Lecture 24: Matter and Light

Why does each element have its own unique spectral signature? how doe emission lines and absorption lines arise? This lecture is the second part of a two-part exploration of matter and light, looking at how the unique spectral-line signatures of atoms are a reflection of their in ...  Show more

Telescopes outfitted with modern electronic cameras and spectrographs are astronomers' primary tools for exploring the Universe. In this lecture I review the primary types of telescopes and the best observatory sites to locate them, with a brief mention of radio and space telesco ...  Show more

Welcome to the Astronomy 161 Lecture Podcasts. This is a brief message from me explaining the podcasts, and welcoming new and old listeners. University. Lectures will begin on Wednesday, 2006 Sept 20, and run through Friday, 2006 December 1. New lectures will appear shortly befor ...  Show more

How can we search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and what are we looking for? This second part of a 2-part lecture picks up where we left off yesterday by examining SETI, the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, and reviews what we might look for and how. We will use thi ...  Show more

Before we can begin our exploration of astronomy, we 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. We will first re-introduce the basic metric system, explaining how t ...  Show more