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. -- Table of ...
Today we're taking a break for another round of "Bad Astronomy" Crash Course Astronomy posters available at DFTBA.com ...
Welcome to the first episode of Crash Course Astronomy. Your host for this intergalactic adventure is the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait. We begin with ...
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It has no atmosphere and is, as such, covered in craters. It's also incredibly hot but, surprisingly, has water ice hiding ...
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. -- Table of ...
The big question in the comments last week was, "BUT WHAT ABOUT ECLIPSES?" Today, Phil breaks 'em down for you. This episode is sponsored by ...
Active galaxies pour out lots of energy, due to their central supermassive black holes gobbling down matter. Galaxies tend not to be loners, but instead exist in ...
In today's episode, Phil looks at how gravity plays out across the universe. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace: ...
The Milky Way is our neighborhood in the universe. It's a galaxy and there are many others out there. Galaxies contain gas, dust, and billions of stars or more.
As we approach the end of Crash Course Astronomy, it's time now to acknowledge that our Universe's days are numbered. Stars will die out after a few trillion ...
How do astronomers make sense out of the vastness of space? How do they study things so far away? Today Phil talks about distances, going back to early ...
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 ...
Thanks to the wonders of physics, astronomers can map a timeline of the universe's history. Today, Phil's going to give you an overview of those first few minutes ...
In this episode of Crash Course Astronomy, Phil takes you through the cause and name of the Moon's phases. -- Why the Moon Has Phases 0:36.1 Spheres in ...
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.
Now that we've finished our tour of the planets, we're headed back to the asteroid belt. Asteroids are chunks of rock, metal, or both that were once part of ...
Today we're rounding out our planetary tour with ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Both have small rocky cores, thick mantles of ammonia, water, and methane, ...
Today Phil's explaining the stars and how they can be categorized using their spectra. Together with their distance, this provides a wealth of information about ...
The fourth planet from the sun and the outermost of the terrestrial planets, Mars has long been a popular spot for missions and imagination. Phil walks you ...
The majority of the universe is made up of a currently mysterious entity that pervades space: dark energy. We don't know exactly what it is, but we do know that ...
Join Phil for a tour of our capital-M Moon, from surface features, inside to the core, and back in time to theories about its formation. This episode is brought to you ...
Today Phil follows up last week's look at the death of low mass stars with what comes next: a white dwarf. White dwarfs are incredibly hot and dense objects ...
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.
Astronomers study a lot of gorgeous things, but nebulae might be the most breathtakingly beautiful of them all. Nebulae are clouds of gas and dust in space.
Venus is a gorgeous naked-eye planet, hanging like a diamond in the twilight -- but it's beauty is best looked at from afar. Even though Mercury is closer to the ...
Massive stars fuse heavier elements in their cores than lower mass stars. This leads to the creation of heavier elements up to iron. Iron robs critical energy from ...
Today on Crash Course Astronomy, Phil explains comets. Comets are chunks of ice and rock that orbit the Sun. When they get near the Sun the ice turns into ...
Today Phil explores the world of tides! What is the relationship between tides and gravity? How do planets and their moons become tidally locked? What would ...
Before moving on from Jupiter to Saturn, we're going to linger for a moment on Jupiter's moons. There are 67 known moons, and 4 huge ones that we want to ...
We've covered a lot of incredible stuff, but this week we're talking about the weirdest objects in space: BLACK HOLES. Stellar mass black holes form when a ...
Time for another Bad Astronomy break. -- PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios Follow Phil on Twitter: https://twitter.com/badastronomer Want ...
One last round of laughs with Phil as he struggles through some Bad Astronomy. -- Crash Course Astronomy Poster: ...
Here it is, folks: the end. In our final episode of Crash Course Astronomy, Phil gives the course a send off with a look at some of his favorite topics and the big ...
Sometimes even Phil has a hard time with Astronomy. Time for another Bad Astronomy break! Crash Course Astronomy posters available at DFTBA.com ...
After 10 information-heavy episodes, it's time for a little Bad Astronomy. -- PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios Follow Phil on Twitter: ...