Physical Principles of Astronomy
Overview
- Credit value: 15 credits at Level 6
- Convenor: Professor Ian Crawford
- Assessment: a 2.5-hour examination (75%) and two problem sheets set during the module to assess your understanding of the module content (25%)
Module description
This module is designed to give you a quantitative understanding of key physical processes and concepts that underpin the disciplines of astronomy and astrophysics.
Indicative syllabus
Celestial mechanics (two lectures)
- Newtonian mechanics
- Angular momentum and moment of inertia
- Gravity (Newtonian gravity, potential energy, escape velocity, Roche limit, rotational stability)
- Orbits (Kepler’s laws)
Time (one lecture)
- Solar time (GMT)
- Sidereal time (including relation to right ascension and hour angle)
- Atomic time
- Universal Coordinated Time (UT, UTC)
- Variations in length of day
Electromagnetic radiation (one lecture)
- Wave and quantum theories of light (wave/particle duality)
- Blackbody radiation (Wein’s Law; Stefan-Boltzmann Law)
- Doppler effect
- Atomic and molecular basis of spectroscopy
Analysis of starlight (three lectures)
- Stellar luminosity and effective temperature
- Calculation of planetary effective temperatures
- Quantification of stellar magnitudes and colours (colour indices)
- Bolometric magnitudes and corrections
- Quantitative spectroscopy (equivalent widths, line saturation, deriving abundances from line strengths)
Interstellar processes (two lectures)
- Interstellar reddening and colour excess [E(B-V)]
- Properties of interstellar dust
- Quantitative information from interstellar absorption and emission lines
- Interstellar chemical processes
High energy astrophysics (two lectures)
- Introduction to special relativity
- Brehmsstrahlung and synchrotron radiation
- Gravitational redshift
- Physics of neutron stars and black holes
- Cosmic rays
Learning objectives
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- demonstrate knowledge of the specific aspects of astronomy and astrophysics outlined in the syllabus
- demonstrate an understanding of how this knowledge has been arrived at and the relationship between theories, hypotheses and observations in the planetary sciences
- demonstrate skills such as writing, numerical reasoning and the comprehension of scientific concepts.