Unveiling the Cosmos

For centuries, people have looked up at the night sky and marveled at everything it holds. Space is indeed full of fascinating objects and processes – from other planets (maybe some like Earth) to black holes. Unveiling the Cosmos will tour the astronomical universe from small to large scales.

This seminar will introduce students to a wide variety of astrophysical phenomena ranging from planets orbiting other stars to distant galaxies and beyond. Each class will be devoted to a specific topic, led by a new person with specific expertise (and often with research expertise) in the area. Members will be introduced to cutting edge research and unanswered problems in astronomy today. Examples of topics in the past have included planets around other stars, supernovae explosions as stars die, and open questions in astronomy today, but the speakers and topics will be new ones for the Fall 2021 semester.

Class Recordings:  (Click on the links below to watch the recordings.)

Session 1 - October 6

Session 2 - October 13

Session 3 - October 20

Session 4 - October 27

Session 5 - November 3

Session 6 - November 10


Group Leader: CHARLES LAW & JESSE HAN
Venue: online
Meets on: Wednesdays 3:30 to 5:30 pm
Starting: 10/6/2021
Sessions: 6
Class Size: 50
Teaching Style: Lecture and discussion
Weekly Preparation: None

The Center for Astrophysics is a collaboration between Harvard and Smithsonian that carries out a broad program designed to explore the greatest unresolved questions about the nature of the universe. Featured speakers are graduate students or postdoctoral fellows working at the forefront of their respective fields. All have spent considerable time engaging with a particular subject in astronomy, and they will design lectures aimed to introduce topics in astronomy and share how their research will contribute to the field. This course is organized and led by Charles Law and Jesse Han. Charles Law is a fourth-year graduate student interested in observational radio astronomy with a particular focus on the chemical composition of protoplanetary disks. Jesse Han is a third-year graduate student studying our Galaxy's stellar halo.