TED: Our longing for cosmic truth and poetic beauty | Maria Popova

The video explores the contributions of Henrietta Leavitt and Edwin Hubble to astronomy. Leavitt's work on variable stars enabled the measurement of stellar distances, while Hubble discovered the universe's expansion and the existence of other galaxies. The development of the Hubble Space Telescope, despite initial setbacks, revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos. The narrative also includes a personal story of a NASA engineer's daughter, highlighting the telescope's cultural impact.

What significant correlation did Henrietta Levitt discover about variable stars?

• Their color and temperature

• Their brightness and blinking pattern

• Their size and distance

• Their age and composition

What was one of Edwin Hubble's revolutionary discoveries about the universe?

• It is shrinking over time

• It is composed mostly of dark matter

• It is static and unchanging

• It is much larger than previously thought

What did Hubble's observation of Andromeda reveal?

• It was a separate galaxy

• It was a supernova

• It was a part of the Milky Way

• It was a black hole

What was the initial problem with the Hubble Space Telescope after its launch?

• It couldn't reach orbit

• Its primary mirror was incorrectly shaped

• It was too expensive to operate

• It was too small

What did the corrected optics of the Hubble Space Telescope reveal?

• The existence of black holes

• The end of the universe

• The presence of alien life

• 100 billion galaxies in the universe

Who became a poet laureate and commemorated her father, a NASA engineer?

• A Harvard Computer

• The daughter of a NASA engineer

• Edwin Hubble

• Henrietta Levitt

During which era did the narrator's father work on the Hubble Telescope?

• The 1960s

• The 1970s

• The 1980s

• The 1990s