0 00:00:28,294 --> 00:00:32,663 For thousands of years, people have wondered about the universe 1 00:00:33,500 --> 00:00:37,061 Did it stretch out forever, or was there a limit? 2 00:00:37,470 --> 00:00:39,563 And where did it all come from 3 00:00:40,073 --> 00:00:45,670 Did the universe have a beginning, a moment of creation, as the church taught? 4 00:00:46,046 --> 00:00:51,040 Or had the universe existed forever, as many philosophers believed 5 00:00:51,584 --> 00:00:55,918 The debate between these two views raged for centuries 6 00:00:56,056 --> 00:00:58,581 without reaching any conclusions 7 00:00:59,192 --> 00:01:03,526 But while I was growing up, the debate was virtually settled 8 00:01:03,930 --> 00:01:06,899 One view of the universe prevailed 9 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:18,709 The story begins with a priest, a scientist and an astronomer 10 00:01:26,753 --> 00:01:30,086 We're at an altitude of just over a mile and 11 00:01:30,190 --> 00:01:34,217 there's cool air coming in from the ocean, on top of... 12 00:01:34,327 --> 00:01:37,455 a layer that's in Los Angles basin below 13 00:01:37,931 --> 00:01:40,331 So there's a pressure lid in the atmosphere... 14 00:01:40,433 --> 00:01:43,664 that keeps the warm air and the haze down below and 15 00:01:43,770 --> 00:01:46,933 keeps the smooth cool air flowing over the mountain top 16 00:01:54,214 --> 00:01:58,878 The images here are the crispest and sharpest in the North American Continent 17 00:02:02,789 --> 00:02:08,091 In 1917, a company which usually built battleships came to this mountain in... 18 00:02:08,194 --> 00:02:10,822 Los Angeles, to weld and rivet the largest and 19 00:02:10,930 --> 00:02:14,661 most optically perfect telescope the world had ever seen 20 00:02:18,037 --> 00:02:20,096 The observatory on top of Mount Wilson 21 00:02:20,340 --> 00:02:23,776 would give us a totally new view of the cosmos 22 00:02:35,822 --> 00:02:40,759 At the same time Albert Einstein unveiled his theory of general relativity, 23 00:02:41,261 --> 00:02:45,425 which seemed to be predicting a universe that couldn't stand still 24 00:02:46,299 --> 00:02:50,998 The models of the universe we build have to have the universe 25 00:02:51,104 --> 00:02:55,507 either expanding or contracting, they can't they can't be static 26 00:02:57,911 --> 00:02:59,469 But this disturbed Einstein 27 00:02:59,812 --> 00:03:06,445 His assumption that the universe was static was so strong he didn't see the... 28 00:03:06,553 --> 00:03:09,784 expansion or contraction of the universe as a prediction of the theory 29 00:03:09,923 --> 00:03:13,222 he just thought of it as a problem that had to be overcome 30 00:03:13,393 --> 00:03:15,327 by changing the theory in some way 31 00:03:16,930 --> 00:03:18,659 Einstein fudged the theory, 32 00:03:18,831 --> 00:03:23,029 by adding a guantity called the cosmological constant to allow 33 00:03:23,136 --> 00:03:26,333 the universe to remain of constant size 34 00:03:27,407 --> 00:03:29,671 But it wasn't long before his ideas were challenged by... 35 00:03:29,776 --> 00:03:34,270 others, including a Catholic priest, George Lemaitre 36 00:03:57,537 --> 00:03:59,937 Like Lemaitre, Father Michael Heller 37 00:04:00,039 --> 00:04:03,304 believes that science and religion go hand in hand 38 00:04:05,812 --> 00:04:09,942 There are two ways of making dialogue... between science and religion 39 00:04:10,049 --> 00:04:11,311 One is a direct dialogue, 40 00:04:11,417 --> 00:04:14,318 when theologians and scientists sit together and 41 00:04:14,420 --> 00:04:18,186 they try to speak to each other and usually it's a disaster 42 00:04:19,592 --> 00:04:22,356 But there is another way of making a dialogue... 43 00:04:22,462 --> 00:04:24,225 between science and religion, 44 00:04:24,664 --> 00:04:30,466 when for instance a priest or a religious man simply does science 45 00:04:35,908 --> 00:04:38,240 Over the centuries, the scientific work... 46 00:04:38,344 --> 00:04:43,179 ...carried out inside the church has had a profound influence on the outside world 47 00:04:54,761 --> 00:04:59,289 Father Heller has been called to Rome to attend a conference on cosmology 48 00:04:59,532 --> 00:05:02,000 at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences 49 00:05:03,670 --> 00:05:06,161 The Vatican established the Pontifical Academy 50 00:05:06,272 --> 00:05:09,105 to have uh scientific council to the pope 51 00:05:09,509 --> 00:05:17,575 I think it was an intention to engage the church into the dialogue with science 52 00:05:17,684 --> 00:05:24,214 and the best way of doing this dialogue is just doing science with the Vatican 53 00:05:32,398 --> 00:05:33,990 At the beginning of this century, 54 00:05:34,133 --> 00:05:36,124 the burning issue at the Academy 55 00:05:36,235 --> 00:05:39,329 was-how did the universe begin? 56 00:05:41,941 --> 00:05:45,843 One of the first with a scientific answer was George Lemaitre 57 00:05:46,412 --> 00:05:51,714 George Lemaitre was elected member... of this academy... 58 00:05:52,151 --> 00:05:56,110 He studied both theology and mathematics 59 00:05:56,222 --> 00:05:57,951 He was rather mathematician by training, 60 00:05:58,257 --> 00:06:02,387 but he got very very interested in uh Einstein's theory of relativity 61 00:06:14,507 --> 00:06:16,600 Lemaitre decided to challenge Einstein and 62 00:06:16,709 --> 00:06:18,939 most of the scientific community of the day 63 00:06:19,112 --> 00:06:21,342 with his own ideas of the creation 64 00:06:21,914 --> 00:06:26,374 He suggested, in a vivid description almost more poetic than scientific... 65 00:06:26,619 --> 00:06:30,282 that the universe did indeed have a precise moment of creation: 66 00:06:30,723 --> 00:06:34,784 And that everything expanded from a very dense primeval atom 67 00:06:35,895 --> 00:06:37,362 The evolution of the world... 68 00:06:37,497 --> 00:06:42,196 can be compared to a display of fireworks that just has ended 69 00:06:42,301 --> 00:06:48,831 Some few red, wisps ashes and smoke, standing on the well chilled cinders... 70 00:06:48,941 --> 00:06:51,307 ...we see the slow fading of the suns and 71 00:06:51,411 --> 00:06:55,780 we try to record the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds 72 00:07:01,053 --> 00:07:04,545 This cataclysmic beginning and expanding universe that 73 00:07:04,657 --> 00:07:09,151 Lemaitre proposed are what we now accept as the Big Bang 74 00:07:13,199 --> 00:07:19,104 But at the time, few scientists took the beginning of the universe seriously 75 00:07:27,847 --> 00:07:30,315 Lemaitre battled on with his ideas 76 00:07:30,583 --> 00:07:35,611 He even tackled Einstein face... to face, but Einstein wouldn't relent 77 00:07:36,589 --> 00:07:40,457 Einstein definitely rejected the model as something unpleasant and 78 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,893 he told Lemaitre that his physics was not very good 79 00:07:44,864 --> 00:07:49,358 Everyone assumed that the universe was static and Einstein was no exception 80 00:07:49,602 --> 00:07:53,265 So probably the idea that the universe was expanding 81 00:07:53,372 --> 00:07:57,468 was just simply not something he was prepared to consider 82 00:08:09,622 --> 00:08:14,650 It was clear that new observations were needed to settle the theoretical debate. 83 00:08:16,562 --> 00:08:21,659 The hundred inch telescope was the largest in the world when it was built in 1917, 84 00:08:21,934 --> 00:08:25,802 it drew observers here the people who could use the telescopes best 85 00:08:25,905 --> 00:08:30,171 to tickles out the details of how the cosmos operated 86 00:08:34,180 --> 00:08:37,479 The most famous observer was an American, Edwin Hubble 87 00:08:38,150 --> 00:08:39,583 His observations were destined 88 00:08:39,685 --> 00:08:43,052 to end the argument between Lemaitre and Einstein 89 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:49,824 Edwin Hubble came to Mount Wilson in the early... 90 00:08:49,929 --> 00:08:55,333 1920's and for his thesis he had made er a guess, 91 00:08:55,434 --> 00:08:58,494 which is unlike Hubble to have done, a speculation 92 00:08:58,771 --> 00:09:02,832 He thought that some of the faint wispy clouds that 93 00:09:02,942 --> 00:09:04,534 you could see in the night time sky, 94 00:09:04,644 --> 00:09:08,603 and these are clouds on the sky and not clouds in the earth's atmosphere, 95 00:09:08,848 --> 00:09:13,342 these nebulae as they're called er had a spiral shape, have a spiral shape, 96 00:09:13,553 --> 00:09:17,319 and he thought they might be external to our own galaxy 97 00:09:25,665 --> 00:09:29,567 What Hubble was suggesting must have seemed extraordinary at the time 98 00:09:31,370 --> 00:09:32,928 The bright clouds that could be seen 99 00:09:33,039 --> 00:09:37,499 in between the stars in the night sky might actually be other galaxies, 100 00:09:37,677 --> 00:09:39,577 far outside our own 101 00:09:42,181 --> 00:09:45,582 They were so far away that before the hundred inch telescope 102 00:09:45,751 --> 00:09:48,811 they had never appeared as more than wispy clouds 103 00:09:50,289 --> 00:09:53,122 Hubble aimed the telescope at one of these clouds and 104 00:09:53,225 --> 00:09:56,058 took the first ever detailed picture of it 105 00:09:57,396 --> 00:10:01,298 This was not easy. To track a cloud out in space, 106 00:10:01,467 --> 00:10:05,528 as the earth is turning, took great strength and endurance 107 00:10:06,172 --> 00:10:09,767 To take a photograph at the same time keeping thousands of stars 108 00:10:09,875 --> 00:10:13,276 in perfect registration was almost a miracle 109 00:10:21,487 --> 00:10:23,284 Some of the exposures are... 110 00:10:23,389 --> 00:10:26,916 thirty or forty hours, which means he did this for one night... 111 00:10:27,093 --> 00:10:29,926 left the plate in came back the next night and... 112 00:10:30,029 --> 00:10:33,089 re-opened the palate and began exposing again 113 00:10:35,001 --> 00:10:37,333 Hubble would be standing on this platform... 114 00:10:37,436 --> 00:10:40,928 all night long, guiding and guiding and guiding 115 00:10:52,652 --> 00:10:55,815 Hubble found that the faint clouds in the sky were indeed... 116 00:10:55,921 --> 00:11:01,120 galaxies outside our own. He developed this strikingly clear picture... 117 00:11:01,260 --> 00:11:03,888 of the Andromeda spiral galaxy. 118 00:11:06,165 --> 00:11:09,566 By meticulous measurements of... the brightness of individual stars 119 00:11:09,835 --> 00:11:12,998 Hubble could tell how... far away the galaxy was 120 00:11:16,575 --> 00:11:17,303 He found that our... 121 00:11:17,410 --> 00:11:21,779 nearest neighbouring galaxy was over a million light years away. 122 00:11:22,415 --> 00:11:27,079 So almost overnight he turned around our notion of the size of the universe 123 00:11:27,186 --> 00:11:30,246 He increased the volume by something like a factor of a thousand million... 124 00:11:30,489 --> 00:11:32,753 because now all these faint smudges of light 125 00:11:32,958 --> 00:11:36,359 were not interior to our small milky way galaxy, 126 00:11:36,562 --> 00:11:40,692 but were each individual galaxies holding a hundred billion stars or so 127 00:11:40,833 --> 00:11:42,095 So you increased the vastness, 128 00:11:42,201 --> 00:11:45,329 the size of the universe into this vast cosmos that 129 00:11:45,438 --> 00:11:48,669 we know today and also made our place simultaneously, 130 00:11:48,774 --> 00:11:51,140 made the universe large and own place very humble 131 00:11:56,415 --> 00:12:01,250 Once Hubble had identified the galaxies he took his research a step further 132 00:12:01,954 --> 00:12:06,618 By looking at the light from distant galaxies, he could tell they were moving 133 00:12:14,667 --> 00:12:18,068 Hubble looked at the galaxies and as he analysed the light... 134 00:12:18,170 --> 00:12:19,535 of the galaxies... 135 00:12:19,672 --> 00:12:23,506 within the light that he is looking at he could tell whether 136 00:12:23,609 --> 00:12:25,873 or not or how fast the galaxies are moving, 137 00:12:26,011 --> 00:12:28,445 towards or away from us and he found out that 138 00:12:28,547 --> 00:12:30,879 the more distant a galaxies was the faster 139 00:12:30,983 --> 00:12:33,611 it was moving away from us and this is Hubbles Law 140 00:12:37,523 --> 00:12:40,959 The fact that the galaxies were all moving away from us suggested that 141 00:12:41,060 --> 00:12:43,153 the universe was expanding 142 00:12:44,897 --> 00:12:48,355 But Hubble was cautious and didn't want to jump to conclusions 143 00:12:49,201 --> 00:12:51,396 Nor did Einstein want to believe that the universe was... 144 00:12:51,504 --> 00:12:54,530 expanding even though his theory said it should 145 00:13:00,379 --> 00:13:01,744 But when George Lemaitre heard of... 146 00:13:01,847 --> 00:13:06,147 Hubbles's discovery, he knew this was the proof he'd been waiting for 147 00:13:06,852 --> 00:13:10,253 In 1931, while Einstein was visiting Hubble, 148 00:13:10,456 --> 00:13:13,687 Lemaitre journeyed to California to confront them 149 00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:23,633 When science and observation come together, 150 00:13:23,803 --> 00:13:26,931 science often takes a great leap forward... 151 00:13:28,474 --> 00:13:33,173 The basis of modern cosmology was established at this meeting 152 00:13:35,581 --> 00:13:40,951 Looking back, I can recognise this as the foundations for my own work 153 00:13:55,401 --> 00:13:58,461 Lemaitre had to work through Einstein's theory, 154 00:13:58,604 --> 00:14:02,370 through the mathematics which are extraordinarily complex 155 00:14:04,043 --> 00:14:06,511 and after presenting this to Einstein and pressing and 156 00:14:06,612 --> 00:14:12,380 pressing his point and then having the evidence of Hubble there... 157 00:14:12,484 --> 00:14:17,319 to top this all off Einstein was beginning to be... 158 00:14:17,423 --> 00:14:20,881 convinced of the evidence for the expansion. He... 159 00:14:20,993 --> 00:14:25,453 begins to realise as Lemaitre presses his point that he had made a... 160 00:14:25,564 --> 00:14:27,361 great blunder, that is putting 161 00:14:27,466 --> 00:14:31,664 in this cosmological constant to offset the natural expansion... 162 00:14:31,770 --> 00:14:33,863 that falls out of his theories 163 00:14:35,641 --> 00:14:38,974 Einstein rose at the end of the meeting and said 164 00:14:39,111 --> 00:14:41,807 this is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen 165 00:14:44,149 --> 00:14:45,116 From then on... 166 00:14:45,284 --> 00:14:47,844 Einstein called the cosmological constant, 167 00:14:48,087 --> 00:14:50,453 the 'biggest blunder' of his... life 168 00:14:53,626 --> 00:14:58,654 Hubbles' work, Lemaitre and Einstein I think make up the big bang of cosmology, 169 00:14:58,764 --> 00:15:01,096 that is this is the origins of modern cosmology 170 00:15:01,300 --> 00:15:04,963 Hubbles work started it off first by investigating 171 00:15:05,070 --> 00:15:08,005 what these nebula were and then seeing this motion, 172 00:15:08,173 --> 00:15:11,301 this large scale motion of the universe the expansion, 173 00:15:11,543 --> 00:15:13,977 how that linked to Einstein's theory, 174 00:15:14,246 --> 00:15:16,840 showing that the universe had a beginning in time and 175 00:15:16,949 --> 00:15:23,047 space some billions years ago and this is where cosmology has risen from 176 00:15:25,491 --> 00:15:29,086 I was fascinated by the expansion of the universe 177 00:15:30,129 --> 00:15:32,620 when I heard of it as a boy at school 178 00:15:34,566 --> 00:15:37,057 But many scientists didn't like the idea 179 00:15:37,169 --> 00:15:41,299 that the universe had a beginning, a moment of creation 180 00:15:53,752 --> 00:15:54,719 The BBC presents... 181 00:15:54,820 --> 00:15:56,845 the nature of the universe. 182 00:15:57,556 --> 00:15:58,989 The speaker is Fred Hoyle, 183 00:15:59,191 --> 00:16:01,989 a Cambridge mathematician and Fellow of St. John's College. 184 00:16:02,828 --> 00:16:06,559 In this talk he discusses the theory of continuous creation. 185 00:16:07,399 --> 00:16:08,388 Mr. Hoyle. 186 00:16:10,836 --> 00:16:13,396 Perhaps like me you grew up with the notion that 187 00:16:13,505 --> 00:16:16,963 the whole of the matter in the universe was created in one big... 188 00:16:17,076 --> 00:16:21,240 bang at a particular time in the remote past. What I'm now... 189 00:16:21,347 --> 00:16:23,440 going to tell you is that this is wrong 190 00:16:33,058 --> 00:16:35,925 Fred Hoyle's attack contradicted Lemaitre, 191 00:16:36,028 --> 00:16:39,464 Einstein and all the supporters of the Big Bang 192 00:16:43,335 --> 00:16:45,929 Dennis Sciama now lives and teaches in Italy, 193 00:16:46,105 --> 00:16:49,973 but as a young graduate in Cambridge, he remembers being swept along... 194 00:16:50,075 --> 00:16:52,407 by the ideas of Hoyle and his colleagues 195 00:16:52,878 --> 00:16:56,109 Like many young cosmologists Sciama preferred Hoyle's... 196 00:16:56,215 --> 00:17:00,117 Steady State universe to one that started with a Big Bang. 197 00:17:03,022 --> 00:17:04,250 You've got to remember that at the time 198 00:17:04,356 --> 00:17:06,916 there were not many people working in cosmology; 199 00:17:07,092 --> 00:17:12,325 so one or two rebellious characters could make a very big impact on the subject 200 00:17:13,632 --> 00:17:16,396 Now this Big Bang idea seemed to me... 201 00:17:16,502 --> 00:17:20,404 to be unsatisfactory even before details examination, 202 00:17:20,572 --> 00:17:22,233 for its irrational process that... 203 00:17:22,341 --> 00:17:24,741 can't be described in scientific terms 204 00:17:26,111 --> 00:17:27,601 So in... 1948 205 00:17:28,213 --> 00:17:32,149 they proposed the famous steady state theory which... 206 00:17:32,251 --> 00:17:37,848 was a contradiction to the Big Bang; accepting the universe was expanding, 207 00:17:38,090 --> 00:17:42,083 but supposing that as the galaxies move away from one another, 208 00:17:42,461 --> 00:17:46,659 new matter was created between the galaxies continuously on this idea 209 00:17:47,733 --> 00:17:51,362 As the universe expands, everything should spread out 210 00:17:51,703 --> 00:17:54,171 It should become less densely packed 211 00:17:54,673 --> 00:17:57,233 So new matter had to materialise somehow, 212 00:17:57,476 --> 00:18:02,743 to keep the overall density of the universe in an everlasting steady state 213 00:18:04,917 --> 00:18:06,544 If you go backwards in time 214 00:18:06,718 --> 00:18:10,051 there's no increase of density and therefore no Big Bang 215 00:18:10,255 --> 00:18:14,692 So you have this rather grand picture of a universe which is expanding 216 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:19,363 but which stays the same in it's overall properties for all time 217 00:18:22,134 --> 00:18:23,829 I personally liked the theory 218 00:18:23,936 --> 00:18:27,064 because I thought it had a grand architectural sweep 219 00:18:27,439 --> 00:18:30,738 It just seemed so grand to have a universe that... 220 00:18:30,843 --> 00:18:33,607 didn't change in its large scale structure ever, 221 00:18:33,779 --> 00:18:36,441 and had no awkward... initial moment 222 00:18:42,921 --> 00:18:46,322 But one thing the Steady State theory didn't have was an answer to 223 00:18:46,425 --> 00:18:49,451 where all the matter in the universe could have formed 224 00:18:55,968 --> 00:18:57,595 Supporters of the Big Bang seemed to 225 00:18:57,703 --> 00:19:00,331 have the best explanation of where matte was made 226 00:19:00,606 --> 00:19:04,770 To them, everything was created... in a hot Big Bang 227 00:19:07,713 --> 00:19:12,776 Fred Hoyle developed this idea that we wanted to do without the hot Big Bang 228 00:19:13,585 --> 00:19:17,351 The guestion was where to make... the heavy elements 229 00:19:19,725 --> 00:19:22,717 Hoyle had to find places in the universe 230 00:19:22,828 --> 00:19:27,527 which were hot enough for the nuclear reactions make the elements we now see 231 00:19:38,243 --> 00:19:42,179 The earth and everything on it are formed from combinations of less than... 232 00:19:42,281 --> 00:19:46,513 a hundred basic elements. But where did they all come from? 233 00:19:52,357 --> 00:19:56,157 Geologist Chris Halls is fascinated by this guestion 234 00:19:57,095 --> 00:20:00,826 To learn the geology of a place he uses traditional panning technigues... 235 00:20:00,933 --> 00:20:05,165 to sift out key elements including heavy metals... like gold 236 00:20:05,971 --> 00:20:11,136 The heaviest elements don't dissolve, they seem to survive anything on earth 237 00:20:13,245 --> 00:20:17,443 Gold isn't subject to chemical break down in the atmosphere... 238 00:20:17,583 --> 00:20:23,715 and once you have gold accumulating in a river it's likely to stay there 239 00:20:25,390 --> 00:20:29,019 One suspects of course that... are so durable 240 00:20:29,127 --> 00:20:33,257 must themselves have had their origin in some place 241 00:20:33,599 --> 00:20:37,467 of very intense physical conditions 242 00:20:41,306 --> 00:20:46,437 There is nowhere on Earth with conditions extreme enough to form the elements... 243 00:20:48,447 --> 00:20:52,816 The steady state school had to prove that the Big Bang wasn't responsible... 244 00:20:53,185 --> 00:20:55,653 So they looked to the stars 245 00:20:57,623 --> 00:20:58,885 The great achievement, 246 00:20:59,358 --> 00:21:03,226 in terms of understanding the origin of the elements, came from... 247 00:21:03,428 --> 00:21:08,559 the theoretical work done by the astronomers of the steady state school 248 00:21:09,301 --> 00:21:13,135 and they were able to demonstrate what was possible in terms of 249 00:21:13,238 --> 00:21:19,404 putting elements together to synthesise new and heavier elements in stars 250 00:21:33,025 --> 00:21:36,756 The steady state supporters argued that stars are born 251 00:21:36,895 --> 00:21:40,422 when gravity starts to pull clouds of hydrogen closer together 252 00:21:41,233 --> 00:21:42,860 They thought that as the pressure 253 00:21:42,968 --> 00:21:47,871 builds up some of the hydrogen atoms would fuse into atoms of helium 254 00:21:51,009 --> 00:21:55,207 As conditions inside the star became more intense helium atoms 255 00:21:55,314 --> 00:22:00,047 would in turn fuse into the larger elements like oxygen then carbon and 256 00:22:00,152 --> 00:22:02,848 so on - unitl iron was been formed 257 00:22:03,889 --> 00:22:08,485 Their calculations suggested that at this point the fusion would stop 258 00:22:09,728 --> 00:22:11,821 Small stars would then simply cool and 259 00:22:11,930 --> 00:22:17,163 gently fade away whilst large stars would suffer a more violent death 260 00:22:17,736 --> 00:22:19,795 A really massive star would collapse 261 00:22:19,905 --> 00:22:25,343 in on itself creating a searing hot explosion called a supernova 262 00:22:31,750 --> 00:22:36,084 This supernova triggers the fusion of all the elements heavier than iron 263 00:22:36,421 --> 00:22:39,652 and blows them for billions of miles across space 264 00:22:40,292 --> 00:22:44,422 They wander right across the universe as dust until they mingle with 265 00:22:44,529 --> 00:22:48,556 other dust clouds where gravity starts to form new stars, 266 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:51,928 planets and eventually life 267 00:23:00,245 --> 00:23:02,543 The steady state... 268 00:23:02,647 --> 00:23:06,879 theorists proceeded to build up stage by stage... 269 00:23:07,185 --> 00:23:11,087 a logical explanation of how... 270 00:23:11,189 --> 00:23:14,317 of how these elements could originate successively, 271 00:23:14,426 --> 00:23:18,385 by synthesis in the stars, but the problem was that 272 00:23:18,497 --> 00:23:22,797 they had to find the fundamental fuel to start the process itself 273 00:23:23,034 --> 00:23:24,729 and of course that fuel is hydrogen, 274 00:23:24,970 --> 00:23:30,966 and the million dollar guestion is where did the hydrogen come from 275 00:23:38,016 --> 00:23:42,385 Fred Hoyle thought that hydrogen would somehow be created continuously 276 00:23:42,487 --> 00:23:48,653 throughout space. But that needed a new law of physics to make it possible 277 00:23:51,229 --> 00:23:52,662 And there was far more helium... 278 00:23:52,764 --> 00:23:55,597 being detected in space than could possibly have come 279 00:23:55,700 --> 00:23:58,635 from the fusion of hydrogen in stars 280 00:24:00,305 --> 00:24:02,364 The one obvious answer was that 281 00:24:02,474 --> 00:24:07,605 the Big Bang explosion would have made both hydrogen and helium 282 00:24:08,747 --> 00:24:11,716 That was the last thing that Hoyle wanted to contemplate 283 00:24:12,751 --> 00:24:14,946 He did not give up easily 284 00:24:15,620 --> 00:24:19,056 Fred Hoyle said that if there had been a Big Bang 285 00:24:19,291 --> 00:24:24,627 there should be a trace of that event, preserved for us in the universe, 286 00:24:24,729 --> 00:24:26,754 a kind of fossil radiation 287 00:24:27,332 --> 00:24:31,826 And this is exactly what the Big Bang theorists went out to look for 288 00:24:35,373 --> 00:24:38,638 If our universe started from a great explosion... 289 00:24:38,810 --> 00:24:42,678 it would have been so intensely hot that, even today, 290 00:24:42,814 --> 00:24:47,774 some faint remnant of that heat should be travelling throughout space 291 00:24:48,587 --> 00:24:51,852 As a research student working for a doctorate, 292 00:24:52,057 --> 00:24:54,821 I realised how significant it would be 293 00:24:54,993 --> 00:25:00,625 if the radiation could still be detected, some fifteen billion years later 294 00:25:01,233 --> 00:25:06,296 By now, it would have cooled to almost the lowest temperature possible, 295 00:25:06,471 --> 00:25:10,237 minus two hundred and seventy three degrees centigrade 296 00:25:13,845 --> 00:25:16,643 In 1964, Professor Bob Dicke, 297 00:25:16,748 --> 00:25:20,275 at Princeton University thought of a way for his students 298 00:25:20,452 --> 00:25:23,819 to detect the radiation from the Big Bang 299 00:25:28,059 --> 00:25:29,890 One afternoon he came in and he was, 300 00:25:30,128 --> 00:25:32,392 seemed particularly excited about something 301 00:25:33,398 --> 00:25:37,960 He started outlining this idea about proving that there's a Big Bang 302 00:25:38,803 --> 00:25:39,929 Well of course at that time... 303 00:25:40,038 --> 00:25:42,700 Big Bang was very controversial... 304 00:25:42,841 --> 00:25:45,469 Not everybody believed it by a long shot. The steady state... 305 00:25:45,577 --> 00:25:47,044 theory was very popular 306 00:25:48,179 --> 00:25:51,114 But one thing the Big Bang would predict 307 00:25:51,483 --> 00:25:56,216 if there were a Big Bang is there must have been some heat radiation in it 308 00:25:58,757 --> 00:26:02,557 Thought it was a long shot, a kind of a risk, such a radical idea, 309 00:26:03,161 --> 00:26:06,460 but it looked like it was possible to do an experiment and check it out 310 00:26:06,631 --> 00:26:10,658 And it wasn't going to take a lot of time and I didn't have anything else to do 311 00:26:11,136 --> 00:26:15,163 So I decided to pitch in and help on the experimental side 312 00:26:16,074 --> 00:26:18,201 David Wilkinson, then a twenty eight year... 313 00:26:18,310 --> 00:26:20,642 old student, helped set up the eguipment... 314 00:26:20,745 --> 00:26:23,077 to look for... evidence of the Big Bang 315 00:26:27,919 --> 00:26:32,618 You have to imagine that we are embedded in this explosion 316 00:26:33,091 --> 00:26:38,859 So if you're thinking of an explosion erm say a bomb going off and 317 00:26:38,964 --> 00:26:43,628 you see this great fire ball, er we're actually inside that fire ball 318 00:26:53,078 --> 00:26:54,773 So the radiation is coming from all directions, 319 00:26:54,879 --> 00:26:58,337 we're outside looking at it and having it go by us, 320 00:26:58,516 --> 00:27:02,543 we're embedded inside so we see the same thing looking all around 321 00:27:11,463 --> 00:27:13,897 To search for the Big Bang radiation, 322 00:27:14,132 --> 00:27:17,568 the team designed this directional horn antenna and 323 00:27:17,669 --> 00:27:20,797 hauled it onto the roof of Princeton University 324 00:27:26,945 --> 00:27:30,540 Back in 1965, as David Wilkinson and his colleagues 325 00:27:30,649 --> 00:27:35,348 were fine tuning their eguipment events took an unexpected... turn 326 00:27:43,762 --> 00:27:47,198 Bob Wilson had just started work at Bell Laboratories 327 00:27:47,766 --> 00:27:49,529 Trained as a radio astronomer, 328 00:27:49,768 --> 00:27:53,101 he had been head hunted by the company's research... department 329 00:27:54,673 --> 00:27:56,834 They wondered if he might be able to find a new use 330 00:27:56,941 --> 00:27:59,705 for their special horn shaped antenna originally... 331 00:27:59,811 --> 00:28:03,542 built to receive the first satellite radio transmissions 332 00:28:09,654 --> 00:28:12,953 When we were given control of the horn reflector 333 00:28:13,324 --> 00:28:16,657 we saw something which we hoped not to see 334 00:28:16,928 --> 00:28:22,264 That is there was more noise coming out of the horn than we expected 335 00:28:23,034 --> 00:28:26,435 We expected a little bit from the earth's atmosphere, 336 00:28:26,571 --> 00:28:29,631 an even smaller amount from the walls of the horn itself, 337 00:28:30,041 --> 00:28:35,638 and then we thought space would be at essentially zero, so that should be it 338 00:28:39,184 --> 00:28:41,846 Wherever they pointed the huge horn detector, 339 00:28:42,220 --> 00:28:44,552 there was a constant annoying hiss 340 00:28:45,223 --> 00:28:50,422 This radio noise didn't stop, even if the antenna was pointed at empty space 341 00:28:55,433 --> 00:28:59,767 We worried as we were living on a... hill that overlooks New York city, 342 00:29:00,004 --> 00:29:02,905 not the typical place that a radio astronomer would go, 343 00:29:03,508 --> 00:29:07,205 so, but we have a very measuring instrument, 344 00:29:07,345 --> 00:29:09,336 so we turned our horn reflector down and 345 00:29:09,447 --> 00:29:12,780 looked at New York city and there was nothing unusual from there 346 00:29:12,984 --> 00:29:15,418 New York city doesn't radiate at those freguencies 347 00:29:16,387 --> 00:29:19,515 So, um you know, sort of one by one 348 00:29:19,624 --> 00:29:24,584 we eliminated sources of excess noise that we could think of, 349 00:29:25,163 --> 00:29:26,858 we still believed in physics 350 00:29:27,332 --> 00:29:30,199 What came out had to come from somewhere 351 00:29:40,478 --> 00:29:43,538 They wondered if the hiss wasn't coming from space at all 352 00:29:44,282 --> 00:29:47,718 They looked to see if there wasn't a problem with the horn itself 353 00:29:49,554 --> 00:29:52,614 The most obvious was that there was a pair of pigeons living in it 354 00:29:53,191 --> 00:29:56,991 and er whenever we weren't using it, which was most of the time, 355 00:29:57,128 --> 00:30:00,154 they would climb up near the cab and roost there and of course 356 00:30:00,265 --> 00:30:02,790 they covered it with white pigeon droppings the same 357 00:30:02,901 --> 00:30:09,067 as they do all sorts of things in cities and we knew that could well have an effect 358 00:30:10,508 --> 00:30:14,945 So Bob Wilson and his team of highly gualified radio astronomers spent... 359 00:30:15,046 --> 00:30:18,106 two weeks cleaning pigeon droppings from the horn 360 00:30:20,485 --> 00:30:22,282 Eventually the birds were trapped and 361 00:30:22,387 --> 00:30:27,916 sent by internal company mail to Whipeny, the furthest outpost of Bell Labs 362 00:30:28,593 --> 00:30:31,289 But these were homing pigeons 363 00:30:32,931 --> 00:30:36,025 Well a couple of days later the same pigeons back 364 00:30:37,202 --> 00:30:42,469 Um, later on our technician brought in a shot gun and... 365 00:30:44,209 --> 00:30:45,836 But the pigeons were innocent 366 00:30:55,486 --> 00:30:58,046 The radio noise continued and the team spent... 367 00:30:58,156 --> 00:31:00,624 the next year checking... their eguipment 368 00:31:04,562 --> 00:31:07,725 In the spring of 1965, in desperation... 369 00:31:07,932 --> 00:31:10,162 they phoned Princeton University for help... 370 00:31:11,536 --> 00:31:14,130 The call was put through to Bob Dicke 371 00:31:14,706 --> 00:31:18,142 We were in Bob Dicke's office and er the telephone rang 372 00:31:18,243 --> 00:31:20,734 and we heard him say something about horn antenna 373 00:31:20,945 --> 00:31:24,039 So then we perked right up because it was pretty clear that 374 00:31:24,148 --> 00:31:28,084 he was talking to some one who had the eguipment that we were building 375 00:31:30,889 --> 00:31:35,588 This turned up to be Arno Penzias and Bob Wilson from Bell Labs, 376 00:31:35,693 --> 00:31:37,320 only thirty five miles away 377 00:31:37,762 --> 00:31:42,961 And Bob hung up the phone and I'll never forget exactly what he said 378 00:31:44,102 --> 00:31:47,037 His precise words were "Well boys we've been scooped" 379 00:31:51,209 --> 00:31:54,178 They gathered their data and drove over to Bell Labs 380 00:31:54,279 --> 00:31:57,305 to experience this radio hiss for themselves 381 00:31:59,851 --> 00:32:02,217 When David Wilkinson saw their eguipment and 382 00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:04,652 their meticulous records he knew that 383 00:32:04,756 --> 00:32:08,988 his team had been beaten to the discovery of the left over radiation... 384 00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:10,559 from the Big Bang 385 00:32:19,137 --> 00:32:23,870 I personally was only giving it about a fifty fifty chance of working anyway, 386 00:32:24,142 --> 00:32:26,576 and then when we found out yes indeed 387 00:32:26,678 --> 00:32:29,306 there was the radiation coming from space that 388 00:32:29,414 --> 00:32:34,215 might be coming from the Big Bang, ah that of course was very exciting 389 00:32:34,319 --> 00:32:38,881 This was a paradigm shift in in cosmology research and 390 00:32:39,023 --> 00:32:41,116 it would have been nice to be the first to see it 391 00:32:49,701 --> 00:32:52,727 The discovery of the background radiation... 392 00:32:53,338 --> 00:32:57,502 along with a number of other things that were coming up at the same time 393 00:32:57,942 --> 00:33:02,003 really drove the final nail in the coffin of the steady state theory 394 00:33:02,380 --> 00:33:05,577 I think it would be very hard to support the, 395 00:33:05,950 --> 00:33:08,748 or to understand the source of the background radiation 396 00:33:08,853 --> 00:33:10,411 in the steady state universe 397 00:33:11,889 --> 00:33:15,154 It seemed this was concrete proof of the Big Bang 398 00:33:15,593 --> 00:33:18,721 Lemaitre, whose primeval atom had started it all, 399 00:33:19,030 --> 00:33:22,727 apparently heard of the discovery just days before he died 400 00:33:23,568 --> 00:33:25,399 Much later in 1978... 401 00:33:25,603 --> 00:33:29,733 Penzias and Wilson received the ultimate accolade in science 402 00:33:30,441 --> 00:33:35,071 It was thirteen years or something before we received the Nobel prize... for it 403 00:33:36,147 --> 00:33:38,547 The Nobel prize is given for discoveries 404 00:33:38,816 --> 00:33:42,752 It's not given for being the best physicist or the best scientist, 405 00:33:42,854 --> 00:33:47,120 it's given for discovering things that are interesting or useful to mankind 406 00:33:47,759 --> 00:33:52,128 I still have a hard time putting myself in the same category as Einstein, 407 00:33:52,697 --> 00:33:58,294 but er I do realise that this was an important discovery and 408 00:33:58,403 --> 00:34:03,636 uh feel that I was very lucky to be in the right place when that happened 409 00:34:03,908 --> 00:34:07,071 and I have enjoyed the results from it 410 00:34:17,622 --> 00:34:23,060 The background radiation was discovered while I was finishing my doctorate 411 00:34:25,430 --> 00:34:31,096 Here at last was observational evidence that could confirm my work 412 00:34:38,309 --> 00:34:40,971 I had gone to Cambridge university 413 00:34:41,145 --> 00:34:44,876 because I had wanted to work with Hoyle on cosmology, 414 00:34:45,049 --> 00:34:47,347 and the expansion of the universe 415 00:34:48,219 --> 00:34:53,020 But luckily for me, I didn't get the supervisor I wanted 416 00:34:57,862 --> 00:34:59,887 When Stephen came to Cambridge... 417 00:35:00,131 --> 00:35:02,190 he was hoping to work with Fred Hoyle, 418 00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:05,665 but Hoyle was not taking new students at that time and 419 00:35:05,770 --> 00:35:10,298 I was the only other person in the department able to supervise students 420 00:35:10,408 --> 00:35:13,673 in cosmology which is what Stephen wanted to work on 421 00:35:13,778 --> 00:35:19,580 So I became his supervisor and we talked together about various projects 422 00:35:22,286 --> 00:35:24,777 I had made a bad start at Cambridge 423 00:35:26,023 --> 00:35:31,359 I had just been diagnosed with ALS or motor neurone disease, and... 424 00:35:31,462 --> 00:35:36,126 didn't know if I would live long enough to finish my doctorate 425 00:35:36,601 --> 00:35:41,163 And I was having difficulty finding a problem for my thesis 426 00:35:47,178 --> 00:35:49,612 To be awarded a PhD you have to... 427 00:35:49,714 --> 00:35:54,447 write a thesis which contains a substantial original contribution 428 00:35:54,552 --> 00:35:58,511 to knowledge and that's a very heavy reguirement and 429 00:35:58,623 --> 00:36:01,649 it is very unnatural in a way because you are supposed 430 00:36:01,759 --> 00:36:04,956 to produce this particular substantial original contribution 431 00:36:05,062 --> 00:36:07,587 of knowledge in a given three year period... 432 00:36:09,534 --> 00:36:14,801 And so you're forced a bit artificially to produce this significant result in... 433 00:36:14,906 --> 00:36:16,669 a given time scale 434 00:36:18,543 --> 00:36:20,841 In Stephen's particular case er his 435 00:36:20,945 --> 00:36:23,675 first couple of years were a bit slow 436 00:36:23,781 --> 00:36:24,577 because cosmology... 437 00:36:24,682 --> 00:36:30,814 ...was fallow at that time and he couldn't find a really good problem and 438 00:36:30,922 --> 00:36:32,617 I couldn't find one for him 439 00:36:39,063 --> 00:36:40,587 Time was running out 440 00:36:45,303 --> 00:36:49,364 There was less than a year left when a suitable project was finally found 441 00:36:56,914 --> 00:36:58,609 It involved developing a theory 442 00:36:58,716 --> 00:37:01,879 to describe the starting conditions for the Big Bang 443 00:37:05,990 --> 00:37:08,015 The inspiration was the work on stars... 444 00:37:08,226 --> 00:37:10,091 done by Roger Penrose 445 00:37:12,330 --> 00:37:15,356 Well Roger Penrose was by that time a good friend of mine 446 00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:17,961 and he was working on a problem 447 00:37:18,269 --> 00:37:22,103 which lead to a remarkable discovery of his, 448 00:37:22,373 --> 00:37:27,037 which I suppose was the most important contribution to relativity 449 00:37:27,178 --> 00:37:31,012 since the very early days of the theory, around 1916 or so 450 00:37:31,415 --> 00:37:34,612 The issue involved not the whole universe, 451 00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:38,314 that was Stephen's later contribution, but a star 452 00:37:41,726 --> 00:37:45,287 Roger Penrose proved that when the biggest stars collapse 453 00:37:45,396 --> 00:37:48,194 they end up crushed into a black hole 454 00:37:51,435 --> 00:37:57,203 Inside which has to be an infinitely dense point called a singularity 455 00:37:57,775 --> 00:38:02,474 Something as tiny and dense as the early universe must have been 456 00:38:05,349 --> 00:38:06,748 Stephen said to me, 457 00:38:07,051 --> 00:38:13,320 "But look he said we can adapt er Roger's argument to the whole universe 458 00:38:13,424 --> 00:38:16,325 In a certain sense the whole universe is like a big star, 459 00:38:16,527 --> 00:38:18,051 of course the universe is expanding, 460 00:38:18,262 --> 00:38:21,163 but if in your mind you reverse the sense of time 461 00:38:21,365 --> 00:38:23,128 then the universe is collapsing 462 00:38:23,234 --> 00:38:26,226 It's a bit like a collapsing star, a very large star, 463 00:38:26,737 --> 00:38:29,262 perhaps you can prove that in that 464 00:38:29,373 --> 00:38:32,399 collapse you again must... ...achieve a singularity 465 00:38:32,943 --> 00:38:35,468 So going back to the ordinary direction of time 466 00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:36,612 it would mean that 467 00:38:36,714 --> 00:38:40,514 the Big Bang origin of the universe would have to be singular 468 00:38:42,420 --> 00:38:43,819 Should I work on that?" 469 00:38:44,422 --> 00:38:47,323 So I said that sounds like a very good problem Stephen, 470 00:38:47,658 --> 00:38:50,559 yes I think because that would be a very great discovery 471 00:38:50,828 --> 00:38:53,524 So he went away and in his last year 472 00:38:53,764 --> 00:38:56,995 he proved his first singularity theorem for the universe that 473 00:38:57,101 --> 00:38:59,934 on the basis of certain very reasonable assumptions 474 00:39:00,104 --> 00:39:02,538 the Big Bang had to be singular 475 00:39:05,743 --> 00:39:12,171 I was awarded my PhD for showing that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity 476 00:39:12,350 --> 00:39:16,116 implied that the universe must have begun with a Big Bang 477 00:39:18,155 --> 00:39:19,179 It couldn't have... 478 00:39:19,290 --> 00:39:23,386 collapsed, bounced, and then expanded again 479 00:39:25,963 --> 00:39:32,391 From Lemaitre's primeval atom to my own work had taken only a few decades 480 00:39:34,238 --> 00:39:38,334 The case for the Big Bang... was now almost complete 481 00:39:49,186 --> 00:39:51,711 But there was till one major problem. 482 00:39:55,860 --> 00:39:58,158 To account for the formation of galaxies, 483 00:39:58,362 --> 00:40:01,889 the early universe couldn't have been completely uniform. 484 00:40:05,202 --> 00:40:10,139 The radiation Penzias and Wilson had detected should somehow reflected this... 485 00:40:10,841 --> 00:40:13,935 but it seemed to be the same in every direction 486 00:40:20,785 --> 00:40:21,581 For the Big Bang to be... 487 00:40:21,685 --> 00:40:24,711 right the radiation coming in different directions... 488 00:40:24,955 --> 00:40:29,358 had to be slightly different and this had not been observed 489 00:40:53,717 --> 00:40:58,051 In California, a cosmologist called George Smoot realised 490 00:40:58,155 --> 00:41:00,350 there was a huge challenge beckoning... 491 00:41:05,596 --> 00:41:08,326 He began a lifelong guest to find hot and... 492 00:41:08,432 --> 00:41:10,559 cold temperature variations in the early... 493 00:41:10,668 --> 00:41:13,728 universe-tiny imperfections that... 494 00:41:13,838 --> 00:41:16,568 would mark the starting points of galaxies 495 00:41:19,677 --> 00:41:20,803 For the Big Bang to be right... 496 00:41:20,978 --> 00:41:24,311 we had to look out and we had to see these imperfections that 497 00:41:24,415 --> 00:41:27,179 tell us how the universe formed and started expanding and 498 00:41:27,284 --> 00:41:32,517 also what were going to be seeds for the large structure that we see, 499 00:41:32,623 --> 00:41:34,750 that is the stars and the galaxies and the clusters of galaxies, 500 00:41:34,925 --> 00:41:36,517 all of these things had to be there 501 00:41:51,609 --> 00:41:52,871 When you start out you think, 502 00:41:53,010 --> 00:41:55,478 well we should discover it pretty easily right away, you know, 503 00:41:55,579 --> 00:41:58,514 we'll point our antenna up here and see what the temperature is and 504 00:41:58,616 --> 00:42:00,379 we'll point it over in this direction and see what the temperature is, 505 00:42:00,484 --> 00:42:01,451 we'll point it over and we'll compare... 506 00:42:01,552 --> 00:42:02,951 and see if we can see the variations 507 00:42:03,654 --> 00:42:04,746 When you start to realise that 508 00:42:04,855 --> 00:42:06,482 those imperfections are going to be a part in a thousand, 509 00:42:06,590 --> 00:42:07,921 a part in a hundred thousand... 510 00:42:08,092 --> 00:42:10,253 it becomes a very great experimental challenge 511 00:42:12,363 --> 00:42:14,627 Using directional horns like the one built 512 00:42:14,732 --> 00:42:16,666 by the team from Princeton George 513 00:42:16,767 --> 00:42:19,759 Smoot began a series of experiments... 514 00:42:20,771 --> 00:42:24,969 His intent was to make a detailed map of the big bang radiation showing up 515 00:42:25,075 --> 00:42:27,873 the cold spots where galaxies formed... 516 00:42:30,214 --> 00:42:33,581 It seemed essential to get his sensitive eguipment 517 00:42:33,784 --> 00:42:39,381 out of the Earth's atmosphere First they tried helium filled balloons, 518 00:42:39,690 --> 00:42:40,520 but these were 519 00:42:40,624 --> 00:42:43,320 very unreliable and kept getting... lost 520 00:42:47,231 --> 00:42:50,132 U2 planes looked like they'd offer better control 521 00:42:50,267 --> 00:42:52,758 but the pilots couldn't stay up long enough 522 00:42:55,172 --> 00:42:55,934 From the beginning... 523 00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:58,099 it was clear to me that if only we could get in space that 524 00:42:58,208 --> 00:42:59,334 was the right way to do it 525 00:42:59,476 --> 00:43:01,876 And what I really had to do was to wait for a opportunity, 526 00:43:01,979 --> 00:43:06,279 wait for a chance for NASA to say all right we are looking for new ideas 527 00:43:06,383 --> 00:43:08,647 for experiments for satellites that could go into space 528 00:43:09,186 --> 00:43:11,586 After years of waiting NASA... 529 00:43:11,689 --> 00:43:15,420 gave George his opportunity with the first ever cosmological satellite... 530 00:43:15,526 --> 00:43:16,823 ...called COBE 531 00:43:17,895 --> 00:43:22,264 Finally in 1989 they scheduled us for a dawn launch and it was windy and... 532 00:43:22,366 --> 00:43:24,266 you know, you knew too much if you were on the team, 533 00:43:24,501 --> 00:43:25,968 you knew too much that it might go, it might not go, 534 00:43:26,070 --> 00:43:27,594 and there was this problem and that problem 535 00:43:27,705 --> 00:43:29,798 We had a problem with the guidance on the second stage test and 536 00:43:29,907 --> 00:43:32,432 the test and you know there all these things to be concerned about 537 00:43:33,744 --> 00:43:35,336 And then it became time for the launch and 538 00:43:35,446 --> 00:43:37,607 we had only a few minutes left on the window and it was OK 539 00:43:51,895 --> 00:43:53,920 You saw suddenly a second sun 540 00:43:54,131 --> 00:43:56,622 which was the fire out of the rocket coming out and... 541 00:43:56,734 --> 00:43:59,032 I was going what's the matter, I don't hear any sound, 542 00:43:59,136 --> 00:44:00,068 I don't hear any sound and 543 00:44:00,170 --> 00:44:02,934 then I realised you know light goes faster than sound and 544 00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:04,632 then suddenly your chest is shaking you know 545 00:44:04,742 --> 00:44:06,300 it's like your being hit at a rock concert, 546 00:44:06,410 --> 00:44:09,902 your standing at the speakers of a rock concert just being vibrated like this 547 00:44:10,014 --> 00:44:13,711 and this thing lifts off really majestically and goes up and 548 00:44:13,817 --> 00:44:17,309 it's just spectacular thing you know and you're going you know, 549 00:44:17,554 --> 00:44:19,385 everything is crossed, and you're going please make it up, 550 00:44:19,490 --> 00:44:21,253 please make it up, right 551 00:44:25,195 --> 00:44:30,997 The COBE satellite was a fantastic success. The results were unprecedented 552 00:44:33,203 --> 00:44:34,363 At the end of that first day... 553 00:44:34,605 --> 00:44:37,403 we made a map that covered half the sky and it was as good a map 554 00:44:37,508 --> 00:44:41,444 as we'd ever had before, but it was way less than we eventually ended up 555 00:44:43,414 --> 00:44:45,507 It took a whole years worth of data almost three million, 556 00:44:45,616 --> 00:44:48,050 three hundred million observations to be summed together 557 00:44:48,152 --> 00:44:51,121 before we got a map that started to show some interesting structure 558 00:45:03,767 --> 00:45:09,967 At last a picture of the universe as it was fifteen billion years ago 559 00:45:11,108 --> 00:45:16,410 The hot fireball has cooled down and structure is beginning to form 560 00:45:20,851 --> 00:45:24,548 The pink and blue patches represent minute temperature differences; 561 00:45:25,389 --> 00:45:31,760 the cooler blue areas are where matter is beginning to cluster to form galaxies 562 00:45:33,831 --> 00:45:38,165 COBE really puts the big bang on a firm footing, not... 563 00:45:38,268 --> 00:45:39,565 ...only you know the big bang is right 564 00:45:39,670 --> 00:45:43,265 but now you have some idea about how structure is going to form, 565 00:45:43,373 --> 00:45:47,207 but also you can learn about how the universe itself was created 566 00:45:50,414 --> 00:45:54,874 COBE finally clinched the... of how the universe formed. 567 00:45:56,053 --> 00:45:57,645 The project is now at an end... 568 00:45:57,921 --> 00:46:00,788 and the Smithsonian Institute is setting up a museum... 569 00:46:00,891 --> 00:46:04,292 display to commemorate its historic achievement 570 00:46:05,262 --> 00:46:09,722 COBE had traced the earliest structures ever seen in the universe 571 00:46:10,501 --> 00:46:11,399 If you're religious it's... 572 00:46:11,502 --> 00:46:15,131 like you know you're you're you're seeing God or you're seeing the handwriting of... 573 00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:17,673 God when he wrote out how he was going to make the universe 574 00:46:17,775 --> 00:46:20,710 It's like getting the ten commandments in front of you and 575 00:46:20,811 --> 00:46:23,746 and being able to read, right except instead of the commandments these are, 576 00:46:23,847 --> 00:46:25,815 here's how the universe is put together, right 577 00:46:25,916 --> 00:46:28,248 Just you know, read between the lines and you'll know, 578 00:46:28,352 --> 00:46:30,912 you'll know the recipe for making the universe 579 00:46:58,081 --> 00:47:00,174 In this technological cathedral 580 00:47:00,450 --> 00:47:03,544 they are building a successor to the COBE satellite 581 00:47:05,222 --> 00:47:09,522 Whatever it's destined to reveal it is unlikely to overturn the evidence 582 00:47:09,626 --> 00:47:15,895 in favour of the Big Bang offered by COBE. Lemaitre's primeval atom 583 00:47:16,099 --> 00:47:20,399 and the discovery of the Big Bang provided the Church with... 584 00:47:20,504 --> 00:47:22,301 a moment of creation 585 00:47:23,073 --> 00:47:28,841 But it also gave science it's most convincing explanation of the cosmos 586 00:47:31,915 --> 00:47:36,716 In 1975... I was awarded a medal by the Pope 587 00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:40,151 for my part in proving the Big Bang Theory 588 00:47:42,025 --> 00:47:45,859 I went back to the Vatican in 1981, for a... 589 00:47:45,963 --> 00:47:50,525 conference on cosmology this time under a different Pope 590 00:47:51,768 --> 00:47:56,762 He told us that it was fine to study the universe after the Big Bang, 591 00:47:56,940 --> 00:48:00,842 but that we should not inguire into the Big Bang itself, 592 00:48:00,978 --> 00:48:03,276 because that was the moment of creation... 593 00:48:03,413 --> 00:48:04,937 and the work of God 594 00:48:06,083 --> 00:48:08,950 If science and religion were now at one, 595 00:48:09,152 --> 00:48:12,781 perhaps they were still not guite seeing eye to eye