WEBVTT

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We're going on a journey.

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This video depicts billion years of time unfolding 
on a 10 minute scale - from to Big Bang to today.

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Every passing second represents
22 million years.

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On this scale, humans do not appear 
until the last fraction of second.

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The universe begins in 5...

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The universe begins in 4...

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The universe begins in 3...

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The universe begins in 2...

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The universe begins in 1...

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In those first dazzling moments,

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space itself exploded in a 
burst of radiant energy.

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The newborn universe began
to expand, and cool.

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For hundreds of millions of year the force of gravity slowly drew matter together into a gigantic web,

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the architecture of the cosmos.

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Clouds of gas and dust condensed like giant water drops along the cosmic strands

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and formed galaxies.

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Neighboring galaxies trapped by their mutual gravity,

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draw together in a fantastic collision.

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In real time it would last a billion years,

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the force of gravity strips long tales of gas and stars from the huge new galaxy.

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As it evolves the universe passes through distinct eras,

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vast ages with beginnings and endings

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are marked by unique milestones:

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the births and deaths of its wonders.

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We're the product of a grand evolutionary sequence.

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Cosmic evolution.

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About which we are only occasionally aware.

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We encounter our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

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In it, stars are formed, and some have died.

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Here, a red giant star is slowly being consumed.

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Its gases swirling to the depths of a black hole.

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The immense gravitational pull of these monsters can rip a star apart,

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they tear matter from its surface, and drag it into orbit,

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this super-heated matter spins around the mouth of the black hole,

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and great jets of radiation fire from the core.

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Although these jets can be seen across the cosmos,

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the core itself remains a mystery.

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Not even light can escape,

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so their interior is forever hidden from us.

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Stars are nuclear furnaces,

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they shine until they use up their fuel.

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Massive stars end explosively.

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These exploding stars send out the elements of life:

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the oxygen we breath

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the carbon in our muscles,

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the iron in our blood.

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These are new stars, forming from the elements blown out by supernova explosions.

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New stars being born,

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from the remains of dead ones.

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And it's from this universal process of death, and rebirth

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that we emerged.

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Because it was in a nebula just like this

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5 billion years ago

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that our Sun was formed.

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Now a cloud of cosmic gas sprinkled with these elements comes together with the grip of gravity.

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A star was born, that would come to be known, as the Sun.

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Around it, a network of planets formed,

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among them, was the Earth.

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In their infancy, our Earth and Moon were bombarded constantly by cosmic dust,

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asteroids,

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and comets.

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With violent impacts

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and potent ultra-violet radiation from the Sun

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the young Earth was a very hostile world.

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The land was dominated by volcanoes

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hostile and lifeless.

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But deep in the oceans, life had begun.

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The latest theory is that chemicals, spewing from underwater volcanic vents

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solidified and created the conditions needed

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for the first cells to form.

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For some 3 billion years

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simple, microscopic organisms

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were the most advanced 
form of life on the planet.

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Some, called blue-green bacteria

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slowly released tiny bubbles of oxygen

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and profoundly changed the atmosphere.

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Some of this oxygen formed a thin layer of ozone

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blocking most of the Suns ultra-violet rays.

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In this changed environment

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new organisms flourished in the Earths waters.

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Colonies of green algae produced more oxygen.

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Just before complex life appeared,

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the world was in the grip of the biggest 
ice age in its entire history.

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Then organisms evolved an
astonishing variety of forms.

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Timelapse of the Entire Universe