Astronomy 141 - Life in the Universe - Autumn Quarter 2009
Astronomy 141, Life in the Universe, is a one-quarter introduction to
Astrobiology for non-science majors taught at The Ohio State University.
This podcast presents audio recordings of Professor Richard Pogge's
lectures from his Autumn Quarter 2009 class. All of the lectures were
recorded live in 1005 Smith Laboratory on the OSU Main Campus in Columbus,
Ohio.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 44 minutes
- Episodes
- 47
- Years Active
- 2009
Lecture 46: This View of Life (Course Finale)
Course finale and summary. We look back over where we've been the last
eleven weeks, and bring together all of the main themes of this course
on Life in the Universe. Recorded live on 2009 Dec 4 in…
00:41:00 |
Fri 04 Dec 2009
Lecture 45: The Future of Life in the Universe
How will life, the Universe, and everything end? This lecture looks at
the evolution of our expanding Universe to project the prospects for
life into the distant cosmological future. Recent observa…
00:44:04 |
Thu 03 Dec 2009
Lecture 44: The Future of Life in the Solar System
What is the future of life on Earth and in our Solar System? The Sun is
the source of energy for life on the Earth, but it will not shine
forever. This lecture looks at the impact of the various st…
00:55:49 |
Wed 02 Dec 2009
Lecture 43: Extraterrestrial Life
What does extraterrestrial life look like? This lecture explores
current thinking about what extraterrestrial life might be like not by
guessing their appearances, but instead applying lessons learn…
00:45:14 |
Tue 01 Dec 2009
Lecture 42: The Fermi Paradox
So, Where is Everybody? Interstellar colonization, in principle, is an
exponential growth process that would fill the galaxy in a few million
years even with a very modest star flight capability. T…
00:44:58 |
Mon 30 Nov 2009
Lecture 41: Interstellar Travel and Colonization
If we ever detect life elsewhere, how will we go visit? This lecture
considers the challenges of interstellar travel and colonization. The
problem is one of basic physics (the enormous energy requi…
00:45:36 |
Wed 25 Nov 2009
Lecture 40: SETI - The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence
Is anybody out there? This lecture reviews the ideas behind SETI, the
Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, an effort to find other
intelligent communicating civilizations by tuning in on their…
00:46:28 |
Tue 24 Nov 2009
Lecture 39: The Drake Equation
How many intelligent, communicating civilizations live in our Galaxy?
We have no idea. One way to approach the question and come up with
quasi-quantitative estimates is the Drake Equation, first int…
00:45:31 |
Mon 23 Nov 2009
Lecture 38: The Pale Blue Dot - Seeking Other Earths
Are there other Earths out there? Do they have life on them? This
lecture looks at the search for ExoEarths - Earth-sized planets in the
habitable zones of their parent stars, and what we might lea…
00:44:09 |
Thu 19 Nov 2009
Lecture 37: Strange New Worlds
What are the properties of the 400+ exoplanets we have discovered so
far? This lecture reviews the properties of exoplanets, and finds a
couple of surprises: Jupiter-mass planets orbiting close to t…
00:46:50 |
Wed 18 Nov 2009
Lecture 36: Exoplanets - Planets Around Other Stars
Are there planets around other stars? This lecture reviews the methods
used to hunt for exoplanets and the results thus far. I will describe
direct imaging methods, indirect methods relying on the …
00:47:10 |
Tue 17 Nov 2009
Lecture 35: The Solar Neighborhood
What stars are near the Sun? Now that we have some idea of what we are
looking for - rocky planets in the habitable zones of low-mass
main-sequence stars - what are the prospects near the Sun? This…
00:46:03 |
Mon 16 Nov 2009
Lecture 34: Habitable Zones around Stars
Which stars are the most hospitable for life? This lecture examines the
factors affecting the habitability of stars, with a goal of
understanding where we should search for life-bearing planets. We…
00:47:29 |
Fri 13 Nov 2009
Lecture 33: The Deaths of Stars
What happens to a star when it runs out of hydrogen in its core? This
lecture describes the post main-sequence evolution of stars. What
happens depends on the star's mass. Low mass stars swell up …
00:47:23 |
Thu 12 Nov 2009
Lecture 32: The Lives of Stars
Why do stars shine? How long do they shine? This lecture describes the
physics of stars on the main sequence, describes the mass-luminosity
relation of main sequence stars, introduces nuclear fusio…
00:46:51 |
Tue 10 Nov 2009
Lecture 31: The Properties of Stars
What are the observed properties of stars? This lecture is a quick
review of the basic observational properties of stars, introducing
luminosity, spectral classification, the luminosity-radius-tempe…
00:46:37 |
Mon 09 Nov 2009
Lecture 30: Goldilocks and the Three Planets
Why is the Earth habitable today but Venus and Mars not? This lecture
explores the question of planetary habitability from the perspective of
the stability of liquid water on the surface of planetar…
00:46:19 |
Thu 05 Nov 2009
Lecture 29: The Children of Saturn
Among the 61 known moons of Saturn, two stand out: Enceladus and Titan.
Giant Titan is the only moon in our Solar System with a substantial
atmosphere, composed of nitrogen and methane, dense enough …
00:46:10 |
Wed 04 Nov 2009
Lecture 28: The Galilean Moons of Jupiter
The four large Galilean Moons of Jupiter seem unlikely places to look
for life; at first glance they should be cold, dead, icy worlds.
Instead we find tremendous geological diversity, and two big sur…
00:44:57 |
Tue 03 Nov 2009
Lecture 27: Is There Life on Mars?
Is there life on Mars? We begin with a brief historical survey of the
idea of inhabitable Mars, from Herschel to Lowell, and look at how the
idea of Mars and Martians is deeply embedded in the pop…
00:47:04 |
Mon 02 Nov 2009
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