| Lecture | Date | Topic | Readings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue, 1/19 | The science of astronomy | "How to Succeed" (pp. xxii-xxiii), 3.4 (pp. 68-74) |
| 2 | Thu, 1/21 | The night sky | 2.1 "What Does the Universe Look Like from Earth" (pp. 27-30) |
| 3 | Tue, 1/26 | The motion of the night sky | 2.1 (pp. 30-34) |
| 4 | Thu, 1/28 | The distance to the stars | 11.1 "Stellar Luminosities" (pp. 301-304) |
| 5 | Tue, 2/2 | Light | 5.1 "What is light" (pp. 107-110), 5.2 "How does light tell us temperatures"(117-119) |
| 6 | Thu, 2/4 | Matter and light | 5.1-5.2 (pp. 110-117), 11.1 "Stellar Temperatures" (pp. 305-308) |
| 7 | Tue, 2/9 | Review | none |
| Thu, 2/10 | Midterm 1 | None |
| Lecture | Date | Topic | Readings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Tue, 2/16 | The nature of stars | 11.2 (pp. 309-316) | 9 | Thu, 2/18 | Measuring the stars | 5.2 "The Doppler Effect" (pp. 119-121), 11.1 "Stellar Masses" (pp. 308-309) |
| 10 | Tue, 2/23 | The births and lives of stars | 10.1 "Why does the sun shine" (pp.280-281), 10.2 "How does fusion occur" (283-286),12.1-12.2 through "Red Giant Stage" (pp. 324-333) |
| 11 | Thu, 2/25 | The deaths of stars | 12.2-12.4, 13.1 (pp. 333-345, 356-359) |
| 12 | Tue, 3/2 | Neutron stars and black holes | 13.2-13.3 (pp. 359-368) |
| 13 | Thu, 3/4 | Review | none |
| Tue, 3/9 | Midterm 2 | None | |
| 14 | Thu, 3/11 | The Milky Way Galaxy | 14.1 "What does our galaxy look like" (pp. 380-82), 14.2 "Distribution of gas in the Milky Way" (pp. 389-91) |
| Lecture | Date | Topic | Readings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Tue, 3/23 | Formation of the Milky Way | 11.3 (pp. 316-318), 14.2-3 (pp. 392-7) |
| 16 | Thu, 3/25 | Other Galaxies | 15.1-2 through "Cepheid Variables" (pp. 406-14) |
| 17 | Tue, 3/30 | Dark Matter | 14.1 "How do stars orbit in our galaxy" (pp. 382-384), 16.1-2 through "Does dark matter really exist" (pp. 439-448) |
| 18 | Thu, 4/1 | The Universe on large scales | 15.2 (pp. 414-20), 16.3 "Largest Structures" (pp. 451-3) |
| 19 | Tue, 4/6 | Galaxy Evolution | 15.3-4 (pp. 420-432), 17.4 (pp. 485-487) | 20 | Thu, 4/8 | Review | none |
| Tue, 4/13 | Midterm 3 | None |
| Lecture | Date | Topic | Readings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Thu, 4/15 | The history of the universe | 17.1 "Conditions in the early universe", (pp. 465-6), 17.2 "radiation left over from the Big Bang" (pp.474-5) |
| 22 | Tue, 4/20 | The origin of matter (Guest: Prof. Marina Artuso) | 17.1 (pp. 466-474) |
| 23 | Thu, 4/22 | The origin of elements | 17.2 "How do abundances of elements support Big Bang" (pp. 477-479), 16.2-3 from "What might dark matter be" (pp. 448-453) |
| 24 | Tue, 4/27 | The shape of the universe | 17.2 "radiation from the Big Bang"(pp. 476-477), 17.3 (pp. 479-484) |
| 25 | Thu, 4/29 | The fate of the Universe | 16.4 (pp. 453-9) |
| 26 | Tue, 5/4 | Overview of the Universe | None |
| Tue, 5/11 | Final Exam, 8:00 - 10:00 am | None |