3D Space: Illusion or Reality?

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "The Fabric of the Cosmos: What Is Space?" reveals new data about black holes that has led to a new idea about the universe: Instead of everything being a three-dimensional object, it’s possible that everything is actually just a hologram.

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Above the Clouds: Telescopes on Mauna Kea

This video segment adapted from First Light explains why the highest peak in the Pacific, Mauna Kea, is an ideal site for astronomical observations. Featured are new telescope technologies that allow astronomers to explore the universe in more depth.

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All Planet Sizes

This illustration from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory shows the approximate sizes of the planets relative to each other. Note that the planets are not shown at appropriate distances from the Sun.

Are We Alone?

This video segment adapted from NOVA features a variety of scientific perspectives on the age old question, "Are we alone in the universe?" Animations make vivid the improbability that we could intercept a radio wave signaling extra terrestrial intelligence.

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Astronomical Images in Different Wavelengths

Visible light is just one portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that a telescope may detect. This collection of images produced for Teachers' Domain features radio wave, infrared, visible light, and X-ray images of distant stars and galaxies as well as images of the telescopes designed to detect the various wavelengths of radiation.

Astronomy Theories

This video segment from Swift: Eyes through Time deals with the advancement of science through changing existing ideas, refuting outdated theories, and incorporating new findings.

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Birth of a Supernova, Type Ia

In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, learn about a type of exploding star — a Type Ia supernova — that is so bright that astronomers can measure the distance to the galaxy in which it resides, and even learn which elements make up the star.

Birth of a Supernova, Type II

In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, learn about a type of exploding star — a Type II supernova — that is so large it has a mass 10 times greater than the mass of our Sun.

Caves: Extreme Conditions for Life

This video segment adapted from NOVA raises the provocative idea that if life can exist in the most extreme environments on Earth — such as in dark, toxic caves — then perhaps living things can also survive in harsh environments on other planets.

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Cosmic Origin Spectrograph

This video from NASA features the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph (COS), which allows scientists to use spectrographic analysis to assess the composition of intergalactic material.

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Creativity in Science

This lesson will take a look at the different roles scientists play in discoveries.

Dark Energy

Dark energy makes up 70 percent of the universe. In this video from QUEST produced by KQED, meet one of the country's leading scientists who is trying to understand dark energy.

Detecting Life on Other Planets

In this video from NOVA scienceNOW, learn how scientists detect potential signs of life on distant planets.

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Earth, the Universe, and Culture

The following lesson will help the students understand the cultural nature of scientific research.

Eclipse of the Century

This video segment adapted from NOVA features spectacular footage from the 1991 solar eclipse that fortuitously occurred directly over several major astronomical observatories in Hawaiʻi.

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Evolution of the Universe

In this video from NASA, learn how the James Webb Space Telescope is helping scientists understand when and how early stars formed, what early galaxies looked like, and how the early universe shaped its underlying structure.

Exoplanets

This video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K shows the tools scientists use to search for exoplanets and describes possible characteristics a planet might have to support life.

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Exoplanets

Do other planets like Earth exist outside of our solar system? In this audio report from QUEST produced by KQED, learn about extra-solar planet research.

Explore the Moon

See what it is like to walk on the Moon by viewing this collection of QuickTime images from NOVA Online. Stunning 360-degree panoramas from each of the six successful Apollo Moon landings are featured.

Extreme Temperatures on the Moon

In this video segment adapted from Interactive NOVA, astronaut John Young experiences extreme temperatures on the Moon that are a result of the Moon's low gravity and lack of atmosphere.

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Galileo: Discovering Jupiter's Moons

This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how Galileo, using his newly developed refracting telescope, observed four of Jupiter's moons, the first astronomical bodies to be discovered since ancient times.

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Galileo on the Moon

Watch Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott perform Galileo's falling objects experiment on the Moon in this video segment from NASA.

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Galileo: Sun-Centered System

In the early 1600s, most people believed that the Sun revolved around a stationary Earth. This video segment adapted from NOVA tells how Galileo proved that the Sun, not Earth, is at the center of our universe.

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Galileo: Sunspots

This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how Galileo used his telescope to carefully observe and study sunspots.

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Gallery of Auroras

View this stunning collection of auroral displays from NOVA Online to find out why auroras appear in different colors and shapes and whether they occur on other planets.

Gamma Ray Burst Detectives (Elementary School)

This interactive resource invites students to join NASA to find the source of gamma ray bursts, the single biggest explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang. The web site features an animation, information on three possible star sources, and a check yes or no for each star with feedback.

Gamma Ray Burst Detectives (High School)

This WPSU interactive resource invites students to join NASA to find the source of gamma ray bursts, the single biggest explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang by exploring three aspects of the death of stars: energy, duration, and variability.

Gamma-ray Burst Theories

This video segment from Swift: Eyes through Time introduces and explains theories of the origin of gamma-ray bursts.

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Gravity and the Expanding Universe

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, traces the evolving history of theories about gravity and a force that may oppose it, along with our understanding of the impact of both of these forces on our expanding universe.

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How Big Is Our Universe?

This interactive resource from Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics uses images and activities to understand the scope and scale of our universe. Featured are technologies used by generations of explorers.

Hubble's Expanding Universe

This adapted video segment, using footage from NOVA and NASA, examines Edwin Hubble's work and how his findings laid the foundation for the Big Bang theory.

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Hubble Telescope: Looking Deep

This video segment adapted from the Space Telescope Science Institute shows what the Hubble telescope found when it stared at a single, nearly empty spot in the sky for 10 days in 1995. The unexpected result was a picture of a multitude of galaxies stretching into the distance.

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Infrared Search for Origins

This interactive resource from NASA illustrates how infrared technology has advanced space exploration and can offer insight into questions about star formation, planetary systems, brown dwarfs, and the origins of the universe.

Ingredients for Life: Carbon

This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets.

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Ingredients for Life: Water

This video segment adapted from NOVA goes on a whimsical journey in search of life forms thriving in extreme conditions on Earth and in outer space. Animations show ice on Jupiter's moon, Europa, and signs that water once existed on Mars.

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Jupiter: Earth's Shield

Jupiter's immense gravity protects Earth from asteroids. In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists searching for signs of life in the universe identify solar systems with Jupiter-like planets that may be shielding smaller nearby Earth-like planets from comets and asteroids.

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Life Beyond the Solar System

This video excerpt from NOVA describes the search for disks of dust particles forming around new stars.

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Mars Dead or Alive: A Hostile Environment

This NOVA video segment describes the challenges presented by the frozen desert environment of Mars to NASA engineers designing two robots that will journey millions of miles to the red planet.

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Mars Dead or Alive: Mars Up Close

NASA scientist Steve Squyres narrates this visual tour from NOVA Online of the most revealing discoveries made by the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars.

Mars Dead or Alive: Welcome to Mars

This video segment from NOVA features the dramatic landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars.

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Mars Dead or Alive: Where to Land?

In this video segment from NOVA, engineers and scientists designing the Spirit and Opportunity rovers struggle to choose landing spots both safe enough for landing and geologically promising.

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Meteor Showers

This video segment adapted from NASA uses animation to illustrate the properties of meteor showers and comets. Included is are visualizations of a comet's tail and of Earth passing through a debris stream left behind by meteoroids.

Monster Black Hole in Galaxy M84

This animation by Thomas Goertel of the Space Telescope Science Institute is an artist's conception of a spiral galaxy harboring a super-massive black hole. Observe how the material rotates faster the closer it is to the nucleus.

A New Theory of Lightning

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, follow scientists as they test a new theory suggesting that lightning here on Earth is triggered by cosmic rays from far-away dying stars.

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Nobel Laureate George Smoot and the Origin of the Universe

In this video from QUEST produced by KQED, meet George Smoot, big bang researcher at UC Berkeley and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.

The Origin of the Elements

This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the origin of the elements and how scientists use unique element profiles to identify supernova types.

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The Origin of the Moon

This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the Apollo 15 astronauts as they collect samples of ancient rock from the Moon's crust, whose discovery helps lead to a radical new theory about the Moon's origin.

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Phases of the Moon

When we look up at the night sky, why do we see the Moon's appearance changing over time from a full sphere to a crescent to nothing at all? Find the answers in this interactive resource adapted from the National Air and Space Museum.

The Planet Hunters

What are the chances that there are other planets like ours somewhere in the cosmos? In this video from QUEST produced by KQED, find out what the chances are.

Pulsars: Little Green Men

The story behind Jocelyn Bell's role in the discovery of pulsars is told in this colorful, comic-book-style resource from A Science Odyssey Web site.