Sisters of the Sun
"Sisters of the Sun" | |
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Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey episode | |
Episode no. | Episode 8 |
Directed by | Brannon Braga |
Written by | Ann Druyan Steven Soter |
Narrated by | Neil deGrasse Tyson |
Produced by | Livia Hanich Steven Holtzman |
Featured music | Alan Silvestri |
Editing by | John Duffy Michael O'Halloran Eric Lea |
Production code | 108 |
Original air date | April 27, 2014 |
Running time | 44 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
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"Sisters of the Sun" is the eighth episode of the American
The episode received a 1.4/4 in the 18-49 rating/share, with 3.66 million American viewers watching on Fox.[4]
Episode summary
This episode provides an overview of the composition of stars, and their fate in billions of years. Tyson describes how early man would identify stars via the use of constellations that tied in with various myths and beliefs, such as the Pleiades. Tyson describes the work of Edward Charles Pickering to capture the spectra of multiple stars simultaneously, and the work of the Harvard Computers or "Pickering's Harem", a team of women researchers under Pickering's mentorship, to catalog the spectra. This team included Annie Jump Cannon, who developed the stellar classification system, and Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who discovered the means to measure the distance from a star to the Earth by its spectra, later used to identify other galaxies in the universe. Later, this team included Cecilia Payne, who would develop a good friendship with Cannon; Payne's thesis based on her work with Cannon was able to determine the composition and temperature of the stars, collaborating with Cannon's classification system.
Tyson then explains the lifecycle of stars from their birth from interstellar clouds. He explains how stars like the Sun keep their size due to the conflicting forces of gravity that pulls the gases in, and the expansion from escaping gases from the fusion reactions at its core. As the Sun ages, it will grow hotter and brighter to the point where the balance between these reactions will fail, causing the Sun to first expand into a red giant, and then collapse into a white dwarf, the collapse limited by the atomic forces. Tyson explains how larger stars may form even more collapsed forms of matter, creating novas and supernovas depending on their size and leading to pulsars. Massive stars can collapse into black holes. Tyson then describes that stars can only be so large, using the example of Eta Carinae which is considered an unstable solar mass that could become a hypernova in the relatively near future. Tyson ends describing how all matter on Earth is the same stuff that stars are made of, and that light and energy from the stars is what drives life on Earth.
Production
Reception
The episode's premiere on
References
- ^ a b c Gannon, Megan (April 26, 2014). "Kirsten Dunst, Marlee Matlin Voice Famed Female Astronomers on 'Cosmos' Sunday". Space.com. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- ^ The Daily Galaxy (April 25, 2014). "'Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey' (Sunday's Episode 8) --Preview & Background for "Sisters of the Sun"". The Daily Galaxy. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- ^ Chambers, Becky (April 26, 2014). "Sunday's Episode Of Cosmos Will Feature Two Female Astronomers Everybody Should Learn About". The Mary Sue. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- ^ a b Bibel, Sara (April 29, 2014). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'Once Upon A Time', 'Revenge' & 'The Simpsons' Adjusted Up; 'Believe', '60 Minutes', 'Dateline' & 'American Dream Builders' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved May 11, 2014.
External links
- "Sisters of the Sun" at IMDb
- Official Fox site for the series
- "Sisters of the Sun" at National Geographic Channel