This introductory course will develop basic concepts in astrophysics as applied to the understanding of the physics of planets, stars, galaxies, and the Universe.

This introductory course will develop basic concepts in astrophysics as applied to the understanding of the physics of planets, stars, galaxies, and the Universe.

The course examines various topics in astrophysics with an emphasis on physical processes occurring in an expanding Universe, from a time about 1 microsecond after the Big Bang, to the formation of galaxies and supermassive black holes within the next billion years.

Our understanding of the universe has made great progress recently thanks to the combination of several cosmological probes such as the cosmic microwave background, galaxy clustering, gravitational lensing, and supernovae. After a review of cosmology, this course will cover the physics of these different probes along with their application, combination and use to measure cosmological parameters.