Catalog Search Results
Pub. Date
2013.
Language
English
Description
Is our solar system common or rare? As you investigate planets orbiting around other stars, learn how the use of adaptive optics allows extrasolar planetary scientists to discover new alien solar systems with ground telescopes, and explore the three main ways astronomers detect planets: small "radio velocity wobbles," "transits," and direct imaging.
Pub. Date
2013.
Language
English
Description
Now that you have covered the key elements necessary for life to exist, take a closer look at the things all life on Earth shares. Learn why the Biosphere 2 experiment in the 1990s failed, examine the behavior of microbes - the most important constituents of our biosphere - and trace life back to your universal ancestor.
Pub. Date
2013.
Language
English
Description
Mars ranks as NASA's number one priority in the search for exolife. Here, you delve into why Mars is so intriguing to astrobiologists and what the search has found to date. Start with a comparison of Mars and the Earth, then watch the first-ever observation of water ice on Mars sublimating into vapor.
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Given the extreme faintness of a planet relative to the star it orbits, how can astronomers possibly find it? Learn about direct and indirect methods of detection. As an example of the indirect method, discover why a planet causes a star's position to change, providing a strategy for locating exoplanets without seeing them..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
The most common stars are class M dwarf stars, which are smaller and less luminous than the Sun (class G). Earth-sized planets are much easier to detect around M-dwarf stars, especially if the planets are within the relatively close-in habitable zone. Explore examples and the prospect for life on such worlds..
Pub. Date
2013.
Language
English
Description
Venus is the closest planet to the Earth and the next planet moving toward the sun, so it is a logical place to look for life. However, Venus is extremely hot and dry. Could life ever have existed? Explore the nightmarish conditions on Venus and learn why all the water vanished.
28) Radio Astronomy
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
Radio astronomy allows us to more accurately tell time right here on Earth, study terrestrial plate tectonics, and even get smartphone directions to that great new restaurant. Radio Astronomy: Observing the Invisible Universe takes you on a thrilling journey through the universe with stunning visuals and animations to explain the science of radio astronomy and its astounding discoveries.
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
Chances are you would agree with astronomers that gravity is the single most important force or event shaping the world as you know it. But the second most important? That would be supernovas, and nothing you know would be here without them. Learn how super-massive stars can explode at the end of their lives, releasing energy that outshines 10 billion Suns.
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
Finish the course by seeing how ancient records of eFilmclipses and supernova explosions have refined our modern understanding of Earth-Moon dynamics and stellar processes - proving that today's cutting-edge astrophysicists owe a great debt to astronomers who watched the skies long ago.
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
The success of exoplanetary science has spurred a wave of new projects to increase our knowledge of worlds beyond our solar system. Survey ground- and space-based programs that are now in the works. Professor Winn gives a preview of a space mission that he and his MIT colleagues are designing..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Explore the distinctive biosignatures that show the presence of life of any kind on an exoplanet. Then close with Professor Winn's tip sheet on exoplanetary discoveries likely in the near future-from evidence of moons to planets being destroyed by giant stars..
Pub. Date
2013.
Language
English
Description
How do you make a planet? Look at what is currently known about the process by which our solar system's planets formed from billions of small planetesimals, as well as how this process left the universe teaming with asteroids and comets that play an important role in life on Earth.
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
Before there were stars and planets, before there were galaxies, there was hydrogen - and we still have more hydrogen today than any other element. Understanding the quantum physics of this simplest atomic structure, and using the Doppler shift and models of differential rotation in the Milky Way, astronomers have made myriad astounding discoveries about the universe. It all starts with hydrogen.
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
Ptolemy has been called the greatest astronomer of antiquity. But was he? Evaluate his reputation by focusing on his star catalog, celestial coordinate system, and magnitude scale. Then gauge the extent of his influence over later astronomers, which lasted over a thousand years.
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
Since no human can touch the sky, any unexpected celestial event must be a divine omen. Reenter this primordial state of mind, seeing eFilmclipses and comets the way they were perceived before the advent of modern science. In the course of this investigation, discover why comets became more feared than eFilmclipses.
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Description
Investigate mounting evidence that invisible dark matter must exist. Then see how telescopes scanning the sky at different wavelengths have mapped the distribution of dark matter, notably in a collection of distant colliding galaxy clusters called the Bullet Cluster.
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Description
Use the sharp eye of the Hubble Space Telescope to survey some of the most peculiar galaxies in the local universe. Focus on Hoag's Object, a ring galaxy with a yellow nucleus, surrounded by a nearly perfect circle of hot blue stars. Explore competing ideas for the origin of this unique structure.
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
A tiny percentage of exoplanets can be detected transiting-or passing in front of-their host stars. Combined with Doppler shifts, transits provide information about a planet's size, mass, density, and likely composition. Learn how ambitious amateur astronomers can use this detection technique in their own backyards..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Survey the history of spectroscopy to understand how a telescope and a diffraction grating can disclose the composition of a star and its planet. Then learn how transits and occultations are ideal for analyzing planetary atmospheres, paving the way for the search for signatures of life..
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