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Astrophysics: The Violent Universe

Australian National University via edX

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!

Taught by

Paul Francis and Brian Schmidt

Reviews

4.8 rating, based on 6 Class Central reviews

4.7 rating at edX based on 9 ratings

Start your review of Astrophysics: The Violent Universe

  • This is the best series of astronomical courses on the Internet. The teaching style, the mysteries (Yes, the mysteries in which you're investigating a made-up universe and play around with it! Or your job is to try to save the world!), the homework sets - everything was perfect. The easiest thing is to take these courses in order, so that Cosmology doesn't surprise you.

    After these courses, I gained so much interest, so I switched a bit from my theoretical mathematics background to astrophysics, and I'm loving it in here. So, it can really change your life. This is the best thing.
  • I found the ANU Astrophysics MOOCs quite engaging, with the latest information being presented. There is a little bit of mathematics, but mostly you just need to think through the problems.
  • Klaas Naaijkens
  • Joachim Theurer
  • Pravir Kumar Arya

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