Video Transcripts

This page will provide an index of transcripts for some of the videos shown in class. We will not be posting the videos themselves due to copyright considerations, but these will give you a chance to review points made by the speakers. Initially we prioritize transcripts for recent videos that are relevant to upcoming exams, to provide an additional resource for you to use when studying.

Earth's Magnetic Field, Part 1 [pdf] - How the Earth formed a liquid Fe core, which creates the planet's magnetic field. [shown May 3]

Earth's Magnetic Field, Part 2 [pdf] - Why the Earth's magnetic field is important to life; it shields us from energetic solar particles. [shown May 3]

Planetary Migration [pdf] - It is possible for planets to move (migrate) from their original orbits after formation. We believe this happened in our very own Solar System, due to gravitational interactions between Jupiter and Saturn, with major consequences for other planets including Earth. [shown May 3]

Meteorites [pdf] - Even today, bits and pieces left over from the Solar System's formation process continue to land on the Earth - as meteorites. [shown May 3]

Inner vs Outer Planets [pdf] - Explains why the inner, rocky planets in our Solar System are small compared to the outer giant planets. [shown April 28]

Solar Nebula [pdf] - Dust grains grow to larger objects in the early solar nebula, a process called accretion. [shown April 26]

Accretion [pdf] - Solids condense and grow by colliding and sticking; this video uses a more appealing metaphor for the process, making cotton candy, than others which use the formation of "dust bunnies" as a metaphor. [shown April 26]

Protostar [pdf] - The early stages of star formation: from molecular cloud to protostar with a disk. [shown April 21]

Type Ia Supernovae [pdf] - A different kind of supernova: a white dwarf gains mass from a companion star in a binary system and blows up. [shown April 12]

Black Hole in a Binary [pdf] - A black hole "announces" its presence in a binary system through X-ray emission; features Neil DeGrasse Tyson. [shown April 12]

Singularity [pdf] - Neil Tyson puts black holes in the context of other, very dense stellar objects. [shown April 7]

Event Horizon [pdf] - Neil Tyson explains the meaning of this key term for describing black holes. [shown April 5]

Pulsar Slowdowns [pdf] - on how and why pulsars slow down with time, using an analogy with a spinning bicycle wheel. First of a trio of clips from a History Channel, Universe Season 1, episode. [shown March 31]

Crab Nebula Pulsar [pdf] - the pulsar wind nebula of the pulsar inside the Crab Nebula. Second of the trio of clips from March 31.

Millisecond Pulsars [pdf] - explains the origin of super-fast-rotating pulsars with periods of mere milliseconds; also mentions magnetars. Third of the trio of clips from March 31.

Discovery of pulsars [pdf] - the story of the serendipitous discovery of pulsars, the first recognized detections of neutron stars, and their basic properties. [shown March 29]

Tom Lehrer's "Elements" song [pdf] - the lyrics to this infamous tune, in case you want to sing along with one of the vast number of YouTube versions (mostly the original audio, with various creative graphics) [played March 29]

Neutron Capture Reactions [pdf] - a clip from Lecture 10 of Neil Tyson's Great Courses series, "My Favorite Universe" (2003), that describes and illustrates what happens in neutron capture processes, a new kind of nuclear reaction. [shown March 22]

Cosmic Soup [pdf] - a short clip featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining how heavy elements created inside stars are gradually added to the interstellar clouds, causing the abundances of these elements to increase slowly with time. [shown March 10]

Evolution of Sun-like Stars after the Main Sequence [pdf] - a 7.5 minute clip from the NOVA mini-series "Origins," covering the main post-Main Sequence stages up to formation of a white dwarf. [shown March 1]