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Open Yale Courses

ASTR 160: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics

Mirrored from oyc.yale.edu · CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 · Charles Bailyn Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of Astronomy and Physics

Mirrored from: oyc.yale.edu · Yale University · Astronomy

Instructor: Charles Bailyn Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of Astronomy and Physics · License: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0

Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics

About this course

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.

Course details

Course Structure

This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2007.

Texts

See reading assignments for individual lectures

Requirements

There will be weekly problem sets that contain both quantitative problems and essay-type questions. Policies for lateness and collaboration on problem sets are described in the short essay, Problem Sets in Theory and Practice [PDF] . There will be two in-class tests, and a final exam. All of these exams will be open book, but electronic aids, including calculators, are not allowed. Discussion sections are required and will form a crucial part of the course: part of each section will be devoted to understanding the current problem set. There will be an optional 6-12 page paper [PDF] . It will be worth 10% and will reduce the weight of the weakest major portion of the grade from 30% to 15%. However, no problems sets or tests can be dropped altogether.

Grading

Problem sets: 30% Two in-class exams: 30% (20% for the stronger grade, 10% for the weaker one) Discussion section attendance and participation: 10% Final examination: 30%

Syllabus

1 section · 31 lectures · links open at oyc.yale.edu.

Course sessions

This is a mirror of ASTR 160: Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics from Yale University Open Yale Courses, distributed under CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0. Attribution: Charles Bailyn Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of Astronomy and Physics.

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