INTRODUCTION TO ASTRONOMY/ASTROPHYSICS
SCI 201 - Dr. V. Lankar
| ANNOUNCEMENTS: NO MAKE UP for labs. homework = asignment 2 due Friday (sci201-01) or Monday (sci201-04) midterm= final: |
 exoplanet The distant exoplanet TrES-2b, an artist's conception of which is shown here, is darker than the blackest coal David A. Aguilar / CfA |
UNIT 1= tour of
the class - distance and time in the Universe - BRING A SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR INTRO: video: stars of the universe: grand tour - watch the whole movie. (20 minutes) lecture 1 notes scale universe distance planets in AUS video Charles and Ray Eames Powers of 10 rising stars image: Andromeda is 2 1/2 million light years away. 100,000 light year across merger between 2 galaxies Andromeda + milky way size stars relative size of planets largest star applet travel1 life time compared to universe travel applet structure of the universe history of the Universe travel in space time line large scale universe movie introduction fron Britannica=15 minutes click here nice slides show another slide show cosmic microwave background: where did it come from? Sloan great wall : Maps of galaxy positions reveal extremely large structures: superclusters and voids. assignment1 + READ CHAPTER 1 TEST p.17 REVIEW scientific notation + ratios + assignment scientific notation to do in class |
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LAB1: parallax and scale solar system slides website: understanding parallax see movie from folder lecture 9 LAB2 video history of Astronomy with Bill Nye + QUIZ (week 1) |
Kepler's 3rd law, angular distance  p orbital period, a orbital distance. in most cases: Mstar >> Mplanet |
UNIT2 = brief history lecture2 notes part1 lecture part II |
| UNIT3 = Keplers laws LAB3 Kepler and the orbit of Mars (hand-out) intro slides Kepler law's / newton's unification kepler's 2nd law polar graph what happen if you forget Newton's laws in space. |
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| UNIT4=constellations, star locator LAB4 : star and planet locator + lab from the lab book + short lecture on celestial sphere, seasons , solstices. .. slides applet: constellation earth seasons seasons equinox zodiac constellations constellation 3 seasons celestial sphere location of stars celestial sphere seasons applet seasons Sun path phases of the Moon applet (source here: phases applet) latitude applet celestial sphere zenith ecliptic applets to look at planet location by constellation more |
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adaptive optics  EM spectrum |
UNIT 5 : optics and telescopes, the tools of astronomy lecture3 notes hubble telescope pillars of creaction jupiter triple eclipse twinkling of stars applet refracting telescope applet lens applet reflecting telescope applet refracting telescope (more about telescopes) video Golden Eye radio telescope see video from streaming discovery lecture3 understand nearsighted/farsighted converging lens largest telescopes + assignment3 + READ CHAPITRE 3 + TEST p.53 lab5 telescope |
solar system  |
UNIT 6 : solar system an overview and formation - lecture 4 notes movie=Earth science/solar system, from discovery channel 20 recycling solar eclipse why venus and uranus weird lunar eclipse tilt of the Earth/seasons tides spring tides /neap tides source formation of the solar system nebula hypothesis 1 part2 planets, comets and other debris. excellent artist's review of planets planets more info rotation of Venus NEAR landing on EROS Asteroid Ida and its moon Io made of pizza ?highly volcanic sulfur spew out Europa oxygen atmosphere, liquid slushy water under ice, life? ganymede (third moon) Callisto the most cratered moon. very old saturn rings Titan, SAturn moon has methane lakes and rain or drizzle of methane only object suspected to have liquid on its surface video on Titan Enceladus SAturn moon. water geyser, thin crust easy to dig, ice and water. life ? Enceladus active geyser of water maybe life The planet Uranus was discovered by William Herschel on March 13, 1781 / Neptune Discovered by, Johann Gotfried Galle. September 23, 1846 mimas, death star ? Uranus moon Miranda and FRankenstein Uranus moon uranus orbit Triton moon of Neptune ice volcanoes RECENT NEWS: mission DAWN around the 330 miles asteriod VESTA. ext stop: CERES (dwarf planet) walking on the Moon assignment 4 + READ CHAPTER4 (formation solar system) and CHAPTER 5 (inner planets) quiz on both chapters/ lab 6 Eratosthenes with: video Carl Sagan video2 to watch before labs |
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UNIT 7 catastrophic collision
lecture 5 note death of dinosaurs. oort cloud and scattered disk kuiper belt eris orbit eris compared to Pluto and moon. Eris was called Xena and its moon gabrielle. they changed to Eris and dysmonia peekskill meteorite (meteoroids = space, meteor=shooting star, meteorite) , meteor crater, from asteroid belt yucattan peninsula chicxulub cater extinction video shoemaker comet toyota commercial meteor crater preventing collision lab= video NOVA deep space from universe see other videos asteroid almost missed READ CHAPTER 6 and do QUIZ p.111 + assignment : collisions. |
 EM spectrm EM spectrum3 EM spectrum |
UNIT 8: light , electromagnetism spectrum (not in the book) lecture6 notes star spectra explore the EM applet very good 2 movies from discovery NASAmissions excellent movie from NASA list of NASAmissions more an EM waves properties light is made of photons (individual photons collect in the pin hole camera) orion in different wavelengths case study: crab nebula. wavelengths assignment6 |
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UNIT 9 :
atoms and starlight, spectra -= fingerprints of atoms- spectroscopy lecture7 notes levels of energy emission lines vs absorption lines movie spectroscopy (2:45) bohr model/absorption lines (signature of atoms 3 minutes) spectra of some atoms see video 27:10 fingerprints of atoms from the serie " understanding the Universe " by Alex Filippenko, TTC publisher hydrogen and helium spectra applet absorption lines spectroscopy applet BB radiation, absorption lines emission lines another animation hydrogen atom + excellent website emission lines per element spectra of each element and here too ====================================== applet blackbody/appearance Power vs T applet BB radiation, absorption lines applet black body ( video:star color from streaming discovery) black body applet assignment 7 (quantized energy levels) LAB 6 emission spectra |
| doppler effect doppler shift   |
UNIT 10: What are the stellar parameters ? How did we derive them ? how to use them ? HR diagram = classify the stars (info about life cycle, mass, luminosity, temperature, size) doppler shift = relative speed of objects, black body curve = temperature, color luminosity , binary star = mass, mass = size (or temperature + luminosity = size), mass = life cycle, Luminosity + brightness = distance (using standard candles) or distance can be found using parallax or using Hubble's law. lecture8 notes redshift redshift for light from book (cosminc perspective) very good : understanding the universe #38:the quest for extra solar planet .../13.35 funny video doppler ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- applet inverse square law inverse square law magnitude scale applet luminosity versus temperature and size ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- H-R diagram how a cluster evolves with time applet binary star applet binary systen and see saw applet binay stars binary star (sirius) more on binary stars more on binary systems assignment : assignment 8 lab7: The inverse square law |
| UNIT 11: How to find distances of distant stars , the distance ladder, Hubble'slaw lecture9 notes cepheid stars how to find distance video (story of Henrietta Leavitt) video: variable stars cepheid stars animation cepheid stars another video (story) see video Hubble's law raisin bread applet expanding universe assignment9 READ CHAPTER 12 + prepare the quiz |
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UNIT 12 : The Sun and stellar parameters again (chapter8 from your book) lecture10 notes see videos first movie 2: Nemesis from discovery channel see videos too photos of Sun in x-rays, UV .. chromosphere photosphere video: sunspots: from GAlileo to SOHO video SOHO/TRACE corona explosion Sun rotating solar prominence solar flare2 Nemesis an " evil twin" video. (Dr. Richard Muller developed this theory) video magnetic field of the sun GREAT MOVIE great photos and animations video: stars of the universe: the Sun (streaming discovery 20mn) coronal mass ejection prominence website for more fusion (source of energy of the future?) assignment 10 READ CHAPTER 8 and prepare the quiz LAB8: Sun |
| exoplanets wobble of a star circular motion wobble of a star ellipical motion applet binay stars binary system  |
UNIT 13: extra solar planets/exoplanets back to chapter 7 first extrasolar planet : 1992 , 3 object EArth like masses orbiting a pulsar (from a supernova debris) 1995: first planet orbiting a star called 51 Pegasi . by Astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz confirmed by Geoffrey W. Marcy and Paul Butter of San Francisco University. lecture 11 notes how to detect exoplanet (video) earth like planet list of exoplanets website with list vs distance transit of Venux 2004 video to watch: Xplanets another video more on this website planet seemd right for life assignment11 READ CHAPTER 7 and do the quiz lab 9 : exoplanet (week 12) |
4forces bindingenergy |
UNIT 14 : age of stars , formation fusion, chapter 9 lecture12 animation;: from protostar to main sequence fusion reaction in stars fusion H-R diagram how a cluster evolves with time evolution with time globular cluster, SONG , formation: movie videos from discovery about lifle cycles of stars assignment = + assignment13 |
| website: life of star stellar evolution poster deathofstars fusion shells really small stars (less then 0.4 Msun) fusion shells small stars (the sun up to 8 Ms. M <0.4 Ms He ; M <4 He, C ; M<8 He, C, O, Si ; for M>1.5Ms t's the CNO cyle and not the pp cycle between 4Ms and 8Ms. fusion shells big stars (larger then 10Ms. ) for M <0.08 Ms we have a brown dwarf |
UNIT 15 fate of our Sun from a white star to red giant to white dwarf , fate of other stars lecutre 13 notes from Sun to white dwarf lecture 13 Part II other fate evolution of sun artist's view = what will happen to earth red giant red giant=cosmic burp, exploxion red giant Sun neutron star ----------------------------------supernova type IA supernova neutron star video explosion supernovae I video remnants of supernovae another TYPEI video supernova explosion animation video video ping pong on basket ball neutron stars M>1.4 Ms Chandrasekhar limit => supernova type IA (detonation of white dwarf after stealing materials from companion) - massive stars = supernova type II / neutron star is 100 million tons per teaspoon ! assignment = READ CHAPTER 9 + prepare QUIZ assignment14 |
universe is expanding proton degenerancy can not hold more 3Ms |
black holes
lecture from : http://www.astro.umass.edu/~mauro/astro100/Classnotes.html black hole, black hole jets, animation wrapping of space-time worm hole, inside a black hole lab 10: video: black hole : the ultimate abyss QUIZ video: Into the Universe with Septhen Hawking : time travel (00:45) - discovery channel the story of everything ( 1:26) |
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galaxies and cosmology (in construction) lecture15:slides cosmology from book cosmic perspective galaxies milky way, milky way constellation, , milky way, cluster of galaxies milky way from Bolivie source: webiste cosmic background radiation big blang (Michio kaku) , big bang gravitational lensing warch movie expanding universe |
introductory