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It's Okay to Be Smart: Why the Stars Are Disappearing

10 minutes 26 seconds

Now Playing As: Captioned (English) (change)

It never gets dark anymore. Light pollution is not only making it more difficult to see the night sky, but it's also affecting human health. For the past century and a half, since the dawn of electric light, humans have been losing their connection to the night. In this episode, host Joe Hanson travels to McDonald Observatory in Texas, one of the darkest places in North America, to learn what people are doing in order to preserve dark skies. Part of the "It's Okay to Be Smart" series.

Media Details

Runtime: 10 minutes 26 seconds

Topic: Science
Subtopic: Astronomy, Space Sciences
Grade/Interest Level: 10 - 12
Standards:

Release Year: 2019
Producer/Distributor: PBS Digital Studios
Series: It's Okay to Be Smart

Many hot air balloons taking off into the sky.

Still image from: It's Okay to Be Smart: The Most Extreme Life Forms on Earth…And Beyond?

Different math equations and graphs are drawn, with a butterfly as the backdrop.

Sixteen eyeballs, each with different eye color. Caption: Martin-Schultz scale.

A group of animals, a gorilla, a rhino, a lemur cat, and a scaled lizard.

Seven different butterflies, where four are placed at the corners facing the butterfly at the center and two at either side of the central butterfly.

An animal with the body of a lion, an extra goat head on its back, and a snake instead of a tail. Caption: Chimera.

A view of Moon in the dark sky. Caption: Maria, Latin for seas, and Sea of Tranquility, Mare Tranquillitatis.

A star filled night sky. Caption: P B S.

Sunlight is shining through in a forest with large number of trees.