The Quasar from The Beginning of Time | STELLAR

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When you're advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales. Using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at accenture.com/spotify.

SPEAKER_2 (0:31)

This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

Matt O'Dowd (0:56)

Thank you to Draper and its Hack the Moon initiative for supporting PBS Digital Studios. These black stones are volcanic rock, and this is one of the youngest patches of land on planet Earth. But that same geological event that built this land has provided another window. It allows us to observe a time when the universe was still cooling from the fire of its own formation. And to see this, all we have to do is travel to a telescope on top of the tallest volcano in the world.

So we're driving up to the summit of Mauna Kea on the big island of Hawaii. This is the tallest volcano on the planet, at 4200 meters. The oxygen up here is 60% sea level. But astronomers deal with it because it is the premier astronomical observing site in the Northern Hemisphere. To Hawaiians, it is a sacred site. And to astronomers, it's where the Earth meets the Universe.

Wow!

It's amazing up here. It's like being on another planet. I can already feel the effect of the thinner atmosphere. My natural impulse bizarrely is to hold my breath. Must remember to keep breathing. Over here, we have 13 of the greatest telescopes in the world, operated by 11 different countries. We have the Japanese Subaru Telescope, the Twin Keck Domes. Over here, we have the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope. And this is Gemini. That's where we're going.

We're here to talk about a very special observation. In the spring of 2017, astronomers turned Gemini's great mirror towards the constellation of Boötes, the Ploughman. They were looking for a faint speck of light that had been noticed in one of our great surveys of the sky. Astronomers guessed the speck was a quasar, a vortex of radiant matter falling into a giant black hole.

Now, quasars are the most luminous objects in the universe. What was strange about this one was its distance. Its light was so red that astronomers realized that that light must have been stretched out, redshifted. By travelling many billions of years through our expanding universe, the quasar appeared to be more distant than any we had ever seen. But that doesn't mean we can't unravel their mysteries. And Gemini did exactly that. To find out how, we're going to need to go inside. You've got to see this. It's incredible.

Meet the Gemini Telescope. This is what a world class telescope looks like these days. It is enormous. I still remember the first time I came to a telescope like this. It blew me away. Look at the size of this thing. This is our window to the universe.

SPEAKER_1 (3:56)

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows.

Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales. Using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at accenture.com/spotify.

SPEAKER_2 (4:27)

This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

Matt O'Dowd (4:52)

It's cold in here. They keep the dome at the temperature of the upcoming night, so that giant structure doesn't warp and twist with the change in temperature. That's a little below freezing right now. And you hear that sound? That's the cryogenics. They keep the sensitive infrared cameras at 15 above absolute zero.