Our Shared Universe

This course will provide an overview of our universe (the Universe). We’ll cover the 5 most requested topics in college intro astronomy classes.

Session 2. How stars work.

Stars are big balls of gas. But oh what interesting things go on inside and what monstrous power they contain. Every pinprick of light you see in the night sky produces more energy every second than humans have used since we evolved. In this session we’ll look inside stars to see how they work and then explore the populations of stars that light up our night sky. In addition, we’ll talk about:

1. How stars create their energy (thanks Einstein)

2. Stellar weather

3. Stellar birth

4. The death throes of stars large and small

Session 3. Is that a black hole or am I missing something?

What is so intriguing about black holes? It is, by far, the most requested topic in my Intro to Astronomy course. Is it that they are mostly nothing? Or is it that if you could survive a voyage into one, it would be a one way trip? Or maybe, it’s that they warp both space and time so severely that they act as cosmic lenses and one way time machines. In this session we will dip our toes into Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and try to understand these beasts of darkness.

Sessions 4: Aliens - How to find them before they find us.

Probably the most common question I get asked when someone finds out I’m an astronomer is “Do you think there’s other life out there?” (or the closely related question “When you look through your telescope, do ya ever see anyone lookin’ back atcha?”) It’s funny, we all seem to really want there to be alien life out there - even most scientists I know. But is there any evidence that extra-terrestrial life, in any form, exists? What are the arguments for and against alien life? In this session we’ll look at the questions and evidence on both sides along with an explanation for why the very search for aliens is controversial amongst astronomers.

Session 5. The Big Bang (who cares about chickens and eggs)

Let’s go out with a … oh that’s just too easy. In this session we’ll wrap up the course with a discussion that spans the observable Universe. We’ll go all the way back in time …well, not quite all the way back but really really far back to the time just when our physics stops working. From there, moving forward we’ll look at what the Big Bang gives us as the Universe expands, Dark Matter arises and then Dark Energy takes over, and a gargantuan fight between gravity and space-time plays out on cosmological scales. It’s the ultimate battle of creation.