Course Detail
Units:
3.0
Course Components:
Lecture
Enrollment Information
Enrollment Requirement:
Prerequisite: "B" or better in (PHYS 5010 AND PHYS 5020) OR Equivalent.
Description
As a core astrophysics course, it will be taken by graduate students of Physics and Astronomy. We will survey the properties of stars and star clusters (as laboratories for understanding stellar evolution). Topics include: properties of stars, including fundamental parameters, positions, distances, magnitudes & luminosities, radii, masses; nuclesynthesis (i.e. energy generation); stellar evolution; stellar atmospheres spectra & spectral line analysis; interstellar reddening; colour-magnitude diagrams; properties of globular and open clusters; simple stellar populations, isochrones, age estimates, distance determinations, luminosity functions, mass functions; chemical compositions & determinations; formation and evolution of globular and open clusters; stellar populations in the context of the Milky Way.