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Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. The gas giant is NOT a failed star, but a really successful planet! It has a dynamic atmosphere with belts and zones, as well as an enormous red spot that’s actually a persistent hurricane. Jupiter is still warm from its formation, and has an interior that’s mostly metallic hydrogen, and it may not even have a core.
16 • Crash Course Astronomy • Astronomy
Neil deGrasse Tyson sets off on the Ship of the Imagination to chase a single comet through its million-year plunge toward Sol. Later, Tyson visits the birth-place of Sir Isaac Newton and retraces the unlikely friendship between Newton and brilliant polymath Edmond Halley. It was Halley's patience and generosity which allowed Newton to conquer his fear of isolation and find the courage to publish his masterwork, "Principia Mathematica" which launched a scientific revolution.
S1E3 • Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey • 2014 • Astronomy
Europa - an icy moon of Jupiter 485 million miles away from Earth - may be our best hope for finding alien life in our solar system. Everywhere we find water on Earth, we find life. What does this mean for the search for life beyond Earth? Scientists believe that on Europa there is a liquid ocean buried beneath its icy crust. To find out if this alien ocean holds life, well need to get there, penetrate the ice shell, and navigate in an alien sea. In this episode of Explorer, well plunge headlong into the challenges of discovery on an alien world. Well meet the scientists, adventurers, and engineers who are determined to launch a mission to Europa - and follow them through the challenges, frustrations, and triumphs that come with planning a distant mission to an alien world. Through high-end CGI and quests to the edge of our planet, well go on a journey to and alien moon called Europa. To answer the basic question: Are we alone in the universe?
2010 • Astronomy
Earth is the only home we've ever known, and it's treated us well so far. But whether it’s climate change, an apocalyptic asteroid, or some horrifying disaster we don’t even know about yet, the Earth won't live forever.
Today we are talking about the life -- and death -- of stars. Low mass stars live a long time, fusing all their hydrogen into helium over a trillion years. More massive stars like the Sun live shorter lives. They fuse hydrogen into helium, and eventually helium into carbon (and also some oxygen and neon). When this happens they expand, get brighter, and cool off, becoming red giants. They lose most of their mass, exposing their cores, and then cool off over many billions of years.
29 • Crash Course Astronomy • 2015 • Astronomy