4.5 Observatories
4.5.1 Why we need a broad variety of observations?
4.5.2 Benefits from going to space
4.5.3 Benefits from large telescopes and interferometers
5. Source of the energy of the sun
5.1 How nuclear fusion works
5.1.1 Where fusion occurs in the sun -- and why there
5.1.2 How the energy gets out
5.1.3. Why the sun is so stable
7. What happens as stars age?
6.1 The Hertzsprung Russell Diagram
6.1.1 The Main Sequence - and what causes it
6.1.2 What three properties determine the status of a star
6.1.3 How stars evolve on the HR diagram
6.1.4 What happens inside the star while it evolves
6.1.5 How evolution depends on the mass of the star
6.1.6 Age of stellar clusters - how they are determined
6.2 The fate of the sun
6.3. Deaths of stars
6.3.1 Why stellar death is important to understand
6.3.2 What forms do dead stars take?
6.3.3 Nature of white dwarfs
6.3.3.1 Planetary nebulae
6.3.3.2 What keeps a white dwarf from collapsing further?
6.3.3.3 Chandrasekhar limit
6.3.4 Nature of neutron stars
6.3.4.1 What keeps them from collapsing
6.3.4.2 Pulsars
6.3.5 Nature of black holes
6.3.5.1 How is a black hole defined?
6.3.5.2 What would it look like?
6.3.5.3 How do we "see" them?
6.3.6. Novae and supernovae
6.3.6.1 Novae - and what causes them
6.3.6.2 Supernovae
6.3.6.2.1 Causes of Type I and Type II supernovae
6.3.6.2.2 How the supernova explosion proceeds
6.3.6.3.2 What is left of the star after a supernova
6.3.6.4 Supernova remnants
6.3.6.4.1 What do we find in supernova remnants? What is happening in and around them?
6.3.6.4.2 Where do the heavy elements come from?
7. What is a galaxy?
7.1 Why is it important to understand our galaxy, the Milky Way?
7.2 The shape of the Milky Way
7.2.1 Why was it difficult to determine the shape?
7.2.2 How was the shape finally measured? What were the roles of Shapley and Leavitt? What is a standard candle?
8.1 What type of galaxy is the Milky Way?
8.1.1 What is the Milky Way like? – shape, major parts
8.1.2 What are the stellar populations, and what do they tell us about the Milky Way?
8.1.3 How did the Milky Way form? What is the evidence? What gives it its current appearance (e.g., disk, halo, spiral arms)?
9. The interstellar medium
9.1 How it was discovered
9.1.1 Types of nebula
10. Star formation
10.1 Star formation
10.1.1 Stages of collapse into a protostar
10.1.2 Evolution of a protostar onto the main sequence
10.1.2.1 For objects of stellar mass
10.1.2.2 Masses above or below the stellar range
11. How the solar system formed
11.1 Planet formation
11.1.1 What stages to circumstellar disks go through?
11.1.2 When do gas giant planets form? Why do they migrate from their formation orbits?
11.1.3 When do terrestrial planets form?
11.1.4 What was the Late Heavy Bombardment?
12. The Solar System
12.1 Overview of the solar system
12.1.1 Terrestrial planets, list and chief characteristics
12.1.2 Giant planets, list and chief characteristics
12.1.3 What are the trends in planet properties within the solar system, as the distance from the sun increases? What produced them?
13 Exploring planets: besides telescopes, what means have we used to explore planets (and the moon)?
14. The Earth
14.1 Interior of Earth
14.1.1 Why it has a core, how we know the core is molten
14.1.2 Layers of the earth, their basic characteristics
14.1.3 Plate tectonics, what they are, how they work
14.1.4 What produces the magnetic field of the earth?
14.2 Earth's atmosphere
14.2.1 Where did it come from
14.2.2 How has life affected it
15. Properties of the planets
15.1 The moon
15.1.1 How it formed
15.1.2 Age of the moon and how it is determined
15.1.3 How the cratering rate has changed over time
15.2 Mercury
15.2.1 Evidence for great heat during formation
15.2.2 Range of surface temperatures, why it is so large
15.3 Venus
15.3.1 Comparison with Earth
15.3.2 Surface features, composition
15.3.3 Venus greenhouse, how it works, what it does
15.3.4 Is global warming occurring?
15.3.5 Greenhouse on Earth, how it works
15.3.5 What effect are humans having on the earth's greenhouse effect?
15.3.6 How accurate are projections of future global temperatures?
15.4 Mars
15.4.1 Canals - what are they?
15.4.2 Geology - plate tectonics, volcanos
15.4.3 Weather - atmosphere
15.4.4 Evidence for water