Voyages of Discovery: Copernicus to the Big Bang
      Class taught by Sam Wormley - Fall 2010

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  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, while addressing the mysteries of Dark
  Matter and Dark Energy.

  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

  Massive 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?

 Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Iowa State University
 Voyages of Discovery: Copernicus to the Big Bang
 
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© Copyright 2010 - Samuel J. Wormley
  by swormley1@gmail.com