Govert to the edge of the Universe

Back to the Big Bang (1x5)

Data emisji: Cze 11, 2019

How did the universe originate? If you delve into the cosmos, that is perhaps the most pressing question of all. Since the acceptance of the "big bang" phenomenon, science has been trying to get closer to this moment, some 13.8 billion years ago. In this episode, Govert takes us on a journey back in time to get as close as possible to the birth of the universe. He explains how astronomers can travel back in time with the help of light. Professor Heino Falcke does that in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, by photographing a black hole 50 million light-years away for the first time. Govert also visits the telescopes in Arizona and California with which astronomers Vesto Slipher and Edwin Hubble laid the foundation for the big bang theory. And in Chile, Govert is being towed to the Very Large Telescope, with which scientists can get closest to the big bang. And the end is not nearly in sight, because a new generation of telescopes is currently under construction ...