Recommended preparation: a working knowledge of high school algebra. The overall architecture of the solar system. Motions of the celestial sphere. Time and the calendar. Major planets, the earth-moon system, minor planets, comets. Life in the solar system and beyond. This course is similar to ASTR BC 1753. You cannot enroll in both courses and receive credit for both.

Milestones in the science of cosmology over the past 6000 years. Skylore and observation in ancient cultures. The twin revolutions of the Greeks: Pythagoras and Ptolemy. Aristotle, Aquinas, and the Great Chain of Being. The "scientific revolution": the impersonal and deterministic world-order of Newton, Laplace, and Kelvin. The erosion of that world-order by mathematics and experiment in the 20th century (relativity, quantum physics, dark matter, and the expanding universe). Today's searches for a new grand order in the Universe, which can cope-or maybe not-with these blows to yesterday's comfortable wisdom.

Recommended preparation: a working knowledge of high school algebra. Introduction to astronomy intended primarily for nonscience majors. Includes the history of astronomy; the apparent motions of the moon, sun, stars, and planets; gravitation and planetary orbits; the physics of the earth and its atmosphere; and the exploration of the solar system.

Recommended preparation: a working knowledge of high school algebra. A study of the life cycles of stars, from their birth in cold gas clouds to their final throes in supernova explosions. The turn-of-the-century revolution in physics: X-rays, radioactivity, the nuclear atom, and the quantum theory. Energy production by nuclear fission and fusion, and its consequences.

Laboratory for ASTR C1403. Projects include observations with the department's telescopes, computer simulation, laboratory experiments in spectroscopy, and the analysis of astronomical data.

Prerequisite: a working knowledge of calculus. Corequisite: a course in calculus-based general physics. First term of a two-term calculus-based introduction to astronomy and astrophysics. Topics include the physics of stellar interiors, stellar atmospheres and spectral classifications, stellar energy generation and nucleosynthesis, supernovae, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and interacting binary stars.

Prerequisites: one year of calculus-based general physics.

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity replaced Newtonian gravity with an elegant theory of curved spacetime. Einstein's theory led to unforseen and unnerving predictions of singularities and cosmological instabilities. Nearly a century later, these mathematical oddities have been confirmed astrophysically in the existence of black holes, an expanding universe, and a big bang. The course will cover Einstein's General Theory, beginning with special relativity, with an emphasis on black holes and the big bang.

Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: a working knowledge of high-school algebra.

Distances to, and fundamental properties of, nearby stars; nucleosynthesis and stellar evolution; novae and supernovae; galaxies; the structure of the universe and theories concerning its origin, evolution, and ultimate fate. This course is similar to ASTR BC 1754 and ASTR C1420. You cannot enroll in more than one of these courses and receive credit.

Galaxies contain stars, gas dust and (usually) super-massive black holes. They are found throughout the Universe, traveling through space and occasionally crashing into each other. This course will look at how these magnificent systems form and evolved, and what can they tells us about the formation and evolution of the Universe itself. This course is similar to ASTR BC 1754 and ASTR C1404. You cannot enroll in more than one of these courses and receive credit.

Recommended preparation: a working knowledge of high school algebra. The properties of stars, star formation, stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis, the Milky Way and other galaxies, and the origin and evolution of the universe.

Laboratory for ASTR C1404. Projects include use of telescopes, laboratory experiments in the nature of light, spectroscopy, and the analysis of astronomical data.

Prerequisite: a working knowledge of calculus. Corequisite: the second term of a course in calculus-based general physics. Continuation of ASTR C2001; these two courses constitute a full year of calculus-based introduction to astrophysics. Topics include the structure of our galaxy, the interstellar medium, star clusters, properties of external galaxies, clusters of galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and cosmology.

Prerequisites: one year of calculus based physics.

The emerging field of extrasolar planets and astrobiology will be covered at a quantitative level, with a major emphasis on astrophysical phenomenae and techniques. The subject will be introduced through an investigation of current planetary formation theories and approaches to planet detection, including what we currently know about extrasolar planets and detailed reference to state-of-the-art studies. An astronomer's view of the origin of life and extreme biology will be developed and applied to questions of cosmo-chemistry, observable life-signatures, habitable zones and other astrophysical constraints on the development of organisms.

Prerequisite: one year of calculus-based general physics. Physics majors could take this course with no previous astronomy background. The properties of compact astronomical objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes; and their manifestations in pulsars, novae, supernova remnants, quasars, and active galactic nuclei. High-energy radiation mechanism and the instrumentation of high-energy astrophysics are also covered.