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21) Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition: The Diverse Sizes of Stars
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Description
This lecture discusses the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a plot of stellar surface temperature versus luminosity that contains a wealth of information. Stars spend most of their existence on the diagram's well-defined main sequence; outliers include supergiants and white dwarfs.
22) Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition: Our Sun, the Nearest Star
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Beginning a sequence of lectures on the Solar System, you start with the Sun, which you explore from the interior to the surface. Sunspots are cooler regions associated with strong magnetic fields, and violent eruptions blast solar material into space.
24) Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition: The Corpses of Massive Stars
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The imploding core of a Type II supernova typically forms a bizarre, enormously compact object called a neutron star, consisting entirely of tightly packed neutrons, a teaspoon of which would weigh about a billion tons.
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If a quantum fluctuation gave rise to our Universe, must ours be the only one? Are others possible, perhaps even with different rules? This lecture examines reasons for suspecting the existence of other universes, though we do not know how to test for their presence.
34) Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition: The Reason for the Seasons
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Description
Contrary to popular belief, the seasons are not caused by changes in the distance between Earth and the Sun over the course of a year. Instead, the tilt of Earth's axis of spin relative to the axis of its orbital plane produces seasons.
35) Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition: A Grand Tour of the Cosmos
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You embark on a fantastic voyage throughout the Universe, starting in this lecture with a whirlwind tour of the course, which extends from phenomena in Earth's atmosphere to events at the farthest reaches of space and time.
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The dark energy that is causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate makes up about 75 percent of the cosmos. Visible matter accounts for less than 1 percent. The bulk of the remainder is dark matter, most of which may consist of exotic subatomic particles.
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Apparent brightness is the observed brightness of a star. Because stars are at different distances, astronomers need a standard reference by which to compare stars in absolute terms, as if they're all at the same distance. This standard is called intrinsic brightness, or luminosity.
40) Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition: Einstein's Biggest Blunder?
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English
Description
The unexpected finding that the Universe is expanding at an ever-faster rate lends support for the existence of a non-zero cosmological constant, a formerly discredited idea of Einstein's, which he once called his "biggest blunder."
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