General class information

Syllabus html pdf

Tentative calendar

Important dates

Grader

Travis Horrom <tshorrom@email.wm.edu>.

Grades

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Topics covered

Week 1

• Lecture 01: Proves that the Earth orbits the Sun. notes
• Lecture 02: Parallax and diffraction limited optics. notes

Week 2

• Lecture 03: Optics imperfections and atmosphere effects. Star size: Michelson method. notes
• Lecture 04: Star size: Hanbury Brown and Twiss method. notes

Week 3

• Lecture 05: Kepler's laws derivation. notes
• Lecture 06: Orbits shapes and 3rd Kepler's law. notes
• Lecture 07: Kepler's laws and binary stars. notes

Week 4

• Lecture 08: Extrasolar planet search methods. notes
  • see posters at astrocomb webpage
  • The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia
• Lecture 09: Black body radiation derivation. notes
• Lecture 10: Black body radiation continued, luminosity, star apparent and absolute magnitude. notes

Week 5

• Lecture 11: Stars spectroscopy. notes
  • stellar spectral lines
  • stellar spectral lines
• Lecture 12: Spectral line disappearance mystery and Saha equation. notes
• Lecture 13: H-R diagram, mass-size-luminosity relationship. notes
  • H-R diagram
  • A0 stars spectra comparison
    • more in atlas of stellar spectra

Week 6

• Midterm 01.
• Guest Lecture by Elana "Sun and Ca absorption lines".
• Lecture 14: Light absorption coefficient, star edge darkening. notes

Week 7

• Lecture 15: Introducing light source function. Spectral linewidth. notes
• Lecture 16: Stars energy source. notes
• Lecture 17: Requirements for nuclear fusion and hydrostatic equilibrium. notes

Week 8

• Lecture 18: Photon and ideal gas pressure, tunneling and required temperature for fusion, fusion reaction rate. notes
• Lecture 19: Gamov peak, fusion reactions, star mass and its life time. notes
• Lecture 20: Sun and magnetic field dynamics, mystery of hot corona.
  • Sun spots from Solar and heliospheric observatory (SOHO)
    • sun spot images today
    • sun spot images 05/07/2006
  • Sunspot motion from SOHO
    • sun spot images 09/23/2011
    • sun spot images 09/24/2011
    • sun spot images 09/25/2011
  • Sun spot and granulation
  • Solar movies
  • Solar movies long time observation at UV and others wavelength for comparison
  • Coronal mass ejection
  • Flares
  • Coronal rain

Week 9

• Lecture 21: Cepheids - variable stars. notes
  • pressure as a restoring force
• Lecture 22: Variable stars continued. notes
  • gravity as restoring force
• Lecture 23: Proto star formation. notes

Week 10

• Midterm 02.
• Lecture 24: Proto star formation. Nebulae and dark clouds. notes
  • dark clouds
    • the Horsehead nebula
    • one more picture of the horsehead nebula http://www.space.com/16528-horsehead-nebula.html]
    • video which shows the horsehead nebula in prospective
  • globules in the eagle nebula (example of emission nebula)
    • well visible dark glubules and lines
    • composite image
  • reflection nebula
• Lecture 25: Proto star formation continues. Couds and Proto star evolution. notes
  • dark clouds B68 and star reddening
  • accretion disk and jets in HH30
  • jets and Herbig-Haro objects
  • debris disk of delta Pictoris as planet formation place
  • proto planets disks prolyds
  • Nursery of stars

Week 11

• Lecture 26: Fate of not too massive stars
  • Planetary Nebulae (remains of stars) gallery
    • Sun like star leftovers: PK 164
    • Helix Nebula
      • visible
      • composite
    • Cat's eye nebula
      • image 1
      • image 2
    • Butterfly like nebulae
      • M2-9
      • Ant nebula
  • Star clusters
    • M13 in Hercules
    • The Pleiades Star Cluster M45
    • M3
• Lecture 27: Fate of massive stars. Supernovae.
  • Supernova 1987A
    • before and after
    • recent image
    • time elapsing images
    • visual and radio emission composite
    • educational video
  • Crab nebula remains of supernova seen in 1054 AD
    • visible
    • X-rays
  • Gamma ray burst
    • simulation video
• Lecture 28: White dwarfs and neutron stars. Degeneracy pressure.
  • Sirius B and Sirius A image

Week 12

• Lecture 29: Neutron stars and pulsars.
• Lecture 30: Guest lecture by Patrick "Black holes". Intro to general theory of relativity.
  • scientific paper pdf "Measuring distance and properties of the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole with stellar orbits".
    • nice article about massive monster in our own galaxy
    • stars motion movie near galaxy center
• Lecture 31: General relativity and gravitational waves.
  • Timing Measurements of the Relativistic Binary Pulsar PSR B1913+16
  • Gravitational lensing
    • sample 1
    • sample 2
    • GL and classical analog
  • Gravitational wave
    • merging black holes GW sources movies
    • Detector LIGO

Week 13

• Lecture 32: Guest lecture by Denny "General relativity experimental proves". The Milky Way galaxy.
  • The Milky Way views from the Earth
    • 1st
    • 2nd
  • The Milky Way top view
• Lecture 33: Milky way composition. Flat rotation curve.
  • The Milky way in infrared
• Lecture 34: Galaxies classification and interaction.
  • Hubble classification tuning fork
  • A more detailed chart
  • Short gallery
    • edge on galaxy NGC 891
    • Spiral the Andromeda galaxy
    • Spiral the Somrero hat galaxy
    • Elliptical and spiral
    • The Fornax Cluster of Galaxies
  • Galaxy interaction
    • Magellanic steam
      • image
      • simulation
    • colliding galaxy NGC 520
    • The Sagittarius Dwarf Tidal Stream
    • The Cartwheel galaxy
    • Polar-ring galaxies
      • NGC 4650A
      • NGC 660
    • Tidal Tail galaxies
      • the Tadpole'
      • The Antennae (NGC 4038 and NGC 4039) zoomed out, zoomed in
    • Starburst galaxy M82
  • Early galaxies with the Hubble Ultra deep Field
    • general description
    • gallery

Week 14

• Lecture 35: Large scale structures
  • 2dF Galaxy redshift survey
    • more data including movie
  • log map of the universe
• Lecture 36: Finite size of universe. Big Bang. Cosmic background radiation. Shape of the universe.
  • CMB maps
• Lecture 37: Why is it expensive to get to the sky: Tsiolkovskiy equation.
  • Guest lecture by Isabel: Plasma.
  • Guest lecture by Matt: Extraterrestrial life forms.

Homeworks

HW 01

• assigned reading Chapters 1 and 6.
• HW 01 (source latex file hw01.tex). Due day Wednesday Jan 23.

HW 02

• assigned reading Chapters 6 and 2.
• HW 02 (source latex file hw02.tex). Due day Monday Jan 28.

HW 03

• assigned reading Chapter 2 and 7.
• HW 03 (source latex file hw03.tex). Due day Monday Feb 4.

HW 04

• assigned reading Chapter 7 and 3.
• HW 04 (source latex file hw04.tex). Due day Monday Feb 11.

HW 05

• assigned reading Chapter 5 and 8.

HW 06

• assigned reading Chapter 8 and 9.
• HW 06 (source latex file hw06.tex). Due day Monday Feb 24.

HW 07

• assigned reading Chapter 9 and 10.
• HW 07 (source latex file hw07.tex). Due day Monday March 11.

HW 08

• assigned reading Chapter 10 and 11.
• HW 08 (source latex file hw08.tex). Due day Monday March 18.

HW 09

• assigned reading Chapter 12 and 14.

HW 10

• assigned reading Chapter 12.
• HW 10 (source latex file hw10.tex). Due day Monday April 1.

HW 11

• assigned reading Chapter 13, 15, and 16.
• HW 11 (source latex file hw11.tex). Due day Monday April 8.

HW 12

• assigned reading Chapter 16 and 17.
• HW 12 (source latex file hw12.tex). Due day Wednesday April 17.

HW 13

• assigned reading Chapter 24, 25 and 26.
• HW 13 (source latex file hw13.tex). Due day Wednesday April 24.

HW 14

• assigned reading Chapter 27 and 29.

Additional presentation topics

• Solar neutrino problem
• Universe Inflation - taken by Nick
• Why space travel is hard
• UFO. Aliens or not - taken by Matt