Courses

Last offered Spring 2022

What makes Earth different from all the other planets? What have NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance on Mars (with their alumni/ae participation!) found about that planet's past running water and suitability for life? How has knowledge about Pluto and Arrokoth beyond it been transformed by NASA's flybys and the associated ground-based studies with which Williams College faculty and students participated? Will asteroids or comets collide with the Earth again? What is a solar eclipse like and how do we prepare for the April 8, 2024, totality? What do we learn from the rare transits of Mercury and of Venus that Williams faculty and students have studied? What may the new James Webb Space Telescope reveal about exoplanets and their atmospheres? Astronomy 102, a non-major, general introduction to the part of contemporary astronomy that comprises the study of the solar system (and the systems of planets around other stars), will provide answers to these questions and more. We will cover the historical development of humanity's understanding of the solar system, examining contributions by Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, and others. We will discuss the discovery of over 4000 exoplanets around stars other than the Sun. The course gives special attention to exciting discoveries of the past few years by space probes and by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Kepler/K2/TESS missions, as well as plans and hopes for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (which launched in December 2021). We regularly discuss the latest news briefs and developments in astronomy and relate them to the topics covered in the course. This course is independent of, and on the same level as Astronomy 101 (stars and stellar evolution) and 104 (galaxies and cosmology), and students who have taken those courses are welcome. [ more ]

Last offered Fall 2021

Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe. As such it is an inherently interdisciplinary field, incorporating all of the basic natural sciences: biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, and the earth sciences, as well as aspects of philosophy, sociology, and engineering. Questions we will seek answers to in this class include: How, why, when, and where did life evolve on Earth, and what does that tell us about how it might evolve elsewhere? What are the chances that there is life on other planets and moons in our solar system, and why? Are there habitable planets elsewhere in the universe, and will we ever truly know if any of them contain life? We will approach these questions using a combination of lectures, activities, labs, homework assignments, and visits from some of the country's leading Astrobiology researchers. Examples of lab and homework activities include exploring our definition of life by making observations about living and non-living systems, examining evidence for ancient habitable environments in rocks, and modeling chemical fingerprinting tools used by Mars rovers. Assessment will be based on participation, quizzes, labs and homework assignments, and a final group project where students will present a mock NASA mission proposal. This course requires no previous experience in the sciences. This course is in the Sediments and Life group for the Geosciences major. [ more ]

Last offered Spring 2022

How do astronomers make scientific measurements for objects that are light-years away from Earth? This course will introduce the basics of telescopes and observations and will give students hands-on training in the techniques astronomers use to obtain, process, and analyze scientific data. We will discuss observation planning, CCD detectors, signal statistics, image processing, and photometric and spectroscopic observations. We will begin by focusing on ground-based optical observations and will move on to non-optical observations, both electromagnetic (e.g., radio waves, X-rays) and non-electromagnetic (e.g., gravitational waves, neutrinos). Throughout the course, students will use computational techniques to work with real astronomical data, taken with our 24" telescope and from data archives. [ more ]

Last offered Spring 2020

This course examines the history and geology of the solar system. No two planets are exactly alike, and as we acquire more data and higher-resolution images, our sense of wonder grows. However, we can't hike around and hammer rocks on Venus or Titan, so we have to infer composition, form, texture and process from remotely-captured images and sparse chemical and spectral data. We will consider the origin of the solar system, the formation and evolution of planetary bodies, and the role of impacts, volcanism, tectonics and geomorphology in shaping them. We will summarize basic geological concepts of stratigraphy, structure and chronology and show how they can be applied off-world. We will review solar system exploration, and will include planetary data in lab exercises. This course is in the Solid Earth group for the Geosciences major. [ more ]

Last offered Spring 2021

We will look in detail at geological processes on rocky and icy bodies of the Solar System. Each week will have a specific theme, and students will read a series of scientific articles on that topic. The readings will form the basis for writing and discussion. Areas to be investigated may include ice ages on Mars, the origin of Earth's moon, tectonics on Venus, chaos terrain on Europa, geysers on Enceladus, cryovolcanism on Triton, methane lakes on Titan, the viability of mining in the Asteroid Belt, and the prospects for life on other worlds. This course is in the Solid Earth group for the Geosciences major. [ more ]

ASTR 336 SEM Science, Pseudoscience, and the Two Cultures

Last offered Spring 2018

A famous dichotomy between the sciences and the humanities, and public understanding of them, was laid down by C. P. Snow and has been widely discussed, with ignorance of the second law of thermodynamics compared with ignorance of Shakespeare. In this seminar, we will consider several aspects of science and scientific culture, including how scientific thinking challenges the claims of pseudoscience. We will consider C. P. Snow and his critics as well as the ideas about the Copernican Revolution and other paradigms invented by Thomas Kuhn. We will discuss the recent "Science Wars" over the validity of scientific ideas. We will consider the fundamental originators of modern science, including Tycho, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton, viewing their original works in the Chapin Library of rare books and comparing their interests in science with what we now call pseudoscience, like alchemy. We will review the history and psychology of astrology and other pseudosciences. Building on the work of Martin Gardner in Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, and using such recent journals as The Skeptical Inquirer and The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, we consider from a scientific point of view what is now called complementary or alternative medicine, including both older versions such as chiropractic and newer nonscientific practices. We will discuss the current global-climate-change deniers and their effects on policy. We discuss vaccination policy. We consider such topics as GM (genetically modified) foods, the safety and regulation of dietary supplements, and the validity of government and other recommendations relevant to the roles of dietary salt, sugar, and fat in health. We consider the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and reports of UFO's and aliens. We consider the possible effects that superstitious beliefs have on the general public's cooperation in vaccination programs and other consequences of superstition. We will discuss conspiracy theories such as those about the Kennedy assassination, in view of the 2017 release of many documents from the time and the recent book by Alexandra Zapruder, the granddaughter of the person whose on-the-spot movie documented the fatal shot. We also consider a range of dramas that are based on scientific themes, such as Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and Michael Frayn's Copenhagen. [ more ]

Last offered Spring 2021

The matter between the stars--the interstellar medium--tells the story of the past and future evolution of galaxies and the stars within them. Stars are accompanied by diffuse matter all through their lifetimes, from their birthplaces in dense molecular clouds, to the stellar winds they eject as they evolve, to their final fates as they shed their outer layers, whether as planetary nebulae or dazzling supernovae. As these processes go on, they enrich the interstellar medium with the products of the stars' nuclear fusion. Interpreting the emission from this interstellar gas is one of astronomers' most powerful tools to measure the physical conditions, motions, and composition of our own galaxy and others. In this course we will study the interstellar medium in its various forms, from cold, dense, star-forming molecular clouds to X-ray-emitting bubbles formed by supernovae. We will learn about the physical mechanisms that produce the radiation we observe, including radiative ionization and recombination, collisional excitation of "forbidden" lines, collisional ionization, and synchrotron radiation. Applying our understanding of these processes, we will analyze the physical conditions and chemical compositions of a variety of nebulae. Finally, we will discuss the evolution of interstellar material in galaxies across cosmic time. This course is observing-intensive. Throughout the semester students will work in small groups to design, carry out, analyze, and critique their own observations of the interstellar medium using remote observations and archival data. [ more ]

Last offered Spring 2022

In this tutorial, we will learn about galaxies and their evolution by focusing on some of the key mysteries astronomers are trying to solve. Questions may include: How do galaxies turn their gas supply into stars? Is there a universal initial mass function for star formation? What is the origin of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters? Why do some galaxies cease star formation? Which galaxies reionized the universe? We will discuss the nature of each unsolved problem, debate the theories proposed to answer it, and consider how future progress might be made. [ more ]

Last offered Fall 2021

We study all aspects of the Sun, our nearest star. In addition to discussing our observations of recent eclipses and what has been learned about the solar atmosphere from eclipse research, we discuss the solar interior (including the Nobel-prize-winning solar neutrino experiment and helioseismology), the photosphere, the chromosphere, the corona, and the solar wind. We discuss the Sun as an example of stars in general. We discuss both theoretical aspects and observational techniques, including work at recent total solar eclipses. We discuss results from current spacecraft, including the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Sun Watcher (SWAP), and Hinode (Sunrise), and the newer GOES/UVSI (Solar Ultraviolet Imager) run by an alumnus as well as additional Total Solar Irradiance measurements from spacecraft. We will discuss the role of solar observations in confirming Einstein's General Theory of Relativity with the bending of light at the 1919, 1922, and 2017 total solar eclipses as well as gravitational redshift measurements in solar spectral lines, extending our discussion to the recent "chirp" of gravitational radiation reported from several colliding black holes and neutron stars observed with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). We also discuss transits of Mercury across the face of the Sun, most recently on November 11, 2019. We highlight the 2004 and 2012 transits of Venus across the face of the Sun as observed from Earth, the first such transits of Venus since 1882, as well as our work in observing transits of Venus from Jupiter with the Hubble Space Telescope. We discuss plans for observing future total solar eclipses, including those of December 4, 2021, near or over Antarctica; October 23, 2023, in northwestern Australia; and April 8, 2024, over Mexico and a U.S. path from Texas to northern New England. [ more ]

Last offered Fall 2022

An original experimental or theoretical investigation is carried out under the direction of a faculty member in Astronomy or Physics, as discussed under the heading of the degree with honors in Astrophysics above. [ more ]

Last offered Spring 2022

An original experimental or theoretical investigation is carried out under the direction of a faculty member in Astronomy or Physics, as discussed under the heading of the degree with honors in Astrophysics above. [ more ]