syllabus & course expectations
Astronomy
Picture of the Day
the
latest astrophysics discoveries
what's up in the sky
this week
Skywatcher's
Diary for this month
| Monday, December 11 |
December 12 |
December 13 |
December 14 |
December 15 |
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jit due by noon today | ||||
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(always done before class) |
23(2-3) |
Walker
17(2) on the origin of pressure in a gas.... Walker: various parts on the electromagnetism laws: Gauss's Ampere's Faraday's |
23(4-5) |
bring
a show/tell to class! |
finish
chapter 23 |
| things
you should know the answer to before coming to class |
what is our best model for a pulsar? what is syncrotron radiation? how is it produced? |
understand the derivation of P = (1/3)n <mv2> what does each law of electromagnetism allow us to determine or calculate? what important (to you) devices is Faraday's law responsible for? what accelerates the electrons to high speed in a supernova remnant? |
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homework (written assignments to be turned in) |
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finish
part A of the supernova discovery lab |
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of the week |
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December 4 |
December 5 |
December 6 |
December 7 |
December 8 |
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(always done before class) |
supernova events |
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| things you should know the answer to before coming to class | what
were some of the "firsts" that supernova 1987A provided for astronomers |
what is the other scenario that can produce supernovas? how would we be able to tell observationally whether a supernova is type I or type II? |
what could Jocelyn Bell have done after she observed the first pulsating radio source with a period precisely repetitive to 7 digits to decide if the signal was from intelligence or just from some astronomical object? |
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| homework (written assignments to be turned in) |
is
26Fe56 + He --> Ni exothermic or endothermic? what about disintegration of Fe into pieces? |
determine
for a typical supernova (or SN 1987A): 1) the gravitational emergy released in the core's collapse (make sure you calculate a change in gravitational energy) 2) at least 3 of the output energies (rotation KE of the neutron star -- if one formed, light energy emitted, neutrino energy, KE of the ejected matter, or mass energy created in the endothermic reactions occurring in the SN process) |
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supernova implosion and explosion movies (best movies are the ones at the very top) |
happen in binaries |
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supernova debris in the LMC Chandra discovers relativistic pinball machine |
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November 27 |
November 28 |
November 29 |
November 30 |
December 1 |
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questions to address: what pushes the envelope away from the core? |
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bring your lab book |
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(always done before class) |
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3 stages of planetary nebula development in red giant and planetary nebula evolution |
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| things you should know the answer to before coming to class | 6 important properties of white
dwarfs bring a list to class! |
what's
the difference(s) between a young planetary nebula and an old one? why do planetary nebulas disappear eventually? why do we find white dwarfs without planetary nebula but NOT planetary nebulas without white dwarfs? what distinguishes a solid from a gas (and a liquid)? what stars did you learn about first from your parents when you were very young (like 4 or 5)? blue main sequence stars? red giants? supernovas??? did anybody solve the differential equation for the lifetime of a white dwarf? did anybody check the cooling/dimming curves on page 496? why are the low mass ones higher up on the H-R diagram? (last two would be great presentation questions to answer) |
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| homework (written assignments to be turned in) |
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trimester 1 pages