Astronomy 7: The Big Bang and Beyond
Fall, 1999
Syllabus, Reading Assignments & Homework

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Readings:

R. C. Bless	Discovering the Cosmos	REQUIRED
Rocky Kolb	Blind Watchers of the Sky	OPTIONAL
A. Guth	The Inflationary Universe	OPTIONAL
M. Rees	Before the Beginning...	OPTIONAL
Begelmann, Rees	Gravity's Fatal Attraction	OPTIONAL

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Introduction

Week 1 (Sep. 8-10) :

• Lecture 1: What is Cosmology?
  • Course Webpage and Web Register (different from Official Registration)
  • Origins of Astronomy
  • Our Home: the Universe
  • The Story of the Universe, from the Big Bang to Ourselves
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    • Chapter 1 (pages 1-6)

   

Origins of Cosmology

• Lecture 2: Basic Astronomy with the Naked Eye
  • Angles in the Sky, Measurement of Angles
  • Motion of the Stars, the Celestial Sphere
  • The Equator and the Ecliptic
  • Motion of the Sun and the Seasons
  • Homework 1: due September 17
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    • Chapter 2, p. 11-25; Chapter 3, p. 43-58.
  • Look also at:

    Greek Mathematics and the Scientific Revolution

    More Greeks: Especially Aristarchus

     

Week 2 (Sep. 13-17) :

• Lecture 3: More Basic Astronomy
  • Motion of the Moon
  • Phases of the Moon
  • The Small-Angle Formula
  • Angular Size of the Moon and the Sun
  • Lunar and Solar Eclipses
  • Moon Observing project : due Oct. 29
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    • Chapter 2, p. 25-32; Chapter 4, p. 63-75; Appendix A.

       

• Lecture 4: Measuring Sizes and Motions in the Universe
  • Eratosthenes method to measure the size of the Earth
  • Why five planets were known since antiquity
  • Apparent motions of Interior and Exterior Planets
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    • Chapter 5, p. 71-93; Appendix B and C; Chapter 6: optional.
  • Look also at:

    Nicholas Copernicus

     

Gravity

• Lecture 5: The Geocentric and Heliocentric Model of the Universe
  • Ptolemy and Copernicus: The Geocentric versus Heliocentric Model
  • The Ancient Prejudice of Circular Orbits
  • Observations of Tycho: Smashing the Celestial Spheres
  • Introduction to Kepler
  • Properties of Ellipses
  • Homework 1 due
  • Homework 2: due September 24
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 2, p. 33-37; Chapter 7, p. 105-122.
  • Look also at:

    Tycho Brahe
    

     

Week 3 (Sep. 20-24) :

• Lecture 6: Kepler and Galileo
  • First Kepler's Law: What is the Shape of the Path of a Planet?
  • Second Kepler's Law: How fast does a Planet move along its Path?
  • Third Kepler's Law: How are the orbital Radius and Period of a Planet related?
  • Galileo's discoveries with his telescope
  • The Emergence of the Scientific Method
  • Slides
  • Writing Project : due Dec. 6
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 7, p. 122-138.
  • Look also at:

    Johannes Kepler
    

      Galileo Galilei
    

     

• Lecture 7: Newton's Laws of Motion
  • The law of inertia
  • F=ma
  • Action and Reaction
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 8, p. 143-150.
  • Look also at:

    Isaac Newton

     

• Lecture 8: Newton's Universal Law of Gravity
  • The law of the Gravitational Force
  • Third Kepler's Law explained by Newton
  • The Mass of the Earth and of the Sun
  • How the Moon and the apple enlightened our vision of the world
  • Homework 2 due
  • Homework 3: due October 1
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 8, p. 150-163.

     

Week 4 (Sep. 27- Oct. 1) :

• Lecture 9: More Triumphs of Newton's Laws
  • Explanation of the Tides
  • Discovery of Uranus
  • Discovery of Neptune
  • The orbits of the comets
  • How do we know the Earth goes around the Sun?
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 8, p. 163-166

     

A View of the Universe

• Lecture 10: The Nature of Light
  • Light as a Wave
  • The speed of light
  • Wavelength and Frequency
  • The Electromagnetic Spectrum
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 9, p. 173-178.
  • Look also at:

    James C. Maxwell

     

• Lecture 11: The Scale of the Universe
  • Parallax: how to measure distances
  • What have we learned about the size of the Universe?
  • Flux and Luminosity
  • Homework 3 due
  • Slides
  • Movie
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 12, p. 273-282.

     

Week 5 (Oct. 4 - 8) :

• Lecture 15: The Solar System and Planets around other Stars
  • Space Missions: a Tour of the Solar System
  • Formation of the Solar System
  • The Recent Discovery of Planets around other Stars
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 23, p. 577-592. Optional: rest of Chapter 23 and Chapter 24.
  • Look also at:

    Jet Propulsion Laboratory webpage, describing missions to the Solar System.
    The Planetary Society
    Extrasolar planets
    

     

• October 8: MIDTERM EXAM 1

   

Week 6 (Oct. 11 - 15) :

• Lecture 12: Using Light to Determine Temperature
  • How we measure temperature
  • The blackbody spectrum
  • Surface Flux
  • Stefan-Boltzmann Law
  • Wien's Law
  • Homework 4: due October 22
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 9, p. 179-182.

     

• Lecture 13: Using Light to Determine Composition
  • Absorption Lines: Fingerprints of atoms
  • Continuum and Line Emission Spectra
  • Kirchhoff Laws
  • Stellar Spectra
  • The Composition of Stars
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 9, p. 183-192; Chapter 11, p. 241-251.
  • Look also at:

    Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

     

• Lecture 16: How stars work
  • Gravity also explains how stars are held together
  • Luminosity of the Sun
  • Where is this prodigious energy coming from?
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 13, p. 303-311.
  • Look also at:

    Arthur S. Eddington

     

Week 7 (Oct. 20 - 22) :

• Lecture 17: More on how stars work
  • Nuclear Reactions
  • E=mc^2
  • The nuclear furnace inside the Sun
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 12, p. 284-290; Chapter 13, p. 312-315.

     

• Lecture 14: Using Light to Determine Velocity
  • The Doppler Effect
  • Binary Stars: How the Orbits of Stars are used to Measure their Masses
  • Homework 4 due
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 10, p. 234-235; Chapter 12, p. 290-295.
  • Look also at:

    Extrasolar planets
    

  • Drop Period Ends

     

Week 8 (Oct. 25 - 29) :

• Lecture 18: Evolution of Sun-like Stars
  • Stars on the Main-Sequence
  • What will Happen to the Sun
  • Red Giants, White Dwarfs and Planetary Nebulae
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 15, p. 345-358; Chapter 15, p. 364-366; Chapter 16, p. 369-376.
  • Look also at:

    Subramanyan Chandrasekhar

     

• Lecture 19: Evolution of Massive Stars
  • Massive stars burn fast
  • Supernova explosions, neutron stars
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 16, p. 381-388, p. 394-405.

     

• Lecture 20: The Milky Way and Other Galaxies
  • Shape and Size of Our Galaxy
  • The position of the Sun in the Milky Way
  • Stellar nurseries in the Galaxy
  • Other galaxies: ellipticals, spirals, irregulars
  • The Shapley-Curtis debate and the distance to other galaxies
  • Moon Observing Project due
  • Homework 5: due November 5
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 17, p. 421-442. Optional: Chapter 14.
  • Look also at:

    The Shapley-Curtis Debate

     

Week 9 (Nov. 1 - 5) :

Relativity

• Lecture 21: Special Relativity
  • What Happens when we Travel near the Speed of Light?
  • Time Dilation, Length Contraction
  • Space-time in Relativity
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 19, p. 477-482.
  • Look also at:

    Albert Einstein

     

• Lecture 22: Introduction to General Relativity
  • The Equivalence Principle
  • Gravity as Curvature of Space-Time
  • Matter Curves Space-Time, Space-Time Curvature Guides Matter
  • Gravity Bends Light
  • When does Newton's theory of Gravity fail?
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 21, p. 515-521

     

• Lecture 24: Black Holes
  • Tests of General Relativity
  • The Escape Speed from a Massive Body
  • What if the Escape Speed Reaches the Speed of Light?
  • What Happens if you Slip into a Black Hole (don't try it).
  • Black Holes Made by Massive Stars Exist
  • Supermassive Black Holes in Galactic Centers also Exist
  • Slides
  • Homework 5 due
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 16, p. 409-414.

     

Week 10 (Nov. 8 - 12) :

Cosmology and the Big Bang

• Lecture 25: The Expansion of the Universe
  • Measuring Distances and Velocities of Galaxies
  • Hubble's Law
  • The Expansion of the Universe has no Center or Edge
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 19, p. 467-474.
  • Look also at:

    Edwin P. Hubble

     

• Lecture 26: The Big Bang Model
  • The prejudice for a static universe
  • Olbers paradox
  • The Cosmological Principle and the Big Bang Model
  • Friedmann and Lemaitre
  • The expansion of the Universe in General Relativity: Stretching of Space
  • The Hubble Constant and the Age of the Universe
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 19, p. 474-477.
  • Look also at:

    Alexander A. Friedmann

     

• November 12: MIDTERM EXAM 2

   

Week 11 (Nov. 15 - 19) :

• Lecture 27: The Friedmann Models
  • The Gravitational Attraction of Matter Decelerates the Expansion
  • The Critical Density of the Universe
  • The Open, Flat, and Closed Models of the Universe
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 21, p. 528-530.

     

• Lecture 28: History of our Universe according to the Big Bang
  • More on the expansion of the Universe: The redshift and the scale factor
  • The Scale Factor Follows the Expansion of the Universe
  • The Comoving Space-Time Map of the Universe
  • The Beginning: the Big Bang was not a Point. It Took Place in Every Point.
  • Slides
  • Homework 6: due December 3
  • Assigned Reading:

     

  • Look also at:

    Stephen W. Hawking

     

• Lecture 29: The Cosmic Microwave Background
  • The Universe in the Past was Dense, Hot, and Uniform
  • Formation of the Atoms
  • Why the Big Bang predicts the Cosmic Microwave Background
  • Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background
  • The Spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 19, p. 482-486.

     

Week 12 (Nov. 22 - 24) :

• Lecture 30: Evolution of Structure in the Universe
  • The spatial distribution of galaxies and clusters of galaxies
  • Dark matter in galaxies and clusters of galaxies
  • The Formation of Galaxies
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 18, p. 445-463; Chapter 22, p. 550-562.

     

• Lecture 31: Origin of Structure in the Universe
  • How would a perfectly uniform Universe look like?
  • The anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:

     

• Lecture 32: More Predictions of the Big Bang
  • The Hubble Constant and the Age of the Universe
  • Evolution of Galaxies
  • An Alternative Model: the Steady State Universe
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 21, p. 530-532.

     

• Lecture 33: Primordial nucleosynthesis
  • Where did all the atomic nuclei come from?
  • Generation of elements in stars and supernovae
  • Generation of elements in the first three minutes after the Big Bang
  • Slides
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 19, p. 487-489; Chapter 22, p. 545-550.

     

• Lecture 34: Cosmological tests
  • Will the Universe expand forever or recollapse?
  • The Cosmological Constant
  • The Luminosity Distance Test
  • Slides
  • Homework 6 due
  • Assigned Reading:

     

Week 14 (Dec. 6 - 10) :

Beyond the Big Bang

• Lecture 35: Before the Big Bang, Beyond the Big Bang
  • What the Big Bang theory does not explain
  • The Inflationary Universe: Accelerated Expansion
  • Writing Project Due
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 21, p. 532-541

     

• Lecture 36: The Ultimate Free Lunch
  • More on the inflationary Universe
  • How all the energy of the Universe might have been created
  • Assigned Reading:

     

• Lecture 37: Life in the Universe
  • A History of Life on Earth
  • Are there Planets around other Stars?
  • Did Life Arise on other Planets around other Stars, in other Galaxies?
  • Is there other Intelligent Life in the Universe?
  • What has astronomy taught us?
  • How will astronomy continue to be useful to us in the future?
  • Assigned Reading:
    Chapter 24

     

• To be scheduled: SPECIAL REVIEW SESSIONS

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• FINAL EXAM Friday, December 17, 8:30am-10:30am