Astrobiology and Space Exploration

"The earth is the cradle of humankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever." 
~Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, 1895~
 
1. Astrobiology and Space Exploration: The Big Bang, Our Universe, and All That Jazz

Stanford University Course

In the Stanford Astrobiology Course, our lectures follow a more or less linear path from the Big Bang all the way to the development of complex life and, finally, space exploration. It is truly amazing how evolutionary principles have operated at the macro, and micro, level ever since the birth of the universe we reside in today.

Physics, research, experimentation, astronomy, extraterrestrial life, planets, asteroids, cosmology, measurements, data, innovation, development, history, science, telescopes, observations, theories, predictions, telescopes, instruments, light, expansion.

A syllabus for the Winter, 2010 Astrobiology Course can be downloaded here.

In order to understand “where we come from”, we must understand the evolutionary history of life, and in order to understand that, we must understand the physical history of the earth, and in order to understand that, we must understand its history in the solar system, and in order to understand that….you get the idea.

So, to start the course we will go all the way back to the origin of the universe.  At the time of the Big Bang, words such as “biology”, “chemistry” and even “physics” had no meaning.  Some of these unfolded in the first fraction of a second, some through generations of stars and time measured in billions of years.  These numbers range from incredibly small to equally incomprehensibly large.  The concepts in cosmology are often so far outside of our experience that it is hard to imagine where these numbers come from.  An expanding universe 13.7 billion years old?  Wow.  For this reason, we will include epistemology – in other words, how we know what we do today.

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Below you will find a list of recommended resources. If you would like to learn more about the Big Bang, check out these books, videos, and articles.

Further Resources:
Singh, Simon. “The Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe”. New York: Fourth Estate, 2005.
Riordan, Michael and William A. Zajc. “The First Few Microseconds”. Scientific American Magazine: May, 2006.
Roos, Matts. “Expansion of the Universe – Standard Big Bang Model”. UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Supporting Systems, 14 Feb. 2008.

Sumber:
1. Stanford University
2. NASA

Ucapan Terima Kasih:

1. Bapak. Prof. Dr. Ing. H. B. J. Habibie.

2. Departemen Pendidikan Nasional

3. Kementrian Riset dan Teknologi

4. Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional


Disusun Ulang Oleh:

Arip Nurahman

Department of Physics, Indonesia University of Education

&

Follower Open Course Ware at MIT-Harvard University, Cambridge.USA.

Semoga Bermanfaat dan Terima Kasih