Astronomy 126: The Interstellar Medium

Week 13

Our thirteenth, and final, assignment - on the multiphase picture of the interstellar medium - is available in Word or pdf formats. There is no written assignment due, just preparation for our seminar meeting on Tuesday.

Week 12

Our twelfth assignment - on shock waves applied to supernovae - is available in Word or pdf formats. It is due, as usual, on Wednesday, December 3, at 9:30 AM.

Week 11

Our eleventh assignment - on shock waves - is available in Word or pdf formats. It is due, as usual, on Wednesday at 9:30 AM.

Have a look at the following galleries of shock-wave images and movies:
simple animation of the sound-wave to shock-wave transition
snapshots of hydro simulations of astrophysical systems
snapshots and movies from simulations of shock waves
APOD images
solar wind interaction with the local ISM
shocks are subject to instabilities
article about schlieren photography

Also the Wikipedia page on fluid mechanics and one on shock waves

Week 10

Our tenth assignment - on star formation and conditions inside star-forming clouds - is available in Word or pdf formats. It is due, as usual, on Wednesday at 9:30 AM.

Week 9

Our ninth assignment - on star formation - is available in Word or pdf formats. There is no pre-seminar assignment due this week.

Week 8

Our eighth assignment - on dust - is available in Word or pdf formats. It is due, as usual, on Wednesday at 9:30 AM. Only the five bold-faced questions are due on Wednesday, but you should be ready to lead the discussion - and address the many other questions in the assignment - on Thursday

As part of this week's assignment, have a look at these dust-related images. Find one that shows - visually - both extinction and reddening, and bring any others you're interested in discussing to class on Thursday.

• You can see dust in some edge-on spiral galaxies here
• Check out the Sombrero galaxy (M 104).
• A nice star field with some Leonids is shown here. Why is this relevant? Well, you can see the dusty Pleiades in the picture.
• There's some fractal dust, and some real dust (interplanetary, not interstellar -- it's bigger).
• You can check out Ned Wright's dust modeling page (fractal dust!), or a page about fractal cheese, for that matter.
• And finally, have a look at the "dust" entries in a search of the APOD archives.

Week 7

Your only assignment this week is to study for the midterm.

Week 6

Our sixth assignment - on the famous H II region, M42 - the Great Nebula in Orion - is available in Word or pdf formats. The written component of this assignment is less formal than usual, but some notes addressing the topics and questions on the assignment are due on Wednesday at 9:30 AM.

Check out the Orion Nebula fly-through. Here's some background information.

New: Some Orion-related links:

• Orion cloud complex
• giant molecular cloud in Orion
• X-ray superbubbles
• HST mosaic image with scale
• APOD search on "Orion Nebula"

Week 5

Our fifth assignment - on H II regions and the warm ionized medium - is available in Word or pdf formats. It is due, as usual, on Wednesday at 9:30 AM.

Week 4

Our fourth assignment - on heating and cooling - is available in Word or pdf formats. It is due, as usual, on Wednesday at 9:30 AM.

Week 3

Our third assignment - on radiation transport including emission as well as absorption, with a focus on radio astronomy - is available in Word or pdf formats. It is due, as usual, on Wednesday at 9:30 AM.

Week 2

Our second assignment - on absorption line analysis of diffuse clouds - is available in Word or pdf formats. It is due, as usual, on Wednesday at 9:30 AM. And, we've got a supplemental list of questions related to the Gry et al. reading [Word or pdf]. Have a look at these in preparation for our seminar - be ready to discuss them - but you don't have to hand anything in for them ahead of time.

Week 1

Assignments will always be due the morning before seminar at 9:30 AM. You will get them back at the end of that afternoon, with comments. These will help you finish preparing for a good seminar meeting. Our first assignment is available in Word or pdf formats.