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The large and small Magellanic Clouds.
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Nebulous bodies in the heavens,
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they have intrigued
humankind for centuries.
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They acquired their name
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after Ferdinand Magellan's expedition
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circumnavigating the globe
in the 16th century,
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and his crew used these cloud-like objects
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as aids to navigation.
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During the Age of Discovery,
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sailors relied on celestial bodies
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to reckon their own locations.
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The two heavenly clouds
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that attracted the attention
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of Magellan and his crew
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have fascinated people ever since.
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Recently, thanks to observations
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in the Southern Hemisphere,
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using the most advanced telescopes,
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research on the Magellanic Clouds
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has taken a giant leap forward.
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The Magellanic Clouds turn out to be
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astonishing records of the very birth
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of the universe.
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They provide a unique opportunity
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for studying what happens close to us
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in the universe, and that actually tells us
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all the things about how
the universe formed,
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and how galaxies formed.
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Astronomers throughout the world
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are eager to shed light
on the Magellanic Clouds,
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hoping to reveal secrets
about the earliest days
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of the universe.
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This program follows these stars
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on a journey of amazement and discovery.
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What is the true character
of the Magellanic Clouds?
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This has been a huge mystery
since the Age of Discovery.
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By the 17th century, 100 years
after Magellan's expedition
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circumnavigated the globe,
Europe was producing
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numerous star charts of
the Southern Hemisphere.
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The constellations were
pictured as various creatures.
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A flying fish,
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a chameleon,
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a resplendent peacock,
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a big billed toucan.
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The constellations all had exotic names.
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And then, there was Nubecula Maior,
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Latin for "large cloud",
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meaning the large Magellanic Cloud.
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That was paired with Nubecula Minor,
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or "small cloud", the
small Magellanic Cloud.
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Since they move together with the stars,
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they were clearly no earthly clouds,
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they were heavenly bodies.
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But exactly what they
were remained a mystery.
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The first detailed research
into the Magellanic Clouds
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began in the 1830s.
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To conduct research into stars
of the Southern Hemisphere,
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England had established a royal observatory
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at the Cape of Good Hope
in southernmost Africa.
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Astronomer John Herschel
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worked there for over four years.
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He pioneered the study of celestial objects
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in the Southern Hemisphere.
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In 1847, Herschel published his findings
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in a 450 page report.
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This is the catalog of
objects Herschel found
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in the Magellanic Clouds.
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Some 1,000 items are listed.
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There are numerous records of
nebulae and star clusters,
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similar to those visible
within the Milky Way galaxy.
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Herschel clearly thought
of the Magellanic Clouds
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as constituting a galaxy.
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At the time, most astronomers
thought that all
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celestial bodies lay within the
disc of our own Milky Way.
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Herschel thought that
these rather indistinct
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and nebulous objects must be extragalactic
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celestial bodies.
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To prove that, however, one would have
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to calculate the distance
to the Magellanic Clouds.
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Alas, Herschel did not possess
the means to do that.
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Are the Magellanic Clouds
inside the Milky Way,
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or outside?
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An epoch making discovery
at Harvard University
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finally solved the riddle.
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The crucial evidence was supplied
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by photographic plates stored here.
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This is the world's largest archive
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of astronomical photographs.
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As you can see, we have cabinet
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after cabinet, many plates,
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525,000 plates in this collection.
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That's 25% of the world's total
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of astronomical photographs
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just in this collection,
and what is remarkable
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about that, is that it covers
more than 100 years of time
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from 1885 to 1989, and
we began photographing
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the southern skies early in the 1880s
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so the Magellanic Clouds are covered
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from that early time.
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These photographic glass plates,
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recorded light from the stars
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over long periods of exposure.
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They enabled astronomers
to capture not only
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what Herschel could see directly,
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but even far dimmer stars in the nebulae.
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Around the turn of the 20th century,
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the data etched on these glass plates
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were processed by a team
of female analysts.
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The position and brightness
of every single star
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were meticulously recorded.
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The analysts were actively seeking
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variable stars, a popular
quarry at the time.
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Variable stars are stars
whose brightness fluctuates.
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Of particular interest were
those whose brightness
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fluctuated in regular periods.
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This was one of the very old ones.
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This type of star could help prove
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whether the Magellanic Clouds lay inside
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or outside the Milky Way.
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With the...
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Wow, it's a 240 minute exposure.
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Here we have a glass plate
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of the small Magellanic Cloud,
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a long exposure which is taken.
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Some of the stars will be variable stars,
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but you get them at only one moment
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on this plate, so this is a negative plate,
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and we also can then make, from one
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of these plates, a positive plate,
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and this one can then
be used as a master.
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When you put them on top of each other...
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Superimposing an image of a given area,
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on top of another, taken
at a different time,
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reveals any change.
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If the star's brightness is constant,
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it should be a perfect match.
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What happens when the brightness changes?
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Since brightness is
translated optically as size,
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any variability is immediately apparent.
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This comparative method,
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done plate by plate, is a way of detecting
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which stars are variable.
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One of Harvard's female star analysts,
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was Henrietta Leavitt,
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an astronomer later
recognized for her analyses
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of variable stars.
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This is one of the photographic plates
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of the Magellanic Clouds
that Leavitt analyzed.
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Out of 100,000 stars
recorded on a single plate,
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she endeavored to identify
the variable ones.
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Harvard still has her handwritten logbook.
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She assigned numbers to each variable star,
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comparing readings at fixed intervals,
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and determining the periodicity
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of its variations in brightness.
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To prevent any mistaken attributions
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among the countless stars in the sky,
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she drew detailed star charts.
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After four years of research,
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Leavitt published her study
of 1,777 variable stars
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in the Magellanic Clouds.
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In the course of compiling these data,
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she made a vital discovery.
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She noticed that variable stars
in the Magellanic Clouds
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with the same period had
the same brightness,
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or luminosity.
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Compared with variable stars
of the same periodicity
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within the Milky Way, the
ones in the Magellanic Clouds
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appeared fainter.
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The fainter the star, the
farther away it must be.
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In the late 1920s, after
Leavitt had passed away,
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detailed analyses revealed
that the Magellanic Clouds
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lie far outside the Milky Way.
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Precise observations determine
that the Magellanic Clouds
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are 200,000 light years away.
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That's twice the diameter
of the entire Milky Way.
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The Magellanic Clouds were
definitely other galaxies
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lying outside the Milky Way.
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A large telescope subsequently revealed
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a deep relationship between the Milky Way
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and the Magellanic Clouds.
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This is the 2.5 meter Hooker
Telescope at Mount Wilson.
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This telescope enabled measurement
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of the distances to many
galaxies outside our own.
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It revealed features of
the Magellanic Clouds
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that differentiated them definitively
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from other galaxies.
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This is the galactic distribution,
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as currently understood.
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The two Magellanic Clouds lie approximately
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200,000 light years away
from our own Milky Way.
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The larger one is
approximately 1/10th the size
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of our galaxy.
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The nearest spiral galaxy
to our own Milky Way
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is the Andromeda Galaxy,
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some 2.3 million light years away.
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That's 10 times farther away
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than the Magellanic Clouds.
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So the Magellanic Clouds
are two small galaxies
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very near our own.
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Edwin Hubble, the leading
astronomer of his day
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described the Magellanic System thus,
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"The Cloud is an independent
stellar system,"
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"and a close neighbor,
actually, a satellite,"
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"of the galactic system."
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A satellite is a space object
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that is gravitationally
attracted to another,
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and orbits it as the moon does the earth.
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Hubble thought that the Magellanic Clouds
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similarly, orbit the Milky Way galaxy.
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This concept of a satellite galaxy
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eventually became the standard view
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00:16:25,159 --> 00:16:27,409
among astronomers.
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A major discovery was made
in the Southern Hemisphere
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in Australia.
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The two Magellanic Clouds together make up
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a single, gigantic space object.
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The discoverer was an Australian astronomer
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named Don Mathewson.
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If this object I discovered
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was actually visible,
everyone would be astounded.
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It's an enormous arc of gas stretching
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right across the sky.
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In fact, it's more outstanding
than the Milky Way galaxy.
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Mathewson's starting point
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was a research paper written by astronomers
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at Bell Laboratories in the United States.
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Their measurements of
intergalactic radio waves
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revealed filaments of gas in the skies
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over the Northern Hemisphere.
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It was a rainy Sunday afternoon,
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00:17:47,384 --> 00:17:49,514
and it was quite late,
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00:17:49,584 --> 00:17:52,504
and I was just turning the pages
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of an astrophysical journal.
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I caught an air filament,
of gas, asausage of gas,
236
00:18:00,465 --> 00:18:02,303
and I thought well, let's
extend that sausage
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00:18:02,304 --> 00:18:03,964
a little bit, spread it out a little bit,
238
00:18:03,965 --> 00:18:08,476
so I drew a line on this polygraph paper,
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00:18:09,024 --> 00:18:12,205
and I thought, gee, it
passes through the large
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and small Magellanic Cloud.
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00:18:16,086 --> 00:18:17,802
The line Mathewson extended into
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the Southern Hemisphere
from the mystery gas
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00:18:20,603 --> 00:18:22,603
mentioned in the article,
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went right between the Magellanic Clouds.
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And Australia had a radio telescope
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well suited to confirming the presence
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or absence of gases.
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It was the park's observatory.
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Mathewson couldn't contain his excitement.
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00:18:42,945 --> 00:18:46,223
He telephoned the observatory right away.
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00:18:50,885 --> 00:18:53,162
The very next morning, Mathewson jumped
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00:18:53,163 --> 00:18:57,414
into his car and drove to the observatory.
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The director had told
him that the telescope
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would be offline for maintenance that day,
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00:19:03,003 --> 00:19:05,023
so Mathewson thought that at night,
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00:19:05,024 --> 00:19:08,555
there might be a chance for
some brief observations.
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00:19:11,723 --> 00:19:16,013
It took him four hours to drive
to the park's observatory.
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At the time, this giant, 64 meter diameter
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00:19:24,485 --> 00:19:26,983
parabolic antenna made Parks
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00:19:26,984 --> 00:19:31,573
the largest radiotelescope
in the Southern Hemisphere.
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When Mathewson arrived,
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he asked the maintenance workers
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if he might borrow some
time on the telescope.
264
00:19:44,143 --> 00:19:45,942
So all the memories come flooding back.
265
00:19:45,943 --> 00:19:48,481
It was a most emotionally charged episode
266
00:19:48,482 --> 00:19:50,573
in my life, really,
267
00:19:50,764 --> 00:19:53,512
the discovery of the Magellanic Stream.
268
00:19:56,203 --> 00:20:00,162
Past 10PM, it was only after
the maintenance staff
269
00:20:00,163 --> 00:20:02,323
had left for a late supper,
270
00:20:02,324 --> 00:20:05,813
that Mathewson was able
to use the telescope.
271
00:20:10,663 --> 00:20:12,262
I had it all plotted out,
272
00:20:12,263 --> 00:20:14,043
what I thought would happen,
273
00:20:14,044 --> 00:20:15,002
but of course, in science,
274
00:20:15,003 --> 00:20:17,984
things never happen the
way you want them to.
275
00:20:17,985 --> 00:20:22,873
Nature is a teaser.
276
00:20:23,084 --> 00:20:25,321
It teases you, and then all of a sudden
277
00:20:25,322 --> 00:20:27,642
drops you flat on your face.
278
00:20:27,643 --> 00:20:30,321
But tonight was completely different.
279
00:20:30,322 --> 00:20:33,102
For the rest of the three or four hours,
280
00:20:33,103 --> 00:20:36,931
that it took, every
position that I looked at
281
00:20:36,932 --> 00:20:40,872
with the telescope came out
to be the right velocity
282
00:20:40,873 --> 00:20:43,763
and the right intensity.
283
00:20:45,332 --> 00:20:46,992
When the telescope was pointed along
284
00:20:46,993 --> 00:20:49,550
the extrapolated path of the gas stream
285
00:20:49,551 --> 00:20:52,061
first noticed in the Northern Hemisphere
286
00:20:52,062 --> 00:20:56,171
further traces of gas
were found along the way.
287
00:20:56,800 --> 00:20:58,719
The gas trail seemed to be headed
288
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,310
for the Magellanic Clouds.
289
00:21:07,360 --> 00:21:10,520
That's how Mathewson was
the first in the world
290
00:21:10,521 --> 00:21:13,720
to actually establish a
link between the gas trail
291
00:21:13,721 --> 00:21:16,139
and the Magellanic Clouds.
292
00:21:16,140 --> 00:21:18,399
Subsequent detailed observations confirmed
293
00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:21,810
that their distributions were aligned.
294
00:21:23,479 --> 00:21:25,799
This intergalactic belt of gas
295
00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:29,330
was named the Magellanic Stream.
296
00:21:38,660 --> 00:21:41,898
The Magellanic Stream is an
extension of the same nebulae
297
00:21:41,899 --> 00:21:44,770
spotted by Ferdinand Magellan.
298
00:21:56,760 --> 00:22:00,239
It's a huge belt of gas, stretched out,
299
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:04,289
as if to curve around the Milky Way galaxy.
300
00:22:05,900 --> 00:22:09,019
It's one million light years in length,
301
00:22:09,020 --> 00:22:13,491
that's 10 times the
diameter of the Milky Way.
302
00:22:23,979 --> 00:22:26,360
Like the contrail of a jet plane,
303
00:22:26,361 --> 00:22:28,138
the Magellanic Stream is proof that
304
00:22:28,139 --> 00:22:32,362
the Magellanic Clouds have passed that way.
305
00:22:38,793 --> 00:22:41,711
The gas is distributed
as if it were encircling
306
00:22:41,712 --> 00:22:44,752
the Milky Way, so astronomers believe
307
00:22:44,753 --> 00:22:46,632
that the Magellanic Clouds
308
00:22:46,633 --> 00:22:50,862
are spewing out gas as
they orbit our galaxy.
309
00:23:00,013 --> 00:23:02,291
The Magellanic Clouds,
310
00:23:02,292 --> 00:23:05,751
galaxies with a gas trail
longer than the diameter
311
00:23:05,752 --> 00:23:08,844
of our own galaxy.
312
00:23:23,132 --> 00:23:25,572
To people of the Northern Hemisphere,
313
00:23:25,573 --> 00:23:27,973
the night sky of the Southern Hemisphere
314
00:23:27,974 --> 00:23:30,802
presents a strange spectacle.
315
00:23:34,233 --> 00:23:37,122
There's the constellation Orion.
316
00:23:42,353 --> 00:23:44,542
But it's upside down.
317
00:24:00,173 --> 00:24:03,703
And the Milky Way looks huge.
318
00:24:22,092 --> 00:24:24,011
The exceptionally bright area,
319
00:24:24,012 --> 00:24:26,722
is our galaxy's nucleus.
320
00:24:45,916 --> 00:24:47,795
In the Southern Hemisphere,
321
00:24:47,796 --> 00:24:52,567
the mysteries of the universe
seem all the closer.
322
00:25:08,657 --> 00:25:12,446
This is Santiago, the capital of Chile.
323
00:25:14,736 --> 00:25:18,866
It's surrounded by 5,000
meter-high mountains.
324
00:25:23,435 --> 00:25:27,076
Still bearing traces of its
Spanish colonial past,
325
00:25:27,077 --> 00:25:29,295
Santiago is today, at the forefront
326
00:25:29,296 --> 00:25:31,886
of astronomical research.
327
00:25:37,256 --> 00:25:39,055
On the way to a green grocer's,
328
00:25:39,056 --> 00:25:41,296
in a new part of town.
329
00:25:46,836 --> 00:25:49,515
The shopper is Valentine Ivanov,
330
00:25:49,516 --> 00:25:52,745
an astronomer who was born in Bulgaria.
331
00:25:52,796 --> 00:25:55,375
Recently, he has been
analyzing observations
332
00:25:55,376 --> 00:25:57,175
of the Magellanic Clouds
333
00:25:57,176 --> 00:26:01,186
made with one of the world's
most advanced telescopes.
334
00:26:05,797 --> 00:26:09,355
He is affiliated with the
European Southern Observatory
335
00:26:09,356 --> 00:26:11,425
known as ESO.
336
00:26:20,636 --> 00:26:23,655
ESO has established three
observatories in Chile
337
00:26:23,656 --> 00:26:25,295
from which to survey the stars
338
00:26:25,296 --> 00:26:27,686
of the Southern Hemisphere.
339
00:26:31,115 --> 00:26:33,356
With his telescopic observations,
340
00:26:33,357 --> 00:26:36,797
Ivanov has been creating the
most detailed picture yet,
341
00:26:36,798 --> 00:26:39,265
of the Magellanic Clouds.
342
00:26:41,156 --> 00:26:42,795
This is one of the newest projects
343
00:26:42,796 --> 00:26:46,435
of ESO, and it aims at creating
344
00:26:46,436 --> 00:26:48,415
large uniform maps of the sky.
345
00:26:48,416 --> 00:26:50,704
These are called surveys.
346
00:26:50,705 --> 00:26:52,504
One of the most important surveys
347
00:26:52,505 --> 00:26:54,664
that this telescope is producing now
348
00:26:54,665 --> 00:26:56,365
is the survey of the Magellanic Clouds,
349
00:26:56,366 --> 00:26:58,815
these green squares over here.
350
00:27:01,700 --> 00:27:05,020
To produce a complete map
of the Magellanic Clouds
351
00:27:05,021 --> 00:27:07,039
Ivanov spends a total of one third
352
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:11,251
of every year at a
mountain top observatory.
353
00:27:13,401 --> 00:27:17,472
He has already taken
over 100 of these trips.
354
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,680
His destination is about
1,000 kilometers north
355
00:27:29,681 --> 00:27:31,772
of Santiago.
356
00:27:32,620 --> 00:27:35,579
It's in an arid zone that
sees less than 10 millimeters
357
00:27:35,580 --> 00:27:38,350
of precipitation annually.
358
00:27:44,701 --> 00:27:47,119
This is the European Southern Observatory's
359
00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:49,312
largest site.
360
00:27:53,662 --> 00:27:56,939
Seven telescopes are located
on the mountain top here,
361
00:27:56,940 --> 00:28:00,609
at an elevation of some 2,600 meters.
362
00:28:05,062 --> 00:28:07,771
This is the one Ivanov uses.
363
00:28:10,342 --> 00:28:15,051
It's a four meter aperture
telescope called Vista.
364
00:28:18,262 --> 00:28:20,060
Installation was completed toward the end
365
00:28:20,061 --> 00:28:25,061
of 2009, its technology is cutting edge.
366
00:28:29,381 --> 00:28:31,959
Vista is a special purpose built telescope,
367
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:35,580
unlike other telescopes, Vista is designed
368
00:28:35,581 --> 00:28:38,320
to cover extremely large fields of view
369
00:28:38,321 --> 00:28:39,958
in a single pointing.
370
00:28:39,959 --> 00:28:42,360
The filter of your Vista is about a degree
371
00:28:42,361 --> 00:28:45,189
by degree and a half.
372
00:28:46,860 --> 00:28:49,178
How does Vista compare in this regard
373
00:28:49,179 --> 00:28:51,769
to the Hubble Space Telescope?
374
00:28:53,441 --> 00:28:56,959
Vista's field of view is
about 500 times greater
375
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:58,720
than Hubble's.
376
00:28:58,721 --> 00:29:01,438
In a single pointing, Vista
can take in a region
377
00:29:01,439 --> 00:29:04,429
much broader than a full moon.
378
00:29:14,118 --> 00:29:15,978
Ivanov and his Vista team are attempting
379
00:29:15,979 --> 00:29:19,298
an exhaustive survey of the entire region
380
00:29:19,299 --> 00:29:20,818
containing both the small
381
00:29:20,819 --> 00:29:23,559
and large Magellanic Clouds.
382
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,071
And the bridge linking them.
383
00:29:29,540 --> 00:29:31,371
It's sundown.
384
00:29:33,021 --> 00:29:35,590
Vista can now be engaged.
385
00:29:54,239 --> 00:29:57,700
In the control room, Ivanov
will conduct observations
386
00:29:57,701 --> 00:29:59,809
all night long.
387
00:30:03,958 --> 00:30:08,329
The display shows stars within
the Magellanic Cloud system.
388
00:30:11,299 --> 00:30:13,178
The Vista Magellanic Cloud survey
389
00:30:13,179 --> 00:30:15,978
already completed the number of tiles,
390
00:30:15,979 --> 00:30:18,639
and the data publicly available.
391
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:21,119
This data contain a lot
of interesting projects
392
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:26,120
like this giant H2 region called Tarantula.
393
00:30:26,359 --> 00:30:27,759
The Tarantula nebula
394
00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:30,238
is an expanse of gas located within
395
00:30:30,239 --> 00:30:32,777
the large Magellanic Cloud.
396
00:30:32,778 --> 00:30:35,730
It's 1,000 light years across.
397
00:30:40,239 --> 00:30:43,077
Its name derives from the
hairy, spidery appearance
398
00:30:43,078 --> 00:30:45,248
of its gases.
399
00:30:49,178 --> 00:30:50,618
This image that we see here
400
00:30:50,619 --> 00:30:55,419
actually is built from
three different images,
401
00:30:55,420 --> 00:30:57,859
each of them in the near infrared.
402
00:30:57,860 --> 00:30:59,638
The advantage of the near infrared,
403
00:30:59,639 --> 00:31:01,397
and the advantage of the kind of data
404
00:31:01,398 --> 00:31:03,297
that Vista delivers to us
405
00:31:03,298 --> 00:31:06,218
is that we can actually
see through the dust.
406
00:31:06,219 --> 00:31:10,357
If you look at this area
in the sky in optical,
407
00:31:10,358 --> 00:31:11,997
you will see almost no stars,
408
00:31:11,998 --> 00:31:15,137
because the dust absorbs
409
00:31:15,138 --> 00:31:18,958
the optical light much
more than infrared light.
410
00:31:21,018 --> 00:31:24,870
Vista captured this image
of the Tarantula nebula.
411
00:31:25,741 --> 00:31:27,339
Compare it to an optical image
412
00:31:27,340 --> 00:31:30,070
showing ordinary visible light.
413
00:31:33,279 --> 00:31:35,119
It's clear that the VISTA image
414
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:39,370
reveals the stars hidden
beyond the gas and dust.
415
00:31:44,341 --> 00:31:45,878
The large Magellanic Cloud
416
00:31:45,879 --> 00:31:50,098
is said to contain as
many as 20 billion stars.
417
00:31:50,099 --> 00:31:54,111
VISTA captures them in stunning detail.
418
00:31:55,500 --> 00:31:58,980
Innumerable stars, nebulae,
419
00:31:58,981 --> 00:32:02,580
star clusters, countless points of light,
420
00:32:02,581 --> 00:32:06,100
beyond the reach of ordinary
optical telescopes,
421
00:32:06,101 --> 00:32:10,449
rendered here, vividly, and distinctly.
422
00:32:11,300 --> 00:32:14,698
VISTA is continuing to
survey the Magellanic Clouds
423
00:32:14,699 --> 00:32:19,542
at a level of detail unmatched
by any other telescope.
424
00:32:24,051 --> 00:32:26,410
The Hubble Space Telescope has shown us
425
00:32:26,411 --> 00:32:28,771
how different in shape as well
426
00:32:28,772 --> 00:32:30,949
the Magellanic Clouds are from our own
427
00:32:30,950 --> 00:32:33,320
Milky Way galaxy.
428
00:32:39,190 --> 00:32:41,028
This nebula, in a remote part
429
00:32:41,029 --> 00:32:43,509
of the large Magellanic Cloud
430
00:32:43,510 --> 00:32:47,120
shines with extraordinary luminosity.
431
00:32:50,330 --> 00:32:52,969
It's gigantic, more than 30 times
432
00:32:52,970 --> 00:32:56,561
the size of the great Orion nebula.
433
00:32:56,772 --> 00:32:59,189
And out of the dark gas and dust,
434
00:32:59,190 --> 00:33:02,602
it is birthing countless new stars.
435
00:33:10,091 --> 00:33:12,830
One region in the large Magellanic Cloud
436
00:33:12,831 --> 00:33:14,509
is giving birth to more stars
437
00:33:14,510 --> 00:33:18,300
than any other region in the Milky Way.
438
00:33:21,130 --> 00:33:23,469
Here is just one portion,
439
00:33:23,470 --> 00:33:27,440
newly born stars illuminate
the surrounding gas.
440
00:33:27,450 --> 00:33:29,639
It looks like a cocoon.
441
00:33:39,190 --> 00:33:41,669
Here, an accretion of gas and dust
442
00:33:41,670 --> 00:33:45,139
is displayed in silhouette, lit from behind
443
00:33:45,140 --> 00:33:47,172
by young stars.
444
00:33:49,682 --> 00:33:52,761
The largest mass looks like a seahorse,
445
00:33:52,762 --> 00:33:57,373
it's a huge object, some
20 light years in length.
446
00:33:58,424 --> 00:34:00,703
The small Magellanic Cloud also boasts
447
00:34:00,704 --> 00:34:04,642
magnificent nebulae and star clusters.
448
00:34:12,972 --> 00:34:17,421
The explosive birth of 100,000 stars,
449
00:34:17,422 --> 00:34:20,482
the energy they put out
is said to be 60 times
450
00:34:20,483 --> 00:34:23,953
that of the great Orion nebula.
451
00:34:31,242 --> 00:34:35,452
Or look at the outskirts of
the small Magellanic Cloud.
452
00:34:39,134 --> 00:34:43,943
Innumerable young stars,
born all in a group.
453
00:34:59,093 --> 00:35:02,692
And this sparking,
multicolored open cluster,
454
00:35:02,693 --> 00:35:06,601
has been called the Jewels of Magellan.
455
00:35:09,053 --> 00:35:11,272
Even today, the Magellanic Clouds
456
00:35:11,273 --> 00:35:14,092
are far more prolific than the Milky Way
457
00:35:14,093 --> 00:35:16,802
in the production of new stars.
458
00:35:26,753 --> 00:35:28,731
The Magellanic Clouds had been thought
459
00:35:28,732 --> 00:35:31,442
to be orbiting the Milky Way.
460
00:35:33,373 --> 00:35:35,873
But recently, a great discovery was made
461
00:35:35,874 --> 00:35:37,762
in that regard.
462
00:35:41,914 --> 00:35:45,862
The discovery was made by
Roeland van der Marel.
463
00:35:48,553 --> 00:35:49,133
Hey guys.
464
00:35:49,134 --> 00:35:50,753
Van der Marel spent four years
465
00:35:50,754 --> 00:35:53,052
directing observations of the Milky Way
466
00:35:53,053 --> 00:35:55,843
by the Hubble Space Telescope.
467
00:35:57,033 --> 00:35:59,492
So we could do that... His
goal was to determine
468
00:35:59,493 --> 00:36:01,791
the mass of our galaxy,
469
00:36:01,792 --> 00:36:04,312
and he found a way to use
the Magellanic Clouds
470
00:36:04,313 --> 00:36:06,012
to do so.
471
00:36:06,013 --> 00:36:07,769
We thought if we could measure exactly
472
00:36:07,770 --> 00:36:11,730
how the clouds are moving
in the sideways direction,
473
00:36:11,731 --> 00:36:12,987
we could learn more about the mass
474
00:36:12,988 --> 00:36:15,626
of the Milky Way, and
about the distribution
475
00:36:15,627 --> 00:36:17,918
of the Mass in the Milky Way.
476
00:36:19,279 --> 00:36:21,297
Van der Marel's group thus observed
477
00:36:21,298 --> 00:36:24,457
the Magellanic Clouds directly,
in order to ascertain
478
00:36:24,458 --> 00:36:27,417
the speed of that sideways motion relative
479
00:36:27,418 --> 00:36:29,570
to the Milky Way.
480
00:36:31,257 --> 00:36:34,936
As a reference point, they
chose to use a quasar,
481
00:36:34,937 --> 00:36:37,796
celestial bodies that are very far away,
482
00:36:37,797 --> 00:36:40,587
and so, essentially motionless.
483
00:36:45,358 --> 00:36:47,296
By using a quasar located beyond
484
00:36:47,297 --> 00:36:50,636
the Magellanic Clouds, as seen from earth,
485
00:36:50,637 --> 00:36:53,927
they could measure the
clouds' relative motion.
486
00:37:00,037 --> 00:37:01,956
They pointed the Hubble Space Telescope
487
00:37:01,957 --> 00:37:03,876
in that direction.
488
00:37:03,877 --> 00:37:06,396
The anticipated motion
of the Magellanic Clouds
489
00:37:06,397 --> 00:37:07,956
was minute.
490
00:37:07,957 --> 00:37:11,376
It is the equivalent of observing
a one millimeter movement,
491
00:37:11,377 --> 00:37:14,508
from 100 kilometers away.
492
00:37:16,877 --> 00:37:18,316
That was close to the limit
493
00:37:18,317 --> 00:37:21,147
of Hubble's powers of resolution.
494
00:37:23,818 --> 00:37:26,876
And then if you try this
with a telescope on earh,
495
00:37:26,877 --> 00:37:28,916
you run into several realistic problems
496
00:37:28,917 --> 00:37:30,716
with telescopes on earth.
497
00:37:30,717 --> 00:37:34,716
For example, telescopes
are subject to gravity.
498
00:37:34,717 --> 00:37:35,677
As the telescope moves,
499
00:37:35,678 --> 00:37:37,655
the gravity on the telescope is different,
500
00:37:37,656 --> 00:37:39,975
and the instrument distorts a little bit,
501
00:37:39,976 --> 00:37:42,447
and you see this in your images.
502
00:37:46,577 --> 00:37:48,016
The observations with Hubble
503
00:37:48,017 --> 00:37:50,907
continued for four years.
504
00:37:51,939 --> 00:37:53,656
Now, you cannot actually measure
505
00:37:53,657 --> 00:37:55,316
the motions of the stars in the...
506
00:37:55,317 --> 00:37:57,067
Van der Marel's group succeeded
507
00:37:57,068 --> 00:38:00,179
in obtaining data on 25 of the regions
508
00:38:00,180 --> 00:38:04,418
into which the Magellanic
Clouds had been divided.
509
00:38:07,209 --> 00:38:10,227
After analyzing the
results for a full year,
510
00:38:10,228 --> 00:38:12,769
they calculated that the Magellanic Clouds
511
00:38:12,770 --> 00:38:17,770
are moving at an incredible
378 kilometers per second,
512
00:38:17,888 --> 00:38:22,119
1.36 million kilometers per hour.
513
00:38:25,528 --> 00:38:29,086
This was 300,000 kilometers per hour faster
514
00:38:29,087 --> 00:38:31,177
than anticipated.
515
00:38:33,588 --> 00:38:34,947
Initially, we were just very happy
516
00:38:34,948 --> 00:38:37,107
we were getting any results out that said,
517
00:38:37,108 --> 00:38:38,728
hey, we can actually measure the motion
518
00:38:38,729 --> 00:38:40,307
of the Magellanic Clouds.
519
00:38:40,308 --> 00:38:43,087
So that was our initial
excitement for quite awhile,
520
00:38:43,088 --> 00:38:44,648
and it was clear we were doing it better
521
00:38:44,649 --> 00:38:46,907
than anyone else had done it before,
522
00:38:46,908 --> 00:38:48,166
but it wasn't immediately obvious
523
00:38:48,167 --> 00:38:50,399
what we were learning.
524
00:38:51,948 --> 00:38:53,748
To extract meaning from these speed
525
00:38:53,749 --> 00:38:56,746
calculations, computer
simulations were conducted
526
00:38:56,747 --> 00:38:59,807
of the relative motion
of the Milky Way galaxy
527
00:38:59,808 --> 00:39:02,439
and the Magellanic Clouds.
528
00:39:04,968 --> 00:39:09,018
The simulations were carried
out at Harvard University.
529
00:39:12,108 --> 00:39:13,887
The movements of the Magellanic Clouds
530
00:39:13,888 --> 00:39:15,968
were minutely calculated,
531
00:39:15,969 --> 00:39:18,687
using the latest data on the size and mass
532
00:39:18,688 --> 00:39:20,678
of the Milky Way.
533
00:39:24,308 --> 00:39:26,758
This is the result.
534
00:39:27,828 --> 00:39:30,267
Contrary to expectations,
535
00:39:30,268 --> 00:39:35,000
the Magellanic Clouds do
not orbit the Milky Way.
536
00:39:35,408 --> 00:39:38,668
Assuming the Milky Way is
not unnaturally massive,
537
00:39:38,669 --> 00:39:41,407
the Magellanic Clouds
will eventually fly off
538
00:39:41,408 --> 00:39:43,558
into deep space.
539
00:39:47,688 --> 00:39:49,567
I basically computed things like
540
00:39:49,568 --> 00:39:53,247
the escape speed, which refers to
541
00:39:53,248 --> 00:39:55,649
the speed that an object would need to have
542
00:39:55,650 --> 00:39:57,409
to escape the potential of the Milky Way
543
00:39:57,410 --> 00:40:00,108
at its distance and separation
from the Milky Way,
544
00:40:00,109 --> 00:40:04,987
and for the basic model I had
initially started off with
545
00:40:04,988 --> 00:40:07,039
for the Milky Way, the LMC was sitting
546
00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:08,559
at the escape speed.
547
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:10,399
So the orbit couldn't be anywhere close
548
00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:11,339
to what we thought before.
549
00:40:11,340 --> 00:40:13,000
So it was very normal for people to think
550
00:40:13,001 --> 00:40:15,218
for years that the Magellanic
Clouds had been going
551
00:40:15,219 --> 00:40:17,768
around the Milky Way many times.
552
00:40:18,439 --> 00:40:21,057
Gutina realized that that
couldn't be at that speed,
553
00:40:21,058 --> 00:40:22,819
they were going too fast,
554
00:40:22,820 --> 00:40:24,119
they were basically flying away
555
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:26,078
from the Milky Way too fast,
556
00:40:26,079 --> 00:40:27,857
which means that, probably,
557
00:40:27,858 --> 00:40:29,598
they were just coming into the Milky Way
558
00:40:29,599 --> 00:40:31,458
for the very first time,
559
00:40:31,459 --> 00:40:34,489
and this is a very revolutionary thought.
560
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:37,177
So the Magellanic Clouds are not
561
00:40:37,178 --> 00:40:41,117
satellite galaxies of
the Milky Way after all
562
00:40:41,118 --> 00:40:43,278
they are visitors from afar,
563
00:40:43,279 --> 00:40:45,497
merely enjoying a chance encounter
564
00:40:45,498 --> 00:40:47,989
with our own galaxy.
565
00:40:55,078 --> 00:40:58,677
In a few billion years,
they are fated to disappear
566
00:40:58,678 --> 00:41:01,638
into the furthest reaches of space,
567
00:41:01,639 --> 00:41:04,110
never to return.
568
00:41:10,518 --> 00:41:12,798
The true nature of the Magellanic Clouds
569
00:41:12,799 --> 00:41:14,958
is gradually emerging,
570
00:41:14,959 --> 00:41:16,998
and astronomical observations indicate
571
00:41:16,999 --> 00:41:19,357
that the clouds hold the
key to understanding
572
00:41:19,358 --> 00:41:21,159
what the universe looked like
573
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:23,851
right after the Big Bang.
574
00:41:28,641 --> 00:41:30,978
Paul Crowther is one of the scientists
575
00:41:30,979 --> 00:41:34,209
fascinated by the Magellanic Clouds.
576
00:41:41,579 --> 00:41:44,378
For 15 years, he's been
studying one of the clouds
577
00:41:44,379 --> 00:41:47,010
features in particular.
578
00:41:53,639 --> 00:41:55,378
What's attracted his attention
579
00:41:55,379 --> 00:41:58,088
is the Tarantula nebula.
580
00:42:00,900 --> 00:42:03,418
At its center, there's a
place estimated to shine
581
00:42:03,419 --> 00:42:08,349
with the luminosity of a
hundred million of our suns.
582
00:42:11,359 --> 00:42:14,938
R136 is its scientific designation.
583
00:42:14,939 --> 00:42:18,749
It was thought to contain a mystery object.
584
00:42:20,399 --> 00:42:24,070
Crowther set out to find out what that was.
585
00:42:30,039 --> 00:42:32,777
He conducted his observations
with what's called
586
00:42:32,778 --> 00:42:38,565
the VLT, or Very Large
Telescope located in Chile.
587
00:42:47,254 --> 00:42:52,254
He pointed the VLT and its
8.2 meter diameter mirrors
588
00:42:52,325 --> 00:42:57,325
straight at R136 in the middle
of the Magellanic Clouds.
589
00:43:13,413 --> 00:43:17,665
This is the very center of R136.
590
00:43:18,634 --> 00:43:21,592
The detailed view provided by the VLT
591
00:43:21,593 --> 00:43:24,032
reveals that what looked
like one bright clump
592
00:43:24,033 --> 00:43:27,612
at its center is comprised of many stars,
593
00:43:27,613 --> 00:43:32,613
the brightest of which has
been designated R136a1.
594
00:43:32,953 --> 00:43:35,513
With a luminosity of 10 million suns,
595
00:43:35,514 --> 00:43:37,932
it is, so far as we now know,
596
00:43:37,933 --> 00:43:41,563
the brightest star in the universe.
597
00:43:43,295 --> 00:43:47,063
Crowther performed a spectral
analysis of its light.
598
00:43:47,493 --> 00:43:50,412
The spectrum is kind of like a fingerprint
599
00:43:50,413 --> 00:43:52,572
of an object, it tells
us what it's made of,
600
00:43:52,573 --> 00:43:55,333
it tells us how hot the gas is in the star,
601
00:43:55,334 --> 00:43:57,353
and so this actually is
an infrared spectrum
602
00:43:57,354 --> 00:43:59,152
taken with the Very Large Telescope
603
00:43:59,153 --> 00:44:02,554
of R136a1, and it reveals the presence of,
604
00:44:02,555 --> 00:44:04,933
for example, this is a line of helium two,
605
00:44:04,934 --> 00:44:07,472
ionized helium, and this means the star
606
00:44:07,473 --> 00:44:09,465
is incredibly hot.
607
00:44:11,435 --> 00:44:13,054
Thanks to this analysis,
608
00:44:13,055 --> 00:44:14,974
Crowther was able to start profiling
609
00:44:14,975 --> 00:44:17,562
his mystery object.
610
00:44:26,393 --> 00:44:28,113
This is how Crowther envisions
611
00:44:28,114 --> 00:44:33,114
R136a1 in the center of
the Tarantula nebula.
612
00:44:38,953 --> 00:44:43,492
With surface temperatures
reaching 55,000 degrees celsius
613
00:44:43,493 --> 00:44:46,225
it burns bright blue.
614
00:44:46,513 --> 00:44:51,513
When it was born, it had the
mass of 300 of our suns.
615
00:44:51,612 --> 00:44:54,093
To date, nothing comparable has been found
616
00:44:54,094 --> 00:44:56,323
in the Milky Way.
617
00:44:58,292 --> 00:45:02,012
These first generation stars
of the early universe
618
00:45:02,013 --> 00:45:04,171
born right after the Big Bang
619
00:45:04,172 --> 00:45:07,471
were unlike most of the stars we see today.
620
00:45:07,472 --> 00:45:09,452
They were formed directly out of hydrogen
621
00:45:09,453 --> 00:45:14,453
and helium gases, and they
were all blue giants.
622
00:45:15,332 --> 00:45:19,542
In the Magellanic Clouds,
there are many such stars.
623
00:45:26,193 --> 00:45:28,612
The Hubble Space Telescope
has captured a number
624
00:45:28,613 --> 00:45:33,613
of ancient galaxies that contain
these blue giant stars.
625
00:45:39,573 --> 00:45:42,711
All these galaxies are more than 13 billion
626
00:45:42,712 --> 00:45:46,091
light years away, so what we see now,
627
00:45:46,092 --> 00:45:49,452
is how they looked 13 billion years ago.
628
00:45:49,453 --> 00:45:51,612
In other words, just moments after
629
00:45:51,613 --> 00:45:54,463
the universe was born.
630
00:45:59,673 --> 00:46:04,463
Ancient galaxies, glowing bright blue.
631
00:46:12,453 --> 00:46:15,152
The sheer number of blue giant stars,
632
00:46:15,153 --> 00:46:18,232
similar to the one
Crowther has been studying
633
00:46:18,233 --> 00:46:20,211
is enough to impart a blue color
634
00:46:20,212 --> 00:46:22,703
to the galaxy as a whole.
635
00:46:30,452 --> 00:46:33,532
These galaxies, born
just after the creation
636
00:46:33,533 --> 00:46:36,172
of the universe, are a mere tenth the size
637
00:46:36,173 --> 00:46:40,363
of the Milky Way, and
have irregular shapes.
638
00:46:41,894 --> 00:46:46,542
In size and shape, they
resemble the Magellanic Clouds.
639
00:46:50,513 --> 00:46:52,892
That is why scientists
believe that studying
640
00:46:52,893 --> 00:46:55,812
the Magellanic Clouds will provide insights
641
00:46:55,813 --> 00:46:59,583
into the evolution of our own galaxy.
642
00:47:03,973 --> 00:47:05,592
Well, so the interesting thing here
643
00:47:05,593 --> 00:47:08,992
is that we've learned a lot
about structure formation
644
00:47:08,993 --> 00:47:13,563
in the universe over the
years, and in particular
645
00:47:14,352 --> 00:47:18,143
what has been learned
is that structure forms
646
00:47:18,144 --> 00:47:20,663
by smaller units coming together.
647
00:47:20,664 --> 00:47:23,302
So if you're a big galaxy
like the Milky Way,
648
00:47:23,303 --> 00:47:26,223
you really started out
as lots of little clumps
649
00:47:26,224 --> 00:47:29,233
that fell together over time.
650
00:47:30,124 --> 00:47:31,443
One scenario for the growth
651
00:47:31,444 --> 00:47:35,233
of the galaxy, would go as follows,
652
00:47:36,864 --> 00:47:39,463
in the earliest stage of the universe,
653
00:47:39,464 --> 00:47:42,643
there were only small, irregular galaxies
654
00:47:42,644 --> 00:47:45,454
like the Magellanic Clouds.
655
00:47:49,184 --> 00:47:54,184
These small galaxies collided
and merged repeatedly.
656
00:47:56,204 --> 00:47:58,402
In this way, so the theory goes,
657
00:47:58,403 --> 00:48:01,043
over the course of billions of years,
658
00:48:01,044 --> 00:48:05,454
larger galaxies like our
Milky Way were formed.
659
00:48:06,323 --> 00:48:09,182
Van der Marel believes
that the Magellanic Clouds
660
00:48:09,183 --> 00:48:12,002
are in fact holdovers
from the earliest days
661
00:48:12,003 --> 00:48:14,965
of the universe, small galaxies
662
00:48:14,966 --> 00:48:19,966
that only now are brushing
past our own, larger galaxy.
663
00:48:21,024 --> 00:48:24,225
In the early universe,
soon after the Big Bang,
664
00:48:24,226 --> 00:48:26,162
we believe this happened all the time.
665
00:48:26,163 --> 00:48:28,863
There were bits and pieces
of galaxies falling together
666
00:48:28,864 --> 00:48:32,265
to form the first real
galaxies that then later grew
667
00:48:32,266 --> 00:48:34,093
over time.
668
00:48:34,364 --> 00:48:36,165
Nowadays, in our current universe,
669
00:48:36,166 --> 00:48:38,443
this is actually a pretty rare occurrence.
670
00:48:38,444 --> 00:48:40,483
So the effect that we're seeing
671
00:48:40,484 --> 00:48:44,302
Magellanic Clouds pass
the Milky Way right now
672
00:48:44,303 --> 00:48:46,344
is very unusual at some level,
673
00:48:46,345 --> 00:48:47,923
but it really gives us a glimpse
674
00:48:47,924 --> 00:48:50,803
of what the universe was
like more typically
675
00:48:50,804 --> 00:48:52,343
when it was much younger,
676
00:48:52,344 --> 00:48:54,383
when galaxies were falling onto each other
677
00:48:54,384 --> 00:48:57,554
and merging together all the time.
678
00:49:00,965 --> 00:49:02,543
The Magellanic Clouds
679
00:49:02,544 --> 00:49:06,716
had been thought of as satellite galaxies,
680
00:49:07,664 --> 00:49:10,644
but it turns out that they
are actually leftovers
681
00:49:10,645 --> 00:49:14,473
from the very beginnings of the universe.
682
00:49:15,804 --> 00:49:18,762
Small galaxies linked together,
683
00:49:18,763 --> 00:49:21,444
spewing a plume of gasses behind them
684
00:49:21,445 --> 00:49:24,194
as they rush past us.
685
00:49:37,724 --> 00:49:40,142
At the VISTA telescope in Chile,
686
00:49:40,143 --> 00:49:44,615
observations of the Magellanic
Clouds are ongoing.
687
00:49:47,986 --> 00:49:50,643
The detailed mapping of
the Magellanic Clouds,
688
00:49:50,644 --> 00:49:52,685
based on the Vista surveys
689
00:49:52,686 --> 00:49:57,056
is expected to be completed in 2017.
690
00:49:58,045 --> 00:50:01,404
Vista is continuing observations
691
00:50:01,405 --> 00:50:02,903
of the Magellanic Clouds,
692
00:50:02,904 --> 00:50:06,402
and we are extremely lucky
to have this exciting,
693
00:50:06,403 --> 00:50:08,902
and mysterious galaxy next to us,
694
00:50:08,903 --> 00:50:11,223
because it has been a wonderful playground
695
00:50:11,224 --> 00:50:15,524
for astronomers for more
than a century now.
696
00:50:15,525 --> 00:50:16,703
A couple of centuries.
697
00:50:16,704 --> 00:50:20,245
And I'm sure it will help us
698
00:50:20,246 --> 00:50:23,175
to reveal many more secrets.
699
00:50:25,866 --> 00:50:28,384
The origins of the universe,
700
00:50:28,385 --> 00:50:30,643
the birth of the galaxies.
701
00:50:30,644 --> 00:50:33,343
These are the mysteries to
which the Magellanic Clouds
702
00:50:33,344 --> 00:50:35,494
hold the keys.
703
00:50:35,564 --> 00:50:39,242
As humanity peers into the
southern night skies,
704
00:50:39,243 --> 00:50:42,555
that quest will continue.
54048
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