Cosmos: A Personal Voyage - Episode 1 (Carl Sagan)
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0:03 - 0:05Hello. My name is Ann Druyan.
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0:05 - 0:07When Carl Sagan, Steven Soter and I...
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0:07 - 0:11...wrote the Cosmos TV series in the late 1970s...
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0:11 - 0:13...a lot of things where different.
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0:13 - 0:15Back then, the U.S. and the Soviet Union...
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0:15 - 0:18...held the hole planet in their perpetual hostage crisis...
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0:18 - 0:20...called the Cold War.
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0:20 - 0:24The wealth and scientific ingenuity of our civilization...
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0:24 - 0:26...was being squandered on a runaway arms raise.
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0:26 - 0:29Then employed half the world scientists...
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0:29 - 0:35...and infested the world with 50.000 nuclear weapons.
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0:35 - 0:37So much has happened since then.
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0:37 - 0:39The Cold War is history...
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0:39 - 0:42...and science has made great strides.
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0:42 - 0:46We've completed the spacecraft recognizance of the Solar System...
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0:46 - 0:50...the preliminary mapping of the visible universe that surrounds us...
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0:50 - 0:55...and we've charted the universe within: the human genome.
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0:55 - 0:59When Cosmos was first broadcast there was no World Wide Web...
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0:59 - 1:01...it was a different world.
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1:01 - 1:03What a tribute to Carl Sagan...
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1:03 - 1:07...a scientist who took many a punch for daring to speculate...
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1:07 - 1:11...that even after 20 of the most eventful years in the history of science...
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1:11 - 1:18...Cosmos requires few revisions and indeed is rich in prophecy.
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1:18 - 1:22Cosmos is both the history of the scientific enterprise...
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1:22 - 1:26...and an attempt to convey the spiritual high...
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1:26 - 1:28...of its central revelation:
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1:28 - 1:31Our oneness with the universe.
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1:31 - 1:35Now, please, enjoy Cosmos, the proud saga of how...
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1:35 - 1:40...through the searching of 40.000 generations of our ancestors...
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1:40 - 1:42...we have come to discover our coordinates...
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1:42 - 1:45...in space and in time.
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1:45 - 1:50And how, through the awesomely powerful method of science...
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1:50 - 1:55...we have been able to reconstruct the sweep of cosmic evolution...
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1:55 - 3:12...and defined our own part in its great story.
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3:12 - 3:15SAGAN: The cosmos is all that is...
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3:15 - 3:19...or ever was or ever will be.
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3:19 - 3:24Our contemplations of the cosmos stir us.
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3:24 - 3:28There is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice...
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3:28 - 3:31...a faint sensation, as if a distant memory...
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3:31 - 3:34...of falling from a great height.
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3:34 - 3:43We know we are approaching the grandest of mysteries.
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3:43 - 3:46The size and age of the cosmos...
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3:46 - 3:49...are beyond ordinary human understanding.
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3:49 - 3:53Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity...
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3:53 - 3:57...is our tiny planetary home, the Earth.
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3:57 - 4:00For the first time, we have the power to decide...
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4:00 - 4:03...the fate of our planet and ourselves.
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4:03 - 4:05This is a time of great danger.
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4:05 - 4:09But our species is young and curious and brave.
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4:09 - 4:11It shows much promise.
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4:11 - 4:14In the last few millennia, we've made...
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4:14 - 4:17...the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries...
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4:17 - 4:20...about the cosmos and our place within it.
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4:20 - 4:23I believe our future depends powerfully on...
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4:23 - 4:26...how well we understand this cosmos...
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4:26 - 4:29...in which we float like a mote of dust...
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4:29 - 4:31...in the morning sky.
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4:31 - 4:36(SEA GULL CHIRPS)
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4:36 - 4:41We're about to begin a journey through the cosmos.
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4:41 - 4:44We'll encounter galaxies and suns and planets...
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4:44 - 4:46...life and consciousness...
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4:46 - 4:50...coming into being, evolving and perishing.
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4:50 - 4:54Worlds of ice and stars of diamond.
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4:54 - 4:56Atoms as massive as suns...
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4:56 - 5:00...and universes smaller than atoms.
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5:00 - 5:02But it's also a story of our own planet...
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5:02 - 5:05...and the plants and animals that share it with us.
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5:05 - 5:08And it's a story about us:
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5:08 - 5:12How we achieved our present understanding of the cosmos...
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5:12 - 5:15...how the cosmos has shaped our evolution and our culture...
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5:15 - 5:22...and what our fate may be.
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5:22 - 5:26We wish to pursue the truth, no matter where it leads.
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5:26 - 5:30But to find the truth, we need imagination and skepticism both.
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5:30 - 5:33We will not be afraid to speculate.
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5:33 - 5:37But we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact.
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5:37 - 5:42The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths...
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5:42 - 5:45...of exquisite interrelationships...
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5:45 - 5:49...of the awesome machinery of nature.
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5:49 - 5:54The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean.
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5:54 - 5:57On this shore, we have learned most of what we know.
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5:57 - 6:00Recently, we've waded a little way out...
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6:00 - 6:05...maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting.
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6:05 - 6:10Some part of our being knows this is where we came from.
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6:10 - 6:12We long to return.
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6:12 - 6:14And we can.
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6:14 - 6:18Because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff.
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6:18 - 6:23We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.
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6:23 - 6:26The journey for each of us begins here.
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6:26 - 6:30We're going to explore the cosmos in a ship of the imagination...
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6:30 - 6:34...unfettered by ordinary limits on speed and size...
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6:34 - 6:37...drawn by the music of cosmic harmonies...
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6:37 - 6:40...it can take us anywhere in space and time.
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6:40 - 6:43Perfect as a snowflake...
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6:43 - 6:47...organic as a dandelion seed...
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6:47 - 6:48...it will carry us...
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6:48 - 6:53...to worlds of dreams and worlds of facts.
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6:53 - 7:05Come with me.
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7:05 - 7:15Before us is the cosmos on the grandest scale we know.
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7:15 - 7:18We are far from the shores of Earth...
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7:18 - 7:21...in the uncharted reaches of the cosmic ocean.
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7:21 - 7:25Strewn like sea froth on the waves of space...
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7:25 - 7:28...are innumerable faint tendrils of light.
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7:28 - 7:31Some of them containing hundreds...
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7:31 - 7:34...of billions of suns.
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7:34 - 7:37These are the galaxies...
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7:37 - 7:44...drifting endlessly in the great cosmic dark.
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7:44 - 7:46In our ship of the imagination...
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7:46 - 7:59...we are halfway to the edge of the known universe.
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7:59 - 8:03In this, the first of our cosmic voyages...
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8:03 - 8:14...we begin to explore the universe revealed by science.
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8:14 - 8:20Our course will eventually carry us to a far-off and exotic world.
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8:20 - 8:23But from the depths of space, we cannot detect even...
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8:23 - 8:26...the cluster of galaxies in which our Milky Way is embedded...
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8:26 - 8:45...much less the sun or the Earth.
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8:45 - 8:48We are in the realm of the galaxies...
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8:48 - 8:56...8 billion light years from home.
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8:56 - 9:01No matter where we travel, the patterns of nature are the same...
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9:01 - 9:07...as in the form of this spiral galaxy.
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9:07 - 9:10The same laws of physics apply everywhere...
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9:10 - 9:17...throughout the cosmos.
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9:17 - 9:20But we have just begun to understand these laws.
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9:20 - 9:29The universe is rich in mystery.
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9:29 - 9:32Near the center of a cluster of galaxies...
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9:32 - 9:36...there's sometimes a rogue, elliptical galaxy...
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9:36 - 9:38...made of a trillion suns...
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9:38 - 9:41...which devours its neighbors.
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9:41 - 9:43Perhaps this cyclone of stars...
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9:43 - 10:02...is what astronomers on Earth call a quasar.
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10:02 - 10:06Our ordinary measures of distance fail us...
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10:06 - 10:09...here in the realm of the galaxies.
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10:09 - 10:11We need a much larger unit: the light year.
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10:11 - 10:14It measures how far light travels in a year...
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10:14 - 10:17...nearly 10 trillion kilometers.
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10:17 - 10:36It measures not time, but enormous distances.
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10:36 - 10:38In the Hercules cluster...
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10:38 - 10:42...the individual galaxies are about 300,000 light years apart.
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10:42 - 10:46So light takes about 300,000 years...
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10:46 - 10:53...to go from one galaxy to another.
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10:53 - 10:56Like stars and planets and people...
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10:56 - 11:01...galaxies are born, live and die.
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11:01 - 11:05They may all experience a tumultuous adolescence.
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11:05 - 11:10During their first 100 million years, their cores may explode.
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11:10 - 11:13Seen in radio light, great jets of energy...
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11:13 - 11:17...pour out and echo across the cosmos.
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11:17 - 11:22Worlds near the core or along the jets would be incinerated.
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11:22 - 11:26I wonder how many planets and how many civilizations...
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11:26 - 11:36...might be destroyed.
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11:36 - 11:40In the Pegasus cluster, there's a ring galaxy...
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11:40 - 11:44...the wreckage left from the collision of two galaxies.
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11:44 - 11:48A splash in the cosmic pond.
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11:48 - 11:51Individual galaxies may explode and collide...
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11:51 - 11:56...and their constituent stars may blow up as well.
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11:56 - 11:58In this supernova explosion...
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11:58 - 12:05...a single star outshines the rest of its galaxy.
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12:05 - 12:09We are approaching what astronomers on Earth call...
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12:09 - 12:13...the Local Group.
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12:13 - 12:19Three million light years across, it contains some 20 galaxies.
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12:19 - 12:23It's a sparse and rather typical chain of islands...
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12:23 - 12:27...in the immense cosmic ocean.
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12:27 - 12:32We are now only 2 million light years from home.
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12:32 - 12:35On the maps of space, this galaxy is called M31...
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12:35 - 12:38...the great galaxy Andromeda.
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12:38 - 12:42It's a vast storm of stars and gas and dust.
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12:42 - 12:43As we pass over it...
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12:43 - 12:51...we see one of its small satellite galaxies.
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12:51 - 12:52Clusters of galaxies...
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12:52 - 12:55...and the stars of individual galaxies...
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12:55 - 12:58...are all held together by gravity.
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12:58 - 13:00Surrounding M31...
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13:00 - 13:05...are hundreds of globular star clusters.
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13:05 - 13:07We're approaching one of them.
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13:07 - 13:11Each cluster orbits the massive center of the galaxy.
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13:11 - 13:16Some contain up to a million separate stars.
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13:16 - 13:20Every globular cluster is like a swarm of bees...
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13:20 - 13:21...bound by gravity...
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13:21 - 13:27...every bee, a sun.
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13:27 - 13:29From Pegasus, our voyage has taken us...
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13:29 - 13:33...200 million light years to the Local Group...
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13:33 - 13:39...dominated by two great spiral galaxies.
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13:39 - 13:43Beyond M31 is another very similar galaxy.
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13:43 - 13:45Its spiral arms slowly turning...
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13:45 - 13:54...once every quarter billion years.
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13:54 - 13:57This is our own Milky Way...
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13:57 - 14:06...seen from the outside.
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14:06 - 14:19This is the home galaxy of the human species.
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14:19 - 14:24In the obscure backwaters of the Carina-Cygnus spiral arm...
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14:24 - 14:27...we humans have evolved to consciousness...
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14:27 - 14:30...and some measure of understanding.
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14:30 - 14:34This region of the Milky Way galaxy is now usually called the Local Arm...
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14:34 - 14:39...or the Orion Arm, but the spiral arm nomenclature remains rather fuzzy.
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14:39 - 14:42Concentrated in its brilliant core...
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14:42 - 14:45...and strewn along its spiral arms...
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14:45 - 14:51...are 400 billion suns.
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14:51 - 14:54It takes light 100,000 years to travel...
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14:54 - 14:59...from one end of the galaxy to the other.
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14:59 - 15:03Within this galaxy are stars and worlds...
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15:03 - 15:07...and, it may be, an enormous diversity of living things...
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15:07 - 15:20...and intelligent beings and space faring civilizations.
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15:20 - 15:23Scattered among the stars of the Milky Way...
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15:23 - 15:25...are supernova remnants...
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15:25 - 15:30...each one the remains of a colossal stellar explosion.
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15:30 - 15:32These filaments of glowing gas...
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15:32 - 15:36...are the outer layers of a star which has recently destroyed itself.
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15:36 - 15:38The gas is unraveling...
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15:38 - 15:42...returning star-stuff back into space.
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15:42 - 15:46(PULSAR HISSES)
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15:46 - 15:50And at its heart, are the remains of the original star...
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15:50 - 15:54...a dense, shrunken stellar fragment called a pulsar.
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15:54 - 15:58A natural lighthouse, blinking and hissing.
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15:58 - 16:07A sun that spins twice each second.
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16:07 - 16:11Pulsars keep such perfect time that the first one discovered...
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16:11 - 16:14...was thought to be a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence.
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16:14 - 16:16Perhaps a navigational beacon...
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16:16 - 16:20...for great ships that travel across the light years...
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16:20 - 16:25...and between the stars.
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16:25 - 16:29There may be such intelligences and such starships...
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16:29 - 16:43...but pulsars are not their signature.
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16:43 - 16:47Instead, they are the doleful reminders...
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16:47 - 16:49...that nothing lasts forever...
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16:49 - 16:54...that stars also die.
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16:54 - 16:58We continue to plummet, falling thousands of light years...
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16:58 - 17:03...towards the plane of the galaxy.
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17:03 - 17:05This is the Milky Way...
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17:05 - 17:08...our galaxy seen edge on.
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17:08 - 17:10Billions of nuclear furnaces...
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17:10 - 17:18...converting matter into starlight.
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17:18 - 17:21Some stars are flimsy as a soap bubble.
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17:21 - 17:26Others are 100 trillion times denser than lead.
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17:26 - 17:30The hottest stars are destined to die young.
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17:30 - 17:33But red giants are mostly elderly.
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17:33 - 17:40Such stars are unlikely to have inhabited planets.
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17:40 - 17:43But yellow dwarf stars, like the sun...
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17:43 - 17:47...are middle-aged and they are far more common.
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17:47 - 17:51These stars may have planetary systems.
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17:51 - 17:54And on such planets, for the first time on our cosmic voyage...
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17:54 - 17:57...we encounter rare forms of matter:
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17:57 - 18:07Ice and rock, air and liquid water.
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18:07 - 18:09Close to this yellow star...
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18:09 - 18:12...is a small, warm, cloudy world...
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18:12 - 18:14...with continents and oceans.
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18:14 - 18:19These conditions permit an even more precious form of matter to arise:
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18:19 - 18:28Life.
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18:28 - 18:30But this is not the Earth.
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18:30 - 18:35Intelligent beings have evolved and reworked this planetary surface...
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18:35 - 18:38...in a massive engineering enterprise.
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18:38 - 18:41In the Milky Way galaxy, there may be many worlds...
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18:41 - 18:52...on which matter has grown to consciousness.
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18:52 - 18:56I wonder, are they very different from us?
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18:56 - 18:57What do they look like?
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18:57 - 19:02What are their politics, technology, music, religion?
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19:02 - 19:07Or do they have patterns of culture we can't begin to imagine?
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19:07 - 19:18Are they also a danger to themselves?
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19:18 - 19:21Among the many glowing clouds of interstellar gas...
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19:21 - 19:25...is one called the Orion Nebula...
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19:25 - 19:33...only 1500 light years from Earth.
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19:33 - 19:37These three bright stars are seen by earthlings...
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19:37 - 19:48...as the belt in the familiar constellation of Orion the hunter.
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19:48 - 19:51The nebula appears from Earth as a patch of light...
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19:51 - 20:04...the middle star in Orion's sword.
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20:04 - 20:06But it is not a star.
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20:06 - 20:09It is another thing entirely.
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20:09 - 20:23A cloud that veils one of nature's secret places.
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20:23 - 20:28This is a stellar nursery, a place where stars are born.
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20:28 - 20:31They condense by gravity from gas and dust...
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20:31 - 20:37...until their temperatures become so high that they begin to shine.
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20:37 - 20:40Such clouds mark the births of stars...
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20:40 - 20:49...as others bear witness to their deaths.
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20:49 - 20:53After stars condense in the hidden interiors of interstellar clouds...
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20:53 - 20:55...what happens to them?
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20:55 - 20:59The Pleiades are a loose cluster of young stars...
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20:59 - 21:01...only 50 million years old.
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21:01 - 21:06These fledgling stars are just being let out into the galaxy.
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21:06 - 21:09Still surrounded by wisps of nebulosity...
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21:09 - 21:47...the gas and dust from which they formed.
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21:47 - 21:51There are clouds that hang like inkblots...
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21:51 - 21:53...between the stars.
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21:53 - 21:56They are made of fine, rocky dust...
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21:56 - 22:00...organic matter and ice.
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22:00 - 22:04Inside, a few stars begin to turn on.
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22:04 - 22:06Nearby worlds of ice evaporate...
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22:06 - 22:09...and form long, comet-like tails...
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22:09 - 22:17...driven back by the stellar winds.
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22:17 - 22:20Black clouds, light years across...
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22:20 - 22:22...drift between the stars.
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22:22 - 22:26They're filled with organic molecules.
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22:26 - 22:29The building blocks of life are everywhere.
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22:29 - 22:31They are easily made.
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22:31 - 22:36On how many worlds have such complex molecules assembled themselves...
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22:36 - 22:45...into patterns we would call alive?
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22:45 - 22:50Most stars belong to systems of two or three or many suns...
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22:50 - 22:52...bound together by gravity.
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22:52 - 22:56Each system is isolated from its neighbors...
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22:56 - 23:00...by the light years.
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23:00 - 23:04We are approaching a single, ordinary, yellow dwarf star...
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23:04 - 23:07...surrounded by a system of nine planets...
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23:07 - 23:11...dozens of moons, thousands of asteroids and billions of comets:
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23:11 - 23:15The family of the sun.
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23:15 - 23:19Only four light hours from Earth is the planet Neptune...
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23:19 - 23:26...and its giant satellite, Triton.
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23:26 - 23:29Even in the outskirts of our own solar system...
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23:29 - 23:36...we humans have barely begun our explorations.
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23:36 - 23:37Only a century ago...
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23:37 - 23:41...we were ignorant even of the existence of the planet Pluto.
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23:41 - 23:44Its moon, Charon, remained undiscovered until 1978.
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23:44 - 23:48Since the discovery of Kuiper Belt objects in 1992, Pluto has come to be seen...
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23:48 - 23:51...as the largest member of this population of comets.
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23:51 - 23:52The rings of Uranus were first detected in 1977.
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23:52 - 23:56Many astronomers no longer regard it as a planet.
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23:56 - 24:03There are new worlds to chart even this close to home.
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24:03 - 24:07Saturn is a giant gas world.
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24:07 - 24:09If it has a solid surface...
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24:09 - 24:14...it must lie far below the clouds we see.
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24:14 - 24:16Saturn's majestic rings...
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24:16 - 24:26...are made of trillions of orbiting snowballs.
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24:26 - 24:30We are now only 80 light minutes from home.
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24:30 - 24:47A mere 1 1/2 billion kilometers.
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24:47 - 24:51The largest planet in our solar system is Jupiter.
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24:51 - 24:56On its dark side, super bolts of lightning illuminate the clouds...
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24:56 - 25:13...as first revealed by the Voyager spacecraft in 1979.
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25:13 - 25:15Inside the orbit of Jupiter...
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25:15 - 25:19...are countless shattered and broken world-lets:
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25:19 - 25:20The asteroids.
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25:20 - 25:23These reefs and shoals...
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25:23 - 25:26...mark the border of the realm of giant planets.
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25:26 - 25:32We are now entering the shallows of the solar system.
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25:32 - 25:37Here there are worlds with thin atmospheres and solid surfaces:
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25:37 - 25:38Earth-like planets...
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25:38 - 25:43...with landscapes crying out for careful exploration.
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25:43 - 25:48This world is Mars.
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25:48 - 25:52In 1976, after a year's voyage...
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25:52 - 25:54...two robot explorers from Earth...
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25:54 - 25:59...landed on this alien shore.
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25:59 - 26:03On Mars, there is a volcano as wide as Arizona...
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26:03 - 26:06...and almost three times the height of Mount Everest.
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26:06 - 26:13We've named it Mount Olympus.
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26:13 - 26:18This is a world of wonders.
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26:18 - 26:21Mars is a planet with ancient river valleys...
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26:21 - 26:33...and violent sandstorms driven by winds at half the speed of sound.
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26:33 - 26:38There is a giant rift in its surface 5000 kilometers long.
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26:38 - 26:42It's called Vallis Marinaris.
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26:42 - 26:44The valley of the Mariner spacecraft...
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26:44 - 27:07...that came to explore Mars from a nearby world.
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27:07 - 27:10In this, our first cosmic voyage...
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27:10 - 27:13...we have just begun the reconnaissance of Mars...
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27:13 - 27:17...and all those other planets and stars and galaxies.
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27:17 - 27:29In voyages to come, we will explore them more fully.
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27:29 - 27:33But now, we travel the few remaining light minutes...
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27:33 - 27:38...to a blue and cloudy world, third from the sun.
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27:38 - 27:40The end of our long journey...
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27:40 - 27:43...is the world where we began.
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27:43 - 27:45Our travels allow us...
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27:45 - 27:47...to see the Earth anew...
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27:47 - 27:53...as if we came from somewhere else.
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27:53 - 27:56There are a hundred billion galaxies...
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27:56 - 27:59...and a billion trillion stars.
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27:59 - 28:04Why should this modest planet be the only inhabited world?
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28:04 - 28:08To me, it seems far more likely that the cosmos is brimming over...
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28:08 - 28:11...with life and intelligence.
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28:11 - 28:14But so far, every living thing...
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28:14 - 28:15...every conscious being...
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28:15 - 28:18...every civilization we know anything about...
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28:18 - 28:28...lived there, on Earth.
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28:28 - 28:30Beneath these clouds...
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28:30 - 28:36...the drama of the human species has been unfolded.
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28:36 - 28:49We have, at last, come home.
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28:49 - 28:52Welcome to the planet Earth.
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28:52 - 28:55A place with blue nitrogen skies...
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28:55 - 28:57...oceans of liquid water...
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28:57 - 28:59...cool forests...
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28:59 - 29:00...soft meadows.
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29:00 - 29:04A world positively rippling with life.
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29:04 - 29:08In the cosmic perspective, it is, for the moment, unique.
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29:08 - 29:11The only world in which we know with certainty...
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29:11 - 29:15...that the matter of the cosmos has become alive and aware.
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29:15 - 29:18There must be many such worlds scattered through space...
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29:18 - 29:21...but our search for them begins here...
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29:21 - 29:24...with the accumulated wisdom of the men and women of our species...
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29:24 - 29:26...acquired at great cost...
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29:26 - 30:12...over a million years.
-
30:12 - 30:15There was once a time when our planet seemed immense.
-
30:15 - 30:17When it was the only world we could explore.
-
30:17 - 30:22Its true size was first worked out in a simple and ingenious way...
-
30:22 - 30:32...by a man who lived here in Egypt, in the third century B.C.
-
30:32 - 30:37This tower may have been a communications tower.
-
30:37 - 30:41Part of a network running along the North African coast...
-
30:41 - 30:45...by which signal bonfires were used to communicate messages of state.
-
30:45 - 30:50It also may have been used as a lighthouse...
-
30:50 - 30:53...a navigational beacon for sailing ships...
-
30:53 - 30:56...out there in the Mediterranean Sea.
-
30:56 - 30:59It is about 50 kilometers west...
-
30:59 - 31:04...of what was once one of the great cities of the world, Alexandria.
-
31:04 - 31:06In Alexandria, at that time...
-
31:06 - 31:10...there lived a man named Eratosthenes.
-
31:10 - 31:14A competitor called him "beta," the second letter of the Greek alphabet...
-
31:14 - 31:19...because, he said, "Eratosthenes was second best in everything."
-
31:19 - 31:24But it seems clear, in many fields, Eratosthenes was "alpha."
-
31:24 - 31:28He was an astronomer, historian, geographer...
-
31:28 - 31:32...philosopher, poet, theater critic and mathematician.
-
31:32 - 31:37He was also the chief librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria.
-
31:37 - 31:42And one day while reading a papyrus book in the library...
-
31:42 - 31:53...he came upon a curious account.
-
31:53 - 31:55Far to the south, he read...
-
31:55 - 31:58...at the frontier outpost of Syene...
-
31:58 - 32:06...something notable could be seen on the longest day of the year.
-
32:06 - 32:08On June 21st...
-
32:08 - 32:11...the shadows of a temple column, or a vertical stick...
-
32:11 - 32:20...would grow shorter as noon approached.
-
32:20 - 32:21As the hours crept towards midday...
-
32:21 - 32:26...the sun's rays would slither down the sides of a deep well...
-
32:26 - 32:35...which on other days would remain in shadow.
-
32:35 - 32:38And then, precisely at noon...
-
32:38 - 32:41...columns would cast no shadows.
-
32:41 - 32:51And the sun would shine directly down into the water of the well.
-
32:51 - 32:53At that moment...
-
32:53 - 33:01...the sun was exactly overhead.
-
33:01 - 33:05It was an observation that someone else might easily have ignored.
-
33:05 - 33:09Sticks, shadows, reflections in wells...
-
33:09 - 33:11...the position of the sun...
-
33:11 - 33:14...simple, everyday matters.
-
33:14 - 33:17Of what possible importance might they be?
-
33:17 - 33:20But Eratosthenes was a scientist...
-
33:20 - 33:24...and his contemplation of these homely matters changed the world...
-
33:24 - 33:26...in a way, made the world.
-
33:26 - 33:30Because Eratosthenes had the presence of mind to experiment...
-
33:30 - 33:35...to actually ask whether back here, near Alexandria...
-
33:35 - 33:40...a stick cast a shadow near noon on June the 21 st.
-
33:40 - 33:45And it turns out, sticks do.
-
33:45 - 33:48An overly skeptical person might have said...
-
33:48 - 33:51...that the report from Syene was an error.
-
33:51 - 33:54But it's an absolutely straightforward observation.
-
33:54 - 33:57Why would anyone lie on such a trivial matter?
-
33:57 - 34:00Eratosthenes asked himself how it could be...
-
34:00 - 34:03...that at the same moment...
-
34:03 - 34:05...a stick in Syene would cast no shadow...
-
34:05 - 34:09...and a stick in Alexandria, 800 kilometers to the north...
-
34:09 - 34:15...would cast a very definite shadow.
-
34:15 - 34:19Here is a map of ancient Egypt.
-
34:19 - 34:22I've inserted two sticks, or obelisks.
-
34:22 - 34:27One up here in Alexandria and one down here in Syene.
-
34:27 - 34:31Now, if at a certain moment each stick casts...
-
34:31 - 34:34...no shadow, no shadow at all...
-
34:34 - 34:38...that's perfectly easy to understand, provided the Earth is flat.
-
34:38 - 34:42If the shadow at Syene is at a certain length...
-
34:42 - 34:44...and the shadow at Alexandria is the same length...
-
34:44 - 34:48...that also makes sense on a flat Earth.
-
34:48 - 34:51But how could it be, Eratosthenes asked...
-
34:51 - 34:56...that at the same instant there was no shadow at Syene...
-
34:56 - 35:02...and a very substantial shadow at Alexandria?
-
35:02 - 35:07The only answer was that the surface of the Earth is curved.
-
35:07 - 35:08Not only that...
-
35:08 - 35:12...but the greater the curvature, the bigger the difference...
-
35:12 - 35:16...in the lengths of the shadows. The sun is so far away...
-
35:16 - 35:19...that its rays are parallel when they reach the Earth.
-
35:19 - 35:23Sticks at different angles to the sun will cast shadows at different lengths.
-
35:23 - 35:27For the observed difference in the shadow lengths...
-
35:27 - 35:29...the distance between Alexandria and Syene...
-
35:29 - 35:34...had to be about seven degrees along the surface of the Earth.
-
35:34 - 35:38By that, I mean, if you would imagine these sticks extending...
-
35:38 - 35:40...all the way down to the center of the Earth...
-
35:40 - 35:44...they would there intersect at an angle of seven degrees.
-
35:44 - 35:47Well, seven degrees is something like a 50th...
-
35:47 - 35:51...of the full circumference of the Earth, 360 degrees.
-
35:51 - 35:56Eratosthenes knew the distance between Alexandria and Syene.
-
35:56 - 35:58He knew it was 800 kilometers.
-
35:58 - 36:02Why? Because he hired a man to pace out the entire distance...
-
36:02 - 36:06...so that he could perform the calculation I'm talking about.
-
36:06 - 36:11Now, 800 kilometers times 50 is 40,000 kilometers.
-
36:11 - 36:13That must be the circumference of the Earth.
-
36:13 - 36:17That's how far it is to go once around the Earth.
-
36:17 - 36:19That's the right answer.
-
36:19 - 36:21Eratosthenes' only tools were...
-
36:21 - 36:26...sticks, eyes, feet and brains.
-
36:26 - 36:29Plus a zest for experiment.
-
36:29 - 36:33With those tools, he correctly deduced the circumference of the Earth...
-
36:33 - 36:39...to high precision with an error of only a few percent.
-
36:39 - 36:54That's pretty good figuring for 2200 years ago.
-
36:54 - 36:58Then, as now, the Mediterranean was teeming with ships.
-
36:58 - 37:02Merchantmen, fishing vessels, naval flotillas.
-
37:02 - 37:08But there were also courageous voyages into the unknown.
-
37:08 - 37:13400 years before Eratosthenes, Africa was circumnavigated...
-
37:13 - 37:16...by a Phoenician fleet in the employ...
-
37:16 - 37:18...of the Egyptian pharaoh Necho.
-
37:18 - 37:20They set sail...
-
37:20 - 37:25...probably in boats as frail and open as these...
-
37:25 - 37:28...out from the Red Sea, down the east coast of Africa...
-
37:28 - 37:32...up into the Atlantic and then back through the Mediterranean.
-
37:32 - 37:35That epic journey took three years...
-
37:35 - 37:37...about as long as it takes Voyager...
-
37:37 - 37:40...to journey from Earth to Saturn.
-
37:40 - 37:43After Eratosthenes, some may have attempted...
-
37:43 - 37:46...to circumnavigate the Earth.
-
37:46 - 37:49But until the time of Magellan, no one succeeded.
-
37:49 - 37:53What tales of adventure and daring...
-
37:53 - 37:55...must earlier have been told...
-
37:55 - 37:59...as sailors and navigators, practical men of the world...
-
37:59 - 38:03...gambled their lives on the mathematics...
-
38:03 - 38:13...of a scientist from ancient Alexandria.
-
38:13 - 38:16Today, Alexandria shows few traces of its ancient glory...
-
38:16 - 38:20...of the days when Eratosthenes walked its broad avenues.
-
38:20 - 38:25Over the centuries, waves of conquerors converted its palaces and temples...
-
38:25 - 38:31...into castles and churches, then into minarets and mosques.
-
38:31 - 38:36The city was chosen to be the capital of his empire by Alexander the Great...
-
38:36 - 38:40...on a winter's afternoon in 331 B.C.
-
38:40 - 38:44A century later, it had become the greatest city of the world.
-
38:44 - 38:53Each successive civilization has left its mark.
-
38:53 - 38:59But what now remains of the marvel city of Alexander's dream?
-
38:59 - 39:02Alexandria is still a thriving marketplace...
-
39:02 - 39:12...still a crossroads for the peoples of the Near East.
-
39:12 - 39:15But once, it was radiant with self-confidence...
-
39:15 - 39:24...certain of its power.
-
39:24 - 39:27Can you recapture a vanished epoch...
-
39:27 - 39:39...from a few broken statues and scraps of ancient manuscripts?
-
39:39 - 39:42In Alexandria, there was an immense library...
-
39:42 - 39:45...and an associated research institute.
-
39:45 - 39:53And in them worked the finest minds in the ancient world.
-
39:53 - 39:55(CAN CLUNKS)
-
39:55 - 40:10(DOOR SQUEAKS)
-
40:10 - 40:13Of that legendary library...
-
40:13 - 40:15...all that survives is this...
-
40:15 - 40:19...dank and forgotten cellar.
-
40:19 - 40:23It's in the library annex, the Serapeum...
-
40:23 - 40:25...which was once a temple...
-
40:25 - 40:29...but was later reconsecrated to knowledge.
-
40:29 - 40:33These few moldering shelves...
-
40:33 - 40:35...probably once in a basement storage room...
-
40:35 - 40:38...are its only physical remains.
-
40:38 - 40:41But this place was once...
-
40:41 - 40:45...the brain and glory...
-
40:45 - 40:56...of the greatest city on the planet Earth.
-
40:56 - 40:59If I could travel back into time...
-
40:59 - 41:02...this is the place I would visit.
-
41:02 - 41:11The Library of Alexandria at its height, 2000 years ago.
-
41:11 - 41:13Here, in an important sense...
-
41:13 - 41:24...began the intellectual adventure which has led us into space.
-
41:24 - 41:35All the knowledge in the ancient world was once within these marble walls.
-
41:35 - 41:39In the great hall, there may have been a mural of Alexander...
-
41:39 - 41:42...with the crook and flail and ceremonial headdress...
-
41:42 - 41:48...of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt.
-
41:48 - 41:52This library was a citadel of human consciousness...
-
41:52 - 42:00...a beacon on our journey to the stars.
-
42:00 - 42:05It was the first true research institute in the history of the world.
-
42:05 - 42:07And what did they study?
-
42:07 - 42:11They studied everything. The entire cosmos.
-
42:11 - 42:16"Cosmos" is a Greek word for the order of the universe.
-
42:16 - 42:19In a way, it's the opposite of chaos.
-
42:19 - 42:24It implies a deep interconnectedness of all things.
-
42:24 - 42:31The intricate and subtle way that the universe is put together.
-
42:31 - 42:34Genius flourished here.
-
42:34 - 42:38In addition to Eratosthenes, there was the astronomer Hipparchus...
-
42:38 - 42:40...who mapped the constellation...
-
42:40 - 42:44...and established the brightness of the stars.
-
42:44 - 42:46And there was Euclid...
-
42:46 - 42:49...who brilliantly systematized geometry...
-
42:49 - 42:52...who told his king, who was struggling...
-
42:52 - 42:55...with some difficult problem in mathematics...
-
42:55 - 42:59...that there was no royal road to geometry.
-
42:59 - 43:02There was Dionysius of Thrace, the man who defined...
-
43:02 - 43:06...the parts of speech: nouns, verbs and so on...
-
43:06 - 43:10...who did for language, in a way, what Euclid did for geometry.
-
43:10 - 43:14There was Herophilus, a physiologist who identified...
-
43:14 - 43:19...the brain rather than the heart as the seat of intelligence.
-
43:19 - 43:22There was Archimedes, the greatest mechanical genius...
-
43:22 - 43:24...until the time of Leonardo da Vinci.
-
43:24 - 43:29And there was the astronomer Ptolemy, who compiled much of what today is...
-
43:29 - 43:31...the pseudoscience of astrology.
-
43:31 - 43:34His Earth-centered universe...
-
43:34 - 43:37...held sway for 1500 years...
-
43:37 - 43:40...showing that intellectual brilliance is no guarantee...
-
43:40 - 43:43...against being dead wrong.
-
43:43 - 43:47And among these great men, there was also a great woman.
-
43:47 - 43:50Her name was Hypatia.
-
43:50 - 43:53She was a mathematician and an astronomer...
-
43:53 - 43:55...the last light of the library...
-
43:55 - 44:00...whose martyrdom is bound up with the destruction of this place...
-
44:00 - 44:22...seven centuries after it was founded.
-
44:22 - 44:25Look at this place.
-
44:25 - 44:28The Greek kings of Egypt who succeeded Alexander...
-
44:28 - 44:32...regarded advances in science, literature and medicine...
-
44:32 - 44:34...as among the treasures of the empire.
-
44:34 - 44:39For centuries, they generously supported research and scholarship.
-
44:39 - 44:46An enlightenment shared by few heads of state, then or now.
-
44:46 - 44:53(FOUNTAIN GURGLES)
-
44:53 - 44:57Off this great hall were 10 large research laboratories.
-
44:57 - 45:01There were fountains and colonnades, botanical gardens...
-
45:01 - 45:06...and even a zoo with animals from India and sub-Saharan Africa.
-
45:06 - 45:13There were dissecting rooms and an astronomical observatory.
-
45:13 - 45:15But the treasure of the library...
-
45:15 - 45:18...consecrated to the god Serapis...
-
45:18 - 45:21...built in the city of Alexander...
-
45:21 - 45:23...was its collection of books.
-
45:23 - 45:26The organizers of the library combed...
-
45:26 - 45:29...all the cultures and languages of the world for books.
-
45:29 - 45:33They sent agents abroad to buy up libraries.
-
45:33 - 45:38Commercial ships docking in Alexandria harbor were searched by the police...
-
45:38 - 45:40...not for contraband, but for books.
-
45:40 - 45:44The scrolls were borrowed, copied and returned to their owners.
-
45:44 - 45:48Until studied, these scrolls were collected in great stacks...
-
45:48 - 45:52...called, "books from the ships."
-
45:52 - 45:55Accurate numbers are difficult to come by...
-
45:55 - 45:58...but it seems that the library contained at its peak...
-
45:58 - 46:14...nearly one million scrolls.
-
46:14 - 46:18The papyrus reed grows in Egypt.
-
46:18 - 46:20It's the origin of our word for "paper."
-
46:20 - 46:24Each of those million volumes which once existed in this library...
-
46:24 - 46:30...were handwritten on papyrus manuscript scrolls.
-
46:30 - 46:32What happened to all those books?
-
46:32 - 46:36The classical civilization that created them disintegrated.
-
46:36 - 46:38The library itself was destroyed.
-
46:38 - 46:42Only a small fraction of the works survived.
-
46:42 - 46:45And as for the rest, we're left only with pathetic...
-
46:45 - 46:47...scattered fragments.
-
46:47 - 46:52But how tantalizing those remaining bits and pieces are.
-
46:52 - 46:56For example, we know that there once existed here...
-
46:56 - 47:00...a book by the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos...
-
47:00 - 47:05...who apparently argued that the Earth was one of the planets...
-
47:05 - 47:08...that, like the other planets, it orbits the sun...
-
47:08 - 47:13...and that the stars are enormously far away.
-
47:13 - 47:16All absolutely correct.
-
47:16 - 47:19But we had to wait nearly 2000 years...
-
47:19 - 47:29...for these facts to be rediscovered.
-
47:29 - 47:33The astronomy stacks of the Alexandria Library.
-
47:33 - 47:36Hipparchus.
-
47:36 - 47:40Ptolomeus. Here we are.
-
47:40 - 47:44Aristarchus.
-
47:44 - 47:45This is the book.
-
47:45 - 47:49How I'd love to be able to read this book...
-
47:49 - 47:52...to know how Aristarchus figured it out.
-
47:52 - 47:56But it's gone. Utterly and forever.
-
47:56 - 48:00If we multiply our sense of loss for this work of Aristarchus...
-
48:00 - 48:02...by 100,000...
-
48:02 - 48:05...we begin to appreciate the grandeur...
-
48:05 - 48:08...of the achievement of classical civilization...
-
48:08 - 48:14...and the tragedy of its destruction.
-
48:14 - 48:19We have far surpassed the science known to the ancient world...
-
48:19 - 48:23...but there are irreparable gaps in our historical knowledge.
-
48:23 - 48:26Imagine what mysteries of the past could be solved...
-
48:26 - 48:29...with a borrower's card to this library.
-
48:29 - 48:33For example, we know of a three-volume history of the world...
-
48:33 - 48:38...now lost, written by a Babylonian priest named Berossus.
-
48:38 - 48:42Volume I dealt with the interval from the creation of the world...
-
48:42 - 48:43...to the Great Flood.
-
48:43 - 48:48A period that he took to be 432,000 years...
-
48:48 - 48:52...or about 100 times longer than the Old Testament chronology.
-
48:52 - 48:57What wonders were in the books of Berossus!
-
48:57 - 49:01But why have I brought you across 2000 years...
-
49:01 - 49:04...to the Library of Alexandria?
-
49:04 - 49:07Because this was when and where we humans...
-
49:07 - 49:12...first collected seriously and systematically...
-
49:12 - 49:14...the knowledge of the world.
-
49:14 - 49:17This is the Earth as Eratosthenes knew it.
-
49:17 - 49:20A tiny, spherical world, afloat...
-
49:20 - 49:23...in an immensity of space and time.
-
49:23 - 49:26We were, at long last, beginning to find...
-
49:26 - 49:30...our true bearings in the cosmos.
-
49:30 - 49:32The scientists of antiquity...
-
49:32 - 49:36...took the first and most important steps in that direction...
-
49:36 - 49:39...before their civilization fell apart.
-
49:39 - 49:42But after the Dark Ages, it was by and large...
-
49:42 - 49:46...the rediscovery of the works of these scholars done here...
-
49:46 - 49:49...that made the Renaissance possible...
-
49:49 - 49:52...and thereby powerfully influenced our own culture.
-
49:52 - 49:55When, in the 15th century, Europe was at last ready...
-
49:55 - 49:58...to awaken from its long sleep...
-
49:58 - 50:03...it picked up some of the tools, the books and the concepts...
-
50:03 - 50:12...laid down here more than a thousand years before.
-
50:12 - 50:16By 1600, the long-forgotten ideas of Aristarchus...
-
50:16 - 50:19...had been rediscovered.
-
50:19 - 50:22Johannes Kepler constructed elaborate models...
-
50:22 - 50:25...to understand the motion and arrangement of the planets...
-
50:25 - 50:32...the clockwork of the heavens.
-
50:32 - 50:47And at night, he dreamt of traveling to the moon.
-
50:47 - 50:49His principal scientific tools were...
-
50:49 - 50:52...the mathematics of the Alexandrian Library...
-
50:52 - 50:55...and an unswerving respect for the facts...
-
50:55 - 51:01...however disquieting they might be.
-
51:01 - 51:05His story, and the story of the scientists who came after him...
-
51:05 - 51:10...are also part of our voyage.
-
51:10 - 51:13Seventy years later, the sun-centered universe...
-
51:13 - 51:15...of Aristarchus and Copernicus...
-
51:15 - 51:19...was widely accepted in the Europe of the Enlightenment.
-
51:19 - 51:23The idea arose that the planets were worlds...
-
51:23 - 51:24...governed by laws of nature...
-
51:24 - 51:29...and scientific speculation turned to the motions of the stars.
-
51:29 - 51:32The clockwork in the heavens was imitated...
-
51:32 - 51:34...by the watchmakers of Earth.
-
51:34 - 51:38Precise timekeeping permitted great sailing ship voyages...
-
51:38 - 51:40...of exploration and discovery...
-
51:40 - 51:44...which bound up the Earth.
-
51:44 - 51:47This was a time when free inquiry...
-
51:47 - 51:49...was valued once again.
-
51:49 - 51:56(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
-
51:56 - 52:00250 years later, the Earth was all explored.
-
52:00 - 52:03New adventurers now looked to the planets and the stars.
-
52:03 - 52:07The galaxies were recognized as great aggregates of stars...
-
52:07 - 52:12...island universes millions of light years away.
-
52:12 - 52:15In the 1920s, astronomers had begun to measure...
-
52:15 - 52:23...the speeds of distant galaxies.
-
52:23 - 52:24ASTRONOMER 1: What time is it?
-
52:24 - 52:267:15.
-
52:26 - 52:28ASTRONOMER 1: Lights off, please.
-
52:28 - 52:33They found that the galaxies were flying away from one another.
-
52:33 - 52:35To the astonishment of everyone...
-
52:35 - 52:44...the entire universe was expanding.
-
52:44 - 52:52We had begun to plumb the true depths of time and space.
-
52:52 - 52:55The long, collective enterprise of science...
-
52:55 - 52:59...has revealed a universe some 15 billion years old.
-
52:59 - 53:02The time since the explosive birth of the cosmos...
-
53:02 - 53:03...the big bang.
-
53:03 - 53:04The current estimates for the age of the universe range from 12 to 15 billion years.
-
53:04 - 53:10(THUNDER CRASHES)
-
53:10 - 53:14The cosmic calendar compresses the local history of the universe...
-
53:14 - 53:16...into a single year.
-
53:16 - 53:19If the universe began on January 1st...
-
53:19 - 53:23...it was not until May that the Milky Way formed.
-
53:23 - 53:26Other planetary systems may have appeared...
-
53:26 - 53:29...in June, July and August...
-
53:29 - 53:32...but our sun and Earth, not until mid-September.
-
53:32 - 53:35Life arose soon after.
-
53:35 - 53:40Everything humans have ever done occurred in that bright speck...
-
53:40 - 53:45...at the lower right of the cosmic calendar.
-
53:45 - 53:48The big bang is at upper left...
-
53:48 - 53:51...in the first second of January 1st.
-
53:51 - 53:54Fifteen billion years later is our present time...
-
53:54 - 54:03...the last second of December 31st.
-
54:03 - 54:06Every month is 1ź billion years long.
-
54:06 - 54:09Each day represents 40 million years.
-
54:09 - 54:13Each second stands for some 500 years of our history.
-
54:13 - 54:23The blinking of an eye in the drama of cosmic time.
-
54:23 - 54:28At this scale, the cosmic calendar is the size of a football field...
-
54:28 - 54:31...but all of human history would occupy an area...
-
54:31 - 54:33...the size of my hand.
-
54:33 - 54:36We're just beginning to trace the long and tortuous path...
-
54:36 - 54:39...which began with the primeval fireball...
-
54:39 - 54:42...and led to the condensation of matter:
-
54:42 - 54:45Gas, dust, stars, galaxies, and...
-
54:45 - 54:48...at least in our little nook of the universe...
-
54:48 - 54:52...planets, life, intelligence and inquisitive men and women.
-
54:52 - 54:54We've emerged so recently...
-
54:54 - 54:57...that the familiar events of our recorded history...
-
54:57 - 55:01...occupy only the last seconds of the last minute of December 31st.
-
55:01 - 55:05But some critical events for the human species began much earlier...
-
55:05 - 55:08...minutes earlier.
-
55:08 - 55:12So we change our scale from months to minutes.
-
55:12 - 55:15Down here, the first humans made their debut...
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55:15 - 55:22...around 10:30 p.m. on December 31st.
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55:22 - 55:24And with the passing of every cosmic minute...
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55:24 - 55:26...each minute 30,000 years long...
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55:26 - 55:29...we began the arduous journey towards understanding...
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55:29 - 55:35...where we live and who we are.
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55:35 - 55:3711:46...
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55:37 - 55:40...only 14 minutes ago...
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55:40 - 55:43...humans have tamed fire.
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55:43 - 55:4811:59:20, the evening of the last day of the cosmic year...
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55:48 - 55:52...the 11th hour, the 59th minute, the 20th second...
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55:52 - 55:55...the domestication of plants and animals begins:
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55:55 - 56:01An application of the human talent...
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56:01 - 56:10...for making tools.
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56:10 - 56:1511:59:35, settled agricultural communities...
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56:15 - 56:19...evolved into the first cities.
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56:19 - 56:23We humans appear on the comic calendar so recently...
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56:23 - 56:25...that our recorded history occupies only...
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56:25 - 56:31...the last few seconds of the last minute of December 31 st.
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56:31 - 56:36In the vast ocean of time which this calendar represents...
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56:36 - 56:42...all our memories are confined...
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56:42 - 56:44...to this small square.
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56:44 - 56:50Every person we've ever heard of lived somewhere in there.
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56:50 - 56:55All those kings and battles, migrations and inventions, wars and loves.
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56:55 - 56:57Everything in the history books...
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56:57 - 57:00...happens here...
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57:00 - 57:08...in the last 10 seconds of the cosmic calendar.
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57:08 - 57:11We on Earth have just awakened...
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57:11 - 57:14...to the great oceans of space and time...
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57:14 - 57:17...from which we have emerged.
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57:17 - 57:19We are the legacy...
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57:19 - 57:23...of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution.
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57:23 - 57:25We have a choice:
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57:25 - 57:29We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us...
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57:29 - 57:32...or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage...
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57:32 - 57:37...in meaningless self-destruction.
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57:37 - 57:40What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year...
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57:40 - 57:43...depends on what we do, here and now...
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57:43 - 57:45...with our intelligence...
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57:45 -...and our knowledge of the cosmos.
- Title:
- Cosmos: A Personal Voyage - Episode 1 (Carl Sagan)
- Description:
-
Episode 1: "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean"
English, Spanish, and Hebrew subtitles included.
Knowledge is the basis of our species, and there isn't anything that puts it's importance into perspective more than the Cosmos series.
If you like this series, buy it!
- http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan-DVD-Set/dp/B000055ZOB
- http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/4774/cosmos-carl-sagan/Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL474A7F1BA0FCEF8C
Content property of Entertainment One (www.entertainmentonegroup.com)
- Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 01:00:25
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Amara Bot added a translation |