Astronomy 225: Formation of Stars and Planets, Spring 2008
 

W5 Image NGC1333 Image Proplyd Image


Course Description

The formation of stars and planets has emerged as one of the most exciting areas of modern astrophysics. This course is designed to bring graduate students up to speed on essential background in observations and theory in this rapidly developing field. Topics include molecular clouds, dense cores, gravitational collapse, young stellar objects in isolation and in clusters, outflows and jets, "T Tauri" and "Herbig Ae" stars, protoplanetary disk structure and evolution, planet building, and the debris disk phenomenon. To supplement the standard lectures, the class will also review several classic research papers with the unusual opportunity to discuss their history and formulation with the paper authors on the research staff of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (confirmed: Phil Myers, Charles Lada, Scott Kenyon, Lori Allen).


Instructor

David Wilner
Office Hours: by appointment or just drop by M-304 (160 Concord Avenue, 3rd floor)


Requirements

Course requirements include attending lectures, participation in class discussion of classic journal papers, completion of two problem sets, and a final paper on a mutually agreed upon topic.


Lectures

Class meets on Tuesday and Thursday, 10:00 - 11:30 am, 60 Garden St. Observatory Building A - A-101

There is no textbook for this course. Much of the lecture material derives from the following good books and resources:
   Protostars and Planets V, eds. Bo Reipurth and David Jewitt
   The Origin of Stars and Planetary Systems, eds. Charles Lada and Nikolaos Kylafis
   Accretion Process in Star Formation, Lee Hartmann
   The Formation of Stars, Steve Stahler
   Lecture Notes on the Formation and Early Evolution of Planetary Systems, Philip J. Armitage

Course schedule and lecture notes as available are posted here.


 
 
Disk Image