75 Space Facts That Will Intrigue and Astonish You

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Transcript

00:00:00Attention, attention!

00:00:02Something very exciting is going on on Saturn!

00:00:05It's called a spokes season, and no, the planet isn't turning into a giant gaseous

00:00:10wheel.

00:00:11Let me tell you more about this phenomenon.

00:00:15Each year, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope devotes some of its time to observing Saturn,

00:00:20a gas giant, like me, the second-largest planet in the Solar System.

00:00:25And this space body always has something new to surprise us with.

00:00:29For example, look at one of the latest images of the gas giant.

00:00:32See those smudgy spokes?

00:00:34They mean that Saturn's spokes season is starting.

00:00:37Like our planet, Saturn is tilted on its axis.

00:00:40That's why it has four seasons.

00:00:43But since the orbit of the gas giant is much larger, each of these seasons lasts about

00:00:47seven Earth years.

00:00:49Keep this in mind, it's important!

00:00:51Now, the next thing we need to talk about to understand the concept of the unique spokes

00:00:56season on Saturn is the equinox.

00:00:59On Earth, it's the moment when the Sun is exactly above the equator of the planet,

00:01:04and day and night are of the same length.

00:01:06But on Saturn, it's something a bit different.

00:01:09An equinox occurs when Saturn's rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun.

00:01:14And even though equinoxes on Saturn happen every spring and fall, just like on our planet,

00:01:19they actually occur very seldom.

00:01:21Roughly once in 15 Earth years.

00:01:24That's why astronomers are so excited about this event.

00:01:27Now look, there are two smudgy spokes in this ring.

00:01:30It's called ring B on the left of the picture.

00:01:33They resemble the spokes on a bicycle.

00:01:36The shading and shape of spokes vary.

00:01:38They may seem dark or light, it depends on the angle and illumination.

00:01:43Sometimes they might look like blobs instead of something with a classical radial spoke

00:01:47shape.

00:01:48They also don't last long.

00:01:50But more and more will start to appear the closer we're to May 6, 2025.

00:01:55That's when the autumnal equinox on Saturn will occur.

00:01:59But what causes the spokes?

00:02:01Astronomers think it might be the gas giant's magnetic field.

00:02:04When a planetary magnetic field interacts with the solar wind, it creates an electrically

00:02:10charged environment.

00:02:11On Earth, this results in northern lights, also called aurora borealis.

00:02:16And if we speak about Saturn, the tiniest icy ring particles might get charged too.

00:02:21And it probably temporarily levitates these particles above the larger boulders the rings

00:02:26consist of.

00:02:27For the first time, the spokes in Saturn's rings were spotted by NASA's Voyager mission.

00:02:33It happened in the early 1980s.

00:02:35At the time, we didn't know that these spokes were a seasonal phenomenon.

00:02:40Voyager 2 just passed by the planet and then sped on.

00:02:43To figure out what these spokes were and how they functioned, astronomers needed a space

00:02:48telescope that could observe Saturn's rings from afar.

00:02:52Like Hubble.

00:02:53The latest equinox on Saturn occurred in 2009.

00:02:57At that time, NASA's Cassini space probe was traveling around the gas giant.

00:03:02It sent many amazing images back to Earth.

00:03:05They quickly proved that the spokes weren't caused by gravitational interactions with

00:03:09Saturn or the influence of the gas giant's moons or small moonlets, which make up the

00:03:14planet's rings.

00:03:15It was the year 2005 when Cassini confirmed that the spokes were related to Saturn's

00:03:21magnetic field.

00:03:22That mission was finished in 2017.

00:03:25Now Hubble keeps its long-term monitoring of the changes on and around Saturn.

00:03:30Despite all the observations, astronomers still can't predict the beginning and duration

00:03:35of the spoke season.

00:03:36Luckily, Saturn's prominent rings are a perfect laboratory for studying this phenomenon.

00:03:42Because even though other gas giants in the Solar System also have rings, those are not

00:03:47so visible, and scientists don't know whether spokes occur on those planets.

00:03:52But these spokes aren't the only exciting space phenomenon.

00:03:55Our Solar System is a fascinating place, that's why.

00:03:59If you were standing at the Martian equator barefoot, your feet wouldn't get cold.

00:04:04The temperature there would feel like on a sunny spring day on Earth.

00:04:07But you'd have to wear a hat.

00:04:09At the height of your head, it would be freezing cold.

00:04:13Venus spins backward, compared to most other planets in the Solar System and the Sun itself.

00:04:18One of the explanations astronomers have come up with is a collision with some solid object,

00:04:23for example, an asteroid, that happened in the past.

00:04:27Jupiter's moon Io has hundreds of volcanoes, which makes the satellite the most volcanically

00:04:33active object in the Solar System.

00:04:35The moon also has a weird yellowish surface.

00:04:38It looks blotted and resembles a pepperoni pizza.

00:04:41Yum!

00:04:42Europa, one of Jupiter's four biggest moons, is covered in ice.

00:04:47This ice shell can be 10-15 miles thick.

00:04:50It also has some smooth patches, so if you're into ice skating, you'd like it there.

00:04:56If you lump together all the known asteroids in the Solar System, their total weight would

00:05:00still be smaller than 10% of the mass of our moon.

00:05:05Scientists believe that Mercury might still have a partially molten core.

00:05:10It could explain why Mercury has a magnetic field, even if it's just 1% as strong as

00:05:15Earth's.

00:05:16Mercury's core takes up around 42% of the planet's volume.

00:05:21Mercury also has wrinkles.

00:05:22When its iron core was cooling, the planet's crust contracted.

00:05:26It made the surface of the planet uneven.

00:05:29These wrinkles are called lobate scarps.

00:05:32The biggest of these scarps can be hundreds of miles long and up to a mile high.

00:05:38Uranus is the only planet in the Solar System to rotate on its side.

00:05:43The reason might be an ancient mega-powerful collision with an Earth-sized object.

00:05:48But so far, it's just a theory.

00:05:50Mars might get a set of rings of its own in the next 70 million years.

00:05:55Its largest moon, called Phobos, is orbiting closer and closer to the planet.

00:06:00One day, it's likely to get broken apart by the gravitational pull of the Red Planet

00:06:05and turn into a ring that can last for millions of years.

00:06:08I won't be around then, so I'll just take their word for it.

00:06:12Scientists think that the moon's surface has more craters than Earth's because it

00:06:16doesn't have so much natural activity going on.

00:06:19Winds, rains, earthquakes, and erosion keep altering the surface of our planet.

00:06:24But the moon has almost no weather to change its appearance.

00:06:28Saturn is the most flattened planet in the Solar System.

00:06:32It's squished at the poles, and any point on the equator is about 4,000 miles farther

00:06:37from the center of the planet than the poles.

00:06:39The Hubble Space Telescope weighs almost as much as two male African elephants and is

00:06:44as long as a big school bus.

00:06:46Yeah, that's a launch I'd love to see – two elephants in a school bus!

00:06:51It's made almost 1.5 million observations since it was launched in 1990.

00:06:57Astronomers have used this data to write about 15,000 scientific papers.

00:07:02Everything on Earth and everything people can see in space with the help of telescopes

00:07:06is normal matter.

00:07:07It's made up of atoms and molecules and adds up to less than 5% of the Universe.

00:07:13Almost 68% of the Universe is dark energy, and the remaining 27% is dark matter.

00:07:20Does that really matter?

00:07:22As a matter of fact, it does.

00:07:24Saturn has a mysterious vortex swirling over the planet's south pole.

00:07:29The whole thing resembles an enormous hurricane-like storm, measuring almost 5,000 miles across.

00:07:35That's two-thirds the diameter of Earth.

00:07:38What confuses astronomers is that although the phenomenon looks like a hurricane, it

00:07:42doesn't behave like one.

00:07:44Saturn is also the only planet in the Solar System that's less dense than water.

00:07:49In other words, if you found a bathtub huge enough to fit this gas giant, it would float

00:07:54there like a rubber duck.

00:07:57Earthquakes on the Moon don't occur as often as on our planet.

00:08:00But when they do, it happens closer to the center of the satellite.

00:08:05Scientists think moonquakes might be caused by the gravity of Earth and the Sun.

00:08:10One of Saturn's moons, Iapetus, has bizarre two-tone coloring.

00:08:15The difference between the moon's two hemispheres is great.

00:08:18One of them is light, and the other is eerily dark.

00:08:22Scientists haven't figured out this mystery yet.

00:08:25The only asteroid belt in the Solar System astronauts know about is between Mars and

00:08:30Jupiter.

00:08:31There are thousands of asteroids in this area.

00:08:33They're irregularly shaped solid objects of different sizes, but all of them are way

00:08:38smaller than a planet.

00:08:41Scientists have analyzed the chemical content of some meteorites found in the Sahara Desert,

00:08:45Antarctica, and other places.

00:08:48Some of the rocks turned out to have a Martian origin.

00:08:51Others arrived from the moon or the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

00:08:55Ooh, space rocks.

00:08:57So we can also say space rocks.

00:09:00Yeah, we could say that.

00:09:03You've been training for this for years.

00:09:07You know you're ready.

00:09:10You're standing on the door's threshold.

00:09:13You take a deep breath and bravely open it.

00:09:17You jump outside the International Space Station and into the vastness of space.

00:09:22Ah, this never gets old, you say on the transmitter device.

00:09:28You feel like a feather whenever moving through space.

00:09:31Except for the suit, of course.

00:09:35It's true what that guy told you one day.

00:09:37Astronaut suits limit your body's movement by 20%.

00:09:41For you, that means you've got a 20% higher chance of being clumsy in outer space, which

00:09:46is never good odds.

00:09:48There's not a lot of room for error during a spacewalk.

00:09:51You finally get to the docking port.

00:09:54You look around and see the part of the station that needs fixing.

00:09:58This is where other space shuttles dock when they come in from Earth or other planets.

00:10:03About a week ago, a shuttle coming from Jupiter miscalculated the landing and broke a piece

00:10:08of the port.

00:10:10You've attached the new shield to your suit's belt.

00:10:12Now all you've got to do is screw it on the station.

00:10:16You've spent hours training underwater to do this.

00:10:19You wore a heavy, hot, uncomfortable suit inside a pool in order to get the training

00:10:23you needed.

00:10:25Incoming!

00:10:27Sarah shouts on the transmitter.

00:10:29You don't even have time to ask what as an absurdly fast storm of space debris catches

00:10:33you off guard.

00:10:35It shakes everything around you.

00:10:36You try to hold on tight to the strap that's keeping you safe, but oh no!

00:10:40A piece of debris just hit your helmet shield.

00:10:43Come in, Bob.

00:10:44Are you okay?

00:10:45Sarah asks you through the radio.

00:10:46You got a bit shocked by the impact, but everything seems fine.

00:10:51The meteorites are finally gone, so you can focus on your task now.

00:10:55You pull the rope that's connecting the new docking shield closer to your body, but the

00:10:59other part of the rope has nothing on it.

00:11:01Zip.

00:11:02Nada.

00:11:03Oh my.

00:11:04You think to yourself.

00:11:05Hmm.

00:11:06Come in, Sarah.

00:11:07We have a lost shield.

00:11:08I repeat, we have a lost shield.

00:11:11This is a pretty serious situation, and you are aware of it.

00:11:14Anything that falls into space can go into a collision route with the International Space

00:11:18Station or with other space vehicles.

00:11:21You try to remember your training, but your mind goes blank.

00:11:25This is worse than that one time you broke your girlfriend's favorite ceramic jar.

00:11:29Sarah, the other astronaut who's with you on the ship, is shouting words on the transmitter.

00:11:34Oh no, Bob.

00:11:35Tell me you didn't do this.

00:11:37This is a total catastrophe.

00:11:38I'm coming outside.

00:11:40You spot the shield under the ISS.

00:11:43It's the size of a medium-sized car door, and it's moving quite fast.

00:11:48Here's what can happen in this scenario.

00:11:50The shield could head back down to Earth and break into the atmosphere.

00:11:54It would probably catch fire and disintegrate on the way down, but anyways, it would make

00:11:58NASA and you look pretty bad.

00:12:00The other option is the car-door-sized shield gains momentum, and it orbits all the way

00:12:06to hit the ISS, and you for that matter.

00:12:09Or some satellite that happens to be in a similar orbit.

00:12:13Here's the thing.

00:12:14If you ever thought that space was an infinite void, you got that part wrong.

00:12:18Since different countries started to build equipment strong enough to travel in space,

00:12:22space has been more crowded than ever.

00:12:24Not with people, but with satellites, asteroids, and space debris.

00:12:29You were surprised when you learned that Earth receives meteorite showers every single day,

00:12:33but they're so small that no one on the surface of the planet notices it.

00:12:37They usually turn to ashes before hitting the ground, but that's not all.

00:12:42What just happened to you on this mission has happened on several other missions before.

00:12:46Astronauts keep losing stuff in outer space.

00:12:49So much so that NASA had to create a division to track down and monitor the orbit of all

00:12:53debris that is just floating carelessly around.

00:12:56You couldn't believe it when someone told you that there are over 23,000 softball-sized

00:13:01pieces of debris roaming around in space, and if we're talking about smaller objects,

00:13:06then that number goes up to half a million.

00:13:09As you were about to unstrap yourself and dangerously venture through outer space without

00:13:13any protection, you notice Sarah has beat you to it.

00:13:17You can't let her do this alone, so you decide to tag along.

00:13:21FYI, this is against every NASA handbook and training you ever received in your life.

00:13:27But you think, if this works in sci-fi movies, it must work for us.

00:13:31Even though we all know that's very far from the truth.

00:13:35Sarah is close to the debris shield, but her body weight makes her orbit in a completely

00:13:39different direction.

00:13:40Okay, you think to yourself.

00:13:43This is your turn to shine and be a hero.

00:13:46You try moving your arms like you would do underwater, but there's no friction in space.

00:13:50Duh.

00:13:51You can't butterfly swim your way to rescue the rogue equipment.

00:13:55You try to contact Sarah, but she doesn't come in.

00:13:58I guess you're on your own now.

00:14:02For some reason, you start to orbit in a similar route as the floating car door shield.

00:14:06It must be the amount of stuff you've got strapped onto yourself.

00:14:09Or maybe it was the breakfast burrito you had that morning.

00:14:12You feel like you're George Clooney in the movie Gravity.

00:14:15No, better yet, you feel like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

00:14:19Yes, you're feeling as strong and powerful as a Jedi right now.

00:14:23You keep your hands stretched before your body, hoping you'll gently collide with the

00:14:27space debris.

00:14:28And 3, 2, 1, and the landing was successful.

00:14:31Just joking, but yes, you managed to dock onto the debris.

00:14:34Hooray.

00:14:35Now what, you think?

00:14:38Guess you needed to have gone through that plan of yours a little bit more, huh?

00:14:41You still have no way of steering the debris.

00:14:44And now, you have no way to contact mission control and tell them the object, and yourself,

00:14:50are en route to somewhere.

00:14:53Don't get scared.

00:14:54You didn't come this far to get scared.

00:14:56What's the best thing you can do?

00:14:58First, take a mental picture of the Earth.

00:15:01It never disappoints, from up here.

00:15:03Then, you try to play out the possible scenarios that could happen in the situation ship you're

00:15:07in.

00:15:09Your normal body weight would not be enough to get you out of Earth's orbit.

00:15:13In the hypothetical scenario in which this did happen, you'd probably be vacuumed into

00:15:17Venus's orbit, and spend a quite unpleasant period of your life around immense heat.

00:15:22Even though in Greek mythology, Venus represents love, there is nothing lovely about orbiting

00:15:27close to this planet, and you know this.

00:15:30If you got too close, your spacesuit would never be able to take on the heat.

00:15:34It's only made to sustain temperatures of around 250 degrees Fahrenheit tops, and Venus's

00:15:39atmosphere can heat up to 700 degrees Fahrenheit.

00:15:43But honestly, the worst case scenario is much simpler than that.

00:15:47Your spacesuit could decide to drown your ears, nose, and mouth in water.

00:15:51Yup, this has happened on spacewalks before yours.

00:15:55You see, in order to keep your spacesuit chill and cool, the suit relies on a gallon's worth

00:16:00of water that makes up for a cooling system.

00:16:04This system, which is supposed to send recycled air into the back of your helmet, does leak

00:16:08sometimes.

00:16:09And since you're stranded in the middle of the big nowhere, you'd have only that nowhere

00:16:13to run.

00:16:14But wait, what's that popping up on the horizon?

00:16:18It's a modular space shuttle.

00:16:21You try shouting, but nobody can hear you outside your helmet.

00:16:24You wave with your hands, but it's coming straight at you.

00:16:29Finally, it took longer than I wished to find you, Sarah said.

00:16:34Apparently, she made it back to the space station just in time to catch you before you

00:16:37went definitely rogue.

00:16:39Guess I'll be losing some astronaut points for this little misadventure, huh?

00:16:44You say.

00:16:45And yes, you definitely will.

00:16:48Recently, Chinese scientists discovered something interesting on the moon, an unusual crystal.

00:16:56Moreover, they found out that this crystal contains an element that can literally replace

00:17:01nuclear fuel.

00:17:03Let's find out more.

00:17:05The composition of the moon has long remained a mystery to us.

00:17:09Half a century has already passed since the Apollo mission.

00:17:12Unfortunately, we haven't traveled to the moon much since then.

00:17:16So it's not surprising that it's not so easy for us to study it.

00:17:20But recently, we've made a breakthrough in this area.

00:17:23In December 2020, Chinese scientists sent the Chang'e 5 probe to the moon.

00:17:29The mission was named after the ancient Chinese deity of the moon, Chang'e.

00:17:34Quite poetic, isn't it?

00:17:36Anyway, after the probe went to the nearest side of the moon, it spent several days digging

00:17:40through the surface and rocks, and then returned to Earth.

00:17:44In total, it collected about 4 pounds of various lunar rocks, like basalt, solidified lava,

00:17:51and so on.

00:17:53Yeah, maybe it doesn't sound too impressive, but it's actually a mini-breakthrough.

00:17:57After all, we hadn't received any lunar samples since 1976.

00:18:03And these samples are very important for learning the history of our world.

00:18:07We've been struggling for many years to find out, for example, how the moon was born at

00:18:12all.

00:18:13Yes, there were a lot of theories, but we still couldn't find any proper evidence for

00:18:17any of them.

00:18:20But thanks to the latest missions and some computer simulations, scientists finally found

00:18:25out the truth.

00:18:26The moon was born when some random dwarf planet crashed into our Earth many millions of years

00:18:31ago.

00:18:32This dwarf planet was slightly smaller than Mars.

00:18:35The fragments of the Earth went into space, but some of them stayed in our orbit.

00:18:41Then they stuck together and formed the moon.

00:18:44It sounds horrifying, but in reality, the birth of the moon was the best thing to ever

00:18:49happen to our planet.

00:18:51If it weren't for this beautiful satellite, all our oceans would be small puddles.

00:18:55Life wouldn't have appeared on Earth at all.

00:18:59So this is already an amazing discovery, but that's still not all.

00:19:03Studying the collected rocks, scientists from the Beijing Research Institute discovered

00:19:07something unusual – a rare lunar crystal.

00:19:13Looks pretty boring, doesn't it?

00:19:14Just some tiny transparent monocrystal about the thickness of a human hair.

00:19:19We've already found such things on the moon before.

00:19:22These crystals were formed as a result of volcanic activity, just like some garnets

00:19:26on the Earth.

00:19:28And yep, the place where they discovered these crystals also suffered from volcanoes 1.2

00:19:33billion years ago.

00:19:35That means that this tiny baby is over a billion years old.

00:19:40But that's not the most important thing.

00:19:42It's the fact that this crystal is made of a unique material, the one that we've

00:19:47never seen before.

00:19:49Researchers from the International Mineralogical Association have confirmed that such a composition

00:19:54can't be found anywhere on Earth.

00:19:57The crystal was named Changasite, again after the same moon deity.

00:20:03And this is another achievement.

00:20:05This is the sixth previously unknown mineral that we've found on the moon, and the first

00:20:10one found by China.

00:20:12Now it has become the third country in the world to make such a lunar discovery.

00:20:17However, this tiny crystal still wasn't the only remarkable thing they found.

00:20:22After studying this gem and about 140,000 other lunar particles, scientists have discovered

00:20:28something else.

00:20:30They found Helium-3.

00:20:33Why is it so important?

00:20:35Because this is one of the elements that feed the Sun and other stars in our universe.

00:20:42We tend to say stuff like, put out the Sun, the Sun is burning, and so on.

00:20:47And this is one of the reasons why many people actually think that the Sun is a huge fireball.

00:20:53But it's not.

00:20:55Its burning is actually a completely different process, which is called nuclear fusion.

00:21:01The process itself is quite simple.

00:21:04During this reaction, hydrogen in the star turns into helium.

00:21:08This simple process is actually one of the most violent and insane reactions in the universe.

00:21:15There is a real boiling broth of particles inside the Sun.

00:21:19The hydrogen nuclei that jump and rush there are constantly repelling each other since

00:21:23all of them are positively charged.

00:21:26And so they could continue to boil and chill around without bothering anyone if it weren't

00:21:31for the stars.

00:21:33The stars turned out to be cheaters.

00:21:35They have such strong gravity that they basically grab billions of these little atoms and squeeze

00:21:41them together.

00:21:42Combining with each other, these atoms create new heavy elements, like the mentioned helium.

00:21:48And when this happens, they throw a lot of energy into space.

00:21:53And that's how the Sun burns.

00:21:55At the same time, it spreads so much energy that we can't even imagine.

00:22:00OK, so what is Helium-3?

00:22:03Well, this is an element to which even the Sun can say,

00:22:06Whoa, dude, you should calm down.

00:22:09The fusion of Helium-3 atoms releases even more energy than in typical nuclear fusion.

00:22:15And most importantly, it doesn't pollute the atmosphere with harmful things like radiation.

00:22:21We have very, very little Helium-3 on Earth.

00:22:25Its prevalence in our atmosphere is about one in a million.

00:22:29And besides, it's constantly trying to escape from us back into space.

00:22:33Probably feels some bad vibes from us.

00:22:37However, scientists have recently found out that there's a place that contains a lot of

00:22:42this element.

00:22:43Yep, you guessed it.

00:22:45It's the Moon.

00:22:47We think that there's more Helium-3 on the Moon than on Earth because of the solar winds.

00:22:52The Sun has been hammering on the Moon with its Helium-3 for billions of years.

00:22:57So now it's all over the place.

00:23:00It's still not too much if you compare it, for example, with Jupiter or Saturn.

00:23:04But don't forget how much energy it can release.

00:23:09For your information, with only 25 tons of Helium-3, it's possible to provide America

00:23:14with energy for an entire year.

00:23:17Now, there are 35,000 tons of it here on Earth and more than a million tons on the Moon.

00:23:24Only these sources could feed the entire U.S. for thousands of years.

00:23:29So basically, in the future, Helium-3 may become a new source of fuel.

00:23:34And it's better than nuclear fuel in basically everything.

00:23:38Helium-3 won't leave any harmful waste and radiation.

00:23:42It's more powerful and not that dangerous.

00:23:44In other words, this environmentally friendly and efficient energy could be a revolution

00:23:49for our planet.

00:23:51Sounds cool, huh?

00:23:53So what are we waiting for?

00:23:55Grab the shovels, you might say.

00:23:57But there's a little problem here.

00:23:59Unfortunately, we haven't yet come up with anything as wildly strong and hot as the stars.

00:24:06To use Helium-3, we need crazy temperatures and pressure.

00:24:10We need a thermonuclear reactor and we have no idea how to build it… yet.

00:24:16And even if we could heat it up to such temperatures and get the needed pressure, we still don't

00:24:21really know how to handle Helium-3 correctly.

00:24:24Therefore, even if we have an infinite amount of Helium-3, we still won't be able to use

00:24:30it.

00:24:31But still, there's a great power behind Helium-3, so it's not surprising that different

00:24:35countries have already started a race for nuclear resources.

00:24:40Now that Chang'an-5 has discovered a new Helium-3 deposit on the nearest side of the

00:24:45Moon, this race can become downright global.

00:24:49For example, China already plans a new lunar mission in 2024, Chang'an-6.

00:24:55During this mission, they want to collect the first samples from the far side of the

00:25:00Moon.

00:25:01As you can see, finding this lunar crystal was very important for us.

00:25:05These crystals can help us find new ways to create Helium-3.

00:25:09And if we manage to do that, humankind will enter a new era.

00:25:14But to do this, we still have to solve a number of problems.

00:25:18How to deliver a bunch of these lunar crystals to Earth, how to make them produce energy,

00:25:24and so on.

00:25:25Let's hope that in the future these issues will be resolved, and we'll find a way to

00:25:29produce clean, safe, unlimited energy!

00:25:35Now Jupiter used to be flat and look like an M&M candy.

00:25:39Now I'm hungry.

00:25:40And it wasn't the only flat pattern in our solar system.

00:25:43Turns out, there are tons of things that can go wrong during a planet's formation, like

00:25:48locking up to the Sun or getting whooshed into open space.

00:25:52Let's check it out.

00:25:53The Earth isn't flat, but Jupiter might've been.

00:25:56Instead of being a big round ball, gas giants in our system might've started more like

00:26:01flat pancakes.

00:26:03Jupiter is one of the oldest of our neighbors.

00:26:06It's 4.6 billion years old, just like our Sun.

00:26:10And when it was just a baby planet, it likely formed through a process called disk instability.

00:26:18It all begins with stars.

00:26:20When a star is forming, it doesn't look like a round object.

00:26:23It's more like a big disk of stuff.

00:26:26During this stage, really hot winds made of charged particles blow out.

00:26:31The dust in that disk contains stuff like carbon and iron.

00:26:35Some of them collide and stick together, forming bigger objects.

00:26:39Dust turns into pebbles, pebbles turn into rocks, and rocks bump into each other, getting

00:26:44bigger.

00:26:45Dust in the disks helps all these solid bits stick together.

00:26:49Some break apart, but others stick around, and they're the ones that become the basic

00:26:53pieces of planets.

00:26:55They're called planetesimals.

00:26:58Even gas giants like Jupiter started off as tiny specks of dust, smaller than a human

00:27:03hair.

00:27:04Eventually, they formed their own big ring-shaped disks of gas.

00:27:08They began to spin around our Sun, growing bigger by gathering gas and rocks like snowballs.

00:27:17Gas giants are special.

00:27:19They were born from the colder parts of the disk.

00:27:21In cold areas, molecules are slower, which makes them easier to grab.

00:27:26In these places, water could freeze, and tiny ice pieces stick together and are mixed with

00:27:31dust.

00:27:33These dirty snowballs gather up and then form cores of huge planets, like Jupiter, Saturn,

00:27:39Uranus, and Neptune.

00:27:41In the warmer areas closer to the star, rocky planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars

00:27:46start to form.

00:27:48After the icy giants were born, there wasn't much gas left for these smaller planets.

00:27:52It might take tens of millions of years for these rocky planets to form after the stars

00:27:57were born.

00:27:59But our Sun was growing at the same time, sucking up nearby gas and pushing faraway

00:28:04stuff even farther out.

00:28:06After billions of years, the disk changed completely, turning into a round star with

00:28:11a bunch of planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, moons, meteoroids, and comets around it.

00:28:18Recently, simulations showed that these protoplanets, as these early dustballs are called, don't

00:28:25start off looking like the planets we know.

00:28:28In the case of gas giants like Jupiter, they look more like squashed balls or M&M's candies.

00:28:34Not the peanut kind.

00:28:36When the Sun was young, the disk of gas and dust surrounding it cooled down and became

00:28:40unstable.

00:28:41It started breaking into big chunks.

00:28:44These chunks dramatically collapsed together under huge gravity to create Jupiter.

00:28:49It became a round gas giant over time.

00:28:52There are a lot of oddities that can happen during that process of planet formation.

00:28:57Ever wonder why Venus or Uranus spin in the opposite way compared to other planets?

00:29:03Usually, when things form from a spinning disk of gas, they tend to spin in the same

00:29:08direction.

00:29:09For example, if you spin a bunch of balls on a string, they all twirl in the same way.

00:29:14So theoretically, all planets should spin in the same direction too.

00:29:19But there are a lot of fast-moving objects like comets and asteroids in our Solar System.

00:29:25When they smash into planets, especially during their early days, this collision might

00:29:30send the planets to spin in the opposite direction.

00:29:33Venus and Uranus probably survived a massive collision.

00:29:36Luckily, they weren't repelled to outer space.

00:29:39The gravity from the Sun and nearby planets pulled them back into place.

00:29:46There are also so-called tidally locked planets.

00:29:50These are celestial bodies that spin in a way where one side always faces their star

00:29:55while the other side remains in perpetual darkness.

00:29:58So one side is always very hot while the other is extremely cold.

00:30:03If we were on a planet like that, we would only be able to live on a thin line in between.

00:30:09These planets form when they're very close to their star.

00:30:12The gravitational forces are extremely strong, and over time, these forces slow down the

00:30:17planet's rotation until it matches the time it takes to orbit the star.

00:30:23Imagine you're spinning in your chair.

00:30:25Someone comes up to you and, holding onto your chair with their hands, starts spinning

00:30:29with you.

00:30:30This way, you'll always face each other.

00:30:33Tidally locked planets kind of work like that.

00:30:36Our Moon is tidally locked to our Earth, which is why we only see one side of it.

00:30:43We've discovered more than 5,000 planets outside of our solar system called exoplanets.

00:30:48Some of them have very strange orbits.

00:30:51For example, planets with incredibly long orbits – thousands of years to make one

00:30:55trip around the star.

00:30:57Or very wonky, comet-like orbits.

00:31:00Or so-called hot Jupiters.

00:31:02They're super close to their star, way closer than Mercury is to our Sun.

00:31:06But these planets couldn't have formed where they are now.

00:31:10As their solar system evolved, they changed their positions for some reason.

00:31:14This rearranging is called planetary migration.

00:31:20There are three main ways this migration happens.

00:31:23First, because of the gas and dust spinning around the planet.

00:31:27When a planet is bumping into this stuff, it can create spiral patterns in the gas.

00:31:32These patterns can either push the planet closer to the center or farther away, depending

00:31:36on how they mix together.

00:31:38It's called a gas-driven migration.

00:31:41This is what Jupiter experienced when it moved closer to the Sun billions of years ago.

00:31:46I wasn't around then.

00:31:47This also explains the existence of hot Jupiters.

00:31:50Second, big planets can shove the smaller ones, changing their paths.

00:31:55Third, the star's gravity can tug on the planet, making its orbit more circular.

00:32:02Ever heard of rogue planets?

00:32:05Imagine a lonely planet floating in the vastness of space without a star to call home.

00:32:10They're like the wandering nomads of our galaxy, doomed to drift around forever.

00:32:16And there are so many of them!

00:32:17There might be more free-floating planets than ones that are tied to stars.

00:32:21We're talking trillions of rogue planets hanging out in our Milky Way galaxy alone.

00:32:27They're often as massive as our biggest planet, Jupiter.

00:32:30But most of them might be Earth-sized.

00:32:32Some might even have thick atmospheres that keep them warm, even though they're far

00:32:36from any star.

00:32:38Some of them might have wild auroras, while others could host moons with liquid water,

00:32:43a potential haven for life.

00:32:45There's even a chance that they might contain extraterrestrial life.

00:32:49These planets might bump into other stars or even entire planetary systems as they journey

00:32:55through space.

00:32:56Sometimes they might get caught in a star's gravity for a while before getting flung back

00:33:01out into space.

00:33:02But how are they born?

00:33:04Sometimes, during this chaotic process of planet formation, not all planets can manage

00:33:10to stay close to their parent stars.

00:33:12Some of them get kicked out of their solar systems due to powerful gravitational interactions

00:33:17with other planets or passing stars.

00:33:20These ejected planets become rogue planets.

00:33:25In 2012, astronomers found a solar system from the very beginning of the Universe.

00:33:30This system included a star and two planets.

00:33:33We called it a fossil system.

00:33:36The star is super old, about 13 billion years, almost as old as our entire Universe.

00:33:42It was mostly made of just hydrogen and helium.

00:33:44This is unusual because planets usually form from clouds of gas that contain heavier stuff.

00:33:50That's when we figured out that the way planets formed before was different from how they

00:33:56form now.

00:33:57We know that stars with more metals are more likely to have planets.

00:34:01In astronomy lingo, metals means any chemical element other than hydrogen and helium.

00:34:08But in the early Universe, there weren't many metals.

00:34:11Most of them were created inside stars and then spread out into space when those stars

00:34:15blew up.

00:34:17So when did the very first planets form?

00:34:20This newly discovered system helps answer these questions.

00:34:24These two giant planets are orbiting a star that's incredibly low in metals and extremely

00:34:29old.

00:34:30This should be really rare, if not impossible, but they exist.

00:34:34This means that maybe there are more planets in metal-poor systems than we thought.

00:34:39Studying them will help us learn more about the history of planet formation.

00:34:44Picture this.

00:34:45You're floating about in the depths of space, gazing down on our blue marble of a planet.

00:34:51What's on top?

00:34:52You might think it's the North Pole.

00:34:54But that isn't necessarily so.

00:34:57The truth is, our collective belief that the North is at the top of the world doesn't have

00:35:02any solid scientific backing.

00:35:04It's just one of those things we've accepted over time.

00:35:07And this acceptance has a compelling history.

00:35:10With a dash of astrophysics, a bit of psychology, and a surprising twist, it influences how

00:35:16we feel about our world more than we might think.

00:35:19Finding out where you are is crucial for survival, and that's true for most species, not just

00:35:24us humans.

00:35:25Similar to honeybees, for example, humans have a knack for creating mental maps of our

00:35:29surroundings.

00:35:30But where we really stand out is in our efforts to share these maps with others.

00:35:35We've been at it for a while now, drawing maps on anything from cave walls to computer

00:35:39screens.

00:35:41The earliest ones we've found date back to 14,000 years ago.

00:35:45Despite this long history, it's only in the last few centuries that we've decided that

00:35:48the North should consistently be at the top of the map.

00:35:51History buffs tell us that for a long time, the North was hardly ever at the top because

00:35:55it symbolized darkness.

00:35:58The West didn't make the cut either, given that's where the sun bows out each evening.

00:36:03However, early Asian maps seem to defy this trend.

00:36:07Now, before you say it, their compasses weren't the reason they put North at the top.

00:36:12Early Asian compasses were actually aligned to point South, seen as a more favorable direction

00:36:17than the cold, dark North.

00:36:19But in these maps, the Emperor, who resided up North, was always placed at the top, with

00:36:24his loyal subjects gazing upwards towards him.

00:36:28Looking back, every culture had its own idea of what was worth looking up to, leading to

00:36:32varied orientations of early maps.

00:36:35The Egyptians preferred the East, where the sun graces us each morning.

00:36:39Early Arabic maps favored the South.

00:36:42European maps from the same era put the East at the top.

00:36:45So, when did everyone decide that North was the new top?

00:36:50You might be tempted to credit it to explorers like Columbus and Magellan who navigated by

00:36:54the North Star, but they didn't really see the world in that light.

00:36:58Columbus, for instance, saw the world with the East at the top, believing he was headed

00:37:02toward paradise.

00:37:04Mercator's 1569 world map was a game changer, considering it was the first to factor in

00:37:10the Earth's switch to more accurate navigation.

00:37:13But even then, the emphasis wasn't on the North.

00:37:16Mercator projected the poles to infinity, considering them relatively unimportant as

00:37:21sailors didn't venture there often.

00:37:23It's possible that the choice to place North on top was simply because the Europeans, who

00:37:27were doing their fair share of exploring, were located in the Northern Hemisphere with

00:37:32a whole lot more land to cover and people to meet.

00:37:35For whatever reason, this North-up idea has stuck.

00:37:39Even when a NASA astronaut in 1972 snapped a photo of the Earth with the South at the

00:37:44top, it was flipped over to avoid confusion.

00:37:48Here's where it gets interesting.

00:37:49When you gaze at Earth from space, the concept of up and down loses all sense.

00:37:55Sure, Earth aligns with the plane of other planets in our solar system because we all

00:38:00share a cosmic birth story, but we could just as well flip the image or put the Sun on top

00:38:05or bottom depending on your cosmic viewpoint.

00:38:08Even within the Milky Way, our solar system is tilted by about 63 degrees.

00:38:13If you think about it, the concepts of up, down, left, or right don't really apply

00:38:18in space.

00:38:19But how about a change of pace?

00:38:21Should we be open to viewing our world from a different perspective?

00:38:23There's some psychological evidence that our North-up mentality might be skewing our

00:38:27perceptions of value.

00:38:29Most folks consider the North to be up and the South down.

00:38:33It even made psychologists wonder if these associations might influence how people value

00:38:38different places on a map.

00:38:40When shown a map of a made-up city, people were more likely to choose a residence in

00:38:44the northern part.

00:38:45And when asked where hypothetical people of different social status would live, they allocated

00:38:50the rich to the North and the less fortunate to the South.

00:38:54It's not too big of a leap to speculate that humans might be less bothered about what happens

00:38:59to regions lower than where they are on the map.

00:39:03There's a simple solution.

00:39:04Flip the map upside down.

00:39:06These experiments showed that this simple action wiped out the North equals good bias.

00:39:11On that note, South-up maps are already available online.

00:39:14Australians would enjoy this change, that's for sure.

00:39:18Whatever it is that you'd prefer at the top of your map, you would need a compass to guide you.

00:39:23Have you ever paused to think of its system?

00:39:25It is one of the oldest gadgets we've got in our survival toolkit.

00:39:29It's been around for centuries, serving as a beacon for adventurers, travelers and explorers,

00:39:35guiding them through uncharted oceans and helping them discover new continents.

00:39:39Basically, compasses turned humans from stay-at-home types into globetrotting nomads.

00:39:46Our beautiful blue planet isn't just a spinning ball in the cosmos.

00:39:49It also has its own magnetic field.

00:39:52Imagine it as a colossal magnet, humming with invisible energy.

00:39:55This is all thanks to Earth's core, a ball of molten iron under terrific pressure right

00:40:00at the center of our planet.

00:40:02This core, part liquid, part solid crystal, churns and swirls due to Earth's spin, creating

00:40:07the magnetic field that gives us our North and South poles.

00:40:11But here's where it gets a bit complicated.

00:40:13These magnetic poles don't perfectly line up with the Earth's geographic poles, the

00:40:17ones that the Earth spins around.

00:40:20They're close, sure, but not exactly in the same place.

00:40:24This is why the compass, which reacts to magnetic fields, doesn't point directly to

00:40:28what we call True North, which is the geographic North Pole.

00:40:32Instead, it points to the Magnetic North, located a bit off from the True One.

00:40:37But don't worry, it's close enough to get us where we need to go.

00:40:40Let's talk more about this True North versus Magnetic North business.

00:40:45Remember the piece of news from September 2019, when for the first time in over 360

00:40:51years, compasses at Greenwich pointed to the True North?

00:40:55Well, that's quite a rare occurrence.

00:40:58Usually compasses point towards Magnetic North, which isn't a constant spot on the map.

00:41:02It changes and drifts over time, following shifts in the Earth's core.

00:41:07On the other hand, True North refers to the geographic North Pole, a specific, unchanging

00:41:12point on Earth's surface.

00:41:14So when you're holding a compass, it's really the Magnetic North it's directing you toward,

00:41:19not the True North.

00:41:21Here's where things get even more fun.

00:41:23The angle between the direction of the True North and the Magnetic North, as shown by

00:41:27the compass, is called declination.

00:41:30It's a fancy word for a simple concept.

00:41:33Now, because Earth's magnetic field isn't a simple, straightforward thing, it has its

00:41:37wobbles and dips, the declination isn't the same everywhere.

00:41:41It varies from place to place.

00:41:43Also, here's what it's made of.

00:41:46It has this tiny needle that's made from a metal that's been magnetized.

00:41:50Magnetization's a common one.

00:41:52They set this needle on a little pointy thing, or pivot, and let it float in some kind of

00:41:57liquid.

00:41:58Often, it's mineral oil, or something similar.

00:42:01This lets the needle spin around and dance with the Earth's magnetic field.

00:42:05When you hold your compass flat in your hand, the needle settles down and points to Magnetic

00:42:09North.

00:42:10Now, look at your compass and you'll notice these small markings.

00:42:15They're known as degrees, and here's the fun bit.

00:42:17The needle's red end always points North, and the white or black end always points South.

00:42:23That's your compass' North-South dance.

00:42:25Plus, there's often an arrow on the compass case, right at the top.

00:42:30That's your orientation arrow.

00:42:33See this?

00:42:34You're looking at the best full portrait of the Sun by far.

00:42:37Thankfully, our 4.5 billion-year-old parent star didn't use any makeup to fix its skin

00:42:43tone before this photoshoot.

00:42:45Now we can study its surface in great detail.

00:42:48This iconic image was taken in March 2022.

00:42:52NASA wanted to gain a better understanding of solar behavior and its impact on life on

00:42:56Earth, and the future of our space technologies, of course.

00:43:00To do so, they launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory Satellite, or SDO, mission in

00:43:06February 2010.

00:43:08This legendary photoshoot happened 12 years later, when SDO was halfway between the Earth

00:43:13and the Sun.

00:43:15Astronauts had to assemble 25 individual images like a puzzle.

00:43:18So the final image contains 83 million pixels.

00:43:22Yeah, the resolution is about 10 times better than your fancy 4K TV screen.

00:43:29Look at this amazing cookie-like pattern.

00:43:31Typically, the bright surface of the Sun overshadows it when we observe the star from Earth.

00:43:36Thankfully, NASA explored the light beyond the visible range, which allowed them to discover

00:43:41some invisible details of the Sun's face.

00:43:44When you adjust your selfie with filters and effects, you can end up with completely

00:43:48different portraits, highlighting different spots of your face.

00:43:52Even those you didn't know existed!

00:43:55The same principle works here.

00:43:57All these plasma balls are the same photo of the Sun captured at different electromagnetic

00:44:02wavelengths.

00:44:03The revealed spots and patterns can help us understand events happening inside the Sun's

00:44:08skin a little better.

00:44:10At the speed of light is supposed to mean super quick.

00:44:13But this rose-gold ray caressing your cheek at dawn has come a long way and is incredibly

00:44:19old in human terms.

00:44:21Photons generated by the Sun's core take between 10,000 to 170,000 years to travel

00:44:28through the star's atmosphere, and then around 8 minutes more to reach Earth.

00:44:32So let's explore what's taking them so long.

00:44:36Our tour begins with the upper layer of the Sun's atmosphere.

00:44:40Remember solar deities in movies and theater plays?

00:44:42They often wear luxurious crowns with golden rays.

00:44:46Well, the real Sun does wear a fancy corona too, which is the outer layer of its atmosphere.

00:44:52But of course, its size and glory are incomparable with those plastic costume crowns.

00:44:57And its shape is not so stable.

00:45:00Corona is a gas shell enveloping our parent star, so its size and form constantly fluctuate

00:45:06under the influence of the Sun's magnetic field.

00:45:09You can spot this crown with the naked eye from Earth during total solar eclipses.

00:45:13It looks like a beautiful intense radiation around the solar disk, which itself is completely

00:45:18blocked by the Moon.

00:45:20The corona stretches 5 million miles above the Sun's surface, whereas our blue planet

00:45:25is only about 8,000 miles in diameter.

00:45:29So one hypothetical ray of the corona equals a row of about 625,000 Earth-sized planets.

00:45:36And suddenly, all my problems begin to seem tiny.

00:45:41Here's another fun fact.

00:45:42The Sun's corona kinda breaks the laws of known physics because it's hotter than it

00:45:47should be.

00:45:48Its temperature reaches 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, whereas the surface of the Sun

00:45:52is only about 9,000 degrees.

00:45:54Although the word only doesn't fit here, because it's still super warm in human terms.

00:45:59Usually, temperature tends to fall as you move farther from a heat source.

00:46:03But it's not the case here.

00:46:05Most scientists are still scratching their heads trying to investigate this mystery.

00:46:09Thankfully, the recent photo shoot allows us to explore what's going on inside this

00:46:14massive hot stuff without risking losing our sight.

00:46:18Take these beautiful bright spots, for example.

00:46:20They depict solar flares happening under the corona layer.

00:46:24Solar flares are powerful explosions that happen when magnetic fields bump into each

00:46:28other.

00:46:29When it happens, they change shape and quickly reorganize.

00:46:33These fields arise from plasma, which is very turbulent itself, so these events are

00:46:37no surprise for the local weather.

00:46:41Who would've thought that the Sun has dark spots on its skin, just like people?

00:46:45These darker areas are known as coronal holes.

00:46:49Earthlings can experience their impact when they observe the beautiful auroral lights

00:46:53in the polar regions.

00:46:55Coronal holes look darker because plasma in these spots is cooler, less dense, and magnetically

00:47:00open.

00:47:01These conditions allow the solar winds to escape outward across the solar system rather

00:47:05than hang out at the Sun's surface.

00:47:08And when they bump into the Earth's magnetosphere, auroras emerge to fascinate our eyes.

00:47:13Thankfully, the local fields cool down the solar winds.

00:47:16Nobody wants their eyes to melt, right?

00:47:20If we were looking for an analogy to the Sun's hairs, the best candidate would be solar prominences.

00:47:26These large bright plasma loops arise from the Sun's surface and stretch for thousands

00:47:31of miles into space.

00:47:32Their lifespan varies from days to several months.

00:47:35It's one of the most common events in this region.

00:47:38Although the first detailed description of solar prominence dates to the 14th century,

00:47:43modern scientists are still researching how and why they're formed.

00:47:48Diving further inwards, we're facing the transition region.

00:47:52The thickness of this layer is about 62 miles, and the local weather is unthinkable.

00:47:58Temperatures can rise up to 900,000°F. The transition layer sits between the corona

00:48:04and the last region of the Sun's atmosphere, called the chromosphere.

00:48:09Speaking of which, welcome to our next stop.

00:48:11The chromosphere region is famous for a scientific mystery called a spicule.

00:48:16Come on, say it with me, spicule.

00:48:18That's fun.

00:48:19These spectacular grassy-like jets of plasma fire upwards from the surface of the Sun and

00:48:25reach speeds of approximately 224 miles per second, as if they're jumping on a trampoline

00:48:30from the surface of the Sun.

00:48:33Each spicule lasts for just a few minutes in outer space before falling back into the

00:48:37solar atmosphere.

00:48:39Astronauts were having a challenging time trying to explain how magnetically charged

00:48:43particles could manage to escape the massive gravity of the Sun while being so close to

00:48:48it.

00:48:49The possible answer emerged in 2017.

00:48:51A group of scientists discovered that neutral particles provided the magnetically charged

00:48:56particles with extra buoyancy to escape the solar gravity for a while.

00:49:00Which is better than my cousin's explanation, which is happy thoughts and pixie dust.

00:49:05Yeah.

00:49:06Now, let's go ahead and travel 1,000 miles inward toward the chromosphere to finally

00:49:12reach the solar surface, the photosphere.

00:49:15It's around 248 miles thick.

00:49:17But unlike planet Earth, the Sun's surface is not solid or stable at all.

00:49:22The temperatures here are insanely hot for any matter to exist.

00:49:26On the other hand, scientists often call plasma the fourth state of matter.

00:49:31And why not?

00:49:32It's made of ionized atoms and free electrons, so it kind of deserves to matter.

00:49:37So what's the matter?

00:49:38Maybe someday we'll happen to meet the local civilization of plasmoid people, but I think

00:49:44it's best that we skip their welcoming warm hugs.

00:49:47You know, hot, hot, hot.

00:49:50Anyway, the photosphere is our final stop, because humankind doesn't have the technology

00:49:54to explore the Sun any deeper.

00:49:56So if you want to learn more, you'll have to invent your own spacecraft.

00:50:01But time's a-wastin'.

00:50:02You'll only have about 7-8 billion years.

00:50:05After that, our Sun will fade away, according to scientists' estimates.

00:50:10Actually, those same scientists will be going first.

00:50:15Now you have a serious competitor, though.

00:50:18NASA's Parker Solar Probe is the current champion for the deepest dive into the Sun.

00:50:23The spacecraft managed to travel 4.5 million miles from the Sun's surface toward its

00:50:28core on September 27, 2023.

00:50:31And then the Parker probe repeated its own record once again in December of the same

00:50:36year.

00:50:37So why didn't it melt, I hear you asking?

00:50:40The probe has been designed to withstand insanely intense conditions and temperature fluctuations.

00:50:45It's equipped with a custom heat shield and an autonomous system protecting the mission

00:50:50from the massive solar lights.

00:50:52NASA has further ambitious plans.

00:50:55In December 2024, Parker will make its closest approach to the Sun.

00:50:59It will travel faster than any man-made object has ever traveled, at the speed of 435,000

00:51:06mph.

00:51:07The probe will be just 3.8 million miles away from the Sun's glowing hot surface.

00:51:13It's like landing on a star.

00:51:15Astronomers have already compared this epic upcoming milestone with the Moon landing.

00:51:20I'm thinking, however, it might be safer if we, you know, landed at night.

00:51:24Yeah, you're right, that's an old joke.

00:51:29Scientists were looking at a list of gas clouds when they saw something strange.

00:51:33There are five groups of blue stars that are not quite a galaxy and not a known type

00:51:36of star cluster either.

00:51:38These groups of stars are called blue blobs, and they're located in the Virgo galaxy cluster.

00:51:44Now, the big question is, how did these blue blobs form if they don't have any nearby parent

00:51:50galaxy where they could form?

00:51:53Scientists realized there are some heavy metals present in these blobs.

00:51:57Generally, when stars are born, they create heavy elements called metals.

00:52:03These metals are essential building blocks for new stars.

00:52:06In big galaxies, many stars form over time, and as a result, more metals get created too.

00:52:12These heavy metals in the blue blobs were a clue that the stars in these blobs were

00:52:16formed from gas that was stripped from a larger galaxy.

00:52:20Think of it as a piñata.

00:52:22The candy is the gas, and the piñata is this bigger galaxy.

00:52:25The blue blobs are the leftover candy that was scattered around.

00:52:29Wow, didn't expect to get hungry while talking about stars.

00:52:34How did the gas get stripped away from the bigger galaxy anyway?

00:52:37There are two ways.

00:52:39When galaxies pass by each other, their gravitational attraction can cause gas to be pulled away

00:52:43from one galaxy and into the other.

00:52:46This is called tidal stripping, and it's the first way these blobs can happen.

00:52:50It's like when two magnets attract and pull metal objects toward each other.

00:52:56Another way is ram pressure.

00:52:58This happens when a galaxy moves through a cluster of hot gas at a pretty high speed.

00:53:03The gas in the cluster can push against the gas in the galaxy and force it out back, similar

00:53:08to a car pushing air out of the way as it drives, and you lose your hat in a strong

00:53:13wind.

00:53:15As time goes by, these stars in the blue blobs will keep on moving apart.

00:53:20Eventually, they will form smaller clusters.

00:53:25Have you ever seen pictures of Earth taken from space?

00:53:28They're amazing.

00:53:29But have you seen the one with two blue blobs of light?

00:53:33The first blob of light you see here is a large lightning strike in the Gulf of Thailand.

00:53:38It's rare to see lightning from space because of all the clouds, but this one was so huge

00:53:43it lit up the clouds around it like some kind of a brilliant ring.

00:53:48How cool is that?

00:53:51The second blue blob of light is a bit different.

00:53:54We're looking at the reflection of the moon's light on our home planet.

00:53:59The moon actually reflects the light coming from the sun onto the Earth, and when that

00:54:03light goes through the Earth's atmosphere, it creates a big blue blob with a fuzzy outline.

00:54:09It's like a shiny blue hat our planet is wearing.

00:54:13It's similar to the reason why the sky is blue during the day.

00:54:17When sunlight enters Earth's atmosphere, gases and particles in the air scatter it in all

00:54:21directions.

00:54:23Blue light has the shortest and smallest waves, so it gets scattered the most.

00:54:28And that's why we get to enjoy a beautiful view of a clear blue sky.

00:54:32The same thing actually happens to the light coming from the moon.

00:54:36When it reflects off the Earth and goes through the atmosphere, the blue light waves get scattered

00:54:41the most, making the moon appear blue in the photo.

00:54:46Speaking of unusual stars, there's one in the Centaurus constellation called Lucy.

00:54:51It looks like a tiny white dwarf, but it's actually very dense.

00:54:54There's a mass of the entire sun squeezed into an object only a third of the size of

00:54:58our home planet.

00:55:00That's like stuffing a whole watermelon into a golf ball.

00:55:04Lucy is also incredibly cool.

00:55:06Its core temperature is almost 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

00:55:10This may sound hot at first, but for comparison, our sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

00:55:18And the best part that makes Lucy so special is the diamond at its heart.

00:55:23Its carbon core has crystallized into a massive diamond that's 10 billion trillion trillion

00:55:27carats in size.

00:55:29It's hard to even imagine how big it is.

00:55:34Scientists found out about this awesome diamond by listening to the star's vibrations, which

00:55:38is like a star's heartbeat.

00:55:40And after they discovered Lucy, scientists found some other stars with crystallized cores

00:55:46and massive diamonds the size of Earth, too.

00:55:50Our universe is like a giant jewelry store.

00:55:56Most of the astronomers from the Northern Hemisphere are familiar with the star named

00:55:59Vega.

00:56:00First, it's brighter than expected.

00:56:03But if you could take a look at it from a different angle, you'd see this star is actually

00:56:07squashed.

00:56:08It has a specific oblong shape because it rotates at a high rate.

00:56:13It spins once every 12 and a half hours, which throws the material out around its equator.

00:56:20This material then cools and darkens and forms a dark, mysterious halo around Vega.

00:56:28When stars reach the end of their lives, they often explode in a dazzling supernova, getting

00:56:33brighter and brighter before they finally fade away.

00:56:37But one supernova, IPAFT-14L, decided not to obey the rules.

00:56:43It started to fade away like most other stars.

00:56:46But then, when everyone expected it to be gone, it suddenly came back to life and brightened

00:56:51up again.

00:56:52And not just once.

00:56:53It kept fading and brightening at least five times in a row.

00:56:59Scientists were so surprised to see this.

00:57:01When they measured the light from the supernova, they found it was evolving 10 times slower

00:57:06than other stars.

00:57:07It was aging way more slowly, too.

00:57:10When it looked 60 days old, it was actually 600 days old.

00:57:15It could be even older, because scientists had recorded another supernova in the same

00:57:19spot almost 70 years ago.

00:57:21There are some theories as to how it could have happened.

00:57:24Maybe the supernova was bumping into some surrounding material and then making it glow.

00:57:28Or maybe it was a giant star that was shedding material all the time to prevent, or at least

00:57:33postpone, its own collapse.

00:57:37At first, it may seem like you're looking at a simple variable star here, my Camelopardalis.

00:57:44But when astronomers looked more closely, they realized it was a pair of stars.

00:57:49The two stars are moving around each other at really high speeds, and their atmospheres

00:57:54are starting to mix because they are so close.

00:57:57People believe this example is the start of a union between two stars.

00:58:01In the end, the two celestial bodies, which already weigh 32 and 38 solar masses each,

00:58:07will join together to make a gigantic one with more than 60 solar masses.

00:58:13Scientists have thought for a long time that this is how super big stars form.

00:58:17They've never really seen it happen.

00:58:21The universe is 13.8 billion years old.

00:58:25And from what we can see, one mysterious star, HD 1140283, could be 14.4 billion years old.

00:58:33Hmm, something's not right here.

00:58:36This star has all the chemical signs of a second generation star, which is a star that

00:58:41formed from gas and dust after the first generation of stars exploded.

00:58:46This star, sometimes called Methuselah's star, is 190 light years away.

00:58:53Its brightness, distance, and composition help us figure out how old it is.

00:58:58At least 13.2 billion years old, while the age of 14.4 billion years is probably put

00:59:05there as a potential range.

00:59:07Even if it's younger than the universe, or is it?

00:59:11It's still by far the oldest star near us.

00:59:15Let's not forget the one with a tail either.

00:59:18It's called Mira.

00:59:19Sometimes it's bright, and other times it's faint, making it a bit of a tricky one to

00:59:23spot in its constellation.

00:59:27Sometimes it's one of the brightest stars up there, while other times it is one of the

00:59:30fainter ones in its constellation.

00:59:34It's the system with two stars, a red giant and a white dwarf.

00:59:39The red giant used to be like our own sun, but now, as it's closer to its end, it's shedding

00:59:45its outer layers into space.

00:59:48And Mira has a comet-like tail too.

00:59:51As the red giant sheds its outer layers, it creates a stream of gas and dust that follows

00:59:55the stars as they move through space.

01:00:00It was 1994.

01:00:01It was dark.

01:00:03So no one saw two silhouettes opening the emergency exits of a glass dome complex in

01:00:08Arizona, known as Biosphere 2.

01:00:11They were determined to free seven people locked inside for a month, risking their lives

01:00:15in the name of science.

01:00:17The mission was accomplished, but they got hit with trespassing and vandalism charges.

01:00:22The vandals were Abigail Ehrling and Mark VanFellow.

01:00:25They were among the first eight poor devils who lived in that place as guinea pigs.

01:00:29And they didn't want anyone else to go through the same horrors they had experienced.

01:00:34$150 million were spent to see if humans could create suitable living conditions on other

01:00:39planets, like Mars.

01:00:41To do this, scientists built a mini-world with over 3,000 species of plants and animals.

01:00:47Biosphere 2 was a sealed-off 3-acre habitat, complete with its own mini-rainforest, a private

01:00:53beach with a coral reef, a grassland savanna, a marsh, and even a desert.

01:00:59Between 1991 and 1993, nothing could enter or exit that place.

01:01:05The group of eight people locked inside called themselves Biospherians, rocking matching

01:01:10Star Trek-like jumpsuits, growing their own food, and breathing their own air.

01:01:15They began with high hopes and a five-star hotel-style breakfast, but things took a darker

01:01:20turn over the months.

01:01:23The whole team was starving and turning orange.

01:01:26In Biosphere 1, which is the real Earth, you can order a pizza in two minutes.

01:01:31But inside Biosphere 2, it took them an endless four months to whip up a margarita-style pie.

01:01:38They had to harvest wheat for the dough and milk goats for the cheese.

01:01:42The goal was to be completely self-sufficient, and they became part of an atmosphere, quite

01:01:47literally.

01:01:48When they breathed out, their CO2 fed the sweet potatoes they were growing.

01:01:52And those sweet potatoes became part of them since they were essentially eating the same

01:01:56carbons over and over again.

01:01:59They had so many sweet potato feasts that their skin actually turned orange from all

01:02:03the excess beta-carotene.

01:02:05What seemed like a funny situation at the time highlighted a big issue.

01:02:09The crop yields in Biosphere 2 were a total disappointment, and the crew was starving.

01:02:16They were going crazy from hunger, and moments of sudden anger led to doing regrettable things,

01:02:21like stealing bananas from the basement storeroom.

01:02:24At some point, the freezer had to be logged.

01:02:27Over the first six months, each of them lost between 18 and 58 pounds of weight.

01:02:33Every day, someone took charge of weighing out fresh food for the cook, logging the information

01:02:38about nutrients into the computer to make sure the crew hit their recommended calorie,

01:02:42protein, and fat goals.

01:02:44Initially, meals were served buffet-style.

01:02:47But as the crew got hungrier, the cooks started to meticulously divide their food into equal

01:02:52portions.

01:02:53Their diet – mostly sweet potatoes, carrots, fruits, and occasional meat on Sundays – were

01:02:59supposed to keep them going during those exhausting 80-hour work weeks of heavy physical labor.

01:03:05Biospherians were leaving every meal still hungry, and they had recurring dreams of McDonald's

01:03:10hamburgers, sushi, Snickers bars, and cheesecake.

01:03:15The air was running out.

01:03:17The entire place was completely sealed, with steel and glass at the top and a solid steel

01:03:22floor underneath.

01:03:24Managers made sure to check everything coming in to avoid synthetic materials emitting harmful

01:03:28gases.

01:03:30Living areas were furnished with wood and wool, and they couldn't use chemical deodorants

01:03:34or blow out birthday candles.

01:03:37Biospherians were counting on the food they grew and their many rainforests to produce

01:03:41enough oxygen for them to survive.

01:03:43However, they were losing oxygen very fast, drowning in their own carbon dioxide emissions,

01:03:49and worst of all, they had no idea why.

01:03:52With another 9 months of the experiment to go, oxygen levels had dropped from 21% to

01:03:58around 15%, which feels like living at the top of Mount Fuji.

01:04:02They felt awful, basically dragging themselves around the biosphere.

01:04:06They couldn't even finish a sentence without stopping to catch a breath.

01:04:10Then sleep apnea kicked in, with some of them waking up gasping for air.

01:04:15To bring down the carbon levels inside Biosphere 2, they tried some desperate moves, like growing

01:04:20plants like crazy, cutting back on watering the soil as much as possible, and even giving

01:04:25up on tilling.

01:04:27Nothing worked.

01:04:28So, everyone decided they had hit a dangerously low point and asked for help.

01:04:34Refrigerated trucks showed up to pump more pure oxygen into Biosphere 2.

01:04:38As soon as the gas started flowing in, they burst out laughing and began running around.

01:04:44The ecosystem was a total mess.

01:04:46Hummingbirds and honeybees vanished after a couple of months, so plants weren't getting

01:04:51pollinated anymore.

01:04:53Worms and broad mites attacked crops, and cockroaches just took over.

01:04:58Four species of cockroaches were brought inside to recycle organic matter, but the regular

01:05:02household cockroach was the ultimate survivor.

01:05:06They somehow sneaked in and multiplied, becoming a serious threat to crops.

01:05:10At night, the kitchen got flooded with cockroaches as soon as the lights went out.

01:05:15To combat the infestation, the group greased coffee mugs with lubricant and put pieces

01:05:20of papaya inside as bait.

01:05:22Roaches would climb inside, but they couldn't scale the slippery sides to escape.

01:05:28Being hungry, lacking oxygen, dealing with bug infestations – that's enough to make

01:05:32anyone go nuts.

01:05:34Heated arguments led to cups being thrown and people being spat at.

01:05:38Eventually, the whole group just split into two.

01:05:41They stopped talking and could walk right past one another in the hallways without even

01:05:46making eye contact.

01:05:48Half of them wanted more food and oxygen to continue the research with some dignity, while

01:05:52the other half believed in survival without external help, no matter the costs.

01:05:57The truth is, the sealed chamber had been breached long before that.

01:06:02Two weeks after they got inside, a biospherian named Jane Pointer cut off the tip of her

01:06:07finger in a cooking accident while making rice.

01:06:10The mission's doctor tried sewing the tip back on, but it didn't work, and her finger

01:06:14turned black within days.

01:06:16She went to a hospital outside for surgery, and a couple hours later, she sneaked back

01:06:21inside, carrying a duffel bag filled with supplies like computer parts and color film.

01:06:27Researchers would only learn of that sneaky delivery months later, and because of that,

01:06:32many people have questioned the credibility of the entire experiment.

01:06:36Media treated the experiment like a reality show, branding it as trendy ecological entertainment.

01:06:42Headline news around the world made it sound as if they were on the brink of losing their

01:06:46lives to the point where families were concerned, calling the biospherians to check if they

01:06:51were really okay.

01:06:53The group felt like they were in a human zoo, with tourists coming from far away to

01:06:58peer into the glass cage.

01:07:00In the first six months alone, more than 150,000 people visited the place.

01:07:05Biosphere 2 ended up becoming a pop culture punchline, inspiring a comedy movie called

01:07:10Biodome and decades of funny sketches.

01:07:14You might be wondering why none of them quit the experiment and walked out the front door.

01:07:19Well, none of the environmentalists wanted to be the first to admit it was too much to

01:07:23handle.

01:07:24Plus, they were all still hopeful they could somehow crack the puzzle of building Earth

01:07:28No. 2.

01:07:29By the end, they had managed to find 7 tons of missing oxygen.

01:07:33It had been absorbed by the concrete.

01:07:36Even though being breathless all the time might seem like the biggest challenge they'd

01:07:40face, the biospherians said that learning how to deal with people in a closed environment

01:07:45was even harder.

01:07:47It looks like the experiment was a huge failure, but the group did learn a lot of valuable

01:07:52lessons.

01:07:53They proved that a sealed ecosystem could work for years.

01:07:56They contributed to studies on reef restoration, and their farms showed that high productivity

01:08:01and full nutrient recycling could be achieved without toxic chemicals.

01:08:06In case you wondered, this wasn't the end of the glass complex.

01:08:09The second mission inside Biosphere 2 took place in March 1994.

01:08:14Now you can go back to the beginning of the video to understand how that worked out.

01:08:19Have you heard about a diamond star that could put all the riches on Earth to shame?

01:08:25Or how about twinkling stars with surfaces made of solid iron?

01:08:29So let's take a look at these weird stars and try to unravel their mysteries.

01:08:36There's a star in the Centaurus constellation that was nicknamed Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

01:08:42Yes, it was named after a Beatles song, because it basically is a Beatles song.

01:08:47You see, the star was discovered to have a massive diamond at its core.

01:08:55Now you may be wondering how big this diamond really is.

01:08:58Well, it's estimated to be about 10 billion trillion trillion carats.

01:09:04That's a 1 followed by 34 zeros.

01:09:08To put that into perspective, the Hope Diamond, which is one of the largest diamonds on Earth,

01:09:13is a measly 45.5 carats in comparison.

01:09:17Can you imagine the size of the ring you could make with this star diamond?

01:09:21And it's about the same mass as our sun.

01:09:26But don't get too excited about the prospect of owning this diamond just yet.

01:09:31Even if you were Jeff Bezos, you wouldn't be able to afford it.

01:09:35According to Ronald Winston, CEO of Harry Winston, Inc., the diamond is so big that

01:09:40it would likely depress the value of the market.

01:09:44So you'd have to settle for a much smaller diamond engagement ring.

01:09:50One interesting thing about the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds star is that it's incredibly dense.

01:09:56In fact, it has the mass of the sun crammed into an object only a third the diameter of Earth.

01:10:02It's like trying to fit an elephant into a shoebox.

01:10:06And yet, despite its massive size, it's actually quite cool, with a core temperature of only

01:10:12about 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

01:10:15By comparison, the core temperature of our sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

01:10:23Since the discovery of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, several other crystallized stars

01:10:28have been found, some with diamond hearts the size of Earth.

01:10:32It just goes to show that the universe is full of surprises, and you never know what

01:10:37kind of treasures you might find out there in the vast expanse of space.

01:10:43And this isn't the only weird star we've discovered so far.

01:10:47There are many strange, unexplained things in outer space.

01:10:53For example, let's take Vega.

01:10:56Vega, also known as Alpha Lyrae, is a bright star located in the constellation Lyra.

01:11:02It's one of the brightest stars in the night sky, and is easily visible to the naked eye

01:11:06from most parts of the world.

01:11:09Now, Vega may look like a beautiful, bright star to us Northern Hemisphere folks, but

01:11:16little do we know, it's hiding a secret.

01:11:19It's actually quite squashed.

01:11:23You see, Vega's high spin rate causes it to bulge at the equator, kind of like a cosmic

01:11:29belly.

01:11:30It rotates once every 12.5 hours, which is pretty fast for a star, and it throws material

01:11:36out around its waistline.

01:11:39It's almost like the star is hula hooping.

01:11:42This material is further from the center of the star, so it experiences less gravity,

01:11:47causing it to cool and darken, leading to a gravity darkening effect.

01:11:54So Vega is basically a cosmic fitness guru's worst nightmare.

01:12:00Although for us stargazers, it still looks round because we're looking at it from Earth's

01:12:04pole end.

01:12:06However, if we saw it from a different angle, we'd get a very different view, one that might

01:12:11make us wonder if Vega has been sneaking some cosmic donuts behind our backs.

01:12:18But while we might joke about its equatorial waistline, there's no denying that Vega is

01:12:24still one of the brightest and most fascinating stars in our galaxy.

01:12:30But if you want something actually bright, then how about a supernova?

01:12:38Supernovas are giant space booms that occur when stars reach the end of their life cycle.

01:12:44It's like the grand finale of a firework show, but on a cosmic scale.

01:12:48They release more energy in a few seconds than our sun will produce in its entire lifetime.

01:12:57And this is exactly what happened to the next star of our show.

01:13:01This celestial object with a weird name, IPFT-14HLS.

01:13:07But there's a catch.

01:13:09It isn't your average supernova.

01:13:11Even though this star made a blast in 2014 and started to fade away like usual, recently

01:13:18it made an unexpected comeback and brightened once more.

01:13:22Talk about a dramatic entrance.

01:13:26And if that wasn't enough, this thing continued to fade and brighten at least 5 times in total,

01:13:32which is a bit like a yo-yo.

01:13:34It's like the star just couldn't make up its mind about whether it wanted to stay bright

01:13:38or fade away into the abyss.

01:13:42Also, when scientists measured the supernova's spectrum, they found that it was evolving

01:13:4810 times slower than other stars.

01:13:51Maybe it's a supernova that just wants to enjoy its golden years.

01:13:57All in all, this object is a real mystery.

01:14:03But this is not the only star suffering from the two-in-one syndrome.

01:14:08At first glance, MY Camelopardalis appears to be a fairly common star.

01:14:13But after a closer look, astronomers concluded it was actually two stars in one.

01:14:21These two stars are orbiting each other at over 600,000 miles per hour.

01:14:26It's a contact binary star system, which means that the stars are so close together that

01:14:32they share a common envelope.

01:14:34In other words, they're so close to each other that they're practically smooching.

01:14:41These celestial Romeo and Juliet are one of the most massive known binary stars out there.

01:14:47Each of them individually weighs in at a whopping 32 and 38 solar masses, respectively.

01:14:56Astronomers also think that they might be on the brink of a stellar merger, which means

01:15:00that one day, they might just combine into one giant superstar.

01:15:05Wow, who knew space could be so romantic?

01:15:10Next, introducing another long name, HD 140283, also known as Methuselah's Star.

01:15:20This little guy in the constellation Libra has been around for a while.

01:15:24And by a while, I mean a really long time.

01:15:27Actually, scientists used to think it was older than the universe itself.

01:15:35Just imagine if it turned out to be true.

01:15:37But eventually, they figured out that it's actually around 14.8 billion years old, a

01:15:43peer of our universe.

01:15:45That's still pretty impressive, though.

01:15:47This star is so old, it remembers when the Milky Way was just a baby galaxy.

01:15:55But despite all that, this star still has some life left in it.

01:16:00It's just starting to expand into a red giant, which is kind of like when you hit your 30s.

01:16:05Talk about aging well.

01:16:09But if all these things are somewhat comprehensible, then how about a star that was literally named

01:16:14WTF Star by scientists?

01:16:17No, I'm not kidding.

01:16:19At least it used to be.

01:16:21Now it's called Tabby's Star.

01:16:24It also has a more scientific name, but that one is a bit of a mouthful.

01:16:31But what's really bizarre about this star is its irregular dimming.

01:16:34For some reason, it doesn't glow like a normal star, but blinks, as if someone turned on

01:16:40and off a flashlight.

01:16:42And it's not just a little dip, we're talking up to a 22% drop in light.

01:16:48So it's not because it sometimes gets blocked by a planet or something.

01:16:54Scientists have come up with all sorts of explanations for this strange behavior, from

01:16:58comets to dust to even an extraterrestrial megastructure.

01:17:03That's right.

01:17:04But before your imagination runs too wild, it's important to note that the most likely

01:17:09explanation is just plain old dust.

01:17:12Perhaps the star is surrounded by some kind of dust cloud, and sometimes it prevents us

01:17:17from seeing it clearly.

01:17:20Although this explanation is still not 100% confirmed, there are still plenty of mysteries

01:17:26surrounding Tabby's Star.

01:17:28One thing's for sure, it may be a bit of an oddball, but that's what makes it so fascinating.

01:17:35So there you have it, folks.

01:17:37We're left in awe of the incredible diversity and strangeness of the cosmos.

01:17:43There's so much more to discover out there, so let's keep exploring and keep being amazed

01:17:48by the wonders of the universe.

01:17:51Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.

01:17:53We'll be ready to take off in 3, 2, 1.

01:17:59Living on a spaceship sounds like a sci-fi movie topic, but gradually turns into a plan

01:18:04for the distant future dream.

01:18:06Let's imagine how it would be.

01:18:10Without further ado, I'll start with the light.

01:18:13On Earth, thanks to the atmosphere, the sky scatters the sunlight, so we get light in

01:18:18different directions.

01:18:20Then there are shadows, contrast, and ambient light.

01:18:23In a spaceship, however, there's no sky to create that cool ambient light.

01:18:29When you're in a spacecraft inside a solar system, one side of the ship can be lightened

01:18:33by the sun or another star, and one side can stay in the shadow.

01:18:38You can think of it as the crescent moon.

01:18:42If your spacecraft manages to go far away from any solar system, you might say goodbye

01:18:47to the bright side of the ship.

01:18:49You would be very far from all stars, so the ship is going to fly in the deep darkness.

01:18:55Don't worry though, the advanced technology will probably find a way to imitate the sunlight.

01:19:01Maybe designers will place LED light panels similar to windows, and inhabitants of the

01:19:06ship wouldn't notice the difference.

01:19:09What about people?

01:19:11A study revealed that a crew of 160 people could create a viable population for 200 years.

01:19:19Here the important thing is to select the crew members from a large gene pool.

01:19:23No two passengers should be closer than 6th or 7th degree cousins.

01:19:28This is a projection from our day.

01:19:30Who knows, maybe hundreds of years later, whole countries will live in a spaceship.

01:19:35Your neighbor country in the world will be your neighbor in space.

01:19:39This reminds me of the scene from Thor Ragnarok, when the Asgardians who survived Hela escaped

01:19:45with the Grandmaster's ship.

01:19:47They went to Earth to settle down.

01:19:49Maybe we would go to Proxima Centauri B. It's an exoplanet, which is the term used to define

01:19:55planets beyond our solar system.

01:19:58Proxima B is in another star system, and some scientists do believe it has the potential.

01:20:04Some of them believe that there is a possibility that liquid water exists on the surface of

01:20:09a planet.

01:20:10It's important because this planet is our nearest neighboring exoplanet.

01:20:14Yeah, the nearest one, but it's almost 25 trillion miles away.

01:20:19To better understand this proximity, I'll give you a comparison.

01:20:23Currently, one of the fastest spaceships, called New Horizons, goes a whopping speed

01:20:28of more than 30,000 miles per hour.

01:20:32Even with this speed, it would take thousands of years to get to Proxima B.

01:20:37Let's hope we figure out how to warp the space-time equation by then.

01:20:41If I'm realistic, the first option is more likely.

01:20:45Let's assume we made a trip with our fastest spaceships.

01:20:49This would still be a couple-hundred-year journey.

01:20:52This leads to another minor problem, the lifespan of humans.

01:20:57The same crew cannot make it to the end of the ride.

01:21:01Here, generation ships shine as a solution.

01:21:04A community of adults enter the ship, then their children, and their children.

01:21:09You know, until humanity finally reaches the new planet.

01:21:12There are two other alternatives.

01:21:15If researchers somehow made a way to make people live for centuries, we wouldn't need

01:21:19generation ships.

01:21:20Similarly, there could be a system to freeze people.

01:21:24It'll take 20,000 people to start a healthy population on a new planet.

01:21:28For now, I want to stick with the first scenario.

01:21:31Here's how it would be to live in a generation spacecraft.

01:21:35Dating wouldn't be as romantic as it is on Earth.

01:21:38There's probably a geneticist who will regulate reproduction.

01:21:42Freedom of choice in general would be decreased.

01:21:45The rules will be strict.

01:21:47In every generation, there should be certain tasks to manage.

01:21:51Someone should be a doctor, and someone else should be a plumber.

01:21:55Two generations may go under a career planning test.

01:21:59Everyone would be assigned occupations based on their merits, aptitude, passions, and available

01:22:04jobs.

01:22:05It reminds me of Snowpiercer, but hopefully, things would go humanely and better in this

01:22:10version.

01:22:12People all need water, and they'll create waste.

01:22:15By then, maybe we wouldn't rely on plastic.

01:22:18Plus, recycling may be on another level.

01:22:20Still, we will need water.

01:22:23A healthy human needs almost 300 gallons of water per year.

01:22:27It's not like they'll stop by on a planet and refill the water reserves.

01:22:31So how can spaceship residents solve this problem?

01:22:34There are already systems to recycle some astronauts' waste into pure water.

01:22:40The next issue is infirmary.

01:22:42A spaceship might have almost no bacteria or microbes.

01:22:46People need them for a stronger immune system.

01:22:49If they get too isolated and land on a planet, they may have difficulty coping with the potential

01:22:54conditions there.

01:22:57Shielding carries importance too.

01:22:59Deep space is a radioactive place.

01:23:02Our planet has a magnetic field that protects us from DNA-frying waves.

01:23:07Out in the open, the spaceship will need a strong shield.

01:23:10Maybe we'll be able to create some sort of force field.

01:23:14NASA is working on systems to grow plants in space.

01:23:18We will probably see special sections dedicated to farming and livestock.

01:23:23I also feel like this type of ship would also carry flora and fauna samples too.

01:23:28Who knows, maybe there'll be specific parks and different mini-ecosystems.

01:23:32This would be great for the sanity of people on the ship.

01:23:35I mean, it's great to maintain the existence of the human race.

01:23:39But um, existential crises can mess with the passengers.

01:23:43They can eat their space sandwiches in the park and relax a bit with the sound of tweeting

01:23:47birds.

01:23:48Not just a garden, the young passengers might need a playground and school, well, in this

01:23:53case cabins, to get an education.

01:23:56They'll probably have a whole new curriculum, how to stay alive on a foreign planet 101.

01:24:02By the time we have this ship AI, and high tech robots will probably be more popular

01:24:07than ever, there might be self-propagating robots.

01:24:11We can send these robots to our potentially new planet first and see how it turns out.

01:24:16We can even send robot teams to multiple worlds and see which one has a better habitat.

01:24:22I admit, generation ships look like an idea derived from Hollywood blockbusters, but there's

01:24:27an initiative called the 100-Year Starship Project.

01:24:31Mark G. Millis, the founder of the Tau Zero Foundation, is one of the participants involved

01:24:37in this project.

01:24:38They designed a probe, named the Icarus.

01:24:41It has the theoretical capability to accelerate to one-tenth or one-fifth the speed of light.

01:24:47Although the current design of Icarus is not particularly sleek, resembling a skyscraper-sized

01:24:52behemoth, composed mainly of rows and clusters of spherical fuel tanks, Millis explains that

01:24:58it's not a definitive representation of what an interstellar craft may look like, but rather

01:25:03the design that makes the most sense to build initially.

01:25:07When it comes to designing starships for humans, gravity is a key consideration in

01:25:11preventing the erosion of bone and muscle density.

01:25:14The solution is to create gravity with a rotating cabin or centrifuge, but it must be large

01:25:19enough to consistently simulate Earth's gravity to avoid disorientation and other

01:25:24health issues.

01:25:27Is there an arrival plan?

01:25:28Assuming that we land to Europa or Proxima B, the crew and the passengers need to be

01:25:34prepared for different scenarios.

01:25:36There should be equipment to scan the territory, or even self-defense gadgets to protect themselves

01:25:41from potentially hostile life forms.

01:25:44Once they successfully arrive, they need tools to build their homes too.

01:25:49When they finally arrive at their new planet, they might start advanced technology to travel

01:25:53around other planets.

01:25:54Hi mom, I brought you a rock as a gift from the surface of Mars.

01:25:59There could be new occupations and a live space travel guide, and we might need some

01:26:03type of document like a visa to enter other habitable planets.

01:26:08There's a meteorite rain expected, so stay at your base for the next two years, says

01:26:13the newscaster.

01:26:14Okay, okay, I'll calm down here.

01:26:17So how would you picture a vessel capable of ferrying humans from one solar system to

01:26:21another?

01:26:22Would it have some sort of wings, or would it look like a rocket?

01:26:25Tell me more about the design in your mind.

01:26:32The protective shield of our planet decays, and eventually fails.

01:26:36So do our satellites.

01:26:38First communication satellites in the highest orbits go down.

01:26:41Next, astronauts in low Earth orbit can no longer contact their mission control center.

01:26:47And finally, hazardous, relentless cosmic rays start bombarding everything on Earth,

01:26:52causing havoc and devastation.

01:26:55Are these the terrifying consequences of the planet's magnetic field reversal we're

01:26:59going to face?

01:27:01Right now, as you're watching this video, Earth's North Magnetic Pole is extremely

01:27:06out of whack.

01:27:07It's so serious that scientists will have to update the global magnetic field model

01:27:12released a mere 4 years ago.

01:27:15Does it all mean that the magnetic pole of our planet will flip soon?

01:27:18Well, be patient, we'll figure it out a bit later.

01:27:22You see, the magnetic pole is moving quite erratically from the Canadian Arctic towards

01:27:26Siberia.

01:27:28And these movements are very unpredictable.

01:27:31It's normal for the pole to be moving.

01:27:33There are long-term records from London and Paris that prove that the North Magnetic Pole

01:27:38moves randomly around the rotational North Pole over periods of several hundred years.

01:27:47But the most astonishing thing about its movement is that it's speeding up.

01:27:51Around the mid-1990s, the magnetic pole unexpectedly accelerated from a bit over 9 miles to 34

01:27:59miles a year.

01:28:00And recently, the pole crossed the International Date Line, moving toward the Eastern Hemisphere.

01:28:06The European Space Agency launched extremely accurate magnetic field satellites in 2013.

01:28:12Thanks to them, researchers have superb data they can use not only to make magnetic field

01:28:17maps, but also to update them every 6 to 12 months.

01:28:21That's how they were able to notice that the core field was weakening too.

01:28:26It might be a sign that the planet's magnetic field is about to flip.

01:28:30To understand this process better, we need to figure out how the core field works.

01:28:35Let's say we've got a bar magnet that runs through the center of our planet and has

01:28:39a north and a south pole.

01:28:41This magnet is incredibly strong, representing about 75% of the intensity of our planet's

01:28:47magnetic field at the surface.

01:28:49Our bar magnet is not only moving, but is also getting weaker, by about 7% every century.

01:28:57Admittedly, this bar isn't the perfect representation of the core field.

01:29:02It's more like electric currents generating Earth's magnetic field.

01:29:06Still, this model makes it easier to see what's happening to our planet now.

01:29:12The magnetic field of our planet plays an important role in protecting us from dangerous

01:29:16radiation and geomagnetic activity, which is the product of the interaction between

01:29:22the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere.

01:29:25Earth's magnetic field also moves.

01:29:28Scientists have been studying and tracking the movement of the magnetic poles for hundreds

01:29:32of years.

01:29:33The historical motions of these poles indicates changes in the global geometry of the magnetic

01:29:39field of our planet, and they may point to the beginning of the field reversal too.

01:29:44That's what the flip between the north and south magnetic poles is sometimes called.

01:29:51You see, if the north magnetic pole moves a bit, it isn't a big deal.

01:29:56But a complete reversal might have a serious impact on the climate of our planet, as well

01:30:01as modern technology.

01:30:02Luckily, such flips don't happen overnight.

01:30:06The entire process stretches over thousands of years.

01:30:09Plus, even though the magnetic pole weakens during a pole reversal, it doesn't disappear

01:30:15completely.

01:30:16So, those scary events from the beginning of the video aren't likely to happen to us.

01:30:21The magnetosphere will continue protecting the planet from cosmic rays and charged solar

01:30:26particles, even though there might be some amount of particulate radiation that will

01:30:31make it to Earth's surface.

01:30:34Magnetic fields are generated by moving electric charges.

01:30:37If some material allows these charges to easily move in it, it's called a conductor.

01:30:43Metal is a great conductor, and we often use it to transfer electric currents from one

01:30:47place to another.

01:30:49In this case, the electric current is negative charges, called electrons, moving through

01:30:53the metal.

01:30:54The current is what generates a magnetic field.

01:30:58Earth has a liquid iron core.

01:31:00In other words, there are layers and layers of conducting material inside our planet.

01:31:06Electrons of charges are constantly moving through the core, and the liquid metal is

01:31:09also moving and circulating there, generating the magnetic field.

01:31:16This magnetic field, in turn, produces something resembling a bubble around the planet.

01:31:21It's called the magnetosphere, and it's located above the uppermost part of the atmosphere.

01:31:27This layer shields and deflects high-energy cosmic radiation, which, otherwise, would

01:31:32be extremely dangerous to people and other forms of life on Earth.

01:31:36The magnetosphere also interacts with the ionosphere, the layer of our planet's atmosphere

01:31:41containing loads of ions and free electrons and capable of reflecting radio waves.

01:31:47The interaction between these two layers and the magnetized solar winds is what scientists

01:31:52call space weather.

01:31:54The solar wind is normally mild, and there's no space weather whatsoever.

01:32:00Sometimes, the Sun starts shedding gargantuan magnetized clouds of gas that can accelerate

01:32:06to incredible speeds.

01:32:07They're called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.

01:32:11They're ejected from the Sun over the course of several hours.

01:32:15CMEs usually look like giant twisted ropes and can occur spontaneously.

01:32:20Their frequency varies according to the 11-year long solar cycle.

01:32:24For example, at a solar minimum, you can observe one ejection per day.

01:32:29And when the Sun is in its most active phase, there might be three CMEs per day.

01:32:35Coronal mass ejections disrupt the calm flow of the solar wind and cause serious disturbances

01:32:41that can damage stuff both in space near Earth, like satellites, and on the planet's surface.

01:32:47If coronal mass ejections make it to Earth, their interaction with the magnetosphere generates

01:32:52geomagnetic storms.

01:32:54Those can trigger auroras, happening when a stream of energized particles hits the atmosphere

01:32:59and lights up.

01:33:01And then there are also solar flares.

01:33:04They develop more rapidly and with much more energy than coronal mass ejections.

01:33:09Solar flares often occur soon after coronal mass ejections.

01:33:13The most powerful volcanic eruptions pale in comparison to solar flares that release

01:33:1810 million times more energy.

01:33:21Within a few minutes, one solar flare can give out billions of tons of charged particles.

01:33:26Solar flares are also insanely hot, with temperatures reaching several million degrees

01:33:31Fahrenheit.

01:33:35Astronomers believe that such bursts of solar radiation happen when the Sun's magnetic

01:33:40field gets twisted in some regions.

01:33:42At one moment, all the pent-up energy is released.

01:33:46The star sends out light and particles, mostly electrons and protons.

01:33:51Most solar flares last for minutes, but some continue for hours.

01:33:55A powerful solar storm can potentially cause a devastating global blackout on Earth.

01:34:01If not for the Earth's magnetosphere, the effects of the Sun's activity would be much

01:34:05more devastating.

01:34:06Luckily, the magnetosphere deflects most of the solar material hurtling towards our planet

01:34:11from our star at a speed of over 1 million miles per hour.

01:34:16But even so, during space weather events, there's a lot of hazardous radiation near

01:34:21Earth.

01:34:22It can potentially harm astronauts and spacecraft.

01:34:25Plus, space weather can damage large conducting systems, for example, pipelines and power

01:34:31grids, by overloading currents running inside them.

01:34:37Scientists regularly map and track the overall orientation and shape of our planet's magnetic

01:34:42field.

01:34:43To do it, they use local measurements of the field's orientation and magnitude.

01:34:48That's why they've been able to conclude that the location of the North Magnetic Pole

01:34:52has moved by almost 600 miles since the first measurements were taken in 1831.

01:34:59The magnetic field of our planet reverses on a time scale varying between 100,000 to

01:35:051 million years.

01:35:07One can tell how often it happens by looking at volcanic rocks at the bottom of the ocean.

01:35:12They capture the orientation and strength of Earth's magnetic field at the time of

01:35:17their creation.

01:35:18So dating those rocks gives us a good picture of how our planet's magnetic field has evolved

01:35:23over time.

01:35:27From a geological point of view, field reversals happen quite fast, but they are extremely

01:35:33slow from a human perspective.

01:35:35A complete reversal normally takes a couple of thousand years.

01:35:39During this time, the orientation of the magnetosphere may shift, exposing more of Earth to cosmic

01:35:45radiation.

01:35:47Such events tend to change the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere.

01:35:51In any case, scientists can't say for sure when the next field reversal will happen,

01:35:57but they keep mapping and tracking the movement of our planet's magnetic north.

01:36:01By the way, the Earth isn't the only planet with a magnetic field.

01:36:06Gas giants, like Jupiter, also have a conducting metallic hydrogen layer that generates their

01:36:11magnetic fields.

01:36:13Jupiter's internal magnetic field prevents the solar wind from interacting directly with

01:36:18the planet's atmosphere.

01:36:23If an asteroid like Apophis hits Earth, we will be destroyed.

01:36:28Massive earthquakes will strike, and tsunamis will flood everything.

01:36:35Apophis is a billion-year-old celestial body that has been in the Solar System since its

01:36:40inception.

01:36:41So you might be thinking, well, how likely is it that this giant space stone will collide

01:36:46with our planet in 2029?

01:36:49Well, let's find out, shall we?

01:36:52Apophis is a big bad asteroid discovered in 2004 by the Kitt Peak National Observatory

01:36:58in Arizona.

01:37:01Since then, it has proudly held the title of one of the most dangerous asteroids ever

01:37:05located.

01:37:06It's around 1,100 feet wide, which is a bit bigger than the Empire State Building

01:37:11and the Eiffel Tower.

01:37:14Because of how scary it is, it was named Apophis, like the Egyptian immortal creature that was

01:37:19considered to bring eternal darkness and destruction to Earth.

01:37:25In 2021, researchers had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study this floating rock when

01:37:30it passed near our planet, and we'll come back to that in a minute.

01:37:35Some scientists say that there is a small chance of Apophis hitting the Earth on Friday,

01:37:40April 13, 2029.

01:37:44The Yarkovsky effect is to blame for this since it can slightly nudge this space rock

01:37:49towards Earth.

01:37:51This effect originates from the uneven emission of thermal photons from a rotating celestial

01:37:56object, resulting in a fascinating force exerted upon it in space.

01:38:01These emitted photons possess momentum and play a pivotal role in shaping the dynamics

01:38:05of the body.

01:38:08The asteroid has two sides, light and dark, just like the Moon.

01:38:12The light side faces the Sun and is warmer than the dark side.

01:38:16But the thing also turns, so the sides constantly change direction and temperature.

01:38:21This change could be detrimental because it slightly pushes Apophis toward Earth.

01:38:27Unfortunately, nobody knows how the Yarkovsky effect will influence the asteroid's path.

01:38:34On the other hand, on the asteroid's last flyby of Earth in 2021, astronomers used radar

01:38:40to take accurate measurements of its trajectory and confidently concluded Apophis will safely

01:38:46miss Earth in 2029 by about 20,000 miles and won't bother us again for at least 100

01:38:53years.

01:38:54Generally speaking, every 8,000 years, our planet is hit by a falling star that has similar

01:39:00dimensions to those of Apophis.

01:39:03The last time we were hit by a slightly smaller meteorite was in 2013.

01:39:10A new spacecraft developed by NASA called the OSIRIS-REx was launched in 2016 to collect

01:39:16samples from another slightly less terrifying celestial body called Bennu.

01:39:22Four years later, it finally arrived at the thing, got some samples, quickly said goodbye

01:39:28to Bennu, and started traveling back towards Earth.

01:39:32The samples were safely stored in a capsule dropped in Utah.

01:39:36So far, this has been the most significant sample ever taken from an asteroid.

01:39:41After the delivery, the spacecraft didn't waste any time and started chasing Apophis.

01:39:46Now, OSIRIS-REx has been renamed to OSIRIS-APEX and is currently playing tag with Apophis.

01:39:54With some luck, on the 2nd of April, 2029, when the asteroid zips close by Earth, the

01:40:01spacecraft will reach Apophis and land on it.

01:40:05It will stay on Apophis for 18 months, collecting valuable information and taking thousands

01:40:10of pictures.

01:40:12The asteroid will be monitored with the help of powerful telescopes.

01:40:16At some point, Apophis will get too close to the Sun, and then all the monitoring work

01:40:21will be on OSIRIS-APEX back.

01:40:25If you live in Europe, West Asia, or Africa, you're one of those lucky people who will

01:40:30have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Apophis with the unaided eye.

01:40:35It will be visible in the sky in these regions in 2029, and those who have telescopes will

01:40:40be able to spot it once again in 2036.

01:40:46OSIRIS-APEX will experience some problems because the asteroid has a thick crust, and

01:40:50the spacecraft won't be able to collect data as easily as it did with Bennu.

01:40:55OSIRIS-APEX has a unique thruster that will blow all the dust from Apophis while landing.

01:41:01This will be a perfect chance to analyze the surface of the asteroid to see what it's

01:41:05made of.

01:41:07The craft will spend one and a half years mapping the asteroid, trying to detect changes

01:41:12in its shape.

01:41:13All this research will show how the celestial body is likely to move so we can better design

01:41:18plans to protect Earth from such things.

01:41:22In 2025, NASA is also going to launch the mission Apophis Pathfinder, and it will be

01:41:27the first spaceship to ever touch this asteroid.

01:41:31It will land approximately a year after its launch.

01:41:34Also, NASA has proposed sending a swarm of tiny craft into space to help humanity develop

01:41:39effective protective tactics against asteroid strikes.

01:41:44We know that Apophis originated in the primary asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

01:41:50In the past million years, this celestial body has changed its path because of the considerable

01:41:56influence of Jupiter's gravitation.

01:41:58Now it seems like it favors the Sun more, meaning this asteroid will come very close

01:42:02to Earth.

01:42:03That's why it's classified as a near-Earth celestial body.

01:42:08A lot of tests and research have been done to find a way to deal with asteroids.

01:42:13Some solutions include drilling it, detonating the space body from inside, or testing new

01:42:18technologies like attaching rockets to it and trying to steer it away from Earth.

01:42:24We can also hit it with something moving at high speeds to make it change its course.

01:42:29Apophis is an S-type asteroid made of rocks and minerals, like iron and nickel, and is

01:42:35shaped like a peanut.

01:42:37It can tell us a lot about the past and possibly the future.

01:42:41Sampling this space object could reveal how life on Earth began and how plants appeared.

01:42:47There are many theories that suggest that water arrived on our planet on an asteroid

01:42:52or a comet.

01:42:54Asteroids are like priceless time capsules.

01:42:57Unlike rocks on Earth, which have undergone thousands of changes, like erosion, most celestial

01:43:02bodies are still intact and much easier to study.

01:43:06When meteors fall on Earth, they get covered in debris that's impossible to clean.

01:43:11That's why studying Apophis while it's still in space is so important.

01:43:16Also, some asteroids are made of precious metals like platinum.

01:43:21Right now we have a high demand for metals that we use in production, and mining metals

01:43:25on Earth is quite tricky.

01:43:28Just one large meteor might have iron, nickel, gold, and platinum that could last us millions

01:43:33of years.

01:43:34If Apophis has this amount of metals, well, we'd want to break it down and bring it back

01:43:39to Earth.

01:43:40That space rock could be worth quadrillions of dollars, making space mining highly profitable.

01:43:47And still, it would cost us more to get it back to Earth than to dig up these materials

01:43:51here.

01:43:53As technology progresses, and new kinds of rockets are developed, this might become possible

01:43:58at some point.

01:44:01So even though we're safe for the next hundred years from Apophis, you probably still want

01:44:06to see what would happen if something like it did impact.

01:44:10Come on, sure you do.

01:44:12Well, first let me tell you, you'll hear the sound of the collision and know what's

01:44:16happened even if you're miles away.

01:44:19You should leave your house or apartment immediately.

01:44:22Shortly after the impact, massive earthquakes will strike, and many tall buildings will

01:44:27fall, so staying away from cities might be your best option if you have a choice.

01:44:33But don't escape by car, there will be massive traffic jams, and everyone will panic.

01:44:40Traveling on foot or by bike is your best option in this scenario.

01:44:44A prime way of transportation will be traveling by plane, so if you've always wanted to

01:44:49get that pilot license, now you've got a good excuse.

01:44:54If you have time, take along extra snacks and water, and an extra pair of socks.

01:45:00It's nice to live by the ocean or the sea, but in this scenario, it's the worst place

01:45:05to be, because giant tsunami waves will hit coastlines after the impact.

01:45:10If you live far away from the impact area, the tsunami might take 30 hours to arrive.

01:45:15You'll have a bit of time to prepare.

01:45:22If one of the many apocalyptic scenarios come true, and humanity is wiped out completely,

01:45:28a black box will tell whoever comes after us about what has led to that scary day.

01:45:36The 33-foot long vault in a remote part of western Tasmania is supposed to document all

01:45:41the mistakes humanity has made that led to an apocalypse.

01:45:46The artists, architects, and researchers behind the Earth's black box hope that the art

01:45:51installation made of thick reinforced steel will withstand fire, water, and any other

01:45:57natural disasters, except probably for total planetary destruction.

01:46:03Just like the black box you can find in planes, this time capsule is supposed to help the

01:46:08next civilization do better and avoid the probable sad and tragic fate of our humanity.

01:46:15The project is fully non-commercial and has an important message.

01:46:20The box will be full of storage drives and have access to the internet.

01:46:25Solar panels on the roof will power it, and batteries will take care of backup power storage.

01:46:31Whenever the sun's out, the black box will be updating itself with new scientific data.

01:46:36A special algorithm will sort it only to save the information relevant to the project.

01:46:41It will be measurements of land and sea temperatures, ocean acidification, species extinction, land

01:46:48use changes, as well as data on human population and energy consumption.

01:46:54The second type of data for the box will be newspaper headlines, social media posts, and

01:46:58news from the key global events focusing on the environment.

01:47:04The creators of the box decided to encode and store data for it in several formats,

01:47:09including binary code.

01:47:12The instructions on how to retrieve all that priceless knowledge would be etched into the

01:47:17outside of the box.

01:47:19Some of the big brains involved in the project are afraid that this could inspire some curious

01:47:25bad guys to break into the box long before it's time to do it.

01:47:30The solar-powered hard drive will have enough space to collect data over 50 years.

01:47:37Even the most pessimistic scientific models don't predict the end of the world any sooner

01:47:41anyway.

01:47:42It might even take centuries before the worst happens.

01:47:46The idea of a box that would record everything that happened before an accident in aviation

01:47:51was born in the middle of the 20th century.

01:47:55Back then, the world's first jetliner, de Havilland's Comet, crashed seven times over

01:48:00two years, taking the lives of 110 people.

01:48:06The Department of Civil Aviation in Australia wanted to find the possible cause of all these

01:48:11crashes.

01:48:13One of these experts was Dr. David Warren, a chemist specializing in aviation fuels.

01:48:19He realized that there was simply not enough data to make any conclusions.

01:48:24There was no one to tell what had really happened before the crash.

01:48:29He remembered seeing a dictaphone that recorded sound on steel wire at a trade fair.

01:48:34Soon, Dr. Warren wrote a memo to his manager offering to design a voice recorder to follow

01:48:40what was going on in the cockpit.

01:48:42It would also record flight data and be stored in a crash-proof container.

01:48:48Aviation wasn't a huge thing in Australia back then, so the manager didn't appreciate

01:48:52the idea.

01:48:54Dr. Warren then started working on a prototype in his own garage.

01:49:00He showed the ready device to the secretary of the British Air Registration Board when

01:49:04he was in Australia.

01:49:06He absolutely loved the idea, so later, Dr. Warren got a whole team to help him develop

01:49:13a pre-production prototype.

01:49:16The correct way to call his invention is actually not black box, but flight data recorder, and

01:49:22it's orange, not black.

01:49:25We probably call it black because those gadgets get charred black after a crash.

01:49:31Or maybe because the first boxes were painted that color to prevent reflection.

01:49:36Or because that's the general name scientists use for devices with in and output of data

01:49:41with complex internal workings.

01:49:45So the flight data recorder consists of two parts, the data recorder and the cockpit voice

01:49:51recorder.

01:49:52Historically, they were two boxes, but now they're just two cylinders.

01:49:56The data recorder keeps track of such important flight data as engine exhaust, temperature,

01:50:01fuel flow, aircraft velocity, altitude, and rate of descent.

01:50:06The second part records sound in the cockpit to analyze communication with air traffic

01:50:11control in case of an accident.

01:50:14The device only records data for up to two hours, and then overwrites the previous sounds.

01:50:20Sometimes, the two parts are combined, and they look like a box.

01:50:26The devices record data and voices from the cockpit, but they are actually located in

01:50:31the tail end of the aircraft, where the structure of the plane will protect them best in case

01:50:35of a crash.

01:50:37The black box has a locator beacon, which is activated when water gets on it, but it

01:50:42will send out a pulse for 30 days.

01:50:46Search parties use the bright orange color of the recorder as a visual beacon.

01:50:50Sometimes, it takes a long time to find the box, and in some cases, they don't find it at all.

01:50:57Long before the first plane was invented, there was an original black box of planetary

01:51:02meaning, the ancient library of Alexandria.

01:51:06Back in the ancient days, people in places like Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece were no

01:51:11strangers to libraries and archives.

01:51:14But these early institutions were more about preserving local traditions and heritage.

01:51:20The whole concept of a universal library only became a thing when the Greeks started thinking

01:51:25big.

01:51:26They were so impressed by what their neighbors in Egypt were doing that they arranged expeditions

01:51:32to acquire knowledge.

01:51:34Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia, seeing that hunger for knowledge required

01:51:39his companions, generals, and scholars to report to him in detail on regions that were

01:51:43previously unmet.

01:51:46It helped collect plenty of information on geography and contributed to the creation

01:51:51of a great library.

01:51:53Most of the information it had was written in Greek.

01:51:57It had the books of Aristotle as part of the whole corpus of Greek literature.

01:52:02Some sources say that in the hunt for new books, the library's founders would stop every

01:52:07ship sailing into the harbor of Alexandria.

01:52:10If they found books, they would take them to the library.

01:52:14If they decided it was valuable, they'd make a quick copy and return it to the owner with

01:52:18some compensation, leaving the original at the library.

01:52:23Another story tells us that Ptolemy III, grandson of the founder of the library, offered the

01:52:28governors of Athens a huge compensation to copy the original texts of the greatest poets.

01:52:34He then kept the originals and sent them back copies.

01:52:39Once the Roman Empire arrived, they burnt all that knowledge, not thinking that it might

01:52:44lead to their own collapse.

01:52:47There was no easy way of spreading information across the world, so one source had most of

01:52:52the knowledge humanity had accumulated by then.

01:52:56The great minds of those times didn't just fill it with knowledge, but also made important

01:53:01connections, trying to make the best use of that information.

01:53:06If the library of Alexandria hadn't burnt, we could have gotten some priceless knowledge

01:53:11about the people who had lived before the current era.

01:53:16Some scientists believe that big data could have saved the Vikings that had settled in

01:53:20Greenland many centuries ago.

01:53:23It might have also helped the Easter Island civilization to identify and address problems

01:53:28caused by volcanic activity, latitude, and rainfall patterns, and restore soil fertility.

01:53:37They say that a typical person living today is exposed to as much data in one day as someone

01:53:42in the 15th century would learn in their entire lifetime.

01:53:47And there's a theory that every papyrus scroll on the whole library of Alexandria could probably

01:53:52fit onto an ordinary flash drive you have in your pocket.

01:53:57There's so much big data generated every day that it might do us more harm than good

01:54:02because of a huge information overload.

01:54:06We're moving towards a global civilization, so if all that knowledge disappears, we'd

01:54:11lose not one empire, but the entire world.

01:54:152, 1, 0, all engines running.

01:54:26I can hardly imagine having to travel long distances without wheeled luggage, but these

01:54:31ones didn't pop until 1970.

01:54:34If you think about it, this means that the astronauts that went to the moon actually

01:54:37had to physically carry their baggage in the spaceship.

01:54:42A lot of other daily tasks are different in space.

01:54:46Since there's no washing machine in the International Space Station, how do astronauts

01:54:50do their laundry?

01:54:52The short answer is they don't.

01:54:54They just load up the dirty clothes into a resupply ship, then let them fall back into

01:54:59the atmosphere where it's incinerated.

01:55:02Our atmosphere contains astronaut underwear dust if you think about it.

01:55:06For their shower routines, astronauts had to go back to the old-fashioned way of bathing

01:55:11too.

01:55:13In the space station, they do not shower since the force of gravity is different and water

01:55:17doesn't flow as it should, so they use liquid soap, water, and rinseless shampoo.

01:55:23They first squeeze the liquid soap and water from pre-made water pouches onto their skin.

01:55:28Next, they open the rinseless soap and add a little water to clean their hair.

01:55:33Towels are then used to wipe off the excess water, which is really precious in space.

01:55:38To make sure they recycle it, an airflow system nearby quickly evaporates excess water.

01:55:45All that water recycling is thanks to an invention called the Water Reclamation System, or the

01:55:50WRS.

01:55:52It was developed back in 2008 and helped solve water issues on the ISS.

01:55:58Up until then, water had to be imported from our planet on a regular basis, which was really

01:56:03expensive.

01:56:04What the WRS does is it gathers all the waste water on board, the astronauts' leftover

01:56:10bathing water, humidity, condensation on the walls and windows, and then passes it through

01:56:15a series of filters.

01:56:17The resulting liquid is purified and great for drinking and washing.

01:56:22We even got the now-famous microwave because of this space mission.

01:56:27When Neil Armstrong and his team landed back on Earth after their first visit to the moon,

01:56:31specialists thought they might have been exposed to dangerous space particles.

01:56:36The result?

01:56:37They had to be placed in planetary protection quarantine on their return, as soon as their

01:56:42space capsule safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969.

01:56:49That specific 21-day quarantine for the Apollo 11 astronauts is one of the reasons why we

01:56:54have microwaves in our kitchens today.

01:56:57When they first returned from the moon, they initially spent their first few days in a

01:57:01mobile quarantine facility, or MQF.

01:57:04Sure, the MQF featured comfortable chairs, bunks, a toilet, and a shower, but it didn't

01:57:11leave a lot of space for fancy cooking.

01:57:13Since there was no room for a standard oven or grill, and to also reduce the potential

01:57:18fires that might have happened, NASA had to get creative.

01:57:22That's how the original countertop microwave oven was developed, to easily help astronauts

01:57:27get their meals without the hustle of a fully equipped kitchen.

01:57:31These days, you can see that first microwave in a museum in Oakland, California.

01:57:36The Apollo 11 crew also carried with them 12 Hasselblad cameras.

01:57:41They were intended to snap those valuable images of the moon's surface for all of us

01:57:45to see.

01:57:46So where are they today?

01:57:47Well, they were left there on the moon.

01:57:50Armstrong and his crew decided that the cameras were too heavy to carry back, especially since

01:57:55they wanted to bring back home over 50 pounds worth of rock samples.

01:57:59They did bring the film back though.

01:58:02These days, the International Space Station has way more advanced technology, like this

01:58:07Zero Gravity 3D printer.

01:58:10It's responsible for making a socket wrench, which was the first tool ever made away from

01:58:14the planet's surface.

01:58:16The whole point of this 3D printer is to source square parts for any equipment that might

01:58:20get broken on board.

01:58:23This way, astronauts won't need to keep returning back to Earth to fix their gadgets,

01:58:27making it cheaper and faster.

01:58:31It may sound like a vacation, but did you ever think about what would happen if you

01:58:35never got out of bed?

01:58:37In the first 24 hours, one of the first things to see a change would be your lungs.

01:58:42Without gravity to pull them down into their standard position, the lower part of your

01:58:46lungs will crease.

01:58:48Coughing every now and then might help to reduce the effects.

01:58:51Going further, we'd start to lose small amounts of bone density each week, making

01:58:56our skeleton more fragile.

01:58:58It's also the reason why astronauts who can go for months without Earth's gravity at times

01:59:03need to move around for a minimum of two hours a day and make sure they have sufficient calcium

01:59:08in their diet.

01:59:10For this particular reason, they use a cool device called the Advanced Resistive Exercise

01:59:15Device, or ARID.

01:59:18The conditions on the International Space Station not only affect the bones of personnel

01:59:22on board, but their muscle mass.

01:59:25And some of the changes that happen to their bodies could be permanent if they're not careful.

01:59:29So NASA needs to keep its astronauts on a strict exercise program.

01:59:34Because you can't work out normally in microgravity, and ARID comes in to fix this.

01:59:39It's pretty much a resistance machine that helps astronauts to weightlift in a weightless

01:59:44environment.

01:59:45It also features a treadmill with a twist.

01:59:48It straps astronauts in for running.

01:59:52People visiting the International Space Station for longer periods of time can also develop

01:59:56a condition called Space Flight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome.

02:00:01The weightlessness in space causes the fluids in the body to shift towards the head.

02:00:07This may be the reason why the optical nerve gets swollen.

02:00:10I'll spare you the rest of the medical terms, but one of the most uncomfortable side effects

02:00:14is that most astronauts get blurry vision.

02:00:17To help with this, scientists developed a pair of contact lenses.

02:00:21And you look at pictures of astronauts wearing this device, it does seem pretty cool!

02:00:26For the time being, these lenses are just meant to measure how our eyes adapt to microgravity

02:00:32conditions.

02:00:33With the help of that data, we might be able to develop future gadgets that could combat

02:00:37the consequences.

02:00:40These contacts may not come with laser vision or holograms just yet, but another institution

02:00:46is looking to develop some pretty cool pairs of eyeglasses that might get closer.

02:00:51The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is looking at ways to manufacture computerized

02:00:56glasses that can help astronauts repair a ship or conduct an experiment in space.

02:01:03These glasses could help NASA upload how-to information guides onto the glasses directly

02:01:08so that astronauts could work without printed instruction manuals.

02:01:13That information is not only difficult to work with in times of emergency, but it's

02:01:17often not enough.

02:01:19So astronauts literally need to dial back at the base for more information on how to

02:01:24fix a problem.

02:01:26Since a call from Mars to Earth can take up to 20 minutes to connect, you can imagine

02:01:31how helpful these glasses might be in real time.

02:01:34NASA initially tested this approach by strapping laptops to astronauts' heads.

02:01:40It soon became obvious they needed a better suited device.

02:01:43These glasses would use the same microchips we have in our smartphones.

02:01:48A gas leak can be a bad thing even in your own kitchen, let alone on the International

02:01:53Space Station.

02:01:54To make sure this problem doesn't happen, astronauts wear a system strapped to the front

02:01:59of their suits.

02:02:01It's just about the size of a shoebox.

02:02:03This device helps detect leaking water, seeping rocket fuel, or escaping oxygen.

02:02:10When living on the International Space Station, you might think astronauts need some sort

02:02:14of special clothing.

02:02:16The reality will surprise you.

02:02:18Inside the space shuttle, both the temperature and humidity are controlled.

02:02:22So astronauts can live there just like they would on Earth.

02:02:26Apart from those orange flight suits you often see in pictures that are needed during launch

02:02:30and re-entry, astronauts don't have special clothes.

02:02:34They just use the same clothes they'd use if they were on our planet.

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