Units, etc.:
Astronomical Unit (AU), light-year (ly), parsec (p. 358-359, no parallax for now);
angular sizes (p.42-43);
Kelvin temperature scale (p. 55);
powers of 10 notation
Overview before Chapter 1:
zodiac
Chapter 1:
celestial sphere, pole and equator, daily and annual motions, ecliptic,
constellations changing with the season,
seasons, axis of rotation (inclined by 23.5 degrees to the ecliptic),
solstices and equinoxes,
the zodiac, retrograde motions of planets,
phases of the Moon, eclipses of the Sun and the Moon;
shape and size of the Earth, relative sizes of and distances between
Sun, Earth, Moon,
and how the ancient Greeks figured these out;
Geocentric (Ptolemy) and Heliocentric (Copernicus) models of the Solar System,
Ptolemy's epicycles and his explanation of the retrograde motion of planets;
how Geocentric model was shown to be incorrect;
ellipse, focus, semi-major axis, period;
Kepler's 3 Laws of planetary motion;
know how to calculate planet's orbital period if its semi-major axis is given,
and vise versa;
Galileo's contributions to Astronomy.
Essay 1:
celestial coordinate system, Right Ascension and Declination,
azimuth and altitude;
elongation of planet positions in the sky
Chapter 2:
Newton's 3 Laws of motion (no inertia), force, acceleration, linear momentum,
Newton's Law of Gravity, orbital motion of planets;
concept of circular velocity and escape velocity
(the latter larger than the former), (no equations required);
equations: F=ma, F_gravity=GMm/r^2,
know how the force of gravity scales with masses of bodies and
their distance apart;
know how to tell if a force is acting on a body;
K's Laws derivable from more fundamental N's Laws (no derivations required);
surface gravity, g=GM/r^2, know how to compare g's on different planets given
their relative masses and sizes;
Essay 2:
sidereal day, solar day, time zones, daylight savings time, leap year
Forces, Energy, Power, etc. (p.71-73)
Four fundamental forces in physics:
strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetic, gravitational
(the first three act
mostly on microscopic scales, the fourth acts on astronomical scales);
Energy: is the ability to do work;
different types of energy: heat, chemical, nuclear, gravitational potential energy,
kinetic energy of motion, radiation energy;
inter-conversion of different types of energy; power plants
(nuclear, coal burning, hydroelectric, solar, wind);
conservation of energy
(does not appear or disappear, but is converted from one form to another);
Power: amount of energy expended per unit time;
Massive astronomical objects (planets, stars) can attain round shape.
Overview 4.
Chapter 7:
(p. 221-227; p. 230-239)
Components: Sun, inner and outer planets, satellites,
rings of outer planets, asteroids, comets;
Age of the Solar System (remember 4.5 billion yrs!);
Main observed properties of the Solar System;
Planetary systems are a by-product of formation of stars;
Formation of the Solar System;
slowly rotating insterstellar cloud of gas and dust
collapses under gravity while preserving angular momentum --> disk;
gravitational potential energy heats the forming disk,
eventually energy radiated away; Sun, as a star, forms at the center;
Condensation of material in the inner vs outer parts of the Solar Nebula,
Snow line (between orbits of Mars and Jupiter);
Planetesimals first grow as particles stick together (chemically, mechanically);
later, large planetesimals begin to accrete material via their gravity;
Final stages of planer formation, Formation of atmospheres;
Cleaning up the Solar System: Solar wind sweeps away most of gas and dust,
Jupiter, through gravitational tugs, gets rid of most large rocky debris, etc.
The above model for Solar System formation accounts for main observed properties;
Other Planetary systems.
Chapter 10:
(p. 302, 304-320)
Comets, asteroids: debris left over from the formation of the Solar System;
Meteors (no need to know the distinction between meteors, meteoroids, meteorites)
Asteroids: size, shape, origin, differentiation of early planetesimals;
Asteroid belt, Kirkwood gaps `carved out' by Jupiter, result of resonance, (no Trojan, Apollo, Chiron);
Comets, structure: nucleus, coma, ion/gas and dust tails, formation of tails, (no fluorescence);
Short-period comets, Halley's comet;
Source of comets: Kuiper belt, Oort Cloud, their approximate shapes and locations in the Solar System;
Meteor showers due to Earth crossing orbit of comet;
Giant impacts;
comet/asteroid hits ground: kinetic energy of motion --> heat, mostly (no eqns);
Craters, a common feature of inner planets, and some moons of outer planets;
single and chain craters;
mass extinction in Earth's history.
Chapter 9:
Jupiter: appearance, properties, spin --> equatorial bulge, interior (p.273-276);
Jupiter's moons: Io, tidal heating --> geological activity, volcanism (p. 279-280);
Saturn: appearance, properties,
Saturn's rings, origin, Cassini division (result of same process that made Kirkwood gaps in the Asteroid belt), Roche limit
(p.282-286, no spiral density wave, no shepharding satellites);
Uranus: general characteristics, odd tilt (p.288, p.291);
Neptune: its discovery demonstates predictive powers of scientific theories
(p.291-292);
Pluto: its origin as `planet' still under debate (p.295-296, skim, no details).
Chapter 8:
Similarities:
differentiated, signs of cratering (lots on Mecury, not as much on
Venus, Mars, Earth), signs of volcanic activity (little on Mercury),
have atmospheres (lots on Venus, little on Mars, almost none of Mercury);
Mercury: temp, lack of atmosphere, rotation around the Sun and revolution on its axis: locked into resonance (p.246-248,250);
Venus: thick atmosphere and greenhouse effect (p.251-252);
Mars: surface features, signs of microbial life? (p.257-260, p.264-265).
Overview 3.
Chapter 5:
Earth (p.151-153, p.158-168)
Shape, size, formation and differentiation;
sources of heat: impacts during formation and radioactivity;
Age of the Earth and radioactive dating (using Uranium and Potassium);
radioactivity: spontaneous decay of elements, giving off energy and particles;
half-life of radioactive elements;
Motions in the Earth's interior: convection in the mantle;
heat leaking from inside causes plate tectonics, volcanism, earthquakes;
evidence for plate tectonics: original (circa 1900) and modern;
Atmosphere:
1st (light gases, some molecules broken up by UV radiation from Sun);
2nd (mostly CO_2 from volcanic outgassing);
3rd (lots of O_2, from bacteria and plants);
ozone layer, role of CFC's; greenhouse effect, CO_2 is the main greenhouse gas.
Chapter 6:
Moon (p.188-198, p.204-208)
General features (no need to remember terms: maria, highlands, rays, rilles),
origin of Lunar features, structure of the Moon, crust and interior (no rigolith,
no other esoteric rock names, no numbers), absence of atmosphere, Moon's orbit;
Origin and history of the Moon, observed evidence for the impact theory;
Tides, cause of tides, differential grav. force, frequency of tides,
Tidal breaking; Moon already locked into a `one-face-towards-Earth' orbit,
Earth will become tidally locked eventually;
In the process: Earth's rotational angular momentun decreases (E slows down, in
other words, E's day gets longer),
Moon's orbital angular momentum increases (M's orbit size increases),
conserving total angular momentum;
Chapter 4:
Telescopes (p.119-133, p.136-142)
Three properties:
(1) Light collecting power, scales as the area of the primary lens/mirror;
focusing the light using converging lenses or concave mirrors;
refraction (due to changing speed of light in different media);
(2) Resolution, limited by diffraction, which arises because light propagates
as waves, not as "arrows"; smallest angle that can be resolved scales as
[wavelength of light]/[diameter of telescope's primary]
(3) Magnification (important only in Solar System observations, not beyond).
Types of telescopes:
optical (ground based are affected by `seeing', smearing effect of atmosphere);
radio (interferometers, no need to know details); X-ray;
Observatories, detecting the Light, observing at other wavelengths,
atmospheric transmission windows; observatories in space.
Chapter 3:
Nature of light (the whole chapter)
Electromagnetic spectrum, characterized by wavelength or frequency,
such that
[wavelength x frequency] = c, the speed of light, which is constant in vacuum;
EM radiation propagates as waves, with E and M field strength varying with time,
at any given point;
Waves carry energy; energy can be absorbed or emitted in discrete packets only,
packets are called photons;
Energy of a photon is proportional to [c/wavelength], or [c times frequency];
Particle/wave duality of EM radiation;
Velocity of light---3 properties:
1. finite. c=3 x 10^8 meters/sec;
2. absolute. same value will be measured by any observer, regardless of their own
velocity, or velocity of the emitter; c is the property of vacuum. even though c is
immutable, space and time are not; for example, objects moving at velocities
comparable to c age slower---their clocks, mechanical as well as biological,
run slower.
3. nothing can exceed c. Jack and Jill thought experiments (see my Class Web pages
under Properties of Light) show that objects moving faster than c will result in
situations that put effect before cause as seen by some observers (like Jill),
i.e. violate causality; particle accelerators can never accelerate particles, like
protons, electrons, etc. to make them go faster than light, or even at c,
no matter how hard they try!
These are some of the basic ingredients of Einstein's Theory of Relativity,
which, among other things, says that E=mc^2, an equality constantly verified
by your neighborhood nuclear power plant.
Black Body radiation:
Emission of radiation by opaque objects above absolute zero (0 degrees Kelvin):
emission spectrum of objects described (at least approximately, very rarely exactly)
by Black Body radiation;
BB spectrum depends on 1 parameter only: Temperature of the emitting object;
Wein's Law: [Temp.] x [wavelength of peak emitted intensity] = constant;
if temp. of an object is increased it will radiate more energy at _every_ wavelength
and the peak of radiated flux will move to _shorter_ wavelengths.
Emission and absorption of radiation by non-opaque objects, like clouds of gas;
depends on structure and properties of atoms.
Structure of atoms, "rules":
1. shapes of electronic orbits are cloud-like,
2. but energies associated with each level are definite and discrete, i.e.
quantized because of the wave nature of electrons;
3. electronic levels further away form the nucleus have more energy;
4. electrons have the same amount energy as the level they live on;
5. if possible, electrons prefer to be in the lowest energy level accessible
to them, called the ground energy state;
6. electrons can jump between levels, if "provoked":
electron can absorb a photon and jump to a higher level,
electron can emit a photon and jump to a lower level;
total energy of the photon-atom system is conserved in the process.
Atoms, neutral and ionized, chemical elements;
each has a unique detailed structure of the electronic levels,
so each neutral and ionized atom can emit or absorb radiation at certain discrete
wavelengths only; this set of wavelengths is used to identify chemical elements
in spectra of astronomical objects;
Spectroscopy
Doppler effect, allows us to determine velocity of recession or approach
of an object which is emitting radiation;
objects moving away from us [towards us] are said to be redshifted [blueshifted].
Chapter 11:
The Sun (p. 330-340, no solar seismology; p.341-350 [skim], no p. 345)
Chapter 12:
Measuring the Properties of Stars
(p. 356-middle of 364; bottom of p.366-381 [Classification
of Stellar Spectra and Definition of Spectral Classes: skim, no details, no need
to remember the sequence O,B,A,F,G,K,M; no Luminosity Classes]; p. 382-385)
Chapter 13:
Stellar Evolution;
for the midterm, evolution of low mass stars only, M < few x M_solar:
p. 390-391; p. 393-395; bottom of p.397-407
Chapter 14:
Stellar remnants: mass ranges of remnants, mass ranges of Main Sequence progenitors.
White Dwarfs: cooling to black dwarfs, electron degeneracy pressure, Chandrasekar mass,
measuring masses of WDs with gravitational redshift of their spectral lines; p.420-422;
Neutron Stars: supported by neutron degeneracy pressure; NS's strong magnetic field and
rapid rotation (a consequence of conservation of angular momentum) result in streams
of radiation emanating from the magnetic poles; pulars, p.424-427;
X-ray binaries, p.430, briefly: material orbits NS (forms accretion disks)
this material emits X-rays and other radiation, as a result of friction. This is how
NS are detected;
Black Holes: ultimate victory of gravity; escape velocity, event horizon, gravitational
waves; need relativity to describe BH correctly; p.431-435
Chapter 15:
Milky Way Galaxy:
p.446-452 (no names, no historical details)
know components of the Galaxy (disk, bulge, dark matter halo, globular clusters,
spiral arms), their spatial distribution; rough size of the Galaxy is 10 kilo-parsecs;
p.453-455, two types of stellar populations, their properties, but no need to remember
which are Pop I and Pop II; no Pop III; p.455-456, Open and Globular Clusters;
p.457-462: Gas and dust int he disk, reddening and obscuration (no zone of avoidance);
reflection and emission nebulae (no HII regions);
p.462-463, basics of Hydrogen 21-cm line;
p.463-465, spiral density wave (no self-propagating star formation);
p.466-468, (no masers), rotation curve;
p.469-471, Galactic center, briefly (no SgrA*, no historical facts);
p.471-473, formation of the Galaxy (no names, no historical facts)
Chapter 16:
Galaxies:
p.480-490, Spirals (including barred), Elliptical, Irregular, their basic properties
(no Hubble Tuning Fork diagram, no S0), formation of different types of galaxies;
p.492-496, Hubble Law, and Hubble constant, datter matter (no Box on p.494);
p.496-502, AGN, Quasars, cause of activity in galaxies
(no Radio galaxies, Seyferts, BL Lacs, Box on p. 500);
p.502-504, gravitational lensing and dark matter;
p.504-508, galaxy clusters, and large scale structure of the Universe
Chapter 17:
Cosmology:
p.514-526 (no cosmological repulsion)
p.527-528
p.528-532 (skim, no details, no inflation)
Essay 3:
Life in the Universe:
p.539-546 (no details, omit the anthropic principle)