The School of the Physical Universe · physics, chemistry, earth & sky
Cosmology & Space
The universe taken whole — its expansion, its first light, its fate — together with the engineering that gets us off the planet.
From a hot dense beginning to the web of galaxies — the evidence for the Big Bang and what it leaves unexplained.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~26 hours
Unit I — The Expanding Universe
The cosmic distance ladder · Hubble's discovery · Redshift and what expansion actually means · The age of the universe
Unit II — Evidence for a Beginning
The cosmic microwave background · Primordial abundances: helium and deuterium · A timeline of the first minutes
Unit III — The Dark Ingredients
The evidence for dark matter · Dark energy and the accelerating expansion · The standard cosmological model
Unit IV — Structure and Fate
The first stars and galaxies · How cosmic structure forms · Open questions: inflation and the singularity · Possible fates of the universe
Einstein's field equations from the ground up — curvature, black holes, gravitational waves, and the expanding cosmos.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~48 hours
Unit I — Foundations
The equivalence principle · Gravity as curved spacetime · Tensors and the metric · Geodesics
Unit II — The Field Equations
Curvature made precise · Einstein's equations stated · The Schwarzschild solution · Classic tests: precession and the bending of light
Unit III — Black Holes and Waves
Event horizons · Rotating black holes · Gravitational waves and LIGO · What merging black holes taught us
Unit IV — Relativistic Cosmology
The FLRW metric · The Friedmann equations · Expansion histories · Horizons and the observable universe
Why rockets are mostly fuel, why an orbit is a fall that keeps missing, and how a transfer to Mars is planned.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~20 hours
Unit I — The Rocket Problem
Newton's third law, applied · The rocket equation · Staging · Engines: solid and liquid
Unit II — Getting to Orbit
What an orbit is · Orbital speed and altitude · Launch windows and inclination · The gravity turn
Unit III — Moving Between Orbits
Hohmann transfers · Delta-v budgets · Gravity assists · Rendezvous and docking
Unit IV — Missions by Design
Planning a Mars trajectory · Station-keeping and deorbit · The physics of reentry · Reading a real mission profile
What life needs, where else it might hold on, and how we would recognize it — a rigorous look at an open question.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~16 hours
Unit I — Life as We Know It
What counts as alive · Extremophiles and the limits of life · Water and the habitable zone
Unit II — Candidates Nearby
Mars, past and present · The buried oceans of Europa and Enceladus · Titan's strange chemistry
Unit III — Worlds Around Other Stars
How exoplanets are detected · Biosignatures in atmospheres · The Drake equation and the Fermi question · What a confirmed detection would require
The engineering, politics, and people of the space age — what was attempted, what failed, and what flew.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~14 hours
Unit I — The Race Begins
Rocketry before 1957 · Sputnik and its shock · Gagarin and the first humans in orbit · Mercury and Vostok
Unit II — To the Moon
Gemini's rehearsals · Apollo's architecture · Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 · Apollo 13 and the later landings
Unit III — The Working Decades
Salyut, Skylab, and Mir · The Shuttle's promise and its price · The International Space Station · Robotic explorers in parallel
Unit IV — The Present Era
Commercial launch and reusability · The new lunar programs · Small satellites everywhere · Where crews go next