ASTRON 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Copernican Revolution
31 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Labs are 20% of grade: graded on 4-point scale. Homework is 20% of grade: lowest lab and homework will be dropped. Two midterms 15% each of grade (30% total: friday 9/23, wednesday 11/2. Final exam 30 % of grade: thursday 12/15. Astronomy is the science that deals with everything above the earth"s atmosphere. Astronomy isn"t just a list of facts about the universe; it"s also a way of asking questions and evaluating answers. In particular, astronomy (and science in general) relies on verifiable data and quantitative measurements. Unit 0: our place in space, our moment in time. Space is big (and it"s hard to measure distances) The universe is old (and it"s hard to measure ages) Determining the extent and structure of our solar system was a slow process. We have reached the point where we are finding planetary systems around other stars. Looking outward into our galaxy we see stars being born and dying .
