The Sky at Night S15E10 · The Life and Death of a Star

Overview

Stars look like simple points of light to the naked eye, but they have complicated lives, evolving from dust and gas and eventually ageing into dense 'white dwarfs.' Patrick Moore discusses the stages of a star's life with Iain Nicolson, who is a lecturer on astronomy at Hatfield Polytechnic.

Torrents

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Episodes

1. 1 1. The Approach of Mars1970-01-13Mars has now started to approach the Earth. Later in 1971 it will be as close to us as it can ever come. More Mariner spacecraft will be sent there, and Patrick Moore looks ahead t
2. 2 2. Things are Seldom What They Seem1971-02-03Our view of the Universe is always out of date! We see the Moon as it was over a second ago, the Sun 81 minutes ago, and remote star systems as they used to be before the Earth was
3. 3 3. Sirius, the Dog-Star1970-03-03Patrick Moore and Dr Vinicio Barocas discuss this star and its strange companion, a body so dense that one thimbleful of its material would weigh a ton.
4. 4 4. A Black Hole in Space?1971-04-01Patrick Moore discusses with Professor Samuel Tolansky a startling new theory about an 'invisible' star in the two-star system Epsilon Aurigae. Could this mysterious object be, no
5. 5 5. Jupiter - the Other Magnetic Planet1971-04-27Only two planets are known to have magnetic fields: the Earth itself, and Jupiter the huge cold outer planet full of mysteries which have puzzled astronomers for centuries. Patric
6. 6 6. Orbiting Space-Stations1971-06-08The Russian Soyuz flights and America's planned launching of a manned Skylab in 1973 are steps towards the establishment by the 1980s of permanent observatories outside earth's atm
7. 7 7. Tracking the Stars1971-06-30A telescope must be moved continuously to follow the stars. Patrick Moore uses his own telescopes to show how this is achieved, and visits the observatories of Henry Brinton and C
8. 8 8. How Far Are the Stars?1971-07-21The nearest star - not counting our own sun, which is a star - is 25 million million miles from us. Patrick Moore uses a school cricket-pitch to show how the distances of the stars
9. 9 9. Mars Comes Close1971-08-18Mars is at its closest to earth since 1956, and American and Russian probes are on their way to map it and send back scientific information. Patrick Moore discusses with Dr Geoffr
10. 10 10. The Life and Death of a Star1971-09-15Stars look like simple points of light to the naked eye, but they have complicated lives, evolving from dust and gas and eventually ageing into dense 'white dwarfs.' Patrick Moore
11. 11 11. Kepler, Genius and Mystic1971-10-13The mathematician and astronomer Johann Kepler was born in 1571. Tonight Patrick Moore discusses with Colin Ronan the importance of Kepler's discoveries.
12. 12 12. Mars1971-11-17Three spacecraft should reach the red planet this month, the Russian Mars 2 and Mars 3 and the American Mariner 9. Patrick Moore shows the latest photographs from Mariner, and dis
13. 13 13. The Royal Observatory Telescope1971-12-07A historic telescope recently returned from Herstmonceux to its original home on the roof of the old Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Patrick Moore talked to the Astronomer Royal, Sir