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 ...
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 ...
Corrected with Images of Stars/planets*** So you know what a star is, right? Well, if you don't, you should. We've talked about that big one in the sky a few times: ...
Finally, after what seems like eons and eons, the end is nigh. We're talking not only about the end of Crash Course Big History, but also the end of everything.
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 ...
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 ...
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.
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 ...
So, what is the Ecliptic? Well, it has to do with the Zodiac constellations and our sun and how they move in relation to one another. It's kind of cool! In this ...
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.
Gamma-ray bursts are not only incredible to study, but their discovery has an epic story all its own. Today Phil takes you through some Cold War history and then ...
Phil takes us for a closer (eye safe!) look at the two-octillion ton star that rules our solar system. We look at the sun's core, plasma, magnetic fields, sunspots, ...
Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. The gas giant is NOT a failed star, but a really successful planet! It has a dynamic atmosphere with belts and ...
Saturn is the crown jewel of the solar system, beautiful and fascinating. It is a gas giant, and has a broad set of rings made of ice particles. Moons create gaps in ...
Thanks to observations of galaxy redshifts, we can tell that the universe is EXPANDING! Knowing that the universe is expanding and how quickly its expanding ...
Sometimes even Phil has a hard time with Astronomy. Time for another Bad Astronomy break! Crash Course Astronomy posters available at DFTBA.com ...
Today we're talking about our galactic neighborhood: The Milky Way. It's a disk galaxy, a collection of dust, gas, and hundreds of billions of stars, with the Sun ...
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 ...
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 ...
Today on Crash Course Astronomy, Phil dives into some very dark matters. The stuff we can actually observe in the universe isn't all there is. Galaxies and other ...
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, ...
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 ...
Today, Craig is going to wrap up our discussion of discrimination by looking more closely at those “discrete and insular minorities” referenced in the 14th ...
In the aftermath of a 8 – 20 solar mass star's demise we find a weird little object known as a neutron star. Neutrons stars are incredibly dense, spin rapidly, and ...
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 ...