Ian J. M. Crossfield
KU Physics & Astronomy Dept.
Lawrence, KS 66044
email : ianc@ku.edu

ASTR 391 -- Spring 2020

• Home
• Research
• Team
• Education
• Computing
• Links

• Syllabus, schedule, and other docs
• PSets and solutions
• Lecture notes
• Relevant Readings
• Exams & Review Paper

Syllabus and schedule

• Syllabus (PDF)
• Course Textbook (PDF)
• ALL LECTURE NOTES through Spring Break.
• Final Exam.

PSets and solutions

No.	Topics	Pset	Due	Solutions
01	Magnitudes, Luminosity, and Other Introductory Concepts	Pset	Jan 27
02	Parallax, angular scales, stars.	Pset	Feb 5
03	Binaries, planets, energy, and radiation.	Pset	Feb 19
04	Radiation, radiation transport.	Pset	March 16 March 23
05	Stellar structure and interiors (UPDATED Mar 22)	Pset	March 30
06	Nuclear reactions and Galaxies	Pset	April 27

Course Outline

No.	Date	Topic and/or Reading Selections	Lecture Notes
1	2020/01/22	Introduction to astronomy. Orders of magnitude; magnitudes. Types of objects and observations. Reading: Choudhuri, Ch. 1	Lecture Notes (PDF).
2	2020/01/24	Intro to astrophysics. Coordinates. Common quantities, forces, and particles. Reading: Choudhuri, Ch. 1
3	2020/01/27	Parallax, distance and size scales. Choudhuri, Ch. 1	Lecture Notes (PDF)
4	2020/01/29	Problem-solving review. Spectroscopy and Photometry.
5	2020/01/31	Basic properties of stars. Mass, temperature, luminosity. Energy. Choudhuri, Sec. 3.5.	Lecture Notes (PDF)
6	2020/02/03	Photometry. Classification, spectral types.	Lecture Notes (PDF)
7	2020/02/05	Binary star systems. Two-body Keplerian problem. Kepler's Laws.	Lecture Notes 1, Lecture Notes 2
8	2020/02/07	Planets and Exoplanets.
9	2020/02/10	Professional Development: CVs and Resumes. Reminder: draft Resume/CV due Feb 17.
10	2020/02/12	Radiation: photons, intensity, flux density. Radiation energy and momentum.	Lecture Notes (PDF), and Lecture Slides (PDF)
11	2020/02/14	Observational stellar evolution. "Road Map" and the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
12	2020/02/17	Observational stellar evolution: the end states of stars.
13	2020/02/19	More Radiation: specific intensity, opacity, optical depth.	Lecture Notes (PDF)
14	2020/02/21	Exam review.
15	2020/02/24	Exam 1.
16	2020/02/26	More radiation: review, specific intensity, surface brightness Choudhuri, Secs. 2.1-2.2	Lecture Notes (PDF)
17	2020/02/26	Kirchhoff's Laws, Optical Depth, Extinction and Absorption Choudhuri, Sec. 2.2	Lecture Notes (PDF)
18	2020/03/02	Absorption and emission. Choudhuri, Secs. 2.2 and 2.4	Lecture Notes (PDF)
19	2020/03/04	Stellar structure: mass conservation and hydrostatic equilibrium.	Lecture Notes 1, Lecture Notes 2
20	2020/03/06	Stellar structure: walkthrough, application, and practice.
21	2020/03/16	Class cancelled
22	2020/03/18	Class cancelled
23	2020/03/20	Class cancelled
24	2020/03/23	Introduction to nuclear reactions	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) Choudhuri, Sec. 4.1 Wikipedia (through and including "Energy Conservation"). More detail than you want on nuclear physics (from MIT)
25	2020/03/25	Main nuclear reactions in stars	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) Choudhuri, Sec. 4.3 Proton-proton chain reaction CNO cycle reaction Old-timey but informative website on fusion concepts
26	2020/03/27	Stellar evolution: overview & final stages	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) Lecture Notes (PDF) (a more technical supplement; optional). Choudhuri, Secs. 4.5, 4.6
27	2020/03/30	Stellar evolution: overview & final stages	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) Choudhuri, Sec. 4.7 Useful notes on stellar death.
28	2020/04/01	Compact objects: White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) Choudhuri, Chapter 5
29	2020/04/03	The Interstellar Medium	Reading: Lecture Notes (PDF) (Secs. 29.4 and 29.5 are pretty math-heavy; optional!)
30	2020/04/06	Midterm Assigned
31	2020/04/08	Strategies for a Successful Job Search	Online presentation (YouTube)
32	2020/04/10	Our Galaxy, the Milky Way	Chapter 22 of Freedman et al. Choudhuri, Secs. 6.1, 6.2, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6.4, 6.6.6, Fig. 6.15
33	2020/04/13	Other Galaxies: Classification, distance, and size	Chapter 23 of Freedman et al. Choudhuri, Secs. 9.1, 9.2
34	2020/04/15	Rotation Curves of Galaxies	Chapter 23 of Bennett et al. Chapter 22 of Freedman et al. Choudhuri, Sec. 9.2
35	2020/04/18	Galactic Center, Sagittarius A*, Supermassive Black Holes	Chapter 19 of Bennett et al., on our Galactic Center Chapter 21 of Bennett et al., on supermassive black holes Choudhuri, Sec. 9.4
36	2020/04/20	Active Galactic Nuclei	Chapter 24 of Freedman et al., on AGN Choudhuri, Sec. 9.4
37	2020/04/22	Large-Scale Structure, Galaxy Clusters	Chapter 1 of Sparkes and Gallagher Choudhuri, Secs. 9.5, 9.6
38	2020/04/24	Galaxy Evolution and Circumgalactic Medium	Chapter 21 of Bennett et al. The Circumgalactic Medium, Tumlinson et al., Secs. 1-3 (or further if you want)
39	2020/04/27	The Expanding Universe and the Big Bang	Chapter 22 of Bennett et al. Choudhuri, Sec. 9.3, Sec. 11.1
39	2020/04/29	Cosmology	Chapter 25 of Freedman et al. Choudhuri, Sec. 10.1, 10.5, 10.6
40	2020/05/01	Cosmology, Continued	Chapter 23 of Bennett et al. (concluded) Choudhuri, Chapter 11 (but skip the mathy bits)
41	2020/05/04	A Brief History of Time	Chapter 26 of Freedman et al.
41	2020/05/06	The End	Finish and submit research paper Download and work on final exam Have a great summer, and stay healthy!

External Readings

• Order-of-magnitude approximations (courtesy of Ned Wright).
• Astronomy Picture of the Day(APOD) -- a venerable and always-fascinating daily astronomy vignette.
• Freedman et al., Intro to Astronomy, Chapter 1.
• Freedman et al., Intro to astronomical magnitudes, Chapter 17.
• Bennett et al., Intro to Astronomy, Chapter 1.
• "History of Stellar Spectral Classification," Gray & Corbally, Chapter 1.
• "An Overview of Normal Stars," Gray & Corbally, Chapter 2.
• Goldstein et al., on the Two-Body Problem
• Overview of Recent Exoplanet Progress
• Rybicki et al., on Intro to Radiation, first half of chapter 1.

Exams & Review Paper

Midterms:

There will be two in-class exams during the semester, on Monday, Feb 24 and on Friday, April 3.
UPDATE March 30: The second midterm will be replaced by a take-home exam. On Monday, April 6, I'll put a take-home, open-book, open-notes midterm on the course website. You can use whatever resources you want for this, but (of course) you should do your own work on it. It will be due next Wednesday, April 8, no later than 11am Kansas Time.

Midterm 2 online here

Final:

A comprehensive final exam will be taken on Monday, May 11 from 1030-1300. UPDATE : Details of the final exam are pending a new, official Final Exam policy from the university in light of the pandemic shutdown.

Review Paper

Work on the review paper will comprise 15% of the total course grade. Just as when writing any professional document, there will be a series of checkpoints to ensure that the author (you!) stays on track. The grade weight of these checkpoints follows a geometric progression, as detailed below.

Submissions in PDF, LibreOffice writer format, or other free/libre formats will receive full credit. Submissions in Apple Pages, MS Word, Google Docs, or other non-free formats will not.

Paper checkpoints:

• Topic. Submit three topics that most interest you that are relevant to the course. Submit them to the instructor no later than February 19. (1% of grade.)
• Outline. Submit a one-page outline for your paper by March 20 March 23. (2% of grade).
• Draft. Submit a substantially complete draft by April 17. (4% of grade).
• Final paper. Submit the completed and revised paper on the last day of class, May 6. (8% of grade).

The rubric used for grading the final paper is online here.