ASTRO 10100 - Basic Concepts of Astronomy with Laboratory Exercises

GER
2/E with lab

An introductory, one-semester astronomy course designed for non-science majors. Topics include: basic observational features of the night sky, and their explanations; Kepler’s laws of planetary motion; Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation. Properties of light, and how it reveals the nature of its source. Origin, properties, and evolution of our solar system. The origin and evolution of stars, including giants, dwarfs, supernovae, neutron stars, and black holes. Structure of The Milky Way and other type of galaxies. Cosmology, Hubble’s Law and the expanding universe, from the Big Bang to the present; future scenarios.
The lab consists of traditional hardware experiments and virtual online experiments. Students taking this course will be required to submit online and hard-copy laboratory reports.
5 hrs
4 cr.