# Astronomy (AST) courses

Palo Verde College · 2026-2027 Catalog · 2 courses

Source: https://catalog.paloverde.edu/index.php?catoid=2

"Offered" lists sections in this catalog year's class schedules: Fall 2026, Spring 2027.

### AST 105 — Astronomy: The Solar System

- **Units:** 4
- **Hours:** 108 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly, 3 hours lab weekly
- **Prerequisite:** STAT C1000, MAT 108 or MAT 110 and ENGL C1000
- **Transfers to:** CSU, UC
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules
- Student Learning Outcomes: Determine the semimajor axis of a planet's orbit. Calculate angular resolution of a telescope. Explain the effect of magnetic activity on the Sun.
- General Education: CalGETC: Transfer General Education Requirements ( 5- Physical and Biological Sciences- 5A: Physical Science, 5- Physical and Biological Sciences- 5C: Laboratory )
- Course Duration (Weeks): 18

As a survey of the Solar System, Astronomy 105 covers essential concepts and principles necessary for the study of the heavens, including Kepler's and Newton's Laws, radiation, spectroscopy and telescope technology. The course also includes the study of the planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and the Sun. The lab section includes individual and/or collaborative group activities designed to guide students through concepts, promotes quantitative literacy, and increases student confidence in their understanding of how the universe works. - Catalog Description updated effective Spring 2027:This is a one-semester course that examines the motion, formation, structure, and evolution of planets, moons, the Sun, and other bodies in the Solar System and other extrasolar planetary system as well as the possibility of intelligent life. The lab section includes activities designed to guide students through concepts, promote scientific literacy, and increases students' understanding of how the universe works.

### AST 110 — Astronomy: Beyond the Solar System

- **Units:** 4
- **Hours:** 108 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly, 3 hours lab weekly
- **Prerequisite:** STAT C1000, MAT 108 or MAT 110 and ENGL C1000
- **Transfers to:** CSU, UC
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules
- Student Learning Outcomes: Define one property of Type Ia Supernovae. Determine the type of galaxy is Milky Way. Estimate the age of the universe in a simplest way.
- General Education: CalGETC: Transfer General Education Requirements ( 5- Physical and Biological Sciences- 5A: Physical Science, 5- Physical and Biological Sciences- 5C: Laboratory )
- Course Duration (Weeks): 18

Although the course is a continuation AST 105, it contains a review so that it can be taken independently. This course looks beyond the Solar System and examines the formation and evolution of low-mass and high-mass stars, relativity, black holes, the Milky Way, galaxies, quasars, the expanding universe, cosmology, large-scale structure in the universe, and the possibility of intelligent life. The lab section includes individual and/or collaborative group activities designed to guide students through concepts, promotes quantitative literacy, and increases student confidence in their understanding of how the universe works. - Catalog Description updated effective Spring 2027: Although the course is a continuation AST 105, it contains a review so that it can be taken independently. This one-semester course looks beyond the Solar System and examines the formation and evolution of low-mass and high-mass stars, black holes, the Milky Way, galaxies, quasars, the expanding universe, large-scale structure in the universe, and the possibility of intelligent life. The lab section includes activities designed to guide students through concepts, promote scientific literacy, and increases students' understanding of how the universe works.