Stellar Astronomy

Course objectives

• Review the electromagnetic spectrum and usefulness of spectroscopic observations, including:  blackbody thermal radiation, emission/absorption spectra and how they can determine chemical composition, relative radial velocities, surface temperatures and luminosities of  objects throughout our universe;
• Identify the overall structure of our Sun from core to corona, covering: nuclear fusion, highlighting  structures/processes of energy transfer & how each region can be studied;
• Describe the conditions under which stars form & why their formation mass is so important;
• Synthesize apparent magnitude, surface temperature & parallax to determine information such as: stellar luminosity (absolute magnitude), distance & stellar size…comparing/contrasting with our own Sun & applying to more distant stars for which parallax information is lacking;
• Recognize spectral types of stars, being able to identify them based on surface temperature (color), spectral features, stellar mass and/or luminosity class;
• Differentiate types of binary stars and utilize observational data to find their physical properties, such as combined mass, individual mass, physical size and orbital separation (as applicable);
• Illustrate color-magnitude (H-R) diagrams, locating major types of stars as well as explaining differences for young versus old star clusters…identifying the turn-off point and how/why it is utilized to determine star cluster ages;
• Understand the importance of intrinsic variable stars, especially pulsating and cataclysmic variables and their contributions towards the cosmological distance ladder, being able to identify  types based upon light curve and spectroscopic observations;
• Apply the cosmological distance ladder to determine distances to particular types of stars;
• Discuss stellar changes from formation to death, highlighting differences of low versus high mass stars from that of our Sun and how their remnants contribute to future star formation and planet formation.