This is the second lecture from my Life Beyond Earth class in 2010. Note: the class was 2 hours long.

1. George Hraband the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast

2. The Universe (in one lecture) Lecture 2 Chapter 3.1, 3.2, 3.4

3. The Size and Scale of Things By morn1415 on YouTube in HD (local file)

4. The Size and Scale of Things Scale Model in Green Bank, WV Voyage Model in DC – Jeffrey Bennett

5. The Size and Scale of Things If the Earth is the size of a ping pong ball, how big is the Sun? CC Watchcaddy on Flickr

6. The Size and Scale of Things If the Earth is the size of a ping pong ball, how big is the Sun? Ping pong = 40 mm diameter Diameter Sun = 109 * Diameter of Earth Analog sun -> CC Watchcaddy on Flickr

7. The Size and Scale of Things If the Earth is the size of a ping pong ball, how big is the Sun? Ping pong = 40 mm diameter Diameter Sun = 109 * Diameter of Earth Analog sun -> ~ 14.3 ft diameter about the size of this room! CC Watchcaddy on Flickr

8. The Size and Scale of Things How far away is the ping pong ball from the room?

9. The Size and Scale of Things How far away is the ping pong ball from the room? Our scale: ~1:160,000,000 Distance from Earth to Sun ~ 93 million miles Model distance ->

10. The Size and Scale of Things How far away is the ping pong ball from the room? Our scale: ~1:160,000,000 Distance from Earth to Sun ~ 93 million miles Model distance -> ~3081 ft, or the distance to the Rotunda

11. The Size and Scale of Things Sun Earth

12. The Size and Scale of Things Sun Earth Mercury Venus Mars

13. The Size and Scale of Things Jupiter Saturn to Mars Uranus Neptune Outer Edge of Kuiper Belt

14. The Size and Scale of Things 2:37 Sixty Symbols on YouTube Local HD

15. The Size and Scale of Things Now, pretend the Sun is a ping pong ball. Where is the nearest star? MSX/IPAC/NASA

16. The Size and Scale of Things Now, pretend the Sun is a ping pong ball. Where is the nearest star? Alpha Centauri (3 star system) 4.2 light years or 1.3 parsecs away 2.5 x 1013 miles (25,000,000,000,000 miles) The ping pong ball would be -> MSX/IPAC/NASA

17. The Size and Scale of Things Now, pretend the Sun is a ping pong ball. Where is the nearest star? Alpha Centauri (3 star system) 4.2 light years or 1.3 parsecs away 2.5 x 1013 miles (25,000,000,000,000 miles) The ping pong ball would be -> 714 miles away MSX/IPAC/NASA

18. The Size and Scale of Things Ping pong ball Ping pong ball

19. The Size and Scale of Things Those are just two nearby ping pong balls in a group of 100 billion, spanning millions of miles … a galaxy spanning thousands of light years, or hundreds of quadrillions of miles! Nick Risinger

20. HOW do we know? Distance to Venus -> radar The ratios of planetary distances were known, but an accurate measurement to Venus using the speed of light solidified the numbers NASA NASA

21. HOW do we know? Nearby stars measured by parallax CC NoisyAstronomer

22. HOW do we know? More distant objects use indirect methods, building a “distance ladder” Star spectral types Variable stars Supernovae Redshift Ned Wright DOE NNSA ASC/Alliance Flash Center at U of Chicago

23. The Universal Context The Millenium Simulation (http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/millennium/) local local better

24. The Universal Context Sloan Digital Sky Survey

25. The Universal Context More Perspective Tree Lobsters are awesome

26. Expansion Elementary, my dear Humason! The further away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away! Beautifully demonstrated by distant supernovae all the way to large distances measured today.

27. Expansion NASA

28. More Evidence of Expansion WMAP/NASA

29. CMB in Context

30. More Evidence of Expansion http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh

31. H, He, Li… boring universe? http://savillbiology.com/Chemistry.html

32. Star Stuff… Csemiseryon Youtube local All of Cosmos is available for free on Hulu. Seriously, watch it: http://www.hulu.com/cosmos

33. Stellar Life Cycle

34. Molecules in Space Orion Nebula, NASA/Herschel

35. Other Solar Systems Beta Pic, ESO

36. Other Solar Systems Fomalhautb, HST/NASA

37. Other Solar Systems There’s an app for that

38. How do we know? Chandra and STSci It’s all about LIGHT.

39. It’s all about LIGHT

40. Temperature and Light Planets and People (300 K) Stars (1000s K) Masgatotkaca (Wikimedia) Hubble, NASA

41. Atoms (and molecules) and Light