Title: Week 5: The Birth, Life & Death of Stars
Course: ASTRON103: The Evolving Universe: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology (001) DHH SU18 > Section: Week 5

Overview

Welcome to Week 5! The theme for this week is The Birth, Life, and Death of Stars. When we look up at the stars in the sky, they seem eternal and unchanging; however, this is just because our lifetimes are so short in comparison to theirs. We'll start out by learning how stars form from clouds of interstellar gas. Then, we'll explore how they evolve (change) over their lives. We'll finish up by looking at the various (and sometimes quite spectacular) ways in which they end their lives.

To get started, watch the video below where Rich and DK provide an overview of the week ahead. Then, dive into the Content (book and videos) and start planning how you'll undertake the weekly Activities (writing assignment, discussion forum, At Play in the Cosmos, weekly quiz, and longer-term project). To help you organize these tasks, we provide a Schedule and Checklist at the bottom of the page.

Content

Readings

The following readings from the Astronomy book cover the topics that we'll be focusing on this week:

- Chapter 21: The Birth of Stars and the Discovery of Planets outside the Solar System (sections 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5)
- Chapter 22: Stars from Adolescence to Old Age (all sections)
- Chapter 23: The Death of Stars (all sections)

Two-Minute Universe

In these mini-lectures, Rich and DK cover a single topic from the book in a couple of minutes, by building up a page of notes and visuals summarizing the key facts and concepts you need to know. The summary page is available for download separately from the video, as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file).

- Star Formation (1m52s; video, summary)
- Low Mass Stars (2m22s; video, summary)
- Star Clusters (1m42s; video, summary)
- H-R Diagrams and Stellar Evolution (2m32s; video, summary)
- Exoplanets (2m14s; video, summary)
- Detecting Exoplanets (1m43s; video, summary)
- Planet Formation (1m22s; video, summary)
- Pulsars (1m15; video, summary)

Crash-Course Astronomy

In these videos created by PBS, Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) delves into various topics in more depth.

- Low Mass Stars (12m2s; YouTube video)
- High Mass Stars (12m16s; YouTube video)
- Gamma-Ray Bursts (14m4s; YouTube video)

AstroGLU

In the AstroGLU (Astronomy Graduate Lectures for Undergraduates) series, the graduate students of the Department of Astronomy talk about some of the interesting research projects they're involved in.

- Emily Leiner talking about Vampire Stars, Starquakes and Other Stellar Mysteries (27m22s; video)

Special Topics

In these videos, Rich and DK focus on special topics that aren't part of the core course content, but really enrich your engagement with Astronomy-related topics and resources.

- Stellar evolution with MESA (video to come)

Activities

Writing Assignment

This week's writing assignment is closely tied to your Final Project (see below): you'll reflect on what criteria might be important in choosing a new home for humanity. Review the writing assignment and begin reflecting on relevant themes early during the week; summer courses move quickly, so it's to your advantage to think ahead.  The assignment is due by 11:59pm on Wednesday, July 18^th.

At Play in the Cosmos Assignment

In this week's game assignment — the first since you completed the story — you'll use Exploration Mode and a bit of math to measure the radii of selected stars. The deadline for uploading your report is 11:59 PM on Friday, July 20^th.

Discussion

This week's discussion asks you to share your thoughts on the At Play in the Cosmos game — did it work for you, or was it a bust?  You need to make an initial post in order to see other students' responses, and you must make a total of three posts by the deadline of 11:59 PM on Saturday, July 21^st.

Quiz

This week's quiz tests your understanding of the topics covered throughout the week, and is drawn from Chapters 21, 22 and 23 of the Astronomy book. It consists of ten questions with written answers. You can take it anytime up until 11:59pm on Sunday, July 22^nd.

Final Project

This week you'll be beginning the final multi-week project, which is split over the last four weeks of the course. You'll be considering a scenario where we must leave Earth and move to an exoplanet around another star. For Part 1, which is due by 11:59pm on Sunday, July 22^nd, you will be analyzing stellar spectra to identity potential host stars.

Weekly Schedule & Checklist

Use the schedule below to pace yourself during this week, and the check-boxes to mark off your progress.  Each horizontal line represents an important task and the corresponding days on which you should focus on that task. It is important that you keep pace to perform well on the weekly quiz, and to participate fully in the discussion forum.

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