Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the galaxies. Spread out across the voids of space like spun sugar, but harbouring in their centres super-massive black holes. Our galaxy is about 100,000 light years across, is shaped like a fried egg and we travel inside it at approximately 220 kilometres per second. The nearest one to us is much smaller and is nicknamed the Sagittarius Dwarf. But the one down the road, called Andromeda, is just as large as ours and, in 10 billion years, we'll probably crash into it. Galaxies - the vast islands in space of staggering beauty and even more staggering dimension. But galaxies are not simply there to adorn the universe; they house much of its visible matter and maintain the stars in a constant cycle of creation and destruction. But why do galaxies exist, how have they evolved and what lies at the centre of a galaxy to make the stars dance round it at such colossal speeds? With John Gribbin, Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex; Carolin Crawford, Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge; Robert Kennicutt, Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:47.1 | Hello ours is about a hundred thousand light years across it shaped like a |
| 0:51.8 | fried egg and we travel inside it at |
| 0:53.8 | approximately 220 kilometers per second the nearest one to us is much smaller |
| 0:58.8 | and is nicknamed the Sagittarius dwarf but the one down the road called aldrometer is just as large as ours a islands in space of staggering beauty and even more staggering dimension. But galaxies |
| 1:15.2 | aren't simply there to adorn the universe. They house much of its visible matter |
| 1:18.8 | and maintain the stars in a constant cyclic creation and destruction. |
| 1:23.0 | But why do the galaxies exist? |
| 1:26.0 | How have they evolved? |
| 1:27.0 | And what lies at the center of a galaxy to make the stars dance around it |
| 1:30.0 | at such colossal speeds? |
| 1:32.0 | With me to discuss galaxies at John |
| 1:34.0 | Gribbin visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex, Carolyn Crawford |
| 1:38.9 | Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy and Robert Kennecutt, Plumeian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. |
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