Science@ESA vodcasts

Some of my most cherished childhood memories involve my dad bringing me to the IMAX cinema in Vienna. I simply loved the gigantic screen, the stunning visuals and powerful sounds. The 40 minutes documentaries were suspensefuly narrated and the topics were just exiting. IMAX movies are partially responsible for my interest in scuba diving (The Living Sea contains some of the most breathtaking underwater scenes you could find) and other forms of exploration like spaceflight. Sadly, because of a lack of funds, the Austrian IMAX, which proudly featured Europe’s largest screen, had to close, much to my disappointment.

But what if you could watch similar documentaries at home? Sure, the experience isn’t the same, but thanks to modern audiovisual technology like high definition, it’s pretty close and the documentaries still are as thought-provoking. Thanks to the European Space Agency, this is totally possible, and for free. ESA, in the context of the of the year of astronomy, has created some brilliant vodcasts that basically describe our universe, how we explore it, how we collect information for theories, and how we observe it. ESA had the great idea to release these documentaries in high def (720p), which allows the audience to truly grasp the quality and the spectacular nature of the visuals. The first casts explain basic concepts such as lightspeed, invisible radiations and the big band theory. They then dive into specific areas of space science, like Xray imagery or infared telesopes as well as probes.

So far, you can find 6 vodcasts on ESA’s site, as well as on the iTunes store (simply search for Science@ESA). Here’s a short video sample of one of the vodcasts, just to give you an idea: