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...energies in the alternative units of electronvolts (where 1 eV = 1.60 × 10-19 J, with 1 keV = 103 eV and 1 MeV = 106 eV for convenience). This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course S384 Astrophysics of stars and exoplanets...White dwarfs and neutron stars: Learning outcomes - After studying this course, you should be able to: appreciate...

...Solar System. Meteorites are incredible rocks. For generations, their dramatic entrances into Earth’s atmosphere have been revered by civilisations as signs from deities of vast cosmic power. These space rocks act like time capsules from the very beginning of our Solar System, some 4.5 billion years ago, preserving information about the conditions at that time....

...Solar System; the Sun and other stars; galaxies and the composition of astronomical objects...This free course, Galaxies, stars and planets, is a general introduction, including scale of the universe from the very large to the very small; orbits and gravity; the Solar System; the Sun and other stars; galaxies and the composition of astronomical objects....Galaxies, stars...

...solar system. Finally you’ll think about the Milky Way, the galaxy of which our solar system is but one small part, and consider the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present. Requirements You do not need a professional telescope for this course, but you may find at least a pair of binoculars extremely useful. No prior experience of the subject is...

...energy. Even though you may be familiar with these types of metabolisms, the microbial world offers an enormous diversity of alternatives which mean they can be found in environments on Earth where other organisms could not survive. On Europa, the thick ice layer (4–20 km) prevents any light from reaching the ocean and so, if life is present, it must be sustained by the...

...Solar System, including how our own planet came to possess such vast oceans. To do this I look at water rich meteorites called CM chondrites, which probably come from very old asteroids formed early in Solar System history, and may have even brought water to Earth when the Solar System was in its infancy. I use the element oxygen to trace what water was up to all those...

...Solar System. Since Greek times, it had been assumed that the Earth was the centre of the Solar System, with other objects orbiting around it. Galileo’s observation, that these moons were orbiting Jupiter and not Earth, contradicted that long-held view and instead supported Copernicus’ proposal that the Earth and other bodies moved round the Sun (heliocentricity,...

...solar system’s largest volcano – 22km high and more than 500km across its base. It began to grow over 3 billion years ago, but some lava flows high on its flanks appear to be as young as 2m years, judging from the relative lack of overlapping impact craters. Craters caused by asteroid impacts show how old a surface in the solar system is – the more craters the...