When we look at the night sky, we see stars and the nearby planets of our own solar system. Many of those stars are actually distant galaxies and glowing clouds of dust and gases called nebulae. The universe is an immense space with distances measured in light years. The more we learn about the universe beyond our solar system, the more we realize we do not know. Students are introduced to the basic known facts about the universe, and how engineers help us explore the many mysteries of space.

Students explore the cosmic microwave background to understand why it permeates the Universe and why it peaks as microwave radiation. Grades 9-12.

This visual representation is to help give you an idea of the size and scale of the universe. Each image is 10 times bigger or smaller than the one that comes before it or after it. The numbers are written using exponential notation. This is a convenient way scientists use to write very large or very small numbers. For example, how do you know what an exponential number really means? Let’s show you briefly how to figure it out.

This is is a primer on scientific efforts to understand the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe. Among the questions it explores: What types of matter and energy fill the universe? What is the age and shape of the universe? How rapidly is it expanding? The website examines the Big Bang theory, as well as tests and limitations of the theory.

How does the computer's peculiar binary world of digital entities differ from our analogue world of colour, sound, taste and touch? This unit explores the way in which information, in the form of text, still and moving images, and sound can cross the boundary from the analogue universe into a digital world.

" In the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin gave us a model for understanding how natural objects and systems can evidence design without positing a designer: how purpose and mechanism can exist without intelligent agency. Texts in this course deal with pre- and post-Darwinian treatment of this topic within literature and speculative thought since the eighteenth century. We will give some attention to the modern study of feedback mechanisms in artificial intelligence. Our reading will be in Hume, Voltaire, Malthus, Darwin, Butler, H. G. Wells, and Turing."

This work attempts to describe the nature of the evolution of the non-spatial (material) universe, the universe as seen through the semi-idealistic framework of the NSTP (Non ? Spatial Thinking Process) theory. As per the NSTP theory, the existence of the superhuman mind (i.e. NSTPs) is responsible for the orderly existence of the non-superhuman mind/s (i.e. NSTP/s).These superhuman NSTPs, representing the empirical laws/design of the (non-spatial) material universe, could be called as the design (superhuman) NSTPs. This design came into existence due to some designer (superhuman) mind (i.e. NSTP), which no longer exists. Further, there should be some other design (superhuman) NSTPs responsible for the orderly existence of the designer (superhuman) NSTP, and so on. Such is supposed to be the nature of the evolution of the non-spatial (material) universe.

What sorts of things get physicists (or wannabe physicists, like the teacher of this class) excited? Is it the dream of building grand intellectual edifices capable of describing the Universe with amazing accuracy and elegance? Or, perhaps, discovering something so unexpected that it totally blows your mind? Maybe it's simply the act of doing physics! Whatever the case, there are certainly many things in physics to get excited about, and we'll explore some of them in this class.

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, traces the evolving history of theories about gravity and a force that may oppose it, along with our understanding of the impact of both of these forces on our expanding universe.

Since 1998, the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium have engaged in the three-dimensional mapping of the Universe. This cosmic cartography brings a new perspective to our place in the Universe and will redefine your sense of home. The Digital Universe Atlas is distributed to you via packages that contain our data products, like the Milky Way Atlas and the Extragalactic Atlas, and requires free software allowing you to explore the atlas by "flying" through it on your computer. The Digital Universe atlas is chock full of new data, including over 1 million galaxies, L and T dwarf stars, a 3-D Orion Nebula terrain model, Abell galaxy clusters, large-scale density contours, and plenty of additional data updates.

This interactive timeline from the NOVA Web site recaps the theoretical origin and formation of the universe, and forecasts its eventual fate.

In this media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site, astronomer Brent Tully of the University of Hawaii walks you through the latest scientific theories about the size of the universe.

This adapted video segment, using footage from NOVA and NASA, examines Edwin Hubble's work and how his findings laid the foundation for the Big Bang theory.

Quantitative introduction to physics of the solar system, stars, interstellar medium, the Galaxy, and Universe, as determined from a variety of astronomical observations and models. Topics: planets, planet formation; stars, the Sun, "normal" stars, star formation; stellar evolution, supernovae, compact objects (white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes), plusars, binary X-ray sources; star clusters, globular and open clusters; interstellar medium, gas, dust, magnetic fields, cosmic rays; distance ladder; galaxies, normal and active galaxies, jets; gravitational lensing; large scaling structure; Newtonian cosmology, dynamical expansion and thermal history of the Universe; cosmic microwave background radiation; big-bang nucleosynthesis. No prior knowledge of astronomy necessary. Not usable as a restricted elective by physics majors.

This video segment adapted from Shedding Light on Science describes how astronomical distances can be measured in units of light-years, and how the finite speed of light allows astronomers to study how the universe looked long ago.

This animation by Thomas Goertel of the Space Telescope Science Institute is an artist's conception of a spiral galaxy harboring a super-massive black hole. Observe how the material rotates faster the closer it is to the nucleus.

This article attempts to bring out ‘The Superultramodern Unification’. It is basically the idea that the mysterious phenomena underlying most of the most challenging problems in modern / ultramodern science / philosophy are, in fact, multiple aspects of a singular structure, which the NSTP (Non – Spatial Thinking Process) theory (a major component of superultramodern science / philosophy) is the unique theoretical representation of. The NSTP theory thus unifies and demystifies the phenomena, and solves the problems. The first part of this article presents the solutions to two of the problems viz. Zeno’s paradoxes and the problem of quantum non-locality. The second part states the remaining problems. And the third, and the last, part states some other challenging problems, solvable with the NSTP theory, which are not directly connected to the aforementioned structure.

A whole-body activity that explores the relative sizes, distances, orbit, and spin of the Sun, Earth and Moon.

These satellite images and the companion animation from McDougal Littell/TERC begin at a scale that covers the whole Earth and zoom in to a view of the Capitol building in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.