How do astronomers measure distance?

In the 1700s, fossil finds along the Ohio and Hudson Rivers indicated that North America was home to mysterious beasts. Learn how mastodon bones proved both that extinction is real and that America isn't full of degenerates in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: ht ...  Show more

The craving for and practice of eating earth is more widespread than you might think. Learn why researchers think people engage in this form of pica (i.e., geophagy) in today's classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditio ...  Show more

Daniel talks about how astronomers can measure or deduce the mass of a star, and why it controls its fate.

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Astronomy Cast Ep. 717: Understanding the Ages of Distant Cosmic Objects by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Streamed live on Apr 22, 2024. How old is that star? That planet? That nebula? Figuring out the ages of astronomical objects is surprisingly challenging. Fortunately, astronom ...  Show more

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

We love to look at stars. But have you ever wondered just how big stars are? Listen to this fascinating chat with Dr. Gerard van Belle, Chief Scientist for the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer at Lowell Observatory and he is going to tell us about the cool technology they us ...  Show more