Lecture 13: Energy Generation and Transport i...

How do stars form? The Sun is old and in Hydrostatic and Thermal equilibrium. How did it get that way? This lecture presents the basic steps of star formation as a progress from cold interstellar Giant Molecular Clouds to Protostars in Hydrostatic Equilibrium, and then Pre-Main S ...  Show more

What are the properties of stars on the Main Sequence? This lecture discusses what happens to a star after it alights onto the Main Sequence, burning H to He in its core, and maintaining a state of Hydrostatic and Thermal Equilibrium. We will see how the mass of a star determines ...  Show more

A new podcast, Astronomy 141, Life in the Universe, is available for those interested in continuing an exploration of topics in modern astronomy. 

What is Astronomy? What is Science? What is the course all about? Brief introductory remarks after going over course mechanics on the first day of Astronomy 161 for Autumn Quarter 2007. Recorded 2007 Sep 19 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University ...  Show more

Are we alone in the Universe? This lecture explores the question of how we might go about finding life on planets around other stars. Rather than talking about speculative ideas, like the Drake Equation or SETI, I am instead taking the approach of posing it as a problem of what t ...  Show more

Get ready to explore a 10 billion year old mystery! A closely bound duo of energetic quasars, the hallmark of a pair of merging galaxies, have been discovered when the Universe was only 3 billion years old. What secrets do these quasars hold and why have they lasted so long? Join ...  Show more