How Much Of The Universe Can Humanity Ever See?

Thank you to Brilliant for Supporting PBS. To learn more go to There’s an absolute limit to our access to the universe beyond our own galaxy. There’s a limit to what we can ever hope to explore or send signals to, and a very different limit to what we can ever hope to witness. Today we’re going to explore the latter. We’re going to figure out the absolute limit of our future view of the universe, and of the universe’s ability to influence us. Next time we’ll turn it around and ask: how much of the external universe can WE potentially influence, and even explore? Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Matt O'Dowd & Euan McLean Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, & Stephanie Faria Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Spacetime is produced by Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2023 PBS. All rights reserved. End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: Space Time Was Made Possible In Part By: Ian Jones Bryce Fort Peter Barrett David Neumann Sean Maddox Alexander Tamas Morgan Hough Juan Benet Vinnie Falco Fabrice Eap Mark Rosenthal Glenn Sugden Alex Kern Ethan Cohen Stephen Wilcox Christina Oegren Mark Heising Ivari Tölp Vyce Ailour Zachary Wilson Kenneth See Gregory Forfa Kirk Honour Joe Moreira Bradley Voorhees Marc Armstrong Scott Gorlick Paul Stehr-Green Ben Delo Scott Gray John R. Slavik Donal Botkin John Pollock Edmund Fokschaner chuck zegar Jordan Young Daniel Muzquiz Gamma Ray Burst Supporters Lucas Kazakevicius Massimiliano Pala Aaron Molina Thomas Nielson Joe Pavlovic Ryan McGaughy Mark West Chuck Lukaszewski Edward Hodapp Cole Combs Andrea Galvagni Jerry Thomas Nikhil Sharma Ryan Moser Jonathan Cordovano John Anderson David Giltinan Scott Hannum Paul Widden Bradley Ulis Craig Falls Kane Holbrook John Yaraee Ross Story teng guo Mason Dillon Matt Langford Harsh Khandhadia Thomas Tarler Susan Albee Frank Walker Michael Lev Terje Vold James Trimmier Andre Stechert Paul Wood Kent Durham jim bartosh Ramon Nogueira Paul Suchy Ellis Hall John H. Austin, Jr. Diana S Polijar Faraz Khan Almog Cohen Alex Edwards Endre Pech Daniel Jennings Cameron Sampson Russ Creech Jeremy Reed David Johnston Michael Barton Andrew Mann Isaac Suttell Bleys Goodson Robert Walter Yury Kitaev Mirik Gogri Mark Delagasse Mark Daniel Cohen Nickolas Andrew Freeman Shane Calimlim Tybie Fitzhugh Robert Ilardi Eric Kiebler Craig Stonaha Graydon Goss Frederic Simon Tonyface John Robinson Jim Hudson Alex Gan David Barnholdt David Neal John Funai Bradley Jenkins Cody Brumfield Thomas Dougherty Dan Warren Patrick Sutton John Griffith Dean Faulk