Astronomy 580: Topics in extra-galactic astronomy

When: Mondays and Thursdays at 2.00-3.30pm.

Where: Chart Room.

Lecturers and titles: click on link to access pdf versions of lecture slides (where available).

Jon Willis	Introduction	September 25th and 29th
Sara Ellison	Galaxies probed through quasar absorption lines	October 2nd and 6th
Luc Simard	The formation and evolution of galaxy discs	October 9th and 16th
David Schade	Galaxy populations in clusters: part 1, part 2, part 3	October 20th and 23rd
Chris Willott	Reionization	October 27th and 30th
Thomas Puzia	Stellar populations, chemical enrichment and galaxy formation: part1, part 2	November 3rd and 6th
John Blakeslee	Structure and motions in the nearby universe	Novermber 13th and 17th
Chris Pritchet	Supernova cosmology: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4	November 20th and 24th

Assessments:

Each essay should be no more than 3,000 words. There is no limit on the number of figures. Marks will be awarded for the quality and clarity of your arguments, suitability of references and additional analyses performed in order to support your arguments. Essays must be submitted as a pdf document. Please indicate the word count on page one.

Essays are due on December 3rd 2008.

Sara Ellison	Are surveys for damped Lyman alpha systems biased by dust?
Luc Simard	What observational properties of galaxy discs tell us that they reside in dark matter haloes?
David Schade	Nature versus nurture: are the observed properties of cluster galaxy populations determined by initial conditions, the effect of the cluster environment, or a combination of the two?
Chris Willott	Is it possible that AGN provided the dominant source of photons that re-ionized the Universe?
Thomas Puzia	Can the Milky Way be assembled from dwarf galaxies?
John Blakeslee	Click here
Chris Pritchet	Click here