Astronomy 141 - Life in the Universe Podcast
1) 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 ...Show More
2) 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 observat...Show More
3) 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 sta...Show More
4) 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 learne...Show More
5) 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. Th...Show More
6) 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 requir...Show More
7) 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 ...Show More
8) 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 intr...Show More
9) 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 lear...Show More
10) 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 th...Show More