1 00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:11,639 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, do you think the universe is still capable 2 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: of surprising us? What do you mean? It's blowing my 3 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:17,040 Speaker 1: mind all the time, that is what I mean. You're 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:19,560 Speaker 1: always saying that we could discover anything out there. I 5 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:22,400 Speaker 1: do say that, like, you know, there might be huge 6 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:26,680 Speaker 1: purple dragons out there past the edge of the observable universe. Yeah, 7 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 1: but then what if we actually discover huge purple dragons? 8 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:33,240 Speaker 1: Would you be like I saw that coming? No, I 9 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:36,559 Speaker 1: would think like, wow, so cool. I wonder how we 10 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:39,440 Speaker 1: could talk to dragons about business. But you don't think 11 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:42,560 Speaker 1: there are actually dragons in space? Do you? Probably not? 12 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:46,360 Speaker 1: But hey, some future astronomer listening today, we'll discover a 13 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:49,239 Speaker 1: new kind of fiery star out there and call it 14 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:51,920 Speaker 1: a space dragon. I guess you could say it be 15 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 1: in the night sky, you know, at night with the 16 00:00:54,960 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: k Sir Jorge, that is a terrible joke. Hi am 17 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:15,800 Speaker 1: Orham made cartoonists and the creator of PhD Comics. Hi. 18 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:18,720 Speaker 1: I'm Daniel, I'm a particle of physicist, and I really 19 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,440 Speaker 1: do want to meet a space dragon. Welcome to our podcast, 20 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of I 21 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: Heart Radio in which We talk about all the things 22 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:28,959 Speaker 1: that are out there in the universe, the things that 23 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:31,679 Speaker 1: amaze us, the things that blow our minds, the things 24 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: that make us curious, and also the things that we 25 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: wonder if they are out there, the crazy hypothetical, the possible, 26 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 1: the things that will blow the minds of future generations. 27 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:44,919 Speaker 1: And explain all of them to you. Is this Daniel 28 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:49,240 Speaker 1: where science fiction meets fantasy is who has been a 29 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 1: tight connection between science and science fiction, and that connection 30 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:57,080 Speaker 1: is the fantasy of science fiction authors thinking of crazy 31 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 1: stuff we might see one day. I mean, like agents 32 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: and space dragons. Yeah, exactly. And I think that there's 33 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: a lot of folks out there who are scientists or 34 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:10,840 Speaker 1: read science fiction who also appreciate fantasy and crazy dragons 35 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:13,280 Speaker 1: and magic and wizards and all that. Do you think 36 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 1: there's some science spaces for any of that. No, I 37 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:18,959 Speaker 1: think it's all based in mythology. But it's all creative 38 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:21,640 Speaker 1: and I like reading it. So we usually talk about 39 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 1: science fiction on this program, but I'm also a big 40 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:26,240 Speaker 1: reader of fantasy novels. But yeah, we talk about all 41 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:28,680 Speaker 1: the amazing things out there in the universe, all of 42 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:32,680 Speaker 1: the weird and unexplained objects and there's a lot of 43 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 1: stuff out there in the universe and in space, floating 44 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 1: out there. Who knows what's out there. Yes, And the 45 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:39,920 Speaker 1: more we look out there in space, the more we 46 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: discover that there are lots of different kinds of things 47 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:47,040 Speaker 1: we never even imagined, and also that the distinctions between 48 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:50,000 Speaker 1: the categories we thought were crisp and clear are a 49 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:53,079 Speaker 1: little fuzzier than we understood. Yeah, there's a pretty big 50 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,400 Speaker 1: diversity out there, because it's not just suns and planets 51 00:02:56,440 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 1: out in space floating out there and the darkness of 52 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: the cosmos. But there's other kinds of objects, and sometimes 53 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,560 Speaker 1: they're kind of hard to categorize. That's right. The Solar 54 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: System is more than just a sun and a few 55 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:11,000 Speaker 1: planets and a couple of moons. There's a huge spectrum 56 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,200 Speaker 1: of stuff all the way down from space dust up 57 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:18,520 Speaker 1: to the Sun itself and basically everything in between. And 58 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:20,640 Speaker 1: where we draw the lines. What we call a planet, 59 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:23,160 Speaker 1: what we call a brown dwarf, what we call a star, 60 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:26,160 Speaker 1: what we call an asteroid, sometimes just has like a 61 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:29,680 Speaker 1: historical basis more than a scientific one. So if there 62 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: are dwarf planets, Daniel or they're also elf planets, those 63 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: have been taken over by the dwarfs. That's all that's left. 64 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 1: The dwarves won that war, they leave for the West already. 65 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 1: That's right. There's a whole other set of solar systems, 66 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 1: deep deep in the galaxy where the elves have retreated to. 67 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 1: But I mean, this is sort of a continuing conversation 68 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,440 Speaker 1: I feel with astronomers, like what counts as a planet, 69 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 1: as an asteroid, as a space rock, or even as 70 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:56,840 Speaker 1: a sun. So it's hard to tell the difference between 71 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 1: a sun and a planet. Yeah, exactly, if Jupiter was bigger, 72 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:02,480 Speaker 1: it would be right on that threshold where you might 73 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:05,440 Speaker 1: argue like it's a really big planet, No it's a 74 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,880 Speaker 1: failed star. No, it's a brown dwarf. And this isn't 75 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:12,240 Speaker 1: just like astronomers being picky or astronomers coming up with 76 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: silly names for things. This just reflects how we look 77 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:17,039 Speaker 1: out at the sky and see different kind of things 78 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:19,640 Speaker 1: and try to make sense of them. You can't just say, hey, 79 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:21,919 Speaker 1: there's lots of stuff out there. We can't categorize it 80 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: at all. You have to try to say, we're talking 81 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:26,719 Speaker 1: about these kinds of stuff and that kind of stuff. 82 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:29,240 Speaker 1: And when you face a bunch of messy observations. You 83 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:32,120 Speaker 1: have to try to find categories and patterns. Yeah, So 84 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:34,560 Speaker 1: today we'll be talking about one such object in the 85 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:38,400 Speaker 1: Solar System, one that has a pretty mythic name to 86 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: be on the program. We'll be talking about what is 87 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:49,040 Speaker 1: a space centaur and what happens when they do battle 88 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:52,520 Speaker 1: with space dragons or space unicorns. That's that's the one 89 00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: I want to right around in. Well, that is an 90 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:58,919 Speaker 1: ancient rivalry unicorns versus centaurs. They do not get along really. 91 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:04,039 Speaker 1: Oh man, can you have a space centaur with a horn? 92 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:08,720 Speaker 1: Where would the horn go? Exactly? Based uni center? Would 93 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:11,520 Speaker 1: it go on the forehead of the guy or the woman? 94 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:15,240 Speaker 1: Where else would it go? I don't know. I mean 95 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:17,960 Speaker 1: I guess it could come out of their chest? Yeah, exactly. 96 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,239 Speaker 1: Like I have a lots of basic quests about centers, 97 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:22,480 Speaker 1: like where is their belly button? You know, is it 98 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: sort of on the person part or all the way 99 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: down or like you know, anyway, a lot of interesting 100 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:31,560 Speaker 1: questions you could talk about when it comes to centaurs. Well, 101 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:34,680 Speaker 1: but that's a different podcast. That would be the Dungeons 102 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 1: and Space Dragons podcast. Daniel and Jorge explained the universe 103 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: of fantasy creatures. But yeah, there's is such a thing 104 00:05:41,839 --> 00:05:45,360 Speaker 1: as a space center, like this is actually something that 105 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:48,600 Speaker 1: physicists talk about in conferences and in papers. That's right. Yeah, 106 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:51,159 Speaker 1: it's something pretty awesome. And it came up on the 107 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:53,800 Speaker 1: podcast a few weeks ago, just sort of obliquely when 108 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:56,440 Speaker 1: we were talking about other things in the Solar System, 109 00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:58,599 Speaker 1: and we got a bunch of listeners right in saying, 110 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:01,560 Speaker 1: what is that real? Are there actually space centaurs? And 111 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:03,400 Speaker 1: so we thought we would dive into it into a 112 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:07,360 Speaker 1: whole episode. They thought you were kidding or so they're 113 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: calling us out. They're calling us out, and we are 114 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:14,120 Speaker 1: stepping up and explaining exactly what a space center actually think. 115 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:17,039 Speaker 1: You didn't just make all this stuff up twenty minutes 116 00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:20,520 Speaker 1: before we started. No, this is not a fiction podcast. 117 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,080 Speaker 1: This is real. But you know, sometimes in science we 118 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:25,840 Speaker 1: borrow words from other fields, We borrow them from art 119 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:29,600 Speaker 1: or from philosophy to try to describe some relationship we see, 120 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:32,680 Speaker 1: to try to capture something about this new kind of 121 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:34,960 Speaker 1: object that we can't describe in any other way. And 122 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:37,960 Speaker 1: sometimes it seems creative and clever, and sometimes it seems 123 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,640 Speaker 1: awkward and clunky. What percentage, Daniel, what percentage of physics 124 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: names you think are awkward versus right on? Well, I 125 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:50,359 Speaker 1: would estimate that you would place it about clunky, But 126 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:52,080 Speaker 1: I think there's some art to them, you know. I 127 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:54,560 Speaker 1: think sometimes I see where they're going, even if they 128 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:58,400 Speaker 1: didn't necessarily really hit the target. All right, Well, as usual, 129 00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:01,000 Speaker 1: we were wondering how many people out there had heard 130 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:04,080 Speaker 1: of a space center or even knew what it could 131 00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:07,000 Speaker 1: possibly be. So Daniel went out there into the wild 132 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:11,360 Speaker 1: to the internet to ask people what is a space centaur? 133 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:14,280 Speaker 1: And thank you to everybody who volunteered to answer this 134 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:18,400 Speaker 1: particularly strange question. If you are willing to put your baseless, 135 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: unresearched answers to difficult physics questions on the podcast, please 136 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:26,040 Speaker 1: write to me at questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com. 137 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:28,440 Speaker 1: You'll think about it for a second. Is someone approached 138 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:33,080 Speaker 1: you and asked you what a space centaur is, what 139 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:36,200 Speaker 1: would you say. Here's what listeners had to say. I 140 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:40,160 Speaker 1: do not know what a space centauris, but I know 141 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:44,880 Speaker 1: what a center is, so I'm guessing it's an astrological 142 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: phenomena that feels like magic, but it's actually a science. 143 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:52,400 Speaker 1: I have no idea what that is. Uh, but it 144 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:54,440 Speaker 1: sounds like a new kind of tesla, or maybe a 145 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:58,160 Speaker 1: rocket of some kind. The space center is a NASA operate, 146 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:02,320 Speaker 1: a museum where villites I engage with space science. If 147 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:04,680 Speaker 1: it isn't a mythical beast that flies through the cosmos, 148 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:09,440 Speaker 1: then I imagine it's a classification of some kind. I 149 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:11,320 Speaker 1: have a memory of it being something to do with 150 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:14,800 Speaker 1: maybe an unstable orbit or some kind of like collision 151 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:17,600 Speaker 1: course in the future. I think I heard about these 152 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:22,960 Speaker 1: things a few weeks ago Discovery. So I see a 153 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 1: rocky objects between Jupiter and Neptune. A space center sounds 154 00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:36,520 Speaker 1: like a constellation, maybe near Alpha cent Tori. If not that, 155 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:41,000 Speaker 1: then some kind of nebula. Maybe A space center is 156 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:43,760 Speaker 1: a child about human from Earth and a human born 157 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:46,240 Speaker 1: in another planet, say Mars, for example. So I don't 158 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,480 Speaker 1: know about you, but I feel like we got exceptionally 159 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:54,040 Speaker 1: creative answers this week. A tesla, I think my favorite 160 00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:56,360 Speaker 1: is the child of a human from Earth and a 161 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,520 Speaker 1: human born on another planet. What a great idea to 162 00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:01,719 Speaker 1: call that a space center. That is pretty good. It's 163 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:05,560 Speaker 1: like the writing science fiction fantasy right now exactly. I 164 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:08,360 Speaker 1: hope that sparked somebody to write their whole novel. Nobody 165 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:10,480 Speaker 1: thought it was an actual center, and everyone sort of 166 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:13,600 Speaker 1: assumed it's some kind of object in space. Yeah, but 167 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:15,440 Speaker 1: it's such a weird thing that nobody heard of that 168 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:18,160 Speaker 1: the guesses were pretty wide. I mean, one person was 169 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:20,719 Speaker 1: guessing that it was a space center because I think 170 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:23,319 Speaker 1: the idea of a centaur was so strange. They must 171 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:26,839 Speaker 1: have thought I made a typo in the question a 172 00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:29,640 Speaker 1: space center does make more sense than a space center? 173 00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:33,320 Speaker 1: All right, well, let's jump into it, Daniel. I assume 174 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:36,400 Speaker 1: the answer is going to be very magical and legendary, 175 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:39,680 Speaker 1: but step us through it. What is a space center? 176 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:42,280 Speaker 1: So to understand what a centaur is, you first have 177 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:47,000 Speaker 1: to understand two other things, and that's asteroids and comets, 178 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:49,280 Speaker 1: because that's what you're saying. Before you know, you look 179 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:51,840 Speaker 1: out into space and you see lots of really weird 180 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:54,440 Speaker 1: stuff out there, and the deeper you look, the more 181 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:56,840 Speaker 1: weird stuff you see. And the more we learned that 182 00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:59,319 Speaker 1: there's a lot of objects out there in space. It's 183 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:02,480 Speaker 1: not just planets and the Sun and a few moons. 184 00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:05,680 Speaker 1: There are zillions of asteroids, and there's lots of comets, 185 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:08,840 Speaker 1: and then out there beyond Pluto, there's an enormous number 186 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:11,840 Speaker 1: of frozen rocks. So astronomers are trying to come to 187 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:15,720 Speaker 1: grift with this incredible number and variety of stuff by 188 00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:18,320 Speaker 1: giving them all names that describe roughly what they do. 189 00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:21,520 Speaker 1: Some of these names are like anchored in history because 190 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:24,440 Speaker 1: they come from very early observations. Right, Astronomy is a 191 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 1: field that's hundreds or thousands of years old, So to 192 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:30,360 Speaker 1: understand what a centaur is, you really need to understand 193 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:33,520 Speaker 1: first what an asteroid is, and what a comet is. 194 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:38,440 Speaker 1: According to what modern astronomers said, is that another mythical rivalry, 195 00:10:38,679 --> 00:10:42,840 Speaker 1: like unicorns, there's a centaurs asteroids versus commets. No asteroids 196 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:45,640 Speaker 1: and comets get along. In fact, sometimes they mix and 197 00:10:45,679 --> 00:10:50,320 Speaker 1: form space centaurs or space mermaids. Oh my goodness, that's 198 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:53,080 Speaker 1: the next level mermaids. Yeah, exactly. That would have been 199 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:55,480 Speaker 1: even a better name, because makes sense for things to 200 00:10:55,600 --> 00:10:59,719 Speaker 1: swim through space rather than gallop through space with their 201 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:03,720 Speaker 1: with an unknown bellyable location. Yeah, that's right. Maybe they 202 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:05,720 Speaker 1: can swim through the sea of dark matter that's out 203 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:10,520 Speaker 1: there using their dark matter tails and lure astronauts to 204 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:13,920 Speaker 1: their doom. Alright, so it sounds like we need to 205 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:17,480 Speaker 1: understand what asteroids and comets are, and I'm guessing many centaurs. 206 00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:20,719 Speaker 1: It's like a mix of the two or somewhere in between. Yeah, exactly. 207 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:23,720 Speaker 1: So an asteroid is a really cool object. It's basically 208 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:26,200 Speaker 1: just a big rock floating out in space that didn't 209 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:29,319 Speaker 1: get gathered together into a moon or a planet. But 210 00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:33,360 Speaker 1: it has a really interesting history. The word asteroid basically 211 00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:37,000 Speaker 1: means not a star because it's something that early astronomers 212 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:40,079 Speaker 1: saw out there in space. But it was too small 213 00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:42,559 Speaker 1: to look like a planet, right, You couldn't like see 214 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:45,800 Speaker 1: a disk, but it moved the way a planet did. 215 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:48,320 Speaker 1: It wasn't so far away, it didn't move like a star. 216 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: So it's this weird object that was discovered when they said, well, 217 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:54,560 Speaker 1: it must be nearby because it moves like a planet, 218 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:56,920 Speaker 1: but it's really really small and it looks like a star. 219 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:00,440 Speaker 1: So they gave you this new name. Oh interesting. I 220 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:03,040 Speaker 1: guess I hadn't thought about it that we would have 221 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:07,560 Speaker 1: discovered asteroids before we had powerful telescopes, right, I guess 222 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:10,640 Speaker 1: at the beginning, it was just like a strangely moving 223 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:14,000 Speaker 1: pinpoint of light in the nights cut exactly. An Asteroids, 224 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:17,320 Speaker 1: like planets, don't shine light right there, just big dark rocks, 225 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:20,240 Speaker 1: but they can't reflect light, and so light goes from 226 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:22,280 Speaker 1: the Sun and bounces off it and comes to Earth. 227 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:24,559 Speaker 1: Then we can see them, and that's good because we'd 228 00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:26,360 Speaker 1: like to know where the asteroids are so that we 229 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:28,680 Speaker 1: know they're not going to smash into the Earth. And 230 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:31,320 Speaker 1: we identified a few of them very very early on. 231 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:33,280 Speaker 1: It was like in the eighteen hundreds we had already 232 00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:35,760 Speaker 1: seen ten of them. These are the bigger ones, the 233 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:38,240 Speaker 1: shinier ones, and so we could see that they were 234 00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:40,960 Speaker 1: out there and they were floating around the Solar System. 235 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:43,800 Speaker 1: And for a long time, people like didn't even distinguish 236 00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:47,079 Speaker 1: between a planet and an asteroid. In science papers from 237 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:50,920 Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds, those two words are used interchangeably. It 238 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:54,760 Speaker 1: just means like a floating object in space that reflects light. Yeah, 239 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:57,600 Speaker 1: it's not a star. It's closer by, it's like orbiting 240 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:00,360 Speaker 1: our Sun and it's reflecting light. And from that point 241 00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:03,520 Speaker 1: of view, what's the difference between Mars and a really 242 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:06,920 Speaker 1: big asteroid. They're both just big rocks in space, right. 243 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:10,200 Speaker 1: But then as you learn about these objects, you start 244 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:12,679 Speaker 1: to distinguish them. He's like, well, planets move in their 245 00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:15,880 Speaker 1: own orbit and basically have cleared a path, whereas most 246 00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:17,839 Speaker 1: asteroids are in a big belt. And so you come 247 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:20,960 Speaker 1: up with these ways of talking about things because they're related, 248 00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:24,280 Speaker 1: but they're also important differences between planets and asteroids. It's 249 00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:26,320 Speaker 1: not just a difference of size, like I would think 250 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:28,440 Speaker 1: it would be like a size threshold that you have 251 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:30,360 Speaker 1: to meet to be a planet. Isn't that what happened 252 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:34,000 Speaker 1: to Pluto, Like it wasn't big enough, so they got downgraded. Yeah, 253 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:36,000 Speaker 1: that is sort of what happened to Pluto. But it's 254 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:38,920 Speaker 1: also context, Like Pluto we found and it's out there 255 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:41,000 Speaker 1: and it's moving sort of like a planet. But then 256 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:43,880 Speaker 1: we found that Pluto is actually just one example of 257 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:46,120 Speaker 1: a lot of different objects that are deep out there 258 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:49,199 Speaker 1: in the Solar System, and it's not even necessarily the biggest, 259 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: and so calling it a planet would mean you have 260 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:53,840 Speaker 1: to call all those other ones a planet also. So 261 00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:56,520 Speaker 1: then yeah, they made an arbitrary distinction. They're like, sorry, 262 00:13:56,520 --> 00:13:58,760 Speaker 1: we're going to define a planet to be just bigger 263 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:01,560 Speaker 1: than Pluto. The sort of get Pluto out the door? 264 00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:04,000 Speaker 1: Is that why? Because they didn't want to admit there 265 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,079 Speaker 1: were a lot of planets in the Solar System. Yeah, well, 266 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:09,680 Speaker 1: they didn't feel comfortable with the idea of having lots 267 00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:11,959 Speaker 1: and lots of planets in an unknown number of planets, 268 00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:15,280 Speaker 1: because out there past Pluto, there's an enormous number of 269 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 1: these things. These things are called trans Neptunian objects, and 270 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:22,320 Speaker 1: some of them are called plutoids or plutinos. But there's 271 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: a huge number of these things out there, and if 272 00:14:24,760 --> 00:14:26,520 Speaker 1: you said Pluto is a planet, then you'd have to 273 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:29,120 Speaker 1: call them all planets. And you know, planets have a 274 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:32,000 Speaker 1: historically important name, you know, like we like to think 275 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:34,480 Speaker 1: it's a special class of objects in the Solar System 276 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:37,360 Speaker 1: that we call planets because we live on one. So yeah, 277 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:39,960 Speaker 1: we could have gone with like there are many many planets, 278 00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:42,720 Speaker 1: but they wanted to make it special. They wanted to 279 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:46,120 Speaker 1: reserve the name for special occasions. That was kind of 280 00:14:46,760 --> 00:14:48,320 Speaker 1: I guess it was like, you know, you have friends, 281 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:50,160 Speaker 1: and you have best friends, and you could say, well, 282 00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:53,000 Speaker 1: all my friends are my best friends, or you could 283 00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:55,400 Speaker 1: acknowledge that some of your friends are actually closer than 284 00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:58,880 Speaker 1: other friends. Right, I do have a friend who calls 285 00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 1: all of our friends best friends, and it's so confusing. 286 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,240 Speaker 1: Something there you go exactly, So then what was the 287 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:08,680 Speaker 1: rationale or what was the official excuse that they go 288 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:11,320 Speaker 1: by size. The long saga of the definition of Pluto, 289 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:13,960 Speaker 1: I think deserves its own episode. Um, we can go 290 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,080 Speaker 1: through the details of that. But we were saying that 291 00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:18,400 Speaker 1: asteroids were discovered, you know, in the eighteen hundreds, we 292 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:21,080 Speaker 1: have at ten of them, and then it rapidly cranked up. 293 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:24,000 Speaker 1: We had like discovered a thousand asteroids by the early 294 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:27,720 Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, and by now we know that there are many, 295 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:30,560 Speaker 1: many of these things that are like probably more than 296 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:33,280 Speaker 1: a million asteroids, and a lot of them are floating 297 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:36,160 Speaker 1: in this asteroid belt, which is this big chunk of 298 00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:39,160 Speaker 1: space between Mars and Jupiter, and some of them are 299 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:43,200 Speaker 1: actually co orbiting with Jupiter, like Jupiter has its orbit 300 00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:46,440 Speaker 1: right this big circle, and in other places in that 301 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:50,400 Speaker 1: same orbit where Jupiter isn't there are big blobs of asteroids, 302 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:53,400 Speaker 1: big clumps of asteroids floating in the same path. They 303 00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:56,120 Speaker 1: can share the same orbit. Wouldn't they have a different 304 00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:58,600 Speaker 1: speed or something. They can share the same orbit, and 305 00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:02,360 Speaker 1: they have a cool name. They're called Upiter Trojans. Yes, 306 00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:06,000 Speaker 1: they really are called Jupiter trojans, and they get into 307 00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:10,160 Speaker 1: these weird gravitational resonances with Jupiter because Jupiter is having 308 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:12,280 Speaker 1: a big influence on all the stuff that's going on 309 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:14,480 Speaker 1: in the Solar System out there, So you can't just 310 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:18,080 Speaker 1: ignore Jupiter. Jupiter is a huge gravitational attraction. Remember that 311 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:21,640 Speaker 1: of the stuff in the Solar System is the Sun, 312 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:24,920 Speaker 1: and of that remaining one percent, Jupiter is most of 313 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:29,320 Speaker 1: it jupiters of that one percent, So the first approximation 314 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:31,920 Speaker 1: the Solar System is just the Sun and Jupiter. So 315 00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:34,480 Speaker 1: if you're out there near Jupiter has a huge influence 316 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:37,840 Speaker 1: on what's happening gravitationally, and some of these rocks get 317 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:40,280 Speaker 1: tossed down into the inner Solar System by Jupiter, they 318 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:43,520 Speaker 1: get disturbed, and some of them found these resonances where 319 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:46,960 Speaker 1: they can stay happily in Jupiter's orbit. All right, Well 320 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:50,120 Speaker 1: that's an asteroid, and so that's one half of the 321 00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:54,680 Speaker 1: space center puzzle. The other have our comments, which we'll 322 00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:57,880 Speaker 1: get into in a short bit, But first let's take 323 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:13,520 Speaker 1: a quick break. All right, Danny, we're talking about space mermaids. Unicorns. 324 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:17,600 Speaker 1: Man unicorns stand space unicorns. I guess maybe more like 325 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:20,240 Speaker 1: space Vegas is too. That could be pretty cool. They're like, 326 00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: have birds have courses? Right? Yeah? Or what about griffins? 327 00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:26,160 Speaker 1: Are those like half birds half lions? Right? Those would 328 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:31,560 Speaker 1: be cool space griffins, space hippogriffs. That that's the next level. 329 00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:34,159 Speaker 1: Most of these things we just made up. But some 330 00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:36,679 Speaker 1: of these things are real and are out there in space. 331 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:39,480 Speaker 1: But they're also just sort of funny names that astronomers 332 00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:41,800 Speaker 1: gives to things to try to show us the relationships 333 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,480 Speaker 1: between what they've discovered. All right, So an asteroid is 334 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:47,960 Speaker 1: a space rock. That's sort of the definition somewhere between 335 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:51,280 Speaker 1: like a baseball and what like the size of the 336 00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:54,040 Speaker 1: Moon is what would be considered an asteroid. Yeah, they're 337 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:57,800 Speaker 1: like between a meter and up to like five dred kilometers. 338 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,480 Speaker 1: The biggest one called Vesta is like five hundred kilometers wide, 339 00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:04,480 Speaker 1: and they're mostly rocks, and they're mostly in the Inner 340 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:06,520 Speaker 1: Solar System so they don't have a lot of ice, 341 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:08,960 Speaker 1: so they can be pretty big and they're mostly rock 342 00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:11,439 Speaker 1: and they are in the Inner Solar System. Those are 343 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:13,639 Speaker 1: the key points to be an asteroid. Really, what if 344 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:16,560 Speaker 1: you're a big rock but you're outside of the Inner 345 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:20,720 Speaker 1: Solar System, but bomb you might be a centaur. I see, 346 00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:24,000 Speaker 1: it's like a location. It's like a discriminating by where 347 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 1: you're from, all right, So that's one half of the puzzle. 348 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:30,640 Speaker 1: The other half of our comets. Now, comets are different 349 00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:33,760 Speaker 1: than asteroids. Comets are different from asteroids. They come from 350 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:36,560 Speaker 1: a different place in the Solar System. They come from 351 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:40,960 Speaker 1: out beyond Neptune, the Kuiper Belt. This is huge collection 352 00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:44,920 Speaker 1: of rocky and icy objects. So that's the second key. 353 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,240 Speaker 1: Comets come from deeper out either the Kuiper Belt or 354 00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:51,080 Speaker 1: the Orc Cloud, and they are made of different stuff. 355 00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:53,040 Speaker 1: They tend to have a lot more ice in them. 356 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 1: They're these big, dirty snowballs of ice and dust. And 357 00:18:56,720 --> 00:18:58,800 Speaker 1: there's a reason for that. There's more ice out in 358 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:01,040 Speaker 1: the far edges of the Solar System because it was 359 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,639 Speaker 1: colder out there. The water in the inner Solar System 360 00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,240 Speaker 1: got sort of blown out by the pressure from the 361 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:08,480 Speaker 1: Sun out to the outer Solar System. So rocks that 362 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:12,120 Speaker 1: coalesce out there deeper in space tend to have more 363 00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:15,480 Speaker 1: ice in them. So comets come from the Kuiper Belt 364 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:18,760 Speaker 1: or the Arch Cloud, which is this hypothetical collection of 365 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:23,000 Speaker 1: trillions of icy objects deep out there, and they tend 366 00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:25,399 Speaker 1: to be made more of ice, like water ice or 367 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,080 Speaker 1: like messane ice, both kinds of ice or other kinds 368 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:30,159 Speaker 1: of liquids, all kinds of ice. And don't get me 369 00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:33,080 Speaker 1: started on how planetarry geologists talk about ice like they 370 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,080 Speaker 1: talk about the ice giants of Neptune, and they say 371 00:19:36,119 --> 00:19:38,360 Speaker 1: these things are filled with water ice, but they don't 372 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,239 Speaker 1: actually mean these things are frozen water to them, like 373 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,439 Speaker 1: a water ice. It's a whole category of states of 374 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:47,360 Speaker 1: water that could be solid but could also be technically 375 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:51,080 Speaker 1: a liquid, but are not actually frozen water. So the 376 00:19:51,119 --> 00:19:52,919 Speaker 1: whole idea of an ice is a very sort of 377 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:57,240 Speaker 1: confusing in general topic which is badly named. But in general, 378 00:19:57,320 --> 00:19:59,400 Speaker 1: there is a lot of frozen water and a lot 379 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:02,480 Speaker 1: of very areous organic ices out there in the deep 380 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,760 Speaker 1: Solar system. All right, we won't get you started that, Daniel. 381 00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:09,920 Speaker 1: Although ice giants also sounds like a mythological creature, Well, 382 00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:12,600 Speaker 1: Neptune is reel and it's out there, and it's called 383 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:14,919 Speaker 1: an ice giant even if it has a lot of 384 00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:18,920 Speaker 1: water and no ice. But these comets, they're also tend 385 00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:21,359 Speaker 1: to be smaller, like you know, they're not up to 386 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:25,800 Speaker 1: five kilometers wide. They're like five to five miles wide, 387 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:27,960 Speaker 1: and you can tell that they're made of different stuff 388 00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,560 Speaker 1: because when they plummet to the inner solar system, they 389 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:33,360 Speaker 1: get a coma and they get a tail, like their 390 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:35,679 Speaker 1: edges tend to be burned off by the sun the 391 00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:38,960 Speaker 1: solar pressure, it's frying the outside, and you get this 392 00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:42,520 Speaker 1: long tail of material. It's basically coming off of the comet. 393 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:45,040 Speaker 1: So they're not like as densely packed that they tend 394 00:20:45,119 --> 00:20:48,040 Speaker 1: to be more susceptible to the Sun. I guess further 395 00:20:48,119 --> 00:20:51,600 Speaker 1: out there, away from the Sun, it's more likely for 396 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:55,159 Speaker 1: molecules to form into solids because it's colder, and so 397 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:58,000 Speaker 1: there's just more things you can make rocks out of, 398 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:00,840 Speaker 1: whereas maybe closer to the Sun, you know, there are 399 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:03,840 Speaker 1: certain things like water or methane that evaporate. That's right. 400 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:06,959 Speaker 1: Your distance to the Sun definitely changes the composition of 401 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,879 Speaker 1: materials in the solar system, which are the basic building 402 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:13,200 Speaker 1: blocks of everything we're talking about. And it's really fascinating. 403 00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:16,440 Speaker 1: And you know, we've only until recently seen one example 404 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,200 Speaker 1: of a solar system ours, and now we're starting to 405 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:21,679 Speaker 1: see other solar systems and we're looking at those and 406 00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:24,000 Speaker 1: we're saying Hey, are the patterns that are in our 407 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:27,280 Speaker 1: Solar system also present in those? And we're finding really 408 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: surprising things, like we're finding huge planets like the size 409 00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:33,359 Speaker 1: of Jupiter really really close to the Sun, not just 410 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:36,119 Speaker 1: in the outer Solar system. These are called hot Jupiters. 411 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:38,840 Speaker 1: We actually did a whole fun podcast episode about this 412 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:41,600 Speaker 1: is our Solar System weird and all the things we're 413 00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:44,480 Speaker 1: learning about our Solar system by looking at others. But 414 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:47,000 Speaker 1: in general what you say is corrected. That tend to 415 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,439 Speaker 1: be different kinds of things deeper in the Solar System 416 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:52,800 Speaker 1: than closer in, and this affects how these objects come together. 417 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:56,000 Speaker 1: And it's one reason why comets are different from asteroids 418 00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,879 Speaker 1: because they're made of different stuff because they come from 419 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:02,840 Speaker 1: further app interesting, can we see asteroids and comets and 420 00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:06,120 Speaker 1: other solar systems yet? And b wouldn't it be cool 421 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:09,360 Speaker 1: to have a novel about bix space war between our 422 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:14,400 Speaker 1: centaurs and there are unicorns and another solar systems mermaids 423 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:16,800 Speaker 1: that would I want to read a book called Exo 424 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:22,919 Speaker 1: Mermaids would be pretty cool mermaids. No, we think we 425 00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:25,600 Speaker 1: have seen a comment from another solar system, but we 426 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:28,600 Speaker 1: can't see them in their solar system. We think that 427 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,840 Speaker 1: oh muamua, that weird cigar shaped object that came through 428 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:34,639 Speaker 1: our solar system a couple of years ago wasn't exo mermaid. 429 00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:38,080 Speaker 1: It was probably a lost comment from another solar system, 430 00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:40,919 Speaker 1: but we don't know. It came through really fast, and 431 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 1: we only spotted it when it was halfway through the 432 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,360 Speaker 1: solar system, so we only got like good pictures as 433 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:47,280 Speaker 1: it was on its way out. So there's still a 434 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:51,159 Speaker 1: lot of questions about what exactly OMMA was. But most 435 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:54,600 Speaker 1: likely it was something from another solar system's equivalent of 436 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:57,560 Speaker 1: the Orc cloud that got lost and ejected into space 437 00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:00,680 Speaker 1: and drifted over here. But we can't see these things 438 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:03,760 Speaker 1: from other solar systems because they're so small. Like if 439 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:06,960 Speaker 1: we wanted to point your telescope at another star, we 440 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,400 Speaker 1: can just barely detect the planets, which are these huge masses. 441 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:12,679 Speaker 1: So we're very far from being able to see exo 442 00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,879 Speaker 1: asteroids or exo commets or exo mermaids. All right, So 443 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:19,840 Speaker 1: those are commets, And now the comets have sized restrictions too, 444 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:22,399 Speaker 1: or do they also range from like small to gigantic. 445 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:25,200 Speaker 1: They tend to be smaller than asteroids and that's because 446 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:27,520 Speaker 1: they form deeper out and they just haven't gathered together 447 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:31,400 Speaker 1: into larger objects, and Neptune tends to keep these things small. 448 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,600 Speaker 1: Like Neptune is also a really big planet, and so 449 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:37,960 Speaker 1: it's gravity tends to break stuff up because of tidal forces, 450 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:40,359 Speaker 1: and so anything in the Kuiper Belt that would gather 451 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,879 Speaker 1: together into a larger object generally gets torn apart by Neptune. 452 00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:46,080 Speaker 1: It's like the big bully on the playground out there 453 00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:49,920 Speaker 1: and doesn't want anything to challenge its supremacy. So they 454 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:52,440 Speaker 1: tend to be up to about like twenty five miles wide. 455 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,159 Speaker 1: Do we think, wow, So there's an active effort not 456 00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:58,680 Speaker 1: to have more planets. That's right. It's a good old 457 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:00,920 Speaker 1: boys club, you know, and it's old worth something. If 458 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:04,240 Speaker 1: it's exclusive, you can keep people out. That tunes the bouncer, 459 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,560 Speaker 1: it's the enforcer exactly, all right. So that those are 460 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,960 Speaker 1: asteroids in comments, And now I'm guessing that a space 461 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,359 Speaker 1: center is like a mix of the two. Is it 462 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:19,080 Speaker 1: like half asteroid half commet Like the top half is one, 463 00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:21,560 Speaker 1: the bottom half is another. Where do you put the 464 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:24,560 Speaker 1: horn on the space center exactly? Or the belly button right? 465 00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:28,080 Speaker 1: And the asteroids half belly buttons due depends on how 466 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,360 Speaker 1: they are born. Deep mystery of science, they have multiple 467 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:36,040 Speaker 1: belly bons. Well, you're sort of right. A space center 468 00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:39,160 Speaker 1: is half asteroid half comet, but not in the sense 469 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,680 Speaker 1: that a centaur is. It's not like you take an asteroid, 470 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,080 Speaker 1: cut it in half and slap it onto the half 471 00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:46,720 Speaker 1: of a comet and this weird hybrid object you would 472 00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 1: call a centaur. That would be pretty cool, but like 473 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:53,000 Speaker 1: the tail trailing, that would be like a pretty killer commet. There. Yeah, 474 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:54,760 Speaker 1: it's sort of like punk, you know, like shave half 475 00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:57,240 Speaker 1: your head and have the other half long or something, 476 00:24:57,760 --> 00:24:59,320 Speaker 1: or maybe it's like a mullet. This is in the 477 00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:03,399 Speaker 1: front rocking the front party in the back. Anyway, a 478 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,760 Speaker 1: centaur is not an actual mix of an asteroid and 479 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,280 Speaker 1: a comet. It's an object which has some of the 480 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:14,200 Speaker 1: characteristics of both, so it doesn't fall neatly into either category. 481 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:16,760 Speaker 1: And this is what I was saying earlier, is that 482 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,440 Speaker 1: as we look deeper into the Solar system and catalog 483 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,080 Speaker 1: more and more stuff, we find that the transitions between 484 00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:25,080 Speaker 1: our categories are kind of fluid and fuzzy and in 485 00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,879 Speaker 1: the end kind of arbitrary, you know. We have to 486 00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:30,560 Speaker 1: make categorizations so we can talk about stuff. You know, 487 00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:32,560 Speaker 1: when you go to a meeting of astronomers and you say, 488 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,440 Speaker 1: I'm studying the planets, you don't want to every time 489 00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:37,520 Speaker 1: have to define what you mean by a planet, so 490 00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:39,639 Speaker 1: that you've got to have words we can all agree on, 491 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:42,800 Speaker 1: even if they are arbitrary. So what we've discovered is 492 00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:46,359 Speaker 1: that there is a population of rocks out there which 493 00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:50,360 Speaker 1: don't fall nicely into either the category of asteroid or 494 00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:54,160 Speaker 1: of comet. So the solution was give it a cool name, 495 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:58,000 Speaker 1: and now everyone's happy, and now everyone's happy. But now 496 00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:00,480 Speaker 1: everyone said arguing about whether or not account as a 497 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:04,360 Speaker 1: space center or not. Yeah, exactly. And so these things 498 00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:07,840 Speaker 1: are fun because they're sort of like comets because we 499 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,080 Speaker 1: think they come from deeper in the Solar System than asteroids. 500 00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:14,679 Speaker 1: They're on these sort of longer elliptical orbits. Their orbits 501 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:17,480 Speaker 1: go out to like between Jupiter and Neptune. All the 502 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,520 Speaker 1: asteroids are in the inner Solar System, but the space 503 00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:23,600 Speaker 1: centers they go out all the way to Neptune sometimes, 504 00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:26,840 Speaker 1: so there's sort of like comets because they also they 505 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,480 Speaker 1: have some of these commas, like you can see these 506 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:33,040 Speaker 1: sort of fuzz around them that's getting blown off by 507 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:35,600 Speaker 1: the Sun. So they seem sort of like comets because 508 00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:37,359 Speaker 1: they come from deeper in the Solar System and they 509 00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:42,120 Speaker 1: have this fuzz. But they're also like asteroids because they're 510 00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,320 Speaker 1: really really big. Some of them are way too big 511 00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,879 Speaker 1: to be considered comets. And they also they cross the 512 00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:53,400 Speaker 1: paths of these giant planets like comets and unlike asteroids. 513 00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:55,199 Speaker 1: So there really are sort of a mix of the 514 00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:59,080 Speaker 1: characteristics of the two different things. So wait, these are 515 00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:01,560 Speaker 1: objects that they have like a tail, like comments like 516 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:04,159 Speaker 1: they have you know, like a trail of stuff facing 517 00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:08,400 Speaker 1: away from the sun of like melted water or liquid. 518 00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:11,320 Speaker 1: They don't have a tail to have a coma. What's 519 00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:13,600 Speaker 1: the difference. So a tail usually comes if you have 520 00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,280 Speaker 1: like stuff that can be vaporized, like water or other 521 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,520 Speaker 1: things which can be vaporized, and dusk coma is more 522 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:22,440 Speaker 1: like you know, the little bits of stuff on it 523 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:25,120 Speaker 1: are sort of floating around it. These things are big 524 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:27,320 Speaker 1: enough that they can have their own gravity, so they 525 00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:30,240 Speaker 1: can sort of hold onto these things. In fact, one 526 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:32,760 Speaker 1: of them is so big is has its own ring system, 527 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,000 Speaker 1: like you know Saturn has rings. What there's this one centaur. 528 00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:41,480 Speaker 1: It's called charik Low and it's three hundred kilometers wide. 529 00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:45,080 Speaker 1: It's the biggest known centaur and it orbits between Saturn 530 00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:47,560 Speaker 1: and Urineus and it has rings around it. That's how 531 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:49,960 Speaker 1: big it is. It has its own gravity. Wow, what 532 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:54,359 Speaker 1: do you call the moon of a centaur? Daniel, I'm 533 00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:57,240 Speaker 1: gonna have to defer to the official astronomy naming department, 534 00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:00,199 Speaker 1: Like a fairy, a space ferry, I think, so us, 535 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:04,199 Speaker 1: a nymph maybe ego? Right, So it's it's like it 536 00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:06,639 Speaker 1: has an entourage. It's not just the rock. It's like 537 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,879 Speaker 1: a rock with some fuzz, yeah, And that tells you 538 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:11,639 Speaker 1: a little bit about what it's made out of. That 539 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:14,840 Speaker 1: there's a big component of sort of space dust in there, 540 00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,560 Speaker 1: not just like big deposits of metal and rock like 541 00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,320 Speaker 1: an asteroid, more like space dust like a comet. And 542 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:23,720 Speaker 1: so that makes it more like a comet and less 543 00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:26,560 Speaker 1: like an asteroid. But it doesn't have ice, or does it? 544 00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,120 Speaker 1: Some of them? Maybe? I see these things are much 545 00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:31,320 Speaker 1: more rare than the other ones, and so they're not 546 00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:34,159 Speaker 1: as well studied. There's only like two hundred and fifty 547 00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:36,959 Speaker 1: of them that have actually been identified. But you know, 548 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,480 Speaker 1: we can only really see the bigger ones. So the 549 00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:42,440 Speaker 1: estimates range from like forty thousand of these things too, 550 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:44,680 Speaker 1: there might be ten million of these things out there 551 00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:47,840 Speaker 1: in the Solar System. Okay, so then it's like an asteroid, 552 00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:52,800 Speaker 1: you said, because of its size, but also it's orbit. Yeah, 553 00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:55,240 Speaker 1: it's it's like an asteroid because it's really really big, 554 00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,320 Speaker 1: and it's sort of unlike an asteroid because of its orbit. 555 00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,200 Speaker 1: Like asteroids tend to stay either in the asteroid belt 556 00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:04,560 Speaker 1: or in Jupiter's orbit. These Jupiter trojans that we talked 557 00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: about before, these guys tend to be more stable than 558 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,640 Speaker 1: a comet, right, But they have these orbits that are 559 00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:13,920 Speaker 1: really long and elliptical, and they pass the giant planets. 560 00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,280 Speaker 1: They're like cross over the orbits of the giant planets. 561 00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:20,760 Speaker 1: Sometimes they're further out than Jupiter. Sometimes they're closer in 562 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:23,040 Speaker 1: than Jupiter. So that sort of makes them more like 563 00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:25,600 Speaker 1: a comet. But then again they're sort of big, lack 564 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,000 Speaker 1: an asteroid. Interesting. I don't know, I'm not getting a 565 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:30,960 Speaker 1: big comet vibe from these, you know what I mean, 566 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:33,480 Speaker 1: Like it feels like maybe just like a rogue asteroid 567 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:35,480 Speaker 1: or something. All right, Well, you know, on the common 568 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:38,440 Speaker 1: side of it. They have these big elliptical orbits and 569 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,080 Speaker 1: we think that maybe they came from the Kuiper Belt, 570 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,560 Speaker 1: Like these things don't look like the same kind of 571 00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:47,680 Speaker 1: material that makes up asteroids. They're made it more of 572 00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:50,120 Speaker 1: the same stuff that comments are made out. So I 573 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:52,880 Speaker 1: guess this is the kind of argument that astronomers would 574 00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,040 Speaker 1: have a conferences. They're like, oh, but it's big, so 575 00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:57,160 Speaker 1: it must be an asteroid. No, it has this weird orbit, 576 00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,160 Speaker 1: so it must be a comment. So that's why they 577 00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:02,080 Speaker 1: came up with the name. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And of 578 00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:05,720 Speaker 1: course nobody even agrees on what the definition of a 579 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:09,640 Speaker 1: space center is. There's like seven different definitions of a 580 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:15,040 Speaker 1: space center for real, for real, Like JPL has one, 581 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena down here in southern California. 582 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:22,000 Speaker 1: They define a space center in one way. And then 583 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,520 Speaker 1: there's another group called the Minor Planet Center, which is 584 00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:28,440 Speaker 1: an important institution in astronomy, and they have a different 585 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,800 Speaker 1: definition for what a space center is. And the differences 586 00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:35,080 Speaker 1: in like how you measure the orbit details doesn't matter 587 00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:37,960 Speaker 1: if you cross Neptune or if you cross Jupiter, and 588 00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:41,480 Speaker 1: these are just like totally arbitrary, but conflicting definitions of 589 00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:44,440 Speaker 1: what a space centaur is. I guess there's such a 590 00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:47,080 Speaker 1: weird variety of stuff out there that, you know, you 591 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:49,680 Speaker 1: kind of need more names to be able to talk 592 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:51,959 Speaker 1: about all these things. And it gets tricky when you 593 00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:54,560 Speaker 1: try to put things into bins. Or you could just 594 00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:56,920 Speaker 1: be inclusive and say, hey, there's just sort of stuff 595 00:30:56,960 --> 00:30:59,040 Speaker 1: out there, and they're all my best friends, and they're 596 00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,959 Speaker 1: all a little bit different, and you can categorize them by, 597 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:04,680 Speaker 1: you know, their orbit and their composition and not get 598 00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:09,680 Speaker 1: so hung up on names. I guess space stuff, planet stars, 599 00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:12,560 Speaker 1: everything in between is just space stuff. It's all just 600 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 1: particles to me, right, Like this is a big collection 601 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,120 Speaker 1: of particles, a little collection of particles. What's the difference 602 00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:21,960 Speaker 1: two particle physicists. I guess all five percent of the 603 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,440 Speaker 1: universe looks like a particle. All right, let's get into 604 00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:28,720 Speaker 1: where they actually come from and if we have actually 605 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:32,240 Speaker 1: set ined some with our very own eyes. But first 606 00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:46,240 Speaker 1: let's take another quick break. All right, Daniel, we're talking 607 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:50,800 Speaker 1: about space centaurs, which are a mix of asteroids and 608 00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:53,760 Speaker 1: comets that are like you know, space giant space rocks 609 00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:56,840 Speaker 1: that are kind of in between. They're big and rocky, 610 00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:01,640 Speaker 1: but they also have these weird orbits that make them 611 00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:03,880 Speaker 1: sort of like commets. Yeah, and so there's sort of 612 00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:07,120 Speaker 1: a mix between the two different things. And some things 613 00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:10,080 Speaker 1: are called comets, some things are called asteroids, some things 614 00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,880 Speaker 1: are called centaurs, and then you have these weird objects 615 00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,520 Speaker 1: that nobody agrees about because they fall sort of like 616 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:20,200 Speaker 1: in between the definitions from different organizations. So there's an object, 617 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:24,080 Speaker 1: for example, called Chiron, which some folks classify as a comet, 618 00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:27,160 Speaker 1: some folks classify as an asteroid, and some folks classify 619 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:30,520 Speaker 1: as a space centaur. So it's a little bit of everything. Wow. Yeah, 620 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:34,280 Speaker 1: I guess there's no agreed upon a set of definitions, 621 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:39,000 Speaker 1: Like there's no International Space Stuff Naming Committee. No. I 622 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,320 Speaker 1: think the problem is there are too many of those 623 00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:44,040 Speaker 1: committees and they don't agree with each other. And so 624 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:46,960 Speaker 1: I think this like controversy about Pluto and is it 625 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,920 Speaker 1: a planet or is it a dwarf planet or whatever, 626 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,240 Speaker 1: it's just the tip of the iceberg. It's just the 627 00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:54,560 Speaker 1: tip of the frozen comet. When it comes to like 628 00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:57,600 Speaker 1: the naming controversies we're gonna be facing in the future 629 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,160 Speaker 1: as we discover more and more stuff out are in 630 00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:02,560 Speaker 1: the Solar System, and people are gonna be arguing like 631 00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:05,120 Speaker 1: should you name stuff based on where it is now 632 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:07,720 Speaker 1: or where you think it was formed, or what it's 633 00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:11,800 Speaker 1: made out of, or it's possible history or its gravitational 634 00:33:11,960 --> 00:33:14,320 Speaker 1: role in the Solar System. And there's lots of like 635 00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:17,800 Speaker 1: philosophical differences about how you categorize this stuff that I 636 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:19,520 Speaker 1: think we're gonna be hearing more and more about in 637 00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:22,720 Speaker 1: the future. I guess maybe some naming groups are like 638 00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:25,560 Speaker 1: you know, committees, some of them are groups, some of 639 00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,560 Speaker 1: them are centers, so they're just sort of a naming 640 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:32,760 Speaker 1: war for those two. That's true, Yeah, exactly, the naming 641 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,120 Speaker 1: centaur wars. All right, well, step of three, or where 642 00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:37,640 Speaker 1: can we see one and what what do they look like? 643 00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:40,920 Speaker 1: So we've never actually photographed one up close, like we've 644 00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:44,040 Speaker 1: identified them in telescopes. We see these things, we can 645 00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:47,080 Speaker 1: tell that they're they're they're reflected light, but we've never 646 00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,960 Speaker 1: liked passed a space probe by one to get a 647 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,560 Speaker 1: close up picture of the way we have of asteroids 648 00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,600 Speaker 1: and of comets, and of course of planets and dwarf 649 00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,360 Speaker 1: planets and all those other kinds of things. So space 650 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:00,800 Speaker 1: centers or one of those last things that are really 651 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,800 Speaker 1: unexplored in our Solar system. And there's some really fascinating 652 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,560 Speaker 1: questions about what they are and where they come from. 653 00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:10,040 Speaker 1: Like question number one is why do they have their 654 00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:14,560 Speaker 1: weird colors? Like they have colors. There's different colored space centaurs. Yeah, 655 00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:17,920 Speaker 1: there are two different kinds of space centaurs at least, 656 00:34:18,239 --> 00:34:20,960 Speaker 1: and they range from very very red sort of like 657 00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:24,160 Speaker 1: the surface of Mars too much more blue sort of 658 00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:28,160 Speaker 1: like Urinus. And so that's fascinating that there's these two camps. 659 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:30,359 Speaker 1: There's like two kinds of centaurs. I don't know which 660 00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:31,759 Speaker 1: ones are the good ones and which ones are the 661 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:34,319 Speaker 1: evil ones or if it's much more nuanced than that, 662 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:38,600 Speaker 1: but there are red and there are blue centers. Thing. Wait, um, 663 00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:41,160 Speaker 1: so we don't have a photograph of them, but we 664 00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:44,640 Speaker 1: can tell from the light that they they reflect what 665 00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:46,759 Speaker 1: color they are, Like they look like pin points, but 666 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:50,000 Speaker 1: like a red pin point and a blue pin point sometimes. Yeah, 667 00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:51,839 Speaker 1: just like when you look at the night sky, you 668 00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:55,480 Speaker 1: can tell which planet is Mars because it actually looks 669 00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:58,440 Speaker 1: red to the naked eye, even though your naked eye 670 00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,520 Speaker 1: can't really like see the size of Mars. You can 671 00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:03,839 Speaker 1: still measure the light that comes from a pin prick, 672 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:06,520 Speaker 1: and that's the limitation of our knowledge about space center. 673 00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:09,719 Speaker 1: So far. We basically just see them as pin pricks 674 00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:12,640 Speaker 1: in telescopes because we've never done a close up fly by. 675 00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:17,120 Speaker 1: And now there's also a little bit of controversy about 676 00:35:17,239 --> 00:35:20,040 Speaker 1: these objects, yeah, because the color is an important clue. 677 00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:22,440 Speaker 1: Like one question we'd like to ask is where did 678 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,400 Speaker 1: these things come from? Where were they made? Because remember, 679 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,120 Speaker 1: we're interested in studying the Solar System not just because 680 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:30,520 Speaker 1: stuff out there in space is cool it is, but 681 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:32,960 Speaker 1: because we think it tells us a story about how 682 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:36,319 Speaker 1: the Solar System was formed and what happened and where 683 00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,799 Speaker 1: everything came from and whether it was unusual. And we 684 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:41,719 Speaker 1: think that a lot of these objects can tell us 685 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:44,640 Speaker 1: about that story based on where they are now and 686 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:46,320 Speaker 1: the way we do that as we build a complete 687 00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:48,920 Speaker 1: model of how the Solar System was formed and we 688 00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:51,640 Speaker 1: try to compare what that predicts to what we actually 689 00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:54,160 Speaker 1: see out there in space, and where there's something we 690 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:56,640 Speaker 1: don't understand that tells us that something in our model 691 00:35:56,840 --> 00:35:59,440 Speaker 1: is wrong, and so we're interested in, like where did 692 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:02,960 Speaker 1: these space guitars form? Do they form with the asteroids 693 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,360 Speaker 1: and then get sort of knocked out into weirder, longer orbits, 694 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:09,120 Speaker 1: or did they form with the comets and somehow get 695 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:12,960 Speaker 1: preferentially selected and pulled into the inner Solar system somehow? 696 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:15,200 Speaker 1: And so one great way to do that is to 697 00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:18,000 Speaker 1: look at their composition. And we can't really do that 698 00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:20,799 Speaker 1: without sampling them, but we can get a clue by 699 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:23,840 Speaker 1: looking at their light, so looking at whether they reflect 700 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:26,920 Speaker 1: red or blue light and comparing that to what we 701 00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:30,120 Speaker 1: see from other parts of the Solar system. Like you 702 00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:32,960 Speaker 1: might think, well, if these things are red and blue, 703 00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:35,719 Speaker 1: what else out there is red and blue? And if 704 00:36:35,719 --> 00:36:37,799 Speaker 1: you look at the Kuiper Belt, where we think that 705 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,520 Speaker 1: these things might come from, we find that those objects 706 00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,680 Speaker 1: are not actually by colored. There aren't red and blue 707 00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:46,319 Speaker 1: objects out there in the Kuiper Belt. Wait, if something 708 00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:50,239 Speaker 1: is red and blue, would it be purple? Can there 709 00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:54,400 Speaker 1: be purple centaurs? If not purple purple dragons? No, we 710 00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:57,200 Speaker 1: mean that the Kuiper Belt doesn't necessarily have like a 711 00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:00,719 Speaker 1: distribution of colors the way we see in centaurs, like 712 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:03,520 Speaker 1: centers tend to be red or blue. You don't have 713 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:06,359 Speaker 1: an individual center that's red and blue. You have red 714 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:08,600 Speaker 1: centaurs and blue centaurs, but if you look out in 715 00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:12,240 Speaker 1: the Kuiper Belt, you don't see red objects and blue objects. 716 00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,680 Speaker 1: So it suggests that that maybe they don't come from 717 00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:17,719 Speaker 1: the Kuiper Belt. Maybe they come from somewhere else, like 718 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:21,239 Speaker 1: maybe they are not evenly distributed, like maybe they come 719 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:24,200 Speaker 1: from one of two places, yeah, Or maybe there's some 720 00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:28,399 Speaker 1: process which is related to their composition which preferentially selects them. 721 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:30,960 Speaker 1: And there's this whole other group of objects out there. 722 00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:34,120 Speaker 1: The Kuiper Belt is part of this set of objects 723 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:38,200 Speaker 1: we called trans neptunity and objects basically anything out there 724 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:42,120 Speaker 1: past Neptune. And in that group of stuff, there's a 725 00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:46,719 Speaker 1: group of objects called plutinos, which are basically the category 726 00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:49,920 Speaker 1: of objects that Pluto is in. You know, dwarf planets 727 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,360 Speaker 1: out there really far in the Solar System, and those 728 00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:56,440 Speaker 1: things tend to have interesting colors. Like you remember when 729 00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:58,839 Speaker 1: we did that fly by Pluto. One of the big 730 00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:02,120 Speaker 1: shocks was frankly, how interesting Pluto was to look at. 731 00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:06,280 Speaker 1: Are we sorry we downgraded it now they're like, oh, 732 00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:08,360 Speaker 1: you're kind of cooler than we thought. We're sorry we 733 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:10,080 Speaker 1: kick you out of our club. Yeah, I think that's 734 00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:11,959 Speaker 1: what happens when you kick somebody at your best friends 735 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:14,840 Speaker 1: club and then you discover they actually really talented and 736 00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:17,520 Speaker 1: you wish you had stayed friends with them. That Pluto 737 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:20,239 Speaker 1: has these really interesting features. It's really interesting colors, and 738 00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:22,880 Speaker 1: it has this heart shaped pattern on it. It's a 739 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:26,120 Speaker 1: pretty beautiful planet, actually non planet, non planet, thank you 740 00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:28,400 Speaker 1: very much, as a dwarf planet. And a lot of 741 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:31,560 Speaker 1: these plutinos out there have interesting colors, and so those 742 00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:34,960 Speaker 1: things tend to have both red and blue colors. So 743 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:38,799 Speaker 1: it might be that these centaurs used to be plutinos 744 00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:42,080 Speaker 1: that used to be objects out there past Pluto and 745 00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:47,120 Speaker 1: somehow got knocked in words by some process we don't understand. Now, 746 00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:50,120 Speaker 1: can I actually see uspace on center with my naked eye, 747 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:51,799 Speaker 1: Like if I look out into the night sky, is 748 00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,160 Speaker 1: it possible that I might see one going by? No, 749 00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:56,720 Speaker 1: they tend to be further out and they're too small, 750 00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:59,160 Speaker 1: so you definitely need a telescope to see one, the 751 00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,799 Speaker 1: same way that you and see asteroids with your naked eye. 752 00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:04,719 Speaker 1: And asteroids are sometimes even bigger than space centers and 753 00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:06,960 Speaker 1: it's closer in, So if you see one with your 754 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:13,799 Speaker 1: naked eye. It means we're in trouble. Runaway, runaway to Mars. Maybe, Yeah, 755 00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:17,840 Speaker 1: quick build that ship. All right, Well, that is what 756 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:21,080 Speaker 1: a space center is. It's um a sort of a 757 00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:23,960 Speaker 1: half asteroid, half common but not really. It makes just 758 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,280 Speaker 1: sort of like a fuzzy object that falls in between 759 00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:29,520 Speaker 1: the two. And so we see that the stuff out 760 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:32,960 Speaker 1: there in the Solar System can't be nicely categorized into 761 00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:35,759 Speaker 1: little bins. That makes sense. There's stuff out there that, 762 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:37,520 Speaker 1: you know, might be a planet, might be a star, 763 00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:40,759 Speaker 1: might be a dwarf planet. But there's an incredible variety 764 00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:43,279 Speaker 1: of stuff out there for us to identify and to 765 00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:45,200 Speaker 1: learn from. Yeah, I think the cool thing is that 766 00:39:45,239 --> 00:39:48,040 Speaker 1: there are still things out there, even in our Solar 767 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:52,000 Speaker 1: System that kind of defied definition or that still kind 768 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:54,879 Speaker 1: of surprises or still has this talking about what's out 769 00:39:54,920 --> 00:39:56,799 Speaker 1: there and how it all came to be. Yeah, and 770 00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:59,200 Speaker 1: the far reaches of the Solar System are not very 771 00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,839 Speaker 1: well explored. This trans Neptunian objects and stuff out there 772 00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:05,640 Speaker 1: past Pluto is too far for us to see most 773 00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:08,200 Speaker 1: of it, and we haven't sent very many probes, and 774 00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:11,080 Speaker 1: so we're constantly surprised whenever we learned about them, and 775 00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:13,359 Speaker 1: I think there are a lot more surprises out there 776 00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,880 Speaker 1: waiting for us. And you know, even further out the 777 00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:19,359 Speaker 1: Orc cloud. Remember that's something we've never actually seen. It's 778 00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:23,160 Speaker 1: just theoretical. And when it's just theoretical, that means there 779 00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:26,919 Speaker 1: are definitely surprises waiting for us. Oh yeah, what could 780 00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:29,760 Speaker 1: there be? There could be interesting new things and maybe 781 00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:33,279 Speaker 1: some of our listeners could discover one day armies of 782 00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:36,360 Speaker 1: elves waiting to take back the Solis. Yeah. Yeah, what 783 00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:38,960 Speaker 1: do you call a half common half planet, Daniel or 784 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:42,960 Speaker 1: a half moon have planetoid? I call it an ambush 785 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:45,400 Speaker 1: waiting to happen. They call it a future Nobel prize 786 00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:48,160 Speaker 1: for somebody that's listening to this. All right, Well, the 787 00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:49,920 Speaker 1: next time you look up at the night guy, think 788 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,840 Speaker 1: about it. There might be a Centaurs out there, or 789 00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:57,600 Speaker 1: even new undiscovered objects at b B you could name, 790 00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:00,920 Speaker 1: or at least fantasized about naming. And please be responsible 791 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:03,719 Speaker 1: with your future astronomical namings because we might have to 792 00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:06,319 Speaker 1: cover it on the podcast. Yep. All right, Well we 793 00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:08,960 Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for joining us, see you 794 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:19,239 Speaker 1: next time. Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel and 795 00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:22,240 Speaker 1: Jorge Explain the Universe is a production of I Heart 796 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:25,520 Speaker 1: Radio or more podcast from my heart Radio. Visit the 797 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:29,320 Speaker 1: i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 798 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:30,520 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.