http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ A search of MERLOT materials Copyright 1997-2013 MERLOT. All rights reserved. Sat, 25 May 2013 20:12:41 PDT Sat, 25 May 2013 20:12:41 PDT http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/images/merlot.gif http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ 44 34 http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=761563 SkyView is a virtual view of objects in space. Point your device (iPad or iPhone) towards the sky, daytime or nighttime, and the app will show the stars, planets, moon, and manmade objects in space. Additional encyclopedic information is given for each item you view. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=759985 Discusses the future launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and the technology involved. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=760002 this page is about the SOHO spacecraft currenting orbiting Legrange point 1. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=759361 Something to look for when stargazing; changes daily. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=759139 Timeline of the terraforming process that is required to turn Mars into a livable planet, complete with pictures. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=758753 The Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, featuring noted scientists giving nontechnical illustrated lectures on recent developments in astronomy, are now available on their own YouTube Channel, at: http://www.youtube.com/SVAstronomyLectures/ The talks include: * Frank Drake discussing his modern view of the Drake Equation, * Michael Brown explaining how his discovery of Eris led to the demotion of Pluto, * Alex Filippenko talking about the latest ideas and observations of black holes, * Natalie Batalha sharing the latest planet discoveries from the Kepler mission, * Anthony Aguirre discussing how it is possible to have multiple universes, and * Chris McKay updating the Cassini discoveries about Saturn's moon Titan. The lectures are taped at Foothill College near San Francisco, and co-sponsored by NASA's Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Note that the top page of the channel shows the lectures in the order they happened to be uploaded to YouTube. If you want to see them in chronological order, select the Playlist option. Both new and older talks in the series will be added to the channel as time goes by. Many pioneering astronomers have given talks in this series since its founding in 1999; recent lectures are being recorded so that people around the world can "tune in.״ http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=738933 'Orbit Architect allows you to interactively design and explore satellite orbital geometry through the multi-touch interface of the iPad. You can manipulate a satellite orbit using pinch and rotate multi-touch gestures, see the effects on the orbit and its ground track in real-time, and animate the results. As you change the orbit, dynamic diagrams will illuminate the meaning of each orbital parameter. Finally, the results can then be emailed to yourself or to a friend.'This is a free app. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=731910 This article was written by Andrew Fazekas in “Starstruck.” The National Geographic has included this article for their website. This article mentions something not many people associate with the northern lights; sound. Reports of static and other sounds have been recorded from the northern lights. This article helps begin to understand what the sounds are and where they originate from. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=730297 This is a free online course offered by the Saylor Foundation.'You will be introduced to our current understanding of the universe and how we have come to this understanding. We will start with the ancient Greeks and their belief that the universe was an orderly place capable of being understood. We will continue through history, as we acquired more information on the nature of the universe and our models of the universe changed to reflect this. This will take us through several different worldviews.As noted above, we will begin with the Greek worldview, which was characterized by the belief that the earth was the immovable center of the universe; this was known as the “geocentric” model. Although this worldview is wrong in many of its details, it was a very important first step. It explained the universe well enough that it lasted almost two thousand years. By 1600, this belief was beginning to be challenged by such people as Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo; finally, it was completely done away with by the physics of Newton. By 1700, the heliocentric model, with the sun at the center and the earth and other planets in orbit around it, had replaced the geocentric one. The model of the universe based on the physics of Newton lasted into the twentieth century. It has since been replaced by our contemporary model.The most essential feature of our contemporary model is that the universe is evolving. It had a beginning in time, some 13.7 billion years ago, in an unimaginably hot and dense state, and evolved, as a result of the expansion of space, to develop structures: first hydrogen and helium atoms, then stars and galaxies. The stars evolved to produce the heavier elements, casting them out into space through their explosive deaths. From leftover hydrogen and helium, together with the new heavier elements, later generations of stars formed, some, such as our own sun, with planets around them. On our earth, geological processes transformed the environment to allow for the development of life and eventually us.' http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=717101 'Twenty years ago we knew of exactly one planetary system: our own. Today in late 2012 we know of more than 800 confirmed planets around other stars, with a few thousand candidate systems awaiting confirmation. Life in the Universe is an introduction to Astrobiology for non-science majors. The topics covered in this course lie at the interfaces between Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, and the Earth and Planetary sciences. We will learn about scientists' ongoing quest for answers to some of the most fundamental human questions: How did life originate on Earth? Is there life on other worlds? Are we alone in the universe? What is the long-term future of life in the universe? The course covers three primary topics:The emergence and nature of life on the EarthThe potential for life on other planets in our Solar SystemThe search for habitable worlds and life around other stars in our Galaxy. The course will begin with a brief introduction to modern science and astronomy, and end with a brief discussion of the long-term future of life on Earth and in the Universe in general. The lectures were recorded live in my Astronomy 141 class during Winter Quarter 2012. The lecture slides were reformatted for this iTunes U course, primarily to remove copyrighted graphics derived from the textbook which, while covered under Fair Use in the classroom, cannot be used in a public version of the course like this.'