|
|
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics |
The seminar generally will meet from 2:00-5:00 P.M. on Mondays in the Pratt Conference room at the Observatory (60 Garden Street, up near the Radcliffe Quad). Occasionally we may meet at other locations depending on time and schedule --- warning, I may have to go to telescopes in stange places at strange times, one of the hazards of being an observational astronomer! The first offical meeting of this seminar for the fall of 2007/8 will be on Monday, September 17th, also in Pratt.
PROF. JOHN P. HUCHRA will offer a seminar on Galaxies and the Universe. The seminar will discuss the interplay between observation and theory and the evolution of astronomers' views of the universe with our improved ability to view it. Topics covered will include the internal structure and dynamics of galaxies, cosmological models, the determination of the cosmic distance scale, observations of large-scale structure in the universe, galaxy formation, and the age, size and fate of the universe. We will explore the basic observations that lend support to our current cosmological model, the inflationary Hot Big Bang and we will discuss the recent observations that indicate that the Universe might even be speeding up. The seminar will use the book Cosmology by Michael Rowan-Robinson, 4th edition, (Oxford University Press, ISBN 0 19 852747 0). I suggest purchasing on one of the discount textbook websites noted on my site.
Readings will also be taken from introductory and popular texts such as An Introduction to Galaxies & Cosmology by Jones & Lambourne, The Big Bang by J. Silk, and An Introduction to Modern Cosmology by A. Liddle, and also from current popular articles. Students will participate in small research projects using a variety of datasets and images of galaxies or catalogs of galaxy properties to measure simple properties of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. We'll also try to do some observing with Harvard's local telescopes. Considerable information on modern cosmology can also be found on the web. A good starter site is NASA's:
The goals of this seminar are to acquaint students with
(1) What galaxies are,
(2) What observational astrophysics is,
(3) What the current cosmological model is, and
(4) How observations of galaxies are used both to ``measure'' the universe and to test cosmological theories.
The seminar is intended to give students a general overview of extragalactic astronomy with particular emphasis on the concept of using observations (experiments) to test and constrain theories. In the course of the seminar, we will cover some basic physical concepts such as the Virial Theorem and gravitational binding energy, we will discuss the concept of infinity and we will touch on black holes and quasars. This is an astronomical introduction to the scientific method.
The first few discussions will center on the philosophy of astronomical observations (as opposed to laboratory experimentation), and discussions of what exactly galaxies are and why they are important in both the study of humankind's place in the universe and our study {\it of} the universe including simple cosmological theories. Discussions during the middle of the term will cover current observational work on the measurement of the cosmic distance scale, the mass density of the universe, the rate at which the universe is slowing down and the age of the universe. The seminar will close with discussions of advanced topics such as galaxy formation, large scale structure in the universe, and the eventual fate of the universe.
Near the middle of the term, you wil be given small projects to work on, primarily involving computers to analyse data on galaxies. These will include using software packages to determine surface brightness and color profiles for galaxies from digital images and to study the dynamical properties of a few clusters of galaxies to determine their masses. The students will do these in groups of 3 or 4 with the aid of the instructor.
Reading assignments will be made each week, usually from the assigned books or from popular (Scientific American level) articles. Students will (weather permitting) do some observing at either the Science Center or Harvard ollege Observatory. I also will invite guests from the CfA staff who have special interests in the topics covered.
The seminar requirements will be attendance and class participation, a writeup of the research projects, and a final short essay on one of the general topics covered in the seminar. Most of the books and materials needed for this seminar are easily available at the Harvard COOP or on Amazon.com.
Reading Resource List (Useful books to peruse if found! **note: not required reading***)
Barrow, J. 2005, The Infinite Book , (New York: Vintage).
Bartusiak, M. 1986, Thursday's Universe, (New York: Times Books).
Bartusiak, M. 1993, Through A Universe Darkly,
Coles, P. 2001, Cosmology, A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford: Oxford).
Danielson, D. R. 2002, The Book of the Cosmos, (New York: Perseus).
Elmegreen, D. 1998, Galaxies and Galactic Structure, (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall).
Ferreira, P. 2006, The State of the Universe, (London: Weidenfled & Nicholson).
Ferris, T., 1989, Coming of Age in the Milky Way, (Anchor)
Ferris, T. 1997, The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe Report, (New York: Touchstone).
Fox, K. 2002, The Big Bang Theory, (New York: Wiley).
Freeman, K. & McNamara, G. 2006, In Search of Dark Matter, (Berlin: Springer).
Goldsmith, D. 2000, The Runaway Universe.
Green, B. 1999, The Elegant Universe, (New York: Vintage).
Green, B. 2004, The Fabric of the Cosmos, (New York: Knopf).
Halpern, P & Wesson, P. 2006, Brave New Universe, (Washington: Joseph Henry Press).
Harrison, E. R. 2000, "Cosmology: The Science of the Universe," (Cambridge: Cambridge).
Harrison, E. R. 1987, "Darkness at Night: A Riddle of the Universe," (Cambridge: Harvard).
Harrison, E. R. 2003, "Masks of the Universe : Changing Ideas on the Nature of the Cosmos," (Cambridge: Cambridge).
Hawking, S. 2001, The Universe in a Nutshell, (New York: Bantam).
Hawley, J. & Holcomb, K. 1998, Foundations of Modern Cosmology, (Oxford: Oxford)
Henbest, N. and Couper, H. 1994, The Guide to the Galaxy, (Cambridge: Cambridge).
Hodge, P. 1986, Galaxies, (Cambridge: Harvard).
Hogan, C. 1998, "The Little Book of the Big Bang," (New York: Copernicus).
Hooper, D., 2006, "Dark Cosmos," (Washington: Smithsonian).
Kirshner, R. 2002, The Extravagant Universe, (Princeton: Princeton).
Krauss, L. 1991, The Fifth Essense, (New York: Perseus).
Krauss, L. 2001, Quintessense, (New York: Basic Books).
Islam, J. N. 2001, Introduction to Mathematical Cosmology, (Cambridge: Cambridge).
Jones, M. & Lambourne, R., editors, 2003, An Introduction to Galaxies and Cosmology, (Cambridge: Cambridge). ISBN 0 521 54623 0
Liddle, A. 1999, An Introduction to Modern Cosmology, (New York: Wiley).
Linder, E. 1997, First Principles of Cosmology, (Reading: Addison-Wesley).
Livio, M. 2000, The Accelerating Universe, (New York: Wiley).
Mather, J. & Boslough, J., 1996, The Very First Light , (New York: Basic Books).
Morris, R. 1993, Cosmic Questions, (New York: Wiley).
Overbye, D. 1991, 1999, Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, (New York: Harper Collins, Back Bay Books).
Rees, M. 2001, Our Cosmic Habitat, (Princeton: Princeton).
Rees, M. 1997, Before the beginning (Reading: Addison Wesley).
Rowan-Robinson, M. 2004, Cosmology (Oxford: Oxford). ISBN 0 19 852747 0.
Rubin, V. 1997, Bright Galaxies, Dark Matters, (New York: AIP)
Scientific American 2002, Understanding Cosmology, (New York: Warner Books).
Scientific American 2002, The Once and Future Cosmos, (Special Edition).
Silk, J. 1994, A Short History of the Universe, (San Francisco: Freeman).
Silk, J. 2001, The Big Bang, (San Francisco: Freeman) 3rd edition.
Silk, J. 2005, On the Shores of the Unknown, (Cambridge: Cambridge).
Silk, J. 2006, The Infinite Cosmos, (Oxford: Oxford).
Singh, Simon 2004, The Big Bang (New York: Harper).
Stern, S. A. ed., 2001, Our Universe, (Cambridge: Cambridge).
Waller, W. & Hodge, P. 2003, Galaxies and the Cosmic Frontier, (Cambridge: Harvard). ISBN 0-674-01079-5.
Webb, S. 1999, Measuring the Universe, (Berlin: Springer).
Sept 17 --- M --- Introduction, Basics of Astronomy and Cosmology
Sept 24 --- M --- The Milky Way
Oct 3 --- W --- What are Galaxies Made of? (Note day change, Phillips Auditorium)
Oct 8 --- M --- Columbus Day --- no class
Oct 15 --- M --- Cosmological Models
Oct 22 --- M --- The Hot Big Bang
Oct 29 --- M --- Galaxy Clustering, Project Discussions
Nov 5 --- M --- The Scale of the Universe
Nov 12 --- M --- Veteran's Day --- no class
Nov 19 --- M --- Galaxy Formation
Nov 26 --- M --- The Universe's Contents: Dark Matter, Dark Energy
Dec 3 --- M --- The Age and Fate of the Universe
Dec 10 --- M --- Unanswered Questions --- JPH
Dec 17 --- M --- Project Presentation/Wrapup
Scientfic American articles are available either on-line through Harvard's Hollis subscription (for more recent articles) or at the Science Library.
Office Hours by Appointment. Call 495-7375 for an appointment.
Various Utilities are available for use for the seminar, including a routine called ``getimage'' which will allow you to created images of galaxies from the POSS image server using the IDL routine "makeps" to make postscript files, and the Supermongo package, for making plots.
Here are links to Useful Unix Primers
Here is a quick tutorial for the emacs editor (unix, linux): EMACS Tutorial
And here is the working fortran program: read.f
Back to JPH's website.
John P. Huchra <huchra@cfa.harvard.edu>