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Cosmic QuestEpisodes

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  1. Are We Alone?

    30/30Heather Couper considers the prospects of life being found elsewhere in the solar system.

  2. Worlds Beyond

    29/30The work by contemporary astronomers to find other planets like Earth in the universe.

  3. A Plethora of Planets

    28/30How the use of infrared telescopes increased our understanding of distant planets.

  4. The Life and Death of Stars

    27/30Heather Couper looks at research that shows stars are like controlled nuclear explosions.

  5. A Star Is Born

    26/30Heather Couper looks at William Herschel's discovery of infrared radiation in 1800.

  6. Design or Accident - Why Me?

    25/30Heather Couper looks at arguments over the laws of physics and the universe's creation.

  7. The Dark Side of the Cosmos

    24/30Heather Couper looks at the search for dark matter. What we see is only a fraction of it.

  8. A Violent Universe

    23/30Heather Couper looks at the discovery of quasars - huge black holes a long way from Earth.

  9. Squashed Stars and Black Holes

    22/30Heather Couper considers how the concept of black holes gained credence in astronomy.

  10. Broadcasts from the Cosmos

    21/30How finding radio waves in space led to the discovery of the pulsar.

  11. How the Universe Began

    20/30The Big Bang theory of how the universe began and what its opponents think.

  12. Einstein's Biggest Blunder

    19/30How did the discovery that the universe is expanding impact upon Einstein's theories?

  13. Deep Space

    18/30Heather Couper traces our understanding of nebulae, island universes outside our galaxy.

  14. The Milky Way

    17/30Heather considers the struggle to build our knowledge of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

  15. Plumbing the Depths

    16/30The science of astrophysics began 300 years ago but rocketed in Victorian times.

  16. The Celestial Police

    15/30Heather Couper looks at the work of the planet hunter Johann Bode, tracking down asteroids

  17. A Planet Called George

    14/30Astronomer Heather Couper looks at how Herschel doubled the size of the solar system.

  18. Halley - A Comet's Tale

    13/30Heather Couper considers how Edmund Halley went about calculating the orbit of a comet.

  19. Newton - A Matter of Some Gravity

    12/30Isaac Newton's mathematical brilliance put the laws of physics on a firm foundation.

  20. Galileo - Seeing Is Believing

    11/30Heather Couper on Galileo's idea to systematically record his telescope observations.

  21. The Imperfect Cosmos

    10/30Tycho Brahe realised that the heavens change, and that a planet's orbit could be predicted

  22. The Earth Moves

    9/30Copernicus had the crazy idea that the Earth was not at the centre of the universe.

  23. Mathematics of the Sky

    8/30Heather Couper considers the Islamic scholar, poet and mathematician, Omar Khayyam.

  24. Wheels Within Wheels

    7/30Ptolomy wrote 13 volumes listing over 1000 stars and 48 constellations around AD 150.

  25. Philosopher Scientists

    6/30Greek philosopher Thales thought natural forces cause natural disasters, not acts of gods.

  26. Three Wise Men

    5/30Ancient associations of the cosmos with deities, and astrology's link to mathematics.

  27. Mirror of the Earth

    4/30The history of astrology began as a way of advising rulers on their military campaigns.

  28. Stories of the Sky

    3/30How our ancestors mapped the stories of their mythology onto the constellations in the sky

  29. Cathedrals of the Cosmos

    2/30Astronomer Heather Couper on the importance of the sun to ancient agrarian society.

  30. The Sky's the Limit

    1/30Astronomer Heather Couper charts the history of our growing understanding of the universe.