Building Earth-like Planets: From Nebular Gas to Ocean Worlds
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this advanced planetary science course tracing how rocky planets form, from the gas and dust of a planetary nebula through accretion into planetesimals, planetary embryos, and full planets. Lessons cover planetary differentiation, crust formation, atmospheric degassing, and the condensation of surface water, weaving together compositional and physical processes drawn from observations of our own solar system and from exoplanet data. The focus stays on terrestrial, rocky and metallic bodies, though more volatile-rich worlds get examined for comparison. As with other MIT OCW offerings, the site provides lecture materials and course readings for self-study at no cost, with no certificate attached. It suits students who already have a physical science background and want a systematic account of how a planet like Earth, or an ocean world unlike it, actually gets built.