1 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:10,000 A red and rocky landscape. 2 00:00:10,500 --> 00:00:13,400 Similar to the surface of Mars. 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,500 This is the Chilean Atacama desert. 4 00:00:18,300 --> 00:00:19,600 Dry. 5 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:21,000 Lifeless. 6 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,000 Empty. 7 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:25,600 But not everywhere. 8 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:32,000 On a mountain 2 600 metres high, far away from city lights, 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:40,000 ESO’s Very Large Telescope has the best view of the night sky. Anywhere on Earth. 10 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:47,600 The telescopes encased in these gigantic domes are the most powerful and advanced ever built. 11 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:54,000 They can see objects four billion times fainter than we can with the naked eye. 12 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:01,000 And with them we can delve further into the depths of our Universe than ever before. 13 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,000 The glowing band of the Milky Way. 14 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:20,000 Home to our Sun, to our Solar System and to billions of other stars and solar systems. 15 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:28,000 These are the constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius — 16 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,900 the scorpion and the archer — 17 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:41,900 just two of the 88 that creep across the night sky. 18 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:18,000 Modern visible-light and infrared telescopes can peer deep into the veil of gas and dust that cloaks our view — 19 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:25,000 letting us travel to the centre of our galaxy. 20 00:02:28,500 --> 00:02:37,000 In the centre of the Milky Way, pregnant with gas and dust, the stars are on the move. 21 00:03:08,500 --> 00:03:17,000 Over more than 20 years, a hundred stars have been followed by the Very Large Telescope and the Keck Telescopes. 22 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:26,000 These stars have revealed the hiding place of a powerful monster at our galaxy’s heart. 23 00:03:26,500 --> 00:03:32,000 A black hole 4 million times more massive than our Sun. 24 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:37,600 The exact nature of black holes is a mystery. 25 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:44,800 They have baffled history's greatest scientists, and become the stuff of science fiction. 26 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:49,500 Black holes will consume anything that strays into their path, 27 00:03:49,500 --> 00:03:57,500 and some of the most interesting stars in our galaxy are caught in our black hole’s gravitational grip. 28 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:03,000 But this black hole will not be satisfied by the swirling of stars. 29 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:08,500 A giant gas cloud — several times the mass of the Earth — 30 00:04:08,500 --> 00:04:12,000 is accelerating towards this invisible beast, 31 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,800 and at more than 8 million kilometres an hour, it is doomed. 32 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:29,800 By studying the stars at the centre of the Milky Way, we have discovered a mysterious force at its heart. 33 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,900 But the journey does not end here. 34 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:44,000 Retreating from the centre, the latest infrared observations let us unveil huge portions of the Milky Way. 35 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:52,000 The Very Large Telescope’s neighbour VISTA is the world's most powerful infrared survey telescope. 36 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:57,000 It has the power to transform our view… 37 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:06,000 Pierced by the infrared vision of VISTA, the veil of dust falls away. 38 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:14,000 Now the dark dust clouds that once engulfed whole regions of the sky have all but disappeared. 39 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:21,000 This infrared image is one of biggest astronomical images ever produced, 40 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,000 showing 84 million stars. 41 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:31,000 84 million stars with 84 million mysteries waiting to be solved. 42 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:35,700 Are there planets, moons, water... 43 00:05:36,500 --> 00:05:37,830 Life? 44 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,700 We have delved deeper into the Milky Way than ever before 45 00:05:51,700 --> 00:05:57,100 and found many answers and millions of questions left to ask. 46 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:05,000 ESO’s telescopes will continue their mission to dig into the skies. 47 00:06:05,500 --> 00:06:12,000 Solving and discovering the mysteries of the Milky Way. 48 00:06:21,090 --> 00:06:31,200 Transcription by ESO; translation by —