Exploring Stars and the Milky Way

About this subject

• What you'll learn

  Students who successfully complete this subject will be able to:

  1. Identify the way stars are classified and recognise the approaches used to discover their properties
  2. Explain and summarise the principles involved in the life cycle of stars, from protostar to stellar remnants
  3. Appraise and state the basic principles and concepts about our Galaxy and its constituents (stars, protostars, stellar remnants, gas clouds, dark matter) in a non- technical way understandable to the wider public
  4. Judge the limits of our understanding of our place in the Galaxy, and interpret the role of dark matter in modern astronomical theories
  5. Use problem solving skills to explain and synthesise solutions to problems in stellar astronomy
  6. Design and create an essay on an astronomy topic, assessing and critiquing current knowledge, using credible sources of astronomical information and research articles

• Topics covered

• Description

• Assessments

• Textbooks

• About Swinburne University of Technology

Entry requirements

Part of a degree

To enrol in this subject you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:

Core

• SWI-AST-GCE-2025 - Graduate Certificate of Science (Astronomy)

Elective

• OUA-PSU-GCE-2025 - Postgraduate Single Subjects

Equivalent subjects

You should not enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:

• SWI-HET603 (Not currently available)

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

Study load

0.125 EFTSL

This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.

Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.

Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.