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Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:01,459 --> 00:00:04,086 In the beginning, there was darkness... 2 00:00:04,129 --> 00:00:06,213 and then, bang... 3 00:00:06,256 --> 00:00:09,383 giving birth to an endless, expanding existence... 4 00:00:09,426 --> 00:00:12,094 of time, space, and matter. 5 00:00:12,137 --> 00:00:14,638 Now, see further than we've ever imagined... 6 00:00:14,681 --> 00:00:16,724 beyond the limits of our existence... 7 00:00:16,766 --> 00:00:19,768 in a place we call "The Universe. " 8 00:00:24,733 --> 00:00:30,821 The biggest things in space are gargantuan beasts. 9 00:00:30,864 --> 00:00:35,492 Each one is a heavyweight in its galactic division. 10 00:00:35,535 --> 00:00:38,203 The universe is an unimaginably large place. 11 00:00:38,246 --> 00:00:40,039 It's so big it's really hard for human beings... 12 00:00:40,081 --> 00:00:44,126 to actually comprehend things of these size scales. 13 00:00:44,169 --> 00:00:47,463 On Earth and in the universe, size matters... 14 00:00:47,505 --> 00:00:51,467 but it matters in different ways. 15 00:00:51,509 --> 00:00:57,014 In space, bigger is not necessarily better. 16 00:00:57,057 --> 00:01:02,352 And oftentimes, the winners live large and die young. 17 00:01:19,496 --> 00:01:24,291 They're the Mount Everests of the cosmos. 18 00:01:24,334 --> 00:01:28,337 Astronomers aim their telescopes at them like paparazzi... 19 00:01:28,379 --> 00:01:33,133 eager to capture images of their every movement. 20 00:01:33,176 --> 00:01:36,095 They are the biggest things in the universe... 21 00:01:36,137 --> 00:01:40,057 and their sizes are truly mind-boggling. 22 00:01:40,100 --> 00:01:42,684 The good thing about being huge in the universe... 23 00:01:42,727 --> 00:01:45,687 is that the universe is even huger than you are... 24 00:01:45,730 --> 00:01:48,315 so there's plenty of space to stretch out... 25 00:01:48,358 --> 00:01:50,359 and get your size measured... 26 00:01:50,401 --> 00:01:55,989 among intelligent civilizations that are having a look. 27 00:01:56,032 --> 00:01:57,783 The first thing you find out... 28 00:01:57,826 --> 00:01:59,201 when you start studying astronomy... 29 00:01:59,244 --> 00:02:01,912 is how darn big everything is. 30 00:02:01,955 --> 00:02:03,122 Almost everything you're studying... 31 00:02:03,164 --> 00:02:06,416 is so far beyond any kind of human scale... 32 00:02:06,459 --> 00:02:13,340 that we're ever going to encounter in our normal lives. 33 00:02:13,383 --> 00:02:19,429 The universe is brimming with gigantic objects. 34 00:02:19,472 --> 00:02:21,056 Within our own solar system... 35 00:02:21,099 --> 00:02:25,853 Earth is the fifth biggest planet... 36 00:02:25,895 --> 00:02:28,981 but it's a hundred million billion times smaller... 37 00:02:29,023 --> 00:02:33,193 than the largest stuff in space. 38 00:02:33,236 --> 00:02:35,529 So what holds the coveted title... 39 00:02:35,572 --> 00:02:40,409 as the biggest thing in the universe? 40 00:02:40,451 --> 00:02:43,954 Most astronomers agree it's the cosmic web... 41 00:02:43,997 --> 00:02:47,332 an endless scaffolding of superclusters of galaxies... 42 00:02:47,375 --> 00:02:49,251 surrounded by dark matter... 43 00:02:49,294 --> 00:02:52,171 an invisible and mysterious form of matter... 44 00:02:52,213 --> 00:02:56,925 that accounts for 90 percent of the universe's mass. 45 00:02:56,968 --> 00:02:58,135 The largest thing in the universe... 46 00:02:58,178 --> 00:03:00,596 you might even wonder if it's a thing at all... 47 00:03:00,638 --> 00:03:02,472 it's a web of dark matter... 48 00:03:02,515 --> 00:03:06,435 that fills the volume of the universe. 49 00:03:06,477 --> 00:03:09,188 Dark matter is this matter that we can't even see. 50 00:03:09,230 --> 00:03:10,856 It doesn't emit any light... 51 00:03:10,899 --> 00:03:13,108 but it is filled throughout the universe... 52 00:03:13,151 --> 00:03:15,694 and there's structure in it. 53 00:03:15,737 --> 00:03:17,738 Dark matter is something much more mysterious... 54 00:03:17,780 --> 00:03:19,114 than most people know. 55 00:03:19,157 --> 00:03:22,034 Literally, the stuff that makes me up... 56 00:03:22,076 --> 00:03:23,285 dark matter isn't made of that. 57 00:03:23,328 --> 00:03:24,411 I don't think you could smell it... 58 00:03:24,454 --> 00:03:25,621 I don't think you could touch it. 59 00:03:25,663 --> 00:03:31,627 It simply has gravitational attraction. 60 00:03:31,669 --> 00:03:34,630 The cosmic web of dark matter becomes visible... 61 00:03:34,672 --> 00:03:39,176 when looking at the objects that fill it. 62 00:03:39,427 --> 00:03:40,886 This cosmic web really is almost like... 63 00:03:40,929 --> 00:03:43,222 a three-dimensional spider's web. 64 00:03:43,264 --> 00:03:45,140 At the very center of all the vortexes... 65 00:03:45,183 --> 00:03:46,475 there are the superclusters... 66 00:03:46,517 --> 00:03:48,602 clusters of thousands of galaxies... 67 00:03:48,645 --> 00:03:50,938 and then filaments of galaxies connect them... 68 00:03:50,980 --> 00:03:55,567 all the way across the volume of the universe. 69 00:03:55,610 --> 00:03:58,028 The deepest, strongest gravity... 70 00:03:58,071 --> 00:04:01,073 at the intersections of these weblike structures... 71 00:04:01,115 --> 00:04:03,242 is where all the gas falls... 72 00:04:03,284 --> 00:04:07,621 and that's where galaxies form- clusters of galaxies form. 73 00:04:07,664 --> 00:04:17,172 But just how big is the cosmic web? 74 00:04:17,215 --> 00:04:20,175 If the Milky Way galaxy were the size of a poppy seed... 75 00:04:20,218 --> 00:04:24,471 then the observable universe, everything we can see... 76 00:04:24,514 --> 00:04:27,140 would be about the volume of the Rose Bowl stadium. 77 00:04:27,183 --> 00:04:30,394 Now, that entire volume is filled with a cosmic web... 78 00:04:30,436 --> 00:04:31,687 superclusters linked together... 79 00:04:31,729 --> 00:04:39,778 from one side of the universe to the other. 80 00:04:39,821 --> 00:04:43,573 The origins of the cosmic web remain uncertain... 81 00:04:43,616 --> 00:04:46,243 but scientists think its initial seeds were planted... 82 00:04:46,286 --> 00:04:51,540 in the Big Bang, the beginning of the universe. 83 00:04:51,582 --> 00:04:52,749 During the Big Bang explosion... 84 00:04:52,792 --> 00:04:54,793 the whole universe blew up, essentially... 85 00:04:54,836 --> 00:04:56,628 and expanded very rapidly... 86 00:04:56,671 --> 00:04:57,921 so the cosmic matter web... 87 00:04:57,964 --> 00:04:59,423 contains all of the original matter... 88 00:04:59,465 --> 00:05:01,675 that was created during the Big Bang... 89 00:05:01,718 --> 00:05:04,052 just blown up into the very, very large structures... 90 00:05:04,095 --> 00:05:06,305 that we see today. 91 00:05:11,311 --> 00:05:15,314 Scientists are actively trying to map out the cosmic web... 92 00:05:15,356 --> 00:05:20,152 which spans the entire universe. 93 00:05:20,194 --> 00:05:23,071 One way is to look at hot, x-ray-emitting gas... 94 00:05:23,114 --> 00:05:24,656 and how it's contained... 95 00:05:24,699 --> 00:05:27,367 by the gravity present in the dark matter. 96 00:05:27,410 --> 00:05:29,202 Another way is to look at something called... 97 00:05:29,245 --> 00:05:32,873 gravitational lensing, where light is bent... 98 00:05:32,915 --> 00:05:35,542 by the gravity of the cosmic web... 99 00:05:35,585 --> 00:05:38,253 and so we're able to sort of see the outlines... 100 00:05:38,296 --> 00:05:39,880 of that cosmic web... 101 00:05:39,922 --> 00:05:44,593 by the way it distorts the light that's behind it. 102 00:05:44,635 --> 00:05:45,844 The cosmic web... 103 00:05:45,887 --> 00:05:48,680 basically contains everything in the universe... 104 00:05:48,723 --> 00:05:50,182 but some scientists question... 105 00:05:50,224 --> 00:05:53,101 whether it's technically the largest object... 106 00:05:53,144 --> 00:05:55,437 because the web isn't continuously connected... 107 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:59,816 throughout space. 108 00:05:59,859 --> 00:06:01,818 The cosmic matter web is not actually the largest... 109 00:06:01,861 --> 00:06:04,446 gravitationally bound object in the universe... 110 00:06:04,489 --> 00:06:05,864 because all the matter in the universe... 111 00:06:05,907 --> 00:06:07,366 has expanded so vastly... 112 00:06:07,408 --> 00:06:09,034 the force of gravity is not enough... 113 00:06:09,077 --> 00:06:11,286 to keep it together in one area... 114 00:06:11,329 --> 00:06:12,621 whereas superclusters of galaxies... 115 00:06:12,663 --> 00:06:15,332 are actually gravitationally bound... 116 00:06:15,375 --> 00:06:16,666 meaning that they have enough mass... 117 00:06:16,709 --> 00:06:19,044 to produce enough gravity to hold them together... 118 00:06:19,087 --> 00:06:21,171 over the passage of time. 119 00:06:25,385 --> 00:06:27,302 Astronomers don't have a firm estimate... 120 00:06:27,345 --> 00:06:29,638 but the cosmic web could be made up... 121 00:06:29,931 --> 00:06:33,308 of hundreds of thousands of superclustered complexes. 122 00:06:33,351 --> 00:06:35,811 These are mega collections of galaxies... 123 00:06:35,853 --> 00:06:37,479 gravitationally bound... 124 00:06:37,522 --> 00:06:42,901 up to hundreds of millions of light-years across. 125 00:06:42,944 --> 00:06:45,529 The universe is organized hierarchically. 126 00:06:45,571 --> 00:06:46,738 Stars make up galaxies... 127 00:06:46,781 --> 00:06:48,573 galaxies make up clusters... 128 00:06:48,616 --> 00:06:50,992 clusters make up superclusters. 129 00:06:51,035 --> 00:06:52,494 You could draw an analogy... 130 00:06:52,537 --> 00:06:56,206 that a cluster might be the North American continent... 131 00:06:56,249 --> 00:06:59,334 and a supercluster might be the association of cities... 132 00:06:59,377 --> 00:07:00,836 on the North American continent... 133 00:07:00,878 --> 00:07:02,337 cities on the European continent... 134 00:07:02,380 --> 00:07:08,927 cities on the Asian continent, et cetera. 135 00:07:08,970 --> 00:07:10,178 The current record holder... 136 00:07:10,221 --> 00:07:11,847 for the largest supercluster of galaxies... 137 00:07:11,889 --> 00:07:15,350 is called the Shapley Supercluster. 138 00:07:15,393 --> 00:07:17,018 This dense region of galaxies... 139 00:07:17,061 --> 00:07:21,189 is 400 million light-years long. 140 00:07:21,232 --> 00:07:24,234 So it would take the fastest interplanetary spacecraft... 141 00:07:24,277 --> 00:07:30,365 trillions of years to travel across it. 142 00:07:30,408 --> 00:07:34,161 The Shapley Supercluster spans several constellations... 143 00:07:34,203 --> 00:07:37,038 and is almost 650 million light-years... 144 00:07:37,081 --> 00:07:39,583 from our Milky Way galaxy. 145 00:07:45,423 --> 00:07:46,882 I have here a small toy boat... 146 00:07:46,924 --> 00:07:49,092 which is a replica of the Queen Mary... 147 00:07:49,135 --> 00:07:51,052 which you can see here behind me. 148 00:07:51,095 --> 00:07:54,264 And this little toy is about 4,000 times smaller... 149 00:07:54,307 --> 00:07:55,807 than the real Queen Mary. 150 00:07:55,850 --> 00:07:57,225 If you could just imagine... 151 00:07:57,268 --> 00:07:59,436 that our own Milky Way galaxy that we live in... 152 00:07:59,479 --> 00:08:01,730 is the same size as this toy boat... 153 00:08:01,772 --> 00:08:03,648 then one of the most massive superclusters... 154 00:08:03,691 --> 00:08:06,067 that we know about, the Shapley Supercluster... 155 00:08:06,110 --> 00:08:08,820 would be the same size as theQueen Mary. 156 00:08:08,863 --> 00:08:10,071 So the Shapley Supercluster... 157 00:08:10,114 --> 00:08:14,534 would be about 4,000 times larger than our own Milky Way. 158 00:08:14,577 --> 00:08:16,077 It's one of the most massive things we know about... 159 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:17,954 in the entire universe. 160 00:08:22,335 --> 00:08:24,294 Astronomers have known about superclusters... 161 00:08:24,337 --> 00:08:26,588 since the 1950s... 162 00:08:26,631 --> 00:08:28,757 but now they've determined their origin... 163 00:08:28,799 --> 00:08:29,799 through recent measurements... 164 00:08:29,842 --> 00:08:32,219 of the cosmic microwave background... 165 00:08:32,261 --> 00:08:38,058 which is actual radiation left over from the Big Bang. 166 00:08:38,100 --> 00:08:40,435 It's been concluded that all superclusters... 167 00:08:40,478 --> 00:08:42,562 including the Shapley Supercluster... 168 00:08:42,605 --> 00:08:45,190 originated during the formation of the universe... 169 00:08:45,233 --> 00:08:49,819 over 13 billion years ago. 170 00:08:49,862 --> 00:08:52,239 As the universe evolves and expands... 171 00:08:52,281 --> 00:08:53,865 gravity is an attractive force... 172 00:08:53,908 --> 00:08:56,493 so any region that has a little extra density there... 173 00:08:56,536 --> 00:08:59,496 attracts more matter and more matter. 174 00:08:59,539 --> 00:09:00,622 So, Shapley is a cluster... 175 00:09:00,665 --> 00:09:02,832 that basically had the accumulation... 176 00:09:02,875 --> 00:09:05,335 of many other little galaxies falling into it... 177 00:09:05,378 --> 00:09:08,880 and that's how it's gotten so big over time. 178 00:09:08,923 --> 00:09:12,008 Incredibly, scientists think the Shapley Supercluster... 179 00:09:12,051 --> 00:09:16,471 may be even bigger than it appears. 180 00:09:16,514 --> 00:09:18,807 In fact, we may only be seeing a small fraction... 181 00:09:18,849 --> 00:09:21,518 of what's really contained within the Shapley Supercluster. 182 00:09:21,769 --> 00:09:24,646 When the Wide-Field Infrared Survey explorer launches... 183 00:09:24,689 --> 00:09:27,357 we should be able to see about 10 times farther away... 184 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:28,692 and hopefully, we'll be able to see... 185 00:09:28,734 --> 00:09:29,985 the rest of the Shapley Supercluster... 186 00:09:30,027 --> 00:09:31,319 to see if it is even more massive... 187 00:09:31,362 --> 00:09:35,031 than what we already know about. 188 00:09:35,074 --> 00:09:38,743 Superclusters of galaxies will stay together over time... 189 00:09:38,786 --> 00:09:42,872 because they're gravitationally bound. 190 00:09:42,915 --> 00:09:44,416 Gravity is holding them together. 191 00:09:44,458 --> 00:09:46,418 So, even though the universe is expanding... 192 00:09:46,460 --> 00:09:50,630 over time those superclusters of galaxies will stay together... 193 00:09:50,673 --> 00:09:53,008 and they'll always keep orbiting each other. 194 00:09:59,223 --> 00:10:02,726 We humans also live in a supercluster complex... 195 00:10:02,768 --> 00:10:04,311 but it's less than half the size... 196 00:10:04,353 --> 00:10:06,813 and about 10 times less massive... 197 00:10:06,856 --> 00:10:11,109 than the Shapley Supercluster. 198 00:10:11,152 --> 00:10:14,195 Our Milky Way is part of a small, little cluster... 199 00:10:14,238 --> 00:10:15,572 called the Local Group... 200 00:10:15,615 --> 00:10:17,532 which is part of a larger cluster... 201 00:10:17,575 --> 00:10:18,867 called the Virgo Cluster... 202 00:10:18,909 --> 00:10:20,452 sort of on the outskirts of that. 203 00:10:20,494 --> 00:10:21,745 So it's like your home address. 204 00:10:21,787 --> 00:10:23,663 You live on this street, in this town... 205 00:10:23,706 --> 00:10:25,290 in this state, in this country. 206 00:10:25,333 --> 00:10:26,499 Similarly, the Milky Way... 207 00:10:26,542 --> 00:10:29,377 has its larger and larger associations... 208 00:10:29,420 --> 00:10:32,797 of which it's a part. 209 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:34,299 Superclusters of galaxies... 210 00:10:34,342 --> 00:10:37,385 are the most crowded neighborhoods in space... 211 00:10:37,428 --> 00:10:39,387 but they surround equally big regions... 212 00:10:39,430 --> 00:10:42,223 where almost nothing exists. 213 00:10:42,266 --> 00:10:47,062 These bare spots are called voids. 214 00:10:47,104 --> 00:10:49,689 Voids are the opposite of clusters. 215 00:10:49,732 --> 00:10:52,484 If clusters are where all the galaxies are... 216 00:10:52,526 --> 00:10:55,528 voids are where all the galaxies aren't. 217 00:10:55,571 --> 00:10:58,823 And you do see this kind of frothy, weblike structure... 218 00:10:58,866 --> 00:11:02,202 of clusters and voids and clusters and voids. 219 00:11:02,244 --> 00:11:04,788 So it's kind of like cities and countrysides... 220 00:11:04,830 --> 00:11:09,751 cities and countryside. 221 00:11:09,794 --> 00:11:14,589 The largest confirmed void in the universe remains Bootes. 222 00:11:14,632 --> 00:11:17,258 Named after the constellation where it resides... 223 00:11:17,301 --> 00:11:18,677 this near-empty space... 224 00:11:18,719 --> 00:11:22,889 is a whopping 250 million light-years across. 225 00:11:22,932 --> 00:11:25,600 That's equal to 2,500 Milky Way galaxies... 226 00:11:25,643 --> 00:11:29,729 placed side by side. 227 00:11:29,772 --> 00:11:31,439 Look out into the cosmos in any direction... 228 00:11:31,482 --> 00:11:32,607 and you'll see something. 229 00:11:32,650 --> 00:11:35,110 You'll see stuff, you'll see galaxies... 230 00:11:35,152 --> 00:11:37,320 you'll see gas, dust, you'll detect dark matter. 231 00:11:37,363 --> 00:11:39,239 Everywhere you look, there's something. 232 00:11:39,281 --> 00:11:43,326 Yet here's this giant hole with nothing in it. 233 00:11:48,541 --> 00:11:52,168 The Bootes Void, which was discovered in 1981... 234 00:11:52,211 --> 00:11:55,922 is almost completely devoid of galaxies. 235 00:11:55,965 --> 00:11:59,134 A new way to search for even larger voids may be possible... 236 00:11:59,176 --> 00:12:01,720 by precise measurements of the temperatures... 237 00:12:01,762 --> 00:12:04,973 of the cosmic microwave background radiation. 238 00:12:05,015 --> 00:12:07,058 Subtle cold spots in this radiation... 239 00:12:07,101 --> 00:12:11,187 could locate the directions of large distant voids. 240 00:12:16,444 --> 00:12:17,986 The story of their formation... 241 00:12:18,028 --> 00:12:22,866 is basically the reverse of how superclusters form. 242 00:12:23,159 --> 00:12:24,826 The voids must have started out... 243 00:12:24,869 --> 00:12:26,703 in the first microsecond of the Big Bang... 244 00:12:26,746 --> 00:12:29,164 as slightly low-density regions. 245 00:12:29,206 --> 00:12:32,500 But with time, they became less and less dense. 246 00:12:32,543 --> 00:12:35,795 All of the matter flowed away into the sheets and filaments... 247 00:12:35,838 --> 00:12:38,965 leaving the voids emptier and emptier of matter... 248 00:12:39,008 --> 00:12:41,342 until today, there is almost nothing... 249 00:12:41,385 --> 00:12:45,054 but a few little dwarf galaxies in some of these voids. 250 00:12:48,225 --> 00:12:50,935 Voids and superclusters are just some of the big things... 251 00:12:50,978 --> 00:12:53,605 contained in the even larger structure... 252 00:12:53,647 --> 00:12:56,608 called the cosmic web. 253 00:12:56,650 --> 00:13:01,738 But the web also holds other immense objects... 254 00:13:01,781 --> 00:13:03,865 including colossal bubbles... 255 00:13:03,908 --> 00:13:08,703 that might hold missing clues to the formation of galaxies. 256 00:13:15,377 --> 00:13:19,047 The universe is packed with monstrous things. 257 00:13:19,089 --> 00:13:20,799 Researchers have recently discovered... 258 00:13:20,841 --> 00:13:22,926 giant clouds of gas... 259 00:13:22,968 --> 00:13:26,513 that resemble something out of a horror movie. 260 00:13:26,555 --> 00:13:32,560 These mysterious objects are called Lyman-Alpha blobs. 261 00:13:32,603 --> 00:13:35,313 My personal favorite biggest objects in the universe... 262 00:13:35,356 --> 00:13:37,732 are the Lyman-Alpha blobs... 263 00:13:37,775 --> 00:13:40,735 an unpredicted, unexpected phenomenon... 264 00:13:40,778 --> 00:13:43,905 where you're catching a galaxy in the first phases... 265 00:13:43,948 --> 00:13:47,200 of its formation and collapse. 266 00:13:47,243 --> 00:13:48,326 A Lyman-Alpha blob... 267 00:13:48,369 --> 00:13:53,540 is very much like this expanding soap bubble... 268 00:13:53,582 --> 00:13:56,876 except, in the case of the soap bubble... 269 00:13:56,919 --> 00:14:02,590 it's the air which is making it fill up. 270 00:14:02,633 --> 00:14:05,885 A Lyman-Alpha blob is expanding because of heat. 271 00:14:05,928 --> 00:14:09,180 A lot of energy has been injected into this gas... 272 00:14:09,223 --> 00:14:10,598 to make it heat up. 273 00:14:10,641 --> 00:14:13,560 And when you put all that energy into a gas... 274 00:14:13,602 --> 00:14:16,688 it inevitably tends to puff up and expand... 275 00:14:16,730 --> 00:14:19,983 exactly like an expanding bubble. 276 00:14:20,025 --> 00:14:21,818 In the case of a Lyman-Alpha blob, 277 00:14:21,861 --> 00:14:23,319 it's being puffed up by heat... 278 00:14:23,362 --> 00:14:27,365 and maybe also by the ultraviolet radiation... 279 00:14:27,408 --> 00:14:29,868 from newly formed stars. 280 00:14:33,914 --> 00:14:35,957 The largest known Lyman-Alpha blob... 281 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,293 is a colossal, amoeba-shaped structure... 282 00:14:38,335 --> 00:14:42,130 that resembles a giant green jellyfish. 283 00:14:42,172 --> 00:14:44,966 It's 200 million light-years wide... 284 00:14:45,009 --> 00:14:48,678 and is located in the constellation Aquarius. 285 00:14:48,721 --> 00:14:51,264 When we're looking at the Lyman-Alpha blob... 286 00:14:51,307 --> 00:14:54,309 we're seeing gas that sort of spread... 287 00:14:54,351 --> 00:14:57,729 amongst these very first stars and galaxies. 288 00:14:57,771 --> 00:14:58,980 It's kind of an amorphous shape... 289 00:14:59,023 --> 00:15:01,691 of about 30 separate little blobs inside of it. 290 00:15:01,734 --> 00:15:04,485 It's very large and very massive. 291 00:15:04,528 --> 00:15:07,530 The whole structure is about 3,000 times the size... 292 00:15:07,573 --> 00:15:12,160 of our own Milky Way galaxy. 293 00:15:12,202 --> 00:15:15,038 The Keck and Subaru telescopes in Hawaii... 294 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:17,040 contain special filters... 295 00:15:17,082 --> 00:15:19,876 that are able to see this faraway blob... 296 00:15:19,919 --> 00:15:22,629 which spreads out along curvy tentacles. 297 00:15:25,758 --> 00:15:28,968 Scientists estimate that the largest Lyman-Alpha blob... 298 00:15:29,011 --> 00:15:32,013 was formed about 12 billion years ago... 299 00:15:32,056 --> 00:15:36,476 almost two billion years after the Big Bang. 300 00:15:36,518 --> 00:15:40,271 The observational technique we use to see that gas... 301 00:15:40,522 --> 00:15:44,692 refers to a very specific color of light, emission of light... 302 00:15:44,735 --> 00:15:46,235 that's called Lyman-Alpha. 303 00:15:46,278 --> 00:15:48,988 So you hear a phrase Lyman-Alpha blob... 304 00:15:49,031 --> 00:15:51,324 because if you take an image of the sky... 305 00:15:51,367 --> 00:15:54,953 through a filter that gives you only that Lyman-Alpha light... 306 00:15:54,995 --> 00:15:57,288 that very special wavelength of light... 307 00:15:57,331 --> 00:15:59,916 you'll see a little blob on the sky. 308 00:16:03,337 --> 00:16:05,922 Lyman-Alpha blobs are perhaps precursors... 309 00:16:05,965 --> 00:16:09,634 to the galaxy clusters we see today. 310 00:16:09,677 --> 00:16:13,012 Within these gigantic bubbles may exist cocoons... 311 00:16:13,055 --> 00:16:17,475 that will one day spawn new galaxies. 312 00:16:17,518 --> 00:16:19,268 The Lyman-Alpha blobs are probably... 313 00:16:19,311 --> 00:16:23,523 a fairly special short-lived phase... 314 00:16:23,565 --> 00:16:26,734 in the evolution to creating a galaxy. 315 00:16:26,777 --> 00:16:28,403 I would expect that most of them... 316 00:16:28,445 --> 00:16:31,656 are going to collapse and form young galaxies... 317 00:16:31,699 --> 00:16:34,784 in the next 100 million years or so of their lives... 318 00:16:34,827 --> 00:16:36,077 so it's a special phase... 319 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:39,539 just when a galaxy is beginning to pull itself together. 320 00:16:39,581 --> 00:16:41,624 The search in the universe for Lyman-Alpha blobs... 321 00:16:41,667 --> 00:16:43,584 is just beginning. 322 00:16:43,627 --> 00:16:45,878 We'll undoubtedly find many more of them... 323 00:16:45,921 --> 00:16:49,048 and even perhaps some larger ones in the future. 324 00:16:49,091 --> 00:16:50,466 Stay tuned. 325 00:16:53,762 --> 00:16:56,055 Lyman-Alpha blobs may hold the answers... 326 00:16:56,098 --> 00:16:58,766 to the formation of individual galaxies... 327 00:16:58,809 --> 00:17:00,852 which are gravitationally bound systems... 328 00:17:00,894 --> 00:17:06,149 containing stars, gas, dust, and dark matter. 329 00:17:06,191 --> 00:17:09,110 At least 100 billion single galaxies exist... 330 00:17:09,153 --> 00:17:11,487 in the observable universe. 331 00:17:11,530 --> 00:17:12,780 They range in size... 332 00:17:12,823 --> 00:17:17,785 from ten thousand to millions of light-years across. 333 00:17:17,828 --> 00:17:21,289 Galaxies, these titanic collections of stars... 334 00:17:21,331 --> 00:17:24,751 I think of them as cities... 335 00:17:24,793 --> 00:17:27,253 having been born in one myself... 336 00:17:27,296 --> 00:17:32,633 not only a galaxy, but also an actual city... 337 00:17:32,676 --> 00:17:35,636 a native of New York where everyone is crowded together. 338 00:17:35,679 --> 00:17:39,390 Galaxies are sort of how matter has organized itself... 339 00:17:39,433 --> 00:17:44,187 in the universe. 340 00:17:44,229 --> 00:17:48,316 In the competition for largest single galaxy in the universe... 341 00:17:48,358 --> 00:17:52,653 sizing up a winner is challenging. 342 00:17:52,696 --> 00:17:55,323 The problem in saying what's the largest galaxy... 343 00:17:55,365 --> 00:17:57,575 is in deciding where they end. 344 00:17:57,618 --> 00:17:59,619 Galaxy does not have a sharp edge. 345 00:17:59,661 --> 00:18:01,621 It just gets thinner and thinner... 346 00:18:01,663 --> 00:18:03,831 as you go further out. 347 00:18:03,874 --> 00:18:05,249 It's exactly analogous to saying... 348 00:18:05,292 --> 00:18:10,129 where is the end of a very large metropolitan area? 349 00:18:10,172 --> 00:18:12,840 Where is the end of Los Angeles? 350 00:18:12,883 --> 00:18:14,133 You can go out 50 miles... 351 00:18:14,176 --> 00:18:17,678 and you'll still find a fairly high density of suburbs. 352 00:18:17,721 --> 00:18:20,223 The suburbs of a big galaxy like the Milky Way... 353 00:18:20,265 --> 00:18:24,685 extend out very, very far, more than 100,000 light-years. 354 00:18:24,728 --> 00:18:27,730 And with a giant galaxy, those suburbs extend out... 355 00:18:27,773 --> 00:18:30,274 hundreds of thousands of light-years. 356 00:18:33,904 --> 00:18:36,614 Since scientists can't determine a clear winner... 357 00:18:36,657 --> 00:18:40,076 several galaxies share the title as biggest. 358 00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:43,663 They're called cluster-diffused or CD galaxies... 359 00:18:43,705 --> 00:18:49,627 and they sit in the centers of rich clusters of galaxies. 360 00:18:49,670 --> 00:18:51,629 If you think about the cosmic web as being... 361 00:18:51,672 --> 00:18:54,549 sort of like a three-dimensional spider web... 362 00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:56,759 well, then, the spiders lurking in the middle of the web... 363 00:18:56,802 --> 00:19:01,389 are these monstrous CD galaxies, as we call them. 364 00:19:01,431 --> 00:19:02,932 These galaxies can have masses... 365 00:19:02,975 --> 00:19:06,310 that are in some cases maybe 10 times or 20 times... 366 00:19:06,353 --> 00:19:10,022 the mass of our own Milky Way. 367 00:19:10,065 --> 00:19:11,399 These CD galaxies... 368 00:19:11,441 --> 00:19:14,861 are the largest galaxies in the universe. 369 00:19:14,903 --> 00:19:18,406 For example, IC-1101 sits in the center... 370 00:19:18,448 --> 00:19:22,076 of a galaxy cluster called Abell-2029... 371 00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:24,745 and it's six million light-years across. 372 00:19:24,788 --> 00:19:26,080 Compare that to our own Milky Way... 373 00:19:26,123 --> 00:19:29,208 that's 100,000 light-years across. 374 00:19:29,251 --> 00:19:31,586 It's a really big galaxy. 375 00:19:31,628 --> 00:19:34,797 It's 60 times the size of our Milky Way. 376 00:19:37,634 --> 00:19:40,136 CD galaxies are elliptically shaped... 377 00:19:40,179 --> 00:19:43,723 as opposed to a disc structure like our Milky Way. 378 00:19:43,765 --> 00:19:45,641 This is because they've achieved their size... 379 00:19:45,684 --> 00:19:48,102 by bulking up on other galaxies... 380 00:19:48,145 --> 00:19:51,939 through galaxy mergers. 381 00:19:51,982 --> 00:19:54,108 You may have heard the phrase "galaxy cannibalism"... 382 00:19:54,151 --> 00:19:55,943 where one galaxy eats another. 383 00:19:55,986 --> 00:19:59,280 That goes on all the time in clusters of galaxies. 384 00:19:59,323 --> 00:20:02,116 And so, sitting usually down at the very center... 385 00:20:02,159 --> 00:20:09,624 of a massive cluster, you'll find one big galaxy. 386 00:20:09,666 --> 00:20:11,292 These CD galaxies have so much mass... 387 00:20:11,335 --> 00:20:13,336 that they are the 800-pound gorilla... 388 00:20:13,378 --> 00:20:14,587 wherever they are. 389 00:20:14,630 --> 00:20:16,964 You see little galaxies maybe orbiting around them... 390 00:20:17,007 --> 00:20:19,550 but, basically, it's eaten up everything nearby. 391 00:20:22,346 --> 00:20:23,971 The largest galaxies may be... 392 00:20:24,014 --> 00:20:26,974 six to 20 million light-years across. 393 00:20:27,017 --> 00:20:30,353 However, there are other objects even larger. 394 00:20:30,395 --> 00:20:32,605 They're called radio lobes. 395 00:20:32,648 --> 00:20:35,107 Stretching out from both sides of the galaxy... 396 00:20:35,150 --> 00:20:36,359 these immense structures... 397 00:20:36,401 --> 00:20:39,028 are actually hurling jets of charged particles... 398 00:20:39,071 --> 00:20:43,950 that emit radio waves. 399 00:20:43,992 --> 00:20:45,910 So we're here in this auto body shop... 400 00:20:45,953 --> 00:20:48,079 where I'm gonna use these two torches... 401 00:20:48,121 --> 00:20:49,914 to simulate radio jets... 402 00:20:49,957 --> 00:20:52,250 coming out of opposite sides of an accretion disc... 403 00:20:52,292 --> 00:20:57,004 swirling around a supermassive black hole. 404 00:20:57,047 --> 00:20:58,881 So in the visible... 405 00:20:58,924 --> 00:21:02,093 you see a small blue flame coming off of the torch. 406 00:21:02,135 --> 00:21:03,219 But in the infrared... 407 00:21:03,262 --> 00:21:04,512 you can see that the heat from the torch... 408 00:21:04,554 --> 00:21:11,060 extends much, much further out. 409 00:21:11,103 --> 00:21:13,187 Similarly with the radio jets... 410 00:21:13,230 --> 00:21:14,939 what you see in the optical is actually quite different... 411 00:21:14,982 --> 00:21:17,984 from what you see in radio waves. 412 00:21:18,026 --> 00:21:20,695 A typical lobe might be 160,000 light-years... 413 00:21:20,737 --> 00:21:23,864 as the lobe spreads out on both sides of the galaxy. 414 00:21:23,907 --> 00:21:27,785 That's about twice the size of the Milky Way galaxy's disc. 415 00:21:32,082 --> 00:21:34,667 Astronomers think radio lobes are powered... 416 00:21:34,710 --> 00:21:38,838 by supermassive black holes located in quasars. 417 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:45,011 These are the luminous centers of most active galaxies. 418 00:21:45,053 --> 00:21:47,388 The jets of radio energy... 419 00:21:47,431 --> 00:21:49,557 that come from a giant black hole... 420 00:21:49,599 --> 00:21:52,226 and make these enormous radio lobe structures... 421 00:21:52,269 --> 00:21:55,354 are very closely related to quasars. 422 00:21:55,647 --> 00:21:58,566 In fact, in some cases, you can see a low-power quasar... 423 00:21:58,608 --> 00:22:00,318 in the center of the galaxy... 424 00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:03,446 and then it's surrounded by these giant lobes... 425 00:22:03,488 --> 00:22:04,572 to either side. 426 00:22:04,614 --> 00:22:06,032 They have been blasted out... 427 00:22:06,074 --> 00:22:09,118 by very high-energy jets of electrons... 428 00:22:09,161 --> 00:22:12,580 that are basically moving at almost the speed of light. 429 00:22:12,622 --> 00:22:15,374 And they are blasted out, probably... 430 00:22:15,417 --> 00:22:20,921 from the north and south poles of the spinning black hole. 431 00:22:20,964 --> 00:22:24,425 The radio lobes depend on matter going down the black hole. 432 00:22:24,468 --> 00:22:25,926 As matter goes down the black hole... 433 00:22:25,969 --> 00:22:29,180 some of it gets accelerated up into these lobes. 434 00:22:29,222 --> 00:22:30,848 So the size of the lobes has something to do... 435 00:22:30,891 --> 00:22:32,433 with the history of how much matter... 436 00:22:32,476 --> 00:22:34,602 the black hole has actually fed on. 437 00:22:34,644 --> 00:22:36,896 And so over time, they'll change size. 438 00:22:40,442 --> 00:22:43,110 Radio telescopes have surveyed the universe... 439 00:22:43,153 --> 00:22:47,406 and determined the largest known radio lobe. 440 00:22:47,449 --> 00:22:48,866 The undeniable record holder... 441 00:22:48,909 --> 00:22:53,371 is located in the galaxy named 3C236... 442 00:22:53,413 --> 00:22:56,749 which is in the constellation Leo Minor. 443 00:22:56,792 --> 00:23:02,755 Its jets span 40 million light-years across. 444 00:23:02,798 --> 00:23:03,798 Scientists don't understand... 445 00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:06,467 why some active galaxies form these jets... 446 00:23:06,510 --> 00:23:10,054 and others don't, but one thing is certain... 447 00:23:10,097 --> 00:23:13,307 radio lobes will not last forever... 448 00:23:13,350 --> 00:23:17,770 perhaps for only a few million years. 449 00:23:17,813 --> 00:23:20,815 So, just as this torch will eventually run out of gas... 450 00:23:20,857 --> 00:23:22,483 and shut itself off... 451 00:23:22,526 --> 00:23:26,195 the jets from a radio galaxy will eventually die as well. 452 00:23:26,238 --> 00:23:27,446 When the black hole has consumed... 453 00:23:27,489 --> 00:23:30,074 all of the material in its immediate vicinity... 454 00:23:30,117 --> 00:23:32,159 there'll be nothing left of the accretion disc... 455 00:23:32,202 --> 00:23:34,453 to get shot out along the magnetic field lines... 456 00:23:34,496 --> 00:23:39,166 and the jet will die. 457 00:23:39,209 --> 00:23:40,626 If black holes are the producers... 458 00:23:40,669 --> 00:23:43,504 of these gigantic radio lobes... 459 00:23:43,547 --> 00:23:48,092 then what is the largest black hole in the universe? 460 00:23:48,135 --> 00:23:51,804 Scientists are currently placing bets on the winner. 461 00:23:58,228 --> 00:24:01,647 When it comes to the biggest things in the universe... 462 00:24:01,690 --> 00:24:06,777 some black holes earn a place in the record books. 463 00:24:06,820 --> 00:24:08,988 A black hole is a region of space... 464 00:24:09,030 --> 00:24:11,574 where the pull of gravity is so immense... 465 00:24:11,616 --> 00:24:15,286 that nothing can escape it, not even light. 466 00:24:19,499 --> 00:24:22,668 There are billions upon billions of these black monsters... 467 00:24:22,711 --> 00:24:25,045 prowling the universe. 468 00:24:25,088 --> 00:24:27,506 They come in two size categories. 469 00:24:27,549 --> 00:24:30,384 Most of them are the stellar mass black holes... 470 00:24:30,427 --> 00:24:32,887 which are about five to 100 times... 471 00:24:32,929 --> 00:24:36,390 the mass of our sun. 472 00:24:36,433 --> 00:24:39,185 And then there are supermassive black holes... 473 00:24:39,227 --> 00:24:44,815 that are millions to billions of times the mass of the sun. 474 00:24:44,858 --> 00:24:46,108 We have the supermassive black holes... 475 00:24:46,151 --> 00:24:48,027 the kind that we seem to be finding... 476 00:24:48,069 --> 00:24:50,237 in the centers of every galaxy... 477 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,574 where we've had the resources to look. 478 00:24:53,617 --> 00:24:55,618 Havoc is wrought upon your environment... 479 00:24:55,660 --> 00:24:56,911 if you're a star orbiting... 480 00:24:56,953 --> 00:24:59,538 close to one of these supermassive black holes... 481 00:24:59,581 --> 00:25:01,499 in the centers of these galaxies. 482 00:25:06,838 --> 00:25:10,174 Black holes are not physically large regions... 483 00:25:10,217 --> 00:25:11,759 but when measuring their mass... 484 00:25:11,801 --> 00:25:13,260 they become top competitors... 485 00:25:13,303 --> 00:25:17,556 in the galactic heavyweight division. 486 00:25:17,599 --> 00:25:18,599 The center of our Milky Way... 487 00:25:18,642 --> 00:25:19,767 we know that there's a black hole... 488 00:25:19,809 --> 00:25:21,894 that's about maybe three million times... 489 00:25:21,937 --> 00:25:23,437 the mass of our own sun. 490 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,815 And yet, because black holes are so incredibly dense... 491 00:25:26,858 --> 00:25:28,275 the actual size of the black hole... 492 00:25:28,318 --> 00:25:29,485 is still fairly small... 493 00:25:29,528 --> 00:25:34,156 but incredibly, incredibly powerful gravitationally. 494 00:25:34,199 --> 00:25:36,992 As their name suggests, these black beasts... 495 00:25:37,035 --> 00:25:38,327 are essentially black... 496 00:25:38,370 --> 00:25:41,497 because no light can escape them. 497 00:25:41,540 --> 00:25:43,207 So one can only be observed... 498 00:25:43,250 --> 00:25:46,377 when its gravity affects something else in space... 499 00:25:46,419 --> 00:25:48,796 such as a passing star... 500 00:25:48,838 --> 00:25:51,840 or when it's gorging on matter around it. 501 00:25:56,805 --> 00:26:02,142 So what is the reigning black hole champion? 502 00:26:02,185 --> 00:26:05,396 The current record holder for the largest black hole... 503 00:26:05,438 --> 00:26:08,899 appears to be in the incredibly luminous quasar... 504 00:26:08,942 --> 00:26:14,697 which has the prosaic-sounding name HS1946+7658. 505 00:26:14,739 --> 00:26:17,324 Why do I say it's the largest black hole? 506 00:26:17,367 --> 00:26:19,243 Because we know it is... 507 00:26:19,286 --> 00:26:21,495 the most luminous quasar in the universe... 508 00:26:21,538 --> 00:26:23,664 that's been found so far. 509 00:26:23,707 --> 00:26:25,457 The black hole that's holding it together... 510 00:26:25,500 --> 00:26:26,500 that's producing the energy... 511 00:26:26,543 --> 00:26:29,336 needs to be about 10 billion times... 512 00:26:29,379 --> 00:26:31,088 the mass of the sun. 513 00:26:31,131 --> 00:26:33,549 That corresponds to a black hole... 514 00:26:33,592 --> 00:26:37,845 which is larger than our entire solar system. 515 00:26:37,887 --> 00:26:43,309 In fact, it's just out there to remind us how bizarre... 516 00:26:43,351 --> 00:26:48,814 a seemingly simple force like gravity can actually be. 517 00:26:48,857 --> 00:26:50,858 The largest supermassive black hole... 518 00:26:50,900 --> 00:26:54,361 wields power in the center of a galaxy... 519 00:26:54,404 --> 00:26:56,030 but there are other big luminous objects... 520 00:26:56,072 --> 00:26:57,656 in the universe. 521 00:26:57,699 --> 00:26:59,867 In fact, there are some that seem to exist... 522 00:26:59,909 --> 00:27:05,539 everywhere we look. 523 00:27:05,582 --> 00:27:07,750 When we glance into the nighttime sky... 524 00:27:07,792 --> 00:27:10,544 we see stars, twinkling dots of light... 525 00:27:10,587 --> 00:27:15,382 that are actually luminous balls of plasma. 526 00:27:15,425 --> 00:27:17,676 Although they may seem small from Earth... 527 00:27:17,719 --> 00:27:21,013 stars come in a variety of sizes... 528 00:27:21,056 --> 00:27:22,181 from red dwarfs... 529 00:27:22,223 --> 00:27:25,684 which are about 1/12 the mass of our sun... 530 00:27:25,727 --> 00:27:27,645 to blue-white super giants... 531 00:27:27,687 --> 00:27:33,942 that can get as big as 150 solar masses. 532 00:27:33,985 --> 00:27:37,571 Our Milky Way holds 100 billion stars... 533 00:27:37,614 --> 00:27:39,114 including our sun... 534 00:27:39,157 --> 00:27:44,203 which is over 300,000 times the mass of planet Earth. 535 00:27:44,245 --> 00:27:45,245 And this cosmic beacon... 536 00:27:45,288 --> 00:27:48,374 is a literal powerhouse in our solar system. 537 00:27:55,757 --> 00:27:56,757 This natural gas power plant... 538 00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:00,302 produces about 300 megawatts of power. 539 00:28:00,345 --> 00:28:01,345 You know, that's enough to power... 540 00:28:01,388 --> 00:28:03,389 a few hundred thousand homes. 541 00:28:03,431 --> 00:28:06,850 But that's only a tiny fraction of our sun's energy output. 542 00:28:07,102 --> 00:28:09,770 The sun's power is about two billion, billion times... 543 00:28:09,813 --> 00:28:11,522 the amount of this plant. 544 00:28:11,564 --> 00:28:13,065 So even in spite of its distance... 545 00:28:13,108 --> 00:28:17,111 the sun is able to warm our entire planet. 546 00:28:17,153 --> 00:28:19,947 Even so, our sun isn't the largest... 547 00:28:19,989 --> 00:28:24,034 or the most powerful star by a long shot. 548 00:28:24,077 --> 00:28:25,202 The most powerful stars... 549 00:28:25,245 --> 00:28:28,038 are about a million times as powerful as the sun. 550 00:28:28,081 --> 00:28:31,041 So if you wanted to compare that with the Hoover Dam... 551 00:28:31,084 --> 00:28:34,211 you would need 30 million, million... 552 00:28:34,254 --> 00:28:38,132 Hoover Dams per person on the planet... 553 00:28:38,174 --> 00:28:40,843 to generate that much power. 554 00:28:40,885 --> 00:28:44,388 There's really no human scale to imagine this power output. 555 00:28:49,644 --> 00:28:51,478 The largest and most powerful stars... 556 00:28:51,521 --> 00:28:53,439 that produce this kind of energy... 557 00:28:53,481 --> 00:28:57,484 are called red hyper giants. 558 00:28:57,527 --> 00:28:58,652 That's a class of stars... 559 00:28:58,695 --> 00:29:01,029 that's even larger than super giant stars. 560 00:29:01,072 --> 00:29:03,323 So typically, stars like our sun... 561 00:29:03,366 --> 00:29:06,410 are fusing hydrogen into helium to make their energy. 562 00:29:06,453 --> 00:29:08,078 But hyper giant stars... 563 00:29:08,121 --> 00:29:10,831 have already exhausted all the hydrogen in their core... 564 00:29:10,874 --> 00:29:12,541 and they're fusing hydrogen into helium... 565 00:29:12,584 --> 00:29:15,043 in the outskirts around the core... 566 00:29:15,086 --> 00:29:17,629 and that makes them extremely hot and energetic... 567 00:29:17,672 --> 00:29:20,841 and all that energy causes the star to swell up... 568 00:29:20,884 --> 00:29:24,052 and so the star ends up with a very large surface area... 569 00:29:24,095 --> 00:29:26,138 surface areas of the size of the Earth's orbit... 570 00:29:26,181 --> 00:29:29,183 or even bigger. 571 00:29:29,225 --> 00:29:32,060 Within the hefty field of red hyper giants... 572 00:29:32,103 --> 00:29:33,645 VY Canis Majoris... 573 00:29:33,688 --> 00:29:36,023 appears to have the largest diameter. 574 00:29:36,065 --> 00:29:39,359 It's 2,000 times wider than our sun... 575 00:29:39,402 --> 00:29:42,696 and consequently, it would take the world's fastest race car... 576 00:29:42,739 --> 00:29:47,701 2,600 years to circle it once. 577 00:29:47,744 --> 00:29:51,789 This stellar champ lives about 5,000 light-years from Earth... 578 00:29:51,831 --> 00:29:56,668 in the constellation Canis Majoris. 579 00:29:56,711 --> 00:30:00,047 If you replace the sun with VY Canis Majoris... 580 00:30:00,089 --> 00:30:03,217 if you put this hyper giant star where the sun is... 581 00:30:03,259 --> 00:30:07,763 its radius would extend out past Saturn's orbit. 582 00:30:07,806 --> 00:30:09,765 It would be about nine times as far from the sun... 583 00:30:09,808 --> 00:30:10,933 as the Earth is... 584 00:30:10,975 --> 00:30:13,143 so this is a much broader in diameter star... 585 00:30:13,186 --> 00:30:18,023 than our sun is. 586 00:30:18,066 --> 00:30:20,901 Astronomers determine the radius of such a large star... 587 00:30:20,944 --> 00:30:25,072 by looking at its temperature. 588 00:30:25,114 --> 00:30:26,198 We use measurements... 589 00:30:26,241 --> 00:30:28,534 of the temperature of the star's surface... 590 00:30:28,576 --> 00:30:30,160 which we can get from the color of the star... 591 00:30:30,203 --> 00:30:33,413 and then we will also measure the total power output... 592 00:30:33,456 --> 00:30:34,957 or luminosity of the star. 593 00:30:34,999 --> 00:30:36,667 And by combining those, we can determine... 594 00:30:36,709 --> 00:30:38,919 what its total surface area is of the star... 595 00:30:38,962 --> 00:30:42,047 and from that, we get its diameter. 596 00:30:42,090 --> 00:30:43,215 Now, that assumes... 597 00:30:43,258 --> 00:30:45,843 that you can measure its luminosity fairly well... 598 00:30:45,885 --> 00:30:47,594 and that you know something about its temperature... 599 00:30:47,637 --> 00:30:48,637 from its color. 600 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:49,763 Most of the time... 601 00:30:49,806 --> 00:30:51,431 they just simply appear as pinpoints of light... 602 00:30:51,683 --> 00:30:53,267 and it's impossible to actually resolve it. 603 00:30:53,309 --> 00:30:55,602 Although there are new instruments now... 604 00:30:55,645 --> 00:30:56,728 called interferometers... 605 00:30:56,771 --> 00:30:58,146 which are capable of resolving... 606 00:30:58,189 --> 00:31:00,941 even very tiny point sources, like stars. 607 00:31:00,984 --> 00:31:02,109 And in some cases... 608 00:31:02,151 --> 00:31:03,443 there have been direct measurements... 609 00:31:03,486 --> 00:31:05,362 of stellar diameters. 610 00:31:13,329 --> 00:31:17,541 VY Canis Majoris will not be a title holder forever. 611 00:31:17,584 --> 00:31:19,793 The red hyper giant is losing mass... 612 00:31:19,836 --> 00:31:25,966 at the rate of almost 30 Earth masses or more per year. 613 00:31:26,009 --> 00:31:27,301 The largest stars in the universe... 614 00:31:27,343 --> 00:31:28,594 like VY Canis Majoris... 615 00:31:28,636 --> 00:31:30,304 are actually dying stars... 616 00:31:30,346 --> 00:31:32,222 that as stars begin to die... 617 00:31:32,265 --> 00:31:34,975 they burn their nuclear fuel much less stably. 618 00:31:35,018 --> 00:31:38,729 They puff out over time. 619 00:31:38,771 --> 00:31:42,149 VY Canis Majoris is probably only a few million years old. 620 00:31:42,191 --> 00:31:46,486 Stars that are as massive as it is don't live very long. 621 00:31:46,529 --> 00:31:48,405 They use their fuel up at prodigious rates... 622 00:31:48,448 --> 00:31:50,991 then they swell up into this hyper giant state... 623 00:31:51,034 --> 00:31:52,034 and only live there... 624 00:31:52,076 --> 00:31:53,160 for a few hundred thousand years... 625 00:31:53,202 --> 00:31:55,495 a very short time scale... 626 00:31:55,538 --> 00:31:59,833 and then they will explode. 627 00:31:59,876 --> 00:32:03,879 VY Canis Majoris might have the largest diameter... 628 00:32:03,922 --> 00:32:06,798 but when it comes to possessing the most mass... 629 00:32:06,841 --> 00:32:10,260 there's another star that tips the scale. 630 00:32:14,974 --> 00:32:16,558 In the wide world of stars... 631 00:32:16,601 --> 00:32:18,018 there are many contenders... 632 00:32:18,061 --> 00:32:21,730 vying for the title as the largest in the universe. 633 00:32:21,773 --> 00:32:23,398 But when it comes to stars... 634 00:32:23,441 --> 00:32:27,110 big can mean two different things. 635 00:32:27,153 --> 00:32:29,404 When you talk about the biggest star... 636 00:32:29,447 --> 00:32:30,781 you can mean one of two things. 637 00:32:30,823 --> 00:32:33,659 You can either mean the star that has the largest diameter... 638 00:32:33,701 --> 00:32:35,535 or you might mean what its mass is. 639 00:32:35,578 --> 00:32:37,454 The mass is a measure of how much stuff you have. 640 00:32:37,497 --> 00:32:39,748 It's sort of like your weight when you step on a scale... 641 00:32:39,791 --> 00:32:44,419 how much matter your body is made of. 642 00:32:44,671 --> 00:32:46,588 According to some astronomers... 643 00:32:46,631 --> 00:32:48,423 the most massive star is located... 644 00:32:48,466 --> 00:32:51,218 in our Milky Way galaxy. 645 00:32:51,260 --> 00:32:55,097 Its part of a binary star system known as A1... 646 00:32:55,139 --> 00:32:56,515 which is actually two stars... 647 00:32:56,557 --> 00:33:01,687 that orbit each other once every four days. 648 00:33:01,729 --> 00:33:02,854 We find there that one of the stars... 649 00:33:02,897 --> 00:33:03,897 appears to have a mass... 650 00:33:03,940 --> 00:33:07,234 of about 115 times the mass of the sun... 651 00:33:07,276 --> 00:33:08,735 and the other star is also enormous... 652 00:33:08,778 --> 00:33:11,196 about 84 times the mass of the sun. 653 00:33:11,239 --> 00:33:12,531 So both stars in this binary... 654 00:33:12,573 --> 00:33:16,368 are among the most massive stars that we have ever measured. 655 00:33:16,411 --> 00:33:17,995 There may be more massive stars... 656 00:33:18,037 --> 00:33:21,123 than the combination in A1 in this star cluster... 657 00:33:21,165 --> 00:33:22,207 but that's the most massive... 658 00:33:22,250 --> 00:33:26,044 that we've been able to measure directly. 659 00:33:26,087 --> 00:33:31,758 These massive stars will live full, but short lives. 660 00:33:31,801 --> 00:33:35,804 Massive stars are hugely luminous. 661 00:33:35,847 --> 00:33:38,181 Sometimes they can outshine... 662 00:33:38,224 --> 00:33:41,309 millions of stars in their neighborhood... 663 00:33:41,352 --> 00:33:42,602 but at a cost. 664 00:33:42,645 --> 00:33:46,189 The cost is they will run out of fuel... 665 00:33:46,232 --> 00:33:48,650 faster than everybody else... 666 00:33:48,693 --> 00:33:51,319 and when they die, they die spectacularly. 667 00:33:51,362 --> 00:33:53,530 They explode their guts... 668 00:33:53,573 --> 00:33:56,116 and scatter it across the galaxy. 669 00:33:56,159 --> 00:34:00,328 So the cost of living a high-mass life... 670 00:34:00,371 --> 00:34:01,413 a high-luminous life... 671 00:34:01,456 --> 00:34:03,373 the cost of living in the fast lane... 672 00:34:03,416 --> 00:34:07,544 is that you explode at the end of your life. 673 00:34:07,587 --> 00:34:11,339 A bright star may burn out faster and die sooner... 674 00:34:11,382 --> 00:34:12,674 but at the same time... 675 00:34:12,717 --> 00:34:14,301 those hot stars are cooking up elements... 676 00:34:14,343 --> 00:34:15,886 that are essential for life. 677 00:34:15,928 --> 00:34:18,764 So without really massive stars, we wouldn't be here... 678 00:34:18,806 --> 00:34:22,142 because you wouldn't get the iron in my blood... 679 00:34:22,185 --> 00:34:24,102 and the calcium in my bones. 680 00:34:24,145 --> 00:34:27,481 All of those things are formed only in the most massive stars. 681 00:34:32,111 --> 00:34:36,698 We humans need essential elements from massive stars... 682 00:34:36,741 --> 00:34:43,497 but we also need a planet with a firm surface to stand on. 683 00:34:43,539 --> 00:34:45,832 Planets come in two size groups... 684 00:34:45,875 --> 00:34:48,543 large gas giants like Jupiter... 685 00:34:48,586 --> 00:34:53,632 and small rocky terrestrials such as Earth. 686 00:34:53,674 --> 00:34:55,175 In our own solar system... 687 00:34:55,218 --> 00:34:57,511 Jupiter is the largest planet... 688 00:34:57,553 --> 00:35:02,641 while Earth trails in fifth place. 689 00:35:02,683 --> 00:35:04,976 Yet, even though Jupiter reigns supreme... 690 00:35:05,019 --> 00:35:07,062 in our galactic zip code... 691 00:35:07,105 --> 00:35:13,401 it's not the biggest planet in the universe. 692 00:35:13,444 --> 00:35:15,737 The largest planet with a well-known radius... 693 00:35:15,780 --> 00:35:19,407 is called TRES4. It's named after... 694 00:35:19,450 --> 00:35:22,202 the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey... 695 00:35:22,245 --> 00:35:24,246 that discovered it in the constellation Hercules... 696 00:35:24,288 --> 00:35:28,083 in 2006. 697 00:35:28,126 --> 00:35:31,253 TRES4 is unusually large for its mass. 698 00:35:31,295 --> 00:35:33,713 We can actually directly measure its radius... 699 00:35:33,756 --> 00:35:36,383 and this particular planet has an unusually large radius. 700 00:35:36,425 --> 00:35:39,052 It's about 70 percent bigger than Jupiter... 701 00:35:39,095 --> 00:35:43,098 yet it has only about 80 percent of Jupiter's mass. 702 00:35:43,349 --> 00:35:47,894 That's about the same density as cork or even whipped cream. 703 00:35:47,937 --> 00:35:49,062 If you look at Earth... 704 00:35:49,105 --> 00:35:51,314 it's a rocky planet, very dense... 705 00:35:51,357 --> 00:35:54,734 and then even the gas giant planets like Jupiter... 706 00:35:54,777 --> 00:35:58,488 are compressed gas and water 707 00:35:58,531 --> 00:36:01,324 and other chemicals very tightly compressed. 708 00:36:01,367 --> 00:36:04,953 This thing, TRES4, is like a marshmallow. 709 00:36:08,833 --> 00:36:11,710 Although TRES4 is light for its size... 710 00:36:11,752 --> 00:36:16,173 it's about 18 times larger than Earth. 711 00:36:16,215 --> 00:36:21,595 Scientist aren't exactly sure how TRES4 got so large. 712 00:36:21,637 --> 00:36:24,973 One theory is that the planet's extremely close distance... 713 00:36:25,016 --> 00:36:26,433 to its parent star... 714 00:36:26,475 --> 00:36:29,477 is cooking up a lot of chemicals in its atmosphere... 715 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:34,274 which is trapping heat much like greenhouse gases. 716 00:36:34,317 --> 00:36:35,692 This particular planet... 717 00:36:35,735 --> 00:36:39,404 is only about five percent of the Earth's sun distance... 718 00:36:39,447 --> 00:36:40,947 from its parent star... 719 00:36:40,990 --> 00:36:42,616 so it's very, very close. 720 00:36:42,658 --> 00:36:43,867 In fact, it's so close... 721 00:36:43,910 --> 00:36:46,494 it orbits its star every three and a half days. 722 00:36:46,537 --> 00:36:49,122 So you can imagine how hot... 723 00:36:49,165 --> 00:36:50,957 and howjust blasted with sunlight... 724 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:52,334 this thing must be. 725 00:36:52,376 --> 00:36:56,046 Because the planet can't cool off, it can't shrink. 726 00:36:56,088 --> 00:36:57,380 Because when it's very hot... 727 00:36:57,423 --> 00:36:59,132 when gases are very hot, they expand... 728 00:36:59,175 --> 00:37:01,134 so this might be contributing... 729 00:37:01,177 --> 00:37:03,970 to keeping the radius of this planet so very large. 730 00:37:08,059 --> 00:37:11,019 TRES4 may be a puffed-up planet... 731 00:37:11,062 --> 00:37:12,979 but when it comes to sustaining life... 732 00:37:13,022 --> 00:37:17,192 bigger planets don't offer prime real estate. 733 00:37:17,235 --> 00:37:19,778 These giant planets really are just gas. 734 00:37:19,820 --> 00:37:21,780 There's no solid structure to them at all. 735 00:37:21,822 --> 00:37:23,323 There's nowhere to stand on them. 736 00:37:23,366 --> 00:37:25,825 So it's not a very likely place to find life... 737 00:37:25,868 --> 00:37:28,119 'cause life would have to continually be blown around... 738 00:37:28,162 --> 00:37:29,537 in the atmosphere... 739 00:37:29,580 --> 00:37:32,123 and that's a hard thing to evolve from. 740 00:37:32,166 --> 00:37:34,626 This planet would not be a very habitable place... 741 00:37:34,669 --> 00:37:37,671 because it's so close to its parent star. 742 00:37:37,713 --> 00:37:40,257 It's getting blasted with radiation from its sun... 743 00:37:40,299 --> 00:37:42,801 so it would be a very hot and unpleasant place to be... 744 00:37:42,843 --> 00:37:44,261 at least for humans. 745 00:37:49,767 --> 00:37:53,270 TRES4 currently has the largest known radius. 746 00:37:53,312 --> 00:37:56,523 However, the planet could be bumped out of first place... 747 00:37:56,565 --> 00:37:58,692 in the near future. 748 00:37:58,734 --> 00:37:59,859 Scientists are finding new planets... 749 00:37:59,902 --> 00:38:02,862 basically every day almost at this point. 750 00:38:02,905 --> 00:38:05,240 So it's quite possible that we will find another one... 751 00:38:05,283 --> 00:38:10,120 that's even bigger than this particular planet any time. 752 00:38:10,162 --> 00:38:11,746 In addition to planets... 753 00:38:11,789 --> 00:38:16,042 scientists are also discovering new asteroids all the time. 754 00:38:16,085 --> 00:38:20,046 These are rocky bodies that didn't become planets... 755 00:38:20,089 --> 00:38:24,968 and the largest one may exist in our galactic neighborhood. 756 00:38:31,517 --> 00:38:33,226 In our own solar system... 757 00:38:33,269 --> 00:38:36,229 billions upon billions of leftover rocks... 758 00:38:36,272 --> 00:38:38,023 that didn't become planets... 759 00:38:38,065 --> 00:38:40,108 take refuge in the asteroid belt. 760 00:38:40,151 --> 00:38:42,902 Some are as small as grains of dust... 761 00:38:42,945 --> 00:38:47,073 and others are the size of nations. 762 00:38:47,325 --> 00:38:50,618 Ceres was the first asteroid ever discovered... 763 00:38:50,661 --> 00:38:55,040 and it remains the largest known asteroid to date. 764 00:38:55,082 --> 00:38:58,835 Named after the Roman goddess of plants and harvest... 765 00:38:58,878 --> 00:39:01,963 Ceres is about 600 miles in diameter... 766 00:39:02,006 --> 00:39:06,593 so it's almost as large as the state of California. 767 00:39:06,635 --> 00:39:07,969 Ceres is so big... 768 00:39:08,012 --> 00:39:11,514 that it contains 25 percent of all of the mass... 769 00:39:11,557 --> 00:39:13,475 in the asteroid belt. 770 00:39:13,517 --> 00:39:15,310 Ceres is so big that if you took... 771 00:39:15,353 --> 00:39:18,313 all the other asteroids in the asteroid belt... 772 00:39:18,356 --> 00:39:20,023 and glued them all together... 773 00:39:20,066 --> 00:39:23,151 they'd only be about two or three times bigger than Ceres. 774 00:39:28,032 --> 00:39:29,991 Ceres' size sets it apart... 775 00:39:30,034 --> 00:39:32,952 from the rest of the rocks in the asteroid belt. 776 00:39:32,995 --> 00:39:35,872 It would take the Apollo lunar rover 10 days... 777 00:39:35,915 --> 00:39:41,002 to drive around the asteroid at eight miles per hour. 778 00:39:41,045 --> 00:39:42,962 But in addition to its size... 779 00:39:43,005 --> 00:39:47,258 its other distinct feature is its round shape. 780 00:39:47,301 --> 00:39:49,135 We have all these Idaho potatoes... 781 00:39:49,178 --> 00:39:52,597 orbiting in the asteroid belt of the solar system... 782 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:55,934 most of which are craggy chunks of rock. 783 00:39:55,976 --> 00:39:59,145 Ceres is large enough, massive enough... 784 00:39:59,188 --> 00:40:01,773 that its gravity has overcome... 785 00:40:01,816 --> 00:40:06,528 the strength of the rocks that contain it. 786 00:40:06,570 --> 00:40:10,365 And any time that happens, the shape becomes a sphere. 787 00:40:15,329 --> 00:40:21,751 Because of its round shape, Ceres now holds a dual title. 788 00:40:21,794 --> 00:40:24,421 The current definition of a dwarf planet... 789 00:40:24,463 --> 00:40:27,173 is something that in fact is massive enough... 790 00:40:27,216 --> 00:40:28,675 and has enough self gravity... 791 00:40:28,717 --> 00:40:31,594 to form itself into a round shape. 792 00:40:31,637 --> 00:40:34,180 And, in fact, since Ceres is round... 793 00:40:34,223 --> 00:40:35,515 we also call it... 794 00:40:35,558 --> 00:40:36,683 in addition to being an asteroid... 795 00:40:36,725 --> 00:40:38,351 a dwarf planet. 796 00:40:38,394 --> 00:40:39,394 We know only a little bit... 797 00:40:39,437 --> 00:40:42,814 about the composition of Ceres right now. 798 00:40:42,857 --> 00:40:44,858 We know that it's made primarily of rock... 799 00:40:44,900 --> 00:40:46,443 but it may also have water ice... 800 00:40:46,485 --> 00:40:50,488 and in fact, it could have clay inside it as well. 801 00:40:50,531 --> 00:40:53,074 The Dawn Mission is actually gonna go to Ceres... 802 00:40:53,117 --> 00:40:55,034 and enter into orbit around it... 803 00:40:55,077 --> 00:40:57,120 and they'll bring a whole suite of instruments to bear on it... 804 00:40:57,163 --> 00:40:58,455 so we should learn a lot more... 805 00:40:58,497 --> 00:41:00,707 about the composition of this unusually large asteroid... 806 00:41:00,749 --> 00:41:05,545 in our own solar system. 807 00:41:05,588 --> 00:41:09,382 Ceres may be the largest asteroid in our solar system... 808 00:41:09,425 --> 00:41:13,803 but it's a big universe out there. 809 00:41:13,846 --> 00:41:16,222 It's quite possible that as we go on... 810 00:41:16,265 --> 00:41:18,391 to exploring other solar systems outside of our own... 811 00:41:18,434 --> 00:41:19,434 that we may in fact someday... 812 00:41:19,477 --> 00:41:22,103 find an asteroid larger than Ceres. 813 00:41:24,398 --> 00:41:27,984 Our solar system contains some oversized objects. 814 00:41:28,027 --> 00:41:29,736 The largest planet, Jupiter... 815 00:41:29,778 --> 00:41:34,073 has the biggest moon, named Ganymede. 816 00:41:34,116 --> 00:41:37,076 Planet Mars actually contains the largest volcano... 817 00:41:37,119 --> 00:41:39,829 called Olympus Mons. 818 00:41:39,872 --> 00:41:41,456 It's 17 miles tall... 819 00:41:41,499 --> 00:41:42,957 which makes it about three times taller... 820 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,251 than the biggest volcano we have on Earth. 821 00:41:45,294 --> 00:41:46,419 It's so tall... 822 00:41:46,712 --> 00:41:48,755 that if you stood at the base of Olympus Mons... 823 00:41:48,797 --> 00:41:49,839 you wouldn't be able to see the top... 824 00:41:49,882 --> 00:41:52,425 due to the curvature of Mars itself. 825 00:41:52,468 --> 00:41:54,135 So in our own solar system, the biggest things... 826 00:41:54,178 --> 00:41:58,598 definitely have had a powerful shaping effect on the universe. 827 00:42:02,478 --> 00:42:05,146 One might guess that the sun would take top honors... 828 00:42:05,189 --> 00:42:08,608 as the largest thing in our cosmic suburb. 829 00:42:08,651 --> 00:42:12,278 It's a thousand times more massive than Jupiter. 830 00:42:12,321 --> 00:42:15,448 But is there something bigger? 831 00:42:15,491 --> 00:42:17,450 The largest object associated with our solar system... 832 00:42:17,493 --> 00:42:19,077 is the Oort Cloud. 833 00:42:19,119 --> 00:42:20,995 And this is a very diffuse cloud of comets... 834 00:42:21,038 --> 00:42:23,289 that literally extends about halfway out... 835 00:42:23,332 --> 00:42:25,542 to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. 836 00:42:25,584 --> 00:42:30,046 Alpha Centauri is about four light-years away. 837 00:42:30,089 --> 00:42:32,340 Astronomers estimate it would take the space shuttle... 838 00:42:32,383 --> 00:42:34,425 hundreds of thousands of years... 839 00:42:34,468 --> 00:42:39,514 to travel around the outer edge of the Oort Cloud. 840 00:42:39,557 --> 00:42:41,933 The Oort Cloud is so dark and so distant... 841 00:42:41,976 --> 00:42:43,685 that we really can't directly observe it... 842 00:42:43,727 --> 00:42:45,562 but what we do know is that comets come in... 843 00:42:45,604 --> 00:42:47,772 from every direction of the sky... 844 00:42:47,815 --> 00:42:50,358 so there must be a spherical cloud of comets... 845 00:42:50,401 --> 00:42:52,735 far away from us. 846 00:42:56,657 --> 00:42:59,576 The origins of the Oort Cloud remain puzzling. 847 00:42:59,618 --> 00:43:03,621 One theory is that it was formed early in our solar system. 848 00:43:03,664 --> 00:43:06,040 As comets fell in towards the forming sun... 849 00:43:06,083 --> 00:43:08,501 they were ejected into long orbits. 850 00:43:08,544 --> 00:43:14,424 Over time, their orbits threw them out into a giant cloud. 851 00:43:14,466 --> 00:43:16,759 It's very far away... 852 00:43:16,802 --> 00:43:18,928 and it's filled with icy remnants... 853 00:43:18,971 --> 00:43:22,181 that have just been left in basically the same state... 854 00:43:22,224 --> 00:43:23,975 that they were from right around the time... 855 00:43:24,018 --> 00:43:25,435 when our solar system formed... 856 00:43:25,477 --> 00:43:29,522 about four and a half billion years ago. 857 00:43:29,565 --> 00:43:32,984 So they are, you could say, the archeological remnants... 858 00:43:33,027 --> 00:43:37,780 of the formation of our solar system. 859 00:43:37,823 --> 00:43:44,203 The universe is comprised of things both big and small. 860 00:43:44,246 --> 00:43:46,497 But it's the large structures in space... 861 00:43:46,540 --> 00:43:52,003 that challenge our understanding of how the universe works. 862 00:43:52,046 --> 00:43:55,632 Although astronomers have found many substantial objects... 863 00:43:55,674 --> 00:44:01,054 the quest to find even larger ones continues. 864 00:44:01,096 --> 00:44:04,140 Astronomers are hoping to find new large planets... 865 00:44:04,183 --> 00:44:05,475 new huge super clusters... 866 00:44:05,517 --> 00:44:08,311 and learn more about the things that we've already seen. 867 00:44:08,354 --> 00:44:10,813 As technology improves with better telescopes... 868 00:44:10,856 --> 00:44:14,275 better detectors, newer surveys... 869 00:44:14,318 --> 00:44:16,402 we will be able to see farther into space... 870 00:44:16,445 --> 00:44:19,155 and therefore hopefully discover even bigger things... 871 00:44:19,198 --> 00:44:20,865 than we already know about. 70244

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