| Date |
Topic |
Reading |
| 26 April |
Aims of course, requirements Introduction: Overview of Milky Way and other galaxies; Galaxies as “crossroads of astronomy”; Galaxy regularities: clues to formation; Dark vs. visible matter; Galaxy formation with dark matter Galaxy morphologies: Two components: spheroids and disks; the Hubble Sequence: galaxy classification and physical meaning |
SG 1.3; BM 4.1.1 |
| 27 April |
Stellar
populations (Updated 10.05.2011): Stellar spectra; photometric systems: magnitudes
and colors; color–magnitude diagrams: field and clusters, effects of
age and metallicity; luminosity function, initial mass function, and
birth rate of stars in the solar neighborhood and elsewhere; evolution
of single stellar populations; introduction to stellar abundances |
SG 1.1, 2.1, 2.2; BM 2.3, 3.1,
3.3.1, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 5.1.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.5, 5.4, 6.1.1, 6.1.2,
6.1.3, 6.1.4, 6.2 |
| 29 April |
werkcollege CANCELLED |
|
| 3 May |
Stellar
populations, continued |
|
| 4 May |
The
cosmic distance ladder: Geometric and relative distances; the
Hubble Law; reliability and caveats |
SG 1.4; BM 2.1, 2.2, 7.2, 7.3,
7.4 |
| 6 May |
werkcollege: Problem Set 1 | |
| 10 May |
The Milky Way, part 1 –
Components of the
Milky
Way:
Spatial
distribution of
stars: the thin
and thick disks,
the halo, the
bulge, bar, and
central black
hole;
characteristics
and tracers; the
“population
concept” |
SG 2.2, 2.3; BM 10.1-10.5 |
| 11 May |
Abundances
and
Galactic Chemical Evolution models: Chemical evolution:
metallicity as an age tracer; nucleosynthesis in galaxies; GCE models:
closed box, the G dwarf problem, inflow and outflow |
SG 4.3.2; BM 5.2, 5.3 |
| 13 May |
werkcollege: Problem Set 2 | |
| 17 May |
(Scott absent) The Milky Way, part 2 – Dynamics and
kinematics of gas: HI and CO; rotation curve; mass of MW
(see also this
and this) |
SG 2.3; BM 9.1, 9.2 |
| 18 May |
Class cancelled |
|
| 20 May |
werkcollege Cancelled | |
| 24 May |
The Milky Way, part 3 –
Internal kinematics: Local Standard of Rest; Galactic rotation;
Oort constants; solar motion; motions of disk stars; kinematics of
thick disk, halo, and bulge. |
SG 2.2, 2.3; BM 10.1-10.5 (again) |
| 25 May |
Galactic Dynamics 1: Motion under gravity.
Gravitational potential vs. mass density; spherical systems and
Newton’s theorems; encounters and two-body relaxation; the
virial theorem. |
SG 3.1, 3.2; BT 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.5.1, 2.6, 2.7 (BT is very advanced – only read if interested!) |
| 27 May |
werkcollege: Problem Set 3 | |
| 31 May |
Galactic Dynamics 2 (Updated 27.06.2011): Orbits of disk stars: effective potential; conserved quantities; epicycles; relation to Oort constants; the Collisionless Boltzmann Equation and its moments | SG 3.3, 3.4; BT 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.8 (BT is very advanced – only read if interested!) |
| 1 June |
Disk Galaxies: Photometry: surface brightness distributions, dust, bulge-disk decomposition; spiral structure; Spectra: star formation, stellar populations; Velocity fields and rotation curves; mass distributions and dark matter; Scaling relations: Tully-Fisher and other correlations between observables | SG 5 (skip 5.1.1); BM 4.2, 4.4, 11.3 |
| 7 June |
Elliptical
Galaxies: Photometry: surface brightness distributions, Spectra:
stellar populations; Velocity fields: slow vs. fast rotators, black
holes and dark matter; Scaling relations: Fundamental Plane and other
correlations between observables; black hole–bulge mass relation |
SG 6; BM 4.3, 11.2 |
| 8 June |
Elliptical galaxies, continued | |
| 10 June |
werkcollege: Problem Set 4 | |
| 14 June |
Active Galactic Nuclei: Generalities; classification; physical origin and unification; starburst galaxies; feedback processes in galaxy evolution | SG 9.1; BM 4.6 |
| 15 June |
Galaxies and Their
Environments: Groups, including the Local Group; clusters;
environmental impact on evolution; the concept of hierarchies;
mergers |
SG 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 4.5, 7; BM
4.1.2, 4.1.3, 4.1.4 |
| 22 June (14.00) |
Review session |
|
| 29 June (09.00) |
Exam |