A Galactic Adventure with Ken Croswell

Program Description

Did you know that our bodies are really made of stardust? Since the first grade, Ken Croswell, an astronomer and Ph.D. from Harvard, has been totally fascinated by our solar system. Get caught up in his extraordinary enthusiasm as he discusses everything from Black Holes, brown dwarfs, the Milky Way, the red giant, quasars and collisions with floating matter. Croswell relates how vast our universe really is. “The observable universe does have an edge but the actual universe has no edge whatsoever. What is beyond our horizon, we don’t know,” exclaims Croswell. “The universe’s expansion is not decelerating, it is actually accelerating.” He addresses how pollution is a devastating occurrence with our planet. “Today it is very hard to see some of the stars. There is so much light pollution. Most people have never seen our own galaxy, the Milky Way, which is sad.” Croswell discusses a two-year odyssey, from inception to publication, of his incredibly awesome book comprised of photographs of space from six different continents.

Ken Croswell is a frequent contributor to Astronomy Magazine, Sky & Telescope, New Scientist, and The New York Times. He is the author of the book, The Alchemy of the Heavens (Doubleday/Anchor, 1995) and the large format book, Magnificent Universe (Simon and Schuster, 1999).

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• Did you ever think of your body as being from Star Dust?
• How far can the universe expand?
• The mystery of dark matter
• Black holes, the most exotic type of star
• Galaxy collisions
• Are there white holes?
• Brown dwarfs and worm holes
• What is the red giant?

Program Number: 2833               Host: Michael Toms               Interview Date: 9/12/2000