AST 142 - Stars

Semester Hours: 4

This course is an introduction to the science of stars. When we look up at the night sky, a few thousand stars can be seen with the unaided eye. Using telescopes, we have found that another few hundred billion exist in our Galaxy. But these stars are not all the same. From the smallest brown dwarfs to the largest blue supergiants, and from young stellar objects to deadly black holes, we will explore and study the processes that form, shape, power, and, in some cases, destroy stars. We will learn that life on Earth is at the same time sustained and threatened by stars. Most of all, we will learn that the atoms in our bodies, in the air we breathe, in the jewelry we wear, and in most everything we see were forged by stars long ago: we are stardust, and to stardust we will one day return. A laboratory is included. Meets Scientific Discovery Intellectual Perspective requirement (SD).

Intellectual Perspective: SD
Lab Included: LB