Astrophysics - An Exploration of Our Universe (14-18)

This class is to help students understand the history and the relevance of the exploration of our universe. Each week the students will learn about different astrophysicists and astronomers, and how their discoveries helped us understand our universe. Our discussions will touch on how these scientists came to these conclusions and how society accepted and/or rejected these new ideas. The weeks will be outlined as follows: 

Week 1 - A heliocentric universe, craters on the moon, planetary motion, and binary stars. 

Week 2 - Saturn’s rings, gravity, periodic comets, and ice caps on Mars. 

Week 3 - Star catalogs, Bode’s Law, why the night sky is dark, and maps of the moon and Mars. 

Week 4 - Alpha Centuri, Neptune’s position, the Angström Unit, and gaps in Saturn’s rings. 

Week 5 - Orion Nebula, emission spectra, the rotation of our galaxy, and white dwarfs. 

Week 6 - Formation of chemicals, pulsars, H-R diagrams, confirmations of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. 

Week 7 - Andromeda, dark matter, Hydrogen fusion, Pluto is discovered, black holes. 

Week 8 - Neutron stars, aliens, exoplanet nurseries, current events - these will likely change, as new things are being discovered in our universe all the time.