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I can see everything quite clearly.
2
00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:10,480
It has a stark beauty all its own.
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See me when I float like a dove.
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00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:19,080
Skies above...
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00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:21,040
Magnificent desolation.
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- Beautiful view.
- Isn't that something?
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Take me away.
8
00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:00,120
If I were to ask you,
"Where do you come from?"
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What would you say?
10
00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:06,720
What story would you tell?
11
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You might say,
"Well, I come from my home town..."
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Or "my city, " or "my country.”
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00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:31,680
If you have
a particularly wide perspective,
14
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you might say,
"I come from Planet Earth."”
15
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But what is the largest structure
that we could legitimately call home?
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Well, I would argue, it's that.
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That faint arc of light
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that stretches across the sky
from horizon to horizon
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00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:58,480
is an outer spiral arm
of our galaxy, the Milky Way,
20
00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:02,680
our home island of 400 billion stars.
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00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:20,840
The Milky Way takes its name
from the dense band of stars
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that sweeps across the sky
on the clearest of nights.
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00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:37,120
From our vantage point, here on Earth,
we see the galaxy from within.
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00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:46,040
But if we could
travel outside the galaxy,
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We would see the entire structure.
26
00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:02,880
The Milky Way revealed as an island
of light surrounded by darkness.
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00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:11,840
Hundreds of billions of stars
in a single disk,
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that's existed
since the universe was young.
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00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:33,280
Only now are we
able to explore its history.
30
00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:47,680
How it was born,
31
00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:54,320
how, through a series
of remarkable events,
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00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:57,560
it grew to become
the galaxy we inhabit today,
33
00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:05,800
and how, eventually, it will end.
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00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:13,760
We've discovered our own part
in this story, too,
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00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:18,120
living, as we do,
inside the Milky Way,
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00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:22,400
just over halfway
along one of its magnificent arms,
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00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,960
around a small but familiar star.
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00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:43,320
The Milky Way is an island in a sense.
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00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:49,360
Every star you can see in the night sky
is a part of our galaxy.
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00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:53,520
Our nearest neighbouring large galaxy
is over two million light years away.
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00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:57,880
So it certainly feels as if
we are isolated and alone,
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adrift in an ocean of dark.
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00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:03,800
And that is true to a point.
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There is no conceivable technology
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that will ever allow us
to leave our island physically.
46
00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:15,800
But science allows us to leave
the Milky Way in our imaginations,
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to view our galaxy
from impossible perspectives
48
00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:22,760
in both space and time,
and to tell its story.
49
00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:05,360
One mission,
more than any other,
50
00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:08,400
has deepened our understanding
of the galaxy,
51
00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:16,120
a spacecraft bearing the name
of an ancient Greek goddess...
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00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:18,760
Everything functioning beautifully.
53
00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:22,040
...Gaia...
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00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:26,680
Coming up
on separation of the boosters.
55
00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:30,040
...ancestral mother
of all life on Earth.
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00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:34,040
The four boosters,
the four points of light, falling away.
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00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:48,960
Gaia's mission,
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00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:54,040
to map the locations
of billions of stars in the Milky Way,
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nearly all of them for the first time.
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00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:35,880
Gaia spins on its axis,
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00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:42,520
its sensors scanning the galaxy
in all directions.
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00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:53,800
Every star is mapped
an average of 70 times,
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00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:02,400
allowing Gaia to calculate
the speed and direction of each one,
64
00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:08,760
pinpointing their locations with
accuracies up to 7, 000th of 7%,
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00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:17,960
over 1.5 million stars every hour.
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00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:25,080
Almost two billion in total so far.
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00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:34,400
To create a map
like nothing ever seen before.
68
00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:46,880
The Gaia data is by far
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00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:49,840
the most detailed star map
ever produced,
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00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:53,360
a revolution in our understanding
of the Milky Way.
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00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:59,520
This is the data,
and it looks like a,
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you know, an artist's impression
of a galaxy,
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00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:04,040
something from science fiction.
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00:09:04,280 --> 00:09:08,040
But this is a high-precision 3D map
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00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:11,480
of our home, of our island of stars,
76
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and we can even fly through it.
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Such is the precision
of the mapping of the position.
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00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:19,080
All these points of light are stars,
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some of them as far as 30,000
light years out from the solar system.
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00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:30,480
The map allows us to journey through
the galaxy at impossible speeds,
81
00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:37,720
bringing distant stars within reach.
82
00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:49,840
But this is also
a journey through time.
83
00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:58,000
The extraordinary thing about this map
is that it's alive in a sense.
84
00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:01,320
I mean, Gaia didn't just measure
the positions of these stars,
85
00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:03,560
it measured their velocities.
86
00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:06,880
And that means we can tell
where those stars are going,
87
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what the galaxy is
going to be like in the future.
88
00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:12,600
But also, we can tell
where they came from.
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00:10:12,680 --> 00:10:15,800
So, what the galaxy
was like in the past.
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00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:22,480
By reversing the direction
of every star,
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we can rewind their histories,
92
00:10:32,760 --> 00:10:37,040
travelling backwards in time
through billions of years.
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00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:47,640
Gala has initiated a new science,
a science of galactic archaeology,
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00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:52,920
where we can ask questions
about the origins of our galaxy itself.
95
00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:15,920
The first galaxies emerged.
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00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:19,400
Just a few hundred million years
after the Big Bang.
97
00:11:26,680 --> 00:11:30,720
The universe was criss-crossed
by a vast structure
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00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:32,520
known as the cosmic web.
99
00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,200
Great filaments of dark matter
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along which gravity attracted
ever denser concentrations of gas
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separated by immense tracts
of empty space.
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The first stars were born
where the filaments crossed,
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where the gas was dense enough
to collapse under its own gravity,
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and for the stars to ignite.
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00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:49,280
New stars formed in their billions,
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bound together
by their mutual gravitational pull.
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These were the first galaxies.
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00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:15,720
Amongst them, the Milky Way,
in its embryonic form,
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far smaller
and more irregular in structure
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than the mature spiral galaxy
we inhabit today.
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00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:41,800
The exact details
of the Milky Way's birth
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00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:44,120
remained a subjective research.
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00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:49,640
But thanks to modern day observations,
the story of how our galaxy grew
114
00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:54,040
from those early beginnings
is coming into much sharper relief.
115
00:13:59,680 --> 00:14:01,520
The Gaia data allows us to see
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00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:04,040
how the Milky Way
evolved throughout its history.
117
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And one of the clues
that it's had an interesting history
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00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:09,760
can be seen in this animation.
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00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:14,600
You see that most of the stars
orbit in very regular orbits
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00:14:14,680 --> 00:14:17,600
around the centre of the Milky Way.
That's exactly what you'd expect.
121
00:14:17,680 --> 00:14:20,480
But you can see here
that some of the stars
122
00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:22,760
have very different orbits, indeed.
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00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:24,880
They seem to be flying
all over the place.
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00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:29,400
And that tells us
that something dramatic happened
125
00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:33,600
at some point as our galaxy
made its way through the universe.
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00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:55,960
Across the universe, hundreds of
billions of galaxies were forming.
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00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:15,040
Some, just a few dozen, were born
close enough to the Milky Way
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00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:22,120
that their mutual gravitational pull
drew them together,
129
00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:30,600
forming what we now know
as the local group of galaxies,
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00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:33,240
our home archipelago.
131
00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:53,080
Six billion years
before the earth formed,
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some of the Milky Way stars
already had their own planets,
133
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early worlds that were about to witness
the transformation of the galaxy.
134
00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:23,320
The wonderful thing about astronomy
is that you can look up into the sky,
135
00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:28,440
and even if you can't see worlds,
you can imagine them,
136
00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:30,440
and you can imagine their stories.
137
00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:32,160
Like, over there,
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00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:38,920
close to the bright star, Vega,
is Kepler-444.
139
00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:44,120
The faint ancient star
and planets orbiting around it
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00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:46,760
that's witnessed
pretty much the entire history
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00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:48,080
of the Milky Way galaxy.
142
00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:55,400
And then, maybe
swinging around in the sky,
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00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:03,040
just close to the Plough constellation
that everybody can recognise,
144
00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:05,560
and follow it down.
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00:17:06,320 --> 00:17:09,320
There's a really faint star there,
you can't see it with the naked eye.
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It's so nondescript
it doesn't even have a name.
147
00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:16,400
It's got a number.
It's got HD 73394.
148
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But that star is an alien star.
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It was born in another galaxy,
and it entered the Milky Way
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in a galactic collision
with a smaller galaxy,
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00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:36,920
and Kepler-444 over there
witnessed it all,
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00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:41,000
and witnessed the Milky Way
being thrown into chaos.
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00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:07,240
Kepler-444 was orbited
by five planets...
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00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:20,400
and something new
had appeared in their skies.
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A smaller galaxy
was approaching the Milky Way,
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with stars that burn bright blue,
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Gaia-Enceladus,
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a member of the local group,
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roughly a quarter
of the size of our own galaxy.
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Over hundreds of millions of years,
the galaxies collided...
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The stars of Gaia-Enceladus penetrating
deep into the Milky Way's heart.
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00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:53,160
But our galaxy held its ground,
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capturing billions of incoming stars.
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An entire galaxy, swallowed whole.
165
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:06,400
These alien stars
remain in our galaxy to this day.
166
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:24,400
The Gaia data tell us that
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collisions are the driving force
of galactic evolution.
168
00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:36,240
Some galaxies cease to exist
as independent islands of stars,
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while others grow and prosper.
170
00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:52,080
The survival of the fittest, writ large.
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00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:56,200
"When galaxies collide.”
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00:21:56,280 --> 00:22:00,280
You know, that phrase puts images of
Hollywood disaster movies into the mind,
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of stars getting ripped apart.
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But that's not what happens at all.
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I mean, you imagine
that our sun were,
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say, the size of a small pebble
or a grain of sand.
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The nearest neighbouring star
in this region of the galaxy
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will be somewhere over by those hills.
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The distances between stars is immense.
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The stars don't collide.
181
00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:25,440
So, when galaxies interact,
the stars get scattered.
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The shape of the galaxy changes,
but nothing gets destroyed.
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00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:31,920
And, in fact, sometimes
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galactic collisions
can be engines of creation.
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00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:51,880
Gala-Enceladus,
the alien galaxy,
186
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:55,560
had brought with it
fresh supplies of interstellar gas,
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the raw material of star formation.
188
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For a time, this gas heightened the rate
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at which the Milky Way
could produce new stars,
190
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:32,120
helping it to grow.
191
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:39,400
But long before our star was born,
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00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:43,720
the Gaia-Enceladus collision era
drew to a close.
193
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:03,560
What triggered the formation of the sun
has long remained a puzzle.
194
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:19,600
But the Gaia telescope has discovered
new clues to its origin,
195
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:24,520
in the events that followed
billions of years later,
196
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as our island of stars
continued to evolve.
197
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:15,720
On the distant shores of the Milky Way,
198
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:20,120
Gaia has investigated
a structure of epic proportions...
199
00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:35,520
A stream of stars
winding their way around the galaxy.
200
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:05,880
This stream of stars is enormous.
It's almost unimaginable in scale.
201
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:09,920
If you look up into the night sky,
those stars that you can see are,
202
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at most, a few thousand
light years away.
203
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,040
You think about that,
the light began its journey to your eye
204
00:26:17,120 --> 00:26:21,240
from the most distant stars
when the pharaohs ruled Egypt.
205
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,200
And then, if you look out
to the Milky Way,
206
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,520
to the shores of our galaxy,
207
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:29,200
you see light from a few tens
of thousands of light years away.
208
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:31,080
I mean, that light began its journey
209
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:33,560
when there were Neanderthals
here in Europe.
210
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,560
But this stream of stars
wraps around the galaxy.
211
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:41,360
It's hundreds of thousands
of light years in extent.
212
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A structure that large
demands an explanation.
213
00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:56,080
The stream is wreckage, it's footprints,
if you like, of a very violent event.
214
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,880
Gaia has confirmed the origins
of this immense structure...
215
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:30,880
through the telescope's unique ability
to help us travel through time...
216
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:33,880
Backwards.
217
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:45,800
The data tell a story
218
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:51,480
of a new age of star birth,
219
00:27:56,600 --> 00:28:02,840
of the transformation of the Milky Way
triggered by another galactic collision.
220
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,040
It was another galaxy
from our local group,
221
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Sagittarius dwarf,
222
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:44,240
perhaps 20 times smaller
than the Milky Way,
223
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:47,480
was torn apart in the impact.
224
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:07,160
Sagittarius dwarf brought fresh supplies
of the vital ingredient for star birth.
225
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:19,520
That is the sound of
the most common element in the universe.
226
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:28,200
This radio telescope is pointing
towards the Milky Way,
227
00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:32,480
as she's just risen above the horizon
over there behind the clouds,
228
00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:36,200
and what you're listening to
is hydrogen gas.
229
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:48,320
The radio telescope is detecting
the faint signal of hydrogen
230
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:50,400
from across the galaxy.
231
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,560
Hydrogen is found
throughout the Milky Way,
232
00:29:55,640 --> 00:30:00,520
sometimes in the form
of towering clouds light years high.
233
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,520
These regions are star factories
234
00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:41,880
where the dense clouds of hydrogen gas
collapse under gravity,
235
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,000
to forge new stars.
236
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:02,400
Hydrogen atoms radiate radio waves
237
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:05,640
at a very particular wavelength,
21 centimetres.
238
00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:12,040
And as I speak, that radiation has been
captured by that radio telescope.
239
00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:19,800
Imagine, there are atoms over there.
And by "over there,"
240
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:24,000
I mean, what, thousands,
tens of thousands of light years away.
241
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:26,920
And at some point,
way, way back in the past,
242
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,080
out came the radiation,
and we can listen to it.
243
00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:34,200
So, we're listening
to the lifeblood of our galaxy.
244
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,680
As Sagittarius dwarf
passed through the Milky Way,
245
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:12,760
it brought fresh gas and fresh energy.
246
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:35,040
The impact sent ripples
across the Milky Way,
247
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:43,800
triggering another spectacular era
of star formation.
248
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:58,360
And in the outer regions
of the galaxy...
249
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:07,080
our own star was born.
250
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:21,360
The sun was soon joined by the earth...
251
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:33,640
and together, they set out
on their journey through the galaxy.
252
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:52,000
We were born in the Milky Way,
253
00:33:56,440 --> 00:34:00,120
but we may have been
conceived in a collision.
254
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:09,880
Now, we can't say for certain that
the collision with Sagittarius dwarf
255
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:11,920
caused the formation of our sun.
256
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:13,760
The data is not precise enough,
257
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,440
and our understanding is
not deep enough for that.
258
00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:18,920
But what we can say is
that the birth of the sun
259
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,040
coincided with
enhanced rates of star formation
260
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:24,920
in the Milky Way,
caused by that collision.
261
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,160
But that's not
quite the end of the story,
262
00:34:28,240 --> 00:34:32,160
because, in a very real sense,
the collision is still underway.
263
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:45,240
The remains of Sagittarius dwarf
264
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:48,680
are still orbiting
on the fringes of the Milky Way.
265
00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:05,280
Over the last five billion years,
266
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:09,080
the galaxy has crossed our path
two more times,
267
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:29,720
each interaction triggering
a new generation of star birth.
268
00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:58,640
A fresh sprinkling of light
inside our galaxy's spiral arms,
269
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:21,120
the finishing touches
on a masterpiece of galactic creation.
270
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:38,760
The poet, John Donne, famously wrote,
"No man is an island entire of itself,
271
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:42,480
"every man is a piece
of the continent, a part of the main,”
272
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:44,560
by which, he meant that
no human being
273
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:47,120
can isolate themselves
from the rest of humanity
274
00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:51,440
because our origins and our fates
are so deeply intertwined,
275
00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:54,600
and therefore, we must
care deeply for each other.
276
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:59,520
And the same is true for galaxies.
No galaxy is an island entire of itself.
277
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:03,680
And the history of the Milky Way
stretches back 13 billion years or more.
278
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:06,520
That's pretty much
the entire history of the universe,
279
00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:10,240
and its story is a story
of collisions and interactions
280
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:14,560
between galaxies, of rivers,
and flows and streams of stars
281
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:19,760
stirring up the void and triggering
the formation of worlds like ours.
282
00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:24,080
I mean, you, me,
everyone can trace our origins
283
00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:27,680
back to a collision between galaxies.
284
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:32,960
You may be small, but you are
a consequence of grand events.
285
00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:11,760
And those grand events
haven't stopped.
286
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:14,880
It just feels like it
because we don't perceive events
287
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:18,840
that play out over billions of years,
involving billions of stars.
288
00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:22,640
But the unique thing
about this time in history
289
00:38:22,720 --> 00:38:24,640
is that we can speak
with some confidence,
290
00:38:24,720 --> 00:38:29,960
not only about our galaxy's past,
but also about our galaxy's future.
291
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:34,400
And just as inexorably as
those great islands of stars
292
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:39,000
drift through the universe,
change will come again.
293
00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:07,400
We move into the future
294
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:11,480
with a new understanding
of our place in the galaxy.
295
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:31,040
We are inhabitants of a small planet
orbiting around an ordinary star,
296
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:34,760
where something extraordinary
has happened.
297
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:52,360
But although the galaxy made us,
it wasn't made for us.
298
00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:58,320
We are accidental by-products
of its history
299
00:40:00,240 --> 00:40:04,720
and we will be passive witnesses
to its ongoing evolution.
300
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:13,080
The Milky Way is the great survivor,
301
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:17,560
and the echoes of its turbulent history
are literally written across the sky.
302
00:40:17,880 --> 00:40:22,240
Over there in the southwest,
the remnants of Sagittarius dwarf,
303
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:25,200
the debris from that collision
still wandering around
304
00:40:25,280 --> 00:40:27,960
somewhere on the fringes
of the Milky Way.
305
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:31,560
And in that direction,
as Sirius rises in the east
306
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:33,640
in the constellation of Canis Major,
307
00:40:33,720 --> 00:40:36,080
there are the remains
of another dwarf galaxy
308
00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:38,600
that we think
collided with us long ago.
309
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:43,680
So, the Milky Way
pretty much devours anything
310
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:46,160
that comes into this region of space
311
00:40:46,240 --> 00:40:51,680
because it's the largest galaxy
in the neighbourhood, except for one.
312
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:01,200
The local group is home
313
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:05,560
to another galaxy
that rivals our own in size.
314
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:13,760
A galaxy that's been
hiding in plain sight.
315
00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:21,000
Right up there, just between
the consolations of Cassiopeia
316
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:22,760
and the Square of Pegasus,
317
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:26,200
is a faint, misty patch of light
in the sky
318
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:28,480
about twice the diameter of a full moon.
319
00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:30,520
So, you can certainly
see it with binoculars.
320
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:32,040
And even in the city,
321
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:34,600
I can take a photograph of it
with a camera like this.
322
00:41:37,720 --> 00:41:39,400
And there it is.
323
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:43,720
That object is the Andromeda galaxy,
324
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:49,520
and you see that it's a spiral shape.
You can see it even in this photograph.
325
00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:54,240
In many ways, Andromeda is our twin.
326
00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:11,000
And it's a twin that we've been
able to explore in incredible detail.
327
00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:19,680
Three, two, one,
and lift-off of Space Shuttle Atlantis,
328
00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:23,000
on a final visit to enhance
the vision of Hubble
329
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:27,840
into the deepest grandeur
of our universe.
330
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:32,960
Standing by for SRB separation.
331
00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:50,000
The Hubble Space Telescope
Is in its fourth decade of operation.
332
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:02,760
Its ongoing mission has given us
333
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:06,520
some of the most detailed images
of the universe ever seen.
334
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:24,400
Over the years, Hubble has frequently
turned its attention to Andromeda,
335
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:35,680
2.5 million light years from Earth.
336
00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:43,720
It's mapped a spiral structure
similar to that of the Milky Way
337
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:52,040
with such fine precision that
we've been able to calculate
338
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:55,560
not only the motion
of Andromeda's stars,
339
00:43:55,640 --> 00:43:59,160
but also the motion
of the galaxy itself.
340
00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:10,360
And we now know that the entire galaxy
is heading towards us
341
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,760
at over 400,000 kilometres per hour.
342
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:29,640
Now, you may think,
"Well, what's one more collision?"
343
00:44:29,720 --> 00:44:32,080
I mean, the Milky Way
has survived all these collisions
344
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:34,760
for pretty much
the entire history of the universe.
345
00:44:35,240 --> 00:44:40,200
Well, this one will be different
because Andromeda is bigger than us.
346
00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:55,520
The Milky Way, as we know it today,
will not be immortal
347
00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:03,640
and the earth will witness its demise.
348
00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:16,920
Two galaxies in a single sky,
349
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:21,880
gradually but inexorably
merging into one.
350
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:14,040
In the impact, there will be
a last colossal burst of star formation.
351
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,160
But this will be very different
to previous collisions.
352
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:36,360
This time our galaxy
will meet its match.
353
00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:07,760
The great galaxies will distort
each of the spiral arms.
354
00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:12,240
Stars will be scattered
355
00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:19,080
until no traces
of the original structures remain.
356
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:05,120
The Milky Way's fate is sealed.
357
00:48:07,720 --> 00:48:10,920
Andromeda will be the first
of a series of mergers
358
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:14,840
as the remaining galaxies
in our local group converge,
359
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:17,800
drawn together by gravity.
360
00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:31,840
But Hubble has allowed us
to see even further into the future.
361
00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:37,200
It's looked out
far beyond the local group,
362
00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:40,480
towards the edge
of the observable universe,
363
00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:46,160
and seen that every distant galaxy
Is receding from us.
364
00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:58,440
In a final twist
365
00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:03,120
these retreating galaxies
tell us something profound
366
00:49:03,200 --> 00:49:06,600
about the nature of the universe itself.
367
00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:12,320
We live in an expanding universe.
368
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:16,400
In fact, we live in a universe
that's accelerating in its expansion.
369
00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:20,000
So, all the galaxies are
rushing away from each other,
370
00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:24,080
and in the far future, they'll be
rushing away from each other so fast
371
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:28,160
that even if we sent
a beam of light out to the galaxies,
372
00:49:28,240 --> 00:49:29,560
it would never catch them.
373
00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:51,480
Billions of years from now,
the remnants of the Milky Way will form
374
00:49:51,560 --> 00:49:55,480
part of a single,
gigantic collection of stars...
375
00:50:02,240 --> 00:50:05,720
The merged remains
of the local group...
376
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:15,760
Alone, as every other galaxy
recedes into the distance.
377
00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:30,600
Eventually, all the galaxies
will fade from view,
378
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:37,680
and our galaxy will stand at last
in perfect isolation...
379
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:44,040
An island unto itself.
380
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:56,280
I think we live at a fortunate time
in the history of the universe
381
00:50:56,360 --> 00:50:59,760
because we can look into the sky
and see the galaxies.
382
00:50:59,960 --> 00:51:04,120
The astronomers of the far future might
imagine that they live in a universe
383
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:08,680
populated by countless billions
of islands of billions of stars.
384
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:11,040
But they won't be able to prove it.
385
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:17,280
They won't be able to see the true scale
and majesty of the universe.
386
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:45,800
We've been trying to understand
the band of stars
387
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:49,240
that stretches across the night sky
since the time of the ancient Greeks.
388
00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:54,800
The story
of our galaxy, the Milky Way,
389
00:51:54,880 --> 00:51:59,040
how it started, how it was formed,
and how it's transformed
390
00:51:59,120 --> 00:52:01,440
is really the story of us.
391
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:03,960
Inside the Milky Way,
you always have
392
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:07,520
a slightly skewed perspective
of the way the Milky Way looks.
393
00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:10,040
So, we're in it. And so,
what we would like to do
394
00:52:10,120 --> 00:52:12,680
is go above it and look down
and see what it's like.
395
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:14,760
Now, you can't do that
unless you could travel
396
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:16,560
at millions of times the speed of light.
397
00:52:16,640 --> 00:52:18,640
We can't.
So, the only way we can do it
398
00:52:18,720 --> 00:52:22,480
is by working out accurately
where all the stars are,
399
00:52:22,560 --> 00:52:25,080
how far away they are,
from us, in particular.
400
00:52:35,720 --> 00:52:38,880
Gaia is
a European Space Agency spacecraft,
401
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:41,320
which is, in principle,
a very simple little thing.
402
00:52:41,400 --> 00:52:43,520
It's two telescopes
collecting the light,
403
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:45,560
putting it down onto one giant camera,
404
00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:47,480
biggest camera
ever put in space, actually.
405
00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:52,760
It can observe
the positions of stars so accurately
406
00:52:52,840 --> 00:52:56,720
that you could see the edge of
a Euro coin on the moon from Earth,
407
00:52:56,800 --> 00:52:59,000
and that is just mind-blowing.
408
00:53:14,840 --> 00:53:17,240
It was a beautiful launch.
Really spectacular.
409
00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:24,920
And then it got into
this critical state
410
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:27,040
where they had to
open up the sun shields.
411
00:53:27,120 --> 00:53:31,880
It was critical that this opened up
and protect the payload from the sun.
412
00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:34,400
And that was the do-or-die moment.
413
00:53:43,040 --> 00:53:44,240
There's the good news.
414
00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:53,200
Gaia works
by measuring parallax.
415
00:53:53,240 --> 00:53:56,080
This is exactly the same way
your eyes and brain work
416
00:53:56,160 --> 00:53:58,720
so you can tell
how far away something is
417
00:53:58,800 --> 00:54:01,960
because of the slight difference
in angle from this eye to that eye.
418
00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:04,160
And so, what we do with Gaia
419
00:54:04,240 --> 00:54:07,360
is have a picture in the summer
and a picture in the winter,
420
00:54:07,440 --> 00:54:09,920
and in that stage, Gaia has gone
halfway around the sun.
421
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:14,520
And so, its two eyes are twice
the radius of the earth's orbit apart.
422
00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:19,080
And that's how we do parallax.
All it is is a big version of your head.
423
00:54:26,640 --> 00:54:29,960
The last data released from Gaia
was in December 2020,
424
00:54:30,040 --> 00:54:33,480
and what's been really exciting is that
we've been able to get the distances
425
00:54:33,560 --> 00:54:36,600
and the motions of the star
to a much better level of accuracy.
426
00:54:40,480 --> 00:54:43,040
Most of the stars
in the disk of the Milky Way
427
00:54:43,120 --> 00:54:44,520
all move in the same direction,
428
00:54:44,600 --> 00:54:47,680
rotating clockwise
around the centre of the galaxy.
429
00:54:48,560 --> 00:54:52,000
And one of the most exciting things
that came out of the first data release
430
00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:55,720
was that a large sample of stars
were found that seemed to be rotating
431
00:54:55,800 --> 00:54:58,360
in the opposite direction
to the majority of stars
432
00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:01,920
in the Milky Way disk,
and that's really surprising.
433
00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:07,440
They probably came from
a different galaxy altogether.
434
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:10,400
So, they're almost these alien stars
that have been brought in.
435
00:55:13,720 --> 00:55:15,560
Alien stars from galaxies
436
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:19,760
that, long ago, shared
our own corner of the universe.
437
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:23,960
The important thing to know
about our galactic neighbours
438
00:55:24,040 --> 00:55:26,280
is that nothing's
actually sitting still.
439
00:55:26,520 --> 00:55:28,560
We're all moving towards
or away from each other.
440
00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:30,720
We're sort of playing a dance out there.
441
00:55:34,680 --> 00:55:36,920
And driving
the dance of the galaxies
442
00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:40,560
is the universe's
most elusive form of matter.
443
00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:46,200
Dark matter is something
that has gravity, but produces no light.
444
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:51,040
It surrounds us. In fact, it dominates
the mass in our own galaxy.
445
00:55:51,120 --> 00:55:56,080
And yet, we don't know what it is.
We can't touch it. We can't feel it.
446
00:55:58,360 --> 00:56:00,960
We were able to start
measuring very accurately
447
00:56:01,080 --> 00:56:03,360
the way stars move
from radial velocities,
448
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:05,320
that's just towards and away from us,
449
00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:08,560
and this allowed us to
measure accurately for the first time
450
00:56:08,640 --> 00:56:11,000
how the dark matter
was distributed near us.
451
00:56:13,720 --> 00:56:17,040
The team have pieced together
how dark matter orchestrated
452
00:56:17,120 --> 00:56:19,760
a series of galactic collisions...
453
00:56:22,240 --> 00:56:24,600
that spanned billions of years.
454
00:56:27,480 --> 00:56:30,400
Dark matter is really important
in galaxy collisions
455
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:31,720
because it's so abundant.
456
00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:32,920
So, it's really driving
457
00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:35,680
the gravitational interaction
between the galaxies.
458
00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:45,120
It is dark matter that determines
how violent a collision is,
459
00:56:45,200 --> 00:56:47,720
how rapidly, and with what intensity
460
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:50,040
galaxies come together
when they collide.
461
00:56:52,680 --> 00:56:58,000
In many ways, it determines
how galaxies end up after a collision.
462
00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:04,640
So, the thing
that Gaia showed us.
463
00:57:04,720 --> 00:57:08,880
Is not that it's plausible that
this happened. It showed it did happen.
464
00:57:08,960 --> 00:57:10,440
It happened in just this way.
465
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:13,640
So, it's not speculation any more.
It's quantitative science.
466
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:19,600
The galaxy is a dynamic thing.
467
00:57:19,680 --> 00:57:21,760
It's a living organism, if you want.
468
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:25,560
It is breathing. It is changing.
It is transforming.
469
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:31,960
It's all
coming together in the end
470
00:57:32,040 --> 00:57:33,960
to tell us about how we got here
471
00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:36,360
and what our place
in the universe really is.
41153
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