Beyond the orbit of Neptune lies the realm of the icy worlds, ranging in
size from Neptune's giant moon Triton and the dwarf planets Pluto and
Eris, all the way down to the nuclei of comets a few kilometers across.
This lecture discussed the icy bodies of the Trans-Neptunian regions of
the Solar System, discussing the basic properties of Triton (the best
stu ... Show More
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 2006
Lecture 2: Astronomical Numbers
Before we can begin our exploration of astronomy, we 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.
We will first re-introduce the basic metric system, explaining how t ... Show More
43m 29s