60 Second Adventures in Astronomy

This collection of fourteen 60 second animated clips were produced by the Open University, and funded by the Science Technology Facilities Council. They focus on cutting edge topics within astrophysics in a humorous and easily accessible way. The animations cover topics such as the Big Bang, the expansion of the Universe, supernovae, exoplanets, life on Mars, the Moon, dark matter, dark energy, special relativity, black holes and the Gaia spacecraft. They are particularly relevant for topics in post-16 physics but could also be used to introduce topics to younger children. The clips are narrated by the actor and comedian, David Mitchell.

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Event Horizons

This animated clip explains that Karl Schwarzschild worked out the distance from the centre of a black hole to point at which even light cannot return – the Event Horizon. The clip shows that it is not just black holes that have event horizons – the universe is expanding so quickly that there are parts of the...

Gaia and the Killer Asteroids

This animated clip explains how the Apollo and Aten asteroids have Earth crossing orbits and they are therefore the most probable groups of asteroids to hit the Earth. The Gaia spacecraft, at the 2nd Lagrangian Point is at a better vantage point than viewing these asteroids from the Earth.

Large Hadron Collider

This animated clip explains how the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a large particle accelerator that allows us to understand the conditions at the beginning of the Universe. Through the collisions of protons within the collider, LHC has confirmed the existence of the Higgs Boson, a particle predicted by the...

Supernovae

This animated clip explains that the Crab Nebula that we see today was from a supernova in the year 1054. The star that went supernova is now a neutron star with very high density. The clip explains that elements are created in a supernova that go on to form planets and life itself.

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