Astronomy (Audio)

NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft, launched in June of 2012, uses technology developed in part by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to take pictures of the sky in the most energetic X-rays ever to be focused. Bill Craig and Michael Pivovaroff talk about the innovative technology at the heart of NuSTAR and discuss some of the exciting science results from the first few months of NuSTAR's mission. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 25748]

Charles Kennel, Former Scripps Institution of Oceanography director and chair of the National Academy's Space Science Board, reviews what NASA's space program has accomplished, what it is doing now, and what the future holds for human space exploration. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Science] [Show ID: 25202]

After traveling through the inner solar system for seven years, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft reached Mercury in March 2011 and became the first ever mission to orbit this mysterious planet. Since then MESSENGER has been making measurements with its suite of scientific instruments including gamma-ray, neutron and x-ray spectrometers, magnetometer, laser altimeter, cameras and other instruments. Join Morgan Burks, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to explore the mysteries surrounding Mercury's formation and composition and the instruments that need to work at cryogenic temperatures in one of the hottest places in the solar system. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 24905]

The study of the origin, evolution and make-up of the universe has made dramatic and surprising advances over the last decades John E. Carlstrom, Professor at the University of Chicago and the deputy director of the UCSB Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, describes new measurements being carried out with the 10-m South Pole Telescope to test the inflation theory of the origin of the Universe and to investigate the nature of dark energy. Series: "Scientific Horizons" [Science] [Show ID: 24126]

"Eye on the Sky", Integrating Science and Language Arts: Introduce your students to astronomy in the K4 classroom with this easy-to-use curriculum focusing on the Sun/Earth/Moon system. This curriculum contains engaging inquiry-based and hands-on science activities developed specifically for learners in the primary grades. See "Eye on the Sky" in action in this five-minute video. Series: "CSE at SSL Education Videos" [Science] [Education] [Show ID: 23393]

E. Margaret Burbidge is considered to be one of the most renowned observational astronomers and astrophysicists of our time. She has been a co-investigator on the team to build the Faint Object Spectrograph for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Her earliest research work concerned chemical abundance in stars of various types and culminated in the now classic work Synthesis of the Elements in Stars by Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle (1957). The authors concluded that all the chemical elements were produced in stars. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 23343]

E. Margaret Burbidge is a renowned observational astronomer and astrophysicist. She was a co-investigator on the team to build the Faint Object Spectrograph for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Her earliest research work concerned chemical abundance in stars of various types and culminated in the now classic work Synthesis of the Elements in Stars by Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle (1957). The authors concluded that all the chemical elements were produced in stars. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 23342]