Stargazing: Recent Episodes
Oxford University
Find out more about our night sky, from new planets to far-off galaxies and the vastness of the Universe. A series of short talks and presentations for the general public from leading astronomy researchers at the Oxford University Physics department - http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/
In this short stargazing talk, Luke Jew looks at the topic - The oldest light in the Universe.
Sergio Martin describes the evolution of the Universe. This talk describes the evolution of the Universe from its infancy up until its possible fates, describing general astrophysical questions such as the emergence of complexity, the first evidence for the existence of dark matter or the formation of galaxies.
Rebecca Bowler, University of Oxford give a talk about the successor to the Hubble telescope - The James Webb Space Telescope - which will detect infrared radiation.
Dr Philipp Podsiadlowski, University of Oxford gives a talk about gravitational waves in light of the recent detections by the LIGO detector.
Professor Rob Fender, University of Oxford talks through some observations of black holes.
Becky Smethurst shows how citizen science and the Galaxy Zoo project is helping researchers tackle difficult scientific questions.
Researcher Stephen Rayner talks on how astronomers study the highest energies possible to detect particle accelerators in space.
James Gilbert, a researcher in astrophysics gives an exciting talk on how astronomy uses Spectroscopy - the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy.
Peter Hatfield gives an astronomy talk entitled: How to see the world in a grain of sand and the entire Universe in a super computer.
The Beagle 2 probe had not been seen or heard from since December 2003 and had been presumed lost. Researcher Chris Linttot gives an overview and shows newly found images of the probe on the surface of Mars.
Researcher Colin Wilson gives an update on the Rosetta mission with the latest news on the Philae comet lander
Robert Simpson, an astronomy researcher from Oxford takes us on a tour of the Universe, explaining the incredible distances and relative dimensions of space.
On 12 November 2014, the Philae probe achieved the first-ever soft landing on a comet nucleus. Colin Wilson, a researcher from Oxford, gives an update on the landing and explains the history and science behind this incredible mission.
Matt Jarvis discusses square kilometer array, commonly known as SKA, in this short Stargazing talk.
Chris Lintott looks at the distinctive features of our galaxy and whether it is really special. With apologies for the audio at the start of the talk.
Becky Smethurst from the Zooniverse team outlines the Galaxy Zoo project that allows members of the public to classify new galaxies.
Grant Miller and Becky Smethurst give a live demonstration of the Zooniverse tool and explain how it works.
What is it like on the planets in our solar system? How hot are they? Is there any water? Jo Barstow explains this and more in her talk.
Roland Young discusses his work on studying and recreating the atmospheres of different planets in our solar system.
Charles Barclay gives a brief overview of the history of Astronomies and some of the fascinating insights that can be gained from these Ancient practices.
Will there be humans living on Mars in the next 50 years? Is this a good thing, or something that should be completely avoided? Chris Lintott and Colin Wilson debate the pros and cons of this interesting topic.
Kathryn Boast gives a talk about dark matter: what it is, what we know about it, and what the limitations of our knowledge are.
Luke Jew talks about inflation, the process that scientists believe happened at the very start of our universe and is responsible for all the large scale structures that we see around us.
Ever wondered if another planet like our own exists in the vast expanse of space around us? Ruth Angus explains her exciting research into Extra Solar Planets (Exo-Planets) and why research in this area is important.
Mel Gigg, Chipping Norton Amateur Astronomy Group, showcases some of his astrophotography.
Galaxy Zoo is a Citizen Science project, part of the Zooniverse, which asks the public to classify the morphology of galaxies using images taken by Hubble and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Since the discovery of the first extra-solar planet in the '90s, our perspective of the Universe has changed. Over the last two decades a whole host of exotic planet systems have been found, including analogues of famous science-fiction-worlds. Ruth Angus summarises some of the key discoveries in the field of extra-solar planets and discusses the likelihood of finding Earth II as the number of confirmed exoplanets approaches one-thousand.
In this talk Dr Ken Amor talks about the Chelyabinsk meteor, which entered Earths atmosphere over Russia on the 15th of February 2013.
From big bang to the present day, Chris Lintott summarises the history of the Universe in 12 minutes.
In this talk Jocelyn Bell Burnell talks about the reclassification of Pluto to a Dwarf planet and the history of its discovery.
Mel Gigg of the Chipping Norton Amateur Astronomy Group showcases some fantastic amateur astro-photography.
Professor Roger Davies explains how we can learn about the different shapes of galaxies using a plate of fruit and a telescope.
Charles Barclay offers advice on how to get the most out of stargazing with the naked eye and the astronomical activities to look out for in the coming months.
In January 2013 over 1,000 people visited the Astronomy Open Day to meet scientists, hear the latest on research at Oxford and find out more about the stars. This video shows the range of hands-on activities that took place throughout the day.
Dr Chris Lintott, University of Oxford, gives an overview of the discoveries made about the many billions of exo-planets - the planets that surround stars.