CoursesCourse 7
We are stardust
The telescope showed us that we are not at the center of anything, and that the atoms in our bodies were made in the Big Bang and inside stars. This course follows the telescope outward, from Galileo’s four discoveries to the search for another Earth.
Start lesson 1Lessons
- 1 The telescope revolutionIn 1609 a spyglass was pointed at the sky. Within three centuries it had moved us out of the center of the earth, the sun, and even the galaxy.
- 2 A universe with a birthdayWhy is the night sky dark? Chasing that riddle led to an expanding universe, the afterglow of the Big Bang, and a surprise nobody expected: the expansion is speeding up.
- 3 We are stardustAlmost everything in your body except hydrogen was cooked inside a star. How the deepest picture of the sky, the oldest stars, and a spectrum of starlight tell the story.
- 4 Searching for a new EarthThousands of planets circle other stars. How astronomers find them, what makes one habitable, and why finding even a microbe would change how we see ourselves.
You’ll be able to
- Explain how telescopes moved humanity out of the center of the earth, the sun, and the galaxy.
- Describe the evidence for the Big Bang and the accelerating universe, and why the night sky is dark.
- Trace where the elements in your body came from, and explain how stars and their spectra record the history of matter.
- Describe how astronomers find planets around other stars, what “habitable” means, and what is and isn’t known about life beyond Earth.
About this course
This course covers 我们是星尘 (We Are Stardust), the cosmic origins of the matter of life. It continues from Course 6, The quantum revolution, which ended on the scale of perception: new worldviews appear at the edge of what instruments can measure. Here the instrument is the telescope, and the edge is the sky.
The argument and examples lead. Around them we add background for readers outside China, the views of other scientists where they differ, and hands-on activities. Where the numbers in the story have changed, we use the current ones, and we say clearly which ideas are settled science and which are still open.