Astronomy (Audio)

Is dark energy really accelerating the universe? Join Andrew Fraknoi and three Berkeley Lab cosmologists as they delve into nature’s greatest mystery. Greg Aldering explores type 1 supernovae. Shirley Ho measures the cosmos through baryon oscillation and Eric Linder asks out of the box questions about the cosmos; could it be something even stranger than dark energy driving the universe? Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 21566]

E. Margaret Burbidge is a renowned observational astronomer and astrophysicist. She was a co-investigator on the team to build the Faint Object Spectrograph for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Her earliest research work concerned chemical abundance in stars of various types and culminated in the now classic work Synthesis of the Elements in Stars by Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle (1957). The authors concluded that all the chemical elements were produced in stars. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 23342]

David Jewitt, professor of Earth & Space Sciences and Physics & Astronomy at UCLA, gives a modern broad view of our solar system and planetary systems of other stars. Series: "UCLA Science Faculty Research Colloquium" [Science] [Show ID: 21104]

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicist and dark energy hunter David Schlegel chats with Sabin Russell, former San Francisco Chronicle reporter turned Berkeley Lab science writer. David Schlegel is an astrophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the principal investigator of Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), the largest of four night-sky surveys being conducted as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 22550]

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Princeton cosmologist Jim Peebles for a discussion of his intellectual odyssey. They discuss his contributions to cosmology and the future of the field. Series: "Conversations with History" [Humanities] [Show ID: 12061]

Before we get all the way back to the Big Bang, there may have been a time when stars like our Sun and galaxies like our Milky Way did not exist, because the Universe was denser than it is now. Harvard professor Abraham (Avi) Loeb explores how and when the first stars and galaxies formed. Series: "Scientific Horizons" [Science] [Show ID: 22628]

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Cornell's Steven Squyres for a discussion of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Reflecting on the intellectual journey that led to his role in the Mars mission, Squires reminisces about his early years, his education and his career in geology and astronomy. Discussing the role of leadership in a complex scientific project, he compares the characteristics, skill set, and work of scientists and engineers, and he describes the dynamic process that led to the project’s success in exploring Mars. He explains the importance of the mission and what was learned and concludes with thoughts on the future of planetary exploration. Series: "Conversations with History" [Science] [Show ID: 22444]

Steven Squyres, Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University, has participated in a number of NASA's planetary space flight missions, including the Voyager mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the Magellan mission to Venus, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, and the Mars Exploration Rover Project. Here he ponders the future of planetary exploration. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 21041]

Steven Squyres, Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University, was the principle scientist behind the Mars Exploration Rover Project. He discusses the engineering challenges that had to be met in getting the rovers to Mars, as well as the scientific results obtained by both vehicles over more than seven years of exploration. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 21040]

Learn how the local amateur astronomy community in San Diego, particularly the large San Diego Astronomy Association, can help classroom teachers and what hands-on exercises and instructional material would be useful in the classroom. Series: "TeacherTECH" [Science] [Show ID: 20383]