Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
Course Description
This course addresses a range of topics, including:
- Size and Time Scales
- Historical Astronomy
- Astronomical Instrumentation
- Stars
- Spectra
- Classification
- Stellar Structure Equations and Survey of Stellar Evolution
- Stellar Oscillations
- Degenerate and Collapsed Stars
- Radio Pulsars
- Interacting Binary Systems
- Accretion Disks
- X-ray Sources
- Gravitational Lenses
- Dark Matter
- Interstellar Medium
- HII Regions
- Supernova Remnants
- Molecular Clouds
- Dust
- Radiative Transfer
- Jeans’ Mass
- Star Formation
- High-energy Astrophysics
- Compton Scattering
- Bremsstrahlung
- Synchrotron Radiation
- Cosmic Rays
- Galactic Stellar Distributions and Populations
- Oort Constants
- Oort Limit
- Globular Clusters
Textbooks
Hansen, Carl J., Steven D. Kawaler, and Virginia Trimble. Stellar Interiors: Physical Principles, Structure and Evolution. New York, NY: Springer, 2004. ISBN: 9780387200897.
Carroll, Bradley W., and Dale A. Ostlie. An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub., 1995. ISBN: 9780201547306.
Kippenhahn, Rudolf, and Alfred Weigert. Stellar Structure and Evolution. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 1990. ISBN: 9780387502113.
Shapiro, Stuart L., and Saul A. Teukolsky. Black Holes, White Dwarfs, and Neutron Stars. New York, NY: Wiley, 1983. ISBN: 9780471873167.
Prerequisites
Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics (8.044), Quantum Mechanics II (8.05), or permission of the instructor.
Grading Policy
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Problem Sets | 30% |
| Midterm Exam | 30% |
| Final Exam | 40% |
