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The Astronomy Department offers three Freshman Seminars: |
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Freshman Seminar 21g Since the Universe is expanding, it must have been denser in the past. But even before we get all the way back to the Big Bang, there must have been a time when stars like our Sun or galaxies like our own Milky Way did not exist because the Universe was denser than they are. We therefore face the important question about our origins: how and when did the first stars and galaxies form? Primitive versions of this question were considered by humans in religious and philosophical texts for thousands of years, long before it was realized that the Universe expands. The Seminar will summarize the fundamental principles and scientific ideas that are being used to address this question in modern cosmology. Previous generations of scholars have also wondered about the long-term future of the Universe. For the first time in history, we now have a standard cosmological model that agrees with a large body of data about the past history of the Universe. The Seminar will conclude with the forecast that this scientific model makes about our future. The Seminar will be based on a recent book with the same title written by Prof. Loeb (Princeton University Press, 2010). |
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Freshman Seminar 23u The existence of black holes was debated through the last decades of the 20th century. Now, it is believed they exist in most, if not all galaxies, including our own. What has changed? Have we developed instruments that allow us to "see" black holes? If not, why is their existence no longer debated in conventional astronomy? In this course, students will read from "Gravity's Fatal Attraction" - a popular text on black holes, and popular articles (e.g. Scientific American, Nature and others) based on the latest scientific research to explore these questions and others, including how black holes form, how they might evaporate, and how we can try to measure their mass and spin. While the seminar will focus primarily on black holes, we will briefly investigate gravity associations with dark matter and dark energy. In the process, students will also gain perspective on the range of radio to gamma-ray telescopes and satellites enabling the latest breakthroughs. The class will also be taken on a tour of the millimeter-wave telescope here at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and shown how dark matter can be measured from a Harvard building roof-top. We will also visit the Chandra X-ray satellite operations control center located here in Cambridge, where students will talk with mission control personnel about the details of satellite maneuvering, planning, and observations. (Chandra is the largest satellite to be operated away from a NASA center, and the millimeter-wave telescope is one of the few not run by a National facility.) |
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Freshman Seminar 26i |
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