Exploring The High Energy Universe

Science@ESA Vodcast (Episode 5, Part 1): The Untamed, Violent Universe - Exploring The High Energy Universe.



The Science@ESA vodcasts explore the extraordinary Universe in which we live as it is seen through the "eyes" of ESA's fleet of science spacecraft.

In this fifth episode of the Science@ESA vodcast series Rebecca Barnes will give us a glimpse of the hot, energetic and often violent

Universe revealed through X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, look at ESA missions that detect this hidden light and find out how the science that these missions perform is meticulously planned.

• http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Integral/...


What is a gamma-ray? And how does an X-ray in space work?

X-rays and gamma-rays are like the light we can see with our eyes and the radio waves we can detect with radio and TV sets. The only difference is how fast they vibrate.

Radio waves vibrate the most slowly, then microwaves and infra-red (heat) waves, then the colors red to violet, then ultra-violet radiation (which causes sun-burn among other things) then X-rays, and finally (vibrating the most quickly) gamma-rays.

ESA's INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) is detecting some of the most energetic radiation that comes from space. It is the most sensitive gamma-ray observatory ever launched. INTEGRAL is an ESA mission in cooperation with Russia and the United States.

• http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area...

Life Beyond Earth - Origin And Evolution Of Life In The Universe

Life Beyond Earth: Origin And Evolution Of Life In The Universe - Best Of Carl Sagan's Cosmos.



BEST OF CARL SAGAN'S "COSMOS":
http://www.youtube.com/user/Best0fSci...

1) 10 Years After: Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Reflect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leTNfw...
2) Lost Between Immensity And Eternity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIVsDg...
3) The Realm Of The Galaxies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1axoV6...
4) Our Galaxy, The Milky Way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOazBT...
5) Our Solar System:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBqjob...
6) Eratosthenes And The Round Earth Model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en5UKt...
7) The Library Of Alexandria:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVQs4B...
8) A Short History Of The Universe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n2r0q...
9) Artificial And Natural Selection:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3uToV...
10) The Cosmic Year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFqbm_...
11) Tree Of Life - 4 Billion Years Of Evolution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF0UEC...
12) The Miracle Of Life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOyojW...
13) DNA - The Common Basis Of Life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecmuvj...
14) Abiogenesis - The Origin Of Life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yet1xk...
15) Astronomy vs Astrology:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaQS9...
16) Pictures In The Sky:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwCAwc...
17) Ancient Astronomy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-5dwJ...
18) Triumph Of Modern Science Over Medieval Superstition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lfmRq...
19) The Mysterious Tunguska Event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irVof7...
20) Life Beyond Earth - Origin Of Life In The Universe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7ivTd...

Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, astrochemist, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage", which has been seen by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries, making it the most widely watched PBS program in history.

A book to accompany the program was also published. He also wrote the novel "Contact", the basis for the 1997 Robert Zemecki's film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.

During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he frequently advocated skeptical inquiry, secular humanism, and the scientific method.

• http://www.carlsagan.com

Carl Sagan - Cosmos- Stars - We Are Their Children

VISTA - The World's Most Powerful Survey Telescope

ESOcast 12: VISTA - A Pioneering New Survey Telescope Starts Work.

VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) is a new telescope that has just started work at ESOs Paranal Observatory in Chile and has made its first release of pictures.

VISTA is a survey telescope working at infrared wavelengths and is the worlds largest survey telescope. Its large mirror, wide field of view and very sensitive detectors will reveal a completely new view of the southern sky.

Spectacular pictures of the Flame Nebula, the Centre of the Milky Way and the Fornax Galaxy Cluster show that it is working very well.



VISTA is the latest telescope to be added to ESOs Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It is housed on the peak adjacent to the one hosting the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) and shares the same exceptional observing conditions.

VISTA's main mirror is 4.1 metres across and is the most highly curved mirror of this size and quality ever made — its deviations from a perfect surface are less than a few thousandths of the thickness of a human hair — and its construction and polishing presented formidable challenges.

VISTA was conceived and developed by a consortium of 18 universities in the United Kingdom led by Queen Mary, University of London and became an in-kind contribution to ESO as part of the UK's accession agreement. The telescope design and construction were project-managed by the Science and Technology Facilities Council's UK Astronomy Technology Centre (STFC, UK ATC).

Provisional acceptance of VISTA was formally granted by ESO at a ceremony at ESO's Headquarters in Garching, Germany, attended by representatives of Queen Mary, University of London and STFC, on 10 December 2009 and the telescope will now be operated by ESO.

Read more: http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/pr...

ESOcast is produced by ESO, the European Southern Observatory. ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy designing, constructing and operating the worlds most advanced ground-based telescopes.

• http://www.eso.org/

Born In Beauty: New Planetary Systems In The Orion Nebula

Hubblecast 32: Born in Beauty - Proplyds in the Orion Nebula.

Visible to the naked eye, only 1500 light-years from Earth, the great Orion Nebula has been known and revered since ancient times.

A popular target of Hubble, researchers have now identified 42 new discs within it that could be the beginnings of new planetary systems like our own.



14-Dec-2009: A collection of 30 never-before-released images of embryonic planetary systems in the Orion Nebula are the highlight of the longest single Hubble Space Telescope project ever dedicated to the topic of star and planet formation.

Also known as proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, these modest blobs surrounding baby stars are shedding light on the mechanism behind planet formation. Only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with its high resolution and sensitivity, can take such detailed pictures of circumstellar discs at optical wavelengths.

Looking like a graceful watercolour painting, the Orion Nebula is one of the most photogenic objects in space and one of the Hubble Space Telescope's favourite targets. As newborn stars emerge from the nebula's mixture of gas and dust, protoplanetary discs, also known as proplyds, form around them: the centre of the spinning disc heats up and becomes a new star, but remnants around the outskirts of the disc attract other bits of dust and clump together.

Proplyds are thought to be young planetary systems in the making. In an ambitious survey of the familiar nebula using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), researchers have discovered 42 protoplanetary discs.

Visible to the naked eye, the Orion Nebula has been known since ancient times, but was first described in the early 17th century by the French astronomer Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc — who is given credit for discovering it. At 1500 light-years away, the nebula, also known as Messier 42, is the closest star-forming region to Earth with stars massive enough to heat up the surrounding gas, setting it ablaze with colour, and making the region stand out to stargazers.

Learn more: http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/ht...

--

Hubblecast features news and Images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

The space-based observatory is a collaboration between NASA and ESA. The observations are carried out in visible, infrared and ultraviolet light. In many ways Hubble has revolutionised modern astronomy.

The Hubble Space Telescope has made some of the most dramatic discoveries in the history of astronomy. From its vantage point 600 km above the Earth, Hubble can detect light with "eyes" five times sharper than the best ground-based telescopes and looks deep into space where some of the most profound mysteries are still buried in the mists of time.

Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre
Garching/Munich, Germany
• http://www.eso.org
• http://www.spacetelescope.org
• http://hubblesite.org

Dr. J is a German astronomer at the ESO. His scientific interests are in cosmology, particularly on galaxy evolution and quasars. Dr. J's real name is Joe Liske and he has a PhD in astronomy.

• http://www.eso.org/~jliske/

The Best Answer To The Deep Questions Of Existence

The Best Answer To The Deep Questions Of Existence. From the DVD "Break The Science Barrier" by Richard Dawkins.



Science is useful but that is not all it is. Science can be uplifting, thrilling, life-enhancing. Originally broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 in 1996, "Break the Science Barrier" follows the Oxford Biologist Richard Dawkins as he meets with people who have experienced the wonders of science first-hand.

We meet the astronomer who first discovered pulsars, the geneticist who invented DNA fingerprinting, a scientist who discovered a protein that causes cancer, and others. Richard Dawkins interviews famous admirers of science such as Douglas Adams and David Attenborough, and asks them why science means so much to them. We also see how dangerous ignorance of science can be in classrooms, courts, and beyond.

With so many expressing paranormal beliefs and ignorance of science, Dawkins encourages viewers to contrast these ancient superstitions with the power and beauty of our scientific achievements and understanding.

Richard Dawkins is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science author. He was formerly Professor for Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He was voted Britain's leading public intellectual by readers of Prospect magazine and was named one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People" for 2007.

Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene", which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term "meme". He is a prominent critic of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book "The Blind Watchmaker", he argued against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he described evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics.

Dawkins is an atheist, secular humanist, sceptic, scientific rationalist, and supporter of the Brights movement. In his 2006 book "The God Delusion", he contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that faith qualifies as a delusion − as a fixed false belief.

'A Universe From Nothing' by Lawrence Krauss, AAI 2009

Lawrence Krauss gives a talk on our current picture of the universe, how it will end, and how it could have come from nothing. Krauss is the author of many bestselling books on Physics and Cosmology, including "The Physics of Star Trek."



Download Quicktime version
Small: http://c0116791.cdn.cloudfiles.racksp...
720p HD: http://c0116791.cdn.cloudfiles.racksp...

Filmed & Edited by
JOSH TIMONEN

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science
http://richarddawkinsfoundation.org

Atheist Alliance International
http://atheistalliance.org

The Future Of Mankind

Carl Sagan Reflects: 10 Years After COSMOS - Achievements And Future Of Mankind.




Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, astrochemist, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage", which has been seen by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries, making it the most widely watched PBS program in history.

A book to accompany the program was also published. He also wrote the novel "Contact", the basis for the 1997 Robert Zemecki's film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.

During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he frequently advocated skeptical inquiry, secular humanism, and the scientific method.

http://www.carlsagan.com

Vatican Ponders Alien Life

VATICAN CITY — E.T. phone Rome.

Four centuries ago, the Vatican locked up Galileo for espousing his crazy idea that the planets revolved around the sun, not around Earth. Now Rome is ready to ponder the implications of alien life.

"The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory.

Last year Funes said believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God because aliens would be God's creatures and ruling them out as a possibility would be akin to putting limits on God's creative freedom.

Read more

Meteorite Crash In Canada Filmed By Police Cam And From ISS [HQ]

Meteor Crash In Alberta/Canada, Filmed By Police Cam And From International Space Station (ISS).

Until 1:00 it's accurate (real meteorite crash Nov. 20, 2008), the rest is computer animation (no pictures from ISS!), but similar collisions happened many times in the history of our planet.

Atheism: The Stars Are On Our Side

A Message to Creationists

From The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Book 1, Chapter 19.

Ancient Superstitions

Fine-Tuning: Evidence For God's Existence? - Richard Dawkins @ American Atheist Conference (5)

The Fine-Tuning Argument And The Cosmic Anthropic Principle: Evidence For God's Existence? - Richard Dawkins @ American Atheist (AA) Conference 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia (Part 5)



Filmed and edited by Josh Timonen.