Seeing Stars

Seeing Stars

2011, Science  -   94 Comments
7.89
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Ratings: 7.89/10 from 27 users.

Seeing StarsAround the world, a new generation of astronomers are hunting for the most mysterious objects in the universe. Young stars, black holes, even other forms of life.

They have created a dazzling new set of super-telescopes that promise to rewrite the story of the heavens.

This film follows the men and women who are pushing the limits of science and engineering in some of the most extreme environments on earth. But most strikingly of all, no-one really knows what they will find out there.

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Jay
Jay
7 years ago

Loved the doc, but was astounded by the claim at 42:30 that "our nearest galactic neighbor" was Centaurus A. This is incorrect. Our nearest galactic neighbor is Andromeda Galaxy at 2.5 million light years away. (Not counting the Magellanic clouds)

U2
U2
8 years ago

what they are really hunting for is another grant to float their do nothing lifestyle.

BeardHero420
BeardHero420
12 years ago

awesome

astromann
astromann
12 years ago

Interesting documentary until they got to the part about the moon landings. How any sane common sense person can still believe in that NASA lie is beyond me. Science needs to get it's house into order before it can reclaim credibility . I am conspiracy proponent because that is how this how the US administration, NASA and CIA have been able to propagate this rubbish for over 40 years. We haven't been 'back' though have we? QED.

donjusko
donjusko
12 years ago

I don't think the Van Allen Belt was explained correctly. That's a lot when conceder how much we spent on Cosmic rays. As I remember it was flecks of light outside the cabin and nothing was said about seeing them with the eyes closed. I believe the happening occurred just below the ionosphere in Tesla's Shuman Cavity which we later called the Van Allen's Belt.

Tesla's principle is the foundation of HAARP, it's feeding electricity to the Shuman Cavity. Bernard Eastlund of Columbia Physics (PTI) patented it for defenses, HAARP is using it to modify the weather and vibrating specific targets.

Dominic
Dominic
12 years ago

The Human mind is too small to ever know the origin or size of the universe. Everytime we think we have reached the edge there will always be something beyond it compelling us to keep chasing forever. The answer to one mystery will always open questions to another one.

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

@ The Mighty Achem, Your lesson yesterday must have had some impact as I had very disturbed dreams last night and woke early with an idea that I should spend some time in the science category for a while and PAY ATTENTION.

KsDevil
KsDevil
12 years ago

The Universe is huge. I mean really huge. You can't imagine just how vastly huge it is. Walking down to the chemists may seem like a long way, but that's just peanuts to the size of the Universe.
On the subject of light. Carl Sagan has explained the headlight question in one of the Cosmos episodes. Of course that was well before the recent experiements that suggests the speed of light is not what we think it is.
We live in interesting times. The amount of knowledge we are gaining about the Universe every year is astounding. All of this and we are still stuck on this modest blue planet. What awaits us when we finally do get out there?

John Pham
John Pham
12 years ago

mankind can*

John Pham
John Pham
12 years ago

the cosmo is like a woman, mankind and work at it for ages but it will never be define or "figured out" that doesn't mean we stop trying to hit the "spot" LOL

European Art
European Art
12 years ago

This program shows the enthusiasm of scientists searching for a Black Hole at the middle of our galaxy. I used to believe this but now have changed my mind. There is NOT a super massive Black Hole at the middle of our galaxy, nor in the middle of any other galaxies. Why do I say this? 1) If there was a supper massive black hole in the middle of our galaxy it would be consuming our galaxy like water flows down a sink drain. This is NOT happening. Therefore there is not a Black Hole at the middle of our galaxy. 2) If there was a supper massive black hole in the middle of our galaxy the stars would spin faster at the center of the galaxy and slower further out. This is the conservation of momenturm. This observation is NOT supported. Stars spin at the same speed in the center of the galaxy as they do on the outer perimeter, therefore a super massive black hole does NOT exist in the middle of our galaxy. Therefore based on basic knowledge these scientists are wasting their time looking for something that is not there.

Alan Baca
Alan Baca
12 years ago

and this is only a minut beginning. Like cavemen looking at the stars we are looking at the universe and wondering, wondering, wondering

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

Here's a question one of my kids asked, not sure if she heard it somewhere or thought it up herself. If you were in a car and travelling at light speed, would you see the headlights when you turned them on. Any Idea'?

Achems_Razor
Achems_Razor
12 years ago

Okay, youse guyses, won't be long now before the powers that be will say these posts are becoming idle chit-chat, lets talk about cosmology, space, the stars, and anything else that is relevant to this doc. What do you all say, Eh?

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

Its difficult to appreciate just how incredible the universe is. Kind of like seeing a picture of a whale without a little diagram man standing by it or when your a kid and trying to imagine how big a million is when you can only count to a hundred. Without some kind of comparison it hard to imagine the scale. I can get a feeling of infinity but I cant comprehend it. When I was little I used to cry with frustration trying to imagine that, also trying to understand where that infinity exists, surely it has to be in something? I understand better now but I still have a childlike suspicion that the universe has an end and that there is something else after that. And then what comes after that, is that infinite as well? I think my brain just melted!

46nTwo
46nTwo
12 years ago

I have not seen this doc yet but I would like to put my 2 cents in on the whole singularity idea. I feel that the past and the future can not be changed. The "in the now" is the change; the singularity. We are all apart of this. The past is forever infinite (meaning that info form the past is forever, and the way it makes you feel is infinite). The "in the now" is the pages of history; the future does not change the past and vice versa. The "in the now" is the only thing that exist...it is the singularity.

sorry if this doesn't make sense, i',m kinda drunk :)

Sion88
Sion88
12 years ago

It is difficult to conceive how anything could be at all if there was not a force of contraction at varying scales at the core of every unit of stuff. Expansion goes with contraction, obviously one can not be if the other is not. So must the thing that facilitates contraction be omnipresent in quanta. Very possibly it should be the same thing that brings upon expansion at the precise moment when all things have converged into singularity.

Of course, the standing observation is that all stuff seems to be expanding ever faster away from the point of observation and therefore there is no contraction in the ultimate sense. This however does not necessarily have to be the case if it is considered that the all entities are moving away from a central point and that this movement is becoming varyingly slower depending on the distance of a particular entity from the central point. The central point here would be the point of ultimate contraction.

Consider the point of observation at a location between the entities being observed and offset from the central point. Those entities that are closer to the central point in relation to the point of observation could be slowing more quickly than the point of observation itself and thereby for all intents and purposes moving away with increasing velocity from the point of observation. In turn, those entities that are farther could be slowing at a lesser rate and again in the absolute sense moving away with increasing velocity from the point of observation. If this were so, the movement should eventually reverse.

The above of course does not work if the force of contraction is spatially and temporally constant. It may not be, considering that at a certain distance from the central point, objects should already be converging towards it. The force should then be increasing gradually with the increase of mass. Or it could be that due to a lack of elementary understanding, the above is a misconception.

magarac
magarac
12 years ago

What a beautiful desert the atacama is. Guess i´ll have to go there and see it for myself...

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

@Jack 1952
There has always been evidence of this in my life or mind, even as a very young child dreaming. I used to dream that i was in a rounded box and my Self was like dough, rising to a point of almost exploding the box and then diminishing to a infinitely small particle within the box and back to rising......
It would wake me up in fear, now i enjoy it whenever it happens.
az

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

If they were to find a black hole could it be that there is only one and that everything else surrounds it, earth included?
Or could it be that the black hole is like the skin of a body, surrounding everything we see, therefore a black hole is not in the middle but on the edge of life itself?
az