Course Syllabus
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All but a handful of the objects you see in the night sky are stars in our Galaxy, the Milky Way. Although we know about these stars only from studying their light, we know today that they are not just points of light, but large, gravitationally‐bound balls of plasma governed by the laws of physics. Stars, together with dust, gas, and dark matter, are found in larger structures – galaxies. In turn, galaxies, are located in even larger structures called galaxy groups and galaxy clusters. In this course, we will study the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies and, through this study, gain insight into how the large scale structure of the universe has changed since its formation nearly 14 billion years ago.

We will be using the Bennington Physics Slack Workspace to communicate this term. Please make sure you join both of the Fall 2020 Stars and Galaxies channel: #fall2020-starsandgalaxies.

We will meet as a class over Slack every Tuesday and Friday from 10am to 12:10pm.

The schedule for the course is below. Note that links to the lectures, problem sets, and labs will become active as the term goes on.

Week Of	Lecture / Discussion	Reading	Problem Sets
October 19	Foundations + Light October 23 Videos	Ch. 1 & 5	Problem Set 1
October 26	Light + The Sun & Other Stars October 27 Videos October 30 Videos	Ch. 5, 14- 15	Problem Set 2
November 2	Stars & Stellar Evolution November 3 Videos	Ch. 15-18	Problem Set 3
November 9	Stars & Stellar Evolution (cont.)	Ch 15-18	Problem Set 4
November 16	The Milky Way & Other Galaxies November 17 Video November 20 Video	Ch. 19-20	Problem Set 5
November 23	Galaxy Environments November 24 Video	Ch. 21	Problem Set 6
November 30	Dark Matter & Dark Energy December 1 Videos	Ch. 23	Problem Set 7
December 7	Cosmology	Ch. 22