Class Meeting Date(s)

Lecture subject

Required/recommended reading

January 14 and 19

How big is that? An introduction to the sizes, masses, distances, ages and speeds commonly encountered in astronomy.
Visit the on-line How Big Is That sheet.

Seeds, pp. 1-8.

January 21 and 26

Prologue in outer space: what it’s like to be in the neighborhood of some typical black holes.

Thorne, pp. 23-59.

January 28 and February 2, 4, and 9

Einstein’s theories: special relativity; the warping of space and time; the Lorentz transformation and velocity-addition formulas; general relativity; experimental verifications of relativity.

Thorne, pp. 59-120. Seeds, 78-99.

February 16

General relativity predicts the existence of black holes; can quantum mechanics keep black holes from forming?

Thorne, pp. 121-163. Hawking, pp. 57-104.

February 18

Exam 1, covering all subjects discussed to date.

February 23 and 25

Degenerate stars. White dwarf stars and the Chandrasekhar maximum mass; neutron stars and the Oppenheimer maximum mass; supernovae; the inevitable formation of black holes.

Thorne, pp. 164-257. Seeds, pp. 259 - 280.

March 1

Properties of real black holes.

Thorne, pp. 258-299.

March 3

Energetics of black holes, and the discovery of quasars.

Thorne, pp. 300-321.

March 15, 17, 22, and 24

Black holes unveiled. Astronomical objects thought, or known, to involve black holes: X-ray binary stars, active galaxy nuclei, the center of the Milky Way, and gamma-ray bursters.

Thorne, pp. 322-356. Seeds, pp. 281-306 and 357-378; Silk, pp. 247-271.

March 29

Ripples of curvature: the nature and potential for detection of gravitational radiation, general relativity’s analogue of light.

Thorne, pp. 357-396.

March 31

Exam 2, emphasizing subjects introduced since Exam 1.

April 5

Black holes aren’t quite black: quantum fluctuations near the horizon, and black-hole evaporation.

Thorne, pp. 412-448. Hawking, pp. 105-120.

April 7

Inside black holes: physics beyond the black-hole horizon.

Thorne, pp. 397-411, 449-482.

April 12

Wormholes: How (potentially) to use black holes for space and time travel.

Thorne, pp. 483-522.

April 14

The expansion of the Universe and its large-scale structure:  black hole formation in reverse.

Hawking, pp. 1-36; Silk, pp. 109-149.

April 19 and 21

The Big Bang, its observation, and Big Bang cosmology: the present expansion and large-scale structure of the universe, and possibilities for its fate.

Seeds, pp. 379-404; Hawking, pp. 37-84 and 121-150; Silk, pp. 31-107 and 151-184.

April 26

Exam 3, emphasizing the subjects introduced since Exam 2.