- People
- Facilities
- Research
- Academics
- Outreach
- Site Map
Astronomy 622: The Interstellar Medium
- Astronomy Education
- Astronomy Ed. Web Site
- Graduate Program
- Undergraduate Education
- Course Schedules
- Faculty
- Postdocs
- Graduate Students
- Alumni
- Dept. of Physics & Astronomy
- Other Astronomy Programs
- Graduate Program
- Course Descriptions
- Admissions
- Facilities
- MS Degree
- PhD degree
- Financial Support
- Registration
- Deadlines
- Gradrep's Page
- UHM Graduate Division
Maintained by LG
- Overview of ISM: Phases, properties of gas and dust, distribution of ISM
- Ionized gas: Stromgren spheres, partially ionized regions, recombination lines, free-free radiation, bound-free radiation, forbidden line emission, determining temperatures, densities and abundances in HII regions, thermal balance in HII regions, diffuse ionized gas, radio propagation effects.
- Neutral gas: The 21-cm line: basic radio astronomy, emission and absorption, rotation curves kinematic distances, temperatures, UV & visible interstellar absorption lines, interstellar abundances, diffuse interstellar bands, heating, cooling, instabilities and phases of ISM.
- Molecular gas: Interstellar chemistry, mm-wave emission, cloud models, typical properties of molecular clouds, interstellar masers.
- Interstellar dust: Extinction, reddening, scattering, polarization, thermal equilibrium of dust grains, VSGs and PAH emission, size and nature of dust grains, origin and destruction mechanisms.
- Non-thermal phenomena: Interstellar magnetism, cosmic rays, synchrotron emission, supernova remnants.
- Shock Waves Sound speed, jump conditions, ionization fronts, radiation from shocks, coronal lines, X-ray emission, hot gas phase.
- Heating, cooling and phases of ISM Cooling processes in molecular, atomic and ionized gas, heating processes, pressure balance, thermal instabilities, shock heated gas, models for interstellar clouds, photo-dissociation regions.
- Distribution of interstellar gas Scale heights, galactic structure, high velocity clouds, galactic center, local bubble, solar vicinity.
- Gravity and Stability Jeans length, fragmentation, Parker instability, stability of molecular clouds, virial mass, spherical collapse, rotation, formation of disks
- Star forming regions Molecular cores, low mass star formation, bipolar flows, clustering, high mass star formation, triggered star formation.
- Origin and fate of interstellar matter Mass loss stars, planetary nebulae, Supernovae, evolution and balance of interstellar medium.
This outline is representative only, and is likely to change from instructor to instructor and from year to year.
Recent instructors
- Jonathan Williams — 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012
- Eduardo Martin — 2002
- Gareth Wynn-Williams — 2000