Space Science: Deeper Into the Universe

Space Science: Deeper Into the Universe dives deeper and travels farther into the universe to explore topics such as the Big Bang, unique galactic clusters, the Multiverse, exoplanets, and several weird and wonderful discoveries from across astronomy, astrophysics, and exobiology.  The schedule for the class is:

Week 1:  The Big Bang and recent questions/alterations of this theory.  We will talk about the multitude of things that occurred in the first fraction of a second of the universe's existence.  We will also examine the question of how the universe could have grown to a size that would require stars, galaxies, and all matter to move faster than light--unless space itself expanded.
Week 2:  Hypothetical ends of the universe, such as the Big Freeze, Big Bounce, and some wild ideas about an instantaneous unraveling of everything.  We will then move into a lighter topic of galactic clusters that have unique characteristics.
Week 3:  Stars.  We will look at the classification of stars and examine stars that fit into each category.  We will then move into a structural analysis of stars.  There is a difference in the structure of sun-sized stars versus Blue Super Giants.
Week 4:  Structure of life cycle of very large stars.  We will look at the stages of Wolf Rayet star evolution and the end stages of various stars.  We will also examine the H-R diagram and a similar diagram that focuses on apparent vs. absolute magnitude (how bright a star looks to us versus how bright it would be from a set distance).
Week 5:  Exoplanets.  We will discuss the methods of finding exoplanets and future methods that we may be able to use in the next decade or so.  We will then discuss some of the more notable exoplanet discoveries and the ways in which astronomers are learning about the atmospheres of planets that are many light years away.  During this session, we will also talk about the telescopes that are used in exoplanet searches.  This will include the James Webb Space Telescope, which will lead to a discussion of Lagrange points.
Week 6:    Dark Matter: what is known and what is not known.  Where is this elusive matter, and why does our galaxy have so much more of it than the Andromeda Galaxy has?  Dark Energy: We will explore how an exotic form of energy may be causing an expansion of the universe which may result in a significantly different arrangement than we have now.  We will then discuss Coronal outbursts, solar storms, and sun spots, including information on the potential connection between sun spot activity and geological activity on earth.
Week 7:  Telescopes.  We will talk about the different types of telescopes from the earliest scopes created by Galileo and Newton to modern scopes that amateur astronomers may have, and then on to the largest, most powerful scopes that are peering into the deepest corners of space.  Neutrinos and the search for these “ghost particle,” along with a description of blazars (the source of the first confirmed neutrino recorded). 
Week 8:  Brown Dwarf stars, including information about a newly discovered brown dwarf which is only 20 light years away, and has a tremendously powerful magnetic field that causes massive auroras which can be detected from earth.  We will pivot to a discussion of robotic missions to Mars and the discoveries that have been made.  We will also discuss upcoming probe missions throughout the solar system, and examine the current state of the Artemis program.

We will also take time during each session to cover the newest information from scientists who focus on all areas of space science.  Recent topics have included the hypothesized lack of phosphorus on some types of planets which may make life more unlikely, as well as reports of extremely powerful radio signals in a rarely seen frequency range received by radio telescopes in Canada.