Globular clusters, spectacular assemblies of stars, sparkle like jewels at the galaxy's edge. The smallest contain ten thousand stars, and the largest, ten million. Over time, gravity has pulled these stars into a ball shape. And now they glitter in the dusk, like dandelions gone to seed.

Of all the things to see in the night sky, star clusters might be the most striking. Stars travelling together in space, like precious gems bound by gravity's chain. The clusters tell stories about where stars come from, and ultimately, where we come from.

Stuck on Earth, we have been able to learn many incredible things about the universe. We have even figured out that there is star dust in our blood. Once humans established this profound connection to the cosmos, the next question was obvious: if we are here, do others exist?

From Stonehenge and Jaipur to modern day observatories, humans create special places to watch the sky, to spend the long, lonely nights drawn by its beauty, and to uncover its secrets. And for every leap in technology, our view gets clearer, and the cosmos gets more astounding.

With only our eyes, stars and planets led us on a journey of discovery. Then telescopes slowly revealed the galaxies, full blown metropolises of stars. These gigantic star cities glow brightly across time and space, showing us a universe much more complex than we had ever imagined.

VISTA, the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, was built to observe in a colour of light that the human eye cannot see - infrared. Infrared light can travel through dust clouds, allowing infrared telescopes to pull back the veils on some of the universe's most interesting objects.

From the grand scale of spiral galaxies, to the fate of individual stars, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured countless scenes of drama and wonder. Science expected great things from Hubble, but no one could have predicted the larger effect that it would have on people.

Everywhere we look in the universe we see evidence of gravity's hand crushing star cities together. Galactic collisions create star forming regions, and add to the galaxies finite supply of gas and dust, re-stocking and re-populating them for ongoing expansion projects.

The Milky Way is an ancient structure, forming out of the mists of the early universe. Its many brilliant vistas spark curiosity about the galaxy's past, present and future. And as we piece together it's dramatic story, we are also discovering our own.