ASTR4330/6330 – ASTRONOMY SEMINAR

                                                    Spring 2008

 

 

Professor:        Loris Magnani        Office:  Physics 238      Phone: 542-2876

E-Mail:            loris@physast.uga.edu

Class Time:     Tuesday 3:30 – 4:45 PM, Physics 302

Office Hours:  Tuesday and Thursday     9:30 – 11:30 AM

Grading:          Your grade is based on 10 short essays, some done in class, some done at home.  The topic of the essays will be assigned in class.

 

NOTE:  If you are taking this course for ASTR 6330 credit, in addition to the attendance requirement you will also have to write a 10 page paper on a mutually agreed-on topic.

 

Objective:       The purpose of the ASTR 4330 seminars is to present to the student

                        the way that astronomy research is conducted in a particular field

                        by the given faculty member.  Although I am a radio astronomer who

does research on interstellar gas and dust, I have decided that this semester we will discuss another or my interests, cosmology.  We will discuss my research specialty, the cold interstellar medium in the Spring of 2008.

 

 

                                              LIST OF TOPICS 

                                       

Date             Topic

 

Jan.    14   -  Organizational meeting                      

Jan.    21   -  Overview of the Galaxy

Jan.    28   -  Atomic Gas in the Galaxy

Feb.     4   -  Radiative Transfer

Feb.   11   -  The Phases of the Atomic ISM

Feb.   18    - The Distribution of Molecular Hydrogen

Feb.   25    - The Virial Theorem      

Mar.    3   -  Molecular Clouds

Mar.  10   -  Star Formation

Mar.   17  -  Spring Break

Mar.   24   - No class this week

Apr.      7  - Turbulence and Chemistry in Molecular Clouds

Apr.    14  - The Center of  the Galaxy

Apr.    21  -  The Far Outer Galaxy

Apr.    28  -  The Halo of the Galaxy