AST 402: Stars and Interstellar Medium

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AST 402: Stars and Interstellar Medium

A 3-credit course offered as part of the Minor in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A), and also available as an elective for students pursuing a major in Physics.

This course is part of the Data-Intensive Astronomy (DIA) track of A&A Minor. The necessary mathematics and physics are introduced from the ground up, ensuring accessibility for students from diverse backgrounds, including physical sciences, electrical engineering, and computer science.

Prerequisite: MAT 104.

Course Content

Stellar Spectra

How do spectral lines form in the blackbody spectrum of a star? Saha equation and the composition of stars. Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram.

Structure

Equations of stellar structure. Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics. How to simulate a star in a computer?

Interstellar medium

How are stellar materials recycled in the interstellar medium (ISM)? Hydrogen in the ISM. Interstellar clouds of different types in our Galaxy.

Formation

What are the Jeans criteria that determine whether an interstellar cloud will collapse to form stars or not? Birth-track of different stars in the HR diagram. Initial mass function.

Evolution

Evolution of stars of different masses in the HR diagram. What are the different timescales in stellar evolution? Causes of the different phases of a stars life. Why does a star pulsate near the end of its life?

Death and remnants

Why do stars of different masses die differently? What are the physical mechanisms that give rise to white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes? How do pulsars and supermassive black holes form?

Keystone Project

Plot HR diagram for different star clusters and estimate the age of a cluster using Python.

Textbooks

  1. Carroll & Ostlie, An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  2. Hale Bradt, Astrophysics Processes: The Physics of Astronomical Phenomena, Cambridge University
    Press, 2008.
  3. Salaris & Cassisi, Evolution of Stars and Stellar Populations, Wiley, 2005.
  4. R. Kippenhahn & A. Weigert, Stellar Structure and Evolution, Springer, 1989.
  5. George W. Collins II, The Fundamentals of Stellar Astrophysics, NASA Astrophysics Data System, 2003.
AST 401: Planets and Planetary SystemsAST 403: Galaxies and Intergalactic Medium