Descriptive Astronomy

(2,3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

AG - Athens, Greece: A description of the motions and structure of the earth, moon, and planets; an exposition of the modern theories of solar and stellar structure, nebulae, and galaxies; basics of stellar evolution, black holes, quasars, and other recent developments; an introduction to cosmology. This course includes elementary observational projects. PA description: For countless millennia people have yearned to understand our place in the universe. Cultures have asked deep questions - what is space, what is time, what are the secrets of the universe? The unity of the human yearning to understand our place in the universe is expressed in rich diversity of beliefs. This unit takes students from traditional beliefs across all cultures (with particular focus on the rich Australian Aboriginal cultural traditions) to modern discoveries about the nature of space and time, and the structure and origin of the universe. The unit begins by contrasting traditional knowledge systems with the scientific methods of skepticism and logic. Then it explores numbers and geometry, and takes them on the conceptual leap from Euclidean geometry and Newtonian physics to modern Einsteinian physics. The second part of the unit explores the unfolding scientific story of the universe that has been revealed since the discovery of the telescope. Students discover the awesome scale and the structure of the universe, and the extraordinary processes that take us from the big bang to planet Earth. The unit focuses particularly on the mysteries of the universe and the boundaries of knowledge. KY description: In this course the latest advances in our knowledge of the universe are learned in plain language. The spatial and temporal scales of the universe and the key components (planets, stars, and galaxies, and their structures) are described in detail, and the basic techniques and logic employed in astronomical science are discussed.