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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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.

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segment from Swift: Eyes through Time deals with the advancement of science through changing existing ideas, refuting outdated theories, and incorporating new findings.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 Search for Another Earth

This NASA video provides an overview of technology under development to explore the planets and stars outside our solar system. These will be the most sensitive instruments built to date.

Solar Wind's Effect on Earth

This video segment adapted from NASA describes solar storms and their effects on Earth. Animations of coronal mass ejections and solar cycles help explain what we know, and what we can predict, about solar activity.

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A Strange New Planet

This video segment adapted from NOVA features the first planet to be discovered outside our solar system. Its surprisingly large size and short orbit sent scientists back to their data and led them to discover similar planets.

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Teamwork in Science

This video segment from Swift: Eyes through Time explores the concept of teamwork as scientists around the globe work together to explore deep space.

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Total Solar Eclipse Animation

This brief animation adapted from NOVA illustrates how total solar eclipses form and explains the stages from first contact to totality.

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Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum: Gamma Waves

Get an overview of gamma waves and examples of conditions and events that produce gamma waves, the highest-energy radiation on the EM spectrum, in this video from NASA.

Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum: Infrared

Explore the ways scientists use technology to “see” infrared light in this video from NASA.

Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum: Microwaves

See microwaves in the context of other areas of the electromagnetic spectrum in this video from NASA.

Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum: Radio Waves

This video from NASA provides an overview of the radio band of electromagnetic spectrum and offers a brief history of the discovery and early applications of radio waves.

Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum: Ultraviolet

Explore the ultraviolet band of the EM spectrum in this video from NASA.

Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum: Visible Light

See just how narrow the visible light band is relative to other EM energy in this video from NASA.

Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum: X-rays

Get both an “everyday” and an “exotic” view of x-rays in this video from NASA.

The Wall of Time

This illustrated timeline from the Lunar and Planetary Institute provides a journey through four-and-a-half billion years of time from the birth of our solar system to its current existence today.

What Is a Planet?

This video segment, adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, presents the ongoing debate over the definition of a planet, including the status of Pluto.

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What Is Astrobiology?

In this video from the Science and Technology Chat series, learn about astrobiology, an interdisciplinary field that uses biology, astronomy, and geology to study the origins of life on Earth and to search for possible life on other planets.

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Why Doesn't the Moon Fall Down?

In this animated video segment adapted from NASA, astronomer Doris Daou explains how the forces of speed and gravity keep the Moon in a constant orbit around Earth.

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