Astr 323: Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

Spring Quarter 2014:

Tuesday 2:30 – 3:50, PA A110

Thursday 2:30 – 3:50, PA A110

Class Materials

• Syllabus.
• An old midterm exam.
• An old final exam.

Lecture Notes

“I must confess that the lectures of these men netted me no perceptible gain. It was obvious that Helmholtz never prepared his lectures properly... Kirchhoff was the very opposite... but it would sound like a memorized text, dry and monotonous.” —Max Planck (Scientific Autobiography and other Papers, p. 15, Williams & Nolgate, London, 1950).

• Lecture 1: Review of stellar astrophysics (pdf).
• Lecture 2: The Milky Way (pdf).
• Lecture 3: Galaxies (pdf).
• Lecture 4: The Extragalactic Distance Scale (pdf).
• Lecture 5: Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei (pdf).
• Lecture 6: Galaxy Clusters, Gamma-ray bursts, Lensing (pdf).
• Lecture 7: Introduction to Cosmology (pdf).
• Lecture 8: The Big Bang and Early Universe (pdf).
• Lecture 9: Astronomical Surveys and LSST (pdf).
• Lecture 10: Brief Introduction to Statistics (pdf).

Help on printing lectures with 4 pages on each printout page.

Homework Assignments

Homework will be posted no later than the first day of the week prior to the due date week.

Homework 1

• Assignment.
• HST image of M51.
• SDSS galaxy catalog.

Homework 2

• Assignment.
• Rotation curve data.
• Another SDSS galaxy catalog.

Homework 3

• Assignment.

• Solution.

Homework 4

• Assignment.

Related Links and Materials

• Simulations of galaxy encounters.
• Simulator for the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram .
• The difference between astronomy and astrology.
• Jupiter and its satellite Io—a truly spectacular image obtained by the spacecraft Galileo.
• Space coloring book for children (and others).