-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SYLLABUS FOR ASTRONOMY 130 Black Holes in the Universe - Gravity's Fatal Attraction 2023 Spring Offering -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 10:10-11:00 am Wartik Lab Building Room 105 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instructor: Professor W. Niel Brandt Instructor's office hours: Monday & Wednesday, 11:00-11:50 am Instructor's office: 514A Davey Lab Instructor's phone: (814) 865-3509 Course Web page: http://personal.psu.edu/wnb3/astro130/astro130.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTE: READ THIS SYLLABUS CAREFULLY This syllabus contains the essential information about Astro 130. As such, please read this syllabus carefully and keep it for your records. This is the best way to understand the expectations, rules, and regulations of the course. You are responsible for fully understanding the contents of this syllabus. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COURSE OVERVIEW This course is intended to introduce students to the predicted properties of black holes and the astronomical evidence for their existence. Along the way we will study modern ideas about the nature of space, time, and gravity. Some key topics for discussion include the following: * Newton's and Einstein's theories of gravity * What is a black hole? * Predicted properties of black holes * Stars and their fates * How to detect a black hole * Black holes in our backyard * Gamma-ray bursts and their relation to black-hole formation * The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy * Supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei * Black-hole pyrotechnics: Active galaxies and jets * Feedback from supermassive black holes into galaxies * Spinning black holes * Gravitational waves from black holes * Hawking radiation: Are black holes really black? * Singularities. What's inside a black hole? * Black holes and cosmology: Inflation, child universes, the Anthropic Principle, and natural selection of universes We will spend the first few weeks discussing Einstein's ideas about space, time, and gravity since these ideas are absolutely critical for a proper understanding of black holes. Do not worry if black holes do not make an immediate appearance in the first couple weeks; they will be coming and will certainly be the main focus of the course. A detailed week-by-week list of topics to be covered in the course is available on the course World Wide Web (hereafter "Web") page. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEARNING OBJECTIVES The main objectives of this course are to learn about the following: (1) Modern ideas about the nature of space, time, and gravity. For example, students should be able to explain, in a qualitative sense, the basic ideas of Einstein's special and general relativity. (2) Theoretical expectations about the nature of black holes. For example, students should be able to explain the basic nature of the Schwarzschild and Kerr solutions describing black holes in Einstein's general relativity. They should also be able to describe how black holes are thought to form. (3) Observational evidence for black holes. For example, students should be able to explain how electromagnetic and gravitational wave observations provide a compelling case that black holes exist in our Universe. They should be able to describe separately the observational evidence for stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. (4) The effects of black holes upon the broader Universe. For example, students should be able to explain how radiation, winds, and jets from black holes might affect galaxies, clusters, and other cosmic structures. (5) Selected remarkable physical aspects of black holes. For example, students should be able to explain, in a qualitative sense, Hawking radiation and singularities. (6) The possible role of black holes in cosmology. For example, students should be able to explain how, in a multiverse scenario, black holes could be related to the creation of universes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIFICS CREDIT: This is a three-credit course. It gives GN (general education for natural sciences) credit. PREREQUISITES: Students in this course should have taken Astro 001, Astro 006, or Astro 010 (or have an equivalent level of knowledge). You should already have a solid understanding of ideas such as the electromagnetic spectrum, Newton's law of gravity, the Doppler shift, the basic properties of stars, and scientific notation. Students who have taken Astro 007N or Astro 019N should discuss their situation with the instructor, as these do not automatically satisfy the prerequisites. This course is primarily designed for non-science majors. Advanced mathematics is not required; high-school level math will be used occasionally. LECTURES: The lectures are designed to explain difficult concepts, to stimulate interest in the reading material, to expand on the reading material, and to introduce topics not covered in the textbook. You are encouraged to ask questions during the lectures! Due to some professional travel I may have over the semester, I may have a few substitute, make-up, and/or recorded lectures. These will be arranged in advance when appropriate. REQUIRED READING: The required textbooks for this course are Gravity's Fatal Attraction: Black Holes in the Universe (Third Edition) Mitchell Begelman and Martin Rees Cambridge University Press 2021 ISBN: 978-1108819053 Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy Kip Thorne W.W. Norton and Company 1995 ISBN: 0-393-31276-3 These books have been written for non-science majors by leading researchers and teachers in the field. They are not mathematical. The two books complement each other well; the Thorne book is written from the point of view of a relativity researcher, while the Begelman & Rees book is more astronomically focused. Your best strategy will be to do the assigned reading prior to the day the material is discussed in class. This will allow you to ask questions on any material you do not understand. The reading assignments are given in the separate handout on the course schedule. EXAM REQUIREMENTS: There will be two midterm exams and one cumulative final exam covering the material discussed in class and the assigned readings. These will be closed-book and closed-notes exams. The exams will consist of short-answer, short-essay, or multiple-choice questions. For your reference, here is an example of a short-answer question that would be appropriate for an exam: * Please explain two of the methods by which people have discovered stellar-mass black holes in our Galaxy. Give significant details for each including how the black-hole nature is established. Roughly how many stellar-mass black holes have been found and studied in our Galaxy? Are there likely to be more that we have not yet found and studied? In the exams, emphasis will be on the main concepts rather than rote memorization of small peripheral details. "Trick questions" will be avoided, and the main concepts will usually (but not always) be clearly emphasized both in class and in the books. You are responsible for material covered in the assigned readings but not in class, and vice versa. You must bring a photo ID to the exam; your standard Penn State photo ID card is preferred and will be required unless a good explanation for an alternative ID is provided. You also need to bring a pencil/pen and standard white writing paper. During the exam, you are not allowed to wear a hat, a hood, or headphones. You should not have a cell phone, a calculator, or any other electronic device on the desk. Aside from your exam papers, you should not have any other written/printed documents on the desk. Please take care of bodily needs before coming into the room to take the exam, since you will not be able to leave the room once the exam begins. Also, please bring kleenex or a handkerchief to the exam if you think that you might need to blow your nose. No make-up exams will be given except in cases of (1) serious medical emergencies documented by an official physician's note, (2) documented absences on official University business, and (3) religious holidays. If you will miss an exam due to University business or a religious holiday, you must notify me of this in writing by Feb 1 (providing appropriate documentation). Failure to notify me by this date will result in a denial of the make-up request. The format of the make-up exam will be at the discretion of the instructor. To be clear, the following are *not* valid reasons for missing an exam: (1) routine extracurricular activities, (2) being out of town for weddings or other social events, (3) arriving in State College late after spending the weekend at home, (4) sleeping through the exam because your roommate shut off your alarm clock, (5) break-down of your car or bicycle, and (6) suffering from the effects of a hangover. You should not skip the final exam, even if you are pleased with your scores for the other course components and want your final-exam score to be deleted from your final score for the course (see details below). This is because preparing for the cumulative final exam will be an excellent way to review and strengthen all your learning for the entire course. If you do skip the final exam, this will count against your class-participation component. The exam dates are given in the separate handout on the course schedule. PAPER REQUIREMENTS: You are required to submit one midterm paper. You will work in pairs to prepare this paper (that is, two partners work together to prepare one paper). You can choose your partner as you like; partners will not be assigned by the instructor unless this becomes necessary. This kind of collaborative work/learning is important at Penn State, and such collaborative work is also important in most professional careers - thus, this is good preparation for your future. Note you are not "competing" with your partner for points - partners are supposed to be working on the "same team" to achieve the common goal of preparing a high-quality paper. The text of this paper should be 6-7 pages in length (double spaced). You are free to choose your paper topic, provided that it relates to the major themes of the course: space, time, gravity, and black holes. I will be happy to brain-storm with you about possible topics, and some possible topics are given on the course Web page. Your paper topic should be reasonably focused; topics such as "Degenerate Stars", "Gamma-ray Bursts", "Supermassive Black Holes", "Active Galaxies", or "Jets" are too broad and should be made more focused by concentrating on a particular important aspect of these objects. I would suggest (but do not require) choosing a topic that is related to material that we will have *already* covered in class by the paper deadline. You should avoid preparing a paper that is solely on history without major connections to the ideas of physics or astrophysics. For example, papers solely on the private non-scientific affairs of Einstein or Oppenheimer would not be acceptable. While I want to give you freedom in choosing paper topics, I caution that some advanced topics may be difficult for some students. Unless you are a physics lover and want to work very hard, you might want to avoid topics such as singularities, quantum gravity, string theory, or extra dimensions. I also suggest that you avoid highly speculative topics, such as warp drives relying upon uncertain physics to bend/escape the standard rules of relativity. When writing your paper, you should consider your "audience" to be another student in the course. That is, you should write for an intelligent non-scientist who already has some basic knowledge of the topic (at the level covered in class) and wants to learn more. You should not start at a very basic level, assuming your audience has no relevant knowledge whatsoever. You are also not writing for an expert scientist, so you do not need to present new scientific theories or measurements that you have created/performed. Rather, you should report on currently established theories and measurements. After the text, you should also give a detailed list of references consulted. I would advise using about 6-8 references for the midterm paper, although this number will depend upon the nature of the references. The reference list at the end of your paper should be alphabetized by author last name, and it should follow standard clear citation procedures - such as those put forward by the Modern Language Association (MLA). Most of the references you use should be substantive; they should be full books or primary-source professional journal articles, and not secondary-source short newspaper articles or Web postings. Three good places to access primary-source professional journal articles are the following: Google Scholar - https://scholar.google.com/ ADS - https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/ arXiv - https://arxiv.org/search/advanced though note that not all articles returned by searches will necessarily be primary-source professional journal articles. Note that there is both good and bad information on the Web, even for standard sources such as Wikipedia. You will need to use proper discretion in assessing the reliability of information from the Web. In the text of your paper, you should make appropriate in-text citations to the references listed at the end of your paper. These should follow standard clear citation procedures (such as MLA). Less than 10% of the text of your paper should be direct quotations taken from your sources, and all direct quotations of significant length need to be clearly marked as such (e.g., by putting the quoted text in quotation marks and/or italics font). After the list of references, you should attach a co-signed statement describing clearly how the work was divided between the two partners; both partners are expected to make significant contributions to researching and preparing the paper. This co-signed statement will be considered in the paper grading, so it must be clear and truthful (in line with the Penn State academic integrity requirements described below). I suggest that the co-signed statement be at least 5-10 sentences to be appropriately specific about the contributions of each partner. If you wish to add a few supplementary pictures to your paper, this is welcomed provided the pictures are relevant. However, such pictures should not shorten the length of the text. Any pictures should be accompanied by explanatory captions. If you take a picture from a book or Web site, you need to cite your source for the picture. Grading of the paper will depend on the following: * Focus and intellectual depth. The paper should not just be a broad-brush "rehash" of material covered in class or in the assigned textbook readings. Instead, it should aim to cover a specific topic in greater depth than was possible in the class/readings. * Your demonstrated understanding of the material discussed. * Relevance to the major themes of the course. * Use of high-quality, substantive references other than the assigned textbooks. * Overall structure, organization, and quality of the writing (including grammar, spelling, etc.). * The notecard with title, relevance, and references. This is described further below. Most critically, we are looking for evidence that you have pushed yourself to learn something new and important, going significantly deeper than the coverage of material in class. Your grade on your paper is likely to reflect the amount of both work and thought that you have put into it. A paper that repackages basic facts without much intellectual depth will be graded poorly. I would advise you to prepare your paper over a period of several weeks using multiple draft revisions. Please avoid hastily prepared "one-draft wonder" type papers. Good early coordination between partners is essential to, e.g., avoid any miscommunications between partners or resolve any potential disagreements between partners. Such coordination should be done in the months/weeks before the paper deadline, and not just in the last few days when any problems may be difficult to resolve. Papers are expected to be thoroughly researched. A useful guideline is that the basic writing of your paper should only represent about 20% of the effort going into it. The other 80% of the effort should go into topic selection, reference selection, carefully reading and synthesizing references, discussing and resolving challenging points with your partner, developing a well-organized paper outline, ensuring that your paper reads as a coherent whole, and proofreading your paper for clarity and style. The Undergraduate Writing Center, part of the Penn State Center for Excellence in Writing, offers general assistance with writing. See https://pennstatelearning.psu.edu/tutoring/writing for more information. When you turn in your paper, each pair will need to turn in one printed version and one digital version. The digital version will be turned in via email to an email address that I will specify in class. Please put "Astro 130 paper" and the author last names in the subject line of your email; e.g., "Astro 130 paper - Marr and Morrissey". The digital version should be in a simple plain-text format (often called ASCII or MS-DOS format). Please do NOT send the digital version in Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, HTML, etc. format. Microsoft Word and most other programs have a standard option for outputting a file in plain-text format; in Microsoft Word try the "Save As" option. The digital version can be single spaced (even though the printed version should be double spaced). The digital version will be used to perform plagiarism checks, as described below. All papers must be word processed (not handwritten). You should use standard one-inch margins and standard-size, plain-white paper. Double-sided printing is preferred, if possible, to avoid wasting paper. The font should be no larger than Times New Roman 12 point. Please use standard black ink that is easy to read. Papers should be stapled once in the upper-left corner. Please do not use extra binders or folders for your papers, and there is no need to include "fancy" cover pages (just put the paper title and full author names at the top of the first page). Working in pairs is required, not optional, for the paper. Papers not prepared by a pair of partners will not be accepted. If you are having trouble finding a partner, please contact me well in advance of the paper deadline. I will be able to assign you a partner. Late papers will not be accepted. The paper deadlines are given in the separate handout on the course schedule. Note that the paper is due in class on the relevant deadline date - papers submitted later that day will be declared late and not accepted. Roughly two weeks before the paper deadline, each pair must also turn in one standard white notecard (3 x 5 inches) giving your chosen paper title, a brief explanation of your paper's relevance to the course, and full citations for 3-5 quality references. Title changes after this point will only be allowed in truly exceptional circumstances, and all given references must be used in the paper in a substantive manner. While you can use the Thorne or Begelman & Rees books as references for your paper if appropriate, you should not list these on the notecard. Failure to turn in this notecard will block you from being able to submit the paper (i.e., you will get a zero score for the paper), so please do not forget to do the notecard. The main purposes of this notecard are to get you thinking about your paper topic and references well in advance, as well as to encourage proper coordination and communication between partners. I also check the notecards to try to detect any potential problems with the papers early, so that they can still be corrected without too much trouble. COURSE GRADING: Grading will be weighted as follows: * First midterm exam; 1/5 * Midterm paper; 2/5 * Second midterm exam; 1/5 * Cumulative final exam; 1/5 * Class participation throughout the course; 1/5 If you add that up, it comes to 6/5 or 120%. To make things add to 100%, I will delete the worst 1/5 of your score, except that the class-participation component cannot be deleted. This means that you can do badly on one of the exams, and it won't count against you. If your worst score is on the midterm paper, it will count only half. This is designed to help you if you are better at writing papers than taking exams, or vice-versa. For each of the grade components above, you will have a numerical percentage score. At the end of the course, I will weight these following the prescription above to determine your final numerical score for the whole course. This final numerical score will be used to assign your letter grade for the course. I may curve these final numerical scores, if appropriate, when assigning letter grades for the course. Any curve will take into account the average student final score, the range of student final scores, and the distribution of student final scores. Only the grade components listed above will be considered when assigning letter grades; I cannot make special accommodations for specific students based upon, e.g., graduation grade requirements, student financial-aid grade requirements, or university transfer grade requirements. I will also give good-faith, approximate estimates of letter grades for each individual exam and paper. However, your final numerical score for the whole course (rather than some individually curved set of scores) is what will set your letter grade for the course. Class participation is important because it will help you learn. As such, it is part of the grade. The class-participation component above is not intended to be difficult. To do well in this component, you should (1) come to class and pay attention, (2) ask questions in class when you don't understand the lecture, (3) ask questions in class about unclear points from the reading, (4) perform straightforward tasks when requested by the instructor, (5) be courteous and friendly to your fellow students and the instructor, (6) make an honest effort on all the exams and papers (do not just skip one because you know it can be deleted from your final score for the course), and (7) follow the general points on classroom conduct given below. I will be checking attendance using sign-up sheets and other methods. Extra credit work is not allowed in this course. If you think there is something wrong or unfair with how your exam or paper has been graded, you should promptly submit a typed appeal to the instructor. This appeal should include your name and contact information, a specific identification of the issue in question, and a specific and thoughtful explanation of what you think is wrong or unfair. Of course, you should also include your original exam or paper as part of the appeal. All such appeals will be considered carefully. You should only submit an appeal if you legitimately think there is something specific that is wrong or unfair with the grading. Appeals are not for requesting a general and open-ended re-grading of your entire exam or paper, just because you are unhappy with the earned score overall. Appeals must be submitted to the instructor within two weeks of the date when the relevant exam or paper is returned in class (or within two weeks of course grade assignment for the final exam). GENERAL CLASSROOM CONDUCT: Please turn off cell phones before the start of each class. Please do not read newspapers, Facebook, etc. or listen to music etc. during class. Please do not text message, talk, or pass notes during class. Penn State policy prohibits the consumption of food and drink in classrooms with the exception of bottled water. Justifying documentation to override the policy for medical reasons should be submitted to the instructor. At the end of class, you should pick up any newspapers, trash, and debris for which you are responsible. Seating and furniture should not be moved from the traditional lecture format without permission from the instructor. Do not post any signs or notices within the classroom. CLASSROOM RECORDINGS: Surreptitious recording of classroom speech and activity may exert a chilling effect on the academic freedom of both students and professors. It may also affect their privacy rights. Audio, video, or photographic recording should not be done without the written consent of all present (i.e., all students in the class and the professor) - this is consistent with Pennsylvania's "two-party consent" laws for recording. For further information, please refer to Penn State Policy AD-40. CODE OF MUTUAL RESPECT AND COOPERATION: The Eberly College of Science Code of Mutual Respect and Cooperation embodies the values that we hope our faculty, staff, and students possess and will endorse to make The Eberly College of Science a place where every individual feels respected and valued, as well as challenged and rewarded. You should read about this code at http://science.psu.edu/climate/support-and-resources HOW TO DO WELL: Here are a few tips on how to do well in Astro 130. * Read this syllabus carefully and refer to it often. Do not lose it. * Don't miss the exams or paper deadline. * Make sure you complete the relevant reading before the start of each lecture. * Read the texts when you are well rested and can understand the difficult concepts therein clearly. * Don't fall behind in the reading. * Attend and pay attention during the lectures. Recall that there is a significant class-participation component in this course. * Take good lecture notes, since some in-class material is not in the texts. * Review your notes for 10-15 minutes on the same day that you took them. * There is a detailed week-by-week list of course topics available on the course Web page. Be certain that you understand all of these topics clearly. Try explaining them to your friends in the course and answering any questions that your friends have for you. Answering questions can sometimes reveal weaknesses in understanding. * If I discussed a specific figure or chart during lecture, review this to be sure that you really understand it. Try to explain it with the caption covered up. * Create study time that is shielded from other temptations and obligations. Extracurricular activities, social activities, and jobs can easily eat up all of your time. Systematically allocate your time so that your studies always have first priority. * Start your paper at least several weeks in advance of its due date. This will give you enough time to do the significant work associated with a quality paper. HONORS OPTION: If you are a student in the Schreyer Honors College, there are honors-option possibilities for this course. There is some information about this on the course Web page, and you can get further information from the instructor. LEARNING ASSISTANCE: The Eberly College of Science is committed to the academic success of students enrolled in the College's courses and undergraduate programs. When in need of help, students can utilize various College-wide and University-wide resources for learning assistance. For further information, please see science.psu.edu/current-students/student-services/academics-and-advising DISABILITIES: Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. Every Penn State campus has an office for students with disabilities. The Student Disability Resources (SDR) website provides contact information for every Penn State campus (http://equity.psu.edu/sdr/disability-coordinator). For further information, please visit Student Disability Resources website (http://equity.psu.edu/sdr/). In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation; see the documentation guidelines (http://equity.psu.edu/sdr/guidelines). If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus disability services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations. COUNSELING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES: Many students at Penn State face personal challenges or have psychological needs that may interfere with their academic progress, social development, or emotional well-being. The University offers a variety of confidential services to help you through difficult times, including individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, consultations, online chats, and mental health screenings. These services are provided by staff who welcome all students and embrace a philosophy respectful of clients' cultural and religious backgrounds, and are sensitive to differences in race, ability, gender identity, and sexual orientation. See * Counseling and Psychological Services at University Park (CAPS) (https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/counseling): 814-863-0395 * Penn State Crisis Line (24 hours/7 days/week): 877-229-6400 Crisis Text Line (24 hours/7 days/week): Text LIONS to 741741 COVID-19 AND RELATED HEALTH POLICIES: In this course, we will follow the official Penn State policies regarding COVID-19. Please see https://virusinfo.psu.edu/university-status/ for further information. We will also follow the official Penn State policies regarding any other public health safety matters. OFFICE HOURS: You are welcome to come to my office hours for help with the course material. Ideally, please let me know in class that you will be coming. In some cases, it may be best to meet via Zoom, and I can provide a Zoom link. OPTIONAL READING: There are several other excellent books that explain black holes at an introductory level. I will not list these books here, but links to some of them are given on the course Web page. I have put copies of many of these books on reserve in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library (on the 2nd floor of Davey Lab - ask at the main reception desk there). If you are interested in a particular topic please feel free to contact me, and I'll do my best to suggest a good book. Also, if you need a textbook at the level of Astro 001 for your general reference in this course, you can get one for free (by Fraknoi et al.) at https://openstax.org/details/astronomy ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: This course follows the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department, College, and University integrity policies. You are responsible for abiding by these policies, so please review them. See https://science.psu.edu/current-students/integrity http://undergrad.psu.edu/aappm/G-9-academic-integrity.html and Faculty Senate policy 49-20. Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception, and it is an educational objective of this institution. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, the following: cheating; plagiarizing; lying to the professor in any way; falsifying an excuse for missed work; copying the work of another student; giving or receiving answers to/from any other individual during exams; fabricating of information or citations; having unauthorized possession of exams; giving or receiving information about exam questions in advance of taking an exam; using unauthorized aids during an exam; submitting the work of another person as your own; submitting your own work previously prepared for another class without informing the instructor; tampering with the academic work of other students; not carrying your fair share of the work on joint projects such as the midterm paper; and facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others. When grading the paper described above, I will be on the lookout for plagiarism (including the unattributed use of term papers obtained through the Web). Any text directly taken from another source (even a single sentence) must be clearly marked as such, using quotations and indentation. Cutting and pasting from Web sites is a particularly bad form of plagiarism, and it is one that will almost surely be caught. In this course I reserve the right to use Web tools, such as http://turnitin.com, to confirm that you have used sources properly in your papers. These powerful tools check for plagiarism versus millions of student papers (including past papers from this course), millions of published works, a current copy of the Internet, and archived copies of the Internet. If you have any questions about how to cite your sources, please ask the instructor. Detection of plagiarism will carry the minimum penalty of an automatic "F" for the paper. Additional penalties and disciplinary actions will also likely apply. REPORT BIAS STATEMENT: Penn State takes great pride to foster a diverse and inclusive environment for students, faculty, and staff. Acts of intolerance, discrimination, or harassment due to age, ancestry, color, disability, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or veteran status are not tolerated and can be reported through Educational Equity via the Report Bias web page (http://equity.psu.edu/reportbias/). ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR: Niel Brandt has been at Penn State since 1997 and is currently a professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics. Previously he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a graduate student at the University of Cambridge. Brandt uses X-ray satellites and other multiwavelength facilities to study the demography, physics, and ecology of active galaxies and other cosmic X-ray sources. He is an author of more than 600 journal articles and leads a small research group including postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students. He also regularly teaches courses on introductory astronomy, high-energy astrophysics, black holes, and active galaxies. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This course was adapted from a similar course taught by Professor Mitch Begelman at the University of Colorado. His help and encouragement are gratefully acknowledged. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------