All language subtitles for C11CD2A9AB1DCAFB60CCC0DFCDF4C8B3_eng

The night sky is a time
machine. The further we look out

into the universe, the further
back in time we reach. What

we see in the night sky is
only a small percentage of the

contents of the universe.
Most is dark matter and dark

energy. We know it exists, but its
nature eludes us for the moment.

No longer hampered by a
hazy, often polluted atmosphere,

telescopes and other sensors
have been able to obtain

clearer images from orbit,
thanks to advances in technology

and engineering. In the 1960s,
satellites began to explore

the cosmos surrounding us.
They saw beyond visible light

into ultraviolet, infrared, X-ray
and even gamma rays. Like

the universe itself, our
understanding of its beginnings,

construction, evolution
and future is evolving and

constantly expanding. In the
last two decades of the 20th

century, the United States
and other nations began to

develop more substantial
research programs, utilizing larger

and more complex space-based
telescopes. For hundreds of

years, thousands of years,
humans have thought the universe

is a very static place. If you
go out at night and look into

the night sky, you will see
that things don't really change

much. The universe appeared
very static for a long time. We

now know this is not true. The
universe is a highly dynamic

place and things are happening
all the time. Every single

second, a star explodes in a
gigantic supernova explosion

somewhere in the universe.
And we have to go and find it. We

have to build instruments
that are capable of finding those

unforeseen events. The Cosmic
Background Explorer, or COBE

satellite, started crystallizing
the big picture of the

universe by mapping the
microwave background radiation left

over from the early universe.
Its successor, WMAP, created

the most detailed portrait
of the infant universe. Well,

because it takes the light
over 13 billion years to reach

us, we are seeing now what
the universe looked like then,

over 13 billion years ago.
So it's a fossil remnant of what

the early universe was like.
And just like fossils were used

to study the past, we used
this light to study what the

universe was like way back
near the very beginning. And you

can see in there blue spots
and red spots. And what those

correspond to are slightly
hotter and colder images of the

sky. That's a picture there,
those hot and cold spots, that

pattern. It's really the
afterglow of the Big Bang. On a

deeper, long-term level,
it's this amazing consistency

that the picture we can put
together of the universe is

relatively simple, that the
pieces fit together. It's a

stunning confirmation of the
study of cosmology for many

years now that it's just built
up and here it is. In some

ways, we're getting to know
the cosmos like we know our own

backyards. ESA's Planck
spacecraft joined the fleet and

expanded on their observations.
Together, they were able to

map vast regions in multiple
wavelengths, enabling

astronomers to determine
the size, shape and age of the

known universe. So 370,000
years after the universe began in

a Big Bang, all that existed
was a hot plasma similar to a

candle flame. Protons and
electrons, seen as the red and

green balls, were bouncing
around, scattering the light. The

particles of light, called
photons, shown in blue, couldn't

go far without colliding with
an electron. As the universe

cooled, the protons and
electrons could pair up, forming

hydrogen atoms, and the
light was free to travel. It's been

traveling freely ever since,
through the dark ages before

there were stars, then
past the formation of the first

stars. As the universe
expanded, photons lost energy,

changing color. They went
past clusters of galaxies. The

path of the photon is
slightly bent by the gravity of

the clusters. Now and then,
going through a cluster, an

electron, that green ball,
would collide with some of the

photons. They would change
their path, pass more matter,

more little wiggles due to
gravity and mass. The photons

traveled for 13.8 billion
years before they reached the

Planck detectors and died a
glorious death, giving up the

information that they had
gleaned, passing through the

entire universe to our
instruments, and enabling

us to make this beautiful
map of the universe.

The various satellite telescopes
have sensors designed for

use in multiple wavelengths of
the electromagnetic spectrum,

from near-to-far infrared
light, through visible and

ultraviolet frequencies, to
X-ray, gamma, and cosmic ray

detectors. Each can
reveal unique aspects of the

construction of stars, nebulae,
galaxies, and the exotic

blazars and black holes.

However, in the public's
eye, the poster pin-up star of

the latest generation would
undoubtedly be the Hubble Space

Telescope.

Over its 25-year lifespan,
Hubble has produced some of the

most amazing imagery of
the cosmos, as it delves back in

time through visible and infrared light.

Another advantage of Hubble
is its long lifespan, thanks

to several maintenance
missions, which allows it to study

objects over a long period of
time with some amazing results.

Newborn stars eject streams
of matter into the surrounding

star-forming region. Known
as Herbig-Harrow objects, these

supersonic jets can be seen
to change over a very short time

span. If you see just a single
picture from Hubble, you can

interpret it in many different
ways. But the fact that

Hubble has been around for
as long as it has been means by

taking multiple images,
you can actually stitch them

together and watch how the
material moves. And so that

really gives you the only
way to give true insight into the

physics of the dynamics of
what's going on. The Horsehead

Nebula in the Orion
constellation, silhouetted by glowing

gas, is a good example.
Infrared can see right through,

revealing its dark
secrets. The Spitzer

Telescope is one of
NASA's great observatories.

Spitzer is an infrared
telescope, which means it sees

through the dust that's out in
space. And by seeing through

the dust, we get to pinpoint
the stellar nurseries that are

out there where stars are
being born. We've been flying for

about 10 years. That's about
3,600 days. We have 5,000

published papers. That means
every day a new paper based on

Spitzer data, announcing new
results and new discoveries,

is published, which to me is
absolutely amazing. Spitzer has

made several surprising
revelations within our solar system

and beyond. It helped pinpoint
some of the most distant

galaxies in the universe.
And Spitzer's ultra-high

resolution map of the Milky
Way substantially improved our

understanding of our own galaxy structure.

Japan and ESA had launched
their own infrared telescopes

in various infrared wavelengths.
The European Herschel in

particular focused on
massive star formation regions.

We are really happy to have
new things and to understand,

trying to understand, because
we are making a new step

towards our understanding of
massive star formation. So the

idea is that Herschel can
reveal this population of highly

embedded stars that are formed
in gas and dust cocoon. But

that are not visible at optical
wavelengths, for example. So

we need Herschel to detect
all this population of very young

stars. The next great space-borne
infrared telescope is the

James Webb Telescope, which
is nearing test completion in

preparation for its launch in
2018. It will have a 6.5 meter

primary mirror, almost three
times larger than Hubble.

However, ground-based telescopes
are also working in the infrared spectrum.

So there is a large
complementarity between space and

ground. From space, with
the Hubble images, you can

characterize the images, you
see the images much better.

With the ground-based
telescopes, you can take that light

and look at spectra, and
then find the redshifts, for

example, for distant galaxies.
Or you can take infrared

observations, which Hubble
couldn't do for a long time, to

then see how these objects
look in the infrared. Together,

they have delved into the
star-forming nebulae, left over

from exploding supernovae,
and witnessed the birth of stars.

Another observational tool in
the electromagnetic spectrum

for astronomers and
cosmologists is the X-ray band. An

amazing discovery of the last
20 years is that every galaxy,

like our own Milky Way, has
a massive black hole at its

heart. And as material from
this galaxy, dust and gas, falls

onto this central black hole.
It radiates, and we can see

that. So we look at the sky
in visible light, we see stars.

If we look at the sky in X-rays,
we see black holes. You can

observe X-rays from very
distant objects. So you can

investigate the cosmic
structure of the universe. So you

investigate the matter
distribution in the universe while

observing the galaxies, the
active black holes in the center

of the galaxies, to very far
distances. And this is very

important for cosmology and
to learn about the origin and

the evolution of our universe.
X-rays are absorbed in our

atmosphere, so X-ray detectors
must be placed at either high

altitudes by balloon or into
orbit. NASA's flagship X-ray

telescope and one of their
great observatories is Chandra.

If you want to find black
holes, you want to use an X-ray

telescope. What we're tending
to find is that the cluster of

galaxies has a bright central
galaxy in the middle. It's

often an active galaxy or a
quasar, so a supermassive black

hole in the middle of a big
galaxy. Because when the cluster

is forming, a lot of material
tends to fall to the middle,

so you get the biggest galaxy
in the middle. So you see the

power of an observatory, an
observatory like Chandra with a

state-of-the-art telescope
and these imaging and

spectroscopic capabilities of
its science instruments can do

things that maybe weren't
even things that you planned on

doing because you didn't know
about them at the time. And a

lot of the science with Chandra
falls in that category. The

most recent telescope launched
is Newstar, which has the

ability to focus X-rays for a
much sharper image. One of

Newstar's main scientific
goals is to make a full census of

black holes in the universe.
X-rays have also revealed the

explosive processes of nova
seen only at these wavelengths.

ESA have their XMM-Newton
studying cosmic evolution

and Integro, the international
gamma ray astrophysics

laboratory, looking at gamma
ray frequencies, revealing

unseen structures and new
sources of gamma rays. So Integro

is important because it's
one of the few satellites which

look in gamma rays. And
together with other satellites and

observatories around the
Earth you can get a complete

picture of how these stars
evolve. And without Integro

you're missing a large piece
of the puzzle. We want to know

how did they produce the
elements which we are made of.

These are the objects which
throw all the different kinds of

material into the universe
and they wander off into space.

And we are made of all these
elements which are produced by

the supernova. So it is important
for us to know where does

life originate and how does it
originate. Gamma rays are at

the top of the electromagnetic
spectrum, the most energetic

and powerful photons which
stream from black holes,

exploding stars and even
from our own star, the Sun.

Originally called GLAST, the
Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope

observes the entire sky in
high energy gamma rays every

three hours, creating the most
detailed map of the universe

ever known at these energies.
When it detects a new gamma

ray burst, it works in conjunction
with the SWIFT satellite.

Then SWIFT is able to spin
rapidly across the sky and point

an X-ray telescope and an
optical ultraviolet telescope

at the possible location of
the gamma ray burst. GLAST is

primarily devoted to seeing
in a new energy range. It's

designed to pick up at the
upper end of the SWIFT energy

range and carry it on up to
much higher energies. And it

allows you to just see stranger
and more exotic things the

further up in energy that you go.

GLAST and SWIFT are very
different. SWIFT is like a nimble

small satellite that points
here and there, but it isn't

surveying the whole sky,
it's pointing in its particular

objects. GLAST looks in the
high energy gamma ray sky, it

looks over the whole sky
at all times. So when we see

something interesting with
GLAST, we can ask SWIFT to go

look at it with their other
telescopes and gain additional

information about it. We don't
know what will happen over

the next 10 years, hoping
that SWIFT will still give us

exciting data. But what we
do know is that SWIFT will give

us exciting new data. Because
of its pure nature, this is

what it was built for, to study
new unforeseen unexpected

events. And they will inevitably
happen. Cosmic rays consist

of protons, alpha particles,
atomic nuclei of heavier

elements, electrons, their
antimatter partner positrons,

and gamma rays. Studying
these particles may answer some

fundamental questions, like
the unexplained absence of

antimatter and the nature of
dark matter in the universe.

Calibration of positron is
important because when you have

dark matter collision with
another dark matter, you produce

excess positrons. So the
characteristics of the excess

positron tells you what's
the origin of dark matter.

About 80% of the matter
in the universe is invisible to

telescopes. This dark matter
neither reflects, absorbs, nor

emits light. Yet it
interacts with matter via a

gravitational influence which
can be seen in the orbital

speeds of stars around
galaxies and in the motions of

clusters of galaxies. Yet
despite decades of effort, no one

knows what this dark matter
really is. This visualization

shows galaxies composed
of gas, stars, and dark matter

colliding and forming filaments
in the large-scale universe,

providing a view of the cosmic
web. It is believed that dark

matter provides the framework
for this web. Galaxy clusters

are the largest gravitationally
bound structures in the

universe. It is also believed
that after the Big Bang, the

universe originally decelerated
in its expansion, but then

changed gears and began to accelerate.

Important discoveries in
astronomy and astrophysics was the

discovery of dark energy,
and that is that the universe is

accelerating apart. What
people are trying to do using

various different techniques
and again in all the different

wavelength bands is to
measure the parameters to

characterize the dark energy.
With a launch date set for

2020, ESA is building Euclid,
a space telescope which, it

is hoped, will chart dark matter
and dark energy's effect on

the universe. I'm working
on Euclid. That is a mission to

map the universe, and for
that we built a highly precise

telescope in which we can
map dark matter structures,

as well as derive the
properties of the dark energy.

Understanding dark energy
will allow us to understand the

future of the universe. The
interesting thing is we get more

and more dark energy.
Why? Because our universe is

expanding, and with our
expanding universe we get more dark

energy in our universe. Now
the ordinary matter, so dark

matter and normal matter,
is not expanding, it's diluting.

So the fraction of dark energy
compared to normal matter is

increasing in time. When the
universe expands more and more,

we get more volume of our
universe, we get more space, and

we get more dark energy. The
leading particle physics model

for dark matter is called
weakly interacting massive

particles, or also known as
WIMPs. These guys just fly

through the universe without
even bumping into anything

or each other. The idea of
two WIMPs coming together,

annihilating and forming
gamma rays, is kind of like two

bullets hitting head on in a
crossfire. It's very rare, but

when you go to the area around
a supermassive black hole, we

expect the density to be much
higher, so the probability of

annihilation is much higher in this
detection with a gamma ray telescope.

In his theoretical process,
Schnittman's computer simulation

shows particles of dark matter
around a massive spinning

black hole. All of the action
takes place close to the black

hole's event horizon, the
boundary beyond which nothing can

escape, in a flattened region
called the ergosphere. Within

the ergosphere, the black
hole's rotation drags spacetime

along with it, and everything
is forced to move in the same

direction at nearly the speed
of light. Concentrated fast

-moving dark matter particles
collide and make gamma rays,

but only some of this high-energy
light can escape the black

hole, in this case from the
left side, where the black hole

is spinning towards us, giving
us a lopsided glow of high

-powered gamma rays. The
simulation tells astronomers that

there is an astrophysically
interesting signal they may be

able to detect as gamma ray
telescopes improve. Schnittman

believes this would be
conclusive evidence of the WIMP

model. To me, dark matter,
black holes, two of the most

elusive things in the universe
coming together to help

explain each other is quite poetic.

Future missions will see a
gravitational wave observatory

to study gravity waves and
test Einstein's theory of general

relativity.

The Athena mission, mapping
hot gas structures and searching

for supermassive black
holes due to launch in 2028.

The Sloan Digital Sky
Survey, the most ambitious

astronomical survey ever
undertaken, will provide a three

-dimensional map of about a
million galaxies and quasars.

The recently refurbished and
upscaled CERN, Large Hadron

Collider, is one of the tools
in search of WIMPs and other

exotic particles that may help
explain the fabric of the cosmos.

Then, perhaps, the scientists,
astronomers and engineers can

turn their attention to other
mysterious theories brought

about by particle physics,
such as multiple dimensions,

entire universes beyond our
own, and what lies beyond the

event horizon. These, in time,
will become the new frontier.