Short Videos For Use with Each Chapter of OpenStax Astronomy - A List by Andrew Fraknoi (Foothill College)
Short Videos
For Use with Each Chapter of OpenStax Astronomy
A List by Andrew Fraknoi (Foothill College)
Note: This list includes the short (15 minutes or less) videos recommended in the textbook, plus a few others that became available recently or have been suggested by adopters. Recommend others that you have found particularly useful for Astro 101 to: fraknoi@fhda.edu
Chapter 1: Science and the Universe
Cartoon explaining how scientific notation works and why it’s useful: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/muen-math-ee-scientificnotation/scientific-notation/
Wanderers (a tour of the solar system with words by Carl Sagan, imagining other worlds with dramatically realistic paintings, 4 min): http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141208.html
Powers of Ten (from Cosmic Voyage, narrated by Morgan Freeman, 8 min 35 sec): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxXf7AJZ73A
Powers of Ten (a much earlier version, narrated by Philip Morrison; a classic short video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0
The Known Universe (video tour from the American Museum of Natural History: with realistic animation, music, and captions; 6 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U
Chapter 2: Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy
In 1971, Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott took a hammer and feather to the Moon and dropped them in a vacuum. NASA video at: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111101.html
Difference between geocentrism and heliocentrism (short animation showing planet orbits in each model): http://www.malinc.se/math/trigonometry/geocentrismen.php
Excerpt on Erathosthenes and his measurement of the Earth from the Cosmos TV series with Carl Sagan (6 min): https://vimeo.com/78787366 (also see the 3-min cartoon at: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-greek-eratosthenes-calculated-earth-circumference-2016-6 )
The story of Copernicus (5 min) from a series on the History Channel: http://www.history.com/topics/nicolaus-copernicus/videos/beyond-the-big-bang-copernicus
Mini-biography of Galileo (3 min) with pictures and interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J0-ZbbrD6U
The story of Galileo: his life and work from The Universe series (7 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QUegBP3qwg
Derren Brown on Astrology (8-min excerpt from a British TV show in which magician and skeptic Brown cleverly exposes pseudo-science): http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1uf8bh_derren-brown-astrology_shortfilms (also available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haP7Ys9ocTk )
Chapter 3: Orbits and Gravity
Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Planetary Motion (15 min German video, in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3ALuycrCwI
Isaac Newton rap battles Bill Nye (3 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yis7GzlXNM
Beyond the Big Bang: Sir Isaac Newton's Law of Gravity (History Channel; 5 min): http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment/videos/beyond-the-big-bang-sir-isaac-newtons-law-of-gravity
Richard Feynman on the Discovery of Neptune (5 min b&w Caltech lecture): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgXQffVgZRs
Chapter 4: Earth, Moon, and Sky
Bill Nye, the Science Guy Explains the Seasons (for kids, but college students can enjoy the bad jokes too): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUU7IyfR34o
Exploratorium Videos on Observing Eclipses Safely: http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/how-to-view-eclipse
Geography Lesson on the Arrangement and History of Time Zones (3 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j-SWKtWEcU
Shadow of the Moon (2 min, NASA Goddard; explains eclipses of the Sun, with discussion and animation, focusing on a 2015 eclipse, and showing what an eclipse looks like from space): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNcfKUJwnjM
Strangest Time Zones in the World: A History of Time Zones and Examples of Places that Keep Their Own Time (9 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW6QqcmCfm8
Understanding Lunar Eclipses (2 min, NASA Goddard; explains the reason why there isn’t an eclipse every month with good animation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNi5UFpales
Animated Maps of the 2017 Total Eclipse of the Sun in the U.S.: http://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/ (go to the maps menu to see how the dark shadow of the Moon will move through those states where the eclipse is total)
NASA Visualization Studio Videos with U.S. Map for 2017 Eclipse: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=4314
Chapter 5: Radiation and Spectra
NASA’s 5-minute introductory video on the electromagnetic spectrum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfXzwh3KadE
Short video on how a prism bends light to make a rainbow of colors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGqsi_LDUn0
ESA video with Doppler ball demonstration and Doppler effect and satellites (5 min): http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2014/07/Doppler_effect_-_classroom_demonstration_video_VP05
NASA Mission Science Video Tour of the Bands of the Electromagnetic Spectrum (8 short videos): http://missionscience.nasa.gov/ems/emsVideo_01intro.html
Chapter 6: Astronomical Instruments
National Geographic Video on the ALMA radio telescope array (1 min): http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/101411-alma-telescope-ngtoday
NASA Video (11 min) on the SOFIA Infrared Airborne Observatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5z6fZKOtP4
Seeing Beyond: The James Webb Space Telescope (14-min introductory video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=073GwPbyFxE
Galaxies Viewed in Full Spectrum of Light -- Scientists with the Spitzer Observatory show how a galaxy looks different at different wavelengths (6:22): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=368K0iQv8nE
Keck Telescope (4 min intro from History Channel’s Modern Marvels): http://www.history.com/shows/modern-marvels/videos/keck-observatory
Chapter 7: Introduction to the Solar System
Shane Gellert’s “I Need Some Space” uses NASA photography and models to show the various worlds with which we share our system: https://vimeo.com/78449289.
In the “Wanderers” video, we see some of the planets and moons as tourist destinations for future explorers, with commentary taken from recordings by Carl Sagan: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141208.html
Brief PBS Evolution series excerpt explaining how we use radioactive elements to date the Earth: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/tdc02.sci.phys.matter.radiodating/radiometric-dating/
Science Channel video with Bill Nye the Science Guy showing how scientists have used radioactive dating to find the age of the Earth: http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/greatest-discoveries/videos/100-greatest-discoveries-radiometric-dating/
Origins of the Solar System (13-min video from Nova ScienceNow, focusing on the evidence from meteorites, narrated by Neil Tyson): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/origins-solar-system.html
To Scale: Constructing a scale model of the solar system in the Nevada desert (7 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=84&v=zR3Igc3Rhfg
Chapter 8: Earth as a Planet
Animation of how the drift of the continents has changed the appearance of our planet’s crust: http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/outreach/animations/drift.html
NASA’s scientific visualization studio has a view of what would have happened to Earth's ozone layer by 2065 if CFCs had not been regulated: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003500/a003586/index.html
In a short excerpt from the National Geographic documentary Earth: The Biography, Dr. Iain Stewart explains the fluid nature of our atmosphere: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/videos/origins-of-the-atmosphere/
Short PBS video on the physics of the greenhouse effect: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.matter.greenhouse2/global-warming-the-physics-of-the-greenhouse-effect/
Real Time Globe of Earth showing wind patterns which can be zoomed and moved to your preferred view: http://earth.nullschool.net/
Earth Globes Movies (including Earth at night): http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/projects/earth/
What Does It Feel Like to Fly Over Earth (1 min video by James Drake stitched together from astronaut photography): http://www.openculture.com/2011/09/what_it_feels_like_to_fly_over_planet_earth.html
Flying over the Earth at Night: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120305.html
Meteor Hits Russia Feb. 15, 2013 – Archive of Eyewitness Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpmXyJrs7iU
Chapter 9: The Moon and Mercury
Short video produced by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team about the evolution of the Moon, tracing it from its origin about 4.5 billion years ago to the Moon we see today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIRPeYGKfic
Rotating globe of Mercury, in false color, showing some of the variations in the composition of the planet’s surface: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/movies/MESSENGER_falsecolor_Mercury_globe_spin_big.mov
Tour of the Moon (2012, NASA Goddard, using LRO images, narrated, 5 min, nicely done): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iSZMv64wuU
Brief video from the Universe series on the History Channel showing the giant impact origin of the Moon: http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe/videos/creation-of-the-moon
Chapter 10: Mars and Venus
Magellan Maps Venus (BBC clip with Dr. Ellen Stofan on the radar images of Venus and what they tell us; 3:06): http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/space_missions/magellan_probe#p005y07s
Planet Venus: The Deadliest Planet (Venus surface and atmosphere summary; 2:04): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqFVxWfVtoo
Curiosity rover’s complex landing sequence:“7 Minutes of Terror” (NASA video) http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1090
50 Years of Mars Exploration (NASA’s summary of all missions through MAVEN; good quick overview; 4:08): http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1395
Our Curiosity (Mars Curiosityrover 2-year anniversary video narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Felicia Day; 6:01) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XczKXWvokm4
Four-minute video tour of Valles Marineris, narrated by planetary scientist Phil Christensen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUbQM47QXwQ
Chapter 11: The Giant Planets
Voyager: The Grand Tour: Jet Propulsion Laboratory video that describes the Voyager mission and what it found (15 min): http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1215
Beautiful short (1 min) video showing the rotation of Jupiter with its many atmospheric features, made from Hubble Space Telescope photos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QND_NtNFAvI
Brief NASA video about the magnetosphere of Jupiter and why we continue to be interested in it (2 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0tqmrZn6kY
Quick NASA video of the hexagon in Saturn’s polar region, with exaggerated color, at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17652
Jupiter, the Largest Planet: Produced by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Science on a Sphere. (7:29): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s56pxa9lpvo.
Cassini: 15 Years of Exploration: Quick visual summary of mission highlights (2:29): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z8fzz_MBAw
Voyager 2 at Neptune: "Voyager's Last Encounter" 1989 NASA JPL video (3.5 minutes) with results and quotes by mission scientists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COI5LBpvDyU
Chapter 12: Rings, Moons, and Pluto
A short film with planetary scientist Kevin Hand explains why Europa is so interesting for future exploration (4 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz9VhCQbPAk#t=75
360 Degrees of Io: A brief movie showing a rotating Io with its dramatic surface features (25 sec): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhwYkXOE3TI
Titan Approach Movie: film from the images taken by Cassini and Huygens (3 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMxL3ZhO8A8
Flyover of Titan’s Northern Lakes district (from Cassini images; 2 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrGPtCdItBw
A very brief movie showing the two shepherd moons on either side of Saturn’s F ring: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07712
Amazing Moons (2016, 5-min NASA video on intriguing moons in our solar system): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQjZf2bW9XQ
Briny Breath of Enceladus (2009 brief JPL film on the geysers of Enceladus; 2.5 min): http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=846
Dr. Carolyn Porco’s TED Talk on Enceladus (3 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRQdHrGuVgI
Titan (8 min video from Open University, with interviews, animations, images): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTrOFefYxFg
Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart (2016 dramatic New York Times production, narrated by Dennis Overbye, 7 min.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIxQXGTl_mo
Charon brief flyover video: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=326
Chaotic rotation of Pluto’s moons (amination, 1 min): http://www.seti.org/sites/default/files/dps-slides-showalter1.mp4
Pluto Flyover Movie (NASA, 1 min 35 sec, along that big strip, labels but no sound, very effective): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEdvyrKokX4
Pluto approach and close up movie (July 2016): http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20160714-2
Chapter 13: Comets and Asteroids
Animated video showing the orbits of 100,000 asteroids found by one sky survey (3 min): https://vimeo.com/87092212
Dawn mission animated “flyover” of Vesta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZpRc-MicHY
Dawn mission animated “flyover” of Ceres: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-hYSBghEn0
Video compilation of the Chelyabinsk meteor streaking through the sky over the city on February 15, 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpmXyJrs7iU
Why Are We Seeing So Many Sungrazing Comets? (brief NASA video): http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/soho/solar-observatory-greatest-comet-hunter-of-all-time
Rosetta’s Moment in the Sun: Close-up images of a comet generating plumes of gas and dust as it nears the Sun; discusses dangers an active comet poses for the spacecraft (3 min): http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2015/08/Rosetta_s_moment_in_the_Sun
60 Minutes TV segment on Asteroid Impacts (Cosmic Roulette; 2013; 13 min): http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-dangerous-game-of-cosmic-roulette/
Collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter (short discussion and animation from the TV documentary series Universe): http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe/videos/shoemaker-levy-impact
Chapter 14: Meteors, Meteorites and the Origin of the Solar System
How to Observe Meteor Showers (California Academy of Sciences’ friendly, animated, short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBF4wFhw2Kg
ALMA’s ground-breaking observations of HL Tau and what they reveal about plant formation (European Southern Observatory videocast): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=528BOGuuzik
Meteorites and Meteor-wrongs (7 min video with Dr. Randy Korotev of Washington U. in St. Louis): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQO335Y3zXo
Top Tips for Watching Meteor Showers (3 min; from the At-Bristol Science Center): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNmgvlwInCA
Origins of the Solar System (13-min video from Nova ScienceNow narrated by Neil Tyson): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/origins-solar-system.html
Kepler Orrery with stars with multiple planets: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151205.html
Chapter 15: The Sun’s Structure, Solar Activity, and Space Weather
The “boiling” action of granulation: 30-second time-lapse video from the Swedish Institute for Solar Physics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_Scoj4HqCQ
NASA video explaining and demonstrating the nature of the aurora and their relationship to Earth’s magnetic field: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaSFAbATPvk
Overview and introduction to the Sun by science reporter Dennis Overbye of the NY Times (3 min): http://www.nytimes.com/video/science/100000003489464/out-there-raining-fire.html?emc=eta1
What Happens on the Sun Doesn’t Stay on the Sun (from the Nat’l Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; 5-min. introduction to the Sun, space weather, its effects, and how we monitor it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg_gD2-ujCk
Sun Storms (a 5-min video from the Starry Night company about storms from the Sun now and in the past): http://www.livescience.com/11754-sun-storms-havoc-electronic-world.html
Journey into the Sun (2010 KQED Quest TV Program, 12 min, mostly about the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft, its launch and capabilities, but with good general information on how the Sun works): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqKFQ7z0Nuk
Space Weather Impacts Videos from the National Weather Service and NOAA (four short videos): http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/education-and-outreach -- also on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBdd8cMH5jFmvVR2sZubIUzBO6JI0Pvx0
NASA Goddard video of 3 years of observations of the Sun by the Solar Dynamics Observatory made into a speeded up movie, with commentary by solar physicist Alex Young; 5 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaCG0wAjJSY&src
Sunspot Group AR 2339 Crosses the Sun is a short video (with music) animates Solar Dynamics Observatory images of an especially large sunspot group going across the Sun’s face (1 min 14 sec): http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150629.html
Space Weather: Storms on the Sun: (7-minute science bulletin from the American Museum of Natural History, giving the background to what happens on the Sun to cause space weather): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWsmp4o-qVg
Chapter 16: The Sun: A Nuclear Powerhouse
Neutrinos: Nature’s Identity Thieves (6-min Fermilab Video with Don Lincoln; with story of Raymond Davis’ experiment): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGv-pcKRf6Q
How Does Fusion Power the Sun (2-min Science channel video with Michelle Thaller and Lawrence Krauss): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ZQ4JBv3-Y
Chapter 17: Analyzing Starlight (Brightness, Color, and Spectra)
The Effect of Proper Motion on the Appearance of the Big Dipper over 200,000 years (9 sec): http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Movies/proper.html
Understanding the Magnitude System for Stars (5-min video with Robert Fuller): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P8Veb_AlJ0
WISE Mission Shows Local Brown Dwarfs are Rarer than We Thought (1.3-min report from JPL narrated by Davy Kirkpatrick): http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1089
Chapter 18: The Stars (Mass, Diameter, and the H-R Diagram)
Let’s Talk About Size (3-min animation comparing the sizes of planets and stars, showing some of the extremes of star diameters): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q
The Nearest Stars (a 2-min excerpt from TV’s The Big Bang Theory, where Sheldon goes down the apartment-building stairs while reciting the closest stars in order): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg3noqtm0L0
Chapter 19: Celestial Distances
Introduction to the Gaia Mission (19 min, Cambridge University; describes the Gaia mission and what scientists hope to learn): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGri4YNggoc
Hipparcos: Route Map to the Stars (15 min ESA video; describes the mission to measure parallax and its results): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d8a75fs7KI
How Big is the Universe (a 6-minute video with astronomer Pete Edwards from the British Institute of Physics; with a step by step introduction to the concepts of distances): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_xZuopg4Sk
Measuring Large Distances Using Triangulation (on Earth and in astronomy; 3-min video which sets out the basic trigonometry; it’s not a visually dramatic video, but the narration in a nice British accent is helpful): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Saw1Eg2iZaI
Chapter 20: Between the Stars: Interstellar Matter
Cosmic Soccer Balls: Fullerenes, Buckyballs, or Buckminsterfullerenes (2-min video from JPL explains what they are and illustrates how they were discovered in space): http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=918
Space Station Live: Cosmic Ray Detector for ISS (7-min NASA video about the Calorimetric Electron Telescope mission, a cosmic ray detector at the International Space Station): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCiRuTkIkhw
Barnard 68: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8No6I0Uc3No (3-min video about this dark cloud and dark clouds in interstellar space in general)
Hubblecast 65: The Horsehead Nebula Seen in Infrared (6-min report on nebulae in general and about the Horsehead specifically, with ESO astronomer Joe Liske): http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/heic1307a/ (
The Horsehead Nebula in New Light (a 3-minute tour of the dark nebula in different wavelengths; no audio narration, just music, but explanatory material appears on the screen): http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2013/04/The_Horsehead_Nebula_in_new_light
Interstellar Reddening (4-min video demonstrating how reddening works, with Scott Miller of Penn State; a bit nerdy but useful): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2M80RAQB6k
Molecules in Space (Astronomer Anthony Remijan explains how ALMA is used to find molecules in the interstellar medium): https://public.nrao.edu/explorer/milkyway/TheMilkyWayExplorer_mobile.php?id=OX_007&map=OX_007
Chapter 21: Birth of Stars and Discovery of Exoplanets
A Star Is Born (2.5-min Discovery Channel video with astronomer Michelle Thaller): http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/other-shows/videos/how-the-universe-works-a-star-isborn/
Observations of HL Tau (The director of NRAO describes the high-resolution observations of the young star HL Tau; with nice artist’s animation of a protoplanetary disk): https://vimeo.com/110940294
Narrated tour of the Orion Nebula region (4 min Hubble video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoeKQeJuHvw
Animation of the stars in the Omega Centauri cluster as they rearrange according to luminosity and temperature, forming an H–R diagram: http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/heic1017b/
Kepler Mission Orrery with stars with multiple planets: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151205.html
Sara Seeger 2015 TED Talk on exoplanets and how to find out about them (16 min): https://www.ted.com/talks/sara_seager_the_search_for_planets_beyond_our_solar_system
ESOCast: 20 Years of Exploring Exoplanets (8 min, 2015 narrated video, explains different methods, but very ESO-centric): http://www.eso.org/public/videos/esocast79a/
Chapter 22: Stellar Evolution from Main Sequence to Red Giants (plus Star Clusters)
Evolution of Stars in a Dwarf Galaxy (1-min ESO animation traces how stars evolve with time on the H-R diagram): http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/heic1211a/
H–R diagram for globular cluster Omega Centauri (1.5 min ESA animation of how the stars on a Hubble image are plotted and related to stellar evolution): http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/heic1017b/
Three Short Hubblecast Videos from 2007-2008 on discoveries involving star clusters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGPRLxrYbYA
A Tour of Planetary Nebula NGC 5189 (5-min Hubblecast episode with Joe Liske, explaining planetary nebulae in general and one example in particular): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D2cwiZld0o
The Life Cycle of Stars (5-min summary of stellar evolution from the Institute of Physics in Great Britain, with astronomer Tim O’Brien): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM9CQDlQI0A
NASA Missions Take an Unparalleled Look into Superstar Eta Carinae (4-min NASA Goddard video about observations in 2014 and what we know about the pair of stars in this complicated system): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rJQi6oaZf0
Chapter 23: Death of Stars (White Dwarfs, Supernovae, Neutron Stars, Pulsars, Gamma-ray Bursts)
Supernova SN 2014J, a Type Ia supernova discovered in M82 with brief animations of the two mechanisms by which such a supernova could form (3 min; Chandra telescope): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtKG3-jh8Ao
Supernova 1987A ESO Zoom Movie (flying into the LMC and toward the remnant; 1 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T-FoEgcvXY
Supernova 1987A: Quick Time-lapse Movie of the ring around it lighting up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A#mediaviewer/File:SN1987a_debris_evolution_animation.gif
Dr. Scott Ransom, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, explains how millisecond pulsars come about, with some nice animation (1.5 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m112a76tjKQ
NASA video showing the location of the first 500 bursts found by the Swift satellite (1 min): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/swift-20110527.html
It All Ends with a Bang (HubbleCast program introducing Supernovae; with Dr. Joe Liske; 10 min): http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/hubblecast64a/
Shocking Secrets of the Crab Pulsar (A sequence of Hubble and Chandra Space Telescope images of the central regions of the Crab Nebula assembled into a very brief movie accompanied by animation showing how the pulsar affects its environment): http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2002/24.
American Museum of Natural History Science Bulletin: “Gamma-Ray Bursts: Flashes in the Sky” (6 min introduction focusing on the Swift satellite): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23EhcAP3O8Q
Brief Animation of What Causes a Long-Duration Gamma-ray Burst (1 min): http://news.psu.edu/video/296729/2013/11/27/overview-animation-gamma-ray-burst
Chapter 24: Black Holes and General Relativity (and Gravitational Waves)
Aboard NASA’s Vomit Comet (How NASA uses a “weightless” environment to help train astronauts; 8 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V9h42yspbo
Astronaut Karen Nyberg demonstrates to Sandra Bullock how aboard the ISS, she can propel herself with the force of a single human hair (2 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMK36dpHIkg
Death by Black Hole (Neil deGrasse Tyson, on stage, with only his hands, explains spaghettification in 6 min): http://www.openculture.com/2009/02/death_by_black_hole_and_its_kind_of_funny.html
Falling into a Black Hole & Spaghettification (5 min dramatic excerpt from a Discovery Channel video with L. Krauss, P. Plait, M. Kaku): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGn_w-3pjMc
Black Holes Explained Very Simply for a Family Audience (5-min video with Andrew Fraknoi, one of the senior authors of our textbook): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DX_cc-IjpY
Gravitational Waves:
Journey of a Gravitational Wave (Introduction from LIGO at Caltech; 2:55): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlDtXIBrAYE
LIGO’s First Detection of Gravitational Waves (Explanation and animations from PBS Digital Studio; 9:31): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-i_VKd6Wo
Two Black Holes Merge into One (Simulation from LIGO Caltech; 0:35): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_88S8DWbcU
What the Discovery of Gravitational Waves Means (TED Talk by Allan Adams; 10:58): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMVAgCPYYHY
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Chapter 25: The Milky Way Galaxy
Stars Orbiting the Central BH in Milky Way (Andrea Ghez data, 1996-2010, 11 sec animation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvuV3GdVaY4
Andrea Ghez 2009 TED talk on searching for supermassive BHs, particularly the one at the center of the Milky Way (16 min): https://www.ted.com/talks/andrea_ghez_the_hunt_for_a_supermassive_black_hole
Journey to the Galactic Center (A brief silent trip into the cluster of stars near the galactic center showing their motions around the center; 3 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36xZsgZ0oSo
Diner at the Center of the Galaxy (NASA ScienceCast of NuSTAR observations of flares from our Galaxy’s central black hole; 3 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP7ig8Gxftw
Crash of the Titans (2012 Hubblecast featuring Jay Anderson and Roeland van der Marel explaining how Andromeda will collide with the Milky Way in the distant future; 5 min): http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/hubblecast55a/
Spitzer Space Telescope Panorama of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Infrared (3 min): http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/video-audio/1444
Chapter 26: Galaxies
Edwin Hubble (Hubblecast Episode #89; 6 min): http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/hubblecast89a/
Galaxies: An Introduction (A compilation of several short European videos that first describe galaxies in general and then focus on galaxies in Hubble telescope images; 13 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYYgangrkZg
Hubble’s Revolution (brief Discovery Channel show excerpt about Hubble’s work and Hubble’s Law, with Lawrence Krauss; 3 min): http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/other-shows/videos/how-the-universe-works-hubbles-revolution/
How Many Galaxies Are There in the Universe (HubbleCast #96 from Oct. 2016 on recent counts of galaxies on deep fields; 6 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEbLT_U0XyY
Chapter 27: Active Galaxies, Quasars, and Supermassive Black Holes
Matter Accreting Around a Supermassive Black Hole (animation from Hubble; 30 sec): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM6J8muBjpY
Merging Galaxies Create Active Galactic Nuclei (NASA animation; 1.5 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TseB5fKQlHU
Tour of Black Hole Seeds in the Early Universe (news from Chandra Observatory; 3 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SKQRrg1mR8
Hubble and Black Holes (HubbleCast #43; with Dr. Joe Liske on how Hubble is used to measure the mass of supermassive black holes and their evolution; 9 min): http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/hubblecast43a/
2011 ESOCast (5 min) on the discovery of the most distant quasar: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1122a/
Chapter 28: Evolution and Distribution of Galaxies
A Flight through the Universe (from the Sloan Digital Survey; 2-min animation of moving through the galaxies it cataloged): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08LBltePDZw
How to Find a Galaxy (short NOVA excerpt on how Geller and Huchra mapped the location of many galaxies; 4 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAyZbpSW15U
Gravitational Lensing (clear explanation from Fermilab, with Dr. Don Lincoln; 7:14): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z71RtwoOas
Hubble Extreme Deep Field Pushes Back Frontiers of Time and Space (2012 video about surveying distant and early galaxies; 2:42): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu_VhzhlqGw
Looking Deeply into the Universe in 3-D (2015 ESOCast video #72, about using the VLT to explore galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field South; 5 min): https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1507a/
When Two Galaxies Collide (Computer simulation, which stops at various points and shows a Hubble image of just such a system in nature (1:37): http://www.openculture.com/2009/04/when_galaxies_collide.html
A Virtual Universe (Nature video on an MIT model of a section of universe evolving, with dark matter included: 4:11): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY0bKE10ZDM
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Chapter 29: The Big Bang
Video excerpt about the work of LeMaitre (6 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhLQ_b3bKdI
Three Degrees, a 26-min video from Bell Labs about Penzias and Wilson’s discovery of the cosmic background radiation, with interesting historical footage (while this is longer than our time limit for short videos, you can show excerpts): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flnp5t_MezU
Planck Maps the Dawn of Time (12 min EuroNews summary of the work of the Planck mission, featuring interviews with key scientists): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytLbP60zVgo
When Speed Matters (ESOCast #40: The Discovery of the Acceleration of the Expansion of the Universe; 7 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUkwWqF0nGM
The Acceleration of the Universe (Dr. Sean Carroll of Caltech explains the acceleration with cartoons in 2 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDihDaLS_pQ
Alan Guth Explains Inflation at the Beginning of Time (3-min video from World Science Festival): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEXDgpttmyc
Richard Dawkins Explains the Anthropic Principle (in its various versions; part of a 2009 lecture; 4 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CexcmggApr4
Chapter 30: Life in the Universe
The Fermi Paradox (Where are all the aliens? – two cartoon summaries of the problem and proposed solutions; 6 min each): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNhhvQGsMEc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fQkVqno-uI
Making Matter Come Alive (15-min 2011 TED talk by inorganic chemist Lee Cronin on the origin of life): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unNRCSj0igI
Hubble Detects a Water Plume on Europa (2 min, 2016 NASA News): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QJS9LcB66g
Geysers on Enceladus: Cold Faithful (3 min JPL/NASA video with Dr. Torrence Johnson on the Cassini discovery of water geysers coming from Saturn’s moon): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzVxqmYu90Y
Jill Tarter TED Talk (Feb 2009 talk on SETI; 21 min – a bit longer than our limit, but worth showing excerpts from): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EszGIvRdgTE
Breakthrough: Listen Initiative Launch Highlights (July 2015, Yuri Milner is donating $100 million over 10 years to ramp up several approaches to SETI; features Stephen Hawking, Frank Drake, and others; 5 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9pqgqhVrgk