Course

Unit 1

Historical introduction: Old Indian and western – astronomy – Aryabhatta, Tycho Brahe, Copernicus, Galileo – Olbers paradox – solar system – satellites, planets, comets, meteorites, asteroids.

Practical astronomy – telescopes and observations & techniques – constellations, celestial coordinates, ephemeris.

Celestial mechanics – Kepler’s laws – and derivations from Newton’s laws.

Sun: Structure and various layers, sunspots, flares, faculae, granules, limb darkening, solar wind and climate.

Unit 2

Stellar astronomy: H-R diagram, color-magnitude diagram – main sequence – stellar evolution – red giants, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes – accretion disc – Schwartzchild radius – stellar masses Saha–Boltzman equation – derivation and interpretation.

Variable stars: Cepheid, RR Lyrae and Mira type variables – Novae and Super novae. Binary and multiple star system – measurement of relative masses and velocities. Interstellar clouds – Nebulae.

Unit 3

Galactic astronomy: Distance measurement – red shifts and Hubble’s law – age of the universe, galaxies – morphology – Hubble’s classification – gravitational lens, active galactic nuclei (AGNs), pulsars, quasars.

Relativity: Special theory of relativity – super-luminal velocity – Minkowski space – introduction to general theory of relativity – space – time metric, geodesics, space-time curvature. Advance of perihelion of Mercury, gravitational lens.

Cosmology: Comic principles, big bang and big crunch – cosmic background radiation – Nucleo-synthesis – plank length and time, different cosmic models – inflationary, steady state. Variation of G. anthropic principle.

Reference(s)

• “Textbook of Astronomy and Astrophysics with elements of Cosmology”, V. B. Bhatia, Narosa publishing 2001.
• William Marshall Smart, Robin Michael Green “On Spherical Astronomy“, (Editor) Carroll, Bradley W Cambridge University Press ,1977
• Bradley W. Carroll and Dale A. Ostlie. “Introduction to modern Astrophysics” Addison-Wesley, 1996.
• Bradley W. Carroll and Dale A. Ostlie, “An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics” Addison-Wesley Publishing Company,1996
• ‘Stellar Astronomy’ by K. D Abhayankar.
• ‘Solar Physics’ by K. D Abhayankar.

Evaluation Pattern

Course Outcomes

After completion of the course students should be able to

• CO1: Get a broad knowledge of scientific and technical methods in astronomy and astrophysics.
• CO2: Apply mathematical methods to solve problems in astrophysics.
• CO3: Develop critical/logical thinking, scientific reasoning and skills in the area of modern astrophysics.

CO – PO Mapping