My Favorite Universe

Course Overview

Let Neil deGrasse Tyson take you on a journey around the Universe and explore mind-bending concepts such as black holes, extraterrestrials, and the Big Bang. What forces molded the universe? Are those forces still at work, removing, changing, or adding heavenly bodies even as we gaze upward? Will humanity, and Earth itself, one day be gone? Are we alone?

In an era when science journalism is perhaps more thorough and ambitious than ever before, fascinating explorations of questions like these seem available to us almost every day—provided we have a working understanding of the scientific theories on which they’re based. In this lecture series, Professor Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist who directs the nation’s most famous planetarium, makes that understanding available to anyone.

My Favorite Universe is a spirited and intellectually engaging journey through the cosmos and its history, from before the Big Bang to the likely ways in which Earth, and perhaps the entire universe, might end. Created for a lay audience and readily accessible, in this course science always takes precedence over drama. Clear introductions to essential principles of physics support these lectures, including density, quantum theory, gravity, and the General Theory of Relativity. Professor Neil deGrasse Tyson also includes forays into disciplines such as chemistry and biology as needed to explain events in astronomy.

Course Structure

01: On Being Round

What forces tend to make objects round? And why is a sphere the most efficient shape an object can take? The answers will lead us across the cosmos.
Duration: 35 min

02: On Being Rarefied

Just how “thin”—low in density—is the “thin air” out of which a magician produces a rabbit? And if the universe contains components that are even thinner, exactly what does that mean to us?
Duration: 31 min

03: On Being Dense

This is a discussion of different levels of density and the inherent mysteries of this property, along with the ways in which an understanding of density helps us think creatively about the world.
Duration: 32 min

04: Death by Black Hole

Take a look at black holes, one of the most fascinating topics in the universe—including the ways in which they would kill a human being, how they wreak havoc in the universe, and some provocative new research.
Duration: 31 min

05: Ends of the World

Here is a detailed look at three scenarios for the destruction of our planet: the death of the Sun, the collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, and the heat death of the cosmos.
Duration: 31 min

06: Coming Attractions

We now know that a deposit of energy sufficient to kill off 50 to 90 percent of all species strikes Earth every 100 million years. This lecture looks at our risks of getting hit by an asteroid and what we can do to avoid it.
Duration: 32 min

07: Onward to the Edge

Take a break from the death and destruction of asteroids and the end of the universe and wonder, instead, at the enormity of the cosmos and what our place in it might be.
Duration: 31 min

08: In Defense of the Big Bang

We now know without doubt how the universe began, how it evolved, and how it will end. This lecture explains and defends a “theory” far too often misunderstood.
Duration: 34 min

09: The Greatest Story Ever Told

A synthesis of the greatest discoveries of physics, astrophysics, chemistry, and biology creates a coherent story of the birth and evolution of the cosmos.
Duration: 31 min

10: Forged in the Stars

The origin of the elements that make up life is one of the most important discoveries in any field in the 20th century, yet underappreciated by the public because it happened over many decades. This lecture presents a step-by-step explanation of the long path to a Nobel Prize-winning idea.
Duration: 31 min

11: The Search for Planets

Before 1995, the planets of our own solar system were the only ones we knew about; the total has now passed 100. This lecture discusses the tools and methods being used to find other planets that might be hospitable to human life.
Duration: 33 min

12: The Search for Life in the Universe

This lecture examines the very real possibility that life exists elsewhere, and speculates about its origins and chemical makeup.
Duration: 35 min