Introduction To Astrophysics

Module description

Module Description

This module introduces students to astrophysical and cosmological concepts. Planets, stars and galaxies will be covered in the module together with the tools that astronomers, astrophysicists and cosmologists use to explore them.

Learning aims & outcomes

At the end of the module students should be able to:

• Calculate the escape speed of an object from another celestial object.
• Apply Kepler’s third law to an object’s orbital motion.
• Understand and apply the virial theorem of gravitational and kinetic motion.
• Explain and calculate the optics of a telescope, including its angular resolution.
• Understand and apply the relationship between an object’s luminosity and flux.
• Calculate distances using the parallax method.
• Describe how an optical spectrograph works.
• Understand the nature of molecular clouds and how they collapse to form stars.
• Describe the detection techniques for finding planetary systems.
• Explain the basic properties of stars and the HR diagram.
• Describe the evolution of stars based on their mass.
• Understand the properties of stellar remnants, including white dwarfs and neutron stars
• Describe the properties of accretion disks.
• Understand the components in galaxies and the dynamics.
• Calculate the distances to galaxies using methods in the distance ladder.
• Describe the motion of galaxy clusters and the likelihood of galactic collisions.
• Explain the observational discrepancies which either imply the existence of dark matter or a modification to theories of gravity.
• Describe the basics of cosmology, including the expansion of the Universe.

Assessment details

Details of the module's assessment/s

Type	Weighting	Marking model
Written two hour exam (May)	80%	Model 2 - Double Marked
Coursework (Fortnightly problem sheets)	10%
Quizzes	10%

Please note: - module assessment may be subject to change. If you have any questions, please contact ug-physics@kcl.ac.uk

Teaching pattern

A total of 3 hours each week combining lectures and problem solving.

Module description disclaimer

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.

Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.

Please note that the module descriptions above are related to the current academic year and are subject to change.