Class Discussion of Cosmos: Possible Worlds, "The Man of a Trillion Worlds"
But first, on a subject that is on all our minds:
Understanding super-spreading of COVID-19:
https://vis.sciencemag.org/covid-clusters
(Be sure to keep scrolling down to see all of this page. One or two people who saw it thought it had only one or two paragraphs.)
Assignments for "The Man of a Trillion Worlds"
As usual,
• Watch the episode; jot down your comments and notes about things that interest you or that you want to understand better. Try to have your questions in by the end of the day Saturday, but late questions are better than none.
• Formulate your questions, comments and suggestions, and post them at the bottom of this or any page at Discuss "Cosmos: Possible Worlds".
• Look over the remaining resources on this page.
Questions, comments, and recommendations from students
1) Looking for Another Earth? Here Are 300 Million, Maybe.
https://nyti.ms/38c5bHW
2) Where you can see the 'soul' of the Earth.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20201106-where-you-can-see-the-soul-of-the-earth
More to come from you, I hope !
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To Think About
• Who have been the most important mentors in your life? What have you learned from them?
• Why was it important to Carl Sagan and Ed Salpeter to envision potential life on Jupiter — the hunters, floaters and sinkers — without violating the laws of chemistry or physics? Compare and contrast these fictional extraterrestrials with those more commonly seen in Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.
• Why might Carl Sagan have thought Icarus a good name for the first journal of planetary biology?
• What does it mean for a planet to be in opposition with Earth? Mars is in opposition with Earth now (to be precise, it was on October 13). When, and where in the sky, should you look for a planet that is in opposition?
• Think about ways that scientists would determine that a star or star system has a planet or planets. How would they test their conclusion?
• How might John Goodricke have found, and convinced others of, the varying brightness of Beta Lyrae?
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Miscellaneous Resources
• Want to know more about important scientists mentioned in this or other episodes? Wikipedia is often a good place to start.
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