SYLLABUS  --  Astronomy 320 --  Stars, planets, and the Milky Way  --  Spring 2004

 

                                                                                                                                            reading

lecture    date                             tentative schedule of topics                                                  Z&G          KC

 

     1     W  1/28    Introduction:  contents and structure of  Milky Way

Part I  -- Properties of Stars

     2     M  2/2      Electromagnetic radiation, Doppler effect                                              8-1          1,2

     3     W  2/4      Atomic structure, spectra of atoms and molecules                         8-2, 8-3       3

     4     M  2/9      Blackbody radiation; Kirchhoff’s rules                                           8-6, 8-7       4

     5     W  2/11    Luminosity, temperature and radii of stars                                           8             5

     6     M  2/16    Distances to stars: parallax and luminosity distances                        11-1                 6   

     7     W  2/18    Magnitude system : apparent, absolute, bolometric, color indices  11-2,3,4      7

     8     M  2/23    Stellar atmospheres, spectral classification                                 13-1,2       8

     9     W  2/25    Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams                                                                13-3         9

   10     M 3/1       Kepler’s Laws & Newton’s Laws                                                        1            10

   11     W 3/3       Visual binaries, stellar masses, mass-luminosity relation                  12-1,2     11

   12     M 3/8       Spectroscopic binaries                                                                          12-3        12

   13     W 3/10     Eclipsing and contact binaries                                                                12-4        13

   14     M 3/15     Milky Way revisited: stellar populations and spiral arms                            14          14 

   15     W 3/17     MIDTERM

SPRING BREAK

Part II – Stellar Birth, Life and Death

   16     M 3/29      Interstellar gas and dust                                                                     15-1,2       15

   17     M 4/5       Star formation                                                                                     15-3         16 

   18     W 4/7       Stellar structure, stellar models, thermonuclear fusion                          16-1,2       17 

   19     M 4/12     The Sun, stellar evolution, lifetimes of stars                             10, 16-3     18    

   20     W 4/14     Lifetimes of stars; nucleosynthesis                                            16-4,5       

   21     M 4/19     Planetary nebulae, white dwarfs and cataclysmic variables        17-1, 18-4,5  

   22     W 4/21     Supernovae, neutron stars and pulsars                                              17-2, 18-5          

   23     M 4/26     Black holes and accreting binary stars                                               17-3, 18-6

                                                   

Part III – The Milky Way Galaxy

   24     W 4/28     Galactic rotation curve and dark matter                                    19

   25     M 5/3       Structure and evolution of the Milky Way                                             20

   26     W 5/5       The galactic center: evidence for a massive black hole                           20

Part IV – Topics in Solar-System Astronomy

   27     M 5/10     Seminar discussions of topics to be selected, e.g.,                    TBA                

   28     W 5/12     evidence for water on Mars; Pluto and trans-Neptunian objects;       “

   29     W 5/17     the many moons of Jupiter; comets and the Oort cloud;                    “

   30     M 5/19     extra-solar planets; the search for extra-terrestrial life                             “

 

                                                * turn over for course information *