PHYS13192 Stars, Planets & Galaxies

This course starts with our own star, the Sun, and then discusses how we can measure the properties of other stars; how they are born; live and how they die. The likely origin of the Solar System is presented and we describe the properties of the circumsolar planets and their satellites. The Sun is only one of a hundred thousand million stars that inhabit our Galaxy, the Milky Way. We describe the Galaxy and other galaxies and the properties of black holes and dark matter. Finally we consider cosmology, the origin of the Universe with the Big Bang, the start of time and space, and the expansion of the Universe.