Fun across the universe

This lecture series is interesting and fun. As a non-astronomer, with close to zero knowledge about stars and planets beyond our own solar system, I was curious to find out what could possibly be known about unimaginably distant planets, when the only data we have to inform us are tiny dots of light in the night sky. And those tiny dots of light aren’t even planets, they are stars, so how the heck can we know if these stars even have planets orbiting them, when these can't be seen by the most powerful telescopes.

But, quite a lot is known, or rather, has been deduced, by a bunch of extremely clever space geeks who have analysed the light emanating from distant stars and noticed that this light changes ever-so-slightly whenever a planet crosses in front of a star. This event, called a ‘transit’, is relatively rare, because the planet has to be positioned exactly between us and the star for this to occur. So it is roughly as rare as an eclipse would be in our solar system. But, fortunately for us, there are billions of stars out there - and so even a relatively rare event will occur enough times to supply the astronomers with lots of information about the size, orbit periods (‘years’) and composition of these planets.

So there’s lots of good stuff in this lecture series, narrated in an excellent and interesting style, and, unlike other lecture series I’ve listened to, this one is right up to date - recorded in 2015.

I learnt that the majority of solar systems in the universe have two or more suns orbiting around each other, rather than just the one as in our solar system. How come we can’t see these twin or triplet stars? Because, from a great distance they appear as just one blob of light.

And I also learnt that stars are classified by their luminosity according to this sequence of letters: o,b,f,g,k,m,l,t and y, in descending order of brightness where 'o' is the brightest and 'y' is the faintest (our sun is a 'g' star). This sequence is easily committed to memory using the mnemonic 'Old Bald Fat Guys Kiss More Ladies Than You'. This proves two things: Firstly, that space geeks have a sense of humour, and secondly, that the first sentence of my review is true.

41 people found this helpful

Fascinating!

If you 1) love looking at the night sky, 2) love wondering what or who is out there, and 3) take interest in technical details at least of middle-level sophistication (for example, there are five different methods of planet-hunting, each treated in detail and involving their own brief physics lessons), I would recommend this listen for sure! The professor is very well-spoken and genial. And the subject matter is treated with an eye to the future — no arrogance at all in assuming that what's known today is anything close to what we'll know some day. It's the past, present and future of the exoplanet search. One note: if you are interested especially in the search for intelligent life, you may be left wanting more. The bulk of the course is the nuts and bolts of exoplanetary science, and it so happens that many planets found are not thought to be life candidates. But all the background knowledge will help you appreciate why it's so challenging to find life candidates. Our technological challenges so far have actually seemed biased against detecting such planets. I think it's a fascinating story, well-told.

10 people found this helpful

Great course on exoplanets, wonderfully narrated

Professor Joshua N Winn is an MIT scientist and exoplanetary researcher who lights up this course with his brilliant narrative on the search for exoplanets starting from way back. The techniques used such as astrometry, Doppler shift, transiting planets (eclipse), gravitational lensing and direct imaging are explained in great detail in a very fun way. The course is not meant for researchers but just people with a basic understanding of science, not too much, but just enough to start with Newtonian Mechanics. Loved all of this course and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more. The new telescopes that are coming in the next few decades such as James Webb and and WFIRST-AFTA will be able to peer into space for exoplanets in the near distance as well as go into deep space. We live in very exciting times!

4 people found this helpful

Very good! you will learn a lot

This is a great book for anyone wanting to understand what are exoplanets, where are they, how do we find them and where is that research going to take us.

4 people found this helpful

wow

full of detail that was very educational and I am planning on listening to it again

3 people found this helpful

Wonderful and exciting

If you have an interest in science and astronomy, this is the course for you. Some of the math went over my head but it didn't take away from the enjoyment and I definitely feel better informed on the subject now. I wish I could take a test and see how much I retained but it was a wonderful introduction to this relatively new area of science.

7 people found this helpful

Just complex enough.

This is a great book. Don't be intimidated by the math. The formulas are given but only for the sake of a complete explanation. The ideas are clear even with my rather limited understanding of mathematics. Very up to date and interesting.

7 people found this helpful

It's not just an Awful Lot of Space

Any additional comments?

When the astronomer and science popularist Carl Sagan wrote, “The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space,” it was still unknown whether any planets even existed outside of our solar system. With brilliant, yet child-like fascination, Professor Joshua Winn's 24 lecture series on The Search for Exoplanets, explores the tools and the techniques which have led to the discovery that most of the stars you see have distance worlds orbiting them. Learn about systems containing super-Earths, mini-Neptunes, hot Jupiters, lava worlds, worlds orbiting binary stars and how techniques such as the doppler method, the transit method, the radial velocity method and direct imaging have different strengths and weaknesses that make them suited to discovering different types of worlds.Only 12 hours long, this lecture series is very entertaining for anyone who wonders about the universe above.

4 people found this helpful

awe-inspiring!

Great course, literally and metaphorically. Enjoyed listening to this immensely. A very detailed survey of the field of exoplanets but I never felt lost. In fact some of the more general physics concepts here where more clearly explained than any other course I've listened to. Hugely accessible.

9 people found this helpful

I recommend!

This was great! Lots of information! I watch a lot of space documentaries and they all say relatively similar stuff on exoplanets, so after a while they get pretty boring but this was excellent! I learned so much more from this because it went deeper into a variety of different subjects for exoplanets. The narrator/professor was also very good and likable

1 person found this helpful