Date                           Topic                      Reading Assignment



Monday, April 12    Milky Way - our galaxy                Chapter 19
                      Discovery                           section 19.1
                      Morphology                          section 19.1,3
                      Dynamics                            section 19.4
                      Star-Gas-Star cycle                 section 19.2
                      Cosmos Assignment 1 due

Wednesday, April 15 Expansion of the Universe             Chapter 20 
                       Galaxies - what are they           section 20.1
                       Measuring cosmic distances         section 20.3
                       Hubble's Law: V=HD                 section 20.3
                       Age of the Universe                section 20.4
                      Cosmos Assignment 2 due

Monday, April 19    Galaxy Evolution and Dark Matter      Chapters 21,22
                       Galaxy Formation                   sections 21.2-3,22.5
                       Evidence for Dark Matter           sections 22.1-4
                       Fate of the Universe, Dark Energy  section 22.6
                      Cosmos Assignment 3 due

Wednesday, April 21 Big Bang                              Chapter 23 
                      History of the Universe             sections 23.1-2
                        Primordial nucleosynthesis        sections 23.2-3
                      Tests:                              section 23.3
                        Relic Radiation - Cosmic Microwave Background
                        Relic Elements - H, D and He
                      Problems with Big Bang Model        section 23.4
                      Inflation                           section 23.4
                      Cosmos Assignment 4 due

Monday, April 26    Quiz 3: (Warm-up for Exam 3)          Chapters 16-23
                    Review                                Chapters 17-23
                      Cosmos Assignment 5 due

Wednesday, April 28 Mid Term Exam #3                      Chapters 16-23

Thursday, May 6     Final Exam
                      Chapters 1-6, 8-11, 15-23, S3

1. Sketch the Milky Way galaxy, including the halo, disk and nucleus. Label the location of the Sun, gas, dust, globular clusters, open clusters, young and old stars.
2. Describe the Star-Gas-Star cycle and its role in the evolution of the Milky Way
3. Describe and explain the differences between halo and disk stars
4. Describe the nature of spiral arms in terms of stars and the inter-stellar medium. Explain its importance in terms of star formation.
5. Describe how masses of galaxies are determined and the role of the rotation curve
6. Explain the observations leading to the concepts of the expansion of the universe, the Hubble Constant, and the Big Bang Model.
7. Explain how the distances to other galaxies are determined.
8. Describe Hubble's Law and its implications for the expansion and age of the universe
9. Describe the large-scale structure of the Universe.
10. Explain how galaxies and clusters of galaxies evolve.
11. Describe the evidence for Dark Matter
12. Describe the role of dark matter in the formation and evolution of galaxies
13. Explain what determines the fate of the universe
14. Describe the sequence of events in the Big Bang Model of the evolution of the Universe, and the possible fates of the Universe.
15. Describe the cosmic microwave background radiation and primordial nucleosynthesis tests of the Big Bang Model.
16. Describe the problems of the Big Bang model and how inflation solves them.

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