Astronomy 162 - Stars, Galaxies, & the Universe

By Richard PoggeScience Education Courses Natural Sciences Astronomy

Astronomy 162 - Stars, Galaxies, & the Universe episodes

December 06, 2009 Astronomy 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, 2006 Lectures 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, 2006 Welcome 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, 2006 Lecture 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, 2006 Lecture 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, 2006 Lecture 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, 2006 Lecture 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, 2006 Lecture 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, 2006 Lecture 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, 2006 Lecture 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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