WEBVTT - What is a superluminous supernova?

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, Jorge, do you think that our culture might be

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<v Speaker 1>devaluing the word super?

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<v Speaker 2>I think our culture is sadly devaluing a lot of things.

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<v Speaker 2>I hadn't really thought about the word super though.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, you hear it super often. It's kind of

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<v Speaker 1>like super everywhere, and after a while you super start

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<v Speaker 1>to not even notice it.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I guess you're right. Are superheroes, super villains, super califragilistic, xpialidoses?

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<v Speaker 2>It's used a lot.

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<v Speaker 1>Maybe we should like limit how much we use it

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<v Speaker 1>before it loses all of its power.

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<v Speaker 2>Do you think we're gonna run out of words?

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<v Speaker 1>We're gonna have to go to super duper, super extra duper.

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<v Speaker 1>It's gonna get exhausting, or we're.

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<v Speaker 2>Going to go to super conducting super colliders.

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<v Speaker 1>All right, I admit scientists are guilty of this as well,

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<v Speaker 1>but that's super duper not my fault.

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<v Speaker 2>That's not a super excuse.

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<v Speaker 1>There.

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<v Speaker 2>I am hooreham May, cartoonists and the creator of PhD comics.

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<v Speaker 1>Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist and a professor

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<v Speaker 1>at UC Irvine, and I super duper love science.

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<v Speaker 2>But what does that mean? I mean you love it

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<v Speaker 2>in a super way, or you love it a lot.

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<v Speaker 1>I guess it also means I kind of love super science.

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<v Speaker 1>I love those projects that are big and grandiose that

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<v Speaker 1>just put you at awe at what humans can do,

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<v Speaker 1>what their minds can imagine, and what their hands can build.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, the problem is you never know who those projects

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<v Speaker 2>really are. You know, by day they're just mild mannered

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<v Speaker 2>physics projects, but by night they take off their glasses,

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<v Speaker 2>they put under cows and become superphysics.

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<v Speaker 1>So the super conducting super Collider by day was just

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<v Speaker 1>the normal, everyday conducting collider.

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<v Speaker 2>And then it had a physics accident. I guess which

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<v Speaker 2>gave it superpowers. That makes no sense. You superphysics become

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<v Speaker 2>super heroid.

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<v Speaker 1>Maybe you just put glasses on your normal, everyday conducting

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<v Speaker 1>collider and it becomes a super collider.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh no, no, the glass that makes you every day

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<v Speaker 2>an every day person.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh right, right, that's right. Take the glasses off the collider.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's the issue, that's right, the fake glasses. We

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<v Speaker 2>know lenses in them.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, if we take all the lenses out of the

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<v Speaker 1>large Hadron collider, I'm not convinced it's going to become

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<v Speaker 1>a super large Hadron Collider.

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<v Speaker 2>It's going to be super fun, though. What's going to happen?

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<v Speaker 2>It's going to leap over tall buildings and or destroy

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<v Speaker 2>tall buildings.

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<v Speaker 1>Discover new particles in a single bound.

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<v Speaker 2>But anyways, welcome to our podcast Daniel and Jorge Explain

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<v Speaker 2>the Universe, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 1>In which we delve into the super fascinating mysteries of

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<v Speaker 1>the universe. How does it all work? Is it possible

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<v Speaker 1>to make sense of this incredible dizzy and cosmos, all

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<v Speaker 1>of its wonderful tiny particles and enormous swirling black holes,

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<v Speaker 1>This incredible project that humans have been on for thousands

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<v Speaker 1>of years to try to digest this incredible universe and

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<v Speaker 1>translate it into a story that we can tell ourselves

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<v Speaker 1>and explain to our children and make sense of.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because it is a pretty super universe, full of

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<v Speaker 2>amazing demonstrations of power and abilities, and incredible particles and

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<v Speaker 2>incredible stars and objects out there in space.

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<v Speaker 1>And we want to understand all of it. Sometimes the

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<v Speaker 1>answers to deep questions about the universe are right under

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<v Speaker 1>our feet in the everyday physics that's going on around us.

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<v Speaker 1>But other times we can find clues to how the

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<v Speaker 1>universe works from the most dramatic, the most amazing, the

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<v Speaker 1>most explosive situations out there.

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<v Speaker 2>I fail. You're trying to find out what the real

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<v Speaker 2>identity of the universe is. So do you think the

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<v Speaker 2>universe wants its privacy, it's trying to protect its secrets.

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<v Speaker 1>I do not believe in the privacy of the universe. Basically,

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<v Speaker 1>physics is trying to unveil or undress the universe.

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<v Speaker 2>Boy, you make it's some kind of RACYO super racy.

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<v Speaker 1>Depends what's underneath that veil. I suppose if it's just equations,

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<v Speaker 1>then it's very safe for work.

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<v Speaker 2>It sounds like work. Actually that crazy at all.

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<v Speaker 1>Actually, that's literally my job is to try to reveal

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<v Speaker 1>the safer work equations that underpin the whole workings of

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<v Speaker 1>the universe. Everything that's happening out there, we imagine can

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<v Speaker 1>be described with mathematical formula and scientific thinking, or at

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<v Speaker 1>least so far that's always worked.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because there is a lot to discover and a

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<v Speaker 2>lot that we have seen about the universe out there.

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<v Speaker 2>There are a lot of bright things out there for

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<v Speaker 2>us to see and to study and to kind of

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<v Speaker 2>parse the light to figure out what's going on out there.

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<v Speaker 1>And we'd like to understand the whole universe, not just

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<v Speaker 1>the part that's here under our feet, also the things

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<v Speaker 1>that are very far out there in space. But those

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<v Speaker 1>things present a special challenge, of course, because they're not

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<v Speaker 1>right here for us to study. Instead, all we can

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<v Speaker 1>do is examine the messages that they send us, the

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<v Speaker 1>particles that be in clues to us from those distant objects.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and thank goodness that they are sending a signals

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<v Speaker 2>through light, because otherwise we'd be living in a dark

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<v Speaker 2>universe and have no idea what's going on out there

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<v Speaker 2>beyond our Solar system.

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<v Speaker 1>And in fact, we are probably living in a dark universe.

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<v Speaker 1>Most of the stuff that's out there in the universe

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<v Speaker 1>isn't sending us photons or any other kind of particles

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<v Speaker 1>to give us clues about what it is and what

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<v Speaker 1>it's doing. The dark matter that's out there holding galaxies

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<v Speaker 1>together is stubbornly invisible to all of our senses and

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<v Speaker 1>all of our telescopes is sending us messages, and those

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<v Speaker 1>are not very subtle. It is screaming messages at us.

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<v Speaker 1>It is blinding us with the incredible power of the

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<v Speaker 1>photons that it creates.

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<v Speaker 2>You make it sound like the universe is not a superhero,

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<v Speaker 2>but maybe it's a super villain.

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<v Speaker 1>Mm exactly. Maybe that's why it's evading our ability to

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<v Speaker 1>understand it so far.

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<v Speaker 2>It's a dark universe. It's a dark superuniverse.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, you know, the story of science would be a

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<v Speaker 1>lot more boring if the universe was more helpful. If

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<v Speaker 1>it was just like, all right, look, humans, sit down

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<v Speaker 1>for an hour. I'm gonna explain all this to you,

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<v Speaker 1>then we would have been done thousands of years ago.

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<v Speaker 2>Right, that sounds like a great story. I would be like,

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<v Speaker 2>what why say universe being helpful? That's going on?

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<v Speaker 1>It's a much more interesting story when there are twists

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<v Speaker 1>and turns in dramatic revelations like a thousand years in Right,

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<v Speaker 1>We're like on season five thousand of Science and we

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<v Speaker 1>are still discovering incredible plot twists. Right, So, like no

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<v Speaker 1>writer's room could have invented that.

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<v Speaker 2>It's like a new genre of Netflix shows. P dramas,

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<v Speaker 2>not K dramas or T dramas. It's physics dramas.

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<v Speaker 1>The universe is the greatest story ever told, But.

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<v Speaker 2>There are a lot of interesting signals coming to us

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<v Speaker 2>from the universe out there. As you said, some of

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<v Speaker 2>them are really bright. Some of them are super bright.

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<v Speaker 1>And you know about stars and galaxies and black holes

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<v Speaker 1>and even very bright events like supernova. But there are

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<v Speaker 1>some things in the universe that are even brighter than

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<v Speaker 1>your typical supernova. So today on the podcast, we'll be

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<v Speaker 1>tackling the question what is a super luminous supernova. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>guessing it's super but is it super duper only when

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<v Speaker 1>it takes off its glasses? But this is what I

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<v Speaker 1>was wondering about, Like, this thing has two supers in

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<v Speaker 1>its name. It's not just a luminous nova. It's not

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<v Speaker 1>just a luminous supernova. It's not a super luminous nova.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a super luminous supernova. Oh my gosh.

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<v Speaker 2>It's almost like you're making things up as you go along,

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<v Speaker 2>like a three year old.

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<v Speaker 1>Almost like we need somebody to tell us how to

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<v Speaker 1>organize the naming of things in the universe.

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<v Speaker 2>It's almost like physicis nitith thesaurus perhaps to look up

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<v Speaker 2>synonyms for super I mean, I think there are a

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<v Speaker 2>couple out there that you could have used that basically

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<v Speaker 2>say the same thing.

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<v Speaker 1>Mmmm, the super luminous extra nova, the hyper luminous supernova,

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<v Speaker 1>those kind of things.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the uber luminous supernova, the extremely luminous sounds like

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<v Speaker 2>you need a superhero called mister Thesaurus to rescue the

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<v Speaker 2>day at the university there.

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<v Speaker 1>The super thesaurus supernova.

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<v Speaker 2>You're right. It is sort of like like there was

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<v Speaker 2>a nova, and then there was a supernova, and then

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<v Speaker 2>there was a luminous supernova, and then they found something

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<v Speaker 2>even brighter. I'm guessing that they had to call a

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<v Speaker 2>superluminous supernovas.

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<v Speaker 1>Where are they going to go next? Right? The double

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<v Speaker 1>superluminous supernova.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, I guess you would have to find some other

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<v Speaker 2>property of it, like maybe size, like supersize superluminous supernova.

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<v Speaker 1>That sounds like you're ordering a second helping of fries,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, Can I supersize my supernova? Please?

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<v Speaker 3>No?

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<v Speaker 2>Can I supersize my superluminous supernova? They're like, what do

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<v Speaker 2>you think this is? Burger king? Get out of here.

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<v Speaker 1>Only two supers per order, please, sir.

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<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I'm guessing it is like an upgraded supernova.

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<v Speaker 2>That's what I'm guessing what it is.

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<v Speaker 1>It is something like that, and yet it contains deep

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<v Speaker 1>mysteries that we do not yet understand well.

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<v Speaker 2>As usual, we were wondering how many people out there

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<v Speaker 2>had thought about what a superluminous supernova is or have

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<v Speaker 2>any idea what it is.

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<v Speaker 1>So thanks very much to everybody who answers these questions

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<v Speaker 1>for our fun segment of the podcast, which used to

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<v Speaker 1>be Person on the Street and is now a random

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<v Speaker 1>person on the Internet. If you are a person on

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<v Speaker 1>the Internet and you would like to participate in the future,

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<v Speaker 1>please write to me too, question at Danielandjorge dot com.

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<v Speaker 2>So think about it for a second. What do you

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<v Speaker 2>think is a superluminous supernova? He would beeple had to say.

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<v Speaker 4>My best guess would be that it's a supernova that,

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<v Speaker 4>for some reason, perhaps do to excess energy input or

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<v Speaker 4>some initial conditions that are extraordinary, produces way more electromagnetic

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<v Speaker 4>radiation than a normal supernova.

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<v Speaker 3>A super luminous supernova is probably a supernova that is

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<v Speaker 3>extremely bright past the normal brightness that a supernova has.

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<v Speaker 3>That would mean it would be an extremely bright supernova

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<v Speaker 3>because the regular ones are already pretty bright.

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<v Speaker 5>Superluminous supernova must be a supernova that just has high

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<v Speaker 5>visual magnitude. Super super bright. Maybe we use it to

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<v Speaker 5>measure distances.

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<v Speaker 1>Well. The name seems to suggest that it's a supernova

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<v Speaker 1>that emits more radiation than a regular super nova. Why

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<v Speaker 1>that might be the case, I have no idea.

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<v Speaker 6>I guess a super illuminous super and iva is in

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<v Speaker 6>the name and that it's extra bright. But I thought

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<v Speaker 6>a supernova I would say standard candle that people judge

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<v Speaker 6>distances by. So maybe I'm being too simplistic.

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<v Speaker 2>I think it's super illuminous supernova would be a supernova

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<v Speaker 2>brighter than usual.

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<v Speaker 1>Supernova's probably connected to the mouse.

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<v Speaker 2>All right, I like the person who said it's in

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<v Speaker 2>the name.

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<v Speaker 1>You might almost say it's well named because it's communicated

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<v Speaker 1>effectively what it is.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm sure it's well named and that it communicates what

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<v Speaker 2>it is. But you know, sometimes thesaurus comes in handy.

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<v Speaker 2>For example, the same person said it means it extra bright.

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<v Speaker 2>You could have just called it an extra bright supernova

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<v Speaker 2>and then it wouldn't sound so sinsy.

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<v Speaker 1>I don't know, it makes it sound more hollywoody. Maybe

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<v Speaker 1>that's what they were going for, a.

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<v Speaker 2>Little bit of glam super luminous supernova.

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<v Speaker 1>Hmmm, it does have a certain ring to it.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, step us through this interesting thing coming on, and

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<v Speaker 2>let's start with the beginning. What is a supernova? Is

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<v Speaker 2>it like a Noah that's super.

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<v Speaker 1>It's like a nova that took off it's glasses.

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<v Speaker 2>It's like a nova that's not an older Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>Actually the name comes from Kikobraje who wrote this book

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<v Speaker 1>De Nova Stella, from which the word nova comes from

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<v Speaker 1>nova there and means new as a new star because

0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:24.520
<v Speaker 1>an observation of the changes in the sky. And so

0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.200
<v Speaker 1>the supernova are one of these really cool astronomical objects

0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.680
<v Speaker 1>because they happen sort of on human time scales. I mean,

0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.800
<v Speaker 1>we're used to thinking about like stars forming and burning

0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:36.959
<v Speaker 1>over millions and billions of years, and galaxies swarming for

0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.080
<v Speaker 1>billions of years in the universe expanding over billions of years.

0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.240
<v Speaker 1>Everything sort of happens on these really long time scales

0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:44.839
<v Speaker 1>that we don't get to watch. We just have to

0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.439
<v Speaker 1>like imagine and fast forward or in reverse. But supernova

0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:51.120
<v Speaker 1>are really awesome because they're dramatic and they happen on

0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.280
<v Speaker 1>human timescales, Like you can see this thing appear in

0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.199
<v Speaker 1>the sky and then burn for a few weeks or

0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:00.199
<v Speaker 1>months and then fade out. So the sky changes at

0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:02.319
<v Speaker 1>a rate that we can actually see, which is why

0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.959
<v Speaker 1>supernova are some of the oldest astronomical observations that we have.

0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:08.640
<v Speaker 1>People have been seeing them and wondering what they were

0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.120
<v Speaker 1>for literally thousands of years. And now we know, of

0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:16.559
<v Speaker 1>course that supernova represent the endpoint of certain kinds of stars.

0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.840
<v Speaker 1>Most stars don't end this way, but some stars end

0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.920
<v Speaker 1>with this very dramatic collapse, this implosion, which then leads

0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.720
<v Speaker 1>to very dramatic explosion and a huge release of energy.

0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.000
<v Speaker 2>Wait, so you're saying it's the end point of a star,

0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:35.320
<v Speaker 2>like the death of a star, and yet it's called

0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.960
<v Speaker 2>the super nova, like a super new Well.

0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:39.440
<v Speaker 1>It gets a little bit into what you mean by

0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.160
<v Speaker 1>a star. But yeah, you have stars which are born

0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:44.560
<v Speaker 1>and then burned and have fusion going on at their core,

0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.439
<v Speaker 1>and there's this usual struggle between gravity that's compressing it

0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:50.480
<v Speaker 1>and trying to make it more and more dense, and

0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.160
<v Speaker 1>the fusion and the radiation that's puffing it out and

0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.800
<v Speaker 1>keeping it from collapsing. But in the case of some supernova,

0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:00.319
<v Speaker 1>eventually gravity wins, and we can walk through some of

0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:02.760
<v Speaker 1>the mechanism for this, and you get this collapse where

0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.839
<v Speaker 1>this shock wave propagates in very very fast crushes the

0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.600
<v Speaker 1>star and then burns all of its fuel very very

0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.640
<v Speaker 1>quickly and explodes. And so in a sense, that's the

0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.760
<v Speaker 1>end point of the star and the birth of something

0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.440
<v Speaker 1>new because you no longer have fusion happening.

0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:20.160
<v Speaker 2>It sounds like a very political answer there.

0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.040
<v Speaker 1>Well, you know, every death leads to a rebirth of

0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:24.560
<v Speaker 1>some kind.

0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.800
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, it's like you said it, and it

0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:29.560
<v Speaker 2>all starts with the collapse of a star. I think

0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:31.199
<v Speaker 2>that's something that a lot of people don't know. Like,

0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:33.960
<v Speaker 2>you know, we usually say a supernowa is the explosion

0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:37.920
<v Speaker 2>of a star, But before the star explodes, it actually collapses, right.

0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:40.319
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And there's two ways that this can happen. The

0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.439
<v Speaker 1>sort of classic way that we call core collapse is

0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:47.719
<v Speaker 1>basically the end point of your standard solar fusion. You know,

0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:51.360
<v Speaker 1>when a star starts out, it's mostly hydrogen. Sometimes it's

0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.000
<v Speaker 1>a little bit of metal leftover from previous star burning.

0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.160
<v Speaker 1>But you know, in the early universe it was all hydrogen.

0:13:56.280 --> 0:14:00.360
<v Speaker 1>That hydrogen gas clumps together and falls together because of gravity,

0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.520
<v Speaker 1>pushes it together, squeezes it together, gets it hot enough

0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:06.560
<v Speaker 1>to have fusion, and then that fusion makes heavier stuff

0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.120
<v Speaker 1>turns hydrogen into helium, and then helium into carbon, and

0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.080
<v Speaker 1>carbon into oxygen and nitrogen and silicon. You get heavier

0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.600
<v Speaker 1>and heavier stuff, until eventually it's made stuff that's so heavy,

0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.720
<v Speaker 1>so massive that the gravity from its inner ashes, the

0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.040
<v Speaker 1>product of its fusion, causes it to collapse. It can

0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:28.280
<v Speaker 1>no longer hold off gravity, and so gravity eventually overcomes

0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.400
<v Speaker 1>the outward pressure from fusion and the star collapses.

0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.560
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. It's almost sort of like a phase transition, right,

0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.000
<v Speaker 2>Like all of a sudden, the molecules inside of the

0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.000
<v Speaker 2>Sun can't take the pressure, so they sort of collapse

0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.320
<v Speaker 2>into a different arrangement, right, Like they're maybe staying apart

0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.280
<v Speaker 2>from each other or staying at a certain density because

0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.120
<v Speaker 2>of some forces. But then at some point those verses

0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.520
<v Speaker 2>get overcome and the whole thing just kind of rearranges

0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:55.000
<v Speaker 2>into a more compact form, right, something like that happens.

0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:57.600
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And it's very sudden. Right. Once it falls over

0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.680
<v Speaker 1>the threshold is a runaway effect because gravit squeezes it

0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.080
<v Speaker 1>and you get this shockwave inwards towards the core, which

0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:07.440
<v Speaker 1>then bounces back out right. Because when the shockwave happens,

0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.040
<v Speaker 1>now you've compressed the core. It's super duper high temperature,

0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.640
<v Speaker 1>and now very quickly it does kinds of fusion that

0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.120
<v Speaker 1>couldn't do before. It didn't used to be hot enough

0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.960
<v Speaker 1>to make the heaviest of metals. But now in those

0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.360
<v Speaker 1>brief moments during that shockwave, the conditions are right to

0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:24.720
<v Speaker 1>make some of the really heavy metals, the ones you

0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.240
<v Speaker 1>don't get during normal burning of the star. And then

0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:31.200
<v Speaker 1>that fusion creates an incredible amount of radiation. So now

0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.440
<v Speaker 1>the radiation wins. So it's sort of like a tug

0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:35.920
<v Speaker 1>of war where it was balanced and then gravity starts

0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:38.640
<v Speaker 1>to win. But then that creates the conditions for the

0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:41.520
<v Speaker 1>pressure to take over again, and gravity loses and the

0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:42.360
<v Speaker 1>star explodes.

0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's sort of like a building collapsing. But then

0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.040
<v Speaker 2>once the building collapses, that pressure of all that stuff

0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.360
<v Speaker 2>being crushed together somehow unleashes other kinds of energy, right,

0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.000
<v Speaker 2>and then the whole thing explodes. What's being unleashed is

0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.320
<v Speaker 2>basically fusion energy, right.

0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.880
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, what's being unleashed there is fusion energy exactly off

0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.080
<v Speaker 1>and in kinds of fusion that you can't get during

0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.960
<v Speaker 1>normal burning. And so that's one way that the universe

0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:08.960
<v Speaker 1>makes super duper heavy metals like gold or uranium. Other

0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.520
<v Speaker 1>methods are like collisions of neutron stars or other kinds

0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:14.840
<v Speaker 1>of shock waves. It's very very hard to make those

0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:18.640
<v Speaker 1>heavy elements because they require energy rather than producing it.

0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:20.280
<v Speaker 2>That's kind of why they say some of these heavy

0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:22.720
<v Speaker 2>elements like gold and some of the more complex elements

0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:24.800
<v Speaker 2>are made in the heart of a dying star.

0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.760
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly, and so that's method number one. Basically for

0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:32.240
<v Speaker 1>supernovas to form, it's actually called a type two supernova.

0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.800
<v Speaker 1>This core collapse the other way similar, but it happens

0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.320
<v Speaker 1>via a different path. Like you start out with a

0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:41.000
<v Speaker 1>star that doesn't naturally have core collapse. It burns, it

0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.120
<v Speaker 1>becomes a red giant as it puffs out and the hydrogen,

0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.280
<v Speaker 1>helium and its atmosphere start to burn, a really big star.

0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.480
<v Speaker 1>But then it doesn't turn into a supernova. Instead, it

0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.680
<v Speaker 1>turns into a white dwarf, which is basically just leaving

0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.000
<v Speaker 1>the hot core of the star, the metals that form

0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.640
<v Speaker 1>during the initial burning. Everything else puffs out and the

0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:03.120
<v Speaker 1>hot is left behind this white dwarf, And normally that

0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.359
<v Speaker 1>white dwarf would just hang out for a long time

0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.440
<v Speaker 1>and eventually over maybe like trillions of years would cool

0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.879
<v Speaker 1>into a black dwarf. But if somebody comes along, like

0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:15.800
<v Speaker 1>another star that's nearby, or it's part of a binary

0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.560
<v Speaker 1>star system, it can eat a little bit more of

0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:21.480
<v Speaker 1>that other star, which pushes it over the threshold for

0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.439
<v Speaker 1>gravity to win and to cause a supernova. So it's

0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.280
<v Speaker 1>sort of like a second act for this star. It

0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.040
<v Speaker 1>gets enough fuel to cause this collapse and this supernova

0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:31.400
<v Speaker 1>sort of later in the game.

0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.440
<v Speaker 2>Right, that happens in like binary star systems, right, like

0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:36.920
<v Speaker 2>a star system with two sons in them. But I

0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.000
<v Speaker 2>guess my question is why do you need that extra step,

0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:41.480
<v Speaker 2>Like why does it need to go in this particular way?

0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:43.800
<v Speaker 2>Like why does one need to go into a white dwarf?

0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:45.440
<v Speaker 2>And then the own has to get sucked in? What

0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:47.959
<v Speaker 2>happens If the Sun's merged before that happens, would they

0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:48.880
<v Speaker 2>still go supernova?

0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.320
<v Speaker 1>If they merged before that happened, then they probably have

0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.000
<v Speaker 1>enough mass. It's all about having enough mass. If you

0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.760
<v Speaker 1>were big enough to begin with, then probably you would

0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.200
<v Speaker 1>have ended up in a supernova. If you weren't big

0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:00.639
<v Speaker 1>enough to begin with, if you were sort of a

0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:03.440
<v Speaker 1>smaller star like our star, you just would have ended

0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.800
<v Speaker 1>up with a white dwarf. And really it's all about

0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.400
<v Speaker 1>the mass, because having more mass means having more gravity.

0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.880
<v Speaker 1>Having less mass means having less gravity and not having

0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.439
<v Speaker 1>enough force to overcome the structure of the star. I mean,

0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.000
<v Speaker 1>to have this sort of collapse to have gravity trigger

0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.520
<v Speaker 1>the supernova, you need enough gravity and resisting that is

0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.320
<v Speaker 1>the structure of the star. A white dwarf has chemical

0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.800
<v Speaker 1>bonds that are pushing out against this gravitational collapse. It's

0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:31.040
<v Speaker 1>already a very dense object, but it's able to withstand

0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.040
<v Speaker 1>the gravitational pressure. So you need an extra scoop, an

0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.160
<v Speaker 1>extra helping of gravity to come over that threshold.

0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:39.680
<v Speaker 2>I see. So it's really kind of mostly about just

0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.160
<v Speaker 2>how much mass is out there or in that neighborhood.

0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.960
<v Speaker 1>And type two supernova means you had enough mass originally

0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.600
<v Speaker 1>to go supernova. Type one means you didn't and then

0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.600
<v Speaker 1>you got an extra serving later which brought you over

0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:51.360
<v Speaker 1>that threshold.

0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:53.520
<v Speaker 2>Now, is it the case that any star that's bigger

0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.280
<v Speaker 2>than this threshold is going to go supernova? Or at

0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.159
<v Speaker 2>some point to do stars get too big to go supernova?

0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.800
<v Speaker 1>Stars never get too big to go supernova. Basically, anything

0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.480
<v Speaker 1>that's over like eight times the mass of the Sun

0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.040
<v Speaker 1>is going to go red super giant and then type

0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.520
<v Speaker 1>two supernova. Absolutely, there's really no way around that. That's

0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:13.919
<v Speaker 1>just the fate of all these stars. But those stars

0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.000
<v Speaker 1>are pretty rare, Like most of the stars in the

0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.480
<v Speaker 1>universe are not that big. Even our star, which of

0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:23.080
<v Speaker 1>course has one solar mass, is an unusually large and

0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:25.680
<v Speaker 1>bright star in the universe. Most of the stars in

0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.119
<v Speaker 1>the universe are smaller and cooler than our star. They

0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.960
<v Speaker 1>are red dwarfs. So the number of stars in the

0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.120
<v Speaker 1>universe that will go supernova is a small fraction. It's

0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:35.600
<v Speaker 1>like a rare thing to happen.

0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:40.280
<v Speaker 2>How rare is it? Like, is it super rare or

0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:41.440
<v Speaker 2>just mild mannered rare.

0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.520
<v Speaker 1>It's not something we know very accurately because we don't

0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.560
<v Speaker 1>understand this initial mass function in the universe, the thing

0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:50.680
<v Speaker 1>that determines like how much mass the stars get. But

0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.320
<v Speaker 1>some calculations estimate it's like a few in a million stars.

0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:56.639
<v Speaker 1>So you have a population of like a million stars,

0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:58.919
<v Speaker 1>four or five of them might go supernova.

0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:01.920
<v Speaker 2>Oh, only four, four or five are bigger than eight

0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:03.640
<v Speaker 2>solar masses exactly.

0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.360
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's really very dramatically dominated by the lower mass stars.

0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:09.800
<v Speaker 2>And also I resented you said most stars are cooler

0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:11.600
<v Speaker 2>than our son. I think our son is pretty cool.

0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:13.840
<v Speaker 1>I think our son's pretty hot.

0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.760
<v Speaker 2>Actually exactly, yeah, right, is.

0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:19.880
<v Speaker 1>Our son hot or not? Yes, it's definitely hot.

0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:22.240
<v Speaker 2>The answer is yes.

0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:23.760
<v Speaker 1>That's a safer work answer.

0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.400
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, that's a super nova, and so let's

0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.200
<v Speaker 2>dig into why they're hard to study, how we have

0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.480
<v Speaker 2>studied them in the past, and then finally, what exactly

0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:37.119
<v Speaker 2>is a super luminous supernova? So super stay with us,

0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:52.600
<v Speaker 2>we'll be right back. All right, we're talking about superluminous

0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:54.439
<v Speaker 2>supernova in a super way.

0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:59.680
<v Speaker 1>And even a normal, non super luminous supernova is super nuper.

0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.640
<v Speaker 1>It can be hard to appreciate, like how dramatic these

0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:08.159
<v Speaker 1>events are, but a single supernova when it goes, can

0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.680
<v Speaker 1>be brighter than the rest of the galaxy that it's in.

0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:15.800
<v Speaker 1>These galaxies contain, you know, often hundreds of billions of stars.

0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:20.080
<v Speaker 1>Now you have a single object brighter than hundreds of

0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:23.360
<v Speaker 1>billions of stars. It's really an incredible event. And we're

0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.040
<v Speaker 1>just talking about your ordinary garden variety supernova.

0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:28.320
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I know we've mentioned that before. Like when a

0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.399
<v Speaker 2>star goes supernova's brighter than the galaxy. And but that

0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:33.440
<v Speaker 2>sounds kind of crazy, like what does that mean. It

0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.840
<v Speaker 2>means that it's outputting more light than all of the stars,

0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:39.720
<v Speaker 2>the hundreds of billions of stars in that galaxy in

0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:40.320
<v Speaker 2>that moment.

0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.119
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's exactly what it means, and that's why we

0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:45.520
<v Speaker 1>can see them. Right, Most of the supernova we have

0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.560
<v Speaker 1>seen are in other galaxies. The Milky Way is kind

0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.520
<v Speaker 1>of weirdly quiet in supernova. We haven't seen one in

0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:55.440
<v Speaker 1>our galaxy in several centuries. So most of the supernova

0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:57.680
<v Speaker 1>that we have seen are in other galaxies, and we

0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:00.720
<v Speaker 1>can see them because they are brighter then the entire

0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:02.240
<v Speaker 1>galaxy that they're in.

0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:04.520
<v Speaker 2>Wait, you said that we haven't seen one in the

0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:07.440
<v Speaker 2>Milky Way, but so we have seen super nova that

0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:08.800
<v Speaker 2>have come from the Milky Way.

0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.200
<v Speaker 1>We have seen supernova in the Milky Way. But the

0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:15.880
<v Speaker 1>last person to do it was Kepler, like sixteen oh four, Kepler,

0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:18.680
<v Speaker 1>he's got like the last paper on supernova's in the

0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:21.280
<v Speaker 1>Milky Way. We haven't seen one from our own galaxy

0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:23.080
<v Speaker 1>in four hundred years.

0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:25.480
<v Speaker 2>But how did Kepler knowa was within our galaxy?

0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:27.760
<v Speaker 1>Well, Kepler didn't really know because He didn't really understand

0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:29.600
<v Speaker 1>the idea of galaxies. We didn't even know like that

0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:32.040
<v Speaker 1>there were other galaxies back then. But we can now

0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.440
<v Speaker 1>look at the thing he was studying, and we understand

0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:36.440
<v Speaker 1>what he was looking at, and we know that it's

0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:37.440
<v Speaker 1>in our galaxy.

0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:40.280
<v Speaker 2>How do we know what he was looking at? Did

0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:41.239
<v Speaker 2>he leave like a star map?

0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.320
<v Speaker 1>Kepler was pretty good at taking records. That's why he

0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:47.240
<v Speaker 1>and Tiko Brahe were one of the first ones to

0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:51.600
<v Speaker 1>really understand stellar motion and planetary motion. They were pretty

0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:52.359
<v Speaker 1>nerdy about it.

0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:55.080
<v Speaker 2>M So, I guess, how do we know he looked

0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:57.560
<v Speaker 2>at one in our milk way? Because it brightness or what?

0:22:57.800 --> 0:22:59.720
<v Speaker 1>Again? We know which object he was looking at. He

0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:01.760
<v Speaker 1>told us where it was in the sky. He has

0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:05.240
<v Speaker 1>pretty detailed records of what he was looking at, so

0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.160
<v Speaker 1>we can now look at that object like, what was that? Oh, look,

0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:09.600
<v Speaker 1>it's a remnant from a supernova.

0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:11.919
<v Speaker 2>Oh, we can see the remnant of it now.

0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:14.760
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And that's actually really valuable because we'd love to

0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:18.080
<v Speaker 1>study these things over many centuries or many thousands of

0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:21.000
<v Speaker 1>years to understand like what happens after supernova? How does

0:23:21.040 --> 0:23:23.160
<v Speaker 1>the cloud disperse? It gives you a lot of clues

0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:25.480
<v Speaker 1>about what was going on inside of it, something we

0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:29.240
<v Speaker 1>still don't really understand. So studying something hundreds of years

0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:33.120
<v Speaker 1>later is really valuable. And so having like ancient astronomical

0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:35.600
<v Speaker 1>records that say, oh, there was a supernova here five

0:23:35.720 --> 0:23:39.320
<v Speaker 1>hundred years ago or two thousand years ago is actually

0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:42.119
<v Speaker 1>really relevant and powerful to astronomy today.

0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:44.320
<v Speaker 2>Now, if a supernova has as much energy as the

0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:47.760
<v Speaker 2>whole galaxy, wouldn't that just fry everything in the galaxy

0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:50.600
<v Speaker 2>or at least in like the half of the galaxy

0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:50.960
<v Speaker 2>it's in.

0:23:51.320 --> 0:23:55.760
<v Speaker 1>Yes, supernova are very dangerous and very damaging potentially to life.

0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:58.000
<v Speaker 1>So we should be glad that there haven't been like

0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:00.840
<v Speaker 1>a whole rash of supernova in our neighborhood, because we

0:24:00.960 --> 0:24:04.479
<v Speaker 1>might not be. Here's an enormous amount of radiation released

0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.560
<v Speaker 1>in supernova, and it's very dramatic in the visible spectrum

0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:10.760
<v Speaker 1>and the high energy photons like gamma rays, et cetera,

0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:13.720
<v Speaker 1>which would be extraordinarily damaging to life on Earth. It

0:24:13.840 --> 0:24:16.960
<v Speaker 1>turns out, though, actually most of the energy from a

0:24:17.040 --> 0:24:21.080
<v Speaker 1>supernova isn't even in the visible light, like they're already

0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:23.480
<v Speaker 1>as bright as the rest of the galaxy. But that's

0:24:23.680 --> 0:24:27.240
<v Speaker 1>one percent of the energy released by the supernova, most

0:24:27.320 --> 0:24:29.399
<v Speaker 1>of it is actually released in new trinos.

0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:32.439
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's amazing. I think we've talked about that before.

0:24:32.640 --> 0:24:35.200
<v Speaker 2>But why neutrinos, Like, why would it put all of

0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:38.040
<v Speaker 2>its energy into something that can barely be felt.

0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:41.520
<v Speaker 1>Well, I don't think there's like a committee there deciding,

0:24:41.640 --> 0:24:44.639
<v Speaker 1>like how much do we budget in neutrinos versus photons.

0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:47.280
<v Speaker 1>It's just sort of what the physics does. And for

0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:50.360
<v Speaker 1>a long time we didn't understand how important neutrinos were

0:24:50.520 --> 0:24:53.080
<v Speaker 1>because it feels like they're sort of irrelevant. Once energy

0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:56.600
<v Speaker 1>turns into neutrinos, it feels like it can't really participate

0:24:56.640 --> 0:24:59.640
<v Speaker 1>in physics anymore because most of the universe ignores neutrinos.

0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:03.160
<v Speaker 1>Neutrinos are these particles that only feel the weak interaction,

0:25:03.680 --> 0:25:06.159
<v Speaker 1>and they can fly through like a light year of

0:25:06.359 --> 0:25:09.440
<v Speaker 1>lead without interacting with anything. So people thought for a

0:25:09.520 --> 0:25:11.879
<v Speaker 1>long time, well, if you're dumping the energy into neutrinos,

0:25:12.000 --> 0:25:15.880
<v Speaker 1>that's basically just lost. But more recent simulations of supernovas

0:25:16.080 --> 0:25:19.359
<v Speaker 1>have discovered that those neutrinos actually do interact with the

0:25:19.440 --> 0:25:21.960
<v Speaker 1>rest of the material. Rest of the material that's collapsing

0:25:22.080 --> 0:25:25.000
<v Speaker 1>is so dense that it actually can absorb some of

0:25:25.080 --> 0:25:28.879
<v Speaker 1>that heat back from neutrinos. So there's an amazing effect

0:25:28.960 --> 0:25:32.800
<v Speaker 1>in supernova's called neutrino heating, where the neutrinos from the

0:25:32.880 --> 0:25:36.159
<v Speaker 1>supernova actually reheat the material. And if you don't have

0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:39.680
<v Speaker 1>this effect, then the explosion doesn't happen. So why is

0:25:39.720 --> 0:25:41.440
<v Speaker 1>it produced. It's just because in fusion you get a

0:25:41.440 --> 0:25:43.639
<v Speaker 1>lot of these nuclear processes. A lot of them just

0:25:43.760 --> 0:25:46.880
<v Speaker 1>result in photons and neutrinos, but it turns out those

0:25:46.920 --> 0:25:49.720
<v Speaker 1>neutrinos are really important for making the explosion happen.

0:25:49.880 --> 0:25:52.879
<v Speaker 2>But somehow they're like the main product of whatever's happening

0:25:53.080 --> 0:25:54.720
<v Speaker 2>in the supernova.

0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:57.239
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it's not just supernovas, right, Stars in their

0:25:57.320 --> 0:26:01.240
<v Speaker 1>normal course of business produce an enormal number of neutrinos.

0:26:01.800 --> 0:26:05.960
<v Speaker 1>Like here on Earth there's one hundred billion neutrinos per

0:26:06.080 --> 0:26:09.720
<v Speaker 1>square centimeter per second. Like you hold your hands out

0:26:10.280 --> 0:26:14.879
<v Speaker 1>and there's a trillion neutrinos going through your fingernails every second.

0:26:15.280 --> 0:26:17.320
<v Speaker 1>And we're really far away from the Sun, right, So

0:26:17.400 --> 0:26:21.280
<v Speaker 1>imagine like how many neutrinos are produced in the Sun itself,

0:26:21.880 --> 0:26:25.360
<v Speaker 1>And now supernova's produce like ten to the fifty eight

0:26:25.680 --> 0:26:30.160
<v Speaker 1>neutrinos during their supernova explosion. So it's really an incredible

0:26:30.160 --> 0:26:33.800
<v Speaker 1>amount of energy in neutrinos. So, yeah, supernovas are super

0:26:33.880 --> 0:26:36.359
<v Speaker 1>duper bright and luminous, and that's a tiny fraction of

0:26:36.440 --> 0:26:39.560
<v Speaker 1>the sort of true brightness of these incredible events.

0:26:40.240 --> 0:26:42.080
<v Speaker 2>It's almost like it's a good thing it's making so

0:26:42.160 --> 0:26:44.000
<v Speaker 2>many neutrinos. But it's a good thing it's putting all

0:26:44.040 --> 0:26:46.520
<v Speaker 2>its energy into neutrinos, because if it put it into

0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:49.920
<v Speaker 2>something that we would feel like every galaxy everywhere would

0:26:49.960 --> 0:26:50.880
<v Speaker 2>be toast all the time.

0:26:50.960 --> 0:26:54.320
<v Speaker 1>Right, Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. We're lucky that they're

0:26:54.359 --> 0:26:57.480
<v Speaker 1>exploding in this sort of safe way. And even still,

0:26:57.640 --> 0:27:00.480
<v Speaker 1>they're very dangerous. If there were a super nova in

0:27:00.560 --> 0:27:03.760
<v Speaker 1>our backyard, it would fry half of the Earth, or

0:27:03.800 --> 0:27:05.760
<v Speaker 1>if it lasted long enough for the Earth to rotate,

0:27:05.920 --> 0:27:07.640
<v Speaker 1>who basically fry the whole Earth.

0:27:07.880 --> 0:27:10.040
<v Speaker 2>How far would a supernova need to be to be

0:27:10.040 --> 0:27:11.280
<v Speaker 2>at a safe distance from us.

0:27:11.520 --> 0:27:13.320
<v Speaker 1>That's a good question, and it depends a little bit

0:27:13.440 --> 0:27:17.040
<v Speaker 1>on the brightness of the supernova. The type one supernova's

0:27:17.359 --> 0:27:19.240
<v Speaker 1>the ones that start with binary stars there are st

0:27:19.400 --> 0:27:23.160
<v Speaker 1>like ten times brighter than the core collapse supernovas because

0:27:23.160 --> 0:27:25.520
<v Speaker 1>they're more dramatic, So it depends a little bit on

0:27:25.560 --> 0:27:28.440
<v Speaker 1>the type. Anything in our stellar neighborhood at all would

0:27:28.480 --> 0:27:30.680
<v Speaker 1>really fry us. So supernova's on the other side of

0:27:30.720 --> 0:27:33.240
<v Speaker 1>the galaxy, no big deals. Supernova's on our side of

0:27:33.280 --> 0:27:35.200
<v Speaker 1>the galaxy, you start to get a little bit nervous.

0:27:35.320 --> 0:27:39.080
<v Speaker 1>Supernova's within a few tens of light years, we're toasted.

0:27:39.160 --> 0:27:40.840
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so we're sort of safe. But I feel like

0:27:40.920 --> 0:27:43.560
<v Speaker 2>you said that supernovas happen like a few every couple

0:27:43.560 --> 0:27:46.760
<v Speaker 2>of million stars, and the milk Away has several hundred

0:27:46.840 --> 0:27:49.880
<v Speaker 2>billion stars, right, so there should be, you know, thousands

0:27:49.960 --> 0:27:52.760
<v Speaker 2>and thousands of them sprinkled all over the Milky Way

0:27:52.920 --> 0:27:54.080
<v Speaker 2>potentially about to go off.

0:27:54.400 --> 0:27:56.399
<v Speaker 1>There should be, and we don't understand it. And we

0:27:56.480 --> 0:27:59.119
<v Speaker 1>did a whole podcast episode about the mystery of the

0:27:59.280 --> 0:28:03.080
<v Speaker 1>missing Milky Way supernova. Go check that out. It's a

0:28:03.119 --> 0:28:06.280
<v Speaker 1>really fun question about whether supernova's are happening in our

0:28:06.400 --> 0:28:09.239
<v Speaker 1>galaxy but we can't see them because they're obscured by

0:28:09.280 --> 0:28:12.040
<v Speaker 1>the center of the galaxy, or maybe there's something weird

0:28:12.240 --> 0:28:15.320
<v Speaker 1>about our galaxy. Also, the supernova that had happened in

0:28:15.400 --> 0:28:18.200
<v Speaker 1>the Milky way tend to be sort of weirdly distributed.

0:28:18.240 --> 0:28:20.200
<v Speaker 1>They're not really in the place where most of the

0:28:20.320 --> 0:28:23.800
<v Speaker 1>stars are, and so there's a lot of mysteries about

0:28:23.840 --> 0:28:26.320
<v Speaker 1>why we haven't had more supernova in our galaxy. Check

0:28:26.359 --> 0:28:27.120
<v Speaker 1>out that episode.

0:28:27.359 --> 0:28:30.840
<v Speaker 2>Maybe it was Superman who pushed all those supernova away,

0:28:31.880 --> 0:28:34.000
<v Speaker 2>or maybe another superhero or Superwoman.

0:28:34.119 --> 0:28:36.240
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's really fun to read the sort of historical

0:28:36.359 --> 0:28:40.280
<v Speaker 1>record here of like Chinese astronomers talking about guest stars

0:28:40.320 --> 0:28:43.360
<v Speaker 1>that appear in the night sky. Hilariously, they describe them

0:28:43.400 --> 0:28:47.760
<v Speaker 1>as some having pleasurable colors and others not having pleasurable colors.

0:28:47.960 --> 0:28:50.960
<v Speaker 2>Way, there were so many happening somebody supernova happening that

0:28:51.040 --> 0:28:52.360
<v Speaker 2>they could compare the colors.

0:28:53.680 --> 0:28:56.440
<v Speaker 1>They just commented on them, because these things evolve over time,

0:28:56.520 --> 0:28:58.480
<v Speaker 1>you know, they change in color. I thought it was

0:28:58.520 --> 0:29:00.960
<v Speaker 1>just hilarious that they note not only did this incredible

0:29:00.960 --> 0:29:03.080
<v Speaker 1>thing happen in the sky, but some of us didn't

0:29:03.080 --> 0:29:04.120
<v Speaker 1>think it was very pretty.

0:29:04.240 --> 0:29:06.040
<v Speaker 2>Some of us didn't think it was pretty, very super

0:29:06.080 --> 0:29:07.600
<v Speaker 2>there were more kind of a met.

0:29:07.640 --> 0:29:11.520
<v Speaker 1>Nova, or maybe they were just recording, you know, their

0:29:11.600 --> 0:29:14.000
<v Speaker 1>anxiety about it, like, wow, this is a crazy thing

0:29:14.080 --> 0:29:16.800
<v Speaker 1>to be happening in our sky. You don't usually see

0:29:16.800 --> 0:29:20.160
<v Speaker 1>a lot of things changing. Eclipses and comets and supernova

0:29:20.200 --> 0:29:22.920
<v Speaker 1>are like pretty dramatic events in the sky. It's fascinating

0:29:22.920 --> 0:29:25.080
<v Speaker 1>to think about what it must have been like to

0:29:25.240 --> 0:29:28.840
<v Speaker 1>be somebody seeing that happen and not understand it at all.

0:29:28.960 --> 0:29:30.400
<v Speaker 1>It must have seemed very mystical.

0:29:31.080 --> 0:29:34.120
<v Speaker 2>Well, you said, it's very rare to see a supernova, like,

0:29:34.240 --> 0:29:36.600
<v Speaker 2>how many have we seen since recorded history?

0:29:36.800 --> 0:29:39.800
<v Speaker 1>Well, we've only seen a handful in our galaxy. But

0:29:40.040 --> 0:29:43.920
<v Speaker 1>because we now have incredible telescopes, we've seen hundreds and

0:29:44.080 --> 0:29:47.680
<v Speaker 1>hundreds of supernova in other galaxy. But still it's limited

0:29:47.720 --> 0:29:49.920
<v Speaker 1>to you know, like numbers like hundreds. We don't have

0:29:50.080 --> 0:29:52.160
<v Speaker 1>thousands and thousands of these examples.

0:29:52.360 --> 0:29:54.800
<v Speaker 2>Is it likely that I would see a supernoa go off?

0:29:55.200 --> 0:29:56.280
<v Speaker 2>You know, first of all, I would have to be

0:29:56.440 --> 0:29:58.200
<v Speaker 2>a whig all night, which I guess I am. But

0:29:58.320 --> 0:30:01.040
<v Speaker 2>I'm looking at the sky. I am, Like, would I

0:30:01.120 --> 0:30:03.480
<v Speaker 2>notice but supernova went off to light up the whole sky?

0:30:03.640 --> 0:30:05.720
<v Speaker 2>Would it just kind of appear like, oh, there's a

0:30:05.800 --> 0:30:06.880
<v Speaker 2>new pinpoint of light there.

0:30:07.000 --> 0:30:09.520
<v Speaker 1>Well, a new supernova in our galaxy you could see

0:30:09.600 --> 0:30:11.600
<v Speaker 1>with the naked eye. It would be like a new

0:30:11.680 --> 0:30:14.480
<v Speaker 1>event in the sky, and it could be brighter than

0:30:14.600 --> 0:30:17.000
<v Speaker 1>many other starts depending on how close it is. It

0:30:17.080 --> 0:30:21.080
<v Speaker 1>could definitely brighten up the night sky. For sure. Most

0:30:21.120 --> 0:30:24.040
<v Speaker 1>of the supernova we have observed are in other galaxies,

0:30:24.600 --> 0:30:27.400
<v Speaker 1>and so they are brighter or as bright as that galaxy,

0:30:27.480 --> 0:30:29.920
<v Speaker 1>which is still pretty dim to the naked eye, so

0:30:30.360 --> 0:30:32.960
<v Speaker 1>easy to spot with telescopes. Not that easy to see

0:30:33.080 --> 0:30:35.800
<v Speaker 1>with the naked eye, but potentially somebody could point you

0:30:35.840 --> 0:30:38.040
<v Speaker 1>to one and say that's a supernova. That little dot.

0:30:38.120 --> 0:30:40.560
<v Speaker 1>There is a distant galaxy with a supernova in it.

0:30:40.720 --> 0:30:41.840
<v Speaker 2>I guess what I mean is like, you would have

0:30:41.920 --> 0:30:44.200
<v Speaker 2>to know what this night sky looked like before the

0:30:44.240 --> 0:30:46.800
<v Speaker 2>supernova in order to be like, oh, that's something new

0:30:46.840 --> 0:30:49.080
<v Speaker 2>there that you couldn't see before with the telescope.

0:30:49.200 --> 0:30:51.520
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly. And that's basically what we do is we

0:30:51.640 --> 0:30:54.240
<v Speaker 1>scan the sky and we look for changes or always

0:30:54.240 --> 0:30:56.800
<v Speaker 1>on the lookout for these supernova because they're hard to predict.

0:30:56.880 --> 0:30:59.120
<v Speaker 1>We can't very easily look at a bunch of stars

0:30:59.160 --> 0:31:01.360
<v Speaker 1>and say that one's going to go supernova, and that

0:31:01.440 --> 0:31:04.320
<v Speaker 1>one's going to do supernova tomorrow or Tuesday. We have

0:31:04.440 --> 0:31:08.200
<v Speaker 1>to just catch them happening. So we're constantly scanning the sky,

0:31:08.440 --> 0:31:10.520
<v Speaker 1>comparing it to what the sky looked like yesterday and

0:31:10.640 --> 0:31:13.880
<v Speaker 1>last week, looking for changes, and as soon as somebody

0:31:13.960 --> 0:31:16.160
<v Speaker 1>spots one, then a bunch of telescopes get trained on

0:31:16.280 --> 0:31:18.840
<v Speaker 1>it to track it in great detail to understand its

0:31:18.920 --> 0:31:21.920
<v Speaker 1>light curve. Because remember that's like really valuable information for

0:31:22.040 --> 0:31:24.800
<v Speaker 1>understanding how far away is that galaxy, which tells us

0:31:24.800 --> 0:31:28.160
<v Speaker 1>things about like the expansion of the universe. Really incredible

0:31:28.200 --> 0:31:32.080
<v Speaker 1>scientific discoveries are pinned on capturing these supernova inaction.

0:31:32.400 --> 0:31:35.120
<v Speaker 2>Wonder if that's stressful for astrophysicists, you know, like I

0:31:35.200 --> 0:31:37.160
<v Speaker 2>can't go to the bathroom, go get coffee, because what

0:31:37.600 --> 0:31:40.160
<v Speaker 2>if supernova comes up just as I'm leaving my desk.

0:31:41.320 --> 0:31:42.960
<v Speaker 1>It is sometimes very dramatic.

0:31:43.400 --> 0:31:43.560
<v Speaker 3>You know.

0:31:43.640 --> 0:31:45.800
<v Speaker 1>We have automated systems that scan for these things, but

0:31:45.880 --> 0:31:47.760
<v Speaker 1>once you see one, then they get communicated to other

0:31:47.800 --> 0:31:50.320
<v Speaker 1>telescopes around the world which might have been busy doing

0:31:50.440 --> 0:31:52.240
<v Speaker 1>something else, and then decide, you know what, this is

0:31:52.280 --> 0:31:54.959
<v Speaker 1>more important. We're going to change our observation plan. We're

0:31:55.000 --> 0:31:57.640
<v Speaker 1>going to turn around and look at this crazy thing

0:31:57.720 --> 0:31:59.920
<v Speaker 1>that's happening because it might only last for a few days.

0:32:00.240 --> 0:32:02.320
<v Speaker 2>And you said they're sort of unpredictable. I guess they're

0:32:02.360 --> 0:32:04.600
<v Speaker 2>not unpredictable in the sense that I mean, you can

0:32:04.680 --> 0:32:06.800
<v Speaker 2>tell if a star is going to go supernova at

0:32:06.840 --> 0:32:09.760
<v Speaker 2>some point, right, you said all stars above us certain size,

0:32:09.800 --> 0:32:11.960
<v Speaker 2>do you just don't know when it's going to happen.

0:32:12.200 --> 0:32:14.400
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think that's true. We can't look at a

0:32:14.480 --> 0:32:16.880
<v Speaker 1>star and say this is about to go supernova, or

0:32:16.960 --> 0:32:20.360
<v Speaker 1>that's about to go supernova. And some stars don't actually explode,

0:32:20.440 --> 0:32:22.760
<v Speaker 1>like they collapse. They have the first part of it,

0:32:23.040 --> 0:32:25.440
<v Speaker 1>but then they don't bounce back and have an explosion.

0:32:26.040 --> 0:32:28.680
<v Speaker 1>And there's all sorts of different kinds of ways that

0:32:28.800 --> 0:32:31.760
<v Speaker 1>these stars can collapse, and sometimes there's a black hole

0:32:31.800 --> 0:32:34.240
<v Speaker 1>that's created at the heart and sometimes not, and so

0:32:34.320 --> 0:32:37.560
<v Speaker 1>they can look very different from collapse to collapse. So

0:32:37.880 --> 0:32:40.080
<v Speaker 1>while all these stars that are big enough will eventually

0:32:40.120 --> 0:32:42.840
<v Speaker 1>burn out their fuel and collapse, they don't all trigger

0:32:42.960 --> 0:32:45.680
<v Speaker 1>exactly the same kind of supernova. Some of them kind

0:32:45.680 --> 0:32:47.560
<v Speaker 1>of whiff out, some of them get very bright. And

0:32:47.640 --> 0:32:50.000
<v Speaker 1>that's a lot of what we don't understand. And the

0:32:50.040 --> 0:32:53.200
<v Speaker 1>reason we don't understand it is that it's very complicated physics.

0:32:53.240 --> 0:32:55.320
<v Speaker 1>You have a lot of things going on here. You

0:32:55.440 --> 0:32:58.760
<v Speaker 1>have general relativity that describes the gravitational pull, and you

0:32:58.840 --> 0:33:01.880
<v Speaker 1>have very complicated fluid dynamics to describe like how the

0:33:01.960 --> 0:33:05.640
<v Speaker 1>pressure is propagated through this thing. Plus you have fusion happening,

0:33:05.720 --> 0:33:08.720
<v Speaker 1>so you have radiation coming outwards. You have neutrinos, which

0:33:08.800 --> 0:33:11.280
<v Speaker 1>turn out to be important. So it's one of these scenarios.

0:33:11.360 --> 0:33:13.200
<v Speaker 1>We have to get a lot of the details right

0:33:13.320 --> 0:33:15.600
<v Speaker 1>in order to make the prediction accurate. And we're just

0:33:15.800 --> 0:33:19.040
<v Speaker 1>very recently able to even like simulate these things and

0:33:19.200 --> 0:33:21.480
<v Speaker 1>see supernova happen on the computers.

0:33:21.840 --> 0:33:25.280
<v Speaker 2>Sounds like you need another category for them, like super confusing,

0:33:25.320 --> 0:33:30.920
<v Speaker 2>super lubinus supernovas. Maybe we just need supercomputers, yeah, or

0:33:31.160 --> 0:33:33.160
<v Speaker 2>maybe you need Superman to come in and do some physics.

0:33:33.200 --> 0:33:35.800
<v Speaker 2>I think I need a super grand to understand supernovas

0:33:35.960 --> 0:33:38.840
<v Speaker 2>with a super big pile of money. It sounds like

0:33:38.880 --> 0:33:40.960
<v Speaker 2>you're getting super greedy. They're super villain.

0:33:42.160 --> 0:33:44.640
<v Speaker 1>I just want to understand the universe. Is that so greedy?

0:33:44.920 --> 0:33:48.320
<v Speaker 2>Well, all supervillains think they're doing the right thing. All right.

0:33:48.360 --> 0:33:51.320
<v Speaker 2>It's a deep dive into how we study supernovas. Let's

0:33:51.360 --> 0:33:55.200
<v Speaker 2>get into what a super luminous supernova is and whether

0:33:55.360 --> 0:33:58.200
<v Speaker 2>or not it is super or not. But first, let's

0:33:58.240 --> 0:34:12.919
<v Speaker 2>take a quick break. All right, we're talking about super

0:34:13.040 --> 0:34:17.880
<v Speaker 2>luminous supernovas, which I guess means just the super bright supernovas.

0:34:18.120 --> 0:34:20.560
<v Speaker 1>It does mean super bright supernovas, though we sort of

0:34:21.080 --> 0:34:25.400
<v Speaker 1>run out of modifiers here because already supernovas are super

0:34:25.520 --> 0:34:29.240
<v Speaker 1>bright events and super rare events. They're like very dramatic

0:34:29.360 --> 0:34:31.759
<v Speaker 1>moments in this story of the universe. But then we

0:34:31.840 --> 0:34:35.520
<v Speaker 1>saw some supernova that were so ridiculously bright even by

0:34:35.680 --> 0:34:38.400
<v Speaker 1>the standards of supernova, that they had to come up

0:34:38.440 --> 0:34:42.319
<v Speaker 1>with another category for them. So super luminous supernova are

0:34:42.360 --> 0:34:46.440
<v Speaker 1>supernova that are at least ten times brighter than your normal,

0:34:46.680 --> 0:34:48.800
<v Speaker 1>run of the mill incredibly bright supernova.

0:34:49.120 --> 0:34:53.240
<v Speaker 2>Whoa first of all, ten times brighter, that's amazing. And second,

0:34:53.320 --> 0:34:57.080
<v Speaker 2>see you just used another word, incredibly bright. You don't

0:34:57.120 --> 0:34:58.160
<v Speaker 2>have to use super again.

0:34:58.280 --> 0:34:59.920
<v Speaker 1>You're right, we should call them incredibly bright.

0:35:00.000 --> 0:35:04.760
<v Speaker 2>It's supernova amazingly bright, extra right.

0:35:05.000 --> 0:35:06.719
<v Speaker 1>Overwhelmingly bright supernova.

0:35:06.920 --> 0:35:10.120
<v Speaker 2>Now let's go with super luminous. That sounds cooler or hotter.

0:35:10.440 --> 0:35:12.800
<v Speaker 1>But there's something else going on here, which is this

0:35:13.000 --> 0:35:17.000
<v Speaker 1>astronomical need to like categorize, because in one sense like

0:35:17.080 --> 0:35:20.000
<v Speaker 1>you make a distribution of all the supernova some are brighter,

0:35:20.120 --> 0:35:22.799
<v Speaker 1>some are dimmer. Whatever you expect them to not all

0:35:22.880 --> 0:35:25.239
<v Speaker 1>be the same, and so why can't you just say, well, look,

0:35:25.280 --> 0:35:28.120
<v Speaker 1>here's supernova summer brighter, some are dimmer. But this need

0:35:28.200 --> 0:35:31.440
<v Speaker 1>to name this extra bright category comes out of this

0:35:31.640 --> 0:35:34.560
<v Speaker 1>like feeling like something different is happening. It's not just

0:35:35.000 --> 0:35:36.840
<v Speaker 1>that there's a distribution and these are the ones on

0:35:36.920 --> 0:35:39.279
<v Speaker 1>the tail. They feel like they see this cluster, this

0:35:39.480 --> 0:35:42.359
<v Speaker 1>collection of supernova that are different from the other ones.

0:35:42.400 --> 0:35:45.759
<v Speaker 1>It's like this grouping on the very high side where

0:35:45.760 --> 0:35:47.840
<v Speaker 1>they think maybe something different is happening.

0:35:48.040 --> 0:35:52.040
<v Speaker 2>Oh, that's interesting. So there's a range of brightness for supernovas,

0:35:52.080 --> 0:35:54.840
<v Speaker 2>and typically I thought all supernovas, we're all sort of

0:35:54.920 --> 0:35:57.680
<v Speaker 2>the same. That's how they use as standard markers in

0:35:57.719 --> 0:35:58.200
<v Speaker 2>the universe.

0:35:58.360 --> 0:36:00.719
<v Speaker 1>So the type one A supernova, the ones that are

0:36:00.800 --> 0:36:04.360
<v Speaker 1>super bright already, they're not all the same brightness. Actually,

0:36:04.719 --> 0:36:07.280
<v Speaker 1>they have all the same shape of their light curve,

0:36:07.360 --> 0:36:09.640
<v Speaker 1>which means how they get bright and then how they

0:36:09.800 --> 0:36:12.719
<v Speaker 1>dim which then you can calibrate to how bright they

0:36:12.800 --> 0:36:16.000
<v Speaker 1>are actually at their source through a few steps. So

0:36:16.080 --> 0:36:18.759
<v Speaker 1>it's not quite as simple as all these supernovas are

0:36:18.800 --> 0:36:22.080
<v Speaker 1>exactly the same brightness always. It's that you can deduce

0:36:22.200 --> 0:36:24.640
<v Speaker 1>how bright they are by how quickly they ramp up

0:36:24.680 --> 0:36:27.360
<v Speaker 1>and how quickly they ramp down. It's sort of like

0:36:27.400 --> 0:36:30.319
<v Speaker 1>remember the cephids, those variable stars, the ones that get

0:36:30.320 --> 0:36:32.239
<v Speaker 1>brighter and dimmer and brighter and dimmer. It's not that

0:36:32.320 --> 0:36:34.680
<v Speaker 1>they're all the same brightness, it's that from the period

0:36:34.800 --> 0:36:37.359
<v Speaker 1>of their pulsation, you can deduce how bright they are.

0:36:37.800 --> 0:36:39.800
<v Speaker 1>It's sort of that way for type one A supernova.

0:36:39.840 --> 0:36:42.320
<v Speaker 1>They're not all the same brightness, but you can figure

0:36:42.360 --> 0:36:44.400
<v Speaker 1>out how bright they are from their curve.

0:36:45.440 --> 0:36:49.480
<v Speaker 2>So you have these super or extra brightnd supernovas that

0:36:49.600 --> 0:36:52.360
<v Speaker 2>are ten times brighter than regular supernovas, But then you

0:36:52.440 --> 0:36:55.400
<v Speaker 2>have some that are ten times even brighter than that exactly.

0:36:55.480 --> 0:36:57.640
<v Speaker 1>So you got the type twos the sort of like

0:36:57.840 --> 0:37:01.279
<v Speaker 1>normal supernovas, and then type one A are ten times

0:37:01.320 --> 0:37:01.880
<v Speaker 1>brighter than that.

0:37:02.160 --> 0:37:03.800
<v Speaker 2>So they're super luminous supernova.

0:37:04.440 --> 0:37:09.759
<v Speaker 1>And then and then the extra right supernova extralous supernova.

0:37:10.280 --> 0:37:12.799
<v Speaker 1>These are ten times brighter than even those.

0:37:13.200 --> 0:37:15.720
<v Speaker 2>You might as well say super super humanous.

0:37:16.239 --> 0:37:19.799
<v Speaker 1>Super squared supernova. And these things are super nuper right,

0:37:19.920 --> 0:37:24.560
<v Speaker 1>and they're also really rare, like one in ten thousand supernova,

0:37:25.000 --> 0:37:26.920
<v Speaker 1>which is already like, you know, five out of a

0:37:27.000 --> 0:37:30.560
<v Speaker 1>million stars, So now we're talking about like five out

0:37:30.600 --> 0:37:34.719
<v Speaker 1>of ten billion stars are going to be super luminous supernova.

0:37:34.960 --> 0:37:36.800
<v Speaker 1>These are incredibly rare. Wow.

0:37:37.239 --> 0:37:40.360
<v Speaker 2>So that means that their brightness is ten times brighter

0:37:40.440 --> 0:37:42.600
<v Speaker 2>than the galaxy they're in over regular galaxy.

0:37:42.800 --> 0:37:46.640
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they can outshine their galaxy by huge amount, and

0:37:46.960 --> 0:37:50.360
<v Speaker 1>not just because they're extra bright, but weirdly, for reasons

0:37:50.400 --> 0:37:53.480
<v Speaker 1>we don't understand, they tend to be found in smaller,

0:37:53.600 --> 0:37:57.120
<v Speaker 1>dimmer galaxies. So we talked recently on the podcast about

0:37:57.120 --> 0:38:00.239
<v Speaker 1>these things called dwarf galaxies, galaxies with a small or

0:38:00.239 --> 0:38:03.120
<v Speaker 1>a number of stars in them, and how they're fascinating

0:38:03.239 --> 0:38:06.320
<v Speaker 1>laboratory for understanding maybe the formation of the universe and

0:38:06.600 --> 0:38:09.960
<v Speaker 1>how galaxies form and dark matter. But these superluminous supernova

0:38:10.080 --> 0:38:13.680
<v Speaker 1>tend to be found only in these dwarf galaxies, which

0:38:13.760 --> 0:38:16.440
<v Speaker 1>is like a weird clue maybe about why they happen

0:38:16.520 --> 0:38:19.200
<v Speaker 1>and what makes them super luminous, But it also means

0:38:19.280 --> 0:38:22.040
<v Speaker 1>that they're extra bright compared to their galaxies, which tend

0:38:22.080 --> 0:38:24.080
<v Speaker 1>to be extra dimm That.

0:38:24.239 --> 0:38:26.800
<v Speaker 2>Is a weird clue, right. A dwarf galaxy, as we

0:38:26.880 --> 0:38:29.280
<v Speaker 2>talked about before, is just kind of a small galaxy,

0:38:29.320 --> 0:38:31.080
<v Speaker 2>but it's also sort of made up of different kinds

0:38:31.120 --> 0:38:31.719
<v Speaker 2>of stars too.

0:38:31.920 --> 0:38:35.240
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, dwarf galaxy just means a smaller blob of stars.

0:38:35.320 --> 0:38:38.200
<v Speaker 1>It can be like thousands to just a few billion stars.

0:38:38.320 --> 0:38:40.960
<v Speaker 1>It's a pretty big range. Remember that our galaxy is

0:38:41.000 --> 0:38:43.960
<v Speaker 1>like one hundred billion or two hundred billion stars, So

0:38:44.120 --> 0:38:46.799
<v Speaker 1>dwarf galaxy is a much much smaller galaxy. But there's

0:38:46.800 --> 0:38:48.600
<v Speaker 1>a really wide range of these things. Some of them

0:38:48.600 --> 0:38:50.960
<v Speaker 1>are like mostly dark matter and have just a few

0:38:51.000 --> 0:38:54.600
<v Speaker 1>sprinkling of stars. Others have had their dark matter stripped

0:38:54.640 --> 0:38:57.880
<v Speaker 1>out of them. Some of them are like early progenitor galaxies.

0:38:57.920 --> 0:39:00.560
<v Speaker 1>We think that the big galaxies came from the combination

0:39:00.719 --> 0:39:03.200
<v Speaker 1>of a bunch of dwarf galaxies. So some of these

0:39:03.280 --> 0:39:06.200
<v Speaker 1>dwarf galaxies might be sort of like primordial and as

0:39:06.239 --> 0:39:09.000
<v Speaker 1>you say, could have like older stars from the earlier

0:39:09.040 --> 0:39:10.040
<v Speaker 1>part of the universe.

0:39:11.160 --> 0:39:15.880
<v Speaker 2>All right, So then what's making these super super superluminous supernovas.

0:39:16.120 --> 0:39:18.640
<v Speaker 1>We don't know. It's a mystery something we see in

0:39:18.719 --> 0:39:21.320
<v Speaker 1>the universe but do not yet understand. We have like

0:39:21.440 --> 0:39:24.720
<v Speaker 1>no model that tells us why this can be happening.

0:39:24.800 --> 0:39:28.320
<v Speaker 1>I remember, we just barely understand why supernovas go boom

0:39:28.360 --> 0:39:30.120
<v Speaker 1>and what's going on inside of them and how all

0:39:30.160 --> 0:39:32.719
<v Speaker 1>that radiation happens. You know, when we write down all

0:39:32.760 --> 0:39:34.800
<v Speaker 1>of our physics and code it in the computer, we

0:39:34.880 --> 0:39:38.280
<v Speaker 1>can barely get it to happen in simulation, and maybe

0:39:38.400 --> 0:39:40.520
<v Speaker 1>in those simulations line up with what we see in

0:39:40.600 --> 0:39:42.640
<v Speaker 1>the universe. But there are a few ideas for what

0:39:42.800 --> 0:39:45.279
<v Speaker 1>might make it happen, and they come from noticing how

0:39:45.360 --> 0:39:48.320
<v Speaker 1>these are different from the other supernoas, not just in

0:39:48.400 --> 0:39:50.600
<v Speaker 1>their brightness, but in other characteristics.

0:39:50.920 --> 0:39:53.080
<v Speaker 2>Well, I guess, first of all, do we know why

0:39:53.160 --> 0:39:56.080
<v Speaker 2>some supernovas are brighter than others? Is it just about

0:39:56.239 --> 0:39:58.640
<v Speaker 2>how much size they have, how much mass was there

0:39:58.719 --> 0:39:59.400
<v Speaker 2>when they collapse?

0:39:59.480 --> 0:40:01.200
<v Speaker 1>We don't really understand. It has to do with all

0:40:01.239 --> 0:40:03.880
<v Speaker 1>the internal dynamics and how much energy is devoted to

0:40:03.920 --> 0:40:07.640
<v Speaker 1>photons and whether the object itself is transparent enough to

0:40:07.719 --> 0:40:10.520
<v Speaker 1>release those photons or if it's going to be opaque

0:40:10.520 --> 0:40:13.719
<v Speaker 1>and reabsorb those photons. So it's a complicated thing that

0:40:13.760 --> 0:40:16.279
<v Speaker 1>we do not understand very well right now, and.

0:40:16.320 --> 0:40:18.360
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't have to do with the size, like I

0:40:18.360 --> 0:40:21.680
<v Speaker 2>would imagine like a bigger star if it collapses, would

0:40:21.760 --> 0:40:24.360
<v Speaker 2>make a bigger explosion than a small star that collapses.

0:40:24.640 --> 0:40:27.280
<v Speaker 1>It's definitely part of the equation, right, The more energy

0:40:27.360 --> 0:40:29.920
<v Speaker 1>you have, the more energy you can convert into radiation.

0:40:30.000 --> 0:40:32.319
<v Speaker 1>It's definitely part of that equation. But it's not quite

0:40:32.360 --> 0:40:35.839
<v Speaker 1>so simple, right. It's not just like bigger star, brighter supernova.

0:40:36.040 --> 0:40:37.799
<v Speaker 1>But you might be on the right track because one

0:40:37.880 --> 0:40:41.560
<v Speaker 1>suspicion is that these superluminous supernova come from stars that

0:40:41.640 --> 0:40:45.440
<v Speaker 1>are unusually large stars that have more than forty times

0:40:45.560 --> 0:40:48.520
<v Speaker 1>our Sun's mass when they start out, and that's very

0:40:48.680 --> 0:40:52.239
<v Speaker 1>unusually large for a star. So that's one suspicion is

0:40:52.280 --> 0:40:55.520
<v Speaker 1>that maybe they come from the heaviest of heavy stars.

0:40:55.920 --> 0:40:57.680
<v Speaker 2>And what makes us think that just from the idea

0:40:57.760 --> 0:40:58.680
<v Speaker 2>that bigger is brighter.

0:40:58.880 --> 0:41:00.920
<v Speaker 1>It's just like one of the things. It's just like

0:41:01.000 --> 0:41:04.239
<v Speaker 1>one explanation, as you say, more mass means you have

0:41:04.400 --> 0:41:06.920
<v Speaker 1>more energy that you can convert into light. So it's

0:41:07.000 --> 0:41:08.719
<v Speaker 1>just like a starting point. There are a few other

0:41:08.840 --> 0:41:11.680
<v Speaker 1>interesting clues that point in that same direction, like the

0:41:11.760 --> 0:41:14.520
<v Speaker 1>light from these stars is a little bit different from

0:41:14.719 --> 0:41:17.759
<v Speaker 1>light from other supernova. They don't seem to have a

0:41:17.840 --> 0:41:21.880
<v Speaker 1>lot of helium or hydrogen in their outer atmosphere. Remember,

0:41:21.920 --> 0:41:24.359
<v Speaker 1>you can tell what's in a star by looking at

0:41:24.400 --> 0:41:28.200
<v Speaker 1>the light that it emits, because helium and hydrogen and

0:41:28.440 --> 0:41:32.120
<v Speaker 1>all the elements have their own characteristic ladder of energy

0:41:32.239 --> 0:41:34.759
<v Speaker 1>levels that the electrons are allowed to be around them,

0:41:34.840 --> 0:41:37.640
<v Speaker 1>which means when the electrons jump down an energy level

0:41:37.760 --> 0:41:40.359
<v Speaker 1>or release a photon, you can kind of tell which

0:41:40.520 --> 0:41:42.960
<v Speaker 1>kind of atom it came from by looking at the

0:41:43.120 --> 0:41:45.040
<v Speaker 1>energy of that photon, which has to line up with

0:41:45.200 --> 0:41:48.640
<v Speaker 1>the spacing of the energy levels of that atom. So

0:41:48.760 --> 0:41:50.759
<v Speaker 1>you can look at the spectrum from a star and

0:41:50.800 --> 0:41:52.759
<v Speaker 1>you say, oh, look, there's a peak here that means

0:41:52.800 --> 0:41:55.080
<v Speaker 1>there was hydrogen, or there's a dip here that means

0:41:55.120 --> 0:41:57.400
<v Speaker 1>there was helium that was absorbing that light. So from

0:41:57.440 --> 0:41:59.440
<v Speaker 1>the peaks and the dips in the emission of the

0:41:59.480 --> 0:42:01.400
<v Speaker 1>star specs you can tell what it's made out of.

0:42:01.640 --> 0:42:04.120
<v Speaker 1>What they've noticed is that these stars when they go

0:42:04.480 --> 0:42:07.640
<v Speaker 1>tend to have almost no hydrogen a no helium in them,

0:42:07.920 --> 0:42:10.800
<v Speaker 1>which is pretty unusual. Most stars when they go supernova

0:42:10.920 --> 0:42:14.399
<v Speaker 1>still have helium and hydrogen like in the outer layer

0:42:14.560 --> 0:42:15.680
<v Speaker 1>that hasn't been burnt yet.

0:42:16.800 --> 0:42:19.480
<v Speaker 2>But these don't put that mean that they're older stars

0:42:19.520 --> 0:42:20.880
<v Speaker 2>maybe or more mature stars.

0:42:21.080 --> 0:42:23.080
<v Speaker 1>It could be, or it could be that something else

0:42:23.160 --> 0:42:26.560
<v Speaker 1>is going on nearby that's like strip them of their atmosphere.

0:42:26.960 --> 0:42:29.640
<v Speaker 1>Maybe there's a very strong solar wind, or there's a

0:42:29.760 --> 0:42:33.000
<v Speaker 1>binary star that's been gobbling up their atmosphere, or maybe

0:42:33.040 --> 0:42:35.400
<v Speaker 1>they're one of these weird kind of stars called a

0:42:35.680 --> 0:42:39.799
<v Speaker 1>wolf rayet star that do tend to have very little

0:42:39.880 --> 0:42:42.600
<v Speaker 1>hydrogen and helium in them because as you say, they've

0:42:42.640 --> 0:42:45.560
<v Speaker 1>burned it already. That feels like an important clue. That's

0:42:45.640 --> 0:42:48.080
<v Speaker 1>one thing that makes these things different. But we don't

0:42:48.160 --> 0:42:52.680
<v Speaker 1>understand why not having hydrogen and not having helium would

0:42:52.760 --> 0:42:54.920
<v Speaker 1>make the explosion brighter. Like if you take a star

0:42:55.080 --> 0:42:57.839
<v Speaker 1>and you remove it's hydrogen helium, why would that give

0:42:57.840 --> 0:43:00.839
<v Speaker 1>you a brighter supernova? We don't understand, or maybe that's

0:43:00.880 --> 0:43:03.640
<v Speaker 1>not the answer. Maybe there's some other reason that generates

0:43:03.680 --> 0:43:06.680
<v Speaker 1>a bright supernova and happens to also remove the hydrogen

0:43:06.760 --> 0:43:09.239
<v Speaker 1>and helium from the star. It's just like a clue

0:43:09.280 --> 0:43:10.960
<v Speaker 1>we have found. We don't understand it yet.

0:43:11.320 --> 0:43:14.600
<v Speaker 2>Now have we seen any Are there any special superluminous

0:43:14.640 --> 0:43:16.960
<v Speaker 2>supernova that we've seen that are sort of interesting to

0:43:17.239 --> 0:43:17.680
<v Speaker 2>talk about.

0:43:17.800 --> 0:43:21.799
<v Speaker 1>The most dramatic one is really incredible. It's this supernova

0:43:21.920 --> 0:43:26.200
<v Speaker 1>called ASASSN, which is the name of the telescope fifteen

0:43:26.440 --> 0:43:30.680
<v Speaker 1>LH and it's about four billion light years away. But

0:43:30.760 --> 0:43:34.080
<v Speaker 1>when we saw it in twenty fifteen using these twin

0:43:34.160 --> 0:43:37.880
<v Speaker 1>telescopes in Chile, it was the most luminous supernova ever observed.

0:43:38.440 --> 0:43:42.359
<v Speaker 1>It was almost a trillion times brighter than our sun.

0:43:42.800 --> 0:43:46.680
<v Speaker 2>A trillion times brighter than the Sun. Yeah, that's wild.

0:43:47.000 --> 0:43:48.480
<v Speaker 2>It's a good thing. It wasn't in our doubts.

0:43:49.320 --> 0:43:53.440
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there's this astronomer from Ohio State University, christof Stenek

0:43:53.520 --> 0:43:56.200
<v Speaker 1>said if it was in our own galaxy, it would

0:43:56.239 --> 0:43:58.880
<v Speaker 1>shine brighter than the full moon. There would re no

0:43:59.080 --> 0:44:02.880
<v Speaker 1>night it would be easily seen during the day. Like,

0:44:03.000 --> 0:44:06.480
<v Speaker 1>this thing was a monster. It's more than two times

0:44:06.640 --> 0:44:09.520
<v Speaker 1>brighter than any other superluminous supernova.

0:44:10.000 --> 0:44:10.239
<v Speaker 5>Whoa.

0:44:10.880 --> 0:44:12.840
<v Speaker 2>And it was sort of a kind of luck that

0:44:12.920 --> 0:44:13.520
<v Speaker 2>we caught it right.

0:44:13.680 --> 0:44:15.720
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, it's lucky. We just like happened to be pointing

0:44:15.840 --> 0:44:17.920
<v Speaker 1>telescopes in the right direction at the right time, and

0:44:18.040 --> 0:44:19.600
<v Speaker 1>that's why we saw it. But it's also sort of

0:44:19.640 --> 0:44:21.880
<v Speaker 1>hard to miss. Like, this thing is twenty times brighter

0:44:22.160 --> 0:44:26.160
<v Speaker 1>than our higher galaxy. It's really amazing. So this was

0:44:26.200 --> 0:44:28.040
<v Speaker 1>definitely the brightest supernova ever.

0:44:28.239 --> 0:44:30.200
<v Speaker 2>But it's also kind of far away. That's why it's

0:44:30.200 --> 0:44:30.759
<v Speaker 2>easy to miss.

0:44:31.080 --> 0:44:34.600
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's four billion light years away, otherwise it might

0:44:34.640 --> 0:44:35.160
<v Speaker 1>have fried us.

0:44:35.360 --> 0:44:37.000
<v Speaker 2>It's like a tensive the way to the end of

0:44:37.040 --> 0:44:37.560
<v Speaker 2>the universe.

0:44:37.719 --> 0:44:39.719
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly, So pack some snacks if you're going to

0:44:39.719 --> 0:44:40.080
<v Speaker 1>go visit.

0:44:40.200 --> 0:44:42.319
<v Speaker 2>But it's cool. We could see it from here, right,

0:44:42.320 --> 0:44:44.839
<v Speaker 2>and it's so bright even for me so far away.

0:44:44.960 --> 0:44:47.640
<v Speaker 1>It is really cool, and it offers an opportunity to

0:44:47.800 --> 0:44:51.680
<v Speaker 1>like think about what's going on and understand how supernova's form.

0:44:52.280 --> 0:44:52.400
<v Speaker 3>You know.

0:44:52.560 --> 0:44:55.680
<v Speaker 1>One idea about what makes these things so bright is

0:44:55.719 --> 0:44:58.360
<v Speaker 1>that they're just like super big versions of stars that

0:44:58.440 --> 0:45:01.160
<v Speaker 1>make super luminous supernova. Maybe they're just bigger and they're

0:45:01.160 --> 0:45:03.239
<v Speaker 1>more massive and that's what's happening. But there are also

0:45:03.360 --> 0:45:06.400
<v Speaker 1>other theories, like maybe these are other kinds of events,

0:45:06.440 --> 0:45:10.279
<v Speaker 1>they're not just bigger versions of supernova. Like maybe there's

0:45:10.280 --> 0:45:13.279
<v Speaker 1>an interplay between these stars and black holes that are

0:45:13.320 --> 0:45:16.280
<v Speaker 1>nearby that are triggering a different kind of collapse.

0:45:16.520 --> 0:45:18.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Like if you see something bright in the sky

0:45:18.080 --> 0:45:20.439
<v Speaker 2>doesn't necessarily have to be a supernova, right, it could

0:45:20.440 --> 0:45:24.640
<v Speaker 2>be something else exploding, or maybe like a quasar or

0:45:24.640 --> 0:45:25.120
<v Speaker 2>something like that.

0:45:25.320 --> 0:45:27.920
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, although these things have the sort of pretty characteristic

0:45:28.080 --> 0:45:31.480
<v Speaker 1>light curve of a supernova and they appear briefly and

0:45:31.520 --> 0:45:35.000
<v Speaker 1>then disappear, which quasars don't. But black holes might be contributing.

0:45:35.160 --> 0:45:37.160
<v Speaker 1>Like maybe you have a star that was going to

0:45:37.200 --> 0:45:40.760
<v Speaker 1>go supernova anyway, and the tidal forces from a nearby

0:45:40.880 --> 0:45:43.680
<v Speaker 1>black hole add to the collapse and like make that

0:45:43.800 --> 0:45:47.359
<v Speaker 1>collapse more powerful. Right, if you're near like a supermassive

0:45:47.400 --> 0:45:49.959
<v Speaker 1>black hole in the center of your galaxy, it could

0:45:50.000 --> 0:45:52.800
<v Speaker 1>be that the tidal forces from that trigger the collapse

0:45:52.880 --> 0:45:54.719
<v Speaker 1>in a way that wouldn't have happened otherwise you get

0:45:54.760 --> 0:45:58.120
<v Speaker 1>like a special version or an unusual version of the collapse.

0:45:58.280 --> 0:46:01.799
<v Speaker 2>Wait, so this would be a super massive black holes supercharged,

0:46:01.840 --> 0:46:07.120
<v Speaker 2>superluminous supernova. Is that what you're telling me? It would

0:46:07.160 --> 0:46:12.320
<v Speaker 2>be pretty incredible, extra extra bright exactly.

0:46:12.400 --> 0:46:15.799
<v Speaker 1>That's one alternative idea. Another really cool idea that's reading

0:46:15.840 --> 0:46:20.400
<v Speaker 1>about is that it could be magnetars losing their energy. Right,

0:46:20.480 --> 0:46:23.080
<v Speaker 1>maybe it's not a supernova at all. A magnetar is

0:46:23.080 --> 0:46:27.040
<v Speaker 1>a neutron star, which is another potential endpoint for a

0:46:27.120 --> 0:46:30.240
<v Speaker 1>star that's spinning really really fast and has a huge

0:46:30.360 --> 0:46:33.560
<v Speaker 1>magnetic field and all sorts of incredible energy, But they're

0:46:33.640 --> 0:46:36.120
<v Speaker 1>dumping a lot of that energy out into space. They're

0:46:36.160 --> 0:46:39.680
<v Speaker 1>converting their rotational energy into this beam. And so the

0:46:39.800 --> 0:46:43.040
<v Speaker 1>idea is maybe one of these magnetars has a dramatic

0:46:43.120 --> 0:46:46.520
<v Speaker 1>spin down effect where it's transforming its rotational energy very

0:46:46.600 --> 0:46:50.760
<v Speaker 1>suddenly into a bunch of radiation, which creates these huge

0:46:50.920 --> 0:46:55.920
<v Speaker 1>jets and produces enough energy to look like a superluminous supernova.

0:46:56.200 --> 0:46:59.239
<v Speaker 1>But people have tried to do calculations to make that happen,

0:46:59.320 --> 0:47:01.040
<v Speaker 1>and they don't think that those things could be bright

0:47:01.160 --> 0:47:04.759
<v Speaker 1>enough to explain what we've seen. So it's still sort

0:47:04.800 --> 0:47:07.080
<v Speaker 1>of a wild West of ideas out there, people wondering like,

0:47:07.120 --> 0:47:08.920
<v Speaker 1>maybe it's this, maybe it's that. Maybe it's these two

0:47:09.000 --> 0:47:11.719
<v Speaker 1>things combined that makes this crazy event.

0:47:12.000 --> 0:47:14.880
<v Speaker 2>I guess if it's something so bright and so explosive,

0:47:15.000 --> 0:47:18.160
<v Speaker 2>wouldn't we sort of see evidence of that explosion affecting

0:47:18.200 --> 0:47:20.000
<v Speaker 2>the whole galaxy it's in, or a lot of the

0:47:20.080 --> 0:47:22.080
<v Speaker 2>stars it's in. You know, maybe that way you could

0:47:22.080 --> 0:47:24.400
<v Speaker 2>tell if it's an explosion after all or not, it is.

0:47:24.400 --> 0:47:27.640
<v Speaker 1>Actually really cool to track these explosions. You feel like

0:47:27.800 --> 0:47:30.279
<v Speaker 1>it's going to affect the whole galaxy. But remember that

0:47:30.480 --> 0:47:33.000
<v Speaker 1>galaxies are really big, and so for information to get

0:47:33.040 --> 0:47:36.160
<v Speaker 1>across the galaxy takes a long time. So these explosions

0:47:36.200 --> 0:47:38.720
<v Speaker 1>look sort of like they're happening in slow motion because

0:47:38.760 --> 0:47:41.759
<v Speaker 1>the distances are just so vast, Which is one reason

0:47:41.760 --> 0:47:44.040
<v Speaker 1>why it's really cool to look at old supernova to

0:47:44.120 --> 0:47:48.239
<v Speaker 1>see how has the supernova affected stuff nearby, Like when

0:47:48.239 --> 0:47:52.000
<v Speaker 1>the supernova radiation slams into nearby gas, what happens. Do

0:47:52.040 --> 0:47:53.880
<v Speaker 1>you generate new stars? Do you heat it up? Do

0:47:53.920 --> 0:47:56.239
<v Speaker 1>you blow it out? That's one reason why it's really

0:47:56.280 --> 0:47:59.000
<v Speaker 1>cool to look at these sort of old supernovas from

0:47:59.000 --> 0:47:59.440
<v Speaker 1>the past.

0:47:59.719 --> 0:48:02.239
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, like I would maybe imagine like at the side

0:48:02.280 --> 0:48:04.880
<v Speaker 2>of where there was a supernova, maybe like all the

0:48:04.960 --> 0:48:07.120
<v Speaker 2>stars around it got snuffed out or something re a

0:48:07.160 --> 0:48:08.920
<v Speaker 2>least pushed out of the way or something. At least

0:48:08.960 --> 0:48:13.120
<v Speaker 2>that's how it looks like in movies. In superhero movies,

0:48:13.280 --> 0:48:13.640
<v Speaker 2>well you do.

0:48:13.719 --> 0:48:16.360
<v Speaker 1>Get this very dramatic and I think very pleasing to

0:48:16.480 --> 0:48:19.839
<v Speaker 1>the eye clouds of gas and shock waves that come

0:48:19.880 --> 0:48:22.560
<v Speaker 1>out of supernova. Some of the prettiest nebula that are

0:48:22.600 --> 0:48:25.480
<v Speaker 1>out there, like the crab Nebula, actually did come from

0:48:25.600 --> 0:48:28.680
<v Speaker 1>ancient supernova. It was in the nineteen forties we realized

0:48:28.840 --> 0:48:32.080
<v Speaker 1>that the crab nebula is the remnant of a supernova

0:48:32.239 --> 0:48:36.120
<v Speaker 1>that the Chinese saw about a thousand years ago. So

0:48:36.239 --> 0:48:38.359
<v Speaker 1>we get to watch like a thousand years of slow

0:48:38.480 --> 0:48:40.480
<v Speaker 1>mo explosion playing out in the sky.

0:48:40.800 --> 0:48:42.759
<v Speaker 2>So we're not even true if it is a supernova.

0:48:42.840 --> 0:48:44.560
<v Speaker 2>These super luminous events, yeah.

0:48:44.440 --> 0:48:46.560
<v Speaker 1>That's true. There's still a bunch of different theories about

0:48:46.560 --> 0:48:49.279
<v Speaker 1>what could be causing them, and eventually we might even

0:48:49.320 --> 0:48:52.440
<v Speaker 1>give them a different name. We might even drop the super.

0:48:52.960 --> 0:48:55.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, or maybe a super luminous supernova might try it

0:48:55.400 --> 0:48:57.759
<v Speaker 2>to be just a mild mannered black hole explosion or.

0:48:57.760 --> 0:49:00.600
<v Speaker 1>Something like that. You never know what happens when they

0:49:00.640 --> 0:49:02.040
<v Speaker 1>take off their glasses.

0:49:01.920 --> 0:49:05.480
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, another amazing excuse to look at the

0:49:05.600 --> 0:49:07.480
<v Speaker 2>night sky each night. If you're looking at the night

0:49:07.520 --> 0:49:09.480
<v Speaker 2>sky and you look up at the start, maybe you'll

0:49:09.520 --> 0:49:12.239
<v Speaker 2>catch a supernova one day. Right, It's totally possible, isn't it.

0:49:12.440 --> 0:49:15.279
<v Speaker 1>It's totally possible, And here's hoping that supernova is not

0:49:15.440 --> 0:49:18.719
<v Speaker 1>so close that it super fries your super eyeballs.

0:49:19.239 --> 0:49:21.680
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it might be the last thing you see unfortunately

0:49:21.840 --> 0:49:22.560
<v Speaker 2>in the night sky.

0:49:22.840 --> 0:49:25.560
<v Speaker 1>And for everything that we have learned already about the universe,

0:49:25.640 --> 0:49:28.520
<v Speaker 1>remember that we are still learning new things. It was

0:49:28.640 --> 0:49:31.360
<v Speaker 1>only a couple of decades ago that we first identified

0:49:31.440 --> 0:49:35.640
<v Speaker 1>super luminous supernova, these very incredibly rare things. So there

0:49:35.680 --> 0:49:37.600
<v Speaker 1>could be things happening out there in the universe that

0:49:37.640 --> 0:49:40.360
<v Speaker 1>are so rare. We just haven't seen one yet. And

0:49:40.560 --> 0:49:42.640
<v Speaker 1>maybe somebody out there will be the first person to

0:49:42.680 --> 0:49:44.400
<v Speaker 1>see this new super event.

0:49:44.680 --> 0:49:46.440
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and then you can give it a good name,

0:49:46.680 --> 0:49:51.000
<v Speaker 2>an incredible name, an amazing name, an extra special name,

0:49:53.239 --> 0:49:58.520
<v Speaker 2>a hyper name, while avoiding hyperbole of course, exactly. All right, Well,

0:49:58.560 --> 0:50:01.439
<v Speaker 2>we hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for joining us, See

0:50:01.440 --> 0:50:01.960
<v Speaker 2>you next time.

0:50:09.760 --> 0:50:12.560
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain

0:50:12.640 --> 0:50:16.600
<v Speaker 1>the Universe is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

0:50:16.640 --> 0:50:21.200
<v Speaker 1>from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

0:50:21.360 --> 0:50:23.080
<v Speaker 1>you listen to your favorite shows.