Catalog Search Results
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
Until recently, astronomers had no smoking gun to identify the precise location and cause of gamma-ray bursts. Now they have assembled an abundance of clues pointing to two separate mechanisms: the collapse of a massive star, and the merging of two neutron stars-in each case creating a black hole.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
The finite speed of light allows observers to look back in time and see the unfolding history of the Universe. This lecture shows how astronomers search for distant galaxies to compare with better understood, nearby galaxies.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
Earth is one of the four innermost, or terrestrial, planets; the others are Mercury, Venus, and Mars. All are relatively small, rocky, and dense. This lecture examines Earth's structure, properties, and the forces that affect it.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
Astronomy has its roots in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Babylon, India, Egypt, and China. The Greeks in particular developed sophisticated and sometimes surprisingly accurate theories of the nature of the heavens.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
As it gradually uses up the hydrogen in its core, fusing it to helium, the Sun will expand to form a red giant star. Through a series of relatively nonviolent eruptions, it will expel its outer layers of gas, producing a beautiful, glowing nebula around the dying core.
11) Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition: Episode 92In the Beginning
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
This lecture turns back the clock to almost the moment of creation-a fraction of a second after the Big Bang-and follows events as they sort themselves out, from what may have been packages of space-time foam winking in and out of existence, to conditions conducive for star and galaxy formation.
12) Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition: Episode 31Magnificent Saturn
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
Best known for its extensive ring system, Saturn has come into focus recently thanks to the Cassini spacecraft, which landed a probe on Saturn's largest moon, Titan; and also discovered evidence of liquid water on the moon Enceladus.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
Until a few decades ago, astronomers thought that galaxies were composed primarily of stars. There is now strong evidence that most of the mass of galaxies may be invisible dark matter. Clusters of galaxies are also dominated by dark matter.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
In 1987 a Type II supernova only 170,000 light years away became visible. Earlier photos of the region showed that the exploded star was a blue supergiant, a previously unsuspected candidate for this fate. Ghostly neutrinos were detected from this supernova.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
Recent missions to Mars provide evidence for an early water-rich era that may have fostered primitive life. Today, Mars is a cold, apparently lifeless world. Evidence for fossil life in a Martian meteorite remains controversial.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
The remarkable large-scale uniformity and "flatness" of the Universe pose a problem for the standard Big Bang theory. A startling but powerful suggested explanation is that the Universe went through an initial period of exponential expansion, called inflation.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
The daytime sky contains intriguing natural sights that offer a colorful introduction to astronomy. One such phenomenon is the rainbow. This lecture examines how a rainbow is created and how it appears under different circumstances.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
The burned out Sun will eventually contract into a white dwarf. This is the fate of all stars between roughly 0.08 and 8 solar masses. A white dwarf in a binary system may steal matter from its companion star and flare up in an eruption called a nova.
Series
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
Brown dwarfs are low-mass objects whose dim glow is caused by slow gravitational contraction and the fusion of deuterium, a heavier but far less abundant isotope of hydrogen. Free-floating planets have even less mass than brown dwarfs and are not associated with any star.
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? Try submitting a purchase suggestion. Submit Request