Astronomy and Geophysics

Aim

The aim of the course is to give the student basic knowledge in astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology, and get an introduction to geophysics. After passing the course the student should be able to:• Describe and explain concepts and phenomena, and solve problems in astronomy, including celestial mechanics, methods and instrumentation, and topics related to the solar system.• Describe and explain concepts and phenomena, and solve problems in astrophysics and cosmology, including stars, galaxies, and the structure and evolution of the universe.• Present a subtopic in geophysics in written form after a literature search.

Content

The course gives an overview of today's knowledge of the universe, providing also a historical background. The first half of the course begins with a short introduction to astronomy, methods and instrumentation of the field, followed by a detailed overview of the solar system - its formation, properties of the planets, and its smaller members. This also includes recent advances from unmanned spaceflight exploration of the solar system, such as the potential discovery of liquid water on satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. The topic of exo-planets is also discussed, particularly the discovery of Earth-like rocky planets in the habitable zone. The second part of the course presents the properties of the stars, their birth, life and death (including the Sun, white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes). Further, the course discusses the Milky Way, other galaxies, galaxy clusters and super-clusters. The last part of the course, cosmology, addresses the big questions, the origin of the universe, the Big Bang, how the large-scale structure formed, and scenarois for the future evolution of the universe.The students will also choose a subtopic in geophysics for a literature study and present it in writing.