Astronomy 122 Honors, Fall, 2009
Reading and Topics
August 24, 2009. Please read Chapters 1 and 3.
Chapter 1. Chapter 1 is an overview of the subject that provides the
context of the course. There are no specific topics for Chapter 1
except to understand the basic contents of the Universe and their scales
and sizes.
Chapter 3 provides background information on naked-eye stars,
constellations, and star names.
Topics for Chapter 3:
1. Constellations and their
meanings
2. The "modern" constellations"
3. How stars are named.
August 29, 2009
Please read Chapter 5.
Topics for Chapter 5:
1. Newton's laws of motion and the law of gravity
2. The nature of an orbit; an orbiting body as a falling body
3.
Kepler's laws of planetary motion
4. Real orbits; effects of all the planets on one another.
5. Einstein and relativity (to be covered in class at a later time).
September 2, 2009. Please read Chapter 6 and an introduction to Spectra down to but not including the
section titled "The Stellar Spectral Sequence."
Topics for Chapter 6
1. Protons, electrons, neutrons, and chemical elements.
2. Ions and isotopes.
3. The nature of light as an electromagnetic wave; wavelength and
frequency
4. The electromagnetic spectrum
5. Photons and energy
6. Blackbodies; the Wien law and the Stefan-Boltzmann law
7. Nature of electron orbits.
8.
Spectrum lines in absorption
and emission.
9. Telescopes across the spectrum (optical, radio, and space
telescopes); detectors; observatories.
September 9, 2009. Please read Chapter 12 (the Sun) as well as a summary web
page. We'll monitor the Sun at the SOHO site.
Topics for Chapter 12:
1. Basic properties of the Sun: radius, mass, luminosity, surface
temperature, rotation.
2. The photosphere: limb darkening; convection and granulation; spectrum
and gross chemical composition
3. The chromosphere and corona.
4. The solar wind and its relation to the corona.
5. Sunspots as magnetic zones; the sunspot cycle.
6. Other active Sun phenomena.
7. The relation between the active Sun and the Earth.
8. The solar interior.
9. Thermonuclear fusion; the proton-proton chain and the carbon cycle.
September 23, 2009. Please read:
Topics for Chapter 13
1. Distances of stars. Parallaxes and how they relate to
distance
2. Apparent and absolute magnitudes.
3. Motions of stars; radial velocities.
4. Spectra and the spectral sequence; the definitions of the
various categories of stars.
5. The HR
diagram: main sequence stars (dwarfs), giants,
supergiants, subgiants, white dwarfs.
6. Distances from spectra.
7. Double stars and stellar masses; the mass-luminosity relation;
the main sequence as mass sequence.
8. Clusters
of stars;
open clusters and
globular clusters; their ages, HR diagrams, and
significance.
October 14, 2009. Please read Chapters 14 and 15. Do not be concerned
with the detail. The important points will be taken slowly in class.
Don't read them all at once, but keep the reading in pace with the
lecture. Also read The Natures
of the Stars from
Lifetimes of the Stars to the end.
Topics for Chapter 14
1. Gas in the interstellar medium; diffuse nebulae; interstellar
clouds.
2. Interstellar dust; globules and cold dark clouds.
3. Molecular clouds and their relation to interstellar dust.
4. Star formation: gravitational contraction and the formation of
disks and jets around new stars.
5. Origin and possibilities of other planetary systems.
6. Brown dwarfs.
7. Life elsewhere.
Topics for Chapter 15
1. Hydrogen exhaustion and the creation of giant stars.
2. Lifetimes of stars on the main sequence.
3. Helium burning in giants, helium exhaustion, and the second
ascent of the giant branch (the AGB).
4. Cepheid variables, RR Lyrae stars, and Mira variables
5. Neutron capture and the building of elements
6. Mass loss and the creation of planetary nebulae.
7. White dwarfs and the Chandrasekhar limit.
8. Binary evolution and novae
9. Evolution of high mass stars and the creation of supergiants.
10. Nuclear burning to an iron core.
11. Collapse of the iron core and Type II supernovae.
12. Supernova remnants.
13. Neutron stars and pulsars
14. Black holes.
15. Gamma ray bursts (long and short GRBs)
16. Double stars and Type Ia (white dwarf) supernovae
17. Supernovae as the producers of heavy elements in the Universe;
the enrichment of the interstellar medium by the processes of
stellar evolution.
November 10, 2009. Please read Chapters 16 and 17.
Topics for Chapters 16 and 17
1. Structure of the Galaxy: disk, halo and their differences.
2. Dimensions of Galaxy.
3. The rotation of the Galaxy, the mass of the luminous Galaxy, and the
existence of dark matter.
4. The galactic nucleus.
5. Age and evolution of the Galaxy; increase of metal content with
time; the role of mergers.
6. Kinds of galaxies: spirals, ellipticals, irregulars.
7. Distances to other galaxies; Cepheid variables.
8. Masses of other galaxies and dark matter.
9. Clusters of galaxies.
10. Active galaxies; the likelihood of massive black holes at the
centers of galaxies.