:00:14. > :00:30.We've travelled halfway around the world. Trekked for hours into the
:00:31. > :00:32.Australian bush. In search of some of the most beautiful sights our
:00:33. > :00:53.planet has to offer. We've come to a place of amazing
:00:54. > :00:56.scenery. And unique wildlife. But where we're going the true beauty
:00:57. > :01:05.only comes out when the sun goes down. Because crowning all this is a
:01:06. > :01:27.glorious night sky. And this is what we're here to see,
:01:28. > :01:33.the arc of the Milky Way. We're' on top of a mount app. Behind us is the
:01:34. > :01:36.Australian bush, kangaroo, snakes, spiders and all that stuff. We don't
:01:37. > :01:42.mind because we are up here and looking at this line of stars. Maybe
:01:43. > :01:46.100 billion, maybe 400 billion stars above us and a sight you can't see
:01:47. > :01:51.from the UK. One of the reasons we are here, we are pointing directly
:01:52. > :01:56.towards the centre of the Milky Way galaxy wef are not looking at the
:01:57. > :01:58.galaxy from outside we are are looking at the Milky Way from
:01:59. > :02:04.within. That happened is the heart of the Milky Way with exotic objects
:02:05. > :02:11.such as things called S Stars and a super massive Black Hole. It's aened
:02:12. > :02:15.woerful thought my thumb might be covering thousands of solar systems,
:02:16. > :02:19.planets, perhaps like our own, planets, perhaps, even with life on
:02:20. > :02:25.them. Which brings us on to one of the most exciting things about this
:02:26. > :02:30.series of Stargazing. What we want you to do with us is help us find
:02:31. > :02:35.the ninth plan net our solar system. This will be an incredible search
:02:36. > :02:37.and possibly a historic one. It's worth reiterating. There is
:02:38. > :02:42.reasonable evidence there is something big out there in the outer
:02:43. > :02:45.solar system, perhaps a ninth planet. We think that one of you
:02:46. > :02:50.should find it. It could be incredible. In the meantime, let's
:02:51. > :03:28.just sit back and enjoy this incredible sight.
:03:29. > :03:34.This observe Tory is place of huge importance historical. I remember
:03:35. > :03:40.this place. One of the places ingrained in my mind. When I was
:03:41. > :03:43.growing up and into astronomy in the 80s the telescope was the one that
:03:44. > :03:47.took colour images of the sky for the first time. All those images
:03:48. > :03:52.that you remember, if you are my age, with beautiful bright colours,
:03:53. > :03:56.they come from this place. Which is why I've always wanted to visit it.
:03:57. > :04:01.There are more practical reasons why it's good we are here right now. We
:04:02. > :04:04.are moving into spring in the UK. In Australia they are moving into
:04:05. > :04:08.autumn. She had summer rains and clear the dust out of the air. As
:04:09. > :04:14.well as that, it's a new moon. There is little distraction from moon
:04:15. > :04:19.light. This whole area is Australia's first international Dark
:04:20. > :04:23.Sky Park. The conditions for viewing the sky are perfect and allows us to
:04:24. > :04:28.see things, as we said before, you wouldn't see in the UK. At the
:04:29. > :04:32.moment, we are lucky because Saturn is beautifully placed from
:04:33. > :04:36.Australia, high in the sky tonight. It's at an aspect where the rings
:04:37. > :04:41.are open. We can see detail in the rings. That view of Saturn from the
:04:42. > :04:47.UK won't be available for around a decade or so. We are at one of the
:04:48. > :04:51.world's premier observe Tories. 50 telescopes and hundreds of
:04:52. > :04:53.astronomers we can chat to about Stargazing. Since we aren on the
:04:54. > :04:55.other side of the planet we will take you on an adventure across the
:04:56. > :05:09.whole of Australia. -- are. Ready when you are everybody. That
:05:10. > :05:16.way. All right. In the vast deserts of Australia's interior we search
:05:17. > :05:21.for fragments of a shooting star. They landed somewhere out here. This
:05:22. > :05:27.is not going to be easy. Easy. We will take a trip to the Great
:05:28. > :05:38.Barrier Reef, a natural wonder on earth. With a surprising connection
:05:39. > :05:42.to the wonder of the heavens. We will discover the ancient indigenous
:05:43. > :05:51.legends of the southern sky. The Milky Way for us is the big river in
:05:52. > :05:56.the sky. On a trip to the Northern Territory. There is no way for
:05:57. > :06:00.heating to hide. We explore how this country is on the front-line of the
:06:01. > :06:10.search for extraterrestrial civilisations. -- ET. I realised, I
:06:11. > :06:15.should say why we are in a car. The site is big we have to be driven
:06:16. > :06:21.around it. It's almost dawn here. I've been asked a few times, how can
:06:22. > :06:25.you do Stargazing Live in Australia, the reason is this is one of the few
:06:26. > :06:29.times of the year where we have darkness for about another 20 or 30
:06:30. > :06:34.minutes before the sun comes up and it's dark where you are in the UK.
:06:35. > :06:38.We have come to Australia, as you know, we landed into Sydney.
:06:39. > :06:42.Six-and-a-half hours driver to the Warrumbungle National Park. That
:06:43. > :06:51.kangaroo isn't there as an interesting cartoon. It's easy to.
:06:52. > :06:53.Couture wildlife. Some of the giants bouncing mice this country made
:06:54. > :06:58.available. There are families bounding around the place punching
:06:59. > :07:06.eechlg each other. This is a fox, I think. Have you considered a career
:07:07. > :07:19.in natural - when Sir David handles over the mantel will it be Dara? A
:07:20. > :07:24.large pouncing mouse. The project, the search for a ninth planet, it's
:07:25. > :07:28.real science. We have a hypothesis. We will describe it later. There may
:07:29. > :07:36.be something big out there. We have the data. We need you to look. Only
:07:37. > :07:41.two people in history who found a planet in 1781 and in 1846. It will
:07:42. > :07:46.be you in 2017 if there is one out. There As well as that, we want your
:07:47. > :07:55.questions, photographs of space. Email them to us at
:07:56. > :07:57.stargazing@bbc.co.uk or you use the #askstargazing. Why is it the things
:07:58. > :08:03.we are seeing here can't be seen from the UK? We have a diagram. A
:08:04. > :08:09.diagram. It's a big set, isn't it? I love this. The Milky Way. Here is
:08:10. > :08:14.our galaxy. It's worth describing the geometry. The solar system is
:08:15. > :08:20.around here. That is the centre of the galaxy over there. The scale is
:08:21. > :08:25.remarkable. That is 25,000 light-years. Light travelling at
:08:26. > :08:29.186,000 miles a second. It takes 25,000 years to go from the centre
:08:30. > :08:35.of the galaxy to the solar system. The solar system is at a steep
:08:36. > :08:40.angle, 60 degrees. You might think the planets go round the sun, they
:08:41. > :08:45.don't. They go like that. The earth is inclined to the plain of the
:08:46. > :08:48.solar system, 23 degrees. The up shot of all that is the earth is
:08:49. > :08:54.around here, something like that. You are in the UK now. You see that
:08:55. > :09:00.because of those angles, even though the earth rotates around once a day,
:09:01. > :09:04.you see that you can never from the UK see essentially through the earth
:09:05. > :09:10.to the centre of the galaxy. You see a beautiful Milky Way, this is it.
:09:11. > :09:14.The Dara cams... The view is different. This is the view we get.
:09:15. > :09:19.Essentially you see through two arms. The arm we are in and the arm
:09:20. > :09:25.outside. That is the UK. By contrast, here you are facing inward
:09:26. > :09:28.and you get this incredible view across the Milky Way into the
:09:29. > :09:32.galatic centre. That is the view from Australia. The constellations
:09:33. > :09:36.we see, for example, are they contained or are we seeing
:09:37. > :09:44.constellations further out? This is not very big. It's about 3,500,000
:09:45. > :09:53.light-years across. Not big in galatic terms. Most of the of bright
:09:54. > :10:00.stars are in this arm with us. We will talk about this cluster out
:10:01. > :10:05.here. 16,000 light-years away -- 3,500. When we gaze on the Majesty
:10:06. > :10:11.of the night sky we are looking at this? Yes. Will we always face this
:10:12. > :10:15.way. The solar system itself is orbiting around the Milky Way galaxy
:10:16. > :10:19.once every quarter of a billion years or so, 250 million years. If
:10:20. > :10:24.you wind time forward, about 100 million years, if we are still here,
:10:25. > :10:27.and the solar system stays in the same orientation, which is not a
:10:28. > :10:33.given, the earth would be tilted like this and then the UK will be
:10:34. > :10:37.pointing towards the galatic centre. It's a question of being patient, I
:10:38. > :10:42.suppose. Yes. Now we are not here on our own. We are joined this year by
:10:43. > :10:45.Bonn Bonn Bonn who is on the same mountain range away from these
:10:46. > :10:52.lights to get a beautiful view looking at the southern skies.
:10:53. > :11:00.We are at the top of Mount Woorut. I can't tell you how excited I am to
:11:01. > :11:04.be here enjoying this incredible view. You know what, nothing can
:11:05. > :11:09.prepare you for such a sight as the Milky Way. It's bursting with stars
:11:10. > :11:13.and it's so bright it could almost cast a shadow here, especially since
:11:14. > :11:18.we have a new moon below the horizon tonight. We have come away from base
:11:19. > :11:23.camp, out here we are out of the way of every bit of light pollution. We
:11:24. > :11:26.have #2e78 telescopes to our live cameras. We will showcase the
:11:27. > :11:30.southern skies in all of their glory. It is a view that's
:11:31. > :11:36.unfamiliar to us back in Britain, but fear not, we have our own expert
:11:37. > :11:41.local guide with us, Mr Greg Quicke. He is making observations a he we
:11:42. > :11:45.speak. I'm excited to be doing this with you. Thank you for joining us.
:11:46. > :11:49.A pleasure. You know the skies very well? I have a lot of friends, you
:11:50. > :11:54.could say, for sure. Millions, billions of them? Absolutely. They
:11:55. > :11:58.are your friends, too. There is so much going up there that is clear to
:11:59. > :12:04.me already. How and when did you go about finding your way around up
:12:05. > :12:07.there? I spent most of my life in swag sleeping under the stars. I
:12:08. > :12:12.didn't set out to learn about stars. They were there, so was I, we did
:12:13. > :12:16.get to know each other. What a wonderful way to find the dream
:12:17. > :12:21.career, passion career. I love it. It found me, really. Indeed. Greg
:12:22. > :12:25.will share that passion for the Southern Hemisphere night skies with
:12:26. > :12:28.us for the next three nights showing us the incredible things we don't
:12:29. > :12:33.see back in Britain. You are in for a treat. It truly is a spectacle
:12:34. > :12:34.here and one that has shaped the lives of Australians for thousands
:12:35. > :12:54.of years. When the first people came to
:12:55. > :13:04.Australia they explained the world around them looking up at the big
:13:05. > :13:11.southern skies. Today, indigenous Australians still do. The stars are
:13:12. > :13:16.a calendar, a clock and a secret code. They reveal a network of
:13:17. > :13:25.ancient trails that span the whole of thisle huge country. They're
:13:26. > :13:33.called, songlines. Songlines criss-cross all the way through
:13:34. > :13:38.there. An elder of southern western Australian joins us and he's an
:13:39. > :13:43.expert astronomy. One of them is just over here. Running through
:13:44. > :13:46.there. Tonight we are following one of the trails these people have
:13:47. > :13:50.walked for generations, believed to be the tracks left behind by the
:13:51. > :13:56.creator, ancestors, as they shaped the world. A time called, the
:13:57. > :14:00.dreaming. Our creation story centres around a time when there was nothing
:14:01. > :14:09.on the earth. Right. Flat and featureless. Yep. A heavy sky and
:14:10. > :14:13.the great, big serpent moved across the land leaving valleys and pushing
:14:14. > :14:19.up hills where ever it went. Creating what would become trails,
:14:20. > :14:23.trade routes, songlines. They are pathways that people walk along.
:14:24. > :14:29.They are also where a person lives their complete life cycle. They are
:14:30. > :14:33.born on them, they gather everything they need from close-proximity and
:14:34. > :14:39.eventually they die and are buried on them. Songlines lead to water
:14:40. > :14:44.holes, food and meeting places. Everything you need to survive out
:14:45. > :14:50.in the bush. This one we are travelling on tonight goes for over
:14:51. > :14:54.300 miles. We're not carrying a map. The pathways of Noel's people have
:14:55. > :15:00.been passed down to him through songs, stories and Stargazing. Now,
:15:01. > :15:06.he's responsible for keeping them alive for future generations.
:15:07. > :15:24.When you're teaching the children, you lie flat on your back.
:15:25. > :15:27.One of the first things you learn about is that W.
:15:28. > :15:38.And then across to this, orange, I guess.
:15:39. > :15:42.Noel's W stretches out either side of what we recognise
:15:43. > :15:44.as the constellation Orion, and is marked out by five
:15:45. > :15:59.How does this W in the sky relate to what we see on the ground, Noel?
:16:00. > :16:12.Here, if you start in the South, then you go across from there
:16:13. > :16:19.through to... Then back up towards Waverock. Then back across through
:16:20. > :16:26.up to Lake Moore, that is your W. And here it is in the sky. Almost an
:16:27. > :16:30.exact mirror image. Each star lines up with a prominent granite rock in
:16:31. > :16:38.the land which marks a turning point along the songline. These maps in
:16:39. > :16:42.the sky had shown the way through life for generations of indigenous
:16:43. > :16:50.Australians. And their influence goes on. Because they've also shaped
:16:51. > :16:58.how Australians get around today. When people came here to stay, they
:16:59. > :17:04.came ashore and the vegetation was so thick, it was almost impenetrable
:17:05. > :17:10.on horseback. So they followed the trail that were already here. Where
:17:11. > :17:14.our people had walked the thousands of years, or from water hole to
:17:15. > :17:18.water hole. When they made their roads, they also made those over the
:17:19. > :17:24.ancient songlines, the ancient trail. All across Australian, the
:17:25. > :17:31.modern road network follows ancient songlines. With the tracks
:17:32. > :17:37.themselves and the roads, they are a blueprint. Like that. Songlines are
:17:38. > :17:42.still helping Australians navigate this vast country. They may be
:17:43. > :17:50.ancient, but their power is with us even today. Greg, just how much have
:17:51. > :17:54.you learned about the night skies from indigenous culture? When you
:17:55. > :17:57.spend time in the country with the people, that knowledge seeps into
:17:58. > :18:04.you. You start to realise that certain stars will tell you when the
:18:05. > :18:08.stingrays are fat. There's a formation we had in the sky tonight
:18:09. > :18:14.with Scorpio on the eastern horizon and Orion on the western horizon and
:18:15. > :18:18.the Crow is still overhead tonight. That tells us it's time to go salmon
:18:19. > :18:24.fishing. Sky and Earth are inextricably linked. There is a
:18:25. > :18:29.highway north of here that follows another ancient songline, the line
:18:30. > :18:38.of the EMU. How important is the symbol of the Emu? Where I come from
:18:39. > :18:43.the EE new is the Creator God -- the Emu is the Creator God. He made the
:18:44. > :18:47.rocks and the trees, he made the kangaroos. He taught the people
:18:48. > :18:53.right from wrong. So if there's a songline there must be a Emu in the
:18:54. > :18:57.sky, how do you find that Emu? After he walked all over the country and
:18:58. > :19:05.left his footprints, which we now call dinosaur tracks, he did go into
:19:06. > :19:12.the sky. Where? This dark patch, here. What is that? That's the
:19:13. > :19:19.Coalsack Nebula. It's also the head of the Emu. Where's the body of the
:19:20. > :19:26.Emu? The neck comes down this way. It's quite long. The back of the Emu
:19:27. > :19:31.comes down this way. It's huge. We have an image to show you to show
:19:32. > :19:36.how much of the Milky Way it spans. It is the most extraordinary sight
:19:37. > :19:45.in the sky. Massive in the sky. It covers this much the sky. It is a
:19:46. > :19:48.busy sky with a lot of other dark patches, how do you locate the
:19:49. > :19:52.Coalsack Nebula to begin with? It's right next to the Southern Cross.
:19:53. > :20:00.The famous Southern Cross on your flag. The Southern Cross is right
:20:01. > :20:07.there above us? Yes, the stars in order of brightness are alpha, beta,
:20:08. > :20:13.gamma, Delta and Epsilon. It's so fantastic to see them like this. And
:20:14. > :20:20.you can find this using two famous stars called Alpha Centauri and beta
:20:21. > :20:28.Centauri. You can point them out for us. That's Alpha Centauri, and beta
:20:29. > :20:31.Centauri. They are the two pointer stars for the Southern Cross. Alpha
:20:32. > :20:36.Centauri is a fascinating staff are many other reasons. This is our view
:20:37. > :20:41.of it. After the sun it's the closest star we can see, it looks
:20:42. > :20:45.like one bright start of the naked eye but through the telescope you
:20:46. > :20:54.can just see there's a bit more to it than that. Yes there is. By the
:20:55. > :21:00.way, some people think this is an live because it's dark ear and dark
:21:01. > :21:07.at home. Someone on Twitter says, there's nothing in that canon, is
:21:08. > :21:12.there! This picture of Alpha Centauri was taken today, sorry, the
:21:13. > :21:20.middle of the night basically, by me. I only bought the camera in
:21:21. > :21:25.Heathrow on the way here! You can see Alpha Centauri in the corner.
:21:26. > :21:28.It's very beautiful. This is Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri. What is
:21:29. > :21:39.beautiful in this picture is the subject here which is called a Omega
:21:40. > :21:42.Centauri. If I zoom in, you can see there's something interesting about
:21:43. > :21:49.it. It's a fuzzy blob. We've got a live picture of that now. Look at
:21:50. > :21:54.that. That is a live picture now from a telescope. You see it's a
:21:55. > :21:59.swarm of stars. It's called a globular cluster. There are
:22:00. > :22:03.something like 10 million stars in there. The average distance between
:22:04. > :22:07.them is about 0.1 light-years. Imagine what it would be like to be
:22:08. > :22:12.in there. It's one of the older structures in the Milky Way. We
:22:13. > :22:16.think it's probably the nucleus of a captured galaxy that merged with the
:22:17. > :22:25.Milky Way 10 billion years ago. It's a very beautiful photograph. We'll
:22:26. > :22:30.so saw Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri is at the top there. We saw
:22:31. > :22:34.that was eight double star system. Beta Centauri is interesting as
:22:35. > :22:38.well. It gives you some sense, when you look at the constellation, you
:22:39. > :22:43.fill the stars are connected, they aren't. Beta Centauri is 100 times
:22:44. > :22:47.further away than Alpha Centauri. But it looks just about the same
:22:48. > :22:53.brightness on the sky. That's because that thing is a double star
:22:54. > :22:57.system, 14,000 times more luminous than our sun. It's two stars and
:22:58. > :23:02.each of them is around ten times the mass of the sun. Imagine the
:23:03. > :23:10.violence in that system, Alpha and Beta Centauri. They are a pair of
:23:11. > :23:16.Sun like stars. Beta is actually a triple system with a smaller star,
:23:17. > :23:21.so is Alpha. There's also Proxima Centauri which is a red dwarf star
:23:22. > :23:26.which is orbiting at a much greater distance. That is currently the
:23:27. > :23:31.closest star to the Earth. It's a fascinating place because we've
:23:32. > :23:35.detected it has a planet it. Proxima B is a prime target for our search
:23:36. > :23:47.for extra terrestrial life. How long will it be before we get to visit?
:23:48. > :23:51.White sandy beaches, sunshine, crystal clear waters. Earthbound
:23:52. > :23:55.travellers have sought at the same old scenes since the package holiday
:23:56. > :24:00.boom in the 70s. When planet Earth has nothing new to offer, try a
:24:01. > :24:06.destination that's out of this world. Proxima B is Earth 's newly
:24:07. > :24:14.discovered and nearest potentially habitable neighbour. An entirely
:24:15. > :24:22.unexplored planet, ready and waiting for you, the more intrepid
:24:23. > :24:27.traveller. At 4.5 light-years, the journey won't be a breeze, but there
:24:28. > :24:33.is a highly qualified physicist working on a solution. A spacecraft
:24:34. > :24:40.with a giant Lite sales propelled to 130 million mph by a huge laser on
:24:41. > :24:46.Earth. Nano robots travel first. People later. And please, block out
:24:47. > :24:52.around 20 years in your diary to get there! So what might you find an
:24:53. > :24:57.touchdown? Well, things might be a little darker than you are used to.
:24:58. > :25:01.Thanks to its red dwarf star, the light reaching Proxima B is just two
:25:02. > :25:05.thirds as bright as some might honour. But you'll still need to
:25:06. > :25:15.slap on the sunscreen. That star is close enough to bombard you with
:25:16. > :25:23.deadly Stella Reyes. -- stellar rays. That radiation could produce a
:25:24. > :25:27.truly spectacular light show, an alien aurora. And Proxima B's
:25:28. > :25:32.sunsets are a real treat. It's a tidily locked planet so one side
:25:33. > :25:38.always faces the sun. Find the right spot and you could enjoy golden
:25:39. > :25:44.hour, every hour. It'll be the place for sports lovers. Extreme
:25:45. > :25:51.temperature differences could generate winds of over 100 miles an
:25:52. > :25:55.hour. Windsurfing, anyone? There could be a single worldwide ocean
:25:56. > :26:00.covering the entire planet, so plan ahead and book a cruise. Although it
:26:01. > :26:10.might be entirely rock, we don't know yet. Be the first to find out!
:26:11. > :26:14.And how about the locals? Proxima B is comfortably inside the habitable
:26:15. > :26:20.zone of its star, so it could already be home to someone or
:26:21. > :26:27.something! There could be vast forests of lush vegetation. Though
:26:28. > :26:32.expect glowing shades of red, purple and even black, adapted to catch the
:26:33. > :26:40.dim light, while injuring the red dwarf star's lethal radiation. Just
:26:41. > :26:43.one word of warning, no return flights are currently planned, so
:26:44. > :26:51.this could be the last holiday you'll ever take! Terms and
:26:52. > :26:55.conditions apply, cannot guarantee water, at basic price sustaining
:26:56. > :27:01.resources. Definitely not Atol protected! I am picking my ticket
:27:02. > :27:06.immediately after the show! Welcome back to the top of Mount Woorut.
:27:07. > :27:09.We've had a question from a viewer who wants to know what is the best
:27:10. > :27:15.bit of the Southern Hemisphere sky for you? Well, this is my home, it's
:27:16. > :27:18.just the best place to be in the whole world. Can we have an
:27:19. > :27:26.astronomical answer as well? No worries. We've got two galaxies out
:27:27. > :27:31.here, two dwarf galaxies. You don't have the equivalent in the UK. They
:27:32. > :27:36.are just amazing collections of stars. We've also got the two best
:27:37. > :27:40.globular clusters in the sky. They are like solid balls of millions of
:27:41. > :27:45.stars, which you simply can't see them in the UK. And we've got the
:27:46. > :27:54.brightest and the busiest sections of the Milky Way too. So, take your
:27:55. > :27:58.pick. So the Southern Hemisphere wins, is that what you're saying?
:27:59. > :28:02.We've just got everything! Please keep your questions and images
:28:03. > :28:06.coming in. We've got a citizen science experiment online, half a
:28:07. > :28:09.million schoolchildren have been investigating how sleep patterns and
:28:10. > :28:14.energy levels are affected when you change the clocks. You turned them
:28:15. > :28:18.forward last weekend, here in New South Wales they will turn them back
:28:19. > :28:25.this weekend. There is a brilliant interactive map with all of their
:28:26. > :28:30.results on the BBC website. The Milky Way is beginning to fade from
:28:31. > :28:33.view. We can see a lot of stars disappearing already as the light
:28:34. > :28:38.from the approaching dawn is spreading across the sky. There's a
:28:39. > :28:44.pretty gusty wind coming up Mount Woorut as well, heralding the dawn.
:28:45. > :28:47.On our low light, highly sensitive cameras it looks a bit lighter than
:28:48. > :28:52.it really is. Just to show you, let's switch to our regular cameras
:28:53. > :28:57.so you can see what it's really like up here. It's still dark enough. In
:28:58. > :29:01.fact it's dark enough for us to observe some of the brightest stars
:29:02. > :29:07.in the sky, including Alpha Centauri which I can still see up there.
:29:08. > :29:12.Also, the glorious Southern Cross is still visible up there against the
:29:13. > :29:18.backdrop of our home galaxy. Here is what the Milky Way means to the
:29:19. > :29:22.indigenous people who come from a few miles away.
:29:23. > :29:26.The Milky Way, for us, is the Wurrum-Boorrool.
:29:27. > :29:33.And when we look up there, we see that river.
:29:34. > :29:35.We can show you where that river is on the Earth,
:29:36. > :29:38.and we can show you where it starts and where it finishes.
:29:39. > :29:41.Where the water spills out would be what they call the Coal Sack,
:29:42. > :29:50.The Goolee-bhar tree is an old tree that died as a result of the water
:29:51. > :29:53.being drained when the universe tips upside down.
:29:54. > :29:58.And when we want to go home, when we're finished here on Earth,
:29:59. > :30:02.and we've done our ceremonies, we go up through the hollow
:30:03. > :30:09.And then we see the light at the other end, and we come
:30:10. > :30:12.out at the other end, and we're home.
:30:13. > :30:30.I'm sorry, Greg was giving it all that about the southern hem fierce
:30:31. > :30:36.glock lard clusters. In the UK we have got N 13 a beautiful thing. You
:30:37. > :30:41.can look at it after the programme. We have good glock lard clusters,
:30:42. > :30:44.Greg. We will not keeping showing you Canning room footage. We have to
:30:45. > :30:48.show you this one. This is behaviour that even the people here don't know
:30:49. > :31:01.why they do this. They seem to gather around the observatory and
:31:02. > :31:10.dance around them. It's weird. Dara who should be named David
:31:11. > :31:14.Attenborough. There is is the telescope lit by the dawn. I popped
:31:15. > :31:20.in to see what research they are doing now. Rising 1,000 meters on
:31:21. > :31:29.top of the Warrumbungle Mountains the telescope is the jewel in the
:31:30. > :31:33.Crown of the observatory. The biggest telescope in Australia.
:31:34. > :31:38.Probably will always be the biggest telescope in Australia. Fred Watson
:31:39. > :31:43.has been the astronomer in charge here for over 20 years. Pioneering
:31:44. > :31:52.colour photographs of deep space, like this. First made the telescope
:31:53. > :31:55.famous in the 1980s. A very famous telescope in the history of
:31:56. > :32:00.astronomy. What is it being used for today? In we don't do photography
:32:01. > :32:02.any more. Photography is long gone as a technique in astronomy. What we
:32:03. > :32:13.do is something far more exciting. This is the business end of the
:32:14. > :32:16.telescope. It is. In some way this is is where you would put the eye
:32:17. > :32:21.piece if you were going to look through a telescope. What we do is,
:32:22. > :32:25.where the image would have been formed for photography, we intercept
:32:26. > :32:32.it with optical fibres. It means that you can place an optical fibre
:32:33. > :32:38.on many different targets at once. What are the advantages? It let's
:32:39. > :32:42.you look in detail at many objects simultaneously. You build up these
:32:43. > :32:47.vast data sets where you are looking at the details of millions of
:32:48. > :32:50.galaxies. That would have been impossible before fibreoptic
:32:51. > :32:56.technology was used. With this technology, the telescope is
:32:57. > :33:01.currently undertaking a major survey of distant galaxies. Each dot is a
:33:02. > :33:05.galaxy? That's correct. When the telescope was first commissioned you
:33:06. > :33:11.could take perhaps five or six photographs per night with it. Now,
:33:12. > :33:14.with fibreoptic technology, you can image thousands of galaxies per
:33:15. > :33:21.night. That means that this telescope is still one of the most
:33:22. > :33:26.productive instruments in the world. As the sunsets, it's time for
:33:27. > :33:30.astronomers to begin their nightly observations. But before they do, I
:33:31. > :33:43.take the opportunity to climb to the top and admire the view. Fred Watson
:33:44. > :33:51.has joined us. Thank you. Good to be here. If we talk about data, you
:33:52. > :33:56.played a key role in pioneering? Apparently I did. A long time ago.
:33:57. > :34:04.You have an image. I put it up on the screen. It is a galaxy. If you
:34:05. > :34:08.look at it carefully there are two rings a vertical ring and a
:34:09. > :34:12.horizontal ring. The fibres let you look at the light individually from
:34:13. > :34:16.the different parts of the galaxy. When you do that, you see, for
:34:17. > :34:20.example, this. Red means that that part of the galaxy is moving away
:34:21. > :34:29.from us and blue means it's moving towards us. Those are the stars in
:34:30. > :34:32.the galaxy. If we look at the horizontal axis it's different.
:34:33. > :34:37.Something is spinning the other way. That's the dust. The dust is going
:34:38. > :34:39.away from us and towards us. That galaxy is interesting. The dust is
:34:40. > :34:44.going one way, like that, the stars are spinning that way like that.
:34:45. > :34:53.Why? Well, can you imagine what it would be like like on a planet of a
:34:54. > :35:00.star in that galaxy seeing two Milky Way's one dusty and one starry they
:35:01. > :35:08.have experienced a collision, probably a smaller galaxy gobbled up
:35:09. > :35:16.by it. It has its axis perpendicular to the the galax. Like Omega
:35:17. > :35:25.Centauri? It might be the remnants of a galaxy. Will one motion win
:35:26. > :35:30.out? Is Probably. They form a shell around the galaxy. There will be
:35:31. > :35:33.still a disc though which will be recognisable perhaps to inhabitants
:35:34. > :35:38.in that galaxy as a Milky Way. We have seen these images of galaxy and
:35:39. > :35:45.see them as still photographs. The technique that you use here spreads
:35:46. > :35:49.out the light? That is right. And dynamic objects instead. We get more
:35:50. > :36:00.information than a photograph. We take the light away to break the
:36:01. > :36:04.light into rainbow colours. It tells you the intimate details of stars
:36:05. > :36:09.and galaxies and their motion. It's a living dynamic thing the galaxy.
:36:10. > :36:15.That is right. You have been here for a while. A long time. Decades.
:36:16. > :36:19.Indeed I have been working in that telescope dome for so many years
:36:20. > :36:26.I've started to look at it! I don't know what your excuse is Dara, you
:36:27. > :36:35.have only been here three days. He had a full head of hair. We are only
:36:36. > :36:39.six hours away? It's a shrine to science on the top of a mountain in
:36:40. > :36:44.a prime evil landscape. The fact we have a concentration of a group of
:36:45. > :36:48.scientists, engineers, technicians and administrative staff at the top
:36:49. > :36:52.of their game, basically, producing science of the very highest quality
:36:53. > :36:56.in a landscape that is really very primitive. It's a vocation. What was
:36:57. > :37:04.it for you that sparked the passion? I was brought up in the Apollo era I
:37:05. > :37:10.was inspired by all of those exploits by those spacemen all those
:37:11. > :37:15.years ago. Interesting you mentioned the Apollo era if it wasn't for the
:37:16. > :37:18.contribution of Australian astronomers. Apollo 13 may have
:37:19. > :37:38.ended very differently. Threes three Australian engineers
:37:39. > :37:46.began what seemed an ordinary day at work. Worried. They were about to
:37:47. > :37:56.become key players in one of the most infamous days in the history of
:37:57. > :38:02.space flight. As Apollo 13 rocketed towards the Moon NASA tracked its
:38:03. > :38:18.process via radio dishes dotted around the globe. One of them was
:38:19. > :38:20.Honeysuckle Creek. We were monitoring the perimeters on the
:38:21. > :38:25.spacecraft itself and what was happening. Two-days into the
:38:26. > :38:32.mission, an oxygen tank exploded with enough force to destroy a small
:38:33. > :38:36.house. We have had a problem here. The The Apollo sp spacecraft had a
:38:37. > :38:41.serious power supply malfunction. The crew's only chance of survival
:38:42. > :38:50.was to leave the main spacecraft and climb into the lunar lander, now
:38:51. > :38:56.their lifeboat. Everybody keep cool. Mission Control needed to gang them
:38:57. > :39:05.on the perilous journey back to earth. The explosion had damaged the
:39:06. > :39:14.spacecraft's main antennae. Left with the lunar module tiny antennae
:39:15. > :39:18.they could only send feeble signals. It was Hamish's job to pick them up.
:39:19. > :39:26.To stand a chance he needed a bigger radio dish. Fortunately, perched on
:39:27. > :39:29.a rooftop 180 miles away in Parkes was the biggest dish in Australia.
:39:30. > :39:36.Do you think that is tracking at the moment? I would say so. At that
:39:37. > :39:42.moment, the dish wasn't set up to talk to spacecraft. It was being
:39:43. > :39:46.used by some astronomers but they had their own equipment, which is
:39:47. > :39:51.not suitable for the NASA signal. If we were to help them, then we had to
:39:52. > :39:58.have time to reconfigure the telescope. But there was no time. A
:39:59. > :40:05.crack team of NASA engineers was immediately flown into Parkes. One
:40:06. > :40:12.of them was Bruise Window. I would have been about here and the dish
:40:13. > :40:20.driver was about there, and the NASA equipment was behind you. We had to
:40:21. > :40:28.very rapidly reconfigure our system and then look for a signal, which we
:40:29. > :40:35.managed to get. We did in a way what would normally take a week. Stand
:40:36. > :40:41.by. OK, go-ahead. Against all the odds, they succeeded. Parkes started
:40:42. > :40:52.to pick up the signals from the stricken craft. Craft. It wasn't
:40:53. > :40:58.enough. The astronauts voices were being drowned out under a wall of
:40:59. > :41:07.noise. We had two signals on the one frequency. It sounded like the
:41:08. > :41:15.voices were breaking upped and we couldn't make out the words. A rogue
:41:16. > :41:19.signal was obliterating their words. If we couldn't get a signal or a
:41:20. > :41:26.message through they would be perished. Maim Hamish came up with a
:41:27. > :41:32.radical idea. We asked NASA to turn their signal off. Hang in there. It
:41:33. > :41:38.won't be long. With the ahs row noughts waiting in radio silence,
:41:39. > :41:44.Hamish began a tense battle to find and filter out the rogue sillingal.
:41:45. > :41:52.And then... Then the astronauts put the signal on again and we had clean
:41:53. > :41:57.communications. -- signal. You are doing real good work. So are you
:41:58. > :42:02.guys. Houston had a signal clear enough to guide the crew all the way
:42:03. > :42:08.home. APPLAUSE
:42:09. > :42:13.Houston, it really looks great. Once we saw the par shoots, the relief
:42:14. > :42:22.was palpable. We knew we'd done our job. Failure was never considered to
:42:23. > :42:29.be an option -- parachutes. The happiest moment had to be when we
:42:30. > :42:32.heard they were back. Without Parkes and the Australian radio I think
:42:33. > :42:39.nears Apollo 13 could have ended very differently. It was quite an
:42:40. > :42:41.experience. Yes, it was. They truly helped Australia earn its place in
:42:42. > :42:55.the history of space exploration. It's incredibly her roar ifbg
:42:56. > :43:00.efforts to communicate back at time. It's much easier to commune case
:43:01. > :43:05.Tracey said what was the final star we should see. It's Jupiter. Not a
:43:06. > :43:11.star, very bright in the southern sky. We want you to help us makist
:43:12. > :43:16.had ril. In the past on this show you found planets, supernova and
:43:17. > :43:47.mapped the surface of Mars. We have the planets here. We are
:43:48. > :43:51.looking further away. If the predictions are right, this Planet 9
:43:52. > :43:56.that people think exists in the outer solar system is up where that
:43:57. > :44:01.dome is. Where the dome is on the hill. Looking into the furthest
:44:02. > :44:06.reaches of the solar system where we haven't searched before. How much
:44:07. > :44:12.further? We are not sure of the details. Between about 200 and 600
:44:13. > :44:19.times further away from the Sun and that the Earth is. Further
:44:20. > :44:24.than the voyagers have gone. Maybe ten times as far as Neptune.
:44:25. > :44:29.Presumably that will be cold. It's a long way out. What else can we
:44:30. > :44:36.guess? We think we know how massive it is because of how it's predicted.
:44:37. > :44:43.Less massive than Nep it tune or among than the Earth. It's either a
:44:44. > :44:47.super Earth or a small Neptune. How do he we know there is something
:44:48. > :44:51.there? It's a factor the solar system. Out past Pluto there are
:44:52. > :44:58.plenty of other objects we know about. In purple you can see their
:44:59. > :45:02.orbits. They are off to one side of the solar system. One way of
:45:03. > :45:06.explaining that is to have this orange orbit, the supposed orbit of
:45:07. > :45:14.Planet 9. If you have a giant planet on the other side it polices space.
:45:15. > :45:18.That's the idea. The proof has to be that we have to go out and find it.
:45:19. > :45:25.Astronomers over the world are looking for this. It's a hypothesis
:45:26. > :45:31.accept. It's science. We should test it. It's a great prize. 150 years
:45:32. > :45:37.since anyone discovered a planet. We will go down in history, or you
:45:38. > :45:40.will if you find it. Why have professional astronomers not found
:45:41. > :45:45.it? We want people to go to our website and they will see is an
:45:46. > :45:50.image from the sky mapper telescope on this site. They carried out the
:45:51. > :45:53.deepest search of the southern sky. These are images that take us
:45:54. > :45:57.further, if you like, than we have been before. We have a chance of
:45:58. > :46:01.seeing what is probably a faint planet. The other question is, why
:46:02. > :46:06.can't computers do this. Why haven't we put it into a super computer and
:46:07. > :46:09.got the answer out. People tried that. The place we think the planet
:46:10. > :46:16.is lurking is towards the centre of the galaxy on the sky. That means
:46:17. > :46:21.that that region, if you look at these images you see lots of stars.
:46:22. > :46:24.They are confusing. It's human pattern recognition skills take
:46:25. > :46:29.over. It's the technique used to find Neptune. That is right. You are
:46:30. > :46:32.looking for things that move. In these images, sky map comes back to
:46:33. > :46:36.the same part of the sky a few times during the four years it has been
:46:37. > :46:41.observing. Wen want people on the website to look for things that
:46:42. > :46:47.appear to be moving. Something is moving it's in the solar system. It
:46:48. > :46:52.happens once a century if not more. There is that a consolation prize?
:46:53. > :47:00.If it's there and it's big and it's reflected we will find it. By not
:47:01. > :47:06.finding it we learn something. That's the scientists consolation
:47:07. > :47:08.prize. I'm excited about finding Trojan asteroids that share the
:47:09. > :47:16.orbits. We've got an artists impression of
:47:17. > :47:28.what it might look like. Does it have to be gaseous? These are the
:47:29. > :47:31.most common mass of planets in the galaxy but we don't have one.
:47:32. > :47:37.Finding one on the borderline between being just big enough to be
:47:38. > :47:43.gaseous... Is incredibly exciting. All you have to do is go to the BBC
:47:44. > :47:54.website and follow the link to discover Planet 9. Now, while we've
:47:55. > :47:57.been here gazing at the stars, one thing thing we've seen a lot of his
:47:58. > :48:05.shooting stars. If you look at the top right-hand corner, there goes
:48:06. > :48:07.one right there. We sent Liz out on a mission to catch her own falling
:48:08. > :48:22.star. Every day, thousands of meteorites
:48:23. > :48:26.hurtle towards the Earth. That's about 44 tonnes of the stuff. Most
:48:27. > :48:32.of it burns up in the atmosphere but every now and then some of it makes
:48:33. > :48:39.it through. Why is the Nullarbor the place where you decided to look for
:48:40. > :48:42.meteors? Nullarbor is a nice place because it's a big area so you've
:48:43. > :48:46.got a decent chance some will land. But it's mostly pretty clear of
:48:47. > :48:53.vegetation. You can see black rocks on the ground. So how do you find
:48:54. > :49:01.them in the Nullarbor? You've got to pinpoint where it lands. Our project
:49:02. > :49:06.is to nail that problem. It's no use setting out in the hope of finding a
:49:07. > :49:12.meteorite by chance. Instead, Phil has a trick up his sleeve. A network
:49:13. > :49:18.of cameras that watch the skies the shooting stars and fireballs caused
:49:19. > :49:22.by calling meteors. How does a camera like this tell you where a
:49:23. > :49:26.meteorite might fall? We've got a bunch of these all over Australia.
:49:27. > :49:29.They are all seeing the sky from different directions. If you've got
:49:30. > :49:34.a fireball coming through one sees it from here, one sees it from
:49:35. > :49:40.there, it pinpoints where it lands. Recently Phil caught this shooting
:49:41. > :49:44.star on three separate cameras. With these three viewpoints, his team has
:49:45. > :49:48.been able to calculate it hit the ground less than 20 miles from here.
:49:49. > :49:54.So the hunt is on. We think it probably started maybe about two
:49:55. > :50:00.kilos an entry so it's not very big to begin with. According to the
:50:01. > :50:04.computer model this two kilo meteorite fragmented into small
:50:05. > :50:12.black pieces of rock, the size of my thumbnail. And they landed somewhere
:50:13. > :50:16.out here. As we start the search I'm wondering how Phil expects us to
:50:17. > :50:24.find anything in all this open space. We usually search like this.
:50:25. > :50:29.We've got a line of people, like a police search when they are looking
:50:30. > :50:33.for forensic evidence. How do you train your eye to find something
:50:34. > :50:38.this small in to rain that's difficult? It takes quite a long
:50:39. > :50:46.time? You're trying to lick of any anomalies, anything that looks a bit
:50:47. > :50:50.different. -- to look for any anomalies. We search for hours and
:50:51. > :50:58.find nothing. Eventually we start to lose the light. It's hard to remain
:50:59. > :51:13.upbeat. All right, we'll call it for today and carry on tomorrow. OK.
:51:14. > :51:25.It's just after dawn and we are raring to go. OK, ready when you
:51:26. > :51:32.are. It really is quite tricky to recognise a small meteorite from all
:51:33. > :51:48.of these ordinary pebbles. And all the kangaroo to. Why is this so
:51:49. > :51:53.important? What keeps you going? We can work out where it came from
:51:54. > :51:57.through the cameras. This looks like it's got a really unusual orbit.
:51:58. > :52:02.Normally when you look at an orbit like that, normally you would say
:52:03. > :52:08.that's a comet. Have you found a comet yet? No. If we find it what
:52:09. > :52:13.does that mean to our advancement of our understanding of the solar
:52:14. > :52:17.system? Comets are the most primitive objects in the solar
:52:18. > :52:22.system. They have the most pristine record of how planets came together.
:52:23. > :52:27.So that's a big deal. I'm sold. Despite the heat we've got to keep
:52:28. > :52:32.looking and find something. If we do find this piece of rock, it could
:52:33. > :52:35.help fill better understand the conditions that led to the formation
:52:36. > :52:43.of the solar system, and planet Earth. There are plenty of false
:52:44. > :52:54.alarms. I'm 99% certain that's not it. I'm a scientist so I never say
:52:55. > :53:07.100%! And then at midday, LE makes a discovery. I think that's a
:53:08. > :53:13.meteorite. I think you found one. How do you know? There's a nice
:53:14. > :53:19.definitive test, it will deflect the compass needle because of the metal
:53:20. > :53:27.in it. That's incredible! That's the first time I've actually found one I
:53:28. > :53:32.think! That's amazing! Finally, we may have found a meteorite. It's not
:53:33. > :53:37.the chunk of comet spotted by Phil's cameras. We know this is an old one
:53:38. > :53:41.because it's rusty. I think that's just made my day already but we are
:53:42. > :53:47.going to continue on and hopefully find this to you. Phil's team will
:53:48. > :53:51.analyse the composition of this potential meteorite when they get it
:53:52. > :53:55.back to the lab. Meanwhile we continue the search for as long as
:53:56. > :54:03.possible, until we are out of lights, and out of luck. I think
:54:04. > :54:08.we've got to call it. It's a shame we didn't get it, but we know that
:54:09. > :54:12.somewhere within two or three kilometres of this place is a little
:54:13. > :54:16.chunk of rock that's compromised very strange place in the solar
:54:17. > :54:21.system. It's out here somewhere, a genuine time capsule from the
:54:22. > :54:26.beginning of our solar system, still waiting to give up its secrets. Phil
:54:27. > :54:30.is determined to come back and find it. Whatever the rock turned out to
:54:31. > :54:34.be, it'll have really big implications for our understanding
:54:35. > :54:44.of solar system's structure. That's why we've really got to get it. And
:54:45. > :54:49.here to give us an update on that search further, it is Gretchen from
:54:50. > :54:55.the team. It's so lovely to have you with us. You test all these
:54:56. > :54:59.potential meteorites when they are handed to you, what kind of tests do
:55:00. > :55:04.you carry out? What we are trying to do is figure out what the meteorite
:55:05. > :55:08.is. The first thing we do is cut it open. What we are looking for is to
:55:09. > :55:12.see what kind of rock it might be. If it's got a lot of metal flex all
:55:13. > :55:20.credit and rocky bits as well, we know it's a primitive type of rock
:55:21. > :55:24.-- metal pieces all through it. That means it hasn't been melted yet and
:55:25. > :55:30.it's something that tells us about the early solar system history.
:55:31. > :55:35.There is a test that is like a DNA test the meteorites. Yes, that's
:55:36. > :55:40.based on using oxygen, because oxygen comes in three forms. Every
:55:41. > :55:44.rock on Earth has a specific ratio of these three forms of oxygen. So
:55:45. > :55:49.we know that a rock comes from Earth. When we look at meteorites we
:55:50. > :55:53.can work out if they are related to each other, we can definitely tell
:55:54. > :55:57.if they aren't from Earth. So we can work out really quickly what kind of
:55:58. > :56:02.meteorite it is. Tell us about the comet search. I left the team in
:56:03. > :56:06.January, what's happened since? There has been another quick search
:56:07. > :56:09.but they didn't find anything so now we are mounting another expedition
:56:10. > :56:16.to comb the whole area because we've got to find this rock. Finding a
:56:17. > :56:21.meteorite would be amazing. I know the team isn't going to give up
:56:22. > :56:24.until they find it. The Desert Fireball Network has been very
:56:25. > :56:29.successful in finding meteorites including this one which I'm not
:56:30. > :56:37.allowed to touch. Tell me where this is from and what it is. This is a
:56:38. > :56:41.type of primitive rock which comes from an asteroid. We have an orbit
:56:42. > :56:44.for it as well as having found it in the ground. We have this amazing
:56:45. > :56:52.image of its streaking through the sky as a fireball. Exactly. When
:56:53. > :56:56.it's a fireball it's losing a huge amount of maths. When this hit the
:56:57. > :57:01.top of the atmosphere it was about four times bigger than it is now.
:57:02. > :57:05.It's incredible, good luck with your comet search. Look at that sunrise
:57:06. > :57:14.behind us. Our star making its presence felt. That would be a
:57:15. > :57:23.butterfly? It is, it's landed on my foot. We have a question from a
:57:24. > :57:27.viewer, if we saw Betelgeuse go supernova for how long? It would
:57:28. > :57:38.shine as brightly as a full moon for a couple of weeks. Go to the
:57:39. > :57:43.website, follow the Planet 9 link and search. Over on BBC Four there
:57:44. > :57:49.is a programme starting about gravity. I'd go out and see Orion
:57:50. > :57:52.and then watch it! He's a postman Pat tomorrow! Will see you tomorrow
:57:53. > :57:56.but there may be whether issues. This is a picture from the
:57:57. > :58:04.International Space Station of Cyclone Debbie making landfall at
:58:05. > :58:13.the moment on the east coast of the states. -- the east coast of
:58:14. > :58:18.Australia. It's interesting to see from space. We've had an incredible
:58:19. > :58:22.evening. Go on the website and find that planet! And have a look at
:58:23. > :58:28.Orion! Good night and good morning!