1

00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:05,400

Hello. My name is Ann Druyan.

2
00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:07,400
When Carl Sagan, Steven Soter and I...

3
00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:11,200
...wrote the Cosmos TV series
in the late 1970s...

4
00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:12,900
...a lot of things where different.

5
00:00:12,900 --> 00:00:15,100
Back then, the U.S. and the Soviet Union...

6
00:00:15,100 --> 00:00:18,300
...held the hole planet
in their perpetual hostage crisis...

7
00:00:18,300 --> 00:00:20,200
...called the Cold War.

8
00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:23,600
The wealth and scientific ingenuity
of our civilization...

9
00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:26,300
...was being squandered
on a runaway arms raise.

10
00:00:26,300 --> 00:00:29,200
Then employed half the world scientists...

11
00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:33,200
...and infested the world
with 50.000 nuclear weapons.

12
00:00:35,100 --> 00:00:37,400
So much has happened since then.

13
00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:39,000
The Cold War is history...

14
00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:42,000
...and science has made great strides.

15
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,800
We've completed the spacecraft
recognizance of the Solar System...

16
00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:49,800
...the preliminary mapping of the visible
universe that surrounds us...

17
00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:53,800
...and we've charted the universe within:
the human genome.

18
00:00:54,700 --> 00:00:58,600
When Cosmos was first broadcast
there was no World Wide Web...

19
00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:00,800
...it was a different world.

20
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:02,900
What a tribute to Carl Sagan...

21
00:01:02,900 --> 00:01:06,600
...a scientist who took many a punch
for daring to speculate...

22
00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:10,600
...that even after 20 of the most eventful
years in the history of science...

23
00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:15,400
...Cosmos requires few revisions
and indeed is rich in prophecy.

24
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,000
Cosmos is both the history
of the scientific enterprise...

25
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:26,000
...and an attempt to convey the spiritual high...

26
00:01:26,100 --> 00:01:28,400
...of its central revelation:

27
00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,300
Our oneness with the universe.

28
00:01:31,300 --> 00:01:35,300
Now, please, enjoy Cosmos,
the proud saga of how...

29
00:01:35,300 --> 00:01:39,300
...through the searching of 40.000
generations of our ancestors...

30
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,400
...we have come to discover
our coordinates...

31
00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:45,300
...in space and in time.

32
00:01:45,300 --> 00:01:49,300
And how, through the awesomely
powerful method of science...

33
00:01:50,100 --> 00:01:54,100
...we have been able to reconstruct
the sweep of cosmic evolution...

34
00:01:54,700 --> 00:01:58,700
...and defined our own part
in its great story.

35
00:03:12,278 --> 00:03:15,111
SAGAN:
The cosmos is all that is...

36
00:03:15,314 --> 00:03:18,442
...or ever was or ever will be.

37
00:03:18,818 --> 00:03:22,276
Our contemplations of
the cosmos stir us.

38
00:03:23,889 --> 00:03:27,586
There is a tingling in the spine,
a catch in the voice...

39
00:03:27,793 --> 00:03:31,251
...a faint sensation,
as if a distant memory...

40
00:03:31,464 --> 00:03:33,830
...of falling from a great height.

41
00:03:34,033 --> 00:03:38,163
We know we are approaching
the grandest of mysteries.

42
00:03:42,875 --> 00:03:45,776
The size and age of the cosmos...

43
00:03:45,978 --> 00:03:48,446
...are beyond ordinary
human understanding.

44
00:03:48,647 --> 00:03:53,243
Lost somewhere between
immensity and eternity...

45
00:03:53,452 --> 00:03:56,387
...is our tiny planetary home,
the Earth.

46
00:03:56,589 --> 00:03:59,820
For the first time,
we have the power to decide...

47
00:04:00,025 --> 00:04:02,619
...the fate of our planet
and ourselves.

48
00:04:02,828 --> 00:04:04,659
This is a time of great danger.

49
00:04:04,864 --> 00:04:09,096
But our species is
young and curious and brave.

50
00:04:09,301 --> 00:04:10,996
It shows much promise.

51
00:04:11,203 --> 00:04:13,330
In the last few millennia,
we've made...

52
00:04:13,539 --> 00:04:16,406
...the most astonishing
and unexpected discoveries...

53
00:04:16,609 --> 00:04:19,840
...about the cosmos
and our place within it.

54
00:04:20,045 --> 00:04:22,843
I believe our future depends
powerfully on...

55
00:04:23,048 --> 00:04:25,380
...how well we understand
this cosmos...

56
00:04:25,584 --> 00:04:28,712
...in which we float
like a mote of dust...

57
00:04:28,921 --> 00:04:30,752
...in the morning sky.

58
00:04:31,457 --> 00:04:33,857
(SEA GULL CHIRPS)

59
00:04:35,928 --> 00:04:39,989
We're about to begin a journey
through the cosmos.

60
00:04:40,866 --> 00:04:43,858
We'll encounter galaxies and suns
and planets...

61
00:04:44,069 --> 00:04:46,003
...life and consciousness...

62
00:04:46,205 --> 00:04:49,971
...coming into being,
evolving and perishing.

63
00:04:50,442 --> 00:04:53,900
Worlds of ice and stars of diamond.

64
00:04:54,113 --> 00:04:56,104
Atoms as massive as suns...
65
00:04:56,315 --> 00:04:59,307
...and universes smaller than atoms.

66
00:04:59,685 --> 00:05:02,051
But it's also a story
of our own planet...

67
00:05:02,254 --> 00:05:04,848
...and the plants and animals
that share it with us.

68
00:05:05,057 --> 00:05:08,117
And it's a story about us:

69
00:05:08,327 --> 00:05:11,728
How we achieved our present
understanding of the cosmos...

70
00:05:11,931 --> 00:05:15,230
...how the cosmos has shaped
our evolution and our culture...

71
00:05:15,434 --> 00:05:17,026
...and what our fate may be.

72
00:05:22,274 --> 00:05:25,607
We wish to pursue the truth,
no matter where it leads.

73
00:05:25,811 --> 00:05:30,180
But to find the truth, we need
imagination and skepticism both.

74
00:05:30,382 --> 00:05:32,646
We will not be afraid to speculate.

75
00:05:32,852 --> 00:05:37,289
But we will be careful to distinguish
speculation from fact.

76
00:05:37,489 --> 00:05:42,119
The cosmos is full beyond measure
of elegant truths...

77
00:05:42,328 --> 00:05:44,626
...of exquisite interrelationships...
78
00:05:44,830 --> 00:05:47,822
...of the awesome machinery of nature.

79
00:05:49,101 --> 00:05:53,663
The surface of the Earth is
the shore of the cosmic ocean.

80
00:05:53,873 --> 00:05:57,240
On this shore, we have learned
most of what we know.

81
00:05:57,443 --> 00:06:00,003
Recently, we've waded
a little way out...

82
00:06:00,212 --> 00:06:04,478
...maybe ankle-deep,
and the water seems inviting.

83
00:06:04,917 --> 00:06:09,479
Some part of our being knows
this is where we came from.

84
00:06:09,688 --> 00:06:12,122
We long to return.

85
00:06:12,491 --> 00:06:13,583
And we can.

86
00:06:13,792 --> 00:06:17,922
Because the cosmos is also within us.
We're made of star-stuff.

87
00:06:18,130 --> 00:06:22,533
We are a way for the cosmos
to know itself.

88
00:06:22,868 --> 00:06:25,462
The journey for each of us
begins here.

89
00:06:25,871 --> 00:06:29,568
We're going to explore the cosmos
in a ship of the imagination...

90
00:06:29,775 --> 00:06:34,007
...unfettered by ordinary limits
on speed and size...

91
00:06:34,213 --> 00:06:36,943
...drawn by the music
of cosmic harmonies...

92
00:06:37,149 --> 00:06:39,549
...it can take us anywhere
in space and time.

93
00:06:40,486 --> 00:06:42,545
Perfect as a snowflake...

94
00:06:42,955 --> 00:06:46,516
...organic as a dandelion seed...

95
00:06:46,725 --> 00:06:47,885
...it will carry us...

96
00:06:48,093 --> 00:06:51,961
...to worlds of dreams
and worlds of facts.

97
00:06:52,932 --> 00:06:53,956
Come with me.

98
00:07:05,077 --> 00:07:09,980
Before us is the cosmos
on the grandest scale we know.

99
00:07:15,387 --> 00:07:17,821
We are far from the shores of Earth...

100
00:07:18,023 --> 00:07:21,151
...in the uncharted reaches
of the cosmic ocean.

101
00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:24,852
Strewn like sea froth
on the waves of space...

102
00:07:25,064 --> 00:07:27,794
...are innumerable
faint tendrils of light.
103
00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:30,366
Some of them containing hundreds...

104
00:07:30,569 --> 00:07:33,766
...of billions of suns.

105
00:07:33,973 --> 00:07:36,635
These are the galaxies...

106
00:07:36,842 --> 00:07:40,869
...drifting endlessly
in the great cosmic dark.

107
00:07:43,582 --> 00:07:45,573
In our ship of the imagination...

108
00:07:45,784 --> 00:07:49,845
...we are halfway to the edge
of the known universe.

109
00:07:59,198 --> 00:08:02,656
In this, the first of
our cosmic voyages...

110
00:08:02,901 --> 00:08:07,497
...we begin to explore the universe
revealed by science.

111
00:08:14,413 --> 00:08:19,316
Our course will eventually carry us
to a far-off and exotic world.

112
00:08:19,518 --> 00:08:22,510
But from the depths of space,
we cannot detect even...

113
00:08:22,721 --> 00:08:25,952
...the cluster of galaxies
in which our Milky Way is embedded...

114
00:08:26,158 --> 00:08:28,991
...much less the sun or the Earth.

115
00:08:45,377 --> 00:08:47,811
We are in the realm
of the galaxies...
116
00:08:48,013 --> 00:08:51,449
...8 billion light years from home.

117
00:08:56,221 --> 00:09:00,851
No matter where we travel,
the patterns of nature are the same...

118
00:09:01,060 --> 00:09:04,552
...as in the form
of this spiral galaxy.

119
00:09:06,665 --> 00:09:09,498
The same laws of physics
apply everywhere...

120
00:09:09,701 --> 00:09:11,828
...throughout the cosmos.

121
00:09:17,076 --> 00:09:20,170
But we have just begun to
understand these laws.

122
00:09:20,379 --> 00:09:24,475
The universe is rich in mystery.

123
00:09:29,121 --> 00:09:31,681
Near the center of
a cluster of galaxies...

124
00:09:31,890 --> 00:09:35,690
...there's sometimes a rogue,
elliptical galaxy...

125
00:09:35,894 --> 00:09:37,953
...made of a trillion suns...

126
00:09:38,163 --> 00:09:40,358
...which devours its neighbors.

127
00:09:40,566 --> 00:09:42,796
Perhaps this cyclone of stars...

128
00:09:43,001 --> 00:09:46,129
...is what astronomers on Earth
call a quasar.
129
00:10:02,087 --> 00:10:05,488
Our ordinary measures
of distance fail us...

130
00:10:05,691 --> 00:10:08,455
...here in the realm of the galaxies.

131
00:10:08,660 --> 00:10:11,254
We need a much larger unit:
the light year.

132
00:10:11,463 --> 00:10:14,023
It measures how far
light travels in a year...

133
00:10:14,233 --> 00:10:17,134
...nearly 10 trillion kilometers.

134
00:10:17,336 --> 00:10:21,898
It measures not time,
but enormous distances.

135
00:10:35,654 --> 00:10:37,383
In the Hercules cluster...

136
00:10:37,589 --> 00:10:42,049
...the individual galaxies are
about 300,000 light years apart.

137
00:10:42,261 --> 00:10:45,992
So light takes about 300,000 years...

138
00:10:46,198 --> 00:10:49,395
...to go from one galaxy to another.

139
00:10:52,704 --> 00:10:56,265
Like stars and planets and people...

140
00:10:56,475 --> 00:11:00,639
...galaxies are born, live and die.

141
00:11:01,146 --> 00:11:05,139
They may all experience
a tumultuous adolescence.
142
00:11:05,350 --> 00:11:09,480
During their first 100 million years,
their cores may explode.

143
00:11:09,688 --> 00:11:12,623
Seen in radio light,
great jets of energy...

144
00:11:12,824 --> 00:11:15,952
...pour out and echo
across the cosmos.

145
00:11:17,062 --> 00:11:21,499
Worlds near the core or along
the jets would be incinerated.

146
00:11:22,301 --> 00:11:26,260
I wonder how many planets
and how many civilizations...

147
00:11:26,471 --> 00:11:28,336
...might be destroyed.

148
00:11:36,415 --> 00:11:40,249
In the Pegasus cluster,
there's a ring galaxy...

149
00:11:40,452 --> 00:11:43,615
...the wreckage left from
the collision of two galaxies.

150
00:11:43,822 --> 00:11:47,383
A splash in the cosmic pond.

151
00:11:47,859 --> 00:11:51,295
Individual galaxies may
explode and collide...

152
00:11:51,496 --> 00:11:54,988
...and their constituent stars
may blow up as well.

153
00:11:55,834 --> 00:11:58,200
In this supernova explosion...

154
00:11:58,403 --> 00:12:02,533
...a single star outshines
the rest of its galaxy.

155
00:12:05,277 --> 00:12:08,735
We are approaching what
astronomers on Earth call...

156
00:12:08,947 --> 00:12:11,177
...the Local Group.

157
00:12:12,951 --> 00:12:17,888
Three million light years across,
it contains some 20 galaxies.

158
00:12:18,924 --> 00:12:22,553
It's a sparse and rather typical
chain of islands...

159
00:12:22,761 --> 00:12:25,559
...in the immense cosmic ocean.

160
00:12:26,598 --> 00:12:30,728
We are now only 2 million
light years from home.

161
00:12:31,803 --> 00:12:35,239
On the maps of space,
this galaxy is called M31...

162
00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:37,635
...the great galaxy Andromeda.

163
00:12:37,843 --> 00:12:41,438
It's a vast storm of stars
and gas and dust.

164
00:12:41,647 --> 00:12:42,944
As we pass over it...

165
00:12:43,148 --> 00:12:46,811
...we see one of its small
satellite galaxies.

166
00:12:50,656 --> 00:12:52,283
Clusters of galaxies...

167
00:12:52,491 --> 00:12:55,051
...and the stars of
individual galaxies...

168
00:12:55,260 --> 00:12:57,990
...are all held together by gravity.

169
00:12:58,196 --> 00:12:59,925
Surrounding M31...

170
00:13:00,132 --> 00:13:03,863
...are hundreds of globular
star clusters.

171
00:13:04,870 --> 00:13:07,065
We're approaching one of them.

172
00:13:07,472 --> 00:13:11,067
Each cluster orbits the massive
center of the galaxy.

173
00:13:11,276 --> 00:13:15,474
Some contain up to
a million separate stars.

174
00:13:15,914 --> 00:13:19,475
Every globular cluster is
like a swarm of bees...

175
00:13:19,685 --> 00:13:21,084
...bound by gravity...

176
00:13:21,286 --> 00:13:23,516
...every bee, a sun.

177
00:13:26,658 --> 00:13:29,149
From Pegasus,
our voyage has taken us...

178
00:13:29,361 --> 00:13:32,888
...200 million light years
to the Local Group...

179
00:13:33,098 --> 00:13:37,364
...dominated by two
great spiral galaxies.
180
00:13:38,537 --> 00:13:42,371
Beyond M31 is another
very similar galaxy.

181
00:13:42,574 --> 00:13:45,008
Its spiral arms slowly turning...

182
00:13:45,210 --> 00:13:47,974
...once every quarter billion years.

183
00:13:54,286 --> 00:13:57,084
This is our own Milky Way...

184
00:13:57,289 --> 00:14:00,156
...seen from the outside.

185
00:14:06,431 --> 00:14:11,061
This is the home galaxy
of the human species.

186
00:14:18,577 --> 00:14:23,514
In the obscure backwaters
of the Carina-Cygnus spiral arm...

187
00:14:23,782 --> 00:14:27,047
...we humans have evolved
to consciousness...

188
00:14:27,252 --> 00:14:30,449
...and some measure of understanding.

189
00:14:30,088 --> 00:14:33,421
This region of the Milky Way galaxy is
now usually called the Local Arm...

190
00:14:33,625 --> 00:14:37,356
...or the Orion Arm, but the spiral
arm nomenclature remains rather fuzzy.

191
00:14:38,630 --> 00:14:41,360
Concentrated in its brilliant core...

192
00:14:41,566 --> 00:14:44,296
...and strewn along its spiral arms...

193
00:14:44,503 --> 00:14:48,530
...are 400 billion suns.

194
00:14:50,909 --> 00:14:53,400
It takes light 100,000 years
to travel...

195
00:14:53,612 --> 00:14:56,581
...from one end of the galaxy
to the other.

196
00:14:58,617 --> 00:15:02,576
Within this galaxy are
stars and worlds...

197
00:15:02,788 --> 00:15:07,122
...and, it may be, an enormous
diversity of living things...

198
00:15:07,325 --> 00:15:12,262
...and intelligent beings
and space faring civilizations.

199
00:15:20,172 --> 00:15:22,970
Scattered among the stars
of the Milky Way...

200
00:15:23,175 --> 00:15:25,143
...are supernova remnants...

201
00:15:25,343 --> 00:15:29,609
...each one the remains of
a colossal stellar explosion.

202
00:15:29,881 --> 00:15:31,906
These filaments of glowing gas...

203
00:15:32,117 --> 00:15:36,144
...are the outer layers of a star
which has recently destroyed itself.

204
00:15:36,354 --> 00:15:38,083
The gas is unraveling...

205
00:15:38,290 --> 00:15:41,817
...returning star-stuff
back into space.
206
00:15:42,060 --> 00:15:44,995
(PULSAR HISSES)

207
00:15:46,031 --> 00:15:49,296
And at its heart, are the remains
of the original star...

208
00:15:49,501 --> 00:15:54,165
...a dense, shrunken stellar
fragment called a pulsar.

209
00:15:54,372 --> 00:15:57,671
A natural lighthouse,
blinking and hissing.

210
00:15:57,909 --> 00:16:01,401
A sun that spins twice each second.

211
00:16:07,252 --> 00:16:10,619
Pulsars keep such perfect time
that the first one discovered...

212
00:16:10,822 --> 00:16:13,723
...was thought to be a sign of
extraterrestrial intelligence.

213
00:16:13,925 --> 00:16:16,291
Perhaps a navigational beacon...

214
00:16:16,495 --> 00:16:19,430
...for great ships that travel
across the light years...

215
00:16:19,764 --> 00:16:21,789
...and between the stars.

216
00:16:25,437 --> 00:16:29,032
There may be such intelligences
and such starships...

217
00:16:29,241 --> 00:16:33,007
...but pulsars are not
their signature.

218
00:16:43,188 --> 00:16:46,589
Instead, they are
the doleful reminders...

219
00:16:46,791 --> 00:16:48,554
...that nothing lasts forever...

220
00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:51,456
...that stars also die.

221
00:16:54,099 --> 00:16:58,035
We continue to plummet,
falling thousands of light years...

222
00:16:58,236 --> 00:17:00,761
...towards the plane of the galaxy.

223
00:17:03,108 --> 00:17:04,735
This is the Milky Way...

224
00:17:04,943 --> 00:17:07,411
...our galaxy seen edge on.

225
00:17:07,612 --> 00:17:09,705
Billions of nuclear furnaces...

226
00:17:09,915 --> 00:17:12,975
...converting matter into starlight.

227
00:17:17,889 --> 00:17:20,790
Some stars are flimsy
as a soap bubble.

228
00:17:20,992 --> 00:17:25,361
Others are 100 trillion times
denser than lead.

229
00:17:25,564 --> 00:17:29,091
The hottest stars are
destined to die young.

230
00:17:29,534 --> 00:17:32,799
But red giants are mostly elderly.

231
00:17:33,004 --> 00:17:37,100
Such stars are unlikely
to have inhabited planets.
232
00:17:39,978 --> 00:17:42,674
But yellow dwarf stars,
like the sun...

233
00:17:42,881 --> 00:17:46,749
...are middle-aged
and they are far more common.

234
00:17:47,452 --> 00:17:50,387
These stars may have
planetary systems.

235
00:17:50,589 --> 00:17:54,184
And on such planets, for the first
time on our cosmic voyage...

236
00:17:54,392 --> 00:17:56,883
...we encounter rare forms of matter:

237
00:17:57,095 --> 00:18:01,691
Ice and rock, air and liquid water.

238
00:18:06,638 --> 00:18:08,265
Close to this yellow star...

239
00:18:08,506 --> 00:18:11,498
...is a small, warm, cloudy world...

240
00:18:11,710 --> 00:18:13,871
...with continents and oceans.

241
00:18:14,079 --> 00:18:19,016
These conditions permit an even more
precious form of matter to arise:

242
00:18:19,417 --> 00:18:20,714
Life.

243
00:18:27,926 --> 00:18:29,791
But this is not the Earth.

244
00:18:29,995 --> 00:18:34,659
Intelligent beings have evolved
and reworked this planetary surface...
245
00:18:34,866 --> 00:18:37,733
...in a massive engineering
enterprise.

246
00:18:37,936 --> 00:18:41,167
In the Milky Way galaxy,
there may be many worlds...

247
00:18:41,373 --> 00:18:44,809
...on which matter has
grown to consciousness.

248
00:18:52,083 --> 00:18:55,416
I wonder, are they very
different from us?

249
00:18:55,620 --> 00:18:57,053
What do they look like?

250
00:18:57,255 --> 00:19:01,351
What are their politics, technology,
music, religion?

251
00:19:01,860 --> 00:19:06,354
Or do they have patterns of culture
we can't begin to imagine?

252
00:19:06,564 --> 00:19:10,796
Are they also a danger to themselves?

253
00:19:17,709 --> 00:19:21,236
Among the many glowing clouds
of interstellar gas...

254
00:19:21,446 --> 00:19:24,438
...is one called the Orion Nebula...

255
00:19:24,683 --> 00:19:27,811
...only 1 500 light years from Earth.

256
00:19:33,224 --> 00:19:36,625
These three bright stars
are seen by earthlings...

257
00:19:36,828 --> 00:19:41,629
...as the belt in the familiar
constellation of Orion the hunter.

258
00:19:48,039 --> 00:19:51,202
The nebula appears from Earth
as a patch of light...

259
00:19:51,409 --> 00:19:55,641
...the middle star in Orion's sword.

260
00:20:03,621 --> 00:20:06,089
But it is not a star.

261
00:20:06,291 --> 00:20:09,226
It is another thing entirely.

262
00:20:09,427 --> 00:20:14,194
A cloud that veils
one of nature's secret places.

263
00:20:23,241 --> 00:20:28,178
This is a stellar nursery,
a place where stars are born.

264
00:20:28,413 --> 00:20:31,177
They condense by gravity
from gas and dust...

265
00:20:31,382 --> 00:20:36,217
...until their temperatures become
so high that they begin to shine.

266
00:20:36,755 --> 00:20:39,485
Such clouds mark
the births of stars...

267
00:20:39,691 --> 00:20:42,524
...as others bear witness
to their deaths.

268
00:20:48,633 --> 00:20:52,865
After stars condense in the hidden
interiors of interstellar clouds...

269
00:20:53,071 --> 00:20:54,561
...what happens to them?

270
00:20:54,773 --> 00:20:58,300
The Pleiades are a loose cluster
of young stars...

271
00:20:58,510 --> 00:21:00,569
...only 50 million years old.

272
00:21:00,779 --> 00:21:05,716
These fledgling stars are just
being let out into the galaxy.

273
00:21:05,950 --> 00:21:09,147
Still surrounded by wisps
of nebulosity...

274
00:21:09,354 --> 00:21:12,881
...the gas and dust
from which they formed.

275
00:21:47,292 --> 00:21:50,659
There are clouds
that hang like inkblots...

276
00:21:50,862 --> 00:21:52,489
...between the stars.

277
00:21:52,697 --> 00:21:55,495
They are made of fine, rocky dust...

278
00:21:55,700 --> 00:21:58,100
...organic matter and ice.

279
00:21:59,804 --> 00:22:03,797
Inside, a few stars begin to turn on.

280
00:22:04,008 --> 00:22:05,908
Nearby worlds of ice evaporate...

281
00:22:06,110 --> 00:22:08,704
...and form long, comet-like tails...

282
00:22:08,913 --> 00:22:11,848
...driven back by the stellar winds.

283
00:22:16,788 --> 00:22:20,053
Black clouds, light years across...
284
00:22:20,258 --> 00:22:22,226
...drift between the stars.

285
00:22:22,427 --> 00:22:25,362
They're filled with
organic molecules.

286
00:22:25,563 --> 00:22:28,430
The building blocks of life
are everywhere.

287
00:22:28,633 --> 00:22:30,601
They are easily made.

288
00:22:30,802 --> 00:22:35,739
On how many worlds have such complex
molecules assembled themselves...

289
00:22:36,007 --> 00:22:39,670
...into patterns we would
call alive?

290
00:22:45,016 --> 00:22:49,885
Most stars belong to systems
of two or three or many suns...

291
00:22:50,088 --> 00:22:52,079
...bound together by gravity.

292
00:22:52,290 --> 00:22:55,521
Each system is isolated
from its neighbors...

293
00:22:55,727 --> 00:22:57,285
...by the light years.

294
00:22:59,597 --> 00:23:03,397
We are approaching a single,
ordinary, yellow dwarf star...

295
00:23:03,601 --> 00:23:06,297
...surrounded by a system
of nine planets...

296
00:23:06,504 --> 00:23:10,964
...dozens of moons, thousands of
asteroids and billions of comets:

297
00:23:11,209 --> 00:23:13,234
The family of the sun.

298
00:23:14,979 --> 00:23:19,245
Only four light hours from Earth
is the planet Neptune...

299
00:23:19,450 --> 00:23:22,214
...and its giant satellite, Triton.

300
00:23:25,957 --> 00:23:28,824
Even in the outskirts
of our own solar system...

301
00:23:29,027 --> 00:23:33,123
...we humans have barely begun
our explorations.

302
00:23:35,566 --> 00:23:36,965
Only a century ago...

303
00:23:37,168 --> 00:23:41,036
...we were ignorant even of
the existence of the planet Pluto.

304
00:23:41,239 --> 00:23:46,176
Its moon, Charon, remained
undiscovered until 1978.

305
00:23:43,574 --> 00:23:48,238
Since the discovery of Kuiper Belt objects
in 1 992, Pluto has come to be seen...

306
00:23:48,446 --> 00:23:51,313
...as the largest member of
this population of comets.

307
00:23:51,149 --> 00:23:55,609
The rings of Uranus were
first detected in 1977.

308
00:23:51,516 --> 00:23:54,542
Many astronomers no longer
regard it as a planet.
309
00:23:55,820 --> 00:23:59,688
There are new worlds to chart
even this close to home.

310
00:24:03,127 --> 00:24:06,460
Saturn is a giant gas world.

311
00:24:06,664 --> 00:24:08,632
If it has a solid surface...

312
00:24:08,833 --> 00:24:12,633
...it must lie far below
the clouds we see.

313
00:24:14,272 --> 00:24:16,206
Saturn's majestic rings...

314
00:24:16,407 --> 00:24:19,672
...are made of trillions
of orbiting snowballs.

315
00:24:25,550 --> 00:24:29,577
We are now only 80 light minutes
from home.

316
00:24:29,787 --> 00:24:33,279
A mere 1 1/2 billion kilometers.

317
00:24:47,105 --> 00:24:50,973
The largest planet in our
solar system is Jupiter.

318
00:24:51,175 --> 00:24:55,509
On its dark side, super bolts
of lightning illuminate the clouds...

319
00:24:55,713 --> 00:25:00,548
...as first revealed by
the Voyager spacecraft in 1979.

320
00:25:12,764 --> 00:25:14,595
Inside the orbit of Jupiter...

321
00:25:14,799 --> 00:25:18,394
...are countless shattered
and broken world-lets:

322
00:25:18,603 --> 00:25:20,195
The asteroids.

323
00:25:20,405 --> 00:25:22,498
These reefs and shoals...

324
00:25:22,707 --> 00:25:25,870
...mark the border of
the realm of giant planets.

325
00:25:26,077 --> 00:25:30,480
We are now entering the shallows
of the solar system.

326
00:25:32,216 --> 00:25:36,550
Here there are worlds with thin
atmospheres and solid surfaces:

327
00:25:36,754 --> 00:25:38,085
Earth-like planets...

328
00:25:38,289 --> 00:25:42,316
...with landscapes crying out
for careful exploration.

329
00:25:42,527 --> 00:25:45,519
This world is Mars.

330
00:25:47,999 --> 00:25:51,491
In 1976, after a year's voyage...

331
00:25:51,702 --> 00:25:54,193
...two robot explorers from Earth...

332
00:25:54,405 --> 00:25:56,999
...landed on this alien shore.

333
00:25:58,876 --> 00:26:02,471
On Mars, there is a volcano
as wide as Arizona...

334
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,444
...and almost three times
the height of Mount Everest.
335
00:26:05,650 --> 00:26:08,778
We've named it Mount Olympus.

336
00:26:13,491 --> 00:26:16,426
This is a world of wonders.

337
00:26:18,096 --> 00:26:20,724
Mars is a planet with ancient
river valleys...

338
00:26:20,932 --> 00:26:25,869
...and violent sandstorms driven
by winds at half the speed of sound.

339
00:26:33,077 --> 00:26:37,912
There is a giant rift in its surface
5000 kilometers long.

340
00:26:38,116 --> 00:26:41,574
It's called Vallis Marinaris.

341
00:26:41,786 --> 00:26:44,118
The valley of
the Mariner spacecraft...

342
00:26:44,322 --> 00:26:48,691
...that came to explore Mars
from a nearby world.

343
00:27:06,744 --> 00:27:10,009
In this, our first cosmic voyage...

344
00:27:10,214 --> 00:27:13,047
...we have just begun
the reconnaissance of Mars...

345
00:27:13,251 --> 00:27:16,709
...and all those other planets
and stars and galaxies.

346
00:27:16,921 --> 00:27:21,187
In voyages to come,
we will explore them more fully.

347
00:27:28,733 --> 00:27:32,396
But now, we travel the few
remaining light minutes...

348
00:27:32,603 --> 00:27:37,336
...to a blue and cloudy world,
third from the sun.

349
00:27:37,742 --> 00:27:39,801
The end of our long journey...

350
00:27:40,011 --> 00:27:42,411
...is the world where we began.

351
00:27:42,747 --> 00:27:44,578
Our travels allow us...

352
00:27:44,782 --> 00:27:47,046
...to see the Earth anew...

353
00:27:47,251 --> 00:27:50,311
...as if we came from somewhere else.

354
00:27:52,757 --> 00:27:55,385
There are a hundred billion
galaxies...

355
00:27:55,593 --> 00:27:58,585
...and a billion trillion stars.

356
00:27:58,796 --> 00:28:03,392
Why should this modest planet
be the only inhabited world?

357
00:28:03,601 --> 00:28:08,197
To me, it seems far more likely
that the cosmos is brimming over...

358
00:28:08,406 --> 00:28:10,533
...with life and intelligence.

359
00:28:10,741 --> 00:28:13,403
But so far, every living thing...

360
00:28:13,611 --> 00:28:15,203
...every conscious being...
361
00:28:15,413 --> 00:28:18,109
...every civilization
we know anything about...

362
00:28:18,316 --> 00:28:21,012
...lived there, on Earth.

363
00:28:28,259 --> 00:28:29,886
Beneath these clouds...

364
00:28:30,094 --> 00:28:33,723
...the drama of the human species
has been unfolded.

365
00:28:36,367 --> 00:28:39,598
We have, at last, come home.

366
00:28:49,313 --> 00:28:51,508
Welcome to the planet Earth.

367
00:28:51,849 --> 00:28:54,682
A place with blue nitrogen skies...

368
00:28:54,885 --> 00:28:56,785
...oceans of liquid water...

369
00:28:56,988 --> 00:28:58,319
...cool forests...

370
00:28:58,522 --> 00:28:59,921
...soft meadows.

371
00:29:00,124 --> 00:29:03,753
A world positively rippling with life.

372
00:29:04,295 --> 00:29:07,822
In the cosmic perspective,
it is, for the moment, unique.

373
00:29:08,032 --> 00:29:10,660
The only world in which
we know with certainty...

374
00:29:10,868 --> 00:29:14,861
...that the matter of the cosmos
has become alive and aware.

375
00:29:15,106 --> 00:29:17,939
There must be many such worlds
scattered through space...

376
00:29:18,142 --> 00:29:20,576
...but our search for them
begins here...

377
00:29:20,778 --> 00:29:24,179
...with the accumulated wisdom of
the men and women of our species...

378
00:29:24,382 --> 00:29:26,179
...acquired at great cost...

379
00:29:26,384 --> 00:29:28,511
...over a million years.

380
00:30:11,662 --> 00:30:14,563
There was once a time when
our planet seemed immense.

381
00:30:14,765 --> 00:30:17,256
When it was the only world
we could explore.

382
00:30:17,468 --> 00:30:21,700
Its true size was first worked out
in a simple and ingenious way...

383
00:30:21,906 --> 00:30:26,172
...by a man who lived here in Egypt,
in the third century B.C.

384
00:30:32,116 --> 00:30:36,382
This tower may have been
a communications tower.

385
00:30:36,587 --> 00:30:40,353
Part of a network running along
the North African coast...

386
00:30:40,558 --> 00:30:44,961
...by which signal bonfires were used
to communicate messages of state.
387
00:30:45,162 --> 00:30:49,565
It also may have been used
as a lighthouse...

388
00:30:49,767 --> 00:30:53,032
...a navigational beacon
for sailing ships...

389
00:30:53,237 --> 00:30:55,569
...out there in the Mediterranean Sea.

390
00:30:55,773 --> 00:30:58,298
It is about 50 kilometers west...

391
00:30:58,509 --> 00:31:03,173
...of what was once one of the great
cities of the world, Alexandria.

392
00:31:04,115 --> 00:31:06,140
In Alexandria, at that time...

393
00:31:06,350 --> 00:31:09,376
...there lived a man named
Eratosthenes.

394
00:31:09,587 --> 00:31:14,081
A competitor called him "beta," the
second letter of the Greek alphabet...

395
00:31:14,291 --> 00:31:18,990
...because, he said, "Eratosthenes
was second best in everything."

396
00:31:19,196 --> 00:31:23,929
But it seems clear, in many fields,
Eratosthenes was "alpha."

397
00:31:24,135 --> 00:31:27,798
He was an astronomer, historian,
geographer...

398
00:31:28,038 --> 00:31:31,906
...philosopher, poet, theater critic
and mathematician.

399
00:31:32,109 --> 00:31:36,512
He was also the chief librarian
of the Great Library of Alexandria.

400
00:31:36,714 --> 00:31:41,651
And one day while reading
a papyrus book in the library...

401
00:31:41,852 --> 00:31:45,788
...he came upon a curious account.

402
00:31:53,030 --> 00:31:54,861
Far to the south, he read...

403
00:31:55,065 --> 00:31:57,397
...at the frontier outpost of Syene...

404
00:31:57,601 --> 00:32:01,093
...something notable could be seen
on the longest day of the year.

405
00:32:06,076 --> 00:32:07,600
On June 21st...

406
00:32:07,812 --> 00:32:10,872
...the shadows of a temple column,
or a vertical stick...

407
00:32:11,081 --> 00:32:13,675
...would grow shorter
as noon approached.

408
00:32:19,623 --> 00:32:21,250
As the hours crept towards midday...

409
00:32:21,459 --> 00:32:25,691
...the sun's rays would slither down
the sides of a deep well...

410
00:32:25,896 --> 00:32:28,387
...which on other days
would remain in shadow.

411
00:32:35,339 --> 00:32:37,967
And then, precisely at noon...

412
00:32:38,175 --> 00:32:40,575
...columns would cast no shadows.

413
00:32:40,778 --> 00:32:45,306
And the sun would shine directly down
into the water of the well.

414
00:32:51,455 --> 00:32:52,888
At that moment...

415
00:32:53,090 --> 00:32:55,615
...the sun was exactly overhead.

416
00:33:00,831 --> 00:33:05,165
It was an observation that someone else
might easily have ignored.

417
00:33:05,369 --> 00:33:09,237
Sticks, shadows,
reflections in wells...

418
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:11,169
...the position of the sun...

419
00:33:11,375 --> 00:33:13,400
...simple, everyday matters.

420
00:33:13,611 --> 00:33:16,671
Of what possible importance
might they be?

421
00:33:17,047 --> 00:33:19,743
But Eratosthenes was a scientist...

422
00:33:19,950 --> 00:33:23,408
...and his contemplation of these
homely matters changed the world...

423
00:33:23,621 --> 00:33:25,885
...in a way, made the world.

424
00:33:26,090 --> 00:33:30,220
Because Eratosthenes had
the presence of mind to experiment...

425
00:33:30,427 --> 00:33:34,887
...to actually ask whether
back here, near Alexandria...

426
00:33:35,099 --> 00:33:40,036
...a stick cast a shadow
near noon on June the 21 st.

427
00:33:40,404 --> 00:33:43,202
And it turns out, sticks do.

428
00:33:45,476 --> 00:33:47,910
An overly skeptical person
might have said...

429
00:33:48,112 --> 00:33:50,774
...that the report from Syene
was an error.

430
00:33:50,981 --> 00:33:53,779
But it's an absolutely
straightforward observation.

431
00:33:53,984 --> 00:33:57,147
Why would anyone lie
on such a trivial matter?

432
00:33:57,354 --> 00:34:00,084
Eratosthenes asked himself
how it could be...

433
00:34:00,291 --> 00:34:02,316
...that at the same moment...

434
00:34:02,526 --> 00:34:05,188
...a stick in Syene
would cast no shadow...

435
00:34:05,396 --> 00:34:08,957
...and a stick in Alexandria,
800 kilometers to the north...

436
00:34:09,166 --> 00:34:11,726
...would cast a very definite shadow.

437
00:34:14,805 --> 00:34:18,070
Here is a map of ancient Egypt.
438
00:34:18,909 --> 00:34:22,276
I've inserted two sticks, or obelisks.

439
00:34:22,479 --> 00:34:26,939
One up here in Alexandria
and one down here in Syene.

440
00:34:27,151 --> 00:34:30,985
Now, if at a certain moment
each stick casts...

441
00:34:31,188 --> 00:34:33,588
...no shadow, no shadow at all...

442
00:34:33,958 --> 00:34:38,224
...that's perfectly easy to understand,
provided the Earth is flat.

443
00:34:38,429 --> 00:34:41,626
If the shadow at Syene is
at a certain length...

444
00:34:41,832 --> 00:34:44,266
...and the shadow at Alexandria is
the same length...

445
00:34:44,468 --> 00:34:47,028
...that also makes sense
on a flat Earth.

446
00:34:47,504 --> 00:34:50,735
But how could it be,
Eratosthenes asked...

447
00:34:50,941 --> 00:34:55,435
...that at the same instant
there was no shadow at Syene...

448
00:34:55,779 --> 00:35:00,443
...and a very substantial shadow
at Alexandria?

449
00:35:01,785 --> 00:35:06,347
The only answer was that
the surface of the Earth is curved.

450
00:35:06,590 --> 00:35:07,921
Not only that...

451
00:35:08,125 --> 00:35:11,925
...but the greater the curvature,
the bigger the difference...

452
00:35:12,129 --> 00:35:15,826
...in the lengths of the shadows.
The sun is so far away...

453
00:35:16,033 --> 00:35:18,467
...that its rays are parallel
when they reach the Earth.

454
00:35:18,669 --> 00:35:22,935
Sticks at different angles to the sun
will cast shadows at different lengths.

455
00:35:23,140 --> 00:35:26,576
For the observed difference
in the shadow lengths...

456
00:35:26,777 --> 00:35:29,211
...the distance between
Alexandria and Syene...

457
00:35:29,413 --> 00:35:33,315
...had to be about seven degrees
along the surface of the Earth.

458
00:35:33,517 --> 00:35:37,419
By that, I mean, if you would imagine
these sticks extending...

459
00:35:37,621 --> 00:35:40,055
...all the way down
to the center of the Earth...

460
00:35:40,324 --> 00:35:43,418
...they would there intersect
at an angle of seven degrees.

461
00:35:43,627 --> 00:35:46,790
Well, seven degrees is
something like a 50th...

462
00:35:46,997 --> 00:35:50,558
...of the full circumference
of the Earth, 360 degrees.

463
00:35:50,768 --> 00:35:55,296
Eratosthenes knew the distance
between Alexandria and Syene.

464
00:35:55,506 --> 00:35:57,474
He knew it was 800 kilometers.

465
00:35:57,675 --> 00:36:02,271
Why? Because he hired a man
to pace out the entire distance...

466
00:36:02,479 --> 00:36:05,937
...so that he could perform
the calculation I'm talking about.

467
00:36:06,150 --> 00:36:10,883
Now, 800 kilometers times 50
is 40,000 kilometers.

468
00:36:11,088 --> 00:36:13,181
That must be the circumference
of the Earth.

469
00:36:13,390 --> 00:36:16,587
That's how far it is to go
once around the Earth.

470
00:36:17,061 --> 00:36:18,528
That's the right answer.

471
00:36:18,729 --> 00:36:21,061
Eratosthenes' only tools were...

472
00:36:21,265 --> 00:36:25,133
...sticks, eyes, feet and brains.

473
00:36:25,669 --> 00:36:28,695
Plus a zest for experiment.

474
00:36:29,406 --> 00:36:33,137
With those tools, he correctly deduced
the circumference of the Earth...
475
00:36:33,343 --> 00:36:37,803
...to high precision with an error
of only a few percent.

476
00:36:38,916 --> 00:36:43,853
That's pretty good figuring
for 2200 years ago.

477
00:36:54,198 --> 00:36:57,929
Then, as now, the Mediterranean was
teeming with ships.

478
00:36:58,135 --> 00:37:02,231
Merchantmen, fishing vessels,
naval flotillas.

479
00:37:02,439 --> 00:37:06,808
But there were also
courageous voyages into the unknown.

480
00:37:08,212 --> 00:37:12,842
400 years before Eratosthenes,
Africa was circumnavigated...

481
00:37:13,050 --> 00:37:15,985
...by a Phoenician fleet
in the employ...

482
00:37:16,186 --> 00:37:18,245
...of the Egyptian pharaoh Necho.

483
00:37:18,455 --> 00:37:19,649
They set sail...

484
00:37:19,857 --> 00:37:24,385
...probably in boats as frail
and open as these...

485
00:37:24,595 --> 00:37:27,792
...out from the Red Sea,
down the east coast of Africa...

486
00:37:27,998 --> 00:37:31,263
...up into the Atlantic and then
back through the Mediterranean.

487
00:37:31,668 --> 00:37:34,364
That epic journey took three years...

488
00:37:34,571 --> 00:37:36,698
...about as long as
it takes Voyager...

489
00:37:36,907 --> 00:37:39,899
...to journey from Earth to Saturn.

490
00:37:40,477 --> 00:37:43,105
After Eratosthenes,
some may have attempted...

491
00:37:43,313 --> 00:37:45,679
...to circumnavigate the Earth.

492
00:37:45,883 --> 00:37:48,784
But until the time of Magellan,
no one succeeded.

493
00:37:49,386 --> 00:37:52,378
What tales of adventure and daring...

494
00:37:52,589 --> 00:37:54,716
...must earlier have been told...

495
00:37:54,925 --> 00:37:59,259
...as sailors and navigators,
practical men of the world...

496
00:37:59,463 --> 00:38:02,330
...gambled their lives
on the mathematics...

497
00:38:02,533 --> 00:38:05,969
...of a scientist
from ancient Alexandria.

498
00:38:12,576 --> 00:38:16,239
Today, Alexandria shows few traces
of its ancient glory...

499
00:38:16,446 --> 00:38:19,779
...of the days when Eratosthenes
walked its broad avenues.
500
00:38:19,983 --> 00:38:24,647
Over the centuries, waves of conquerors
converted its palaces and temples...

501
00:38:24,855 --> 00:38:29,622
...into castles and churches,
then into minarets and mosques.

502
00:38:30,961 --> 00:38:35,364
The city was chosen to be the capital
of his empire by Alexander the Great...

503
00:38:35,566 --> 00:38:39,525
...on a winter's afternoon in 331 B.C.

504
00:38:40,070 --> 00:38:43,403
A century later, it had become
the greatest city of the world.

505
00:38:43,607 --> 00:38:47,338
Each successive civilization
has left its mark.

506
00:38:53,283 --> 00:38:57,743
But what now remains of the
marvel city of Alexander's dream?

507
00:38:59,223 --> 00:39:02,124
Alexandria is still
a thriving marketplace...

508
00:39:02,326 --> 00:39:05,591
...still a crossroads
for the peoples of the Near East.

509
00:39:12,069 --> 00:39:15,232
But once, it was radiant
with self-confidence...

510
00:39:15,439 --> 00:39:17,703
...certain of its power.

511
00:39:24,281 --> 00:39:26,374
Can you recapture a vanished epoch...

512
00:39:26,583 --> 00:39:30,952
...from a few broken statues and scraps
of ancient manuscripts?

513
00:39:38,629 --> 00:39:42,156
In Alexandria, there was
an immense library...

514
00:39:42,366 --> 00:39:44,994
...and an associated
research institute.

515
00:39:45,202 --> 00:39:49,332
And in them worked the finest minds
in the ancient world.

516
00:39:52,976 --> 00:39:55,001
(CAN CLUNKS)

517
00:39:55,212 --> 00:39:57,612
(DOOR SQUEAKS)

518
00:40:09,927 --> 00:40:12,361
Of that legendary library...

519
00:40:12,562 --> 00:40:15,122
...all that survives is this...

520
00:40:15,332 --> 00:40:18,028
...dank and forgotten cellar.

521
00:40:18,969 --> 00:40:22,905
It's in the library annex,
the Serapeum...

522
00:40:23,106 --> 00:40:25,074
...which was once a temple...

523
00:40:25,275 --> 00:40:28,073
...but was later reconsecrated
to knowledge.

524
00:40:28,612 --> 00:40:32,309
These few moldering shelves...

525
00:40:32,716 --> 00:40:35,150
...probably once in a basement
storage room...

526
00:40:35,352 --> 00:40:38,048
...are its only physical remains.

527
00:40:38,422 --> 00:40:41,186
But this place was once...

528
00:40:41,491 --> 00:40:44,358
...the brain and glory...

529
00:40:44,561 --> 00:40:47,689
...of the greatest city
on the planet Earth.

530
00:40:55,706 --> 00:40:58,300
If I could travel back into time...

531
00:40:58,508 --> 00:41:01,033
...this is the place I would visit.

532
00:41:01,945 --> 00:41:06,439
The Library of Alexandria
at its height, 2000 years ago.

533
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:12,954
Here, in an important sense...

534
00:41:13,156 --> 00:41:17,456
...began the intellectual adventure
which has led us into space.

535
00:41:24,067 --> 00:41:29,004
All the knowledge in the ancient world
was once within these marble walls.

536
00:41:35,112 --> 00:41:38,570
In the great hall, there may have
been a mural of Alexander...

537
00:41:38,782 --> 00:41:42,013
...with the crook and flail
and ceremonial headdress...

538
00:41:42,219 --> 00:41:44,847
...of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt.
539
00:41:48,458 --> 00:41:51,950
This library was a citadel
of human consciousness...

540
00:41:52,162 --> 00:41:56,258
...a beacon on our journey
to the stars.

541
00:41:59,603 --> 00:42:04,472
It was the first true research
institute in the history of the world.

542
00:42:04,741 --> 00:42:06,675
And what did they study?

543
00:42:06,977 --> 00:42:10,913
They studied everything.
The entire cosmos.

544
00:42:11,114 --> 00:42:15,517
"Cosmos" is a Greek word
for the order of the universe.

545
00:42:15,719 --> 00:42:18,813
In a way, it's the opposite of chaos.

546
00:42:19,056 --> 00:42:23,959
It implies a deep interconnectedness
of all things.

547
00:42:24,394 --> 00:42:29,331
The intricate and subtle way
that the universe is put together.

548
00:42:30,767 --> 00:42:33,463
Genius flourished here.

549
00:42:33,670 --> 00:42:38,004
In addition to Eratosthenes,
there was the astronomer Hipparchus...

550
00:42:38,208 --> 00:42:39,971
...who mapped the constellation...

551
00:42:40,177 --> 00:42:43,203
...and established the brightness
of the stars.

552
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:45,939
And there was Euclid...

553
00:42:46,149 --> 00:42:48,982
...who brilliantly
systematized geometry...

554
00:42:49,186 --> 00:42:51,552
...who told his king,
who was struggling...

555
00:42:51,755 --> 00:42:54,383
...with some difficult problem
in mathematics...

556
00:42:54,591 --> 00:42:58,960
...that there was no royal road
to geometry.

557
00:42:59,496 --> 00:43:02,192
There was Dionysius of Thrace,
the man who defined...

558
00:43:02,399 --> 00:43:05,857
...the parts of speech:
nouns, verbs and so on...

559
00:43:06,069 --> 00:43:10,005
...who did for language, in a way,
what Euclid did for geometry.

560
00:43:10,207 --> 00:43:14,234
There was Herophilus,
a physiologist who identified...

561
00:43:14,444 --> 00:43:17,971
...the brain rather than the heart
as the seat of intelligence.

562
00:43:18,648 --> 00:43:21,344
There was Archimedes,
the greatest mechanical genius...

563
00:43:21,551 --> 00:43:23,746
...until the time
of Leonardo da Vinci.

564
00:43:23,954 --> 00:43:28,687
And there was the astronomer Ptolemy,
who compiled much of what today is...

565
00:43:28,892 --> 00:43:31,156
...the pseudoscience of astrology.

566
00:43:31,361 --> 00:43:33,693
His Earth-centered universe...

567
00:43:33,897 --> 00:43:36,559
...held sway for 1 500 years...

568
00:43:36,766 --> 00:43:40,202
...showing that intellectual brilliance
is no guarantee...

569
00:43:40,403 --> 00:43:42,496
...against being dead wrong.

570
00:43:42,973 --> 00:43:46,966
And among these great men,
there was also a great woman.

571
00:43:47,177 --> 00:43:49,372
Her name was Hypatia.

572
00:43:49,579 --> 00:43:52,446
She was a mathematician
and an astronomer...

573
00:43:52,649 --> 00:43:54,640
...the last light of the library...

574
00:43:54,851 --> 00:43:59,754
...whose martyrdom is bound up with
the destruction of this place...

575
00:43:59,956 --> 00:44:03,255
...seven centuries after
it was founded.

576
00:44:21,645 --> 00:44:23,909
Look at this place.

577
00:44:25,115 --> 00:44:28,016
The Greek kings of Egypt
who succeeded Alexander...

578
00:44:28,218 --> 00:44:31,551
...regarded advances in science,
literature and medicine...

579
00:44:31,755 --> 00:44:34,019
...as among the treasures
of the empire.

580
00:44:34,224 --> 00:44:38,684
For centuries, they generously
supported research and scholarship.

581
00:44:38,895 --> 00:44:43,298
An enlightenment shared by
few heads of state, then or now.

582
00:44:46,136 --> 00:44:49,071
(FOUNTAIN GURGLES)

583
00:44:52,776 --> 00:44:56,735
Off this great hall were
1 0 large research laboratories.

584
00:44:56,947 --> 00:45:01,077
There were fountains and colonnades,
botanical gardens...

585
00:45:01,284 --> 00:45:05,653
...and even a zoo with animals
from India and sub-Saharan Africa.

586
00:45:05,855 --> 00:45:10,554
There were dissecting rooms
and an astronomical observatory.

587
00:45:12,562 --> 00:45:14,393
But the treasure of the library...

588
00:45:14,598 --> 00:45:17,863
...consecrated to the god Serapis...
589
00:45:18,068 --> 00:45:20,866
...built in the city of Alexander...

590
00:45:21,071 --> 00:45:22,902
...was its collection of books.

591
00:45:23,106 --> 00:45:25,301
The organizers of the library combed...

592
00:45:25,508 --> 00:45:28,739
...all the cultures and languages
of the world for books.

593
00:45:28,945 --> 00:45:32,312
They sent agents abroad
to buy up libraries.

594
00:45:32,515 --> 00:45:37,452
Commercial ships docking in Alexandria
harbor were searched by the police...

595
00:45:37,687 --> 00:45:40,121
...not for contraband, but for books.

596
00:45:40,323 --> 00:45:43,884
The scrolls were borrowed, copied
and returned to their owners.

597
00:45:44,094 --> 00:45:48,155
Until studied, these scrolls were
collected in great stacks...

598
00:45:48,365 --> 00:45:51,630
...called, "books from the ships."

599
00:45:51,935 --> 00:45:54,369
Accurate numbers are
difficult to come by...

600
00:45:54,571 --> 00:45:57,563
...but it seems that the library
contained at its peak...

601
00:45:57,774 --> 00:46:00,868
...nearly one million scrolls.
602
00:46:14,424 --> 00:46:17,860
The papyrus reed grows in Egypt.

603
00:46:18,061 --> 00:46:20,256
It's the origin of our word
for "paper."

604
00:46:20,463 --> 00:46:24,229
Each of those million volumes
which once existed in this library...

605
00:46:24,434 --> 00:46:28,871
...were handwritten
on papyrus manuscript scrolls.

606
00:46:29,839 --> 00:46:31,704
What happened to all those books?

607
00:46:31,908 --> 00:46:35,344
The classical civilization
that created them disintegrated.

608
00:46:35,545 --> 00:46:38,036
The library itself was destroyed.

609
00:46:38,248 --> 00:46:41,411
Only a small fraction
of the works survived.

610
00:46:41,618 --> 00:46:44,746
And as for the rest,
we're left only with pathetic...

611
00:46:44,954 --> 00:46:47,115
...scattered fragments.

612
00:46:47,457 --> 00:46:51,723
But how tantalizing those remaining
bits and pieces are.

613
00:46:51,928 --> 00:46:55,591
For example, we know
that there once existed here...

614
00:46:55,799 --> 00:47:00,133
...a book by the astronomer
Aristarchus of Samos...

615
00:47:00,337 --> 00:47:04,467
...who apparently argued that
the Earth was one of the planets...

616
00:47:04,674 --> 00:47:08,166
...that, like the other planets,
it orbits the sun...

617
00:47:08,378 --> 00:47:12,747
...and that the stars are
enormously far away.

618
00:47:13,116 --> 00:47:15,584
All absolutely correct.

619
00:47:15,785 --> 00:47:18,413
But we had to wait
nearly 2000 years...

620
00:47:18,621 --> 00:47:21,784
...for these facts to be rediscovered.

621
00:47:28,865 --> 00:47:32,665
The astronomy stacks
of the Alexandria Library.

622
00:47:33,470 --> 00:47:35,370
Hipparchus.

623
00:47:35,739 --> 00:47:38,367
Ptolomeus. Here we are.

624
00:47:39,743 --> 00:47:42,576
Aristarchus.

625
00:47:43,646 --> 00:47:45,113
This is the book.

626
00:47:45,315 --> 00:47:48,546
How I'd love to be able
to read this book...

627
00:47:48,885 --> 00:47:51,854
...to know how Aristarchus
figured it out.

628
00:47:52,055 --> 00:47:55,422
But it's gone. Utterly and forever.

629
00:47:55,892 --> 00:48:00,261
If we multiply our sense of loss
for this work of Aristarchus...

630
00:48:00,463 --> 00:48:01,862
...by 1 00,000...

631
00:48:02,065 --> 00:48:04,533
...we begin to appreciate
the grandeur...

632
00:48:04,734 --> 00:48:07,396
...of the achievement
of classical civilization...

633
00:48:07,804 --> 00:48:10,671
...and the tragedy of its destruction.

634
00:48:14,177 --> 00:48:18,705
We have far surpassed the science
known to the ancient world...

635
00:48:18,915 --> 00:48:22,510
...but there are irreparable gaps
in our historical knowledge.

636
00:48:22,752 --> 00:48:26,119
Imagine what mysteries of the past
could be solved...

637
00:48:26,322 --> 00:48:28,756
...with a borrower's card
to this library.

638
00:48:28,958 --> 00:48:33,190
For example, we know of a three-volume
history of the world...

639
00:48:33,396 --> 00:48:37,890
...now lost, written by
a Babylonian priest named Berossus.
640
00:48:38,101 --> 00:48:41,730
Volume I dealt with the interval
from the creation of the world...

641
00:48:41,938 --> 00:48:43,098
...to the Great Flood.

642
00:48:43,306 --> 00:48:47,367
A period that he took
to be 432,000 years...

643
00:48:47,577 --> 00:48:51,308
...or about 1 00 times longer than
the Old Testament chronology.

644
00:48:51,514 --> 00:48:55,416
What wonders were in
the books of Berossus!

645
00:48:56,519 --> 00:49:00,546
But why have I brought you
across 2000 years...

646
00:49:00,757 --> 00:49:02,987
...to the Library of Alexandria?

647
00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:07,059
Because this was when and where
we humans...

648
00:49:07,263 --> 00:49:11,359
...first collected
seriously and systematically...

649
00:49:11,568 --> 00:49:13,502
...the knowledge of the world.

650
00:49:13,803 --> 00:49:16,294
This is the Earth
as Eratosthenes knew it.

651
00:49:16,506 --> 00:49:19,771
A tiny, spherical world, afloat...

652
00:49:19,976 --> 00:49:22,968
...in an immensity of space and time.
653
00:49:23,446 --> 00:49:26,142
We were, at long last,
beginning to find...

654
00:49:26,349 --> 00:49:29,284
...our true bearings in the cosmos.

655
00:49:30,053 --> 00:49:31,918
The scientists of antiquity...

656
00:49:32,121 --> 00:49:35,716
...took the first and most
important steps in that direction...

657
00:49:35,925 --> 00:49:38,689
...before their civilization
fell apart.

658
00:49:38,995 --> 00:49:41,862
But after the Dark Ages,
it was by and large...

659
00:49:42,065 --> 00:49:46,001
...the rediscovery of the works
of these scholars done here...

660
00:49:46,202 --> 00:49:48,397
...that made
the Renaissance possible...

661
00:49:48,605 --> 00:49:51,665
...and thereby powerfully influenced
our own culture.

662
00:49:51,875 --> 00:49:55,106
When, in the 1 5th century,
Europe was at last ready...

663
00:49:55,311 --> 00:49:58,109
...to awaken from its long sleep...

664
00:49:58,314 --> 00:50:02,580
...it picked up some of the tools,
the books and the concepts...

665
00:50:02,785 --> 00:50:06,812
...laid down here more than
a thousand years before.

666
00:50:12,262 --> 00:50:16,164
By 1600, the long-forgotten ideas
of Aristarchus...

667
00:50:16,366 --> 00:50:17,594
...had been rediscovered.

668
00:50:18,668 --> 00:50:21,933
Johannes Kepler constructed
elaborate models...

669
00:50:22,138 --> 00:50:25,039
...to understand the motion
and arrangement of the planets...

670
00:50:25,241 --> 00:50:27,903
...the clockwork of the heavens.

671
00:50:32,015 --> 00:50:35,849
And at night, he dreamt
of traveling to the moon.

672
00:50:46,563 --> 00:50:48,758
His principal
scientific tools were...

673
00:50:48,965 --> 00:50:51,763
...the mathematics
of the Alexandrian Library...

674
00:50:51,968 --> 00:50:54,402
...and an unswerving respect
for the facts...

675
00:50:54,604 --> 00:50:58,040
...however disquieting they might be.

676
00:51:01,444 --> 00:51:04,880
His story, and the story of
the scientists who came after him...

677
00:51:05,081 --> 00:51:07,515
...are also part of our voyage.
678
00:51:09,886 --> 00:51:12,855
Seventy years later,
the sun-centered universe...

679
00:51:13,056 --> 00:51:14,648
...of Aristarchus and Copernicus...

680
00:51:14,857 --> 00:51:18,725
...was widely accepted
in the Europe of the Enlightenment.

681
00:51:18,928 --> 00:51:22,364
The idea arose that the planets
were worlds...

682
00:51:22,565 --> 00:51:24,192
...governed by laws of nature...

683
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:28,632
...and scientific speculation turned
to the motions of the stars.

684
00:51:28,838 --> 00:51:31,466
The clockwork in the heavens
was imitated...

685
00:51:31,674 --> 00:51:33,437
...by the watchmakers of Earth.

686
00:51:34,043 --> 00:51:37,535
Precise timekeeping permitted
great sailing ship voyages...

687
00:51:37,747 --> 00:51:40,272
...of exploration and discovery...

688
00:51:40,483 --> 00:51:42,041
...which bound up the Earth.

689
00:51:44,487 --> 00:51:46,819
This was a time when free inquiry...

690
00:51:47,023 --> 00:51:48,991
...was valued once again.
691
00:51:49,192 --> 00:51:53,458
(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

692
00:51:55,898 --> 00:51:59,299
250 years later,
the Earth was all explored.

693
00:51:59,502 --> 00:52:02,665
New adventurers now looked to
the planets and the stars.

694
00:52:03,406 --> 00:52:07,069
The galaxies were recognized
as great aggregates of stars...

695
00:52:07,276 --> 00:52:11,212
...island universes
millions of light years away.

696
00:52:12,115 --> 00:52:15,243
In the 1920s, astronomers had
begun to measure...

697
00:52:15,451 --> 00:52:18,181
...the speeds of distant galaxies.

698
00:52:22,959 --> 00:52:23,926
ASTRONOMER 1:
What time is it?

699
00:52:24,127 --> 00:52:25,822
7:1 5.

700
00:52:26,262 --> 00:52:27,422
ASTRONOMER 1:
Lights off, please.

701
00:52:28,398 --> 00:52:33,028
They found that the galaxies were
flying away from one another.

702
00:52:33,236 --> 00:52:35,136
To the astonishment of everyone...

703
00:52:35,338 --> 00:52:38,569
...the entire universe was expanding.
704
00:52:44,380 --> 00:52:49,181
We had begun to plumb the true depths
of time and space.

705
00:52:51,621 --> 00:52:54,317
The long, collective enterprise
of science...

706
00:52:54,524 --> 00:52:58,824
...has revealed a universe
some 1 5 billion years old.

707
00:52:59,028 --> 00:53:02,020
The time since the explosive
birth of the cosmos...

708
00:53:02,231 --> 00:53:03,528
...the big bang.

709
00:53:03,466 --> 00:53:08,403
The current estimates for the age of the
universe range from 1 2 to 1 5 billion years.

710
00:53:03,833 --> 00:53:05,994
(THUNDER CRASHES)

711
00:53:09,972 --> 00:53:13,999
The cosmic calendar compresses
the local history of the universe...

712
00:53:14,210 --> 00:53:15,939
...into a single year.

713
00:53:16,145 --> 00:53:18,705
If the universe began
on January 1st...

714
00:53:18,915 --> 00:53:22,282
...it was not until May
that the Milky Way formed.

715
00:53:23,052 --> 00:53:25,816
Other planetary systems
may have appeared...

716
00:53:26,022 --> 00:53:28,820
...in June, July and August...

717
00:53:29,192 --> 00:53:31,922
...but our sun and Earth,
not until mid-September.

718
00:53:32,128 --> 00:53:34,494
Life arose soon after.

719
00:53:35,364 --> 00:53:39,425
Everything humans have ever done
occurred in that bright speck...

720
00:53:39,635 --> 00:53:42,695
...at the lower right
of the cosmic calendar.

721
00:53:45,341 --> 00:53:47,332
The big bang is at upper left...

722
00:53:47,543 --> 00:53:50,239
...in the first second of January 1st.

723
00:53:50,513 --> 00:53:54,210
Fifteen billion years later
is our present time...

724
00:53:54,417 --> 00:53:57,784
...the last second of December 31st.

725
00:54:02,759 --> 00:54:05,990
Every month is
1 billion years long.

726
00:54:06,195 --> 00:54:09,096
Each day represents 40 million years.

727
00:54:09,298 --> 00:54:13,029
Each second stands for some 500 years
of our history.

728
00:54:13,236 --> 00:54:17,468
The blinking of an eye
in the drama of cosmic time.

729
00:54:22,845 --> 00:54:27,305
At this scale, the cosmic calendar
is the size of a football field...

730
00:54:27,517 --> 00:54:30,680
...but all of human history
would occupy an area...

731
00:54:30,887 --> 00:54:32,514
...the size of my hand.

732
00:54:32,722 --> 00:54:36,180
We're just beginning to trace
the long and tortuous path...

733
00:54:36,392 --> 00:54:39,122
...which began with
the primeval fireball...

734
00:54:39,328 --> 00:54:42,024
...and led to the condensation
of matter:

735
00:54:42,231 --> 00:54:44,859
Gas, dust, stars, galaxies, and...

736
00:54:45,067 --> 00:54:47,433
...at least in our little nook
of the universe...

737
00:54:47,637 --> 00:54:51,937
...planets, life, intelligence
and inquisitive men and women.

738
00:54:52,141 --> 00:54:53,733
We've emerged so recently...

739
00:54:53,943 --> 00:54:56,810
...that the familiar events
of our recorded history...

740
00:54:57,013 --> 00:55:01,245
...occupy only the last seconds
of the last minute of December 31st.

741
00:55:01,450 --> 00:55:05,079
But some critical events for the
human species began much earlier...

742
00:55:05,288 --> 00:55:07,051
...minutes earlier.

743
00:55:08,324 --> 00:55:11,725
So we change our scale
from months to minutes.

744
00:55:11,928 --> 00:55:15,091
Down here, the first humans
made their debut...

745
00:55:15,298 --> 00:55:18,790
...around 10:30 p.m. on December 31st.

746
00:55:21,671 --> 00:55:24,003
And with the passing
of every cosmic minute...

747
00:55:24,207 --> 00:55:26,266
...each minute 30,000 years long...

748
00:55:26,475 --> 00:55:28,807
...we began the arduous journey
towards understanding...

749
00:55:29,011 --> 00:55:31,673
...where we live and who we are.

750
00:55:34,517 --> 00:55:36,610
11:46...

751
00:55:36,819 --> 00:55:39,379
...only 14 minutes ago...

752
00:55:39,655 --> 00:55:42,624
...humans have tamed fire.

753
00:55:43,359 --> 00:55:48,160
11:59:20, the evening
of the last day of the cosmic year...

754
00:55:48,364 --> 00:55:52,198
...the 11th hour, the 59th minute,
the 20th second...
755
00:55:52,401 --> 00:55:55,268
...the domestication of
plants and animals begins:

756
00:55:55,471 --> 00:55:58,372
An application of the human talent...

757
00:56:01,244 --> 00:56:02,973
...for making tools.

758
00:56:10,186 --> 00:56:14,680
11:59:35, settled agricultural
communities...

759
00:56:14,891 --> 00:56:17,621
...evolved into the first cities.

760
00:56:18,561 --> 00:56:22,657
We humans appear on
the comic calendar so recently...

761
00:56:22,865 --> 00:56:25,265
...that our recorded history
occupies only...

762
00:56:25,468 --> 00:56:30,405
...the last few seconds of
the last minute of December 31 st.

763
00:56:31,140 --> 00:56:35,907
In the vast ocean of time
which this calendar represents...

764
00:56:36,112 --> 00:56:39,479
...all our memories are confined...

765
00:56:41,651 --> 00:56:43,881
...to this small square.

766
00:56:44,253 --> 00:56:49,122
Every person we've ever heard of
lived somewhere in there.

767
00:56:49,558 --> 00:56:54,495
All those kings and battles, migrations
and inventions, wars and loves.

768
00:56:54,931 --> 00:56:56,694
Everything in the history books...

769
00:56:56,899 --> 00:56:58,833
...happens here...

770
00:56:59,702 --> 00:57:02,933
...in the last 10 seconds
of the cosmic calendar.

771
00:57:08,377 --> 00:57:10,868
We on Earth have just awakened...

772
00:57:11,080 --> 00:57:13,878
...to the great oceans
of space and time...

773
00:57:14,083 --> 00:57:16,051
...from which we have emerged.

774
00:57:17,353 --> 00:57:18,911
We are the legacy...

775
00:57:19,121 --> 00:57:22,613
...of 15 billion years
of cosmic evolution.

776
00:57:23,259 --> 00:57:24,954
We have a choice:

777
00:57:25,261 --> 00:57:28,753
We can enhance life and come to know
the universe that made us...

778
00:57:28,965 --> 00:57:32,196
...or we can squander
our 15 billion-year heritage...

779
00:57:32,401 --> 00:57:35,336
...in meaningless self-destruction.

780
00:57:36,572 --> 00:57:39,769
What happens in the first second
of the next cosmic year...
781
00:57:39,976 --> 00:57:43,139
...depends on what we do,
here and now...

782
00:57:43,346 --> 00:57:45,143
...with our intelligence...

783
00:57:45,348 --> 00:57:48,374
...and our knowledge of the cosmos.