Physics Ladder · High school · Grade 12

Astronomy

The sky, the Moon and the seasons, orbits, light and telescopes, the Sun, the planets, the lives of stars, galaxies and the expanding universe, with algebra only.

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52 topics in 8 units. Builds on Physical Science, plus Algebra 1 from the Math Ladder, and Earth Science on the Earth & Space Ladder. Leads to Astrophysics. Not sure this is the right course? Find your rung.

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Unit 1 The Sky

9 topics

Read the turning sky, the seasons, the Moon's phases and eclipses from Earth's motions.

  1. The Celestial Sphere
  2. Altitude, Azimuth and Your Latitude
  3. Right Ascension and Declination
  4. Solar and Sidereal Days
  5. The Sun's Path Through the Year
  6. The Sun's Noon Altitude
  7. Moon Phases and Moonrise Times
  8. Synodic and Sidereal Months
  9. Eclipse Seasons

Unit 2 Gravity and Orbits

7 topics

From Copernicus and Kepler to Newton: how planets move and how orbits weigh the heavens.

  1. From an Earth-Centered to a Sun-Centered Sky
  2. Kepler's First Law: Ellipses
  3. Kepler's Second Law: Equal Areas
  4. Kepler's Third Law
  5. Weighing Stars and Planets with Orbits
  6. Orbital Speed and Escape Speed
  7. Spring and Neap Tides

Unit 3 Light and Telescopes

7 topics

Light is our messenger: its colors give temperatures, its lines give composition and its shifts give motion.

  1. Looking Back in Time
  2. Color and Temperature: Wien's Law
  3. Luminosity, Size and Temperature
  4. Spectral Lines and Kirchhoff's Laws
  5. The Doppler Shift of Light
  6. Telescopes: Light-Gathering and Resolution
  7. Observing Across the Spectrum

Unit 4 The Solar System

4 topics

The planets, their moons and the small bodies, how they formed, and planets around other stars.

  1. Planet Densities: Rock or Gas?
  2. How the Solar System Formed
  3. Comets and Meteor Showers
  4. Finding Planets Around Other Stars

Unit 5 The Sun

4 topics

Our star's layers, its fusion power, its lifetime and its magnetic activity.

  1. Layers of the Sun
  2. How the Sun Shines
  3. The Sun's Lifetime
  4. Sunspots and the Solar Cycle

Unit 6 Measuring the Stars

6 topics

Distances, brightnesses, temperatures and masses of stars, and the H–R diagram that ties them together.

  1. Parallax and the Parsec
  2. Brightness and Distance
  3. The Magnitude Scale
  4. Spectral Classes
  5. The H–R Diagram
  6. Binary Stars and Stellar Masses

Unit 7 The Lives of Stars

7 topics

How stars form, how long they last, and what they leave behind.

  1. How Stars Are Born
  2. Main-Sequence Lifetimes
  3. Red Giants and White Dwarfs
  4. Reading a Cluster's Age
  5. Supernovae and the Elements
  6. Neutron Stars and Pulsars
  7. Black Holes

Unit 8 Galaxies and the Universe

8 topics

Our galaxy, other galaxies, dark matter, and the expanding universe since the Big Bang.

  1. The Milky Way
  2. Kinds of Galaxies
  3. Dark Matter
  4. Standard Candles
  5. Hubble's Law
  6. The Age of the Universe
  7. Evidence for the Big Bang
  8. The Accelerating Universe
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