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A minor in Astronomy is offered to students who are preparing for a career in astronomy or astrophysics or to those who are interested in an in-depth survey of modern astronomy.
The minor is open to students with a major in any discipline.
There are 3 initial courses which are required (with 11 credits),
followed by a
number of optional courses which can be taken to make up the
required number of (20) credits.
Required Prerequisite Courses
PHYS 121(4) Introductory Physics I
PHYS 122(4) Introductory Physics II
[Prereq PHYS 121]
PHYS 304(3) Fundamentals of Astronomy
[Prereq PHYS 122]
Additional Course Requirements for the Astronomy Minor
Following completion of the above (required) courses,
students should select at least three (3) of
the following to acquire the mandatory
(20) credits required to complete the Astronomy Minor:
PHYS 315(3) Galaxies and the Interstellar Medium
PHYS 405(3) Stellar Astrophysics
PHYS 415(3) Observational Astronomy
(but see below)
PHYS 416(3) ExtraGalactic Astronomy and Cosmology
PHYS 425(3) Relativistic Physics
(but see below)
These additional courses can be taken in any order.
Please see Individual
Course Descriptions
for more details of the topics & levels covered.
Sequence of Courses
Currently it is planned that PHYS304 will be offered every Fall semester.
However it is anticipated that
only one of the additional courses required for the
Astronomy Minor will be taught each semester
(eg. see the
Astronomy-related course schedule
for a listing of courses taught in the recent past and provisionally
projected to be taught in the near future).
Thus in order to satify the
requirements of the Minor you should plan your course schedule carefully at least
4 semesters before your anticipated graduation date.
All students anticipating graduating in 4 years should certainly plan on taking
PHYS304 by the Fall of their Junior year.
Additional Notes
- In the very near future we anticipate renaming PHYS415
Observational Astronomy to Astroparticle Physics in
order to better reflect the contents of the syllabus.
- PHYS425 Relativistic Physics currently has additional PHYS
prerequisites which makes it difficult to include except
for Physics Majors.
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