Title:
Distant Horizons: New Worlds in an Age of Discovery
Distant Horizons: New Worlds in an Age of Discovery
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Author(s)
Larson, Shane
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Abstract
Great voyages of exploration have always been driven in large part by an
insatiable curiosity to know what is beyond the furthest horizon you can see.
Five hundred years ago, the European exploration of the globe was a central
feature of the expanding scientific and artistic explosion we call the
Renaissance and Enlightenment. Today, we are once again witnessing an age of
exploration and discovery, as we push beyond the shores of Earth, looking
deep into the far reaches of space. You and I live in an age where, for the
first time in human history, we are discovering and mapping alien worlds.
Some of those worlds are not far from home, huddled around our own Sun but
difficult to travel to. Some of those worlds are far across the Cosmos,
spinning around other suns in other parts of the galaxy. For the first time
in history, we are seeing and probing these worlds with the same age old
questions in mind: Who are we? What is our place in the Cosmos? Are we alone?
In this talk, we'll talk about this new age of discovery in our own Solar
System, and how our understanding of the Solar System has changed over the
past 40 years, during the first reconnaissance of the Worlds of the Sun.
We'll preview the upcoming visit to Pluto, and use that as motivation to
explore how the discovery of exoplanets around other stars is shaping our
understanding of whether our home around the Sun is commonplace or unique in
the catalogue of planetary systems.
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Date Issued
2014-11-18
Extent
61:20 minutes
Resource Type
Moving Image
Resource Subtype
Lecture