Title: Week 7: Galaxies
Course: ASTRON103: The Evolving Universe: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology (001) DHH SU18 > Section: Week 7

Overview

Welcome to Week 6! The theme for this week is Galaxies. Last week we focused on our own galaxy, the Milky Way. This week we'll learn that galaxies come in a variety of sizes and shapes that evolve over time. We'll see how the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies are linked to the phenomenon known as 'quasars'. And we'll likewise encounter two startling results revealed by the study of galaxies: the expansion of the universe and the existence of dark matter.

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, 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 26: Galaxies (all sections)
- Chapter 27: Active Galaxies, Quasars, and Supermassive Black Holes (sections 1 & 2)
- Chapter 28: The Evolution and Distribution of Galaxies (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).

- Galaxies beyond the Milky Way (1m38s; video, summary)
- Distances to Galaxies (2m41s; video, summary)
- The Expanding Universe (2m42s; video, summary)
- Quasars (3m13s; video, summary)
- Supermassive Black Holes: What Quasars Are (2m57s; video, summary)
- Observations of Distant Galaxies (2m5s; video, summary)
- Galaxy Interactions (2m38s; video, summary)
- The Distribution of Galaxies (2m43s; video, summary)

Whiteboard

In these more in-depth lectures, DK explores a variety of topics with the aid of white-board sketches.

- Galaxy Tuning Fork (5m35s; video)

Crash-Course Astronomy

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

- Galaxies (12m5s; YouTube Video)
- Active Galaxies (15m34s; YouTube Video)
- Dark Matter (11m59s; YouTube video)

Other Online Content

These online videos, from a variety of sources, fulfill a similar role to Crash-Course Astronomy (although no Phil Plait): more in-depth information about specific topics.

- The Dark Matter Mystery (4m37s; YouTube video)

Activities

Writing Assignment

This week's writing assignment invites you to develop your own galaxy tuning fork diagram. 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, August 1^st.

At Play in the Cosmos Assignment

There is no game assignment this week, in spite of what we say in the introductory video above. This is because we discovered many bugs in the Exploration Mode part of the game, which effectively prevent us from creating any further meaningful assignments (beyond the Week 5 and Week 6). We apologize for the late notice about this!

Discussion

This week's discussion asks you to consider the practice of science in a competitive vs. cooperative nature. 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, August 4^th.

Quiz

This week's quiz tests your understanding of the topics covered throughout the week, and is drawn from Chapters 26, 27 and 28 of the Astronomy book. It consists of ten questions with written answers. You can take it anytime up until 11:59pm on Sunday, August 5^th.

Final Project

This week you'll be continuing 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 3, which is due by 11:59pm on Sunday, August 5^th, you will be determining whether your identified planets reside in the so called habitable zone of its host star and decide on a final planet to colonize.

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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