TED Talks
Beyond the Stars: Embracing Curiosity and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb believes we are likely not alone in the universe. He criticizes the approach of simply waiting for contact through radio signals, suggesting instead that we should actively search for evidence of other life. He...
SciShow
We Don’t Know What the Sun Is Made Of
Unlike Earth, our Sun is a giant ball of mostly hydrogen and helium. Astronomers managed to figure that one out roughly 100 years ago. But after all this time, they still can't come to an agreement on what "mostly" means, precisely.
SciShow
Why We'll Never Build a Perfect Clock
We can make clocks that keep accurate time for millions of years. We can also make clocks with such high resolution they tick one billion billion times per second. So why can't we make a clock that does both?
SciShow
The Rarest Objects in The Solar System Are from...Elsewhere...
In 2017, astronomers discovered 'Oumuamua — the first definitive interstellar visitor to our solar system. But definitive evidence of space rocks that don't just visit but join our solar system is a little more elusive.
SciShow
The Universe’s Second, Bigger Bang
In 2023, a team of researchers proposed that our universe experienced not one, but TWO Big Bangs about a month apart from one another. The first for the stuff described by our Standard Model of Particle Physics. And the second for that...
SciShow
Our Galaxy May Be 10 Times Bigger Than We Thought
The Milky Way is often described as measuring 100,000 light years across and containing the mass of a trillion Suns. But our home galaxy is actually far bigger, and might be much less massive. Astronomers aren't sure what the exact stats...
SciShow
Were Humans Destined to Exist?
This is a snippet of a larger conversation taking place on Crash Course Pods: The Universe. Over 11 episodes, John Green and Katie Mack walk through the entire history of the universe…even the parts that aren’t written yet.
SciShow
Can an Equation Really Tell Us How Many Aliens Exist?
In 1961, the astronomer Frank Drake wrote down what is now known as the Drake Equation. It's so important to the culture surrounding the search for extraterrestrial life that scientists have carved it into the upcoming Europa Clipper...
MinutePhysics
How Do We Know The Universe Is Accelerating?
The universe is expanding – this we know from looking at red shifts of distant galaxies – but the acceleration of the universe's expansion is harder to measure. It requires measuring the change of recession velocity over time, and it's...
SciShow
Plasma, The Most Common Phase of Matter in the Universe
Get to know plasma, the most common, but probably least understood, phase of matter in the universe!
SciShow
Is JWST Living Up to the Hype?
The James Webb Space Telescope is the most ambitious space observatory ever launched, and nobody hyped it more than us. So is it putting in work? Oh, boy, yes. Yes it is.
SciShow
What Color Was the Big Bang?
If you could survive a trip to the very first moments of reality as we know it, what color would you see?
SciShow
This Light is a Different Kind of Invisible
Dark matter's most famous trait is its inability to interact with light, the particle version of which we call "photons". But in their attempts to figure out exactly what dark matter is, some scientists have proposed "dark photons".
SciShow
The Biggest and Brightest Space News of 2023
It's that time of year where we reflect on the events of 2023 - and if you're like us, you're thinking about all the coolest space-y finds of the year. So here's the brightest, faintest, and most magnetic stuff we saw in space this year!
SciShow
Does Antimatter Fall?
In September 2023, a group of scientists from CERN published the first results from the ALPHA-g experiment, which seeks to figure out how antimatter responds to the force of gravity. Does it fall like regular matter? Does it not interact...
PBS
New book details U.S. government’s UFO investigations and search for alien life
Since the 1940s, unidentified flying objects have been a part of our nation’s cultural phenomena. But for the U.S. government, UFOs have been a mystery and something the military has been investigating for decades. Amna Nawaz discussed...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Something weird is happening in our galaxy | Ashkbiz Danehkar
In 2010, NASA announced the discovery of a never-before-seen galactic object: two gigantic gaseous bubbles, each emanating an impressive 25,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way. Astronomers were perplexed: what created these...
SciShow
Goodbye SOFIA, Thanks for All the Discoveries
SOFIA or The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy is coming to an end, but let's look back on some of the amazing discoveries of this flying telescope.
SciShow
How to Make a Dark Matter Planet
Dark Matter is the most abundant form of matter in the known universe, so what's keeping it from forming into planets?
SciShow
A Big Bang Beginner’s Guide | Compilation
While there's still a lot that astrophysicists don't know about the Big Bang, there are some things we do know. So today, let's get caught up on the Big Bang basics.
SciShow
The Mystery of the Star That Wasn't There
In the 1970s, astronomers discovered a mysterious source of gamma rays that, 50 years later, still hasn’t revealed all of its secrets.
SciShow
Are Space Sounds Lies?
If a tree falls in space, and it's frequency is modulated by multiple octaves and digitized, does it make a sound?
SciShow
This Year in Space News (That Isn't JWST)
If you’ve been distracted looking at the amazing photos The James Webb Space Telescope has taken, not to worry. Here are three other stellar stories from the last year of space science!
SciShow
Space Superlatives of 2022
As we wrap up 2022, we'd like to celebrate a few of the cosmic “winners” discovered this year, at least while they still hold their titles.