Saturday, 29 November 2025

TMA02 has come around very quickly

With TMA01 out of the way, it's time to look at TMA02. This assignment doesn't have to be submitted until Thursday 15th January, but I like to look at the questions as I proceed through the module and make a few notes. S283 isn't a particularly mathematically heavy module, but the few assessable calculations that come up in the content appear to be saved for the TMA questions. I've finished Question 1 and I'm well into Question 2 already.

Question 1 (17/75 marks)

This question requires the calculation of the temperature of a fictious planet given its dimensions and the total radiated power it gets from its nearest star and asks about the limitations of spectroscopy as a remote sensing technique. There is also a sub-question on the calculation of escape velocity.

Question 2 (20/75 marks)

This question requires the calculation of the pressure at the centre of the gas giants and the composition of their atmospheres.

Question 3 (19/75 marks)

This question requires calculations concerning the orbits of asteroids and their classification.

Question 4 (19/75 marks)

This question relates to the formation of the early Solar System.