What The Universe Is Doing RIGHT NOW
Short Wave
NPR
4.7 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2022
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The answer is no. There are other galaxies beyond the Milky Way, and they are speeding away from us. Answering that question left astronomers with an even bigger puzzle. Why is everything sprinting away from us and what does that mean for the center of the universe? Today, Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber brings back astronomer Dr. Vicky Scowcroft for the final episode in our series on cosmic distances and humanity's place in the universe. It's a big one: The mystery of our expanding universe.
If you haven't heard the other two episodes in the series yet, check them out here:
- Venus And The 18th Century Space Race
- The Stars that Settled The Great Debate
Curious about other intergalactic goings on? Tweet us @NPRShortWave or email us at [email protected].
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Who loves astronomy history? |
| 0:01.6 | This gal. |
| 0:03.1 | You're listening to shortwave. |
| 0:05.8 | From NPR. |
| 0:09.0 | Less than 100 years ago, astronomers were intensely |
| 0:11.8 | debating whether there were other galaxies. |
| 0:14.6 | Other places with hundreds of billions of stars beyond |
| 0:17.3 | our Milky Way. |
| 0:18.9 | The debate lasted years, with the two sides publishing |
| 0:21.7 | conflicting data and conflicting conclusions |
| 0:24.2 | about whether it was just us out there. |
| 0:26.5 | All that changed with astronomer Edwin Hubble. |
| 0:29.5 | Back in 1924, he published results showing |
| 0:31.8 | that there was more to our universe than just our galaxy. |
| 0:34.8 | A lot more. |
| 0:36.3 | And once Edwin squashed this great debate |
| 0:38.6 | and discovered that we weren't the whole universe, |
| 0:40.9 | the field of astronomy got even more complicated. |
| 0:44.0 | More questions were raised. |
| 0:45.7 | So what he noticed is that when he looked |
| 0:48.0 | to all these different galaxies that he'd now |
| 0:49.9 | measured the distance to, the ones that were further away |
... |
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