| Week |
Topic |
Monday |
Wednesday |
Friday |
| 1 |
Special Relativity (website)
Special Relativity (notes)
Chapter 1, p. 10 of book
|
Jan 13
Gaia discovers black holes
The nearest black hole
Organization
|
Jan 15
PHANGS-JWST Treasury Survey of Nearby Galaxies
What is spacetime?
What are forces?
|
Jan 17
Cen A jet 0.18c
5×107 M☉ BH
Cen A (EHT)
Postulates, Paradoxes,
Spacetime diagrams
|
| 2 |
Jan 20
Martin Luther King day
|
Jan 22
Michelson interferometer demo
The Late Show: Gravitational Waves
Michelson interferometer (notes)
Simultaneity
|
Jan 24
Astronaut Scholarship
Time dilation paradox
Lorentz transformation
|
| 3 |
Jan 27
Virgo cluster
M87 BH
Spacetime wheel
|
Jan 29
M87 jet
Trip to αCen
Pole-in-barn paradox
| Last day to drop for free |
|
Jan 31
|
| 4 |
Feb 3
Supernova AT2016jka
Energy-momentum
The Rules of 4D Perspective
|
Feb 5
Video on Special Relativity:
The Mechanical Universe Lessons 41-44
41: The Michelson-Morley Experiment
42: The Lorentz Transformation
|
Feb 7
|
| 5 |
General Relativity,
Black Holes (notes)
General Relativity, Ch 2, p. 51 of book
Black Holes, Ch 6, p. 130 of book
Falling into a Black Hole (website)
Inside Black Holes (website)
|
Feb 10
Postulates of GR (book)
Postulates of GR (notes)
|
Feb 12
Anonymously evaluate this course
Principle of Equivalence (notes)
Principle of Equivalence (book)
|
Feb 14
♥
|
| 6 |
Feb 17
Geodesics, Metric (notes)
Metric (book)
|
Feb 19
Anonymous feedback
Geodesics, Metric (notes)
Schwarzschild geometry (notes)
Schwarzschild geometry (web)
|
Feb 21
Journey into a Schwarzschild BH
River Model of BHs
Gullstrand and Painlevé
|
| 7 |
Feb 24
Embedding diagram (pdf)
Spacetime diagrams
|
Feb 26
The singularity is not a point
Schwarzschild wormhole
|
Feb 28
|
| 8 |
Mar 3
Collapse to a black hole
| 4.45-5.45pm Homework 4 Help Session G130 |
|
Mar 5
Charged Black Holes
Reissner-Nordström metric
Reissner-Nordström waterfall
Reissner-Nordström Penrose diagram
|
Mar 7
Rotating Black Holes
Kerr-Newman metric
Penrose diagrams
|
| 9 |
Mar 10
Mass inflation
Inside black holes
| 4.45-5.45pm Homework 5 Help Session G130 |
|
Mar 12
Gravitational Waves
|
Mar 14 \(\boldsymbol\pi\)
Stephen Hawking
Hawking radiation (web)
Hawking radiation (notes)
|
| 10 |
Mar 17
EHT M87 announcement
EHT SgrA* announcement
|
Mar 19
|
Take-home Midterm 2 available
|
|
Mar 21
| Fiske: “Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity” |
|
| 11 |
|
Spring Break
|
| 12 |
Cosmology (website)
Cosmology, Chapter 10, p. 224 of book
|
Mar 31
ACT announcement video
Overview (notes 3.1)
Chapter 10, p. 224 of book
|
Apr 2
Standard \(\Lambda\)CDM model of Cosmology (notes 3.2)
Chapter 10, p. 243 of book
Fate of the Universe
Geometry of the Universe
Hubble diagram of Type Ia supernovae
Galaxy Clustering
|
Apr 4
Hubble sees \(z = 6.2\) star
Cosmic Microwave Background
|
| 13 |
Apr 7
|
Apr 9
Chapter 10, p. 233 of book
FLRW metric (notes 3.16)
|
Apr 11
Friedmann equations (notes 3.22)
Chapter 10, p. 238 of book
|
| 14 |
Apr 14
Matter, radiation, vacuum (notes 3.29)
Evolution of the Universe
| 4.45-5.45pm Homework Help Session G130 |
|
Apr 16
ACT 2025 video
Cosmic Microwave Background
Cosmic Microwave Background (notes 3.34)
Recombination (book p. 852)
ACT 2025 power spectrum
|
Apr 18
|
| 15 |
Apr 21
Horizon (notes 3.40)
Horizon vs. comoving distance
Inflation (notes 3.45)
| 4.45-5.45pm Homework Help Session in G130 |
On line FCQs open
|
Apr 23
Dark Matter (notes 3.55)
Dark Matter
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (notes 3.63)
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
|
Apr 25
Time (notes 4.1, after 3.65)
|
| 16 |
Apr 28
|
Apr 30
Story
On line FCQs close 11.59pm
|
May 2
Reading day (no class)
|
Take-home Final available
|
|
| 17 |
|
|
Tuesday May 6
| Take-home Final due 11.59pm |
|
|
|
ASTR 3740 Black Holes Spring 2025: Timetable
ASTR 3740 Spring 2025 Homepage
