Universe Unplugged IPAC | Caltech

The host of a science show (Felicia Day) bids the viewers goodbye. Includes closing credits of the complete Astrophysics Variety Hour.

Rachel Bloom performs an original song about discovering planets around distant stars, what astronomers call "exoplanets." In the process, she educates a skeptical drone about how humans can find these distant planets without actually seeing any of the planets themselves.

The host of a science show (Felicia Day) recaps some of the key science explained in the Astrophysics Variety Hour, including what exoplanets are and how astronomers can discover them.

A charming astronomer explains to a party full of drones how it's occasionally possible--but difficult--to photograph a planet around another star, and how it might become more common in the future.

The ghost of Sir Isaac Newton is haunting his great great great grand-niece, Dr. Ivonne! In this sitcom spoof, Newton is trying to catch up on all the science he missed over the past several hundred years, and is particularly curious about the discovery of planets orbiting other stars . Ivonne explains several common techniques of exoplanet discovery including the Radial Velocity technique (detecting a "wobble" in a star), Transit Photometry (measuring tiny dips in a star’s brightness as a planet passes), and Gravitational Lensing (a warping of a distant star’s light by a foreground planet’s gravity field). He even learns that there are planets that don't orbit stars, but rather exist floating in the dark spaces between stars!

A charming astronomer explains to a party full of drones the naming convention behind some of the complex-looking names given to recently discovered exoplanets.