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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 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 big question in the comments last week was, "BUT WHAT ABOUT ECLIPSES?" Today, Phil breaks 'em down for you. This episode is sponsored by ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 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.
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.
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 ...
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.
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 ...
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 ...
Today we're taking a break for another round of "Bad Astronomy" Crash Course Astronomy posters available at DFTBA.com ...
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, ...
In today's episode, Phil looks at how gravity plays out across the universe. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace: ...
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: ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 Phil explains how telescopes work and offers up some astronomical shopping advice. -- How Telescopes Work 1:07 Refractors vs Reflectors 2:50 ...
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 ...