Professor Bailyn introduces the course and discusses the course material and requirements. The three major topics that the course will cover are (1) exoplanets--planets around stars other than the Sun, (2) black holes--stars whose gravitational pull is so strong that even their own light rays cannot escape, and (3) cosmology--the study of the Universe as a whole. Class proper begins with a discussion on planetary orbits. A brief history of astronomy is also given and its major contributors over the centuries are introduced: Ptolemy, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton.

1. Introduction
2. Planetary Orbits
3. Our Solar System and the Pluto Problem
4. Discovering Exoplanets: Hot Jupiters
5. Planetary Transits
6. Microlensing, Astrometry and Other Methods
7. Direct Imaging of Exoplanets
8. Introduction to Black Holes
9. Special and General Relativity
10. Tests of Relativity
11. Special and General Relativity (cont.)
12. Stellar Mass Black Holes
13. Stellar Mass Black Holes (cont.)
14. Pulsars
15. Supermassive Black Holes
16. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang
17. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang (cont.)
18. Hubble's Law and the Big Bang (cont.)
19. Omega and the End of the Universe
20. Omega and the End of the Universe
21. Dark Matter
22. Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe and the Big Rip
23. Supernovae
24. Other Constraints: The Cosmic Microwave Background
25. The Multiverse and Theories of Everything

In this course, Yale Prof. Charles Bailyn focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly: Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes, and Dark Energy. Particular attention is paid to current projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. The course explores not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out.



This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2007.