ASTR3220: Cosmology#

Lecture notes for ASTR3220 Cosmology at Valdosta State University. This course is designed using An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Carroll & Ostlie (2007), where it will include summaries of the course material and code implementation/exercises. The course is divided into three sections (Introduction; Galaxies; and Universe) that will cover 3-4 chapters for each section from the textbook. In addition to homework assignments and exams, each student will give an in-class presentation using information from an instructor-assigned:

  • tutorial using astropy

and

  • a topical scientific (peer-reviewed) paper

where both presentations will be assessed by both the instructor and fellow students. The presentation using the astropy tutorials must explain to the class: how to use the relevant tools and connect to the material in the associated chapters of the textbook (as indicated below).

Astropy#

  • Extracting and Plotting Position-Velocity Diagrams

  • Cube Reprojection Tutorial

  • Make a plot with both redshift and universe age axes using astropy.cosmology

  • Using Astropy Quantities and Units for astrophysical calculations

  • Computing Galactic Orbits of Stars with Gala

  • Viewing and manipulating FITS images

Papers for presentations#