Lecture Description

The second half of the course begins, focusing on black holes and relativity. In introducing black holes, Professor Bailyn offers a definition, talks about how their existence is detected, and explains why (unlike in the case with exoplanets where Newtonian physics was applied) Einstein's Theory of Relativity is now required when studying black holes. The concepts of escape and circular velocity are introduced. A number of problems are worked out and students learn how to calculate an object's escape velocity. A historical overview is offered of our understanding and discovery of black holes in the context of stellar evolution.

Course Description

This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly: Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes, and Dark Energy. Particular attention is paid to current projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. The course explores not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out.

Lectures

1. Tests of Relativity
2. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang
3. Our Solar System and the Pluto Problem
4. Supernovae
5. Special and General Relativity
6. Supermassive Black Holes
7. Planetary Orbits
8. Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe and the Big Rip
9. Introduction to Black Holes
10. Pulsars
11. Introduction to Introduction to Astrophysics
12. Dark Matter
13. Direct Imaging of Exoplanets
14. Stellar Mass Black Holes (cont.)
15. Omega and the End of the Universe
16. Microlensing, Astrometry and Other Methods
17. Stellar Mass Black Holes
18. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang (cont.)
19. Planetary Transits
20. The Multiverse and Theories of Everything
21. Special and General Relativity (cont.)
22. Discovering Exoplanets: Hot Jupiters
23. Other Constraints: The Cosmic Microwave Background