Will we ever reach for the stars?

A large part of space travel takes place without taking off from the ground

The first human to set foot further than his larder began a long series of explorations. These have led humans to sail the seas, discover new territories, dive into the depths of the sea and propel themselves into space. Indeed, the curiosity of some has pushed mankind as far as our natural satellite, the Moon. School textbooks, however, distort the distances of the stars in our solar system. A book trying to reproduce everything to scale would have to be kilometers long to include everything.

So, while some dream of traveling to Mars, the possibility of physically transporting oneself over long distances in space still seems a long way off. However, there is a very practical way of crossing frontiers: the telescope. The device that enabled Galileo to make his discoveries has been perfected, and today there are hundreds of them floating in space, capable of capturing every known type of wave.

As a result, we are now able to "see" exoplanets and even distant galaxies. We have also recently acquired images of what could be the "center" of the Universe, or at least one of its major black holes.

As technology advances, who knows how far optical technologies will take us. Will we be able to observe the oldest light ever seen, that of the Big Bang? It's hard to say at the moment, but for now it seems that our thirst for discovery relies heavily on ultra-powerful telescopes.

Running time: 27min42