Course Syllabus
Lecture I The Neighborhood
Lecture II The Central Sun
Lecture III The Making of Sunlight
Lecture IV Billions of Stars
Lecture V Ganging Up
Lecture VI Between the Stars
Lecture VII Star Birth
Lecture VIII Stellar Fate
Lecture IX Catastrophe
Lecture X Neutron Stars and Black Holes
Lecture XI The Galaxy
Lecture XII Galaxies
Lecture XIII The Expanding Universe
Lecture XIV Cosmic Origins in the Big Bang
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Even to the unaided eye, the sky displays a richness of sights. Stars of different
brightnesses and colors spangle the blackness of night. Here and there are pairs and
clusters. If the right time of year, a band of white encircles the heavens, the Milky
Way, bejewelled with bright stars and stamped with mysterious voids. Binoculars and small
telescopes reveal more: the Milky Way is made of countless faint stars, while double stars,
clusters, and clouds of swirling gas abound.
Powerful telescopes that span the spectrum of radiation, both on the ground and flying above
the Earth’s atmosphere, have broken open much of the mystery of the starry sky, while at the
same time enhancing its beauty. We know the Milky Way is the manifestation of our disk-shaped
Galaxy of some 200 billion stars, and that its dark clouds are the stars’ hidden birthplaces.
From there we can trace the flow of their lives to their deaths as burnt cinders or in powerful
explosions that leave behind some of the most bizarre characters to be found anywhere.
Over the past century, our vision has taken us far beyond the home Galaxy into the vastness of
the Universe, where we find we are hardly alone. As far as we can see are countless other
galaxies of all shapes and sizes set within an ever-expanding space that was created in a “Big
Bang” nearly 14 billion years ago.
Along with solutions to old puzzles, however, come new riddles, as most of our Universe appears
to be in the form of some kind of unseen “dark matter” and incomprehensible “dark energy” whose
natures and origins remain unfathomable. Yet with all our questions—and knowing that there are
questions still to be asked—we have learned the most important lesson: that all of this Universe
is our home, that it took all of it to make us, that it is ours to behold and enjoy.
Come then on a voyage that begins with our very own star, the Sun. Along the way we will visit
the births, lives, and deaths of stars, explore their circling planets, their groups and
galaxies, and all the stuff in the spaces between them. We finally launch ourselves deep into
the cosmos to witness the birth of it all, and in returning ride the light waves from the dawn
of time right back to Earth.
While this course stands on its own, it is also an ideal complement to the first course of the
set (Astronomy: Earth, Sky, and Planets), which covers celestial motions, constellations,
telescopes, and planetary astronomy, all of it then integrated into a full picture of space and
time.
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Professor
Professor James B. Kaler
(University of Illinois)
James B. (Jim) Kaler is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his B.A. in Astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1960 and his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1964. He has been at Illinois ever since. His research area, in which he has published over ...
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Course Forum
Course Final Exam
Science