Physics 372, Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology: Spring 2023

This material can be found online at URL

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys372/phys372.html

Outline for the course, class schedule, etc.

Scores on tests and overall

Lectures

• Week 1, Day A: No class today
• Week 1, Day B: Intro to the course, cosmological teasers
• Week 1, Day C: Parallax -- what is it? held via Zoom only
• Week 2, Day A: Parallax -- uncertainties and bias held via Zoom only
• Week 2, Day B: Review of stellar properties (all based on parallax!) held via Zoom only
• Week 2, Day C: Using stellar spectra to estimate distances held via Zoom only
• Week 3, Day A: Clusters of stars held via Zoom only
• Week 3, Day B: Distance Ladder exercise
• Week 3, Day C: Clusters of stars II: How far do they reach?
• Week 4, Day A: How to determine distances with eclipsing binary stars
• Week 4, Day B: Using pulsating stars I: RR Lyrae
• Week 4, Day C: Using pulsating stars II: Cepheids
• Week 5, Day A: Day of review and news
  • first videos of a predicted meteor
  • detection of rings around Quaoar
• Week 5, Day B: Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB)
• Week 5, Day C: Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) (and update on Monday's meteor )
• Week 6, Day A: Distances from the globular cluster luminosity function
• Week 6, Day B: The Milky Way Galaxy I: Structure
• Week 6, Day C: The Milky Way Galaxy II: Mass
• Week 7, Day A: Other galaxies: basic classification (bring laptop with you if possible for Zooniverse exercise)
• Week 7, Day B: Other galaxies: Jargon
• Week 7, Day C: Midterm
  
  Solutions to Midterm (PDF)
• Week 8, Day A: Guest lecture: Jeyhan Kartaltepe on JWST observations
• Week 8, Day B: Presentations Day:
  • Analyzing NGC 2287 in Three Dimensions with StargateVR by Ben Ramsey
  • Galaxy Morphology Classification using Unsupervised Machine Learning by James Liu
• Week 8, Day C: No class
• Spring Break (Mar 12 - 19)
• Week 9, Day A: Active Galaxies I
• Week 9, Day B: Active Galaxies II
• Week 9, Day C: Supermassive Black Holes -- do they really exist?
• Week 10, Day A: Using masers to measure a "geometric" distance
• Week 10, Day B: The Tully-Fisher relationship (spirals)
• Week 10, Day C: The Fundamental Plane (ellipticals)
• Week 11, Day A: Supernovae: overview and using EPM on Type II
• Week 11, Day B: Supernovae: can we use Type Ia SNe as standard candles?
• Week 11, Day C: Gravitational lensing I
• Week 12, Day A: Gravitational lensing II
• Week 12, Day B: Day of review and news
• Week 12, Day C: Cosmology -- the (local) expanding universe and H₀
• Week 13, Day A: The Cosmic Microwave Background I: Maps of the microwave sky
• Week 13, Day B: The Cosmic Microwave Background II: Origin and Redshift
• Week 13, Day C: The Cosmic Microwave Background III: Structure ; Dynamics of a simplfied universe
• Week 14, Day A: Adding Λ (lambda) to the mix
• Week 14, Day B: What else can we learn from the CMB?
• Week 14, Day C: The Hubble Tension (at last)
• Week 15, Day A: Day of review and news
• Posters due (in place of Final Exam): Wed, May 3, 5 PM.
  • Guidelines for making a good poster

Homework sets

In order to use the on-line homework system, you need to know your login name and your initial password. Your "login name" should be the same as your last name, but with lowercase letters only; something like richmond. Your initial password should be the final 4-digits of your student RIT student ID, so if your ID is 456781234, the initial password would be 1234. Include all zeroes: if your ID is 456780012, then your initial password will be 0012. You can change your password from the default after you log in for the first time.

0. Introduction to Webwork system due Friday, Jan 20, at 5:00 PM.
   • Answers to Homework 0
1. Trigonometric parallax due Wedneday, Feb 1, at 5:00 PM.
   • Answers to Homework 1
2. Clusters of stars due Friday, Feb 10, at 5:00 PM.
   • Answers to Homework 2
3. Variable stars due Friday, Feb 17, at 5:00 PM.
   • Answers to Homework 3
4. Secondary distance indicator due Friday, Mar 3, at 5:00 PM.
   • Answers to Homework 4
5. Analysis of galaxy classification exercise due Friday, Mar 10, at 11:59 PM.
   This is NOT a WebWork exercise; instead, you need to answer questions in a Google Document and then submit a PDF copy of the document via myCourses, under HW set 5: Analysis of Galaxy Zoo classifications
6. Active Galaxies, Tully-Fisher, Faber-Jackson due Friday, Apr 7, at 5:00 PM.
   • Answers to Homework 6
7. Using supernovae to estimate distances due Friday, Apr 21, at 5:00 PM.
   • Answers to Homework 7

Extra Credit Projects

The deadline for extra credit assignments is 5 PM, Mon, May 1. All work must be submitted to the instructor by this time to count towards your grade.

1. Create an HR diagram using Gaia DR3 data
2. Make a map of the original Federation of Planets
3. Listen to an expert on cosmology

For more information:

• I've taught vaguely related courses in the past.
  • SPSP 240: Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology (long ago, basic level)
  • SPSP 443: Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology (not so long ago, moderate level)
  • The Extragalactic Distance Ladder (grad course at Univ of Tokyo)

This page maintained by Michael Richmond.