You will need to write a term paper on a recent astrophysics-related article of your choice.
To choose a topic, first look at the astro-ph; see the Physics Archive [http://arXiv.org]. Then look at some titles from the years 2011–2013, and pick an article that is of interest to you. You are not expected to find an article that you completely or even mostly understand. Part of the point of this assignment is to learn what to do when faced with scholarship that is difficult or outside of your area of current comprehension.
Once you have located an article of interest, next find some other sources that seem likely to help you understand your article. These may include textbooks, popular science books, and popular and professional science magazines. The library's search engines, Research Guides, and Ask A Librarian features will help you greatly with this task.
April 5 is the deadline for getting your topic approved. You must submit by email the bibliographic information (the arXiv number, e.g. 1304.0135, and the title) for the article you have chosen and for a list of 2 to 5 other sources you will be using to help you understand your article. Wikipedia is not an acceptable source for this assignment.
Your term paper must be 10–20 pages in length. The majority of it should provide a cogent discussion of the background information necessary for understanding your chosen article. In addition to this background information, it must explain what is new, interesting, and significant about your chosen article, and what it contributes to our understanding of the broader topic. It should be at the level that another Phy 305 student who could read this term paper. All sources must be properly cited.
The term paper is due on April 24.