WEBVTT FILE 00:00:11.167.00:00:18.501 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:00:18.501.00:00:26.234 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:00:26.234.00:00:32.067 -In the beginning, there was only darkness everywhere, 00:00:32.067.00:00:34.667 darkness and water, 00:00:34.667.00:00:37.367 and the darkness gathered thick in places, 00:00:37.367.00:00:42.000 crowding together until, at last, from one of the places, 00:00:42.000.00:00:44.901 there came forth a man. 00:00:44.901.00:00:49.200 Now the man brought from himself a rock, 00:00:49.200.00:00:52.834 and he divided it into little pieces. 00:00:52.834.00:00:57.501 Of these, he made stars, 00:00:57.501.00:01:03.501 and he put them in the sky to light the darkness. 00:01:03.501.00:01:05.901 Then, from himself, he made two large... 00:01:05.901.00:01:09.300 -The mother of water took pity on the bird's wanderings 00:01:09.300.00:01:11.934 and crooked her knees to make a lap. 00:01:11.934.00:01:16.100 The bird saw it and laid six golden eggs 00:01:16.100.00:01:18.400 in the nest she made. 00:01:18.400.00:01:22.334 All were beautiful in the making, 00:01:22.334.00:01:25.968 half one eggshell formed the Earth itself. 00:01:25.968.00:01:29.200 Its upper half arched the heavens over it. 00:01:29.200.00:01:32.300 Its yolk made the golden Sun. 00:01:32.300.00:01:34.701 Its white became the Moon. 00:01:34.701.00:01:37.234 Its specklings were the stars. 00:01:37.234.00:01:39.100 Its darker parts, the clouds. 00:01:39.100.00:01:43.734 -At length, Uko heard of Lindu's distress, 00:01:43.734.00:01:45.901 and he resolved to help her. 00:01:45.901.00:01:51.367 He ordered the winds to carry his weeping daughter to the sky. 00:01:51.367.00:01:57.868 They lifted her gently, and put her down in the blue firmament. 00:01:57.868.00:02:01.234 There, Lindu dwells. 00:02:01.234.00:02:06.100 Her white bridal veil spreads from one end of the sky 00:02:06.100.00:02:07.968 to the other. 00:02:07.968.00:02:09.968 Everyone who looks at the Milky Way 00:02:09.968.00:02:13.834 sees Lindu's white bridal robes. 00:02:13.834.00:02:16.367 She has forgotten her sorrow. 00:02:16.367.00:02:18.033 At midnight, she waves her hair... 00:02:18.033.00:02:20.400 -...but Kweku Tsin was pulled to safety. 00:02:20.400.00:02:22.934 The sky gods were so pleased with Kweku Tsin, 00:02:22.934.00:02:24.567 they made him the Sun, 00:02:24.567.00:02:28.200 Anansi became the moon, and the other captives became stars. 00:02:28.200.00:02:29.734 Kweku Tsin supplied them all... 00:02:29.734.00:02:33.067 -In the beginning, the Sun and the Moon were man and wife. 00:02:33.067.00:02:35.934 The Moon bore the Sun many children, 00:02:35.934.00:02:38.701 and they were called stars. 00:02:38.701.00:02:43.801 -After a long journey, they came to a round hole in the sky 00:02:43.801.00:02:45.801 glowing like fire. 00:02:45.801.00:02:49.033 This, the raven said, was a star. 00:02:49.033.00:02:51.300 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:02:51.300.00:02:52.834 -The Cosmos: 00:02:52.834.00:02:56.033 When ancient storytellers created these tales, 00:02:56.033.00:03:00.167 they were trying to explain its mysteries. 00:03:00.167.00:03:02.667 Though the mysteries they pondered were great, 00:03:02.667.00:03:04.300 what they could see of the universe 00:03:04.300.00:03:06.434 was comparatively small. 00:03:06.434.00:03:10.834 With the unaided eye, man could see only the Sun, the Moon, 00:03:10.834.00:03:15.968 five of the nine planets, comets, and some 5,000 stars. 00:03:15.968.00:03:18.567 In the early 1600s, Galileo, 00:03:18.567.00:03:20.801 armed with an insatiable curiosity 00:03:20.801.00:03:22.834 and a rudimentary telescope, 00:03:22.834.00:03:24.300 opened the heavens wider 00:03:24.300.00:03:27.734 to scientific examination than ever before. 00:03:27.734.00:03:33.267 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:03:33.267.00:03:37.200 Today, some 400 years later, we know the universe 00:03:37.200.00:03:39.701 to be inconceivably immense, 00:03:39.701.00:03:42.334 so large that we've had to devise new numbers 00:03:42.334.00:03:44.767 to describe it. 00:03:44.767.00:03:48.634 And in man's unending quest to understand the universe, 00:03:48.634.00:03:50.634 our ancient folktales have given way 00:03:50.634.00:03:53.667 to modern scientific theories. 00:03:53.667.00:03:57.767 These theories, too, try to explain our universe, 00:03:57.767.00:04:00.501 but where folktales were accepted on the authority 00:04:00.501.00:04:05.367 of the teller, scientific theories must be proven. 00:04:05.367.00:04:09.234 Astronomers and astrophysicists use telescopes 00:04:09.234.00:04:13.968 to observe the heavens in their continuing search for proof, 00:04:13.968.00:04:18.167 but earthbound telescopes, from Galileo's simple instrument 00:04:18.167.00:04:21.234 to our modern mountaintop observatories, 00:04:21.234.00:04:25.567 are all hampered by Earth's turbulent atmosphere, 00:04:25.567.00:04:29.334 so the best place for an observatory is in the heavens, 00:04:29.334.00:04:32.400 out among the stars themselves, 00:04:32.400.00:04:35.000 and NASA's space shuttle has given us 00:04:35.000.00:04:37.100 the means to put one there. 00:04:37.100.00:04:44.467 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:04:44.467.00:04:51.834 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:04:51.834.00:04:59.200 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:04:59.200.00:05:01.834 With an unobstructed view of the universe 00:05:01.834.00:05:06.367 from its orbit some 350 miles above Earth. 00:05:06.367.00:05:08.067 the Hubble Space Telescope 00:05:08.067.00:05:11.467 will be the fulfillment of the astronomer's dream. 00:05:11.467.00:05:16.901 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:05:16.901.00:05:21.234 This Space Telescope will see objects some 25 times fainter 00:05:21.234.00:05:25.133 than can be seen using the largest telescope on Earth 00:05:25.133.00:05:27.000 and will distinguish details 00:05:27.000.00:05:30.033 10 to 30 times more clearly 00:05:30.033.00:05:33.734 than is possible from the ground. 00:05:33.734.00:05:37.167 The new observatory in space will produce images 00:05:37.167.00:05:39.767 of unprecedented clarity, 00:05:39.767.00:05:41.701 images made possible not only 00:05:41.701.00:05:45.033 because of the telescope's vantage point in space 00:05:45.033.00:05:46.234 but also because 00:05:46.234.00:05:50.400 it is the finest optical telescope ever built. 00:05:50.400.00:05:52.467 The Space Telescope's mirrors 00:05:52.467.00:05:57.000 are the most perfect of their size ever made. 00:05:57.000.00:06:01.300 Since the telescope is free of Earth's distorting atmosphere, 00:06:01.300.00:06:04.267 optical scientists labored long and hard 00:06:04.267.00:06:08.534 to create virtually perfect mirrors for the new telescope, 00:06:08.534.00:06:10.000 mirrors that will take advantage 00:06:10.000.00:06:12.400 of the clear conditions in space, 00:06:12.400.00:06:16.067 mirrors that won't add distortion where there is none. 00:06:16.067.00:06:19.834 The mirrors, of course, are just part of the picture. 00:06:19.834.00:06:21.901 To make the most of the mirrors, 00:06:21.901.00:06:25.601 the Space Telescope must keep them precisely aligned 00:06:25.601.00:06:30.167 and hold them absolutely steady for hours at a time, 00:06:30.167.00:06:32.767 so the mirrors are mounted in a strong 00:06:32.767.00:06:37.634 but lightweight framework made out of graphite epoxy 00:06:37.634.00:06:40.834 that will hold the telescope's optics stable 00:06:40.834.00:06:44.567 as it orbits the Earth once every 96 minutes, 00:06:44.567.00:06:48.133 moving from the blazing warmth of our celestial furnace, 00:06:48.133.00:06:52.701 the Sun, to the icy chill of night in space. 00:06:52.701.00:06:55.801 Still, stable optics are useless 00:06:55.801.00:06:59.501 if the entire telescope jitters in space. 00:06:59.501.00:07:03.000 On Earth, we use the bedrock of a mountaintop 00:07:03.000.00:07:05.167 to steady a telescope, 00:07:05.167.00:07:09.667 but what steadies a telescope in zero gravity? 00:07:09.667.00:07:13.267 The Space Telescope uses a sophisticated system 00:07:13.267.00:07:16.634 to locate a target and hold steady on it 00:07:16.634.00:07:19.501 even though the telescope is continually moving 00:07:19.501.00:07:21.868 as it orbits the Earth. 00:07:21.868.00:07:25.067 Gyros provide a reference so that the telescope 00:07:25.067.00:07:28.234 always knows its orientation. 00:07:28.234.00:07:33.000 Star trackers and fine-guidance sensors lock onto guide stars 00:07:33.000.00:07:37.300 and use them to point the telescope at a target. 00:07:37.300.00:07:40.868 With this system, the Space Telescope can remain locked 00:07:40.868.00:07:44.133 on a target for hours at a time. 00:07:44.133.00:07:47.501 The entire system is extremely precise, 00:07:47.501.00:07:50.434 so precise that it's like being able to hold steady 00:07:50.434.00:07:54.534 on a dime suspended over the Washington Monument 00:07:54.534.00:07:58.567 from the top of New York's World Trade Center. 00:07:58.567.00:08:00.934 The light collected and focused 00:08:00.934.00:08:04.200 by the telescope's precise optical assembly 00:08:04.200.00:08:07.968 is shared by several scientific instruments. 00:08:07.968.00:08:12.267 The instruments use advanced light detectors and electronics 00:08:12.267.00:08:14.534 to measure and record light 00:08:14.534.00:08:16.501 or separate it into its different 00:08:16.501.00:08:18.200 components for analysis. 00:08:18.200.00:08:20.934 -[Indistinct] -All the instruments are mounted 00:08:20.934.00:08:24.200 so that they can be easily changed on orbit, 00:08:24.200.00:08:27.067 either for a replacement or a new instrument. 00:08:27.067.00:08:32.133 -Straight back radial out from the telescope. 00:08:32.133.00:08:35.834 -All the telescope's instruments and systems 00:08:35.834.00:08:39.000 get their power from the Sun. 00:08:39.000.00:08:43.000 Space Telescope project engineer, Gene Oliver. 00:08:43.000.00:08:44.367 -The Hubble Space Telescope 00:08:44.367.00:08:47.567 is the most fantastic telescope ever built. 00:08:47.567.00:08:48.901 It's not just good. 00:08:48.901.00:08:51.534 It's the best, and it took the combined efforts 00:08:51.534.00:08:53.133 of hundreds of scientists, 00:08:53.133.00:08:55.400 engineers and other professional people 00:08:55.400.00:08:59.968 working as a team for many years to make it the best. 00:08:59.968.00:09:02.634 -Once free of the confines of Earth, 00:09:02.634.00:09:05.300 this precise scientific instrument 00:09:05.300.00:09:08.634 will give astronomers a clear view deeper 00:09:08.634.00:09:11.767 into space than they've ever seen before. 00:09:11.767.00:09:15.200 They'll actually be seeing back in time. 00:09:15.200.00:09:17.968 Space Telescope principal investigator, 00:09:17.968.00:09:20.133 Professor James Westphal. 00:09:20.133.00:09:23.100 -It's because it takes time for light to go 00:09:23.100.00:09:25.501 from one place to the other. 00:09:25.501.00:09:27.701 As an example, it takes about 8 minutes 00:09:27.701.00:09:30.200 for the light from the Sun to get to the Earth, 00:09:30.200.00:09:34.801 so we really are seeing the Sun as it looked 8 minutes ago. 00:09:34.801.00:09:36.534 If we look at Jupiter, it took 30 minutes 00:09:36.534.00:09:37.834 for that light to get here, 00:09:37.834.00:09:41.901 so we are really seeing Jupiter in the same way 00:09:41.901.00:09:44.901 as it was 30 minutes ago, not as it is really right now. 00:09:44.901.00:09:46.234 Or the North Star, for instance, 00:09:46.234.00:09:48.868 it takes about 50 years for the light to get here, 00:09:48.868.00:09:51.534 so who knows what's happened to the North Star 00:09:51.534.00:09:53.133 in the last 50 years. 00:09:53.133.00:09:55.634 If we look at faraway galaxies, 00:09:55.634.00:09:58.400 say a galaxy that takes a million years 00:09:58.400.00:09:59.968 for the light to get here, 00:09:59.968.00:10:03.133 we're really seeing the galaxy as it was a million years ago, 00:10:03.133.00:10:04.567 and we even look at galaxies 00:10:04.567.00:10:08.033 that are probably a billion years away. 00:10:08.033.00:10:11.367 We're time traveling back in a sense to see those galaxies 00:10:11.367.00:10:13.300 as they were a billion years ago. 00:10:13.300.00:10:17.367 To look further back in time, we look deeper into space. 00:10:17.367.00:10:20.501 -For example, looking at this quasar 00:10:20.501.00:10:23.467 is seeing back 10 billion years 00:10:23.467.00:10:27.133 because its light takes that long to reach Earth. 00:10:27.133.00:10:29.234 Let's follow the quasar's light 00:10:29.234.00:10:33.400 as it travels over 10 billion years. 00:10:33.400.00:10:37.100 When the light first began its intergalactic journey, 00:10:37.100.00:10:40.200 our galaxy was nothing but a swirling cloud 00:10:40.200.00:10:43.200 of cosmic dust and gas. 00:10:43.200.00:10:47.234 While the quasar's light traveled for billions of years, 00:10:47.234.00:10:50.067 this dust and gas coalesced 00:10:50.067.00:10:54.067 to form the 100 billion stars of the Milky Way, 00:10:54.067.00:10:56.968 including our Sun and its satellites. 00:10:59.334.00:11:02.367 As the light now reaches our Solar System, 00:11:02.367.00:11:04.734 life on Earth has evolved enough 00:11:04.734.00:11:08.901 for man to orbit a space telescope above the atmosphere 00:11:08.901.00:11:13.100 with sensitive instruments that can detect the light. 00:11:13.100.00:11:17.300 What we see is a snapshot frozen in time, 00:11:17.300.00:11:22.868 the image of the quasar as it existed 10 billion years ago. 00:11:22.868.00:11:25.133 -Quasar has continued to change. 00:11:25.133.00:11:26.367 It's going away from us, 00:11:26.367.00:11:28.234 probably, and it's even, in fact, 00:11:28.234.00:11:31.367 likely that it doesn't even exist anymore now. 00:11:31.367.00:11:36.334 -Clearly, a telescope is a time machine using light 00:11:36.334.00:11:39.300 to transport us into the past. 00:11:39.300.00:11:42.100 Astronomers using the Space Telescope 00:11:42.100.00:11:44.334 will be modern-day explorers 00:11:44.334.00:11:47.801 venturing out in both space and time. 00:11:47.801.00:11:51.667 Their quest is the same quest that has occupied man 00:11:51.667.00:11:53.534 throughout the ages -- 00:11:53.534.00:11:56.701 to understand the mysteries of our origin, 00:11:56.701.00:12:00.300 evolution, and ultimate fate. 00:12:00.300.00:12:04.234 For modern astronomers, this understanding will be found 00:12:04.234.00:12:08.534 in the refinement and proof of scientific theories, 00:12:08.534.00:12:13.234 theories like the Big Bang. 00:12:13.234.00:12:19.200 -In the beginning, our universe arose from a compacted region 00:12:19.200.00:12:23.567 of pure, exquisitely hot energy, 00:12:23.567.00:12:27.868 billions of times smaller than a single atom. 00:12:27.868.00:12:32.400 In the merest instant, an ultra hot explosion 00:12:32.400.00:12:38.133 brought space and time, matter, and energy into being. 00:12:38.133.00:12:42.400 The Universe expanded and cooled. 00:12:42.400.00:12:45.400 Primordial particles could clump together, 00:12:45.400.00:12:47.801 forming the first atoms. 00:12:47.801.00:12:54.267 Over billions of years, these building blocks of matter formed 00:12:54.267.00:12:59.567 and reformed into the universe we see today, 00:12:59.567.00:13:07.534 a universe inconceivably large and dark 00:13:07.534.00:13:15.634 and sparsely populated with little islands of starlight. 00:13:15.634.00:13:19.033 -But will this expansion continue forever, 00:13:19.033.00:13:23.601 or will the universe ultimately collapse back on itself? 00:13:23.601.00:13:28.601 Space Telescope program scientist, Dr. Ed Weiler. 00:13:28.601.00:13:30.133 -We know the universe is expanding 00:13:30.133.00:13:32.501 because no matter which direction we look at, 00:13:32.501.00:13:35.267 we see galaxies moving away from us. 00:13:35.267.00:13:37.667 We also know there's a lot of matter in this universe, 00:13:37.667.00:13:40.067 galaxies, stars, planets, etc., 00:13:40.067.00:13:43.100 which exerts a gravitational pull 00:13:43.100.00:13:44.901 that's slowing this expansion down. 00:13:44.901.00:13:47.234 What we don't know is whether there's enough matter 00:13:47.234.00:13:50.133 or not to eventually stop this expansion 00:13:50.133.00:13:51.968 so that it collapses someday 00:13:51.968.00:13:53.801 or whether this expansion will keep going on 00:13:53.801.00:13:55.667 and on and on forever. 00:13:55.667.00:13:57.968 To attempt to find an answer to this question, 00:13:57.968.00:14:02.200 what we need to do is plot the velocities of galaxies 00:14:02.200.00:14:04.300 at further and further distances. 00:14:04.300.00:14:06.934 To do that, we need mile posts in those galaxies, 00:14:06.934.00:14:09.601 very bright mile posts so that we can see them very far away, 00:14:09.601.00:14:11.734 and what is a mile post? 00:14:11.734.00:14:14.767 It's an object for which we have a great deal of information 00:14:14.767.00:14:17.601 and therefore can determine its distance. 00:14:17.601.00:14:20.834 -Supernovae are excellent mile posts. 00:14:20.834.00:14:23.767 Because we know their absolute brightness, 00:14:23.767.00:14:27.334 we can calculate their distance from us. 00:14:27.334.00:14:30.767 For example, we know the recent supernova 00:14:30.767.00:14:36.968 in the Large Magellanic Cloud is only 163,000 light-years away, 00:14:36.968.00:14:39.234 while the supernova in this galaxy 00:14:39.234.00:14:42.501 is more than 300 times further. 00:14:42.501.00:14:46.567 The problem is that we need to find mile posts further in space 00:14:46.567.00:14:49.701 than we can using Earth-based telescopes. 00:14:49.701.00:14:52.834 Our best telescopes can only see far enough 00:14:52.834.00:14:57.200 to find supernovae out to about 1 billion light-years, 00:14:57.200.00:14:59.334 and that's not far enough to determine 00:14:59.334.00:15:04.267 how much the expanding universe is slowing down. 00:15:04.267.00:15:06.701 The Space Telescope has two cameras 00:15:06.701.00:15:10.133 that will be able to locate and study supernovae 00:15:10.133.00:15:13.133 that are much further away. 00:15:13.133.00:15:17.167 Of course, these cameras don't use photographic film. 00:15:17.167.00:15:21.033 They use super sensitive electronic detectors. 00:15:21.033.00:15:26.267 One camera uses an array of Charge Coupled Devices, CCDs, 00:15:26.267.00:15:30.100 to photograph objects up to 25 times fainter 00:15:30.100.00:15:33.834 than is possible from the largest earthbound telescopes. 00:15:33.834.00:15:38.000 It's especially good for looking at large, very distant objects 00:15:38.000.00:15:41.100 like remote clusters of galaxies. 00:15:41.100.00:15:44.734 The second camera uses a very special TV tube 00:15:44.734.00:15:46.400 that is so sensitive, 00:15:46.400.00:15:49.868 it can detect individual photons of light. 00:15:49.868.00:15:53.534 This camera is excellent for observing very faint, 00:15:53.534.00:15:55.801 very compact objects 00:15:55.801.00:15:57.801 and extends the reach of the telescope 00:15:57.801.00:16:00.968 to the greatest possible distance. 00:16:00.968.00:16:03.400 With the Space Telescope's cameras, 00:16:03.400.00:16:07.234 astronomers will be able to clearly locate supernovae 00:16:07.234.00:16:11.100 that are up to 5 billion light-years away. 00:16:11.100.00:16:14.767 -By locating these much more distant mile posts, supernovae, 00:16:14.767.00:16:16.434 and determining their velocities, 00:16:16.434.00:16:18.601 we can then plot the acceleration rate 00:16:18.601.00:16:21.567 of the universe and get a much better idea 00:16:21.567.00:16:24.334 on how much the universe is slowing down. 00:16:24.334.00:16:27.801 -If the expansion rate remains nearly constant, 00:16:27.801.00:16:32.734 astronomers believe the universe may continue to expand forever. 00:16:32.734.00:16:36.868 An endless universe might seem very appealing today, 00:16:36.868.00:16:39.400 but ultimately, it would be little more 00:16:39.400.00:16:42.167 than a huge, dark graveyard 00:16:42.167.00:16:45.534 filled with burned out stars. 00:16:45.534.00:16:49.968 If, however, this rate of expansion slows just enough, 00:16:49.968.00:16:53.000 it could mean that our cosmos is destined 00:16:53.000.00:16:55.400 to collapse back on itself, 00:16:55.400.00:16:57.667 that it has a finite life span, 00:16:57.667.00:17:02.601 as predicted long ago by the Mayan Indians. 00:17:02.601.00:17:06.534 -All Moons, all years, all days, 00:17:06.534.00:17:11.934 all winds reach their completion and pass away. 00:17:11.934.00:17:16.267 -One story told by the ancient Aztecs offers more hope. 00:17:16.267.00:17:20.467 It describes a cycle of Suns that are created and destroyed, 00:17:20.467.00:17:23.067 predicting that the cosmos will bounce back 00:17:23.067.00:17:25.901 out of the crunch and be reborn. 00:17:25.901.00:17:27.901 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:17:27.901.00:17:31.100 With the Space Telescope as our time machine, 00:17:31.100.00:17:34.033 we can look back almost to the beginning of time 00:17:34.033.00:17:37.601 to see how our universe evolved. 00:17:37.601.00:17:41.467 The youngest objects we can see are also some of the most 00:17:41.467.00:17:44.200 mysterious -- quasars. 00:17:44.200.00:17:49.767 Space Telescope scientist, Dr. Margaret Burbidge. 00:17:49.767.00:17:53.667 -Well, they are very fascinating and mysterious objects. 00:17:53.667.00:17:57.534 On a photographic plate, they just look like ordinary stars, 00:17:57.534.00:18:00.868 but when we break up their light and analyze it 00:18:00.868.00:18:03.300 into its rainbow of colors, 00:18:03.300.00:18:06.734 we see that they're rushing away from us at enormous speeds, 00:18:06.734.00:18:08.334 and in our expanding universe, 00:18:08.334.00:18:11.300 that means that they must be very, very distant, 00:18:11.300.00:18:14.033 near the edge of the visible universe, 00:18:14.033.00:18:19.167 now yet we still see them even at these vast distances, 00:18:19.167.00:18:22.200 and that tells us that they must be creating 00:18:22.200.00:18:26.100 and emitting enormous amounts of energy. 00:18:26.100.00:18:29.167 -To be visible from so far away, 00:18:29.167.00:18:32.300 a quasar's light must be very bright, 00:18:32.300.00:18:36.067 as brilliant as 200 trillion Suns. 00:18:36.067.00:18:41.033 and yet quasars appear to be no larger than our Solar System. 00:18:41.033.00:18:45.467 -Well, we have no way to explain anything so compact 00:18:45.467.00:18:49.934 being able to produce such an enormous amount of energy, 00:18:49.934.00:18:53.033 and that's the real mystery of the quasars. 00:18:53.033.00:18:55.868 -Much of the light reaching Earth from a quasar 00:18:55.868.00:18:57.701 is ultraviolet light, 00:18:57.701.00:19:01.300 light that doesn't penetrate our atmosphere. 00:19:01.300.00:19:05.133 What little of a quasar's light does reach Earth shimmers 00:19:05.133.00:19:08.501 because of the turbulence in our atmosphere. 00:19:08.501.00:19:12.601 The Space Telescope will overcome both obstacles. 00:19:12.601.00:19:15.834 It has a spectrograph that operates in both visible 00:19:15.834.00:19:17.601 and ultraviolet light 00:19:17.601.00:19:19.501 and is particularly good 00:19:19.501.00:19:23.100 for studying very faint objects like quasars. 00:19:23.100.00:19:25.734 The spectrograph breaks light into beams 00:19:25.734.00:19:27.467 according to wavelength. 00:19:27.467.00:19:29.734 The beams tell us a lot about the object 00:19:29.734.00:19:31.234 that produced the light, 00:19:31.234.00:19:34.434 its temperature, its chemical composition, 00:19:34.434.00:19:38.000 its energy state, how fast its moving 00:19:38.000.00:19:42.367 and whether it's moving toward us or away from us. 00:19:42.367.00:19:45.334 The Space Telescope also has a photometer 00:19:45.334.00:19:48.367 that can measure rapid changes in light. 00:19:48.367.00:19:51.133 Since it's above the atmosphere, we can use it 00:19:51.133.00:19:54.968 to precisely measure the quasar's fluctuations. 00:19:54.968.00:19:57.834 These two Space Telescope instruments, 00:19:57.834.00:20:00.434 the spectrograph and photometer 00:20:00.434.00:20:02.801 along with the telescope's cameras 00:20:02.801.00:20:06.834 will finally put quasars within our grasp. 00:20:06.834.00:20:08.968 -Well, I hope we'll be able to discover 00:20:08.968.00:20:13.100 the secret of the immense energy that the quasars are producing. 00:20:13.100.00:20:16.000 Might we find out something new about the laws of physics 00:20:16.000.00:20:18.734 from studying the quasars? 00:20:18.734.00:20:20.634 I speculate on the relationship 00:20:20.634.00:20:23.701 between quasars and galaxies of stars 00:20:23.701.00:20:25.467 like our own Milky Way. 00:20:25.467.00:20:27.367 I sometimes wonder whether the quasars 00:20:27.367.00:20:31.367 represent the birth of galaxies 00:20:31.367.00:20:33.534 or perhaps even, possibly, 00:20:33.534.00:20:37.167 the death of an earlier generation of galaxies. 00:20:37.167.00:20:39.467 Anything might be possible. 00:20:39.467.00:20:41.801 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:20:41.801.00:20:44.067 -The stars of our own galaxy 00:20:44.067.00:20:46.601 have enchanted mankind for centuries. 00:20:46.601.00:20:54.334 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:20:54.334.00:21:02.100 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:21:02.100.00:21:04.767 Time has dimmed neither the stars 00:21:04.767.00:21:08.934 nor our fascination for them. 00:21:08.934.00:21:14.300 We have learned that stars, like man, have a finite life span. 00:21:14.300.00:21:18.300 They're born, they burn brightly for billions of years, 00:21:18.300.00:21:20.300 and they die. 00:21:20.300.00:21:24.567 But why do some stars burn modestly and die quietly, 00:21:24.567.00:21:27.601 turning into White Dwarfs that slowly cool 00:21:27.601.00:21:29.868 until they no longer glow at all 00:21:29.868.00:21:33.834 while other more massive stars go out with a bang... 00:21:33.834.00:21:36.100 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:21:36.100.00:21:40.234 ...spewing out enough matter to create several solar systems, 00:21:40.234.00:21:44.267 leaving behind a super dense cinder called a neutron star 00:21:44.267.00:21:47.100 or sometimes a black hole, 00:21:47.100.00:21:49.167 matter packed so tightly 00:21:49.167.00:21:53.400 that even its own light can't escape its gravity? 00:21:53.400.00:21:56.133 Our own Sun is a star. 00:21:56.133.00:22:00.434 How long will it burn, and how will it die? 00:22:00.434.00:22:03.334 To learn more about a star's life cycle, 00:22:03.334.00:22:06.567 scientists will use the Space Telescope's cameras 00:22:06.567.00:22:10.534 to study other stars in the Milky Way like our Sun. 00:22:10.534.00:22:14.033 They'll also use information about the star's composition 00:22:14.033.00:22:19.100 and temperature recorded by the telescope's second spectrograph. 00:22:19.100.00:22:22.267 This spectrograph uses only ultraviolet light 00:22:22.267.00:22:25.701 to produce its high-resolution spectrograms. 00:22:25.701.00:22:28.133 Unlike the telescope's other spectrograph, 00:22:28.133.00:22:30.534 which can study remote objects, 00:22:30.534.00:22:32.934 this one is excellent for studying the objects 00:22:32.934.00:22:35.767 in our universe that are closer to home. 00:22:35.767.00:22:39.868 Space Telescope scientist Dr. Brad Smith. 00:22:39.868.00:22:42.300 -An excellent way of studying stellar evolution 00:22:42.300.00:22:46.300 is to look at Globular Clusters right here in our own galaxy. 00:22:46.300.00:22:49.701 Globular Clusters are aggregations of stars 00:22:49.701.00:22:52.801 up to several hundred thousand stars, 00:22:52.801.00:22:56.667 and they are all very much the same 00:22:56.667.00:22:59.534 as far as their composition and age is concerned. 00:22:59.534.00:23:02.400 What is different from one star to the next is its mass, 00:23:02.400.00:23:06.267 so by looking individually at the stars in a Globular Cluster, 00:23:06.267.00:23:10.634 we can see how mass determines the evolution of a star. 00:23:10.634.00:23:12.968 Now the problem with looking at Globular Clusters 00:23:12.968.00:23:14.334 from the Earth's surface 00:23:14.334.00:23:17.601 is that the poor resolution of ground-based telescopes 00:23:17.601.00:23:19.334 makes all the stars fuse together. 00:23:19.334.00:23:21.834 It's difficult to see them individually, 00:23:21.834.00:23:25.167 but with the Space Telescope, in its superior resolution, 00:23:25.167.00:23:27.267 we can look at the individual stars 00:23:27.267.00:23:29.834 and get a better understanding of how stars 00:23:29.834.00:23:31.601 live out their life cycle. 00:23:31.601.00:23:34.334 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:23:34.334.00:23:36.000 We don't believe that our own star, 00:23:36.000.00:23:40.300 the Sun, is massive enough to ever explode as a supernova. 00:23:40.300.00:23:44.300 In all probability, it will increase in size 00:23:44.300.00:23:46.234 to become a red giant star 00:23:46.234.00:23:49.934 and then shrink down to become a white dwarf, 00:23:49.934.00:23:53.901 but the details of what will happen 00:23:53.901.00:23:56.400 as our Sun runs out of fuel 00:23:56.400.00:23:58.000 are not known at this time. 00:23:58.000.00:24:00.634 This is one of the things that we hope to learn 00:24:00.634.00:24:02.701 with the Hubble Space Telescope. 00:24:02.701.00:24:05.167 -There are many mysteries we've yet to solve 00:24:05.167.00:24:08.100 in our own Solar System. 00:24:08.100.00:24:13.000 Though we longer think of canals on Mars or swamps on Venus, 00:24:13.000.00:24:14.868 we can't help but wonder 00:24:14.868.00:24:17.968 why the cyclone of Jupiter's Great Red Spot 00:24:17.968.00:24:21.567 has raged for hundreds of years, 00:24:21.567.00:24:24.100 or what lies beneath the icy haze 00:24:24.100.00:24:27.033 surrounding Uranus and Neptune, 00:24:27.033.00:24:31.834 and what of Pluto, our most remote and puzzling planet? 00:24:31.834.00:24:36.000 The Space Telescope will give us our first close look at Pluto 00:24:36.000.00:24:39.267 and its lone Moon, Charon. 00:24:39.267.00:24:44.834 Astronomers expect many exciting firsts with the Space Telescope. 00:24:44.834.00:24:47.634 Just as Galileo labored through the night, 00:24:47.634.00:24:50.667 glued to the eyepiece of his telescope, 00:24:50.667.00:24:53.234 astronomers using the Space Telescope 00:24:53.234.00:24:56.534 will stay glued to the modern equivalent 00:24:56.534.00:24:58.133 as the Space Observatory 00:24:58.133.00:25:03.734 beams 1 million bits of data Earthward each second. 00:25:03.734.00:25:06.167 The Space Telescope will produce data 00:25:06.167.00:25:11.167 of unprecedented quality and more of it than ever before. 00:25:11.167.00:25:14.367 A single observation may yield information 00:25:14.367.00:25:16.000 that can take months, 00:25:16.000.00:25:19.868 even years to analyze and understand. 00:25:19.868.00:25:23.534 Even though though the Space Telescope is earthbound as yet, 00:25:23.534.00:25:27.601 astronomers, astrophysicists, cosmologists, 00:25:27.601.00:25:30.834 and space scientists are already caught up 00:25:30.834.00:25:34.300 in the exciting prospect of this new observatory 00:25:34.300.00:25:37.200 taking its proper place in the heavens 00:25:37.200.00:25:39.767 and there extending their vision 00:25:39.767.00:25:44.467 into previously unexplored regions of the universe. 00:25:44.467.00:25:47.367 -We're really explorers, astronomers, 00:25:47.367.00:25:49.601 and we're going to see wondrous things 00:25:49.601.00:25:51.400 that we can't guess about. 00:25:51.400.00:25:54.334 I think that's the great excitement of this, really. 00:25:54.334.00:25:56.100 Certainly, I'm interested in many of the things 00:25:56.100.00:25:57.901 we know we're going to see, 00:25:57.901.00:26:01.200 but it's the things that we don't know anything about yet, 00:26:01.200.00:26:03.434 that we're not clever enough to have imagined, 00:26:03.434.00:26:06.334 and I think it's going to be a very exciting time. 00:26:06.334.00:26:10.634 -In the history of mankind, there have been only two times 00:26:10.634.00:26:13.467 when our understanding of the universe 00:26:13.467.00:26:15.834 has been so totally revolutionized 00:26:15.834.00:26:19.567 in the period of a single human life. 00:26:19.567.00:26:22.968 The first was the time of Galileo. 00:26:22.968.00:26:25.267 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:26:25.267.00:26:28.234 The second is now. 00:26:28.234.00:26:37.801 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:26:37.801.00:26:47.334 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:26:47.334.00:26:56.901 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:26:56.901.00:27:06.534 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:27:06.534.00:27:16.067 !!musiC@!!!musiC@! 00:27:16.067.00:27:25.634 !!musiC@!!!musiC@!