Welcome to Stellar Astrophysics

Preview

The Big Picture

• Big Picture cartoon: stars illuminate the cosmos!

Stars Observed

• individual examples
• stellar populations: in open cluster and globular cluster

Getting Under the Hood: The Physics of Stars

• stellar structure
• energy generation: solar neutrinos and neutrino image of the Sun (Super-K)
• evolution of single stars:
  • birth in molecular clouds
  • stellar convection and Betelgeuse
  • evolutionary phases
  • final stages

Stellar Death and Afterlife

• planetary nebulae
• core-collapse supernovae
• compact objects: white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes

Binary Stars

• most stars are in pairs
• consequences of binarity
  • thermonuclear supernovae and possible model
  • gravitational waves from binary compact objects
  • LIGO/VIRGO events live here

Stellar Astrophysics in Context: A Universe of Stars

• stars illuminate galaxies
  • spirals
  • ellipticals
  • clusters
• stars give rise to element production: we are made of star-stuff

Business: Syllabus and Course Mechanics