The Department of Physics and Astronomy offers a variety of astronomy and astrophysics courses at introductory and upper levels. The Middlebury College course catalog links for these courses are listed below. Please note: pre-requisites and co-requisites are not listed on this webpage.
PHYS 0155: Introduction to the Universe offers students from any major or class year a chance to explore concepts from the formation of the solar system to the fate of the universe while sharpening their quantitative reasoning skills with an algebraic approach to introductory astronomy. This course has a hands-on laboratory component that includes night-time observing with telescopes at the Mittelman Observatory.
PHYS 0255: Introduction to Astrophysics introduces students to the discipline, develops understanding of the physics of the cosmos, and provides the knowledge and skills necessary for advanced study in astrophysics. In addition to gaining familiarity with the theory underpinning our modern understanding of astrophysics, students also gain practical experience with scientific coding and data visualization by exploring various numerical problems in astrophysics, such as the gravitational interactions among three co-orbiting celestial objects.
PHYS 0355: Observational Astrophysics utilizes the Mittelman Observatory to teach observational techniques and data reduction in an experiential, hands-on manner. Students design and execute their own observing programs and work with the data to learn about the nature of stars and galaxies in our universe. Projects include studying a star cluster to measure its age, identifying star formation in galaxies, and measuring the motion of moons and planets in our solar system.
PHYS 0370: Cosmological Physics is the study of the Universe as a whole entity, including the origin, evolution, and ultimate fate of the entire Universe. This course explores the Big Bang, inflation, primordial nucleosynthesis, the cosmic microwave background, the formation of galaxies, and large-scale structure. Observations and theory are used to address some of the current open questions in cosmology such as: what are the forms of matter and energy distributed in the Universe? What is the expansion rate of the Universe and how has it changed with time? What is the age of the Universe? What is the shape of the Universe?
PHYS 0345: High Energy Astrophysics offers insights into some of the most extreme environments and phenomena found in the Universe, from ultra-strong magnetic fields to the event horizons of black holes. This course provides an introduction to the physics of high energy emission and absorption processes in the context of white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, supernovae, and more. The theory of these emission mechanisms are linked to data through X-ray data analysis projects that introduce students to the spectroscopic and timing analyses used by high energy astrophysicists.
PHYS 1105: Ancient Astronomy is a course about astronomy through the lens of ancient civilizations. By studying the civilizations of the Babylonians and Greeks, as well as selected civilizations around the world, students learn how ancient astronomers determined the sizes of the Earth and Moon as well as distances to bodies in the solar system and how celestial phenomena motivated religious and cultural practice. Students participate in hands-on, lab-like activities, and utilize naked-eye observations of the sky along with moderate use of mathematics to learn how our ancestors understood our place in the cosmos.
FYSE 1536: The Milky Way Galaxy is about how we came to know that we live in a galaxy that is distinct from the other hundreds of billion galaxies in the observable Universe – a fact that only became accepted in the mid 1920’s. The course discusses the history and philosophy of humanity’s effort to find our place in the Universe, focusing on how progress is made in science and how we settle scientific debates. Students learn about the anatomy of the Milky Way, including the disk of rotating stars in which our Sun resides, the globular clusters that are scattered throughout, the dark matter that holds the Galaxy together, and the black hole quietly sitting at its center. Throughout, students explore how historical events, as well as human creativity and ingenuity, drove the major discoveries that give us an understanding of our place in the Universe.