All language subtitles for Spaces.Deepest.Secrets.S06E09.Wrath.of.the.Sun

Narrator: The sun.

The star at the center
of our solar system.

Its surface rages
with violent eruptions,

Magnetic tornadoes,

And mysterious dark spots.

The sun is essentially
a big, giant ball of plasma.

And it's
just pouring out energy.

Narrator: Where does
the sun's vast power come from?

How was our star born?

And could its immense energy
one day consume our planet?

The sun is both the bringer of
life and the ultimate destroyer.

Narrator: To find out,
we will strip the sun --

Peeling open its searing layers,

Diving deep into its core,

Revealing the secrets

That lie at the heart
of our closest star.

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

90 million miles
from planet earth,

A cosmic powerhouse
shapes our world.

The sun,
a giant nuclear reactor

1 million times bigger
than earth.

Its influence extends

To the furthest regions
of the solar system.

It supports all life

And protects us
from a harsh galaxy.

The basic building block
of the universe is a star.

And the sun is a star.

The more we know about the sun,

The more we could learn
about the universe itself.

Thaller:
All of the energy in my body

That I'm using
to speak and to move

Originally comes from the sun.

The sun giveth
and the sun taketh away.

So, the sun gives us life,
it sustains us, it protects us,

But it can also wipe us out
in an instant.

Narrator: The sun
is more than a ball of gas.

It's a complex engine.

The outside
is an ocean of roiling plasma.

Below that...

Is a bright layer dotted
with dark and violent sunspots.

120,000 miles deeper,
plasma swirls in giant vortices,

Pushing the sun's heat
to the surface.

Down in the core,

A nuclear furnace
produces the energy

Of 100 billion tons of dynamite
every second.

All these layers work together

To make a colossal cosmic engine
that powers life on earth.

But there's a dark side
to all this energy.

These real-time satellite images

Show lethal solar storms raging
on the surface of the sun.

At its most active, it can
spew out 20 of them every day.

These energy surges
blasting our planet

Can damage power grids
and cause city-wide blackouts.

These aren't
made-up science fiction movies

Coming out of hollywood.

We get solar storms
all the time,

But a really big one

Could actually bring
our civilization to its knees.

Narrator:
The u.S. Air force is right
in the firing line of the sun.

Solar storms can fry
communication satellites,

Endangering the life
of anyone on board an aircraft.

That's why the air force has
eyes on the sun day and night.

The men and women
of the second weather squadron

Scrutinize
the sun's activity 24/7.

The man with his finger
on the solar pulse

Is staff sergeant
erin o'connell.

O'connell: So, my job,
in a simple way to phrase it,

Is watch the sun and report any
activity that might occur on it.

Narrator: The sun can brew up
a storm without any warning.

The surface of the sun

Is a highly volatile
layer of plasma

1,500 miles deep.

Violent magnetic fields
force their way up

Through this roiling mass.

The fields rip off

Loops of solar matter
thousands of miles high.

Some of them collapse
into solar flares

Releasing
bursts of radiation.

Others erupt
as huge fire storms,

Ejecting billions of tons
of super-heated plasma

At millions of miles an hour.

These sun storms take just
a few days to reach the earth.

But the radiation from a flare
can hit us within minutes,

Creating a deadly threat
to airborne flights.

So sergeant o'connell's
telescope

Constantly monitors
the sun's surface

For solar flares.

O'connell:
We do have a region

That looks like
it's getting bright enough

To possibly produce a flare.

Right now,
it is bright enough for a flare,

But it's not quite big enough.

So, we can go ahead and continue
to watch it, monitor it.

Narrator: The air force
isn't the only organization

Watching the action unfold.

Millions of miles from earth,

A fleet of nasa satellites
zooms in on the bright region.

This volatile area
could erupt at any time,

Shooting deadly radiation
towards aircraft on earth.

[ alarm blares ]

It's wildly caught up.

O'connell: If I hear
that three alarm burst,

Then I'm very worried.

Narrator: The alarm
tells sergeant o'connell

That the flare has begun to
erupt on the surface of the sun.

So, that's
the start of our flare.

Narrator:
The cause of this brewing flare

Lies buried deep
within the sun.

Magnetism.

The sun's magnetic field

Originates 120,000 miles
below the surface.

Here, one layer moves faster
than the layer below it,

Shearing the highly charged
plasma in between.

This generates massive magnetic
fields throughout the sun.

These powerful fields
pierce the outer layers,

Pushing up
towering loops of plasma

That can erupt without warning.

[ alarm blares ]

That's our end flare alarm.

This region's
no longer flare bright.

And that's the end of our flare.

Narrator:
This time, we're lucky.

The flare died down

Before it could escape the sun
and hit the earth.

Our sun
demands constant vigilance.

But other stars have
an even more violent temper.

The cosmos
seethes with magnetic ferocity.

When we consider the danger
that the sun poses,

One of the big dangers has
to do with its magnetic fields.

It has strong fields.

And the size and strength
of the field

Is related
to a star's rotation rate.

So, when stars are young,
they rotate much more quickly

And they have much more powerful
magnetic fields,

Which means more powerful
explosions on their surface.

Narrator:
One of the most explosive young
stars lies 16 light years away,

Ev lacertae.

It's three times smaller
than our sun

And 100 times less bright.

But this tiny stellar infant
packs a bunch.

Spinning six times faster
than our sun,

Its magnetic field
is 100 times stronger.

In 2008, ev lacertae

Produced the largest star storm
ever recorded,

Thousands of times more powerful
than any storm from our sun.

Thankfully, our planet
was too far away to be hit.

While the sun isn't
nearly as violent

It's much closer to earth.

The next big solar storm
could arrive at any time.

A direct hit
could wipe out power

Across an entire continent.

So, how can we survive
the next big strike?

Narrator:
Violent and volatile,

Our 4 1/2 billion-year-old sun

Becomes more dangerous
as it ages.

The sun's chaotic behavior

Threatens technology
across the planet.

Weather forecasting,
communication,

Banking, the internet --

All of that would be damaged,
if not destroyed,

By a big solar storm.

The warning system
that we have in place now

Is better than nothing,
certainly.

Is it enough?

I would say no.

Narrator:
But the sun offers clues

That can help us
predict its behavior.

Pulling away the loose
gases of the sun's atmosphere

Reveals black disks
the size of a planet

That drift
on a layer of boiling plasma.

Sunspots.

Slicing through them reveals
they are more than skin deep.

Areas of darkened plasma
extend far below,

Stretching thousands of miles
into the sun's interior.

Thaller:
Whenever you see these spots,

You know that the magnetic field
is very intense

And very violent in those areas.

So, when you see
lots of sunspots,

You will also see flares
and prominences of things

Being thrown off the sun.

Narrator: But by the time
we see sunspots from earth,

We can already be under attack.

How these dark patches form

Could be the missing link
in predicting solar storms.

At the university of birmingham,

Bill chaplin is on a mission

To increase solar warning times
from minutes to days.

Bill thinks the key
is not just watching the sun,

But also listening to it.

[ warbling ]

Chaplin: Just below
the visible surface of the sun,

Then the gas is very turbulent,

So there are lots of
very rapid changes in pressure.

The gas is whizzing everywhere.

And what that does is
it makes sound.

[ warbling ]

And what we're doing is,

We're actually
measuring the effects

Of these sound waves
inside the sun.

[ warbling ]

Narrator: Bill's network of six
observatories around the world

Detects the sun's surface
moving back and force

And records the sound
this motion creates.

These real-time sounds

Reveal what's happening
below the surface.

If he can identify
what causes the sound waves,

Bill can predict
when the sunspots will occur.

Bill believes
the source of these sounds

Lies deep inside the sun
where sunspots are born.

40,000 miles down,

Huge convection currents swirl
the plasma in endless circles.

When magnetic disturbances
touch the currents,

The plasma cools and darkens

Before rising
at 1,300 miles per hour,

Creating turbulent sound waves.

Two days later,
it emerges as a sunspot,

A warning that a deadly eruption
could be just days away.

For bill, recording the sound
of the sun is the easy part.

Determining what the data means
is the real challenge.

Chaplin: So, the sun is playing
these notes all the time,

But if the notes get
a little higher or lower,

It's telling us about ways

In which the conditions
in the sun are changing.

So, if the sun were
to get a bit more active,

Then the sound of the note
might get a little bit higher.

[ warbling ]

And then as the sun
goes into a less active phase,

When it's much quieter,
the sound will be lower.

[ warbling ]

Narrator: The goal now

Is to predict the sun's behavior
several days in advance.

Chaplin:
In terms of being able

To predict
what's happening in the future,

We're working on that.

The more we carry on
listening to the sun,

The more we will understand
about it.

Narrator:
Sunspots do more than unlock
the mysteries of our own star.

They also highlight
just how odd our solar system is

Compared
to the rest of the cosmos.

Thaller:
Evolving here on the earth,

We've developed
this wonderful blind spot.

We sort of look
at the conditions around us,

And we say, "hey, this must be
the normal conditions

For the rest
of the universe."

But, in fact,
there are some ways

That we are substantially
different from the norm.

And one is that we only have
one star in our solar system.

Most stars in the sky
live in binary star systems

Where there would be two stars.

When you have two stars living
together, evolving together,

There's no reason the
relationship has to be equal.

Narrator: There's a seriously
dysfunctional relationship

Playing out
only 90 light years from earth.

Vw cephei.

It's not just one star,
but two joined together.

The smaller parasitic twin
slowly feeds off the bigger one,

Which drives the stars'
magnetic fields crazy.

This creates so many star spots

That more than half
of vw cephei's surface

Is cloaked in darkness.

Our lone-star system
is a haven in a violent cosmos.

Massimino:
The further you go from home,
the scarier it can get.

And it seems kind of tranquil.

But the reality of it
really isn't that at all.

It's really chaotic.

Narrator: The source of
our own star's chaotic behavior

Comes from the most extreme
place in the solar system,

A giant nuclear reactor 10,000
times the size of earth.

The core.

Could we one day
harness its immense power?

Narrator:
The sun contains over 99%

Of all the mass
in the solar system.

It produces 9 million times

The united states' annual
energy consumption every second.

The source
of this enormous power

Lies deep inside the sun.

The core.

10 times denser than lead,

It burns at 27 million degrees
fahrenheit

And behaves like a gas.

Extreme pressure fuses
hydrogen atoms into helium,

Spitting out the energy
of 100 billion tons of dynamite

Every second.

This gigantic
thermonuclear warhead

Powers all life on our planet.

When you get up in the morning
and you flip on a light switch,

Turn on your computer,
get in your car and turn it on,

You're using energy
that was generated by the sun

And has been stored here
on earth

For tens or even hundreds
of millions of years.

Narrator:
Sunrise in the mojave desert.

A team of engineers prepares
to harvest the sun's energy

With a radically new type
of power plant.

It's a solar plant,

But it's not a solar plant
you're normally used to.

It's not the panels
you see on people's houses.

It's different than most
anything you've ever seen.

Narrator: For solar engineer
stacey browning,

The sun
is her most important resource.

To harness the sun's rays,

Stacey's team uses
over 300,000 mirrors

To power
more than 140,000 homes.

They're called
the "solar field."

These don't absorb the heat
and the energy from the sun.

These are mirrors.

They truly reflect
the sun's rays

Up onto this boiler,

And we boil water.

We make steam,
and we make electricity.

Narrator: The mirrors funnel
the sun's energy particles

To a single point.

Four stories high,
it's called a "power tower."

It turns water into steam
at 1,000 degrees,

Driving three turbines
to produce electricity.

Harnessing sunlight this way
requires ultimate accuracy.

If the mirrors
miss their target,

The turbines
will grind to a halt.

So, the accuracy of the mirrors
out here in the field

Is one of
the most important things.

When all of these were put in,
they were geolocated

And had to be within half
an inch of the planned location.

Narrator:
The light hitting the tower

Left the sun
only eight minutes earlier.

But this was just
the final stage

Of an epic journey
that began a millennia ago.

Before light can emerge
from the surface of the sun,

It must undergo
an incredible transformation.

It all starts
deep in the heart of our star.

The nuclear furnace in the core

Expels energy
as lethal gamma radiation.

Unfiltered,
straight from the core,

These rays
would destroy life on earth.

But there's more to the sun
than just the core.

A layer of plasma
10 times denser than rock

Wraps around the core.

As radiation squeezes through
the dense body of the sun,

It becomes
less and less aggressive.

And after 170,000 years,

It finally reaches the surface,

Transformed
into the sunlight we see.

Capturing this sunlight
at the solar field isn't easy.

With the plant
at maximum capacity,

Stacey discovers an issue.

One of the mirrors has stopped
pointing at the power tower.

She heads to the solar field

To track down
the rogue reflector.

Browning: I.D. Number
is hotel, echo, charlie.

I will put it back
in its original state.

Thank you.

Narrator: 140,000 homes rely on
the power the field generates.

All better.

Narrator: An average
of 340 days of sunshine a year

Makes stacey's plant the perfect
way to harness the sun's energy.

Our sun is not
the only star in the cosmos

With such a huge energy output.

Oluseyi:
The sun is really close.

And so, therefore,
it has a huge consequence

For life here on earth.

It looks big
compared to the other stars.

But actually,
the sun is a really small star.

There are some
absolute monsters out there.

Narrator: One of the most
extreme monsters in the galaxy

Lurks 250 light years
away from earth.

The giant star bellatrix.

Six times bigger than our sun,

It shines 4,000 times brighter
with its blue fire.

Inside, the core
is in nuclear overdrive.

Bellatrix burns its fuel
so fiercely,

It will live fast and die young.

If the lifetime of our sun
were a single day,

Bellatrix would only live
for a few minutes.

Our star may be small,

But its stable core

Means it will continue
burning steadily

For 5 billion more years.

But that doesn't mean
it'll always be a good neighbor.

The sun is hiding
a killer menace

That stretches throughout
the entire solar system

And threatens
anyone in its path.

Narrator:
Earth lives in constant danger
from solar storms.

But our sun
has another silent threat.

It reaches across
the entire solar system

And even jeopardizes
human space travel.

Its source lies
at the very heart of our star.

The hottest place
in the solar system

Rages 400,000 miles
beneath the sun's outer layer...

...The sun's core.

It pushes out energy
up to the surface,

But it doesn't stop there.

The force of this flow

Also ejects 4 million
tons of solar plasma into space

Every second.

This creates
a gigantic streaming cloud

Of corrosive exhaust gas.

It burns at a million degrees,

200 times hotter
than the sun's surface.

This is the solar wind.

Our planet's magnetic field
forms a natural shield.

It deflects the solar wind

And creates
the light shows we call aurorae.

We're safe on earth,

But as soon as we move away,
we're totally exposed.

I think it's actually
the biggest obstacle we have

For exploring our universe.

It's like
being in a nuclear reactor.

So we need to protect people

When they go out
into deep space,

Where they can get radiated.

Narrator:
A team of scientists

Race to launch a new generation
of american astronauts

Into deep space.

Engineer jeff cerro

Investigates how to protect them
from the sun's radiation.

Cerro:
The dark side of the sun

From the sense of living in it
as an astronaut

Is the fact that it throws off
these solar particles

That actually come
through space station walls

And pass through astronauts

And cause
long-term bodily damage.

So, the work
that we're trying to do here

Is to shield the astronauts
from radiation.

It's like wearing a coat
against the bad weather.

Narrator:
But the solar wind is nothing
like the earth's weather.

Highly charged particles

Hurdle through space
at a million miles an hour.

Since the sun first ignited,

The solar wind
has shaped the solar system.

This is mars,
4 billion years ago.

Water covers its surface...

...Until the solar wind
rips off the atmosphere

And bakes the planet.

Whenever
humans venture into space,

We cannot escape
the fallout from our star.

Jeff and his team must find ways

To shelter astronauts
from this solar onslaught.

They're testing
a radically new idea...

You've just
received notice

That a solar particle event

Is likely to occur
in 20 minutes.

Please complete the shelter

As quickly and as completely
as you can.

Narrator:
...A temporary panic room

Where astronauts can shelter

From deadly spikes
in solar radiation.

Okay. Go.
[ beep ]

You can't build a big shelter,
a big heavy shelter,

Because it's very expensive
to launch things into space.

$8,000, $10,000 a pound.

So, you're trying
to build a shelter

Out of items
that you already have.

Narrator: Jeff can't build
a bigger space craft.

You want air.

Instead, his team tests

If astronauts
can build a shelter

From materials already on board.

Anything
that contains hydrogen --

Like waste, food, or water --
is a perfect ingredient.

Weight for weight,

Water is a better
radiation shield than steel.

Water is something
that we need to live on anyways,

So we like to use
hydrogen and water.

Narrator:
To survive a solar storm,
the astronauts must be quick.

If they can't build a shelter
in 20 minutes,

Their bodies will be bombarded
with deadly radiation.

So, they completed
in 16 minutes and 41 seconds,

Which is well within
the warning period

For the solar particle event.

Narrator: Scientists like jeff
want to protect astronauts

From dangers originating
within our solar system.

But our galactic neighbors

Send something
even more deadly our way --

Galactic cosmic rays.

Thaller:
When a star explodes hundreds
of light years away from us,

It actually produces incredibly
energetic particles

That we call "cosmic rays."

By the time they get to earth,

A single proton,
tiny little particle,

Can have as much energy as
a 100-mile-an-hour fastball.

Narrator:
If the cosmic particles
were to reach us unfiltered,

Their speed and energy
could slice human dna in half.

But protection comes
from an unlikely source.

Oluseyi: You might
think of the sun as the bad guy

Because it has these magnetic
fields that rearrange themselves

And cause these explosions which
cause solar storms here on earth

That can affect us negatively.

But it's
that very same magnetic field

That protects us
from very dangerous cosmic rays.

Narrator: The solar wind

Radiates throughout
the entire solar system,

Dragging
the sun's magnetic field along.

It balloons out
to form the heliosphere,

A gigantic bubble
of highly corrosive particles

That can also deflect radiation.

This solar force field

Shields us
from lethal galactic rays

Pouring in from the cosmos.

Without it, life on earth
would be impossible.

The sun is just one
of billions of cosmic engines

That light up our galaxy.

Could the discovery
of how these stars form

Reveal the origins
of the solar system

And the explosive fate
that awaits us all?

Narrator: The sun created all
the planets in the solar system.

Its power nurtures the
only known life in the universe.

Now scientists around the world
want to solve the mystery

Of where
our precious star came from.

Plait:
The more we know about the sun,

The more we could learn
about the universe itself.

Where did the sun come from?

What's it going to do
in billions of years?

The only way we can find out
is by looking at nearby stars

And seeing how
they're different from the sun,

How they're similar.

Narrator:
Scientists believe

The sun's origin stretches back
almost 5 billion years,

When our solar system was
a swirling mess of dust and gas.

Stripping open this dense cloud

Reveals an embryonic star
forming from the rubble.

Over time, the pressure
in the cloud's center

Cranks the heat up
to over 18 million degrees.

Now it just needs a spark
to ignite.

For astronomers like chat hull,

Witnessing that moment of
star ignition is the holy grail.

Hull: Well, the hardest part
about getting images of stars

That are very, very, very young

Is the fact that they're behind
dense clouds of dust and gas

That keep telescopes like hubble

From actually being able
to see all the way in.

So, you have to use
different kinds of telescopes

To zoom in all the way
through that dust and gas

To see what's going on
in the very center.

Narrator:
Chat's team uses carma,

An array
of 23 giant antenna dishes,

To scan galaxies
for infant stars.

Chat cleaned
the super-cooled instruments

At the heart of these dishes

That let him glimpse
stars forming light years away.

Hull:
So, stars don't just appear.

They appear eventually,

But what they do is
they form out of these clouds

That are, in a sense,
stellar nurseries.

Many stars are being born
in the clouds

That we look at
with telescopes like carma.

Narrator:
Nobody has every observed the
exact point when a star is born.

A birth can take
thousands of years.

But chat thinks his antennas
found something.

500 light years away,
hidden deep within a cloud...

Yeah.
That's incredible.

...It's called a protostar.

This infant, sun-like star
is close to formation.

So, what I'm looking at is
what is deep within the cloud.

That's the real deal, yeah.

This is
what will eventually turn into

Something like our sun.

Now, right now, this thing
is completely obscured by dust

On every scale.

Not just
on this very small scale,

But on much larger scales, too.

And so,
we are using carma to see,

To cut all the way through
all those outer layers of dust.

Narrator:
But this young protostar
lacks one vital ingredient.

There isn't nuclear fusion
in this yet.

So, the definition
of a protostar, technically,

Is a star that's still
in the process of forming

But has not yet ignited
nuclear fusion in its core.

Narrator: Ignition is the
final stage in a star's birth.

The pressure on the protostar
at the center of the cloud

Becomes unsustainable.

It's like mount everest
squashing down on a car.

At nearly 25 million degrees,

Nuclear fusion kicks in,
and the core ignites.

[ explosion ]

The explosion blows away
the cloud of dust and rock

And leaves behind
a naked newborn star.

Hull: A star like this
that's about 100,000 years old,

If you take that
as a percentage of its, say,

10-billion-year life time,

That's the equivalent of having
a baby who's about 9 hours old

If he or she is going
to live to be 100 years old.

So, the very, very, very, very
beginning of the life cycle.

Narrator: The stellar nursery
our sun came from

Is a mystery for astronomers.

Plait:
We know that stars are born
in giant clouds of gas.

Sometimes they're huge, vast,
sprawling complexes

That build thousands of stars
all at the same time.

Sometimes they're little,
and they form one or two stars,

Just sort of
solitary and isolated.

We don't know
if the sun formed by itself

Or in one of
these mega stellar nurseries.

Narrator: The most famous
star nursery in the cosmos

Is 7,000 light years from earth.

The pillars of creation.

Stripping away
their impenetrable clouds of gas

Reveals thousands of stars

And clouds
of extremely dark dust.

Deep inside them,
new stars are forming,

Surrounded by dust clouds
that turn for millions of years.

Most stars
born in these stellar nurseries

Will live for billions of years.

But like our sun,

They'll eventually
run out of energy and die.

When that day comes,
they won't go quietly.

Narrator: The sun
anchors our solar system.

Its raging nuclear fire
and brilliant light

Provides all the energy
for life on earth.

But the sun won't live forever.

The thing about stars
like the sun and all other stars

Is that
they're kind of like people.

They're born, they evolve,
and they die.

And there's a real irony

To living around
a star like the sun

Because it gives you

The life-sustaining energy
that we need,

That powers all life on earth.

But eventually, that same sun
is gonna take out the earth

And all life on earth
will cease to exist.

Narrator: In california, chat
hull and a team of astronomers

Search the universe
for dying stars

And clues
about our sun's fate.

Hull: It is essentially
a cosmic circle of life, yeah.

You have dusty star-forming
regions where stars are born.

But a few are more massive
than our sun, and in some cases,

They explode into
violent end-of-life events

Called "supernovae."

Narrator: Supernovae are the
final moments of dying stars.

When a massive star
has used up all its fuel,

It changes dramatically.

Instead of hydrogen,

Its inner layers are brimming
with heavy elements --

Carbon, neon, oxygen,
silicon, and iron in the core.

The star becomes so dense,

It can no longer
sustain its weight.

It collapses...

...And explodes...

...Spreading fragments of
its corpse all over the galaxy.

The death of a star
is more than just destruction.

It's all part
of the cosmic cycle of life.

So, when
these supernovae go off,

They create a massive shockwave.

The shockwave can slam through
clouds of dust and gas

Nearby
to where the star exploded.

And when it plows through
this cloud

And is able
to start forming stars

In the clumps that have been
created by the shockwave.

Supernovae are really kind of
the end or the beginning,

Depending on how you look at it,
of the cycle of birth and death.

Narrator: A supernova
may have ignited our young sun.

But scientists believe

A different death
awaits our star.

Once all the hydrogen
in its core is spent,

Our sun will switch on
its afterburner.

The core will collapse...

And heat up,

Igniting fusion
in the outer layers.

As these layers start to burn,

The sun will begin
to die a slow death.

It will inflate
and become a red giant.

The sun will consume the earth.

And finally, the sun's
outer layers will burn off.

All that's left of our star
will be a glowing carbon ember

That will eventually
fade into darkness.

It's the story of all of us,
I suppose.

The stars
eventually will go out.

There are more being made
all the time right now.

But eventually,
they will stop being made.

There will be no more gas
in the universe to create stars.

And some day,
there will be a last star,

Couple of trillion years
from now,

Some tiny red dwarf,
faint, cool.

And it will fade away with time.

And the universe will be dark.

Narrator: But our middle-aged
star will live for a long time.

The sun is a few
billion-years-old right now.

And it's gonna live to be maybe
about 10-billion-years-old.

So we have another,
eh, 5 billion years or so

Before this happens.

So, we're safe
with our normal sun for now.

I think
it will have lived a good life.

Narrator: For now, we live
side-by-side with the sun

And bask in its light.

We may never
fully understand it,

But using the knowledge we have

About physics and math,
science and astronomy,

We're learning more about it
every day.

And I think that's critical
to our own future.

Narrator: Our sun is
a perfectly tuned cosmic engine

A nuclear core that produces
vast amounts of energy,

A dense, bubbling body
that tempers the radiation,

And an atmosphere
that creates a protective bubble

Around the entire solar system.

Our star will support life
on earth for millennia to come

As long as we learn to live
with its dark side.