Astronomy & Astrophysics Honours 2012 - course code ASTR4005F
Important Dates
Starting date (1st Semester): 30th January 2012 - Thesis submission date: 25th October 2012
Starting date (2nd Semester): 16th July 2012 - Thesis submission date: 30th May 2013
Please note that some of the 1st semester honours courses
may run slightly into the semester break.
HONOURS COURSE WORK RULES
- 50%-75% of the honours assessment in Astronomy & Astrophysics is for a research project.
- Students are required to do 12-24 points of coursework for the other 25-50% of their honours assessment.
- Up to 24 points (in 3 and 6 point quanta) are to be selected from the list below.
- ASTR 3002, ASTR3007 and GEOL 3022 may be taken if not already taken as a third year subject.
- Some courses (e.g. Diffuse Matter in the Universe, High Energy Astrophysics, Astrophysical Gas
Dynamics, Instrumentation) may be given in alternate years.
- A student who misses these courses in 4th year may take them as a graduate course in the
following year.
- Additional 6 cp units may be selected from suitable units in Physics or Maths subjects
to approval by the Astronomy & Astrophysics Honours Convenor. Possible examples include:
A unit from the Honours Physics program. One of the Computational Modelling units in the Bachelor
of Computational Science Honours Program. One of the units in the Mathematics Honours program
- For the Honours degree, students have to take up to five courses in total. This can be either
all five courses offered by RSAA (see list below) or equivalent honours courses from Geology, Physics
or Maths.
GENERAL INFO
A minimum of three courses offered by RSAA have to be taken.
Course work counts between 25-50% towards the final honours mark. The Honours thesis has a 75-50% weight.
Follow the links to get a copy of the
Honours Guidelines,
Milestone Completion Form, and
Honours Handbook with grading criteria
RECOMMENDED HONOURS COURSES
ASTR3007: From Stars to Galaxies - 6CP
Taught by Prof Peter Wood, Dr Amanda Karakas, Dr Stefan Keller, A/Prof Helmut Jerjen
1st Semester 2012
Times and Venue: TBD, for venue details click
ASTR3007 website
Assessment: see course webpage
Syllabus:
This course will introduce star formation, structure, evolution, element production and thermonuclear
reactions, and pulsating stars. The galaxy component will cover, galaxy formation theory, classification,
star formation, galaxy interactions, dark matter, black holes and large scale structure of the Universe.
For details, contact
Dr Stefan Keller
ASTR3002: Black Holes and the Universe - 6CP
Taught by A/Prof Lilia Ferrario and Prof Brian Schmidt
2nd Semester 2012
Times and Venue: TBD, for venue details click
ASTR3002 website
Assessment: see course webpage
Syllabus:
This course covers three main topics. Compact Objects: white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.
Theoretical Cosmology: dark matter and dark energy, Universe models.
Observational Cosmology: historical observations, distances, accelerating Universe and the cosmic background radiation.
For details, contact
A/Prof Lilia Ferrario
Astrophysical Gas Dynamics - 6CP
Taught by Prof Geoff Bicknell
1st Semester 2012
Times and Venue: TBD, 3 lectures + 1 tutorial per week, beginning 21 Feb, DLT at Stromlo
Assessment: Assessment based on Assignments totaling about 40 questions.
Syllabus:
Please contact Geoff Bicknell.
For details, contact
Prof Geoff Bicknell
Observational Techniques - 3CP
Taught by Prof Peter McGregor
1st semester 2012 (mid-March until the end of June)
Time: TBD
Venue: Duffield lecture Theater or Woolley seminar room at RSAA
Assessment: TBD
For details, contact
Prof Peter McGregor
Planetary Science (EMSC3022) - 6CP
Taught by Prof Trevor Ireland from the Department of Earth and Marine Sciences
2nd semester 2012
For all details (starting date, venue, assessment etc.) see the
webpage of EMSC3022 or contact
Prof Trevor Ireland
Utility Courses
These short (2-8 lectures) courses are NOT part of the Honours program but shall help honours
students with
Unix, LaTeX, BibTex, Literature Review, Writing, etc.. They are regularly
offered by the
Graduate Information Literacy Program at ANU. Please see their webpages for more information.
RSAA Honours Convenor:
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