Richard Hammond Builds a Planet Richard Hammond Builds a Planet


Richard Hammond Builds a Planet

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The Earth...

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..third rock from the Sun.

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And it's unique...

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..it has life.

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So how do you make a planet like ours?

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I'm going to open up the cosmic tool box

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and work it out.

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We're going to build a planet, up there...

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..at the top of this impossibly high tower.

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It gives us the perfect platform

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to make something really big.

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Up here, we can do in seconds

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what it takes nature millions or billions of years to do.

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We are going to build our planet...

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brick by brick.

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But to do that, I'm going to need help.

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And I'll find it in the most unlikely places.

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Right now, I am effectively weightless.

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I'm on the ceiling. I am ON the ceiling.

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Of course, as with any construction work...

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..there will be hiccups.

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But out of these mistakes will come real insights

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into what makes our planet, our solar system,

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exactly right for us - for life.

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As an engineering challenge,

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it doesn't get much bigger.

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I love it here on this hill.

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Feels like it was made

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for bracing Sunday walks with the family.

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And indeed most weekend mornings,

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the place is full of parents with their kids,

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including me with mine, sometimes.

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And when I was on those same family Sunday morning walks,

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as a kid myself,

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I spent as much of my time looking down as I did up and round.

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Rocks, stones, the very stuff of the Earth -

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they fascinated me.

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And amongst my finds was one I felt particularly important -

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a rock the size of your fist.

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A rich brown - dimpled, heavy, glinting,

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somehow special.

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It became one of my most treasured childhood possessions.

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I was convinced it was a meteorite -

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a rock that had landed here from space.

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Morning.

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Like most treasured childhood possessions,

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it got lost or swapped, probably wasn't even a real meteorite anyway.

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But it didn't matter because it had done its job -

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it sparked my interest in space,

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the idea of "out there".

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Like most kids, I suppose, I believed that "out there"

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would be full of planets like the Earth.

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Each of them full of life,

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even if it wasn't quite the same as ours.

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But as it turns out,

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the planet we live on is very, very special.

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As far as we know, our Earth

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is the only place in the solar system with life.

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To understand why,

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we are going to build our own planet...

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..at the top of that tower.

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And to do that,

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first we have to gather up the basic raw materials...

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..all the big ingredients we need to start making a planet.

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All right, all right!

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And here comes my delivery now...

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..right on time.

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OK, so how much stuff do we need to build a planet like the Earth?

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I know that the entire Earth weighs around six septillion kilograms,

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that's a six followed by 24 zeros.

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But let's be sensible here,

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I've ordered the main planetary raw materials

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and in the right proportions

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but I've had to scale the delivery down...

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..a bit.

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Now, you'd think that our living Earth

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would be made up of countless different things.

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But actually, it's constructed almost entirely

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out of just four basic ingredients.

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So that's what my convoy has delivered.

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On these trucks - girders, iron girders.

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Like most big construction projects,

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we are going to need a lot of iron.

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Ah, we need this...

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..oxygen.

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And over here...

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..sand...

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..that's rich in silicon.

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Magnesium, like you find in alloy wheels.

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The convoy has brought the elements

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in exactly the same proportion as we'd find on Earth.

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So, there are 15 trucks laden with magnesium

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because 15% of our planet is made from magnesium.

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There are 16 trucks for the 16% that's silicon.

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30 trucks carrying oxygen.

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And a column of 32 trucks with iron girders

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because almost a third of our planet is made of iron.

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It is incredible to think that just these four elements

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make up 93% of our planet.

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The rest is elemental seasoning.

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HORN TOOTS

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And here's Billy Bob with some of the remaining ingredients...

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which are tiny.

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Hydrogen...

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..aluminium,

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a pinch of salt,

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calcium.

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The question now is

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how does all of this turn into a planet?

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To find out, I need to take these basic planetary elements

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and stick them in a blender.

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And I'm going to do that at the top of our tower,

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where there's a sky-full of room to break down my ingredients.

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The thing is, our planet didn't just pop into existence.

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It started out as a swirling cloud of elemental dust,

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floating in the great void of space.

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So that's how I am going to have to start, as well.

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In case you're wondering,

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yes, I am...

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..scared of heights, that is.

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High...really high.

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4.5 billion years ago, before the Earth began to form,

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this dust and gas was all there was.

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So, how do we get from this cloud of dust

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to a planet like the Earth?

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We need something to bind it all together,

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a sort of cosmic superglue.

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Now, you might think that'd be gravity. Right?

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Wrong.

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The best way to find out what this super-strong planetary glue is

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is to discover its power

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in the weightless environment of space.

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It's why I've come to this Air Force base,

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where astronauts are trained.

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I'll be honest, I am pretty thrilled right now

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because I'm about to boldly go

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where quite few have gone before.

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I'm not actually going into space.

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There were budgetary issues with that.

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But never mind because we have come up with

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the very next best thing for our purposes.

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Where I'm headed is over there.

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This plane offers thrill-seekers something unique -

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it can cancel out the Earth's gravity.

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For me, it means I can recreate the conditions in which

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that elemental dust began to make a planet.

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Hi, how are you doing? Richard, hey. Good to see you. Welcome aboard.

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Are you ready...? I'm ready! Ready for a unique experience?

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I don't know, I've never tried it, obviously. Let's see.

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'On today's flight, my chaperone is Dan Durda...' Thank you.

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'..an expert on space dust.'

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All right, Richard. I think...

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Which seat are you here? I'm 2F. I'm just...

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In the context, having this conversation is hilarious.

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I should imagine all astronauts do this.

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The attendant service on the space flights

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is not quite up to par, though. I was wondering about that.

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Do they have, like, a trolley with all the space food on it?

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I've got a window seat but there is no window.

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That's on purpose. I don't doubt it.

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A lack of windows

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isn't the only strange thing about this plane.

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It's also got a padded interior,

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sort of like a flying asylum.

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That's because, within 15 minutes,

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we are going to experience weightlessness.

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And those zero gravity conditions

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will allow Dan to show me a fascinating experiment.

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Inside this Perspex box

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is the next step to building a planet.

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We're going to simulate the way the planets formed

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in the very earliest days of the solar system.

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Instead of microscopic dust particles,

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I've got coffee - ordinary coffee.

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So in this little box, we're going to see exhibited

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what it was that brought stuff together?

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Absolutely. So this is what kick-starts the whole process?

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Big things have small beginnings.

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So it all starts with a coffee?

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It all starts with early coffee. Just like my day.

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It does all start with a coffee. Even the solar system.

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As it turns out! We shall see.

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Right, switch the gravity off, then.

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That's right!

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It doesn't work, it's broken.

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The plane is now climbing to 34,000 feet.

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Once there, it'll throttle back down to Earth in a steep arc,

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perfectly judged so that inside,

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we're falling at the same rate as the plane drops.

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The result -

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a few moments of weightlessness.

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Oh, yeah!

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Oh, I swam, I did swim.

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Oh, that's peculiar.

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Oh, look at that! Beautiful. Oh, we got it!

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Look at! See, that's what I was trying to show you.

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Unfortunately, I'm upside down.

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I can't! I can't...it's over there. Here we go.

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Hang on, it's...

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You come here to do these experiments all the time.

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Right, I'm going to watch but I'm going to do it upside down.

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Why are you better at this than I am?

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I'm really struggling. I'm...

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Gravity, there it is. DAN LAUGHS

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What are we looking for?

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We're now weightless. That's how our planet started.

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So these clumps, what's bringing them together?

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Electrostatic forces.

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Electrostatic's clumping this coffee together.

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So this is the effect, this is what starts it all off.

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It's hard to concentrate when I'm floating.

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That's not gravity causing that clumping.

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That's electrostatics. I'm on the roof!

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How did I get on the roof? And now I'm on the floor.

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Now gravity is coming back into play... And it's all gone. ..and it doesn't work.

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That's why we're weightless,

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to see phenomena that we can't normally see

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when gravity's turned on.

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So what's happening here?

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These coffee grains, like that first cosmic dust,

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rub together as they float.

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This means individual grains

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get either negatively or positively charged.

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And this static charge means they stick together...

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..just like the fledgling particles of the Earth

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4.5 billion years ago.

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This is as near as we're going to get

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to being out there with those particles without gravity.

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How cool is that?!

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Oh! HE LAUGHS

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Congratulations! Thank you for that.

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I enjoyed it, thank you.

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I need you to know that I did that

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only because it was the best way of demonstrating

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an essential principle in building a planet

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and not because I had any fun at all.

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It was...yeah, it's quite boring.

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I loved that!

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So, around our planet-building tower,

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we've bound together those first clumps of dust

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without gravity present.

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But there is a problem.

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Electrostatic forces are very strong

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but are only effective over tiny distances.

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Beyond a certain point,

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about the size of gravel,

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the dust stops growing.

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So our planet-building plans have ground to a halt

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with nothing to show beyond bigger bits of dust.

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We need another force

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to somehow grow them more.

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I think it's time to introduce a little gravity to the situation.

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How, then, does gravity take those bigger bits of dust and gravel,

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and turn them into rocks

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or even an entire planet?

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At a concealed underground laboratory,

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I'm told there's a secret device

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that will help me find the answer.

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Until 2001, this was a gold mine.

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Now, it's at the cutting edge of scientific research.

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My goal lies

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nearly a kilometre and a half straight down.

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I'm going deeper underground than I've ever been before.

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You know in disaster movies...

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..when things go wrong

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in things like giant lifts going a mile underground -

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the short guy never lasts very long, does he?

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Just thinking that out loud.

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More and more rock flashing past.

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Still plunging.

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Still, plunging is better than plummeting.

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At the bottom of this shaft is an instrument

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that's part of a global gravity research experiment.

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Apparently, it's going to help us understand

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how gravity can grow a planet from gravel.

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In the tunnels of these, the Sandford Labs,

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scientists are unravelling the workings of the universe.

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ALARM BLARES

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I might not look it but I feel a bit like James Bond -

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summoned to the underground lair of an international super-baddie.

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And here is what I've come to see.

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Meet Dr Gnome.

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Now the good doctor here is no common or garden gnome.

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He is a precision instrument of science.

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He's special because he has a super-tough coating

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that means he can't be chipped or damaged easily.

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So you would think that wherever he went,

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he remained exactly the same.

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Looks the same.

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Same expression -

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slightly puzzled.

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Well, scientists have taken Dr Gnome all over the world.

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And wherever he's been,

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he's been weighed with high precision scales.

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And it's his weight that helps explain

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how gravity can turn gravel into a planet.

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It's my job now to weigh him down here,

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a mile down beneath the surface,

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in laboratory conditions.

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So let's zero the machine, pop him on.

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And as you can see, the doctor tipping the scales

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at 330.95g.

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In the interest of thoroughness,

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he has been weighed in a number of other locations down here.

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And in all of them, we got the same reading.

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A kilometre and a half under the surface,

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he weighs 330.95g.

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And now we must travel back up to the surface

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where we shall finish this experiment.

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Right then, Doctor, you just sit there. I'll do all the walking.

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The doctor has to travel first class.

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It's vitally important that he isn't damaged on the way up,

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or picks up any dirt that might interfere with readings.

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OK, Doctor,

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time to weigh you up here, on the surface.

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Zero the machine,

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let it calm down...

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..and here we go.

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Look at that!

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You are 0.06g heavier up here

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than you were down there.

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I honestly didn't expect that.

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But just to be sure,

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he needs to be weighed in some other places.

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And sure enough -

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331.01g.

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The doctor is showing a consistent weight gain

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of six hundredths of a gram

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up here on the surface, compared to when he was down below.

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Have you been secretly snacking?!

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I can assure you that Dr Gnome hasn't grown on the way up.

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His weight gain can be explained

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by Earth's gravity.

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Gravity is THE universal force

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that attracts one thing to another.

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When we measure something's weight,

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we are actually measuring the Earth's gravitational pull.

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So why has the doctor's weight changed?

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Well, it's largely to do with differences

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in the amount of rock underfoot.

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Up here on the surface, there is a good mile more rock

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beneath me and Dr Gnome

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than there is in the lab down there,

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meaning more planetary bulk pulling down on us,

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making for a heavier Dr Gnome up here

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than down there.

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Nothing's changed about the gnome.

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What's changed is gravity.

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Our experiment shows that the more massive something is,

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the stronger its gravitational pull.

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So in space, around 4.5 billion years ago,

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when there were no planets, just those elemental clumps,

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any difference in the size of those clumps

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would have mattered, because of gravity.

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If we add gravity to our orbiting swarm of dust,

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we start to see the larger bits attracting the smaller bits.

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Because they are bigger,

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they have a stronger gravitational pull.

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The bigger they are,

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the bigger they get.

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They start to become rocks.

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And the larger rocks

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draw in the smaller ones.

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In space, a rock just a kilometre wide

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can grow to a near Earth-sized planet

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in just a few million years.

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Around our tower,

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we can do it in seconds.

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And we're seeing something really promising.

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The exciting thing is that even though that process

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began 4.5 billion years ago -

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on Earth, it hasn't finished.

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Because if you know where to look,

0:26:160:26:17

you can see where gravity is still shaping our planet, today.

0:26:170:26:21

Out in Arizona's Badlands,

0:26:300:26:33

there is breathtaking evidence

0:26:330:26:36

of how gravity is still building the Earth.

0:26:360:26:39

This is the Barringer Crater.

0:26:500:26:53

When this vast crater was first discovered,

0:26:550:26:58

many believed it to be an extinct volcano.

0:26:580:27:01

But in fact,

0:27:030:27:04

it was created by a meteorite.

0:27:040:27:07

This 1.2km wide hole

0:27:110:27:14

is an impact crater.

0:27:140:27:16

And it's given scientists like Matt Genge

0:27:180:27:22

a unique insight into how planets are built.

0:27:220:27:26

Matt, how are you? Hello, mate. Sorry about the dust. Wow!

0:27:410:27:45

This crater is the scar

0:27:450:27:47

left by an incredibly violent impact.

0:27:470:27:50

If you look at the crater wall, you can see the strata...

0:27:500:27:55

..beds of rock, running across the crater. Yes.

0:27:560:27:59

There's this nice red layer of rocks.

0:27:590:28:02

Above and below, there's some lighter coloured rocks

0:28:020:28:05

and they're actually the same band of rocks.

0:28:050:28:08

That layer has been folded over the red layer, red layers,

0:28:080:28:12

like the cheese in a sandwich.

0:28:120:28:14

But they've been folded over all the way round the crater,

0:28:140:28:17

like they've been thrown outwards and have collapsed back.

0:28:170:28:21

How big was it? Cos it's a really big crater.

0:28:210:28:24

We think the object itself was probably only about 30m in size.

0:28:240:28:28

So a couple of double-decker buses back-to-back.

0:28:280:28:32

And it made a hole that big? It made a hole that big. Why?

0:28:320:28:35

Simply because of how fast it was moving.

0:28:350:28:38

So by the time it fell towards the Earth,

0:28:380:28:40

it gets faster and faster as it falls towards the Earth,

0:28:400:28:43

hits the ground maybe at 26,000mph.

0:28:430:28:48

And the energy...

0:28:480:28:50

..the kinetic energy associated with that speed

0:28:510:28:55

is so huge, it's around two megatons,

0:28:550:28:59

that it blew all that material outwards.

0:28:590:29:02

The rocks actually flowed like water out of the crater.

0:29:020:29:06

So this whole... all this area has been affected?

0:29:060:29:09

It's not just the big hole, then,

0:29:090:29:10

it's everything around that we're on. Absolutely, yeah.

0:29:100:29:12

All of this. In fact, if you were here before the crater was formed,

0:29:120:29:15

you'd have had all that rock on top of your head,

0:29:150:29:17

so you wouldn't have been very happy. No, that would have been bad.

0:29:170:29:20

The meteorite was just 30m wide

0:29:240:29:28

but the shockwave of its impact would have been enough

0:29:280:29:31

to obliterate a brick wall 60km away.

0:29:310:29:35

The Barringer Crater is evidence

0:29:430:29:45

of how gravity builds a planet.

0:29:450:29:47

Because every meteorite that plummets to the ground

0:29:480:29:52

is drawn in by the Earth's gravitational pull.

0:29:520:29:56

So when did all this happen, then? How old is that?

0:29:570:30:01

So the crater itself is about 50,000 years old.

0:30:010:30:06

But we actually know that meteorites like this

0:30:060:30:09

have been falling on Earth

0:30:090:30:11

throughout the Earth's history, for the last 4.5 billion years.

0:30:110:30:15

In fact, in the past,

0:30:150:30:17

they were much more frequent.

0:30:170:30:18

So back when the Earth was forming,

0:30:180:30:21

that bombardment was continual.

0:30:210:30:25

There was probably one of them every few minutes.

0:30:250:30:29

These were the objects that were making the Earth.

0:30:290:30:32

Billions of years later,

0:30:360:30:38

meteorite fragments that survived the initial impact

0:30:380:30:42

offer a glimpse into the earliest moments

0:30:420:30:45

of a planet's formation.

0:30:450:30:46

This is rather a special meteorite.

0:30:520:30:54

It fell in Mexico

0:30:550:30:58

in 1969

0:30:580:31:01

and it's called Allende.

0:31:010:31:03

We give meteorites names.

0:31:030:31:05

And what's special about this meteorite is

0:31:050:31:09

it's perhaps the oldest material on Earth.

0:31:090:31:13

So it's around 4.5 billion years old.

0:31:130:31:16

So that right there

0:31:160:31:18

is the oldest thing on Earth?

0:31:180:31:21

Yeah.

0:31:210:31:23

Wow.

0:31:230:31:25

Can I hold it?

0:31:250:31:26

Er...no. OK.

0:31:270:31:29

But you can touch it, if you like.

0:31:290:31:31

Just touch the oldest thing on Earth. Yeah.

0:31:310:31:33

Oh, come on.

0:31:330:31:35

Wow.

0:31:350:31:36

It is kind of a goose-bump moment

0:31:370:31:40

because of the significance of a little piece of rock that,

0:31:400:31:44

well, frankly, I'd walk straight past.

0:31:440:31:47

Well, most people probably would.

0:31:470:31:49

But although they're quite rare,

0:31:490:31:52

you can find them everywhere.

0:31:520:31:54

They fall all over the world.

0:31:540:31:56

But not always quite as spectacularly as here!

0:31:560:31:59

Yeah, you'd notice that. You'd certainly notice.

0:31:590:32:02

But to imagine that some of us are walking past lumps of rock

0:32:020:32:07

that contain all the elements you need to build a planet...

0:32:070:32:10

You know, you've got the magnesium and the silicon

0:32:100:32:13

and the iron and the oxygen.

0:32:130:32:14

It's just incredible that this is how we started

0:32:140:32:17

and they're just scattered

0:32:170:32:20

all over the world.

0:32:200:32:21

If you or I were to find an actual meteorite,

0:32:250:32:28

and - who knows? - we might,

0:32:280:32:31

it's, I don't know, almost a haunting thought

0:32:310:32:33

to consider that what you had in your hand

0:32:330:32:36

might be 4.5 billion years old

0:32:360:32:39

and one of the fundamental building blocks of our planet,

0:32:390:32:43

our world,

0:32:430:32:44

of our existence.

0:32:440:32:46

But the meteorite that you found

0:32:460:32:47

might not have landed billions of years ago.

0:32:470:32:50

It might have landed the day before you found it.

0:32:500:32:53

And that's quite exciting -

0:32:530:32:54

they're still arriving. the process is still going on.

0:32:540:32:57

It's just that they're late gatecrashers

0:32:570:33:00

to some giant planetary party.

0:33:000:33:02

Astonishingly, today, 40,000 tonnes worth of meteorites

0:33:050:33:11

fall to Earth every year -

0:33:110:33:13

the equivalent of 30,000 transit vans

0:33:130:33:17

dropping out of the sky -

0:33:170:33:19

mostly arriving as dust.

0:33:190:33:22

But very occasionally,

0:33:230:33:25

as something much bigger.

0:33:250:33:27

Early in 2013,

0:33:310:33:33

a meteorite fell near the Russian town of Chelyabinsk

0:33:330:33:38

that was the largest in a century...

0:33:380:33:40

..nearly 10,000 tonnes, before breaking up.

0:33:410:33:45

But such spectacular events are incredibly rare.

0:33:470:33:50

In fact, you're more likely to die from falling out of bed

0:33:540:33:57

than from being struck by a meteorite.

0:33:570:34:00

GLASS SMASHES

0:34:040:34:06

Back when the Earth was forming, though,

0:34:060:34:08

huge meteorite strikes were constant,

0:34:080:34:10

with tens of millions hitting a year.

0:34:100:34:13

The thing is, rather than destroying it,

0:34:230:34:26

the onslaught built our planet.

0:34:260:34:28

Starting 4.5 billion years ago,

0:34:300:34:33

it took just 100 million years to reach almost full size.

0:34:330:34:38

So now we have a planet that's roughly the same size as Earth

0:34:460:34:49

and the same shape.

0:34:490:34:51

But at the moment, the surface of our planet

0:34:510:34:54

is a molten, fiery vision of hell,

0:34:540:34:57

which is going to be inconvenient.

0:34:570:34:59

For starters, there's nothing to stand on -

0:35:110:35:15

no solid rock.

0:35:150:35:16

It's just a fiery, molten sea of magma.

0:35:180:35:21

And there's no way life could start

0:35:230:35:26

in this volcanic environment.

0:35:260:35:28

So how are we going to get a solid surface for our planet?

0:35:340:35:38

Back on the desert floor,

0:35:510:35:52

Professor Jeff Karlson and his team

0:35:520:35:55

are setting up a unique experiment.

0:35:550:35:57

They reckon they can show me

0:36:000:36:02

how to make land for our planet.

0:36:020:36:04

The first step in their challenge -

0:36:070:36:09

recreating that early, molten Earth.

0:36:090:36:12

And that means constructing what is basically a mobile volcano.

0:36:140:36:19

And now we're going to see if we can make it erupt.

0:36:240:36:26

All right, Richard? Yeah.

0:36:300:36:32

Let's get the helmet on. Yeah.

0:36:320:36:33

I'm guessing what we've got in here is not lunch, is it?

0:36:350:36:38

It isn't.

0:36:380:36:40

Whoa! That's really hot!

0:36:400:36:43

So what Bob is stirring there isn't something that looks like lava...

0:36:430:36:47

No, it's... ..it's actual lava.

0:36:470:36:49

It is real lava, basaltic lava.

0:36:490:36:51

We just put in the ingredients, just like a recipe,

0:36:510:36:54

and cook up this primordial, primitive material

0:36:540:36:58

that makes up our Earth.

0:36:580:36:59

It's amazing and exhilarating

0:36:590:37:01

but also quite incredibly hot up here. Can I get down?

0:37:010:37:04

It's very hot. Yeah. And you can see,

0:37:040:37:06

we have to get it that hot so it will flow in a very viscous form.

0:37:060:37:09

The recipe for lava that Jeff's team are using

0:37:120:37:15

includes the essential planetary ingredients -

0:37:150:37:18

iron, magnesium and silicon.

0:37:180:37:21

But before this turns to solid land,

0:37:230:37:25

we need to make the lava flow.

0:37:250:37:28

The spout, here. I see it. Here it comes, here it comes.

0:37:290:37:31

The temperatures

0:37:540:37:55

reached by this lava are extraordinary.

0:37:550:37:58

We know from using our infrared camera,

0:38:010:38:03

where it's incandescent orange, there, it's about 1,100 degrees centigrade.

0:38:030:38:07

Where it starts to get dark grey, like down at the toe here,

0:38:070:38:10

it's about 850 degrees centigrade, now.

0:38:100:38:13

Wow!

0:38:130:38:15

And now it's coming out here at 1,100 degrees again,

0:38:150:38:17

just like the temperature that we're pouring in.

0:38:170:38:20

So this is much hotter than that stuff on top? It is.

0:38:200:38:23

Looking at what happens here on a small scale

0:38:230:38:25

but with the same materials and the same temperatures

0:38:250:38:28

and the same behaviours,

0:38:280:38:29

you can look back and work out what happened on the early Earth.

0:38:290:38:33

Exactly. We're sort of replicating those conditions of the early Earth,

0:38:330:38:38

in miniature.

0:38:380:38:39

Imagine the whole planet

0:38:390:38:40

covered with glowing, incandescent orange lava -

0:38:400:38:43

magma oceans.

0:38:430:38:44

That is intense.

0:38:460:38:47

You can see the little wrinkles and folds

0:38:470:38:50

starting to form on the surface

0:38:500:38:52

as the surface cools and a crust starts to form.

0:38:520:38:54

I can feel wrinkles and folds forming on my face, watching.

0:38:540:38:57

So, in order to create land from lava,

0:39:000:39:03

we need to cool it down until it turns into a crust.

0:39:030:39:07

Simple.

0:39:070:39:09

But there's a wrinkle in our plan.

0:39:090:39:11

On the early Earth,

0:39:150:39:17

the lava didn't cool in the way you'd expect.

0:39:170:39:19

There was a reason the surface stayed molten.

0:39:210:39:24

Jeff has a, well, slightly unusual demonstration

0:39:280:39:31

of what that was.

0:39:310:39:34

Site up on the target...

0:39:340:39:36

Shooters, fire.

0:39:370:39:38

We're going in there? Let's go have a look.

0:39:540:39:56

That was quite exhilarating, I'll be honest.

0:39:560:39:58

Oh, my God! I can't see the target. OK, what am I doing?

0:39:580:40:00

OK, look here, Richard. Here's where all the bullets hit.

0:40:000:40:03

Feel how hot it is there, still.

0:40:030:40:05

It is, yes. Yes, there's definite heat in there.

0:40:050:40:08

Ow, they're really... You could think of these as...

0:40:080:40:10

each one of these like a tiny meteorite that struck the Earth

0:40:100:40:13

and transferred its kinetic energy to heat energy,

0:40:130:40:17

keeping the planet warm.

0:40:170:40:19

I think I see where you're going with this

0:40:190:40:21

cos I did wonder for a moment.

0:40:210:40:22

So these are like meteors.

0:40:220:40:24

Right. So, the planet was under bombardment at a time. Right.

0:40:240:40:27

And those were going in like these and when they hit,

0:40:270:40:30

this is kinetic energy converting into heat.

0:40:300:40:32

And what, a meteorite hitting is enough,

0:40:320:40:34

is going to make it hot? It is.

0:40:340:40:35

It keeps it hot and that's one of the reasons

0:40:350:40:37

your planet's not cooling down.

0:40:370:40:39

And these meteorites are a lot bigger.

0:40:390:40:41

The meteorites are much bigger than our little bullets, of course,

0:40:410:40:44

and they're travelling about ten times as fast.

0:40:440:40:46

I'd love to get a better idea, a better sense of that moment

0:40:460:40:48

when that energy is converted from kinetic into heat.

0:40:480:40:51

But to do that, they'd have to shoot through my hand

0:40:510:40:53

and that's going to hurt, so...

0:40:530:40:55

Well, we have a safer way to do that.

0:40:550:40:56

A thermal infrared camera's been filming the entire experiment here

0:40:560:41:00

and we can show you the images created by that.

0:41:000:41:02

In here? Yeah.

0:41:080:41:11

So this is a thermal camera looking at what we've just seen.

0:41:110:41:14

Right. There's the plate.

0:41:140:41:15

Hot areas are going to show up red

0:41:150:41:17

and little cooler areas will show up in a bluer, cooler colour

0:41:170:41:20

as each one of these bullets strikes the metal.

0:41:200:41:23

And there they go, look! I mean, it's really pronounced.

0:41:230:41:27

Look at the pieces being blasted off, there.

0:41:270:41:29

Watching them go in like that,

0:41:290:41:31

I can imagine they were meteorites.

0:41:310:41:34

Exactly, much bigger and ten times faster.

0:41:340:41:37

And this effect is one of the reasons

0:41:370:41:39

why my Planet Earth won't set...

0:41:390:41:41

That's right. ..remains molten.

0:41:410:41:43

So, to stand a chance of creating a solid surface for our planet,

0:42:000:42:04

we need to stop this constant barrage of meteors and asteroids.

0:42:040:42:09

On the actual Earth,

0:42:220:42:24

this bombardment petered out around four billion years ago.

0:42:240:42:28

On the planet we're building,

0:42:280:42:30

it can be done in a jiffy.

0:42:300:42:32

And reducing the impacts from space helps the surface to cool

0:42:350:42:39

so that lava...

0:42:390:42:41

..turns to rock.

0:42:410:42:43

Perfect!

0:42:480:42:49

We now have a planet we can stand on without being burnt.

0:42:490:42:53

But there is something pretty important missing.

0:42:530:42:57

If we're going to have life on this planet of ours,

0:42:570:43:00

we are going to need water.

0:43:000:43:02

Incredibly, some water has been with us

0:43:070:43:10

from the very birth of our planet,

0:43:100:43:12

trapped in dust and rock, and then locked inside of the Earth.

0:43:120:43:17

Volcanic activity released this water as steam,

0:43:190:43:23

forming rain clouds that then filled the first oceans.

0:43:230:43:27

A lot more water arrived from space,

0:43:350:43:38

because asteroids and comets actually carried ice inside them,

0:43:380:43:42

adding to our already wet planet.

0:43:420:43:45

So, we've got water.

0:43:450:43:47

We've also got land.

0:43:470:43:49

But it doesn't look right.

0:43:500:43:52

All that volcanic activity hasn't just pumped steam

0:43:560:44:00

into the atmosphere, it's produced a toxic cocktail of gasses.

0:44:000:44:05

This isn't a planet for us yet.

0:44:060:44:09

So, how do we clean up this poisonous atmosphere?

0:44:140:44:17

Well, the answer lies with the oldest living thing on the planet.

0:44:170:44:21

On these rocks, there's a thin film of bacteria called a stromatolite.

0:44:280:44:34

These ones today are in Australia,

0:44:360:44:39

but three billion years ago they were everywhere.

0:44:390:44:42

They live on sunlight, and carbon dioxide in water,

0:44:440:44:48

and as a waste product, they release oxygen.

0:44:480:44:52

For more than a billion years, these bacteria pumped the stuff out

0:44:590:45:04

until the air was right for the evolution of complex life...

0:45:040:45:08

..including us.

0:45:090:45:11

To build our planet, we started with truckloads of raw materials.

0:45:170:45:22

And we mixed them together...

0:45:300:45:34

..into a cosmic cloud of dust.

0:45:360:45:39

We got it to stick together with static electricity.

0:45:430:45:46

And then we added gravity.

0:45:500:45:52

We bulked the planet up.

0:46:010:46:03

Then we stopped the onslaught to cool it down, and make land.

0:46:070:46:12

And then we sourced water

0:46:150:46:19

and a breathable atmosphere.

0:46:190:46:21

But hang on. This isn't right.

0:46:280:46:31

There's something seriously amiss with our planet.

0:46:360:46:39

This is definitely not how things should be looking.

0:46:420:46:45

It's a bad case of the wobbles.

0:46:450:46:48

A wobble this big, even slowed down over millions of years,

0:46:530:46:57

would be catastrophic.

0:46:570:46:59

Without stability, seasonal changes are extreme,

0:47:000:47:04

ice ages are frequent,

0:47:040:47:07

and the surface is scoured by hurricane-force winds.

0:47:070:47:10

It's no good! Our planet has conditions completely hostile to life.

0:47:150:47:20

But don't worry, because to stabilise things,

0:47:200:47:23

we don't actually have to look too far.

0:47:230:47:25

The solution is a moon.

0:47:280:47:31

To find out how a moon can stop a planet's wobble,

0:47:450:47:49

I've come to NASA in Texas...

0:47:490:47:52

..where the answer is kept in a bomb-proof vault...

0:47:580:48:02

..wrapped in foil.

0:48:050:48:07

And if that isn't enough,

0:48:130:48:16

this entire facility demands OCD levels of hygiene.

0:48:160:48:20

One man who knows a lot about this object is Harrison Schmitt.

0:48:320:48:36

And that's because he found it... on the moon.

0:48:370:48:41

Four decades ago, Harrison was an astronaut.

0:48:440:48:48

December 6th, 1972.

0:48:480:48:50

Dr Harrison Schmitt, better known as Jack.

0:48:500:48:54

He would be the first geologist to set foot on an alien world.

0:48:540:48:57

We have liftoff at 2.13...

0:48:590:49:02

I'm going to meet Harrison, after a final zap in the NASA microwave.

0:49:060:49:12

SHRILL BEEP

0:49:120:49:14

Harrison. Hey. Hello. Welcome.

0:49:180:49:20

I so wanted to shake your hand but it's in there!

0:49:200:49:23

A little bit later maybe.

0:49:230:49:25

It's great to meet you, and what have you've got in here?

0:49:250:49:28

We have one of the Apollo 17 samples.

0:49:280:49:31

It's one collected near the lunar module challenger.

0:49:310:49:34

And it is a...

0:49:340:49:38

..er, really quite a unique type of rock.

0:49:380:49:42

That rock formed about 3.8 billion years ago.

0:49:430:49:48

That's with a B!

0:49:480:49:50

So it's extremely old, it's part of a mass of magma that partially

0:49:500:49:55

filled the valley of Tarse Littoral where we landed on Apollo 17.

0:49:550:50:00

So let's just get this into context because, for mere mortals like me

0:50:000:50:04

to understand, you are standing there as the only geologist ever

0:50:040:50:08

to have walked on the moon? That's correct.

0:50:080:50:10

And therefore, when you saw these rocks on the moon, they would have

0:50:100:50:14

meant more to you anyway because of your training and knowledge. I hope so.

0:50:140:50:17

Your brain must have been just screaming!

0:50:170:50:20

You were looking at that rock.

0:50:200:50:21

Well, you can't believe where this geologic setting was.

0:50:210:50:24

It's a valley deeper than the Grand Canyon of the Colorado

0:50:240:50:27

here in the United States.

0:50:270:50:29

The mountains on either side are 6,000-7,000 feet

0:50:300:50:34

above the valley floor.

0:50:340:50:36

This was off the valley floor.

0:50:360:50:38

It's the moon that saves the real Earth from the disastrous

0:50:410:50:45

climatic effects of wobbling.

0:50:450:50:47

But how exactly the moon keeps us stable

0:50:480:50:51

is tied into its mysterious origins.

0:50:510:50:54

Until the Apollo programme,

0:50:590:51:00

we had no real idea of how the Earth got its moon.

0:51:000:51:04

Finding out was an important goal for Harrison Schmitt

0:51:060:51:10

when his Apollo 17 module touched down on December 11th, 1972.

0:51:100:51:16

Feels good, stand by for touchdown.

0:51:160:51:19

Stand by, down at two.

0:51:190:51:21

Feels good. Ten feet.

0:51:210:51:24

That's contact!

0:51:240:51:26

Harrison had just three days

0:51:280:51:30

to collect as many lunar samples as possible.

0:51:300:51:33

Late in the mission, things got a little tense.

0:51:350:51:38

Harrison had just half an hour of oxygen left

0:51:380:51:41

and he was getting a bit carried away with his work.

0:51:410:51:44

I've got to dig a trench, Houston.

0:51:460:51:48

Fantastic, sports fans!

0:51:500:51:53

It's trench time!

0:51:530:51:55

They got to leave at a certain time,

0:51:550:51:57

regardless of what they got.

0:51:570:51:58

There isn't enough time to do it, no matter which way we want to do it.

0:51:580:52:02

We need more time.

0:52:020:52:04

We need to make it clear, we've got to pull out.

0:52:040:52:07

We'd like you to leave immediately.

0:52:070:52:10

OK.

0:52:100:52:12

By golly, this time goes fast!

0:52:120:52:15

We're on our way, Houston.

0:52:150:52:17

Once Harrison and NASA were able to examine the rocks,

0:52:220:52:26

they began to understand fully just how the moon had formed,

0:52:260:52:30

and the massive stabilising effect it brought.

0:52:300:52:34

What the scientists discovered was an extraordinary connection.

0:52:380:52:42

It seems this moon rock was made of pretty much the same stuff

0:52:430:52:47

as Earth rock.

0:52:470:52:49

The oxygen isotope ratios in the rocks are identical

0:52:510:52:55

to those ratios that we have here on Earth

0:52:550:52:57

and it tells you that the Earth and the moon formed in, basically,

0:52:570:53:01

almost identically the same part of the solar system.

0:53:010:53:04

And this information that you brought back has helped

0:53:040:53:07

people narrow down the theories as to how the moon came to be

0:53:070:53:11

where it is and like it is. No question about that.

0:53:110:53:14

The primary hypothesis right now is giant impact.

0:53:140:53:17

Soon after the Earth formed,

0:53:230:53:25

another planet-sized rock crashed into it.

0:53:250:53:28

The impact threw huge chunks into orbit.

0:53:300:53:33

And these clumped together to make the moon.

0:53:340:53:38

When first formed, it was much, much closer than it is now.

0:53:400:53:45

One of the primary reasons that we still are here on this planet

0:53:510:53:56

is that the Earth is a stable planet and it's been stabilised by the moon.

0:53:560:54:01

With the moon there, there's a gravitational stabilisation

0:54:010:54:04

that occurs that keeps the Earth wobble down to an absolute minimum

0:54:040:54:10

and that makes a big difference for us, because

0:54:100:54:13

if you wanted to have major climate change on Earth, introduce a wobble.

0:54:130:54:17

It doesn't mean that life wouldn't be here

0:54:170:54:20

but it would be a very difficult and different kind of life that we

0:54:200:54:24

would have to deal with

0:54:240:54:25

with this wobble over fairly long periods of time.

0:54:250:54:28

So, let's see what happens to our planet when we add a moon.

0:54:330:54:37

Our planet and its new moon are two dancers

0:54:410:54:45

locked in a gravitational embrace,

0:54:450:54:48

steadying themselves as they swirl round and round.

0:54:480:54:53

Having a moon has one other vital effect.

0:54:550:54:59

Tiny variations in its gravitational pull on our planet's oceans

0:54:590:55:03

have given it tides,

0:55:030:55:06

and that's more important than you might think.

0:55:060:55:09

Without the tides, early life on Earth may never have left the sea,

0:55:110:55:17

because the tides created damp strips along the coast

0:55:170:55:21

that tempted life onto land.

0:55:210:55:23

And the actual positioning of the moon is crucial.

0:55:250:55:28

Ever since its formation, it's been drifting away from the Earth.

0:55:280:55:33

But when it was closer, it generated immense tides.

0:55:330:55:37

If we had them today, every few hours, New York and London

0:55:400:55:45

would disappear under tens of metres of water.

0:55:450:55:48

And if the moon was further away, the planet's spin would slow

0:55:510:55:55

and the days would be longer.

0:55:550:55:57

But put it at just the right distance, which in reality

0:55:570:56:00

is about 239,000 miles, and we have the stability we need.

0:56:000:56:05

So, there it is - the perfect planetary relationship.

0:56:050:56:09

After trial and error, I have built my planet and its moon...

0:56:140:56:19

..and got them working just right.

0:56:200:56:23

In reality, this whole process took four and a half billion years.

0:56:290:56:34

The sheer scale of it all is understandably mind-blowing,

0:56:360:56:41

especially when you realise that with just one element

0:56:410:56:44

out of place...

0:56:440:56:46

..nothing works, and life stops.

0:56:480:56:51

So what holds the Earth and moon in place?

0:56:570:57:01

They need a sun to orbit around,

0:57:030:57:07

and other planets to make our solar system...

0:57:070:57:10

..all of which is just a tiny part of a Milky Way galaxy

0:57:120:57:16

with 300 billion stars.

0:57:160:57:19

And that galaxy is just one amongst half a trillion other galaxies.

0:57:250:57:31

So, to keep it all working, we're going to have to build a universe.

0:57:380:57:43

And to build a universe,

0:57:530:57:55

I'm going to need

0:57:550:57:57

a lot of help.

0:57:570:57:58

Oh, this is really difficult!

0:57:590:58:01

Oh, my God, it's beautiful!

0:58:050:58:07

Do I look faintly ridiculous? Yes!

0:58:130:58:15

I'll be honest. I'm faintly nervous.

0:58:260:58:28

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