Instructions blurb that we were given:
“In the paper, you should: (1) set the context for the problem, both historical and astrophysical, explaining why this is an interesting area to research; (2) carefully describe the underlying physics, perhaps developing a simplified model to understand more detailed results that you find in the literature; (3) critically evaluate everything you read.
The idea is that in the class we will cover the broad spectrum of problems encountered in astrophysics: the term paper is a chance to explore a particular area in detail, and understand the state of the art work being done in that field. A complete project consists of: a 10–15 page project paper, including abstract, figures and bibliography.”
I added two files that are example papers in the upload section.
The preferred resource source:
The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS): https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/
This is a link to the ADS Library the I had put together to start pulling information from:
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/public-libraries/gBUOybrDSgCp7DJ5LnygbQ
The rough plan that I had for the paper, including figures/graphs/images where relevant:
Abstract
History of the Project/Mission
~What questions we wanted answered from GAIA
Development and Mission Design Timeline
Data Acquisition so far
~Collection of Data Listing
~Data Applications and Implications
~Unexpected Discoveries
Future of the Mission
Conclusion
Bibliography