FS/Ph 4
First-Year Seminar: Astrophysics and Cosmology with Open Data
First-Year Seminar: Astrophysics and Cosmology with Open Data
6 units (2-0-4)
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first term
Astrophysics and cosmology are in the midst of a golden age of science-rich observations from incredibly powerful telescopes of various kinds. The data from these instruments are often freely available on the web. Anyone can do things like study x-rays from pulsars in our galaxy or gamma rays from distant galaxies using data from Swift and Fermi; discover planets eclipsing nearby stars using data from Kepler; measure the expansion of the universe using supernovae data; study the cosmic microwave background with data from Planck; find gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers using data from LIGO; and study the clustering of galaxies using Hubble data. We will explore some of these data sets and the science that can be extracted from them. A primary goal of this class is to develop skills in scientific computing and visualization. Bring your laptop!
Instructor:
Weinstein