Ashoka University

About the course

How do stars form? How do stars die? How hot does a star need to get to become a star? Why are stars different colors? What do black holes look like? What happened in the early universe? What will the future of the universe look like? When you look at a star you see how it looked in the past. Through stars, we learn not just about the past but also about the future of our universe.

When we look up at the clear night sky, we are treated to a view of numerous bright stars.  Indeed stars are the dominant source of all visible light in the universe.  From one day to the next, and even over centuries, we see the same stars, practically immutable and unvarying in brightness.  But the stars do have a life cycle.  Over many millions of years, stars take birth, live their luminous life and then die.  In death, stars not only produce exotic objects like Black Holes but also widely scatter the ashes from which a new generation of stars and planets are born.  This fascinating stellar lifecycle is intimately connected with, and greatly impacts the evolution of the universe as a whole.  These processes are also responsible for generating almost all the elements we see around us, and the origin of life itself. 

Stars. Stardust and Us is a live interactive course that takes you through the exploration of stars, black holes and the universe. This course will cover the story of the stellar life cycle and its impact, in a series of  lectures and hands-on project activities aimed at the school level.  The intended learning outcome is an appreciation of this important process that is the backbone of Astrophysics and is also deeply connected to our origins. This exploration not only deepens your understanding of astrophysics but also highlights India’s significant role in space missions and cosmic discoveries.

This course will present some of the most fascinating recent discoveries and relate how every aspect of the vast universe is connected with our existence.  The course will also introduce the technological drivers and methods of inference that have applications far beyond the confines of Astronomy, in every branch of human endeavour. 

What’s more? As part of your capstone project, you will learn and practice techniques to work on astronomical data from online databases, and use coding (in Python) to analyse this data. By the end of the course, you will develop a familiarity with different types of plots (line, scatter, and histogram) and how these plots can provide visual clues to real patterns present in data.

Are you ready to explore the fascinating world of stars and beyond?

“My absolute favorite part was learning about Exoplanets and Habitability! It was mind-blowing to discover planets outside our solar system and especially cool to explore the habitable zone where liquid water could exist. My biggest change from the Horizons Achievers Programme is how I see the night sky now. Instead of just pretty lights, I see billions of star stories and potential exoplanets. The universe feels way more personal and exciting now!”

– Samil, Grade 11, VidyaGyan Leadership Academy

Eligibility

• High school students from India and across the world are eligible to apply.
• Students should be entering or in grades 9-12 as in summer 2025.
• Students should be comfortable with written & spoken English, which will be the medium of instruction for the courses.
• Students should have consistent access to the Internet and a computer that aligns with the recommended minimum specifications.
• Students should have a good and consistent academic record.

Who is this course for?

The course is suitable for high schoolers curious about space, the universe and beyond. It opens the door to astrophysics, astronomy and space research for students interested in pursuing related careers. 

Prerequisites: High proficiency in written & spoken English. You will be required to submit your latest mark sheet in the application form. Additionally, the project modules will be conducted in Python. Although no prior knowledge of Python is required, an eagerness to learn is desirable.

What do I take away?

By the end of the course, the students will:

1. Develop an appreciation for how the world around us, and our origins, are connected to stars.
2. Learn the nature and properties of the population of stars around us and the diverse and exotic objects they leave behind.
3. Understand the physical mechanisms that drive the birth, life and death of stars and the relationship of these processes with the Universe as a whole.
4. Dive into the methods scientists employ to gather and decode data from celestial entities, uncovering the technical wizardry behind astrophysical research.
5. Navigate the cosmos of knowledge with expert guidance from our faculty, mentors, and industry professionals.
6. Understand ‘what’s next’ in astrophysics by exploring cutting-edge technologies and methodologies that are shaping the future of space exploration.

Programme Details

Week	Lecture Module	Project Module
Week 1	Stellar glow Modern observations of stars, stellar systems and their products, the role of space astronomy. The stars around us and patterns in their properties	Celestial cataloguing & graphing with Python A basic introduction to using the Python programming language to create graphs Creating your own Hertzprung-Russel diagram using data from the Hipparcos Catalogue Techniques taught: Reading and writing data to files, plotting data, and using these plots to determine trends and patterns. Working with scatter plots
Week 2	Nuclear sunset What makes a star shine – harnessing nuclear power Exhaustion of nuclear fuel	Stars & their properties Studying the Hertzprung-Russel diagram, identifying different types of stars, and studying their properties Where do “familiar” stars lie on the HR diagram? Finding a star’s radius using its luminosity and temperature Techniques taught: Making selections (or “cuts”) of data and analysing them separately. Manipulating large arrays of data. Introducing and developing a familiarity with histogram plots
Week 3	Starry perspectives Demise of stars, energetic explosions: Supernovae and Gamma Ray Bursts New states of high density matter:  Neutron Stars, Black Holes	Pulsars Obtaining and studying the catalog of pulsars from the Australia Telescope National Facility Identifying different properties of pulsars, like their time period and magnetic field Techniques taught: More training in using histograms to analyse data. How does one draw scientific conclusions from graphs?
Week 4	Chronicles of stars Production of elements in stars and the connection to our world and life. The birth of stars and planets and their grand connection to the Universe	Exoplanets Learning to obtain data from NASA’s exoplanet database, and use it to study the different exoplanets that have been discovered so far. What makes a planet habitable? Can we come up with a simple rule for habitability? How many detected planets could be “habitable”? Techniques taught: Learning to use online databases to query astronomical data. More  training in using graphs to draw scientific conclusions.
Week 5	Counseling:  Production of elements in stars and the connection to our world and life. – The birth of stars and planets and their grand connection to the Universe  You are encouraged to ask questions to the faculty about the following aspects: What are some related fields that can be explored based on this course topic? What are the future trends in the related fields? How can the course learning help the student enhance their college applications?	Mentoring: You are encouraged to ask questions to the mentor around the following aspects: What are some sub-topics to learn/practice beyond the course? What is the scope of the course topic if the student wants to pursue/study it further? What are some personal projects that can be taken up outside of the course based on the knowledge gained in the course?

Capstone Project

As your capstone project, you will study star evolution with astronomical data, predict lifetimes and carbon’s role in life’s origins and estimate supernova explosions across galaxies. You will obtain astronomical data from online databases, and show how to use coding (in Python) to analyse this data. By the end of the course, you will develop a familiarity with different types of plots (line, scatter, and histogram) and how these plots can provide visual clues to real patterns present in data.

Faculty

Prof Dipankar Bhattacharya is the Sunanda and Santimay Basu Chair Professor in Astrophysics at Ashoka University. Prior to joining Ashoka he was the Dean, Core Academic Programmes at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA).

He received his Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees in Physics from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He carried out post-doctoral research at the University of Amsterdam and the University of California, Santa Barbara and was a member of the faculty at the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru before moving to IUCAA.

His research interests cover both theoretical astrophysics and observational astronomy, with particular emphasis on High Energy Astrophysics including compact stars, black holes and cosmic explosions. He is closely associated with the Indian space astronomy mission AstroSat and is the chair of its Science Working Group.

Grading, assessments, certification and much more

All Ashoka Horizons courses offer a certificate on satisfactory completion of the programme. 

• Out of class quizzes  – 30%
• Homework from project sessions – 20%
• Final project presentation – 50%

Class participation will be assessed based on your active engagement in live sessions, contributions to discussion forums, and involvement in Teaching Fellow-led activities. 

Achieve More…with Horizons:

• Successful Course Completion Certificate
• Letters of Academic Achievement to top 3 students based on exceptional performance 
• Potential opportunity to mentorship on building a career in Astrophysics.*

*For select students, subject to discretion of the faculty

 

IT Requirements

This course is administered through an online platform. Students are expected to have a foundational understanding of computer usage, including but not limited to sending emails and conducting Internet searches. Consistent access to the Internet and a computer that aligns with the recommended minimum specifications are also requisite for participation in the course.