Readings for "Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology"

You can find this URL by starting at the course home page,

Some of the material you need to read is taken from a small set of popular science magazines: Scientific American, Sky and Telescope, Astronomy, New Scientist. You can find all these in the RIT Library. I have collected articles from recent issues of these journals and placed them on electronic reserve. In order to access them, you need to know the login name and password for the course.

• RIT Library's set of materials for this course on electronic reserve, which are in no particular order.

  Week 1: Galaxies

• Island Universes, from Wright to Hubble (item 11)
  Sky and Telescope, Jan 1999, pp. 56-60.
• At the Hearts of Barred Galaxies (item 12)
  Sky and Telescope, Mar 1999, pp. 32-37
• Beyond the Rainbow
  by James Kaler, Astronomy, Sep 2000, pp. 38-43
• Beyond the Hubble Sequence
  by Greg Bothun, Sky and Telescope, May 2000, pp. 36-43

  Week 2: Other view of Galaxies, and Clusters of Galaxies

• Galaxies behind the Milky Way (item 24)
  Scientific American, Oct 1998, pp. 50-57
• The Ghostliest Galaxies (item 30)
  Scientific American, Feb 1997, pp 56-61. Also found in "Magnificent Cosmos"
  See also Images of Low Surface Brightness Galaxies from the University of Oregon.
• Cosmic Jekyll and Hyde (item 6)
  Astronomy, May 1998, pp. 50-53
• Cosmology of the Local Group (not on electronic reserve)
  This article by George Lake of the University of Washington is not from a magazine; it's available directly on the Web, at http://www-hpcc.astro.washington.edu/papers/localgroup/lg.html
• Evolution of Galaxy Clusters (item 25)
  Scientific American, Dec 1998, pp. 52-57

  Week 3: Monsters in the Sky: Active Galactic Nuclei and Quasars

• A Beast in the Core (item 4)
  Astronomy, July 1998, pp. 42-47
• Collosal Galactic Explosions (item 33)
  Scientific American, Feb 1996, pp. 98-103
  This item is in your textbook, "Magnificent Cosmos", on page 74.
• The Rise and Fall of Quasars (item 8)
  Sky and Telescope, May 1999, pp. 40-46

  Week 4: Gamma Ray Bursts

• Gamma Ray Bursts
  You can read this article from the July, 1997, issue of Scientific American on-line, or, better, read it in your textbook of Scientific American reprints.
• Gamma-ray burst hunters catch a whopper (item 9)
  Sky and Telescope, May 1999, pp. 54-57.
• Speed Matters
  by Robert Zimmerman, Astronomy, May 2000, pp. 36-41

  Week 5: Gravitational Lensing

• Stars and Dark Objects as Microlenses in the Milky Way
  is an HTML version of a lecture given by Penny Sackett, an astronomer who is using gravitational lensing to search for planets around other stars.

  Week 6: The Cosmological Distance Ladder

  • Part I: The Earth and Solar System:
    • Webb: Measuring the Universe, 2.2-2.3, 3.2, 3.3.3, 3.5
  • Part II: Parallax to Nearby Stars
    • Webb: Measuring the Universe, 4.2-4.3, 4.6, 4.9
    • Hipparcos: The Stars in Three Dimensions (item 13)
      Sky and Telescope, June 1999, pp. 40-50
    • Puzzling out parallax (item 7)
      Astronomy, Sept 1998, pp. 46-51
  • Part III: Distant Stars and Color-Magnitude Diagram
    • Webb: Measuring the Universe, 4.7, 5.2-5.4, 6.4-6.5
  • Part IV: The Distance to the LMC
    • Webb: Measuring the Universe, 7.2, 8.4

  Week 7: The Cosmological Distance Ladder, Part II

  • Part V: Using Cepheids in nearby galaxies
    • The Expansion Rate and Size of the Universe, by Wendy Freedman. This is on page 92 of your text, "Magnificent Cosmos".
    • Webb: Measuring the Universe, 8.4, especially 8.4.1
  • Part IV: Estimating distances to very distant galaxies
    • Webb: Measuring the Universe, 9.2-9.3, 9.7-9.9
    • Surveying Space-time with Supernovae (item 20)
      Scientific American, Jan 1999, pp. 46-51

  Week 8: Relics from the Past

• The Expansion Rate and Size of the Universe,
  by Wendy Freedman. This is on page 92 of your text, "Magnificent Cosmos". It has a good discussion of the current state of the distance/velocity measurements.
• Webb, Measuring the Universe, 10.1
• A relation between distance and radial velocity among extra-galactic nebulae
  Edwin Hubble's first announcement (1929) of the relationship between distance and radial velocity for galaxies.
• The Race to Map the Microwave Background (item 10)
  by Joshua Roth, Sky and Telescope, September, 1999, pp. 44-48.
• Unveiling the Flat Universe
  by Diana Steele, Astronomy, Aug 2000, pp. 46-50

  Week 9: The Big Bang Theory

• The Evolution of the Universe,
  by Peebles, Schramm, Turner and Kron, is on page 86 of your text, "Magnificent Cosmos".
• Webb, Measuring the Universe, 10.2, 10.4
• Primordial Deuterium and the Big Bang (item 32)
  from Scientific American, December 1996, p. 68.
• The Future of the Universe (item 40)
  from Sky and Telescope, August 1998, pp. 32-39.

If you want to see the full article electronically, with full-size versions of any images (still black-and-white, I'm afraid), then

• Go to the ABI database search page
• Choose the "for publication" item in the upper-left corner, in the New Search box
• Type the name of the publication into the entry form (for example, Sky and Telescope), and click on "Search"
• A list of publications matching that name will appear. Pick the one you want
• Choose the issue of the journal containing the article
• Choose the article itself in the Table of Contents

Or, even better, go to the RIT Library, find the journal in the stacks, and read the article. You'll see all the pictures, in full color!

This page maintained by Michael Richmond. Last modified Jan 22, 2001.

Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.