and the Astronomer’s Universe

A few months ago I started creating special episodes for a segment called The Astronomer’s Universe, which is webcast on Astrocast.tv — a video cast that covers an amazing amount of info about astronomy and space science topics. This month (July), I covered star birth in a short segment titled (aptly enough) Starbirth, which you can watch below.

The process of star formation fascinates me. And, it is keeping a lot of astronomers very involved in figuring out the way the births of stars unfold. The general picture is pretty well known — that is, that a cloud of gas and dust begins to coalesce to form a star at its heart. After some time passes, a star is born, and if there’s enough material left over, planets may form.  The details of starbirth have long been hidden in the clouds of gas and dust, so when astronomers found a way to peek through the clouds (using infrared- and radio-sensitive instruments, for example), they began to see the intricate parts of the process. Now they are working to explain the process in greater detail and I think that over the next few years we’ll see a pretty complete explanation of just how it is that stars begin their lives.

That’s the story I tell (along with some nice images) over at Astrocast.tv.  And, as they say on late-nite TV, there’s more!  You can see some great segments from my producing colleagues at Astrocast.tv covering night sky gazing, the study of our own planet, and an exclusive look at the opening of Spaceport America a week or so back.  Check it all out!