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Astronomy Minute
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Astronomy Minute

Author: Ata Sarajedini

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Description

Learn the basics of astronomy in one-to-two minute packets of concise information about specific topics. You are a busy person with a short attention span, and you want to learn about astronomical topics in a short amount of time. Your host Professor Ata is a PhD research astronomer and astrophysicist and a noted authority on stellar and galactic astronomy. I welcome your feedback at ata.sarajedini@gmail.com. See the web site astronomyminute.org for more. The podcast logo is courtesy of Zachary Greathouse and shows a globular cluster photo taken by the author with the Hubble Space Telescope.
183 Episodes
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A brief description of why the Webb Telescope is optimized to observe infrared light. Hint: it has to do with the four main science areas that it will be studying: “Other Worlds,” “Star Lifecycle,” “Galaxies Over Time,” and “Early Universe.”
A brief description of the four main science goals of the James Webb Space Telescope - “Other Worlds,” “Star Lifecycle,” “Galaxies Over Time,” and “Early Universe.”
A brief description of the James Webb Space Telescope and how it's different than the Hubble Space Telescope.
A brief description of the Hubble Space Telescope and its scientific capabilities.
A brief description of the two primary reasons why we send telescopes into space to observe and study celestial objects.
A brief historical summary of what we mean when we refer to "Spiral Nebulae." 
A brief description of what will happen if the universe stops expanding and collapses back on itself - this is known as the Big Crunch.
A brief description of the basic properties of astronomical objects such as mass, radius, distance, luminosity, and temperature.
A brief description of the Local Group of galaxies which contains the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy, and dozens of dwarf galaxies all gravitationally bound to each other.
A brief description of what scientists mean when they say we "know" something.
A brief description of the structure of atoms - how they are mostly empty space - and why the everyday objects you use don't collapse and fall in on themselves.
A brief description of what we mean when we talk about interacting galaxies.
A brief description of nuclear fusion, which is the process by which stars produce light so that they can shine.
A brief description of giant molecular clouds and why they are important for stars.
A brief description of the observational evidence we have supporting our assertion that the Milky Way galaxy is spiral in shape. 
A brief description of the 21 centimeter radiation (light) that the Hydrogen atom emits and the mechanism behind this emission.
A brief description of what astronomers mean when they say that "all pulsars are neutron stars but not all neutron stars are pulsars."
A brief description of neutron stars, which are essentially the end state of massive stars some of which become pulsars.
A brief description of a white dwarf star, which is the end-state of a star that is less than 8 times the mass of Sun. 
A brief description of how we use the HR Diagram and the main sequence to measure the ages of stars in groups and clusters.
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