Astrophysics: The Violent Universe

What you will learn

• An understanding of white dwarfs, novae, supernovae, neutron stars and black holes
• How physical principles including quanum mechanics and relativity help explain these bizarre objects
• How modern astrophysicists go about investigating these mysteries

Program Overview

Interested in exploring the deadliest and most mysterious parts of our universe? Or, investigating black holes, which warp the very fabric of space-time around them?

We will look at what we know about these objects, and also at the many unsolved mysteries that surround them. We will also study white-dwarf stars and neutron stars, where the mind-bending laws of quantum mechanics collide with relativity. And, examine dwarf novae, classical novae, supernovae and even hypernovae: the most violent explosions in the cosmos.

This course is designed for people who would like to get a deeper understanding of astronomy than that offered by popular science articles and television shows.You will need reasonable high-school level Maths and Physics to get the most out of this course.

This is the third of four ANUx courses which together make up the Australian National University’s first year astrophysics program. It follows on from a course on the Greatest Unsolved Mysteries of the Universe, and a course on exoplanets. It is not necessary to have done the previous courses first: all necessary background material is repeated here. It is followed by a course on cosmology. These courses compromise the Astrophysics XSeries. Learn more about the XSeries program and register for all the courses in the series today!