Astronomy 162 - Stars, Galaxies, & the Universe

Astronomy 162 - Stars, Galaxies, & the Universe episodes:

• December 06, 2009Astronomy 141 Podcast Teaser

  A new podcast, Astronomy 141, Life in the Universe, is available

  for those interested in continuing an exploration of topics in

  modern astronomy.

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• November 27, 2006Lectures 1-4: An Explanation

  Where are Lectures 1-4? This is a good question, and one I've gotten

  from many listeners. Here's the answer. Recorded 2006 Nov 27 on the

  Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.

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• March 10, 2006Welcome to Astronomy 162

  Welcome to the Astronomy 162 Lecture Podcasts! This is a brief message

  from me explaining the podcasts, and welcoming new and old listeners.

  Recorded 2006 Mar 10 on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State

  University.

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• March 10, 2006Lecture 44: Life, the Universe, and Everything (Life Part II)

  How can we search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and what are we

  looking for? This second part of a 2-part lecture picks up where we

  left off yesterday by examining SETI, the Search for ExtraTerrestrial

  Intelligence, and reviews what we might look for and how. We will use

  this as a point of departure to then briefly review where we have come

  and what we have learned in Astronomy 162, bringing this course to a

  close for Winter Quarter 2006. Recorded 2006 Mar 10 in 1008 Evans

  Laboratory on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.

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• March 09, 2006Lecture 43: Life in the Universe, Part I

  Are we alone in the Universe? This is the first part of a 2-part

  lecture that will explore the question of life and the Universe. We

  will look at the conditions needed for life, and address the question of

  how often we expect those conditions to be satisfied in our own Galaxy.

  In this part, we introduce the Drake Equation and make some basic

  estimates. To be honest, it was supposed to be one lecture, but I ran

  over time and ran into the bell. Oops! Very embarrasing. Tomorrow's

  lecture will finish up our discussion of life in the Universe, and then

  wrap up Astronomy 162 for the quarter. Recorded 2006 March 9 in 1008

  Evans Laboratory on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.

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• March 08, 2006Lecture 42: Time Travel

  Can we travel through time? This is not a frivilous, science-fiction

  kind of question. Certain restricted kinds of time travel are in fact

  allowed by classical General Relativity. This lectures takes up this

  question, and looks at some of the surprising answers that have been

  found. Recorded 2006 March 8 in 1008 Evans Laboratory on the Columbus

  campus of The Ohio State University.

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• March 07, 2006Lecture 41: Dark Matter & Dark Energy

  We are not made of the same matter as most of the Universe! This

  surprising conclusion, that the ordinary matter we are made of (protons,

  neutrons, and electrons) constitute only 13% or so of the total matter

  in the Universe, the rest being in the form of Dark Matter. Further,

  this dark matter is only about 30% of the combined matter and energy

  density of the Universe, the remaining 70% of which appears to be a form

  of Dark Energy that fills the vacuum of space and acts in the present

  day to accelerate the expansion of the Universe. This lecture will

  summarize the state of our understanding of Dark Matter and Dark Energy,

  and look at the questions remaining to be answered in this active area

  of current research. Recorded 2006 March 7 in 1008 Evans Laboratory on

  the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.

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• March 06, 2006Lecture 40: The Once and Future Sun

  How will the Sun evolve? The Sun is now a middle-aged, low-mass, Main

  Sequence star in a state of hydrostatic and thermal equilibrium that has

  consumed about half of the Hydrogen available for fusion in its core.

  What will its subsequent evolution be as its core runs out of Hydrogen?

  This lecture describes our current state of understanding of the

  expected evolution of the Sun, informed by a combination of

  state-of-the-art solar models and stellar evolution codes, and data

  gathered from observations of nearby stars in our Galaxy. We will trace

  the future history of the Sun from the present until it begins its final

  phase as a fading White Dwarf some 8 Billion years in the future. Along

  the way, we'll also ask what will become of Earth.

  Recorded 2006 March 6 in 1008 Evans Laboratory on the Columbus campus of

  The Ohio State University.

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• March 02, 2006Lecture 39: The Fate of the Universe

  What is the ultimate fate of the Universe? The ultimate fate of

  the Big Bang is either expansion to a maximum size followed

  by re-collapse (the Big Crunch) or eternal expansion into a cold,

  dark, disordered state (the Big Chill). Which of these is our

  future depends on the current density of matter and energy in the

  Universe, Omega0. This lecture examines our current knowledge of

  the matter and energy content of the Universe, which leads to the

  surprising discovery that we live in a Universe that

  is Flat (Omega0=1), Infinite, and Accelerating! We will end the lecture

  by exploring the possible fate of an infinite accelerating Universe.

  Recorded 2006 March 2 in 1008 Evans Laboratory on the Columbus campus

  of The Ohio State University.

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• March 01, 2006Lecture 38: The First Three Minutes

  What was the Universe like from the earliest phases immediately after

  the Big Bang to the present day? This lecture reviews the physics of

  matter, and follows the evolution of the expanding Universe from the

  first instants after the Big Bang, when all 4 forces of nature were

  unified in a single grand-unified superforce until the emergence of the

  visible Universe we see around us today. Recorded 2006 March 1 in 1008

  Evans Laboratory on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.

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