April 2009


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Summer Star Gazing

This year has been declared the International Year of Astronomy, celebrating 400 years since Galileo looked through the telescope, launching us into an era of enhanced vision into the Universe. Astronomy is one of the most dynamic fields where new discoveries are routinely made as humanity boldly goes where no man has ever gone before in increasing our reach and observation of the Universe. As part of the International Year of Astronomy recognition, UWI launches a new course on “Introduction to Astronomy” (PHYS 1001) from the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Agriculture. This course traces the development of Astronomy from ancient times in different cultures like the Greek, Babylonian, and the Mayan inputs into Astronomy. It leads the participant on a journey from our own solar system, exploding and dying stars into the far reaches of distant galaxies. On the way exotic objects like quasars are explored towards understanding their role in the Universe. The origins of the Universe is explored in light of the standard Big Bang model and the course ends on the philosophical and sobering note of search for life in the Universe and some of the research being undertaken at UWI as well.

This three-credit course is open to students from all faculties and other non-campus persons. There are no formal prerequisites, except for normal matriculation requirements for UWI. The course lecturer is Dr. Shirin Haque, Astronomer at UWI.