Our Universe 3D

(NARRATOR READING)

NARRATOR:
From the beginning of mankind,

people have looked up to the stars,

wondering what marvels could

be found out there.

As science and technology developed,

we finally got some answers.

We learned about our

neighbouring planets that

spin around the sun,

just like the Earth.

We found cosmic nebulae

of incredible beauty,

stars exploding into supernovas

and even black holes.

Ls mankind ready for its biggest discovery?

With our instruments,

satellites and spacecraft

becoming more and more advanced,

we are finding more and

more distant planets.

Is there another Earth

in the vast depths of space?

And could there be alien life?

The answers are out

there, in our universe.

Earth. Our beautiful blue planet. Our home.

Seven billion people live here.

By the sea,

on land,

in the mountains

and in vast cities.

We have evolved from cavemen

to the information society.

Science is exploring all aspects of nature,

be it on our planet or beyond it.

Huge archives of data have been created,

providing answers to many questions.

We have come a long way

from the beginning of the space age,

when the first satellites were launched,

and man set foot on the moon.

Our probes have visited all the planets

of our solar system

and delivered a lot of data.

We now have a good understanding of how

our home system in this universe works.

There are eight major planets.

Mercury, which is closest to the sun,

and very barren.

Venus, with her thick atmosphere

and furious volcanoes.

Earth, the only known planet to host life.

And Mars, the Red Planet, a neighbour

that has had a lot of human-made visitors.

Farther out is Jupiter, a giant made of gas,

with over 60 moons.

Saturn, with its mighty ring system.

And, finally, Uranus and Neptune,

the "ice giants".

Beyond them lie huge asteroid fields

and some dwarf planets, like Pluto and Eris.

All these heavenly bodies revolve

around the sun.

It's the centre of our solar system

and also its superpower.

Without the sun,

life on Earth wouldn't be possible at all.

Basically, the sun is a gigantic energy

reactor that produces radiation and light.

In order to be able to look at the sun

with our human eyes,

we need to decrease its luminosity

by 98% first.

We are now looking at the pulsating surface.

The temperature here is

over 3 million degrees Fahrenheit.

The darker areas are the sunspots. They

are plasma craters the size of the Earth,

where temperatures are lower.

The brightest areas, on the other hand,

are solar flares.

The plasma there reaches temperatures

of up to 10 million degrees.

These flares can cause ripples that look

just like ripples on a pond from here,

when in fact the waves are 2 miles high,

and move at hundreds

of thousands of miles per hour.

But the highest temperatures are

found in the very core of the sun,

going up to almost 30 million degrees,

because in here

hydrogen is constantly fused into helium.

Through this process of nuclear fusion,

the sun releases energy

equalling millions of atomic bombs

every second.

A great deal of this energy is

released in the form of photons.

These photons dart around the core

at light speed,

but they collide with matter so often,

that it takes them thousands of years

to finally escape into open space.

From there,

they only need about eight minutes

to cover the 100 million miles to Earth

and arrive here as what we know as sunlight.

But the sun doesn't only supply light.

It's responsible for 99% of the Earth's

energy intake.

In the entire history of mankind,

we have produced less energy

than the sun blows out in a second.

This begs the question,

how is such a powerful object created?

The answer is, it is born from a cloud

of cosmic dust and gas.

These vast accumulations of matter can

be found all over the universe.

They are called nebulae.

These nebulae come

in many shapes and sizes,

and many of them are of stunning beauty.

For example, there is the Horsehead Nebula,

looking like a stallion

rising out of a pink mist.

And the Witch Head Nebula,

furiously staring into space

with eyes made of gigantic stars.

Or the Flame Nebula that resembles

an inferno towering for millions of miles.

We are now looking at the Carina Nebula.

Here, the gigantic star, Eta Carinae,

is the father of numerous baby stars.

Eta Carinae has a mass

100 times greater than our sun.

The star dust this nebula is made of

consists of crystals,

amorphous substances and molecular chains.

This matter is blown apart

by the radiating emissions of Eta Carinae.

The particles are

pushed away at different speeds,

depending on their density. The results are

chaotic shapes of fascinating beauty.

Many different patterns emerge,

with finger-like tubes being quite common.

Here is a famous example that has

been named the "Pillars of Creation".

Quite fittingly, because in each

of these fingertips, new stars are born.

The matter here is very dense,

compressed by solar radiation and gravity.

Eventually, the pressure gets so high,

it triggers an atomic explosion.

The new star has ignited.

Instantly, a massive eruption

of solar radiation occurs,

which develops into a shockwave.

In the Eagle Nebula, we can see

such a shockwave in the bright contour

at the top of the formation. This shockwave

acts like a battering ram that compresses

and ignites matter,

continuing the process of star birth.

In some cases,

the collected mass isn't big enough,

and the young sun fails to

keep a nuclear reaction running.

The result is a brown dwarf,

an astral body

in between a sun and a huge planet.

But if the ignition succeeds,

another chain reaction is triggered,

one that may ultimately lead

to the creation of life.

The gravity of the newborn sun sets

the matter around it in motion.

Nearby portions of the nebula are pulled in,

and begin to spiral around the sun.

A protoplanetary disc is formed.

As the matter whirls about,

a process of accretion begins.

This is an effect of zero gravity that

causes particles to cling together.

That way,

bigger masses of material start to form.

As these become larger,

they grow into asteroids.

Directed by the sun's

gravitational attraction,

the asteroids move

around at high speed.

They crash into each other repeatedly,

resulting in the formation

of even bigger masses of rock.

Eventually, some of them grow large enough

to have a significant gravitational pull,

and, therefore,

pick up more and more material.

Over time,

this process leads them to become planets.

Some of these planets even develop

an atmosphere by collecting particles of gas

floating through the surrounding space.

And our Earth was made the same way.

After a core had formed from materials

of our sun's protoplanetary disc,

the young Earth was constantly bombarded

by asteroids and other celestial bodies.

Back then, Earth was much closer to the sun,

and was very, very hot.

Its surface was made of

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