All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.Mysteries.of.the.Universe.S01E08.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER: A nuclear storm
of galactic proportions

that can both give

and take away
life as we know it.

The Sun.

It's one of countless stars
in the universe.

But to planet Earth
and our solar system,

it's the source of,
well, everything.

Humanity has worshiped
this glowing disk in the sky

since the beginning of time.

Yet even
with our modern technology,

we still know so little
about it.

Could unlocking the mysteries
of the Sun be the difference

between life and death
for human civilization?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

SHATNER:
93 million miles from Earth,

an immense star commands
the center of our solar system.

It is known as "the Sun,"

and its intense gravitational
pull controls the orbit

of eight planets,

300 moons,

comets,

asteroids

and even dwarf planets

that hover
on the edge of its reach.

ALEX YOUNG:
The Sun itself

is incredibly huge.

And it's hard
to get a real sense of that.

It's so small in the sky
when we see it here on Earth.

If you thought of the Sun
as a big ball,

in order
to fill up that big ball,

you would have to put in
more than 1,300,000 Earths.

JASON WRIGHT:
The Sun holds
the solar system together.

Astronomers have actually done
the calculation

to see what would happen

if the Sun were
to suddenly just disappear.

And if that Sun just goes away,

all the planets would fly off
into the galaxy.

SHATNER:
Here on Earth,
this massive ball of energy

affects nearly every aspect
of life on our planet.

WRIGHT:
The Sun's energy is the source

of all life on Earth.

The reason that Earth is
at the temperature it is,

the way all life on Earth gets
the energy it needs to survive--

that all comes from sunlight.

EDWARD SCHWIETERMAN:
The Sun drives photosynthesis.

Without the Sun, we would not
have green areas of the Earth

with plants and algae

and other organisms,

and we wouldn't be here today.

The Sun also provides the heat

that allows our oceans
to remain liquid and not freeze.

In addition,

the long-term climate cycles
on Earth are impacted

by interactions
with our atmosphere and the Sun.

NICHOLEEN VIALL:
The Sun is

an environment that is unlike

any environment
we can make here on Earth.

It's millions
of degrees Fahrenheit.

And yet, if we didn't have
the normal radiation

that we get from the Sun,

then the Earth would freeze,

and all of our life would die.

SHATNER:
For thousands of years,

human civilization
has understood

the Sun's critical connection
to life on Earth.

And to many ancient cultures,

the Sun was believed
to be a god.

STUART CLARK:
The importance of the Sun

as we recognize it
for driving all life on Earth

meant that different cultures,
different societies

throughout the ages
have deified the Sun.

The Aztecs, for example,
practiced human sacrifice

to appease that god

to keep
this day-and-night cycle going.

All over the planet,
we find megalithic structures,

huge temples to the Sun,

built in perfect alignment,
so we can see

that they were reading
the movement of the Sun

to mark the seasons.

This makes us aware

that they were in intense,
intimate conversation

in relationship
with the heavens,

with the movement of the Sun,

that they would build this
in such an exact way

to honor that moment
in the cycle.

SHATNER:
By 450 BC, great thinkers,

like Greek philosopher
Anaxagoras,

began to look at the Sun
from a scientific angle,

and wondered
if the giant ball of heat

that brought light to each day
might also be related

to the so-called "fiery stones"
that twinkled in the night sky.

2,000 years later,
during the Renaissance,

scientists risked their lives
trying to unravel the mysteries

of this glowing, celestial orb.

Polish astronomer
Nicolaus Copernicus

publishes
his magnum opus entitled

On the Revolutions
of the Heavenly Spheres.

In his groundbreaking text,

Copernicus proposes
a controversial idea.

He declares

that the Sun is the stationary
center of the universe.

European medieval astronomers
believed

that the Earth was
at the center of the universe

and every celestial object
orbited around the Earth.

But Copernicus proposed

that the Sun was at the center
of the solar system.

This was all based
on naked-eye observations

of the motions of the planets.

And initially, this idea
wasn't very well received.

WRIGHT:
The Copernican model

of the solar system went
strongly against earlier models

that were heavily favored
by the Catholic Church

because they made
the Earth special.

With the Earth just one
among many planets,

there was nothing special
about it.

And so,
that particular idea became,

in some places, a heresy

to even suggest
that that might be

the correct model
of the solar system.

SHATNER:
In the wake
of Copernicus's radical theory,

Italian philosopher
Giordana Bruno

was burned at the stake in 1600

for declaring
that the Sun is a star

and that stars are other suns
with their own planets.

But it wasn't
until the 20th century

that scientists finally answered
the fundamental question:

What exactly is the Sun?

In her doctoral thesis,

a young
British-American astronomer

named Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
proposes a bold new theory

about the composition
of the Sun.

SUTTER:
Since the mid-1800s,

astronomers debated
what the Sun was made of.

Before Cecilia Payne,

astronomers had already
identified some elements

on the Sun, like iron
and magnesium and carbon.

And those elements are
very common on the Earth.

So they wondered

if the Sun was simply
a giant ball of molten rock.

Payne-Gaposchkin
carefully analyzed

the spectrum of the Sun,

looking very carefully
at how much light was blocked

in the Sun
at different wavelengths,

and was able to show,
to people's astonishment,

that the Sun was a big ball
of hydrogen gas

at very high temperature.

This was such a huge shift
and paradigm change

to now think that the Sun
is not a solid body.

It's superhot gas
that's not uniform.

This was something
that a lot of scientists

at the time
were very uncomfortable with.

But some
of the astronomers of the day

considered this to be one of
the greatest PhD theses ever.

SHATNER:
In the 1960s,

astronomers successfully
detected the source

of the Sun's
seemingly limitless energy,

confirming that it is, in fact,
a giant nuclear furnace.

VIALL:
It's only been
in the last few decades

that we've really started
to understand how the Sun works.

Our Sun is just a star,

and that means that
it's a giant ball of hydrogen.

And there's fusion going on

where the atoms
are all slamming together,

making the energy,
making the light that we see.

(birds chirping)

SUTTER:
The Sun is at once
the source of light,

heat and warmth, and ultimately
of life on the Earth.

But the Sun is also so hot

that coming within
four million miles

of the surface of the Sun itself

is instant death.

You are melted and evaporated
in a flash.

SHATNER:
The awesome power of
the center of our solar system

is almost too terrifying
to imagine.

And while astronomers
continue to study our star

from the safety of Earth,

there is a probe
hurling through space

on an exploration mission
to make contact

with the surface of the Sun.

SHATNER:
Seated atop a volcanic mountain

at an elevation of 10,000 feet

is the Daniel K. Inouye
Solar Telescope,

otherwise known as DKIST.

With a mirror measuring
nearly 14 feet in diameter,

this state-of-the-art instrument

is designed to capture
high-resolution images

of Earth's closest star,
the Sun.

CLARK:
The DKIST telescope

is the largest solar telescope,
uh, on the Earth.

It's a four-meter mirror.

And it can take the most
exquisitely detailed pictures

of the solar surface.

They're so vivid
that it's also quite scary.

VIALL:
The images from DKIST
are so cool.

They are sort of like
a microscope on the Sun.

And we can see details
of granulation on the Sun,

detail that we have
never before seen.

What has come out of
DKIST just blew me away.

The detail of being able
to see these sunspots,

solar flares,
coronal mass ejections,

all of these various types
of eruptions

that happen on the Sun.

It's allowing us to now get

some very, very
specific information

about the impact
that they have here on Earth.

SHATNER:
But while DKIST
is able to capture

remarkable images from
the safety of our planet,

scientists are also curious
about what data can be collected

by getting closer
to our solar system's star.

YOUNG:
We've been looking at the Sun
in incredible detail

for many, many decades now.

But there's only so much
you can learn

by looking at things
from a distance.

Eventually, to really understand
what's happening at the source,

you have to go there.

SHATNER:
The prospect of getting anywhere
near the Sun sounds impossible.

But recently, NASA has developed
a robotic spacecraft

that is able to go
where no man has gone before.

A Delta IV heavy rocket

carrying the Parker Solar Probe
blasts into outer space.

Its mission is
to fly closer to the Sun

than any spacecraft in history.

The Parker Solar Probe
was an idea

that started in the 1950s,

around the same time
the solar wind was predicted

by Eugene Parker,
the spacecraft's namesake.

And its goal is to fly
through the corona.

WRIGHT: The outermost layer of
the Sun is called "the corona."

You can see parts
of the corona of the Sun

during a total solar eclipse.

But what's been
a big puzzle for a long time

is that the corona of the Sun
can be millions of degrees,

much, much hotter than
the Sun's surface.

And the exact mechanism
by which the corona

gets so hot has been
something of a mystery.

SHATNER:
The surface temperature
of the Sun

is estimated to be
10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

But its outermost layer,
or corona,

can reach an astonishing
two million degrees.

It's very, very strange to think
that the Parker Solar Probe

could not be obliterated
by these kind of temperatures.

And so,
in order to survive that,

there's a huge heat shield

that is about
four and a half inches thick.

And instruments sit behind
this heat shield.

And so engineers have
figured out how to pull heat

away from the front
of the spacecraft.

SUTTER:
The Parker Solar Probe
has not yet reached

its point of closeness approach.

But when it does, it will plunge

into the outer atmosphere
of the Sun,

coming within four million miles

of the surface
of the Sun itself.

That's seven times closer
than the previous record holder.

And so it is designed
from the ground up

to withstand
the extreme temperatures

this close to the Sun.

SHATNER:
The Parker Solar Probe
and its instruments

can withstand temperatures

as high as
2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

And in 2021, the spacecraft
crossed a historic threshold

when it reportedly
touched the Sun.

When we say that the Parker
Solar Probe touches the Sun,

it didn't touch
the visible surface.

But what it did touch
is the transition

between the Sun
and interplanetary space.

And Parker Solar Probe
has now actually made

several passes
in and out of this region,

now giving us the first

up close and personal
measurements and understanding

of this critical region
of the Sun's atmosphere.

VIALL:
The chance to look at the Sun
closer than ever before

really will offer
a new opportunity

to understand the physics
of how the Sun works

and how stars work
throughout the universe.

SHATNER:
Over the course
of its seven-year mission,

the Parker Solar Probe
will collect data

on solar wind, energy flow

and the explosive outermost part
of the Sun's atmosphere

called "the corona."

Parker Solar Probe is
now flying through the corona.

And this is important because,

ultimately, the corona
is where this energy

is released
that is producing what we call

"the coronal mass ejection"
or CME.

ROD PYLE:
CMEs are when
the surface of the Sun

gets stirred up
and some of the material below

gets churned up to the surface.

And these streamers can go
millions of miles out into space

and let off a tremendous amount
of ionizing radiation.

YOUNG:
CMEs can create
a spray of particles

close to the speed of light,

and this amounts
to a very intense blast

of electromagnetic radiation.

And that is incredibly hazardous

and can heat up
the Earth's atmosphere.

And we can feel how intense
it is here on Earth.

The coronal mass ejection

can also disrupt power lines
on Earth,

which can cause
brownouts or blackouts.

So, the hope is that
the Parker Solar Probe

is going to give us
one more tool

to allow us to know when
these events are gonna happen

and understand how strong
they're gonna be.

SHATNER:
Could the Parker Solar Probe
help us predict

dangerous solar events,
such as coronal mass ejections?

Let's hope so.

But scientists believe
the probe could also shed light

on other mysteries,

like the largest solar storm
to ever hit our planet.

SHATNER:
The National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration

releases an alert from the
Space Weather Prediction Center.

A severe geomagnetic storm watch
is underway

after a large sunspot cluster

produces a series
of massive solar flares,

triggering
an intense solar storm.

Solar storms are eruptions
that happen on the Sun.

And these could be
a solar flare...

...which is a very intense blast

of electromagnetic
radiation, light,

over the entire spectrum,

from radio waves
all the way to gamma rays

and everything in between.

But also, this huge blob
of solar material

travels through space,

and it creates all kinds
of electrical currents

and disturbances
that we have here on Earth.

SHATNER:
While NOAA's solar storm warning

prompts NASA to put at least
one satellite in safe mode

and power down instruments
on board other missions,

what the world witnesses
is a stunning

astronomical event known as
"the aurora borealis."

VIALL:
When solar storms hit the Earth,
then it can cause

the aurora borealis,
which is a beautiful effect,

where you see
these dancing green and purple

and red lights
called "the northern lights."

What happened was the aurora,
which usually you see

up in places like
Alaska and Iceland,

all of a sudden
came down very south.

SHATNER:
The aurora borealis of May 2024

provided an unusually large
sweep of colorful lights across

North America, Europe,
Asia and Australia.

And although it's considered
a significant celestial event,

it was nothing when compared
to the solar disturbance

that shocked the world
over 150 years ago.

A spectacular display
of pulsing illumination

blankets an unprecedented
swath of the globe.

People around the world are
both mesmerized and terrified

as they witness the effects
of one of the largest

geomagnetic storms
in recorded history.

CLARK:
The eyewitness reports
on September the 2nd, 1859,

are just extraordinary.

The aurora were blood red,

as described
by the eyewitness accounts.

It was, um... I think
it was a scary moment, actually.

In America,
a number of people said that

they were woken in their beds
by how bright it was

and believed that there were
vast prairie fires

that were engulfing the country.

In Paris,

they described burning
purple arches across the sky.

I mean, it's just
absolutely apocalyptic.

SHATNER:
The unnerving spectral display

was not the only concern
shared by a confused public.

The strength of the solar flares

had a damaging and dangerous
effect on mechanical devices

and electrical signals
around the globe.

As this aurora
was taking place overhead,

the compasses were just
spinning uselessly.

And the telegraph lines,
phantom electrical currents

were just surging
in those wires.

The electricity was so great

that offices burst into flames

as the electricity surged in
through the equipment.

Operators were
stunned unconscious

by the electrical shocks.

It is terrifying
because, in 1859,

that was the Internet
of the day.

It would be the same today

as if all telecommunications
stopped almost instantly

and no one had a single idea

why it had happened.

SHATNER:
At the time,
people wanted to know:

What could have caused
such a bizarre series of events?

It was a mystery
because, in the 1850s,

scientists were not yet
aware that auroras,

which are normally seen
only at night,

are produced
by the Sun's energy.

But as luck would have it,
on September 1st, 1859,

one day before
the worldwide aurora took place,

a British man named
Richard Carrington

was carefully studying the Sun.

CLARK:
Richard Carrington was,

essentially,
an amateur astronomer.

He was a very wealthy man
because his family business

was to run a brewery,
Carrington Brewery.

And he decided to use
part of that family wealth

to set up an observatory
to study sunspots.

Sunspots are
slightly cooler areas

on the solar surface,

so they're not giving out
quite as much light.

And so, when you see them
in the context

of the rest of the solar
surface, they just appear dark.

YOUNG:
Carrington was observing
a very, very large sunspot.

And while he was observing it,

what he noticed was the image
became blurry all of a sudden.

And that was because

the sunspot all of a sudden
got very bright.

CLARK:
Carrington realized

no one had ever described
seeing something like this

erupting from a sunspot before.

And a day later,
the largest aurora

that has ever been witnessed
on the Earth took place.

And the question was:

Were those two things linked?

SHATNER:
Carrington proved that
the incredible auroras

were connected to the intense
solar activity he observed.

The phenomenon of September 1859

has come to be known
as "the Carrington Event,"

in honor of his discovery,

and it remains the most powerful
solar storm ever recorded.

The notion that the Sun
can create solar flares

capable of inflicting danger
here on Earth

is profoundly concerning.

And it naturally
begs the question:

What if a geomagnetic storm

on the scale
of the Carrington Event

were to hit our planet today?

The Carrington Event,
if it were to happen again,

property damage would be
about $2 trillion,

our astronauts
would be endangered...

...satellites
would be blinked out

because of
the enormous radiation.

(static crackling)

Power plants on the Earth
would go on the fritz.

And the economy could be thrown
maybe 200 years into the past.

So we're talking about
an event that would be

catastrophic
for modern civilization.

SUTTER:
In 2022,
a solar storm struck the Earth

and managed to knock out
40 Starlink satellites.

The storm heated up

the upper layers
of our atmosphere,

which actually caused
too much drag on the satellites

and forced them
to come plummeting

back down onto the Earth.

So, these high-energy events

can disrupt power grids.

They can short-circuit
electronics.

They're just bad news.

SHATNER:
The constant threat

of solar storms bombarding Earth
is certainly unsettling.

Is there anything
we can do to prepare ourselves

for an impending blast
of destructive energy

from our normally peaceful star?

SUTTER:
The best defense we have
against solar storms is,

the more advanced warning we can
get that a storm is on its way,

the more
we can prepare ourselves.

We can shut down
sensitive electronics.

We can move things underground.

We can hunker down
while the storm passes.

Detecting solar storms before
they reach Earth is one way

to protect us
from our star's harmful flares.

But scientists warn

that we could face
a much more dangerous scenario

if the Sun actually dies.

SHATNER:
Throughout the United States,

Canada and Mexico,

millions of people
wearing protective sunglasses

look up at the sky to witness
a rare cosmic occurrence.

Over the course
of several hours,

Earth's Moon slowly passes
directly in front of the Sun.

As they become
perfectly aligned,

the Moon completely blocks out
the Sun for around four minutes,

making the sky appear
as dark as night

-in the middle of the day.
-(crowd cheering)

It's an event known as
"a total solar eclipse,"

and it's an eerie glimpse

at what our world would be like
without the Sun.

MICHAEL DENNIN:
The interesting thing
about solar eclipses is

that it is very strange
to experience

kind of night during the day
and to have the Sun blocked out.

And this is one of the reasons
for most of history

that solar eclipses were
somewhere between really scary,

or at least considered a sign

of something dramatic
that was going to happen.

DOMINIC STEAVU:
Historically all over the world,

in multiple civilizations
and cultures,

a disappearance of the Sun would
be considered catastrophic.

The Sun's a source of life.

So when the Sun darkened
during the daytime,

that was seen as
a very bad omen.

And solar eclipses, therefore,
were often represented as events

in which the forces of darkness
would consume the Sun.

They would eat it up, and...

it would be an apocalypse,

an end of the world
for everyone,

where the forces of darkness
would overtake life.

CLARK:
The Sun shapes a lot more
than just civilization.

The fact that we have
this lush, green planet

with abundant life all over it
comes directly from the Sun,

because it provides the energy

for living forms to function,

to grow, to reproduce.

And realizing

that the Sun is the key
to life on Earth,

without it,
we simply can't survive.

SHATNER:
It's easy to see why
our ancient ancestors believed

a solar eclipse was
the end of the world.

But is it possible
for the Sun's light

and energy to disappear?

According to experts,
the answer is yes,

because one day,

the Sun will actually die.

VIALL:
Our Sun is a middle-aged star.

The Sun is about four
and a half billion years old.

And eventually,
what'll happen is

it'll run out of fuel
in its core.

And when it does that,
then what happens is

it turns into something
called "a red giant."

STANDING:
As the Sun starts
to run out of fuel

and expand
into the red giant phase,

the outer layers
of the star will puff out

and expand out
to the solar system,

and then it will slowly fade
over billions of years,

and it will eventually burn out.

SHATNER:
It's fascinating to think

that the Sun will one day grow
even larger than it is now.

But what impact will
a red giant Sun have on Earth?

As the Sun reaches
the end of its life,

it will swallow Mercury,
it will swallow Venus.

Eventually,
its radius will come out

to around about
the orbital radius of the Earth.

The oceans will boil
and disappear.

The Earth's atmosphere
will be blown away.

And life will end on the Earth.

What will be left will be a
very hot, very desolate planet.

SHATNER:
Will the Sun
one day grow so large

that it engulfs Earth
and transforms it

into a scorched
and barren wasteland?

Perhaps, but that's not the end
of the Sun's story.

Experts claim that our star
will still have one more phase

to go through before
it finally goes dark for good.

The Sun will exist
for a little while

as a red giant star.

But eventually,
it will, rather violently,

shed its outer layers,
which will drift away,

and all that will be left
is the inner core,

called "a white dwarf."

It's like the ember
in a dying fire.

And so, it will slowly radiate
its energy away

and get cooler
and cooler and cooler.

Eventually, the Earth's surface
would rapidly cool.

It would be like
it was suddenly night,

and it would just get
colder and colder,

and eventually,

Earth would just become
a giant snowball in space.

SHATNER:
If it's true
that Earth will first be burnt

and then frozen
during the Sun's death,

then it begs the question:

Will this happen anytime soon?

While scientists believe
it will be billions of years

before the Sun dies,

they also claim
that there is evidence

this slow process
has already started.

WRIGHT:
You might think

that as a star starts
running out of fuel in its core

that it would get dimmer
and dimmer.

But the star actually slowly
gets a little bit brighter

as it gets older.

And over the last
four and a half billion years,

the Sun has slowly
become brighter and brighter

and brighter
by about 15% to 20%.

So, it's already running out
of fuel in its core.

And that's a problem,
because this trend will continue

into the future.

When the Sun dies,
it'll certainly mean the end

for life on Earth.

Unless...

scientists are successful
with a daring new experiment,

one that will use
the power of stars

to create our very own version

of the Sun.

SHATNER:
Experts from the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory

announce
a groundbreaking achievement.

By firing powerful lasers
at a microscopic target,

they were able
to produce a nuclear reaction

that is referred to
as "fusion ignition."

Remarkably, this is
a miniature version

of the same reaction
that generates light and heat

deep inside the Sun.

WRIGHT:
Because the Sun is so massive,

at the core,
the pressure gets so high

and the temperatures get so high

that the stars can actually fuse

atomic nuclei together,
generating nuclear power.

And out will come
enormous amounts of energy.

SUTTER:
Stars are the only known places
in the universe

that can sustain
nuclear fusion reactions.

If we were able
to develop nuclear fusion

here on the Earth--

and we've had
some very promising gains

in recent years--

this would be a game-changer
for humanity,

because then
you can take simple elements,

feed them into a machine,

and get an almost
limitless supply of energy.

SHATNER:
Before the unprecedented success

of the 2022 experiment

at Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory,

creating self-sustaining power
like the Sun

had been humanly impossible.

But now, inside a three-and-
a-half-billion-dollar structure

known as the
"National Ignition Facility,"

they are using
the world's most energetic laser

to create miniature stars.

MA:
The National Ignition Facility

is the world's largest laser.

It's the size
of three football fields,

side by side, ten stories tall,

mostly to house
the amplification optics,

to amplify the laser up

a million, billion times
in energy.

And the laser is actually
192 separate laser beams.

We focus all of the laser beams
back down onto a target

that is about a centimeter
in length

and compress it up
to the temperatures,

densities, pressures
that actually exceed

what we have in the Sun

so that we can generate
miniature stars

and harness that energy.

SHATNER:
It's astonishing
that scientists have managed

to create miniature stars
in the lab.

But how does a tiny,
artificial Sun

compare to the real thing?

When we create
this miniature star on Earth,

we get to temperatures

that are about
three to four times hotter

than the center of the Sun.

That's 100 million
degrees Celsius.

But whereas the Sun is
a million miles across,

in the laboratory,
the stars that we create

are on the order of
two one-thousandths of an inch,

about half the size
of a human hair.

GORDON BRUNTON:
We had
a very successful experiment

that was
the second highest yield

that we have ever achieved

on the National
Ignition Facility.

And so, it proves the basis

for advancing
the fusion, uh, process further

so that we can
eventually work towards

actually having energy on the
grid using this fusion process.

MA:
By capturing our own stars

in laboratories here on Earth,

we could have energy security
and energy sovereignty

for every country
around the world,

because it is safe, it is clean.

There's no carbon anywhere
in the fusion reaction.

It's sustainable.

And so, we can make life better
for everybody.

SHATNER:
Is it possible
that nuclear fusion

and miniature stars
will one day solve

the world's energy problems?

It's an exciting notion,

but perhaps
what's even more intriguing

is that recreating
the power of the Sun

could revolutionize
space travel.

PYLE:
If you can get fusion to work,

this is kind of the holy grail.

You get a lot of energy
out of the fuel you're carrying,

and the solar system
really becomes your backyard.

So, now missions to Mars
can be six weeks or two months

instead of seven months.

You can come home sooner
if you need to.

You've got the power to do that.

You could even start going
beyond the asteroid belt

to some of the outer planets.

It's very dangerous out there,
it takes a while,

but with fusion, you can
actually make all this happen.

And that's ultimately
where we're gonna want to be.

It's thrilling to think
that in the future,

fusion power plants might
provide a near limitless source

of energy
to fuel our entire civilization

and even our spaceships.

But an even more extraordinary
feat would be finding a way

to extend the life of the Sun.

SHATNER:
Scientists have long known

that in the distant future,
the Sun will die.

But according to
a remarkable theory,

it might be possible

to extend the Sun's life
almost indefinitely.

This concept is referred to
as "star lifting."

SUTTER:
Our Sun

has a finite lifetime.

It will die.

Its lifetime is determined

by how much hydrogen
it has in its core

and how quickly
it can fuse that hydrogen,

and eventually, it will simply
run out of hydrogen.

STANDING:
Star lifting is the idea

that as the Sun reaches
the end of its life,

we could, in theory,

slow down
its hydrogen burning rate

and prolong its lifetime.

WRIGHT:
Astronomers have actually
done the calculation

to see what would happen

if you did
this sort of star lifting

and found that, for the Sun,
you could eventually

get it to burn its fuel
so slowly

that it could last
maybe a trillion years.

SHATNER:
Could star lifting
allow the Sun

to continue burning
for an unimaginably long time?

And if so,

how could we possibly achieve
such an extraordinary feat?

As strange as it may sound,

proponents of
star lifting theorize

that we can keep the Sun
burning indefinitely

by removing some of its fuel
to make it smaller.

WRIGHT:
Stars burn

because gravity is
constantly pushing down

and trying to crush a star.

It would be extremely difficult.

But imagine
if you started lifting the mass

from the surface of the Sun.

The reason that would help
is that a smaller star

burns fuel less quickly.

That would then extend
the amount of fuel you had

and allow the star
to last a lot longer.

SUTTER:
Obviously, removing material
from the Sun is going to be

a very challenging
engineering problem.

But one thing we can use

are enormously strong
magnetic fields.

The Sun is made of
charged particles,

and if you can create
a strong enough magnetic field,

you can pull material
off of the Sun

and eject it out into space.

So if we could surround the Sun
with very powerful magnets,

we could use them
to drive plasma

off the surface of the Sun
and out into space,

which allows the Sun
to live longer.

SHATNER: Could lifting material
from the Sun

actually prolong its lifespan
and save Earth from destruction?

Perhaps.

But while scientists work to
prevent the death of our star,

the Sun still holds
many mysteries

that humanity has yet to solve.

YOUNG:
The Sun has been
part of mythology

and part of religion

for thousands
and thousands of years,

because it is one of the only
absolutes in civilizations.

And it's really amazing

that we are now
making observations

that are providing a new look
and a new understanding

of not only our Sun

but all the stars
in the universe.

DENNIN:
The Sun is still a mystery
in many ways.

And it's really
an exciting time right now,

because we have all these probes
that we've sent to the Sun,

and for the next
couple of years,

we're really at
a peak activity for the Sun.

And so to be able to measure
that at a time of peak activity,

this might be the time

where we can finally
solve those mysteries.

It's profound to think
that every living thing

that ever called Earth home
has been touched by the Sun.

And even now,

the Sun continues to mystify us.

Will its flares
burn us to a crisp?

Could it disappear someday?

And might we be able
to recreate its awesome power?

It's fascinating to think about.

But even billions
of years from now,

the Sun will remain...

unexplained.

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