Astronomy & Astrophysics Minor

Similarly to the Astronomy & Astrophysics major, the minor is math- science- and physics-intensive. Students with a science, math, or engineering major can often incorporate the added dimension of a minor in Astronomy and Astrophysics with only a few additional courses if their degrees already require a significant background in math and physics. Most Astronomy & Astrophysics minors are pursuing a degree in Engineering or in schools other than LSA. LSA students are encouraged to consider the Interdisciplinary Astronomy Major [link] as a double major instead of a minor. 

Meet with an advisor: Students may declare an astronomy minor only after they declare their primary major. Regardless, if you are thinking of an Astronomy major or minor, you should meet with an undergraduate advisor as soon as you begin considering it. This helps ensure you’re prepared with the right courses and can take advantage of all the opportunities the department has to offer. 

Transfer students and students who are pursuing a non-science major are especially encouraged to talk with an Astronomy academic advisor ASAP. 

Prerequisite courses: 

The A&A Minor prerequisites include math through MATH 216 (i.e., Calc 1, 2, 3 and differential equations); General Physics and labs (Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, and Waves, Heat, and Light); and programming. It is strongly recommended to start the math and physics sequence as early as possible, and to plan on completing the math sequence before starting the senior year.  

Students may choose to take the Honors Physics sequence, and may substitute MATH 115/116/215 with more advanced Math courses that cover the same topics. Most prerequisites may be met with transferred credits, and some may be fulfilled with AP credits; see an Astronomy academic advisor for personalized plan.

Programming prerequisite: Computational literacy and programming have become an integral and necessary part of modern Astronomy and Astronophysics theory, observation, and data analysis. Currently, the most widely used programming language in Astronomy is Python, owing to its extensive libraries, open source accessibility, and ability to handle the vast amounts of data that modern astronomy generates from telescopes and simulations. Therefore, most of the ASTRO courses that use programming use Python. 

We recommend taking a programming course in Python, such as COMPFOR 131 or SI 101.

If a programming course is already required by your major or degree (e.g., you took or need to take EECS 183, ENGR 101, or similar) these courses may fulfill the A&A minor programming prerequisite. If you have a decent programming experience in another language (such as C/C++, Matlab, Fortran, R, Julia) you may find it relatively easy to translate your programming skills to Python with some practice or extra work. If you intend to take an ASTRO course that has an Python-specific enforced programming prerequisite, contact the instructor or an Astronomy academic advisor to discuss a possibility of an override.

Follow this link for a list of approved programming courses that fulfill the Astronomy & Astrophysics minor requirement.

When you meet with an Astronomy academic advisor to declare your minor, you will select a programming course to fulfill your programming requirement for the minor. 

Minor Courses: 

A&A Minors are required to take Introduction to Astrophysics (4 credits); choose at least two out of three “core” courses in Astronomy: Astronomical techniques, Stars, and Galaxies (6-7 credits), and at least one electives (3 credits) chosen from ASTRO 400-level courses not already taken as Astronomy core.

The above intro, core, and 400-level elective sum fulfill 13-14 of the required 15 credits. The remaining credits may be selected from any ASTRO courses (200- through 400-level). We recommend ASTRO 220 (New Discoveries in Astronomy) or ASTRO 206 (Black Holes). 

See the Undergraduate Course Description page [link] for more information.

While not required, many Astronomy & Astrophysics minors engage in research in Astronomy. See the Undergraduate Research page.