From the Big Bang to Dark Energy

University of Tokyo via Coursera

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Details

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Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Paid Course
Languages

English
Certificate

Certificate Available
Effort

5 weeks, 6 hours a week
Sessions

Self-Paced
Level

Beginner
Subtitles

Arabic, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Russian, English, Spanish, Kazakh, Hindi, Swedish, Korean, Greek, Chinese, Thai, Ukrainian, Japanese, Indonesian, Polish, Dutch, Turkish, Hungarian, Bengali, Pashto, Urdu, Azerbaijani, Farsi, Vietnamese

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Overview

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This course explores the Universe's evolution over 13.8 billion years, from the Big Bang to dark energy. Understand the evidence behind discoveries like Dark Matter, the Higgs Boson, and the accelerating expansion driven by dark energy. This course is for anyone curious about modern physics and cosmic mysteries. By the end, you will be able to: - Explain the Universe's origins and evolution. - Describe the roles of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. - Understand the Higgs Boson's significance in matter formation. - Discuss the Universe's possible future. No prior physics or science background is required, just a curiosity about the cosmos. This course is offered in English.

Syllabus

Cosmic Physics: Daily Life to Big Bang
- Understanding the Universe in which we live and how to probe it can begin with simple daily life experiences such as night and day and the four seasons. Starting from these observations, we will take a journey from our local Earth at the present time all the way to the edge of the universe and back to its birth, learning the techniques and findings in modern physics that provide us this understanding.
Birth of Elements and Higgs Boson
- We are made of chemical elements. Therefore, one of the fundamental questions, “Where do we come from?”, leads to another: “How were the elements formed?” This question is related to the Higgs boson, an important particle in understanding the origins of matter that remained elusive until its discovery was announced on July 4, 2012. In this module, we will explore recent research findings on these topics.
Dark Matter and Anti-Matter
- In this module, we will learn about dark matter and anti-matter -- some of the more mysterious sides of the Universe. We know dark matter played an important role in the formation of stars and galaxies, but much of properties are still unknown to us. In another strange mystery, we will see how the beginning of the universe started with equal amounts of matter and anti-matter, yet somehow only matter (which we are composed of!) survived.
Inflation and Dark Energy
- At the very beginning, the Universe exponentially expanded during a period known as the cosmic inflation. Recent studies suggested that the Universe has entered into another stage of expansion, considered to be caused by 'mysterious' dark energy. In this module, we will learn about inflation, dark energy, and the possible fates of our Universe.
Extras
- This module offers extra lectures and challenge problems for learners who want to go further. The lectures update the course with major discoveries made after its original 2013 launch, including breakthroughs related to the Higgs boson, neutrino oscillations, and gravitational waves. The module also includes two optional challenge problems that require deeper conceptual understanding and stronger mathematical skills. All content in this module is optional, ungraded, and does not count toward your course grade.

Taught by

Hitoshi Murayama

Reviews

4.5 rating, based on 18 Class Central reviews

4.8 rating at Coursera based on 3685 ratings

Start your review of From the Big Bang to Dark Energy

Quratul Ain @qurat9004

through this platform, i know about the value of physics astronomically. Through this i came to know more about our big bang and the Dark Energy.
Brian Khor Jia Jiunn
29

This course is great but it assumes high familiarity with high school physics and calculus to complete its advance track.
Diego Riccardi
113

Prof. Murayama is a tremendous instructor and knows how to teach his discipline. Maybe the coursework had to be diluted in more weeks but it's still very recommended.
Anonymous

Short introduction to some elements of cosmology. Those who have already studied physics and astronomy may find it insufficiently challenging and too superficial.
Aref Abdullah Almezgagi
1

I'm quite attracted to physics and cosmology it helps me to understand and discover how the laws of universe work and how it has started.

From the creation of the universe to the first and last discovers .

Relativity ,dark matter ,wormholes, galaxies and the supernova, comets etc
Kristina Šekrst
226

This is a nice introduction to cosmological problems, but it's more of an advanced introduction, since it requires some knowledge of calculus, which is kind of expected for this field. The lectures deal with Higg's boson, dark matter and dark energy, and inflation, and the whole course can be done on a binge-watch Sunday if you have previous background in physics or mathematics. Too bad it's a self-paced course, I think I would have enjoyed it more if it were a live one. However, the instructor is nice, and the content is nicely organized as well, go for it.
pssGuy

Quite a lot has been learnt recently and this will probably need to be updated regularly

Quizzes were v tough for what is called a beginners class
Anonymous

interesting class. I learnt a great deal. Problem sets have 3 levels of diffculty ranging from fundamental idea, to calculus based answers.
Juliana Cavalcanti Correa

This was a wonderful course! The professor does a great job in turning difficult concepts more clear and easier to understand!
Sergei Pogrebnyak

Lots of info about recent (10 years) discoveries and developments in the study of the Universe
Alan Salsac
23
Anderson Tan
12
Hamid Sain
1
Erasmia Birmpila
7
Siyuan Liu
Francisco Javier Jiménez
32
R
1
Fabio
9