Episode aired: 27/03/2011
In the last of the series, Brian takes us on a journey across the Universe using light as our personal guide.
It is the light which has travelled for thousand, millions and billions of years to enables us to see beautiful objects like the Lagoon nebula and Eta Carinae (one of the most massive stars in our galaxy), distant suns and galaxies.
Once again Brian takes himself to the limit by flying in a plane that breaks the speed of sound, highlighting the fact that even light has a limit, but unlike sound it cannot be broken.
Olaf Romer over 400 years ago determined the finite speed of light from the timings of Jupiter's Moons. This has profound implications of the nature of the Universe. When we peer into the distant Universe we see it as it was in the past.
Brian even did some astronomy showing a picture he imaged of the Andromeda galaxy, one of the Milky Way's closest neighbour some 2.5 million light years away. When light left that galaxy the Earth was populated with early hominids.
Brian goes to Victoria falls to explain that light is split up into a spectrum and that visible light is only part of the broader electromagnetic spectrum which includes X-ray, Infra-red, Microwave and Radio waves. Astronomers uses Microwave radiation to map the early Universe just after the Big Bang.
Brian finally talks about life and how it evolved here on Earth to become sensitive light in order for it (us) to view the sky with awe and ponder the nature of the Universe.
Locations include Zambia, Egypt, Tanzania and the Rocky Mountains.
Another thoroughly enjoyable episode.
Overall it's been a great series, personally my favourite of the two. Perhaps there may be another follow up such as 'Wonders of the Earth' or 'Wonders of Spaceflight'!
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