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It's hard to get to space.But there is a concept that might make it possible: the space elevator. How exactly does it work.
2016 • In a Nutshell • Astronomy
Today Phil follows up last week’s look at the death of low mass stars with what comes next: a white dwarf. White dwarfs are incredibly hot and dense objects roughly the size of Earth. They also can form planetary nebulae: huge, intricately detailed objects created when the wind blown from the dying stars is lit up by the central white dwarf. They only last a few millennia. The Sun probably won’t form one, but higher mass stars do.
2015 • Crash Course Astronomy • Astronomy
For nearly 4 billion years, life has sculpted almost every part of Earth. But how exactly did life turn this once barren rock into a paradise? Astronaut host – Mike Massimino.
2018 • One Strange Rock • Astronomy
Witness some of the most violent impacts in the universe, and meet the people protecting us from the fallout of these cosmic collisions.
Astronomers study a lot of gorgeous things, but nebulae might be the most breathtakingly beautiful of them all. Nebulae are clouds of gas and dust in space. They can glow on their own or reflect light from nearby stars. When they glow it’s usually predominantly red from hydrogen and green from oxygen, and when they reflect and scatter light it’s from massive hot stars, so they look blue. Stars are born in some nebulae, and create new ones as they die. Some nebulae are small and dense, others can be dozens or hundreds of light years across.
2015 • Crash Course Astronomy • Astronomy
All life on Earth started as single-cell bacteria and stayed like that for two billion years. So even if we do find alien life out there, what are the chances of that life being complex like us? Astronaut host – Mae Jemison.
2018 • One Strange Rock • Astronomy