In this text, these topics will be explored with the aid of virtual detectors, instruments and observations that effectively simulate the processes that real astronomers use to make inferences and deductions about the nature of stars. This highly interactive aspect of this course is very unique and it allows the material to be presented to the student in ways that are much more different and much more meaningful than can be conveyed by a standard paper textbook with pretty color pictures in it. Hence this website and its associated material and activities completely replaces the need for a textbook and offers an interactivity journey through the material design to impress upon the student how we know what we know, rather than just memorizing whatever it is that we think we know.
The overall goal of this text is to improve student understanding of how various observations and measurements tie together to make a model for the manner in which stars evolve and how this model provides a common basis that links together all life forms. This will give you the basic framework for understanding how elements in the Universe came into existence and for how scientific inference is made from observations. In some sense, having a basic understanding of the proposition that we are all made of "stardust", ought to be part of the basic citizen literacy requirements for this millennium.
Greg Bothun, Author of Cosmology: Life in the Universe
Research Profile:
During the period 1980-2000 G. Bothun published 160 articles in the peer-reviewed literature. This record of productivity and the subsequent citation of these papers lead to Bothun being inducted as an inaugural member (in 2002) of the ISI Highly cited researcher in Space Sciences which recognizes the top 0.5% of all cited international scholars in the field of Space Sciences. During this same time period, Bothun produced 15 Ph.D students in observational astrophysics. In addition, Bothun wrote a graduate level textbook (Modern Cosmological Observations and Problems) which sold out its first printing and, also predicted that the Cosmological Constant must be part of the real cosmology at work, approximately 1 year before there was credible observational evidence in favor of it.
During this period of performance, Bothun was involved in many collaborations that resulted in many breakthrough moments in Extragalactic (the study of objects outside of our Galaxy) Astronomy. These moments include:
Overall Bothun’s work is characterized by innovative observations using then state of the art equipment convolved with a high ability to analyze large and complex data sets using clever statistical techniques. In recent years, he has taken that skill set and applied it to new research areas involving the characterization of climate change as well as the characterization of various forms of alternative energy production as scalable solutions to the coming world energy/electricity production problem
Module 1: Measuring Properties of Stars
Module 2: Stellar Spectra and Chemical Elements
Module 3: The HR Diagram and Stellar Energy Generation
Module 4: Stellar Evolution and The Formation of Elements
Module 5: Star and Planet Formation: Astrobiology and Galactic Intelligence