The Big Bang Theory (No, not the show.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNDGgL73ihY

This is an animated informational video of the generally accepted Big Bang theory. The Big Bang is said to be the beginning of the universe. Scientists used to believe that the universe was infinitely big until modern science and technology were able to see that it is actually still expanding and perhaps accelerating. This phenomenal theory is very consistent with what we know as physics today. Check it out!

The Cosmic Calendar

The cosmic calendar is a tool used to help us visualize how much has happened since the beginning of time. To understand the cosmic calendar, cram all of time since the big bang until current time and scale it down to single calendar year. Major astronomical events that occur are described by dates of a year as a scale of actual time. What I find most interesting along with what blew my mind is that all of history that has ever been written down occurs at the last thirteen seconds of the year! All of modern science and technology beginning around the era of the American Revolution happens within the last second of the year! Such a hard idea to fathom....

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Calendar

Rogue Planets

This is an artist's depiction of a rogue planet. A rogue planet is a planet that is free floating in space unbounded to any orbit. Astronomers believe that some of these planets may have once been in orbit of a star as any other planet until they were ejected for any given reason. In order to find these rogue planets, astronomers must use different techniques from the ones they use to find exoplanets. This is due to dependency of the technique on periodic orbits of the exoplanets about stars. Two methods that astronomers use to find rogue planets are gravitational microlensing and direct imaging. 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet

The Oort Cloud

This is a generated image of the Oort Cloud. The Oort Cloud, named after astronaut Jan Oort, is a hypothesized "cloud" of ice and dust particles that surrounds our solar system. It is said to have radius of about a light year with the being the center. Some astronomers argue that the matter composing the Oort cloud initially formed near the Sun but were eventually scattered to its current radius by giant planets due gravitational effects.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud

Red Square Nebula

This is the Red Square Nebula. Images of this nebula taken by the Mt. Palomar Hale telescope were first released in 2007. It is said to be one of the most symmetrical things to have ever been discovered.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Square_Nebula

Alternative adaptive optics

http://youtu.be/KwjZkeLgGZQ
This is a video the explains the adaptive optics system of a Large Binocular Telescope. Rather than adapting the conventional method of using a laser to create a false star, a secondary mirror is used to warp the incoming light rays so that the image detector would have a clear view. It is said to be so successful that it produces clearer images than that of the Hubble space telescope. Check it out!

Scaled zoom!

Check this out! It's a video of a scaled zoom of the universe. It may help put into perspective the actual distance of how far some of the stars and galaxies that we measure are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IVqMXPFYwI&sns=em