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.
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