ASTRO 322, Galaxies in the Universe, Winter Semester, 2008

This page contains materials for the ASTRO322 "Galaxies in the Universe" course. New items will appear as the course progresses.

Attention: See below for the important changes in the Assignments #2 and #3 !

Course description and basic information:
Syllabus (html,pdf)
Errata to the SECOND edition of Sparke and Gallagher textbook "Galaxies in the Universe"
Course based on Sparke and Gallagher textbook at UColorado"
Lectures Assignments
Lecture 1-2: Discovery of the galaxies
Stars and our Galaxy (The Milky Way)
Northern and Southern Night Sky
All-sky Night Sky
Center of the Milky Way
Stars in Milky way(Infrared image)
Multiwavelength Milky way (from NASA website)
Discovery of other galaxies (1925)
Nebulaes circa 1922
First sketches of Spiral Nebulae M51 (1845)
Shapley - Curtis "The Scale of the Universe" debate, 1920
Small (SMC) and Large (LMC) Magellanic clouds
Cepheids, Period-Luminosity relation Henrietta Leavitt
Edwin Hubble (1889-1953)
NGC6822 - first other galaxy and Andromeda M31
Not all star nebulae are distant galaxies but this one is
State of modern observations
M51 now
Faint Galaxy counts
Hubble Deep Field (HDF site with more information)
Lecture 3: Stellar Spectroscopy and Photometry.
Photometric magnitudes. Photometric bands and colours.
Planck BlackBody spectrum is animated here.
Spectral classification, its relation to temperature.
Library of Stellar Spectra is here
Lecture 4: Stellar evolution
Main sequence:
Coordinates
Nearest stars
Temperature-Luminosity relation
Evolution:
HR diagram for Globular Clusters data (see this research paper for details)
Movies of evolutionary tracks
And more detailed
Assignment #1, due Jan 25th (html,pdf)
Figure 1.17 for Problem 4
Solutions (html,pdf)
Lecture 5: Hubble classification of galaxies. Galaxies in the Universe.
Hubble Deep Field (HDF site with more information)
Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF NASA site)
Messier catalogue of 110 objects. Another link
NGC (New General) catalogue
Hubble classification: examples 1, examples 2 (SDSS)
Spectrum of a typical galaxy. Especially important are calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg, 5178A) and sodium (Na, 5891A) absorption lines.
Original Edwin Hubble Diagram
HST Hubble Diagram (HST Key Project Results on Hubble constant)
Galaxy Cluster Abell 2218 (NASA site with more information)
Local Universe in 3D (Dr. Mike Hudson, UWaterloo site)
Lecture 6: Photometry of galaxies. Surface birghtness, Schechter distribution of luminosities.
Giant elliptical galaxy M87 (NGC4486)
Lecture 7: Our Galaxy, main ingredients
Stars in Milky way(Infrared image)
Multiwavelength Milky way (from NASA website)
Top "view' reconstruction of the Milky way (UCalgary group)
and one more
Lecture 8: Mapping our Galaxy:
Distances to nearby stars ( Hipparcos satellite)
Stellar luminosity function
Proper motions of stars from Hipparcos
Assignment #2, due Fri Feb 8th. (html,pdf)

Problem #3 is eliminated from assignment #2 and moved to assignment #3

Note : In problem 2, in the question about a relation between the total luminosity of the galaxy L_tot and the central surface brightness I(0), consider the total luminosity as the sum over spectral classes S of the full luminosities contributed by stars of type S separately, L_tot=sum_S L_tot(S). Same for I(0), I(0)=sum_S I(0,S)

Solutions (html,pdf)
Lecture 9: Mapping our Galaxy:
Spectroscopic and photometric parallaxes.
Distances to stellar clusters.
Pleiades open cluster
M30 globular cluster
Star clusters and more
Lecture 10: Mapping our galaxy.
Photometric parallax, vertical structure of the galactic disk.
Kinematic measures, distance to the Galactic Center
Milky way in Infrared
Galactic center
Galactic center in radio
Sagittarius A,B .. star cluster and molecular cloud
Dr. E. Polehampton thesis includes this summary of different estimates of the distance to the Galactic Center.
Lecture 11: Rotation curve. Galactic rotation
Lecture 12: Galactic rotation, Oorts constants
Jan Oort's original (1927) paper
Draft page of Oort's paper
Graph of angles
Solid body rotation curve
V(R)=const rotation curve
Constant Angular momentum
Lecture 13: Galactic Rotation, Tangent point method
HI 21cm intensity
HI 21cm intensity with a grid
Our Galaxy rotation curve from tangent method
Assignment #3, due Mon Feb 25th (html,pdf)

Assignment #3 has extra problem added. Deadline is moved to Monday Feb 25th.

Reguired Figures for the new problem (pdf): Figure 1,Figure 2
Solutions (html,pdf)
Lecture 14:
Rotation curves of other spiral galaxies
Images of edge-on and face-on spirals (Image credit - REU program/NOAO/AURA/NSF)
Lecture 15: Scattering of stars in strong (close) and weak encounters
Lecture 16: Scattering of stars, continued
Lecture 17: Motion in gravitational potential, escape velocity
Lecture 18: Stellar dynamics: Stellar orbits, Relaxation, Evaporation of star clusters, Mass segregation in stellar clusters.
Stellar Orbits
x-tube
z-tube
boxy
fish
pretzel
Violent relaxation, phase mixing
Our Galaxy and M31 collision
Establishing of Maxwell-Boltzman distribution by pairwise collisions
Lecture 19: Local group: Milky Way, Andromenda (M31), M33, LMC, SMC, Magellanic stream ...
Local Group description
Local Group 3D positions, rotated and animated
Local group members
Magellanic Stream (in HI)
Midterm Exam. Rules: open book, open notes. Solutions require detailed explanation for a full mark. Texbook and lecture formulas need not be derived, unless explicitly requested. However the results that appeared only in the assignments or during tutorials can't be taken as given and must be rederived, if used.
Solutions (html,pdf)
Lecture 20: Tidal effects on glubular clusters and Milky Way sattelites, Jacobi Radius, Lagrange points
Three body problem - Lagrange points
Assignment #4, due March 14th. (html,pdf)
Figure (JPEG,Postscript)
Solutions (html,pdf) There are no solution spider diagrams posted, Sorry
Lecture 21: Spiral Galaxies, correlations between the properties, Tully-Fisher relation
Sombrero Galaxy (NGC4594) - disk,buldge,dust
More images of Sombrero Galaxy
Lecture 22. Spiral Structure
Hubble Classification - tuning fork
Hubble Classification examples
Hubble Classification examples (From SDSS collaboration)
Different Spirals
Spiral arms at different wavelengths
Multiwavelength M51 (Whirlpool)
M51 (Whirlpool) in optical
M51 HI versus optical
Lecture 23. Spiral Structure, continued
Lecture 24. Spiral Structure, Kinematic spirals
Case Western collection of applets
Assignment #5, due April 4th
Problems 5.10,5.11,5.12 Solutions (html,pdf)

We are here
Lecture 25. Spiral Structure, continued
Spirals in tidally perturbed disk
Merger of the spiral galaxies
Lecture 26. Elliptical Galaxies, Photometry
Hubble classification again
Giant cD galaxy NGC1399 (in Fornax cluster)
Giant galaxy M87 (in Virgo cluster)
Giant cD galaxy in Abell 3558 cluster
Giant E0 galaxy M87 (in Virgo cluster)
Compact Elliptical M32 (in the local Group)
Assignment #6, due April 11th Problems 6.5 and 6.7 Solutions (html,pdf)

Lecture 27. Elliptical galaxies: Shape, oblateness, triaxiality.
Lecture 28. Correlations between global properties. Faber-Jackson, Dn-sigma relations
Lecture 29. Elliptical galaxies: Boxiness-diskiness, rotation.
Final !

Date: TBA

Duration: 3 hours

Place: see BearTracks

Rules: open book

Solutions: (html,pdf)