Course summary

Why Warwick? The University of Warwick is a world-leading university, born out of boldness, imagination and collaboration. We’ve built a strong reputation for upholding the highest academic and research standards. Today, more than 27,000 students thrive in a supportive, welcoming space where everything you need to study, live and have fun is close to hand. Explore what Warwick has to offer, and you’ll develop a skillset that sets you apart, and sets you up to succeed. What that success looks like is up to you. The course Astrophysics has a special flavour. With the arrival of space-based instrumentation and gravitational wave detection, some of the most exciting discoveries in your lifetime are likely to come in astrophysics. However, we can't conduct experiments on stars or galaxies as they're too far away and too big. Instead, we need to piece together explanations of what we see. This involves understanding the fundamental physics mechanics, quantum theory, relativity, thermodynamics and trying to work out what they imply for exoplanets, galaxies, stars and the Universe as a whole. The course covers the principles of physics and their application to explain astrophysical phenomena. In your first year, you will study the classification of astrophysical objects and how we observe them. During the second year, you will study the solar system and stars in some detail. In the third and fourth years, you can study a range of topics including cosmology, exoplanets, the physics of compact objects (black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs), general relativity and our Sun. You will be mentored by, and work on projects with, astrophysicists.