PBS
Extinction by Gamma-Ray Burst
Find out about the last time and the next time the Earth will be hit by a Gamma-ray Burst.
SciShow
3 Cosmic Time Capsules
Long before we were around, the universe was preserving clues about the distant past, in everything from little balls of carbon to huge groups of stars.
SciShow
Earth Doesn’t Orbit the Sun
Understanding gravity can sometimes be a bit of a balancing act, much like the fundamental laws of physics and how they inform what it is exactly that Earth orbits.
TED Talks
TED: How a blind astronomer found a way to hear the stars | Wanda Diaz Merced
Wanda Diaz Merced studies the light emitted by gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic events in the universe. When she lost her sight and was left without a way to do her science, she had a revelatory insight: the light curves she could no...
SciShow
How to Clean Up After Ourselves in Space
We've launched thousands of spacecraft over the years. And as the space junk around our planet builds up, researchers are working on ways to clean things up using some obvious things, like lasers, and some less obvious ones, like solar...
SciShow
From Kepler to Webb: The History of the Telescope
Hank regales us with the history of the telescope, and then introduces us to some folks from the team who are working on the newest telescope in the chronology - the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared telescope due to launch in 2018.
Crash Course
Star Clusters
Last week we covered multiple star systems, but what if we added thousands or even millions of stars to the mix? A star cluster. There are different kinds of clusters, though. Open clusters contain hundreds or thousands of stars held...
SciShow
Dark Matter Is Even Stranger Than We Thought | SciShow News
Scientists can see how dark matter is distributed based on how its gravity affects light, but when astronomers compared recent data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope to current models, something didn’t add up....
SciShow
Using Microbes to Mine Mars: The Future of Biomining
Humans have been using microbes to separate minerals from mud since the middle of the last century, so we know biomining works on earth. But how will these tiny miners work in microgravity?
SciShow
The Farthest Galaxy We've Ever Seen! | SciShow News
Scientists have spotted a galaxy from the early origins of the universe, and found evidence to support the existence of a 9th planet in our solar system.
Crash Course Kids
Here Comes the Sun
Every hear of 'Sol'? Sure you have! It's our Sun! It sits at the center of our 8 planet solar system, providing us with heat and light. But how does that energy get to us? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina chats about the...
Crash Course
Low Mass Stars
Today we are talking about the life -- and death -- of stars. Low mass stars live a long time, fusing all their hydrogen into helium over a trillion years. More massive stars like the Sun live shorter lives. They fuse hydrogen into...
SciShow
Can We Change Earth’s Orbit?
Climate change is a big problem, but could we solve it by giving the earth a little nudge?
Crash Course
Cycles in the Sky
This week we build on our naked eye observations from last week and take a look at the cyclical phenomena that we can see at work in the universe.
Crash Course
Naked Eye Observations
Today on Crash Course Astronomy, Phil invites you to head outside and take a look at all the incredible things you can see with your naked eye.
SciShow
How 19th Century Lighthouses Power Advanced Space Drives
The technology we use for space exploration gets more advanced all the time, but some of our most ambitious programs actually rely on optics invented in the 19th century for lighthouses.
Crash Course
Exoplanets
Today Phil explains that YES, there are other planets out there and astonomers have a lot of methods for detecting them. Nearly 2000 have been found so far. The most successful method is using transits, where a planet physically passes...
SciShow
How Do We Measure the Distance of Stars?
It's School of YouTube Week! Comic Relief and YouTube are partnering to send students to school! The Bad Astronomer Phil Plait teaches Hank how to measure the distance to the stars.
SciShow
Mama, Where Do Galaxies Come From?
For most of human history, we didn't know that galaxies were a thing. So over the past century, astronomers have been working to understand how galaxies come to be and how they evolve over time. And for a full decade, there was one...
SciShow
Space Elevators
Hank talks about space elevators, and why we shouldn't expect to see one any time soon.
Crash Course
Light
In order to understand how we study the universe, we need to talk a little bit about light. Light is a form of energy. Its wavelength tells us its energy and color. Spectroscopy allows us to analyze those colors and determine an object’s...
SciShow
How Other-Worldly Auroras Help Us Explore the Galaxy
Earth’s northern and southern lights are some of the most magical sights on our planet. But they’re not unique to Earth, and aside from being beautiful, auroras can also give us unusual insights into these other worlds.
SciShow
How Many Stars Are There?
How many stars are there in the universe? This question leads Hank to a couple other questions - How many stars can we see from Earth? How many stars are there in our galaxy? - but the answer to the original question proves elusive.