Episode 1.2 · 21 min
The First Stars
How the first stars formed from primordial gas, ended the cosmic dark ages, and began changing the universe around them.
Watch this film on YouTube ↗Visual credits
12 sourcesSources and credits for imagery used in this film, including material incorporated into explanatory animations.
Planck's view of the cosmic microwave background
ESA/Planck Collaboration
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Hubble Frontier Field galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1-2403
NASA/ESA Hubble Frontier Fields
Revealing the Nature of the Ultra-Faint Galaxy LAP1-B through a giant
NAO
Universe Age 2025.
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Scientific image
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
jades gs z14 0 pullout nircam image
NASA
Scientific image
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
ALMA oxygen detection in JADES-GS-z14-0
ESO/ALMA
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Image result for query 'SKA-Low first image 2026 antenna field'; source host: skao.int; file: DFM_M3Drone_Stills_May_25_00006-2.jpeg.
SKAO
SKA-Low first radio sky image, unlabeled full-resolution version
SKAO
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
newsroom image
BNL
Labeled diagram of radio telescope components
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Animation design references 1 sources
These works informed the design of explanatory animations. A reference listed here is not necessarily reproduced on screen.
Scientific figure · source page 7
Becker et al.
Figure or page excerpt cropped from the source publication.
Research references
Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.
- ESA/Webb ↗
- NASA asset ↗
- NASA spectrum ↗
- NAOJ release ↗
- NASA LAMBDA τ history ↗
- SKAO release ↗
- BNL final assembly ↗
- THESAN terms/gallery ↗
- arXiv:1807.06209 ↗
- arXiv:2408.02643 ↗
- arXiv:2508.03842 ↗
- arXiv:2306.00953 ↗
- arXiv:2212.04476 ↗
- arXiv:astro-ph/0108097 ↗
- arXiv:2504.04683 ↗
- arXiv:2607.22834 ↗
- NASA ↗
- CSIRO ↗
- SDSS image-use policy ↗
- SKAO media centre ↗
- NASA SVS 10128 ↗
- NASA images/media policy ↗
- ESA/Webb copyright ↗
- NAOJ terms ↗
- https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/): ↗
- https://esawebb.org/copyright/): ↗
- https://www.nao.ac.jp/en/terms/copyright.html): ↗
- https://www.thesan-project.com/thesan/images.html): ↗
Music
- Meditation From The Star Orion
OctahedronMusic · Envato Elements
Footage and image usage
Credits and usage times retained from the published edition or its production credit record. Where present, times identify visual appearances, not documentary chapters. Source and licence corrections are listed in the visual credits above.
- NASA - 16:04-16:07, jades gs z14 0 pullout nircam image
- BNL - 20:06-20:21, newsroom image
- NAO - 9:37-9:53, image
- NASA/ESA Hubble Frontier Fields - 9:08-9:25, Hubble Frontier Field galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1-2403
- SKAO - 19:25-19:40, construction journey image
- Custom animations and figures: From Cosmos to Civilization. Third-party material incorporated into animations is credited on the linked sources page.
How this film was made
Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.
Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.
More about the creator and production →