The riddle of the nebulas is how they can form from almost nothing at all. ibid.
The questions surrounding the shapes of nebulas are among the most perplexing in all of astronomy. ibid.
What if the weather forecast predicted high winds ten times the speed of sound? Or an evening downpour of sulphuric acid rain? Or even a hurricane twice the size of Earth lasting three hundred years? This is not the stuff of fiction but real weather reports from around the universe; it’s Earth’s weather in the extreme. The Universe s2e15: Wildest Weather in the Cosmos
2,975. So what holds the coveted title of being the biggest thing in the universe? Most astronomers agree it’s the Cosmic Web. The Universe s2e16: Biggest Things in the Universe
A black hole is a region of space where the pull of gravity is so immense that nothing can escape it, not even light. There are billions upon billions of these black monsters prowling the universe. They come in two sizes: most of them are the stellar mass black holes, which are about five to about hundred times the mass of our sun. And then there are supermassive black holes that are millions to billions of times the mass of the sun. ibid.
It is both mighty and meek. Humanity’s quest is to harness its power and escape its bonds. It creates and breaks the stars, the planets, the galaxies, and directs their cosmic rollercoaster ride. Without it life as we know it would end. It is the magnificent and mystifying force that rules the universe: Gravity. The Universe s2e17: Gravity
Gravity is the most pervasive force in the universe. It is at work on massive and minute scales. On the routine and the extreme. ibid.
It acts on everything with mass including us ... Gravity attracts, governs, warps, shapes, makes and takes all matter and mass in the universe. Gravity holds our solar system together ... The cosmic glue that binds together all matter in the universe ... Gravity’s pulling power depends on mass and distance. In other words the bigger it is the harder it pulls on other objects. But that’s not all. This means if you double the distance between two objects, the attraction or pull is only a quarter of its original strength. ibid.
Objects all fall at the same rate. But what would it take to launch a cannon ball into orbit? ... 17,500 miles per hour. ibid.
Whichever two cities you connect with a straight-line tunnel it takes Gravity exactly forty-two minutes to get you there. Newton’s mathematics explained why this works. The angle slows the speed of descent. ibid.
Einstein realised that Gravity is really caused by huge objects likes stars and planets literally bending space itself. ibid.
Acceleration is essentially the same as Gravity. ibid.
Whereas the Big Crunch fits the Christian vision of the end, Science has yet another theory: that it may instead all end in ice. Ultimately, it depends on whether the momentum of the expansion of the universe can overcome the collapsing attraction of Gravity. The Universe s2e18: Cosmic Apocalypse
In space threats can come from any direction: meteors from deep space, invisible but deadly bursts of radiation from the sun, other-worldly landslides from above and Mars-quakes from below. The Universe s3e1: Space Disasters, History 2008
Fire is space-crew enemy number one. ibid.
There may be other worlds out there. Where there could be an exact copy of our solar system, our Earth and each one of us. The Universe s3e2: Parallel Universes, History 2008
The universe sits in a sea of parallel universes. ibid.
Remarkably, there may be four types of parallel universe out there: one could exist in exactly the same space that we are in, but it is so far away we cannot see it or reach it. In another scenario, multiple giant universes could exist in giant cosmic soap bubbles adrift in a cosmic sea of giant bubbles. In yet another scenario, many parallel universes occupy the same space and times as our universe, but because they are in different dimensions, they are invisible. In yet another, all the laws of physics are different so everything looks completely different. ibid.
The Wmap seems to show that the universe is flat. ibid.
‘We are children of the bubble.’ ibid. Tegmark
When in the 1980s scientists came up with a lyrical-sounding idea – String Theory – it promised to solve all the mysteries of the universe, including whether or not parallel universes are real. The idea is that all particles are not solid points or dots, as science said they were. Instead, if you could see up close, particles are in fact tiny string-like objects that individually vibrate in various ways ... String Theory has now evolved into M or M-brane Theory. ibid.
The crowning achievement of M Theory came when scientists realised that to make sense of everything, you need to think of the universe as existing in eleven dimensions. M Theory explains how the tiniest as well as the biggest things in the cosmos work. It also proposes that we all live on a giant and energetic M-brane. Our universe is tethered to this wall by extra dimensions ... These M-branes are also very close to each other. ibid.
Streaking through space, light is the fastest thing in the universe. As it reaches us across vast distances it reveals the history of the cosmos. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Its speed is the ultimate barrier – nothing can go faster. The Universe s3e3: Light Speed
Seeing red-shifts everywhere, Hubble discovered that all of the universe’s galaxies were moving away from each other, which we know now is caused by the expansion of space itself. ibid.
It’s called our light horizon: a sphere thirteen and a half billion light years in all directions containing everything we can see ... Does space end there? ibid.
Space itself then is the exception to the rule: it can expand faster than the speed of light. But everything inside it remains bound by Albert Einstein and his Theory of Relativity. ibid.
The first problem is zero gravity or more accurately micro- gravity. The second problem is high-energy radiation ... According to at least one astronaut, being in space produced what he called the Viagra effect ... NASA flight surgeons believe the redistribution of blood in micro-gravity is the cause. The Universe s3e4: Sex in Space
For hundreds of years scientists believed that sunlight was the only energy source for life. But within the past few decades new research has proven them wrong. Boiling water temperatures found around hydro-thermal vents on the sea floor were once believed to be incompatible with life, but recently scientists have discovered that the areas around these black smokers are perfectly suitable for a flourishing underwater community. Instead of the sun, these creatures take their energy from the heat, gasses and minerals emitted from the vents. These highly tenacious life forms are known as extremophiles. The Universe s3e5: Alien Faces
Asteroids and comets: Once thought to be very different cosmic bodies. Maybe more closely related than people thought ... Some comets actually mimic asteroids. After a comet has orbited around the Sun many times it losses its icy gaseous components becoming essentially dormant and showing a drab surface. The Universe s3e6: Deadly Comets & Meteors
Mars: In the future robotic rovers will be replaced by manned missions but the first human explorers will just be blazing the trail for a permanent settlement … A relentless battle for survival. The Universe s3e7: Living in Space
Mars: the runaway favourite for our colony of the future. ibid.
For as long as Earth has existed, comets and asteroids have been crashing into it. Soon after its formation about four and a half billion years ago our planet became a frequent target in a cosmic shooting gallery. According to the Earth Impact Database more than one hundred and sixty impact craters have been identified. The largest is one called Chicxulub, Mayan for Tail of the Devil. This crater measures more than one hundred and seventy kilometres in diameter. It was made by the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs when it crashed in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The Universe s3e8: Stopping Armageddon, History 2009
Measuring about 270 meters in length, or more than 800 feet, Apothis has the energy of a 500-megaton bomb – enough to wipe out a major city or cause a devastating tsunami. ibid.
Only in the last decade has the very existence of exo-planets gone from theory to reality. The Universe s3e9: Another Earth
In the vast reaches of Space there exists objects and phenomena that are as bizarre as anything found in science fiction. The Universe s3e10: Strangest Things
Space is jam-packed with some very weird things. The universe is full of objects and all sorts of mysterious phenomena that we still don’t fully understand. Strange as it may seem astronomers have discovered inter-stellar clouds actually filled with the same kind of alcohol that is found in beer. ibid.
Dark Energy was first observed in 1998 when measurements of far-away exploding stars were used to determine the distances of galaxies. Those galaxies were found to be further away than expected in a universe that’s slowing down with time. The astronomers therefore concluded that the universe is actually expanding more quickly with time, and Dark Energy may be the culprit. ibid.
There are two types of neutron star: pulsars that spin rapidly and emit beeping radio pulses, and magnetars that spin more slowly and emit energy from magnetism. Magnetars which are much rarer than pulsars have the strongest known magnetic fields in the universe. ibid.