7.8/106 votesLoading...#1 - Introduction to Astronomy
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/15/2015
Welcome to the first episode of Crash Course Astronomy. Your host for this intergalactic adventure is the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait. We begin with answering a question: "What is astronomy?"
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#2 - Naked Eye Observations
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 1/22/2015
Phil invites you to head outside and take a look at all the incredible things you can see with your naked eye.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#3 - Cycles in the Sky
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 1/29/2015
This week we build on our naked eye observations from last week and take a look at the cyclical phenomena that we can see at work in the universe.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#4 - Moon Phases
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 2/5/2015
In this episode of Crash Course Astronomy, Phil takes you through the cause and name of the Moon's phases.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#5 - Eclipses
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 2/13/2015
The big question in the comments last week was, "BUT WHAT ABOUT ECLIPSES?" Today, Phil breaks 'em down for you.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#6 - Telescopes
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 2/19/2015
Today Phil explains how telescopes work and offers up some astronomical shopping advice.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#7 - The Gravity of the Situation
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 2/26/2015
In today's episode, Phil looks at how gravity plays out across the universe.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#8 - Tides
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 3/5/2015
Today Phil explores the world of tides! What is the relationship between tides and gravity? How do planets and their moons become tidally locked? What would happen if you were 300km tall? Important questions.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#9 - Introduction to the Solar System
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 3/12/2015
In today's Crash Course Astronomy, Phil takes a look at the explosive history of our cosmic backyard. We explore how we went from a giant ball of gas to the system of planets and other celestial objects we have today.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#10 - The Sun
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 3/19/2015
Phil takes us for a closer (eye safe!) look at the two-octillion ton star that rules our solar system. We look at the sun's core, plasma, magnetic fields, sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and what all of that means for our planet.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#11 - The Earth
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 4/2/2015
Phil starts the planet-by-planet tour of the solar system right here at home, Earth.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#12 - The Moon
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 4/9/2015
Join Phil for a tour of our capital-M Moon, from surface features, inside to the core, and back in time to theories about its formation.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#13 - Mercury
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 4/16/2015
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It has no atmosphere and is, as such, covered in craters. It's also incredibly hot but, surprisingly, has water ice hiding beneath its surface.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#14 - Venus
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 4/23/2015
Venus is a gorgeous naked-eye planet, hanging like a diamond in the twilight -- but it’s beauty is best looked at from afar. Even though Mercury is closer to the sun, Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, due to a runaway greenhouse effect, and has the most volcanic activity in the solar system. Its north and south poles were flipped, causing it to rotate backwards and making for very strange days on this beautiful but inhospitable world.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#15 - Mars
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 4/30/2015
The fourth planet from the sun and the outermost of the terrestrial planets, Mars has long been a popular spot for missions and imagination. Phil walks you through the planet's topography, core, and features. We'll take a look back to Mars's past and makes predictions for its future, including the possibilities for human life.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#16 - Jupiter
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 5/8/2015
Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. The gas giant is NOT a failed star, but a really successful planet! It has a dynamic atmosphere with belts and zones, as well as an enormous red spot that’s actually a persistent hurricane. Jupiter is still warm from its formation, and has an interior that’s mostly metallic hydrogen, and it may not even have a core.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#17 - Jupiter's Moons
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 5/14/2015
Before moving on from Jupiter to Saturn, we’re going to linger for a moment on Jupiter’s moons. There are 67 known moons, and 4 huge ones that we want to explore in greater detail. Ganymede is the largest - larger, in fact, than any other moon in the solar system and the planet Mercury! Callisto, orbiting the farthest out, is smaller but quite similar to Ganymede in many ways. Io, meanwhile, is most noteworthy for its tremendous volcanic activity. There’s also water on Ganymede and Europa!
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#18 - Saturn
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 5/21/2015
Saturn is the crown jewel of the solar system, beautiful and fascinating. It is a gas giant, and has a broad set of rings made of ice particles. Moons create gaps in the rings via their gravity. Saturn has dozens of moons, including Titan, which is as big as Mercury and has a thick atmosphere and lakes of methane; and Enceladus which has an undersurface ocean and eruptions of water geysers. While we are still uncertain, it is entirely possible that either or both moons may support life.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#19 - Uranus & Neptune
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 5/28/2015
Today we’re rounding out our planetary tour with ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Both have small rocky cores, thick mantles of ammonia, water, and methane, and atmospheres that make them look greenish and blue. Uranus has a truly weird rotation and relatively dull weather, while Neptune has clouds and storms whipped by tremendous winds. Both have rings and moons, with Neptune’s Triton probably being a captured iceball that has active geology.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#20 - Asteroids
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 6/4/2015
Now that we’ve finished our tour of the planets, we’re headed back to the asteroid belt. Asteroids are chunks of rock, metal, or both that were once part of smallish planets but were destroyed after collisions. Most orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, but some get near the Earth. The biggest, Ceres is far smaller than the Moon but still big enough to be round and have undergone differentiation.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#21 - Comets
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 6/18/2015
Today on Crash Course Astronomy, Phil explains comets. Comets are chunks of ice and rock that orbit the Sun. When they get near the Sun the ice turns into gas, forming the long tail, and also releases dust that forms a different tail. We’ve visited comets up close and found them to be lumpy, with vents in the surface that release the gas as ice sublimates. Eons ago, comets (and asteroids) may have brought a lot of water to Earth -- as well as the ingredients for life.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#22 - The Oort Cloud
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 6/25/2015
Now that we’re done with the planets, asteroid belt, and comets, we’re heading to the outskirts of the solar system. Out past Neptune are vast reservoirs of icy bodies that can become comets if they get poked into the inner solar system. The Kuiper Belt is a donut shape aligned with the plane of the solar system; the scattered disk is more eccentric and is the source of short period comets; and the Oort Cloud which surrounds the solar system out to great distances is the source of long-period comets. These bodies all probably formed closer into the Sun, and got flung out to the solar system’s suburbs by gravitational interactions with the outer planets.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#23 - Meteors
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 7/2/2015
Today Phil helps keep you from ticking off an astronomer in your life by making sure you know the difference between a meteor, meteorite, and meteoroid. When the Earth plows through the stream emitted by a comet we get a meteor shower. Meteors burn up about 100 km above the Earth, but some survive to hit the ground. Most of these meteorites are rocky, some are metallic, and a few are a mix of the two. Very big meteorites can be a very big problem, but there are plans in the works to prevent us from going the way of the dinosaurs.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#24 - Light
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 7/9/2015
In order to understand how we study the universe, we need to talk a little bit about light. Light is a form of energy. Its wavelength tells us its energy and color. Spectroscopy allows us to analyze those colors and determine an object’s temperature, density, spin, motion, and chemical composition.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#25 - Distances
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 7/16/2015
How do astronomers make sense out of the vastness of space? How do they study things so far away? Today Phil talks about distances, going back to early astronomy. Ancient Greeks were able to find the size of the Earth, and from that the distance to and the sizes of the Moon and Sun. Once the Earth/Sun distance was found, parallax was used to find the distance to nearby stars, and that was bootstrapped using brightness to determine the distances to much farther stars.
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The Best Episodes of Crash Course Astronomy
Every episode of Crash Course Astronomy ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Crash Course Astronomy!
The series breaks down complicated astronomy concepts in an easy to understand way using animation and narration by astronomer Phil Plait.
Genre:Documentary
Network:YouTube
Best Episodes Summary
"Introduction to Astronomy" is the best rated episode of "Crash Course Astronomy". It scored 7.8/10 based on 6 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 1/15/2015. This episode scored NaN points higher than the second highest rated, "Naked Eye Observations".