Reading/Listening Assignments for Astro 250

• Reading (and listening) for the week of April 21
  • Reading #6 in WebCT Life in the Universe section: SETI Searches Compared
  • Are We Alone: Will Aliens Speak Math? (direct MP3 link)
  • Are We Alone: Hollywood Aliens: What's Right and What's Wrong (direct MP3 link)

• Reading for the week of April 7, and 14:
  • The Chance of Finding Aliens - S&T Article #1 in the Extraterrestrial Life section of WebCT
  • A blog post on defining "life" written by Brian May (of Queen fame).
  • NASA's Astrobiology Roadmap; note particularly Goals 1 and 7.
  • Unveiling Distant Worlds - S&T Article #2 in the ET section of WebCT
  • Browse this poster about the details of defining the "habitable zone" - it is in PDF format.
  • For more details on the habitable zone, see this paper by Franck et al..
  • (audio) Searching for extrasolar planets RealAudio from Science Friday
  • (audio) In Our Time: ET - New Life within our Solar System (click on the 'Listen Again' link)

• Reading for the week of March 31 (Cosmology -> Extraterrestrial Life)
  • Sizing Up Inflation: S&T Article #5 available on WebCT
  • Supernovae, Cosmic Yardsticks: S&T Article #3 available on WebCT
  • Dark Energy and the Perposterous Universe: S&T Article #4 available on WebCT

  • The Chance of Finding Aliens: Article #1 in the Extraterrestrial Life section of WebCT
  • The Astrobiology Roadmap - in particular, Goals 1 and 7

• Reading for the week of March 24 (Cosmology - probes of dark matter etc.):
  • Dark Matter and galaxy rotation curves
  • Cosmology with Galaxy Clusters: S&T Article #2 available on WebCT
  • Supernovae, Cosmic Yardsticks: S&T Article #3 available on WebCT
  • Reading for the week of March 24 (and into next week)
  • Dark Energy and the Perposterous Universe: S&T Article #4 available on WebCT

• Reading for the week of March 10:
  • Cosmology in the New Millenium: Article by Turner and Freedman available through WebCT.
  • An excellent online cosmology tutorial - we'll use material from this throughout the Cosmology section.
  • The ideas behind "freeze-out", from Davison Soper at the University of Oregon.
  • A concise review of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, from Ned Wright at UCLA

• Reading for the week of February 25 (and March 3) (Time Travel)
  • Death by Black Hole, an interview with Dr. Neil de Grasse Tyson
  • How to Build a Time Machine, by Paul Davies (Scientific American, September 2002), and
    Wormholes and Time Machines: article by Paul Davies, both on WebCT in Section 2: Relativity and Time Travel
  • What is a wormhole?
  • Another view from Michael Shermer

• Reading for the week of February 11 and 18 (to GR and black holes)
  • In this tutorial on the basics of relativity, move on to:
    • the Equivalence Principle,
    • and black holes and curved spacetime
  • For more and different info, see online 'Astronomy Notes' on relativity.
    • in particular, curved spacetime
    • and evidence of warped space
  • Another option: Another website with very readable sections on relativity.

• The week of February 4 (GRB to Relativity)
  • Reading (gamma ray bursts):
    • See the NASA page on hypernovae for some interesting animations.
    • Listening (optional):
      • This short Science Friday segment from June 2005 discusses another kind of gamma ray burst from colliding stars.
  • Reading (special relativity):
    • Here is a nice tutorial on the basics of relativity
    • For more and diffent info, see online 'Astronomy Notes' on relativity.
    • A more visual take can be found here

• For the week of January 28 (Stars Bizarre, cont'd)
  • Article on Supernovae - on WebCT, reading #5 in Section 1 of WebCT (if you haven't read it already)
  • Article "Taking the Pulse of Neutron Stars" - on WebCT, Reading #8 of Section 1
  • at least one of the following optional readings:
    • "The Supernova Menace" - on WebCT, Reading #6 of Section 1
    • Jocelyn Bell Burnell on the discovery of pulsars
    • Life on a neutron star?

• The week of January 21 (Stars Bizarre, cont'd.)
  • Reading:
    • Article on white dwarf stars: on the WebCT site for this course, under Course Content:Stars Bizarre click on White Dwarfs article.
      here is a direct link but you'll still need to enter your WebCT login info.
    • Article on Supernovae: Anatomy of a Supernova, also in the Stars Bizarre section of WebCT
  • Listening:
    • Science Update news bit about the Whole Earth Telescope

• The week of January 14 (Stars Bizarre)
  • Reading:
    • Iben: The Lives of Stars: From Birth to Death and Beyond
    • Optional: Cosmic Catastrophes, pp. 1-16.
  • Listening:
    • The Life Cycle of Stars from In Our Time - look for "Listen Again" within that link for the RealAudio stream or click here to go directly to the stream (and wait a minute or two).