ASTRO 1105

ASTRO 1105

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2023-2024.

When civilization was young, Seneca wrote, "A single lifetime, even entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject. Our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them." We will work to understand what he and the ancients knew about the night sky, and the ingenious methods by which they came to know it, and trace the history of astronomy through the modern day. Indeed, modern astronomy abounds with strange alien worlds and exotic events that would have amazed that great classical thinker: Stars and the tantalizing planets that journey with them through the galaxies, which smash into one another over millions of years. And when they die in great explosions, stars create exotic pulsars, black holes, nebulae, and people. And somehow all of this started at the single moment of the Big Bang. What will be so plain to our descendants that would amaze us today? Will they have contacted alien intelligence? Traveled in time? Learned the fate of the universe?

When Offered Summer.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Recommended prerequisite: high school physics.
Forbidden Overlaps Forbidden Overlap: due to an overlap in content, students will not receive credit for both ASTRO 1105 and ASTRO 1107.

Distribution Category (PBS-AS, PHS-AS)

View Enrollment Information

Syllabi: none
  •   Six Week Summer.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: ASTRO 1107

  • 3 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  1014 ASTRO 1105   LEC 001

  • Instruction Mode: Distance Learning-Asynchronous
    This Summer Session class is offered by the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions. For details visit: https://sce.cornell.edu/courses/roster.

  •  1015 ASTRO 1105   DIS 201

  • Instruction Mode: Distance Learning-Asynchronous