Lecture 41: Planetary Rings

Asteroids are the leftover rocky materials from the formation of the Solar System that reside primarily in a broad belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This lecture reviews the physical and orbital properties of Asteroids, and discusses the role of Jupiter and orbital res ...  Show more

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 regi ...  Show more

There was a time when science and religion worked in harmony, as two parts of a celestial design. Astrologer and philosopher Johannes Kepler oversaw this marriage of theory and belief when he proposed the revolutionary laws of planetary motion in the early 17th century. Amidst pe ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the flow of particles from the outer region of the Sun which we observe in the Northern and Southern Lights, interacting with Earth's magnetosphere, and in comet tails that stream away from the Sun regardless of their own direction. One way of defi ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the pioneering Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601) whose charts offered an unprecedented level of accuracy.In 1572 Brahe's observations of a new star challenged the idea, inherited from Aristotle, that the heavens were unchanging. He went o ...  Show more

The sun is out, the weather is warm, and summer school is in session! Neil deGrasse Tyson, co-host Matt Kirshen, and astrophysicist Charles Liu answer fan-submitted questions on mathematics, the Big Bang, the laws of physics, neutrinos, relativity, Pluto, the smell of the Milk ...