This course will focus on the constituents, properties, and physical processes inside galaxies. While the Milky Way will often be used to expemplify the principles, I will aim for the course to apply to galaxies more generally.

Class Hours: 11:05 - 12:20 B&L 407

Prof:     Eric Blackman, Bausch &Lomb 417A, 5-0537,  blackman@pas.rochester.edu

     Office Hours: Tues and Thurs. 12:40 - 2:10pm

Textbooks:

The required course textbook is: "Galaxies in the Universe" by Linda Sparke and John Gallagher. Note the following link to typos in the textbook!

     Other books of interest include:

"The Physical Universe" (Shu; the best qualitative overview of modern astronomy for physics and astronomy majors--there are few equations but the physical reasoning is very effective and at times sophisticated.)

"Modern Astrophysics" (Carroll and Ostlie; good quantitative overview of astrophysics accessible to undergraduates. A recommended purchase if you would like a comprehensive book on your shelf.)

     More advanced (A232 will prepare you for these books):

"Galactic Dynamics" (Binney and Tremaine; classic graduate level textbook for theory of gravitational dynamics within galaxies.)

"Galactic Astronomy" (Merrifield and Binney; graduate level textbook for observational properties of galaxies and a companion to Binney and Tremaine)

Syllabus

The approximate syllabus and order of topics to be covered is below, and is organized to follow the textbook (Sparke and Gallagher).

1. Introduction: Stars, the Milky Way, Galaxies in the Unverse

2. Observing and Mapping the Milky Way

3: Stellar Orbits in Galaxies

4: Nearby Galaxies and the Local Group

5. Spiral and S0 Galaxies

6. Elliptical Galaxies

UNLIKELY TO COVER:

7. Large Scale Structure and Distribution of Galaxies in the Universe

8. Active Galaxies

Coursework:

(1) Homework problems (from the book) ( ~12.5%)

(2) Two in-class exams (based on book problems) (~25% each) Oct 19, Dec 7

(3) Term paper (~15 page, single spaced, 12 pt font) (~25%) Topics due Nov 21; Paper due Finals week (Dec 20)

(4) Class presentations on papers (time permitting) (~12.5%)

EXAMPLE PAPER TOPICS FOR ITEM (3) ABOVE (more to be added throughout the course):

*NGC-4258 Masers, Dynamics, and Warped Disks *Measuring the black hole mass at the Galactic Center * The "M-sigma" relation (an observed correlation between black hole mass and velocity dispersion of stars in galaxy centers): what does it mean, how does it arise?

* The upper mass limit on stars

* Cold Dark Matter in Galaxies or Modified Newtonian Gravity?: Advantages and disadvantages of these two approaches to understanding galactic rotation curves. Recent developments 2006

* Galactic structure and stellar populations

* Type Ia Supernovae in Galaxies and the Expansion of the Universe

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Links for items shown in class:

Viewgraphs from Lects. on Sep 15,20: Intro to Milky Way ,

Howell et al. 2006; Type IA SN not standard Candles?

Most distant Galaxy observed yet: redshift z=6.96 ,

Other Links

Astronomy picture of the day archive

Stellar Classification and Stellar Subtypes

Planetary Nebulae,

Astronomy and Physics Online Journal Publication Database (ADS)