Astronomy 2020: Stars, Galaxies and the Universe

Instructor: Tom Megeath

EMAIL: megeath@physics.utoledo.edu
TELEPHONE: (419)530-7812
OFFICE: Ritter 204
OFFICE HOURS: Monday 11-12, Wednesday 1-2, Friday 11-12

Syllabus and Lectures

Syllabus

Lecture 1: Introduction, Cosmic Distances

Lecture 2: Cosmic Evolution

Lecture 3: Constellations, Distances to Stars

Lecture 4: Laws of Motion

Lecture 5: Light

Lecture 6: Telescopes

Lecture 7: The Sun

Lecture 8: The Stars

Lecture 9: Star Formation

Lecture 10: Stellar Evolution

Study Guide for first midterm

Lecture 11: White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars and Black Holes

Lecture 12: Black Holes, The Galactic Center and the Milky Way

Lecture 13: Midterm Grades, The Interstellar Medium

Lecture 14: Other Galaxies

Lecture 15: The Cosmic Web & Gamma Ray Burst

Lecture 16: Galaxy Formation and Evolution

Study guide for 2nd midterm

Lecture 17: Special Relativity

Lecture 18: Midterm grades, General Relativity + What is a theory?

Lecture 19: Cosmology

Lecture 20: Cosmology and the Big Bang

Lecture 21: Quantum Mechanics, Fundamental Physics, and the Big Bang

Lecture 22: The end of everything (warning: depressing)

Lecture 23: Cosmic Calendar and the Search for Life in the Universe

Study guide for Final

Homework

Homework 1: Due 1/26/2010

Homework 2: Due 2/02/2010

Homework 3: Due 2/09/2010

Homework 4: Due 2/16/2010

Homework 5: Due 3/18/2010

Homework 6: Due 3/25/2010

Homework 7: Due 4/20/2010 - Requires a balloon

Homework 8: Due 4/27/2010

Lecture 1

Computer simulation of two galaxies colliding, from the web page of John Dubinski - http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~dubinski/antennae

The expansion of the Universe, from Einstein Online, http://www.einstein-online.info/en/elementary/cosmology/expansion/index.html

Lecture 2

Flight to the Virgo Cluster, from Brent Tully's web pages

Computer simulation of the gas from the big bang coallescing into the seeds of galaxies, from http://cosmicweb.uchicago.edu/filaments.html

Computer simulation of the formation of a group of galaxies, from http://cosmicweb.uchicago.edu/filaments.html


Science! Curse thee, thou vain toy; and cursed be all the things that cast man's eyes aloft to that heaven, whose live vividness but scorches him, as these old eyes are even now scorched with thy light, O sun! Level by nature to this earth's horizon are the glances of man's eyes; not shot from the crown of his head, as if God had meant him to gaze on his firmanent.

Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's Moby Dick