Astronomy: Observations & Theories Episode Guide

Episode Guide

• Season 1 Episode 20: The Search for Life Beyond Earth

  The early seeds of life on Earth may have been delivered by comet impacts; Europa's subsurface ocean.

• Season 1 Episode 19: Solar System Debris

  The composition of meteorites; asteroids; characteristics of comets; the demise of the dinosaurs.

• Season 1 Episode 18: The Jovian Worlds

  The processes that allowed planets to grow so large; Jupiter's tidal heating; Saturn's interior and atmosphere; ice giants Uranus and Neptune.

• Season 1 Episode 17: The Terrestrial Planets

  The stages of differentiation, cratering, flooding and surface evolution; plate tectonics.

• Season 1 Episode 16: The Solar Systems

  Solar nebula theory; the detection of planets around distant stars.

• Season 1 Episode 15: Cosmology

  Evidence supports the big bang theory; dark energy.

• Season 1 Episode 14: Active Galaxies

  Active galaxies, from Seyfert galaxies and blazars to quasars.

• Season 1 Episode 13: Galaxies

  The classification of galaxies; distance indicators; the Hubble Law; Saros cycle.

• Season 1 Episode 12: Our Galaxy: The Milky Way

  The Milky Way's size and scale; the anatomy of the galaxy and mapping techniques.

• Season 1 Episode 11: Stellar Remnants

  Objects that remain after the deaths of large stars, neutron stars and black holes; gamma-ray bursts and hypernovae.

• Season 1 Episode 10: Stellar Deaths

  The life and death of stars.

• Season 1 Episode 9: Stellar Births

  Stellar evolution; ingredients needed to produce a star include dust, gas and gravity; the role mass plays in the life and death of a star.

• Season 1 Episode 8: Family of Stars

  Finding distance to nearby stars; binary stars.

• Season 1 Episode 7: Sun: Our Star

  The thermonuclear process in the core of the sun; identifying layers of the interior and atmosphere.

• Season 1 Episode 6: The Science of Starlight

  The interactions of atoms and light; spectral classes.

• Season 1 Episode 5: Astronomical Tools

  What light is and the tools used to collect it.

• Season 1 Episode 4: Birth of Astronomy

  Observations, theories and contributions of Aristotle, Ptolemy and others.

• Season 1 Episode 3: Celestial Cycles

  The motion of earth around the sun and its yearly cycle.

• Season 1 Episode 2: Observing the Sky

  The celestial sphere serves as a model to help describe and organize the night sky; how different cultures named stars and constellations.

• Season 1 Episode 1: The Study of the Universe

  The planets, stars and galaxies.