ASTR220 SYLLABUS

Collisions in the Solar System

  • Tuesday Feb. 1 -- Introduction & Survey of the Universe
    Course description and expectations
    Collisions within the solar system, our Galaxy, and the universe
    Time scales and spacings
    Video: Powers of Ten (in class presentation)
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 1

  • Thursday Feb. 3 -- Impact Craters on Earth
    Scientific Method
    Volcanic versus impact theories
    Tunguska event
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 2 & 3

  • Tuesday Feb. 8 -- Bombardment of the Solar System
    Observations and comparison of surfaces
    Why planets and moons look so different
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 4

  • Thursday Feb. 10 -- Factors Affecting Surfaces
    Orbits, composition, collision potential
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 5 to page 70
    Video: Flying by the Planets (in class presentation)

  • Tuesday Feb. 15 -- Nature of Projectiles - Comets, Asteroids, and Meteorites
    Orbits, composition, collision potential
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 5 from page 70
    HOMEWORK #1 due at beginning of class

  • Thursday Feb. 17 -- Experiences with Collisions
    IN CLASS ACTIVITY (15 pts.) Making Craters

  • Tuesday Feb. 22 -- Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Collision with Jupiter
    Discovery and Observations
    MPEG movies of the Impacts
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 6

  • Thursday Feb. 24 -- The Asteroid Impact Theory of Dinosaur Demise
    Birth of a new theory
    Impact Winter / Nuclear Winter --- what would it be like?
    Video: Crater of Death (in class presentation)
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 7 & 8

  • Tuesday Feb. 29 -- Periodic Mass Extinctions
    Nemesis, Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 10 & 11

  • Thursday Mar. 2 -- Formation of the Earth's Moon
    Result of a collision?
    Other Theories Involving Major Solar System Collisions: Mercury, Uranus, Miranda, Pluto
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 12 & 13
    QUIZ #1 given in class

  • Tuesday Mar. 7 -- Predicting and Preventing Collisions: Do future collisions threaten our existence?
    NOVA video (in class presentation)
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 19
    HOMEWORK #2 due at the beginning of class

  • Thursday Mar. 9 -- So What Do We Do?
    Watch programs & Action programs
    IN CLASS ACTIVITY (15 pts.) Killer Asteroid Discussion

  • Tuesday Mar. 14 -- EXAM I

    Collisions between Stars

  • Thursday Mar. 16 -- Physics of Light and Heat
    Electromagnetic spectrum
    Blackbody radiation
    Doppler shift

  • Week of Mar. 20 -- Spring Break

  • Tuesday Mar. 28 -- Properties of Stars
    Observations and theories
    The Hertzsprung Russell Diagram
    The Main Sequence
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 17

  • Thursday Mar. 30 -- Evolution of Stars
    Life of the Sun: Evolution of a 1 solar mass star
    High mass stars
    Synthesis of the elements

  • Tuesday Apr. 4 -- Stellar Death
    Supernovae
    White dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes
    Reading: Chapman & Morrison 18
    QUIZ #2 given in class POSTPONED until 4/6/00

  • Thursday Apr. 6 -- Binary Stars
    Characteristics and types
    Close Binaries
    Mass flows and novae
    Fascinating systems: Algol, Cygnus X-1, SS 433, ER Vulpeculae, models
    QUIZ #2 given in class NEW TIME

  • Tuesday Apr. 11 -- Star Clusters & Galactic Structure
    Open and globular clusters
    Do stars collide?
    Survey of the Milky Way Galaxy
    HOMEWORK #3 due at the beginning of class

  • Thursday Apr. 13 -- EXAM II

  • Tuesday Apr. 18 -- ET & X-files
    IN CLASS ACTIVITY (15 pts.) Extraterrestrial Life Discussion

    Collisions between Galaxies

  • Thursday Apr. 20 -- External Galaxies
    Discovery and implications
    Cepheid Stars and Distance Scales
    [Reading: Parker 1, 2, 3]

  • Tuesday Apr. 25 -- Galaxy Morphology
    Galaxy classification: the Hubble Sequence
    Peculiar & Interacting Galaxies

  • Thursday Apr. 27 -- Radio Galaxies, Seyferts, & Quasars
    Discovery and energy scales
    The Supermassive Black Hole Model
    Does our Milky Way have a supermassive black hole lurking at its center?
    [Reading: Parker 4, 5, 6]

  • Tuesday May 2 -- Galactic Collisions
    Observations and theory
    MPEG movies of interacting and merging galaxies
    [Reading: Parker 9, 10, 11]
    HOMEWORK #4 due at the beginning of class

  • Thursday May 4 -- Large Scale Structure
    Galaxies, Clusters of galaxies, Superclusters
    Bubbles and Voids
    [Reading: Parker 12 & 13 to page 266]
    QUIZ #3

  • Tuesday May 9 -- Cosmology
    Possible fates of our universe
    The Ultimate Collision--The Big Crunch?
    [Reading: Parker 13 & 14 from page 266]

  • Thursday May 11 -- Dark Matter in the Universe
    Evidence for and nature of dark matter
    Does it really exist?

  • Tuesday May 16
    Latest Results in Cosmology & Dark Matter
    Other Collisions in Space & things that go bump in the night:
    Gamma Ray bursts: Colliding Neutron Stars?
    Review

  • Saturday May 20 -- FINAL EXAM
    Room: CSS 2400
    Time: 10:30 am - 12:30 pm

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    Last modified: Wednesday January 26, 2000