Cosmic Discoveries from Galileo to the Present Time (ASTR 499)

*Undergraduate applicants only, graduate students are not eligible*

Syllabus

Program Information

This course is appropriate for junior and senior students in the physical and astronomical sciences as well as in engineering. The course will present our current knowledge of the Universe, explaining how our understanding came to be and how different observations shaped it, from the era of Galileo to the present time. We will link the scientific breakthroughs that Galileo has brought to the human kind with his living and working context, including the artistic and architectural surroundings. We will discuss current fronteers where astronomy meets fundamental physics, and how physical discoveries made from the ground with elementary particle accelerators are complemented by astronomical observations of the cosmos. We will also discuss the new era of extragalactic astronomy that we are entering, in which not only we can observe light coming from the cosmos with new and powerful telescopes, but also we can detect and study gravitational waves with ground and space based impressive instrumentation.

Contact Information

Faculty Director: Elena Pierpaoli

Email: pierpaol@usc.edu