TED Talks
Sean Carroll: Distant time and the hint of a multiverse
Cosmologist Sean Carroll attacks -- in an entertaining and thought-provoking tour through the nature of time and the universe -- a deceptively simple question: Why does time exist at all? The potential answers point to a surprising view...
TED Talks
Neil Turok: My wish: Find the next Einstein in Africa
Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, physicist Neil Turok speaks out for talented young Africans starved of opportunity: by unlocking and nurturing the continent's creative potential, we can create a change in Africa's future.
Crash Course
The Deep Future Crash Course Big History 10
Finally, after what seems like eons and eons, the end is nigh. We're talking not only about the end of Crash Course Big History, but also the end of everything. The end of humanity and the end of the universe.John and Hank Green will...
Be Smart
The Cosmic Afterglow
The lingerling radiation from the ancient universe still surrounds us to this day.
PBS
Black Holes from the Dawn of Time
Primordial black holes may be lurking throughout our universe. How large are they, how many are out there and what would happen if they moved through our solar system?
SciShow
Solar Flares and a Virtual Universe
SciShow Space takes you inside solar flares, and how we've managed to get the best look at one yet, along with news about a new, Web-based simulation of the earliest days of the universe that you can explore yourself!
PBS
Strange Stars
What happens when matter can't get any denser yet somehow does? The answer - it becomes strange. Strange Stars may be the most massive stellar remnant that is just shy of forming a black hole. And they could be even cooler than black holes.
SciShow
The End of Everything
Hank gives us an inclusive overview of how everything in the universe is thought to have begun, and how cosmologists predict it will all come to an end. Now get happy!
TED Talks
Risa Wechsler: The search for dark matter -- and what we've found so far
Roughly 85 percent of mass in the universe is "dark matter" -- mysterious material that can't be directly observed but has an immense influence on the cosmos. What exactly is this strange stuff, and what does it have to do with our...
SciShow
The Amazing Cosmic Discovery That Almost Was
SciShow Space News revisits one of the biggest (potential) astronomical discoveries of 2014, one that promised to revolutionize our understanding of the formation of the universe. Turns out, we're not quite there yet.
TED Talks
TED: The sound the universe makes | Janna Levin
We think of space as a silent place. But physicist Janna Levin says the universe has a soundtrack -- a sonic composition that records some of the most dramatic events in outer space. (Black holes, for instance, bang on spacetime like a...
Crash Course
A Brief History of the Universe
Thanks to the wonders of physics, astronomers can map a timeline of the universe’s history. Today, Phil’s going to give you an overview of those first few minutes (yes, MINUTES) of the universe’s life. It started with a Big Bang, when...
SciShow
What We (Don't) Know About Dark Matter
Scientists are still working on theories that might help explain what the vast majority of our universe is made of.
TED Talks
Patricia Burchat: Shedding light on dark matter
Physicist Patricia Burchat sheds light on two basic ingredients of our universe: dark matter and dark energy. Comprising 96% of the universe between them, they can't be directly measured, but their influence is immense.
SciShow
Our Expanding Universe | Compilation
The universe is expanding. But how much is it expanding? Is it doing expanding the same way everywhere? And can physics actually explain the expansion?
SciShow
Giant Stars Don’t Follow the Rules - SciShow News
Astronomers are learning just how big early stars might have been, and how their deaths have shaped the universe. Some may have even been so massive that they skipped the whole star phase and collapsed straight into black holes!
TED Talks
TED: What the discovery of gravitational waves means | Allan Adams
More than a billion years ago, two black holes in a distant galaxy locked into a spiral, falling inexorably toward each other, and collided. "All that energy was pumped into the fabric of time and space itself," says theoretical...
SciShow
Dark Energy Could Rip the Universe Apart - SciShow News
There are a few ideas about how the universe will end, but a paper published last week suggests that dark energy might eventually rip everything apart!
TED Talks
Wendy Freedman: This telescope might show us the beginning of the universe
When and how did the universe begin? A global group of astronomers wants to answer that question by peering as far back in time as a large new telescope will let us see. Wendy Freedman headed the creation of the Giant Magellan Telescope,...
TED Talks
Brian Cox: CERN's supercollider
"Rock-star physicist" Brian Cox talks about his work on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Discussing the biggest of big science in an engaging, accessible way, Cox brings us along on a tour of the massive project.
TED Talks
Allan Adams: The discovery that could rewrite physics
On March 17, 2014, a group of physicists announced a thrilling discovery: the “smoking gun” data for the idea of an inflationary universe, a clue to the Big Bang. For non-physicists, what does it mean? TED asked Allan Adams to briefly...
SciShow
An Alternative to Dark Matter?
Models of the universe’s early days have only been possible with dark matter as a variable, but we still don’t have proof that dark matter exists. But recently, scientists may have found a way to replicate the results without the...
TED Talks
Charles Elachi: The story behind the Mars Rovers
At Serious Play 2008, Charles Elachi shares stories from NASA's legendary Jet Propulsion Lab -- including tales and video from the Mars Rover project.
PBS
Using Stars to See Gravitational Waves
Now that gravitational waves are definitely a thing, it's time to think about some of the crazy things we can figure out with them. In some cases we're going to need a gravitational wave observatory - in fact, we've already built one.