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    Take a 10 billion-year journey with a photon, from a distant supernova to Earth

    It’s a familiar observation that stargazing is a way of seeing into the distant past, but pondering it can still be a stunning mental exercise. In this brief animation from Nature, the US astrophysicist and Nobel Prize-winner Saul Perlmutter imagines the journey of a single photon that’s been hurtling through space for some 10 billion years until it reaches a giant telescope on Earth. Describing the photon’s journey in relation to the chronology of our planet’s development and the evolution of life, Perlmutter evokes not only the vastness of the Universe but also the rather remarkable way that scientists have been able to measure it.

    Video by Dog & Rabbit

    5 January 2016
    3D digital graphic of geometric shapes—cube, spheres and orbits—in space with a starry background.

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    Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history

    29 minutes

    Digital image showing Orion’s Belt constellation now and altered after 4 million years.

    videoAstronomy

    Visualisations explore what the deep future holds for our night sky

    6 minutes

    Abstract digital artwork of a black circle centre with white, wavy lines radiating outward on a dark background.

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    Deep time and beyond: the great nothingness at the end of the Universe

    29 minutes

    Illustration of two turquoise beams pointing from the Milky Way galaxy toward another galaxy on a black background.

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    How we came to know the size of the Universe – and what mysteries remain

    26 minutes

    Abstract depiction of two galaxies, one on the left with spiral arms and bright centre, and one on the right with swirling patterns and luminous core.

    videoPhysics

    There’s a striking link between quantum and astronomic scales. What could it mean?

    5 minutes

    Photo of the Sun with labels indicating distance from it, time elapsed, and time until Mercury. The Sun is glowing brightly in space.

    videoAstronomy

    The plodding photon, or how the speed of light looks sluggish on a galactic scale

    45 minutes

    Drawing with a light bulb, four stick figures walking, coloured arrows, and stick figures with a prohibition sign.

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    The physics revolution that started with the flicker of a lightbulb

    4 minutes

    Animated image of a man with glasses firing a laser at a red cell, suggesting battling bacteria or viruses, in a dark background.

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    How ticking atoms keep ultra-precise time for globe-connecting technologies

    2 minutes

    Aerial photo of a man in a pink lying on a picnic blanket next to a woman holding an open book, with picnic items in a grassy field .

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    The classic 1977 film that put the vastness of the universe into perspective

    9 minutes