Lectures:

They will be posted as we go along.

 

Lecture 1: Astronomy as a science

    Some history. Astronomy as a quantitative science, and as a branch of physics. Types of observations and their intrinsic limitations.
  • Slides (pdf)
  • Video
  • Supplementary readings:
    • Newtonian gravity, Kepler's laws. sec. 1.2, 1.3; Fraknoi sec. 2.2, 2.4

 

Lecture 2: Starting the exploration

    Units, distances, and parallaxes. Celestial coordinates, time systems. Telescopes.
  • Slides (pdf)
  • Video
  • Supplementary readings:
    • Lang 1.3, 1.5-1.7, 1.10; Karttunen 2.3-2.5, 2.7, 2.8, 2.13, 2.14

 

Lecture 3: Telescopes and detectors for multimessenger astronomy

    Basic optics. Adaptive optics. Radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray telescopes. Cosmic ray, neutrino, and gravitational wave observatories. Modern digital detectors.

 

Lecture 4: Electromagnetic radiation processes

    Spectra, Kirchoff's laws, atomic transitions. Blackbody radiation. Non-thermal mechanisms. Magnitudes and fluxes.

 

Lecture 5: Interstellar medium, the birth of stars and planets

    ISM, its components and properties. Interstellar dust and extinction. Star formation, protostellar disks and jets. Jeans mass and length. Formation of planetary systems.

 

Lecture 6: Kepler's laws, orbits, planets and their properties, the Solar system

    Kepler's laws and their explanation. Types of orbits, planets and their structure, composition and atmospheres. A quick overview of the Solar system

 

Lecture 7: The greenhouse effect, brown dwarfs, exoplanets, and life in the universe

    Thermodynamics of planets and the greenhouse effect. Searches for exoplanets and their properties. Life in the universe and SETI.

 

Lecture 8: Stars, their structure, and our Sun

    How stars work, energy production and transport, our Sun, Solar activity, Solar neutrinos

 

Lecture 9: HR diagram, star cLusters, and stellar evolution

    HR diagram, its significance, stellar sequences. Star clusters as probes of stellar evolution, and their dynamics. Stellar evolution beyond the Main Sequence.

 

Lecture 10: The end points of stellar evolution

    Planetary nebulae, white dwarfs, supernovae, neutron stars, and black holes.

 

Lecture 11: Our Galaxy, the Milky Way

    A brief history. Global struacture of the Milky way and its components. Rotation curve and the dark halo. Spiral density waves. The Local Group.

 

Lecture 12: Galaxies and their properties

    Galaxy classification, morphology, and Hubble sequence. Properties of spiral, elliptical, and dwarf galaxies. Galaxy scaling relations and their uses.

 

Lecture 13: Galaxy formation and evolution

    Basic processes of galaxy formation and evolution. Observational approaches: deep imaging and redshift surveys, diffuse backgrounds. Chemical evolution of galaxies and IGM. Types of IGM absorbers. An outline of galaxy formation. Reionization era. Observations of young galaxies with JWST.

 

Lecture 14: Large scale structure: formation and observations

    A basic overview. Redshift surveys. Galaxy clustering. Structure formation and the role of dark matter. Numerical simulations. Peculiar velocities. Galaxy clusters.

 

Lecture 15: Active Galactic Nuclei and supermassive black holes

    Overall properties and structure of AGN. AGN classification and unified model. Black hole paradigm for AGN. Supermassive black holes and their fueling. Thermal and synchrotron radiation. Cosmic X-ray and gamma-ray backgrounds. Evolution and formation of AGN.

 

Lecture 16: Introduction to cosmology

    Expanding universe and Hubble constant. Cosmological models, parameters, and tests