Chaotic Astronomy

Ancient Astronomy – Best Of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos (Part 17)

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BEST OF CARL SAGAN’S “COSMOS”:

1) 10 Years After: Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Reflect:

2) Lost Between Immensity And Eternity:

3) The Realm Of The Galaxies:

4) Our Galaxy, The Milky Way:

5) Our Solar System:

6) Eratosthenes And The Round Earth Model:

7) The Library Of Alexandria:

A Short History Of The Universe:

9) Artificial And Natural Selection:

10) The Cosmic Year:

11) Tree Of Life – 4 Billion Years Of Evolution:

12) The Miracle Of Life:

13) DNA – The Common Basis Of Life:

14) Abiogenesis The Origin Of Life:

15) Astronomy vs Astrology:

16) Pictures In The Sky:

17) Ancient Astronomy:

18) Triumph Of Modern Science Over Medieval Superstition:

19) The Mysterious Tonguska Event:

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Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, astrochemist, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”, which has been seen by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries, making it the most widely watched PBS program in history.

A book to accompany the program was also published. He also wrote the novel “Contact”, the basis for the 1997 Robert Zemecki’s film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.

During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he frequently advocated skeptical inquiry, secular humanism, and the scientific method.

http://www.carlsagan.com

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Duration : 0:8:58

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The Hubble Space Telescope Is Back – Better Than Ever! The Final Servicing Mission.

“Improved Hubble Shows Evidence of Dark Matter”
• http://www.youtube.com/user/tdarnell#play/uploads/2/3wluv08tDhU [HD]
• http://www.deepAstronomy.com/

“When Hubble Opened its New Eyes”
• http://www.youtube.com/AndromedasWake
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bytNgT7l8k&fmt=22 [HD]

“The Hubble Space Telescope – Rebirth of an Icon (Hubblecast 30)”
• http://www.youtube.com/ESOcast
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjy7YSIH-GI&fmt=22 [HD]

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Subscribe to Science & Reason:
• http://www.youtube.com/Best0fScience
• http://www.youtube.com/SagansCosmos
• http://www.youtube.com/FFreeThinker
• http://www.youtube.com/FFreeThinker2
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The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by the space shuttle in April 1990. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Although not the first space telescope, the Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well-known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy.

The HST is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, and is one of NASA’s Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Space Telescopes were proposed as early as 1923. The Hubble was funded in the 1970s, with a proposed launch in 1983, but the project was beset by technical delays, budget problems, and the Challenger disaster. When finally launched in 1990, scientists found that the main mirror had been ground incorrectly, severely compromising the telescope’s capabilities.

However, after a servicing mission in 1993, the telescope was restored to its intended quality. Hubble’s orbit outside the distortion of Earth’s atmosphere allows it to take extremely sharp images with almost no background light. Hubble’s Ultra Deep Field image, for instance, is the most detailed visible-light image ever made of the universe’s most distant objects. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as accurately determining the rate of expansion of the universe.

The Hubble is the only telescope ever designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. There have been five servicing missions, the last occurring in May 2009. Servicing Mission 1 took place in December 1993 when Hubble’s imaging flaw was corrected. Servicing missions 2, 3A, and 3B repaired various sub-systems and replaced many of the observing instruments with more modern and capable versions.

However, following the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident, the fifth servicing mission was canceled on safety grounds. After spirited public discussion, NASA reconsidered this decision, and administrator Mike Griffin approved one final Hubble servicing mission. STS-125 was launched in May 2009, and installed two new instruments and made numerous repairs.

The latest servicing should allow the telescope to function until at least 2014, when its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is due to be launched. The JWST will be far superior to Hubble for many astronomical research programs, but will only observe in infrared, so it will complement (not replace) Hubble’s ability to observe in the visible and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope
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Duration : 0:6:46

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