Although it's a difficult task but I wish the course were timely updated to match the knowledge that we have gathered now. Otherwise it's a great course to learn more about the solar system and even other systems that we find in our universe. The details that Prof. Brown deals with is great but he never forgets to keep things simple. There was not a single point in the course where I felt like, "I didn't quite understand that." I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to explore more in this field, beyond things he/she has learnt by himself/herself.

Brilliant course, learned a lot. Mike is an engaging teacher! However, I would say it's not for beginners (I really struggled and took days to get the quizzes correct with only 3 attempts each day).

Although the course itself was very informative, sometimes there were a problems with sound. Also explanation of some topics was a bit unclear, so I had to dig through google to understand it.

Too Hard

This is a serious-minded and often inspirational introduction that reaches out to the space enthusiast inside us. References are extensive, about half taken from original literature, with the remainder being mostly review articles or educational presentations and vetted Wikipedia pieces. Useful and important web-sites are invoked. Video format lectures are presented by Professor Mike Brown in a good-humored conversational style best watched at least once in advance of the week designated for the topic, especially if the learner would like to take part in or learn from an online discussion group. There is a weekly quiz. When quiz questions are graded, comments are usually appended that are intended to advance the student’s learning. These are a nice touch, and helpful.

Each week’s lectures are usefully broken up into about ten rather digestible mini sections of 10 - 20 minutes each. Selected special topics are presented by other Caltech faculty as guest lecturers, often those who have done original research on the topic, which adds to the depth of the material. I found the course very informative, and felt challenged. A lot of the material is qualitative and much of it speculative, probably a necessity given the nature of the observational data. I found it difficult to remember details such as names of the satellites and asteroids, and the classifications of geochemistry and geology. Fortunately, there are computers to help with that. I spent an average of at least 10 hours/week on the course.

It's a remarkable course, it makes you feel like attending a class at Caltech by one of the best (and funny!) planetary scientists in the world. Yes, there are a few (elementary) calculations needed (which is good!), but above all it shows you how one has acquired scientific knowledge on such fascinating topics. It leaves you with awe not because it's adopting a popular science attitude, but because it helps you understand the subject, avoiding technicalities when unnecessary but without refraining from them when useful or needed. It's a intellectually challenging yet rewarding experience, while remaining largely accessible to the motivated student. When over, you'll be sad! If I have to find a negative point: There is no recap/lecture notes provided, you have to rely on yours (like at a good old university classes!) and on the forum. On the other hand, hints and links to extra resources are provided, if you want to deepen the subject(s). Thanks to Prof. Brown, I'll never look at the Solar System the same way. I really hope that a more advanced course in similar subjects is provided some day, for those of us who are not afraid of calculus, of orbital mechanics, and some more advanced chemistry, geology and biology notions.

This course is simply among the best I have attended online. It reviews some of the main features of the Solar System, exposing the most accredited data and theories to which they gave rise: from the presence of water on Mars to the possibilities of life on Europa, Titan and Enceladus, from the inside of the giant planets to the composition of meteorites, from the dynamics affecting formation and mutual influence of planets to the probabilistic estimate of the asteroid risk, from ultranettunian objects to comets, with insights into the detection and dynamics of extrasolar planetary systems, an area of astronomy that developed from the 90s onwards. The teacher is Mike Brown of Caltech (California Institute of Technology), famous for the discoveries of KBO objects such as Sedna, Eris and Makemake in the first decade of this century. In the last 30 years astronomy has been revolutionized by ground-based observations with increasingly powerful instruments, but above all by data from space probes and telescopes. The discovery of other planetary systems has allowed us to put our knowledge of the solar system in a comparative perspective. If you want to catch up, this is a great opportunity.

Recomiendo este curso sin lugar a dudas a todo aquel interesado o curioso con el mismo. La dificultad es media a baja, las clases son muy interesantes, se aprende mucho, hay una clara explicación de muchas de las publicaciones científicas que hoy nos permiten entender el sistema solar en el que vivimos y sus planetas. Algunas de las imágenes que se muestran son espectaculares.

Es destacable la calidad de las explicaciones, los primeras unidades sobre Marte son espectaculares y ayudan a engancharte con el curso.

Mike Brown es un excelente y agradable docente, y además alguien muy importante en la comunidad astronómica por sus descubrimientos de los planetas enanos cercanos a Plutón.

El curso abordan incluso el tema de los exoplanetas y de la vida.

La traducción de los videos no es perfecta, pero un mínimo inglés te permite interpretar bien los errores.

Algunas de las preguntas de las evaluaciones son desafiantes y realmente ayudan mucho en la comprensión.

De forma intensiva se puede completar en dos a tres semanas.

Excellent overview of the current state of solar system exploration. The lectures were amazingly entertaining, even if the quiz questions were typically convoluted and designed for confusion. By sheer repetition, repeating the quizzes until all the answers are correct, the information is hammered home. The most interesting part of the course for me was the planetary science, the astrobiology coverage at the end was, of necessity, much less rigorous. Discussion of recent spacecraft exploration missions is good but it's hard to keep a topic like this up to date when the lectures are meant to be reused for multiple sessions of the course. Wanted to dislike the instructor because of his arrogance in the Pluto affair, even if I can't argue with the substance of it, but just couldn't because even though he is arrogant, he knows his stuff, is obviously good at what he does, and more importantly he communicates his knowledge really, really well.

This was an absolutely amazing course. It was so interesting, well structured, clear, and easy to understand. Even the more complicated math and physics sections were fairly simplified, and if something was unclear, you could forget about the details or re-watch the lectures to understand. Mike Brown, who spoke for most of the lectures, clearly was very knowledgeable and passionate about the topics covered, and made the lectures light-hearted, which helped to enjoy and learn from this course. In my opinion, this course an absolute must for anybody remotely interested in space, as the topics covered really open up your mind, even if mostly restricted to just our solar system, and I say "just" very loosely here as I found even our own planetary system is so vast and intriguing. The only improvement I would say is to make the tests a bit easier, or lower the passing grade, but otherwise this course is phenomenal.

This course was thoroughly enjoyable learning. Fabulously interesting subject matter and presented in a well-organized and energetic set of lectures that kept interest high throughout the course. Dr. Brown has a true gift for explaining complex ideas in simple terms. I am very satisfied with what I learned and will try to find other courses to continue the learning. A small suggestion that might help others with this, would be to include a 'Course Resources' page that might include: a list of space missions and dates, that those new to astronomy may not have committed to memory; a short list of constants often used in calculations (Stefan-Boltzmann, Temperature unit conversions).

(Then again, maybe it's better to have to search elsewhere for these things). All in all, a great introduction to the solar system and a delight to learn that I can still learn!

I started this course a bit sceptical on what I would get from it, being a complete amateur and just wanting to know more about the solar system. Now, 8 weeks later, I'm so glad that I jumped in and completed it because I have learnt so much from this course. It has really ignited a spark in me that wants to keep progressing and learning, and understanding.

A major part of why this course was so great, was the lecturer, Mike Brown, who has this ability to keep you focused at all times with his upbeat and witty personality that you are just glued to. So many lecturers you can find yourself fighting to listen and focus in on, but not Mike. The knowledge and passion just oozes out of him and into you.

The only down side is that there are no other courses run by him!

This has been a brilliant journey of 10 weeks. I learnt a lot of new things about our solar system, our sister planet Mars, and even the small comets and asteroids. This course taught us about the evolution of solar system, how we can search for life in distant systems and how much research is actively taking place in these fields. Professor Brown always incorporated research papers and real data to teach us most of the topics, this gave us an idea how to analyze data and why it is important to be skeptical while studying science. The quizzes have been thought-provoking. I am also glad to have had access to the vast resources and research papers that we were exposed to. Thank You. Looking forward to more courses from Caltech ( and may be Prof. Brown :) )

An exceptionally well structured course which not just gives facts but tells how planetary scientists go about things and how do they do, what they do. Mike Brown as a teacher is amazing, never a dull moments in class. The quizzes help kind of summarize entire leanings. It has guest lecturers assess well as a field trip. It is the best Coursera course that I have taken till now. I am glad I took this. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in space, whether you have a bit of prior knowledge or none at all. This is a must course for people interested in space. I can go on and on. But you get my point, right? Just go for the course :)

It has been an extraordinary journey, deep down through different exciting topics regarding solar and extra-solar system science! I think Dr. Mike Brown is one of the most inspiring persons I've ever seen, so fond and enthusiastic while explaining even the most difficult concepts during his lectures, together with his other colleagues scientists who have been as well passionate and clear while deepening into their research topics. Finally, many thanks to Coursera to have offered such a scientifically thorough and fascinating course, with an excellent organization of all its contents on both desktop and mobile version of the site!

Amazing course taught by a trully gifted instructor. I can't recall when I was this excited and became so passionate about a subject. The information presented and the passion of the instructor will motivate you to continue learning about these subjects long after you have completed the course.

I took this course for fun and I was not disappointed. The course encourages creative thinking. The problems in the quizzes and final force you to think about things and this is what really stimulates the learning process.

By far my most favorite class on Coursera. I even have a telescope on order as a result of taking this class.

I am overwhelmed. This was an excellent course and Dr. Brown was one of the best knowledgable scientists and lecturers I have ever seen. It's been more than a few decades since I was last in a University classroom (Canada) and I found that this coursera format makes a great balance of online learning, and testing for knowledge acquired. Back to the content, sure there are some issues... numerous typos in transcripts, quiz material, bad audio in many spots, but when it worked 90%+ of the time it was exhilarating! Busy for the summer but come the fall (northern hemisphere) I will look for other courses by him.

Who only five stars? Because that is all I have to give. I'm sorry, this course deserves more.

I am repeating this course,but not because I need to. I passed last year, but I know that there will be new material that I want to learn. I'm pleased to see that there are familiar faces from last year.

Prof. Mike Brown obviously know his stuff, and enjoys communicating it to students. There are plenty of references for students who want to explore things further. The discussion forums are excellent, with people sharing information, and Mike somehow finds the time to monitor the forums and contribute to the discussion.

Having now taken a couple other Coursera MOOCs, I'm getting the feeling this one is even more exceptionally good than I realized when I took it. Aside from a few videos it's mostly presented by Prof. Mike Brown, who is erudite, engaging, and accomplished. The course emphasizes not the "what" but the "why" and "how" of the evolution of the Solar System. I like to think I'm fairly well informed about astronomy and astrophysics at a lay outsider's level but I learned a lot from this course. Remind me to re-take it after he revises it to cover the discovery (any year now) of Planet 9!

I really want to thank Prof. Mike Brown and Caltech University to realize this course. I am passionate about astronomy and attended just for personal information, and found this course so rich that it was a pleasure to complete it. The course is complete giving detailed information on the current knowledge of the solar system, its history and future expectations and fields of research. Information are explained really well by teachers always providing information on the original publications. Great course to take to deepen your knowledge on the solar system. I'm so sad it's over!

Very good lecturer - keeps things interesting and uses of figures and results from published peer-reviewed papers. Explains things from first principles and does a very in depth historical analysis of the topics studied.

Only criticism I would give would be to have more regular feedback or tests regarding what is learnt. There are 4 topics in this course for the 10 week duration and there's only a test at the end of each topic. A test at the end of each week would keep students on their toes.

Nevertheless, still a 5 star course. Thanks for letting me take this!

Professor Mike Brown does an excellent job of enthusiastically presenting the discoveries and future missions for the solar system. I found the subject matter to be fascinating. I needed to take extra time to study for the tests, because it was sometimes difficult to harvest the most important points from the plethora of information being taught. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the course, and I would recommend it for aspiring planet scientists and lifelong learners. Thank you Professor Brown, and I wish you continued success in your future endeavors!

This is a great course. I'm a regular guy with no science education, just a keen interest in science and astronomy. The lectures delivered by Mike Brown and guests are clear and high quality, so even I could follow along. The mid-lecture questions, weekly quizzes, and final exam are designed to make you think about what you have learned rather than just regurgitate facts - this really helped me with the learning process. I just need to learn how to take better lecture notes for future courses. Thank you to all involved for an excellent ten weeks :)

I took this class out of personal interest in the matter, and it provided some very interesting insight (which I had hoped when I booked it). Prof. Brown is a really passionate teacher, and it is obvious that he really enjoys what he is doing. Besides, it is a really cool thing to be taught by a leading scientist on his field of research!

It would be nice if you were able to download the material in PDF or something to reread it afterwards, that would make the experience even more fun.

Mike Brown is such a great professor. He makes the subjects, the classes so interesting so that you really want to learn more. I'm really going to miss him on my weeks, even though we never actually meet in real life.

Every class was interesting and I learnt many things, even for me that does not belong to the astronomy field, I will say that they are a little hard, even more if you do not have some background of science, but if you but some effort it is totally worth and rewarding.