Cosmic Voyage IMAX HD

The video uses factors of ten, to focus the viewer on the inner and outer scale of the Universe. Everything from the atom to the Big Bang, Black Holes & supernovas is shown, giving one a profound perspective of the Universe.Narrator Morgan Freeman

Equipped with his five senses

man explores the universe around him

and calls the adventure Science.

Things around us
aren't always what they seem.

ln the everyday world,
we use a simple scale, ourselves

to know what's small and what's large.

But what about the worlds that lie beyond?

What is truly large and truly small?

To explore, to observe

to understand the wider world
we call the universe:

This is one of the great human adventures.

As we look out at the distant horizon,
we may ask ourselves

what is our true place in the universe?

We are all travelers

on an unending voyage of discovery.

More than 25 centuries ago,
among the Greek lslands

here at the vibrant crossroads of Africa,
Asia and Europe

philosophers devised rational theories
about the world around them.

The wondrous waves and foams
of nature, they said

could be understood.

One Greek thinker suggested
that the Earth moved around the sun.

Another taught that everything,
the work of man and nature

was made of particles too small to see.

Others estimated the sizes
of the Earth and the moon

and the distances between them,
and reasoned

both were spheres.

But it would be centuries before we had
the tools to extend our vision

and confirm the wisdom
of these early thinkers.

ln the meantime

people around the world
gazed on the stars and gave them names.

Most assumed the Earth was the center
of an unchanging universe.

Two thousand years passed

before a revolutionary breakthrough
was made by a mathematics professor

in the ancient,
maritime republic of Venice.

ln 1609, Galileo Galilei

demonstrated an instrument
that would soon be called a telescope.

From the tallest bell towers

he showed the device
could spot approaching ships

hours before their sails were visible
to the naked eye.

Later, when he aimed his telescope
at the night sky

Galileo discovered that the moon
was a world of mountains.

Jupiter had its own moons

and the Milky Way
was a band of countless stars.

Our own cosmic voyage begins here

in the center of Galileo's Venice,
St. Mark's Square.

Since the universe is a big place,
we could easily get lost

so we'll need signposts
to give us a sense of scale.

The acrobats' ring is one meter wide.

The crowd is ten times wider,
ten meters across.

Larger by one power of ten.

Now, with every step, every ring

we travel ten times farther from Venice

and our view of the universe
is ten times wider.

The 100-meter ring surrounds St. Mark's

and 1,000 meters, one kilometer,
the city's center.

As our speed increases,
four steps, four powers of ten

reveal all the islands of Venice,
the Adriatic Sea and Northern ltaly.

Six steps take in Europe
from Germany across to the Balkans.

And soon, we can see the entire planet.

Our home in space.

Eight steps on our outward journey

eight powers of ten, and we pass
the farthest reaches of human travel:

The moon.

lf we visualize the paths
that the nine planets take

in their orbits around the sun

at 13 steps from St. Mark's Square

the entire solar system comes into view.

And with 15 steps, 15 powers of ten

we can see our sun is just another star.

From here on,
our voyage will be measured in light-years.

The distance light travels in an entire year.

Only now do we fly past
our nearest neighbor stars

almost five light-years away.

The same journey at the speed
of today's spacecraft

would last 100,000 years.

As we cross the perpetual night

our voyage takes us up and out
of our sun's neighborhood

near the edge
of a great pinwheel of stars.

The Milky Way is actually a spiral galaxy

and our own sun is just one
of a hundred billion stars in it.

At this immense scale, 23 powers of ten

each shining light we see is not a star

but an entire galaxy
composed of countless stars.

Astronomers have discovered
galaxies are flying away from one another.

The universe is expanding.

Our own galaxy, and all the others

form clusters and superclusters
of stupendous size

hundreds of millions
of light-years across.

And here, about 15 billion light-years
from Venice

we approach the outer limits
of the visible universe.

What lies beyond this cosmic horizon,
we cannot see

and do not know.

While Galileo's telescope
allowed us to take an outward voyage

another innovation,
here in the Dutch town of Delft

would lead us on an inward journey
of discovery.

Over three centuries ago

Anton van Leeuwenhoek
perfected the early microscope

and used it to study droplets
from the waterways of Holland.

Come on, over here.

As students today
make their own discoveries

imagine the moment
when van Leeuwenhoek

peered through
his more powerful instrument

and discovered a living kingdom
in a drop of water.

This busy world of single-cell paramecia

is only one millimeter across.

Three powers of ten smaller than a meter.

The microscope allows us to continue
our journey to the realm of the very small.

As we move into the cell nucleus

each new ring now reveals a world

ten times smaller in diameter
than the last.

Deep within the nucleus

we come upon
truly remarkable constructions.

Long, spiraling molecules of DNA.

DNA holds the chemical codes

for the reproduction of most organisms
on the planet.

Whether they're paramecia,
people or petunias.

Voyaging on, we see that molecules

are made of even smaller parts
called atoms.

The tiny world of the common atom
is very strange indeed.

lts six electrons seem to swarm
everywhere at once.

Now our voyage takes us through a void

that appears as vast as the space
between the stars.

Ahead lies the atomic nucleus.

So fantastically small

that if the whole atom
were the size of this theater

its nucleus would be like a speck of dust.

Yet the nucleus contains
almost all of the atom's mass

packed into particles called protons

and neutrons.

And these, in turn, are made of smaller,
more mysterious things called quarks.

Exploring this

the inner frontier of the universe

physicists wonder
if quarks might contain

even tinier building blocks of matter.

Scientists are investigating this mystery
in an underground tunnel near Chicago

home of the giant
Fermilab particle accelerator

designed to create conditions
like those after the birth of our universe.

Millions of protons and antiprotons

race through these pipes
in opposite directions

nearly at the speed of light.
A kind of subatomic demolition derby.

Now our cosmic voyage
enters another dimension

the dimension of time

where knowledge is much less certain.

Studying traces of quarks
from these collisions

physicists try to learn
what our universe was like when it began

after the explosion
known as the Big Bang.

One of them outlines the theory.

Welcome to Fermilab.

Today, astronomers
see the universe expanding.

lmagine running the expansion backwards.

Billions of years ago

everything must've been packed together
at enormous density.

lt seems incredible

but we think that the matter

making up everything we see
in the universe

the buildings, trees, people, planets

stars out to the most distant galaxies

was once crammed together
into a volume smaller than this.

And then.

Space itself exploded,
in a burst of radiant energy.

ln those first dazzling moments

the newborn universe
began to expand and cool.

Quarks combined
into protons and neutrons

which later attracted electrons
to form atoms

and the vast fog lifted.

For hundreds of millions of years

the force of gravities slowly drew matter
together into a gigantic web.

The architecture of the cosmos.

Two billion years passed

clouds of gas and dust condensed
like giant water drops

along the cosmic strands
and formed galaxies.

Where the great ridges of matter crossed

galaxies came together in clusters.

Some galaxies evolved into gigantic discs

and spirals of stars, gas, and dust.

Neighboring galaxies trapped
by their mutual gravity

draw together in the fantastic collision.

ln real time, it would last a billion years.

The force of gravities
stretch long tails of gas and stars

from the huge new galaxy.

And yet stars almost never collide

so vast are the distances between them.

Perhaps ten billion years pass

and we encounter our own galaxy:

The Milky Way.

ln it, stars have formed

and some have died.

Stars are nuclear furnaces.

They shine until they use up their fuel.

Massive stars end explosively.

These exploding stars, or supernovas

send out the elements of life:

The oxygen we breathe,
the carbon in our muscles

the iron in our blood.

Now a cloud of cosmic gas

sprinkled with these elements,
comes together in the grip of gravity.

A new star, our sun, ignites.

Around it, planets form.

ln their infancy,
over four billion years ago

our Earth and moon
were bombarded constantly

by cosmic dust, asteroids

and comets.

With violent impacts and volcanic gases

acid rain, and potent ultraviolet radiation
from the sun

the young Earth was a very hostile world.

And yet the basic ingredients
of life are already here.

Water

carbon

and energy.

Molecules, sheltered by the sea,
somehow combined

multiplied, and gave rise to life.

For millions of years,
Earth's only organisms were tiny bacteria.

Some, called blue-green bacteria

slowly released tiny bubbles of oxygen

and profoundly changed the atmosphere.

Above the clouds, some of this oxygen
formed a thin layer of ozone

blocking most of the sun's
ultraviolet rays.

ln this changed environment

new organisms flourished
in the Earth's waters.

Colonies of green algae
produced more oxygen.

Then, organisms evolved
in an astonishing variety of forms.

Some with shells or skeletons
for protection and support.

Others evolved complex life cycles,
like this tiny crustacean.

The shallow waters of the seas
filled with a teaming diversity of life forms.

Life's next challenge
was to colonize the harsh, dry land.

Bacteria were first, followed by algae,
plants, and animals.

Vertebrates appeared on land,
feeding on both plants and animals

and gave rise to larger
and larger life forms.

Some of them conquered
the realm of the air

and others, the great open plains.

Our cosmic voyage, from the Big Bang
to the appearance of humans

took about 15 billion years.

From the beginning, we were explorers

inventors and technicians.

And in a few thousand years,
just an instant in cosmic time

curiosity and technology
would take us back toward the stars.

Since it was launched into orbit

the Hubble space telescope
has captured images

that reveal ever more beautiful

and mysterious regions of the universe,
where stars are dying out.

And within the Eagle Nebula

strange towers of glowing gas
are giving birth to new stars.

ln the great Orion Nebula

discs of dust seem to be turning
into solar systems just like our own.

The grand adventure of cosmic exploration
is accelerating rapidly

taking us into realms
that once were the stuff of science fiction

like the mysterious black hole.

Here, a red giant star
is slowly being consumed

its gases swirling into the depths
of a black hole.

Some black holes may be collapsed cores
of very massive stars

with gravity so powerful
not even light can escape them.

But they can be detected from their trap
and swallow nearby stars.

For the first time in our history

we now have strong evidence
that there are planets orbiting other stars.

Scientists think there could be millions
of earth-like planets in our galaxy alone.

lf so, do any of them have life?

Some radio telescopes search for signals

that may reveal the presence
of alien civilizations.

lt's a daunting task.

But, if one day we should receive a signal

it would forever change our view
of ourselves

and our universe.

Telescopes, such as the giant
Keck Observatory in Hawaii

are like time machines
capturing the faint light

that has traveled towards us
through all of cosmic history.

The deeper astronomers look into space,
the farther back they see in time.

The more we learn about the universe

the more new mysteries we uncover

profound questions for future generations
of cosmic explorers.

Will the universe go on expanding forever?

Exactly how did life arise?

Could there be other universes
beyond our cosmic horizon?

And are there others
elsewhere in the universe

asking the same things?

Even to ask such questions is ambitious.

But look how far we've traveled
since our ancestors

took the first steps in our cosmic voyage.

Man must understand his universe
in order to understand his destiny.

Who knows what mysteries
will be solved in our lifetime

and what new riddles will become
the challenge of the new generations?