| Our solar system | ||
| Planets viewed from Earth as if they were at the distance of our moon | Link | Youtube. 1 min |
| Riding light. What would the solar system look like if you were riding a photon of light coming from the sun | Link | Beautiful idea. Video from vimeo |
| We are stardust | ||
| Cosmology is not 'up there': we are part of cosmology. We are, in every sense of the word, stardust |
Neil DeGrasse Tyson. YouTube. 2 mins. | |
| Overview | From pbslearningmedia.org. 2 mins | |
| Physicist Lawrence M. Krauss explains that some of the atoms in your right hand may come from a different star than some atoms in your left hand. | YouTube. 7 mins. | |
| How do we know what stars are made of? | Link | YouTube. 5 mins. |
| The Big Bang | ||
| Science, Religion, and the Big Bang | YouTube. 5 mins via MinutePhysics | |
The Big Bang: Introduction |
In an instant, everything happens. YouTube. 4 mins. via bighistoryproject.com |
|
| What caused the Big Bang? | Carl Sagon on YouTube. 7 mins | |
The beginning of the universe, for beginners
|
Tom Whyntie shows how cosmologists and particle physicists explore these questions by replicating the heat, energy, and activity of the first few seconds of our universe, from right after the Big Bang. YouTube via TED-Ed. 3 mins | |
| Brian Cox explains the universe | YouTube. 1 hour | |
| A Brief History of the Universe: Crash Course Astronomy | Link | YouTube. 13 mins |
| So how will the universe end; with a Big Crunch or a Cold Fade-out | Short answer: nobody knows. Text-based from NASA |
|
| The death of the universe. We know that the universe is expanding constantly, so that all stars will eventually burn out into a cold nothingness. |
Renée Hlozek expands on the beauty of this dark ending. YouTube via TED-Ed 5 mins. | |
Jim Holt: Why does the universe exist? |
Link | YouTube via TED 17 mins. |
| Does the universe have a purpose? | Neil deGrasse Tyson on YouTube. 3 mins | |
| Is our universe the only universe | And why is our universe fine-tuned for life? Brian Greene on TED. YouTube. 22 mins | |
| How many stars/ galaxies/ universes are there? | Link | YouTube. From TED-Ed 4 mins. |
| How Many Stars Are There? | Link | SciShow on YouTube 4 mins |
| The End of Everything | Hank gives us an inclusive overview of how everything in the universe is thought to have begun, and how cosmologists predict it will all come to an end. Now get happy! YouTube. 11 mins | |
| Scale of the universe | ||
| The Hubble Deep Field Video | YouTube. 6 mins. Fast-forward past the silly part | |
Laniakea: Our home supercluster |
YouTube. 4 mins. From Nature | |
| Scale of the universe2 | htwins.net/scale2 | |
| Largest Sky Map Revealed: An Animated Flight Through the Universe | YouTube. 2 mins. From TheScienceChannel | |
| A wonderful run-through of all major events from Big Bang to now | Fantastic resource for putting our recent arrival in context | |
| Our Galaxy: The Milky Way | ||
| Stunning picture of the Milky Way galaxy | courtesy of flickr.com | |
| Drive through our own galaxy | Past 100,000 stars. From workshop.chromeexperiments.com | |
| Galaxy Song - Monty Python's The Meaning of Life | YouTube. 3 mins | |
Map of asteroids |
Interactive | |
| Where did the Earth come from? | ||
Where did the earth come from? |
YouTube. 4 mins. via Veritasium | |
| Everything You Need to Know About Planet Earth | How did it come into existence and how big is it really? You will be surprised. The ground you are standing on is just a very, very small part of the big picture. YouTube via TED-Ed. 7 mins | |
| Competing theories for the origin of the earth | Split-screen presentation | |
| What if other planetary bodies orbited our world at the same distance as the moon | YouTube. 1 min. Fascinating | |
| How does the size of the Earth compare to other objects in the cosmos? | YouTube. 3 mins | |
| Check out the size of the Earth in comparison to other heavenly objects | Single web page with images |
|
| Want to build your own model solar system? | Interactive scale from exploratorium.edu | |
| Satellites | ||
| ISS(International Space Station) Timetable to let you know when next it will be overhead |
The position of the ISS can be tracked so that you should be able to see when it will next be visible in the sky. From spotthestation.nasa.gov |
|
| This gives you all visible satellites, and maps of the night sky for your choice of time and location. | And lots more. From heavens-above.com |
|
| Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life (SETI) | ||
| 100 Million Planets in our Galaxy May Harbor Complex Life | Text-based, from Planetary Habitability Laboratory @ UPR Arecibo | |
| Enrico Fermi, when asked about intelligent life on other planets, famously replied, “Where are they?” | ||
| The Moon | ||
| Minute by minute playback of the landing of the first man on the moon. | From firstmenonthemoon.com/ | |
| We choose the moon | Real time audio of the first moon landing | |
| Wonderful musing on the Apollo Missions | Because no lesson on Cosmology would be complete without a contribution from Carl Sagan. Youtube. 4 mins | |
| The Eagle Has Landed, The Flight of Apollo 11, 1969 | Famous documentary of the first moon landing. Youtube. 28 mins |
|
| Or was it all an elaborate hoax? | Badastronomy.com explains some of the apparent anomalies. Text-based. | |
| Supernovae | ||
| What has the stacked ball drop demonstration got to do with supernovae? | Link | From Physics Girl on Youtube. 3 mins |
| Gamma Ray Bursts | Link | Produced by supernovae. The bigest bang since, well, the Big Bang. Youtube. 7 mins |
| Pulsars | ||
| Pulsars in 100 seconds | From the IOP's Science in 100 seconds series | |
| Quasars | ||
| Quasars - student project | YouTube. 8 mins | |
| How I fell in love with quasars, blazars and our incredible universe | Link | Jedidah Isler first fell in love with the night sky as a little girl. Now she’s an astrophysicist who studies supermassive hyperactive black holes. YouTube. 4 mins |
| Neutron Stars | ||
| The most dense object in the universe (apart from Black Holes, obviously) | YouTube. 1 min | |
| Other Earths | ||
| New Planet Could Be Earthlike, Scientists Say (2007) | News report from nytimes.com | |
| What the view from a new earth might look like | Image from thedailymail.co.uk | |
| Cosmic rays | ||
| How they help us understand the universe | YouTube. 5 mins from TED-Ed | |
Neutrinos can tell us about the furthest reaches and most extreme environments of the universe ... but only if we can catch them. |
Link | YouTube. 5 mins from TED-Ed |
| Near Earth Collisions | ||
| The most significant natural danger to life on Earth comes from asteroids and comets. | The Spaceguard Centre website: The National Near Earth Objects Information Centre | |
| Miscellaneous | ||
| Pale blue dot - Carl Sagan | YouTube. 3 mins. Famous clip from one of Science's greatest communicators |
|
| Carl Sagan - 'A Glorious Dawn' ft Stephen Hawking | YouTube. 3 mins. From SymphonyofScience | |
| Check out Astronomypictureoftheday | 6 minute video | |
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING - Hawking Radiation with Neil deGrasse Tyson |
YouTube. 2 mins | |
| Why is it dark at night? | From MinutePhysics. YouTube. 4 mins | |
| Astronomically Correct Twinkle Twinkle | From MinutePhysics. YouTube. 2 mins | |
| Spacetime curvature placemats | From boingboing.net | |
| International Space Station - what are the benefits for humanity? | YouTube. 20 mins | |
| Lots of teaching resources here | Courtesy of The Guardian |