Stars And Stellar Systems

By Dhruba J Saikia | Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics

Learners enrolled: 2374

The ARPIT 2019 course on Astronomy and Astrophysics is titled “Stars and stellar systems”. An understanding of this field, which draws upon our knowledge of different branches of physics, is fundamental to our understanding of the universe. The course is made up of 10 modules addressing different aspects of the field: Stars and stellar evolution; Stellar variability; Stars and cosmology; Star clusters and star formation; Compact stars; Astrophysics of neutron stars; Binary stellar systems; The Sun; Helio- and astero-seismology; Extrasolar planets. Besides refreshing oneself on the basics and recent developments in the field, the material would also be helpful for teachers of physics wishing to learn the subject to teach.

	Topic	Speaker
Module 1	Stars and stellar evolution	Sarita Vig, IIST
Module 2	Stellar variability	Sukanta Deb, Cotton University
Module 3	Stars and cosmology	Sivarani Thirupathi, IIA
Module 4	Star clusters and star formation	Ram Sagar, IIA Manoj Puravankara, TIFR
Module 5	Compact stars	Dipankar Bhattacharya, IUCAA
Module 6	Astrophysics of neutron stars	Sushan Konar, IUCAA
Module 7	Binary stellar systems	Sudip Bhattacharyya, TIFR
Module 8	The Sun	Dibyendu Nandi, IISER Kolkata Durgesh Tripathi, IUCAA Divya Oberoi, NCRA-TIFR
Module 9	Helio- and astero-seismology	Shravan Hanasoge, TIFR
Module 10	Extrasolar planets	Anwesh Majumdar, HBCSE, TIFR

Video editing: Aniket Kadu, Shivraj S Kshatriya

Video recording: Science Media Centre, IISER Pune

Course logo: ASTROSAT image of a star cluster (Courtesy Sarita Vig and ISRO)

Summary

Course Status :	Completed
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	16 weeks
Category :	Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT)
Credit Points :	4
Level :	None
Start Date :	01 Sep 2019
End Date :	31 Dec 2019
Exam Date :

Page Visits

Course layout

	Topic
Week 1	Stars and stellar evolution - I
Week 2	Stars and stellar evolution - II
Week 3	Stars and stellar evolution - III
Week 4	Stellar variability
Week 5	Stars and cosmology
Week 6	Star clusters and star formation - I
Week 7	Star clusters and star formation - II
Week 8	Compact stars
Week 9	Astrophysics of neutron stars - I
Week 10	Astrophysics of neutron stars - II
Week 11	Binary stellar systems
Week 12	The Sun - I
Week 13	The Sun - II
Week 14	Helio- and astero-seismology
Week 15	Extrasolar planets

Books and references

Beech, M., 2019. Introducing the stars: Formation, structure and evolution, Springer
Bhattacharya, D., Dwarakanath, K.S., Konar, S., 2017. Physics of Neutron Stars and Related Objects. Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy special issue, Indian Academy of Sciences 38 (3)
Cerutti, B., Beloborodov, A.M. 2017. Electrodynamics of Pulsar Magnetospheres, Space Science Reviews 207 (1-4): 111-136
Chandrasekhar, S. 1967. An introduction to the study of stellar structure, Dover, New York
Clayton, D.D., 1983. Principles of stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Frank, J., King, A., Raine, D.J. 2002. Accretion Power in Astrophysics: Third Edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
Karttunen, H., Kröger, P., Oja, H., Poutanen, M., Donner, K.J., 2017. Fundamental Astronomy, Springer
Kippenhahn, R., Weigert, A., Weiss, A. 2012. Stellar structure and evolution, Springer
Lewin, Walter H. G., van Paradijs, J., van den Heuvel. , E.P.J. 1997. X-ray Binaries, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Lyne, A. G., Graham-Smith, F. 1990. Pulsar astronomy. Cambridge, England and New York: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Astrophysics Series, No. 16)
Perryman, M., 2018. The exoplanet handbook, Cambridge University Press
Phillips, A.C., 2010. The physics of stars, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., Chichester
Sengupta, S., 2015. Worlds beyond our own: Search for habitable planets, Springer
Severino, G., 2017. The structure and evolution of the Sun, Springer
Shapiro, Stuart L., and Saul A. Teukolsky. 1983. Black Holes, White Dwarfs and Neutron
Stars, The Physics of Compact Objects, Wiley InterScience
Srinivasan, G. 2011. Can Stars Find Peace? Universities Press (India) Pvt Ltd.
Srinivasan, G. 2014. Life and Death of the stars, Universities Press and Springer
Watts, A. L., Andersson, N., Chakrabarty, D., Feroci, M., Hebeler, K., Israel, G., Lamb, F. K., et al. 2016. Colloquium: Measuring the neutron star equation of state using x-ray timing. Reviews of Modern Physics 88 (2)

Instructor bio

Dhruba J Saikia heads the Teaching Learning Centre and the National Resource Centre of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and was earlier a Professor at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) for over forty years. His research interests are on different aspects of extragalactic astronomy and astrophysics, especially active galaxies, and more recently on education, with an emphasis on higher education. Besides TIFR, he has been engaged in research and/or teaching at the Jodrell Bank Observatory of the University of Manchester; National Radio Astronomy Observatory USA; Queen's University at Kingston, Canada; Australia Telescope National Facility (CASS) of CSIRO Australia, the University of Western Australia and Cotton University, India. He has published extensively, and was the Editor of the Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India and the Founding Vice-Chancellor of Cotton University at Guwahati. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India.