Date
|
Topic
|
Assigned Reading
|
Notes
|
Sep 6
|
Introductions - us, the course
|
-
|
Powers of 10
Cosmic Calendar
|
Sep 13
|
Direct exploration of the Solar System;
Planetary Missions
|
Preface, Chapter 1
|
The modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Comet missions
Debris disks around stars - Beta Pictoris
Debris disks around stars - Fomalhaut
Extra-Solar planets
|
Sep 20
|
Why are we interested in astronomy (throughout history)?
Ptolemy and his model of the Solar System
|
Chapter 3, first part, p.32-41
|
---
|
Sep 27
|
The beginning of modern astronomy:
Kepler, Brahe, Newton
|
Chapter 3, second part, p.41-59
|
Geocentric system - orbit of Mars
Retrograde motion of Mars on the sky
Phases of Venus
|
Oct 4
|
Comets and impacts;
Galileo and observations of Venus
|
Chapter 4
|
Lunar crater Giordano Bruno
The Tunguska 1908 Event
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera
Crater size comparison
Moon Zoo (a Zooniverse project)
NASA's Near Earth Object Program
Pieces of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Comet S-L 9 swallowed by Jupiter
Crater Chain on Ganymede
Impact crater on Mimas
Meteor Crater in Arizona
The Full Moon Atlas
|
Oct 11
|
Life on Mars?
Missions to Mars; mapping of surface; Rovers
|
Chapter 5
|
Percival Lowell's Mars canals
Mars Photo Gallery
Gullies on Mars
Gullies and Channels on Mars
Dust devil on Mars
|
Oct 18
|
The Voyager Missions; Satellites of Giant Planets
|
Chapter 6
|
Extremophiles
Extremophiles - Nature article (10 pg.)
ALH 84001 (slide 18) Martian meteorites
Galileo mission to Jupiter & Europa
Jupiter's Europa and Earth's Antarctic Ice
Jupiter's moon Io
An active volcano on Io
Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn & Titan
Titan: shallow lakes on liquid ethane
Microbial life in an asphalt lake
|
Oct 25
|
Why is it that the physical world CAN BE described by mathematics?
|
Chapter 7, p.133-145
|
---
|
Nov 1
|
Stars, and how we know their properties
|
Chapter 7, p.145-160
|
Sun's spectrum
Stars: Limb darkening
Scientific Method
Famous Quotes about Math and Physics
Pi
|
Nov 8
|
Physics of the atom, Chemistry, How stars cook up elements
|
Chapter 9
|
Orion star forming region
ITER: fusion reactor: one two
Plutonium-238 and space missions
Plutonium-238 supplies running low
A sphere of Plutonium-238 as PuO2
|
Nov 15
|
Brief history of the Universe, most distant/oldest objects;
Hubble expansion
|
Chapter 10, p.200-212
|
Galaxy collisions - observed cases
Galaxy collisions - computer simulation
Formation of cosmological-scale structure
Astronomer's Periodic Table
CMB - Cosmic Microwave Background
CMB; Helium abundance
|
Nov 22
|
Cosmology
|
Chapter 10, p.213-222
|
---
|
Nov 29
|
How many dimensions does our Universe have?
|
-
|
Euclid's 5 Postulates
Euclid's 5 Postulates & more
Curvature of 2D space
Heaven & Hell - Escher
|
Dec 6
|
We know of only one type of biology - ours
Storing information: DNA, brain, library, specialization
|
A-P: Ch.2; Q-W: Ch.11
|
Mars Science Lab, Curiosity launched
Chapters 2 and 11
DNA Building Blocks Can Be Made in Space
Heike crab
Mandelbrot set
|
Dec 13
|
Drake equation; first encounter;
our future as civilization
|
Q-W: Ch.12, A-P: Ch.13
|
Rosetta Stone (ca. 196 BC)
Rosetta Stone [large]
Alan Turing (1912-1954)
Take a verbal Turing test
Take a visual Turing test
The Drake equation
Kepler 22B - Earth's `twin'
|