Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
Prime membership required
Terms apply
Episodes
- S1 E1 - Probing the Cosmos from SpaceOctober 23, 201428minPrepare for your cosmic journey by surveying NASA's space exploration strategy. Although human spaceflight gets the lion's share of publicity, the greatest scientific discoveries in space are the work of planetary probes and space observatories. Learn why this approach has paid off so spectacularly. #Science & MathematicsFree trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E2 - The Magnetic Beauty of the Active SunOctober 23, 201428minExplore the sun in astonishing detail through the multispectral instruments of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. See debris from magnetic storms explode into space and then crash back into the sun. Learn how these mammoth outbursts affect Earth.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E3 - Mars - Water and the Search for LifeOctober 23, 201429minDiscover that Mars is a water world whose surface dried up long ago and may once have supported life. Four robotic rovers have landed on Mars, including the sophisticated Curiosity rover, now crawling across the planet searching for clues connected to microbial life forms.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E4 - Vesta and the Asteroid BeltOctober 23, 201429minStudy fossil remains of the early solar system, preserved in the rocky debris of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Focus on one of the largest asteroids, Vesta, viewing it close up via the Dawn spacecraft. Learn how pieces of Vesta have fallen to Earth as meteorites.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E5 - Saturn - The Rings of EnchantmentOctober 23, 201429minExamine Saturn through the eyes of the Cassini probe, which has been orbiting the ringed planet since 2004, taking spectacular pictures of Saturn's cloud tops, moons, and especially the enigmatic ring system. Examine competing theories for the origin of this complex circular band.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E6 - The Ice Moons Europa and EnceladusOctober 23, 201427minFocus on two enigmatic ice worlds: Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus. Both may harbor liquid water beneath their icy crusts. Weigh the chances that life exists in these underground oceans, despite the extreme cold in the outer solar system.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E7 - The Search for Other EarthsOctober 23, 201431minJoin the Kepler telescope in the search for other Earths. Kepler has spotted thousands of candidate planets orbiting other stars, including many that are roughly Earth-sized. Learn how planets are detected at stellar distances, and study the conditions needed to support life.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E8 - The Swan NebulaOctober 23, 201431minVenture into a nearby spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, as imaged in infrared light by the Spitzer Space Telescope. See how Spitzer's panorama of the Swan nebula reveals that spiral arms are active regions of star formation, showing up brilliantly in the infrared band.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E9 - The Seven Sisters and Their Stardust VeilOctober 23, 201430minThe Pleiades cluster, or Seven Sisters, is one of the most beautiful star formations in the heavens. Discover the origin of the wispy nebulae that surround these bright stars. In the process, learn how the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is a powerful tool for estimating the ages of star clusters.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E10 - Future Supernova, Eta CarinaeOctober 23, 201431minExplore the imminent fate of the luminous star Eta Carinae, a ticking bomb due to explode as a supernova in the next few hundred thousand years. Study the life cycle of stars, and trace the history of Eta Carinae to mysterious events first observed in 1843.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E11 - Runaway Star, Zeta OphiuchiOctober 23, 201430minWhy is the enormous star Zeta Ophiuchi careening through our galaxy at unusually high speed? Probe the mystery of this runaway star and its gorgeous shock wave, using images from the Spitzer Space Telescope and other observatories to tell a story of massive interacting stars and a likely supernova explosion.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E12 - The Center of the Milky WayOctober 23, 201431minTravel to the most exotic sector of the Milky Way, the galactic center, which has a black hole four million times more massive than the sun and is orbited by hot gas and giant stars. View this violent region at multiple wavelengths using the most advanced telescopes of our day.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E13 - The Andromeda GalaxyOctober 23, 201430minInvestigate the nearby Andromeda galaxy, tracing its puzzling spiral arms. Use images from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and other telescopes to gather evidence that something once crashed into Andromeda. Then chart Andromeda's collision course with our own galaxy!Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E14 - Hubble's Galaxy ZooOctober 23, 201430minUse the sharp eye of the Hubble Space Telescope to survey some of the most peculiar galaxies in the local universe. Focus on Hoag's Object, a ring galaxy with a yellow nucleus, surrounded by a nearly perfect circle of hot blue stars. Explore competing ideas for the origin of this unique structure.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E15 - The Brightest QuasarOctober 23, 201430minTravel to some of the most distant and luminous objects in the universe: quasars. Discovered in the early 1960s, these active galaxies are associated with matter-devouring supermassive black holes. Investigate the brightest and first-found quasar, called 3C 273, and learn what it reveals about the early universe.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E16 - The Dark Side of the Bullet ClusterOctober 23, 201431minInvestigate mounting evidence that invisible dark matter must exist. Then see how telescopes scanning the sky at different wavelengths have mapped the distribution of dark matter, notably in a collection of distant colliding galaxy clusters called the Bullet Cluster.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E17 - The Cosmic Reach of Gamma-Ray BurstsOctober 23, 201430minSearch for the origin of the most powerful explosions since the Big Bang. Known as gamma-ray bursts, these colossal beams of high-energy radiation are among our deepest views into the cosmic past. Also consider the chance that a nearby gamma-ray burst could cause a mass extinction on Earth.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
- S1 E18 - The Afterglow of the Big BangOctober 23, 201444minConclude your cosmic tour by probing the echo of creation: the faint afterglow of the Big Bang, which is present everywhere in space. View this signal in increasing detail provided by spacecraft, and uncover its astonishing story about the earliest epoch of our vast universe.Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
Details
More info
By clicking play, you agree to our Terms of Use.