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

Overview

Welcome to Week 5! The theme for this week is The Birth, Life, & Death of Stars. We're going to learn about how stars of all types and sizes evolve over time and how we have come to understand these processes. We will also start to explore the evolution and formation of planets around stars.

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 - 5)
- Chapter 22: Stars from Adolescence to Old Age (sections 1 - 5)
- Chapter 23: The Death of Stars (sections 1 - 6)

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 (2m30s; video, summary)
- The H-R Diagram and the Study of Stellar Evolution (3m11; video, summary)
- Evidence that Planets Form around Other Stars (3m14s; video, summary)
- Consequences of Light Travel Time (1m30s; video, summary)
- Planets Beyond the Solar System: Search and Discovery (1m51s; video, summary)
- Exoplanets Everywhere: What are we Learning? (2m11s; video, summary)
- Star Clusters (2m25s; video, summary)
- The Death of Low Mass Stars (2m25s; video, summary)
- Pulsars and the Discovery of Neutron Stars (2m25s; video, summary)

Crash Course Astronomy

These PBS sponsored series of YouTube lectures provide a more in-depth look into some of the exciting fields of study surrounding Astronomy.

- Low Mass Stars (12m02s; video)
- High Mass Stars (12m16s; video)
- Gamma Ray Bursts (14m04s; 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 Binary Stars and Stellar Evolution (18m23s; video)

At Play in the Cosmos Flythroughs

In these flythroughs of the At Play in the Cosmos game, Rich provides commentary on the concepts being presented, highlights some pitfalls to be aware of, and tries to avoid being blown up by the bad guys.

- Orientation: how to purchase, register, download and launch At Play in the Cosmos (8m13s; hi-res video, lo-res video)
- Mission 1: Learning to Fly (12m57s; hi-res video, lo-res video)
- Mission 2: Lost in the Wreckage (13m43s; hi-res video, lo-res video)
- Mission 3: Time for Repairs (12m41s; hi-res video, lo-res video)
- Mission 4: Flying Through the Ashes (7m13s; hi-res video, lo-res video)

Activities

Writing Assignment

This week's writing assignment is closely tied to your Final Project (see below). You will explore a scenario in which we need to find an ideal host star to support human life outside of our Solar System. Review the writing assignment and begin reflecting on relevant themes early during the week; it is to your advantage to think ahead.  The assignment is due by 11:59pm on Wednesday, July 18^th.

Discussion

This week's discussion centers around the At Play in the Cosmos game. We want to know what you thought of the game and how it helped (if at all) you learn about astronomy and enhance this course.  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.

At Play in the Cosmos Missions

After installing the At Play in the Cosmos Game, play through missions 1, 2, 3 and 4. We suggest you try these missions by yourself at first, and then dip into Rich's flythroughs (see above) for guidance and commentary. The deadline for completing the missions is 11:59 PM on Friday, June 22^nd.

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 - Part 1

The final project is split up among the remaining 4 weeks of the course and asks you to consider a scenario where we must leave Earth and move to an exoplanet around another star. You will start off by analyzing stellar spectra to identity potential host stars. This part of the project will be due at the end of this week at 11:59pm on Sunday, July 22^nd. You will submit this part of your assignment through this form.

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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