Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• describe the characteristics of light emitted by stars, and hence the information of cosmological interest that can be deduced from it

• distinguish between true and false statements relevant to the distribution and motion of stars within galaxies, and of galaxies within clusters and superclusters

• outline the methods used for estimating the distances to stars and to galaxies

• explain and apply Hubble’s law

• distinguish between various sources of redshift and estimate their relative importance in a given situation.