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Hello. My name is Ann Druyan.
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When Carl Sagan, Steven Soter and I...
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00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:17,200
...wrote the Cosmos TV series
in the late 1970s...
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00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:18,900
...a lot of things where different.
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00:00:18,900 --> 00:00:21,100
Back then, the U.S. and the Soviet Union...
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00:00:21,100 --> 00:00:24,300
...held the hole planet
in their perpetual hostage crisis...
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...called the Cold War.
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The wealth and scientific ingenuity
of our civilization...
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...was being squandered
on a runaway arms raise.
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Then employed half the world scientists...
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...and infested the world
with 50.000 nuclear weapons.
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So much has happened since then.
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The Cold War is history...
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...and science has made great strides.
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00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,800
We've completed the spacecraft
recognizance of the Solar System...
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00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:55,800
...the preliminary mapping of the visible
universe that surrounds us...
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00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:59,800
...and we've charted the universe within:
the human genome.
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00:01:00,700 --> 00:01:04,600
When Cosmos was first broadcast
there was no World Wide Web...
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00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:06,800
...it was a different world.
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00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:08,900
What a tribute to Carl Sagan...
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00:01:08,900 --> 00:01:12,600
...a scientist who took many a punch
for daring to speculate...
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...that even after 20 of the most eventful
years in the history of science...
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...Cosmos requires few revisions
and indeed is rich in prophecy.
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Cosmos is both the history
of the scientific enterprise...
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...and an attempt to convey the spiritual high...
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...of its central revelation:
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Our oneness with the universe.
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Now, please, enjoy Cosmos,
the proud saga of how...
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...through the searching of 40.000
generations of our ancestors...
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...we have come to discover
our coordinates...
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...in space and in time.
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And how, through the awesomely
powerful method of science...
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...we have been able to reconstruct
the sweep of cosmic evolution...
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...and defined our own part
in its great story.
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SAGAN:
The cosmos is all that is...
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...or ever was or ever will be.
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Our contemplations of
the cosmos stir us.
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There is a tingling in the spine,
a catch in the voice...
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...a faint sensation,
as if a distant memory...
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...of falling from a great height.
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We know we are approaching
the grandest of mysteries.
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The size and age of the cosmos...
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...are beyond ordinary
human understanding.
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Lost somewhere between
immensity and eternity...
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...is our tiny planetary home,
the Earth.
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For the first time,
we have the power to decide...
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...the fate of our planet
and ourselves.
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This is a time of great danger.
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00:04:08,460 --> 00:04:12,700
But our species is
young and curious and brave.
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It shows much promise.
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In the last few millennia,
we've made...
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...the most astonishing
and unexpected discoveries...
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...about the cosmos
and our place within it.
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I believe our future depends
powerfully on...
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...how well we understand
this cosmos...
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...in which we float
like a mote of dust...
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...in the morning sky.
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(SEA GULL CHIRPS)
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We're about to begin a journey
through the cosmos.
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We'll encounter galaxies and suns
and planets...
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...life and consciousness...
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...coming into being,
evolving and perishing.
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Worlds of ice and stars of diamond.
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Atoms as massive as suns...
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...and universes smaller than atoms.
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But it's also a story
of our own planet...
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...and the plants and animals
that share it with us.
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And it's a story about us:
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How we achieved our present
understanding of the cosmos...
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...how the cosmos has shaped
our evolution and our culture...
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...and what our fate may be.
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We wish to pursue the truth,
no matter where it leads.
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But to find the truth, we need
imagination and skepticism both.
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We will not be afraid to speculate.
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But we will be careful to distinguish
speculation from fact.
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The cosmos is full beyond measure
of elegant truths...
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...of exquisite interrelationships...
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...of the awesome machinery of nature.
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The surface of the Earth is
the shore of the cosmic ocean.
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On this shore, we have learned
most of what we know.
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Recently, we've waded
a little way out...
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...maybe ankle-deep,
and the water seems inviting.
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Some part of our being knows
this is where we came from.
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We long to return.
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And we can.
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Because the cosmos is also within us.
We're made of star-stuff.
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We are a way for the cosmos
to know itself.
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The journey for each of us
begins here.
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We're going to explore the cosmos
in a ship of the imagination...
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...unfettered by ordinary limits
on speed and size...
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...drawn by the music
of cosmic harmonies...
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...it can take us anywhere
in space and time.
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Perfect as a snowflake...
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...organic as a dandelion seed...
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...it will carry us...
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...to worlds of dreams
and worlds of facts.
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Come with me.
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Before us is the cosmos
on the grandest scale we know.
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We are far from the shores of Earth...
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...in the uncharted reaches
of the cosmic ocean.
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Strewn like sea froth
on the waves of space...
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...are innumerable
faint tendrils of light.
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Some of them containing hundreds...
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...of billions of suns.
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These are the galaxies...
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...drifting endlessly
in the great cosmic dark.
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In our ship of the imagination...
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...we are halfway to the edge
of the known universe.
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In this, the first of
our cosmic voyages...
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...we begin to explore the universe
revealed by science.
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Our course will eventually carry us
to a far-off and exotic world.
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But from the depths of space,
we cannot detect even...
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...the cluster of galaxies
in which our Milky Way is embedded...
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...much less the sun or the Earth.
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We are in the realm
of the galaxies...
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...8 billion light years from home.
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No matter where we travel,
the patterns of nature are the same...
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...as in the form
of this spiral galaxy.
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The same laws of physics
apply everywhere...
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...throughout the cosmos.
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But we have just begun to
understand these laws.
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The universe is rich in mystery.
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Near the center of
a cluster of galaxies...
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...there's sometimes a rogue,
elliptical galaxy...
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...made of a trillion suns...
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...which devours its neighbors.
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Perhaps this cyclone of stars...
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...is what astronomers on Earth
call a quasar.
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00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:09,080
Our ordinary measures
of distance fail us...
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...here in the realm of the galaxies.
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We need a much larger unit:
the light year.
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It measures how far
light travels in a year...
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...nearly 10 trillion kilometers.
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It measures not time,
but enormous distances.
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In the Hercules cluster...
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...the individual galaxies are
about 300,000 light years apart.
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So light takes about 300,000 years...
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...to go from one galaxy to another.
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Like stars and planets and people...
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...galaxies are born, live and die.
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00:11:04,740 --> 00:11:08,730
They may all experience
a tumultuous adolescence.
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During their first 100 million years,
their cores may explode.
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Seen in radio light,
great jets of energy...
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...pour out and echo
across the cosmos.
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Worlds near the core or along
the jets would be incinerated.
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I wonder how many planets
and how many civilizations...
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...might be destroyed.
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00:11:40,010 --> 00:11:43,840
In the Pegasus cluster,
there's a ring galaxy...
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...the wreckage left from
the collision of two galaxies.
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A splash in the cosmic pond.
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00:11:51,450 --> 00:11:54,890
Individual galaxies may
explode and collide...
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...and their constituent stars
may blow up as well.
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00:11:59,430 --> 00:12:01,800
In this supernova explosion...
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00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:06,130
...a single star outshines
the rest of its galaxy.
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00:12:08,870 --> 00:12:12,330
We are approaching what
astronomers on Earth call...
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...the Local Group.
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Three million light years across,
it contains some 20 galaxies.
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It's a sparse and rather typical
chain of islands...
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...in the immense cosmic ocean.
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We are now only 2 million
light years from home.
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On the maps of space,
this galaxy is called M31...
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...the great galaxy Andromeda.
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It's a vast storm of stars
and gas and dust.
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As we pass over it...
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...we see one of its small
satellite galaxies.
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Clusters of galaxies...
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...and the stars of
individual galaxies...
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...are all held together by gravity.
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00:13:01,790 --> 00:13:03,520
Surrounding M31...
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...are hundreds of globular
star clusters.
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We're approaching one of them.
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Each cluster orbits the massive
center of the galaxy.
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Some contain up to
a million separate stars.
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Every globular cluster is
like a swarm of bees...
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...bound by gravity...
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...every bee, a sun.
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From Pegasus,
our voyage has taken us...
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...200 million light years
to the Local Group...
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...dominated by two
great spiral galaxies.
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Beyond M31 is another
very similar galaxy.
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Its spiral arms slowly turning...
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...once every quarter billion years.
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This is our own Milky Way...
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...seen from the outside.
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This is the home galaxy
of the human species.
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In the obscure backwaters
of the Carina-Cygnus spiral arm...
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...we humans have evolved
to consciousness...
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...and some measure of understanding.
189
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This region of the Milky Way galaxy is
now usually called the Local Arm...
...and some measure of understanding.
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00:14:34,050 --> 00:14:37,010
This region of the Milky Way galaxy is
now usually called the Local Arm...
191
00:14:37,220 --> 00:14:40,950
...or the Orion Arm, but the spiral
arm nomenclature remains rather fuzzy.
192
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Concentrated in its brilliant core...
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...and strewn along its spiral arms...
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...are 400 billion suns.
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It takes light 100,000 years
to travel...
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00:14:57,210 --> 00:15:00,180
...from one end of the galaxy
to the other.
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00:15:02,210 --> 00:15:06,170
Within this galaxy are
stars and worlds...
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...and, it may be, an enormous
diversity of living things...
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...and intelligent beings
and space faring civilizations.
200
00:15:23,770 --> 00:15:26,570
Scattered among the stars
of the Milky Way...
201
00:15:26,770 --> 00:15:28,730
...are supernova remnants...
202
00:15:28,940 --> 00:15:33,210
...each one the remains of
a colossal stellar explosion.
203
00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:35,510
These filaments of glowing gas...
204
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...are the outer layers of a star
which has recently destroyed itself.
205
00:15:39,950 --> 00:15:41,680
The gas is unraveling...
206
00:15:41,890 --> 00:15:45,420
...returning star-stuff
back into space.
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And at its heart, are the remains
of the original star...
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...a dense, shrunken stellar
fragment called a pulsar.
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A natural lighthouse,
blinking and hissing.
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A sun that spins twice each second.
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Pulsars keep such perfect time
that the first one discovered...
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...was thought to be a sign of
extraterrestrial intelligence.
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00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:19,880
Perhaps a navigational beacon...
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00:16:20,090 --> 00:16:23,020
...for great ships that travel
across the light years...
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00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:25,390
...and between the stars.
216
00:16:29,030 --> 00:16:32,620
There may be such intelligences
and such starships...
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00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:36,610
...but pulsars are not
their signature.
218
00:16:46,780 --> 00:16:50,180
Instead, they are
the doleful reminders...
219
00:16:50,390 --> 00:16:52,150
...that nothing lasts forever...
220
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,060
...that stars also die.
221
00:16:57,690 --> 00:17:01,630
We continue to plummet,
falling thousands of light years...
222
00:17:01,830 --> 00:17:04,350
...towards the plane of the galaxy.
223
00:17:06,700 --> 00:17:08,330
This is the Milky Way...
224
00:17:08,540 --> 00:17:11,010
...our galaxy seen edge on.
225
00:17:11,210 --> 00:17:13,310
Billions of nuclear furnaces...
226
00:17:13,510 --> 00:17:16,570
...converting matter into starlight.
227
00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,380
Some stars are flimsy
as a soap bubble.
228
00:17:24,590 --> 00:17:28,960
Others are 100 trillion times
denser than lead.
229
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:32,690
The hottest stars are
destined to die young.
230
00:17:33,130 --> 00:17:36,400
But red giants are mostly elderly.
231
00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:40,700
Such stars are unlikely
to have inhabited planets.
232
00:17:43,570 --> 00:17:46,260
But yellow dwarf stars,
like the sun...
233
00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:50,350
...are middle-aged
and they are far more common.
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00:17:51,050 --> 00:17:53,990
These stars may have
planetary systems.
235
00:17:54,180 --> 00:17:57,770
And on such planets, for the first
time on our cosmic voyage...
236
00:17:57,990 --> 00:18:00,480
...we encounter rare forms of matter:
237
00:18:00,690 --> 00:18:05,280
Ice and rock, air and liquid water.
238
00:18:10,230 --> 00:18:11,860
Close to this yellow star...
239
00:18:12,100 --> 00:18:15,090
...is a small, warm, cloudy world...
240
00:18:15,310 --> 00:18:17,470
...with continents and oceans.
241
00:18:17,670 --> 00:18:22,610
These conditions permit an even more
precious form of matter to arise:
242
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Life.
243
00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:33,380
But this is not the Earth.
244
00:18:33,590 --> 00:18:38,250
Intelligent beings have evolved
and reworked this planetary surface...
245
00:18:38,460 --> 00:18:41,320
...in a massive engineering
enterprise.
246
00:18:41,530 --> 00:18:44,760
In the Milky Way galaxy,
there may be many worlds...
247
00:18:44,970 --> 00:18:48,410
...on which matter has
grown to consciousness.
248
00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:59,020
I wonder, are they very
different from us?
249
00:18:59,220 --> 00:19:00,650
What do they look like?
250
00:19:00,850 --> 00:19:04,940
What are their politics, technology,
music, religion?
251
00:19:05,460 --> 00:19:09,950
Or do they have patterns of culture
we can't begin to imagine?
252
00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:14,400
Are they also a danger to themselves?
253
00:19:21,300 --> 00:19:24,830
Among the many glowing clouds
of interstellar gas...
254
00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:28,030
...is one called the Orion Nebula...
255
00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:31,410
...only 1500 light years from Earth.
256
00:19:36,820 --> 00:19:40,230
These three bright stars
are seen by earthlings...
257
00:19:40,420 --> 00:19:45,220
...as the belt in the familiar
constellation of Orion the hunter.
258
00:19:51,630 --> 00:19:54,790
The nebula appears from Earth
as a patch of light...
259
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:59,230
...the middle star in Orion's sword.
260
00:20:07,220 --> 00:20:09,690
But it is not a star.
261
00:20:09,890 --> 00:20:12,830
It is another thing entirely.
262
00:20:13,020 --> 00:20:17,780
A cloud that veils
one of nature's secret places.
263
00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:31,780
This is a stellar nursery,
a place where stars are born.
264
00:20:32,010 --> 00:20:34,780
They condense by gravity
from gas and dust...
265
00:20:34,980 --> 00:20:39,820
...until their temperatures become
so high that they begin to shine.
266
00:20:40,350 --> 00:20:43,080
Such clouds mark
the births of stars...
267
00:20:43,290 --> 00:20:46,120
...as others bear witness
to their deaths.
268
00:20:52,230 --> 00:20:56,470
After stars condense in the hidden
interiors of interstellar clouds...
269
00:20:56,670 --> 00:20:58,160
...what happens to them?
270
00:20:58,370 --> 00:21:01,900
The Pleiades are a loose cluster
of young stars...
271
00:21:02,110 --> 00:21:04,170
...only 50 million years old.
272
00:21:04,370 --> 00:21:09,310
These fledgling stars are just
being let out into the galaxy.
273
00:21:09,550 --> 00:21:12,750
Still surrounded by wisps
of nebulosity...
274
00:21:12,950 --> 00:21:16,480
...the gas and dust
from which they formed.
275
00:21:50,890 --> 00:21:54,260
There are clouds
that hang like inkblots...
276
00:21:54,460 --> 00:21:56,090
...between the stars.
277
00:21:56,290 --> 00:21:59,090
They are made of fine, rocky dust...
278
00:21:59,300 --> 00:22:01,700
...organic matter and ice.
279
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:07,400
Inside, a few stars begin to turn on.
280
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:09,500
Nearby worlds of ice evaporate...
281
00:22:09,710 --> 00:22:12,300
...and form long, comet-like tails...
282
00:22:12,510 --> 00:22:15,450
...driven back by the stellar winds.
283
00:22:20,380 --> 00:22:23,640
Black clouds, light years across...
284
00:22:23,850 --> 00:22:25,820
...drift between the stars.
285
00:22:26,020 --> 00:22:28,950
They're filled with
organic molecules.
286
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:32,030
The building blocks of life
are everywhere.
287
00:22:32,230 --> 00:22:34,200
They are easily made.
288
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:39,340
On how many worlds have such complex
molecules assembled themselves...
289
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:43,260
...into patterns we would
call alive?
290
00:22:48,610 --> 00:22:53,480
Most stars belong to systems
of two or three or many suns...
291
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:55,670
...bound together by gravity.
292
00:22:55,890 --> 00:22:59,120
Each system is isolated
from its neighbors...
293
00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:00,880
...by the light years.
294
00:23:03,190 --> 00:23:06,990
We are approaching a single,
ordinary, yellow dwarf star...
295
00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:09,900
...surrounded by a system
of nine planets...
296
00:23:10,100 --> 00:23:14,560
...dozens of moons, thousands of
asteroids and billions of comets:
297
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:16,820
The family of the sun.
298
00:23:18,570 --> 00:23:22,840
Only four light hours from Earth
is the planet Neptune...
299
00:23:23,050 --> 00:23:25,810
...and its giant satellite, Triton.
300
00:23:29,550 --> 00:23:32,410
Even in the outskirts
of our own solar system...
301
00:23:32,620 --> 00:23:36,710
...we humans have barely begun
our explorations.
302
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:40,560
Only a century ago...
303
00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:44,630
...we were ignorant even of
the existence of the planet Pluto.
304
00:23:44,830 --> 00:23:47,170
Its moon, Charon, remained
undiscovered until 1978.
305
00:23:47,170 --> 00:23:49,770
Since the discovery of Kuiper Belt objects
in 1992, Pluto has come to be seen...
Its moon, Charon, remained
undiscovered until 1978.
306
00:23:49,770 --> 00:23:51,840
Since the discovery of Kuiper Belt objects
in 1992, Pluto has come to be seen...
307
00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:54,740
...as the largest member of
this population of comets.
308
00:23:54,740 --> 00:23:54,900
The rings of Uranus were
first detected in 1977.
...as the largest member of
this population of comets.
309
00:23:54,900 --> 00:23:55,110
The rings of Uranus were
first detected in 1977.
310
00:23:55,110 --> 00:23:58,130
Many astronomers no longer
regard it as a planet.
The rings of Uranus were
first detected in 1977.
311
00:23:58,130 --> 00:23:59,200
The rings of Uranus were
first detected in 1977.
312
00:23:59,420 --> 00:24:03,290
There are new worlds to chart
even this close to home.
313
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:10,050
Saturn is a giant gas world.
314
00:24:10,260 --> 00:24:12,230
If it has a solid surface...
315
00:24:12,430 --> 00:24:16,230
...it must lie far below
the clouds we see.
316
00:24:17,870 --> 00:24:19,810
Saturn's majestic rings...
317
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,260
...are made of trillions
of orbiting snowballs.
318
00:24:29,150 --> 00:24:33,180
We are now only 80 light minutes
from home.
319
00:24:33,380 --> 00:24:36,870
A mere 1 1/2 billion kilometers.
320
00:24:50,700 --> 00:24:54,560
The largest planet in our
solar system is Jupiter.
321
00:24:54,770 --> 00:24:59,100
On its dark side, super bolts
of lightning illuminate the clouds...
322
00:24:59,310 --> 00:25:04,150
...as first revealed by
the Voyager spacecraft in 1979.
323
00:25:16,360 --> 00:25:18,200
Inside the orbit of Jupiter...
324
00:25:18,390 --> 00:25:21,980
...are countless shattered
and broken world-lets:
325
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:23,800
The asteroids.
326
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:26,090
These reefs and shoals...
327
00:25:26,300 --> 00:25:29,460
...mark the border of
the realm of giant planets.
328
00:25:29,670 --> 00:25:34,070
We are now entering the shallows
of the solar system.
329
00:25:35,810 --> 00:25:40,140
Here there are worlds with thin
atmospheres and solid surfaces:
330
00:25:40,350 --> 00:25:41,690
Earth-like planets...
331
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:45,910
...with landscapes crying out
for careful exploration.
332
00:25:46,120 --> 00:25:49,110
This world is Mars.
333
00:25:51,590 --> 00:25:55,080
In 1976, after a year's voyage...
334
00:25:55,300 --> 00:25:57,790
...two robot explorers from Earth...
335
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,590
...landed on this alien shore.
336
00:26:02,470 --> 00:26:06,060
On Mars, there is a volcano
as wide as Arizona...
337
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,040
...and almost three times
the height of Mount Everest.
338
00:26:09,250 --> 00:26:12,380
We've named it Mount Olympus.
339
00:26:17,090 --> 00:26:20,030
This is a world of wonders.
340
00:26:21,690 --> 00:26:24,310
Mars is a planet with ancient
river valleys...
341
00:26:24,530 --> 00:26:29,470
...and violent sandstorms driven
by winds at half the speed of sound.
342
00:26:36,670 --> 00:26:41,500
There is a giant rift in its surface
5000 kilometers long.
343
00:26:41,710 --> 00:26:45,160
It's called Vallis Marinaris.
344
00:26:45,380 --> 00:26:47,710
The valley of
the Mariner spacecraft...
345
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:52,290
...that came to explore Mars
from a nearby world.
346
00:27:10,340 --> 00:27:13,610
In this, our first cosmic voyage...
347
00:27:13,810 --> 00:27:16,650
...we have just begun
the reconnaissance of Mars...
348
00:27:16,850 --> 00:27:20,310
...and all those other planets
and stars and galaxies.
349
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:24,790
In voyages to come,
we will explore them more fully.
350
00:27:32,330 --> 00:27:36,000
But now, we travel the few
remaining light minutes...
351
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:40,940
...to a blue and cloudy world,
third from the sun.
352
00:27:41,340 --> 00:27:43,400
The end of our long journey...
353
00:27:43,610 --> 00:27:46,010
...is the world where we began.
354
00:27:46,340 --> 00:27:48,170
Our travels allow us...
355
00:27:48,380 --> 00:27:50,650
...to see the Earth anew...
356
00:27:50,850 --> 00:27:53,910
...as if we came from somewhere else.
357
00:27:56,350 --> 00:27:58,980
There are a hundred billion
galaxies...
358
00:27:59,190 --> 00:28:02,190
...and a billion trillion stars.
359
00:28:02,390 --> 00:28:06,980
Why should this modest planet
be the only inhabited world?
360
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:11,800
To me, it seems far more likely
that the cosmos is brimming over...
361
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,120
...with life and intelligence.
362
00:28:14,340 --> 00:28:17,000
But so far, every living thing...
363
00:28:17,210 --> 00:28:18,800
...every conscious being...
364
00:28:19,010 --> 00:28:21,710
...every civilization
we know anything about...
365
00:28:21,910 --> 00:28:24,600
...lived there, on Earth.
366
00:28:31,850 --> 00:28:33,480
Beneath these clouds...
367
00:28:33,690 --> 00:28:37,320
...the drama of the human species
has been unfolded.
368
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,190
We have, at last, come home.
369
00:28:52,910 --> 00:28:55,110
Welcome to the planet Earth.
370
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,270
A place with blue nitrogen skies...
371
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:00,380
...oceans of liquid water...
372
00:29:00,580 --> 00:29:01,910
...cool forests...
373
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:03,520
...soft meadows.
374
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:07,350
A world positively rippling with life.
375
00:29:07,890 --> 00:29:11,410
In the cosmic perspective,
it is, for the moment, unique.
376
00:29:11,630 --> 00:29:14,260
The only world in which
we know with certainty...
377
00:29:14,460 --> 00:29:18,450
...that the matter of the cosmos
has become alive and aware.
378
00:29:18,700 --> 00:29:21,530
There must be many such worlds
scattered through space...
379
00:29:21,740 --> 00:29:24,180
...but our search for them
begins here...
380
00:29:24,370 --> 00:29:27,770
...with the accumulated wisdom of
the men and women of our species...
381
00:29:27,980 --> 00:29:29,780
...acquired at great cost...
382
00:29:29,980 --> 00:29:32,110
...over a million years.
383
00:30:15,260 --> 00:30:18,160
There was once a time when
our planet seemed immense.
384
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,850
When it was the only world
we could explore.
385
00:30:21,060 --> 00:30:25,290
Its true size was first worked out
in a simple and ingenious way...
386
00:30:25,500 --> 00:30:29,760
...by a man who lived here in Egypt,
in the third century B.C.
387
00:30:35,710 --> 00:30:39,970
This tower may have been
a communications tower.
388
00:30:40,180 --> 00:30:43,940
Part of a network running along
the North African coast...
389
00:30:44,150 --> 00:30:48,550
...by which signal bonfires were used
to communicate messages of state.
390
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:53,170
It also may have been used
as a lighthouse...
391
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:56,620
...a navigational beacon
for sailing ships...
392
00:30:56,830 --> 00:30:59,160
...out there in the Mediterranean Sea.
393
00:30:59,370 --> 00:31:01,900
It is about 50 kilometers west...
394
00:31:02,100 --> 00:31:06,760
...of what was once one of the great
cities of the world, Alexandria.
395
00:31:07,710 --> 00:31:09,730
In Alexandria, at that time...
396
00:31:09,950 --> 00:31:12,980
...there lived a man named
Eratosthenes.
397
00:31:13,180 --> 00:31:17,670
A competitor called him "beta," the
second letter of the Greek alphabet...
398
00:31:17,890 --> 00:31:22,590
...because, he said, "Eratosthenes
was second best in everything."
399
00:31:22,790 --> 00:31:27,520
But it seems clear, in many fields,
Eratosthenes was "alpha."
400
00:31:27,730 --> 00:31:31,390
He was an astronomer, historian,
geographer...
401
00:31:31,630 --> 00:31:35,500
...philosopher, poet, theater critic
and mathematician.
402
00:31:35,700 --> 00:31:40,100
He was also the chief librarian
of the Great Library of Alexandria.
403
00:31:40,310 --> 00:31:45,250
And one day while reading
a papyrus book in the library...
404
00:31:45,450 --> 00:31:49,390
...he came upon a curious account.
405
00:31:56,630 --> 00:31:58,460
Far to the south, he read...
406
00:31:58,660 --> 00:32:00,990
...at the frontier outpost of Syene...
407
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:04,690
...something notable could be seen
on the longest day of the year.
408
00:32:09,670 --> 00:32:11,190
On June 21st...
409
00:32:11,410 --> 00:32:14,470
...the shadows of a temple column,
or a vertical stick...
410
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:17,280
...would grow shorter
as noon approached.
411
00:32:23,220 --> 00:32:24,850
As the hours crept towards midday...
412
00:32:25,050 --> 00:32:29,280
...the sun's rays would slither down
the sides of a deep well...
413
00:32:29,490 --> 00:32:31,980
...which on other days
would remain in shadow.
414
00:32:38,930 --> 00:32:41,560
And then, precisely at noon...
415
00:32:41,770 --> 00:32:44,170
...columns would cast no shadows.
416
00:32:44,370 --> 00:32:48,900
And the sun would shine directly down
into the water of the well.
417
00:32:55,050 --> 00:32:56,480
At that moment...
418
00:32:56,690 --> 00:32:59,220
...the sun was exactly overhead.
419
00:33:04,430 --> 00:33:08,770
It was an observation that someone else
might easily have ignored.
420
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:12,830
Sticks, shadows,
reflections in wells...
421
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:14,770
...the position of the sun...
422
00:33:14,970 --> 00:33:16,990
...simple, everyday matters.
423
00:33:17,210 --> 00:33:20,270
Of what possible importance
might they be?
424
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,330
But Eratosthenes was a scientist...
425
00:33:23,550 --> 00:33:27,010
...and his contemplation of these
homely matters changed the world...
426
00:33:27,220 --> 00:33:29,490
...in a way, made the world.
427
00:33:29,690 --> 00:33:33,820
Because Eratosthenes had
the presence of mind to experiment...
428
00:33:34,020 --> 00:33:38,480
...to actually ask whether
back here, near Alexandria...
429
00:33:38,690 --> 00:33:43,630
...a stick cast a shadow
near noon on June the 21 st.
430
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,800
And it turns out, sticks do.
431
00:33:49,070 --> 00:33:51,500
An overly skeptical person
might have said...
432
00:33:51,710 --> 00:33:54,370
...that the report from Syene
was an error.
433
00:33:54,580 --> 00:33:57,380
But it's an absolutely
straightforward observation.
434
00:33:57,580 --> 00:34:00,750
Why would anyone lie
on such a trivial matter?
435
00:34:00,950 --> 00:34:03,680
Eratosthenes asked himself
how it could be...
436
00:34:03,890 --> 00:34:05,920
...that at the same moment...
437
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:08,780
...a stick in Syene
would cast no shadow...
438
00:34:08,990 --> 00:34:12,550
...and a stick in Alexandria,
800 kilometers to the north...
439
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:15,320
...would cast a very definite shadow.
440
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,660
Here is a map of ancient Egypt.
441
00:34:22,500 --> 00:34:25,870
I've inserted two sticks, or obelisks.
442
00:34:26,070 --> 00:34:30,530
One up here in Alexandria
and one down here in Syene.
443
00:34:30,750 --> 00:34:34,590
Now, if at a certain moment
each stick casts...
444
00:34:34,780 --> 00:34:37,180
...no shadow, no shadow at all...
445
00:34:37,550 --> 00:34:41,810
...that's perfectly easy to understand,
provided the Earth is flat.
446
00:34:42,020 --> 00:34:45,220
If the shadow at Syene is
at a certain length...
447
00:34:45,430 --> 00:34:47,870
...and the shadow at Alexandria is
the same length...
448
00:34:48,060 --> 00:34:50,620
...that also makes sense
on a flat Earth.
449
00:34:51,100 --> 00:34:54,340
But how could it be,
Eratosthenes asked...
450
00:34:54,540 --> 00:34:59,040
...that at the same instant
there was no shadow at Syene...
451
00:34:59,370 --> 00:35:04,030
...and a very substantial shadow
at Alexandria?
452
00:35:05,380 --> 00:35:09,940
The only answer was that
the surface of the Earth is curved.
453
00:35:10,190 --> 00:35:11,520
Not only that...
454
00:35:11,720 --> 00:35:15,520
...but the greater the curvature,
the bigger the difference...
455
00:35:15,720 --> 00:35:19,420
...in the lengths of the shadows.
The sun is so far away...
456
00:35:19,630 --> 00:35:22,070
...that its rays are parallel
when they reach the Earth.
457
00:35:22,260 --> 00:35:26,530
Sticks at different angles to the sun
will cast shadows at different lengths.
458
00:35:26,740 --> 00:35:30,180
For the observed difference
in the shadow lengths...
459
00:35:30,370 --> 00:35:32,800
...the distance between
Alexandria and Syene...
460
00:35:33,010 --> 00:35:36,920
...had to be about seven degrees
along the surface of the Earth.
461
00:35:37,110 --> 00:35:41,010
By that, I mean, if you would imagine
these sticks extending...
462
00:35:41,220 --> 00:35:43,660
...all the way down
to the center of the Earth...
463
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:47,020
...they would there intersect
at an angle of seven degrees.
464
00:35:47,220 --> 00:35:50,380
Well, seven degrees is
something like a 50th...
465
00:35:50,590 --> 00:35:54,150
...of the full circumference
of the Earth, 360 degrees.
466
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:58,890
Eratosthenes knew the distance
between Alexandria and Syene.
467
00:35:59,100 --> 00:36:01,060
He knew it was 800 kilometers.
468
00:36:01,270 --> 00:36:05,860
Why? Because he hired a man
to pace out the entire distance...
469
00:36:06,070 --> 00:36:09,530
...so that he could perform
the calculation I'm talking about.
470
00:36:09,750 --> 00:36:14,480
Now, 800 kilometers times 50
is 40,000 kilometers.
471
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:16,770
That must be the circumference
of the Earth.
472
00:36:16,990 --> 00:36:20,190
That's how far it is to go
once around the Earth.
473
00:36:20,660 --> 00:36:22,130
That's the right answer.
474
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:24,650
Eratosthenes' only tools were...
475
00:36:24,860 --> 00:36:28,720
...sticks, eyes, feet and brains.
476
00:36:29,260 --> 00:36:32,290
Plus a zest for experiment.
477
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,730
With those tools, he correctly deduced
the circumference of the Earth...
478
00:36:36,940 --> 00:36:41,400
...to high precision with an error
of only a few percent.
479
00:36:42,510 --> 00:36:47,440
That's pretty good figuring
for 2200 years ago.
480
00:36:57,790 --> 00:37:01,520
Then, as now, the Mediterranean was
teeming with ships.
481
00:37:01,730 --> 00:37:05,820
Merchantmen, fishing vessels,
naval flotillas.
482
00:37:06,030 --> 00:37:10,400
But there were also
courageous voyages into the unknown.
483
00:37:11,810 --> 00:37:16,440
400 years before Eratosthenes,
Africa was circumnavigated...
484
00:37:16,650 --> 00:37:19,590
...by a Phoenician fleet
in the employ...
485
00:37:19,780 --> 00:37:21,840
...of the Egyptian pharaoh Necho.
486
00:37:22,050 --> 00:37:23,240
They set sail...
487
00:37:23,450 --> 00:37:27,980
...probably in boats as frail
and open as these...
488
00:37:28,190 --> 00:37:31,380
...out from the Red Sea,
down the east coast of Africa...
489
00:37:31,590 --> 00:37:34,850
...up into the Atlantic and then
back through the Mediterranean.
490
00:37:35,260 --> 00:37:37,950
That epic journey took three years...
491
00:37:38,170 --> 00:37:40,300
...about as long as
it takes Voyager...
492
00:37:40,500 --> 00:37:43,490
...to journey from Earth to Saturn.
493
00:37:44,070 --> 00:37:46,700
After Eratosthenes,
some may have attempted...
494
00:37:46,910 --> 00:37:49,280
...to circumnavigate the Earth.
495
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:52,380
But until the time of Magellan,
no one succeeded.
496
00:37:52,980 --> 00:37:55,970
What tales of adventure and daring...
497
00:37:56,180 --> 00:37:58,310
...must earlier have been told...
498
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:02,850
...as sailors and navigators,
practical men of the world...
499
00:38:03,060 --> 00:38:05,930
...gambled their lives
on the mathematics...
500
00:38:06,130 --> 00:38:09,570
...of a scientist
from ancient Alexandria.
501
00:38:16,170 --> 00:38:19,830
Today, Alexandria shows few traces
of its ancient glory...
502
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:23,370
...of the days when Eratosthenes
walked its broad avenues.
503
00:38:23,580 --> 00:38:28,250
Over the centuries, waves of conquerors
converted its palaces and temples...
504
00:38:28,450 --> 00:38:33,210
...into castles and churches,
then into minarets and mosques.
505
00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:38,960
The city was chosen to be the capital
of his empire by Alexander the Great...
506
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:43,120
...on a winter's afternoon in 331 B.C.
507
00:38:43,670 --> 00:38:47,000
A century later, it had become
the greatest city of the world.
508
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:50,930
Each successive civilization
has left its mark.
509
00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:01,340
But what now remains of the
marvel city of Alexander's dream?
510
00:39:02,820 --> 00:39:05,720
Alexandria is still
a thriving marketplace...
511
00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:09,180
...still a crossroads
for the peoples of the Near East.
512
00:39:15,660 --> 00:39:18,820
But once, it was radiant
with self-confidence...
513
00:39:19,030 --> 00:39:21,290
...certain of its power.
514
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:29,970
Can you recapture a vanished epoch...
515
00:39:30,180 --> 00:39:34,550
...from a few broken statues and scraps
of ancient manuscripts?
516
00:39:42,220 --> 00:39:45,750
In Alexandria, there was
an immense library...
517
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:48,580
...and an associated
research institute.
518
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:52,930
And in them worked the finest minds
in the ancient world.
519
00:39:56,570 --> 00:39:58,590
(CAN CLUNKS)
520
00:39:58,810 --> 00:40:01,210
(DOOR SQUEAKS)
521
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:15,950
Of that legendary library...
522
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:18,720
...all that survives is this...
523
00:40:18,930 --> 00:40:21,630
...dank and forgotten cellar.
524
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:26,500
It's in the library annex,
the Serapeum...
525
00:40:26,700 --> 00:40:28,660
...which was once a temple...
526
00:40:28,870 --> 00:40:31,660
...but was later reconsecrated
to knowledge.
527
00:40:32,210 --> 00:40:35,910
These few moldering shelves...
528
00:40:36,310 --> 00:40:38,740
...probably once in a basement
storage room...
529
00:40:38,950 --> 00:40:41,650
...are its only physical remains.
530
00:40:42,020 --> 00:40:44,790
But this place was once...
531
00:40:45,090 --> 00:40:47,960
...the brain and glory...
532
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:51,290
...of the greatest city
on the planet Earth.
533
00:40:59,300 --> 00:41:01,890
If I could travel back into time...
534
00:41:02,100 --> 00:41:04,620
...this is the place I would visit.
535
00:41:05,540 --> 00:41:10,030
The Library of Alexandria
at its height, 2000 years ago.
536
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:16,550
Here, in an important sense...
537
00:41:16,750 --> 00:41:21,050
...began the intellectual adventure
which has led us into space.
538
00:41:27,660 --> 00:41:32,590
All the knowledge in the ancient world
was once within these marble walls.
539
00:41:38,710 --> 00:41:42,170
In the great hall, there may have
been a mural of Alexander...
540
00:41:42,380 --> 00:41:45,610
...with the crook and flail
and ceremonial headdress...
541
00:41:45,810 --> 00:41:48,440
...of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt.
542
00:41:52,050 --> 00:41:55,540
This library was a citadel
of human consciousness...
543
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:59,860
...a beacon on our journey
to the stars.
544
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:08,070
It was the first true research
institute in the history of the world.
545
00:42:08,340 --> 00:42:10,280
And what did they study?
546
00:42:10,570 --> 00:42:14,500
They studied everything.
The entire cosmos.
547
00:42:14,710 --> 00:42:19,120
"Cosmos" is a Greek word
for the order of the universe.
548
00:42:19,310 --> 00:42:22,400
In a way, it's the opposite of chaos.
549
00:42:22,650 --> 00:42:27,550
It implies a deep interconnectedness
of all things.
550
00:42:27,990 --> 00:42:32,930
The intricate and subtle way
that the universe is put together.
551
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:37,050
Genius flourished here.
552
00:42:37,270 --> 00:42:41,600
In addition to Eratosthenes,
there was the astronomer Hipparchus...
553
00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:43,560
...who mapped the constellation...
554
00:42:43,770 --> 00:42:46,790
...and established the brightness
of the stars.
555
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:49,540
And there was Euclid...
556
00:42:49,740 --> 00:42:52,570
...who brilliantly
systematized geometry...
557
00:42:52,780 --> 00:42:55,140
...who told his king,
who was struggling...
558
00:42:55,350 --> 00:42:57,970
...with some difficult problem
in mathematics...
559
00:42:58,190 --> 00:43:02,560
...that there was no royal road
to geometry.
560
00:43:03,090 --> 00:43:05,780
There was Dionysius of Thrace,
the man who defined...
561
00:43:05,990 --> 00:43:09,450
...the parts of speech:
nouns, verbs and so on...
562
00:43:09,660 --> 00:43:13,600
...who did for language, in a way,
what Euclid did for geometry.
563
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:17,820
There was Herophilus,
a physiologist who identified...
564
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:21,570
...the brain rather than the heart
as the seat of intelligence.
565
00:43:22,240 --> 00:43:24,930
There was Archimedes,
the greatest mechanical genius...
566
00:43:25,150 --> 00:43:27,350
...until the time
of Leonardo da Vinci.
567
00:43:27,550 --> 00:43:32,290
And there was the astronomer Ptolemy,
who compiled much of what today is...
568
00:43:32,490 --> 00:43:34,760
...the pseudoscience of astrology.
569
00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:37,290
His Earth-centered universe...
570
00:43:37,490 --> 00:43:40,150
...held sway for 1500 years...
571
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:43,790
...showing that intellectual brilliance
is no guarantee...
572
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,100
...against being dead wrong.
573
00:43:46,570 --> 00:43:50,570
And among these great men,
there was also a great woman.
574
00:43:50,770 --> 00:43:52,960
Her name was Hypatia.
575
00:43:53,170 --> 00:43:56,040
She was a mathematician
and an astronomer...
576
00:43:56,240 --> 00:43:58,230
...the last light of the library...
577
00:43:58,450 --> 00:44:03,350
...whose martyrdom is bound up with
the destruction of this place...
578
00:44:03,550 --> 00:44:06,850
...seven centuries after
it was founded.
579
00:44:25,240 --> 00:44:27,500
Look at this place.
580
00:44:28,710 --> 00:44:31,610
The Greek kings of Egypt
who succeeded Alexander...
581
00:44:31,810 --> 00:44:35,140
...regarded advances in science,
literature and medicine...
582
00:44:35,350 --> 00:44:37,610
...as among the treasures
of the empire.
583
00:44:37,820 --> 00:44:42,280
For centuries, they generously
supported research and scholarship.
584
00:44:42,490 --> 00:44:46,890
An enlightenment shared by
few heads of state, then or now.
585
00:44:49,730 --> 00:44:52,660
(FOUNTAIN GURGLES)
586
00:44:56,370 --> 00:45:00,330
Off this great hall were
10 large research laboratories.
587
00:45:00,540 --> 00:45:04,670
There were fountains and colonnades,
botanical gardens...
588
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:09,250
...and even a zoo with animals
from India and sub-Saharan Africa.
589
00:45:09,450 --> 00:45:14,140
There were dissecting rooms
and an astronomical observatory.
590
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:17,990
But the treasure of the library...
591
00:45:18,190 --> 00:45:21,450
...consecrated to the god Serapis...
592
00:45:21,660 --> 00:45:24,460
...built in the city of Alexander...
593
00:45:24,670 --> 00:45:26,500
...was its collection of books.
594
00:45:26,700 --> 00:45:28,890
The organizers of the library combed...
595
00:45:29,100 --> 00:45:32,330
...all the cultures and languages
of the world for books.
596
00:45:32,540 --> 00:45:35,900
They sent agents abroad
to buy up libraries.
597
00:45:36,110 --> 00:45:41,040
Commercial ships docking in Alexandria
harbor were searched by the police...
598
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:43,710
...not for contraband, but for books.
599
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:47,480
The scrolls were borrowed, copied
and returned to their owners.
600
00:45:47,690 --> 00:45:51,760
Until studied, these scrolls were
collected in great stacks...
601
00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:55,220
...called, "books from the ships."
602
00:45:55,530 --> 00:45:57,960
Accurate numbers are
difficult to come by...
603
00:45:58,170 --> 00:46:01,160
...but it seems that the library
contained at its peak...
604
00:46:01,370 --> 00:46:04,470
...nearly one million scrolls.
605
00:46:18,020 --> 00:46:21,460
The papyrus reed grows in Egypt.
606
00:46:21,660 --> 00:46:23,860
It's the origin of our word
for "paper."
607
00:46:24,060 --> 00:46:27,830
Each of those million volumes
which once existed in this library...
608
00:46:28,030 --> 00:46:32,470
...were handwritten
on papyrus manuscript scrolls.
609
00:46:33,430 --> 00:46:35,290
What happened to all those books?
610
00:46:35,500 --> 00:46:38,930
The classical civilization
that created them disintegrated.
611
00:46:39,140 --> 00:46:41,630
The library itself was destroyed.
612
00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:45,000
Only a small fraction
of the works survived.
613
00:46:45,210 --> 00:46:48,340
And as for the rest,
we're left only with pathetic...
614
00:46:48,550 --> 00:46:50,720
...scattered fragments.
615
00:46:51,050 --> 00:46:55,310
But how tantalizing those remaining
bits and pieces are.
616
00:46:55,520 --> 00:46:59,180
For example, we know
that there once existed here...
617
00:46:59,390 --> 00:47:03,720
...a book by the astronomer
Aristarchus of Samos...
618
00:47:03,930 --> 00:47:08,060
...who apparently argued that
the Earth was one of the planets...
619
00:47:08,270 --> 00:47:11,770
...that, like the other planets,
it orbits the sun...
620
00:47:11,970 --> 00:47:16,340
...and that the stars are
enormously far away.
621
00:47:16,710 --> 00:47:19,170
All absolutely correct.
622
00:47:19,380 --> 00:47:22,000
But we had to wait
nearly 2000 years...
623
00:47:22,220 --> 00:47:25,380
...for these facts to be rediscovered.
624
00:47:32,460 --> 00:47:36,260
The astronomy stacks
of the Alexandria Library.
625
00:47:37,070 --> 00:47:38,970
Hipparchus.
626
00:47:39,330 --> 00:47:41,960
Ptolomeus. Here we are.
627
00:47:43,340 --> 00:47:46,180
Aristarchus.
628
00:47:47,240 --> 00:47:48,700
This is the book.
629
00:47:48,910 --> 00:47:52,140
How I'd love to be able
to read this book...
630
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:55,440
...to know how Aristarchus
figured it out.
631
00:47:55,650 --> 00:47:59,010
But it's gone. Utterly and forever.
632
00:47:59,490 --> 00:48:03,860
If we multiply our sense of loss
for this work of Aristarchus...
633
00:48:04,060 --> 00:48:05,460
...by 100,000...
634
00:48:05,660 --> 00:48:08,120
...we begin to appreciate
the grandeur...
635
00:48:08,330 --> 00:48:11,000
...of the achievement
of classical civilization...
636
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:14,270
...and the tragedy of its destruction.
637
00:48:17,770 --> 00:48:22,300
We have far surpassed the science
known to the ancient world...
638
00:48:22,510 --> 00:48:26,100
...but there are irreparable gaps
in our historical knowledge.
639
00:48:26,350 --> 00:48:29,720
Imagine what mysteries of the past
could be solved...
640
00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:32,360
...with a borrower's card
to this library.
641
00:48:32,550 --> 00:48:36,780
For example, we know of a three-volume
history of the world...
642
00:48:36,990 --> 00:48:41,480
...now lost, written by
a Babylonian priest named Berossus.
643
00:48:41,700 --> 00:48:45,330
Volume I dealt with the interval
from the creation of the world...
644
00:48:45,530 --> 00:48:46,690
...to the Great Flood.
645
00:48:46,900 --> 00:48:50,960
A period that he took
to be 432,000 years...
646
00:48:51,170 --> 00:48:54,900
...or about 100 times longer than
the Old Testament chronology.
647
00:48:55,110 --> 00:48:59,020
What wonders were in
the books of Berossus!
648
00:49:00,110 --> 00:49:04,140
But why have I brought you
across 2000 years...
649
00:49:04,350 --> 00:49:06,580
...to the Library of Alexandria?
650
00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:10,660
Because this was when and where
we humans...
651
00:49:10,860 --> 00:49:14,960
...first collected
seriously and systematically...
652
00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:17,090
...the knowledge of the world.
653
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:19,890
This is the Earth
as Eratosthenes knew it.
654
00:49:20,100 --> 00:49:23,360
A tiny, spherical world, afloat...
655
00:49:23,570 --> 00:49:26,560
...in an immensity of space and time.
656
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:29,730
We were, at long last,
beginning to find...
657
00:49:29,940 --> 00:49:32,870
...our true bearings in the cosmos.
658
00:49:33,650 --> 00:49:35,520
The scientists of antiquity...
659
00:49:35,720 --> 00:49:39,320
...took the first and most
important steps in that direction...
660
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:42,280
...before their civilization
fell apart.
661
00:49:42,590 --> 00:49:45,450
But after the Dark Ages,
it was by and large...
662
00:49:45,660 --> 00:49:49,590
...the rediscovery of the works
of these scholars done here...
663
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:52,000
...that made
the Renaissance possible...
664
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:55,260
...and thereby powerfully influenced
our own culture.
665
00:49:55,470 --> 00:49:58,700
When, in the 15th century,
Europe was at last ready...
666
00:49:58,910 --> 00:50:01,710
...to awaken from its long sleep...
667
00:50:01,910 --> 00:50:06,180
...it picked up some of the tools,
the books and the concepts...
668
00:50:06,380 --> 00:50:10,400
...laid down here more than
a thousand years before.
669
00:50:15,860 --> 00:50:19,760
By 1600, the long-forgotten ideas
of Aristarchus...
670
00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:21,180
...had been rediscovered.
671
00:50:22,260 --> 00:50:25,520
Johannes Kepler constructed
elaborate models...
672
00:50:25,730 --> 00:50:28,630
...to understand the motion
and arrangement of the planets...
673
00:50:28,840 --> 00:50:31,500
...the clockwork of the heavens.
674
00:50:35,610 --> 00:50:39,440
And at night, he dreamt
of traveling to the moon.
675
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:52,360
His principal
scientific tools were...
676
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:55,350
...the mathematics
of the Alexandrian Library...
677
00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:57,990
...and an unswerving respect
for the facts...
678
00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:01,640
...however disquieting they might be.
679
00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:08,480
His story, and the story of
the scientists who came after him...
680
00:51:08,680 --> 00:51:11,120
...are also part of our voyage.
681
00:51:13,480 --> 00:51:16,450
Seventy years later,
the sun-centered universe...
682
00:51:16,650 --> 00:51:18,240
...of Aristarchus and Copernicus...
683
00:51:18,450 --> 00:51:22,320
...was widely accepted
in the Europe of the Enlightenment.
684
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:25,950
The idea arose that the planets
were worlds...
685
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:27,780
...governed by laws of nature...
686
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:32,230
...and scientific speculation turned
to the motions of the stars.
687
00:51:32,430 --> 00:51:35,060
The clockwork in the heavens
was imitated...
688
00:51:35,270 --> 00:51:37,040
...by the watchmakers of Earth.
689
00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:41,140
Precise timekeeping permitted
great sailing ship voyages...
690
00:51:41,340 --> 00:51:43,860
...of exploration and discovery...
691
00:51:44,080 --> 00:51:45,640
...which bound up the Earth.
692
00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:50,410
This was a time when free inquiry...
693
00:51:50,620 --> 00:51:52,590
...was valued once again.
694
00:51:52,790 --> 00:51:57,060
(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
695
00:51:59,490 --> 00:52:02,890
250 years later,
the Earth was all explored.
696
00:52:03,100 --> 00:52:06,270
New adventurers now looked to
the planets and the stars.
697
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:10,660
The galaxies were recognized
as great aggregates of stars...
698
00:52:10,870 --> 00:52:14,800
...island universes
millions of light years away.
699
00:52:15,710 --> 00:52:18,830
In the 1920s, astronomers had
begun to measure...
700
00:52:19,050 --> 00:52:21,780
...the speeds of distant galaxies.
701
00:52:26,550 --> 00:52:27,520
ASTRONOMER 1:
What time is it?
702
00:52:27,720 --> 00:52:29,410
7:15.
703
00:52:29,860 --> 00:52:31,020
ASTRONOMER 1:
Lights off, please.
704
00:52:31,990 --> 00:52:36,620
They found that the galaxies were
flying away from one another.
705
00:52:36,830 --> 00:52:38,730
To the astonishment of everyone...
706
00:52:38,930 --> 00:52:42,160
...the entire universe was expanding.
707
00:52:47,980 --> 00:52:52,780
We had begun to plumb the true depths
of time and space.
708
00:52:55,220 --> 00:52:57,920
The long, collective enterprise
of science...
709
00:52:58,120 --> 00:53:02,420
...has revealed a universe
some 15 billion years old.
710
00:53:02,620 --> 00:53:05,610
The time since the explosive
birth of the cosmos...
711
00:53:05,830 --> 00:53:07,060
...the big bang.
712
00:53:07,060 --> 00:53:07,130
The current estimates for the age of the
universe range from 12 to 15 billion years.
...the big bang.
713
00:53:07,130 --> 00:53:07,430
The current estimates for the age of the
universe range from 12 to 15 billion years.
714
00:53:07,430 --> 00:53:09,590
(THUNDER CRASHES)
The current estimates for the age of the
universe range from 12 to 15 billion years.
715
00:53:09,590 --> 00:53:11,990
The current estimates for the age of the
universe range from 12 to 15 billion years.
716
00:53:13,570 --> 00:53:17,600
The cosmic calendar compresses
the local history of the universe...
717
00:53:17,810 --> 00:53:19,540
...into a single year.
718
00:53:19,740 --> 00:53:22,300
If the universe began
on January 1st...
719
00:53:22,510 --> 00:53:25,870
...it was not until May
that the Milky Way formed.
720
00:53:26,650 --> 00:53:29,420
Other planetary systems
may have appeared...
721
00:53:29,620 --> 00:53:32,420
...in June, July and August...
722
00:53:32,790 --> 00:53:35,520
...but our sun and Earth,
not until mid-September.
723
00:53:35,720 --> 00:53:38,080
Life arose soon after.
724
00:53:38,960 --> 00:53:43,030
Everything humans have ever done
occurred in that bright speck...
725
00:53:43,230 --> 00:53:46,290
...at the lower right
of the cosmic calendar.
726
00:53:48,940 --> 00:53:50,930
The big bang is at upper left...
727
00:53:51,140 --> 00:53:53,840
...in the first second of January 1st.
728
00:53:54,110 --> 00:53:57,810
Fifteen billion years later
is our present time...
729
00:53:58,010 --> 00:54:01,370
...the last second of December 31st.
730
00:54:06,350 --> 00:54:09,580
Every month is
1¼ billion years long.
731
00:54:09,790 --> 00:54:12,690
Each day represents 40 million years.
732
00:54:12,890 --> 00:54:16,620
Each second stands for some 500 years
of our history.
733
00:54:16,830 --> 00:54:21,060
The blinking of an eye
in the drama of cosmic time.
734
00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:30,900
At this scale, the cosmic calendar
is the size of a football field...
735
00:54:31,110 --> 00:54:34,270
...but all of human history
would occupy an area...
736
00:54:34,480 --> 00:54:36,100
...the size of my hand.
737
00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:39,780
We're just beginning to trace
the long and tortuous path...
738
00:54:39,990 --> 00:54:42,720
...which began with
the primeval fireball...
739
00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:45,610
...and led to the condensation
of matter:
740
00:54:45,830 --> 00:54:48,460
Gas, dust, stars, galaxies, and...
741
00:54:48,660 --> 00:54:51,020
...at least in our little nook
of the universe...
742
00:54:51,230 --> 00:54:55,530
...planets, life, intelligence
and inquisitive men and women.
743
00:54:55,740 --> 00:54:57,330
We've emerged so recently...
744
00:54:57,540 --> 00:55:00,410
...that the familiar events
of our recorded history...
745
00:55:00,610 --> 00:55:04,850
...occupy only the last seconds
of the last minute of December 31st.
746
00:55:05,050 --> 00:55:08,680
But some critical events for the
human species began much earlier...
747
00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:10,640
...minutes earlier.
748
00:55:11,920 --> 00:55:15,330
So we change our scale
from months to minutes.
749
00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:18,680
Down here, the first humans
made their debut...
750
00:55:18,890 --> 00:55:22,380
...around 10:30 p.m. on December 31st.
751
00:55:25,270 --> 00:55:27,600
And with the passing
of every cosmic minute...
752
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:29,860
...each minute 30,000 years long...
753
00:55:30,070 --> 00:55:32,400
...we began the arduous journey
towards understanding...
754
00:55:32,610 --> 00:55:35,270
...where we live and who we are.
755
00:55:38,110 --> 00:55:40,200
11:46...
756
00:55:40,410 --> 00:55:42,970
...only 14 minutes ago...
757
00:55:43,250 --> 00:55:46,210
...humans have tamed fire.
758
00:55:46,950 --> 00:55:51,750
11:59:20, the evening
of the last day of the cosmic year...
759
00:55:51,960 --> 00:55:55,800
...the 11th hour, the 59th minute,
the 20th second...
760
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:58,870
...the domestication of
plants and animals begins:
761
00:55:59,070 --> 00:56:01,970
An application of the human talent...
762
00:56:04,840 --> 00:56:06,570
...for making tools.
763
00:56:13,780 --> 00:56:18,270
11:59:35, settled agricultural
communities...
764
00:56:18,490 --> 00:56:21,220
...evolved into the first cities.
765
00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:26,260
We humans appear on
the comic calendar so recently...
766
00:56:26,460 --> 00:56:28,860
...that our recorded history
occupies only...
767
00:56:29,060 --> 00:56:34,000
...the last few seconds of
the last minute of December 31 st.
768
00:56:34,740 --> 00:56:39,510
In the vast ocean of time
which this calendar represents...
769
00:56:39,710 --> 00:56:43,080
...all our memories are confined...
770
00:56:45,250 --> 00:56:47,480
...to this small square.
771
00:56:47,850 --> 00:56:52,720
Every person we've ever heard of
lived somewhere in there.
772
00:56:53,150 --> 00:56:58,090
All those kings and battles, migrations
and inventions, wars and loves.
773
00:56:58,530 --> 00:57:00,290
Everything in the history books...
774
00:57:00,490 --> 00:57:02,420
...happens here...
775
00:57:03,300 --> 00:57:06,530
...in the last 10 seconds
of the cosmic calendar.
776
00:57:11,970 --> 00:57:14,460
We on Earth have just awakened...
777
00:57:14,680 --> 00:57:17,480
...to the great oceans
of space and time...
778
00:57:17,680 --> 00:57:19,650
...from which we have emerged.
779
00:57:20,950 --> 00:57:22,510
We are the legacy...
780
00:57:22,720 --> 00:57:26,210
...of 15 billion years
of cosmic evolution.
781
00:57:26,850 --> 00:57:28,540
We have a choice:
782
00:57:28,860 --> 00:57:32,350
We can enhance life and come to know
the universe that made us...
783
00:57:32,560 --> 00:57:35,790
...or we can squander
our 15 billion-year heritage...
784
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:38,940
...in meaningless self-destruction.
785
00:57:40,170 --> 00:57:43,370
What happens in the first second
of the next cosmic year...
786
00:57:43,570 --> 00:57:46,730
...depends on what we do,
here and now...
787
00:57:46,940 --> 00:57:48,730
...with our intelligence...
788
00:57:48,940 --> 00:57:51,960
...and our knowledge of the cosmos.
66767
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