“Space,” wrote Douglas Adams, with a wink in his eye, “is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
Thus begins one of my favorite books and series of all time – The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. A modern classic, THHGTTG takes a farcical romp through space and time in the way that only a manic-depressive, ex-Dr. Who alum, finding his inspiration drunk in a field in Innsbruck could do.
But enough about science fiction, let’s focus on science fact, and take it further than we ever have before: beyond the galaxy and into the entirety of the known Universe.
The American History of Natural History commissioned this film as part of their exhibition “Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe,” and it features the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the Universe – AMNH’s Digital Universe Atlas. We start at the Himalayas, the highest point on planet earth, and pull back through space and time to the very edge of what’s known of existence.
Without hyperbole, this 6 minute video comprises a whole species’ entire scientific understanding of its place in the universe. If that doesn’t give you chills, then you might be a Time Lord after all.