How did we come to understand that the Milky Way was just one of
billions of other galaxies in a vast Universe? This lecture
reviews the history of how we came to recognize that the spiral nebulae
were, in fact, other milky ways like our own: vast systems of
100s of billions of stars located millions of parsecs away. The
key to understanding their nature ... Show More
Feb 2006
Lecture 23: The Milky Way
What is the Milky Way, and what is our place within it? This lecture
introduces the Milky Way, the bright band of light that crosses the
sky, and describes how we came to our present understanding of the size
and shape of the Milky Way Galaxy, and our location in it.
Recorded 200 ... Show More
41m 33s
Jun 2009
Telescopes that Rocked Our World
This year marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of the first telescope. On this week’s show, we reflect on how telescopes have shifted our perspective on how small we are in size, space, and time. We also discuss how they help astronomers discover new and interesting aspec ... Show More
56 m