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A stellar history of modern astronomy | Emily Levesque

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. Astronomers once gazed upon the night sky and counted every star in the galaxy by hand. The process has evolved since then, but the thirst for celestial knowledge remains the same. Join astrophysicist Emily Levesque for an anecdote-rich jaunt…

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Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

Astronomers once gazed upon the night sky and counted every star in the galaxy by hand. The process has evolved since then, but the thirst for celestial knowledge remains the same. Join astrophysicist Emily Levesque for an anecdote-rich jaunt through the technological history of photographing the cosmos and learn about the one constant that makes it all work: human curiosity.

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74 Comments

  1. Magri Immobiliare - A Real Estate Journey

    December 18, 2020 at 3:03 pm

    Very interesting story! 🤓

  2. Aryan Malik

    December 18, 2020 at 3:03 pm

    Ted , plz provide a subtitle of the video so that we can better understand what they r saying

    • NazAr

      December 18, 2020 at 3:34 pm

      Isn’t there caption ?

    • Rhi

      December 18, 2020 at 3:40 pm

      There are closed captions

  3. Magnamic

    December 18, 2020 at 3:05 pm

    Amazing presentation. Thank you!

  4. Lukman Maying

    December 18, 2020 at 3:17 pm

    Great sacrifice, gives greatest success… ☺️

  5. Brahma Astra

    December 18, 2020 at 3:21 pm

    getting paid just for asking questions……..no answer then ………no answer now

  6. just a stay that will not be named

    December 18, 2020 at 3:23 pm

    Ok

  7. Nirmala Verma

    December 18, 2020 at 3:23 pm

    Maza aa gya

  8. Ligia Sommers

    December 18, 2020 at 3:29 pm

    👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🙏🏻💖

  9. Dr Zakir Naik Speeches

    December 18, 2020 at 3:29 pm

    Asslam o Alaikum brothers and sisters from team Dr Zakir Naik Speeches!
    Watch here weekly Question & Answer Sessions!

  10. Crazeee Nigrifagritard

    December 18, 2020 at 3:30 pm

    I look forward to a day when astronomers take astrology over and reclaim their rightful name and birthright.

    • chas ames

      December 18, 2020 at 6:33 pm

      Or meteorologists start catching meteors.
      See what I’m saying?

    • Crazeee Nigrifagritard

      December 18, 2020 at 8:02 pm

      @chas ames and lologists make sure that you loled..

  11. ZesPak

    December 18, 2020 at 3:48 pm

    11:21 170 000 Light years away? I really thought there wouldn’t be anything there? Isn’t that too far to still be in the Milky Way yet too close to be in another galaxy?

    • Peter Knutsen

      December 18, 2020 at 4:36 pm

      Our galaxy, the Milky way, has two small satelite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud.
      It’s thought that the Milky Way is around 100k light years in diameter, and our Sun is a little more than half-way out from the center, orbiting it once every 225 million years.
      The center of our galaxy is an extremely large black hole – a so-called super-massive black hole.

    • ZesPak

      December 18, 2020 at 8:20 pm

      @Peter Knutsen didn’t know about the satellite galaxies, thx! Only knew about the 100 000 lightyear diameter (which would make 170k well outside our “disk”)

  12. KGBz

    December 18, 2020 at 4:03 pm

    WHY are all Ted speakers just idiots….. Flat earth dopes

  13. Chef Tyler

    December 18, 2020 at 4:18 pm

    Rip chilean observatory 🙃😭

  14. Hard truth hall

    December 18, 2020 at 5:24 pm

    Yeah i saw something with the naked eye also 😅 five new planets rise up out of the Southwest night skies and move right over our head and not one word from anyone not even nasa. Oh its a fact. Go look back through the archives . In 2015 it formed a pentagon or pentagram shape.

  15. bg674dh7rd

    December 18, 2020 at 5:30 pm

    …less murdery… 🙂

  16. graham mewburn

    December 18, 2020 at 5:55 pm

    Thank you for a very informative lecture. It was most enjoyable!
    Cheers Gray
    Australia

  17. Senshai

    December 18, 2020 at 6:02 pm

    This ted talk gave me goosebumps all the way

    • freeform lifestyle

      December 18, 2020 at 7:26 pm

      For real this is how school should be

  18. Sherry McCoy

    December 18, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    Mate,You nailed it as always and this is actually the first time am commenting on your page!🤗 So much love from my side.
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      December 18, 2020 at 6:17 pm

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    • Walter Dean

      December 18, 2020 at 6:22 pm

      Please how can I get to this Mr George Williams? though I have heard alot about him,I have been seeing his name everywhere on YouTube as the best Broker,I think am done trading for myself!

    • Simon Gates

      December 18, 2020 at 6:24 pm

      @Walter Dean His availability is only on WhatsApp..👇👇👇
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    • Walter Dean

      December 18, 2020 at 6:27 pm

      @Simon Gates thanks alot,this would be helpful

  19. Lila Chiricli

    December 18, 2020 at 6:27 pm

    Could have listened longer if the presentation style was geared towards adults rather than primary school. What a shame.

  20. chas ames

    December 18, 2020 at 6:31 pm

    I seldom invest 15minutes into a TED Talk. This was time well-spent front to back and top to bottom.
    I only follow one person on Twitter; Neil deGrasse Tyson. But I’ll bet he’s a fan on Emily’s.

  21. Zenn Exile

    December 18, 2020 at 9:00 pm

    Emily is such a breath of fresh air. This is what we want to see TED. No more propaganda videos.

  22. Daniela Arias

    December 18, 2020 at 9:43 pm

    Vera Rubin

  23. Ssang Lee

    December 18, 2020 at 10:21 pm

    like ur body shape

  24. Sasha Townsend - Tulsa

    December 19, 2020 at 12:31 am

    Wonderful. Thank you for your talk. I can imagine that watching this, young people will be inspired to study astronomy, and understand the humanity in the scientific method.

  25. Lord LOC

    December 19, 2020 at 2:26 am

    I love hearing Emily give her talks. She is such a great science communicator and obviously a great scientist.

  26. Daniel Reher

    December 19, 2020 at 2:39 am

    This is so cool

  27. Nathiya Khan

    December 19, 2020 at 3:35 am

    Fabulous invention to me

  28. Yan7001978

    December 19, 2020 at 5:09 am

    Can we finally make contact with others? Send message in this direction?

  29. Amy Walker

    December 19, 2020 at 5:35 am

    Yesss💖🔆🤪

  30. Alika Andrade

    December 19, 2020 at 7:25 am

    What a talented communicator!

  31. Саша Фадеев

    December 19, 2020 at 7:37 am

    I came here only to declare my condemnation by the actions of the copyright holder in the Russian segment of YouTube

  32. Hans Landa

    December 19, 2020 at 7:50 am

    тед превратился в распространитель повесточки и рекламы жырух

  33. Doug Ewald

    December 19, 2020 at 7:53 am

    Now I finally know how the Lick Observatory got its name. Cool. Thanks Emily.

  34. Natarajan AV

    December 19, 2020 at 10:35 am

    The way she is excited shows how hard she is in love with Astronomy ♥️

  35. Space Facts Wax

    December 19, 2020 at 10:49 am

    Thank you for uploading. I had the chance to see a rocket launch in 2018. Memorable experience. I posted a pretty fun video of the journey to my page.

  36. Fatma Elnuzaily

    December 19, 2020 at 11:27 am

    Amazing talk 😍

  37. Sunil Kumar

    December 19, 2020 at 3:16 pm

    The interstellar events have nothing to do with our lives. The whole universe is mortal and will end one day.

  38. Guy Incognito

    December 19, 2020 at 8:27 pm

    Man I kinda forgot how great TED talks can be when their not about things like “the power of unborn black gender non binary handicapped elves”…

  39. Guy Incognito

    December 19, 2020 at 8:27 pm

    Man I kinda forgot how great TED talks can be when they’re not about things like “the power of unborn black gender non binary handicapped elves”…

  40. R7 A

    December 20, 2020 at 12:00 am

    Strong speech…I cannot wait to see what the new telescope can bring to our knowledge

  41. Joshfisher Fisher

    December 20, 2020 at 1:45 am

    I participated last week on Peter’s Bitcoin platform and received my profit ,I wish he could allow me to reinvent on he’s platform again

    • Joshfisher Fisher

      December 20, 2020 at 1:45 am

      Reach out to Peter roland on email or Whatsapp for guidance

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      December 20, 2020 at 1:46 am

      peterr”oland732@-gmail”.com_

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      December 20, 2020 at 1:46 am

      + 1 6 0 9 7 2 6 6 0 5 3

  42. Seymour Gull

    December 20, 2020 at 3:23 am

    the next Neil deGrasse Tyson highly potentially

  43. Aval Sirithanawat

    December 20, 2020 at 6:24 am

    Proud to be in the same UW family!

  44. Lisa Love Ministries

    December 20, 2020 at 11:12 am

    Seek God’s will daily.
    John 3:16💞
    Proverbs 8:17

    • Danny C

      December 20, 2020 at 3:34 pm

      So the Super Nova in this vid was 175,000 light years away, that’s trillions of miles away and It would take millions of years to reach it- was your god the creator of that too?!

  45. Ombremort

    December 20, 2020 at 3:04 pm

    Ever since I was 5, I wanted to be an astrophysicist. Currently, I’m in high school. Let’s see if I can achieve my goals…

    • Dana Sam Apigo

      December 23, 2020 at 2:36 am

      You can do it. Good luck!

  46. Vet Doc

    December 20, 2020 at 3:24 pm

    Loosing time&money for stuff nobody needs!
    Better save this World because its the only one we will ever have.

  47. Selin yalçın

    December 20, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    Please translate it into Turkish

  48. PhotosbyErnesto

    December 21, 2020 at 5:39 am

    Very cool and it’s great to see and hear Emily’s enthusiasm and passion for the sky!

  49. Jake Altemail

    December 21, 2020 at 10:33 am

    The dislikes are from the flat Earthers

    • Progressive

      December 21, 2020 at 6:40 pm

      lol

  50. Rubyx Croft

    December 21, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    Great talk!

  51. Jeremy JJ

    December 21, 2020 at 8:26 pm

    50 years ago a women giving a speech like this would have been unheard of. It isnt just the tech thats improved but our women granted the means and acceptance of pursuing the wonders of science.

  52. Yugant Beniwal

    December 22, 2020 at 6:47 am

    What have I learnt from watching all these ted talks?
    Me: Every video starts with audience clapping.

  53. Larry Lester

    December 22, 2020 at 1:55 pm

    Emily Levesque is such a SUPERNOVA GIRL!!!:o

  54. kusum verma

    December 24, 2020 at 3:59 pm

    This is incredible 💯

  55. just sayin

    December 24, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    Very inspiring!

  56. adonis heredia

    December 24, 2020 at 10:17 pm

    Yo miro esto para aprender inglés!. Quien más?

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