Catalog Search Results
Language
English
Description
The epic story of the stars continues with an examination of the final stages in their life cycle. The vast majority of stars, including the sun, will become Red Giants and end their days as White Dwarfs. Some stars will explode as supernovae, rarely seen in the Milky Way. Finally, there's a discussion about black holes, thought to be the most mysterious objects in space.
Language
English
Description
This is the epic story of the stars, and how discovering their tale has transformed our own understanding of the universe. This first episode shows how modern astronomy has revealed that stars experience a life cycle that begins with birth. We visit the Joint European Torus, a major physics project based in Oxfordshire, to learn more about the process of hydrogen fusion that brings stars to life. Then it's time to examine our most well known star,...
3) Death Stars
Language
English
Description
Some explode into a supernova. Others blast out a tremendous gamma ray burst. This program focuses on death star WR104 - a direct threat to Earth? - and death star 3C321, a terrifying vision of what could one day befall the Milky Way galaxy.
Language
English
Description
On September 30, 2010, a NASA space telescope called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, completed its sweeping goal: to record observations of the entire sky in infrared light. The WISE science team is now sifting through the telescope's two million images to spot objects that no astronomer has ever seen before. WISE's most intriguing finds will include mysterious objects called brown dwarfs, blacker-than-coal asteroids, and the Universe's...
Language
English
Description
This video reveals the immensity of space by showing how its vast distances are measured and by examining the strange effects of Einstein's Theory of Relativity on space travel. Topics include the units of measure in astronomy; how scientists estimate distances through parallax calculations, the inverse square law of light brightness, and the Cepheid variable, Doppler shift, and supernova methods; and time dilation, space dilation, and the distorting...
Language
English
Description
In the darkness of space, invisible energy fills the vast regions between the stars. This video sheds light on intergalactic radio waves, microwaves, X-rays, deadly gamma rays, and other forms of energy not visible to the naked eye. Information on technology for seeing the invisible universe such as the Very Large Array radio telescope, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Chandra...
Language
English
Description
This video looks deep into space to learn how stars are born and how, eventually, they die. Each stage is covered: the formation of proto-stars, the nuclear ignition of main sequence stars, the cooling of red giants, the compaction of white dwarfs, and the final drama: death by burnout as a black dwarf or by supernova. Special attention is given to the Sun-its effect on the Earth, its projected life span, and its various levels, from corona to core,...
Language
English
Description
What are the odds that life exists elsewhere in the universe, and what are we doing to find out? Topics in this video range from the meaning of the Drake Equation and assumptions being used to narrow the vast field of stars in which scientists are searching, to the Doppler and transit methods of discovering extrasolar planets, to three initiatives that will help pinpoint probable life-supporting worlds: the Kepler mission, the spectroscopic Life Finder...
Language
English
Description
Taking a census of all the luminous objects in one-quarter of the visible cosmos is a hefty accounting job. It takes a specially built telescope on task every clear night for eight years, wielding one of the biggest digital cameras on the planet. More than a hundred million stars, galaxies, and quasars have been tallied so far. This science bulletin introduces viewers to the astronomical observers and theorists set on divining the three-dimensional...
Language
English
Description
With its hexagonal mirror array 11 meters across, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. This science bulletin takes a close-up look at SALT. Equipped with a rapid-shutter camera and imaging spectrometer, SALT promises to give us a better understanding of the distribution and dynamics of matter in the Universe.
Language
English
Description
This video introduces some of the oddest objects in space: black holes, bottomless gravity pits that can trap even light; neutron stars, more massive than our Sun but packed into spheres less than ten miles across; quasars, those beacons from the dawn of the universe; and, for an explosive finale, supernovas. Magnetars and the Local Bubble are also discussed, along with CHIPS, the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer.
Language
English
Description
This Science Screen Report demonstrates how the Big Bang is thought to have occurred, and examines principles scientists use to support the theory. Beginning with the establishment of the concept in 1948, the program guides students through the detection of the Cosmic Background Radiation in the 1960s, which provided solid evidence of the Big Bang, to the ways in which the Hubble Space Telescope and terrestrial facilities have helped scientists elaborate...
Language
English
Description
This Science Screen Report details the long history of speculation that led to theoretical awareness of black holes, as well as the eventual confirmation that they exist based on observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and terrestrial radio telescopes. The program presents solid discussions of the relationship these objects have to quantum particle behavior, antimatter, and the origins of the universe.
15) Constellations
Language
English
Description
This program surveys some of the 88 official constellations, from Orion, to the North Star, to the little-known 13th zodiac sign.
Language
English
Description
It is the birth of neutrino astronomy. For the first time, astrophysicists can detect extraterrestrial neutrinos in the ice in the South Pole. Neutrinos are the most common and also most mysterious elementary particles. Since these particles are invisible to us, their mass is unknown. Also, they are not electrically charged and rarely interact with other matter. Each of the tiny neutrinos is a potential messenger with information about its origin....
Language
English
Description
Joel Primack, Distinguished Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, describes the emergence of the universe, the universe’s expansion, and the formation of the first elements, stars, and galaxies. This conversation also includes explanations of cold dark matter and dark energy.
Language
English
Description
Visible light, which can be seen with our eyes, comprises a small sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum. The rest of the spectrum, from short wavelength gamma rays to long-wavelength radio waves, requires special instruments to detect. ALMA uses and array of radio telescopes to detect and study radio waves from space. Radio telescopes are typically large parabolic dish antennas used singly or in an array. Radio observatories are preferentially located...