By the end
What you'll build
- Explain and use the cosmic distance ladder — parallax, Cepheids, and Type Ia supernovae — including the working formulas d = 1/p and the distance modulus
- Compute redshifts, recession velocities, and stretch factors, and fit Hubble's law to galaxy data in Python to estimate H0 and the age of the universe
- Describe black holes via general relativity and calculate Schwarzschild radii for the Sun, Earth, and Sagittarius A*
- Reproduce the galaxy rotation-curve argument for dark matter and explain the lensing and Bullet Cluster evidence, plus the supernova case for dark energy
- Trace cosmic history from Big Bang nucleosynthesis through the CMB to the universe's possible fates, and use astropy's cosmology tools to query the standard model
The shape of it
How this course works
Short lessons
26 lessons across 5 modules, each small enough to finish in one sitting.
Practice as you go
Every lesson ends with a small space for what you noticed — the doing is the learning.
A certificate at the end
Finish the course and earn a certificate anyone can verify with a link.
Ready when you are.
Make an account and this course opens up — your progress is saved from the very first lesson.