8.901  Astrophysics I

Problem Set Solutions

Announced on 13 May 2010  5:14  p.m. by Michael Matejek

Jeans equation, and problem set hint

In response to today's brain malfunction during lecture, I have posted
a handout on the Jeans equation.

Also, an important hint for problem 3c of this week's problem set: the
shock velocity u_s is time-dependent. It will be helpful to use the
result r_s ~ t^{2/5} that we derived in class to show that the time
derivative of u_s is (-3/2) u_s^2 / r_s.

Announced on 05 May 2010  11:00  p.m. by Joshua Nathan Winn

Problem Set 8

Problem Set 8 has been posted. It will be due on Friday, May 7.
You may want to get an early start.

Announced on 30 April 2010  11:00  p.m. by Joshua Nathan Winn

Mathematica notebook for L4/L5 orbits

I have posted Prof. Rappaport's Mathematica
notebook for computing orbits around the L4/L5 points.

Announced on 21 April 2010  9:33  p.m. by Joshua Nathan Winn

This Week in 8.901

The lectures this week will be given by Prof. Saul Rappaport. The
most important readings are the handouts on the Roche
potential (for Wednesday) and the Shakura-Sunyaev
accretion disk model (for Friday). Carroll & Ostlie chap. 18
provides useful astronomical background material.

Problem
set 7 has been posted. It will be due on Friday, April 30.

Announced on 20 April 2010  10:55  p.m. by Joshua Nathan Winn