PHYSICS DEPARTMENT Syllabus: Phys 200 (3 cr.) – Understanding the Universe

Textbook: Universe (Roger Freedman)

1. Introduction

Astronomy and the Universe: a general introduction.

2. Knowing the Heavens Celestial sphere, Constellations, Seasons. Time keeping and calendars. Solar and lunar eclipses.

3. The Copernicus Revolution Geocentric model of the Universe. Heliocentric model of the Universe. The Kepler’s laws. Newton laws of motion.

4. Nature of Light Speed of light. Blackbody radiation. Radiation laws. Particle nature of light. Simple atomic structures. Spectral line. Doppler effect of light

5. Telescopes Refracting telescopes. Reflecting telescopes. Angular resolution. Various types of elescopes.

6. Our Solar System Terrestrial and Jovian planets. General characteristics of planets. Asteroids, comets, meteorites.

7. Our Living Earth Structure of the Earth’s atmosphere (greenhouse effect, ozone layers). Earth’s magnetosphere. Structure of the Earth’s interior.

8. Our Star: The Sun Fusion reactor in the sun’s interior. Physical model of the sun. External layers of the sun: Photosphere, Chromosphere, Corona and Solar Wind.

9. Nature of the Stars Measuring distances to the stars. Luminosities and magnitudes. Color of the stars and their surface temperature. Spectral classes and the “Hertzsprung-Russell” diagram. Binary stars.

10. Stellar Evolution and the Death of Stars Birth of stars. Evolution from the main-sequence to Red Giants. Testing stellar evolution using observed star clusters. Evolution to white Dwarfs, Neutron Stars or Black Holes.

11. The Milky Way Galaxy (if time available) Discovering the size of the Milky Way. The shape of the Milky Way. Spiral structure and rotation curve. Dark matter in the Milky Way.