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University of Rochester - Confronting The Big Questions: Highlights of Modern Astronomy 

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Confronting The Big Questions: Highlights of Modern Astronomy
 at 
Coursera 
Overview

Duration

11 hours

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Total fee

Free

Mode of learning

Online

Difficulty level

Beginner

Official Website

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Credential

Certificate

Confronting The Big Questions: Highlights of Modern Astronomy
 at 
Coursera 
Highlights

  • 20% started a new career after completing these courses.
  • 14% got a tangible career benefit from this course.
  • Earn a shareable certificate upon completion.
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Confronting The Big Questions: Highlights of Modern Astronomy
 at 
Coursera 
Course details

More about this course
  • An introduction to modern astronomy's most important questions. The four sections of the course are Planets and Life in The Universe; The Life of Stars; Galaxies and Their Environments; The History of The Universe.

Confronting The Big Questions: Highlights of Modern Astronomy
 at 
Coursera 
Curriculum

Are we alone in the Universe?

Introduction

Scientific Notation

Our Place in the Cosmos

Comparative Planetology

Terrestrial Planets

Giant Planets

Gas Vs Ice Giants

Construction Debris

Exoplanets

Understanding Ellipses

Radial Velocities and the Doppler Shift

Transiting Planets

The Habitable Zone

What Exoplanets Have Taught Us

Condensation Theory

Planet Formation

Basic Chemistry

DNA and RNA

Appearance of Life

Are We Alone?

General Overview

Grading and Logistics

Syllabus

About the Professor

About the Teaching Assistant

Optional Readings

Exercises and Activities

Lecture Notes

Week 1 Quiz

How do Stars Evolve and Die?

Stars - Introduction

Nuclear Fusion

The Nature of Light

Quantum Physics

Measuring Stars

Forming a Protostar

Brown Dwarfs And Very Low Mass Stars

The Structure of a G2 Main Sequence Star

Solar Magnetic Features

Red Giants and Planetary Nebulae

White Dwarfs

Supernovas and Neutron Stars

Frames of Reference

Special Relativity

General Relativity

Escape Velocity

Black Holes

Journey into a Black Hole

Answering the Question

Week 2 Quiz

What Exists Outside our Galaxy?

Galaxies Introduction

Interstellar Medium

Galactic Distances

Climbing the Cosmic Distance Ladder

Type Ia Supernovae

Metallicity

The Milky Way

The Galactic Disk

The Stellar Halo and the Bulgy Bar

The Galactic Center

Galactic Zoology

Introduction to Dark Matter

Types of Active Galactic Nuclei

Unified Model for AGN

Galaxy Groups and Clusters

Superclusters

Answering the Question

Week 3 Quiz

What is the Fate of the Universe?

Introduction

Hubble?s Law and the Big Bang

Space-Time and Quantum Fields

The Standard Model of Particle Physics

Dark Matter

In the Beginning

Phase Transitions in the Early Universe

BBN and Recombination

Observational Evidence

The Beginning of Large Scale Structure

The Era of Quasars

Dark Energy and Cosmic Destiny

The Multiverse

Recap-History of the Cosmos

Answering the Question

Week 4 Quiz

Confronting The Big Questions: Highlights of Modern Astronomy
 at 
Coursera 
Admission Process

    Important Dates

    May 25, 2024
    Course Commencement Date

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    Confronting The Big Questions: Highlights of Modern Astronomy
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