Marshalltown Community College - Continuing Education
        Class being taught by Sam Wormley - Spring 2008

                            Books   |   Astronomy Picture of the Day   |   News   |   Calendars   |   Star Charts   |   Observing   |   Weather  


Marshalltown Community College - Continuing Education
Voyages of Discovery: Copernicus to the Big Bang     (16 hours over 8 weeks)
     March 2008             April 2008              May 2008
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
                   1          1  2  3  4  5                1  2  3
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8    6  7  8  9 10 11 12    4  5  6  7  8  9 10
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15   13 14 15 16 17 18 19   11 12 13 14 15 16 17
16 17 18 19 20 21 22   20 21 22 23 24 25 26   18 19 20 21 22 23 24
23 24 25 26 27 28 29   27 28 29 30            25 26 27 28 29 30 31
30 31                  
                  



In 1543, Nicolas Copernicus published, "On the Revolutions of
Heavenly Spheres", which began the first of three revolutions 
in cosmology. This is where we begin our eight week course--
learning about some of the major players, discovering the 
unfolding universe, and making the case for modern cosmology.

Nicolas Copernicus
  o The Ptolemaic System
  o The Copernican Principle

Tycho & Kepler
  o The Science of Observation
  o The Kepler's Three Laws - MU-21 
  o Harmonies of the World - Cosmos #3
  
Isaac Newton & the Kepler Problem
  o The Kepler Problem - MU-22
  o The Rise of the Mechanical Universe 
  o Inertia (Galileo) - MU-4 
       
Miraculous Year (1905)
  o The beginnings of Relativity
  o The Beginnings of the Quantum Mechanics
  o From Kepler to Einstein - MU-25 

Hubble and the Expanding Universe
  o Mysteries of Deep Space: To the Edge of the Universe
  o When we look out in space, we look back in time!
  o No Center

Runaway Universe
  o Type Ia Supernovae
  o Dark Energy
  o Dark Matter

Black Holes are Major Players
  o Monster of the Milky Way
  o Galactic interactions

The Big Bang: Putting all the Pieces Together
  o Origins: Back to the Beginning  
  o WMAP: Foundations of the Big Bang theory 
  o A Universe Hospitable to Life--What's Our Place?


 

© Copyright 2008 - Samuel J. Wormley
  by swormley1@mchsi.com