Astronomy 1G: Galactic and Cosmological Science

Course Structure:

This course is aimed at physical scientists, and is recommended, for example, to be taken by those students registered for Astrophysics. It considers selected controversies and revolutions in Astronomy and focuses primarily on the large scale universe, covering such topics as measuring the Universe, the big bang, and black holes.

Syllabus:

The Science of Astronomy (Prof. A. Lawrence)

This introductory module introduces some basic scientific concepts such as gravity and motion, Doppler shifts, and thermal radiation.

The Milky Way and other Galaxies (Prof. A. Lawrence)

The module will consider our own galaxy - the Milky Way - the local group of galaxies, standard candles, and star formation in galaixes.

Active Galaxies and Black Holes (Dr K Rice)

In this module we will discuss gravity, general relativity, stellar black holes, active galaxies and quasars

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The distribution of galaxies (Prof. A. Lawrence)

This module will consider the "Great Debate", the realm of the galaxies, red-shifts, and the Hubble constant.

Cosmology (Dr C Heymans)

In this final module we will discuss the universe at early times, the history of the universe, and the consequences of the cosmological principle.

The Royal Observatory Edinburgh comprises the UK Astronomy Technology Centre of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Edinburgh, the Higgs Centre for Innovation and the ROE Visitor Centre.