Fascination Astronomy

1 Forces that govern the universe - Gravitation. The electromagnetic force. The strong and the weak force. Elementary particles.- 2 The Big Bang - How it all began.- The galaxy escape. The expansion of the universe. The hot big bang. The formation of the elements. The early universe. Time scale. The future of the universe. The universe and particles.- 3 The world of planets.- General properties of the planets. The earth-like planets. The giant planets. The moons of the planets.- 4 Dwarf planets and small bodies.- Asteroid belt in the solar system. Minor planets, asteroids. Comets. Dwarf planets. Meteoroids.- 5 The Mechanics of the Sky.- The Moon's Orbit. Earth's axis and gyroscope. The annual course of the sun. Planetary orbits.- 6 The Sun - the star we live by.- The Sun - basic data. The sun - the interior. Energy transport. The surface of the sun. The upper atmosphere of the sun. The variable Sun.- 7 Stars - formation, structure and evolution.- What is a star? The brightness of stars. Spectral classes. Star evolution. The formation of stars. Evolution of massive stars.- 8 The world of galaxies.- Our cosmic home: the Milky Way. Galaxies - building blocks of the universe. Active galaxies. Clusters of galaxies.- 9 Life in the universe?- What is life? Habitable zones. How do you find exoplanets? Are we alone in the universe? The history of the universe in one day.

Professor Arnold Hanslmeier is an astrophysicist at the Institute of Physics at the University of Graz. In addition to more than 400 scientific publications and several reference books, he also enjoys disseminating the fascinating findings of modern astrophysics in an understandable way. He lectures at the University of Graz and is a visiting professor at the Universities of Vienna, Innsbruck, Toulouse, La Laguna, Tenerife and the Kiepenheuer Institute in Freiburg. Due to his special didactic abilities to present complicated things in a simple and clear way, he is an internationally sought-after speaker.