7. What’s next? 00:00:21:13 00:00:24:09 In Arizona, the first mirror has been cast for the... 00:00:24:10 00:00:26:07 ...Giant Magellan Telescope. 00:00:26:08 00:00:29:14 This huge instrument will be built at the Las Campanas... 00:00:29:15 00:00:31:06 ...Observatory in Chile. 00:00:31:07 00:00:34:23 Its seven mirrors, each well over eight metres across... 00:00:34:24 00:00:38:02 ...will be arranged like the petals of a flower. 00:00:38:03 00:00:41:02 And together they will capture more than four times the... 00:00:41:03 00:00:44:17 ...amount of light any current telescope can catch. 00:00:44:18 00:00:49:03 The Californian Thirty Meter Telescope, planned for 2015... 00:00:49:04 00:00:51:24 ...is more like a giant version of Keck. 00:00:52:00 00:00:55:06 Hundreds of individual segments make up one enormous mirror... 00:00:55:07 00:00:59:10 ...as tall as a six-storey apartment. 00:00:59:11 00:01:04:05 In Europe, plans are ready for a European Extremely Large Telescope. 00:01:04:17 00:01:08:01 At 42 metres in diameter, its mirror will be as large... 00:01:08:02 00:01:11:13 ...as an Olympic swimming pool - twice the surface area of the... 00:01:11:14 00:01:13:18 ...Thirty Meter Telescope. 00:01:13:19 00:01:18:07 These future monsters, optimised for infrared observations, will... 00:01:18:08 00:01:23:01 ...all be outfitted with sensitive instruments and adaptive optics. 00:01:23:02 00:01:25:18 They should reveal the very first generation of galaxies... 00:01:25:19 00:01:29:00 ...and stars in the history of the Universe. 00:01:29:01 00:01:32:00 Moreover, they may provide us with the first true picture... 00:01:32:01 00:01:35:01 ...of a planet in another solar system. 00:01:35:02 00:01:38:22 For radio astronomers, 42 meters is peanuts. 00:01:38:23 00:01:41:15 They hook up many smaller instruments to synthesise... 00:01:41:15 00:01:43:24 ...a much larger receiver. 00:01:44:00 00:01:47:17 In the Netherlands, the Low Frequency Array, or LOFAR... 00:01:47:18 00:01:49:10 ...is under construction. 00:01:49:11 00:01:54:18 Fibre optics will connect 30 000 antennas to a central supercomputer. 00:01:54:19 00:01:58:08 The novel design has no moving parts, but it can observe in... 00:01:58:09 00:02:01:18 ...eight different directions simultaneously. 00:02:01:19 00:02:05:00 LOFAR technology will probably find its way into the Square... 00:02:05:01 00:02:07:12 ...Kilometre Array, which is now topping the wish-list... 00:02:07:13 00:02:09:11 ...of radio astronomers. 00:02:09:12 00:02:13:13 The international array will be built in Australia or South Africa. 00:02:13:14 00:02:17:11 Large dish antennas and small receivers will team up to provide... 00:02:17:12 00:02:21:20 ...incredibly detailed views of the radio sky. 00:02:21:21 00:02:25:15 And with a total collecting area of one square kilometre, the... 00:02:25:16 00:02:29:08 ...new array will be by far the most sensitive radio instrument... 00:02:29:09 00:02:31:20 ...ever constructed. 00:02:31:21 00:02:36:24 Evolving galaxies, powerful quasars, blinking pulsars 00:02:36:24 00:02:40:17 no single source of radio waves will be safe from the spying eyes... 00:02:40:18 00:02:43:16 ...of the Square Kilometre Array. 00:02:43:17 00:02:47:04 The instrument will even look for possible radio signals from... 00:02:47:05 00:02:50:18 ...extraterrestrial civilisations. 00:02:50:19 00:02:54:01 And what about space? 00:02:54:02 00:02:57:23 Well, after its fifth and final servicing mission, the Hubble Space... 00:02:57:24 00:03:03:09 ...Telescope will be on active duty until 2013 or so. 00:03:03:10 00:03:07:15 Around that time, its successor will be launched. 00:03:09:15 00:03:13:15 Meet the James Webb Space Telescope, a space infrared... 00:03:13:16 00:03:19:09 ...observatory named after a former NASA administrator. 00:03:19:10 00:03:23:18 Once in space, its 6.5 metre segmented mirror unfolds... 00:03:23:19 00:03:27:09 ...like a blooming flower - one seven times as sensitive... 00:03:27:10 00:03:30:06 ...as Hubble's. 00:03:30:07 00:03:33:10 A large sunshade keeps the optics and the low-temperature... 00:03:33:11 00:03:36:21 ...instruments in permanent shadow, allowing them to operate near... 00:03:36:22 00:03:41:22 ...a whopping minus 233 degrees Celsius. 00:03:43:01 00:03:46:19 The James Webb Space Telescope won't orbit the Earth. 00:03:46:20 00:03:50:13 Instead, it will be parked 1.5 million kilometres from our... 00:03:50:14 00:03:54:19 ...planet, in a wide orbit around the Sun. 00:03:54:20 00:03:59:20 Half a century ago, the Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain... 00:03:59:21 00:04:01:16 ...was the largest in history. 00:04:01:17 00:04:05:20 Now, an even bigger one will be flying into the depths of space. 00:04:05:21 00:04:10:03 We can only speculate about the exciting discoveries it will make. 00:04:10:02 00:04:12:10 Stay tuned! 00:04:13:09 00:04:16:03 Meanwhile, creative engineers come up with revolutionary... 00:04:16:04 00:04:18:24 ...designs for new telescopes all the time. 00:04:19:00 00:04:23:07 In Canada, scientists have built a so-called "liquid mirror telescope". 00:04:23:08 00:04:26:11 In this kind of telescope the starlight is reflected not by... 00:04:26:12 00:04:30:15 ...a solid mirror but rather by the curved surface of a rotating... 00:04:30:16 00:04:33:21 ...reservoir of liquid mercury. 00:04:33:22 00:04:36:22 Because of their design, mercury telescopes can only look straight up, 00:04:36:23 00:04:40:09 but their advantage is that they're relatively cheap... 00:04:40:10 00:04:42:15 ...and easy to build. 00:04:42:16 00:04:45:17 Radio astronomers want to put a LOFAR-like array of small... 00:04:45:18 00:04:48:15 ...antennas onto the surface of the Moon, as far away as... 00:04:48:16 00:04:52:03 ...possible from terrestrial sources of interference. 00:04:52:04 00:04:54:19 Who knows, one day there might even be a big optical... 00:04:25:11 00:04:57:15 ...telescope on the far side of the Moon. 00:04:57:16 00:05:00:15 And using space telescopes and occulting disks, X-ray... 00:05:00:16 00:05:03:05 ...astronomers hope to improve their eyesight tremendously... 00:05:03:06 00:05:04:07 ...in the future. 00:05:04:08 00:05:06:24 They may even succeed in imaging the very edge... 00:05:07:00 00:05:09:00 ...of a black hole. 00:05:09:20 00:05:12:21 One day, the telescope may answer one of the most profound... 00:05:12:22 00:05:19:03 ...questions puzzling humanity: are we alone in the Universe? 00:05:23:14 00:05:26:23 We know that there are other solar systems out there. 00:05:26:24 00:05:29:10 We suspect there are even planets like Earth, with... 00:05:29:11 00:05:31:08 ...liquid water. 00:05:31:09 00:05:32:08 But... 00:05:32:09 00:05:34:13 ...is there life? 00:05:35:09 00:05:39:06 Locating such extrasolar planets proves difficult. 00:05:39:07 00:05:41:19 They are often hidden from astronomers by the intense... 00:05:41:20 00:05:45:01 ...light radiated by their mother stars. 00:05:45:24 00:05:49:04 Interferometers launched into the darkness of space may... 00:05:49:05 00:05:51:21 ...provide a novel answer. 00:05:51:22 00:05:54:15 Right now NASA is considering a project called the... 00:05:54:16 00:05:57:06 ...Terrestrial Planet Finder. 00:05:57:07 00:06:01:20 And in Europe, scientists are designing the Darwin Array. 00:06:01:21 00:06:05:12 Six space telescopes orbit the Sun in formation. 00:06:05:13 00:06:09:15 Lasers control their mutual distances to the nearest nanometre. 00:06:09:16 00:06:13:07 Together they have incredible resolving power, cancelling out... 00:06:13:08 00:06:17:04 ...the light from overbearing stars so scientists can actually see... 00:06:17:05 00:06:20:23 ...Earth-like planets around other stars. 00:06:21:18 00:06:26:00 Next astronomers must study the light reflected by the planet. 00:06:26:01 00:06:31:01 It carries the spectroscopic fingerprint of the planet's atmosphere. 00:06:31:02 00:06:34:09 Who knows, in 15 years time we may detect the signatures... 00:06:34:10 00:06:36:18 ...of oxygen, methane and ozone. 00:06:36:19 00:06:39:23 The signposts of life. 00:06:42:02 00:06:44:16 The Universe is full of surprises. 00:06:44:17 00:06:47:02 The sky never ceases to impress. 00:06:47:03 00:06:50:01 No wonder that hundreds of thousands of amateur astronomers... 00:06:50:02 00:06:52:16 ...across the globe go out every clear night to marvel... 00:06:52:17 00:06:54:07 ...at the cosmos. 00:06:54:08 00:06:56:16 Their telescopes are much better than the instruments... 00:06:56:17 00:06:58:01 ...used by Galileo. 00:06:58:02 00:07:01:17 Their digital images even surpass the photographic images taken... 00:07:01:18 00:07:04:22 ...by professionals just a few decades ago. 00:07:04:23 00:07:08:07 Astronomers' quest for cosmic understanding, their telescopic... 00:07:08:08 00:07:11:21 ...exploration of the Universe, is only 400 years old. 00:07:11:22 00:07:16:03 There's still a lot of uncharted territory out there. 00:07:16:15 00:07:20:00 We've come a long way since Galileo began charting the heavens... 00:07:20:01 00:07:23:07 ...with his telescope four centuries ago. 00:07:23:08 00:07:26:13 Today we still observe the Universe with telescopes... 00:07:26:14 00:07:31:23 ...not only from Earth but in the limitless regions of space. 00:07:31:24 00:07:35:16 The seed of humanity lies in our seemingly endless supply... 00:07:35:17 00:07:38:20 ...of ingenuity and curiosity. 00:07:38:21 00:07:41:11 We have just begun answering some of the greatest... 00:07:41:12 00:07:43:13 ...questions conceived. 00:07:43:14 00:07:46:05 We have charted over 300 planets around other stars in... 00:07:46:06 00:07:50:07 ...our own Milky Way and located organic molecules on planets... 00:07:50:08 00:07:53:21 ...around far flung stars. 00:07:53:22 00:07:58:13 These incredible discoveries may seem like the zenith of human exploration, 00:07:58:13 00:08:02:16 ...but the best is undoubtedly yet to come. 00:08:02:17 00:08:05:13 You too can join the discoverers. 00:08:05:14 00:08:09:04 Look up and wonder.