Apply the full semester's toolkit to a real system and a personal Drake equation estimate.
Using R*=1.5, f_p=1.0, n_e=0.4 (this course's adopted astronomical terms), choose and justify your own values for f_l, f_i, f_c, and L, and compute your resulting N. State which of your four chosen values you are least confident in and why.
Compare your Problem 1 result to this course's own computed optimistic (6.0e+05) and pessimistic (6.0e-05) bounds, and state whether your assumptions are closer to the optimistic or pessimistic end, and which single term is responsible for most of that difference.
Choose one real exoplanet system from this course's dataset (or, with instructor approval, another well-characterized real system) and write a 300-500 word critique of what a claimed biosignature detection for that system could and could not scientifically establish, explicitly citing at least two named false-positive or degeneracy concerns from this course (e.g., the mass-radius composition degeneracy, the abiotic-oxygen pathway, the growth-versus-survival distinction).
In two to three sentences, state the single most important scientific limitation on current exoplanet life detection that this course has emphasized, and explain why acknowledging it explicitly (rather than glossing over it) makes a scientific claim stronger, not weaker.
Submit a complete derivation with equations, units, labeled quantities, and a short narrative interpretation for each problem. Show every step; a correct final number without a visible derivation receives partial credit at most, and quoting a lecture number without adapting it to this problem's specific inputs receives no credit for that step.
OpenStax Astronomy 2e (local extracted reference copy: references/openstax-astronomy-2e-extracted.txt) introduces exoplanet detection methods in the "Exoplanets" section of Chapter 7 (Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System) and astrobiology topics (habitable zone, biosignatures, the Drake equation) in Chapter 30 (Life in the Universe); these citations follow the ASTR320/330 precedent of using native OpenStax chapter numbering, extrapolated by analogy rather than independently cross-checked against embedded figure/table numbering this session -- flagged for human spot-check in reference-log.md. Nearly every quantitative derivation in this course (the radial-velocity semi-amplitude equation, transit depth/duration, the mass-radius interior degeneracy, the radiative-equilibrium habitable-zone boundary, and the Drake equation as a structured estimation framework) goes well beyond OpenStax Astronomy 2e’s introductory, descriptive treatment; each lecture states explicitly where this course extends beyond the assigned reading.
materials/ASTR350/data/ where referenced above.