Astronomy 160b - spring 2009
Expanded Course Description

This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly. Particular attention will be paid to currently ongoing projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. Successive segments of the course will invoke increasingly sophisticated theories of gravity. From an observational perspective, they all involve efforts to infer the presence of objects that cannot be seen directly. The three topics are the following:

  • Extra-Solar Planets (Newtonian gravity). The first planets outside the solar system (extra-solar planets) were identified only 10 years ago - by now hundreds are known. We will discuss current projects aimed at quantifying the frequency of Earth-like planets orbiting Sun-like stars.
  • Black Holes (Einsteinian gravity). There is now fairly conclusive observational evidence that black holes exist in abundance. We will discuss what black holes are, how it is possible to uncover their presence, and the range of properties that the known black holes apparently possess.
  • Dark Matter and Dark Energy (Post-Einsteinian "theories of everything"). Most of the mass-energy in the Universe is thought to be contained in a mysterious forms given the names Dark Matter and Dark Energy. We will concentrate on the observational evidence for the existence of these substances, and current plans to determine their properties in more detail.

    • Unlike many other introductory science courses this is not a survey course. Rather, we will focus on these three topics closely, so that students can understand not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out. Because the answers to many of the important questions are not currently understood, or are matters of dispute, there will be much more scope for personal opinions and discussion than is ordinarily the case in undergraduate science courses. The results we will study are not yet in textbooks, so most of the reading will consist of a variety of websites. Since there is no textbook, regular attendence at lectures is particularly important.

    Important note!
    This course is intended for students who are not majoring in science, but have a reasonable comfort level with high-school science and mathematics. It provides credit toward the SC and QR distribution requirements. See here for a detailed discussion of enrollment policies and course level in terms of math. See here for general advice about choosing introductory astronomy courses.