Before the beginning

This course on galaxies runs over 14 lectures. The aim is to give you an overview of the types of galaxies we know, and to try to understand why galaxies look like they do, based on the physics we think that applies. In contrast to the beauty of stellar physics, you'll see that galactic physics is often much more murky and complex - a bit like weather predictions: we (think we) know the physics, but even so it still is difficult to make accurate calculations. And often, we don't know the physics very well - or even at all. On the bright side, galaxies are beautiful. And we can in principle probe physics on scales which are impossible to reach within the laboratory and so learn about really fundamental physics - just recall the recent excitement about the possible non-zero value for the cosmological constant. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy the lectures.

As to the organisation of the course, I will basically follow the structure of Simon Morris, i.e. there will be hand-outs after each lecture, but more up-to-date versions will appear on the web in DUO. Look there as well for (most of) the pictures that I show during the lectures.

My name is Tom Theuns (tom.theuns@durham.ac.uk, tel 8275), and my office is room 307 in the Ogden Centre. This is the first time I teach this course, and in case I go too fast (or too slow), I count on you to tell me! Suggestions, and lists of errors, will be most appreciated.

And for those that are only interested in passing their exams: there will be two questions on galaxies. The first consist of 5 very short questions where you're asked to describe very briefly some concepts that we have discussed. For example, what is the interstellar medium, and how do we observe it. The second type of question usually starts from a derivation that we've done. The end of the question is something you have not seen, but is very similar to what we have done.