Explore the world beyond headlines with amazing videos. Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:56:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.5 https://documentary.net/wp-content/themes/documentary/img/documentary-logo.png 337 17 Explore the world beyond headlines with amazing videos. https://documentary.net/video/finding-another-earth-within-reach/ https://documentary.net/video/finding-another-earth-within-reach/#respond Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:11:00 +0000 http://documentary.net/?p=8367

Planet hunters unveil the tricks of the trade for finding planets around nearby stars and scanning them for signs of life. Are we alone? It's the biggest question ever. And the answer is almost within reach. With so many galaxies, and each with so many stars, how could the Earth be unique? In 1995, Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz were the first to discover an exoplanet orbiting a normal star. Since then, planet hunters have found many hundreds of alien worlds. Large and small, hot and cold, and in a wide variety of orbits. Now, we're on the brink of discovering Earth's twin sisters. And in the future: a planet with life -- the Holy Grail of astrobiologists. Michel Mayor's team found hundreds of them from Cerro La Silla, ESO's first Chilean foothold. Here's the CORALIE spectrograph, mounted on the Swiss Leonhard Euler Telescope. It measures the tiny wobbles of stars, caused by the gravity of orbiting planets. ESO's venerable 3.6-metre telescope is also hunting for exoplanets. The HARPS spectrograph is the most accurate in the world. So far, it has discovered more than 150 planets. Its biggest trophy: a rich system containing at least five and maybe as many as seven alien worlds. But there are other ways to find exoplanets. In 2006, the 1.5-metre Danish telescope helped to discover a distant planet that is just five times more massive than the Earth. The trick? Gravitational microlensing.?The planet and its parent star passed in front of a brighter star in the background, magnifying its image. And in some cases, you can even capture exoplanets on camera.]]>

Planet hunters unveil the tricks of the trade for finding planets around nearby stars and scanning them for signs of life. Are we alone? It's the biggest question ever. And the answer is almost within reach. With so many galaxies, and each with so many stars, how could the Earth be unique? In 1995, Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz were the first to discover an exoplanet orbiting a normal star. Since then, planet hunters have found many hundreds of alien worlds. Large and small, hot and cold, and in a wide variety of orbits. Now, we're on the brink of discovering Earth's twin sisters. And in the future: a planet with life -- the Holy Grail of astrobiologists. Michel Mayor's team found hundreds of them from Cerro La Silla, ESO's first Chilean foothold. Here's the CORALIE spectrograph, mounted on the Swiss Leonhard Euler Telescope. It measures the tiny wobbles of stars, caused by the gravity of orbiting planets. ESO's venerable 3.6-metre telescope is also hunting for exoplanets. The HARPS spectrograph is the most accurate in the world. So far, it has discovered more than 150 planets. Its biggest trophy: a rich system containing at least five and maybe as many as seven alien worlds. But there are other ways to find exoplanets. In 2006, the 1.5-metre Danish telescope helped to discover a distant planet that is just five times more massive than the Earth. The trick? Gravitational microlensing.?The planet and its parent star passed in front of a brighter star in the background, magnifying its image. And in some cases, you can even capture exoplanets on camera.]]> https://documentary.net/video/finding-another-earth-within-reach/feed/ 0 https://documentary.net/video/if-you-love-this-planet-1982-oscar-winning-film/ https://documentary.net/video/if-you-love-this-planet-1982-oscar-winning-film/#comments Wed, 04 May 2011 12:18:52 +0000 http://documentary.net/?p=900

Oscar-winning short film on the need for nuclear disarmament. This short film is comprised of a lecture given to students by outspoken nuclear critic Dr. Helen Caldicott, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility in the USA. Her message is clear: disarmament cannot be postponed. Archival footage of the bombing of Hiroshima and images of its survivors 7 months after the attack heighten the urgency of her message. ]]>

Oscar-winning short film on the need for nuclear disarmament. This short film is comprised of a lecture given to students by outspoken nuclear critic Dr. Helen Caldicott, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility in the USA. Her message is clear: disarmament cannot be postponed. Archival footage of the bombing of Hiroshima and images of its survivors 7 months after the attack heighten the urgency of her message. ]]> https://documentary.net/video/if-you-love-this-planet-1982-oscar-winning-film/feed/ 2