1

00:00:02,903 --> 00:00:05,504

Of all the objects
in the cosmos...

2
00:00:05,506 --> 00:00:06,739
Planets...

3
00:00:06,741 --> 00:00:08,140
Stars...

4
00:00:08,142 --> 00:00:10,275
Galaxies...

5
00:00:11,545 --> 00:00:13,412
None are as strange,

6
00:00:13,414 --> 00:00:15,414
mysterious,

7
00:00:15,416 --> 00:00:16,448
or powerful

8
00:00:16,450 --> 00:00:18,784
as black holes.

9
00:00:20,721 --> 00:00:22,121
Black holes are

10
00:00:22,123 --> 00:00:25,391
the most mind-blowing things
in the universe.

11
00:00:25,393 --> 00:00:26,725
They can swallow a star

12
00:00:26,727 --> 00:00:28,360
completely intact.

13
00:00:29,930 --> 00:00:32,998
Black holes have
these powerful jets

14
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:34,166
that just spew matter out.
15
00:00:34,168 --> 00:00:36,635
First discovered on paper...

16
00:00:36,637 --> 00:00:38,871
PETER GALISON
On the back of an envelope,

17
00:00:38,873 --> 00:00:40,439
some squiggles of the pen.

18
00:00:40,441 --> 00:00:42,908
...the bizarre solution

19
00:00:42,910 --> 00:00:46,578
to a seemingly
unsolvable equation...

20
00:00:46,580 --> 00:00:47,413
A mathematical enigma...

21
00:00:47,415 --> 00:00:49,448
Einstein himself

22
00:00:49,450 --> 00:00:52,051
could not accept black holes
as real.

23
00:00:52,053 --> 00:00:53,952
People didn't even believe for
many years that they existed.

24
00:00:53,954 --> 00:00:55,888
Nature doesn't work that way.

25
00:00:58,592 --> 00:01:03,228
Yet slowly, as scientists
investigate black holes

26
00:01:03,230 --> 00:01:04,663
by observing
the effect they have

27
00:01:04,665 --> 00:01:06,298
on their surroundings,

28
00:01:06,300 --> 00:01:08,967
evidence begins to mount...

29
00:01:08,969 --> 00:01:10,903
That is the proof
of a black hole.

30
00:01:10,905 --> 00:01:14,239
Millions of times
the mass of the sun.

31
00:01:14,241 --> 00:01:17,943
Cutting-edge discoveries show...

32
00:01:17,945 --> 00:01:18,510
We did it!

33
00:01:19,647 --> 00:01:22,881
...black holes are very real.

34
00:01:22,883 --> 00:01:24,850
I thought it was crazy.

35
00:01:24,852 --> 00:01:26,418
I said, "Holy!"

36
00:01:30,891 --> 00:01:32,958
But what exactly are they?

37
00:01:32,960 --> 00:01:37,896
If we could visit one,
what might we see?

38
00:01:37,898 --> 00:01:42,201
With their immense power,
do black holes somehow shape

39
00:01:42,203 --> 00:01:44,470
the very structure
of the universe?

40
00:01:44,472 --> 00:01:48,841
Is it possible we might
not exist without them?

41
00:01:50,211 --> 00:01:51,310
It's quite a journey.

42
00:01:54,014 --> 00:01:55,714
"Black Hole Apocalypse."

43
00:01:55,716 --> 00:01:59,418
Right now on "NOVA."

44
00:02:25,493 --> 00:02:29,495
There are apocalyptic objects
in the universe:

45
00:02:29,497 --> 00:02:31,997
engines of destruction,

46
00:02:31,999 --> 00:02:36,602
menacing and mysterious.

47
00:02:36,604 --> 00:02:38,404
Black holes.

48
00:02:39,574 --> 00:02:42,074
Even scientists
who study them

49
00:02:42,076 --> 00:02:44,210
find them astonishing.

50
00:02:44,212 --> 00:02:48,280
Black holes can sort of
blow your mind.

51
00:02:48,282 --> 00:02:51,083
I'm amazed that these objects
actually exist.

52
00:02:52,620 --> 00:02:57,523
Black holes defy
our understanding of nature.

53
00:02:57,525 --> 00:02:59,191
Black holes are the greatest
mystery in the universe.

54
00:02:59,193 --> 00:03:02,194
They're completely invisible,
55
00:03:02,196 --> 00:03:04,964
yet powerful beyond imagining.

56
00:03:04,966 --> 00:03:08,734
They can tear a star
to shreds.

57
00:03:08,736 --> 00:03:10,870
Black holes actually

58
00:03:10,872 --> 00:03:13,239
will eat anything
that comes in their path.

59
00:03:14,909 --> 00:03:16,942
You really want to avoid them
at all cost.

60
00:03:16,944 --> 00:03:21,347
Black holes even slow time.

61
00:03:21,349 --> 00:03:24,116
Once thought too strange
to be real...

62
00:03:25,553 --> 00:03:29,722
...black holes shatter our very
understanding of physics.

63
00:03:29,724 --> 00:03:32,291
But we're learning they may
somehow be necessary

64
00:03:32,293 --> 00:03:35,294
for the universe we know
to exist.

65
00:03:35,296 --> 00:03:38,397
They might well be the key
players in the universe.

66
00:03:38,399 --> 00:03:43,202
What are these strange,
powerful objects,

67
00:03:43,204 --> 00:03:46,539
outrageous and surprising?

68
00:03:46,541 --> 00:03:51,210
Where are they, and how
do they control the universe?

69
00:03:51,212 --> 00:03:53,646
The search for black holes
is on.

70
00:03:53,648 --> 00:03:58,217
And it will be a wild ride
across the cosmos

71
00:03:58,219 --> 00:04:02,288
to places where everything you
think you know is challenged --

72
00:04:02,290 --> 00:04:05,624
where space and time,
even reality,

73
00:04:05,626 --> 00:04:07,526
are stranger than fiction.

74
00:04:14,869 --> 00:04:20,439
And we're starting that journey
at a very unlikely place:

75
00:04:20,441 --> 00:04:25,311
here, at a remote location
in Washington state,

76
00:04:25,313 --> 00:04:27,546
where-- for the first time--

77
00:04:27,548 --> 00:04:32,451
a radical new experiment
has detected black holes.

78
00:04:32,453 --> 00:04:36,222
It originated over 50 years ago,

79
00:04:36,224 --> 00:04:40,359
when a few visionary scientists
80
00:04:40,361 --> 00:04:43,596
imagine a technology
that hasn't yet been invented...

81
00:04:46,133 --> 00:04:50,769
Searching for something
no one is certain can be found.

82
00:04:50,771 --> 00:04:53,572
The experiment
is daring and risky.

83
00:04:53,574 --> 00:04:58,277
Failure could mark
their lives forever.

84
00:04:58,279 --> 00:04:59,845
But they don't fail.

85
00:04:59,847 --> 00:05:01,680
Right here, in these facilities,

86
00:05:01,682 --> 00:05:03,883
they make
a remarkable discovery.

87
00:05:06,621 --> 00:05:10,589
In the early hours
of September 14, 2015,

88
00:05:10,591 --> 00:05:12,658
they record a message.

89
00:05:12,660 --> 00:05:17,229
It looks and sounds like this.

90
00:05:18,833 --> 00:05:20,533
Just a little chirp.

91
00:05:20,535 --> 00:05:25,404
But that chirp is epic,
monumental.

92
00:05:25,406 --> 00:05:29,742
The signal traveled over a
billion light years to reach us.
93
00:05:33,614 --> 00:05:36,315
It started far, far away.

94
00:05:36,317 --> 00:05:39,518
And what it tells us is this:

95
00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:43,989
somewhere in the cosmos,
over a billion years ago,

96
00:05:43,991 --> 00:05:51,196
two massive black holes circle
each other in a fatal encounter.

97
00:05:51,198 --> 00:05:53,232
Closer and closer they come,

98
00:05:53,234 --> 00:05:55,901
swirling faster and faster,

99
00:05:55,903 --> 00:05:58,804
until finally,
they slam together.

100
00:06:00,308 --> 00:06:03,509
The black holes create waves
that spread outward.

101
00:06:05,112 --> 00:06:06,612
Just like vibrations on a drum,

102
00:06:06,614 --> 00:06:12,418
a ringing in the fabric
of space itself.

103
00:06:12,420 --> 00:06:16,155
The collision creates
a massive blast,

104
00:06:16,157 --> 00:06:18,157
putting out 50 times
as much power

105
00:06:18,159 --> 00:06:22,695
as the entire visible universe.
106
00:06:22,697 --> 00:06:26,966
It sends out a wave not of heat,
or light, or sound,

107
00:06:26,968 --> 00:06:30,202
but of gravity.

108
00:06:30,204 --> 00:06:32,271
This gravity wave is moving
its way through the universe

109
00:06:32,273 --> 00:06:34,073
at the speed of light.

110
00:06:36,310 --> 00:06:38,811
The wave races by stars.

111
00:06:38,813 --> 00:06:42,615
On the young Earth,
supercontinents are forming.

112
00:06:42,617 --> 00:06:46,852
Microscopic organisms
have just appeared.

113
00:06:46,854 --> 00:06:48,220
Washing over one galaxy

114
00:06:48,222 --> 00:06:50,155
after another, after another.

115
00:06:51,559 --> 00:06:55,094
Dinosaurs roam the Earth.

116
00:06:55,096 --> 00:06:56,195
The wave is still moving.

117
00:06:56,197 --> 00:07:00,633
It zooms through clouds of dust.

118
00:07:00,635 --> 00:07:02,801
And then it nears
the Milky Way Galaxy.

119
00:07:02,803 --> 00:07:06,305
The Ice Age is just beginning.

120
00:07:06,307 --> 00:07:10,509
We're troglodytes,
drawing in caves.

121
00:07:10,511 --> 00:07:14,313
The wave reaches nearby stars.

122
00:07:14,315 --> 00:07:17,883
Albert Einstein is
in the sixth grade.

123
00:07:17,885 --> 00:07:22,021
The wave approaches as close
as Alpha Centauri.

124
00:07:22,023 --> 00:07:26,392
At midnight
on September 13, 2015,

125
00:07:26,394 --> 00:07:28,894
it is as close as Saturn.

126
00:07:28,896 --> 00:07:33,132
Finally, over a billion years
after the black holes collide,

127
00:07:33,134 --> 00:07:35,034
the wave reaches us.

128
00:07:35,036 --> 00:07:36,535
It strikes a pair

129
00:07:36,537 --> 00:07:39,438
of revolutionary new
observatories--

130
00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:43,809
the sites of
the daring experiment.

131
00:07:50,017 --> 00:07:51,817
This is LIGO,

132
00:07:51,819 --> 00:07:56,422
the Laser Interferometer
Gravitational Wave Observatory.

133
00:07:56,424 --> 00:07:59,058
The experiment
50 years in the making

134
00:07:59,060 --> 00:08:01,960
has finally hit the jackpot--

135
00:08:01,962 --> 00:08:06,465
and opened an entirely new way
of exploring the universe.

136
00:08:06,467 --> 00:08:12,037
For 400 years, almost everything
we've observed in space

137
00:08:12,039 --> 00:08:17,409
has come to us in some form
of electromagnetic energy.

138
00:08:19,613 --> 00:08:21,947
That little chirp is different.

139
00:08:21,949 --> 00:08:25,551
What hits the Earth
in September 2015

140
00:08:25,553 --> 00:08:28,120
is a gravitational wave--

141
00:08:28,122 --> 00:08:32,858
a squeezing and stretching
of the very fabric of space.

142
00:08:32,860 --> 00:08:35,761
It produced no light;

143
00:08:35,763 --> 00:08:40,265
no telescope could ever see
the collision.

144
00:08:40,267 --> 00:08:46,805
We needed an entirely new kind
of observatory to detect it.
145
00:08:46,807 --> 00:08:49,241
That wave is new
and direct evidence

146
00:08:49,243 --> 00:08:52,377
of one of the strangest
mysteries in our universe:

147
00:08:52,379 --> 00:08:53,378
black holes.

148
00:08:55,649 --> 00:08:58,350
Most of us have heard
of black holes.

149
00:08:58,352 --> 00:09:00,919
They're invisible, powerful...

150
00:09:00,921 --> 00:09:02,221
We are talking about things

151
00:09:02,223 --> 00:09:04,656
that are a billion times
the mass of the sun.

152
00:09:04,658 --> 00:09:07,259
Bizarre.

153
00:09:07,261 --> 00:09:09,061
A physical entity

154
00:09:09,063 --> 00:09:11,964
with infinite density.

155
00:09:11,966 --> 00:09:13,766
No beginning, no end.

156
00:09:13,768 --> 00:09:15,901
They pull things in.

157
00:09:17,338 --> 00:09:20,706
And warp light.

158
00:09:20,708 --> 00:09:25,711
Approach one, and time itself
begins to change.

159
00:09:25,713 --> 00:09:30,215
The gravity is so intense
that a moving clock

160
00:09:30,217 --> 00:09:31,517
will tick slower.

161
00:09:31,519 --> 00:09:35,654
Time will become so slow for you

162
00:09:35,656 --> 00:09:40,726
that you will watch the entire
future of the universe

163
00:09:40,728 --> 00:09:42,795
unfold before your very eyes.

164
00:09:45,599 --> 00:09:51,303
Fall in, and you'd be squeezed
as thin as a noodle.

165
00:09:51,305 --> 00:09:55,207
You'll be extruded through
the fabric of space and time

166
00:09:55,209 --> 00:09:57,643
like toothpaste through a tube.

167
00:10:01,515 --> 00:10:06,051
Today, we know more about
black holes than ever before.

168
00:10:06,053 --> 00:10:11,924
But the more we learn,
the more mysterious they become.

169
00:10:11,926 --> 00:10:14,626
They're the most exotic objects
in the universe.

170
00:10:14,628 --> 00:10:16,361
We don't have the physics
to describe them.
171
00:10:16,363 --> 00:10:18,597
No matter how well
you understand them,

172
00:10:18,599 --> 00:10:20,999
they remain unreachable
in some sense.

173
00:10:21,001 --> 00:10:27,039
Now man is about to enter...

174
00:10:27,041 --> 00:10:28,941
the black hole!

175
00:10:33,214 --> 00:10:35,614
So black holes have
a pretty fierce reputation.

176
00:10:35,616 --> 00:10:39,885
And if you want a villain for a
sci-fi movie, cast a black hole.

177
00:10:39,887 --> 00:10:43,822
But in reality, what exactly
is a black hole?

178
00:10:43,824 --> 00:10:45,557
And where do they come from?

179
00:10:45,559 --> 00:10:50,562
You might think a black hole
is like this-- an object.

180
00:10:50,564 --> 00:10:51,864
But it's not.

181
00:10:51,866 --> 00:10:57,169
It's a hole
in the fabric of space.

182
00:10:57,171 --> 00:11:00,305
A place where there is nothing;
nothing except gravity,

183
00:11:00,307 --> 00:11:03,642
gravity at its most intense
and overwhelming.

184
00:11:07,481 --> 00:11:10,449
So if black holes are
all about gravity--

185
00:11:10,451 --> 00:11:13,518
gravity at its most extreme--

186
00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:16,255
what exactly is gravity?

187
00:11:25,532 --> 00:11:28,267
We're all familiar
with gravity.

188
00:11:28,269 --> 00:11:30,569
Yep, it's Friday.

189
00:11:32,006 --> 00:11:33,572
It rules our lives.

190
00:11:33,574 --> 00:11:37,209
But even so,
for a very long time,

191
00:11:37,211 --> 00:11:39,378
how gravity actually works

192
00:11:39,380 --> 00:11:42,447
was one of
the greatest mysteries.

193
00:11:42,449 --> 00:11:45,050
Over 300 years ago,

194
00:11:45,052 --> 00:11:47,152
Isaac Newton was fascinated

195
00:11:47,154 --> 00:11:49,154
with the behavior
of moving objects.

196
00:11:49,156 --> 00:11:54,459
Eventually he figured out
his laws of motion.
197
00:11:54,461 --> 00:11:57,195
They work so well,
we still use them today.

198
00:11:57,197 --> 00:12:00,165
Lift-off, we have lift-off
at 9:34 a.m.

199
00:12:00,167 --> 00:12:04,102
But Newton's laws can only
describe gravity's effects,

200
00:12:04,104 --> 00:12:06,738
not explain what it is.

201
00:12:06,740 --> 00:12:08,941
Hm.

202
00:12:08,943 --> 00:12:10,776
And here's where
Albert Einstein comes in.

203
00:12:12,513 --> 00:12:15,213
Like Newton, he thinks
about objects in motion.

204
00:12:15,215 --> 00:12:20,519
And he wonders
what gravity actually is.

205
00:12:20,521 --> 00:12:22,888
Is it a force?

206
00:12:22,890 --> 00:12:24,856
Or could it be something else?

207
00:12:27,695 --> 00:12:29,494
Here's what concerns Einstein.

208
00:12:29,496 --> 00:12:32,364
Take this apple.

209
00:12:32,366 --> 00:12:37,302
I can't move it
without touching it.
210
00:12:37,304 --> 00:12:41,440
But if I drop the apple,
it moves toward the Earth.

211
00:12:41,442 --> 00:12:43,742
But what if I take my hand away,

212
00:12:43,744 --> 00:12:46,845
and the floor, and the basement,
and the floor below that?

213
00:12:46,847 --> 00:12:48,447
Then what happens?

214
00:12:50,084 --> 00:12:53,952
The apple just keeps falling.

215
00:12:53,954 --> 00:12:57,756
Einstein realized that gravity

216
00:12:57,758 --> 00:13:00,459
had something to do
with falling.

217
00:13:02,463 --> 00:13:06,798
Now, if I throw the apple,

218
00:13:06,800 --> 00:13:10,736
it falls along a curved path.

219
00:13:10,738 --> 00:13:15,273
But imagine I could get the
apple moving much faster.

220
00:13:19,279 --> 00:13:22,047
Eventually, if I get the apple
moving really, really fast--

221
00:13:22,049 --> 00:13:24,883
say, 17,000 miles an hour--

222
00:13:24,885 --> 00:13:29,855
its curved path matches
the curve of the Earth.
223
00:13:29,857 --> 00:13:32,924
The apple is in orbit,
falling freely,

224
00:13:32,926 --> 00:13:36,361
just like the International
Space Station

225
00:13:36,363 --> 00:13:38,864
and the astronauts inside it.

226
00:13:38,866 --> 00:13:42,134
According to Einstein,
the apple--

227
00:13:42,136 --> 00:13:44,770
and the space station,
and the astronauts--

228
00:13:44,772 --> 00:13:51,109
are all falling freely
along a curved path in space.

229
00:13:51,111 --> 00:13:53,278
And what makes that path curved?

230
00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:55,013
The mass of the Earth.

231
00:13:55,015 --> 00:14:00,052
Einstein came up with
a supremely simple concept,

232
00:14:00,054 --> 00:14:03,155
and that is that space and time
is bent by the Earth,

233
00:14:03,157 --> 00:14:05,157
and by the sun, and by
all the objects in the world.

234
00:14:05,159 --> 00:14:07,726
So according to Einstein,

235
00:14:07,728 --> 00:14:16,201
the mass of every object causes
the space around it to curve.

236
00:14:16,203 --> 00:14:18,303
And that was
Einstein's conception.

237
00:14:18,305 --> 00:14:20,605
There are no forces anymore.

238
00:14:20,607 --> 00:14:23,408
There's just objects
bending space-time

239
00:14:23,410 --> 00:14:27,612
and other objects following
the straightest line through it.

240
00:14:27,614 --> 00:14:34,186
All objects in motion
follow the curves in space.

241
00:14:34,188 --> 00:14:39,157
So how does the Earth move
the apple without touching it?

242
00:14:39,159 --> 00:14:41,193
The Earth curves space,

243
00:14:41,195 --> 00:14:45,764
and the apple falls freely
along those curves.

244
00:14:45,766 --> 00:14:48,700
That, according to Einstein's
general theory of relativity,

245
00:14:48,702 --> 00:14:51,336
is gravity: curved space.

246
00:14:51,338 --> 00:14:54,206
And that understanding
of gravity--

247
00:14:54,208 --> 00:14:57,642
that an object causes the space
around it to curve--
248
00:14:57,644 --> 00:15:02,547
leads directly to black holes.

249
00:15:02,549 --> 00:15:05,817
But it's not Albert Einstein
who first makes the connection

250
00:15:05,819 --> 00:15:09,054
between gravity
and black holes.

251
00:15:09,056 --> 00:15:11,790
It's another scientist.

252
00:15:11,792 --> 00:15:13,291
Karl Schwarzschild

253
00:15:13,293 --> 00:15:15,360
was a German astronomer,

254
00:15:15,362 --> 00:15:18,029
head of the Potsdam Observatory
in Germany.

255
00:15:18,031 --> 00:15:22,000
Ever since he was a teenager,
he had been calculating

256
00:15:22,002 --> 00:15:24,202
complicated features
of planetary orbits.

257
00:15:25,873 --> 00:15:30,208
As Einstein unveils his theory
of gravity in 1915,

258
00:15:30,210 --> 00:15:34,112
Karl Schwarzschild
is in the German army,

259
00:15:34,114 --> 00:15:39,084
calculating artillery
trajectories in World War I.

260
00:15:39,086 --> 00:15:43,255
And just weeks after Einstein
presented his papers,

261
00:15:43,257 --> 00:15:46,658
Schwarzschild,
then on the Russian front,

262
00:15:46,660 --> 00:15:50,896
quickly got a copy
and was mapping

263
00:15:50,898 --> 00:15:55,200
the gravitational field
around a star.

264
00:15:55,202 --> 00:15:56,434
Einstein had gotten at it

265
00:15:56,436 --> 00:15:58,570
through a series
of approximations.

266
00:15:58,572 --> 00:16:02,307
But Schwarzschild,
sitting on the front

267
00:16:02,309 --> 00:16:04,142
with bullets and bombs flying,

268
00:16:04,144 --> 00:16:08,346
calculated an exact solution
to Einstein's theory

269
00:16:08,348 --> 00:16:13,485
and sent it to Einstein.

270
00:16:13,487 --> 00:16:15,987
Einstein was astonished.

271
00:16:15,989 --> 00:16:17,189
He hadn't even imagined

272
00:16:17,191 --> 00:16:18,890
that you could solve
these equations exactly.

273
00:16:18,892 --> 00:16:23,094
But Schwarzschild isn't done.

274
00:16:23,096 --> 00:16:25,697
In his solution
to Einstein's equations,

275
00:16:25,699 --> 00:16:31,736
he discovers something Einstein
himself had not anticipated.

276
00:16:31,738 --> 00:16:33,271
Schwarzschild said,

277
00:16:33,273 --> 00:16:37,175
"I can calculate
this strange distance

278
00:16:37,177 --> 00:16:38,643
"from a gravitating object

279
00:16:38,645 --> 00:16:42,547
that represents
a kind of boundary."

280
00:16:42,549 --> 00:16:46,918
Schwarzschild mathematically
concentrates a mass--

281
00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:48,453
for example, a star--

282
00:16:48,455 --> 00:16:53,058
into a single point.

283
00:16:53,060 --> 00:16:56,628
Then he calculates how that mass
would bend space

284
00:16:56,630 --> 00:17:00,999
and curve rays of light
passing nearby.

285
00:17:01,001 --> 00:17:03,368
As he, through his mathematics,

286
00:17:03,370 --> 00:17:07,906
aimed particles of light
or matter towards this point,

287
00:17:07,908 --> 00:17:12,043
there was this boundary
surrounding the point

288
00:17:12,045 --> 00:17:15,080
at which the particles
would just stop.

289
00:17:17,317 --> 00:17:19,584
The particles disappeared.

290
00:17:19,586 --> 00:17:20,819
Time stopped.

291
00:17:20,821 --> 00:17:23,922
Schwarzschild has discovered

292
00:17:23,924 --> 00:17:26,858
that a concentration of mass
will warp space

293
00:17:26,860 --> 00:17:28,526
to such an extreme

294
00:17:28,528 --> 00:17:32,297
that it creates a region
of no return.

295
00:17:32,299 --> 00:17:35,066
Anything that enters that region
will be trapped,

296
00:17:35,068 --> 00:17:39,204
unable to escape-- even light.

297
00:17:39,206 --> 00:17:40,672
It's like those roach motels.

298
00:17:40,674 --> 00:17:42,841
You can check in,
but you can't check out.

299
00:17:42,843 --> 00:17:44,776
Once you go
across that boundary,

300
00:17:44,778 --> 00:17:47,112
even if you can sail through,

301
00:17:47,114 --> 00:17:49,080
there's nothing you can do
to get out,

302
00:17:49,082 --> 00:17:50,982
there's nothing you can do
to signal out.

303
00:17:50,984 --> 00:17:55,287
It becomes this strange,
cut-off portion of space-time.

304
00:17:55,289 --> 00:18:00,592
What Karl Schwarzschild has
discovered is that any mass,

305
00:18:00,594 --> 00:18:03,061
compressed
into a small enough space,

306
00:18:03,063 --> 00:18:06,865
creates what we today
call a black hole.

307
00:18:09,303 --> 00:18:10,902
But Albert Einstein--

308
00:18:10,904 --> 00:18:13,872
whose own theory of gravity
predicts such a thing--

309
00:18:13,874 --> 00:18:17,742
cannot believe it can happen
in the real world.

310
00:18:17,744 --> 00:18:19,411
Einstein didn't think

311
00:18:19,413 --> 00:18:21,413
that nature would act like this.
312
00:18:21,415 --> 00:18:23,214
He didn't like this idea.

313
00:18:23,216 --> 00:18:29,788
Karl Schwarzschild becomes ill
and dies before he has a chance

314
00:18:29,790 --> 00:18:34,259
to further investigate
his own discovery.

315
00:18:36,363 --> 00:18:40,565
Two-and-a-half years later,
in November 1918,

316
00:18:40,567 --> 00:18:42,667
World War I ends.

317
00:18:42,669 --> 00:18:47,105
The strange theoretical sphere
discovered by Karl Schwarzschild

318
00:18:47,107 --> 00:18:49,708
seems destined to be forgotten--

319
00:18:49,710 --> 00:18:53,445
nothing but
a curious historical footnote.

320
00:18:57,150 --> 00:18:58,516
But in the coming decades,

321
00:18:58,518 --> 00:19:01,186
physicists learn more
about the atom

322
00:19:01,188 --> 00:19:06,591
and about how fusing atoms
powers stars--

323
00:19:06,593 --> 00:19:11,329
a process called nuclear fusion.

324
00:19:11,331 --> 00:19:14,766
Some begin to wonder
if something like a black hole
325
00:19:14,768 --> 00:19:18,036
could actually come from a star.

326
00:19:19,973 --> 00:19:25,443
But not just any star--
it would have to be big.

327
00:19:25,445 --> 00:19:26,811
Stars are born in litters,

328
00:19:26,813 --> 00:19:29,681
and you get a distribution
of sizes and masses;

329
00:19:29,683 --> 00:19:34,185
thousands of little stars

330
00:19:34,187 --> 00:19:36,654
and a few big stars,
very big stars,

331
00:19:36,656 --> 00:19:38,256
incredibly massive.

332
00:19:39,459 --> 00:19:44,629
Stars are in many ways similar
to living creatures.

333
00:19:44,631 --> 00:19:47,265
Like humans,
they have life cycles.

334
00:19:47,267 --> 00:19:53,605
Investigating stars' life cycles
in the 1930s, two visionaries--

335
00:19:53,607 --> 00:19:57,575
Subramanyan Chandrasekhar
and Robert Oppenheimer--

336
00:19:57,577 --> 00:20:00,211
discover
that the most massive stars

337
00:20:00,213 --> 00:20:04,783
end their lives very differently
from smaller ones.

338
00:20:04,785 --> 00:20:07,886
The life cycle of a star really
depends on its mass.

339
00:20:07,888 --> 00:20:12,424
The mass of a star determines
what's going to happen

340
00:20:12,426 --> 00:20:16,094
after it finishes burning
its hydrogen fuel.

341
00:20:16,096 --> 00:20:22,400
All stars start out burning
hydrogen-- the lightest atom--

342
00:20:22,402 --> 00:20:24,836
fusing hydrogen atoms
into helium,

343
00:20:24,838 --> 00:20:29,774
working their way up
to heavier elements.

344
00:20:29,776 --> 00:20:33,111
Gravity wants to crush
the entire mass of the star,

345
00:20:33,113 --> 00:20:38,249
but the enormous energy released
by fusion pushes outward,

346
00:20:38,251 --> 00:20:41,653
preventing the star
from collapsing.

347
00:20:41,655 --> 00:20:45,056
Stars are stable because you
have an outward-moving pressure

348
00:20:45,058 --> 00:20:46,558
due to nuclear fusion,

349
00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:49,260
and that's balancing with
the inward force of gravity.

350
00:20:52,065 --> 00:20:57,335
Smaller stars can't fuse
elements heavier than helium.

351
00:20:57,337 --> 00:21:00,071
But in the most massive stars,

352
00:21:00,073 --> 00:21:04,175
fusion crushes heavier
and heavier atoms

353
00:21:04,177 --> 00:21:07,412
all the way up to iron.

354
00:21:07,414 --> 00:21:11,049
Iron is such a massive element,
it has so many protons in it,

355
00:21:11,051 --> 00:21:14,719
that by the time you fuse iron,

356
00:21:14,721 --> 00:21:17,689
you don't get
any energy back out.

357
00:21:17,691 --> 00:21:20,225
Iron is a dead end for stars.

358
00:21:20,227 --> 00:21:23,628
Fusing atoms larger than iron

359
00:21:23,630 --> 00:21:26,831
doesn't release enough energy
to support the star.

360
00:21:26,833 --> 00:21:29,234
And without enough energy
from fusion

361
00:21:29,236 --> 00:21:31,169
keeping the star inflated,

362
00:21:31,171 --> 00:21:33,771
there's nothing
to fight gravity.

363
00:21:33,773 --> 00:21:36,841
And gravity wins.

364
00:21:36,843 --> 00:21:39,444
And so the entire star
collapses.

365
00:21:39,446 --> 00:21:45,483
Very rapidly, trillions of tons
of material come crashing down,

366
00:21:45,485 --> 00:21:48,653
hit the dense core,
and bounce back out,

367
00:21:48,655 --> 00:21:52,991
blowing off the outer layers of
the star in a massive explosion:

368
00:21:54,828 --> 00:21:58,696
a supernova.

369
00:21:58,698 --> 00:22:00,899
The more mass, the more gravity.

370
00:22:00,901 --> 00:22:04,002
So if the remaining core
is massive enough,

371
00:22:04,004 --> 00:22:06,771
gravity becomes unstoppable.

372
00:22:06,773 --> 00:22:08,273
There's no known force

373
00:22:08,275 --> 00:22:13,177
to prevent the collapse
to an infinitesimally small dot.

374
00:22:15,081 --> 00:22:17,282
Gravity crushes
the stellar core down,

375
00:22:17,284 --> 00:22:20,151
smaller and smaller and smaller,

376
00:22:20,153 --> 00:22:22,353
until all its mass is compressed

377
00:22:22,355 --> 00:22:26,991
in an infinitely small point:

378
00:22:26,993 --> 00:22:30,161
a black hole.

379
00:22:32,332 --> 00:22:33,932
The theory makes sense,

380
00:22:33,934 --> 00:22:39,137
but most physicists remain
skeptical about black holes.

381
00:22:39,139 --> 00:22:42,106
Einstein and Eddington,
all the sort of, you know,

382
00:22:42,108 --> 00:22:45,643
pre-eminent astrophysicists
in the 1930s through 1950s,

383
00:22:45,645 --> 00:22:48,580
did not believe
that they were actually real.

384
00:22:48,582 --> 00:22:52,116
It remained a solution,
a mathematical enigma,

385
00:22:52,118 --> 00:22:53,685
for a very long time.

386
00:22:53,687 --> 00:22:56,287
So it took a long time
for people

387
00:22:56,289 --> 00:22:58,990
to even start looking for them.

388
00:22:58,992 --> 00:23:01,826
It's not until the 1960s
that the idea

389
00:23:01,828 --> 00:23:04,295
of a supernova
creating a black hole

390
00:23:04,297 --> 00:23:07,799
is taken seriously.

391
00:23:07,801 --> 00:23:09,500
Princeton physicist
John Wheeler,

392
00:23:09,502 --> 00:23:11,936
who had originally
been a skeptic,

393
00:23:11,938 --> 00:23:14,105
begins to use a name
from history

394
00:23:14,107 --> 00:23:16,874
for these invisible objects:

395
00:23:16,876 --> 00:23:19,744
black hole.

396
00:23:19,746 --> 00:23:22,480
The term "black hole"
actually originates in India.

397
00:23:22,482 --> 00:23:26,284
The Black Hole was the name

398
00:23:26,286 --> 00:23:30,288
of an infamous prison
in Calcutta.

399
00:23:32,092 --> 00:23:37,095
Still, no one has ever detected
any sign of a black hole.

400
00:23:39,165 --> 00:23:43,234
Then, in 1967, graduate student
Jocelyn Bell
401
00:23:43,236 --> 00:23:47,605
discovers a strange,
extremely tiny dead star

402
00:23:47,607 --> 00:23:49,774
that gives off
very little light--

403
00:23:49,776 --> 00:23:53,378
a neutron star.

404
00:23:53,380 --> 00:23:55,680
The cold remains
of a stellar collapse,

405
00:23:55,682 --> 00:23:58,850
the neutron star gives
astronomers more confidence

406
00:23:58,852 --> 00:24:02,153
that black holes--
much heavier dead stars--

407
00:24:02,155 --> 00:24:05,556
might also exist.

408
00:24:07,527 --> 00:24:09,794
A half-century
after Karl Schwarzschild

409
00:24:09,796 --> 00:24:12,463
mathematically showed
that black holes

410
00:24:12,465 --> 00:24:14,966
were theoretically possible,

411
00:24:14,968 --> 00:24:18,236
scientists have identified
a natural process

412
00:24:18,238 --> 00:24:23,541
that might create them:
the death of large stars.

413
00:24:23,543 --> 00:24:25,376
So these giant supernova
explosions

414
00:24:25,378 --> 00:24:27,412
of extremely massive stars

415
00:24:27,414 --> 00:24:28,813
make black holes.

416
00:24:28,815 --> 00:24:31,315
Any star that is born
with a mass

417
00:24:31,317 --> 00:24:34,752
that's about ten times
the mass of the sun or higher,

418
00:24:34,754 --> 00:24:37,789
will end in a black hole.

419
00:24:37,791 --> 00:24:41,392
So our galaxy is replete
with little black holes,

420
00:24:41,394 --> 00:24:44,328
which are the stellar corpses
of generations of stars

421
00:24:44,330 --> 00:24:47,532
that have come and gone.

422
00:24:47,534 --> 00:24:52,704
So what are these invisible
stellar corpses like?

423
00:24:55,308 --> 00:24:58,042
Imagine I'm exploring space

424
00:24:58,044 --> 00:25:01,612
with some advanced technology
for interstellar travel,

425
00:25:01,614 --> 00:25:04,582
so that we could visit
a black hole--

426
00:25:04,584 --> 00:25:07,485
maybe one in
our own galactic neighborhood.

427
00:25:12,192 --> 00:25:14,859
This particular black hole
isn't very big,

428
00:25:14,861 --> 00:25:16,728
only about ten solar masses--

429
00:25:16,730 --> 00:25:19,330
meaning ten times
the mass of the sun.

430
00:25:19,332 --> 00:25:23,134
And like all black holes,
it has an event horizon--

431
00:25:23,136 --> 00:25:26,471
a distinct edge to the darkness.

432
00:25:26,473 --> 00:25:29,340
That's the boundary Karl
Schwarzschild first discovered,

433
00:25:29,342 --> 00:25:33,311
where gravity is so strong
that nothing can escape--

434
00:25:33,313 --> 00:25:34,812
not even light.

435
00:25:34,814 --> 00:25:36,914
And that's where we're going.

436
00:25:53,433 --> 00:25:58,402
As we get closer, some very
strange things begin to happen.

437
00:26:00,140 --> 00:26:02,507
Look at the edge
of the black hole--

438
00:26:02,509 --> 00:26:04,408
see how the image
of distant stars
439
00:26:04,410 --> 00:26:07,879
is distorted and smeared
into a circle?

440
00:26:07,881 --> 00:26:10,815
That's gravitational lensing.

441
00:26:10,817 --> 00:26:13,017
The black hole's extreme gravity

442
00:26:13,019 --> 00:26:15,586
bends the path
of light passing by,

443
00:26:15,588 --> 00:26:18,689
so that a single point of light,
like a star,

444
00:26:18,691 --> 00:26:23,227
briefly appears as a ring
around the event horizon.

445
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:29,767
I'm now deep in
the black hole's gravity well,

446
00:26:29,769 --> 00:26:32,403
and we're going to start
experiencing the effects.

447
00:26:32,405 --> 00:26:36,774
The extreme gravity
actually slows down time

448
00:26:36,776 --> 00:26:38,109
relative to the Earth.

449
00:26:38,111 --> 00:26:40,244
From their point of view...

450
00:26:40,246 --> 00:26:43,981
I appear to be slowing down.

451
00:26:43,983 --> 00:26:48,686
But from my point of view,
time on Earth is speeding up.

452
00:26:52,759 --> 00:26:55,827
Now, let's say I want
to get even closer,

453
00:26:55,829 --> 00:26:57,428
by taking a spacewalk.

454
00:27:13,213 --> 00:27:15,513
The way the black hole
slows down time

455
00:27:15,515 --> 00:27:17,949
is about to get
even more pronounced.

456
00:27:17,951 --> 00:27:22,220
To keep track of the changes
I'm about to experience,

457
00:27:22,222 --> 00:27:24,655
I'm turning on
this strobe light.

458
00:27:24,657 --> 00:27:26,991
It'll blink once a second.

459
00:27:26,993 --> 00:27:32,263
From here, I can see the shadow
of the event horizon approaching

460
00:27:32,265 --> 00:27:34,599
and my light blinking normally.

461
00:27:34,601 --> 00:27:36,968
But watching from the ship,

462
00:27:36,970 --> 00:27:39,937
the closer I move
toward the black hole,

463
00:27:39,939 --> 00:27:42,240
the more slowly
I appear to move.

464
00:27:42,242 --> 00:27:46,978
The pulses are
nearly infinitely spaced,

465
00:27:46,980 --> 00:27:51,849
so it looks as though
I'm frozen in time.

466
00:27:51,851 --> 00:27:55,119
For me, everything is
completely normal.

467
00:27:55,121 --> 00:27:57,655
Even when I reach
the event horizon.

468
00:28:00,126 --> 00:28:01,359
If you waited long enough--

469
00:28:01,361 --> 00:28:05,529
maybe millions
or billions of years--

470
00:28:05,531 --> 00:28:08,633
the ship would finally
see me disappear.

471
00:28:08,635 --> 00:28:12,536
And that's the last
you'd see of me.

472
00:28:16,142 --> 00:28:18,609
What's inside a black hole?

473
00:28:18,611 --> 00:28:20,211
That's still a mystery.

474
00:28:20,213 --> 00:28:24,348
And even if I find out, I can
never go back and tell you.

475
00:28:24,350 --> 00:28:28,953
But I can say this: black holes
may be dark from the outside,

476
00:28:28,955 --> 00:28:31,622
but inside, they can be bright.
477
00:28:31,624 --> 00:28:34,091
I can watch the light
from the galaxy

478
00:28:34,093 --> 00:28:36,327
that's fallen in behind me.

479
00:28:36,329 --> 00:28:39,764
And that's the last thing
I'll ever see.

480
00:28:39,766 --> 00:28:42,700
Unfortunately, the fun
is about to end.

481
00:28:46,806 --> 00:28:49,106
Now that I've crossed
the event horizon,

482
00:28:49,108 --> 00:28:51,275
I'm falling toward the center,

483
00:28:51,277 --> 00:28:55,313
where all of the mass of
the black hole is concentrated.

484
00:28:55,315 --> 00:28:59,250
And I'm beginning to get
stretched.

485
00:28:59,252 --> 00:29:03,521
As I fall in, the gravitational
pull at my feet

486
00:29:03,523 --> 00:29:05,289
is stronger than at my head,

487
00:29:05,291 --> 00:29:08,526
and my body is starting
to get pulled apart.

488
00:29:08,528 --> 00:29:11,062
I'll be stretched as long
and thin as a noodle--

489
00:29:11,064 --> 00:29:12,663
spaghettified.

490
00:29:12,665 --> 00:29:14,665
And ultimately, I'll end up

491
00:29:14,667 --> 00:29:18,336
completely disintegrating
into my fundamental particles,

492
00:29:18,338 --> 00:29:21,439
which are then crushed
to an infinitely small point.

493
00:29:25,211 --> 00:29:28,112
A singularity,
where everything we understand

494
00:29:28,114 --> 00:29:32,550
about space and time
breaks down.

495
00:29:32,552 --> 00:29:34,618
Or maybe the black hole--

496
00:29:34,620 --> 00:29:37,755
less than 40 miles across
on the outside--

497
00:29:37,757 --> 00:29:43,194
is as big as a universe
on the inside.

498
00:29:43,196 --> 00:29:44,595
And as I pass through,

499
00:29:44,597 --> 00:29:47,531
my particles will join
the primordial soup

500
00:29:47,533 --> 00:29:49,567
of a new beginning.

501
00:29:54,974 --> 00:29:58,009
So that's what theory tells us
we might experience
502
00:29:58,011 --> 00:30:00,444
if we could travel
to a black hole.

503
00:30:13,092 --> 00:30:15,226
But how can we know for sure?

504
00:30:15,228 --> 00:30:19,130
How do you investigate something
you can't even see?

505
00:30:21,434 --> 00:30:23,034
There are ways to investigate

506
00:30:23,036 --> 00:30:25,603
if something
is happening somewhere,

507
00:30:25,605 --> 00:30:29,407
even if I can't see that thing
directly.

508
00:30:29,409 --> 00:30:30,641
Take Yankee Stadium:

509
00:30:30,643 --> 00:30:33,344
what's happening inside there?

510
00:30:33,346 --> 00:30:34,712
Is there a game going on?

511
00:30:34,714 --> 00:30:36,380
I can't see the field.

512
00:30:36,382 --> 00:30:39,683
I can't see any players,
or baseballs, or bats.

513
00:30:39,685 --> 00:30:41,252
But I can definitely tell

514
00:30:41,254 --> 00:30:43,687
if there's activity
around the park.

515
00:30:46,492 --> 00:30:48,259
It's pretty clear
something is going on.

516
00:30:51,197 --> 00:30:53,964
It might seem obvious,
but whatever it is,

517
00:30:53,966 --> 00:30:57,234
I can learn a lot just by
observing the happenings

518
00:30:57,236 --> 00:30:58,602
around the stadium.

519
00:31:02,308 --> 00:31:04,141
And these do look a lot
like baseball fans.

520
00:31:11,050 --> 00:31:14,652
And that's the way
we investigate black holes:

521
00:31:14,654 --> 00:31:19,557
by observing the effect
they have on their surroundings.

522
00:31:19,559 --> 00:31:23,194
But what sort of effects?

523
00:31:23,196 --> 00:31:26,831
How might a black hole
reveal itself?

524
00:31:26,833 --> 00:31:30,501
Starting just before
World War II,

525
00:31:30,503 --> 00:31:32,236
two monumental discoveries

526
00:31:32,238 --> 00:31:35,272
are about
to radically change astronomy.

527
00:31:35,274 --> 00:31:41,045
In 1931, Bell Labs
engineer Karl Jansky

528
00:31:41,047 --> 00:31:46,016
picks up mysterious radio waves
emanating from deep space.

529
00:31:46,018 --> 00:31:49,487
Then the sky
gets even stranger--

530
00:31:49,489 --> 00:31:52,690
when scientists
mount Geiger counters

531
00:31:52,692 --> 00:31:54,391
on captured German rockets

532
00:31:54,393 --> 00:31:58,963
and discover the cosmos
is also full of X-rays.

533
00:32:02,235 --> 00:32:06,437
These discoveries give
astronomers important new tools

534
00:32:06,439 --> 00:32:08,939
that will revolutionize
the hunt for black holes

535
00:32:08,941 --> 00:32:11,408
and dramatically
expand our vision.

536
00:32:12,612 --> 00:32:15,212
What our eyes can perceive

537
00:32:15,214 --> 00:32:20,084
is a very narrow part
of the electromagnetic spectrum.

538
00:32:22,155 --> 00:32:24,288
If the electromagnetic spectrum

539
00:32:24,290 --> 00:32:26,123
were laid out
along the Brooklyn Bridge,
540
00:32:26,125 --> 00:32:28,292
the portion we can see
with our eyes

541
00:32:28,294 --> 00:32:31,495
would be just a few feet wide.

542
00:32:31,497 --> 00:32:33,063
Electromagnetic radiation

543
00:32:33,065 --> 00:32:36,667
includes waves of
many different frequencies:

544
00:32:36,669 --> 00:32:42,673
radio waves, microwaves,
infrared and ultraviolet light,

545
00:32:42,675 --> 00:32:46,143
X-rays, and gamma rays.

546
00:32:48,181 --> 00:32:51,448
Radio and X-ray astronomy
open up the sky,

547
00:32:51,450 --> 00:32:54,084
revealing dim or
even invisible objects

548
00:32:54,086 --> 00:32:58,689
blasting out powerful energy
no one knew was there.

549
00:32:58,691 --> 00:33:00,057
They began to realize

550
00:33:00,059 --> 00:33:02,293
that this very placid thing
that we see out there,

551
00:33:02,295 --> 00:33:06,096
all this very quiet thing that
looks like nothing is happening

552
00:33:06,098 --> 00:33:08,866
and the only thing
that's moving is the planets,

553
00:33:08,868 --> 00:33:10,201
found out that there
was madness going out there.

554
00:33:10,203 --> 00:33:11,769
It was chaos out there!

555
00:33:11,771 --> 00:33:17,341
X-rays come from the
high-energy end of the spectrum.

556
00:33:19,745 --> 00:33:23,747
What is creating
all this energy?

557
00:33:23,749 --> 00:33:26,450
This much thing is certain:
whatever the source,

558
00:33:26,452 --> 00:33:29,119
it is invisible
to ordinary telescopes.

559
00:33:29,121 --> 00:33:31,488
And it is hot.

560
00:33:31,490 --> 00:33:32,790
X-rays come from things

561
00:33:32,792 --> 00:33:36,126
which are at temperatures
of millions of degrees.

562
00:33:36,128 --> 00:33:37,461
Even tens of millions.

563
00:33:37,463 --> 00:33:40,197
One of the first
of these X-ray sources

564
00:33:40,199 --> 00:33:41,932
to catch the attention
of astronomers

565
00:33:41,934 --> 00:33:44,602
is named Cygnus X-1.

566
00:33:44,604 --> 00:33:47,304
Cygnus, it was
in the constellation Cygnus;

567
00:33:47,306 --> 00:33:48,872
X, it was an x-ray source;

568
00:33:48,874 --> 00:33:50,874
one, it was the first one
you found.

569
00:33:52,211 --> 00:33:56,247
In 1970, Paul Murdin
is a young English astronomer

570
00:33:56,249 --> 00:33:58,549
trying to secure his next job.

571
00:33:58,551 --> 00:33:59,850
I was a research fellow,

572
00:33:59,852 --> 00:34:02,620
I was coming to the end
of my three-year contract,

573
00:34:02,622 --> 00:34:05,990
and I thought, "What can
I contribute to finding out

574
00:34:05,992 --> 00:34:07,458
what these things are?"

575
00:34:10,062 --> 00:34:13,364
Murdin works
in a 15th-century castle

576
00:34:13,366 --> 00:34:16,200
surrounded by telescopes--

577
00:34:16,202 --> 00:34:19,503
the Royal Observatory.

578
00:34:19,505 --> 00:34:22,773
Using the largest telescope
in England,

579
00:34:22,775 --> 00:34:24,441
he begins searching the area

580
00:34:24,443 --> 00:34:28,345
of the constellation Cygnus,
the swan.

581
00:34:28,347 --> 00:34:32,983
He decides to hunt
for pairs of stars.

582
00:34:32,985 --> 00:34:36,420
Pairs of stars
are called binaries.

583
00:34:36,422 --> 00:34:40,658
They may sound exotic, but
they're not at all uncommon.

584
00:34:40,660 --> 00:34:44,228
Many of the stars we see--
perhaps half--

585
00:34:44,230 --> 00:34:46,263
are actually binaries,

586
00:34:46,265 --> 00:34:49,933
pairs of orbiting stars
locked together by gravity.

587
00:34:49,935 --> 00:34:55,406
But Murdin wonders: Is it
possible there are binaries

588
00:34:55,408 --> 00:34:58,976
where only one of
the stars is visible?

589
00:34:58,978 --> 00:35:02,146
I thought that maybe there was
a kind of a star system

590
00:35:02,148 --> 00:35:06,717
in which there was a star, one
ordinary star that made light,

591
00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:09,286
and then there was another star
nearby that made X-rays.

592
00:35:09,288 --> 00:35:12,923
The telltale sign of a binary

593
00:35:12,925 --> 00:35:16,860
is that the stars are moving
around each other.

594
00:35:16,862 --> 00:35:20,097
So Murdin begins searching
for a visible star

595
00:35:20,099 --> 00:35:21,865
that shows signs of motion.

596
00:35:21,867 --> 00:35:25,002
Sometimes it's coming towards
you, sometimes it's coming away.

597
00:35:25,004 --> 00:35:27,071
Sometimes it's coming towards
you, sometimes it's coming away.

598
00:35:27,073 --> 00:35:32,276
When the star is moving toward
us, it appears more blue,

599
00:35:32,278 --> 00:35:37,181
as the wavelength of its light
gets shorter.

600
00:35:37,183 --> 00:35:39,283
Moving away,
it appears more red,

601
00:35:39,285 --> 00:35:43,854
as the wavelength of its light
gets longer.

602
00:35:43,856 --> 00:35:47,324
This is known as Doppler shift.
603
00:35:47,326 --> 00:35:49,793
After looking for color changes

604
00:35:49,795 --> 00:35:52,863
in hundreds of stars
in the area of Cygnus,

605
00:35:52,865 --> 00:35:55,699
Murdin spots
a possible suspect--

606
00:35:55,701 --> 00:35:58,969
a visible star whose light
is shifting,

607
00:35:58,971 --> 00:36:01,739
as though moving around.

608
00:36:01,741 --> 00:36:06,110
It very clearly was
a binary star, a double star.

609
00:36:06,112 --> 00:36:09,780
The star was moving around
and around with a period,

610
00:36:09,782 --> 00:36:13,050
going around once,
every 5.6 days.

611
00:36:15,688 --> 00:36:19,289
But whatever it's going around
can't be seen.

612
00:36:19,291 --> 00:36:22,893
There was no trace in the
spectrum of the second star.

613
00:36:22,895 --> 00:36:24,061
There was one star there.

614
00:36:24,063 --> 00:36:25,763
There wasn't
the second star there.

615
00:36:25,765 --> 00:36:32,503
Murdin has a binary pair in
which only one star is visible.

616
00:36:32,505 --> 00:36:34,605
The second object emits X-rays,

617
00:36:34,607 --> 00:36:38,609
has enough mass and gravity
to dramatically move a star,

618
00:36:38,611 --> 00:36:41,979
but gives off no light.

619
00:36:41,981 --> 00:36:43,781
Could it be the corpse of a star

620
00:36:43,783 --> 00:36:47,718
massive enough
to become a black hole?

621
00:36:47,720 --> 00:36:49,553
The crucial issue in deciding

622
00:36:49,555 --> 00:36:51,855
whether Cygnus X-1
was a black hole

623
00:36:51,857 --> 00:36:56,160
was to measure the mass
of the X-ray-emitting object.

624
00:36:56,162 --> 00:36:59,530
It would have to be
very massive,

625
00:36:59,532 --> 00:37:02,800
at least three times
the mass of our sun.

626
00:37:02,802 --> 00:37:05,903
If not, it's probably
just a neutron star--

627
00:37:05,905 --> 00:37:09,339
a collapsed star that's dense,

628
00:37:09,341 --> 00:37:12,509
but not heavy enough
to be a black hole.

629
00:37:12,511 --> 00:37:17,114
So the observers needed
to come up with a conclusion

630
00:37:17,116 --> 00:37:18,315
that the dark object,

631
00:37:18,317 --> 00:37:22,686
the X-ray-emitting object
in Cygnus X-1,

632
00:37:22,688 --> 00:37:24,621
was heavier, hopefully
substantially heavier,

633
00:37:24,623 --> 00:37:26,356
than three solar masses.

634
00:37:26,358 --> 00:37:30,461
From his observations, Murdin
is able to make an estimate

635
00:37:30,463 --> 00:37:33,497
of the mass
of the invisible partner.

636
00:37:33,499 --> 00:37:39,002
And the answer came out to be
six times the mass of the sun.

637
00:37:39,004 --> 00:37:42,105
So there was a story, then,

638
00:37:42,107 --> 00:37:45,142
that Cygnus X-1
was a black hole.

639
00:37:45,144 --> 00:37:47,778
And the key to the argument was

640
00:37:47,780 --> 00:37:50,414
that the mass of the star
you couldn't see
641
00:37:50,416 --> 00:37:52,349
was more
than three solar masses.

642
00:37:52,351 --> 00:37:56,320
When I'd finished writing it all
out, I sat back and thought,

643
00:37:56,322 --> 00:37:59,656
"It's a black hole."

644
00:38:02,361 --> 00:38:06,864
This would be the first actual
detection of a black hole.

645
00:38:06,866 --> 00:38:11,435
It's a huge claim, and Murdin
will have to convince skeptics,

646
00:38:11,437 --> 00:38:14,204
starting with his boss.

647
00:38:14,206 --> 00:38:17,508
The Astronomer Royal,
Sir Richard Woolley.

648
00:38:17,510 --> 00:38:19,276
He didn't really go
for black holes.

649
00:38:19,278 --> 00:38:22,246
"It's all fanciful..."

650
00:38:22,248 --> 00:38:24,181
It's kind of-- a lot of people
in California

651
00:38:24,183 --> 00:38:25,482
were talking about this.

652
00:38:25,484 --> 00:38:28,051
There are a lot of
funny people in California.

653
00:38:28,053 --> 00:38:32,689
You know, a lot
of hippie-type people.

654
00:38:32,691 --> 00:38:36,159
People like theorist Kip Thorne.

655
00:38:36,161 --> 00:38:37,494
So I was nervous about it.

656
00:38:37,496 --> 00:38:40,297
I was nervous about
the scale of the discovery.

657
00:38:40,299 --> 00:38:42,833
And actually so were other
people all around me.

658
00:38:42,835 --> 00:38:49,573
I was working with a fellow
scientist, Louise Webster.

659
00:38:49,575 --> 00:38:52,676
And we were modest about the
claim that we were making

660
00:38:52,678 --> 00:38:55,279
because we knew what
people would think of it.

661
00:38:55,281 --> 00:38:57,781
And if you look
at the paper we published,

662
00:38:57,783 --> 00:39:02,619
it just mentions the word "black
hole" once, right at the end.

663
00:39:02,621 --> 00:39:04,621
"We think this might be
a black hole."

664
00:39:04,623 --> 00:39:11,762
The Paul Murdin-Louise Webster
paper appears in September 1971.

665
00:39:11,764 --> 00:39:16,600
Other astronomers agree:
It could be a black hole.

666
00:39:16,602 --> 00:39:19,236
But no one knows for sure.

667
00:39:21,340 --> 00:39:22,773
Three years later,

668
00:39:22,775 --> 00:39:26,209
Kip Thorne and the noted British
physicist Stephen Hawking

669
00:39:26,211 --> 00:39:30,280
make a now-famous wager
about Cygnus X-1.

670
00:39:30,282 --> 00:39:33,216
We made a bet
as to whether Cygnus X-1

671
00:39:33,218 --> 00:39:34,318
really was a black hole or not.

672
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:38,221
The bet is partly in jest.

673
00:39:38,223 --> 00:39:41,825
Both men hope
it is a black hole.

674
00:39:41,827 --> 00:39:46,730
But Hawking, not wanting to jinx
it, bets against his own wishes.

675
00:39:46,732 --> 00:39:49,633
Stephen claims that Cygnus X-1
is not a black hole.

676
00:39:49,635 --> 00:39:52,135
And I claim it is a black hole.

677
00:39:52,137 --> 00:39:57,674
And so we signed that bet
in December 1974.

678
00:39:57,676 --> 00:40:01,011
And gradually, the case
that it really was a black hole

679
00:40:01,013 --> 00:40:03,380
became stronger and stronger
and stronger.

680
00:40:03,382 --> 00:40:09,286
So in June of 1990,
Stephen broke into my office

681
00:40:09,288 --> 00:40:12,889
and he thumb-printed off
on this bet,

682
00:40:12,891 --> 00:40:14,524
conceded the bet in my absence.

683
00:40:14,526 --> 00:40:20,330
I came back from Russia and
discovered that he had conceded.

684
00:40:20,332 --> 00:40:25,802
Now, by 1990, the evidence
of Cygnus X-1's mass

685
00:40:25,804 --> 00:40:29,906
may be strg enough to settle
a bet between two friends.

686
00:40:29,908 --> 00:40:34,544
But the original estimate wasn't
precise enough to be definitive.

687
00:40:34,546 --> 00:40:37,347
In order to calculate mass,

688
00:40:37,349 --> 00:40:40,350
Paul Murdin had
to rely on rough estimates

689
00:40:40,352 --> 00:40:42,853
of the distance to Cygnus X-1,

690
00:40:42,855 --> 00:40:45,122
which varied by a factor of ten.
691
00:40:45,124 --> 00:40:49,059
And the question wouldn't be
answered for another 20 years,

692
00:40:49,061 --> 00:40:53,430
until astronomer Mark Reid
became intrigued by the puzzle.

693
00:40:53,432 --> 00:40:56,166
Reid is an astronomer

694
00:40:56,168 --> 00:40:59,636
at the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics

695
00:40:59,638 --> 00:41:01,838
when he sets out
to conclusively prove

696
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,241
that Cygnus X-1 is a black hole

697
00:41:04,243 --> 00:41:06,910
by measuring its precise mass.

698
00:41:08,914 --> 00:41:12,816
But how can you measure the mass
of an invisible object?

699
00:41:12,818 --> 00:41:14,418
Using laws developed

700
00:41:14,420 --> 00:41:16,953
by German astronomer
Johannes Kepler

701
00:41:16,955 --> 00:41:18,822
in the 1600s,

702
00:41:18,824 --> 00:41:22,626
it's possible to calculate
the mass of a celestial object--

703
00:41:22,628 --> 00:41:26,163
but only if you know
its distance.
704
00:41:28,434 --> 00:41:30,967
Distance in astronomy
is absolutely fundamental.

705
00:41:30,969 --> 00:41:33,937
If you don't know distance, you
don't know what the object is.

706
00:41:33,939 --> 00:41:37,708
It could be a very nearby
firefly-like thing.

707
00:41:37,710 --> 00:41:40,377
It could be a very distant,
huge star,

708
00:41:40,379 --> 00:41:42,846
much, much bigger than the sun.

709
00:41:42,848 --> 00:41:47,451
So to get the true,
precise mass of Cygnus X-1--

710
00:41:47,453 --> 00:41:50,520
and confirm
that it is a black hole--

711
00:41:50,522 --> 00:41:53,857
Reid needs to know
how far away it is.

712
00:41:53,859 --> 00:41:58,028
But how can he measure
the distance to a star?

713
00:41:58,030 --> 00:42:04,301
The secret lies in a familiar
phenomenon: parallax.

714
00:42:04,303 --> 00:42:09,506
It's what our eyes and brains
use to see in three dimensions.

715
00:42:09,508 --> 00:42:11,274
You can put your finger up
at arm's length,
716
00:42:11,276 --> 00:42:15,112
look at it,
and close one eye.

717
00:42:15,114 --> 00:42:16,379
I'm closing my left eye.

718
00:42:16,381 --> 00:42:17,581
And I'm looking at my finger

719
00:42:17,583 --> 00:42:20,984
relative to the wall
in the background there.

720
00:42:20,986 --> 00:42:23,086
And now if I open my eye,
close my right eye,

721
00:42:23,088 --> 00:42:27,124
I see my finger
has appeared to move

722
00:42:27,126 --> 00:42:29,359
with respect
to the original position.

723
00:42:29,361 --> 00:42:31,328
And that's because
our eyes are separated,

724
00:42:31,330 --> 00:42:33,630
and we view from
different vantage points.

725
00:42:33,632 --> 00:42:36,133
To use parallax

726
00:42:36,135 --> 00:42:38,702
to measure distance
to an object in the sky,

727
00:42:38,704 --> 00:42:40,804
astronomers let the motion
of the Earth

728
00:42:40,806 --> 00:42:44,775
provide the two different
vantage points.

729
00:42:44,777 --> 00:42:48,478
Imagine Cygnus X-1
is right here.

730
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:51,348
And the Earth and the sun
are over there.

731
00:42:51,350 --> 00:42:54,951
Now, the Earth goes
around the sun once a year.

732
00:42:54,953 --> 00:42:59,422
And in the springtime, the Earth
ends up on one side of the sun,

733
00:42:59,424 --> 00:43:03,627
and we observe Cygnus X-1
along a ray path like this.

734
00:43:05,230 --> 00:43:08,932
Then six months later,
the Earth goes around the sun

735
00:43:08,934 --> 00:43:11,301
to the other side.

736
00:43:11,303 --> 00:43:13,870
We get a different vantage point
from Cygnus X-1.

737
00:43:16,542 --> 00:43:18,708
Now he has a triangle that goes

738
00:43:18,710 --> 00:43:21,178
between the Earth
at its two positions

739
00:43:21,180 --> 00:43:25,015
and Cygnus X-1.

740
00:43:25,017 --> 00:43:26,716
We know the base
of the triangle,

741
00:43:26,718 --> 00:43:29,820
the diameter of Earth's orbit.

742
00:43:29,822 --> 00:43:31,988
And the principles of geometry
tell us

743
00:43:31,990 --> 00:43:34,858
that all we need
to calculate the distance

744
00:43:34,860 --> 00:43:37,494
is the size of
the angle at the top.

745
00:43:37,496 --> 00:43:40,163
And we measure
this very small angle here,

746
00:43:40,165 --> 00:43:41,965
at the point at Cygnus X-1.

747
00:43:41,967 --> 00:43:43,767
And then from direct geometry,

748
00:43:43,769 --> 00:43:46,670
we can calculate the distance
to Cygnus X-1

749
00:43:46,672 --> 00:43:48,972
and from that infer
a very accurate mass.

750
00:43:48,974 --> 00:43:52,175
The concept is simple.

751
00:43:52,177 --> 00:43:54,811
But Cygnus X-1 is so far away

752
00:43:54,813 --> 00:43:57,948
that the angle to be measured
is miniscule--

753
00:43:57,950 --> 00:44:00,884
a tiny fraction of one degree.

754
00:44:00,886 --> 00:44:03,987
It's smaller than the angle
spanned

755
00:44:03,989 --> 00:44:05,989
by Abraham Lincoln's nose

756
00:44:05,991 --> 00:44:11,394
on a penny in San Francisco
viewed from New York.

757
00:44:12,898 --> 00:44:15,832
Because the angle
is so very tiny,

758
00:44:15,834 --> 00:44:19,236
it can't be measured
by any one telescope.

759
00:44:19,238 --> 00:44:23,306
But Reid's team has a solution.

760
00:44:23,308 --> 00:44:25,208
We take ten radio telescopes

761
00:44:25,210 --> 00:44:28,144
that are spread
across the continental U.S.

762
00:44:28,146 --> 00:44:32,749
and to Hawaii and to St. Croix
in the Virgin Islands.

763
00:44:32,751 --> 00:44:35,418
We use these telescopes
simultaneously,

764
00:44:35,420 --> 00:44:38,655
and we synthesize in a computer

765
00:44:38,657 --> 00:44:42,125
a telescope that has a diameter
of the size of the Earth.

766
00:44:42,127 --> 00:44:44,794
That gives you incredible
angular resolution.

767
00:44:44,796 --> 00:44:48,298
Using this technique,
Reid's team determines

768
00:44:48,300 --> 00:44:52,936
that Cygnus X-1 is
6,000 light years away.

769
00:44:52,938 --> 00:44:56,539
With the new distance we got,
the 6,000-light-year distance,

770
00:44:56,541 --> 00:44:58,508
we're able to determine
that the mass

771
00:44:58,510 --> 00:45:01,211
is about 15 solar masses,

772
00:45:01,213 --> 00:45:03,179
easily a black hole.

773
00:45:06,852 --> 00:45:10,553
40 years after it was identified
as a possibility,

774
00:45:10,555 --> 00:45:14,724
Cygnus X-1 is
now widely accepted

775
00:45:14,726 --> 00:45:17,227
as the first confirmed
black hole.

776
00:45:17,229 --> 00:45:18,561
It's an understated paper,

777
00:45:18,563 --> 00:45:20,497
and the fact
that my name was on it

778
00:45:20,499 --> 00:45:22,098
and Louise Webster's was on it,
779
00:45:22,100 --> 00:45:24,401
did us a lot of good
in our careers.

780
00:45:24,403 --> 00:45:27,170
I think as a result
of this discovery,

781
00:45:27,172 --> 00:45:28,538
I got offered a permanent job.

782
00:45:28,540 --> 00:45:31,241
And it was a great celebration
for the family.

783
00:45:31,243 --> 00:45:34,277
So it worked out very well
for me--

784
00:45:34,279 --> 00:45:37,414
as well as getting
the intellectual satisfaction

785
00:45:37,416 --> 00:45:39,149
of solving a problem.

786
00:45:39,151 --> 00:45:44,988
So finally, after years
of speculation,

787
00:45:44,990 --> 00:45:47,390
we have a real black hole.

788
00:45:47,392 --> 00:45:51,928
Not only that, but a black hole
that's blasting out X-rays

789
00:45:51,930 --> 00:45:54,431
and has a companion star.

790
00:45:54,433 --> 00:45:58,802
If we could visit
in my imaginary spaceship,

791
00:45:58,804 --> 00:46:02,605
what would we see?

792
00:46:05,243 --> 00:46:07,077
The distance to Cygnus X-1

793
00:46:07,079 --> 00:46:11,681
has been established
at 6,000 light years from Earth.

794
00:46:11,683 --> 00:46:17,787
And its mass is 15 solar masses,
or 15 times the mass of the sun.

795
00:46:17,789 --> 00:46:24,361
And Cygnus X-1 is surrounded
by an accretion disk--

796
00:46:24,363 --> 00:46:29,699
a disk-shaped cloud of gas and
dust outside its event horizon,

797
00:46:29,701 --> 00:46:31,301
the point of no return.

798
00:46:31,303 --> 00:46:34,471
As gravity pulls matter
toward the black hole,

799
00:46:34,473 --> 00:46:36,573
the cloud starts rotating,

800
00:46:36,575 --> 00:46:41,344
just like water
being pulled down a drain.

801
00:46:41,346 --> 00:46:43,313
Within that accretion disk,

802
00:46:43,315 --> 00:46:47,050
particles closest
to the black hole whip around

803
00:46:47,052 --> 00:46:49,052
at half the speed of light.

804
00:46:49,054 --> 00:46:54,124
It's like a giant
particle accelerator in space.

805
00:46:54,126 --> 00:46:57,961
But why does it emit X-rays?

806
00:46:57,963 --> 00:47:01,731
As those particles race around,
they collide,

807
00:47:01,733 --> 00:47:04,501
which heats them up
to millions of degrees.

808
00:47:04,503 --> 00:47:09,906
When they get that hot,
particles blast out X-rays.

809
00:47:09,908 --> 00:47:13,576
And it's those X-rays that
first led astronomer Paul Murdin

810
00:47:13,578 --> 00:47:17,647
to investigate this black hole
nearly five decades ago.

811
00:47:21,219 --> 00:47:27,390
And there's something else
about Cygnus that's different:

812
00:47:27,392 --> 00:47:31,027
It has a companion star.

813
00:47:31,029 --> 00:47:33,329
This blue super-giant star

814
00:47:33,331 --> 00:47:38,701
orbits the black hole
once every 5.6 days.

815
00:47:38,703 --> 00:47:42,705
It orbits so close to Cygnus X-1

816
00:47:42,707 --> 00:47:45,875
that the black hole
strips material off the star
817
00:47:45,877 --> 00:47:47,944
and pulls it
into the accretion disk.

818
00:47:47,946 --> 00:47:51,081
Some of that material
will cross the event horizon

819
00:47:51,083 --> 00:47:55,785
and get swallowed up,
but not all of it.

820
00:47:55,787 --> 00:47:58,054
Some of the stuff
actually comes back out

821
00:47:58,056 --> 00:48:01,357
before ever entering
the black hole.

822
00:48:01,359 --> 00:48:03,026
Kind of like a toddler eating:

823
00:48:03,028 --> 00:48:04,994
Half the pasta ends up
on the floor,

824
00:48:04,996 --> 00:48:06,663
half of it may be
on the ceiling,

825
00:48:06,665 --> 00:48:08,064
and some of it in the mouth.

826
00:48:08,967 --> 00:48:10,233
One of the most striking

827
00:48:10,235 --> 00:48:13,603
and enigmatic features
of Cygnus X-1

828
00:48:13,605 --> 00:48:15,839
is its enormous jets.

829
00:48:15,841 --> 00:48:20,243
These beams of particles
and radiation stream outward

830
00:48:20,245 --> 00:48:22,612
from Cygnus's
north and south poles,

831
00:48:22,614 --> 00:48:24,881
perpendicular
to the accretion disk.

832
00:48:28,487 --> 00:48:31,421
There's still a lot
we don't know about these jets,

833
00:48:31,423 --> 00:48:35,792
but they are tightly focused
and extremely powerful,

834
00:48:35,794 --> 00:48:38,862
blasting out at nearly
the speed of light

835
00:48:38,864 --> 00:48:41,764
and extending
well beyond Cygnus.

836
00:48:41,766 --> 00:48:45,768
When gas gets
to these high temperatures

837
00:48:45,770 --> 00:48:47,170
and produces the light,

838
00:48:47,172 --> 00:48:50,707
there's also a little bit
of a magnetic field

839
00:48:50,709 --> 00:48:52,242
that forms around them.

840
00:48:52,244 --> 00:48:55,011
And we don't understand
exactly how,

841
00:48:55,013 --> 00:48:56,479
but these magnetic fields
842
00:48:56,481 --> 00:49:00,817
help collimate these massive
outflows from black holes,

843
00:49:00,819 --> 00:49:05,588
powerful hoses if you will,
that just spew matter out.

844
00:49:09,094 --> 00:49:12,729
So that's Cygnus X-1,
if we could see it up close--

845
00:49:12,731 --> 00:49:16,533
a growing, feeding black hole
with huge jets

846
00:49:16,535 --> 00:49:21,371
blasting particles way out
into the universe.

847
00:49:21,373 --> 00:49:25,875
They're almost these breathing,

848
00:49:25,877 --> 00:49:28,444
fire-eating demons, if you will.

849
00:49:28,446 --> 00:49:31,714
They flicker, they have bursts;

850
00:49:31,716 --> 00:49:36,586
it's a very violent fireball,
very active.

851
00:49:41,660 --> 00:49:45,295
What was once a bizarre
mathematical curiosity

852
00:49:45,297 --> 00:49:47,263
has now become quite real.

853
00:49:48,667 --> 00:49:51,000
After decades of skepticism,

854
00:49:51,002 --> 00:49:54,103
scientists now accept
that burned-out corpses
855
00:49:54,105 --> 00:49:55,104
of large stars

856
00:49:55,106 --> 00:49:57,440
can trap light inside them,

857
00:49:57,442 --> 00:49:59,976
warp space and time
around them,

858
00:49:59,978 --> 00:50:05,448
attract matter, and accelerate
it to mind-boggling speeds.

859
00:50:05,450 --> 00:50:07,650
Black holes seemed like
such a radical idea

860
00:50:07,652 --> 00:50:10,119
that we shouldn't accept it.

861
00:50:10,121 --> 00:50:11,654
But bit by bit, the evidence
for black holes

862
00:50:11,656 --> 00:50:14,290
has gotten stronger
and stronger.

863
00:50:14,292 --> 00:50:17,927
And we've seen
these amazing things.

864
00:50:20,799 --> 00:50:24,033
At least 20 black holes
have been found in our galaxy,

865
00:50:24,035 --> 00:50:28,738
X-ray binaries, like Cnus X-1.

866
00:50:28,740 --> 00:50:32,108
And there are probably
millions more

867
00:50:32,110 --> 00:50:33,476
of these massive stellar corpses

868
00:50:33,478 --> 00:50:37,280
in our galaxy alone.

869
00:50:37,282 --> 00:50:42,185
Still, a stunning
surprise awaits.

870
00:50:42,187 --> 00:50:46,189
Everything astronomers think
they know about black holes--

871
00:50:46,191 --> 00:50:50,293
and much of what they believe
about the universe itself--

872
00:50:50,295 --> 00:50:53,696
will be upended
by a shocking discovery.

873
00:50:57,035 --> 00:51:01,204
The revelations begin when radio
telescope surveys of the sky

874
00:51:01,206 --> 00:51:05,275
detect mysterious hot spots
emitting radio energy.

875
00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:11,047
They were coming
from what looked like stars.

876
00:51:11,049 --> 00:51:15,118
Because these objects
resemble stars,

877
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:18,288
but were discovered
through radio signals,

878
00:51:18,290 --> 00:51:22,558
astronomers name them
quasi-stellar radio sources--

879
00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:23,960
quasars.
880
00:51:23,962 --> 00:51:27,563
But are they stars or not?

881
00:51:27,565 --> 00:51:29,932
The first step
in investigating them

882
00:51:29,934 --> 00:51:34,304
is to figure out
what they're made of.

883
00:51:34,306 --> 00:51:36,606
To do that, astronomers analyze

884
00:51:36,608 --> 00:51:39,809
the electromagnetic energy
they emit.

885
00:51:39,811 --> 00:51:43,613
Every element has a unique
spectral fingerprint.

886
00:51:43,615 --> 00:51:45,982
For example, carbon.

887
00:51:45,984 --> 00:51:47,884
Helium.

888
00:51:47,886 --> 00:51:49,786
Hydrogen.

889
00:51:49,788 --> 00:51:53,690
These lines reveal
the chemical make-up of a star.

890
00:51:53,692 --> 00:51:57,527
But the spectrum of a quasar

891
00:51:57,529 --> 00:52:00,897
turns out to be
incomprehensible.

892
00:52:00,899 --> 00:52:04,534
They looked at it
and it was gibberish.
893
00:52:04,536 --> 00:52:08,871
It didn't look like
there were any emissions

894
00:52:08,873 --> 00:52:10,340
from elements that they knew.

895
00:52:10,342 --> 00:52:14,310
What are they missing?

896
00:52:14,312 --> 00:52:16,746
There has to be
a clue somewhere.

897
00:52:16,748 --> 00:52:23,319
Finally, in 1963, Caltech
astronomer Maarten Schmidt

898
00:52:23,321 --> 00:52:26,322
finds it hiding in plain sight.

899
00:52:26,324 --> 00:52:31,894
Buried in the quasar's spectrum
is the fingerprint of hydrogen.

900
00:52:31,896 --> 00:52:35,064
He noticed something familiar,
but it was in the wrong place.

901
00:52:35,066 --> 00:52:42,739
The fingerprints of hydrogen had
been shifted way off to the red.

902
00:52:42,741 --> 00:52:46,442
It was hard to spot because
the spectral lines of hydrogen

903
00:52:46,444 --> 00:52:49,779
were radically shifted toward
the lower-frequency end

904
00:52:49,781 --> 00:52:51,647
of the spectrum.

905
00:52:51,649 --> 00:52:54,450
And that could only
mean one thing.

906
00:52:57,956 --> 00:53:02,125
The quasar is moving away
from us at fantastic speed.

907
00:53:03,461 --> 00:53:06,763
But astronomers have never
before seen light shifted

908
00:53:06,765 --> 00:53:08,731
to such an extreme.

909
00:53:11,269 --> 00:53:16,139
Like a familiar sound shifting
too low to understand,

910
00:53:16,141 --> 00:53:20,076
the light from quasars
has shifted to such a degree

911
00:53:20,078 --> 00:53:23,513
that hydrogen is unrecognizable.

912
00:53:23,515 --> 00:53:25,848
This extreme amount of shift

913
00:53:25,850 --> 00:53:30,486
means quasars are racing away
from us at blinding speeds.

914
00:53:30,488 --> 00:53:32,188
The reason?

915
00:53:32,190 --> 00:53:34,090
It's the legacy of an event

916
00:53:34,092 --> 00:53:38,761
that occurred almost 14 billion
years ago: the Big Bang.

917
00:53:42,534 --> 00:53:47,003
The beginning of our universe.

918
00:53:47,005 --> 00:53:49,372
And ever since, the universe
has been expanding,

919
00:53:49,374 --> 00:53:54,477
carrying with it all the objects
it contains, including quasars.

920
00:53:54,479 --> 00:53:57,980
No one had ever seen anything
moving away at that high speed.

921
00:53:57,982 --> 00:54:00,450
This made this object
the furthest-away thing

922
00:54:00,452 --> 00:54:02,151
that had ever been seen,

923
00:54:02,153 --> 00:54:05,254
which meant the thing itself
had to be so luminous,

924
00:54:05,256 --> 00:54:06,489
and you had to account for that.

925
00:54:08,126 --> 00:54:10,793
Two billion light years away,
putting out the energy

926
00:54:10,795 --> 00:54:13,796
of a trillion suns each second.

927
00:54:15,467 --> 00:54:19,469
What could possibly create that?

928
00:54:19,471 --> 00:54:22,205
No one had any idea what could
be powering these things.

929
00:54:22,207 --> 00:54:24,807
Where could all
of this energy come from?

930
00:54:24,809 --> 00:54:27,577
If you work out
through calculations,
931
00:54:27,579 --> 00:54:29,378
it can't be chemical energy.

932
00:54:31,583 --> 00:54:33,249
They knew it couldn't
be nuclear energy.

933
00:54:35,286 --> 00:54:39,288
There's no way a quasar
could be a star.

934
00:54:39,290 --> 00:54:40,656
No amount of nuclear fusion

935
00:54:40,658 --> 00:54:44,460
could produce
that much star power.

936
00:54:44,462 --> 00:54:47,396
The only engine
that could possibly

937
00:54:47,398 --> 00:54:49,365
put out that much energy
is gravity.

938
00:54:51,736 --> 00:54:53,135
Gravity.

939
00:54:53,137 --> 00:54:57,907
In everyday life, we can
overcome gravity easily.

940
00:54:57,909 --> 00:55:02,311
But when concentrated
to an extreme by a black hole,

941
00:55:02,313 --> 00:55:05,448
gravity is
overwhelmingly powerful.

942
00:55:05,450 --> 00:55:08,951
A handful of scientists
start wondering:

943
00:55:08,953 --> 00:55:13,322
Could quasars perhaps
be powered by gravity engines?

944
00:55:13,324 --> 00:55:16,726
What if the energy blasting out
from quasars

945
00:55:16,728 --> 00:55:21,731
is coming from bright accretion
disks around black holes?

946
00:55:21,733 --> 00:55:26,335
To produce that kind of energy,

947
00:55:26,337 --> 00:55:28,204
that kind of brightness,

948
00:55:28,206 --> 00:55:29,805
it has to involve a black hole.

949
00:55:29,807 --> 00:55:33,809
But not just any black hole.

950
00:55:33,811 --> 00:55:37,046
Whatever was the source
of the emission from a quasar

951
00:55:37,048 --> 00:55:39,148
had to be massive.

952
00:55:39,150 --> 00:55:40,917
How massive?

953
00:55:40,919 --> 00:55:44,887
Well, millions or billions
of times heavier than the sun.

954
00:55:44,889 --> 00:55:50,426
Millions or billions of times
heavier than the sun.

955
00:55:50,428 --> 00:55:55,898
Cygnus X-1 is only 15 times
the mass of the sun.

956
00:55:55,900 --> 00:55:57,600
The black holes powering quasars

957
00:55:57,602 --> 00:56:03,105
are an entirely different
category of black hole:

958
00:56:03,107 --> 00:56:04,941
supermassives.

959
00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:13,382
And they seem to be located
in the centers of galaxies.

960
00:56:17,589 --> 00:56:20,456
But what about our own galaxy?

961
00:56:20,458 --> 00:56:25,695
Could there be any supermassive
black holes closer to home?

962
00:56:25,697 --> 00:56:28,598
The center, where any
supermassive would be found,

963
00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:32,234
lies in the direction of the
constellation Sagittarius,

964
00:56:32,236 --> 00:56:36,272
the Archer.

965
00:56:36,274 --> 00:56:39,575
Now, Sagittarius
isn't just any constellation.

966
00:56:39,577 --> 00:56:42,011
It's in the direction
of the center

967
00:56:42,013 --> 00:56:43,846
of our own Milky Way Galaxy.

968
00:56:43,848 --> 00:56:47,450
But since we live
inside the Milky Way,

969
00:56:47,452 --> 00:56:50,586
we can't see the galaxy
the way a space traveler would.

970
00:56:52,924 --> 00:56:56,859
But I can use my trusted
imaginary star machine

971
00:56:56,861 --> 00:56:59,462
to show us the galaxy
from the outside.

972
00:56:59,464 --> 00:57:04,467
Our home is a spiral galaxy,
hundreds of billions of stars,

973
00:57:04,469 --> 00:57:07,637
drawn together
into a gigantic disk.

974
00:57:07,639 --> 00:57:11,874
It's wide, about
100,000 light years across.

975
00:57:11,876 --> 00:57:14,143
But it's relatively thin,

976
00:57:14,145 --> 00:57:16,512
only about
1,000 light years thick.

977
00:57:16,514 --> 00:57:20,683
And the whole spiral
slowly rotates.

978
00:57:20,685 --> 00:57:23,653
Our solar system is here.

979
00:57:23,655 --> 00:57:26,555
And here, 26,000 light years
from the Earth,

980
00:57:26,557 --> 00:57:30,893
is the center, which we see
in the direction of Sagittarius.

981
00:57:30,895 --> 00:57:34,597
In this dense center,
there are millions of stars,

982
00:57:34,599 --> 00:57:38,834
and lots and lots
of dust and gas.

983
00:57:38,836 --> 00:57:41,937
So that's the view of our galaxy
from the outside,

984
00:57:41,939 --> 00:57:43,906
thanks to
my imaginary technology.

985
00:57:43,908 --> 00:57:47,343
But since we live
inside the Milky Way,

986
00:57:47,345 --> 00:57:48,744
when we look towards the center,

987
00:57:48,746 --> 00:57:52,515
we're looking through much
of our own galaxy,

988
00:57:52,517 --> 00:57:54,550
which means it appears to us

989
00:57:54,552 --> 00:58:01,157
as a band of stars and dust
across the sky-- a milky way.

990
00:58:03,861 --> 00:58:06,929
Deep inside this band
of stars and dust,

991
00:58:06,931 --> 00:58:10,966
could a supermassive
black hole be lurking?

992
00:58:10,968 --> 00:58:13,869
The data that
we're getting now...

993
00:58:13,871 --> 00:58:19,308
In the 1990s, astronomers grow
determined to solve the mystery,

994
00:58:19,310 --> 00:58:22,144
to peer through
the murky Milky Way

995
00:58:22,146 --> 00:58:25,881
and learn what, if anything,
is at its center.

996
00:58:25,883 --> 00:58:29,218
One of them is Andrea Ghez.

997
00:58:29,220 --> 00:58:30,619
One in 20...

998
00:58:30,621 --> 00:58:33,489
Ghez takes on
a daunting challenge.

999
00:58:33,491 --> 00:58:36,225
She will try to track
individual stars

1000
00:58:36,227 --> 00:58:38,961
orbiting the center
of the galaxy.

1001
00:58:38,963 --> 00:58:41,530
The essence of this experiment
comes from watching

1002
00:58:41,532 --> 00:58:44,400
stars orbit the center
of the galaxy.

1003
00:58:44,402 --> 00:58:47,303
So you want to find the stars

1004
00:58:47,305 --> 00:58:51,774
that are as close to the center
of the galaxy as possible.

1005
00:58:51,776 --> 00:58:53,676
Which means that
I want to get access
1006
00:58:53,678 --> 00:58:57,713
to the largest telescope
I can possibly get my hands on.

1007
00:58:59,117 --> 00:59:02,718
And that means coming... here.

1008
00:59:04,989 --> 00:59:08,557
The summit of Mauna Kea,
a dormant volcano

1009
00:59:08,559 --> 00:59:12,128
almost 14,000 feet
above the beaches of Hawaii.

1010
00:59:12,130 --> 00:59:15,364
High altitude and low humidity

1011
00:59:15,366 --> 00:59:19,135
make this the ideal place
for astronomy.

1012
00:59:21,539 --> 00:59:26,408
The instrument Ghez uses
is Mauna Kea's Keck Observatory,

1013
00:59:26,410 --> 00:59:28,310
one of the largest in the world.

1014
00:59:28,312 --> 00:59:32,915
But despite its size,
Keck has the same problem

1015
00:59:32,917 --> 00:59:35,217
as all telescopes on Earth:

1016
00:59:35,219 --> 00:59:39,188
atmospheric distortion.

1017
00:59:39,190 --> 00:59:41,290
Think about looking at a pebble

1018
00:59:41,292 --> 00:59:42,958
at the bottom of a river.

1019
00:59:42,960 --> 00:59:45,261
The river is moving very quickly

1020
00:59:45,263 --> 00:59:48,631
and your view of that pebble
is distorted.

1021
00:59:48,633 --> 00:59:50,966
Like a river,

1022
00:59:50,968 --> 00:59:53,302
the Earth's atmosphere
is constantly changing,

1023
00:59:53,304 --> 00:59:56,806
bending light
like a funhouse mirror.

1024
00:59:56,808 --> 01:00:01,143
To compensate for this,
Keck pioneers the scientific use

1025
01:00:01,145 --> 01:00:04,547
of a declassified
military technology

1026
01:00:04,549 --> 01:00:06,215
called adaptive optics.

1027
01:00:06,217 --> 01:00:10,719
First, they shine a laser
into the sky,

1028
01:00:10,721 --> 01:00:14,056
creating an artificial
guide star.

1029
01:00:14,058 --> 01:00:18,227
The turbulent atmosphere
distorts the guide star,

1030
01:00:18,229 --> 01:00:21,697
but the computer knows
what it should look like,

1031
01:00:21,699 --> 01:00:25,301
and adjusts the telescope mirror
accordingly.

1032
01:00:25,303 --> 01:00:28,137
So if you look at yourself
in a circus funhouse mirror,

1033
01:00:28,139 --> 01:00:29,638
you look completely distorted.

1034
01:00:29,640 --> 01:00:31,974
And the goal
of the adaptive optics system

1035
01:00:31,976 --> 01:00:35,044
is to introduce a second mirror
that's the exact opposite shape

1036
01:00:35,046 --> 01:00:36,846
and make you look flat again.

1037
01:00:38,449 --> 01:00:40,182
Buried deep inside
the telescope,

1038
01:00:40,184 --> 01:00:42,484
the deformable mirror
changes shape

1039
01:00:42,486 --> 01:00:44,620
up to 2,000 times a second

1040
01:00:44,622 --> 01:00:47,790
to reverse the atmosphere's
distortion.

1041
01:00:47,792 --> 01:00:51,627
And it has allowed us
to take the sharpest images

1042
01:00:51,629 --> 01:00:56,065
ever obtained
of the center of the galaxy.

1043
01:00:56,067 --> 01:00:59,935
The sharpness of those images
allows Ghez
1044
01:00:59,937 --> 01:01:03,105
to make out individual stars
near the center--

1045
01:01:03,107 --> 01:01:05,774
a huge advance in astronomy.

1046
01:01:05,776 --> 01:01:09,278
She begins recording
their positions in 1995.

1047
01:01:09,280 --> 01:01:11,747
And every year since then,

1048
01:01:11,749 --> 01:01:13,983
we've taken an image--
just take a picture.

1049
01:01:13,985 --> 01:01:16,852
Putting those annual snapshots
together

1050
01:01:16,854 --> 01:01:20,055
creates a time-lapse movie
of stellar orbits.

1051
01:01:20,057 --> 01:01:25,361
And what those movies reveal
is astounding.

1052
01:01:26,998 --> 01:01:29,665
The stars are whipping around
the center of the Milky Way

1053
01:01:29,667 --> 01:01:33,836
at phenomenal speeds.

1054
01:01:33,838 --> 01:01:36,205
These things are moving
at several thousand,

1055
01:01:36,207 --> 01:01:38,274
up to 10,000 kilometers,
per second,

1056
01:01:38,276 --> 01:01:41,377
or ten million miles per hour.

1057
01:01:41,379 --> 01:01:43,178
They're, they're really hauling.

1058
01:01:43,180 --> 01:01:47,416
To go that fast,
the stars must be orbiting

1059
01:01:47,418 --> 01:01:50,920
something extremely massive.

1060
01:01:50,922 --> 01:01:52,187
The mass that we infer

1061
01:01:52,189 --> 01:01:55,024
is four million times
the mass of the sun.

1062
01:01:55,026 --> 01:01:59,361
What could be four million times
the mass of the sun

1063
01:01:59,363 --> 01:02:02,464
yet be completely invisible?

1064
01:02:02,466 --> 01:02:04,333
That is the proof
of a black hole.

1065
01:02:04,335 --> 01:02:07,503
And not just any black hole--

1066
01:02:07,505 --> 01:02:10,506
a supermassive,
silent and sleeping,

1067
01:02:10,508 --> 01:02:15,077
right in the center
of our own galaxy.

1068
01:02:15,079 --> 01:02:16,779
In fact, this is
the best evidence to date

1069
01:02:16,781 --> 01:02:19,815
that we have for the existence
of supermassive black holes,

1070
01:02:19,817 --> 01:02:21,817
not only
in the center of our own galaxy,

1071
01:02:21,819 --> 01:02:24,153
but anywhere in the universe.

1072
01:02:27,024 --> 01:02:29,959
A supermassive black hole

1073
01:02:29,961 --> 01:02:32,294
four million times
the mass of the sun,

1074
01:02:32,296 --> 01:02:35,898
in the very center
of our own Milky Way galaxy.

1075
01:02:35,900 --> 01:02:40,903
From a cosmic perspective,
it's right next door.

1076
01:02:40,905 --> 01:02:44,006
And it raises
a profound question.

1077
01:02:44,008 --> 01:02:46,775
There are billions of galaxies
out there.

1078
01:02:46,777 --> 01:02:49,778
If ours has a supermassive
black hole at its center,

1079
01:02:49,780 --> 01:02:52,648
and if quasars are found
at the centers

1080
01:02:52,650 --> 01:02:54,116
of their galaxies,

1081
01:02:54,118 --> 01:02:56,652
what about the others?
1082
01:02:59,523 --> 01:03:02,624
Are there black holes
at the centers of galaxies?

1083
01:03:02,626 --> 01:03:04,860
If they are,
how common are they?

1084
01:03:04,862 --> 01:03:06,395
We simply didn't know.

1085
01:03:06,397 --> 01:03:10,566
Could astronomers ever hope
to find what lurks

1086
01:03:10,568 --> 01:03:12,935
at the centers
of other galaxies,

1087
01:03:12,937 --> 01:03:17,806
millions of light years away,
as Ghez did in our Milky Way?

1088
01:03:19,310 --> 01:03:22,111
It would take another innovation
in astronomy

1089
01:03:22,113 --> 01:03:23,846
to make that possible.

1090
01:03:23,848 --> 01:03:26,081
And lift-off of the space
shuttle Discovery,

1091
01:03:26,083 --> 01:03:30,219
with the Hubble Space Telescope,
our window on the universe.

1092
01:03:30,221 --> 01:03:34,423
When the Hubble Space Telescope
starts delivering clear images

1093
01:03:34,425 --> 01:03:35,591
of distant galaxies,

1094
01:03:35,593 --> 01:03:38,861
a team of astronomers
gets to work.

1095
01:03:38,863 --> 01:03:41,897
They become known
as "the Nukers"

1096
01:03:41,899 --> 01:03:44,566
because their focus
is galactic nuclei,

1097
01:03:44,568 --> 01:03:47,069
the centers of galaxies.

1098
01:03:47,071 --> 01:03:50,105
One of them is Tod Lauer.

1099
01:03:50,107 --> 01:03:53,475
Step one,
we take a picture of the galaxy

1100
01:03:53,477 --> 01:03:55,277
with the Hubble Space Telescope.

1101
01:03:55,279 --> 01:03:58,514
It shows us where the stars
in the galaxy are.

1102
01:03:58,516 --> 01:04:01,850
It tells us its structure
in exquisite resolution.

1103
01:04:04,055 --> 01:04:06,889
The key to finding
supermassive black holes

1104
01:04:06,891 --> 01:04:10,859
is to learn how fast the stars
in the galaxy are moving.

1105
01:04:10,861 --> 01:04:15,130
Galaxies outside our own
are much too far away

1106
01:04:15,132 --> 01:04:18,500
to measure the speed
of individual stars.
1107
01:04:18,502 --> 01:04:21,537
But by analyzing the way light
is shifted from blue to red

1108
01:04:21,539 --> 01:04:24,573
at different points
in the galaxy,

1109
01:04:24,575 --> 01:04:27,876
astronomers can put together
an average speed of stars

1110
01:04:27,878 --> 01:04:31,080
orbiting the center.

1111
01:04:31,082 --> 01:04:35,651
It's accurate enough to create
a replica in a computer.

1112
01:04:35,653 --> 01:04:38,320
The second step,
where the real work begins,

1113
01:04:38,322 --> 01:04:42,024
is to try to model
the observations.

1114
01:04:42,026 --> 01:04:45,861
And we actually do that
by building models of galaxies

1115
01:04:45,863 --> 01:04:47,229
in the computer.

1116
01:04:47,231 --> 01:04:50,399
It's known as
Schwarzschild's method,

1117
01:04:50,401 --> 01:04:54,002
developed by Princeton
astronomer Martin Schwarzschild,

1118
01:04:54,004 --> 01:04:55,904
son of Karl Schwarzschild,

1119
01:04:55,906 --> 01:04:58,107
whose mathematics
first described

1120
01:04:58,109 --> 01:05:01,643
the possibility of black holes.

1121
01:05:01,645 --> 01:05:03,912
Martin Schwarzschild's trick
was,

1122
01:05:03,914 --> 01:05:07,883
he would actually build up
a model of the galaxy

1123
01:05:07,885 --> 01:05:10,953
that not only had
where the mass was,

1124
01:05:10,955 --> 01:05:13,789
but it also had
how the stars were moving.

1125
01:05:15,059 --> 01:05:16,525
For each galaxy
they investigate,

1126
01:05:16,527 --> 01:05:20,996
the Nukers painstakingly build
a computer model and then,

1127
01:05:20,998 --> 01:05:22,397
using trial and error,

1128
01:05:22,399 --> 01:05:25,601
adjust the parameters
of mass and velocity--

1129
01:05:25,603 --> 01:05:29,004
trying to make the model
match the original observations

1130
01:05:29,006 --> 01:05:31,940
they got from the Hubble.

1131
01:05:31,942 --> 01:05:34,243
And we say,
"Let's try a star here,

1132
01:05:34,245 --> 01:05:35,377
"let's try one over here.

1133
01:05:35,379 --> 01:05:37,212
"Let's have it go around
this way.

1134
01:05:37,214 --> 01:05:38,780
Let's have this one go around
that way."

1135
01:05:38,782 --> 01:05:42,317
And we do this thousands
and thousands of times

1136
01:05:42,319 --> 01:05:43,919
until we build up a library

1137
01:05:43,921 --> 01:05:47,990
of how stars can orbit
in this galaxy.

1138
01:05:49,460 --> 01:05:52,528
Success is when observations
of the model

1139
01:05:52,530 --> 01:05:57,866
match the observations taken
with the Hubble Space Telescope.

1140
01:05:57,868 --> 01:06:01,203
But that doesn't happen.

1141
01:06:01,205 --> 01:06:04,139
The models are missing
something.

1142
01:06:04,141 --> 01:06:06,575
We try it again and again
and again,

1143
01:06:06,577 --> 01:06:08,977
all with no black hole yet,
and we say,
1144
01:06:08,979 --> 01:06:13,148
"Gee, we really can't get
the observations explained

1145
01:06:13,150 --> 01:06:14,650
by the model."

1146
01:06:14,652 --> 01:06:18,620
Only when they add
an enormous invisible mass

1147
01:06:18,622 --> 01:06:20,622
at the galaxy's center

1148
01:06:20,624 --> 01:06:24,459
does the model match
the Hubble observations.

1149
01:06:24,461 --> 01:06:27,663
Almost always
we have to put in

1150
01:06:27,665 --> 01:06:29,264
a black hole at the center.

1151
01:06:29,266 --> 01:06:31,033
We can't match the observations

1152
01:06:31,035 --> 01:06:35,504
without a black hole
in the model.

1153
01:06:37,208 --> 01:06:40,375
Of roughly three dozen galaxies
that the Nukers investigate,

1154
01:06:40,377 --> 01:06:44,580
virtually all of them require
a supermassive black hole.

1155
01:06:44,582 --> 01:06:48,417
And since then,
other observations have made us

1156
01:06:48,419 --> 01:06:49,918
even more certain
1157
01:06:49,920 --> 01:06:54,489
that supermassives and galaxies
go together.

1158
01:06:54,491 --> 01:06:56,124
Every galaxy
we've looked for one,

1159
01:06:56,126 --> 01:06:58,961
we have found a supermassive
black hole in its center.

1160
01:07:00,531 --> 01:07:02,931
It's a stunning revelation.

1161
01:07:02,933 --> 01:07:04,399
Supermassives--

1162
01:07:04,401 --> 01:07:08,303
once an entirely unexpected
category of black holes--

1163
01:07:08,305 --> 01:07:10,072
may be common,

1164
01:07:10,074 --> 01:07:12,941
not only at the center
of our galaxy,

1165
01:07:12,943 --> 01:07:15,510
but of all galaxies.

1166
01:07:15,512 --> 01:07:18,013
Take galaxy M31,

1167
01:07:18,015 --> 01:07:21,250
also known as
the Great Andromeda Galaxy.

1168
01:07:21,252 --> 01:07:24,820
It's two-and-a-half million
light years away.

1169
01:07:24,822 --> 01:07:29,024
On a clear night,
you can see it from Earth.

1170
01:07:29,026 --> 01:07:31,660
But even with
the Hubble Space Telescope,

1171
01:07:31,662 --> 01:07:35,831
we can't make out
precise details of its center.

1172
01:07:35,833 --> 01:07:37,532
Still, we're pretty sure

1173
01:07:37,534 --> 01:07:41,203
there's something extremely
massive hiding there.

1174
01:07:44,141 --> 01:07:47,376
What if we could take
a closer look?

1175
01:07:47,378 --> 01:07:51,280
What if we could visit
a galaxy far, far away?

1176
01:08:00,324 --> 01:08:02,624
As we enter the outer part
of Andromeda,

1177
01:08:02,626 --> 01:08:06,928
we're still too far away to see
what's lurking at the center.

1178
01:08:06,930 --> 01:08:07,996
But we can make out

1179
01:08:07,998 --> 01:08:11,199
a dense cluster of stars
in the core,

1180
01:08:11,201 --> 01:08:12,701
and that could be a sign

1181
01:08:12,703 --> 01:08:16,104
that there's a giant black hole
nearby.
1182
01:08:17,508 --> 01:08:20,709
Billions of years ago,
it would have been surrounded

1183
01:08:20,711 --> 01:08:25,414
by gas and stars
and other small black holes.

1184
01:08:25,416 --> 01:08:27,749
The black hole
may have powered a quasar,

1185
01:08:27,751 --> 01:08:32,487
feeding mad, and blasting out
blinding radiation.

1186
01:08:32,489 --> 01:08:34,623
Over hundreds of millions
of years,

1187
01:08:34,625 --> 01:08:35,891
it would have consumed

1188
01:08:35,893 --> 01:08:39,628
all the available gas
and the closest stars.

1189
01:08:52,309 --> 01:08:54,976
These days
it's relatively quiet.

1190
01:08:54,978 --> 01:08:57,379
But it has some
distinctive features

1191
01:08:57,381 --> 01:09:00,415
we've never seen before.

1192
01:09:00,417 --> 01:09:02,484
First, it's colossal.

1193
01:09:02,486 --> 01:09:06,054
If it were dropped
in our solar system,

1194
01:09:06,056 --> 01:09:08,623
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars

1195
01:09:08,625 --> 01:09:12,494
would all be trapped inside
the event horizon.

1196
01:09:12,496 --> 01:09:16,765
That's big, but it's nothing
compared to the sheer mass:

1197
01:09:16,767 --> 01:09:20,068
100 million times
the mass of the sun.

1198
01:09:20,070 --> 01:09:22,904
And the destruction
won't end there.

1199
01:09:22,906 --> 01:09:25,207
Jupiter won't last long.

1200
01:09:25,209 --> 01:09:27,142
The gravitational field
of the supermassive

1201
01:09:27,144 --> 01:09:31,046
will grab hold
and swallow it whole.

1202
01:09:31,048 --> 01:09:35,050
Eventually, Saturn will suffer
the same fate.

1203
01:09:35,052 --> 01:09:40,856
The outer planets might survive,
but in cold and dark orbits.

1204
01:09:43,660 --> 01:09:45,861
This black hole rotates rapidly,

1205
01:09:45,863 --> 01:09:49,131
distorting and dragging
the fabric of space-time.

1206
01:09:49,133 --> 01:09:51,466
Like all black holes,
1207
01:09:51,468 --> 01:09:55,270
the event horizon
is completely featureless.

1208
01:09:55,272 --> 01:09:57,973
Remember, there's nothing there.

1209
01:09:57,975 --> 01:10:01,410
It's just a boundary
that conceals the interior.

1210
01:10:01,412 --> 01:10:04,479
But the accretion disk
can tell us a lot

1211
01:10:04,481 --> 01:10:05,947
about what's going on.

1212
01:10:05,949 --> 01:10:12,187
That's the fiery ring of gas
and dust around the black hole.

1213
01:10:15,058 --> 01:10:19,394
Imagine if we could release
a swarm of autonomous robots

1214
01:10:19,396 --> 01:10:21,663
to explore the accretion disk.

1215
01:10:23,467 --> 01:10:25,867
The disk is spinning
at an incredible speed--

1216
01:10:25,869 --> 01:10:28,603
as much as half the speed
of light.

1217
01:10:28,605 --> 01:10:30,672
If Jupiter moved that fast,

1218
01:10:30,674 --> 01:10:35,544
it would complete
its entire orbit in a few hours.

1219
01:10:35,546 --> 01:10:38,613
The region around the black hole
is a cosmic tornado.

1220
01:10:40,250 --> 01:10:43,418
Now our swarm is caught
in the whirlwind, too.

1221
01:10:43,420 --> 01:10:46,855
They're like tracers
dropped into the storm

1222
01:10:46,857 --> 01:10:49,958
to map the movement.

1223
01:10:49,960 --> 01:10:52,494
The middle robot
can send us images.

1224
01:10:52,496 --> 01:10:54,696
It's following the leader
like a race car

1225
01:10:54,698 --> 01:10:57,466
speeding around the track.

1226
01:10:57,468 --> 01:11:00,235
From here, the extreme warping
of space-time

1227
01:11:00,237 --> 01:11:01,403
around the black hole

1228
01:11:01,405 --> 01:11:03,805
plays crazy tricks on our eyes.

1229
01:11:03,807 --> 01:11:07,242
It looks like
there's one accretion disk

1230
01:11:07,244 --> 01:11:08,977
whipping around the equator,

1231
01:11:08,979 --> 01:11:13,482
and another arcing
over and under the poles.

1232
01:11:15,586 --> 01:11:17,886
But that's an illusion.

1233
01:11:17,888 --> 01:11:21,156
The black hole's extreme gravity
bends the path of light

1234
01:11:21,158 --> 01:11:23,458
emitted behind the black hole,

1235
01:11:23,460 --> 01:11:26,027
and makes it look
like the accretion disk

1236
01:11:26,029 --> 01:11:28,597
is both above and below.

1237
01:11:28,599 --> 01:11:31,066
There's actually nothing
around the poles.

1238
01:11:31,068 --> 01:11:33,502
It's just the passing
light rays.

1239
01:11:33,504 --> 01:11:36,738
That's gravitational lensing
again.

1240
01:11:36,740 --> 01:11:39,875
Drawing much closer
to the event horizon,

1241
01:11:39,877 --> 01:11:42,777
the gravitational lensing
would become so extreme

1242
01:11:42,779 --> 01:11:46,548
that one of my robots could look
straight ahead

1243
01:11:46,550 --> 01:11:49,417
and eventually see its own back,

1244
01:11:49,419 --> 01:11:54,689
the light forever trapped
in an eternal circle.
1245
01:11:54,691 --> 01:11:57,792
So that's our tour
of the supermassive black hole

1246
01:11:57,794 --> 01:12:00,295
at the center
of the Andromeda Galaxy.

1247
01:12:00,297 --> 01:12:01,496
Pretty amazing.

1248
01:12:01,498 --> 01:12:05,000
Also amazing:
nothing in the mathematics

1249
01:12:05,002 --> 01:12:11,039
led scientists to imagine that
black holes could get that big.

1250
01:12:18,048 --> 01:12:19,314
As strange as they are,

1251
01:12:19,316 --> 01:12:21,516
ordinary stellar-mass
black holes

1252
01:12:21,518 --> 01:12:24,052
were at least predicted
by theory.

1253
01:12:24,054 --> 01:12:27,556
Supermassives
are a complete surprise.

1254
01:12:31,161 --> 01:12:32,928
For the stellar-mass
black holes,

1255
01:12:32,930 --> 01:12:36,298
people thought about them
from a theoretical perspective.

1256
01:12:36,300 --> 01:12:38,867
And then we found them
observationally.

1257
01:12:38,869 --> 01:12:42,170
The supermassive black holes,
the story has been inverted.

1258
01:12:42,172 --> 01:12:46,474
We actually found evidence
of them observationally first.

1259
01:12:46,476 --> 01:12:48,243
And now we're working
on the theory

1260
01:12:48,245 --> 01:12:50,378
of, how did these things
come into being?

1261
01:12:52,416 --> 01:12:54,182
We already know
that stars can collapse

1262
01:12:54,184 --> 01:12:56,418
to create ordinary black holes.

1263
01:12:56,420 --> 01:13:01,022
But supermassives are bigger
by many orders of magnitude.

1264
01:13:01,024 --> 01:13:05,293
Cygnus X-1 is 15 times
as big as our sun.

1265
01:13:05,295 --> 01:13:08,530
The supermassive
at the center of our Milky Way

1266
01:13:08,532 --> 01:13:11,933
is four million times
as big as our sun.

1267
01:13:11,935 --> 01:13:13,468
The one in the Andromeda galaxy

1268
01:13:13,470 --> 01:13:17,105
is 100 million times
as big as our sun.

1269
01:13:17,107 --> 01:13:20,141
And it's not the biggest--
not even close.

1270
01:13:20,143 --> 01:13:24,679
There are supermassives
ten, even 20 billion times

1271
01:13:24,681 --> 01:13:29,150
the mass of our sun.

1272
01:13:29,152 --> 01:13:34,122
How is it possible to make
such gigantic black holes?

1273
01:13:34,124 --> 01:13:39,160
Could supermassives
have come from collapsed stars?

1274
01:13:39,162 --> 01:13:43,031
That seems very unlikely--
we don't know any stars

1275
01:13:43,033 --> 01:13:46,401
billions of times bigger
than the sun.

1276
01:13:46,403 --> 01:13:49,638
We know about black holes
you might get from a dying star.

1277
01:13:49,640 --> 01:13:52,607
They have several times
the mass of the sun

1278
01:13:52,609 --> 01:13:54,676
contained within them.

1279
01:13:54,678 --> 01:13:58,313
But millions of times
the mass of the sun.

1280
01:13:58,315 --> 01:14:02,384
If that's the case, a dying star
cannot have possibly made it.

1281
01:14:04,187 --> 01:14:07,355
So do these supermassives--
1282
01:14:07,357 --> 01:14:10,425
millions or even billions
of times heavier than the sun--

1283
01:14:10,427 --> 01:14:16,031
somehow just grow, packing it on
like voracious giants?

1284
01:14:16,033 --> 01:14:18,933
The wild thing about black holes
is that they feed.

1285
01:14:18,935 --> 01:14:23,271
They're constantly devouring
anything that comes

1286
01:14:23,273 --> 01:14:25,507
within their sphere
of influence,

1287
01:14:25,509 --> 01:14:26,741
so they grow.

1288
01:14:26,743 --> 01:14:31,346
But how exactly do they grow?

1289
01:14:31,348 --> 01:14:34,082
What do they eat,
and where do they find it?

1290
01:14:35,886 --> 01:14:37,686
We believe that black holes grow

1291
01:14:37,688 --> 01:14:39,187
by accretion of gas.

1292
01:14:39,189 --> 01:14:43,291
And the way this works is that
you have a lot of gas around

1293
01:14:43,293 --> 01:14:45,060
in the center of a galaxy,

1294
01:14:45,062 --> 01:14:49,130
and this gas would then assemble
and form an accretion disk.

1295
01:14:50,434 --> 01:14:53,902
The accretion disk
is made up of hydrogen, helium,

1296
01:14:53,904 --> 01:14:57,238
and other elements
in a gaseous form.

1297
01:14:57,240 --> 01:14:59,140
The immense gravity
of the black hole

1298
01:14:59,142 --> 01:15:02,110
pulls the gas in toward it.

1299
01:15:02,112 --> 01:15:03,445
As it swirls around,

1300
01:15:03,447 --> 01:15:06,748
it orbits closer and closer
to the black hole,

1301
01:15:06,750 --> 01:15:08,683
and the feeding begins.

1302
01:15:08,685 --> 01:15:12,520
The stuff in the inner regions
would get slowly pulled in,

1303
01:15:12,522 --> 01:15:15,490
sped up,
will reach the event horizon,

1304
01:15:15,492 --> 01:15:17,225
and then that's it.

1305
01:15:17,227 --> 01:15:23,164
Whatever gas crosses the event
horizon disappears forever.

1306
01:15:23,166 --> 01:15:27,836
The black hole
has absorbed that material.

1307
01:15:27,838 --> 01:15:31,906
So it actually adds
to the mass of the black hole.

1308
01:15:33,577 --> 01:15:36,144
So this is one way
a black hole can grow:

1309
01:15:36,146 --> 01:15:39,781
gradually nibbling gas and dust.

1310
01:15:39,783 --> 01:15:43,084
But it's not the only way.

1311
01:15:43,086 --> 01:15:46,821
Cygnus X-1 has been
slowly stripping material

1312
01:15:46,823 --> 01:15:48,189
off a nearby star--

1313
01:15:48,191 --> 01:15:50,825
a process that will likely go on

1314
01:15:50,827 --> 01:15:54,696
for thousands or millions
of years.

1315
01:15:54,698 --> 01:15:59,334
But what if a black hole
could rip an entire star apart

1316
01:15:59,336 --> 01:16:02,971
in just a matter of years,
or even weeks?

1317
01:16:02,973 --> 01:16:05,774
That would be
a very violent event.

1318
01:16:05,776 --> 01:16:10,879
And a team of space explorers
is on the lookout.

1319
01:16:10,881 --> 01:16:15,583
This is the Operations Control
Center for a space telescope...
1320
01:16:15,585 --> 01:16:16,651
I have you five-by-five...

1321
01:16:16,653 --> 01:16:19,120
We show beginning of track
at 0330.

1322
01:16:19,122 --> 01:16:21,823
...the Chandra X-Ray
Observatory.

1323
01:16:27,264 --> 01:16:30,732
Orbiting up to 86,000 miles
above the Earth,

1324
01:16:30,734 --> 01:16:33,101
Chandra takes
high-resolution images

1325
01:16:33,103 --> 01:16:36,571
of objects that emit X-rays.

1326
01:16:38,408 --> 01:16:43,311
This is one: a short-lived,
extremely violent event

1327
01:16:43,313 --> 01:16:45,079
called a transient,

1328
01:16:45,081 --> 01:16:48,516
which fascinates
James Guillochon.

1329
01:16:48,518 --> 01:16:54,088
Supernovae, the destruction
of planets by their host stars.

1330
01:16:54,090 --> 01:16:59,527
Yeah, I'm just fascinated with
destroying things for science.

1331
01:16:59,529 --> 01:17:03,097
James is investigating a mystery
discovered by a colleague,

1332
01:17:03,099 --> 01:17:04,199
Dacheng Lin.

1333
01:17:04,201 --> 01:17:06,367
This blur on James's screen

1334
01:17:06,369 --> 01:17:10,271
is actually a massive sudden
burst of X-ray energy,

1335
01:17:10,273 --> 01:17:13,007
caught by accident.

1336
01:17:13,009 --> 01:17:15,944
This little smudge popped up
in the background of this image.

1337
01:17:15,946 --> 01:17:17,612
And given its great distance,

1338
01:17:17,614 --> 01:17:19,681
it's actually
tremendously bright.

1339
01:17:21,685 --> 01:17:25,420
Could it be a black hole
caught in the act of being born

1340
01:17:25,422 --> 01:17:31,359
in the violent collapse
of a huge star, a supernova?

1341
01:17:33,597 --> 01:17:34,929
Perhaps.

1342
01:17:34,931 --> 01:17:38,199
But the intense radiation
released by supernova

1343
01:17:38,201 --> 01:17:40,969
would only linger
for a few months.

1344
01:17:43,106 --> 01:17:48,276
So how long has this mystery
object been blasting out X-rays?
1345
01:17:48,278 --> 01:17:52,647
To find out, they look at images
of that same part of the sky

1346
01:17:52,649 --> 01:17:54,649
taken at earlier dates.

1347
01:17:54,651 --> 01:17:57,218
2015.

1348
01:17:57,220 --> 01:17:59,520
2011.

1349
01:17:59,522 --> 01:18:02,056
2008.

1350
01:18:02,058 --> 01:18:05,226
2005, July.

1351
01:18:05,228 --> 01:18:08,963
2005, April.

1352
01:18:08,965 --> 01:18:12,467
No X-rays detected.

1353
01:18:12,469 --> 01:18:16,604
But the X-rays are there just
three months later, in July.

1354
01:18:16,606 --> 01:18:19,841
And the powerful, bright signal
has continued

1355
01:18:19,843 --> 01:18:22,477
for more than ten years,

1356
01:18:22,479 --> 01:18:25,413
from July 2005 to the present,

1357
01:18:25,415 --> 01:18:28,616
far too long to be a supernova.

1358
01:18:28,618 --> 01:18:30,752
So what could it be?
1359
01:18:33,924 --> 01:18:38,660
A black hole that's not feeding
is quiet and completely dark.

1360
01:18:38,662 --> 01:18:41,296
It won't show up
on any telescope.

1361
01:18:41,298 --> 01:18:44,866
But a black hole that is feeding
is different.

1362
01:18:44,868 --> 01:18:48,536
When it feeds,
it blasts out X-rays.

1363
01:18:48,538 --> 01:18:51,272
So could this be a black hole

1364
01:18:51,274 --> 01:18:55,043
that's suddenly begun devouring
something big?

1365
01:18:55,045 --> 01:19:00,114
What effect will this have
on anything that comes near?

1366
01:19:00,116 --> 01:19:03,885
What would it do to a star
that wanders too close?

1367
01:19:03,887 --> 01:19:09,257
Well, it will flay a star
layer by layer,

1368
01:19:09,259 --> 01:19:12,493
ultimately devouring

1369
01:19:12,495 --> 01:19:14,262
the entire star.

1370
01:19:16,533 --> 01:19:20,068
Unlike Cygnus X-1,
this is no mere nibbling.

1371
01:19:20,070 --> 01:19:23,171
This is a ten-year
feeding frenzy,

1372
01:19:23,173 --> 01:19:26,441
a massive black hole devouring
an entire star

1373
01:19:26,443 --> 01:19:31,446
in a cosmic blink of an eye.

1374
01:19:31,448 --> 01:19:34,649
It's the result
of a chance collision--

1375
01:19:34,651 --> 01:19:37,618
when an unlucky star
wanders too close,

1376
01:19:37,620 --> 01:19:42,423
and the black hole's extreme
gravity actually rips it apart.

1377
01:19:42,425 --> 01:19:44,158
The gravity from the black hole

1378
01:19:44,160 --> 01:19:46,127
will progressively get stronger
and stronger

1379
01:19:46,129 --> 01:19:47,495
as the star gets near.

1380
01:19:47,497 --> 01:19:50,698
And at that point, the star
will begin to deform.

1381
01:19:52,402 --> 01:19:55,703
It's called tidal disruption.

1382
01:19:57,407 --> 01:19:59,107
It's similar to the way
our moon's gravity

1383
01:19:59,109 --> 01:20:03,177
easily moves
all the world's oceans.
1384
01:20:03,179 --> 01:20:05,213
The tides caused by a black hole

1385
01:20:05,215 --> 01:20:07,782
would be billions of times
stronger

1386
01:20:07,784 --> 01:20:12,320
and much more violent.

1387
01:20:12,322 --> 01:20:14,856
where a star could be
ripped apart by the black hole.

1388
01:20:14,858 --> 01:20:17,325
So you would see sort of
a plume of light

1389
01:20:17,327 --> 01:20:22,730
from the last gasp
of the material in the star.

1390
01:20:22,732 --> 01:20:25,833
But there is a chance for some
part of the star to escape,

1391
01:20:25,835 --> 01:20:30,138
as James illustrates.

1392
01:20:30,140 --> 01:20:33,007
As the star is elongated by
the black hole's tidal forces,

1393
01:20:33,009 --> 01:20:37,045
it will essentially be feeding
the black hole

1394
01:20:37,047 --> 01:20:41,749
at the same time as half of it
is trying to escape.

1395
01:20:41,751 --> 01:20:44,986
So everything above this point,
approximately,

1396
01:20:44,988 --> 01:20:48,222
will have the chance
of leaving the galaxy.

1397
01:20:48,224 --> 01:20:50,825
It's moving that rapidly.

1398
01:20:50,827 --> 01:20:53,461
And everything below this point

1399
01:20:53,463 --> 01:20:55,997
will fall back
onto the black hole

1400
01:20:55,999 --> 01:20:58,599
and eventually
be consumed by it.

1401
01:21:00,170 --> 01:21:03,971
So this is another way
for a black hole to gain weight.

1402
01:21:03,973 --> 01:21:07,842
Unlike the slow steady nibbling
of Cygnus X-1,

1403
01:21:07,844 --> 01:21:11,412
this black hole is devouring
most of an entire star

1404
01:21:11,414 --> 01:21:14,882
in one gulp.

1405
01:21:14,884 --> 01:21:17,318
But whether a black hole
feeds suddenly,

1406
01:21:17,320 --> 01:21:18,753
by swallowing half a star,

1407
01:21:18,755 --> 01:21:21,322
or steadily, through accretion,

1408
01:21:21,324 --> 01:21:25,426
astronomers still face a problem
when they try to understand

1409
01:21:25,428 --> 01:21:29,030
how supermassives got so big--

1410
01:21:29,032 --> 01:21:31,566
the timing problem.

1411
01:21:32,836 --> 01:21:36,471
The trouble begins with
the very oldest supermassives:

1412
01:21:36,473 --> 01:21:40,775
quasars, those very bright,
very distant,

1413
01:21:40,777 --> 01:21:41,976
and ancient objects

1414
01:21:41,978 --> 01:21:47,715
first discovered
in the early 1960s.

1415
01:21:47,717 --> 01:21:49,951
The conundrum was when we
started finding these quasars,

1416
01:21:49,953 --> 01:21:53,121
very bright quasars,
very early on in the universe.

1417
01:21:55,959 --> 01:21:57,892
They're giving off
so much energy

1418
01:21:57,894 --> 01:21:59,927
that they have to have very
massive supermassive black holes

1419
01:21:59,929 --> 01:22:01,295
at their center.

1420
01:22:01,297 --> 01:22:05,433
But quasars are extremely
far away,

1421
01:22:05,435 --> 01:22:08,803
which means that they're part
of the very early universe,
1422
01:22:08,805 --> 01:22:12,440
which began
nearly 14 billion years ago.

1423
01:22:13,877 --> 01:22:15,042
Bright quasars,

1424
01:22:15,044 --> 01:22:19,147
600 million years
after the Big Bang.

1425
01:22:19,149 --> 01:22:21,682
A fraction of today's age.

1426
01:22:21,684 --> 01:22:24,785
And, they're enormous.

1427
01:22:24,787 --> 01:22:28,389
So billion-solar-mass
black holes, these behemoths,

1428
01:22:28,391 --> 01:22:31,292
had to be in place
when the universe

1429
01:22:31,294 --> 01:22:34,095
was about 550 million years old.

1430
01:22:34,097 --> 01:22:35,763
Now you have a problem.

1431
01:22:35,765 --> 01:22:38,032
Because you have to grow
something really big,

1432
01:22:38,034 --> 01:22:39,400
really fast.

1433
01:22:39,402 --> 01:22:43,237
And you are bumping up against
sort of physical limits.

1434
01:22:44,607 --> 01:22:46,274
Whether a black hole
is nibbling
1435
01:22:46,276 --> 01:22:48,142
or gulping down its meal,

1436
01:22:48,144 --> 01:22:51,612
it turns out that accretion--
how black holes feed--

1437
01:22:51,614 --> 01:22:54,182
has a speed limit.

1438
01:22:54,184 --> 01:22:57,652
Named after English astronomer
Arthur Eddington,

1439
01:22:57,654 --> 01:23:01,656
the Eddington Limit
will not allow a black hole

1440
01:23:01,658 --> 01:23:03,424
to feed too fast

1441
01:23:03,426 --> 01:23:05,593
because of the light
blasting out

1442
01:23:05,595 --> 01:23:07,795
from its own accretion disk.

1443
01:23:09,832 --> 01:23:12,099
Light has a pressure.

1444
01:23:12,101 --> 01:23:15,102
So photons can impart
a force on something.

1445
01:23:15,104 --> 01:23:20,341
We see this in winds from stars:
Light is pushing out gas.

1446
01:23:22,312 --> 01:23:25,646
So there's a limit to how fast
you can feed a black hole

1447
01:23:25,648 --> 01:23:31,118
before its own luminosity
quenches its own growth.

1448
01:23:33,489 --> 01:23:37,191
So given this speed limit,
how did early supermassives--

1449
01:23:37,193 --> 01:23:41,862
quasars--
get so big, so fast?

1450
01:23:41,864 --> 01:23:46,067
Could there be a way to bypass
the speed limit entirely?

1451
01:23:49,772 --> 01:23:53,774
The problem is still
time itself.

1452
01:23:53,776 --> 01:23:55,776
How do you grow them

1453
01:23:55,778 --> 01:23:57,578
to a billion times
the mass of the sun?

1454
01:23:57,580 --> 01:24:01,215
What are the conditions that you
need for that kind of growth?

1455
01:24:02,585 --> 01:24:06,454
Some scientists are now asking:
What if there's a way

1456
01:24:06,456 --> 01:24:07,822
to create a black hole

1457
01:24:07,824 --> 01:24:11,125
that's already much more massive
from birth,

1458
01:24:11,127 --> 01:24:13,594
giving it a head start?

1459
01:24:13,596 --> 01:24:15,363
If there was
a physical mechanism
1460
01:24:15,365 --> 01:24:18,332
that would allow you to make
a black hole seed

1461
01:24:18,334 --> 01:24:20,334
which was much more massive
from the get-go,

1462
01:24:20,336 --> 01:24:22,903
then the timing crunch
is not as much of an issue,

1463
01:24:22,905 --> 01:24:25,406
and the growing problem
is not as acute.

1464
01:24:27,777 --> 01:24:29,277
The answer, some believe,

1465
01:24:29,279 --> 01:24:32,980
is to create a black hole
directly from a cloud of gas:

1466
01:24:32,982 --> 01:24:37,652
a scenario called
direct collapse.

1467
01:24:39,455 --> 01:24:42,490
It starts with gas clouds
made of hydrogen, helium,

1468
01:24:42,492 --> 01:24:43,824
and other elements--

1469
01:24:43,826 --> 01:24:48,929
the same raw materials
from which stars are born.

1470
01:24:48,931 --> 01:24:50,164
The denser clouds
will start to collapse

1471
01:24:50,166 --> 01:24:51,499
under their own gravity.

1472
01:24:51,501 --> 01:24:54,168
And as they collapse,
parts that are more dense

1473
01:24:54,170 --> 01:24:55,870
will collapse more quickly.

1474
01:24:55,872 --> 01:24:58,939
And so what happens is,
the cloud fragments.

1475
01:24:58,941 --> 01:25:02,076
Those fragments
continue collapsing

1476
01:25:02,078 --> 01:25:06,047
until the hydrogen atoms
within them begin to merge.

1477
01:25:06,049 --> 01:25:10,951
Nuclear fusion begins,
and stars are created.

1478
01:25:10,953 --> 01:25:16,691
But what if a giant gas cloud
collapsed without making stars?

1479
01:25:18,528 --> 01:25:20,628
We realized that there are
a set of physical conditions

1480
01:25:20,630 --> 01:25:23,998
that would allow you
to form a very large gas disk

1481
01:25:24,000 --> 01:25:26,667
prior to the formation
of any stars.

1482
01:25:26,669 --> 01:25:30,471
So this gas disk
starts getting unstable.

1483
01:25:30,473 --> 01:25:33,207
That would allow the mass
to sort of flow into the center

1484
01:25:33,209 --> 01:25:34,975
very, very rapidly

1485
01:25:34,977 --> 01:25:37,378
and make
a very massive black hole.

1486
01:25:39,649 --> 01:25:42,683
It's something we've all seen
in nature,

1487
01:25:42,685 --> 01:25:46,153
from tornadoes to bathtubs--

1488
01:25:46,155 --> 01:25:49,190
a vortex.

1489
01:25:49,192 --> 01:25:52,293
But on a supermassive scale.

1490
01:25:52,295 --> 01:25:55,096
If you're in a bathtub
and you pull the plug out

1491
01:25:55,098 --> 01:25:57,098
and you see the water flowing
in a vortex,

1492
01:25:57,100 --> 01:25:58,966
very fast down to the center,

1493
01:25:58,968 --> 01:26:01,035
that's exactly what happens.

1494
01:26:02,605 --> 01:26:04,572
Direct collapse might be a way

1495
01:26:04,574 --> 01:26:07,375
to create very large black holes
early in the universe

1496
01:26:07,377 --> 01:26:10,544
from enormous gas clouds,

1497
01:26:10,546 --> 01:26:14,715
completely skipping
the star stage.
1498
01:26:14,717 --> 01:26:17,218
Because they would be
so large already at birth,

1499
01:26:17,220 --> 01:26:19,587
these direct-collapse
black holes

1500
01:26:19,589 --> 01:26:23,457
would have a head start,
helping them to quickly grow

1501
01:26:23,459 --> 01:26:27,194
into the enormous young
supermassives we see

1502
01:26:27,196 --> 01:26:29,730
in the distant universe.

1503
01:26:29,732 --> 01:26:34,301
You could potentially have these
direct-collapse black holes.

1504
01:26:34,303 --> 01:26:36,370
So black holes
whose original masses,

1505
01:26:36,372 --> 01:26:38,739
seed masses,
the initial masses,

1506
01:26:38,741 --> 01:26:41,976
are about 10,000
to maybe 100,000 times

1507
01:26:41,978 --> 01:26:43,277
the mass of the sun,

1508
01:26:43,279 --> 01:26:47,348
and that they form
from the get-go with that mass.

1509
01:26:49,252 --> 01:26:53,687
Direct collapse may explain
how enormous early supermassives
1510
01:26:53,689 --> 01:26:55,589
got their start.

1511
01:26:55,591 --> 01:26:59,827
But there's another fundamental
question about supermassives.

1512
01:26:59,829 --> 01:27:02,062
What is their role
in the universe?

1513
01:27:02,064 --> 01:27:05,833
Is their existence
just a matter of chance?

1514
01:27:05,835 --> 01:27:08,169
Or are they connected
in some larger way

1515
01:27:08,171 --> 01:27:11,205
to the very structure
of the cosmos?

1516
01:27:11,207 --> 01:27:14,642
Supermassive black holes
don't exist in isolation.

1517
01:27:14,644 --> 01:27:18,546
They seem to live in partnership
with galaxies.

1518
01:27:20,149 --> 01:27:22,917
Collections of millions,
billions,

1519
01:27:22,919 --> 01:27:26,687
or even trillions of stars
bound together by gravity,

1520
01:27:26,689 --> 01:27:31,358
galaxies are the fundamental
building blocks of our universe.

1521
01:27:31,360 --> 01:27:35,029
So are the supermassive
black holes at their centers
1522
01:27:35,031 --> 01:27:39,667
somehow fundamental
to their very existence?

1523
01:27:39,669 --> 01:27:41,535
We now just assume every galaxy,

1524
01:27:41,537 --> 01:27:43,804
even ones we have yet
to confirm,

1525
01:27:43,806 --> 01:27:45,973
will have a supermassive
black hole in their center.

1526
01:27:45,975 --> 01:27:49,710
It could be that instead
of simply being oddities,

1527
01:27:49,712 --> 01:27:51,912
that they are a key component
to galaxies,

1528
01:27:51,914 --> 01:27:53,681
a key component to the universe.

1529
01:27:56,419 --> 01:27:58,085
We've come in a very short time
to realize

1530
01:27:58,087 --> 01:28:01,322
that they likely inhabit
the centers of all the galaxies.

1531
01:28:01,324 --> 01:28:03,557
And that can really only happen

1532
01:28:03,559 --> 01:28:05,593
if there's some
symbiotic relationship

1533
01:28:05,595 --> 01:28:07,595
between the evolution
of a galaxy

1534
01:28:07,597 --> 01:28:10,164
and the supermassive black hole
in its core.

1535
01:28:12,134 --> 01:28:15,102
What could that relationship be?

1536
01:28:15,104 --> 01:28:18,706
One intriguing clue
relates to size.

1537
01:28:18,708 --> 01:28:20,975
The bigger the galaxy is,

1538
01:28:20,977 --> 01:28:23,611
the more massive the black hole
appears to be.

1539
01:28:23,613 --> 01:28:25,145
So these black holes
at the center

1540
01:28:25,147 --> 01:28:28,148
seem to know about
their larger-scale environment.

1541
01:28:29,452 --> 01:28:31,752
So which comes first,

1542
01:28:31,754 --> 01:28:35,189
the galaxy or the supermassive
black hole?

1543
01:28:35,191 --> 01:28:37,358
It's not that simple.

1544
01:28:37,360 --> 01:28:41,529
It appears they somehow
grow in tandem.

1545
01:28:41,531 --> 01:28:44,465
It's hard for one to form first
and affect the other.

1546
01:28:44,467 --> 01:28:47,501
So today we think
that whatever formed one
1547
01:28:47,503 --> 01:28:51,305
had to form the other
as a by-product of that process.

1548
01:28:51,307 --> 01:28:54,441
And that there has to be
some feedback mechanism

1549
01:28:54,443 --> 01:28:56,577
between the black hole
and the galaxy

1550
01:28:56,579 --> 01:29:00,214
that keeps the growth of the two
in lock sync.

1551
01:29:02,451 --> 01:29:05,653
The way galaxies grow
is by forming new stars

1552
01:29:05,655 --> 01:29:10,257
from clouds of hydrogen gas.

1553
01:29:10,259 --> 01:29:12,459
Gas is essentially
the fuel for star formation,

1554
01:29:12,461 --> 01:29:14,228
just like gas is the fuel
for our cars.

1555
01:29:14,230 --> 01:29:19,433
And so if you run out of gas,
you run out of new stars.

1556
01:29:20,503 --> 01:29:22,102
So are supermassive black holes

1557
01:29:22,104 --> 01:29:26,440
somehow interfering
with star formation?

1558
01:29:26,442 --> 01:29:28,142
When a black hole is growing,

1559
01:29:28,144 --> 01:29:29,643
a tremendous amount of energy
is being liberated

1560
01:29:29,645 --> 01:29:33,047
and sent out into the galaxy.

1561
01:29:33,049 --> 01:29:35,816
And so we think that some of
that energy goes to warm up gas.

1562
01:29:35,818 --> 01:29:39,987
And gas that's too warm will not
form stars anymore.

1563
01:29:46,128 --> 01:29:48,095
The heat produced
by a growing black hole

1564
01:29:48,097 --> 01:29:51,632
makes it impossible
for stars to form nearby.

1565
01:29:53,603 --> 01:29:56,136
And so one way
that a growing black hole

1566
01:29:56,138 --> 01:29:58,572
can influence its host galaxy

1567
01:29:58,574 --> 01:30:00,307
is by quenching
the star formation.

1568
01:30:02,178 --> 01:30:04,545
In effect,
the growth of the supermassive

1569
01:30:04,547 --> 01:30:09,483
determines whether or not its
host galaxy grows or stagnates.

1570
01:30:09,485 --> 01:30:11,885
They have a kind of
eating phase,

1571
01:30:11,887 --> 01:30:14,221
and then a quiescent phase.
1572
01:30:14,223 --> 01:30:16,523
So they seem to be involved

1573
01:30:16,525 --> 01:30:18,459
with the formation of the galaxy
in that way,

1574
01:30:18,461 --> 01:30:21,929
and then stabilizing
of the galaxy at the same time.

1575
01:30:21,931 --> 01:30:25,866
So these mysterious
supermassives

1576
01:30:25,868 --> 01:30:29,870
may actually control
the building of the universe--

1577
01:30:29,872 --> 01:30:32,239
not so much by their size,

1578
01:30:32,241 --> 01:30:38,045
but by the way the energy
they generate shapes galaxies.

1579
01:30:38,047 --> 01:30:40,814
By mass, if you count up all
the black holes in the universe,

1580
01:30:40,816 --> 01:30:42,783
the tiny ones as well
as the supermassive ones,

1581
01:30:42,785 --> 01:30:44,518
the ultra-massive ones,

1582
01:30:44,520 --> 01:30:47,721
black holes are nothing.

1583
01:30:47,723 --> 01:30:52,126
However, energetically,
how much power the galaxy gets

1584
01:30:52,128 --> 01:30:54,161
and at what time
as it assembles,

1585
01:30:54,163 --> 01:30:59,333
seems to be dictated
by the central black hole.

1586
01:30:59,335 --> 01:31:02,703
So they might well be
the key players in the universe.

1587
01:31:05,875 --> 01:31:09,610
In the next two years,
NASA plans to launch

1588
01:31:09,612 --> 01:31:12,346
the James Webb Space Telescope.

1589
01:31:12,348 --> 01:31:15,883
Humanity's most powerful
telescope ever,

1590
01:31:15,885 --> 01:31:19,286
the James Webb is designed
to look in the infrared,

1591
01:31:19,288 --> 01:31:21,955
allowing it to see farther
back in time than Hubble,

1592
01:31:21,957 --> 01:31:24,692
getting a look
at the first stars and galaxies

1593
01:31:24,694 --> 01:31:28,095
that formed after the Big Bang.

1594
01:31:28,097 --> 01:31:31,865
Hopes are high that
the James Webb Space Telescope

1595
01:31:31,867 --> 01:31:35,169
will help solve
many of the remaining mysteries

1596
01:31:35,171 --> 01:31:38,238
about the earliest
supermassive black holes.

1597
01:31:39,942 --> 01:31:44,812
The James Webb Space Telescope
is tuned specifically

1598
01:31:44,814 --> 01:31:49,416
to observe the early universe
when galaxies were being born.

1599
01:31:49,418 --> 01:31:50,751
That could give us
deeper understanding

1600
01:31:50,753 --> 01:31:52,820
of how you end up
with a supermassive black hole

1601
01:31:52,822 --> 01:31:55,389
in your galaxy
to begin with.

1602
01:31:56,826 --> 01:31:58,559
Technology is moving
really fast,

1603
01:31:58,561 --> 01:32:02,563
and as a result, we have
really fundamental new views

1604
01:32:02,565 --> 01:32:04,498
of the universe.

1605
01:32:04,500 --> 01:32:08,402
I think we are really living
in a golden era of astronomy.

1606
01:32:12,174 --> 01:32:13,874
And the James Webb
Space Telescope

1607
01:32:13,876 --> 01:32:17,211
isn't the only new development
that promises to solve

1608
01:32:17,213 --> 01:32:20,013
some of the mysteries
around black holes.

1609
01:32:26,756 --> 01:32:28,188
I believe have
infrared components...

1610
01:32:28,190 --> 01:32:29,623
A group of scientists

1611
01:32:29,625 --> 01:32:32,392
led by Shep Doeleman

1612
01:32:32,394 --> 01:32:35,028
is now attempting
the impossible:

1613
01:32:35,030 --> 01:32:39,199
to take a picture
of a black hole.

1614
01:32:39,201 --> 01:32:42,002
It's interesting
that we can say something

1615
01:32:42,004 --> 01:32:45,105
about the accretion flow
near the black hole at all.

1616
01:32:45,107 --> 01:32:47,941
And if some of this
linear behavior survives,

1617
01:32:47,943 --> 01:32:50,978
maybe we'll have a way
of interpreting it.

1618
01:32:50,980 --> 01:32:54,648
The project is called
the Event Horizon Telescope.

1619
01:32:54,650 --> 01:32:58,752
The basic goal
of the Event Horizon Telescope

1620
01:32:58,754 --> 01:33:00,387
is really to see the unseeable.
1621
01:33:00,389 --> 01:33:01,755
It's to bring into focus

1622
01:33:01,757 --> 01:33:04,158
something that science
has told us for many, many years

1623
01:33:04,160 --> 01:33:07,361
is precisely something
we can't observe--

1624
01:33:07,363 --> 01:33:08,996
the black hole.

1625
01:33:10,266 --> 01:33:14,334
Their primary target
is Sagittarius A ,

1626
01:33:14,336 --> 01:33:19,139
the supermassive in the center
of our Milky Way Galaxy.

1627
01:33:19,141 --> 01:33:23,076
They're using a global network
of radio telescopes.

1628
01:33:23,078 --> 01:33:26,180
We need good weather
at eight different telescopes

1629
01:33:26,182 --> 01:33:27,147
all around the world,

1630
01:33:27,149 --> 01:33:28,615
and that is a tall order.

1631
01:33:28,617 --> 01:33:31,852
But if black holes
are invisible,

1632
01:33:31,854 --> 01:33:36,089
what exactly do they hope
to photograph?

1633
01:33:36,091 --> 01:33:38,158
What we are trying to photograph
really is the shadow.

1634
01:33:38,160 --> 01:33:42,996
So as this gas
around the black hole

1635
01:33:42,998 --> 01:33:45,833
swirls inwards and actually hits
the event horizon,

1636
01:33:45,835 --> 01:33:47,301
it leaves a silhouette,

1637
01:33:47,303 --> 01:33:52,206
a very well defined shadow
on the surrounding light.

1638
01:33:52,208 --> 01:33:54,541
So really it should look
like a donut,

1639
01:33:54,543 --> 01:33:56,944
with its very well defined hole.

1640
01:33:56,946 --> 01:33:59,246
And that's the picture
that we're after.

1641
01:33:59,248 --> 01:34:00,981
If I convert that
into frequencies,

1642
01:34:00,983 --> 01:34:03,150
I get two-pi-square there.

1643
01:34:03,152 --> 01:34:06,687
The team has conducted
their first observing run

1644
01:34:06,689 --> 01:34:09,456
and is processing the data now.

1645
01:34:09,458 --> 01:34:11,291
Okay, you're saying
the velocity...

1646
01:34:11,293 --> 01:34:13,493
It's hoped that
these new technologies

1647
01:34:13,495 --> 01:34:16,730
will give us an unprecedented
view of black holes

1648
01:34:16,732 --> 01:34:17,965
in our universe.

1649
01:34:17,967 --> 01:34:20,167
But there is one new technology

1650
01:34:20,169 --> 01:34:22,970
that is already delivering
results.

1651
01:34:22,972 --> 01:34:26,540
And that brings us back here,
to LIGO,

1652
01:34:26,542 --> 01:34:29,676
a key player
in the black hole drama,

1653
01:34:29,678 --> 01:34:34,481
to an idea that took root
way ahead of its time:

1654
01:34:34,483 --> 01:34:36,717
gravitational waves.

1655
01:34:36,719 --> 01:34:40,954
With general relativity,
his theory of gravity,

1656
01:34:40,956 --> 01:34:44,491
Einstein predicts
that when an object moves,

1657
01:34:44,493 --> 01:34:48,629
it can create ripples
in space and time--

1658
01:34:48,631 --> 01:34:53,133
an actual squeezing
and stretching of space itself.

1659
01:34:53,135 --> 01:34:55,969
One of the holy grails
of 20th-century physics

1660
01:34:55,971 --> 01:34:59,973
was to detect
these gravitational waves.

1661
01:34:59,975 --> 01:35:01,942
That was not easy to do

1662
01:35:01,944 --> 01:35:03,143
with general relativity,

1663
01:35:03,145 --> 01:35:05,579
because all the effects
that you could think of

1664
01:35:05,581 --> 01:35:07,981
were infinitesimally small.

1665
01:35:07,983 --> 01:35:09,449
Very, very difficult to measure.

1666
01:35:09,451 --> 01:35:12,286
The thinking was,

1667
01:35:12,288 --> 01:35:14,888
if gravitational waves
could be measured,

1668
01:35:14,890 --> 01:35:17,891
it would confirm
Einstein's prediction.

1669
01:35:17,893 --> 01:35:19,860
And there could be
an added benefit--

1670
01:35:19,862 --> 01:35:25,065
it might also prove
the existence of black holes

1671
01:35:25,067 --> 01:35:30,037
and help solve the mystery
of how supermassives grow.

1672
01:35:30,039 --> 01:35:34,041
But how to detect
gravitational waves?

1673
01:35:34,043 --> 01:35:37,844
In 1970,
the problem caught the attention

1674
01:35:37,846 --> 01:35:42,115
of a young experimental
physicist, Rai Weiss.

1675
01:35:45,854 --> 01:35:51,725
Rai had the perfect background
to hunt for gravitational waves.

1676
01:35:51,727 --> 01:35:56,063
For decades, he'd been working
with more familiar waves--

1677
01:35:56,065 --> 01:35:57,731
sound waves.

1678
01:35:57,733 --> 01:35:58,966
We were immigrants,

1679
01:35:58,968 --> 01:36:00,600
we were German Jews.

1680
01:36:00,602 --> 01:36:02,803
And a lot of our friends were
very, very interested in music.

1681
01:36:04,273 --> 01:36:05,739
Rai devoted himself

1682
01:36:05,741 --> 01:36:08,675
to coaxing every subtle nuance
he could

1683
01:36:08,677 --> 01:36:11,178
out of recorded music.

1684
01:36:11,180 --> 01:36:13,747
Those records
had a terrible problem.

1685
01:36:13,749 --> 01:36:16,550
When the music was loud,
it sounded wonderful.

1686
01:36:16,552 --> 01:36:18,852
When the music
was real quiet and slow,

1687
01:36:18,854 --> 01:36:19,953
what you heard was this...

1688
01:36:19,955 --> 01:36:21,455
...like that.

1689
01:36:21,457 --> 01:36:24,758
A hissing noise.

1690
01:36:24,760 --> 01:36:26,660
And that was so annoying.

1691
01:36:27,496 --> 01:36:28,929
The lessons he learns

1692
01:36:28,931 --> 01:36:30,664
trying to eliminate noise
in recordings

1693
01:36:30,666 --> 01:36:32,866
will pay off later,

1694
01:36:32,868 --> 01:36:34,201
when Rai turns his attention

1695
01:36:34,203 --> 01:36:37,404
to detecting
gravitational waves.

1696
01:36:37,406 --> 01:36:38,638
You have to understand

1697
01:36:38,640 --> 01:36:41,508
how a gravitational wave
does its dirty work.

1698
01:36:41,510 --> 01:36:43,543
As a physics problem,

1699
01:36:43,545 --> 01:36:47,981
gravitational waves
are not unlike sound waves.

1700
01:36:47,983 --> 01:36:49,583
Let's suppose the wave
comes from something

1701
01:36:49,585 --> 01:36:52,619
that is in some way
moving and oscillating.

1702
01:36:54,390 --> 01:36:57,891
A sound wave compresses
and expands air.

1703
01:36:57,893 --> 01:37:02,262
A gravitational wave
compresses and expands space

1704
01:37:02,264 --> 01:37:04,197
and everything in it.

1705
01:37:04,199 --> 01:37:07,134
If a wave came
through the Earth,

1706
01:37:07,136 --> 01:37:08,635
it would cause space

1707
01:37:08,637 --> 01:37:13,206
to expand momentarily
and then contract again.

1708
01:37:13,208 --> 01:37:16,209
It keeps doing it,
so it's this thing

1709
01:37:16,211 --> 01:37:18,445
that goes blip, blip, blip,
right along like that.
1710
01:37:19,782 --> 01:37:21,214
So how to measure

1711
01:37:21,216 --> 01:37:25,452
the extremely tiny expansion
and contraction of space?

1712
01:37:27,556 --> 01:37:30,190
Rai's idea was to use light.

1713
01:37:30,192 --> 01:37:32,292
Send a beam of light

1714
01:37:32,294 --> 01:37:33,827
from one place to another,

1715
01:37:33,829 --> 01:37:36,496
and measure the time it takes
to get there.

1716
01:37:38,000 --> 01:37:41,234
That's how the exact distance
to the moon was calculated:

1717
01:37:41,236 --> 01:37:44,104
bouncing a laser beam
from the Earth

1718
01:37:44,106 --> 01:37:48,508
off a mirror left behind
by Apollo 11 astronauts.

1719
01:37:53,248 --> 01:37:54,848
From the duration
of the round trip,

1720
01:37:54,850 --> 01:37:58,919
scientists could determine
the distance.

1721
01:38:01,323 --> 01:38:04,291
Rai came up
with an ingenious design

1722
01:38:04,293 --> 01:38:07,194
for an instrument
that uses lasers and mirrors

1723
01:38:07,196 --> 01:38:10,697
to detect the faint expansions
and contractions of space

1724
01:38:10,699 --> 01:38:14,101
that would be caused
by a gravitational wave.

1725
01:38:14,103 --> 01:38:18,538
It's called
a laser interferometer.

1726
01:38:18,540 --> 01:38:22,676
It works by firing a laser
into a splitter.

1727
01:38:22,678 --> 01:38:24,544
Half of the light
continues straight ahead

1728
01:38:24,546 --> 01:38:26,780
towards one mirror,

1729
01:38:26,782 --> 01:38:30,517
while the other half
is sent towards another mirror.

1730
01:38:30,519 --> 01:38:32,719
The distant mirrors bounce
the light beams back,

1731
01:38:32,721 --> 01:38:38,058
where they rejoin
at a photo detector.

1732
01:38:38,060 --> 01:38:41,761
If the distances the two beams
travel are exactly the same,

1733
01:38:41,763 --> 01:38:46,500
the system is designed so the
two beams cancel each other out;

1734
01:38:46,502 --> 01:38:50,904
the detector sees nothing.
1735
01:38:50,906 --> 01:38:53,940
You've set the trap to measure
the gravitational wave.

1736
01:38:53,942 --> 01:38:56,276
Now comes the gravitational wave
that's coming,

1737
01:38:56,278 --> 01:38:57,577
let's say, at this structure.

1738
01:38:57,579 --> 01:39:01,114
If a gravitational wave
passes through,

1739
01:39:01,116 --> 01:39:03,850
it briefly changes
the length of the arms.

1740
01:39:03,852 --> 01:39:07,454
The light beams no longer
arrive back at the same time

1741
01:39:07,456 --> 01:39:10,290
to cancel each other out.

1742
01:39:10,292 --> 01:39:12,926
A gravitational wave hits.

1743
01:39:12,928 --> 01:39:15,395
Light appears at the detector.

1744
01:39:15,397 --> 01:39:18,298
The trap has sprung.

1745
01:39:18,300 --> 01:39:19,499
That's the basic idea.

1746
01:39:19,501 --> 01:39:21,368
It's a very straightforward
measurement.

1747
01:39:23,071 --> 01:39:26,439
A clever idea,
and simple in principle.
1748
01:39:26,441 --> 01:39:28,708
But the devil--

1749
01:39:28,710 --> 01:39:30,277
and the Nobel Prize--

1750
01:39:30,279 --> 01:39:32,412
lie in the details.

1751
01:39:32,414 --> 01:39:35,749
The difference in length
between the two arms

1752
01:39:35,751 --> 01:39:39,219
would be tiny beyond imagining.

1753
01:39:39,221 --> 01:39:40,353
How tiny?

1754
01:39:40,355 --> 01:39:41,521
Well, take the size of an atom.

1755
01:39:41,523 --> 01:39:43,657
It's less than that.

1756
01:39:43,659 --> 01:39:46,393
Go down by a factor of 100,000.

1757
01:39:46,395 --> 01:39:47,994
That's the nucleus of an atom.

1758
01:39:47,996 --> 01:39:49,829
It's less than that.

1759
01:39:49,831 --> 01:39:53,466
It was 100 times below that.

1760
01:39:53,468 --> 01:39:58,171
So we're talking about
really itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny.

1761
01:39:58,173 --> 01:40:00,907
I thought it was crazy.
1762
01:40:00,909 --> 01:40:03,843
I think everybody's
initial reaction to the idea

1763
01:40:03,845 --> 01:40:06,379
was, this is going to be
impossible.

1764
01:40:06,381 --> 01:40:11,851
In 1973, Kip Thorne puts
his skepticism on the record

1765
01:40:11,853 --> 01:40:13,653
in a classic textbook,

1766
01:40:13,655 --> 01:40:15,422
doubting it will ever work.

1767
01:40:15,424 --> 01:40:18,291
But Kip has never heard
Rai Weiss

1768
01:40:18,293 --> 01:40:21,127
explain his plan in detail.

1769
01:40:21,129 --> 01:40:23,997
And when he does...

1770
01:40:23,999 --> 01:40:25,699
We spent the whole night
talking.

1771
01:40:25,701 --> 01:40:28,235
And so I said, "No, no, no,
it's very possible."

1772
01:40:28,237 --> 01:40:32,405
And within no time at all,
20 minutes, maybe half an hour,

1773
01:40:32,407 --> 01:40:35,875
Kip was solidly understanding
this thing and he says, "Yup!"

1774
01:40:35,877 --> 01:40:38,178
And I ate crow
the rest of my career,

1775
01:40:38,180 --> 01:40:41,147
because once I had talked
with Ray about it in detail,

1776
01:40:41,149 --> 01:40:43,850
I decided I would spend
a large fraction

1777
01:40:43,852 --> 01:40:44,818
of the rest of my career

1778
01:40:44,820 --> 01:40:47,454
helping the experimenters.

1779
01:40:49,591 --> 01:40:52,559
But it will take 40 years,

1780
01:40:52,561 --> 01:40:54,327
and enormous sums of money,

1781
01:40:54,329 --> 01:40:59,099
to bring Rai and Kip's vision
to reality.

1782
01:40:59,101 --> 01:41:02,636
Getting LIGO funded

1783
01:41:02,638 --> 01:41:04,671
was extremely controversial.

1784
01:41:04,673 --> 01:41:07,007
Hundreds of millions of dollars

1785
01:41:07,009 --> 01:41:11,011
to detect a signal
that had never been seen before.

1786
01:41:12,547 --> 01:41:15,115
There were many people
who feared

1787
01:41:15,117 --> 01:41:18,852
that LIGO would suck the money
out of the room.
1788
01:41:18,854 --> 01:41:23,056
And so there was
a lot of controversy.

1789
01:41:23,058 --> 01:41:25,091
What everybody could agree on
was,

1790
01:41:25,093 --> 01:41:28,795
this was extremely difficult.

1791
01:41:28,797 --> 01:41:32,299
With such a sensitive
instrument,

1792
01:41:32,301 --> 01:41:34,701
one of the biggest challenges

1793
01:41:34,703 --> 01:41:39,572
is Rai Weiss's old
hi-fi nemesis: noise.

1794
01:41:39,574 --> 01:41:41,975
Ground motion.

1795
01:41:41,977 --> 01:41:43,443
The seismic motion of the Earth.

1796
01:41:43,445 --> 01:41:45,245
Acoustics' noise,

1797
01:41:45,247 --> 01:41:47,113
sounds...

1798
01:41:47,115 --> 01:41:50,483
Everything would tend to move
that mirror.

1799
01:41:50,485 --> 01:41:54,387
Turns out, even the emptiness
of a total vacuum

1800
01:41:54,389 --> 01:41:57,424
creates a potentially crippling
problem.
1801
01:41:57,426 --> 01:42:00,193
At subatomic distances,

1802
01:42:00,195 --> 01:42:02,762
the weird randomness
of the quantum world

1803
01:42:02,764 --> 01:42:05,932
causes a ruckus in the mirrors.

1804
01:42:05,934 --> 01:42:09,669
This quantum noise is due
to quantum fluctuations.

1805
01:42:09,671 --> 01:42:13,440
These mirrors are doing what
an electron does inside an atom;

1806
01:42:13,442 --> 01:42:14,641
they're jiggling around.

1807
01:42:17,946 --> 01:42:20,280
Exquisite sensitivity,

1808
01:42:20,282 --> 01:42:22,282
extreme vacuum,

1809
01:42:22,284 --> 01:42:24,517
hundreds of thousands
of electronic circuits...

1810
01:42:25,620 --> 01:42:28,455
LIGO is one of
the most complex instruments

1811
01:42:28,457 --> 01:42:31,925
in the history of science.

1812
01:42:31,927 --> 01:42:36,730
And as a final means
of eliminating false signals,

1813
01:42:36,732 --> 01:42:37,931
they build not one,
1814
01:42:37,933 --> 01:42:41,201
but two complete installations:

1815
01:42:41,203 --> 01:42:47,173
one in Washington state
and another in Louisiana.

1816
01:42:47,175 --> 01:42:48,808
And so the LIGO designers
did it right.

1817
01:42:48,810 --> 01:42:50,477
They designed
more than one detector,

1818
01:42:50,479 --> 01:42:54,748
separated from one another
by great distances,

1819
01:42:54,750 --> 01:42:58,051
so that if you detect something
in one and not in the other,

1820
01:42:58,053 --> 01:43:01,721
then, you know, go back
and check your electronics.

1821
01:43:01,723 --> 01:43:04,824
Check to see
if it was April Fools' Day

1822
01:43:04,826 --> 01:43:07,026
and somebody didn't just
tweak the knobs.

1823
01:43:09,564 --> 01:43:12,298
Early fall 2015.

1824
01:43:12,300 --> 01:43:14,667
Both locations are operating,

1825
01:43:14,669 --> 01:43:17,971
but the first official science
run has not yet begun.

1826
01:43:17,973 --> 01:43:21,007
They're still testing.

1827
01:43:22,978 --> 01:43:26,913
In the early hours
of Sunday, September 14, 2015,

1828
01:43:26,915 --> 01:43:31,384
a scientist in Louisiana
makes a fateful decision.

1829
01:43:36,024 --> 01:43:39,426
Robert Schofield
has been working all weekend

1830
01:43:39,428 --> 01:43:42,095
doing final calibrations.

1831
01:43:42,097 --> 01:43:44,697
All righty,
let's take a spectrum.

1832
01:43:44,699 --> 01:43:47,000
He has one last test.

1833
01:43:47,002 --> 01:43:50,603
So let's see where this
computer's getting its power.

1834
01:43:50,605 --> 01:43:54,107
But it's late, and the equipment
is not cooperating.

1835
01:43:54,109 --> 01:43:58,945
It was about 4:00 or so
in the morning,

1836
01:43:58,947 --> 01:44:02,582
and we still had about
another hour of work to do.

1837
01:44:02,584 --> 01:44:06,019
And we were, like, "Yeah,
things aren't working so well,

1838
01:44:06,021 --> 01:44:07,987
"and I'm really tired.
1839
01:44:07,989 --> 01:44:10,323
Let's not do this last hour
or so of work."

1840
01:44:13,595 --> 01:44:15,762
They call it a night.

1841
01:44:15,764 --> 01:44:17,831
And 40 minutes later,

1842
01:44:17,833 --> 01:44:20,800
in the silence
of their inactivity,

1843
01:44:20,802 --> 01:44:23,670
they open the door to history.

1844
01:44:41,089 --> 01:44:44,858
A powerful gravitational wave
rumbles through both detectors,

1845
01:44:44,860 --> 01:44:48,661
Louisiana and Washington.

1846
01:44:48,663 --> 01:44:52,131
Had Robert Schofield worked
40 more minutes that night,

1847
01:44:52,133 --> 01:44:54,100
with the instruments
in test mode,

1848
01:44:54,102 --> 01:44:58,037
a signal that had been
on its way for 1.3 billion years

1849
01:44:58,039 --> 01:45:01,608
would never have been recorded.

1850
01:45:01,610 --> 01:45:02,976
I like to say,

1851
01:45:02,978 --> 01:45:05,311
you know, one of my biggest
contributions to LIGO
1852
01:45:05,313 --> 01:45:08,748
has been my laziness that day.

1853
01:45:12,787 --> 01:45:14,888
I got an email
from somebody here saying,

1854
01:45:14,890 --> 01:45:18,892
"Hey, look, look at this place
on the web."

1855
01:45:21,162 --> 01:45:25,098
I looked at that
and I said, "Holy!"

1856
01:45:28,069 --> 01:45:29,636
It was so strong

1857
01:45:29,638 --> 01:45:32,605
that you could see it by eye
in the data.

1858
01:45:32,607 --> 01:45:35,808
It was too good to be true.

1859
01:45:35,810 --> 01:45:37,610
But it was true.

1860
01:45:37,612 --> 01:45:41,514
In fact it was loud,
and surprisingly clear.

1861
01:45:41,516 --> 01:45:42,815
And it just sang at you.

1862
01:45:42,817 --> 01:45:44,150
There it was, standing out.

1863
01:45:46,054 --> 01:45:49,756
The signal lasted
less than a second,

1864
01:45:49,758 --> 01:45:52,125
but in that briefest of moments

1865
01:45:52,127 --> 01:45:54,627
it delivered
a cosmically profound message

1866
01:45:54,629 --> 01:45:57,730
more than a billion years
in the making,

1867
01:45:57,732 --> 01:46:02,802
proving the existence
of black holes.

1868
01:46:02,804 --> 01:46:04,437
So what we saw in the signal

1869
01:46:04,439 --> 01:46:08,141
involved oscillations of the
mirrors that were slow at first,

1870
01:46:08,143 --> 01:46:10,677
became faster and faster
and faster.

1871
01:46:10,679 --> 01:46:13,613
And this was precisely
the kind of behavior

1872
01:46:13,615 --> 01:46:16,449
that you would expect
from gravitational waves

1873
01:46:16,451 --> 01:46:20,853
caused by two black holes
going around each other,

1874
01:46:20,855 --> 01:46:22,221
spiraling together.

1875
01:46:23,425 --> 01:46:26,025
Two massive black holes,

1876
01:46:26,027 --> 01:46:28,261
one 29 times
the mass of the sun,

1877
01:46:28,263 --> 01:46:32,498
the other 36 times
the mass of the sun,

1878
01:46:32,500 --> 01:46:36,069
whipping around each other
hundreds of times a second,

1879
01:46:36,071 --> 01:46:40,940
finally completing their act of
mutual destruction by merging...

1880
01:46:44,279 --> 01:46:50,116
Creating a single, larger
black hole of 62 solar masses.

1881
01:46:51,419 --> 01:46:55,121
The violent merger
converts some of the mass

1882
01:46:55,123 --> 01:46:57,724
into an apocalyptic release
of energy

1883
01:46:57,726 --> 01:47:01,327
beyond anything
ever before witnessed.

1884
01:47:01,329 --> 01:47:03,529
The collision, in effect,

1885
01:47:03,531 --> 01:47:07,734
creates a very-- a veritable
storm in the fabric or the shape

1886
01:47:07,736 --> 01:47:08,935
of space and time,

1887
01:47:08,937 --> 01:47:11,871
as though you had taken
three suns,

1888
01:47:11,873 --> 01:47:16,009
you had annihilated them
completely,

1889
01:47:16,011 --> 01:47:18,811
converted it
into gravitational waves.
1890
01:47:18,813 --> 01:47:23,383
The power was 50 times higher
than the output power

1891
01:47:23,385 --> 01:47:26,119
of all the stars
in the universe put together--

1892
01:47:26,121 --> 01:47:29,155
in a fraction of a second.

1893
01:47:29,157 --> 01:47:31,891
But the most powerful explosion

1894
01:47:31,893 --> 01:47:36,229
that humans have ever had
any evidence for

1895
01:47:36,231 --> 01:47:38,531
with the exception
of the Big Bang.

1896
01:47:40,502 --> 01:47:44,303
Since that very first signal
in September 2015,

1897
01:47:44,305 --> 01:47:49,375
LIGO has detected several more
collisions of black holes.

1898
01:47:49,377 --> 01:47:55,348
In October 2017,
Rai Weiss, Kip Thorne,

1899
01:47:55,350 --> 01:47:57,884
and LIGO's former director
Barry Barisch

1900
01:47:57,886 --> 01:48:01,454
received the Nobel Prize.

1901
01:48:01,456 --> 01:48:07,026
The LIGO discoveries prove
that black holes can merge--

1902
01:48:07,028 --> 01:48:10,630
one way they can grow bigger
quickly.

1903
01:48:12,534 --> 01:48:15,368
More and more evidence of these
merging black holes tells us

1904
01:48:15,370 --> 01:48:18,137
there are a lot of these
stellar black holes around,

1905
01:48:18,139 --> 01:48:19,739
that they can find each other
and, and merge.

1906
01:48:19,741 --> 01:48:25,411
And the discovery opened
an entirely new way

1907
01:48:25,413 --> 01:48:28,181
of observing the universe.

1908
01:48:32,454 --> 01:48:33,886
We always thought of astronomy

1909
01:48:33,888 --> 01:48:36,055
as an observational field

1910
01:48:36,057 --> 01:48:39,258
where we are looking
at radiation.

1911
01:48:39,260 --> 01:48:42,328
We are seeing things.

1912
01:48:42,330 --> 01:48:43,696
But this is not radiation.

1913
01:48:43,698 --> 01:48:45,431
This is something much more
fundamental.

1914
01:48:45,433 --> 01:48:50,770
These are sort of fundamental
tremors in space-time itself.
1915
01:48:50,772 --> 01:48:53,473
We can now hear the universe.

1916
01:49:00,448 --> 01:49:02,949
For the first time,

1917
01:49:02,951 --> 01:49:07,086
astronomers have simultaneously
seen and heard a cosmic event.

1918
01:49:10,592 --> 01:49:16,028
In August 2017, LIGO detected
gravitational waves

1919
01:49:16,030 --> 01:49:19,665
from a collision
of two neutron stars.

1920
01:49:19,667 --> 01:49:22,535
Black holes are empty space,

1921
01:49:22,537 --> 01:49:25,505
but neutron stars
are dense dead stars

1922
01:49:25,507 --> 01:49:28,541
that can crash together
and light up the skies.

1923
01:49:32,714 --> 01:49:35,681
When telescopes and satellites
around the globe

1924
01:49:35,683 --> 01:49:39,218
pointed in the direction
of the sound,

1925
01:49:39,220 --> 01:49:42,488
the world saw fireworks

1926
01:49:42,490 --> 01:49:46,192
in an explosive collision
and afterglow.

1927
01:49:46,194 --> 01:49:48,961
Possibly, the collision resulted
in the creation

1928
01:49:48,963 --> 01:49:51,531
of a new black hole.

1929
01:49:54,836 --> 01:49:58,805
But unless we observe
the formation of a black hole,

1930
01:49:58,807 --> 01:50:01,641
there is much
we will never know.

1931
01:50:01,643 --> 01:50:03,342
Because so much
about black holes

1932
01:50:03,344 --> 01:50:05,044
is irretrievably
out of our reach,

1933
01:50:05,046 --> 01:50:07,180
we can never know
where they came from,

1934
01:50:07,182 --> 01:50:09,382
what's inside, or their history.

1935
01:50:14,989 --> 01:50:17,456
But we can imagine their future.

1936
01:50:17,458 --> 01:50:21,494
The number of black holes
in the universe is increasing.

1937
01:50:21,496 --> 01:50:24,630
And they're getting bigger.

1938
01:50:24,632 --> 01:50:27,867
Stars collapse,

1939
01:50:27,869 --> 01:50:29,836
black holes feed and merge,

1940
01:50:29,838 --> 01:50:33,039
new ones form.
1941
01:50:33,041 --> 01:50:34,974
Could it be that one day,

1942
01:50:34,976 --> 01:50:37,977
everything will end up
inside them

1943
01:50:37,979 --> 01:50:40,513
and they will rule the universe?

1944
01:50:42,750 --> 01:50:47,353
Untold trillions upon trillions
of years after this happens,

1945
01:50:47,355 --> 01:50:50,857
and the last bits of matter
cross their event horizons,

1946
01:50:50,859 --> 01:50:54,227
black holes themselves
may radiate away

1947
01:50:54,229 --> 01:50:58,664
and vanish from this reality.

1948
01:51:02,670 --> 01:51:05,671
Their mysteries are many,
and we're just starting

1949
01:51:05,673 --> 01:51:10,243
to unlock the secrets of these
strange, powerful places.

1950
01:51:11,312 --> 01:51:13,613
But one thing is certain.

1951
01:51:13,615 --> 01:51:18,084
Black holes will continue
to intrigue us,

1952
01:51:18,086 --> 01:51:19,785
tantalize us,

1953
01:51:19,787 --> 01:51:25,691
and challenge both our science
and our imaginations.

1954
01:52:17,412 --> 01:52:20,012
This "NOVA" program
is available on DVD.

1955
01:52:20,014 --> 01:52:25,451
To order, visit shopPBS.org
or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

1956
01:52:25,453 --> 01:52:28,821
"NOVA" is also available
for download on iTunes.