Alex Filippenko Audio & Video

A description of modern astronomy with emphasis on the structure and evolution of stars, galaxies, and the Universe.

Lick Observatory is a vibrant research facility, and a primary base for the University of California's astronomy education and outreach efforts.

Alex Filippenko, explores some of the mysteries of the universe at a special lecture at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Filippenko discusses observations of very distant exploding starts called super-novae that provide intriguing evidence that the expansion of the universe is now speeding up.

In 96 richly illustrated half-hour lectures, you will survey the main concepts, methods, and discoveries in astronomy—from the constellations drawn by the ancients, to the latest reports from planetary probes in our solar system and the most recent images offered by telescopes probing the farthest frontiers of space and time.

Imagine a region in space where the force of gravity is so strong that nothing—not even light—can escape. A region with physical conditions so extreme that they have not yet been reproduced in any terrestrial laboratory. A region so dense that an object as tiny as a walnut would have the same mass as our entire planet.