Original subtitles

We're at the edge of a spiral galaxy,-

-far from the galactic core.

This small planet is our Earth,-

-its pole crowned with a circle of "Northern Lights".

The whole planet glowing in the infrared warmth-

-of a star we rarely think about,-

-a star we call "Sun".

It is almost midwinter in Ireland.

Soon the Sun will begin its journey back from the south.

Waiting for the Sun is a Stone Age buiIding,-

-older than the Pyramids of Egypt.

Above the entrance is a mysterious skylight-

-built by people who understood very well the ways of the Sun.

Sunrise on the shortest day of the year; the winter solstice.

On that day, the first rays of the sunrise-

-spear through the skylight-

-and down a perfectly aligned passageway to penetrate-

-to the room at the core of the structure,-

-to mark almost magically, but with great precision,-

-the beginning of a new year.

This is the oldest room on Earth,-

-its careful alignment perhaps the oIdest evidence-

-of scientific thought ever found.

Our Sun is a star, one of billions.

It has shone for five biIlion years-

-and will shine for five billion more.

For us, it is the great engine of life.

lf you're near the pole, the summer days never end.

The Sun shines through midnight-

-and new days are born out of days that never ended.

There, you can almost feel the Earth rolling around beneath the sky.

Most ancient civilizations recognized the Sun-

-as the source of all Iife and caIled it God.

They observed it with care,-

-sometimes setting up stone markers-

-to send that knowledge through time.

The one sure prediction in an unpredictable world:

The Sun sets, but the Sun also rises.

Any break in that pattern once caused terror and foreboding.

The Sun is 400 times bigger than the Moon.

But the Moon is 400 times cIoser.

So on those rare occasions-

-when the Moon passes exactly between us and the Sun,-

-the disk of the Moon exactly covers the disk of the Sun.

Masked by the Moon, the Sun reveaIs its mysterious corona.

The eerie streamers of light heightened the mystery-

-and increased the power of those who could predict-

-these awesome events.

We have the eclipse records-

-kept by the astronomer priests of ancient BabyIon.

They are so accurate that scientists today use them-

-to correct computer programs.

The Sun Gate at Tihuanaco in Bolivia.

A fragment of a sun cult dating back more than 1 ,000 years.

Nearby, high in the Andes, is Lake Titicaca-

-and in the center of the lake, The lsland of the Sun.

On this isIand, this rocky hill was once plated in lnca gold.

Here the Sun God anointed the first Inca-

-and sent him north through the Andes,-

-to create an empire that grew to be as big as Europe,-

-with many dazzling cities,-

-among them, the lost city of Machu Picchu.

Like the peopIe of ancient lreland,-

-the farmers of the Inca Empire needed an accurate calendar.

If they pIanted their terraces too soon,-

-the corn wouId freeze in the ground;-

-too late, and it would never ripen.

There is one buiIding at Machu Picchu that is like no other:

The Torreon.

Its curved wall is pierced by an opening that is so aIigned-

-that it will project the first rays of the midwinter sunrise-

-precisely to the edge of a carved rock,-

-and so mark the first day of the Inca year.

The highest outcrop at Machu Picchu-

-is called "The Hitching Post of the Sun".

From it, the Incas imagined a great Ieash-

-stretching out to hold onto the Sun-

-as it paced the horizon like a restless Ilama.

The ancient Greeks imagined the Sun as a god-

-who drove his chariot across the sky.

But they abandoned their myths for a more rational cosmos-

-nearly two and a haIf thousand years ago.

AristotIe taught that the world was round-

-and theorized that the Sun and pIanets-

-must be carried through space, embedded in crystal spheres-

-that were nested around the Earth, like Russian dolls.

He assumed that the Earth was at the center of the universe,-

-misleading astronomers for centuries.

By then, the all powerful church-

-had pIaced God in Aristotle's seventh heaven.

The cathedral at Frombork, on the shore of the Baltic Sea.

At about the time Columbus sailed for America,-

-a young astronomer struggled here with the contradictions ofAristotle-

-as he observed the tracks of the planets across the sky.

To Nicholas Copernicus, it made no sense...

...until he made one of the great intellectual Ieaps of alI time.

The Sun was the center of a system,-

-the Earth, merely one of its planets.

It was a cosmos awesome enough-

-for one of humanity's great minds: Galileo GaliIei.

Galileo was the first person to point a telescope at the stars.

He saw that Copernicus was right.

Galileo found that the Sun-

-was not the flawless orb required by dogma.

It was as spotty as a teenager.

The Sun was at the center.

But the church had no intention of vacating center stage.

Galileo was put on trial before the Inquisition,-

-a court that had the power to burn him at the stake,-

-to inflict any torture.

They showed him their instruments,-

-and the threat was enough.

The most respected scientist of his day-

-signed a confession that he knew was nonsense.

Dogma had triumphed.

The cathedrals of the new age were the cathedrals of science.

And new instruments were built, not for torture,-

-but to find new galaxies...

...to peer into the heart of the Sun.

At first, researchers couId see only the bland white face-

-that is revealed by visible light,-

-and sometimes the procession of mysterious dark spots-

-that some took to be clouds.

The Earth's atmosphere cIouded and distorted the image.

But in time, the great solar telescopes,-

-like Big Bear in CaIifornia,-

-blew away the notion of a placid unchanging Sun.

People wondered what the Sun was made of,-

-but never expected to know.

lt's 93 miIlion miles away!

The answer was discovered in the colors of the sunlight itself.

As each element burns,-

-it consumes its own distinctive color,-

-writes its own signature in a dark line across the spectrum.

Our Sun is mostly made of hydrogen and helium,-

-some carbon and iron and other elements,-

-much the same elements we are made of,-

-but that's not surprising, since we're born of the same stars.

There had been hundreds of stories and theories-

-to explain the aurora.

But no one suspected a connection with the Sun.

An eccentric Norwegian scientist, Kristian Birkeland,-

-buiIt his own world in a glass box,-

-electrified his model Earth with its own magnetic field-

-and showed how eIectrons from the Sun-

-could ignite earthly auroras.

And he predicted that they wouId be identical-

-and simultaneous at both poles.

Birkeland was right,-

-but proof of his theories, and so much else,-

-had to wait until we could step into space.

Space has given us new eyes.

Everything we gIimpsed before can be seen anew.

A stormy night as we fly towards the coast of Australia...

We are heading south, out over the Southern Ocean,-

-towards Antarctica.

This is SOHO,-

-built in England and France for the European Space Agency,-

-with instruments from Europe and the U.S.A.

It was launched by NASA-

-and parked a milIion miles from Earth at a point-

-where the gravity of the Earth exactly balances-

-the gravity of the Sun.

SOHO shows us the Sun as we have never seen it before.

A wider lens,-

-the image is 30 million miles wide,-

-the Sun blanked out,-

-so we can see the corona jetting out into space.

Here, the two images are combined.

Billions of tons of particles fired into space-

-at a million miles an hour...

...sometimes, directly at our Earth.

We are saved by our magnetosphere,-

-an invisible magnetic shieId that protects us-

-from the Iethal particIes that are spewed out-

-by our Sun and other stars.

This soIar storm pushed the edge of our magnetosphere-

-twice as close to Earth as usual,-

-disabling satellites, wiping out radio communications worIdwide,-

-and sending voltages soaring dangerously-

-in everything from power transformers to oil pipeIines.

Repairs after the last Solar Maximum cost more than $1 billion.

A century ago, space storms could pass unnoticed.

But 2,000 satellites have been launched since the last Solar Maximum.

Every aspect of our civilization-

-depends on their uninterrupted functioning.

Sun storms can kilI satellites.

They can also kill astronauts.

For long space flights, a dangerous storm is a practical certainty,-

-and finding effective protection a necessity.

But at present, the best we can do is try to avoid Solar Maximum.

The Sun has north and south magnetic poles, just like the Earth,-

-But every 1 1 years, those poles reverse with unimaginable violence.

That peak of violence is calIed Solarmax.

The 1 1 year cycles can change, even vanish completely.

About 1 ,000 years ago, the Sun was unusualIy active.

It was about the time the Vikings settled-

-a grassy new land they called "Greenland".

Thousands moved there, but then the Sun grew quiet-

-and the solar cycles almost stopped for a hundred years.

The average fall in temperature was just two degrees,-

-but it was deadly enough.

The bays froze over, the peopIe starved.

No one survived.

Recently, scientists have found that suns Iike ours-

-normally produce a superflare about once every century.

A superflare would destroy half of our ozone layer,-

-and the entire satelIite fleet.

We are fortunate that our Sun-

-seems to be much more stable than most other suns.

A tiny new spacecraft called "TRACE"-

-brings us a view of the Sun-

-that is stilI largely beyond the scope of our understanding.

Magnetic field lines burst through the surface,-

-to unleash in seconds as much energy as the world uses-

-in a milIion years.

On the horizon is the mountain that Native Americans call-

-"The Pivot of the Sky".

This is Kitt Peak - in Arizona,-

-site of the National Solar Observatory.

The small telescopes on the spacecraft-

-work in harness with large telescopes on Earth.

The combination produces resuIts that are much more valuable-

-than any of them could obtain alone.

This is what we call the surface of the Sun,-

-the layer revealed by visible Iight.

Embedded in it are two sunspots,-

-each big enough to swallow the Earth.

With filters and computers, we can peel away the Iayers-

-as we'd turn the pages of a book,-

-searching for a better understanding-

-of the forces that shape our universe.

And more urgently, that shape the climate of our world.

We urgently need to know more.

So an International Solar Terrestrial Program was devised,-

-linking satellites and a chain of observatories-

-to create one "Great Observatory".

A surprising discovery was the singing of the Sun.

As the Sun hums to itself, a milIion pure tones change-

-as they resonate through the plasma,-

-revealing to us tides and currents far below.

In a Munich Iaboratory, final testing of a satellite-

-that is destined to be flown into the eye of a solar storm.

It is one of four identical spacecraft-

-designed to fly together in formation-

-to capture a unique 3 D picture of the space environment.

The formation encloses a pyramid of space-

-and monitors everything that happens inside that space.

The tiny fleet wilI give us an unprecedented view-

-of the interaction of the solar wind with our magnetosphere,-

-from the bow wave to the distant taiI.

As the miIlennium approached,-

-everything was in place to make the Solarmax of 2001-

-a miIestone in our search for understanding of the Sun.

But a mistake was made in a command sent to SOHO.

In a split second,-

-SOHO went from being the flagship of a space fleet-

-to a useless piece offrozen junk.

The SOHO team refused to give up.

From alI over Europe and the U.S.A.,-

-they rushed to the control center at NASA-

-to brainstorm ideas, working to save their ship.

Months passed.

Dozens of schemes were tried.

It was like trying to raise a submarine with a fishing line.

But against all the odds,-

-a signal hooked into the control computer.

DelicateIy, pains takingly, tiny surges of solar power-

-thawed out fuel for the thrusters.

Incredibly, the whole array of critical instruments-

-proved tough enough to survive being frozen solid for 3 months.

SOHO came back from the dead.

In a nation where land is at a premium,-

-15,000 acres of virgin forest preserve the shrine at Ise.

It is Japan's most sacred shrine,-

-the Shrine of the Sun Goddess,-

-and every year, the emperor pays his respects.

No one but the emperor and the closest members of his family-

-can enter the inner shrine.

It was the Sun Goddess herself-

-who appointed the first emperor of Japan.

So even today,-

-one of the world's most advanced nations still has a Sun King.

Every morning of the year, people travel to sacred pIaces-

-and rise in the darkness to await the daily miracle.

Every sunrise brings hope.

For some, it's the hope that we can learn to do-

-what the humblest plant can do:

Make clean and abundant energy directly from sunlight.

This aircraft is on its way to an altitude of more than 80,000 feet,-

-twice as high as a jumbo jet.

It is powered only by sunlight.

It set a new world record - and poses a new challenge:

The challenge of finding cheap and practical ways-

-of using the Sun and the sun driven winds-

-to bring clean and inexhaustible power to the machines of Earth.

Machines that would fit as naturally as trees and flowers-

-into the web of life.

It is winter in the high Andes,-

-just before sunrise on Midwinter's Day.

The first day of the Inca calendar,-

-and by some counts, the first day of a new milIennium.

It is time to prepare for the festival of Inti Raymi,-

-time to celebrate the sun.