1. Chapter 1: A Grand Tour of the Heavens www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 20141

2. The Solar System Questions: 1.What did the ancient Greeks call the Planets? (Planetes…Wanderers) 2.How many of the planets were known to exist before the 1600’s? 3.How was Neptune discovered? 4.What is 2003 UB 313 and why is it important? What is its common name? 5.Prior to Pluto being demoted, was it always the last planet? 6.Where is the Asteroid Belt? 7.What is the Kuiper Belt? Where is it? www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 20142 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

3. The Discovery of Eris (a.k.a 2003 UB 313 ) www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 20143 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

4. Our Star: The Sun Sun converts hydrogen to helium in its core (75% hydrogen and 25% helium by mass) Differential rotation – Equator the surface rotates once every 25.4 days – Poles about 36 days Core conditions – temperature is 15.6 million Kelvin (surface 5800 K) – pressure is 250 billion earth atmospheres www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 20144 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

5. Terrestrial Worlds: Mercury: Eccentric Orbit Closest to sun 88 Day Orbit Venus: Brightest Planet Used to develop Heliocentric Theory Earth: No longer the only body thought to have water Age: 4.5 B Years Mars: Surface can be seen from earth Phobos (moon) sinking into Marks www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 20145 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

6. Other Objects in our Solar System: Asteroids/Meteors 1980’s Style www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 20146 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

7. Gas Giants: Jupiter: Contains 70% of mass of solar system 65 Moons Saturn: Less dense than water Orbital period is 29 ½ earth years Uranus: Nights can last as long as 40 years ~84 years per orbit Neptune: Stormiest Planet 165 earth years per orbit Rocky Core www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 20147 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

8. Other Objects in our Solar System: Kuiper Belt (~55 AU) www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 20148 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

9. Other Objects in our Solar System: Oort Cloud (50K-100K AU) www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 20149 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

10. Other Objects in our Solar System: Comets Ison Hale-Bopp Break up of 73P/Schwassmann (1995) www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201410 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

11. What’s in between the Solar System and the edge of the Milky Way www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201411 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

12. Birth of Stars Death of Stars Groups of Stars Dark Patches of Gas Constellations www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201412 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

13. Exoplanets New Solar Systems Double Stars Variable Stars www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201413 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

14. The Milky Way: 120,000 light years across Central bulge diameter 12,000 light years (located in Sagittarius) 2 direct neighbors: Large & Small Magellanic Clouds Over 200 Billion Stars Estimates place the age at about 13 Billion years Closest large galaxy, Andromeda, will hit the Milky Way in 1 Billion hears Part of Virgo Supercluster (You Are Here!) www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201414 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

15. What’s Outside the Milky Way: Virgo Supercluster Covers about 10 degrees in the sky Estimated about 1500-2000 galaxies in the cluster www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201415 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

16. Really Cool Stuff in the Universe Herbig-Haro 110: Mysterious jet of hot gas into the universe. However, these types of objects usually come from a new star, except that astronomers cannot find one here. www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201416 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

17. Really Cool Stuff: Hubble Deep Field Currently the circles represent the earliest known galaxies that started forming just 500 million years after the big bang. www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201417 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

18. Really Cool Stuff in the Universe: Hubble Deep Field www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201418 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

19. Really Cool Stuff in the Universe: Colliding Galaxies www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201419 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

20. Really Cool Stuff in the Universe: Exploding Stars www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201420 A Grand Tour of the Cosmos

21. Andromeda 2.1 MLY M51 ~23 MLY A Sense of Time and Distance Rise of the Mammals 1 st Hominids Entering Age of Humans & Last Ice Age Corona Borealis Galaxy Super Cluster 1 BLY 1 st Traces of Life: Algae www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201421

22. Ring Nebula 2,500 LY Kepler 76b 2,000LY Horsehead Nebula 1,500LY Persian Wars Thermopylae Fall of Rome A Sense of Time and Distance www.boyce-astro.org © BRIEF 201422