Lectures (Video)
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Planetary Orbits
- 3. Our Solar System and the Pluto Problem
- 4. Discovering Exoplanets: Hot Jupiters
- 5. Planetary Transits
- 6. Microlensing, Astrometry and Other Methods
- 7. Direct Imaging of Exoplanets
- 8. Introduction to Black Holes
- 9. Special and General Relativity
- 10. Tests of Relativity
- 11. Special and General Relativity (cont)
- 12. Stellar Mass Black Holes
- 13. Stellar Mass Black Holes (cont)
- 14. Pulsars
- 15. Supermassive Black Holes
- 16. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang
- 17. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang II
- 18. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang III
- 19. Omega and the End of the Universe
- 20. Dark Matter
- 21. Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe and the Big Rip
- 22. Supernovae
- 23. Other Constraints: The Cosmic Microwave Background
- 24. The Multiverse and Theories of Everything
Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics
Course Summary
This course is based on ASTR 160 - Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, Spring 2007 made available by Yale University: Open Yale under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.
This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly: Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes, and Dark Energy. Particular attention is paid to current projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. The course explores not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out.
This course is taught by Charles Bailyn who is Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Yale. His recent research efforts have focused on observations of binary star systems containing black holes and on stellar collisions in dense star clusters. He has lectured on "How To See a Black Hole" to school groups, Yale alumni, and amateur astronomical societies. He is the author of over 100 scientific papers, and his work was featured in the PBS mini-series, Mysteries of Deep Space.
Reading Material
1. WormholesThorne, Kip S. "Wormholes." In Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.
2. Neptune's Discovery
Sheehan, William and Richard Baum. "Neptune's Discovery." Astronomy (September 1996) : 43-49.
3. In Pursuit of Vulcan
Fernie, J. Donald. "In Pursuit of Vulcan." American Scientist (82) : 412-415.
Course Material
1. Sample exam questions and answersMidterm Exam 1
Midterm Exam 1 Solutions
Midterm Exam 2 Solutions
Other Resources
Not available.Software
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