The universe is big – really big.* Galaxies, for instance, are often large enough to hold a trillion stars. But how did these heavenly heavyweights come to be? Hear how still-mysterious dark matter is implicated in the birth of galaxies. Also, gamma ray bursts - explosions more energetic than anything since the Big Bang - take place somewhere in the visible universe every day. What are they, and could they obliterate life on Earth? And, the biggest cosmic mystery de jour: dark energy. Why new, super-size telescopes may finally reveal just what it is. We’re living large on “Big, Really Big.” *appreciative nod to Douglas Adams Guests: George Djorgovski - Astronomer, California Institute of Technology Sandra Faber - Astronomer and Chair of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California at Santa Cruz; leads the CANDELS survey that uses the Hubble Space Telescope to image more than 250,000 distant galaxies Daniel Perley - Astronomer, University of California at Berkeley Ed Stone - Former director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and physicist at the California Institute of Technology Richard Panek - Author of The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices