Course Outline - Spring 2008

Week

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

January 21-25 No class Introduction. Equatorial Coordinate System. Parallax
(Chapter 1, 3.1)
Kepler's Laws. Two-body problem
(Chapters 2.1, 2.2)
January 28- February 1 Kepler's 1st Law.
(Chapter 2.3)
Kepler's 2nd and 3rd Laws. Extrasolar Planets.
(Chapter 2.3, 7.4)
Multiple Planet Systems. Chaos. Virial Theorem
(Chapter 2.4)
February 4-8 Luminosity, Flux and Magnitudes.
(Chapter 3.2)
Specific Flux, Intensity.
(Chapter 9.1)
Blackbody Radiation
(Chapters 3.3-3.5)
February 11-15 Telescopes, Filters and Color Magnitudes. Color-Magnitude Diagram.
(Chapter 3.6)
Kirchhoff's Laws. Photons. The Bohr Atom.
(Chapters 5.1-5.4)
Spectral Types of Stars. Boltzmann and Saha Equations.
(Chapter 8.1)
February 18-22 HR Diagram. Luminosity Classes. Binary Stars.
(Chapter 8.2, 7.1-7.3)
Radiative Transfer: Absorption. Optical Depth.
(Chapter 9.2)
Radiative Transfer: Emission and Scattering.
(Chapter 9.3, 9.4 pp. 255-258)
February 25-29 Scattering. Radiation Pressure. Line Profiles.
(Chapters 9.1, 9.4 pp.258-261 and 264-265, 9.5 pp. 267-271)
Stellar Interiors: Hydrostatic Equilibrium, Equations of State.
(Chapter 10.1, 10.2)
First Midterm Exam
(Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9)
March 3-7 Stellar Interiors: Nuclear Fusion
(Chapter 10.3)
Stellar Interiors: Energy Transport.
(Chapters 10.4)
Building Stellar Models. The Main Sequence.
(Chapter 10.5, 10.6, 11.1)
March 10-14 Interstellar Medium. Extinction
(Chapter 12.1)
Star Formation. Jeans Mass
(Chapter 12.2)
Pre-Main-Sequence Stellar Evolution
(Chapter 12.3)
March 17-21 Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break
March 24-28 Post-Main-Sequence Evolution in Low-Mass Stars
(Chapter 13.1 (pp. 446-453), 13.2)
PMS Evolution in High-Mass Stars. Type II Supernovae
(Chapter 15.1-15.3 pp. 518-534)
No class
March 31- April 4 Tests of Stellar Evolution: Stellar Nucleosynthesis, Stellar Clusters.
(Chapter 13.3, 15.3 pp. 534-542)
Gamma-Ray Bursts and Cosmic Rays
(Chapter 15.4, 15.5)
White Dwarfs. Degeneracy Pressure
(Chapter 16.1-16.3)
April 7-11 Mass-Radius Relation
Chandrasekhar Mass
Neutron Stars
(Chapter 16.4, 16.6)
Properties of Neutron Stars
Pulsars
(Chapter 16.6, 16.7)
General Relativity
Black Holes
(Chapter 17.1)
April 14-18 Properties of Black Holes
(Chapter 17.3)
Galactic Distance Ladder
The Milky Way Galaxy
(Chapter 24.2, 24.3 pp. 914-922, 24.4)
Spirals and Ellipticals
(Chapter 25.1, 25.2. 25.4)
April 11-25 Extragalactic Distance Ladder
Hubble Law
(Chapter 27.1, 27.2)
Galaxy Clusters
Interactions of Galaxies
(Chapter 27.3 pp. 1058-1069, 26.1)
Active Galactic Nuclei
(Chapter 28.2)
April 28- May 2 Newtonian Cosmology
(Chapter 29.1)
Cosmic Background Radiation
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
(Chapters 29.2)
The Early Universe
(Chapter 30.1, 30.2)
May 5-9 PRESENTATIONS
(time TBA)
PRESENTATIONS
(time TBA)