Prerequisites:
NONE
Enrollment
Restrictions:
NONE
This course is designed to introduce students to the makeup and structure of the universe beyond our Solar System. The course focuses equally on what we have learned about the universe around us and how we have come to these conclusions. Through observations of stars, clouds of gas and dust, and the distributions and movements of galaxies, astronomers endeavor to develop a physical framework to describe the universe and its makeup; in fact, this process is ongoing today. This course is designed for non-science majors, and no prior knowledge of astronomy or physics is required. However, this course does require the application of basic math skills.
In this course, we will discuss extensively one of the main building blocks of the universe—a star. Our discussion includes how stars are made, how they generate light, and what happens to them during their long lives (including their sometimes explosive deaths). We will also discuss the large clouds of gas and dust found in the space between stars—this is the material from which stars are made, and to which stars return enriched material at the ends of their lives. We find that stars group themselves into still larger structures: galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. We will study how the universe is constructed on large scales, and discuss the nature of the universe as a whole: how it was created, how it evolved to the structure we see today, and our current predictions for what will happen in the future. Throughout these discussions, we will emphasize the observations needed to study these different ideas, and just how much information we can obtain about an object using only the light that shines out to us from somewhere else in the universe.
Material for this course is presented in three lectures and one three-hour laboratory session per week. The laboratory sequence also includes three night observing sessions (roughly one per month), where students will learn how to recognize constellations and navigate the sky, use telescopes, and take their own digital images of astronomical objects. The schedule for the night observing sessions is flexible but constrained by the weather; therefore, students will be expected to have relatively flexible evening schedules to complete this component of the lab program.
Textbook and laboratory handouts.