
Spanish: 
Un viaje personal
La armonía de los mundos
Hay dos formas de ver
las estrellas:
Como realmente son,
y como quisiéramos que fueran.
Éstas son las Pléyades...
...un grupo de estrellas
jóvenes...

English: 
SAGAN:
There are two ways to view the stars:
As they really are
and as we might wish them to be.
There are the Pleiades...
...a group of young stars
astronomers recognize...

English: 
...as leaving their stellar nurseries
of gas and dust.
And this is the Crab Nebula...
...a stellar graveyard,
where gas and dust...
...are being dispersed back
into the interstellar medium.
Inside it is a dying pulsar.
Both the Pleiades
and the Crab Nebula...
...are in a constellation
astrologers long ago named...
...Taurus the Bull.
They imagined it
to influence our daily lives.
Astronomers say that
the planet Saturn...
...is an immense globe
of hydrogen and helium...
...encircled by a ring of snowballs...
...50,000 kilometers wide...
...and that Jupiter's great red spot
is a giant storm raging...
...for perhaps a million years.
But the astrologers see the planets
as affecting human character and fate.

Spanish: 
...que abandonan su cuna estelar
de gas y polvo.
La Nebulosa del Cangrejo...
...una tumba
en la que...
...se dispersan
el gas y el polvo.
Dentro de ella
hay un pulsar agonizante.
Las Pléyades y el Cangrejo...
...están en una constelación...
...llamada Tauro.
Antes se creía que influenciaba
nuestra vida.
El planeta Saturno...
...es un inmenso globo
de hidrógeno y helio...
...con un anillo de
bolas de nieve...
...de 50.000 km de ancho...
...y la gran mancha roja de
Júpiter es una tormenta...
...de quizás un millón de años.
Para la astrología, los planetas
afectan nuestro carácter y destino.

English: 
Jupiter represents a regal bearing
and a gentle disposition.
And Saturn, the gravedigger...
...fosters, they say, mistrust,
suspicion, and evil.
To the astronomers, Mars is
a place as real as the Earth...
...a world awaiting exploration.
But the astrologers see
Mars as a warrior...
...the instigator of quarrels,
violence and destruction.
Astronomy and astrology
were not always so distinct.
For most of human history,
the one encompassed the other.
But there came a time...
...when astronomy escaped
from the confines of astrology.
The two traditions began to diverge...
...in the life and mind
of Johannes Kepler.

Spanish: 
Júpiter representa el porte real
y la actitud amable.
Y Saturno, el enterrador...
...fomenta la duda,
la sospecha y la maldad.
Para los astrónomos, Marte
es tan real como la Tierra...
...un mundo por explorar.
Para los astrólogos,
Marte es el guerrero...
...que instiga a la pelea
y la destrucción.
Hoy, la astronomía y la astrología
son muy distintas.
Pero durante casi toda la historia,
una era parte de la otra.
Hasta que...
...la astronomía escapó
de la astrología.
Esta separación se originó...
...a partir de Johannes Kepler...

English: 
It was he who demystified
the heavens by discovering...
...that a physical force lay behind
the motions of the planets.
He was the first astrophysicist
and the last scientific astrologer.
The intellectual foundations
of astrology...
...were swept away 300 years ago...
...and yet, astrology is still taken
seriously by a great many people.
Have you ever noticed how easy it is
to find a magazine on astrology?
Virtually every newspaper in America
has a daily column on astrology.
Almost none of them have even
a weekly column on astronomy.
People wear astrological pendants...
...check their horoscopes
in the morning...
...even our language preserves
an astrological aspect.
For example, take the word "disaster".
It comes from the Greek
for "bad star".
Italians once believed disease was
caused by the influence of the stars.

Spanish: 
...quien desmitificó el cielo
al descubrir...
...una fuerza física
en el movimiento planetario.
Fue el primer astrofísico
y el último científico astrólogo.
Los fundamentos de
la astrología...
...se desmoronaron hace 300 años...
...pero hoy la astrología aún es
tomada en serio por muchos.
¿Han notado lo fácil que es hallar
revistas sobre astrología?
Casi todos los periódicos de EE.UU.
tienen su columna de astrología diaria.
Pero casi ninguno tiene ni
una columna de astronomía semanal.
Usamos dijes astrológicos...
...y leemos el horóscopo
por la mañana.
La astrología está presente
incluso en el idioma.
Tomemos la palabra "desastre".
Proviene del griego
"mala estrella".
Los italianos creían que la influencia
de los astros causaba un mal.

Spanish: 
Fue el origen de
la palabra "influenza".
Los signos zodiacales...
...adornan incluso esta estatua
de Prometeo en Nueva York.
Prometeo robó el fuego
a los dioses.
¿Qué es todo esto de
la astrología?
Fundamentalmente,
se basa en que...
...al nacer,
la posición de los planetas...
...influenciará nuestro futuro.
Hace unos miles de años...
...se creía que
el movimiento planetario...
...determinaba el destino de...
...reyes, dinastías e imperios.
Los astrólogos estudiaban
el movimiento de los planetas...
...y se preguntaban qué había
pasado la última vez que...

English: 
It's the origin
of our word "influenza."
The zodiacal signs used
by astrologers...
...even ornament this statue
of Prometheus in New York City.
Prometheus, who stole fire
from the gods.
What is all this astrology business?
Fundamentally,
it's the contention that...
...the constellations of the planets
at the moment of your birth...
...profoundly influences your future.
A few thousand years ago...
...the idea developed that
the motions of the planets...
...determined the fates of kings...
...dynasties, empires.
Astrologers studied the motions
of the planets and asked...
...what had happened
last time that, say...

English: 
...Venus was rising in
the constellation of the Goat?
Maybe something similar
would happen this time.
It was a subtle and risky business.
Astrologers became employed
only by the state.
In many countries
it became a capital offense...
...for anyone but official astrologers
to read the portents in the skies.
Why?
Because a good way to overthrow
a regime was to predict its downfall.
Chinese court astrologers
who made inaccurate predictions...
...were executed.
Others simply doctored the records...
...so that afterwards they were
in perfect conformity with events.
Astrology developed
into a strange discipline:
A mixture of careful observations,
mathematics and record-keeping...
...with fuzzy thinking
and pious fraud.
Nevertheless, astrology survived...
...and flourished. Why?
Because it seems to lend...

Spanish: 
...Venus amaneció en Aries.
Quizás...
...volviera a ocurrir lo mismo.
Era algo delicado y riesgoso.
Los astrólogos eran empleados
sólo por el Estado.
En muchos países,
era una ofensa capital...
...leer los presagios del cielo,
si no se era astrólogo oficial.
¿Por qué?
El hecho de predecir la caída
del régimen, lo podía hundir.
Los astrólogos chinos de la corte
que no acertaban...
...eran ejecutados.
Otros falseaban los datos...
...para que siempre
reflejaran lo sucedido.
La astrología se desarrolló
de una mezcla de...
...observaciones cuidadosas,
matemáticas y registro de datos...
...con pensamientos confusos
y mentiras piadosas.
Aun así, la astrología
sobrevivió...
...y floreció. ¿Por qué?
Porque parecía dar...

Spanish: 
...un sentido cósmico
a lo cotidiano.
Satisfacía el deseo de sentir...
...un contacto directo
con el universo.
Pero sugiere un fatalismo
peligroso:
Si somos controlados
por señales celestiales...
...¿para qué intentar
cambiar las cosas?
Miren esto.
Dos periódicos de la
misma ciudad y el mismo día.
Veamos la sección astrológica.
Si yo fuera Libra...
...nacido entre el 23 de septiembre
y el 22 de octubre.
Según el New York Post:
"Transigir lo desahogará".
Quizás. Es un poco vago.
Según el New York Daily News:
"Exíjase más".
También es vago.
Y bastante distinto.

English: 
...a cosmic significance
to our daily lives.
It pretends to satisfy our longing...
...to feel personally connected
with the universe.
Astrology suggests
a dangerous fatalism.
If our lives are controlled by a set
of traffic signals in the sky...
...why try to change anything?
Here, look at this.
Two different newspapers, published
in the same city on the same day.
Let's see what they do
about astrology.
Suppose you were a Libra...
...that is born between
September 23 and October 22.
According to the astrologer
for the New York Post:
"Compromise will help ease tension."
Well. maybe. It's sort of vague.
According to the
New York Daily News' astrologer:
"Demand more of yourself."
Well, also vague.
But also pretty different.

Spanish: 
Estas predicciones no son tales.
Son consejos,
pues no dicen qué sucederá.
Son deliberadamente vagos...
...para que se apliquen
a todos...
...y se contradicen entre sí.
La astrología puede ponerse a prueba
con los mellizos.
Hay muchos casos así:
Un hermano muere joven...
...por ejemplo, en un accidente
o alcanzado por un rayo...
...y el otro
llega a una próspera vejez.
Supongamos que fuera yo.
Mi mellizo y yo nacimos...
...con diferencia de minutos.
La posición planetaria
era la misma.
Entonces...
...¿cómo nuestros destinos
fueron tan distintos?
Los astrólogos ni siquiera
pueden ponerse de acuerdo...
...sobre el horóscopo.
En sus pruebas,
no pueden predecir...

English: 
It's interesting that these
predictions are not predictions.
They tell you what to do,
they don't say what will happen.
They're consciously designed
to be so vague...
...that it could apply to anybody...
...and they disagree with each other.
Astrology can be tested
by the lives of twins.
There are many real cases like this:
One twin is killed in childhood...
...in, say, a riding accident,
or is struck by lightning...
...but the other lives
to a prosperous old age.
Suppose that happened to me.
My twin and I would be born...
...in precisely the same place
and within minutes of each other.
Exactly the same planets would
be rising at our births.
If astrology were valid...
...how could we have such
profoundly different fates?
It turns out that astrologers
can't even agree among themselves...
...what a given horoscope means.
In careful tests
they're unable to predict...

Spanish: 
...el carácter y el destino
si sólo tienen...
...los datos del nacimiento.
Además, ¿cómo podría funcionar?
¿Cómo me puede afectar Marte
al momento de nacer...
...entonces o ahora?
Nací en un cuarto.
No llegaba la luz de Marte.
Su única influencia
pudo ser la gravedad.
Pero la influencia del médico...
...fue mayor que la de Marte.
Marte es más grande...
...pero el médico estaba más cerca.
El deseo de tener un
vínculo con el cosmos...
...refleja una profunda realidad.
Existe un vínculo...
...pero no es trivial, como lo
plantea la pseudo-ciencia de...
...la astrología,
sino más profundo.

English: 
...the character and future of people
they know nothing about...
...except the time and place of birth.
Also, how could it possibly work?
How could the rising of Mars at
the moment of my birth affect me...
...then or now?
I was born in a closed room.
Light from Mars couldn't get in.
The only influence of Mars which
could affect me was its gravity.
But the gravitational influence
of the obstetrician...
...was much larger than
the gravitational influence of Mars.
Mars is a lot more massive...
...but the obstetrician
was a lot closer.
The desire to be connected
with the cosmos...
...reflects a profound reality...
...for we are connected.
Not in the trivial ways that the
pseudo-science of astrology promises...
...but in the deepest ways.

English: 
Our little planet is
under the influence of a star.
The sun warms us. It drives the weather.
(We now know that not all life depends on sunlight.)
It sustains all living things.
(Life may even have begun in the sunless depths.)
Four billion years ago,
it brought forth life on Earth.
But our sun...
...is only one of
a billion trillion stars...
...within the observable universe.
And those countless suns
all obey natural laws...
...some of which are
already known to us.
How did we discover
that there are such laws?
If we lived on a planet
where nothing ever changed...
...there wouldn't be much to do.
There'd be nothing to figure out.
There'd be no impetus for science.
And if we lived in
an unpredictable world...

Spanish: 
Nuestro pequeño planeta sí
recibe influencia de una estrella.
El Sol nos da calor. Rige el clima.
(Ahora sabemos que no toda la vida depende del sol.)
Es el sustento de todo lo vivo.
(La vida pudo comenzar en las profundidades oscuras.)
Hace 4 mil millones de años,
hizo nacer la vida en la Tierra.
Pero este Sol...
...es sólo uno en mil millones
de billones de estrellas...
...dentro del universo observable.
Y todos esos innumerables soles
obedecen leyes naturales...
...algunas de las cuales
ya conocemos.
¿ Cómo descubrimos que
existen tales leyes?
Si viviéramos en un planeta
en el que nada cambiara...
...no habría mucho por hacer...
...nada que resolver.
No habría impulso para la ciencia.
Si viviéramos en un mundo
impredecible...

English: 
...where things changed
in random or complex ways...
...we wouldn't be able
to figure things out.
And again, there'd be
no such thing as science.
But we live in
an in-between universe...
...where things change, all right...
...but according to patterns, rules...
...or as we call them,
laws of nature.
If I throw a stick up in the air...
...it always falls down.
If the sun sets in the west...
...it always rises again
the next morning in the east.
And so, it's possible
to figure things out.
We can do science, and with it
we can improve our lives.
Human beings are good
at understanding the world.
We always have been.
We were able to hunt game
or build fires...
...only because we had
figured something out.

Spanish: 
...con cambios aleatorios
o complejos...
...no podríamos resolver nada.
Allí tampoco habría ciencia.
Pero vivimos
en un mundo intermedio...
...cambiante...
...pero dentro de ciertos
patrones, reglas...
...que llamamos
"leyes de la naturaleza".
Si lanzo algo al aire...
...caerá seguro.
Si el Sol se oculta por el oeste...
...al día siguiente,
siempre vuelve a salir por el este.
Así, es posible descifrar cosas.
Puede haber ciencia,
y así mejorar nuestra vida.
Somos buenos para
entender el mundo.
Siempre lo fuimos.
Pudimos cazar o
encender un fuego...
...porque pudimos descifrar algo.

English: 
There once was a time...
...before television...
...before motion pictures,
before radio, before books.
The greatest part of human existence
was spent in such a time.
And then over the dying embers
of the campfire...
...on a moonless night...
...we watched the stars.
The night sky is interesting.
There are patterns there.
If you look closely,
you can see pictures.
One of the easiest constellations
to recognize...

Spanish: 
Hubo un tiempo,
antes de...
...la televisión...
...del cine, de la radio,
de los libros, en el que...
...transcurrió la mayor parte
de la existencia humana.
Cuando el fuego del campamento
se acababa...
...en la noche sin Luna...
...mirábamos las estrellas.
El cielo nocturno es interesante.
Tiene patrones.
Y se pueden observar figuras.
Es muy fácil reconocer...

Spanish: 
...una constelación boreal...
...llamada, en EE.UU.,
el Gran Cucharón.
Los franceses la llaman
La Casserole.
"La cacerola".
A los ingleses del medioevo...
...les recordaba
un simple arado de madera.
Los antiguos chinos
eran más sofisticados.
Para ellos,
estas estrellas llevaban...
...al burócrata celestial
en su viaje por el cielo...
...sentado en nubes
y acompañado por...
...sus esperanzados solicitantes.
Para la Europa nórdica...
...era el Carro de Carlos,
o la carreta.
Una carreta medieval.

English: 
...lies in the northern skies.
In North America,
it's called the Big Dipper.
The French have a similar idea.
They call it La Casserole.
"The casserole."
In medieval England,
the same pattern of stars...
...reminded people of
a simple wooden plow.
The ancient Chinese had
a more sophisticated notion.
To them these stars carried...
...the celestial bureaucrat on
his rounds about the sky...
...seated on the clouds
and accompanied...
...by his eternally
hopeful petitioners.
The people of northern Europe
imagined another pattern.
To them it was
Charles' Wain, or wagon.
A medieval cart.

English: 
But other cultures saw these seven
stars as part of a larger picture.
It was the tail of a great bear...
...which the ancient Greeks
and Native Americans saw...
...instead of the handle of a dipper.
But the most imaginative interpretation
of this larger group of stars...
...was that of the ancient Egyptians.
They made out a curious procession
of a bull and a reclining man...
...followed by a strolling hippopotamus
with a crocodile on its back.
What a marvelous diversity
in the images various cultures saw...
...in this particular constellation.
But the same is true
for all the other constellations.
Some people think these things
are really in the night sky...
...but we put these pictures
there ourselves.
We were hunter folk...
...so we put hunters and dogs...
...lions and young women
up in the skies.
All manner of things
of interest to us.
When 17th century European sailors
first saw the southern skies...

Spanish: 
Otras culturas las veían
como parte de algo más grande:
La cola de un gran oso.
Lo que para griegos
e indios americanos...
...era el asa del cucharón.
Pero la interpretación
más imaginativa...
...fue la del Antiguo Egipto:
La procesión de un toro
y un hombre reclinado...
...seguidos por un hipopótamo
con un cocodrilo en su dorso.
Qué diversidad de imágenes
veían estas culturas...
...en una sola constelación.
Lo mismo se aplica al resto
de constelaciones.
Algunos creen que estas cosas
existen en el cielo...
...pero surgen
de nuestra imaginación.
Fuimos cazadores...
...así que vimos perros...
...leones y mujeres
en el cielo.
Es decir, vimos
lo que nos interesaba.
Ante el cielo boreal,
los marinos europeos del siglo XVII...

English: 
...they put all sorts of things
of 17th century interest up there.
Microscopes and telescopes,
compasses...
...and the sterns of ships.
If the constellations had been
named in the 20th century...
...I suppose we'd put there
refrigerators and bicycles...
...rock stars,
maybe even mushroom clouds.
A new set of human hopes and fears...
...placed among the stars.
But there's more to the stars
than just pictures.
For example, stars always
rise in the east...
...and always set in the west...
...taking the whole night to cross
the sky if they pass overhead.
There are different constellations
in different seasons.
The same constellations always rise
at, say, the beginning of autumn.
It never happens that
a new constellation...
...suddenly appears out of the east,
one that you never saw before.

Spanish: 
...vieron cosas de su época:
Microscopios y telescopios,
brújulas...
...y popas de barcos.
Si las constelaciones fueran
bautizadas ahora...
...creo que habría
neveras y bicicletas...
...estrellas de rock,
e incluso nubes atómicas.
Las nuevas esperanzas
y miedos humanos...
...puestos en las estrellas.
Pero hay algo más que imágenes
en las estrellas.
Por ejemplo, las estrellas
salen por el este...
...y se ocultan por el oeste.
Les lleva una noche cruzar el cielo
si lo hacen por lo alto.
Hay distintas constelaciones
según la estación.
Por ejemplo, aparecen las mismas
en el inicio del otoño.
Una nueva constelación...
...nunca vista antes,
jamás aparece por el este.

Spanish: 
Existe una regularidad,
una permanencia...
...una previsibilidad estelar.
Actúan de forma casi
tranquilizadora.
El regreso del Sol,
tras un eclipse total...
...el alba, luego de la
perturbadora oscuridad nocturna...
...y la luna creciente,
luego de la luna nueva...
...era para nuestros ancestros...
...la posibilidad
de vencer la muerte.
Los cielos eran una metáfora
sobre la inmortalidad.
Hace casi mil años,
en el sudoeste de EE.UU...
...los Anasazi erigieron...
...un observatorio astronómico
para marcar el día más largo del año.
El alba de ese día debió de ser
un acontecimiento alegre...

English: 
There's a regularity, a permanence...
...a predictability about the stars.
In a way, they're almost comforting.
The return of the sun
after a total eclipse...
...its rising in the morning after
its troublesome absence at night...
...and the reappearance of the
crescent moon after the new moon...
...all spoke to our ancestors...
...of the possibility
of surviving death.
Up there in the skies
was a metaphor of immortality.
Almost a thousand years ago
in the American Southwest...
...the Anasazi people
built a stone temple...
...an astronomical observatory
to mark the longest day of the year.
Dawn on that day must
have been a joyous occasion...

Spanish: 
...una celebración
de la generosidad solar.
Hicieron este calendario...
...para que el Sol
penetrara por una ventana...
...e ingresara en un nicho...
...sólo ese día.
Esa precisión es un triunfo
de la inteligencia humana.
Sobrevive a sus creadores.
Hoy, es un lugar solitario.
Los Anasazi ya no existen.
Predijeron los cambios de estación.
Pero no pudieron predecir
el cambio de clima...
...y la falta de lluvia.
Su templo sigue recibiendo...
...al Sol,
durante el solsticio estival.

English: 
...a celebration of
the generosity of the sun.
They built this ceremonial calendar...
...so that the sun's rays
would penetrate a window...
...and enter a particular niche...
...on this day alone.
That kind of precision is
a triumph of human intelligence.
It outlives its creators.
Today, this is a lonely place.
The Anasazi people are no more.
They had learned to predict
the changing of the seasons.
They could not predict
the changing of the climate...
...and the failure of the rains.
But their temple continues to catch...
...the sun's first rays
on the summer solstice.

English: 
I imagine the Anasazi people...
...gathered in these pews
every June 21 ...
...dressed with feathers
and turquoise...
...to celebrate the power of the sun.
These upper niches...
...there are 28 of them...
...may represent the number of days
for the moon to reappear...
...in the same constellation.
These people paid a lot
of attention to the sun...
...and the moon and the stars.
And other devices based
on somewhat similar designs...
...can be found in Angkor Wat
in Cambodia...
...Stonehenge in England...
...Abu Simbel in Egypt...
...Chichén Itzá in Mexico...
...and in the Great Plains
of North America.
Now, why did people
all over the world...
...go to such great trouble
to teach themselves astronomy?

Spanish: 
Me imagino a los Anasazi
reunidos...
...y sentados en estos bancos
cada 21 de junio...
...vestidos especialmente...
...para celebrar el poder del Sol.
Hay 28 nichos superiores que...
...podrían representar los días...
...que tarda la luna en reaparecer...
...en la misma constelación.
Este pueblo prestaba mucha
atención al Sol...
...la Luna
y las estrellas.
Otras obras basadas
en ideas similares...
...pueden hallarse en Angkor Wat
en Camboya...
...Stonehenge, Inglaterra...
...Abu Simbel en Egipto...
...Chichén Itzá en México...
...y las Grandes Llanuras
de EE.UU.
¿Por qué se han esforzado
pueblos de todo el mundo...
...por aprender astronomía?

English: 
It was literally
a matter of life and death...
...to be able to predict the seasons.
We hunted antelope or buffalo...
...whose migrations
ebbed and flowed...
...with the seasons.
Fruits and nuts were
ready to be picked...
...in some times and not in others.
When we invented agriculture,
we had to take care...
...and sow our seeds and harvest
our crops at just the right season.
Annual meetings of
far-flung nomadic peoples...
...were set for prescribed times.
Now...
Some alleged calendrical devices
might be due to chance.
For example...
...the accidental alignment
of a window and a niche...
...but there are other devices,
wonderfully different.

Spanish: 
Predecir las estaciones,
era literalmente...
...una cuestión de vida o muerte.
Cazábamos antílopes o búfalos...
...cuyas migraciones cambiaban...
...según la estación.
Las frutas podían recogerse...
...sólo en cierto momento.
Al inventar la agricultura,
hubo que...
...sembrar y cosechar
en las estaciones correctas.
Las reuniones anuales de los
pueblos nómades...
...se fijaban para cierta fecha.
Algunos calendarios pueden
haberse debido al azar.
Por ejemplo...
...la alineación accidental
de una ventana y un nicho...
...pero hay otra obras
muy distintas.

English: 
Today, only the dry ruins
of the great Anasazi cities...
...have survived the ravages of time.
Not far from these ancient cities
in an almost inaccessible location...
...there is another solstice marker.
This one of singular
and unmistakable purpose.
The deliberate arrangement
of three great stone slabs...
...allows a sliver of sunlight...
...to pierce the heart
of a carved spiral...
...only at noon on
the longest day of the year.
(WIND WHISTLES)
The wind whips through the canyons
here in the American Southwest...
...and there's no one
to hear it but us.
A reminder of
the 40,000 generations...
...of thinking men and women
who preceded us...

Spanish: 
Sólo las ruinas secas
de las ciudades Anasazi...
...sobrevivieron al tiempo.
No muy lejos, en un lugar
casi inaccesible, hay otro...
...indicador de solsticios.
Su objetivo es singular
e inequívoco.
El orden de 3 losas verticales...
...permite que un haz de Sol...
...atraviese el centro de
una espiral, al mediodía...
...en el día más largo
del año.
El viento ruge en los cañones
del sudoeste de EE.UU...
...y sólo estamos nosotros
para oírlo.
Recuerda a 40 mil generaciones...
...de seres inteligentes
que nos precedieron...

English: 
...about whom we know
next to nothing...
...upon whom our society is based.
When our prehistoric ancestors
studied the sky after sunset...
...they observed that some
of the stars were not fixed...
...with respect to the constant
pattern of the constellations.
Instead, five of them moved...
...slowly forward across the sky...
...then backward for a few months,
then forward again...
...as if they couldn't
make up their minds.
We call them planets...
...the Greek word for "wanderers".
These planets presented
a profound mystery.
The earliest explanation was
that they were living beings.
How else explain
their strange, looping behavior?

Spanish: 
...de los que no sabemos casi nada...
...y que fueron la base
de nuestra sociedad.
Tras el crepúsculo,
nuestros ancestros notaron...
...que algunas estrellas
no estaban fijas...
...con respecto al patrón
de las constelaciones:
Cinco de ellas avanzaban...
...lentamente por el cielo
y luego...
...retrocedían unos meses,
volviendo a avanzar...
...como si no se decidieran.
Los llamamos
planetas...
...del griego "errantes"...
...y presentaban un profundo
misterio.
Primero se creyó
que eran seres vivos.
Si no, ¿ cómo explicar
su extraña conducta espiral?

Spanish: 
Luego, se creyó que eran
dioses...
...y más tarde,
"influencias astrológicas incorpóreas".
Lo cierto es que los planetas...
...son mundos,
la Tierra es uno de ellos y...
...todos giran alrededor del Sol,
de acuerdo con leyes precisas.
Este descubrimiento nos condujo...
...a nuestra civilización moderna.
Juntas, la imaginación
y la observación...
...describieron exactamente
el sistema solar.
Entonces se llegó a la raíz...
...de la ciencia moderna.
Responder a la pregunta:
¿ Cómo funciona todo?
Hace dos mil años
ni la pregunta se habría planteado.
La idea imperante
era de Claudio Tolomeo...
...un astrónomo...
...y preeminente astrólogo
alejandrino.
Tolomeo creía que la Tierra
era el centro del universo...

English: 
Later, they were thought to be gods...
...and then disembodied
astrological influences.
But the real solution
to this particular mystery...
...is that planets are worlds,
that the Earth is one of them...
...and that they go around the sun
according to precise mathematical laws.
This discovery has led directly...
...to our modern global civilization.
The merging of imagination
with observation...
...produced an exact description
of the solar system.
Only then could you answer
the fundamental question...
...at the root of modern science:
What makes it all go?
Two thousand years ago, no such
question would have been asked.
The prevailing view had then been
formulated by Claudius Ptolemy...
...an Alexandrian astronomer...
...and also the preeminent
astrologer of his time.
Ptolemy believed that the Earth
was the center of the universe...

Spanish: 
...y que el Sol, la Luna
y planetas como Marte...
...giraban alrededor de la Tierra.
Algo muy natural.
La Tierra parece firme,
sólida, inmóvil...
...y los cuerpos celestes
salen y se ocultan diariamente.
Pero, ¿cómo explicar
el movimiento rizado...
...de planetas como Marte?
Esta máquina muestra el modelo
de Tolomeo.
Los planetas giraban alrededor
de la Tierra...
...unidos a esferas de cristal.
Esa unión no era directa...
...sino a través
de una rueda excéntrica.
La esfera gira,
la rueda rota...
...y visto desde la Tierra,
Marte hace su rizo.

English: 
...that the sun and the moon
and the planets like Mars...
...went around the Earth.
It's the most natural idea
in the world.
The earth seems steady,
solid, immobile...
...while we can see the heavenly bodies
rising and setting every day.
But then, how explain
the loop-the-loop motion...
...of the planets in the sky?
Mars, for example?
This little machine shows
Ptolemy's model.
The planets were imagined
to go around the Earth...
...attached to
perfect crystal spheres...
...but not attached directly
to the spheres...
...but indirectly through
a kind of off-center wheel.
The sphere turns,
the little wheel rotates...
...and as seen from the Earth,
Mars does its loop-the-loop.

English: 
This model permitted
reasonably accurate predictions...
...of planetary motion.
Good enough predictions
for the precision of measurement...
...in Ptolemy's time and much later.
Supported by the church
through the Dark Ages...
...Ptolemy's model
effectively prevented...
...the advance of astronomy
for 1500 years.
Finally, in 1543,
a quite different explanation...
...of the apparent motion
of the planets...
...was published by a Polish cleric
named Nicolaus Copernicus.
Its most daring feature
was the proposition...
...that the sun was
the center of the universe.
The Earth was demoted
to just one of the planets.
The retrograde,
or loop-the-loop motion...
...happens as the Earth
overtakes Mars in its orbit.
You can see that,
from the standpoint of the Earth...
...Mars is now going
slightly backwards...
...and now it is going
in its original direction.

Spanish: 
Este modelo predecía
razonablemente...
...el movimiento planetario.
Era bueno si se considera
la precisión que había...
...en tiempos de Tolomeo
e incluso en tiempos posteriores.
Apoyado por la Iglesia
durante el medioevo...
...el modelo de Tolomeo
impidió que...
...la astronomía avanzara
durante 1 500 años.
En 1 543, una explicación
muy diferente sobre el...
...movimiento aparente
de los planetas...
...fue publicada por un clérigo
polaco, Nicolás Copérnico.
Lo más audaz fue proponer...
...que el Sol era el centro.
La Tierra fue degradada:
era sólo un planeta más.
El movimiento rizado era...
...la Tierra adelantándose a Marte.
Desde el punto de vista
de la Tierra...
...Marte retrocede levemente...
...y luego retoma
su dirección original.

English: 
This Copernican model worked
at least as well...
...as Ptolemy's crystal spheres.
But it annoyed an awful lot of people.
The Catholic Church later
put Copernicus' work...
...on its list of forbidden books.
And Martin Luther described
Copernicus in these words:
"People give ear
to an upstart astrologer.
This fool wishes to reverse...
...the entire science of astronomy."
Close quote.
The confrontation between
the two views of the cosmos...
...Earth-centered and sun-centered...
...reached its climax with a man...
...who, like Ptolemy, was both
an astronomer and an astrologer.
He lived in a time...
...when the human spirit
was fettered...
...and the mind chained...
...when angels and demons
and crystal spheres...

Spanish: 
Este modelo era,
por lo menos...
...tan bueno
como el de Tolomeo.
Pero molestó a mucha gente.
La Iglesia católica colocó a
Copérnico...
...en su lista de libros
prohibidos.
Así describió Martín Lutero a
Copérnico:
"La gente escucha a un
astrólogo advenedizo.
Este necio desea trastocar...
...la ciencia de la astronomía".
Se cierran las comillas.
El enfrentamiento
entre las dos visiones del cosmos...
...Tolomeo contra Copérnico...
...llegó a su cúspide
con un hombre que...
...como Tolomeo, era
astrónomo y astrólogo.
Era una época...
...en que el espíritu
y la mente...
...eran prisioneros.
Se imaginaba que
ángeles, demonios...

English: 
...were imagined up there
in the skies.
Science still lacked
the slightest notion...
...of physical laws underlying nature.
But the brave and lonely
struggle of this man...
...was to provide the spark...
...that ignited the modern
scientific revolution.
Johannes Kepler was born
in Germany in 1571.
He was sent to the Protestant
seminary school in Maulbronn...
...to be educated for the clergy.
(BELL RINGS)
It was a strict, disciplined life.
Up before dawn to begin
a long day of prayer and study.
This was the age of the Reformation.
Maulbronn was a kind of educational
and ideological boot camp...
...training young Protestants
in theological weaponry...
...against the fortress
of Roman Catholicism.

Spanish: 
...y esferas de cristal
habitaban el cielo.
La ciencia no conocía
las leyes...
...físicas
que rigen la naturaleza.
Pero una lucha audaz y solitaria...
...fue la chispa...
...de la revolución
científica moderna.
Johannes Kepler nació
en Alemania en 1 57 1.
Fue enviado al seminario protestante
de Maulbronn...
...para hacerse clérigo.
Era una vida
estricta y disciplinada...
...con largos días de
oración y estudio.
Era la época de la Reforma.
Maulbronn era un "campo de
entrenamiento" ideológico...
...y educativo
para jóvenes...
...contra el catolicismo romano.

Spanish: 
No tenían seguridad ni comodidad...
...para un niño tan sensible.
Sabía que era inteligente.
Su obstinación
y su feroz independencia...
...lo aislaron del resto.
En dos años,
Kepler hizo pocos amigos.
Se mantuvo aislado,
abstraído en sus pensamientos...
...centrados en...
...su indignidad ante Dios.
Y creía que no alcanzaría
la salvación.
Pero para él,
Dios era más que un castigo.

English: 
(SPEAKS IN GERMAN)
There was little reassurance
or comfort here...
...for a sensitive boy like Kepler.
He was intelligent and he knew it.
That, together with his stubbornness
and his fierce independence...
...served to isolate him
from the other boys.
Kepler made few friends
in his two years at Maulbronn.
Amen.
So he kept to himself, withdrawn
into the world of his own thoughts...
...which were often concerned...
...with his imagined unworthiness
in the eyes of God.
He despaired of ever
attaining salvation.
(SPEAKS IN GERMAN)
But God to him
was more than punishment.

Spanish: 
Era también
el poder creador del universo.
Su curiosidad acerca de Dios fue...
...mayor que su temor.
Quería conocer el plan de Dios
para el mundo.
Deseaba leer la mente de Dios.
Fue su obsesión...
...y la inspiración de
todos sus grandes logros.
Así, él y Europa
se alejaron...
...del claustro
del pensamiento medieval.
En lugares como Maulbronn,
aún resonaba el débil eco...
...de la antigüedad.
Aquí, además de teología...
...Kepler aprendió griego y latín,
música y matemática.
En la geometría, vislumbró...
...la perfección.

English: 
God was also the creative power
of the universe.
And the young Kepler's
curiosity about God...
...was even greater than his fear.
He wanted to know
God's plan for the world.
He wanted to read the mind of God.
This was his obsession.
It was to inspire
all his great achievements.
It was to take him, and Europe...
...out of the cloister
of medieval thought.
In places like Maulbronn, the faint
echoes of the genius of antiquity...
...still reverberated.
Here, in addition to theology...
...Kepler was exposed to Greek
and Latin, music and mathematics.
And it was in geometry
that he thought he glimpsed...
...the image of perfection.

Spanish: 
Más tarde escribió:
"La geometría preexistió
a la Creación.
Es co-eterna con la mente de Dios.
La geometría dio a Dios...
...un modelo para la Creación.
La geometría...
...es Dios mismo".
Pero el mundo real,
estaba lejos de la perfección:
Era acosado por el temor,
la peste, el hambre y la guerra.
La superstición era la panacea
de los desvalidos.
Una sola cosa parecía cierta:
las estrellas.
Se recordaba que
Tolomeo y Pitágoras...

English: 
He was later to write:
"Geometry existed
before the Creation.
It is coeternal with the mind of God.
Geometry provided God...
...with a model for the Creation.
Geometry...
...is God himself."
But the real world of Kepler's time
was far from perfect.
It was haunted by fear,
pestilence, famine and war.
Superstition was a natural refuge
for people who were powerless.
Only one thing seemed certain:
the stars themselves.
It was remembered that in ancient
times, the astrologer, Ptolemy...

English: 
...and the sage, Pythagoras,
had taught...
...that the heavens were
harmonious and changeless.
Ptolemy had said that the motions
of the planets through the stars...
...were portents
of events here below.
Was it the influence of Mars and Venus
that made his father a brutal man...
...a mercenary who had abandoned him?
(CHILDREN LAUGHING)
Did an unfortunate conjunction
of planets in an adverse sign...
...make his mother a mischievous
and quarrelsome woman?
If such things were fated
by the stars...
...then perhaps there were
hidden patterns...
...underlying the unpredictable
chaos of daily life.

Spanish: 
...enseñaron que...
...el cielo era armonioso
e inmutable.
Tolomeo había sostenido que
los movimientos planetarios...
...eran augurios para nosotros.
¿Fueron Marte y Venus
quienes hicieron de su padre...
...un mercenario que lo abandonó?
¿Fue una desafortunada conjunción
la que hizo...
...que su madre fuera una mujer
alborotadora?
Si existía
la predestinación astral...
...quizás había patrones ocultos...
...bajo el impredecible
caos cotidiano.

English: 
Patterns as constant as the stars.
But how could you discover them?
Where would you begin?
If the world and everything in it
was crafted by God...
...then shouldn't you begin with
a careful study of physical reality?
Was not all of creation
an expression...
...of the harmonies
in the mind of God?
The book of nature had waited
1,500 years for a reader.
In 1589, Kepler left Maulbronn...

Spanish: 
Patrones constantes
como las estrellas.
Pero, ¿ cómo descubrirlos?
¿Por dónde empezar?
Si Dios había ideado el mundo...
...¿no había que empezar estudiando
la realidad física?
¿Acaso la creación no era
una expresión...
...de la armonía
en la mente de Dios?
El libro de la naturaleza esperó
1 500 años a que alguien lo leyera.
En 1 589, Kepler dejó Maulbronn...

Spanish: 
...para estudiar en la
Universidad de Tübingen.
Fue una liberación estar...
...en la corriente
de intelectuales de su tiempo.
Un maestro le reveló...
...la hipótesis de Copérnico.
Kepler valoraba...
...a esta estudiosa
comunidad urbana.
Aquí, al fin,
su talento fue reconocido.
Tras Tübingen,
Kepler no fue ordenado.
Para su sorpresa,
lo convocaron de Graz, Austria...
...para enseñar matemáticas.
Kepler no era un muy buen maestro.
En su primer año,
tuvo sólo un puñado de alumnos.
El año siguiente: ninguno.

English: 
...to continue his studies
at the great university in Tübingen.
It was a liberation
to find himself...
...amidst the most vital
intellectual currents of the time.
One of his teachers
revealed to him...
...the revolutionary ideas
of Copernicus.
Kepler relished...
...this urbane scholarly community.
Here, his genius
was recognized at last.
Kepler was not to be ordained
after Tübingen.
Instead, to his surprise, he found
himself summoned to Graz in Austria...
...to become a teacher
of high school mathematics.
Kepler was not a very good teacher.
The first year in Graz, his class
had only a handful of students.
The second year, none.

Spanish: 
Mascullaba. Divagaba.
A veces, era incomprensible.
Lo perturbaba el clamor...
...de especulaciones y
asociaciones internas.
Una tarde estival...
...cuando todos anhelaban
el recreo...
...recibió una revelación
radical que...
...alteraría el futuro
de la astronomía y del mundo.
Sólo se conocían 6 planetas:
Mercurio, Venus, la Tierra, Marte,
Júpiter y Saturno.
Kepler se preguntaba:
¿Por qué sólo 6 planetas?
¿Por qué no 20 ó 100 planetas?
¿Y por qué ese espacio
entre sus órbitas?

English: 
He mumbled. He digressed.
He was, at times,
utterly incomprehensible.
He was distracted
by an incessant clamor...
...of speculations and associations
that ran through his head.
(MUMBLES)
One pleasant summer afternoon...
...with his students longing
for the end of the lecture...
...he was visited by a revelation
that was to alter radically...
...the future course
of astronomy and the world.
(TOP CLUNKS)
There were only six planets
known in his time:
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn.
For some time,
Kepler had been wondering:
Why only six planets?
Why not 20 planets, or 100?
And why this particular spacing
between their orbits?

Spanish: 
Nunca nadie había hecho
esas preguntas.
Durante su clase de astrología...
...Kepler dibujó
en el círculo zodiacal...
...un triángulo equilátero.
Por accidente, notó que...
...un círculo menor
dentro del triángulo, mantenía...
...la misma relación
con el círculo externo...
...que las órbitas de Júpiter
y Saturno entre sí.
¿Podría usarse esa geometría
para otras órbitas?
Kepler recordó los sólidos perfectos
de Pitágoras.
De todas las figuras
tridimensionales posibles...
...sólo 5 tenían lados que
eran polígonos regulares.
Creyó que los dos números
se relacionaban...
...que había 6 planetas...
...porque sólo había
5 sólidos regulares.
Dentro de esos sólidos perfectos...
...creyó hallar
el soporte invisible...

English: 
No one had ever asked
such questions before.
In the course of
a lecture on astrology...
...Kepler inscribed within
the circle of the zodiac...
...a triangle with three equal sides.
He then noticed, quite by accident...
...that a smaller circle
inscribed within the triangle...
...bore the same relationship
to the outer circle...
...as did the orbit of Jupiter
to the orbit of Saturn.
Could a similar geometry relate
the orbits of the other planets?
Now Kepler remembered
the perfect solids of Pythagoras.
Of all the possible
three-dimensional shapes...
...there were only five
whose sides were regular polygons.
He believed that
the two numbers were connected...
...that the reason
there were only six planets...
...was that there were
only five regular solids.
In these perfect solids,
nested one within the other...
...he believed he had discovered
the invisible supports...

Spanish: 
...de las esferas
de los 6 planetas.
Esta relación
entre geometría y astronomía...
...sólo admitía una explicación:
La mano de Dios,
el matemático.
"El placer que me provocó
este descubrimiento...
...es inenarrable",
decía.
"Ya no me desalentaba al trabajar.
Dediqué mis días
al trabajo matemático...
...para ver si mi hipótesis
coincidía con Copérnico...
...o si mi alegría
se desvanecía en el aire".

English: 
...for the spheres of the six planets.
This connection
between geometry and astronomy...
...could admit only one explanation:
The hand of God, mathematician.
"The intense pleasure I received
from this discovery...
...can never be told in words,"
he said.
"Now I no longer became weary at work.
Days and nights
I passed in mathematical labors...
...until I could see if my hypothesis
would agree with Copernicus'...
...or if my joy would vanish
into thin air."

English: 
But no matter how he hard tried, the
perfect solids and planetary orbits...
...did not agree
with each other very well.
Why didn't it work?
Because, unfortunately, it was wrong.
The true orbital sizes
of the planets we now know...
...have absolutely nothing to do
with the five perfect solids...
...as the later discovery
of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto shows.
But Kepler spent
the rest of his life...
...pursuing this
geometrical phantasm.
He couldn't abandon it,
and he couldn't make it work.
His frustration
must have been enormous.
Finally he decided that...
...the accepted planetary
observations were inaccurate...
...and not his model
of the nested solids.
Only one man had access
to more precise observations.
That man was Tycho Brahe...
...who, coincidentally, had recently
written Kepler to come and join him.

Spanish: 
A pesar del esfuerzo, los sólidos
y las órbitas planetarias...
...no encajaban bien.
¿Por qué no?
Porque estaba equivocado.
El tamaño real de las órbitas...
...no tiene nada que ver
con los 5 sólidos...
...como lo mostró el descubrimiento
de 3 nuevos planetas.
Pero Kepler dedicó
el resto de su vida...
...a perseguir
a ese fantasma geométrico.
No podía abandonarlo,
ni hacerlo funcionar.
Su frustración debió de ser enorme.
Al final, sostuvo que...
...las observaciones planetarias
eran las inexactas...
...y no su modelo de sólidos.
Sólo un hombre tenía
observaciones más precisas.
Era Tycho Brahe...
...quien, casualmente,
acababa de invitar a Kepler.

English: 
Kepler was reluctant at first,
but he had no choice.
In 1598, a wave of oppression
enveloped Graz.
It was spearheaded
by the local archduke...
...who vowed to restore Catholicism
to the province...
...and in his own words...
..."would rather make
a desert of the country...
...than rule over heretics."
Kepler's school was closed.
People were forbidden to worship
or to sing hymns...
...or to own books
of a heretical nature.
Those who refused Catholicism
were fined 10% of their assets...
...and exiled from the country
on pain of death.

Spanish: 
Kepler desconfiaba,
pero no tenía otra opción.
En 1 598, una ola de opresión
cubrió Graz.
Era liderada
por el archiduque local...
...que prometía restaurar
el catolicismo...
...y, en sus propias palabras...
..."prefería un lugar desierto...
...antes que tener herejes".
La escuela de Kepler cerró.
Se prohibieron el culto,
los himnos...
...y los libros considerados
heréticos.
Quien rechazaba el catolicismo,
pagaba con el 10% de sus bienes...
...y era exiliado,
so pena de muerte.

English: 
Kepler chose exile.
"Hypocrisy, I have never learned.
I am in earnest about faith.
I do not play with it."
For Kepler, it was only the first
in a series of exiles...
...forced upon him
by religious fanatics.
Now he decided to accept
Tycho Brahe's open invitation.
Brahe, a wealthy Danish nobleman,
lived in great splendor...
...and had recently been appointed
Imperial Mathematician at Prague.
Kepler left Graz
with his wife and stepdaughter...
...and set out
on the difficult journey.

Spanish: 
Kepler eligió el exilio.
"Nunca aprendí a ser hipócrita.
Soy sincero en mi fe.
No juego con ella".
Fue el primero de una serie
de exilios...
...forzados por fanáticos religiosos.
Decidió aceptar la invitación
de Tycho Brahe.
Brahe, un rico noble danés,
vivía holgadamente...
...y había sido nombrado
Matemático Imperial en Praga.
Kepler dejó Graz
con su esposa e hijastra...
...y emprendió un viaje difícil.

English: 
Kepler's wife was not a happy woman.
She was chronically ill and
had recently lost two young children.
The marriage was no comfort.
She had no understanding
of his work...
...and regarded his profession
with contempt.
Kepler was married to his work...
...and every tedious mile
was bringing him closer...
...to the great Tycho Brahe,
whose observations...
...he devoutly hoped,
would confirm his theory.
Kepler envisioned Tycho's domain as
a sanctuary from the evils of the time.
He aspired to be a worthy colleague
to the illustrious Tycho...
...who for 35 years
had been immersed...
...in exact measurements
of a clockwork universe...
...ordered and precise.
(PARTY CHATTER)

Spanish: 
Su mujer no era feliz.
Era una enferma crónica y
había perdido dos hijos.
Su matrimonio no funcionaba.
Ella no entendía el trabajo de él...
...y despreciaba su profesión.
Kepler se debía a su trabajo...
...y cada tediosa milla lo
acercaba...
...al gran Tycho Brahe,
cuyas observaciones...
...confirmarían su teoría,
según esperaba.
Kepler imaginaba a Tycho
como un refugio contra el mal.
Quería ser un colega valioso
del ilustre Tycho...
...que pasó 35 años...
...dedicado a la medición de...
...un universo ordenado.

Spanish: 
Pero Tycho no fue
lo que Kepler esperaba.
Tycho era un extravagante...
...con una nariz de oro.
Perdió la suya en un duelo...
...entre jóvenes matemáticos.
Mantenía un entorno circense...
...de asistentes,
parientes lejanos...
...y parásitos varios.
A Kepler no le interesaba la juerga.
Quería los datos de Tycho.
Pero Tycho sólo le daba migajas,
de vez en cuando.

English: 
(MUSIC PLAYS)
(LAUGHING)
But Tycho's court was not at all
what Kepler had expected.
TYCHO:
Vinol
Tycho himself was
a flamboyant figure...
...adorned with a gold nose.
The original was lost
in a student duel...
...fought over who was
the superior mathematician.
And he maintained
a circus-like entourage...
...of assistants, distant relatives...
...and assorted hangers-on.
(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
Kepler had no use
for the endless revelry.
He impatient to see Tycho's data.
But Tycho would give him
only a few scraps at a time.

English: 
"Tycho," he said, "gave me no
opportunity to share in his studies.
He would only,
in the course of a meal, mention...
...as if in passing...
...today, the figure
of the apogee of one planet.
Tomorrow, the nodes of another."
Kepler was ill-suited
for such games...
...and the general climate
of intrigue...
...offended his sense of propriety.
Their cruel mockery of
the pious and scholarly Kepler...
...depressed and saddened him.
"My opinion of Tycho is this:
He is superlatively rich...
...but knows not how
to make proper use of it."
Tycho possesses the best observations,
he also has collaborators.
He lacks only the architect...
...who would put all this to use."

Spanish: 
Decía: "Tycho no me permitió
compartir su experiencia.
Durante la comida,
sólo mencionaba...
...al pasar...
...la cifra de un apogeo planetario.
O los nodos de otro planeta".
Kepler no se adaptaba
a este juego...
...y el clima intrigante...
...ofendía su sentido del decoro.
Las burlas crueles
de que era objeto...
...lo entristecieron.
"Opino que Tycho tiene una...
...enorme riqueza...
...pero no la utiliza correctamente.
Tycho posee las mejores observaciones
y tiene colaboradores.
Sólo le falta el arquitecto...
...que haga uso de todo esto".

Spanish: 
Tycho no podía convertir los datos...
...en una teoría coherente
del sistema solar.
Sabía que necesitaba
al brillante Kepler.
¿Daría la obra de una vida
a un rival en potencia?
Eso era inconcebible.
Tycho era el mejor observador...
...y Kepler el mayor teórico.
Por separado,
no lograrían la síntesis...
...que ambos sabían
que era posible.
El origen de la ciencia moderna...

English: 
(BAND PLAYS)
Tycho was unable
to turn his observations...
...into a coherent theory
of the solar system.
He knew he needed
the brilliant Kepler's help.
But simply to hand over
his life's work to a potential rival?
That was unthinkable.
(KEPLER SHOUTS)
Tycho was the greatest observational
genius of the age...
...and Kepler
the greatest theoretician.
Either man alone could not
achieve the synthesis...
...which both felt was now possible.
TYCHO:
Keplerel
The birth of modern science...

English: 
...which is the fusion
of observation and theory...
...teetered on the precipice
of their mutual distrust.
The two repeatedly quarreled...
...and were reconciled.
Until, a few months later...
...Tycho died of
his habitual overindulgence...
...in food and wine.
Kepler wrote to a friend:
"On the last night
of Tycho's gentle delirium...
...he repeated over
and over again these words...
...like someone composing a poem:
'Let me not seem
to have lived in vain.

Spanish: 
...fruto de la observación
y la teoría...
...estuvo en peligro
por su desconfianza mutua.
Pelearon y se reconciliaron...
...repetidamente.
Hasta que pocos meses después...
...Tycho murió
por su habitual exceso...
...de comida y bebida.
Kepler le escribió a un amigo:
"En su última noche
de lento delirio...
...repitió una y otra vez...
...como quien compone un poema:
"Dejadme creer
que no viví en vano.

English: 
Let me not seem
to have lived in vain.'
And he did not."
Eventually, after Tycho's death...
...Kepler contrived
to extract the observations...
...from Tycho's reluctant family.
Observations of the apparent motion...
...of Mars through
the constellations...
...obtained over
a period of many years.
The data, from the last few decades...
...before the invention
of the telescope...
...were by far the most precise
ever obtained up to that time.
Kepler worked with
a kind of passionate intensity...
...to understand Tycho's observations.
What real motions of the Earth...
...and Mars about the sun...

Spanish: 
Dejadme creer
que no viví en vano".
Y no vivió en vano.
Tras la muerte de Tycho...
...Kepler consiguió
que su renuente familia...
...le diera las observaciones.
Datos sobre el movimiento aparente...
...de Marte, a través de las...
...constelaciones,
obtenidos en un lapso de varios años.
Los datos de las últimas
décadas...
...aun siendo previos al
telescopio...
...eran los datos más exactos
obtenidos hasta entonces.
Kepler trabajó
con apasionada intensidad...
...para entender los datos de Tycho.
¿Qué movimientos reales
de la Tierra...
...y Marte, alrededor del Sol...

English: 
...could explain,
to the precision of measurement...
...the apparent motion, as seen
from the Earth, of Mars in the sky.
And why Mars?
Tycho had told Kepler that
the apparent motion of Mars...
...was the most difficult
to reconcile with a circular orbit.
After years of calculation,
he believed he'd found the values...
...for a Martian circular orbit
which matched...
...ten of Tycho Brahe's observations
within two minutes of arc.
There are sixty minutes of arc
in an angular degree...
...and of course,
90 degrees from horizon...
...to zenith.
So a few minutes of arc is
a small quantity to measure...
...especially without a telescope.
But Kepler's ecstasy of discovery...
...soon crumbled into gloom.
Two further observations by Tycho
were inconsistent with his orbit...
...by as much as eight minutes of arc.

Spanish: 
...podrían explicar...
...el movimiento aparente
de Marte, visto desde aquí?
¿Y por qué Marte?
Tycho le dijo a Kepler
que ese movimiento aparente...
...era difícil de conciliar
con una órbita circular.
Tras años de cálculos,
creyó encontrar los valores...
...de una órbita circular marciana,
que coincidiera con 1 0...
...de las observaciones de Tycho,
con 2 minutos de arco de margen.
En un grado angular,
hay 60 minutos de arco...
...y, por supuesto,
90 grados desde el horizonte...
...al cenit.
Unos pocos minutos de arco
no son nada...
...sin telescopio.
Pero la alegría de Kepler...
...duró poco.
Dos observaciones de Tycho
eran incompatibles, con una...
...diferencia de 8 minutos de arco.

English: 
Kepler wrote, "If I had believed we
could ignore these eight minutes...
...I would've patched up
my hypothesis accordingly.
Since it was not permissible
to ignore them...
...those eight minutes
pointed the road...
...to a complete reformation
of astronomy."
The difference between a circular orbit
and the true orbit of Mars...
...could be distinguished
only by precise measurement...
...and by a courageous
acceptance of the facts.
Kepler was profoundly annoyed
at having to abandon a circular orbit.
It shook his faith in God...
...as the Maker of
a perfect celestial geometry.
"Having cleaned the stable...
...of astronomy of circles
and spirals," he said...
...he was left...
...with "only a single
cartful of dung."
He tried various oval-like curves,
calculated away...
...made some arithmetical mistakes...

Spanish: 
Kepler escribió:
"Si pudiera ignorar los 8 minutos...
...adaptaría mi hipótesis.
Pero como no puedo ignorarlos...
...esos 8 minutos conducen...
...a una reforma total de la
astronomía".
La diferencia entre la órbita circular
y la real de Marte...
...sólo podía hacerse con
cálculos exactos...
...y una audaz aceptación
de los hechos.
A Kepler le enfadó sumamente el tener
que abandonar la órbita circular.
Puso en duda su fe en Dios...
...como "Creador
de la geometría celestial".
Decía: "Limpié el establo...
...de la astronomía,
de círculos y espirales"...
...y sólo se quedó...
...con "una carreta de estiércol".
Probó con curvas ovaladas,
calculó y...
...al cometer errores aritméticos...

Spanish: 
...se alejó de
la solución correcta.
Meses después, desesperado...
...probó con la fórmula
de la elipse.
La elipse coincidía maravillosamente
con los datos de Tycho.
En tal órbita
el Sol no está en el centro.
Está descentrado,
en un foco de la elipse.
Cuando un planeta está
más lejos del Sol...
...avanza más lentamente.
Cuando se acerca,
avanza más rápido.
Por esto, decimos
que los planetas...
...caen siempre hacia el Sol...
...pero nunca lo alcanzan.
La 1a ley de Kepler
es simplemente:
Un planeta se mueve en
una elipse...
...con el Sol en uno de sus focos.
Al moverse, el planeta barre
en un cierto lapso...

English: 
...which caused him
to reject the correct answer.
Months later, in some desperation...
...he tried the formula
for the first time for an ellipse.
The ellipse matched
the observations of Tycho beautifully.
In such an orbit,
the sun isn't at the center.
It is offset.
It's at one focus of the ellipse.
When a given planet is at the far
point in its orbit from the sun...
...it goes more slowly.
As it approaches the near point,
it speeds up.
Such motion is why
we describe the planets...
...as forever falling
towards the sun...
...but never reaching it.
Kepler's first law of
planetary motion is simply this:
A planet moves in an ellipse...
...with the sun at one focus.
As a planet moves along its orbit,
it sweeps out...

Spanish: 
...una zona imaginaria
en forma de cuña.
Cuando está lejos,
la zona es larga y fina.
Cuando se acerca al Sol,
es corta y ancha.
A pesar de las formas distintas...
...Kepler descubrió que
ambas áreas eran iguales.
Así pudo describir
el cambio de velocidad planetario...
...en relación a su distancia
al Sol.
Por primera vez...
...se podía predecir
donde estaría un planeta...
...con una ley simple e invariable.
La 2a ley de Kepler es:
Un planeta barre áreas iguales
en tiempos iguales.
Estas dos primeras leyes
de Kepler...
...podrían parecer
algo remotas y abstractas.
Los planetas se mueven en elipses y
barren áreas iguales en tiempo igual.
¿ Y qué?
Es más fácil entender
el movimiento circular.
Tenderíamos a pensar...

English: 
...in a given period of time,
an imaginary wedge-shaped area.
When the planet's far from the sun,
the area's long and thin.
When the planet is close to the sun,
the area is short and squat.
Though the shapes of
the wedges are different...
...Kepler found that
their areas are exactly the same.
This provided a precise description
of how a planet changes its speed...
...in relation to its distance
from the sun.
Now, for the first time...
...astronomers could predict
where a planet would be...
...in accordance with
a simple and invariable law.
Kepler's second law is this:
A planet sweeps out equal areas
in equal times.
Kepler's first two
laws of planetary motion...
...may seem a little
remote and abstract.
Planets move in ellipses and they
sweep out equal areas in equal times.
So what?
It's not as easy to grasp
as circular motion.
We might have a tendency
to dismiss it...

English: 
...to say it's a mere
mathematical tinkering...
...something removed
from everyday life.
But these are the laws
our planet itself obeys.
As we, glued by gravity
to the surface of the Earth...
...hurtle through space...
...we move in accord
with laws of nature...
...which Kepler first discovered.
When we send spacecraft
to the planets...
...when we observe double stars...
...when we examine the motion
of distant galaxies...
...we find that all over the universe,
Kepler's laws are obeyed.
Many years later...
...Kepler came upon his third
and last law of planetary motion.
A law which relates the motion of
the various planets to each other...
...which lays out correctly...
...the clockwork of the solar system.
He discovered
a mathematical relationship...
...between the size
of a planet's orbit...

Spanish: 
...que son meros juegos
matemáticos...
...lejanos a nuestra vida cotidiana.
Pero son las leyes que obedece
nuestro planeta...
...mientras que, adheridos a la Tierra
por la gravedad...
...nos lanzamos al espacio.
Nos movemos de acuerdo con
leyes naturales...
...que Kepler descubrió.
Al lanzar naves espaciales...
...al observar estrellas dobles...
...al examinar galaxias distantes...
...vemos que todo el universo
se rige por las leyes de Kepler.
Años después...
...Kepler llegó a su 3a ley
de movimiento planetario.
Trata de la relación entre
el movimiento de varios planetas...
...que es el correcto...
...engranaje del sistema solar.
Descubrió una relación
matemática...
...entre el tamaño orbital...

English: 
...and the average speed at
which it travels around the sun.
This confirmed his long-held belief...
...that there must be a force in
the sun that drives the planets.
A force stronger for
the inner, fast-moving planets...
...and weaker for
the outer, slow-moving planets.
Isaac Newton later identified
that force as gravity.
Answering at last
the fundamental question:
What makes the planets go?
Kepler's third or Harmonic Law...
...states that the squares
of the periods of the planets...
...the time for them
to make one orbit...
...are proportional to the cubes,
the third power...
...of their average distances
from the sun.
So the further away a planet is
from the sun, the slower it moves...
...but according to
a precise mathematical law.
Kepler was the first person in
the history of the human species...
...to understand correctly
and quantitatively...
...how the planets move...

Spanish: 
...y la velocidad media
del planeta.
Confirmó que había...
...una fuerza solar
que impulsaba a los planetas.
Una fuerza más poderosa
en el interior...
...y más débil en el exterior.
Newton luego la identificó como
fuerza de la gravedad.
Respondiendo la pregunta
fundamental:
¿ Qué hace moverse
a los planetas?
La 3a ley de Kepler afirma...
...que los cuadrados
de los períodos de los planetas...
...o sea, el lapso que lleva
completar una órbita...
...son proporcionales a los cubos...
...de sus distancias medias al Sol.
Cuanto más lejos del Sol,
más lento el movimiento...
...de acuerdo con
una ley matemática precisa.
Kepler fue el primer humano
en entender...
...correcta y cuantitativamente...
...el movimiento planetario...

English: 
...how the solar system works.
The man who sought harmony
in the cosmos...
...was fated to live at a time
of exceptional discord on Earth.
Exactly eight days after
Kepler's discovery of his third law...
...there occurred in Prague
an incident...
...that unleashed
the devastating Thirty Years' War.
The war's convulsions shattered
the lives of millions of people.
Kepler lost his wife and young son
to an epidemic spread by the soldiery.
His royal patron was deposed...
...and he was excommunicated
from the Lutheran church...
...for his uncompromising independence
on questions of belief.
He was a refugee once again.
The conflict...

Spanish: 
...y cómo funciona el sistema solar.
El hombre que buscaba la armonía
del cosmos...
...vivió en una época
de discordia en la Tierra.
Justo ocho días después
de descubrir la 3a ley...
...ocurrió un incidente...
...que desató
la Guerra de los Treinta Años.
La guerra arruinó la vida
de millones de seres.
Kepler perdió a su esposa e hijo
en una epidemia traída por las tropas.
Su mecenas real fue depuesto...
...y Kepler fue excomulgado por...
...su independencia inflexible
en materia de fe.
Nuevamente, fue refugiado.
El conflicto...

Spanish: 
...calificado de "santo"
por ambos bandos...
...fue la explotación
del fanatismo...
...por parte de los
ambiciosos de poder.
Se introdujo el saqueo organizado...
...para mantener a las tropas.
Los devastados europeos
permanecían inermes...
...mientras sus rejas y podadoras...
...se fundían para hacer
espadas y lanzas.
Los rumores y la paranoia
cundían en el campo...
...afectando a los más indefensos.
Entre las víctimas...
...estaban las ancianas solitarias,
acusadas de brujería.

English: 
...portrayed on both sides
as a "holy war"...
...was more an exploitation
of religious bigotry...
...by those hungry for land and power.
This war introduced
organized pillage...
...to keep armies in the field.
The brutalized population of Europe
stood by helpless...
...as their plowshares
and pruning hooks...
...were literally beaten
into swords and spears.
Rumor and paranoia swept
through the countryside...
...enveloping especially
the powerless.
Among the many scapegoats chosen...
...were elderly women living alone,
who were charged with witchcraft.
(THUNDER)
(HORSE WHINNIES)

Spanish: 
La madre de Kepler fue llevada...
...en una cesta de ropa.
Tras 6 años de incesante esfuerzo,
Kepler...
...pudo salvarla.
En la ciudad natal de Kepler,
cada año se arrestaba, torturaba...
...y mataba a tres mujeres
acusadas de ser brujas...
...entre 1 61 5 y 1 629.
Katarina Kepler era
una anciana pendenciera.
Sus peleas molestaban
a la nobleza local...
...y vendía drogas.
El pobre Kepler creía que él
había contribuido...
...al arresto de su madre,
involuntariamente...
...al escribir una obra...
...de ciencia ficción.
Pretendía explicar y popularizar
la ciencia.
La obra se llamaba Somnium.

English: 
(WOMAN CRIES)
Kepler's mother was taken away
in the middle of the night...
...in a laundry chest.
It took Kepler six years
of unremitting effort...
...to save her life.
In Kepler's little hometown,
about three women were arrested...
...tortured and killed
as witches every year...
...between 1615 and 1629.
And Katarina Kepler was
a cantankerous old woman.
She engaged in disputes
which annoyed the local nobility...
...and she sold drugs.
Poor Kepler thought that
he himself had contributed...
...inadvertently,
to his mother's arrest.
It came about
because he had written...
...one of the first works
of science fiction.
It was intended to explain
and popularize science...
...and was called The Somnium.

English: 
"The Dream."
He imagined a journey to the moon...
...with the space travelers
standing on the lunar surface...
...looking up to see,
rotating slowly above them...
...the lovely planet Earth.
Part of the basis for the charge
of witchcraft was that...
...in his dream, Kepler used his
mother's spells to leave the Earth.
But he really believed that one day...
...human beings would launch
celestial ships...
...with sails adapted
to the breezes of heaven...
...filled with explorers who,
he said...
..."would not fear
the vastness of space."
He speculated on the mountains,
valleys, craters...
...climate and possible
inhabitants of the moon.

Spanish: 
"El sueño".
Imaginó un viaje a la Luna...
...con viajeros que desde allí...
...observaban el lento giro...
...del bello planeta Tierra.
El cargo de brujería
se basaba en que...
...en sus sueños, Kepler usaba
el hechizo de su madre para viajar.
Pero realmente creía...
...que un día,
los humanos lanzarían naves...
...con velas adaptadas
a la brisa celestial...
...con exploradores que...
..."no temerían
la vastedad espacial".
Imaginaba montañas,
valles, cráteres...
...clima y posibles habitantes
de la Luna.

Spanish: 
Hasta Kepler...
...la astronomía tuvo poca
relación con la realidad física.
Pero él introdujo la idea...
...de que una fuerza física
movía a los planetas en sus órbitas.
Fue el primero en combinar
la imaginación...
...con mediciones precisas...
...para salir al cosmos.
Y esto, lo cambió todo.
La fusión de hechos y sueños...
...abrió el camino a las estrellas.

English: 
Before Kepler...
...astronomy had little connection
with physical reality.
But with Kepler came the idea that...
...a physical force moves
the planets in their orbits.
He was the first
to combine a bold imagination...
...with precise measurements...
...to step out into the cosmos.
It changed everything.
This fusion of facts with dreams...
...opened the way to the stars.

English: 
As a boy...
...Kepler had been captured
by a vision of cosmic splendor...
...a harmony of the worlds...
...which he sought so tirelessly
all his life.
Harmony in this world eluded him.
His three laws of
planetary motion represent...
...we now know...
...a real harmony of the worlds.
But to Kepler, they were
only incidental to his quest...
...for a cosmic system
based on the perfect solids.
A system which, it turns out,
existed only in his mind.
Yet, from his work...
...we have found that scientific laws
pervade all of nature...
...that the same rules apply
on Earth as in the skies...
...that we can find
a resonance, a harmony...
...between the way we think
and the way the world works.

Spanish: 
De niño...
...Kepler había sido capturado por
una visión del esplendor cósmico...
...por la armonía de los mundos...
...que buscó incansablemente
toda su vida.
No halló la armonía
en este mundo.
Pero sus 3 leyes...
...representan...
...la armonía real de los mundos.
A Kepler, sólo le interesaba
la búsqueda...
...de un cosmos
basado en los sólidos perfectos.
Un sistema cósmico que sólo
existió en su mente.
Sin embargo, en su obra...
...aparecen leyes que atañen
a toda la naturaleza...
...reglas que se aplican
a la Tierra y a los cielos.
Podemos encontrar una resonancia,
una armonía...
...entre lo que pensamos
y cómo funciona el mundo.

Spanish: 
Al descubrir que su creencia,
no coincidía...
...con las observaciones...
...aceptó los desagradables hechos.
Prefirió la dura verdad...
...a sus más queridas ilusiones.
Ése es el corazón de la ciencia.

English: 
When he found that his long-cherished
beliefs did not agree...
...with the most
precise observations...
...he accepted
the uncomfortable facts.
He preferred the hard truth...
...to his dearest illusions.
That is the heart of science.
