Astronomy 221: Stars and Planets

Astronomy 221: Stars and Planets


Instructor: Heather Morrison, hlm5@cwru.edu, Sears 558, phone 368 6698

Teaching assistant: Zhibo (Real) Ma, Sears 553


Admininistrative stuff: grading scheme, textbook


Class calendar:

Problem Set 1: due in class, Tuesday Sept 2

Problem Set 2: due 5pm Friday Sept 12, with solutions

First in-class test Thursday Sept 18: Formation of solar system, Kepler/Newtons' laws, orbits.

Problem Set 3: due in class, Thurs Sept 25

Second in-class test, Thursday Oct 2. Meteorites, asteroids, the Earth's structure, material on problem set 3. Class notes from Sept 9 thru Sept 18.

The three weeks before fall break (Sept 30 thru Oct 16) will be taught by Prof. Mihos.

Problem Set 4: due in class October 23

Problem Set 5: due 5pm November 7.

Third in-class test on Thursday Nov 13. Covers material in class from September 25 to the end of fall break.

Problem Set 6: due 5pm November 26.

Problem Set 7: due midday December 11.


Course Outline:

1. THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Overview of the Formation of the Solar System
How did it happen? What constraints do we have? Reading: Kutner Section 27.1

Aug 26 notes
Aug 28 notes

Sept 2 notes

Physical Processes: Orbits. Kepler and Newton's Laws. Energy and escape velocity

Applets illustrating Kepler's laws
Sept 2 notes
Sept 4 notes

Meteorites and Asteroids: Composition, dating, orbits, origins.

Sept 9 notes
Minor planet center animations

Halley's comet from Giotto spacecraft

Sept 11 notes

Physical Processes: Radiation Pressure.

Sept 16 notes

Sept 18 notes

The Earth: internal structure, temperature and pressure, plate tectonics and seismology.

Physical Processes: Gravity vs Pressure.

Sept 23 notes

Earth's Atmosphere: origin and retention.

Sept 25 notes

The Moon: structure and formation

more Sept 25 notes

Physical Processes: Giant Impacts

Simulation and movie of the formation of the Moon

Prof Mihos' 221 notes can be found here

3. ASTRONOMICAL TECHNIQUES

Oct 23: Telescopes

Oct 28: Telescopes and detectors

2. STARS: PHYSICS AND LIFE CYCLES

Oct 30: Measuring distances to stars

Physical Processes: Blackbody Radiation

Nov 4: Stars: colors and magnitudes

Nov 6: Stellar spectra and the H-R diagram

Nov 11: Stars - measuring mass and size. Binary stars. The Sun -- radiative transfer

Nov 13: The Sun -- nuclear fusion reactions, hydrostatic equilibrium.

Nov 18: The interstellar medium and star formation

Nov 20: Star formation, pre- main sequence evolution

Nov 25: Stellar evolution for low mass stars.

White dwarfs.

Nov 27: Evolution for higher-mass stars.

Supernovae

Dec 2: Neutron stars.

Dec 4: Black holes, relativity and the metric