospheres across our solar system and beyond. You will discover what an atmosphere is, how it’s formed, and how data collected from space missions is used to determine a planet’s atmosphere.

You’ll also look into the factors needed to support life, explore the possibility of life beyond Earth and start the search for habitable planets. You’ll understand how atmospheric chemistry is communicated in the media and get a flavour of one of the most fascinating subjects explored during an undergraduate degree in Chemistry.

This course has been ranked as one of the best online courses of all time by online course aggregator class central.

The course is for anyone with a general interest in atmospheric chemistry but it will be particularly useful for students at schools and colleges who want to study chemistry at university. The course is part of the Going to University collection and completing it can help improve your university application by broadening your chemistry knowledge and developing your independent learning skills. The course can also be used as a teachers’ classroom enrichment resource.

Syllabus

Exploring planets in our solar system

Welcome
Atmospheres of planets in our solar system
Active and Passive exploration missions
Cassini-Huygens Case Study
Summary

The search for life on other planets

About Week 2
Factors needed to support life
The search for life beyond the solar system
Hold the front page
Summary

Taught by

Julia Lehman

Reviews

4.7 rating, based on 52 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Atmospheric Chemistry: Planets and Life Beyond Earth

Anonymous

I very much enjoyed this class, it introduced to me a field of study and concepts not part of my college degree courses. It was fascinating in that I could grasp the concepts and very much enjoyed the graphics and visuals. I especially enjoyed the interactive map of the observatories, and the opportunity to do research projects and share them with other participants and learn from the posted projects of others. I understand from viewing other student reviews and comments this class was enjoyed by students of many levels of expertise. Thank you for this opportunity to learn.
Anonymous

I found this course excellent especially so for those who intend to take degrees in this or similar subjects. I was interested in the course only and found it fascinating and really stretched the mind. I have a new understanding of researching well known scientific sites and questioning everything I read, confirming with other sites.

Thank you Future Learn - I have been doing your courses for years now and cannot wait to start the next one. Thanks to all the educators and staff. A wonderful place of teaching and learning.
Anonymous

Although I have taken courses with future lear in the past, I have recently retired and will be looking to take more courses in the future. I found this course really interesting and engaging throughout.
One area of the course that could be improved is feedback from the course tutors.
Having submitted my comment, it would be advantages to have feedback to help and support our development.
Anonymous

The course was so helpful and informative- there were so many activities to do over a whole range of things- from researching the science behind atmospheres to finding out how we observe them using space probes and telescopes.
Challenging but definitely worth it, thank you so much!
Anonymous

The course introduces and uses vocabulary that one needs to explore the chemistry of space. It share beautiful photos and lists many websites for further study. The exercises give a glimpse of the kind that might be expected at university.
Marian De Keijzer

very interesting course. Helps to understand the atmospheric chemistry and the conditions for life as we know it. The explanation is clear and helped me a lot to understand how life started on our own planet.
Anonymous

I enjoyed the course and learnt a lot from it . It is taken in a manner that at no point we loose our interest . Our regular participation is also encouraged and constant support is also provided.
Anonymous

Un curso muy interesante e importante en el aspecto de la química atmosférica de diversos planetas. Aprendí varios temas nuevos del curso.
Anonymous

Excellent, complete course, very detailed and easy to read. I am very curious, because the scientific subject is similar to my work.
Mamatha Banerjee

I joined this course because I love space and have wanted to study more on the subject since graduating from College. It's interesting to consider (especially with recent events) that other Terrestrial planets could house life similar to what we have on Earth!
Anonymous

FutureLearn provides the most enjoyable way to learn with all the subjects anyone could wish for. The Atmospheric Chemistry course has been excellent with a large amount of clearly presented and informative lectures. The exercises to research for answers to questions is a wonderful way of learning, and also being guided to authentic and reliable web sites and journals is a big plus. This is one of the best courses I have done so far. Thanks to all the hard working lecturers and the help of other learners.
Anonymous

This course was stimulating with insightful teachings in many facets. These include planets and their atmospheric make up, star systems, exploration (space craft and observation technologies), and the use of reliable research tools.
I would recommend this course for anyone with an interest or background in Astronomy or Earth Sciences.
To get the most out of the course all steps are to be completed. Where possible use latest technology to compliment with available course tools.
Anonymous

This was a well presented course, but in common with many courses, lacks live input from an academic team. This is not a criticism, but a statement of fact; FL is constrained by responses to the effects of restrictions due to the COVID19 pandemic on the one hand, and increased interest from Learners on the other. I think it meets its targets on all fronts - interesting to the curious mind, and a good preparation for those about to start out on their academic adventure.
Anonymous

This class is absolutely fascinating! I admit I was a little worried it was going to be too advanced for me, but it's not. Julia does a fabulous job breaking down the information so everyone can understand, even if you don't know a lot of Chemistry. Which is the sign of an excellent educator. She also manages to keep it from being boring. I really hope to take more classes with her as the Professor. Thank you so much for a great class.
BALAJI

Before the learning of this course , I had only the knowledge about our Earth's atmosphere and its constitution. After completing this course , now I'm sure about that I have some knowledge on planetary chemistry and what are the elements are present in the other planets.
I realize that Learning is a great gift . Here it was possible to me by future learn .For write a test or getting certificate , be sure with money .
Robbie

A clear, informative and well-structured course which makes chemistry and space exploration accessible even to people who have no prior knowledge at all - just like me. Thank you so much for developing this course and giving everyone access to it.

It is one of the most inspiring and insightful courses I've ever taken on Future Learn, so much I created a CC profile just to give it 5 stars.

Keep it up (please)!
Anonymous

I completed all of the course except the end of course assessment, which I was not registered to complete. the course was interesting with some very useful graphics and links to additional material. Although interested in some areas of science it's not an area where I have any knowledge or expertise so will not be continuing within this discipline except on fairly general short courses.
Anonymous

As a current undergrad (not at Leeds, but a similar institution) soon to be choosing Y3 option modules it was a really nice way to sample atmospheric and earth chemistry to see if this is the specialisation for me. I was kept engaged throughout the course and felt that it was just the right length (potentially a longer version could be produced for those with a deep-rooted interest!
Richard Elkins

The professor was engaging. The course content, however, was too thin technically. This may have just been due to my expectation of taking a Chemistry class with an emphasis on atmospheres. Also, I had previously taken the Coursera class, "Science of the Solar System" which was a deep dive. So, perhaps, I was expecting too much with this class.
Anonymous

Excellent information and nice didactic!! Where one can learn with the quizes and the excercises. I am learning objective and clear information in the past when I saw news about a

Astronomy, got very general information now I can understand since the scientific point of view!! Thank you very much for provide the information to all the public!!