Astronomy Physics

If a black hole is not a hole, then what is it? Find out what black holes are, what causes them, and how scientists first discovered them. Learn how astronomers find black holes, get to know our nearest black-hole neighbor, and take a journey that will literally s-t-r-e-t-c-h the mind.

Best-selling author and commentator Jay Ingram is back to explain the magic and mysteries of the world around us. Jay takes listeners on a tour of the universe, exploring wonders big and small. From the farthest reaches of space to the most perplexing historical riddles to the marvels of who we are and what we're made of, Jay answers the important questions, such as: What's inside a black hole? Will machines ever learn to feel? And how much pee is in the average pool?

Nearly 60 years ago, Nobel Prize-winners Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson stumbled across a mysterious hiss of faint radio static that was interfering with their observations. They had found the key to unravelling the story of the Big Bang and the origin of our universe. That signal was the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the earliest light in the universe, released 379,000 years after the Big Bang.

Could there be a civilisation on a mote of dust? How much of your fate have you made? Who cleans the universe? Through more than 50 Koans - pleasingly paradoxical vignettes following the ancient Zen tradition - leading physicist Anthony Aguirre takes the listener across the world from Japan to Italy, and through ideas spanning the age, breadth and depth of the Universe. Using these beguiling Koans and a flair for explaining complex science, Aguirre covers cosmic questions that scientific giants from Aristotle to Galileo to Heisenberg have grappled with.

Edwin Hubble was a man ahead of his time. For him only astronomy really mattered. He took advantage of the opportunity given to him to use the most advanced telescope of his time to determine the truth behind the most distant clouds of light visible to Earth-based observers. His major discoveries changed our knowledge of our place in the universe forever. His determination that the universe is expanding served as the foundation for the big bang theory.

At the two four-kilometre long LIGO observatories in the US, scientists developed incredibly sensitive detectors, capable of spotting a movement 100 times smaller than the nucleus of an atom. In 2015, they spotted the ripples produced by two black holes spiralling into each other, setting spacetime quivering. This was the first time black holes had ever been directly detected, and it promises far more for the future of astronomy. Brian Clegg presents a compelling story of human technical endeavour and a powerful new path to understand the workings of the universe.

Edwin Hubble’s discovery of the Big Bang is one of the most important in astronomy and physics. It taught us where the universe came from and how it might end. Students will learn how Hubble’s early, unprecedented photographs of pulsars served as one of the first clues along the path that led him to the discovery of the Big Bang. Listeners will also discover how Hubble’s discovery opened up new doors to information about the universe.

“How do you travel in style across the galaxy?” “What do aliens really look like?” “What is the Fermi paradox and why should we care about it?” Discover the answers to these questions and many more at the Supervillain Academy: the magnificently morbid school for young villains in training. Hear more about how the search for extraterrestrial life and the search for planets are linked, the exoplanets and extremophiles that can be found all over the galaxy, and the weird and wonderful ways scientists think we (might) be able to travel around space.

Is there such a thing as a fundamental reality, something which was around before our universe came into existence and which will still remain when all matter, time, and space itself ultimately disappear? Something fundamental which, in turn, can make space and time and matter arise from seemingly nothing? Under most cosmological and physical models, the last known remnants of reality are the disembodied laws of mathematics - beyond which it is extremely difficult to probe further.

Based on real questions from children, expert author Dr Matt Bothwell has created the Supervillain Academy to teach astrophysics to middle graders. At the Supervillain Academy, listeners will learn about the solar system, galaxies, the universe, and, most importantly, the answer to the question “Which planet is entirely populated by robots?”.

How does it feel to orbit the Earth 10 times faster than a speeding bullet? What's it like to eat, sleep and go to the toilet in space? And where to next - the moon, Mars or beyond? Ask an Astronaut is Tim's personal guide to life in space, based on his historic Principia mission and the thousands of questions he has been asked since his return to Earth.

Does the universe circle around Earth? Do creatures live on the sun? Can you tell the future by looking at the stars? At one time science supported wild notions like these! But later studies proved these ideas were nonsense. Discover science's biggest mistakes and oddest assumptions about physics and astronomy, and see how scientific thought changed over time.

The possibility of life elsewhere in the cosmos is one of the most profound subjects that human beings can ponder. Astrophysicist Andrew May gives an expert overview of our current state of knowledge, looking at how life started on Earth, the tell-tale ‘signatures’ it produces and how such signatures might be detected elsewhere in the solar system or on the many ‘exoplanets’ now being discovered by the Kepler and TESS missions.

Das Wissen über das, was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält, ist nicht nur das Ergebnis herausragender Forschung brillanter Geister, sondern auch eine Konsequenz wahnwitziger Zufälle und absurder Ideen. Genau dieser höchst unterhaltsamen und verrückten Seite der Wissenschaft und ihrer Geschichten widmet sich der junge Science-Star und Wissenschaftsjournalist Niklas Kolorz. Er begleitet Pythagoras, Marie Curie und Albert Einstein, während sie quasi zufällig ihre bahnbrechenden Entdeckungen machen.

Were ancient Greek philosophers right about reality being only an illusion? What was really the biggest blunder of Einstein's life? Is everything we've been taught about the universe incorrect? In The Unobservable Universe, visionary scientist and engineer Scott M. Tyson successfully unravels cosmology from the level of rocket science and brings it down to Earth, demystifying the universe in terms that laymen can comprehend and enjoy, splitting atoms but not hairs on this magical mystery tour of the outback of time and space.

This audiobook is an exploration of infinity and new understandings of our universe which have come to light in recent decades.

What keeps objects from floating out of your hand? What if your feet drifted away from the ground? What stops everything from floating into space? Gravity. Author Jason Chin takes this complex subject and makes it brilliantly accessible to young listeners in this innovative book. His expansive but simple narrative does justice to the subject at hand, looking at the concept of gravity in a whole new way. From the redwoods to the oceans to a small island, he now takes us to outer space in this thoroughly researched, exceptional addition to his body of children's nonfiction.

The Element in the Room will take you on a rib-tickling, experiment-fuelled adventure to explain everyday science that is staring you in the face. If you are sci-curious, pi-curious or just the-end-is-nigh-curious then this is the book for you. Steve Mould and Helen Arney are two thirds of science comedy phenomenon Festival of the Spoken Nerd.

An icon of the last 50 years, Stephen Hawking seems to encapsulate genius: not since Albert Einstein has a scientific figure held such a place in our popular consciousness. In this enthralling memoir, writer and physicist Leonard Mlodinow tells the story of his friend and colleague, offering an intimate account of this giant of science.

Step into the breathtaking expanse of the cosmos with "Cosmic Tapestry," a captivating journey through the most profound mysteries of our universe. This eBook unravels the intricacies of the cosmos, from the foundational elements that make up everything we know to the unfathomable theories that predict the universe's ultimate fate. Begin your voyage with an exploration of the building blocks of the universe. Discover the mesmerizing world of particle physics, the fundamental forces, and dive into the complexities of the Standard Model of Cosmology. Each chapter is meticulously crafted to ...