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Semester 1

Astrophysics (PHYS10102)

Subject

Physics and Astronomy

College

SCE

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

4

Delivery Session Year

2022/2023

Pre-requisites

Course Summary

This 20pt, Level 10 course is a core course for all Astrophysics students in S1 of Senior Honours. It is designed to be accessible to students in all other degree programmes within the School of Physics & Astronomy. With content similar to the previous Astrophysics 3 course, and working from the premise of no prior astrophysics experience/knowledge, students are introduced to the key concepts of observational astronomy, the basic properties of stars and their evolution, the interactions of stars with their galactic surroundings and the resulting ionized interstellar medium. The second half of the course considers the properties of galaxies, starting with our own Milky Way, then external galaxies, active galactic nuclei, dynamics of star clusters, the galaxy luminosity function, and galactic clustering.The course is self-contained, but is also intended to link naturally with the 10pt, level 10 course in Cosmology which follows in semester 2. Taken together, these two courses should provide students with a solid, balanced, physics-based understanding of the structure of our Universe, and our place within space and time.

Course Description

Assessment Information

Written Exam 100%, Coursework 0%, Practical Exam 0%

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