Modern science was borne of an effort over many centuries to understand
the motions of celestial bodies. The Copernican Revolution of the 16th
and 17th centuries was the crucial moment in history when we finally
understood the nature of celestial motions, and opened the door to the
modern world. This lecture reviews the problem of celestial motions,
the tw ... Show More
Sep 2009
Lecture 6: The Geological Revolution - Deep Time and the Age of the Earth
The geological revolution revealed that the Earth is of great antiquity and yet has a history we can read in the land. We will discuss ideas of cyclic and linear time, historical versus physical age estimates, the discovery of geological time, and radiometric dating methods that ... Show More
46m 11s
Mar 2006
Lecture 44: Life, the Universe, and Everything (Life Part II)
How can we search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and what are we looking for? This second part of a 2-part lecture picks up where we left off yesterday by examining SETI, the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, and reviews what we might look for and how. We will use thi ... Show More
45m 56s
Sep 2007
Lecture 02: Astronomical Numbers
What are our units of measure in astronomy? To begin our exploration of astronomy, we first need to develop a common language for notating large numbers, and introduce the basic units of length, mass, and time that we will use throughout the quarter. This lecture is a quick revie ... Show More
43m 58s
Sep 2007
Welcome to Astronomy 161 for Autumn Quarter 2007
Welcome to the Astronomy 161 Lecture Podcasts. This is a brief message from me explaining the podcasts, and welcoming new and old listeners. University. Lectures will begin on Wednesday, 2007 Sept 19, and run through Friday, 2007 Nov 30. New lectures will appear shortly before 6p ... Show More
7m 35s