Astronomy - Spring

Purpose of the Course:

Students are to understand the history and development of important concepts in the field of astronomy such as the debate between the Earth-centered and Sun-centered models of the solar system and the discovery of the expansion of the Universe.  You will learn about the scale, structure, and origin of the Universe from the largest scale down to the formation, structure and evolution of individual stars.  We will include a brief (and mostly non-mathematical) survey of the Big Bang and Relativity theories and the role of space-time, mass-energy, and the four fundamental forces that shape the Universe we see before us.  Closer to home, we will seek to understand the formation and evolution of a typical solar system including the major types of objects found in a typical solar system such as planets, moons, comets, and asteroids.