Astronomical Universe
an interactive web class
taught by Prof. Julia Kregenow
From the syllabus:
This course will start out close to home: what we see in our sky, and the nature of the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Then we will explore our local neighborhood: the solar system, planets, asteroids, and comets. As the semester progresses, we will go progressively farther from home: nearby stars, distant stars, other galaxies, and ending at the edge of the observable universe, the cosmic background. On this remarkable journey, the objects and systems we will study will get bigger and bigger: planets, stars, star clusters, galaxies, and ultimately the whole universe itself. By the end, we hope to boggle your mind.
Some recurring themes will be our place in the cosmos, how everything came to be, how we came to be, and whether there is anywhere else that is suitable for life. We will close the semester by exploring the question “Are we alone?”
“Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards
and leads us from this world to another.”
Plato
from The Republic, 360 BC
“Astronomy and astrophysics… enable us
to better understand the universe of which
we form a part, and they elevate the thoughts
and ennoble the minds of men [and women].”
Prof. James E. Keeler
at the dedication of the Yerkes Observatory, Oct. 21, 1897
Sample past syllabus: Astro10 Syllabus Spring 2018