An hour-long documentary to be shown on The Discovery Channel (9 p.m. EDT) -- tells the story of a spinning disc of a hundred-billion suns orbiting a globe of stars and stellar remnants with a gigantic black hole in the center. Seen from above, the Milky Way is an unremarkable spiral galaxy dotting intergalactic space. And yet, for all its blandness, its story is both familiar to scientists and emblematic of the universe as a whole. "Its a good way to get a snapshot in the course of an hour of the breadth of cosmic history," said Tom Lucas, director of the program.
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