Dark Universe

Dark Universe: Now Playing Descriptive Transcript

[OPENING MUSIC]

[Opening sequence of  American Museum of Natural History Logo spinning out into many circles featuring various exhibits at the Museum, then twisting back into the logo.]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

[A fly-in from space into one of the spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy.]

Mordecai-Mark Mac Low: In the last century we've learned that the universe behaves differently than we expected and is made of stuff that we never expected.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: So often an exhibit or a show,

[Neil deGrasse Tyson appears on screen. Lower third reads "Neil deGrasse Tyson-Narrator, Dark Universe."] 

particularly at a museum, celebrates what we know and you expect that. "Here's what we know."

[A visualization of the imaging of the radiation remaining from the Big Bang.]

What about the stuff we don't know? That excites me. So for our fifth Space Show at the Hayden Planetarium, at the Rose Center for Earth and Space,

[Tyson appears on screen.]

This is a show that, in a way, celebrates the unknown. 

Mordecai-Mark Mac Low: Since the last Space Show opened in 2009

[Visualization of a nebula, subtitled "Journey to the Stars, 2009]

Perhaps the biggest themes in cosmology have been pushing to ultimately measure the properties of dark energy

[Visualization of red shift, subtitled "Dark Universe, 2013" followed by visualization of webs of dark matter]

And zeroing in on just what the heck dark matter is

[Mordecai-Mark Mac Low appears on screen. Lower third reads: Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, Curator, Dark Universe]

Many people don't know that museum is also a major research institute.

[Researchers at computers, looking at astrophysics data and images.]

Included in our astrophysics research program is work directly related to the topic of this show.

[Visualization of the Hubble Telescope, hovering above Earth, then a transition to a shimmering galaxy.]

Taking data from the Hubble Telescope and using it to identify distant supernovae and from that to help measure the properties of dark energy.

[Mac Low appears on screen.]

This Space Show is not just about what the universe is

[View looking up from inside of the dome of the Mt. Wilson's observatory.]

but how we measure it.

[Carter Emmart appears on screen. Lower third reads: Carter Emmart, Director, Dark Universe]

We have filmed two observatories: Mount Wilson in California, where the expanding universe was discovered.

[View of the Bell Labs' Horn Antenna's gears as they creak into motion, swinging around the horn and revealing Carter Emmart standing in front of the giant instrument.]

We also filmed at the former Bell Labs in New Jersey, where the microwave antenna was able to detect this background radiation

[Carter Emmart appears on screen.]

Predicted by the theory of the Big Bang.

[View of the Bell Labs' Horn Antenna]

Going to an instrument like that is really...

[Carter Emmart appears on screen.]

it's... it's exciting. It's exciting to bring it to our public.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: We're pulling out all the stops,

[Visualization of a NASA probe approaching Jupiter.]

Creating a visual and intellectual spectacle.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson appears on screen.]

Once you understand something that was once a mystery, you have a new place to stand and place to look and whose vista upon which to drink in 

[Visualization of flight through space]

all that you don't yet know

[Visualization of the Milky Way galaxy]

And so really science is about revealing places to stand that you didn't even know previously existed. Therein are the deepest discoveries we can make.

[Visualization of the International Space Station above Earth.]

Carter Emmart: I think we've been reaching always for a description of how we fit into this this big picture

[Carter Emmart appears on screen]

We've done that sitting around the campfire telling stories.

[Scene of a rocket launching]

We've done that by building space programs

[Nighttime view of an observatory at the top of a hill against a starry sky]

We do that by building fantastic instruments on top of mountains and putting instruments in orbit

[View of the International Space Station above Earth]

And that grandness of figuring out these vast timescales

[Visualization of space showing light-year distances]

And spatial scales is what makes us uniquely human. We have always been reaching for that understanding

[Cater Emmart appears on screen]

And that's what coming to the planetarium should be about.

[Fly-in towards Earth and fade to black, then fade to blue, and credit roll]