Showing titles in Astronomy

Heather Couper presents a sweeping history of astronomy, as heard on BBC Radio 4. In this 30-part BBC Radio 4 series, astronomer Heather Couper charts the history of our understanding of the universe. Her journey begins at the beginning as people first gaze in wonder at the life-giving Sun...

The heart of this course examines the planets themselves, and reveals how they are constructed and how they differ from one another. By studying the physical astronomy of all the planets in the Solar System, we can attempt to understand their true nature. Ultimately, these lectures will bring us to a greater understanding of the Solar System's creation, which brings us again back to the beginning and what it means to us as we look outward from our rotating Earth.

One of The Barnes and Noble Review Editors' Picks: Best Nonfiction of 2012 Selected by The Christian Science Monitor as one of "21 smart nonfiction titles we think you'll enjoy this summer" Selected by The New Scientist as one of 10 books to look out for in 2012 We've long understood black holes...

The galaxy, the multiverse, and the history of astronomy are explored in this engaging compilation of cosmological "tales" by multiple award-winning science writer Marcia Bartusiak. In 32 concise and engrossing essays, the author provides a deeper understanding of the nature of the universe and those who strive to uncover its mysteries. Bartusiak shares the back stories for many momentous astronomical discoveries, including the contributions of such pioneers as Beatrice Tinsley and her groundbreaking research in galactic evolution.

It is now known that we live in a galaxy with more planets than stars. The Milky Way alone encompasses 30 trillion potential home planets. Scientists Trefil and Summers bring listeners on a marvelous experimental voyage through the possibilities of life-unlike anything we have experienced so far - that could exist on planets outside our own solar system.

Imaginez un instant cette scène irréelle : des milliers, des millions peut-être, de voitures se trouvant soudainement enveloppées dans un halo de sécurité, les coussins gonflables se déployant avec une précision chirurgicale. Les rues, auparavant des artères de béton et d'asphalte, furent transformées en océans de coussins gonflables, où les véhicules devinrent les sommets de montagnes mouvantes, émergeant de vagues blanches et cotonneuses. C'était comme si la Terre elle-même se gonflait de précaution, se protégeant contre une menace invisible venue des confins de l'espace.

Human travel into space is an enormously expensive and unforgiving endeavor. So why go? In this accessible and authoritative book, astrophysicist Martin Elvis argues that the answer is the asteroid exploration, for the strong motives of love, fear, and greed. Elvis explains how each motive can be satisfied, and how they help one another. From the origins of life, to "space billiards," and space sports, Elvis looks at how asteroids may be used in the not-so-distant future.

Witty and thought provoking, two Vatican astronomers shed provocative light on some of the strange places where religion and science meet. “Imagine if a Martian showed up, all big ears and big nose like a child’s drawing, and he asked to be baptized. How would you react?” —Pope Francis...

A science book for the general reader that is informative enough to be a popular textbook and yet well-written enough to appeal to general readers. “Hazen and Trefil [are] unpretentious—good, down-to-earth, we-can-explain-anything science teachers, the kind you wish you had but never did...

Galileo Unbound traces the journey that brought us from Galileo's law of free fall to today's geneticists measuring evolutionary drift, entangled quantum particles moving among many worlds, and our lives as trajectories traversing a health space with thousands of dimensions. Remarkably, common themes persist that predict the evolution of species as readily as the orbits of planets or the collapse of stars into black holes.

Interested in the business of space? Dr Alice Bunn, former-international director of UK Space Agency and now president of UKspace, helps you identify investment opportunities, cut through policy and regulation, assemble your supply chains and get stuff done. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Tomorrow Factor — where imagination meets the future of humanity. In these episodes, we journey beyond the limits of Earth-this is storytelling inspired by science, guided by philosophy, and powered by the possibilities of AI. So take a breath. Open your mind. And prepare to seek the unknown.

The next frontier in space exploration is Mars, the Red Planet - and human habitation of Mars isn't much farther off. In October 2015, NASA declared Mars "an achievable goal"; that same season, Ridley Scott and Matt Damon's The Martian drew crowds into theaters, grossing over $200 million. Now the National Geographic Channel fast forwards years ahead with Mars, a six-part series documenting and dramatizing the next 25 years as humans land on and learn to live on Mars.

The ordinary atoms that make up the known universe - from our bodies and the air we breathe to the planets and stars - constitute only 5 percent of all matter and energy in the cosmos. The rest is known as dark matter and dark energy, because their precise identities are unknown. The Cosmic Cocktail is the inside story of the epic quest to solve one of the most compelling enigmas of modern science - what is the universe made of? - told by one of today’s foremost pioneers in the study of dark matter.

Why are we fascinated by the night sky? With this single question Patrick Moore sets out on a journey of exploration which takes the listener to the edge of the universe and back. Was ever a man more engaged and associated with his subject matter than Patrick Moore? He has become synonymous with astronomy, and we have grown up over the last 50 years with his name and voice becoming comfortingly familiar. His TV programme The Sky at Night is the longest running TV show in the world.

Veteran science journalist Leonard David explores the moon in all its facets, from ancient myth to future "Moon Village" plans. David offers inside information about how the United States, allies, and competitors, as well as key private corporations like Moon Express and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, plan to reach, inhabit, and even harvest the moon in the decades to come. Spurred on by the Google Lunar XPRIZE - $30 million for the first to get to the moon and send images home - the 21st-century space race back to the moon has become more urgent, and more timely, than ever.

In this book, John Moffat shares the history of black holes and presents the latest research into these mysterious celestial objects, including the astounding results from gravitational wave detection and the shadow of the black hole.

Is there other intelligent life in the universe, or are we all alone? Now you can explore this question through 17 compelling conversations with leading experts on extraterrestrial life. The prospect of alien intelligences has long captivated cosmologists, perplexed theologians, and provided rich fodder for science fiction writers. While we may doubt that the large-eyed, green-skinned figures of sci-fi films will one day descend to Earth in UFOs, it is far harder to reject wholesale the possibility that intelligent life - in some form yet unknown - exists.

Looking up at the night sky fills a person with wonder, knowing there is so much unknown out there! Admiring the universe can put things in perspective – if only we could capture that feeling. Tonight, you can! The first ever photo was taken in 1826 and at the end of the following decade, the moon was captured. But it wasn’t until the late 19th century that technology advanced to the point where details of stars could be seen, and only really the last 20 years that software has taken this to a new level.

While modern technology has helped astronomers view the furthest reaches of the Solar System, it has also allowed scientists to start discovering planets orbiting distant stars. To make it easier to assess the relative mass and size of the new planets being discovered, scientists give these measurements as multiples of those properties for either Jupiter or Earth