How the Universe Works

Scientists are charting the Milky Way's position over the past 13.6 billion years, reconstructing its trajectory across cosmic time. Their aim is to uncover the mystery behind the galaxy's gradual decline and identify the factors responsible for its slow demise in the universe.

The episode “Death of the Milky Way” is a programme classified as an episode. It is presented as a television episode that examines a single scientific question, concentrating its narrative on a specific investigation. In the programme, scientists set about tracing the Milky Way’s position throughout the entire 13.6‑billion‑year history of the universe. Their effort spans the full cosmic timeline, attempting to map where the galaxy has been from its earliest moments to the present day. This extensive temporal scope underpins the central enquiry of the episode. The investigators pursue this long‑term tracing in order to uncover the mystery surrounding the galaxy’s gradual decline. By charting its whereabouts over billions of years, they hope to identify the factors that have led to its slow demise. The episode frames this pursuit as a quest for the underlying cause. The ultimate aim of the scientific team is to get to the bottom of why the Milky Way is slowly fading away. Through their chronological reconstruction, the programme seeks to illuminate the processes that have contributed to this gradual weakening. The narrative therefore centres on solving the puzzle of the galaxy’s slow demise.