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<i>Mérida, on the Yucatán Peninsula,</i>

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<i>is ground zero of the biggest cataclysmthat ever occurred to our planet.</i>

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<i>A whole asteroid hit right here.</i>

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<i>This happened millions of yearsbefore human beings appeared,</i>

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<i>and yet this fireball ritualfeels like a reenactment.</i>

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<i>Certainly, the ancient Mayascould not have known.</i>

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<i>We do not knowwhat in the future is coming at us,</i>

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<i>eventually destroying us.</i>

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<i>But it will look like this fireballover Siberia,</i>

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<i>only much larger.</i>

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<i>What simple dashboard cameras recorded</i>

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<i>feels like science fiction.</i>

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<i>Visitors from other worlds,</i>

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<i>from the dark of the universe, have come.</i>

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<i>And untold numbers are still on their way.</i>

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<i>If something big is going to happen,</i>

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<i>it will illuminate the skyeven in daylight.</i>

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<i>But that may be millions of years away.</i>

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<i>Meteorites have hit our planetall the time,</i>

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<i>and the bigger oneshave changed entire landscapes.</i>

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<i>But they also have lefta deep impact on cultures.</i>

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<i>A good example is Islamic culture.</i>

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<i>According to ancient tradition,</i>

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<i>a stone was sent down by Godfrom heaven</i>

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<i>as a guide for Adam and Evewhere to build an altar.</i>

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<i>The meteorite came down</i>

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<i>where later the holy city of Meccawas built.</i>

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<i>We are here at the holiest siteof the Muslim world.</i>

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<i>In its center, the Kaaba.</i>

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<i>Embedded in its eastern corner,the Black Stone.</i>

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<i>It was already veneratedin pre-Islamic times</i>

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<i>for at least a millennium beforethe prophet Muhammad founded Islam.</i>

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<i>The Black Stoneis framed entirely in silver,</i>

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<i>and nobody is allowed to analyze it,</i>

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<i>but it is almost certainly a meteorite.</i>

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<i>Islam is a religionof 1.9 billion faithful.</i>

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<i>For the pilgrims,</i>

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<i>the Black Stoneis among the most revered of relics.</i>

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<i>It attracts uncountable millionsof touches and kisses.</i>

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<i>As non-Muslims, we are not allowedeven to set foot into the holy city,</i>

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<i>and so we had to rely oncell phone footage of one of the faithful.</i>

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<i>Back in the silent vastnessof the Australian desert.</i>

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<i>Clive Oppenheimerof Cambridge University,</i>

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<i>who started our voyage of this film,explains to me...</i>

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Scientists only became aware ofthis huge hole in the ground in 1947,

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when it was spotted from the air.

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And the crateris about a kilometer across.

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And it was formedwhen a piece of iron asteroid,

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the size of a battleshipand traveling at 15 kilometers per second,

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plummeted into the ground.

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And the crater wallsaround the floor here

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are made of the ancient rocks

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that were shattered by the impactand thrown about.

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The meteoroid itselfwas almost completely vaporized,

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and only a few fragments of it

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have been foundscattered across the surrounding desert.

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The pattern of ejecta

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suggests that the bolidecame from that direction over there.

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The temperatures are so phenomenal

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that it generates a huge thermal plume

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that punches up through the atmosphere,into the stratosphere,

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and it's raining out molten debrisover a very wide area.

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And, of course,there's colossal seismic energy

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that is generated by the impact itself,

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so huge earthquakes.

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I mean,we're in the middle of the desert here,

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but if you imagine this scenario happeningtoday in an urban environment,

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this would be absolutely devastating.

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To be hit by a meteoritehas barely ever happened?

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There was a womanwho was struck by a meteorite

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that came through her roof,through her ceiling,

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and hit her while she was seatedin an armchair watching TV.

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The Sylacauga meteorite.

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She survived itbut had a pretty horrific bruise.

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<i>As bleak and uninviting asthe country around the crater looks,</i>

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<i>there were always aboriginal peoplein this area.</i>

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<i>Many of them make a living as artists.</i>

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<i>Like those in the nearest communityof Billiluna.</i>

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<i>They could not have witnessed the impactmore than 100,000 years ago,</i>

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<i>but there were more recent events</i>

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<i>that could have triggereda cultural memory.</i>

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<i>In their paintings,the crater frequently appears as a motif,</i>

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<i>but it goes deeper than that.</i>

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<i>We met Katie Darkie,</i>

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<i>one of the finest artistsof the community.</i>

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This is one ofyour very own paintings, isn't it?

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Let's have a look at this one.

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Now please tell uswhat we're looking at here.

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It's a beautiful painting.

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This is the sand hill...

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and this is the grass.

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And it hasn't got any <i>karnti</i>.No potatoes.

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Long time ago, the old people said...

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one man went huntingthrough the creeks, hunting for birds.

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But he was walking throughthe tunnel underneath the river,

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but we call it a creek.

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And it came outon the other side of the crater

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and then went walking backto where he came from

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when he was hunting.

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And in this story, the crater,how was it formed?

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What's the origin?

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Well, in the <i>kartiya</i> world,there's a meteorite fell in there.

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-That's our story, the whitefellas' story.-The whitefella stories.

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Some say it's a star fell in there.

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But the ancestorsand the old people were telling us

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it's the Rainbow Serpentwho fell in the crater.

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So that's how we gotthree different stories about the crater.

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But it connects in one.

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We always take the kids.

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Every weekend we come and camp out there.

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And that's where we feel the presenceof our ancestors and our family,

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that they are looking after uswhen we go down and visit the crater.

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It's a very special place for us.

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For our families as well.

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<i>Meteorites have fallen at random.</i>

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<i>A significant onein the Alsace region of France.</i>

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<i>But right here it changed human affairs.It influenced history.</i>

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<i>In the distance, the town of Ensisheim.</i>

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<i>In the 15th century,world history was shaped here,</i>

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<i>because the Hapsburg Empireearned legitimacy</i>

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<i>through a falling piece of rock.</i>

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<i>A plaque marks a spot where it fell.</i>

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<i>Clive brought Professor Simon Schaffer,</i>

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<i>a colleague from Cambridge University.</i>

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<i>He is a historian of scienceand one of the few remaining polymaths.</i>

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What happened on that day in--7th of November, 1492?

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So, on this extraordinary day,

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a fireball appearedin the southeast sky in that direction,

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moving incredibly fastand whistling as it came.

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And then it hit this fieldat about 11:30 in the morning.

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There was, according to most reports,

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just one person standing in the field.

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A shepherd boy.

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And he would have seenthe most extraordinary thing.

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He would have seen a 300-pound rockhit the field

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and gouge out a hole.

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The 7th of November, 1492,

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the moment when this stone fell,

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was only a few daysafter another great landfall:

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the arrival of Christopher Columbusand his crew

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in their New World,in the Caribbean.

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It's thanks to Columbus, ultimately,

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that there is corn growing in this field.

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This is the result of the eruptioninto European agriculture

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of crops that up till thenhad only grown in the Americas.

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Indeed, the fall of the stonewas so important

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that there are some chroniclescovering the year 1492

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that only mention the Ensisheim stone

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and simply leave Columbus out.

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It had fallen, perhaps by divine design,as they thought,

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very near an extremely significant town,

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Ensisheim in Alsace.

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Ensisheim at that point

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was the headquartersof the Austrian forces

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in this part of the world.

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And within two weeksof the arrival of the stone,

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the Austrian military commander,

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the commander in chief, Maximilian,also arrived in the town.

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But, for heaven's sake,why did this stone fall here at this time?

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The reason this stone fell in this fieldwas exactly for heaven's sake.

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For those people,

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wonderful supernatural signsin the heavens were messages.

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This was, as it were,an e-mail sent from God

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to the subjects of Maximilian

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to tell them that his rule was legitimate,

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that he would defeat his enemies,

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and that they should obey his commands.

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Where do you get your fascination from?

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I think one of the things that I findcompletely obsessional about meteorites

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is that they carry sense,that they carry meaning.

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They arrive, so it was thought,with other kinds of falls.

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With body partsand frogs and rains of blood.

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With plagues and other catastrophes.

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Something like a meteoriteis an organism,

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an animal, almost, that speaks to us.

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And I think that'sa very powerful and eloquent idea.

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The idea that... meteorites have meaning,

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and the task of humanityis to interpret what that meaning is.

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<i>Simon Schaffer could have continued,</i>

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<i>without getting boring,nonstop for the next eight hours.</i>

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<i>But we wanted to see the remainsof the real stone in the local museum.</i>

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<i>It feels unreal, inviting fantasies.</i>

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<i>The mayor of town wanted to greet us,</i>

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<i>here flanked by friends of the meteorite.</i>

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<i>This emblem is takenfrom a medieval woodcut.</i>

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<i>You find it everywhere.</i>

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<i>But today it means thinking backand thinking ahead in centuries.</i>

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<i>Did these membersof the brotherhood of the stone</i>

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<i>have a far-off future in mind?</i>

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<i>What are they thinking?</i>

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<i>What far-reaching plans do they have?</i>

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<i>What if the human race became extinct?</i>

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<i>What would we leavefor future astronauts of an alien galaxy</i>

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<i>to demonstrate that we would not leavea fallen comrade behind?</i>

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<i>Right next to the stone,we discovered this installation.</i>

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"<i>Hi, my name is Jean,</i>"

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<i>says the simulacrum,hoping the aliens speak French.</i>

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<i>"I am a miner.</i>

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<i>And this is how beautifulour world looked."</i>

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<i>"When danger for our planetbecame visible in the night sky,</i>

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<i>we took precautions.</i>

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<i>We dug tunnelsand built shelters underground.</i>

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<i>We think we have a chanceto survive a whole decade.</i>

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<i>If a big firestorm comes,</i>

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<i>I'm confidentthe human race can survive it.</i>

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<i>But I am not a prophet. I'm just a miner."</i>

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<i>"I wish you a good end to your visit."</i>

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<i>Next destination, the big sports arenain Oslo, Norway.</i>

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<i>It is so spaciousthat it houses an entire football field.</i>

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<i>But we were interested in its roof,</i>

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<i>and we were interested in this man,Jon Larsen,</i>

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<i>Norway's most famous jazz musician.</i>

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<i>But it is as a citizen scientist</i>

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<i>that he has every reasonto be on this big roof.</i>

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How did this all start?How did you find this place?

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I searched on... Google Earth

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and found the largest roofthat I could see.

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And this sports arena was probablythe largest in Oslo at that time.

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And then I realized the...

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the small object will roll down the sideand accumulate along here

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and end up close to the drain.

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And, as we can see,there is a lot of dirt here,

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but withinwe will find the cosmic dust particles.

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How did you get started?

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You've had a four-decades-long careeras a successful musician.

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Why have you ended up on rooftops?Was it to escape your fans?

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No. I've always collected rocksand been interested in geology.

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And that has been my hobby all my life.

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So ten years ago, when suddenly onthe breakfast table one morning, outdoors,

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I discovered a shining black doton my table

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which hadn't been theretwo seconds earlier.

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And I picked it up with my finger,

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and because of my backgroundas an amateur mineralogist,

236
00:19:37.010 --> 00:19:39.680
I could see,"Wow, this is actually a small rock."

237
00:19:40.264 --> 00:19:41.598
And we were like,

238
00:19:41.682 --> 00:19:45.602
"Where did it come from?Is it from space perhaps? I don't know."

239
00:19:45.686 --> 00:19:49.815
But then I started to googleand found out

240
00:19:49.898 --> 00:19:54.987
that there are some strangesmall cosmic dust particles

241
00:19:55.070 --> 00:19:56.405
called micrometeorites.

242
00:19:56.488 --> 00:19:57.614
And then it all began.

243
00:19:57.698 --> 00:19:59.074
And you think there are some here.

244
00:19:59.157 --> 00:20:02.494
What's the equipment that you needto collect this goop?

245
00:20:03.203 --> 00:20:05.289
My main weapon is this magnet.

246
00:20:05.372 --> 00:20:08.208
And I use the magnet mainly because the...

247
00:20:08.792 --> 00:20:10.961
micrometeorites are magnetic.

248
00:20:11.044 --> 00:20:14.173
First I put the magnet itself into

249
00:20:14.256 --> 00:20:17.593
just protecting small ziplockplastic bag, like this.

250
00:20:18.635 --> 00:20:20.929
And then the hook is handy, literally...

251
00:20:21.013 --> 00:20:25.934
<i>It is astounding that Jon Larsen,with such primitive equipment,</i>

252
00:20:26.018 --> 00:20:29.646
<i>has foundeda completely new branch of science.</i>

253
00:20:30.022 --> 00:20:33.275
And now this will be the sampling area.

254
00:20:33.358 --> 00:20:35.694
I will move it down on the ground,like this.

255
00:20:37.070 --> 00:20:42.201
Heavy particles will roll downand remain at the heaviest part.

256
00:20:42.993 --> 00:20:46.830
This might be some microscopicmagnetic particles.

257
00:20:47.372 --> 00:20:49.791
I'll look at it laterunder the microscope.

258
00:20:49.875 --> 00:20:53.754
What's the flux of these cosmic particlesto the Earth per day?

259
00:20:53.837 --> 00:20:55.297
Do we know the figure?

260
00:20:55.380 --> 00:20:57.799
Yeah, approximately 100 metric tons.

261
00:20:57.883 --> 00:21:04.181
Imagine two large trucks of sandpouring cosmic dust over Earth every day.

262
00:21:04.264 --> 00:21:08.101
But that equals one small particle

263
00:21:08.185 --> 00:21:11.855
per year per square meter.

264
00:21:12.314 --> 00:21:14.942
These particles are messengers,aren't they?

265
00:21:15.025 --> 00:21:17.861
This seemed to bea very particular message for you.

266
00:21:17.945 --> 00:21:19.029
Yeah, to me it is.

267
00:21:19.112 --> 00:21:22.824
And they are the oldest matter there is.

268
00:21:23.408 --> 00:21:25.202
Nothing has traveled further.

269
00:21:25.285 --> 00:21:29.331
When I pick out one micrometeoriteand feel it on my finger,

270
00:21:30.082 --> 00:21:34.127
no human beinghas ever touched anything older.

271
00:21:34.211 --> 00:21:38.465
I mean, it's really looking the eternityin the eye.

272
00:21:38.549 --> 00:21:42.302
This is the ashes of another generation,

273
00:21:42.386 --> 00:21:44.513
previous generation of dying stars.

274
00:21:45.055 --> 00:21:49.268
So it has a history that goesall the way back to the big bang.

275
00:21:52.187 --> 00:21:53.897
<i>This is Jan Braly Kihle,</i>

276
00:21:53.981 --> 00:21:59.611
<i>a geologist who will analyze Jon's samplesunder the microscope.</i>

277
00:21:59.695 --> 00:22:02.072
<i>We loved his outfit as Wyatt Earp.</i>

278
00:22:02.614 --> 00:22:04.199
<i>He was born in Texas.</i>

279
00:22:05.158 --> 00:22:06.660
<i>But there's more to him.</i>

280
00:22:07.286 --> 00:22:09.913
<i>He's a four-time cancer survivor,</i>

281
00:22:09.997 --> 00:22:14.793
<i>two times, according to him,stark naked death sentences.</i>

282
00:22:15.711 --> 00:22:19.089
<i>Wanting to contribute to cancer research,</i>

283
00:22:19.173 --> 00:22:24.052
<i>he's now involved in pioneering workwith new cancer treatments.</i>

284
00:22:24.553 --> 00:22:25.971
This is the underworld.

285
00:22:26.054 --> 00:22:29.808
This is where we try to makethe photographical documentation.

286
00:22:30.601 --> 00:22:32.936
-And this is Jan Kihle, my friend.-Hi.

287
00:22:33.020 --> 00:22:34.479
We have worked together for years

288
00:22:34.563 --> 00:22:39.610
to make high-resolution color photographsof the micrometeorites

289
00:22:40.110 --> 00:22:44.948
at such a magnificationthat it's made nowhere else in the world.

290
00:22:45.866 --> 00:22:47.659
How much magnification do you need?

291
00:22:47.743 --> 00:22:49.995
You can see these particles are so small

292
00:22:50.078 --> 00:22:52.289
it's practically not possible to see them.

293
00:22:52.372 --> 00:22:57.127
We need 2,000, or better,3,000 times magnification.

294
00:22:57.544 --> 00:23:00.964
And then the original photowill be one meter in diameter.

295
00:23:01.048 --> 00:23:02.132
That's what we need.

296
00:23:02.549 --> 00:23:04.718
You know, when everyone saysthis was impossible,

297
00:23:04.801 --> 00:23:07.596
now we have madea completely new kind of science.

298
00:23:07.679 --> 00:23:12.309
And you recall the kind of feedbackwe all got from colleagues.

299
00:23:12.392 --> 00:23:14.645
-They were laughing hilarious...-Yes. Oh, yes.

300
00:23:14.728 --> 00:23:17.689
...when they asked us,"What you gonna do? What?

301
00:23:18.148 --> 00:23:20.192
Everybody knowsthat that's impossible.

302
00:23:20.275 --> 00:23:24.488
You know, the signal-to-noise ratio,it's beyond one to one billion.

303
00:23:24.571 --> 00:23:25.739
Make my day."

304
00:23:27.241 --> 00:23:29.868
Did it hurt you, that time?

305
00:23:29.952 --> 00:23:31.078
Of course not.

306
00:23:31.703 --> 00:23:33.330
This is how science works.

307
00:23:33.413 --> 00:23:37.042
It has nothing to do with feelings.It's just about curiosity.

308
00:23:37.668 --> 00:23:39.962
So this is from earlier today.

309
00:23:40.754 --> 00:23:43.799
When we see that specialtype of texture, then we know,

310
00:23:43.882 --> 00:23:48.136
"Okay, this is a micrometeoriteand not an industrial particle."

311
00:23:48.220 --> 00:23:50.264
And it's obviouslyquite blurred at the moment.

312
00:23:50.347 --> 00:23:52.432
Can we-- Can we takea photograph of it?

313
00:23:53.267 --> 00:23:54.643
-No, we-- No.-No.

314
00:23:54.726 --> 00:23:55.811
If we just--

315
00:23:55.894 --> 00:24:00.148
Our heartbeats, when we gettoo enthusiastic, will make disturbances.

316
00:24:00.232 --> 00:24:01.275
So it's not possible.

317
00:24:01.358 --> 00:24:04.069
We'll have to leave the roomwhen we actually take the photos.

318
00:24:04.778 --> 00:24:07.406
Where have these particles come fromin the first place?

319
00:24:07.489 --> 00:24:10.617
That's a good question,because we don't know the answer.

320
00:24:11.118 --> 00:24:13.203
They come, obviously, from space.

321
00:24:13.287 --> 00:24:15.706
So some of themare from the asteroid belt.

322
00:24:15.789 --> 00:24:17.916
Others may come from cometary matter.

323
00:24:18.417 --> 00:24:23.839
But, again, it might be particlesfrom other galaxies, other solar systems.

324
00:24:24.673 --> 00:24:27.759
We don't know the parent bodyof each individual grain.

325
00:24:28.343 --> 00:24:29.803
It's just amazing.

326
00:24:29.887 --> 00:24:33.724
Each Tuesday nightwhen Jon brings in new material

327
00:24:34.224 --> 00:24:35.726
we're just flabbergasted.

328
00:24:35.809 --> 00:24:37.895
It's like being a kid again.

329
00:24:37.978 --> 00:24:41.857
These particles are small and solitaryalso in space.

330
00:24:41.940 --> 00:24:46.820
Some of them have never reachedthe larger scale

331
00:24:46.904 --> 00:24:49.031
of, let's say, building--

332
00:24:49.114 --> 00:24:52.284
starting to build small planetsin the asteroid belt.

333
00:24:52.743 --> 00:24:56.788
It's actually cosmic dust.Dust is the currency of the cosmos.

334
00:24:57.289 --> 00:25:01.293
Here on the top, you have,for instance, this is iron-nickel alloy.

335
00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:07.633
And here you have very nicebeginning of crystallization.

336
00:25:07.716 --> 00:25:09.593
Started out with just glass.

337
00:25:10.552 --> 00:25:13.013
And now it'll start to crystallizeolivine crystals.

338
00:25:13.722 --> 00:25:18.227
And this outside isa very, very thin rim of iron sulfides.

339
00:25:18.310 --> 00:25:21.355
This looks like almost,sort of, an icy exoplanet.

340
00:25:21.438 --> 00:25:22.898
Looks like packs. Yeah, yeah.

341
00:25:22.981 --> 00:25:25.651
With the icebergs breaking up.

342
00:25:25.734 --> 00:25:28.153
This one, I think,is particularly interesting.

343
00:25:28.237 --> 00:25:34.117
It has a very high temperatureat atmospheric entry.

344
00:25:34.201 --> 00:25:36.453
In the front, which is up,

345
00:25:36.537 --> 00:25:40.082
that is the direction of movementin the Earth's atmosphere.

346
00:25:40.165 --> 00:25:45.337
Then when it starts to decelerate,the heavy metal core is pushed forward

347
00:25:45.420 --> 00:25:49.049
by the... inertia

348
00:25:49.508 --> 00:25:53.929
and ends up like a metal moundin the front of the particle.

349
00:25:54.763 --> 00:25:58.475
Again, the typical,with the iron-nickel in front.

350
00:25:58.559 --> 00:26:04.147
So, I mean, though we have collected now2,500 different specimens,

351
00:26:04.231 --> 00:26:05.858
none are identical.

352
00:26:06.817 --> 00:26:08.861
So when you start to--

353
00:26:08.944 --> 00:26:11.989
to get to know the micrometeoritesand the cosmic dust particles,

354
00:26:12.072 --> 00:26:16.702
then you will recognize them as verydifferent from the terrestrial geology.

355
00:26:16.785 --> 00:26:21.164
They have been through a processwith speed, in hypervelocity,

356
00:26:21.248 --> 00:26:23.959
50 times the speed of a rifle bullet

357
00:26:24.418 --> 00:26:26.503
and temperatures from hell.

358
00:26:26.587 --> 00:26:29.506
And then they end uplike treasures from space.

359
00:27:08.253 --> 00:27:13.509
<i>The beauty and strangenessthat we just saw can become even stranger.</i>

360
00:27:13.592 --> 00:27:15.219
This is what the pattern looks like.

361
00:27:16.094 --> 00:27:19.556
If you hold it down, I'll go up frontto the board and...

362
00:27:19.640 --> 00:27:22.476
<i>The pattern that Clive is projecting here</i>

363
00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:26.480
<i>is proof of somethingthat was believed to be unthinkable.</i>

364
00:27:26.563 --> 00:27:30.108
<i>It has to do with matterof crystalline structure</i>

365
00:27:30.192 --> 00:27:32.945
<i>that seemed to be utterly impossible.</i>

366
00:27:33.028 --> 00:27:35.489
<i>So-called quasicrystals.</i>

367
00:27:36.281 --> 00:27:40.369
<i>This is the man who refusedto accept the impossibility.</i>

368
00:27:40.827 --> 00:27:46.750
<i>He's a world-renowned cosmologist,Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University.</i>

369
00:27:46.834 --> 00:27:52.881
You ended up finding evidenceof a quasicrystal, a natural quasicrystal,

370
00:27:52.965 --> 00:27:55.259
from the universe found in a meteorite.

371
00:27:55.342 --> 00:27:57.261
But, I mean, what is a quasicrystal?

372
00:27:58.387 --> 00:28:02.891
So, a quasicrystal is a form of matterthat we thought was impossible.

373
00:28:03.392 --> 00:28:07.145
For hundreds of years, we were convincedthat we had proven that it was impossible.

374
00:28:08.230 --> 00:28:12.067
But, as we now know today,not only is it possible,

375
00:28:12.150 --> 00:28:14.611
but it was made in the universe long ago,

376
00:28:14.695 --> 00:28:16.280
long before we ever imagined.

377
00:28:16.363 --> 00:28:17.990
But let's begin with something simple.

378
00:28:18.824 --> 00:28:21.660
<i>Crystals follow a pattern of order,</i>

379
00:28:21.743 --> 00:28:24.413
<i>like the tiling of your bathroom floor.</i>

380
00:28:24.496 --> 00:28:27.374
-Okay.-Just simple squares.

381
00:28:27.457 --> 00:28:30.169
<i>Square tiles fit seamlessly.</i>

382
00:28:30.252 --> 00:28:33.839
<i>But with pentagons, a fivefold symmetry,</i>

383
00:28:33.922 --> 00:28:35.465
<i>you are quickly in trouble.</i>

384
00:28:35.924 --> 00:28:38.177
Let's come out this way a little bit.

385
00:28:38.677 --> 00:28:40.095
And...

386
00:28:40.512 --> 00:28:42.264
I can already seewhere the problem's gonna come from.

387
00:28:42.347 --> 00:28:44.183
Yeah, you see what's happening?

388
00:28:44.266 --> 00:28:47.436
We've opened up a gap.So now we have some choices to make.

389
00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:49.313
We're not gonna be able to fill that in.

390
00:28:49.396 --> 00:28:51.023
I could either put it there or there,

391
00:28:51.106 --> 00:28:53.192
-but there's never gonna be a way to...-Yeah.

392
00:28:54.401 --> 00:28:55.986
Atoms hate having gaps,

393
00:28:56.069 --> 00:28:58.280
so the moment you produce gapswith real atoms,

394
00:28:58.363 --> 00:29:00.490
they're going to move aroundand get rid of them.

395
00:29:00.574 --> 00:29:04.077
Fivefold symmetry was famouslyforbidden for matter.

396
00:29:04.536 --> 00:29:09.208
<i>But quasicrystals are evenmore complex and mysterious than this.</i>

397
00:29:10.083 --> 00:29:13.545
Let's just take a lookat a quasicrystal pattern first

398
00:29:13.629 --> 00:29:16.298
to get a visual impressionof what they're like.

399
00:29:16.381 --> 00:29:20.677
So, a good example is this tilingthat you see on the table.

400
00:29:20.761 --> 00:29:25.098
If you study it, you'll see it's madeof only two pieces, those two shapes.

401
00:29:25.641 --> 00:29:26.808
They're chickens.

402
00:29:27.684 --> 00:29:30.145
<i>This looks like a puzzle for children,</i>

403
00:29:30.229 --> 00:29:33.315
<i>but there is ingenious mathematicsbehind it.</i>

404
00:29:34.316 --> 00:29:38.487
This pattern was discoveredby Sir Roger Penrose in the 1970s.

405
00:29:39.446 --> 00:29:43.367
A mathematician and sometimesa cosmologist as well.

406
00:29:44.201 --> 00:29:47.579
<i>It is astonishingthat a quasicrystal pattern</i>

407
00:29:47.663 --> 00:29:51.708
<i>can be found in a shrinein Isfahan, in Iran.</i>

408
00:29:52.167 --> 00:29:56.964
<i>Without any knowledge ofthe underlying mathematical principles,</i>

409
00:29:57.047 --> 00:30:00.092
<i>artisans more than 500 years ago</i>

410
00:30:00.175 --> 00:30:04.596
<i>solved the impossible geometryof fivefold symmetry.</i>

411
00:30:05.597 --> 00:30:06.807
There we go.

412
00:30:09.226 --> 00:30:10.352
Now, I should warn you...

413
00:30:10.435 --> 00:30:12.563
<i>The warning was justified.</i>

414
00:30:13.021 --> 00:30:16.733
<i>Yes, indeed, it gets so complicated now</i>

415
00:30:16.817 --> 00:30:20.279
<i>that we are not going to torture youwith details.</i>

416
00:30:20.737 --> 00:30:22.239
<i>Just a sample.</i>

417
00:30:22.948 --> 00:30:27.911
So, instead of just one icosahedron,we have an icosahedron of icosahedra.

418
00:30:28.495 --> 00:30:31.790
And we said, "Oh, maybe that's a wayof building something ever outwards

419
00:30:31.874 --> 00:30:33.375
that maintains this structure."

420
00:30:34.042 --> 00:30:35.252
But we ran into trouble.

421
00:30:35.961 --> 00:30:38.964
<i>But this model here solved the problem.</i>

422
00:30:39.047 --> 00:30:41.967
<i>It represents a true quasicrystal.</i>

423
00:30:42.050 --> 00:30:44.052
...and you could only just buildthis plane...

424
00:30:44.136 --> 00:30:47.848
<i>Now Steinhardtwanted to find one in nature.</i>

425
00:30:50.225 --> 00:30:53.353
You ended up doing fieldwork in Kamchatka.

426
00:30:53.437 --> 00:30:55.606
That must've been inspiredthrough the theoretical--

427
00:30:55.689 --> 00:30:57.524
Yeah. Inspired by this model.

428
00:30:57.608 --> 00:30:58.901
Because what this model says:

429
00:30:58.984 --> 00:31:02.779
"Well, actually, if the atoms have forcesthat are like these interlocks,

430
00:31:02.863 --> 00:31:05.324
they have no choicebut to form this structure."

431
00:31:05.407 --> 00:31:06.950
It immediately got me to thinking,

432
00:31:07.034 --> 00:31:11.413
"Is it possible that nature has madea quasicrystal before humans did?"

433
00:31:11.496 --> 00:31:16.627
And so that began a decades-long searchfor a natural quasicrystal.

434
00:31:17.169 --> 00:31:21.882
We eventually found a mineralogistin Florence named Luca Bindi

435
00:31:21.965 --> 00:31:25.802
who had in his museuma tiny little sample of--

436
00:31:26.303 --> 00:31:28.889
well, a rock, a complex rock,

437
00:31:28.972 --> 00:31:32.226
which had inside ita little grain of quasicrystal.

438
00:31:32.976 --> 00:31:35.229
By studying that particular sample,

439
00:31:35.312 --> 00:31:39.274
we had some hints that what we hadin hand was a piece of a meteorite.

440
00:31:39.358 --> 00:31:44.655
But to prove the case, we had to find outwhere that rock really came from

441
00:31:44.738 --> 00:31:47.616
and see if we could gather moreof the sample to prove the case.

442
00:31:48.158 --> 00:31:51.203
<i>So Paul Steinhardt and Luca Bindi</i>

443
00:31:51.286 --> 00:31:54.915
<i>set out on an expeditionto easternmost Russia,</i>

444
00:31:54.998 --> 00:31:56.959
<i>close to the Bering Strait.</i>

445
00:31:59.878 --> 00:32:04.091
<i>The red marker shows the siteof the meteorite fragments.</i>

446
00:32:05.008 --> 00:32:09.763
<i>They were found along a creeknamed Listvenitovyi,</i>

447
00:32:10.180 --> 00:32:12.099
<i>of which nobody has ever heard.</i>

448
00:32:13.141 --> 00:32:18.438
<i>The expedition included membersof the original Russian geological team</i>

449
00:32:18.522 --> 00:32:22.317
<i>that had found the first sampledecades ago.</i>

450
00:32:36.874 --> 00:32:39.918
<i>They had to negotiate uncharted terrain,</i>

451
00:32:40.002 --> 00:32:42.921
<i>totally novel for Paul Steinhardt,</i>

452
00:32:43.005 --> 00:32:49.636
<i>whose outdoor experience did not extendbeyond the lawns of Princeton University.</i>

453
00:33:00.397 --> 00:33:03.817
<i>Myriads of mosquitoes tormented him.</i>

454
00:33:04.318 --> 00:33:07.696
<i>Here we see him with a mosquito netover his face.</i>

455
00:33:08.280 --> 00:33:10.365
<i>His sleep was fitful.</i>

456
00:33:10.782 --> 00:33:15.370
<i>Bears not only appeared in his nightmares,they were really out there.</i>

457
00:33:16.622 --> 00:33:20.584
<i>Their hard work to find fragmentsof the meteorite paid off.</i>

458
00:33:21.710 --> 00:33:25.172
<i>First inspection of their findingslooked promising.</i>

459
00:33:26.215 --> 00:33:30.344
<i>Now Bindi and Steinhardthad reason to celebrate,</i>

460
00:33:30.427 --> 00:33:35.307
<i>although they could not yet knowif quasicrystals were present.</i>

461
00:33:37.351 --> 00:33:41.647
<i>The X-ray diffraction patternof the newly found samples</i>

462
00:33:41.730 --> 00:33:44.900
<i>revealed the forbidden fivefold symmetry,</i>

463
00:33:44.983 --> 00:33:49.363
<i>proof there were quasicrystalswithin the meteorite.</i>

464
00:33:49.446 --> 00:33:52.199
Could you describeyour emotion when you saw this?

465
00:33:52.950 --> 00:33:56.662
I think everything-- time seemedto stop for me at that moment.

466
00:33:58.247 --> 00:33:59.248
As...

467
00:34:00.832 --> 00:34:04.336
Just seeing this imagejust told me immediately

468
00:34:04.419 --> 00:34:07.464
that everything we had beentrying to achieve for decades

469
00:34:07.548 --> 00:34:09.424
had now been achieved.

470
00:34:09.507 --> 00:34:13.762
Plus, we had verifiedthat this quasicrystal

471
00:34:13.846 --> 00:34:17.516
not only was formed in nature,but had been formed in space.

472
00:34:19.101 --> 00:34:22.312
<i>Leaving the arcane mysteriesof matter behind,</i>

473
00:34:22.771 --> 00:34:27.525
<i>we turn toward some more average rocksthat had come down upon us.</i>

474
00:34:27.609 --> 00:34:30.070
...so we have some sticky mats here.

475
00:34:31.905 --> 00:34:36.534
<i>Arizona State Universityhouses a large collection.</i>

476
00:34:36.618 --> 00:34:39.663
The dirt that we have from outsidegoing into the clean vault.

477
00:34:39.746 --> 00:34:42.666
<i>But wild stories were waiting for us.</i>

478
00:34:42.748 --> 00:34:43.583
So when we go in,

479
00:34:43.667 --> 00:34:45.752
make sure you just step on thereto get the dirt off your feet.

480
00:34:45.835 --> 00:34:46.670
All right.

481
00:34:46.753 --> 00:34:49.464
<i>Laurence Garvie,its curator, guided us.</i>

482
00:34:49.547 --> 00:34:53.927
We have a positive pressure in here,just to keep sort of clean air coming in.

483
00:34:54.011 --> 00:34:55.637
-Got the dirt off? Good.-Yep.

484
00:34:55.721 --> 00:34:59.308
And we're also on camera all the time.Smile to the camera. Wave to the camera.

485
00:34:59.933 --> 00:35:02.519
But really what's important here

486
00:35:02.603 --> 00:35:05.355
is that, when we're ina meteorite facility like this,

487
00:35:05.439 --> 00:35:08.734
is to keep the meteoritesas clean as possible.

488
00:35:08.817 --> 00:35:10.694
You know, usually we think oftrying to keep ourselves clean.

489
00:35:10.777 --> 00:35:13.822
Here, we're trying to keep the greasefrom our fingers off the samples.

490
00:35:13.906 --> 00:35:16.700
So can you please wear some gloves,and I'll put some gloves on as well.

491
00:35:16.783 --> 00:35:18.660
And we're doing this'cause I wanna show you

492
00:35:18.744 --> 00:35:23.123
one of the most spectacular meteorites,that only fell a few weeks ago,

493
00:35:23.207 --> 00:35:24.875
and actually fell on Costa Rica.

494
00:35:24.958 --> 00:35:28.962
And it's a meteoritethat's full of organic compounds.

495
00:35:29.046 --> 00:35:30.464
And, you know, that's important.

496
00:35:30.547 --> 00:35:32.257
'Cause that tells us aboutour early solar system

497
00:35:32.341 --> 00:35:35.636
and possibly the formation of lifein our solar system as well.

498
00:35:35.719 --> 00:35:39.223
Now, I actually have the samples here,in these special cabinets.

499
00:35:39.306 --> 00:35:40.849
These are nitrogen cabinets.

500
00:35:40.933 --> 00:35:43.018
Right? So we have nitrogen-- dry nitrogen.

501
00:35:43.101 --> 00:35:46.605
Here's what's important: dry nitrogenbeing fed into the cabinets.

502
00:35:46.688 --> 00:35:51.401
So when I open it you can actually hearthe nitrogen being fed into the cabinets.

503
00:35:51.485 --> 00:35:53.612
And these meteorites are now preserved.

504
00:35:53.695 --> 00:35:56.740
We don't have water going onto them.We don't have oxygen going onto them.

505
00:35:56.823 --> 00:35:59.660
So it's the best preservationthat we currently have.

506
00:35:59.743 --> 00:36:00.994
And that's what the hissing is?

507
00:36:01.078 --> 00:36:02.329
That's what the hissing is.

508
00:36:03.372 --> 00:36:06.458
So, to give an example, here is...

509
00:36:08.502 --> 00:36:11.380
one of the most amazing meteorites.

510
00:36:12.089 --> 00:36:13.674
There, see what it's called?

511
00:36:14.216 --> 00:36:15.551
"The Doghouse."

512
00:36:16.802 --> 00:36:17.803
So let's just...

513
00:36:21.807 --> 00:36:23.100
So...

514
00:36:23.183 --> 00:36:24.977
have to add, do not drop this.

515
00:36:25.060 --> 00:36:27.646
-I'll try not to. Okay.-Please don't drop it.

516
00:36:30.858 --> 00:36:35.988
So, this stone actually fellonly a few weeks ago in Costa Rica.

517
00:36:36.071 --> 00:36:37.781
And this one actually fellthrough a doghouse

518
00:36:37.865 --> 00:36:39.908
with the dogthat was still sleeping in it.

519
00:36:39.992 --> 00:36:43.287
-The dog was unharmed, I hope.-It missed the dog by millimeters

520
00:36:43.370 --> 00:36:46.373
and embedded itself in the groundright next to the dog.

521
00:36:46.999 --> 00:36:49.168
So what makes this one special as well,

522
00:36:49.251 --> 00:36:51.170
it's actually got some dog hairstill stuck to it.

523
00:36:51.253 --> 00:36:52.379
No way.

524
00:36:52.462 --> 00:36:55.174
And what makes this one so amazing

525
00:36:55.257 --> 00:36:57.759
is the fact that, if you smell it...

526
00:36:59.094 --> 00:37:02.890
you can actually smellthe organic compounds that are in here.

527
00:37:02.973 --> 00:37:06.476
These are 4.5 billion-year-old compounds

528
00:37:06.560 --> 00:37:09.313
that were formedon an early planet--

529
00:37:09.396 --> 00:37:11.440
that planet no longer exists--

530
00:37:11.523 --> 00:37:13.275
and got trapped in this stone

531
00:37:13.358 --> 00:37:17.446
and basically just residedin the asteroid belt for 4 billion years

532
00:37:17.529 --> 00:37:19.865
before, for some reason,it left the asteroid belt

533
00:37:19.948 --> 00:37:21.325
and landed in Costa Rica

534
00:37:21.408 --> 00:37:23.952
and is now in our meteorite vault here.

535
00:37:24.036 --> 00:37:26.163
What is that smell?It's a sort of...

536
00:37:26.246 --> 00:37:28.624
We don't actually know,but we think the thing--

537
00:37:28.707 --> 00:37:31.126
it's similar to, like, mothballs.Something similar.

538
00:37:31.210 --> 00:37:33.045
Something similar to that compound.

539
00:37:33.128 --> 00:37:34.880
Like a solvent or something?

540
00:37:34.963 --> 00:37:36.632
Yeah, a little bit. A little bit.

541
00:37:36.715 --> 00:37:38.800
I'm actually gonna put this one back,unless you wanna hold it again.

542
00:37:38.884 --> 00:37:40.177
-No, I---By the way,

543
00:37:40.260 --> 00:37:42.387
the red is from the roof of the doghouse.

544
00:37:43.430 --> 00:37:46.892
And the whiteis from the floor of the doghouse.

545
00:37:46.975 --> 00:37:49.019
And did the dog instantly realize

546
00:37:49.102 --> 00:37:51.688
that it had receiveda visitor from the heavens?

547
00:37:51.772 --> 00:37:54.399
Well, it didn't, but funny enough,

548
00:37:54.483 --> 00:37:58.946
people have used dogs to lookfor meteorites because of the smell.

549
00:37:59.029 --> 00:38:01.114
They can be trained to find that smell.

550
00:38:02.074 --> 00:38:03.242
Let's put this back now.

551
00:38:09.665 --> 00:38:12.501
This is the Toluca ironfrom the Jiquipilco region.

552
00:38:12.584 --> 00:38:13.585
Here, try this one.

553
00:38:13.669 --> 00:38:15.629
Don't drop it on your toe. It'll break.

554
00:38:15.712 --> 00:38:16.713
Oh, my goodness.

555
00:38:16.797 --> 00:38:18.882
So, I mean, that must weigh, what,

556
00:38:18.966 --> 00:38:22.219
I don't know, 30 kilos, 40 kilos,just that one stone.

557
00:38:22.302 --> 00:38:23.595
That's just pure iron ore?

558
00:38:23.679 --> 00:38:25.556
That's just pure iron.But nickel-rich iron.

559
00:38:25.639 --> 00:38:28.225
-Here, let's not drop it. Ready. Ready.-I'll give you that.

560
00:38:29.643 --> 00:38:33.313
You know, one of the most amazingimpact phenomena never seen on TV

561
00:38:33.397 --> 00:38:35.691
is this material, tektites.

562
00:38:35.774 --> 00:38:40.445
Now, here we have--There was an impact on the Earth

563
00:38:40.529 --> 00:38:44.449
that basically meltedlarge amounts of the Earth's surface.

564
00:38:44.533 --> 00:38:47.786
In this case, probably several thousandsquare kilometers of ground.

565
00:38:47.870 --> 00:38:50.455
It was almost instantaneously melted.

566
00:38:50.539 --> 00:38:52.291
And then the shock from that impact

567
00:38:52.374 --> 00:38:55.669
then sprayed this materialover about a third of the Earth.

568
00:38:55.752 --> 00:38:56.753
When did this happen?

569
00:38:56.837 --> 00:38:59.590
We think about--We've dated it about 750,000 years ago.

570
00:38:59.673 --> 00:39:01.675
So, you know, sounds like a long time ago,

571
00:39:01.758 --> 00:39:04.511
but from a geological time period,it's actually just yesterday.

572
00:39:04.595 --> 00:39:06.680
-It's a very recent phenomenon.-It's glass?

573
00:39:06.763 --> 00:39:09.266
This is just-- So, what this stuff here--If you listen...

574
00:39:10.434 --> 00:39:13.562
This is just glass,but this is not extraterrestrial glass.

575
00:39:13.645 --> 00:39:18.317
This is the Earth,of which you had all this material melted,

576
00:39:18.400 --> 00:39:22.613
just turned into a melt,and then sprayed over the Earth.

577
00:39:22.696 --> 00:39:26.450
And so you find this materialin Southeast Asia, Philippines,

578
00:39:26.533 --> 00:39:29.244
through Indonesia,all the way down through Australia

579
00:39:29.328 --> 00:39:31.496
and then all the way down into Antarctica.

580
00:39:31.580 --> 00:39:34.333
And so this was a humongous event.

581
00:39:34.416 --> 00:39:37.211
Look at the shapes though.You know what these shapes are telling us?

582
00:39:37.294 --> 00:39:41.965
This is telling us that this stuff wassprayed and then solidified in the air.

583
00:39:43.133 --> 00:39:45.260
If we'd been therewhen this thing came down,

584
00:39:45.344 --> 00:39:46.887
that would've been the end of us?

585
00:39:46.970 --> 00:39:48.180
I mean, everything.

586
00:39:48.263 --> 00:39:50.974
Imagine-- And I meanseveral thousand square kilometers--

587
00:39:51.058 --> 00:39:54.937
everything underneath thatwas almost instantly turned to glass.

588
00:39:55.312 --> 00:39:57.689
So, yes. You'd be sitting therehaving your cup of tea,

589
00:39:57.773 --> 00:39:59.942
you'd be turned to glass. Everything.

590
00:40:04.863 --> 00:40:08.742
<i>Each one of these stonesfrom darker worlds out there</i>

591
00:40:08.825 --> 00:40:10.327
<i>has its own story.</i>

592
00:40:21.672 --> 00:40:26.635
<i>Throughout history, meteoriteshave captivated human imagination.</i>

593
00:40:27.427 --> 00:40:30.639
<i>A tool as simpleas the light from a cell phone</i>

594
00:40:30.722 --> 00:40:35.602
<i>extols the mysterious beautyof these voyagers from afar.</i>

595
00:41:04.381 --> 00:41:05.799
What we have here is...

596
00:41:05.883 --> 00:41:10.596
<i>At the same Center for Meteorite Studiesin Tempe, Arizona,</i>

597
00:41:10.679 --> 00:41:13.307
<i>we met Dr. Meenakshi Wadhwa,</i>

598
00:41:13.390 --> 00:41:16.852
<i>one of the foremost scientistsof meteorites.</i>

599
00:41:16.935 --> 00:41:19.062
...40,000 different meteorites.

600
00:41:19.146 --> 00:41:23.567
-Including a piece by Barbara Hepworth.-Yeah. Exactly.

601
00:41:24.943 --> 00:41:29.698
Yeah, and these are an incredible resourcefor all of the work that we do here.

602
00:41:29.781 --> 00:41:31.783
What are we looking at here?

603
00:41:31.867 --> 00:41:34.953
So that round object that you're seeing,

604
00:41:35.037 --> 00:41:37.664
that is a tiny little--

605
00:41:37.748 --> 00:41:40.334
you can imagine itas the tiny little droplet

606
00:41:40.417 --> 00:41:43.420
that was present in the earliest historyof the solar system,

607
00:41:43.504 --> 00:41:46.381
something like 4.5 billion years ago.

608
00:41:46.465 --> 00:41:48.258
Is this before the planets have accreted?

609
00:41:48.342 --> 00:41:51.929
Yes. So this iswhen there was just gas and dust.

610
00:41:52.012 --> 00:41:54.890
Nothing else. There were no planets,there was no Earth. Nothing.

611
00:41:55.474 --> 00:41:57.059
And these are--

612
00:41:57.142 --> 00:42:00.896
These have been described asdroplets of fiery rain

613
00:42:00.979 --> 00:42:04.233
that were... just condensingout of that nebula,

614
00:42:04.316 --> 00:42:06.443
that cloud of gas and dust.

615
00:42:06.527 --> 00:42:09.530
Probably because ofsome sort of shock processes

616
00:42:09.613 --> 00:42:12.491
that were happening in the earliesthistory of our solar system.

617
00:42:12.574 --> 00:42:15.702
And we don't really know, actually,where those shocks were coming from,

618
00:42:15.786 --> 00:42:18.205
but we think those are the kindsof processes that were happening

619
00:42:18.288 --> 00:42:20.958
in, you know, other solar systemsthat are forming today.

620
00:42:21.583 --> 00:42:23.460
And what elements do we find in there?

621
00:42:23.544 --> 00:42:25.963
Yeah, so what you're seeing, you know,

622
00:42:26.046 --> 00:42:29.591
this kind of beautiful stained glasspattern that you're seeing?

623
00:42:29.675 --> 00:42:32.052
That's a mineral called olivine.

624
00:42:32.636 --> 00:42:36.932
And this kind of--When I rotate it in this--

625
00:42:37.015 --> 00:42:40.561
As you have this sort of transmitted lightgoing through these minerals,

626
00:42:40.644 --> 00:42:43.397
you are polarize--the light is polarized,

627
00:42:43.480 --> 00:42:45.148
and so the mineral itself

628
00:42:45.232 --> 00:42:48.235
is sort of extinguishing the lightin certain directions.

629
00:42:48.318 --> 00:42:53.115
And so you're kind of seeingthis brightening and then darkening.

630
00:42:53.740 --> 00:42:56.994
It's like a beautifulstained glass window, really.

631
00:42:57.077 --> 00:43:00.247
-I think it's kinda-- Yeah.-It's gorgeous.

632
00:43:00.330 --> 00:43:02.833
Here's a slice,

633
00:43:02.916 --> 00:43:08.547
a thin slice of the very Mars samplethat I first looked at

634
00:43:08.630 --> 00:43:11.967
at the very start of my careerstudying meteorites.

635
00:43:12.050 --> 00:43:15.679
And I was just fascinated,because, you know,

636
00:43:15.762 --> 00:43:18.682
it looked so familiar, but it camefrom a completely different world.

637
00:43:19.474 --> 00:43:23.687
We know that this rock came from Marsbecause it has gases trapped in it

638
00:43:23.770 --> 00:43:27.399
that have the exact same compositionas the Martian atmosphere.

639
00:43:27.482 --> 00:43:30.277
And so when you take a pieceof this rock and you heat it up,

640
00:43:30.360 --> 00:43:34.448
you release these gases, and you canmeasure the composition of that gas,

641
00:43:34.531 --> 00:43:36.992
and it's the exact composition

642
00:43:37.534 --> 00:43:40.621
as what we measuredusing the spacecraft on Mars.

643
00:43:40.704 --> 00:43:43.081
-Incredible.-Yeah, it's incredible.

644
00:44:06.688 --> 00:44:10.108
Was Carl Sagan right,that we're made of that stardust?

645
00:44:10.192 --> 00:44:11.860
We are all stardust, absolutely.

646
00:44:11.944 --> 00:44:16.031
I mean, every, you know,every element in our body

647
00:44:16.114 --> 00:44:20.744
was synthesized in other starsbefore it got here.

648
00:44:20.827 --> 00:44:22.704
So, yeah. We're all stardust.

649
00:44:23.872 --> 00:44:26.124
-Eventually.-A wonderful thought.

650
00:44:26.208 --> 00:44:27.042
Yeah.

651
00:44:27.125 --> 00:44:31.088
<i>This was the only time throughoutthe entire shooting of this film</i>

652
00:44:31.171 --> 00:44:33.423
<i>where I could not resist.</i>

653
00:44:33.507 --> 00:44:36.468
<i>I had to intervene from behind the camera.</i>

654
00:44:37.010 --> 00:44:40.222
I think I'm not stardust. I'm Bavarian.

655
00:44:44.685 --> 00:44:47.187
Yeah, that's made ofspecial stuff, that is.

656
00:44:47.813 --> 00:44:49.857
Yeah. That's right.

657
00:44:58.782 --> 00:45:00.367
<i>Our voyage took us</i>

658
00:45:00.450 --> 00:45:04.496
<i>to wherever large fireballshad plunged down to Earth.</i>

659
00:45:05.372 --> 00:45:09.293
<i>We wanted to knowif life had come from outer space.</i>

660
00:45:10.252 --> 00:45:16.425
<i>This is Ramgarh Crater in Rajasthan,in Northern India, four kilometers across.</i>

661
00:45:17.259 --> 00:45:20.262
<i>From spaceit immediately catches the eye,</i>

662
00:45:20.345 --> 00:45:24.850
<i>but down on the groundyou barely notice you are inside a crater.</i>

663
00:45:25.392 --> 00:45:30.230
<i>However, Hindu temples were built heresince the 10th century.</i>

664
00:45:32.482 --> 00:45:36.403
<i>We were curiousif organic matter in meteorites</i>

665
00:45:36.486 --> 00:45:41.033
<i>could have provided the ingredientsof life on our planet.</i>

666
00:45:42.367 --> 00:45:46.788
<i>We were seeking the expertiseof Professor Nita Sahai,</i>

667
00:45:46.872 --> 00:45:51.001
<i>who studies the transitionfrom chemistry to biology.</i>

668
00:45:52.127 --> 00:45:56.173
And we're in this--in this huge crater here,

669
00:45:56.256 --> 00:45:58.175
formed by a meteorite impact.

670
00:45:58.258 --> 00:46:00.802
And we don't knowwhether it was a carbonaceous one,

671
00:46:00.886 --> 00:46:03.722
but we know thatthese carbonaceous meteorites

672
00:46:03.805 --> 00:46:06.308
have all kindsof organic molecules in them.

673
00:46:06.391 --> 00:46:10.562
What are the key ones that might representbuilding blocks of life?

674
00:46:10.646 --> 00:46:14.441
Actually, all of the building blocksof life have been found in meteorites.

675
00:46:14.525 --> 00:46:17.069
Amino acids that make up proteins,

676
00:46:17.152 --> 00:46:20.072
lipid molecules that make upcell membranes

677
00:46:20.155 --> 00:46:23.075
and, amazingly, even ribose,which is a sugar.

678
00:46:23.158 --> 00:46:25.577
I just find it astonishing, you know,

679
00:46:25.661 --> 00:46:30.332
that you can find sugars and thingsthat make proteins in a meteorite.

680
00:46:30.415 --> 00:46:31.250
Right.

681
00:46:31.333 --> 00:46:35.170
Are they made geologically,like minerals, or...

682
00:46:35.754 --> 00:46:39.341
They're not like minerals, in the sensethat they're organic molecules

683
00:46:39.424 --> 00:46:40.759
and minerals are inorganic,

684
00:46:40.843 --> 00:46:42.970
but they have been formed presumably

685
00:46:43.053 --> 00:46:46.974
by the interactions of organic moleculeswith mineral surfaces.

686
00:46:47.057 --> 00:46:50.727
For example, on interstellar grains,

687
00:46:50.811 --> 00:46:53.772
as well as on the surfacesof the meteorites themselves.

688
00:46:54.356 --> 00:46:56.650
And, I mean, there's still a big step

689
00:46:56.733 --> 00:47:00.445
from having these ingredientsto sparking life.

690
00:47:00.529 --> 00:47:02.322
-Right.-What do we need?

691
00:47:02.406 --> 00:47:04.992
I guess we need some kind of crucibleto put this stuff in

692
00:47:05.075 --> 00:47:06.785
and a heat source?

693
00:47:06.869 --> 00:47:10.205
Yeah. So, you need to getthese simple building blocks

694
00:47:10.289 --> 00:47:12.541
polymerized into longer chains,

695
00:47:12.624 --> 00:47:17.546
because the longer chains have the abilityto fold and be functional.

696
00:47:17.629 --> 00:47:19.631
What do you think of the ideaof panspermia,

697
00:47:19.715 --> 00:47:23.302
that life is dispersedaround the universe?

698
00:47:23.385 --> 00:47:26.054
I mean, is it conceivablethat living organisms

699
00:47:26.138 --> 00:47:29.975
could survive the intense temperaturesand radiation of outer space?

700
00:47:30.517 --> 00:47:33.353
DNA has actually been foundto be quite robust.

701
00:47:33.437 --> 00:47:37.524
And it's possible to survive in space.

702
00:47:37.983 --> 00:47:42.696
And even an entire organism might survivein a spore-like mode.

703
00:47:42.779 --> 00:47:46.450
'Cause people have actuallydug deep into the Earth

704
00:47:46.533 --> 00:47:50.120
and even a couple of kilometers down

705
00:47:50.204 --> 00:47:54.791
they find bacteria that have been livingthere presumably for millions of years.

706
00:47:54.875 --> 00:47:59.505
And they survive in this state of,kind of, suspended animation.

707
00:47:59.588 --> 00:48:02.841
Do you have any idea why the priestsbuilt their temples here?

708
00:48:02.925 --> 00:48:05.302
I mean, and this one'sdedicated to Shiva, you know?

709
00:48:05.385 --> 00:48:09.765
I mean, it seems too good to be true,on the floor of a meteorite-impact crater.

710
00:48:09.848 --> 00:48:14.394
It's kind of interesting that this templeis dedicated to Shiva and Parvati.

711
00:48:14.478 --> 00:48:19.900
And it's a tantric temple,which represents creation.

712
00:48:19.983 --> 00:48:22.110
And Shiva is also the god of destruction.

713
00:48:22.569 --> 00:48:25.072
So, in Hindu mythology,there is this idea

714
00:48:25.155 --> 00:48:28.784
of cycles of creationand destruction of the universe.

715
00:48:28.867 --> 00:48:32.704
And, appropriately,it's in a meteor-impact crater site,

716
00:48:32.788 --> 00:48:36.124
where the impact can wipe out life,

717
00:48:36.208 --> 00:48:38.794
but then also deliverthese organic molecules

718
00:48:38.877 --> 00:48:41.129
that could have seeded lifein the first place.

719
00:48:45.592 --> 00:48:50.180
<i>This was confirmed in a similar wayby a resident sadhu.</i>

720
00:48:51.014 --> 00:48:56.645
<i>If humanity and all life becomes extinctby war or a meteorite,</i>

721
00:48:56.728 --> 00:49:01.108
<i>life will regenerate at this place,at this crater lake.</i>

722
00:49:10.450 --> 00:49:14.663
<i>We had to go wherethe most colossal fireball came down.</i>

723
00:49:15.622 --> 00:49:19.084
<i>It was at a placewith an unpronounceable name,</i>

724
00:49:19.168 --> 00:49:22.880
<i>at the coastof the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.</i>

725
00:49:24.882 --> 00:49:30.804
<i>This is the very place where our planetsuffered an unimaginable apocalypse.</i>

726
00:49:31.597 --> 00:49:34.850
<i>What came down from space right here</i>

727
00:49:34.933 --> 00:49:40.105
<i>had the force of hundreds of millions--possibly thousands of millions--</i>

728
00:49:40.189 --> 00:49:43.066
<i>of atomic bombs Hiroshima's size.</i>

729
00:49:44.610 --> 00:49:47.571
<i>Nothing out here is reminiscent of it.</i>

730
00:49:48.113 --> 00:49:51.992
<i>Only leaden boredomweighs upon everything.</i>

731
00:49:54.203 --> 00:50:00.292
<i>Chicxulub is a beach resortso godforsaken you want to cry.</i>

732
00:51:12.489 --> 00:51:15.826
<i>The dogs here,like all dogs on this planet,</i>

733
00:51:15.909 --> 00:51:19.121
<i>are just too dim-witted to understand</i>

734
00:51:19.204 --> 00:51:22.708
<i>that three-quarters of all specieswere extinguished</i>

735
00:51:22.791 --> 00:51:25.627
<i>by the event that took place right here.</i>

736
00:51:31.550 --> 00:51:35.304
<i>The dinosaurs have only survivedin a local museum.</i>

737
00:51:38.265 --> 00:51:42.477
<i>Their eyes were made by humans.They recognize nothing.</i>

738
00:51:44.062 --> 00:51:46.690
<i>Only their footprints are authentic,</i>

739
00:51:46.773 --> 00:51:50.527
<i>but they showthey were ambling along, not fleeing.</i>

740
00:51:51.612 --> 00:51:54.781
<i>They were obliviousto the sudden death of everything.</i>

741
00:52:13.550 --> 00:52:15.928
This godforsaken spot is at the center

742
00:52:16.011 --> 00:52:19.681
of one of the greatest geologicalcataclysms in Earth history.

743
00:52:20.182 --> 00:52:24.436
It irreversibly changed the course of lifeon the planet.

744
00:52:24.520 --> 00:52:26.605
Some 66 million years ago,

745
00:52:26.688 --> 00:52:29.066
an asteroid, perhaps 10 kilometers across,

746
00:52:29.149 --> 00:52:34.029
came hurtling to the Earthat speeds of 20 kilometers a second.

747
00:52:34.905 --> 00:52:37.574
The force of the impactwas so phenomenal

748
00:52:37.658 --> 00:52:41.495
that it excavated a hole30 kilometers deep.

749
00:52:42.246 --> 00:52:44.373
The crater that formed...

750
00:52:44.456 --> 00:52:49.670
stretches out 100 kilometers out to seaand 100 kilometers inland,

751
00:52:50.212 --> 00:52:54.508
and the temperaturesgenerated in the crust from the impact

752
00:52:54.591 --> 00:52:59.805
melted and vaporized the crustand the bolide itself.

753
00:53:00.597 --> 00:53:03.308
There were earthquakes of magnitude 11.

754
00:53:03.392 --> 00:53:07.938
That's a hundred times greaterthan any historical earthquake.

755
00:53:08.021 --> 00:53:10.691
Mega-tsunami, 100-meter-high waves,

756
00:53:10.774 --> 00:53:14.152
ravaged the shorelines of distant oceans,

757
00:53:14.236 --> 00:53:19.658
and a vast pall of dustand molten droplets and gases

758
00:53:19.741 --> 00:53:21.285
soared into the atmosphere,

759
00:53:21.368 --> 00:53:25.998
some of the material even reachingescape velocity and exiting into space.

760
00:53:26.665 --> 00:53:31.044
Those molten droplets rained outover an area of 3,000 kilometers,

761
00:53:31.128 --> 00:53:34.214
igniting firestorms on the land.

762
00:53:34.298 --> 00:53:36.717
<i>I love how movies depict it.</i>

763
00:53:36.800 --> 00:53:40.012
<i>800 kilometers from the impact site,</i>

764
00:53:40.095 --> 00:53:41.805
<i>the light is so intense</i>

765
00:53:41.889 --> 00:53:45.142
<i>it causes the flesh of the Alamosaurusto appear transparent...</i>

766
00:53:47.811 --> 00:53:50.981
<i>and burns images of their shadowsonto the ground.</i>

767
00:53:54.568 --> 00:53:57.154
<i>The scorching light sears their eyeballs.</i>

768
00:53:57.237 --> 00:53:59.740
<i>They now can't seewhat's headed their way.</i>

769
00:54:00.741 --> 00:54:02.117
<i>But they can feel it.</i>

770
00:54:04.703 --> 00:54:06.622
Now, mammals, they made it through,

771
00:54:06.705 --> 00:54:10.125
and they took advantageof the new ecological opportunities.

772
00:54:11.376 --> 00:54:14.796
We probably wouldn't be here ourselves,Homo sapiens as a species,

773
00:54:14.880 --> 00:54:17.382
were it not for this colossal impact.

774
00:54:18.967 --> 00:54:23.889
<i>Nobody knew there is an impact crateruntil the 1970s.</i>

775
00:54:24.431 --> 00:54:30.896
<i>Gravity anomalies and borehole datarevealed its structure and immense size.</i>

776
00:54:31.563 --> 00:54:33.941
<i>The only surface manifestation</i>

777
00:54:34.024 --> 00:54:38.654
<i>is an enigmatic ring of water holescalled cenotes.</i>

778
00:54:39.363 --> 00:54:42.449
<i>They are a geological echo of the impact.</i>

779
00:54:43.617 --> 00:54:47.454
<i>Since there are no rivers and lakesin the Yucatán Peninsula,</i>

780
00:54:47.955 --> 00:54:51.208
<i>these water holes attractedthe ancient Mayas.</i>

781
00:54:52.543 --> 00:54:55.170
<i>Without the presence of cenotes,</i>

782
00:54:55.254 --> 00:54:59.842
<i>this cultural center of Chichén Itzáwould never have been built.</i>

783
00:55:02.010 --> 00:55:05.639
<i>They developed a high culturewith a writing system,</i>

784
00:55:05.722 --> 00:55:10.686
<i>astronomy and monumental architectureof pyramids and temples.</i>

785
00:55:20.404 --> 00:55:24.783
<i>They even built an observatorybefore there were telescopes.</i>

786
00:55:25.284 --> 00:55:28.287
<i>They tracked the positionof celestial bodies.</i>

787
00:55:29.746 --> 00:55:35.419
<i>Their calendar was much more precisethan anything at this historical time.</i>

788
00:55:37.588 --> 00:55:42.176
<i>The Mayas had a deep fascinationof death and the afterlife.</i>

789
00:55:43.093 --> 00:55:48.140
<i>In their belief, there werenine underworlds and 13 heavens.</i>

790
00:55:53.854 --> 00:55:56.648
<i>Wanting to see some of the underworld,</i>

791
00:55:56.732 --> 00:56:00.110
<i>we descended to the bottomof a nearby cenote.</i>

792
00:56:06.033 --> 00:56:11.038
<i>Fátima Tec Pool,a cave expert and archaeologist,</i>

793
00:56:11.121 --> 00:56:14.374
<i>took us to one of the abodesof the rain god.</i>

794
00:56:17.503 --> 00:56:21.089
This cenote was virtually unknownuntil very recently.

795
00:56:21.173 --> 00:56:24.801
Tell me, Fátima, what is the relationshipbetween the cenote,

796
00:56:24.885 --> 00:56:28.472
the cave here, and the ritualand belief of the Maya?

797
00:56:29.556 --> 00:56:32.309
This place is interestingbecause you can see

798
00:56:32.392 --> 00:56:36.021
how the concepts of waterand caves combine.

799
00:56:36.605 --> 00:56:39.024
And how the Mayans usedthese spaces for rituals.

800
00:56:39.566 --> 00:56:45.656
Inside, you can see walls which suggestthe Mayans used to make pilgrimages here

801
00:56:45.739 --> 00:56:47.783
to pass through these sacred walls.

802
00:56:47.866 --> 00:56:50.077
-Can we go in?-Of course, let's go.

803
00:56:58.585 --> 00:57:01.004
As the caves are seen asentrances to the underworld,

804
00:57:01.588 --> 00:57:06.510
we can see here how they made use ofthe natural form of the cave,

805
00:57:06.593 --> 00:57:09.596
to make ritual depositsof human remains,

806
00:57:09.680 --> 00:57:13.809
possibly an ancestor of a Mayan family.

807
00:57:13.892 --> 00:57:17.396
-What era are they from?-Possibly the Preclassic.

808
00:57:19.648 --> 00:57:22.734
We can also see this portal.

809
00:57:22.818 --> 00:57:24.987
This takes us further into the underworld.

810
00:57:26.113 --> 00:57:29.283
There's something else interesting...

811
00:57:35.205 --> 00:57:37.040
A human finger bone.

812
00:57:38.083 --> 00:57:42.087
Deposited here in part of the wall.

813
00:57:42.171 --> 00:57:47.050
Look closely and you can see ashes,possibly a kind of mortuary treatment,

814
00:57:47.676 --> 00:57:50.679
before being placed in the wall.

815
00:57:50.762 --> 00:57:53.682
Is it safe for human beingsto enter the underworld,

816
00:57:53.765 --> 00:57:55.058
the abode of the gods?

817
00:57:55.142 --> 00:57:56.894
Yes, of course!

818
00:58:14.203 --> 00:58:18.040
<i>We timed our visitwith the Mexican Day of the Dead.</i>

819
00:58:18.790 --> 00:58:21.502
<i>For the Mayans, death was an obsession.</i>

820
00:58:22.461 --> 00:58:26.507
<i>There are endless friezeswith nothing but skulls.</i>

821
00:58:39.853 --> 00:58:42.481
<i>Mérida, the central cemetery.</i>

822
00:58:43.023 --> 00:58:46.652
<i>All this within the perimeterof the Chicxulub crater.</i>

823
00:58:49.404 --> 00:58:52.950
<i>The dead leave their gravesand join the living.</i>

824
01:01:23.934 --> 01:01:25.811
<i>We are here in the serene park</i>

825
01:01:25.894 --> 01:01:29.731
<i>of the pope's summer residenceof Castel Gandolfo.</i>

826
01:01:30.148 --> 01:01:33.861
<i>However,serious science is being done here.</i>

827
01:01:35.112 --> 01:01:41.368
<i>There's an astronomical observatoryfamous for its photographic celestial map.</i>

828
01:01:42.786 --> 01:01:48.292
<i>Right next to the residence, Lake Albano,a formidable volcanic crater.</i>

829
01:01:51.128 --> 01:01:56.550
<i>The director of the observatoryis a Jesuit, Brother Guy Consolmagno.</i>

830
01:01:57.759 --> 01:02:00.971
<i>He's one of the foremost scholarsin meteoritics.</i>

831
01:02:01.972 --> 01:02:05.267
Brother Guy, at the heartof the Vatican Observatory

832
01:02:05.350 --> 01:02:07.352
is this wonderful meteorite collection.

833
01:02:07.436 --> 01:02:09.188
Quite a historical collection.

834
01:02:09.271 --> 01:02:10.439
I certainly think so.

835
01:02:10.522 --> 01:02:13.567
This is the stuff I've been working onfor, now, nearly 30 years.

836
01:02:13.650 --> 01:02:15.569
Is this why you came here initially?

837
01:02:15.652 --> 01:02:17.613
I didn't choose to come here.

838
01:02:17.696 --> 01:02:20.282
I did this under a vow of obedience.

839
01:02:20.365 --> 01:02:23.202
I had been a scientistand then entered the Jesuits

840
01:02:23.285 --> 01:02:26.955
and thought I was gonna be teachingat a school like maybe Georgetown.

841
01:02:27.039 --> 01:02:30.751
But under obediencethey ordered me to come to Rome

842
01:02:30.834 --> 01:02:34.087
and eat that terrible foodand look at this miserable scenery.

843
01:02:34.171 --> 01:02:37.424
And, oh, yes, there's a collectionof a thousand meteorites.

844
01:02:37.508 --> 01:02:39.968
They didn't knowthat the meteorites were here.

845
01:02:40.052 --> 01:02:43.138
They didn't know that my expertisewas meteorites.

846
01:02:43.222 --> 01:02:46.099
It was one of those divine coincidences.

847
01:02:46.183 --> 01:02:48.644
It's phenomenal that we've got meteorites,

848
01:02:48.727 --> 01:02:53.023
that we've got pieces of outer spacethat have visited us here on Earth,

849
01:02:53.106 --> 01:02:55.400
and that we can tellthat they're not from the Earth,

850
01:02:55.484 --> 01:02:58.403
that they're made, chemically,of completely different materials,

851
01:02:58.487 --> 01:03:01.073
that they were formed4.5 billion years ago.

852
01:03:01.156 --> 01:03:04.243
That we have the abilityto understand these things

853
01:03:04.326 --> 01:03:05.994
is itself a miracle.

854
01:03:06.703 --> 01:03:11.166
And you would find it perfectly reasonablethat life is elsewhere in the universe,

855
01:03:11.250 --> 01:03:14.253
life on Earthmay have originated elsewhere?

856
01:03:14.336 --> 01:03:17.381
It's possible. I don't know.I don't have the data.

857
01:03:17.464 --> 01:03:19.675
You know, people will sometimes ask me,

858
01:03:19.758 --> 01:03:22.219
do I believe that there's life elsewherein the universe?

859
01:03:22.302 --> 01:03:24.429
And I think that's the right wayto ask it.

860
01:03:24.513 --> 01:03:27.850
It's a matter of belief.I don't have the data.

861
01:03:28.559 --> 01:03:30.644
But if you were to come to me,as a scientist,

862
01:03:30.727 --> 01:03:32.771
saying you wanted resourcesto look for life,

863
01:03:32.855 --> 01:03:35.148
and you had a great project,I'd say, "Go for it."

864
01:03:35.232 --> 01:03:37.150
On the other hand, if you were sayingyou wanted to study

865
01:03:37.234 --> 01:03:39.820
little green mencoming out of a flying saucer,

866
01:03:39.903 --> 01:03:42.322
then I'm not so sureI'd go along with that.

867
01:03:42.406 --> 01:03:47.035
But if the green men arrived on Earth,would you consider baptizing them?

868
01:03:47.452 --> 01:03:48.745
Only if they ask.

869
01:03:50.831 --> 01:03:54.835
<i>Brother Guy invited usto see the historical telescope.</i>

870
01:03:54.918 --> 01:03:57.588
...that were commissionedto photograph the entire sky

871
01:03:57.671 --> 01:03:59.298
and make a photographic atlas.

872
01:03:59.798 --> 01:04:02.801
Why, throughout so much of historyand around the world,

873
01:04:02.885 --> 01:04:06.597
have people thought of heavenas up there?

874
01:04:07.973 --> 01:04:09.641
I don't know, but it's certainly true.

875
01:04:09.725 --> 01:04:11.518
I mean, there are so many languages

876
01:04:11.602 --> 01:04:14.605
where the word for "sky" and the wordfor "heaven" are the same word.

877
01:04:15.939 --> 01:04:17.149
All I can think of--

878
01:04:17.232 --> 01:04:20.611
and maybe, you know, a professionalwould come up with a better answer--

879
01:04:20.694 --> 01:04:24.364
all I can think of is looking at the stars

880
01:04:24.448 --> 01:04:29.745
give you that sense of out-of-yourselfthat you need

881
01:04:29.828 --> 01:04:32.623
to be able to be readyto encounter a god.

882
01:04:33.790 --> 01:04:35.918
When you see a shooting star today,

883
01:04:36.001 --> 01:04:40.088
is it an interesting scientific factfor you, or do you gasp in wonder?

884
01:04:40.172 --> 01:04:42.299
Yes. It is both.

885
01:04:43.634 --> 01:04:48.055
And frankly, I think it's because I knowthe science that I'm even more in awe.

886
01:04:48.805 --> 01:04:51.558
It's one thing to say,"That's a pretty bit of light."

887
01:04:51.642 --> 01:04:52.935
It's another thing to say,

888
01:04:53.018 --> 01:04:55.562
"I know what elementsare creating that light.

889
01:04:55.646 --> 01:04:57.773
I know why it's that color.

890
01:04:57.856 --> 01:05:00.817
I know what I can learn from this.

891
01:05:00.901 --> 01:05:03.612
I hope some camera captured it,so that I can measure

892
01:05:03.695 --> 01:05:06.073
not only, 'Boy, was that pretty,'

893
01:05:06.156 --> 01:05:10.285
but also, 'This is telling me somethingabout dust from a comet.'

894
01:05:10.369 --> 01:05:15.040
A cloud of dust left behind a cometthat the Earth is barreling into,

895
01:05:15.123 --> 01:05:17.709
and, like snowflakeshitting your windscreen,

896
01:05:17.793 --> 01:05:21.880
it's shots of lighthitting our atmosphere."

897
01:05:22.840 --> 01:05:27.344
All of that adds to the joy.It doesn't take away from it.

898
01:05:27.427 --> 01:05:31.223
This brings to mind the dynamicof different orders of knowledge,

899
01:05:31.306 --> 01:05:35.352
the rational and the poetic,the imaginative and the intellectual.

900
01:05:35.435 --> 01:05:39.523
And it seems to me that you marshalthe same thought processes

901
01:05:39.606 --> 01:05:43.902
to cope with mattersthat are so vast, the cosmos,

902
01:05:43.986 --> 01:05:46.530
and yet mattersthat are so intimate, the soul.

903
01:05:47.406 --> 01:05:50.742
You can't do the one without the other.

904
01:05:51.159 --> 01:05:52.911
You can't do science--

905
01:05:52.995 --> 01:05:55.080
You don't want to do science

906
01:05:55.163 --> 01:06:00.002
if you don't have that sense of awe,that sense of wonder.

907
01:06:00.752 --> 01:06:04.506
You can't believe in a creator god

908
01:06:04.590 --> 01:06:07.301
without experiencing creation.

909
01:06:07.759 --> 01:06:09.970
Otherwise what's the point of believing?

910
01:06:11.138 --> 01:06:14.516
And I know that you described in the '70s,as a graduate student,

911
01:06:14.600 --> 01:06:16.268
seeing Comet West.

912
01:06:16.351 --> 01:06:20.647
And you said, "Was it impressive?No, it was frightening."

913
01:06:20.731 --> 01:06:23.442
It shook you to the core, you said.Why?

914
01:06:24.651 --> 01:06:26.695
In the sky was a comet

915
01:06:26.778 --> 01:06:30.282
that looked like every photographof a comet you'd ever seen.

916
01:06:30.365 --> 01:06:33.619
The kind of thing that you thoughtonly existed in photographs.

917
01:06:33.702 --> 01:06:35.245
And it didn't belong there.

918
01:06:35.329 --> 01:06:37.289
And it was big. And it was scary.

919
01:06:37.372 --> 01:06:40.042
And it wasn't there yesterdayand, "What's going on?"

920
01:06:41.001 --> 01:06:44.755
And then you understood why ancient peoplewould look at comets

921
01:06:44.838 --> 01:06:50.135
as a portent of somethingreally, really scary and different.

922
01:06:50.802 --> 01:06:55.349
How might the church reactif the NASA telescopes detect

923
01:06:55.432 --> 01:06:59.311
a really threatening near-Earth objecthurtling towards us?

924
01:06:59.937 --> 01:07:03.815
I'll be honest. We'll pray.What else can you do?

925
01:07:08.111 --> 01:07:10.781
<i>I want to show an excerpt of a movie</i>

926
01:07:10.864 --> 01:07:13.742
<i>where physical and existential fear</i>

927
01:07:13.825 --> 01:07:16.912
<i>are just the shudder audiences go for.</i>

928
01:07:17.371 --> 01:07:19.164
<i>This is beautifully done.</i>

929
01:07:54.116 --> 01:07:56.785
<i>Apart from Brother Guy's prayers,</i>

930
01:07:56.869 --> 01:07:59.913
<i>there are practical measuresalready in place.</i>

931
01:08:00.497 --> 01:08:02.916
<i>We are here at Pan-STARRS,</i>

932
01:08:03.000 --> 01:08:07.963
<i>the Panoramic Survey Telescopeand Rapid Response System,</i>

933
01:08:08.046 --> 01:08:11.633
<i>located at the Hawaiian island of Maui.</i>

934
01:08:11.717 --> 01:08:13.844
Okay, brake is released.

935
01:08:14.595 --> 01:08:17.639
Everybody stand clear.I'm gonna bring it down.

936
01:08:17.723 --> 01:08:21.602
<i>Here, one of the telescopesduring maintenance.</i>

937
01:08:44.582 --> 01:08:46.417
We'll go for that, I guess.

938
01:08:46.502 --> 01:08:48.962
-Yeah. I'll try.-Yeah. Okay.

939
01:08:52.424 --> 01:08:56.136
<i>Dr. Joanna Bulger is entrusted,in a way,</i>

940
01:08:56.220 --> 01:08:58.596
<i>with the safekeeping of humanity.</i>

941
01:09:01.850 --> 01:09:04.895
<i>And so is her colleague, Dr. Mark Willman.</i>

942
01:09:05.812 --> 01:09:10.567
<i>Just looking at their faces gave usa good amount of confidence.</i>

943
01:09:14.071 --> 01:09:17.448
<i>They allowed usto intrude on their night watch.</i>

944
01:09:17.533 --> 01:09:19.868
-Good evening.-Clive, hey.

945
01:09:19.952 --> 01:09:22.371
-I found you. The night watch.-How's it going?

946
01:09:22.453 --> 01:09:24.997
-Come on. Have a seat.-Have a seat.

947
01:09:25.624 --> 01:09:30.546
Helping to protect us from space rocksthat might have hostile intent.

948
01:09:30.629 --> 01:09:32.840
We were just observing,but we had to close up

949
01:09:32.923 --> 01:09:34.800
because the humidity shot up.

950
01:09:34.883 --> 01:09:37.051
So we're up to 90% now,

951
01:09:37.135 --> 01:09:39.680
and we have to close at 85to protect the mirror.

952
01:09:39.763 --> 01:09:42.057
We don't want moisture on the mirror.

953
01:09:42.140 --> 01:09:45.560
And how do you communicatewith the controllers up at the telescope?

954
01:09:45.644 --> 01:09:49.398
Well... we are the controllers.

955
01:09:49.481 --> 01:09:52.317
There's nobody at the summit.It's all remote observing now.

956
01:09:52.401 --> 01:09:54.945
That's old school,where you had to drive up at the summit.

957
01:09:55.028 --> 01:09:56.488
It's 10,000 feet,

958
01:09:56.572 --> 01:09:59.157
so it's much more comfortabledown here at 2,000 feet.

959
01:10:00.659 --> 01:10:01.952
And so what have we got?

960
01:10:02.035 --> 01:10:04.371
I mean, this screen,I guess, is the night sky.

961
01:10:04.454 --> 01:10:06.039
Yep, this is a map of the sky.

962
01:10:06.123 --> 01:10:08.166
You can see there's the zenith.

963
01:10:08.250 --> 01:10:10.752
That's just straight overhead.And here's the telescope.

964
01:10:11.879 --> 01:10:15.007
And this was the targetwe were gonna observe.

965
01:10:15.090 --> 01:10:16.842
We take about 60 images,

966
01:10:16.925 --> 01:10:21.805
and we get four imagesof the same spot in the sky.

967
01:10:21.889 --> 01:10:24.808
And so we have a tiny movie,a four-image movie then.

968
01:10:24.892 --> 01:10:27.019
And then we can pick outmoving targets that way.

969
01:10:27.102 --> 01:10:29.146
And you've gotthe largest cameras on Earth.

970
01:10:29.229 --> 01:10:30.480
-Is that right?-We do.

971
01:10:30.564 --> 01:10:31.982
I've got a 12-megapixel camera.

972
01:10:32.065 --> 01:10:34.151
-Twelve megapixels.-What's your camera?

973
01:10:34.234 --> 01:10:37.321
Ours is over a billion pixels,

974
01:10:37.404 --> 01:10:40.282
so it's-- it's much larger

975
01:10:40.365 --> 01:10:44.328
than a-- a consumer camera like that.

976
01:10:46.496 --> 01:10:48.957
What is going on with this image here?

977
01:10:49.041 --> 01:10:51.043
-Is this the pixel array itself?-Yeah, exactly.

978
01:10:51.126 --> 01:10:53.337
So this is actually the raw imagethat we take.

979
01:10:53.420 --> 01:10:56.215
So this is a 45-second exposure.

980
01:10:56.298 --> 01:11:01.053
And you can see the sizeof the camera itself.

981
01:11:02.346 --> 01:11:05.724
So it-- We're--We get a three-degree field of view,

982
01:11:05.807 --> 01:11:08.352
which is roughly seven square degreeson the sky.

983
01:11:08.936 --> 01:11:11.355
And the camera itselfis stitched together

984
01:11:11.438 --> 01:11:16.026
of an eight-by-eight arrayof addressable CCDs.

985
01:11:16.527 --> 01:11:19.404
So if you actually--We can click on one of these images.

986
01:11:19.488 --> 01:11:21.198
-This one over here.-What's that?

987
01:11:21.281 --> 01:11:23.325
-Is that a meteor there?-Here?

988
01:11:23.408 --> 01:11:27.287
No. These are two satellitesthat we've caught in our field of view.

989
01:11:27.704 --> 01:11:29.873
It is a satisfying job, because...

990
01:11:32.417 --> 01:11:36.004
well, we don't wanna go the wayof the dinosaurs, and...

991
01:11:36.088 --> 01:11:38.173
so it's worthwhile looking outfor these things.

992
01:11:38.257 --> 01:11:43.345
Although the odds are slim that a big oneis gonna hit us anytime soon.

993
01:11:44.096 --> 01:11:47.140
But sooner or laterthere will be a big one,

994
01:11:47.224 --> 01:11:49.309
so we're watching for it.

995
01:11:50.769 --> 01:11:53.272
I do feel I can sleepmore soundly at night

996
01:11:53.355 --> 01:11:56.650
knowing that there is always someone herein the night shift,

997
01:11:56.733 --> 01:12:00.153
you know, looking for inbound bolides.That's wonderful.

998
01:12:00.237 --> 01:12:02.322
365 days a year, yeah. Every night.

999
01:12:02.406 --> 01:12:04.658
Thank you. Thank you very muchfor protecting us.

1000
01:12:05.284 --> 01:12:07.369
-You're welcome. It's our privilege.-Yeah.

1001
01:12:07.953 --> 01:12:13.000
<i>The photos of the night skyare analyzed by Dr. Rob Weryk,</i>

1002
01:12:13.083 --> 01:12:16.211
<i>a planetary defense researcherfrom Canada.</i>

1003
01:12:17.462 --> 01:12:20.299
I can't believe this is the first timeyou've actually been to the telescopes.

1004
01:12:20.382 --> 01:12:23.677
Yeah, well, normally I focus on the dataanalysis, reviewing the candidates.

1005
01:12:23.760 --> 01:12:25.679
So it's nice to have a chanceto come see the telescope.

1006
01:12:25.762 --> 01:12:29.057
Is it like seeing a sort of, you know,brother that you've never met before?

1007
01:12:29.141 --> 01:12:30.517
That's true. That's true. Yeah.

1008
01:12:30.601 --> 01:12:33.979
They actually ended up opening at the endof the night for an hour and a half.

1009
01:12:34.062 --> 01:12:36.398
We actually were ableto review the data this morning.

1010
01:12:36.481 --> 01:12:38.901
And so I foundsix new candidate objects.

1011
01:12:38.984 --> 01:12:40.277
"We" is "you."You found them.

1012
01:12:40.360 --> 01:12:42.070
Yes. I mean, it's reallya team effort overall,

1013
01:12:42.154 --> 01:12:43.822
but I'm the one that reviews it, so...

1014
01:12:43.906 --> 01:12:46.283
What's the most exciting objectthat you've found?

1015
01:12:46.366 --> 01:12:49.369
So, the most exciting object we foundbecame known as 'Oumuamua.

1016
01:12:49.453 --> 01:12:51.330
It's actually the firstinterstellar comet.

1017
01:12:51.413 --> 01:12:53.707
It's a comet that camefrom outside our solar system.

1018
01:12:53.790 --> 01:12:56.335
It's the first time we ever sawan object like this. Yeah.

1019
01:12:56.418 --> 01:12:57.586
'Oumuamua?

1020
01:12:57.669 --> 01:12:59.880
'Oumuamua.So, it's actually a Hawaiian word.

1021
01:12:59.963 --> 01:13:01.965
It means "first messenger from afar." Yes.

1022
01:13:02.049 --> 01:13:03.050
Okay.

1023
01:13:03.759 --> 01:13:05.844
So it's actually a two-step process.

1024
01:13:05.928 --> 01:13:09.306
The computer software isn't perfect,and it still requires manual review,

1025
01:13:09.389 --> 01:13:10.849
and that's where I come in.

1026
01:13:10.933 --> 01:13:14.478
So my main responsibility is to reviewall the nightly detections.

1027
01:13:14.561 --> 01:13:16.313
And things that are real,

1028
01:13:16.396 --> 01:13:20.400
they would show up as eithera series of dots or trailed objects.

1029
01:13:20.484 --> 01:13:22.653
Are you the first person who's seen this?

1030
01:13:22.736 --> 01:13:25.322
Yes. So while the observerscollect the data,

1031
01:13:25.405 --> 01:13:28.492
I'm actually the first personon the planet to review and see this,

1032
01:13:28.575 --> 01:13:30.452
and my submitting it would sound the alarm

1033
01:13:30.536 --> 01:13:32.871
if there was an objectthat was a hazard to the Earth.

1034
01:13:34.498 --> 01:13:37.543
<i>The alarmwould instantly call the attention</i>

1035
01:13:37.626 --> 01:13:41.255
<i>of NASA's Planetary DefenseCoordination Office.</i>

1036
01:13:42.089 --> 01:13:45.175
<i>Only a few people know that it exists.</i>

1037
01:13:45.884 --> 01:13:50.264
<i>Responsible here is Dr. Kelly Fast,an astronomer.</i>

1038
01:13:50.347 --> 01:13:52.516
I've heard you describe asteroids

1039
01:13:52.599 --> 01:13:54.101
as the vermin of the solar system.

1040
01:13:54.184 --> 01:13:55.769
Why do you call them that?

1041
01:13:56.478 --> 01:14:01.108
Well, certainly astronomers who arelooking at things besides asteroids...

1042
01:14:02.192 --> 01:14:03.652
they might be looking at their target,

1043
01:14:03.735 --> 01:14:08.031
and asteroids are going to photobombwhatever they're looking at.

1044
01:14:08.115 --> 01:14:11.118
So I guess from a point of view,if you're looking at something else,

1045
01:14:11.201 --> 01:14:13.412
then they are the verminof the solar system.

1046
01:14:14.121 --> 01:14:15.873
From our point of view at NASA,

1047
01:14:15.956 --> 01:14:20.586
they're fantastic for science,for spacecraft targets.

1048
01:14:20.669 --> 01:14:22.421
But we also want to keep an eye on them,

1049
01:14:22.504 --> 01:14:27.009
because it's never good when two thingsoccupy the same space at the same time.

1050
01:14:27.092 --> 01:14:30.804
So we want to know if any of themare going to intersect Earth's orbit

1051
01:14:30.888 --> 01:14:33.307
at a time when Earth is going to be there.

1052
01:14:33.390 --> 01:14:35.976
There's dust hitting Earth's atmosphereall the time.

1053
01:14:36.059 --> 01:14:37.936
We see shooting stars,

1054
01:14:38.020 --> 01:14:39.980
that's just dust burning upin the atmosphere.

1055
01:14:40.063 --> 01:14:43.025
But it's when things are larger,

1056
01:14:43.108 --> 01:14:45.903
when you get up tothe size of asteroids--

1057
01:14:45.986 --> 01:14:49.865
Earth's atmosphere is fantasticfor burning things up,

1058
01:14:49.948 --> 01:14:52.159
but eventually things get too bigfor that to happen.

1059
01:14:52.242 --> 01:14:55.454
Chelyabinsk, 20 meters.There was devastation.

1060
01:14:56.246 --> 01:14:58.707
Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908.

1061
01:14:58.790 --> 01:15:02.294
That was probably a 40-meter asteroid.

1062
01:15:04.379 --> 01:15:08.342
<i>Eighty million treeswere flattened by the blast.</i>

1063
01:15:08.425 --> 01:15:13.096
<i>But not a single grain of the asteroidhas ever been discovered.</i>

1064
01:15:16.225 --> 01:15:19.937
And defense? What can we doif there's a big sucker coming in at us?

1065
01:15:20.020 --> 01:15:21.980
What can we do about it?

1066
01:15:22.064 --> 01:15:24.691
Well, yeah, the best defenseis preparation.

1067
01:15:24.775 --> 01:15:26.652
And so finding them first--

1068
01:15:26.735 --> 01:15:29.363
You don't know how to mount a defenseuntil you find them.

1069
01:15:29.446 --> 01:15:31.490
So that is the first order of business.

1070
01:15:31.573 --> 01:15:34.076
And that is going onwith ground-based surveys.

1071
01:15:34.535 --> 01:15:36.203
If you think of it as:

1072
01:15:36.286 --> 01:15:37.120
You've got the Sun,

1073
01:15:37.204 --> 01:15:39.957
you've got the Earth and the other planetsgoing around the Sun,

1074
01:15:40.040 --> 01:15:41.208
like being on a racetrack.

1075
01:15:41.291 --> 01:15:44.169
And then you've got all the asteroidsgoing around the Sun on the racetrack.

1076
01:15:44.253 --> 01:15:47.005
And so there are many timeswhen they might come close together.

1077
01:15:47.089 --> 01:15:49.925
In fact, we have that often,where there's a "close approach,"

1078
01:15:50.008 --> 01:15:53.011
where an asteroidcomes close to Earth, which--

1079
01:15:53.095 --> 01:15:56.390
Close might mean, you know,many lunar distances away.

1080
01:15:56.849 --> 01:15:58.517
But let's say this is really large.

1081
01:15:58.600 --> 01:16:02.062
It's a very large asteroid,and you don't have a lot of time.

1082
01:16:02.688 --> 01:16:06.233
There are the moviesthat show blowing them up.

1083
01:16:06.316 --> 01:16:09.361
You don't necessarily have to do that.You still need a good push.

1084
01:16:09.444 --> 01:16:12.823
And you could usea nuclear explosive device

1085
01:16:12.906 --> 01:16:14.283
that is used in some of these movies.

1086
01:16:14.366 --> 01:16:18.245
But the idea is you would detonate itnext to the asteroid,

1087
01:16:18.328 --> 01:16:23.375
and the energy from that detonationwould irradiate the surface,

1088
01:16:23.458 --> 01:16:26.211
and the material that blows offthe surface of the asteroid

1089
01:16:26.295 --> 01:16:28.297
would give it that pushin the other direction.

1090
01:16:30.340 --> 01:16:32.885
<i>A softer, unaggressive approach</i>

1091
01:16:32.968 --> 01:16:38.307
<i>was actually performed bya Japanese probe on Asteroid Ryugu.</i>

1092
01:16:39.391 --> 01:16:41.602
<i>How small the asteroid is</i>

1093
01:16:41.685 --> 01:16:46.815
<i>we can tell from the size of the shadowthe probe casts on its surface.</i>

1094
01:16:49.651 --> 01:16:53.906
<i>Gravity is so minimalthat the softest of landings</i>

1095
01:16:53.989 --> 01:16:58.702
<i>already threw great quantitiesof debris away from it, into space.</i>

1096
01:17:00.621 --> 01:17:03.749
<i>Right herewe see how meteorites originate.</i>

1097
01:17:05.042 --> 01:17:08.962
<i>The probe itself is alreadyon its way back to Earth,</i>

1098
01:17:09.046 --> 01:17:12.799
<i>bringing a single gramscooped from the asteroid.</i>

1099
01:17:13.842 --> 01:17:18.138
<i>But for bigger specimens,Antarctica is paradise.</i>

1100
01:17:21.767 --> 01:17:25.062
<i>It is not that more rocks fall herethan elsewhere.</i>

1101
01:17:25.812 --> 01:17:31.401
<i>They are visible on the vast glaciersthat cover almost the entire continent</i>

1102
01:17:31.485 --> 01:17:34.571
<i>that is larger than the United States.</i>

1103
01:17:35.989 --> 01:17:41.078
<i>We were invited to join the huntby South Korean scientists.</i>

1104
01:17:41.745 --> 01:17:45.249
<i>Their station, named Jang Bogo,</i>

1105
01:17:45.332 --> 01:17:49.837
<i>at the coast of East Antarctica,houses about 50 people.</i>

1106
01:17:53.048 --> 01:17:57.052
<i>The austral summer seasonlasts nearly five months,</i>

1107
01:17:57.469 --> 01:18:00.013
<i>during which the Sun never goes down.</i>

1108
01:18:03.183 --> 01:18:06.895
<i>Inside, it is more spaciousthan we anticipated.</i>

1109
01:18:08.522 --> 01:18:13.610
<i>Only a few miles away,six men of Scott's last expedition</i>

1110
01:18:13.694 --> 01:18:19.825
<i>endured a whole winter huddlingin a snow cave just nine feet across.</i>

1111
01:18:20.659 --> 01:18:23.620
<i>They were starving and freezingin squalor,</i>

1112
01:18:23.704 --> 01:18:28.417
<i>surviving on seal meatand a ration of one biscuit a day.</i>

1113
01:18:29.418 --> 01:18:31.837
<i>From diaries of Scott's men,</i>

1114
01:18:31.920 --> 01:18:37.634
<i>we know they dreamt of banquets thatwere ripped away from their ready forks.</i>

1115
01:18:37.718 --> 01:18:42.014
<i>Only one man managed in his dreamto actually eat,</i>

1116
01:18:42.097 --> 01:18:45.767
<i>and he was rightfully hatedby his comrades for this.</i>

1117
01:18:50.147 --> 01:18:53.317
<i>But we were not herefor lobster and kimchi.</i>

1118
01:18:53.817 --> 01:18:57.988
<i>We were itching to flyto the Polar Plateau in the interior.</i>

1119
01:18:58.822 --> 01:19:02.910
<i>We knew there wasan overland expedition of trucks</i>

1120
01:19:02.993 --> 01:19:05.954
<i>that had left our station three weeks ago</i>

1121
01:19:06.038 --> 01:19:10.626
<i>and was nearing the meteoritehunting grounds on the blue ice.</i>

1122
01:19:20.928 --> 01:19:25.766
<i>But first the helicopter has to climb upsome 2,000 meters.</i>

1123
01:19:26.266 --> 01:19:30.729
<i>From the station at the coastto the ice plateau of the continent,</i>

1124
01:19:30.812 --> 01:19:34.691
<i>we are flying over glacier icecascading down.</i>

1125
01:19:35.400 --> 01:19:37.569
<i>Imagine crossing this on foot.</i>

1126
01:19:38.237 --> 01:19:41.281
<i>Each of these wildly tossed boulders</i>

1127
01:19:41.365 --> 01:19:43.992
<i>is larger than an apartment building,</i>

1128
01:19:44.076 --> 01:19:47.621
<i>and the mass is constantly flowingtowards the sea.</i>

1129
01:19:51.416 --> 01:19:53.794
<i>Finally we reach the Plateau.</i>

1130
01:19:54.628 --> 01:19:59.842
<i>Only a few mountains remain,sticking out of the ice like islands.</i>

1131
01:20:01.677 --> 01:20:06.390
<i>It felt like entering into a worldthat was not our planet.</i>

1132
01:20:11.645 --> 01:20:14.523
<i>From here begins the immense loneliness</i>

1133
01:20:14.606 --> 01:20:20.737
<i>of a vast continent covered by icetwo to four kilometers thick.</i>

1134
01:20:26.285 --> 01:20:30.539
<i>Through GPS data,we knew the position of the caravan.</i>

1135
01:20:31.999 --> 01:20:33.959
<i>They were expecting us.</i>

1136
01:20:52.978 --> 01:20:56.315
<i>We were so looking forwardto meet Jong Ik Lee,</i>

1137
01:20:56.398 --> 01:20:58.692
<i>the leader of this expedition.</i>

1138
01:20:59.526 --> 01:21:03.280
<i>He was the one who invited usto Antarctica,</i>

1139
01:21:03.363 --> 01:21:06.325
<i>and it felt like meeting an old friend.</i>

1140
01:21:07.576 --> 01:21:09.328
-I didn't think you'd make it.-Yes, yes.

1141
01:21:09.411 --> 01:21:11.330
I didn't know that we would make it.

1142
01:21:11.413 --> 01:21:13.290
My dream...

1143
01:21:13.373 --> 01:21:17.878
<i>We had seen footage he shotclose to here a few years earlier.</i>

1144
01:21:18.962 --> 01:21:21.548
<i>He had found a large meteorite,</i>

1145
01:21:21.632 --> 01:21:26.220
<i>and we fell in love with him,seeing his ecstasy of discovery.</i>

1146
01:21:27.012 --> 01:21:29.681
<i>This is science at its best.</i>

1147
01:22:10.180 --> 01:22:12.474
Okay, down.

1148
01:22:21.024 --> 01:22:25.445
<i>Something else I like aboutthis highly charged emotional moment,</i>

1149
01:22:25.529 --> 01:22:30.075
<i>something the stupid doctrineof film schools would never allow.</i>

1150
01:22:31.702 --> 01:22:34.454
<i>Watch the background. A figure enters.</i>

1151
01:22:34.538 --> 01:22:38.458
<i>No recognizable motivation,wrong timing,</i>

1152
01:22:38.542 --> 01:22:40.544
<i>rear end approaching.</i>

1153
01:22:59.062 --> 01:23:00.856
<i>Back to the present.</i>

1154
01:23:01.690 --> 01:23:06.195
<i>Along with us, Jong Ik's wife,Mi Jung, had arrived,</i>

1155
01:23:06.278 --> 01:23:09.448
<i>herself a renowned polar geologist.</i>

1156
01:23:21.251 --> 01:23:23.128
Husband and wife reunited.

1157
01:23:24.588 --> 01:23:29.009
<i>Minutes after our arrivalwe found our first meteorite.</i>

1158
01:23:30.260 --> 01:23:34.097
<i>The sheer, blank ice,not covered with snow,</i>

1159
01:23:34.181 --> 01:23:36.767
<i>is the ideal terrain to spot them.</i>

1160
01:23:37.684 --> 01:23:42.940
<i>The gigantic mass of ice is moving slowly,like a conveyor belt</i>

1161
01:23:43.023 --> 01:23:48.612
<i>and exposes stones that may have fallenhundreds of thousands of years ago.</i>

1162
01:23:51.782 --> 01:23:55.369
<i>Most of the meteoritesare carried all the way to the ocean.</i>

1163
01:23:55.911 --> 01:24:02.000
<i>But where the glacier is deflected upwardsby a mountain range deep down there,</i>

1164
01:24:02.084 --> 01:24:06.255
<i>the ice evaporates,leaving its cargo at the surface.</i>

1165
01:24:08.090 --> 01:24:11.593
<i>Every stone out here is a meteorite.</i>

1166
01:24:55.345 --> 01:24:58.473
<i>Watch the man on the right.He found something.</i>

1167
01:25:12.154 --> 01:25:14.948
<i>The lucky one turned out to be Clive.</i>

1168
01:25:15.574 --> 01:25:18.619
<i>It may look staged, but it was really him.</i>

1169
01:25:23.415 --> 01:25:29.296
This is it! This is your sample!

1170
01:25:29.379 --> 01:25:31.548
Congratulations.

1171
01:25:31.632 --> 01:25:34.218
This is big. Biggest today.

1172
01:25:34.301 --> 01:25:38.013
I found one over there. A little one.

1173
01:25:38.096 --> 01:25:39.431
And then when I was...

1174
01:25:39.515 --> 01:25:41.141
<i>It also turned out</i>

1175
01:25:41.225 --> 01:25:45.020
<i>this was the largest meteoriteof the entire season,</i>

1176
01:25:45.103 --> 01:25:50.442
<i>and the first assessment suggestedit was an extremely rare specimen.</i>

1177
01:26:03.872 --> 01:26:08.252
<i>We resumed our search,but one thought crept up on us.</i>

1178
01:26:09.086 --> 01:26:13.048
<i>It would be a full five monthsuntil night would fall,</i>

1179
01:26:13.799 --> 01:26:19.471
<i>and we could walk on for the next5,000 kilometers without meeting a soul.</i>

1180
01:26:42.786 --> 01:26:47.666
<i>This is the ultimate experience of spacefor those on foot.</i>

1181
01:26:49.168 --> 01:26:55.174
<i>But we knew of a place where not our feetbut our souls start to travel,</i>

1182
01:26:55.924 --> 01:27:00.137
<i>a place where we transcendour human existence.</i>

1183
01:27:05.267 --> 01:27:09.605
<i>Our last journey took usto one of the remotest islands</i>

1184
01:27:09.688 --> 01:27:12.774
<i>of the archipelago in the Torres Strait.</i>

1185
01:27:13.859 --> 01:27:18.238
<i>These islands are locatedbetween Australia and New Guinea.</i>

1186
01:27:20.032 --> 01:27:25.412
<i>This tiny island called Merhas a population of about 400.</i>

1187
01:27:26.747 --> 01:27:30.959
<i>We had heard of tribal beliefsabout shooting stars</i>

1188
01:27:31.043 --> 01:27:35.506
<i>that carry the souls of the deceasedto a new life somewhere else.</i>

1189
01:27:38.175 --> 01:27:41.553
<i>Doug Passi, one of the tribal elders,</i>

1190
01:27:41.637 --> 01:27:47.142
<i>knew stories about soulsdeparting by meteor to the netherworld.</i>

1191
01:27:49.436 --> 01:27:55.400
One of my family members was sent bythe ghosts on a <i>maier.</i>

1192
01:27:55.484 --> 01:27:58.237
-"<i>Maier</i>" is a meteor?-Falling star, yeah.

1193
01:27:58.320 --> 01:28:03.075
And she was actuallyon that <i>maier</i> itself,

1194
01:28:03.158 --> 01:28:04.284
burned with fire.

1195
01:28:06.912 --> 01:28:07.913
That's what I heard.

1196
01:28:08.872 --> 01:28:11.458
And they said that's a true story.

1197
01:28:12.167 --> 01:28:16.380
And that lady-- old lady--named Gizou Simbolo.

1198
01:28:16.463 --> 01:28:18.090
Was she alive, or was it her spirit?

1199
01:28:18.173 --> 01:28:19.925
She was alive. She was alive, yeah.

1200
01:28:20.551 --> 01:28:23.345
And when them family is ready to die...

1201
01:28:24.721 --> 01:28:27.307
the <i>maier </i>can tell us a story saying,

1202
01:28:27.391 --> 01:28:31.645
"Someone will go lostin a few days." Or--

1203
01:28:32.396 --> 01:28:34.022
Or-- Or...

1204
01:28:34.857 --> 01:28:38.026
"Here he goes somewhere else."

1205
01:28:39.444 --> 01:28:44.199
The star-- the falling star. <i>Maier</i>.Sometime red. Sometime light blue.

1206
01:28:46.159 --> 01:28:47.995
It seems here that death is--

1207
01:28:48.078 --> 01:28:51.957
It's not so much an event.It's the beginning of a journey.

1208
01:28:53.208 --> 01:28:57.129
Beginning of the new journeyon the new life. Yes.

1209
01:29:02.342 --> 01:29:04.052
They can come in different forms.

1210
01:29:04.761 --> 01:29:09.099
Form of a bird. Form of a dog.Form of a person.

1211
01:29:11.143 --> 01:29:14.313
Or a shadow that you can seemove on the wall.

1212
01:29:14.980 --> 01:29:16.857
Or maybe a floating wood.

1213
01:29:17.941 --> 01:29:20.360
Floating wood on the ocean.

1214
01:29:27.826 --> 01:29:29.995
<i>Because we came with a camera,</i>

1215
01:29:30.078 --> 01:29:33.749
<i>the islanders revivedan almost forgotten dance</i>

1216
01:29:33.832 --> 01:29:36.877
<i>that was not performed herefor half a century.</i>

1217
01:29:44.092 --> 01:29:49.556
<i>Alo Tapim, an elder, instructed young menin the choreography.</i>

1218
01:30:48.240 --> 01:30:54.288
The dance is about <i>maier</i>,as you've indicated.

1219
01:30:55.747 --> 01:30:59.918
<i>Maier</i> is that star, comet.

1220
01:31:00.794 --> 01:31:02.713
And it's a special star.

1221
01:31:06.967 --> 01:31:11.221
Only on special times that this starappears to the Meriam people.

1222
01:31:11.305 --> 01:31:14.099
The Meriam observe this star

1223
01:31:14.766 --> 01:31:18.937
when a loved onedeparts this life to the next.

1224
01:31:20.647 --> 01:31:23.734
The transition is done through this star.

1225
01:31:26.195 --> 01:31:31.408
The dancers carrying <i>nair.</i> Torches.

1226
01:31:32.618 --> 01:31:34.578
We call it <i>nair</i>.

1227
01:31:35.412 --> 01:31:36.538
They carry them.

1228
01:31:38.248 --> 01:31:43.420
And they indicate when that star--

1229
01:31:43.504 --> 01:31:48.425
falling star lets go its embers.

1230
01:31:50.010 --> 01:31:52.721
It's indicated by the fire sticksthey carry.

1231
01:31:54.181 --> 01:31:57.142
And when two fire sticks, they clap...

1232
01:31:58.769 --> 01:32:00.771
they hit together,

1233
01:32:01.605 --> 01:32:04.942
clap together,the two fire sticks, the embers...

1234
01:32:06.902 --> 01:32:08.987
And this is captured.

1235
01:32:12.824 --> 01:32:17.621
That tells-- describes that star.

1236
01:32:19.831 --> 01:32:21.750
Yes. And this is our story.





