1 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:06,680 Speaker 1: Further out in the dark, we found alien life. There 2 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:09,920 Speaker 1: were mats of corn colored slime glowing in the deep 3 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:13,039 Speaker 1: as they fed on jets of sulfur bubbling up from 4 00:00:13,039 --> 00:00:16,960 Speaker 1: the mud at the bottom of a flooded crater. White 5 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: ticks that tunneled through the ice, growing in spindles above 6 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: the salt flats, the ruins of empty cities covered in 7 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:29,360 Speaker 1: mosslike growth on quiet planets. But as we journeyed further 8 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 1: in into the hub, into the permanent light, everything was dead. 9 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:39,519 Speaker 1: What could live here? The stars hurtled past one another, 10 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 1: dragging their doomed clouds of matter with them to collide 11 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:47,040 Speaker 1: like weather fronts. The radiation is a hot bath, the 12 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:51,880 Speaker 1: killer surf rocking in from all around. The night swarms 13 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: with starlight. But our journey goes on because the Center calls, 14 00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:05,399 Speaker 1: We're going to the bottom of the galaxy. Welcome stuff 15 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind. A production of I Heart Radios 16 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:15,240 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey you, welcome to Stuff to blow 17 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:18,440 Speaker 1: your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 18 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:22,120 Speaker 1: In Today we're coming back with some space themed I 19 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:23,800 Speaker 1: was about to say the word content. I'm not going 20 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: to say the word content. I'm gonna say space themed stuff. 21 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:30,440 Speaker 1: That's an old favorite how stuff works fans. How about 22 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:33,640 Speaker 1: a space material. There's a lot of discussion of material 23 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:37,760 Speaker 1: and particles this episode in the one that follows it, 24 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:40,639 Speaker 1: because of course we're going to be talking about black 25 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:43,039 Speaker 1: holes once again. Yeah. Now, we did I think a 26 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:45,800 Speaker 1: three part series on black holes. It was sometime last year, 27 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:48,560 Speaker 1: maybe a year and a half ago, but we wanted 28 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:52,000 Speaker 1: to revisit the topic to talk about a specific case 29 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: of very interesting black hole that we didn't get deep 30 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,720 Speaker 1: into in our last four That's right, So I do 31 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:01,160 Speaker 1: want to just so so really you can go about 32 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: this two ways. Uh, you could treat this is part 33 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: four and part five. Uh, and you know, go listen 34 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:09,799 Speaker 1: to the three previous black Hole episodes again. But I 35 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:12,400 Speaker 1: don't think it's entirely necessary. I think you can. You 36 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:14,359 Speaker 1: can come in and listen to these is just simply 37 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:16,880 Speaker 1: part one in part two of a look at a 38 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:21,880 Speaker 1: very particular type of black hole, a super massive black hole, right, 39 00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: and we'll do refreshers on the basics. So it's not 40 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:26,680 Speaker 1: like you've you've got to have done your homework here, right, 41 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:29,800 Speaker 1: you have to have seen either event Horizon or Disney's 42 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:32,480 Speaker 1: The black Hole. Otherwise you have no frame of reference. 43 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:35,320 Speaker 1: That's the starting homework. That's like the summer reading before 44 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:37,840 Speaker 1: you start our podcast in the ball well, you know, 45 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:39,919 Speaker 1: I mean the weird thing is that, you know, those 46 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,320 Speaker 1: are two films that I think are in some cases 47 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:46,600 Speaker 1: people's first introduction to the concept of a black hole. 48 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:49,040 Speaker 1: And granted, those are two films that, each in their 49 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: own way are loaded with errors and problems and misinformation. 50 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:55,960 Speaker 1: And yet Fantasy black Hole and the Fantasy black Holes. 51 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,640 Speaker 1: But you know, a fantasy black hole is I think 52 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:02,120 Speaker 1: a good starting place in many respects. You know, it 53 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:06,000 Speaker 1: gives you a fantastic notion, sometimes an you know, an 54 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 1: action pack very uh you know, terrestrial model of what 55 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: a black hole is. And it's not a bad place 56 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 1: to then begin and then build scientifically on the concept. 57 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 1: There is a kernel of truth in the suggestion of 58 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:23,520 Speaker 1: the Fantasy black hole, which is that while we know 59 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:26,079 Speaker 1: more about black holes than we ever have before, and 60 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:28,040 Speaker 1: this year, for the very first time, we think we 61 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:30,400 Speaker 1: got you know, basically a direct image of a black 62 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:33,079 Speaker 1: hole to whatever extent that's possible. And talk more about 63 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: the specifics of that later on, But but yeah, while 64 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: we still, while we know more than we ever have, 65 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:43,120 Speaker 1: black holes still contain a lot of mysteries. They contain 66 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: some edge cases for our theories of physics where what 67 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:48,960 Speaker 1: we know ceases to make sense. And so there's still 68 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:51,840 Speaker 1: a lot of lingering questions, a lot of tantalizing mysteries. 69 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:55,040 Speaker 1: But before we get to the tantalizing mysteries and the 70 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,720 Speaker 1: lingering questions, I want to talk about a a nerdy 71 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:04,280 Speaker 1: engineer born in Oklahoma whose middle name is Gooth. I mean, 72 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:07,560 Speaker 1: that's a that's an excellent nerd middle name. Okay, So 73 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about Carl Gooth Jansky. He was 74 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:13,960 Speaker 1: born in Norman, Oklahoma, in nineteen o five, one of 75 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 1: six children, and his family and Jansky's dad, Cyril, was 76 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:22,640 Speaker 1: an electrical engineering professor. It's a little Carl Jansky. When 77 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:25,640 Speaker 1: he grew up, he followed in his father's trajectory to 78 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:28,480 Speaker 1: study physics and engineering as well. So as a young man, 79 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:31,839 Speaker 1: Karl Jansky earned a degree in physics from the University 80 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:34,640 Speaker 1: of Wisconsin. I think he got his undergraduate degree but 81 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,320 Speaker 1: then failed to complete his masters. But then anyway, he 82 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:39,880 Speaker 1: went on to get hired by a company he was 83 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:43,080 Speaker 1: hired for a position as a radio engineer with Bell 84 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:46,240 Speaker 1: Telephone Laboratories in ninety eight, and this would have been 85 00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:49,360 Speaker 1: when radio engineering was something fairly new, So at this 86 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:53,000 Speaker 1: time in the late nineteen twenties, Bell Labs was interested 87 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: in creating a system for a wireless radio based telephone 88 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:01,720 Speaker 1: service that would allow ins atlantic phone calls and let's 89 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:04,560 Speaker 1: just say you needed to call across the Atlantic Ocean 90 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:08,479 Speaker 1: to order a bagat or something. These radio based phone 91 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: calls that Bell Labs wanted to do would have been 92 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:14,159 Speaker 1: in the short wave frequency range, meaning wavelengths of about 93 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:17,480 Speaker 1: ten to twenty meters, and Jansky was given the job 94 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 1: of hunting down any potential sources of radio interference that 95 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:25,719 Speaker 1: would cause static on the calls. So Jansky built a 96 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:30,479 Speaker 1: giant receiver antenna to detect signals at a wavelength of 97 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:34,839 Speaker 1: fourteen point five meters. And this was a directional antenna, 98 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:37,159 Speaker 1: and that meant that it could be moved around to 99 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:41,719 Speaker 1: identify the origin vector of any particular signal. Right, so 100 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 1: it's not receiving signals from every direction the same you 101 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 1: aim it in the direction that you want to pick 102 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:50,280 Speaker 1: up the signal from. And it was mounted on a 103 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:54,640 Speaker 1: giant rotating platform outfitted with motorized wheels. Actually there were 104 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 1: the wheels from a model T and it could be 105 00:05:57,440 --> 00:05:59,719 Speaker 1: aimed in any direction to root out the sources of 106 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,840 Speaker 1: attic or other interference that they were looking for. Some 107 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:05,720 Speaker 1: people called this Jantski's Merry go Round. I've got a 108 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:08,719 Speaker 1: photo of it here for you, Robert. Yeah, at first glance, 109 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:13,200 Speaker 1: it looks not unlike a giant biplane of some kind, 110 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: you know. Oh yeah, with the struts on the wings, 111 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:20,159 Speaker 1: it looks like the world's most dangerous gymnastics equipment. It's 112 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:22,880 Speaker 1: just broken shins all around. Yeah, it looks a little 113 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:27,000 Speaker 1: bit like scaffolding or uh, the system of goals and 114 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:31,200 Speaker 1: some sort of Susian sport. But in the middle, of course, 115 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:33,200 Speaker 1: it's got wheels, and it's got a little track that 116 00:06:33,279 --> 00:06:35,919 Speaker 1: the wheels roll around on so that you can aim 117 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:38,920 Speaker 1: it to to calibrate where the source of the interference 118 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:41,720 Speaker 1: is coming from. So, first of all, he discovered the 119 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:46,239 Speaker 1: main source of terrestrial interference on this radio frequency range, 120 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:50,000 Speaker 1: which was electrical storms. So if there's a thunderstorm nearby 121 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:52,839 Speaker 1: that could generate static. You can even get some static 122 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:57,840 Speaker 1: from distant thunderstorms. But Jansky also discovered a source of 123 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:02,040 Speaker 1: noise in this frequency range that seemed unrelated to thunderstorms, 124 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:07,440 Speaker 1: quote a steady hiss type static of unknown origin. This 125 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:10,360 Speaker 1: signal would go through a cycle once a day, peaking 126 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 1: in intensity and then fading roughly every twenty four hours, 127 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 1: but not exactly every twenty four hours, just slightly, just 128 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:21,120 Speaker 1: slightly less than twenty four hours. Now, at first, you know, 129 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:24,680 Speaker 1: what would you conclude if something was emitting radiation powerful 130 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:28,080 Speaker 1: enough to cause terrestrial radio interference in a cycle that 131 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: lasted about one day? What would you think it probably was? 132 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: But that that brings one's attention to just like the 133 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 1: immediate neighborhood of the Solar system, something to do with 134 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:40,360 Speaker 1: the Earth's position relative to the Sun. Yeah, exactly. You 135 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: think it's probably the Sun, right, But Jansky chased the 136 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: signal and it turned out it wasn't the Sun because 137 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:48,800 Speaker 1: he kept following it for several months, and while the 138 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:51,440 Speaker 1: signal at some point, I think when he was originally 139 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 1: chasing it was kind of near the Sun, it shifted 140 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:57,320 Speaker 1: over time and moved away. And so after months of 141 00:07:57,440 --> 00:08:01,080 Speaker 1: using his radio source finding techniques and teen thirty two 142 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:03,600 Speaker 1: he discovered or I think it was thirty one or 143 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,640 Speaker 1: thirty two. He discovered that the origin of this anomalous 144 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:11,840 Speaker 1: static hiss was coming from deep space, and he narrowed 145 00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:17,280 Speaker 1: it down to an origin point roughly in the constellation Sagittarius. 146 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:22,240 Speaker 1: Now Sagittarius is named after a a centaur archer. In 147 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:26,520 Speaker 1: Greek mythology, it's associated with the centaur uh An. Ancient 148 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 1: Mesopotamian astrology, the constellation Sagittarius was associated with the deity 149 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:34,640 Speaker 1: near gal a creature of fire and the desert and 150 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:38,800 Speaker 1: war and disease, kind of a a creepy demon type figure. 151 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:42,160 Speaker 1: In Greek and Roman astrology, the constellation was most often 152 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:45,560 Speaker 1: associated with the image of a centaur drawing a bow. 153 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:49,280 Speaker 1: So it's like this super accurate centaur archer who always 154 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:53,600 Speaker 1: hits his mark. Yeah, that centaur's that name is Chion, 155 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:58,400 Speaker 1: mentor of the Greek hero Achilles. Alright, I'd rather like 156 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:01,280 Speaker 1: the idea of of Achilles is the sort of mythical 157 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:04,480 Speaker 1: killing machine having been you know, the student of of 158 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:07,200 Speaker 1: of Well, I don't want to spoil it, but some 159 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:10,680 Speaker 1: sort of cosmic anomaly, like he was getting messages into 160 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:14,480 Speaker 1: his brain from space. Yeah, this was the static kiss 161 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:16,600 Speaker 1: talking to Achilles. Yeah, I mean, well, what is it 162 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:18,880 Speaker 1: to be, you know, to hear the voice of the gods, 163 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:23,040 Speaker 1: but to be, you know, an antenna receiving signals from beyond, 164 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:25,760 Speaker 1: or to get your brain hit by a cosmic ray. 165 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:31,439 Speaker 1: But anyway, like any constellation, Sagittarius, Sagittarius is not a 166 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:35,240 Speaker 1: thing up there. This is something that I often fall 167 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:39,080 Speaker 1: into the trap of thinking of constellations as like objects 168 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:42,480 Speaker 1: that exist in themselves. But of course a constellation is 169 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:45,240 Speaker 1: a number of stars that appear in a certain arrangement 170 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:48,440 Speaker 1: from our perspective here on Earth. It's not like those 171 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:52,079 Speaker 1: stars have a natural association with each other, right, It's 172 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:53,880 Speaker 1: just a yeah, it all has to do with our perspective. 173 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:56,240 Speaker 1: And then it just is a shorthand way of identifying 174 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 1: different different portions of the night sky. They're not objects 175 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:03,440 Speaker 1: in the sky anymore than like the figure of a 176 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:06,760 Speaker 1: shadowy goblin hand cast on your window at night by 177 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:09,959 Speaker 1: a tree limb against the moonlight is an object. It's 178 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:12,920 Speaker 1: feature of your perspective where the lights coming from, where 179 00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 1: you're looking from. But an important thing about Sagittarius from 180 00:10:16,480 --> 00:10:20,120 Speaker 1: our perspective is that this constellation just happens to be 181 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:24,559 Speaker 1: generally the direction of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, 182 00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:27,720 Speaker 1: our galaxy, the one we live in. And this was 183 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:32,120 Speaker 1: what Jansky had discovered, an extraterrestrial radio source coming not 184 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:36,040 Speaker 1: just from space, but from the core of the Milky Way. 185 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:38,480 Speaker 1: Then they get you're prickling a little bit, Yeah, like 186 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:42,480 Speaker 1: something something major is happening there, something that we can detect. Right. 187 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:46,000 Speaker 1: So Jansky authored a handful of scientific papers on this finding, 188 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:50,920 Speaker 1: including a paper called Electrical Disturbances Apparently of Extraterrestrial origin, 189 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:54,160 Speaker 1: which he presented in nineteen thirty three to a conference 190 00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:58,360 Speaker 1: in Washington of the International Scientific Radio Union. And this 191 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:00,840 Speaker 1: led to media coverage, including an article in The New 192 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:03,360 Speaker 1: York Times from nineteen thirty three, which you can still 193 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:05,840 Speaker 1: read online if you got a log in with your subscription. 194 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:07,800 Speaker 1: I looked it up and I read it. Can you 195 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:12,120 Speaker 1: guess what the reporters asked to Jansky? Can you just guess? Um? 196 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:15,000 Speaker 1: You probably asked, are their little green men? Of course, 197 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:18,320 Speaker 1: the concluding paragraph of the article is there is no 198 00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:21,280 Speaker 1: indication of any kind. Mr Jansky replied to a question 199 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:25,520 Speaker 1: that these galactic radio waves constitute some kind of interstellar signaling, 200 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:27,760 Speaker 1: or that they are the result of some form of 201 00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:32,680 Speaker 1: intelligence striving for intragalactic communication. I'm glad they cleared that 202 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:35,320 Speaker 1: up because they specify in the article that was a 203 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:39,080 Speaker 1: steady hiss of random radio static, which seems like a 204 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:42,319 Speaker 1: really bad type of radio signal to use for interstellar 205 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:45,880 Speaker 1: communication would be like trying to communicate with somebody by 206 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:50,280 Speaker 1: handing them blank pieces of paper. Plus ninety three not 207 00:11:50,360 --> 00:11:53,719 Speaker 1: a great time period to be visited by some sort 208 00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:56,920 Speaker 1: of extraterrestrial civilization. I mean, not that today is you 209 00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:01,200 Speaker 1: know that we've necessarily got things in working order, so 210 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,640 Speaker 1: that so that some distant civilization can judge us and 211 00:12:04,679 --> 00:12:07,040 Speaker 1: decide if we should uh, you know, be left to 212 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,199 Speaker 1: function on our own or not. But thirty three was 213 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:12,080 Speaker 1: not a great year, no, not not one of the 214 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:15,439 Speaker 1: best periods. So so he's not saying it's aliens. He's 215 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:18,000 Speaker 1: definitely not saying it's aliens. He's saying it's pretty much 216 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:23,240 Speaker 1: undoubtedly physical, not organic. But what was it? Well? Jansky 217 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:26,080 Speaker 1: wanted to continue research on this deep radio source at 218 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:28,040 Speaker 1: the heart of the Milky Way, but Bell Labs was 219 00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:30,600 Speaker 1: of course not interested in funding this kind of thing. 220 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:33,320 Speaker 1: In the nineteen thirties, early nineteen thirties. You know, this 221 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:37,120 Speaker 1: is the depression. They're they're they're not just looking to 222 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:39,680 Speaker 1: to profligately spend money on astronomy. It was enough for 223 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:43,959 Speaker 1: them to have the radio telephone interference issues solved, But 224 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:47,800 Speaker 1: in the following decades many astronomers actually picked up where 225 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:51,280 Speaker 1: Jansky had left off, and Jansky is now remembered as 226 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:53,880 Speaker 1: one of the pioneers of radio astronomy. I've seen it 227 00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:56,840 Speaker 1: speculated somewhere that if he hadn't died early he died 228 00:12:56,840 --> 00:12:59,080 Speaker 1: pretty young, that he may have received the Nobel Prize 229 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:02,120 Speaker 1: at some point later. But he he hasn't forgotten. In fact, 230 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:05,960 Speaker 1: I almost forgot this. The massive radio telescope array in 231 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 1: New Mexico known as the Very Large Array, which I 232 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:10,959 Speaker 1: visited in person last year and have talked about on 233 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:13,600 Speaker 1: the show before. It's actually named in his honor. It 234 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:15,720 Speaker 1: almost gets forgotten because it's the v l A. But 235 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:19,360 Speaker 1: it's the Carl G. Jansky v l A. Oh okay, cool, Yeah, 236 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:21,600 Speaker 1: I didn't realize that either. And there's also a metric 237 00:13:21,679 --> 00:13:24,440 Speaker 1: named after him. And there's a unit in radiophysics known 238 00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:26,960 Speaker 1: as the Jansky I can't remember exactly what it is. 239 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:32,319 Speaker 1: It denotes something. But now astronomers have since then has 240 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:34,560 Speaker 1: spent a lot of time and energy trying to understand 241 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,280 Speaker 1: what is happening at the galactic center, at the core 242 00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:40,120 Speaker 1: of our galaxy. And this is really difficult because we 243 00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:44,280 Speaker 1: can't leave our galaxy to look down on it from above. Right. 244 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:46,920 Speaker 1: If you've ever seen an image of the Milky Way 245 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:50,720 Speaker 1: depicted in like a circular shape, this is just a guess, 246 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:53,319 Speaker 1: a guess of an illustrator. We can't look at our 247 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:55,600 Speaker 1: galaxy from outside it. We're in it. It would be 248 00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:58,360 Speaker 1: like trying to look at a storm from above while 249 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:00,559 Speaker 1: the storm you're standing on the ground. The storm is 250 00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:02,760 Speaker 1: going on all around you. The center of the Milky 251 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:05,360 Speaker 1: Way is especially hard for us to see into because 252 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:07,840 Speaker 1: this region at the center of the galaxy that the 253 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:11,000 Speaker 1: rest of the galaxy orbits around, is shrouded by dust, 254 00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:15,560 Speaker 1: these thick clouds of dust that obscure its millions of 255 00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:18,760 Speaker 1: stars from our point of view. I've seen numbers that 256 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:22,720 Speaker 1: suggests there are like twenty five magnitudes of optical extinction 257 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:25,400 Speaker 1: from this region due to dust. And that's why, even 258 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:27,400 Speaker 1: though the core of our galaxy is by far the 259 00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:29,880 Speaker 1: brightest part of the galaxy, it's lit up with tons 260 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 1: of stars. There's all this dust there that blots out 261 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,360 Speaker 1: the light and mutes that brightness from our point of view. 262 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:41,160 Speaker 1: But modern telescopes and equipment have given us other ways 263 00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:43,760 Speaker 1: to peer through the dust into the center of the galaxy. 264 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:48,440 Speaker 1: For example, through infrared and other radio frequency detections, we 265 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:52,360 Speaker 1: can see what's shining from within. And today astronomers believe 266 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:56,480 Speaker 1: we have extremely compelling evidence that this radio source at 267 00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:00,440 Speaker 1: the center of the galaxy uh Is is a regions 268 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:06,200 Speaker 1: surrounding a gigantic supermassive black hole. This compact radio source 269 00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:09,840 Speaker 1: together is known as Sagittarius a star. And if you 270 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:14,160 Speaker 1: see this printed or you know, type, it is a 271 00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:19,280 Speaker 1: Sagittarius a asterix. The asterix stands for star, right, Yeah, 272 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:22,480 Speaker 1: it's pronounced star. But it always, for the longest time, 273 00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:24,400 Speaker 1: whenever I saw it, it it would confuse me because I'd 274 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:26,400 Speaker 1: see it then it looked like, Okay, I'm looking for 275 00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:31,640 Speaker 1: the note and there's not one. Because in astronomy that 276 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:34,720 Speaker 1: that asterix denote star. And we'll get to the you know, 277 00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:36,560 Speaker 1: the details on that in a bit. Yeah, it was 278 00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:40,000 Speaker 1: named that way for a cheeky reason by an astronomer 279 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:42,760 Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies. But maybe we should take a 280 00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 1: break and then when we come back, we can sort 281 00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:47,320 Speaker 1: of do a refresher on black holes and get into 282 00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:52,520 Speaker 1: the details of this supermassive black hole. Thank alright, we're back, 283 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 1: all right. So, as we said before, we did a 284 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:56,240 Speaker 1: whole series on black holes about a year and a 285 00:15:56,280 --> 00:15:58,480 Speaker 1: half ago. You can go listen to those if you want. 286 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 1: They get way into the history of the discovery of 287 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:03,720 Speaker 1: black holes and all that, but we'll do a brief 288 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: refresher here. One quote I really like comes from the 289 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:10,800 Speaker 1: physicist Supermanion Chandra Shekar, who is very important in the 290 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,520 Speaker 1: history of black hole research. Uh. And he wrote a 291 00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:16,320 Speaker 1: book called The Mathematical Theory of black Holes, and in 292 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:19,080 Speaker 1: the prologue there's a part where he writes, quote, the 293 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:23,520 Speaker 1: black holes of nature are the most perfect macroscopic objects 294 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,320 Speaker 1: there are in the universe. The only elements in their 295 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:30,360 Speaker 1: construction are concepts of space and time. And this gets 296 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:34,200 Speaker 1: to some of the history we discussed in those previous episodes, 297 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:37,920 Speaker 1: being that, like, the black hole was the thing that 298 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:41,280 Speaker 1: that we saw in the math before we even began 299 00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:44,360 Speaker 1: to like, you know, to to see through uh. You know, 300 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:48,720 Speaker 1: other astronomical means. Yeah, it existed in theory long before 301 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,000 Speaker 1: it had ever been detected directly. In fact, you could 302 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,320 Speaker 1: only argue probably that that you could well, I don't know. 303 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:57,840 Speaker 1: I guess it depends on what evidence people count. But 304 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:02,040 Speaker 1: there is evidence now that seems to be direct indications 305 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:04,840 Speaker 1: of black holes, but it's hard for reasons that we'll 306 00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:07,280 Speaker 1: talk about in a minute, I guess, yeah, for for 307 00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:09,760 Speaker 1: the longest black holes. So certainly if you pull out 308 00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:12,920 Speaker 1: an older textbook, they're going to refer to black holes 309 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:16,600 Speaker 1: as theoretical objects, right, Yeah, So a black hole is 310 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:20,120 Speaker 1: a region of space time that is so dense that nothing, 311 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:23,840 Speaker 1: not even light, can escape, And this of course means 312 00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:27,000 Speaker 1: that you can't see a black hole. There's nothing to 313 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:29,719 Speaker 1: see because the only way we see things is if 314 00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:33,040 Speaker 1: they emit or reflect light, and a black hole does neither. 315 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:36,000 Speaker 1: No light comes out of it. If light goes toward it, 316 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,280 Speaker 1: it doesn't bounce off and come back in your direction. 317 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:42,680 Speaker 1: It just gets absorbed and never escapes. Yeah, you know this, 318 00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:45,200 Speaker 1: this reminds me a lot of how we're recently talking 319 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:49,119 Speaker 1: about casually about quantum mechanics. In a new book that 320 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:52,920 Speaker 1: you've read, about quantum mechanics and and and uh, and 321 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:54,600 Speaker 1: this is kind of that's kind of like the the 322 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:59,760 Speaker 1: micro quest and then the black holes are the macro 323 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:03,359 Speaker 1: quest and the macro into the spectrum. And you know, 324 00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:06,160 Speaker 1: both of these are extremes that are just so far 325 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:10,320 Speaker 1: beyond our ability to you know, certainly our evolved ability 326 00:18:10,359 --> 00:18:15,159 Speaker 1: to perceive and and to some extent even contemplate, you know, 327 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:17,320 Speaker 1: and and and and so we you know, we talk 328 00:18:17,359 --> 00:18:20,640 Speaker 1: about like how we would perceive them vigitally, and even 329 00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:23,080 Speaker 1: that is like when you really start turning that over 330 00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:27,040 Speaker 1: in your head, um, it's it just gets ridiculous really quickly, 331 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:28,879 Speaker 1: you know. Well, it forces you to think about the 332 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:31,760 Speaker 1: nature of physical information. Yeah, the fact that you know, 333 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:34,640 Speaker 1: a black hole highlights the fact that when you see 334 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:38,240 Speaker 1: a thing, you never really see the thing. You're seeing 335 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:40,680 Speaker 1: light reflecting off of it, which is, you know, that's 336 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,400 Speaker 1: our most common way of sampling the world. So it 337 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:46,000 Speaker 1: makes sense to just think about that as a short cut. Yes, 338 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:49,359 Speaker 1: when I see the light bouncing off of a coffee cup, 339 00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:51,840 Speaker 1: I see the coffee cup, but you're not, you know, 340 00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:54,720 Speaker 1: you don't have the coffee cup within you from that, 341 00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:58,680 Speaker 1: it's just light. Yeah, with our site, with with certainly 342 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:04,119 Speaker 1: healthy human side. We kind of have this illusion that 343 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:07,640 Speaker 1: that we that we are cited, that we can perceive. 344 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:10,680 Speaker 1: But the more we look at things like the microscopic world, 345 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:14,000 Speaker 1: in the macroscopic world, the inner space and and outer space, 346 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:17,840 Speaker 1: you really begin to feel that we are not cited 347 00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:22,080 Speaker 1: at all. We are just so incredibly blind. And the 348 00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:25,280 Speaker 1: only way that we are really really have been able 349 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:31,080 Speaker 1: to understand h nature has been through scientific inquiry that 350 00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:33,199 Speaker 1: I guess you could you could relate to the like 351 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:37,400 Speaker 1: the blind pawing of of the blind men and the elephant, 352 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:39,639 Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, And astronomy is a great way to 353 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:42,400 Speaker 1: highlight that. Astronomy and well you pointed to both ends 354 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:46,360 Speaker 1: of the scale, you know, physical scale, the quantum mechanics 355 00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:49,800 Speaker 1: world and astronomy what's out there in the dark beyond Earth. 356 00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:54,320 Speaker 1: They both really highlight ways in which the universe is 357 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:59,240 Speaker 1: full of hugely powerful, consequential phenomena that we not only 358 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:03,760 Speaker 1: don't regularly see, but we can't even understand when we 359 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:06,440 Speaker 1: when we detect it with other means right and in 360 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:09,880 Speaker 1: both totally violates our intuitions and in both directions, both 361 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 1: towards the small and the large. You know, we can 362 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:18,240 Speaker 1: optically enhance the telescope or the microscope, but in both 363 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:22,000 Speaker 1: directions there reaches a point where optical enhancement uh doesn't 364 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:24,120 Speaker 1: get you anywhere, and we have to rely on other 365 00:20:24,320 --> 00:20:28,320 Speaker 1: means of of pawing at the uh you know, at 366 00:20:28,359 --> 00:20:31,080 Speaker 1: the the the the the Titanic forces on an either 367 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:33,399 Speaker 1: end of the spectrum. And that's something that, of course, 368 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:36,159 Speaker 1: we get to with Jansky's discovery, right, this idea that 369 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:40,680 Speaker 1: there are these powerful sources of information coming into the Earth, 370 00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:42,720 Speaker 1: but it's not information that anybody would be able to 371 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:46,360 Speaker 1: see with their eyes coming in radio frequencies and then uh, 372 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:49,280 Speaker 1: you know, other frequencies of light. But I guess to 373 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:51,560 Speaker 1: get back to black holes, we should ask the question, 374 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,320 Speaker 1: of course, how is it possible for an object to 375 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:57,240 Speaker 1: be so dense that it neither reflects nor amidst light? 376 00:20:57,320 --> 00:20:59,600 Speaker 1: Like what what happens to the light when it goes in? 377 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:03,680 Speaker 1: Why that be the case? Uh? So, the basic principle 378 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:05,920 Speaker 1: is the greater the mass of an object, the more 379 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:10,000 Speaker 1: difficult it is for an object that is moving away 380 00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:13,440 Speaker 1: from it to escape its gravity. Well, now, all sources 381 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:17,040 Speaker 1: of gravity have their own particular escape velocity and If 382 00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:19,240 Speaker 1: I'm standing on the surface of the Earth and I 383 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:21,119 Speaker 1: throw a cantalope straight up in the air at a 384 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,760 Speaker 1: hundred kilometers an hour, it's of course going to fall 385 00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:26,000 Speaker 1: back down to the ground. If I throw the cantle 386 00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:28,440 Speaker 1: ope at two hundred kilometers per hour, it's going to 387 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,200 Speaker 1: go up farther, but of course it will eventually slow down, 388 00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:33,960 Speaker 1: reverse course and fall back to the Earth. But if 389 00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:36,359 Speaker 1: I keep throwing it up in the air greater and 390 00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:40,119 Speaker 1: greater velocities each time, eventually you will reach some velocity 391 00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:43,399 Speaker 1: where the cantalope doesn't fall straight back down to the ground, 392 00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:45,320 Speaker 1: but it goes up and up and up, and it 393 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:47,919 Speaker 1: breaks free of Earth's gravity, and then it just keeps 394 00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:51,239 Speaker 1: on flying out into space. It maintains its momentum and 395 00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:53,439 Speaker 1: goes in the other direction. Now at the surface of 396 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:56,800 Speaker 1: the Earth, this velocity for objects that don't keep propelling 397 00:21:56,840 --> 00:22:01,159 Speaker 1: themselves as they travel, is about eleven point twokilometers per second, 398 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:05,200 Speaker 1: so it's very fast. Humans have never made a terrestrial 399 00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:08,760 Speaker 1: vehicle that goes even close to this fast with humans 400 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:12,680 Speaker 1: in it. Certainly, our our launch vehicles that put things 401 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,399 Speaker 1: into orbit or send them into outer space don't go 402 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:18,280 Speaker 1: that fast. At first. Heavy launch vehicles like the you know, 403 00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:21,280 Speaker 1: Saturn five rocket and things of that ilk are able 404 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:24,399 Speaker 1: to put things into orbit or beyond by applying continuous 405 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,600 Speaker 1: thrust as they achieve higher and higher altitude. So the 406 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:31,639 Speaker 1: rocket keeps on pushing and pushing by ejecting more exhaust 407 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:34,600 Speaker 1: until it gets up through the atmosphere. And then, of course, 408 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:38,159 Speaker 1: inside the atmosphere, air resistance and frictional heating would be 409 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:41,280 Speaker 1: a huge issue if you try to have a spacecraft 410 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:45,520 Speaker 1: achieve escape velocity too early, right, your spacecraft would probably 411 00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:48,800 Speaker 1: get too hot and burn up. But once outside the atmosphere, 412 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,159 Speaker 1: rocket can keep accelerating. In the vehicle can get up 413 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,400 Speaker 1: to the ultimate speed that it needs to go into 414 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:59,400 Speaker 1: orbit or leave Earth's gravity overall, and it turns out 415 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,560 Speaker 1: this escape velocity logic even applies to light. At a 416 00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:06,920 Speaker 1: certain point, an object becomes so dense, there's so much 417 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,560 Speaker 1: mass inside such a small space that the escape velocity 418 00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:13,679 Speaker 1: for an object exceeds the speed of light. So no 419 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:16,119 Speaker 1: light comes out of the black hole, No light is 420 00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,400 Speaker 1: emitted from within, no light is reflected from without. It's 421 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:23,679 Speaker 1: a perfect vortex. It swallows everything that comes within a 422 00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:26,240 Speaker 1: certain radius, and of course if this applies to light, 423 00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:29,760 Speaker 1: it doesn't just apply to light, right, because since nothing 424 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,120 Speaker 1: with mass can travel faster than the speed of light, 425 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:34,000 Speaker 1: speed of light could also be thought of as a 426 00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:37,240 Speaker 1: kind of speed of information or a speed of causality 427 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:39,680 Speaker 1: in the universe. If light can't escape the black hole, 428 00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:42,480 Speaker 1: nothing can escape. Now. Something I think a couple of 429 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,960 Speaker 1: listeners were asking about after our last black Hole series 430 00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 1: was trying better to picture exactly what's going on there, Like, 431 00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:53,399 Speaker 1: what is it that nothing can escape? In some ways? 432 00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:55,520 Speaker 1: Could a black hole be kind of like a solid 433 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:58,520 Speaker 1: black bowl, like a black ball that you get stuck 434 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:01,359 Speaker 1: to the outside of like paper, you just get flattened 435 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:03,879 Speaker 1: against it. I think the answer to that is no. 436 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:08,200 Speaker 1: A black hole is matter that has collapsed on itself 437 00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:10,920 Speaker 1: to what looks to us, at least through the math, 438 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:15,159 Speaker 1: like a point of zero volume and infinite density, and 439 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:18,600 Speaker 1: this is sometimes called the singularity. Now, is it actually 440 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:22,240 Speaker 1: physically possible to have a point of infinite density that 441 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,960 Speaker 1: may be not something that we're supposed to literally picture. 442 00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:29,200 Speaker 1: Is what's there? But an indication that we don't have 443 00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:31,600 Speaker 1: a correct theory of quantum gravity yet, and you know, 444 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:34,560 Speaker 1: we just don't understand exactly what's happening there. That's where 445 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,480 Speaker 1: general relativity breaks down. But I think what it does 446 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:39,680 Speaker 1: make sense to say is that there is some kind 447 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:43,240 Speaker 1: of point of extremely tiny collapse at the core of 448 00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,080 Speaker 1: the black hole too. That doesn't really make any kind 449 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:49,280 Speaker 1: of intuitive sense to the physics, you know, engine in 450 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:52,920 Speaker 1: our brains. And then of course there is that that 451 00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:55,520 Speaker 1: that point of no return as well. That plays into 452 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:59,440 Speaker 1: our very perception of the black hole, right that point 453 00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:01,159 Speaker 1: of no return and is often what we think of 454 00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:04,240 Speaker 1: as the black hole. But that's not necessarily stuff. That 455 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:08,160 Speaker 1: is a region of space around this point where all 456 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:10,960 Speaker 1: the all the original matter that made up the thing 457 00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:14,560 Speaker 1: that became the black hole is collapsing into. So that 458 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:18,560 Speaker 1: is the event horizon. Yes, exactly, it's the sphere shaped 459 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:22,160 Speaker 1: region of space that's a kind of gravitational exclusion zone. 460 00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:24,719 Speaker 1: The size of this zone, of course, depends on the 461 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:27,719 Speaker 1: mass of the black hole core. So a more massive 462 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:31,000 Speaker 1: black hole will black out a larger region of space 463 00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,720 Speaker 1: in the sphere around it. I think we uses we 464 00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:37,640 Speaker 1: might have used this very um analogy before. But if 465 00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:43,200 Speaker 1: if the black hole is the killer inside the haunted house, 466 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:47,600 Speaker 1: the event horizon is the haunted house. Okay, So like, uh, 467 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:50,520 Speaker 1: you know, you can say that the black hole is 468 00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:55,200 Speaker 1: leather Face, but the event horizon is the leather Face 469 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:59,000 Speaker 1: family home. Can you see people walking towards and never 470 00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:02,119 Speaker 1: emerging from. Oh, but Marilyn Burns does escape, Well, I'm 471 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:04,880 Speaker 1: talking about earlier the film. You're okay, Okay, Obviously, I'm sorry. 472 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:08,040 Speaker 1: I didn't mean to nitpick your analogy. Obviously, obviously people 473 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,680 Speaker 1: have to escape the film. I have to escape the 474 00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:13,439 Speaker 1: house for a proper horror movie to work. But in 475 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:16,560 Speaker 1: a version of the leather Face movie where nobody ever 476 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:19,760 Speaker 1: comes out, then like that is the event arison. Perhaps 477 00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,000 Speaker 1: there's there's a there's a more fitting example from from 478 00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:26,560 Speaker 1: like haunted House lore out there. I guess it would 479 00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:28,800 Speaker 1: make the story is less interesting if you just know 480 00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:31,919 Speaker 1: that nobody ever escaped. I think Stephen King had a 481 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:36,800 Speaker 1: short story about a women's bathroom that functioned like this, 482 00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:39,200 Speaker 1: where like people went in but they didn't come out, 483 00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:43,679 Speaker 1: and and like the the the point of view character 484 00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:46,040 Speaker 1: was just trying to figure out what was happening. I 485 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:47,879 Speaker 1: only have a vague memory of this. I think it 486 00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:49,879 Speaker 1: was like a real shorty, or maybe it was just 487 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:52,560 Speaker 1: him talking about a concept he had that he had 488 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:57,080 Speaker 1: not written, King Fans will have to straighten me out. Then, well, 489 00:26:57,119 --> 00:26:59,720 Speaker 1: we're we're like that person outside the bathroom trying to 490 00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:02,600 Speaker 1: figure about what's going on because we can't look inside 491 00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:06,280 Speaker 1: and see. Uh So, the edge of this region of space, 492 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:08,320 Speaker 1: of course, as you said, is one name for it 493 00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:11,760 Speaker 1: is the event horizon. But the distance between the core 494 00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:14,119 Speaker 1: of the you know, what's known as the singularity, the 495 00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:16,280 Speaker 1: core of the black hole, what everything, the point that 496 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:20,240 Speaker 1: everything collapses down into and this event horizon is known 497 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:23,399 Speaker 1: as the schwartz Shield radius, named after the twentieth century 498 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:27,080 Speaker 1: German astronomer and physicist Carl schwartz Shield, who did very 499 00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:30,280 Speaker 1: important calculations in the early days of black hole theory, 500 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,360 Speaker 1: back when black hole theory was still ridiculed as being 501 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:36,000 Speaker 1: something that, you know, couldn't possibly be found in nature. 502 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,359 Speaker 1: I think it was that Arthur Eddington who originally said, uh, 503 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,480 Speaker 1: you know, when when Chandra Sheker and the others were 504 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,520 Speaker 1: proposing the idea of black holes, Eddington was like, surely 505 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,879 Speaker 1: nature would forbid such a preposterous event. That's one of 506 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:53,080 Speaker 1: those great times when nature faced a scientist who thought 507 00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:57,200 Speaker 1: nature couldn't be that weird, and of course it is 508 00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:01,440 Speaker 1: always the case. Nature is far weirder than can possibly imagine, 509 00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:04,560 Speaker 1: of course. But yeah, anyways, this sphere of space from 510 00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:08,080 Speaker 1: which nothing returns. Anything that passes within the short shield 511 00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:12,200 Speaker 1: radius enters this strange world of warped space. And from 512 00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,280 Speaker 1: this space it is impossible to escape. Once inside the 513 00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:19,080 Speaker 1: event horizon the short shield radius, there's only one direction. 514 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,400 Speaker 1: That direction is down. No matter what you do, you're 515 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:24,639 Speaker 1: headed towards the center of the black hole. And I 516 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,680 Speaker 1: should add quickly there may be exceptions to these rules 517 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:31,199 Speaker 1: for special types of black holes with exotic properties. You 518 00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:33,760 Speaker 1: find articles about these, like weird types of black holes 519 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:36,920 Speaker 1: where things can change. But this is the basic I 520 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:41,280 Speaker 1: think you're non rotating standard stellar blast. Yeah, this is 521 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:43,920 Speaker 1: your standard model. Now, we alluded to earlier the fact 522 00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:48,000 Speaker 1: that even though a black hole neither emits nor reflects light, 523 00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,479 Speaker 1: we do have pretty solid evidence now that black holes 524 00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:54,800 Speaker 1: do exist. Uh, They're not just something that is sort 525 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:58,880 Speaker 1: of hypothesized by the theory of general relativity. But like 526 00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:02,720 Speaker 1: we we've we're pretty certain we've detected them out there 527 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:05,160 Speaker 1: in the universe. Now, so how can you detect them 528 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: if they neither reflect nor a mint light. Well, I mean, 529 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 1: it's kind of like the hunted house scenario, Like if 530 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:12,800 Speaker 1: there was a house like this that no one ever 531 00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,680 Speaker 1: emerged from again, because there's some sort of uh, you know, 532 00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 1: diabolical force within it that consumes everyone that passes within 533 00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:24,560 Speaker 1: a you know, past its threshold. Obviously, you could note 534 00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:26,960 Speaker 1: people that entered the house and didn't come back out again. 535 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:30,320 Speaker 1: You might notice the um the effect that such a 536 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,800 Speaker 1: house would have on the the surrounding property values, um 537 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,000 Speaker 1: you might have. You know, basically, it would have some 538 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:41,040 Speaker 1: effect on the surrounding environment that would be observable even 539 00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:43,840 Speaker 1: if you never got to actually pass within its walls 540 00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:48,120 Speaker 1: and see the dark, hideous force that is murdering people. Yeah, 541 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:51,320 Speaker 1: I think that's exactly right. You can observe a black 542 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:54,680 Speaker 1: hole by looking at its effects on surrounding objects. And 543 00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:58,480 Speaker 1: one of those types of effects is gravitational effects. Imagine 544 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:03,880 Speaker 1: you see a dis stant star orbiting some invisible point, 545 00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:06,560 Speaker 1: and that star's orbit is it's it's on a very 546 00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:11,040 Speaker 1: irregular trajectory, maybe a super stretched out ellipse, and at 547 00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:13,440 Speaker 1: one end of that ellipse, it appears to be going 548 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:16,800 Speaker 1: really close to the thing it's orbiting. Around but that 549 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:19,800 Speaker 1: we can't see, and as it goes really close to 550 00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:24,720 Speaker 1: that thing, it accelerates to unbelievable speeds. There would be 551 00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:26,720 Speaker 1: a good case to be made that maybe what it's 552 00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:30,880 Speaker 1: orbiting is something that is incredibly tiny and incredibly massive, 553 00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:33,960 Speaker 1: And in fact, this is exactly what we see. Especially 554 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:37,760 Speaker 1: with the case of Sagittary as a star the hypothetical 555 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:40,520 Speaker 1: supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy that 556 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:44,200 Speaker 1: we were alluding to earlier, we have noted the passive 557 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,480 Speaker 1: the transit of stars around it that suggests that the 558 00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,400 Speaker 1: thing these stars are orbiting could only be a black hole, 559 00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:54,600 Speaker 1: because otherwise there's nothing else that could be as small 560 00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:58,440 Speaker 1: as the thing they're orbiting and accelerating them as fast. Now, 561 00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:00,360 Speaker 1: another way you could look at the surroundings of an 562 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,080 Speaker 1: object and determined that it's a black hole is if 563 00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,560 Speaker 1: stuff is basically stuff is catching on fire, not on fire, 564 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:10,280 Speaker 1: but it's getting really hot. Um as matter like gas 565 00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:14,480 Speaker 1: and dust, swirls around a black hole and eventually falls 566 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:18,400 Speaker 1: over its sword shield radius. In this process of swirling 567 00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:22,000 Speaker 1: around and falling in, it gets accelerated to incredible speeds 568 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:26,240 Speaker 1: and superheated, blasting out hot radiation that that is some 569 00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:29,160 Speaker 1: of the brightest stuff we can see in the entire universe, 570 00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:33,280 Speaker 1: like this idea of quasars, these you know, quasi stellar 571 00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:37,440 Speaker 1: radio radio emitting objects out there in the universe. We 572 00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:40,160 Speaker 1: tend to think that what these things are are the 573 00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:44,080 Speaker 1: cores of galaxies that have supermassive black holes at the 574 00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:47,360 Speaker 1: center of the galaxy. And as stuff is falling into 575 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,600 Speaker 1: the supermassive black hole, it gets accelerated to such a 576 00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:54,720 Speaker 1: way that to such an extent that it becomes unbelievably 577 00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:59,840 Speaker 1: bright on the on the electromagnetic spectrum. So again for analogy, 578 00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:02,600 Speaker 1: you can you can think of this like imagine there 579 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:06,280 Speaker 1: were an invisible blow torch floating around in a forest. 580 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:08,960 Speaker 1: Like you couldn't see the blowtorch, but you could notice 581 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,120 Speaker 1: that all the leaves in the wind swirling around a 582 00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,480 Speaker 1: certain area of space or all catching on fire for 583 00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:17,640 Speaker 1: some reason. And then another thing, of course, is that 584 00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:21,240 Speaker 1: data collected from gravitational wave of observatories has picked up 585 00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:24,240 Speaker 1: waves propagating through the universe that seem to be best 586 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:27,400 Speaker 1: described by the collision of black holes. Now we know 587 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:29,720 Speaker 1: there are a few different kinds of black holes, right, 588 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:33,200 Speaker 1: so we know that there, there's your standard model stellar 589 00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:35,920 Speaker 1: black hole, and these are created by the collapse of 590 00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:40,560 Speaker 1: large mature stars. Our Sun is not massive enough to 591 00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:43,120 Speaker 1: become a black hole. Uh. In something like four to 592 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:47,080 Speaker 1: five billion years. Our Son's probably like halfway through its 593 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,400 Speaker 1: its main sequence life. In about four or five billion years, 594 00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:52,680 Speaker 1: it's going to swell up into a red giant that 595 00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:56,120 Speaker 1: will absorb the orbits of mercury and venus and possibly Earth, 596 00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:58,400 Speaker 1: and then it will go through a series of different 597 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:02,080 Speaker 1: internal chemistry phases, is where it's fusing heavier and heavier 598 00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:04,920 Speaker 1: elements as it runs out of its lighter fuel, so 599 00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:07,840 Speaker 1: it'll run out of hydrogen, then fuse helium, run out 600 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:11,280 Speaker 1: of helium, and fuse heavier and heavier elements uh. And 601 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:14,400 Speaker 1: then eventually it will end up as a white dwarf, 602 00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:17,360 Speaker 1: which is what it will remain for trillions of years 603 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:20,680 Speaker 1: basically until it just cools off. It's interesting, we keep 604 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,240 Speaker 1: coming and we'll keep coming back to the the idea 605 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,120 Speaker 1: of between four and five billion years old, like and 606 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:28,360 Speaker 1: again stressing that the Earth is what four point five 607 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:32,360 Speaker 1: billion about years old, So in a few via the 608 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:36,160 Speaker 1: a few different calculations, like the Earth is half done, Yeah, 609 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:41,080 Speaker 1: assuming nothing else happened to it before then. Yeah, uh though, yeah, 610 00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:44,440 Speaker 1: I think the the habitability window for the Earth might 611 00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:47,560 Speaker 1: be a bit shorter than that, yes, because things might 612 00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:50,960 Speaker 1: get worse before before the Earth is actually even potentially 613 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,480 Speaker 1: swallowed up right, And then of course the's a whole 614 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,920 Speaker 1: there's an additional discussion about, you know, do we reach 615 00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:59,880 Speaker 1: a civilization level at that point where we have the 616 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:03,560 Speaker 1: technology to do something about it, say, move the Earth, etcetera. 617 00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:07,240 Speaker 1: But that's another podcast unto itself. Yeah, the scoutow thruster 618 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:09,399 Speaker 1: or whatever. Oh no, wait, no, that brings the star 619 00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:13,600 Speaker 1: with us. We don't want that, need better star. But anyway, Yeah, 620 00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:15,480 Speaker 1: so the Sun is not large enough to become a 621 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:18,120 Speaker 1: black hole. If our Sun were a lot larger, maybe 622 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:21,480 Speaker 1: about ten times its current mass, you could expect that 623 00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,800 Speaker 1: when it exhausts its hydrogen fuel and begins fusing heavier 624 00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:27,960 Speaker 1: and heavier elements, it could eventually end up trying to 625 00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:31,000 Speaker 1: fuse a dense core made of iron, which is the 626 00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:35,560 Speaker 1: chemical death ritual of a star fusing iron. Is that's like, 627 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:38,560 Speaker 1: that's like the character in the horror movie saying, is 628 00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:42,640 Speaker 1: anybody there? That's just you know, there's no returning After that, 629 00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:46,600 Speaker 1: fusing iron leads to not enough outward pressure to hold 630 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,680 Speaker 1: the mass of the star up against its own gravity, 631 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:54,080 Speaker 1: and it collapses inward catastrophically. It releases a giant blast 632 00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:57,600 Speaker 1: of energy and eventually perhaps turns into a super dense 633 00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:00,440 Speaker 1: neutron star or even a black hole. But again this 634 00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:03,279 Speaker 1: depends on the density of the thing that's left there 635 00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:06,320 Speaker 1: after this event. If our son had the same mass 636 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:08,920 Speaker 1: it does now, but it was only a few kilometers wide, 637 00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:11,719 Speaker 1: supposedly it would collapse into a black hole. There's just 638 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:14,000 Speaker 1: no reason to think that it would ever be that small. 639 00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,480 Speaker 1: But there are other kinds of black holes that we 640 00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:20,840 Speaker 1: can't say are formed necessarily from the collapse of large 641 00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:23,960 Speaker 1: stars after they exhaust their fuel supply of lighter elements. 642 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:26,920 Speaker 1: There is, for example, a hypothetical type of black hole 643 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:30,040 Speaker 1: called the primordial black hole, which if they did exist, 644 00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:33,000 Speaker 1: would have formed due to the gravitational collapse around dense 645 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:36,200 Speaker 1: regions in the very earliest periods of the expanding universe. 646 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:39,520 Speaker 1: And then there's this other class of black hole, the 647 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:42,879 Speaker 1: one that Sagittarius a star would be if if there 648 00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:44,520 Speaker 1: is in fact a black hole there, and we think 649 00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:47,719 Speaker 1: there's very good evidence there is, uh, these remain more 650 00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:50,160 Speaker 1: of a mystery to us. This is the These are 651 00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:53,839 Speaker 1: the black holes found at the cores of massive galaxies. Yes, 652 00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:57,120 Speaker 1: some of the theories that we have for the formation 653 00:35:57,200 --> 00:36:00,400 Speaker 1: of sort of the standard black holes, they don't quite 654 00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:02,960 Speaker 1: hold up when we try to use them to explain 655 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:06,200 Speaker 1: a supermassive black hole, like they either like one example 656 00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:08,600 Speaker 1: is looking at was that they don't they don't create 657 00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:12,839 Speaker 1: these simulations do not create a supermassive black hole fast enough, 658 00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:16,320 Speaker 1: you know, for them to be present in the universe. Yeah, 659 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:20,480 Speaker 1: that's right. There are competing hypotheses to explain the formation 660 00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,080 Speaker 1: of supermassive black holes. But it seems like, at least 661 00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:25,399 Speaker 1: as far as I've read, there are problems with all 662 00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:28,839 Speaker 1: of the proposed hypotheses. I was reading one article that 663 00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:32,520 Speaker 1: can consults a scientist and Mitch Bagelman of the University 664 00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:36,919 Speaker 1: of Colorado, who works on supermassive black hole formation and 665 00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:39,680 Speaker 1: and basically he was saying that the theories fall into 666 00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:43,719 Speaker 1: two main categories. One is that you've got an original 667 00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:47,680 Speaker 1: small seed black hole that takes a long time to 668 00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:51,080 Speaker 1: get bigger as it absorbs more and more material, or 669 00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:54,239 Speaker 1: you've got a very large original seed black hole from 670 00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:57,400 Speaker 1: the collapse of some kind of hypothetical huge star that 671 00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:00,319 Speaker 1: we're you know, we don't usually see, and it rose 672 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,759 Speaker 1: very quickly. But there are problems with both of these 673 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:07,400 Speaker 1: classes of explanations. But then there there are other more 674 00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:11,319 Speaker 1: I don't know, more exotic theories as well. I guess yeah. 675 00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:13,960 Speaker 1: When I was looking at is from seen from the 676 00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:17,520 Speaker 1: Cavali Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe 677 00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:23,120 Speaker 1: UM principal investigator uh nail Key Yoshida at All produced 678 00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:26,240 Speaker 1: a paper in Science on this with an interesting take, 679 00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:29,680 Speaker 1: uh you know, a different a different proposition for how 680 00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:33,560 Speaker 1: a supermassive black hole might form against something something different 681 00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:36,200 Speaker 1: from just the idea that it's the first generation of 682 00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:39,560 Speaker 1: stars that have turned into black holes, and something different 683 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:41,920 Speaker 1: from just the idea that, you know, a massive primordial 684 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:45,279 Speaker 1: gas cloud that collapses under gravity. So this is how 685 00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:50,640 Speaker 1: they lay out an alternate formation. First of all, you 686 00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:53,920 Speaker 1: have a massive clump of dark matter, which forms when 687 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,799 Speaker 1: the universe is just a hundred million years old. Then 688 00:37:56,840 --> 00:38:00,920 Speaker 1: supersonic gas streams generated by the big dayg are caught 689 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:05,000 Speaker 1: by it and form a dense gas cloud, a protostar 690 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:09,719 Speaker 1: forms inside um of this gas u and a protostar 691 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:13,160 Speaker 1: is a young star that is formed by gas cloud collapse. 692 00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:17,240 Speaker 1: And then this protostar feeds on the gas cloud around 693 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,279 Speaker 1: it and grows at an accelerated rate. And then the 694 00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:24,200 Speaker 1: protostar grows to a mass of thirty four thousand times 695 00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:26,439 Speaker 1: that of our Sun. And all this by the ways 696 00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:29,880 Speaker 1: in simulations they were running, uh, and then it collapses 697 00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:33,000 Speaker 1: in on its own gravity, birthing a massive black hole 698 00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:36,480 Speaker 1: in the early universe that only grows more massive and 699 00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:40,719 Speaker 1: more gravitationally dominant as time grinds on. And this would 700 00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:44,400 Speaker 1: explain why all or most massive galaxies appear to have 701 00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:46,879 Speaker 1: a supermassive black hole at the center of them. Yes, 702 00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:49,880 Speaker 1: that though, that is what they're trying to explain with this. 703 00:38:50,040 --> 00:38:53,000 Speaker 1: But again, this is just another hypothesis for how what 704 00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:58,160 Speaker 1: could have occurred to bring these things into being. Step 705 00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:02,640 Speaker 1: one assumed dark matter. It makes sense to be uh 706 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:05,759 Speaker 1: looking at all different kinds of simulations because because I 707 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:07,680 Speaker 1: mean that again comes back to the origin of our 708 00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,839 Speaker 1: understanding of the black hole. It began as this this uh, 709 00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:14,480 Speaker 1: this vacancy yeah, in the in in the mathematics of 710 00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:17,319 Speaker 1: the universe. Yeah, well, yeah, it began as a simulation. 711 00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:20,880 Speaker 1: It was like these people running these different hypothetical simulations, 712 00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:24,440 Speaker 1: but then it turned out that they actually exist. So 713 00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:26,040 Speaker 1: maybe we should take a break, and then when we 714 00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:29,680 Speaker 1: come back, we can look at some specific facts about 715 00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,680 Speaker 1: this compact radio source at the center of the Milky 716 00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:38,279 Speaker 1: Way galaxy, about Sagittarius A Stark. Alright, we're back. We're 717 00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:42,239 Speaker 1: talking about supermassive black holes. Uh, not the Muse song, 718 00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:45,719 Speaker 1: though I ended up being reminded of the Muse song 719 00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:48,399 Speaker 1: Supermassive black Hole and and listen to it at least 720 00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:51,279 Speaker 1: once during a research for this. If I know that, 721 00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:54,600 Speaker 1: oh yeah, it's it's pretty good. Yeah, news has some 722 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:59,319 Speaker 1: great tracks, but hasn't been I don't think they're you know, 723 00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:04,960 Speaker 1: astrophys sally accurate per se, but never mind, but I 724 00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:07,720 Speaker 1: guess they're more accurate than say, you know, Sam Garden's 725 00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:11,000 Speaker 1: black Hole Sun, which again, uh, as we already covered, 726 00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:13,759 Speaker 1: is not actually going to happen no matter how many 727 00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:17,200 Speaker 1: times we watched that music video. Growing up what was 728 00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:19,320 Speaker 1: a long time ago, when we were doing how stuff 729 00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:23,520 Speaker 1: works articles, I remember us brainstorming a like false science 730 00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:27,440 Speaker 1: facts in song lyrics. Uh, and I remember that that 731 00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:29,640 Speaker 1: was the one that came up. But another one that 732 00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:31,719 Speaker 1: I'm made a case for and I don't think made 733 00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:35,240 Speaker 1: it into the article was Fleetwood Mac thunder only happens 734 00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:39,799 Speaker 1: when it rains. Not true, Not true at all. Yeah. Yeah, 735 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:42,480 Speaker 1: it's still a great track though. Yeah, they can't beat 736 00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:45,200 Speaker 1: the Mac. Alright, Well, let's talk a little bit more 737 00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:50,160 Speaker 1: about Sagittarius a star. Um So, I just want to 738 00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:52,000 Speaker 1: just take apart its name a little bit more of 739 00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:54,600 Speaker 1: which I think helps us understand exactly what we're talking about. 740 00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:57,120 Speaker 1: Uh So, first of all, we've been talking about it 741 00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:00,799 Speaker 1: being not only massive but super massive, Like what does 742 00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:04,239 Speaker 1: that mean? Well, we're talking about roughly four point one 743 00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:07,960 Speaker 1: million solar masses, with one solar mass being equal to 744 00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:11,760 Speaker 1: the mass of our own son. So a single solar 745 00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:17,400 Speaker 1: mass is two times ten to the thirty power kilograms 746 00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:24,640 Speaker 1: are roughly two quintillion kilograms. The mass of of Sagittarius 747 00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:28,080 Speaker 1: a star is roughly four point one million times that 748 00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:30,600 Speaker 1: of our son. I was trying to find a point 749 00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:33,239 Speaker 1: of comparison, so I was doing a little math, and 750 00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:36,319 Speaker 1: one worked out just right. I think it's roughly the 751 00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:40,239 Speaker 1: difference in mass between a twenty milligram house fly and 752 00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:43,480 Speaker 1: a one hundred and eighty pounds Gean Claude van dam 753 00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:46,279 Speaker 1: our Son is the fly twenty milligrams. Van dam is 754 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:49,600 Speaker 1: the supermassive black hole at at a hundred and eighty pounds. 755 00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:51,879 Speaker 1: That works out just about right. All right, So we're 756 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:55,800 Speaker 1: talking like um, like time cop era vandam right. I 757 00:41:55,800 --> 00:42:00,000 Speaker 1: mean here, I don't know. I just googled hundred vander 758 00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:02,840 Speaker 1: because he's pretty dense, right, I mean it would be 759 00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:05,359 Speaker 1: a good analogy for a black hole, I guess. So, yeah, 760 00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:07,800 Speaker 1: that's right. Yeah. What's the thing he does in time 761 00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:10,279 Speaker 1: coop to kill somebody? Oh? He does all sorts of 762 00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:12,680 Speaker 1: things to kill somebody. I mean he he does the 763 00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:17,759 Speaker 1: splits on on some kitchen sinks so that somebody electrocutes himself. Uh. 764 00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:21,000 Speaker 1: He somebody is frozen with liquid nitrogen, and then he 765 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:25,760 Speaker 1: kicks their arm off. Um. I mean things get super 766 00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:28,360 Speaker 1: trippy when he takes ron silver of the past and 767 00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:30,680 Speaker 1: Ron silver of the future and kicks one into the other, 768 00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:33,240 Speaker 1: and then they merge into a cosmic Google. Oh, there's 769 00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:35,560 Speaker 1: got to be a black hole analogy there, right, black 770 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:39,320 Speaker 1: hole takes past you in future you and merges you somehow. Yeah, 771 00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:42,360 Speaker 1: I've never quite worked out the science of that scene, 772 00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:45,680 Speaker 1: but it has always stuck with me. Perhaps a reviewing 773 00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:49,120 Speaker 1: of time cop Is is worthwhile in the future. Okay, 774 00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:51,640 Speaker 1: but yeah, so our Sun is much bigger than the Earth, 775 00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:55,080 Speaker 1: and the Sun is a housefly compared to his John 776 00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:58,319 Speaker 1: club van Dam with the supermassive black hole. As we know, 777 00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:01,920 Speaker 1: because of the limit physics that rule them, black holes 778 00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:04,120 Speaker 1: don't quite take up the same amount of space as 779 00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:08,799 Speaker 1: normal objects of the same mass. So how big is it? Well, yeah, well, 780 00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:11,920 Speaker 1: let's let's talk about it's radius. Roughly it has it's 781 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:16,160 Speaker 1: roughly thirty one point six solar radius, So that means 782 00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:18,799 Speaker 1: it's radius is thirty one point six times that of 783 00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:22,239 Speaker 1: the radius of our own son, which is, by the way, 784 00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:26,600 Speaker 1: six hundred and ninety five thousand, seven hundred kilometers or 785 00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:31,840 Speaker 1: roughly four three hundred miles. Remember that the radius is 786 00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:35,160 Speaker 1: half of the diameter. So even though it's more than 787 00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:37,839 Speaker 1: four million times the mass of the Sun, because it's 788 00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:40,440 Speaker 1: a black hole, it's still not like so wide that 789 00:43:40,440 --> 00:43:43,000 Speaker 1: it would swallow up the entire Solar system if it 790 00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:45,120 Speaker 1: were in the Sun's position, right, Just talking about like 791 00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:48,720 Speaker 1: the physical space, it takes up its circumference. The distance 792 00:43:48,719 --> 00:43:53,080 Speaker 1: around it is roughly forty four million kilometers or twenty 793 00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:56,359 Speaker 1: seven roughly twenty seven million, three hundred forty thousand, three 794 00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:59,400 Speaker 1: hundred and thirty two and a half miles and a half. 795 00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:03,080 Speaker 1: Now this is really big, But it got me wondering. 796 00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:07,040 Speaker 1: Is Sagittarius ay started the largest black hole we know about? Nope, 797 00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:12,040 Speaker 1: not even holose. Contemplating the biggest ones should make your 798 00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:14,799 Speaker 1: head implode if it hasn't already. How much bigger can 799 00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:17,480 Speaker 1: black holes get? Well, it's hard to be certain because 800 00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:19,120 Speaker 1: the mass of the black hole at the center of 801 00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:22,480 Speaker 1: another galaxy has to be inferred right based on these 802 00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:25,840 Speaker 1: periphery clues, like the brightness of the emissions presumed to 803 00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:30,320 Speaker 1: be from its accretion jets or accretion disk or relativistic jets. 804 00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:33,120 Speaker 1: Uh So, we don't know for sure, but we have estimates. 805 00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:36,239 Speaker 1: Just one example on the highest end of estimates is 806 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:40,520 Speaker 1: a black hole called Town six eighteen t O N 807 00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:45,120 Speaker 1: six eighteen and unbelievably luminous quays are and a galaxy 808 00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:48,440 Speaker 1: billions of light years away. One of the brightest objects 809 00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:51,960 Speaker 1: in the universe, the presumed supermassive black hole at the 810 00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:55,160 Speaker 1: center of this radio source has been estimated to contain 811 00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:59,600 Speaker 1: sixty six billion solar masses, and so it's thought that 812 00:44:59,680 --> 00:45:04,600 Speaker 1: the the brightness of the stuff swirling into that supermassive 813 00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:08,839 Speaker 1: black hole, it just completely outshines everything around, outshines all 814 00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:11,759 Speaker 1: the stars in the galaxy around it. So sixty six 815 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:17,719 Speaker 1: billion solar masses with with the tonight compared to Sagittarius 816 00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:21,839 Speaker 1: a star, which again four point one million solar masses, right, 817 00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:25,520 Speaker 1: that's incredible. I mean, we're going from like unimaginably huge 818 00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:30,560 Speaker 1: to um to something even beyond that. It's like four 819 00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:34,560 Speaker 1: orders of magnitude above. But going back to Sagittarius a star. 820 00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:38,560 Speaker 1: How close are we to it? Yeah, I have some 821 00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:42,760 Speaker 1: people may be wondering that we're roughly twenty five thousand, 822 00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:47,200 Speaker 1: nine hundred light years away, give or take one thousand, 823 00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:49,279 Speaker 1: four hundred light years. This is going to depend on 824 00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:53,719 Speaker 1: orbital positioning. Okay, so this is the very center of 825 00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:57,120 Speaker 1: the Milky Way galaxy, and we're sort of in the middle. 826 00:45:57,160 --> 00:45:59,840 Speaker 1: We're sort of like halfway out right between the center 827 00:45:59,880 --> 00:46:03,080 Speaker 1: of the galaxy and and the farthest reaches of its arms. 828 00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:07,799 Speaker 1: Very roughly, we're basically in a stable orbit around it. Yeah, because, 829 00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:10,040 Speaker 1: as we'll discuss the I would think probably more in 830 00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:13,799 Speaker 1: the next episode. Things get really rough the closer than 831 00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:17,480 Speaker 1: you get, which should not come as a surprise. Uh. Now, 832 00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:20,399 Speaker 1: we've already talked about the name itself, Sagittarius, the ninth 833 00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:25,880 Speaker 1: astrological sign associated with the constellation Sagittarius, it's connection to centaurs. 834 00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:29,960 Speaker 1: But let's come back around to that A star business. 835 00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:32,520 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so this is this thing can be confusing 836 00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:34,160 Speaker 1: to a lot of people. We mentioned that it often 837 00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:36,239 Speaker 1: makes us look for a footnote at the bottom of 838 00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:39,560 Speaker 1: the page. I was looking into where the A star 839 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:42,000 Speaker 1: part comes from the asterisk, and I found a two 840 00:46:42,040 --> 00:46:45,680 Speaker 1: thousand three paper by Goss, Brown and Low that explains 841 00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:49,680 Speaker 1: the origins. So astronomer Robert L. Brown and colleague Bruce 842 00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:53,360 Speaker 1: Ballack are credited with discovering the compact radio source of 843 00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:57,600 Speaker 1: Sagittarius a star in nineteen seventy four, and Brown apparently 844 00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:01,520 Speaker 1: named this object according to a made up convention that's 845 00:47:01,560 --> 00:47:05,480 Speaker 1: kind of nerd cheeky. So he writes, quote, scratching on 846 00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:07,719 Speaker 1: a yellow pad one morning, I tried a lot of 847 00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:10,840 Speaker 1: possible names when I began thinking of the radio sources 848 00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:15,239 Speaker 1: the exciting source for the cluster of HII regions seen 849 00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:18,279 Speaker 1: in the v l A maps. The name Sagittarius a 850 00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:21,359 Speaker 1: star occurred to me by analogy brought to mind by 851 00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:25,160 Speaker 1: my PhD dissertation, which is in atomic physics, and where 852 00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:29,319 Speaker 1: the nomenclature for excited state atoms is H E star 853 00:47:29,600 --> 00:47:32,120 Speaker 1: or f E star, meaning like you know, helium star 854 00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:36,160 Speaker 1: or iron star. So the star there is the excited 855 00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:39,560 Speaker 1: state of the atom. And apparently this discovery was exciting 856 00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:41,359 Speaker 1: in more ways than one. Now, one of the other 857 00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:43,400 Speaker 1: reasons it is can it can potentially be confusing is 858 00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:47,960 Speaker 1: because asterix means star. I mean, it basically derives from 859 00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:52,800 Speaker 1: the Greek aster riscos, which means little star um and 860 00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:54,600 Speaker 1: and another thing to keep in mind, I guess is 861 00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:58,560 Speaker 1: that you know it's we're basically dealing with an astronomical 862 00:47:58,719 --> 00:48:02,919 Speaker 1: radio source is the likely location of a supermassive black hole. 863 00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:06,160 Speaker 1: Uh So, I guess it's more like referring to an 864 00:48:06,239 --> 00:48:10,080 Speaker 1: unknown serial murder as the Green River Killer before you 865 00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:13,440 Speaker 1: ever find out that his name is actually Gary. And again, 866 00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:15,680 Speaker 1: as as you pointed out, it's also kind of like 867 00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:19,240 Speaker 1: cheeky and uh and I think I've seen it referred 868 00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:21,640 Speaker 1: to as being historical in nature, but there's also a 869 00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:24,480 Speaker 1: broader thing of just Sagittarius A without the star. The 870 00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:27,880 Speaker 1: star is this compact radio source believed to be the 871 00:48:28,239 --> 00:48:31,560 Speaker 1: location of the supermassive black hole or the let's see 872 00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:35,359 Speaker 1: the radio source emitting stuff around the supermassive black hole. Yeah, 873 00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:38,080 Speaker 1: and then there's there's more two because there's a there's 874 00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:41,880 Speaker 1: a Sagittarius A star, but there's also Sagittarius A east. 875 00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:45,279 Speaker 1: This is likely the remains of a supernova explosion that 876 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:49,160 Speaker 1: occurred between thirty five thousand and a hundred thousand b 877 00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:52,040 Speaker 1: c E, and scientists think that the ejecta of the 878 00:48:52,120 --> 00:48:56,520 Speaker 1: supernova was gravitationally compressed due to a close approach by 879 00:48:56,560 --> 00:49:00,680 Speaker 1: the supermassive black hole. Then there's Sagittarius A. Well, this 880 00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:04,040 Speaker 1: is the mini spiral. It's sometimes called because from our 881 00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:06,839 Speaker 1: perspective it looks like a three armed spiral, but it's 882 00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:10,680 Speaker 1: actually a cloud of dust and gas. It's orbiting Sagittarius 883 00:49:10,719 --> 00:49:13,600 Speaker 1: A star. And another question people might have was how 884 00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:16,560 Speaker 1: old is Sagittarius A star? How long has there been 885 00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:22,359 Speaker 1: a supermassive black hole festering at the center of our galaxy. Well, 886 00:49:23,160 --> 00:49:26,520 Speaker 1: the answer I guess is it's it's staggeringly old. But 887 00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:28,680 Speaker 1: it's hard to put a real fine line on that. 888 00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:33,240 Speaker 1: The Milky Way galaxy itself is what the thirteen point 889 00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:38,080 Speaker 1: two billion years old, and there are different formation theories 890 00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:41,000 Speaker 1: regarding galaxies, and the universe itself is believed to be 891 00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:45,040 Speaker 1: roughly thirteen point seven thirteen point eight billion years old. 892 00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:48,160 Speaker 1: So um, yeah, I'm I think we can stand by 893 00:49:48,320 --> 00:49:52,440 Speaker 1: staggeringly old and is it the center of things? You know, 894 00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:55,200 Speaker 1: for for a reason? Yeah, And now when we think 895 00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:59,600 Speaker 1: about that compared to say, our own solar system, our 896 00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:02,240 Speaker 1: Solar system is just roughly four and a half billion 897 00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:04,879 Speaker 1: years old, and it's one of the reminders that our 898 00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:08,440 Speaker 1: Solar system and everything that makes our planet possible, that 899 00:50:08,520 --> 00:50:12,560 Speaker 1: makes our bodies possible, it's not the first generation, right. 900 00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:17,000 Speaker 1: We can only exist by the fact that previous generations 901 00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:21,600 Speaker 1: of stars lived and burned and died catastrophically, creating the 902 00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:24,279 Speaker 1: heavy elements that make up things like the planets in 903 00:50:24,360 --> 00:50:27,919 Speaker 1: our Solar system. All the technology you're using to listen 904 00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:29,759 Speaker 1: to this right now, and all the stuff in your 905 00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:33,560 Speaker 1: bodies that's all made of gunk from Stars that went 906 00:50:33,640 --> 00:50:37,560 Speaker 1: horribly wrong. Now, I think one important thing to keep 907 00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:39,880 Speaker 1: in mind, you know, whenever we discussed black holes, but 908 00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:42,920 Speaker 1: especially in this episode as well, is that despite the 909 00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:46,239 Speaker 1: black hole being you know, a source of peril in 910 00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:49,880 Speaker 1: various science fiction treatments, despite the fact that even in 911 00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:52,959 Speaker 1: this episode we've we've discussed it and often like dark 912 00:50:53,200 --> 00:50:57,640 Speaker 1: and forbidding ways, you know, it's not coming to get you. Yeah, 913 00:50:57,719 --> 00:50:59,239 Speaker 1: it's not coming to to get us in. But then 914 00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:02,160 Speaker 1: even more to the point, it is, um it is 915 00:51:02,239 --> 00:51:07,120 Speaker 1: not like this negative like counterpoint. You know, it's not 916 00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:11,400 Speaker 1: this evil thing in the universe, like the black The 917 00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:13,640 Speaker 1: idea that there's a supermassive black hole at the center 918 00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:16,120 Speaker 1: of our galaxy should not come as uh, you know, 919 00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:19,880 Speaker 1: a point of fear or disappointment. You know, it's not. 920 00:51:20,120 --> 00:51:23,360 Speaker 1: It's wonder and it is. It just shows that the 921 00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:27,520 Speaker 1: black hole can be a thing that holds, uh holds 922 00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:29,759 Speaker 1: everything together. You know, these are that's part of the 923 00:51:29,800 --> 00:51:34,200 Speaker 1: building blocks of of of the galaxy of the universe. 924 00:51:34,680 --> 00:51:37,120 Speaker 1: And uh, you know, therefore we we can't think in 925 00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:40,759 Speaker 1: you know, simplistic terms about it being you know, just 926 00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:43,799 Speaker 1: like some sort of venomous uh you know, has us 927 00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:47,759 Speaker 1: off like formation. No, it's not venomous, because what the 928 00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:51,080 Speaker 1: venomous thing would would inject you with venom? Right, this 929 00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:54,000 Speaker 1: sucks it out? Yeah yeah, I mean if anything is 930 00:51:54,040 --> 00:51:57,600 Speaker 1: injecting us with venom, right, it's the solar radiation emerging 931 00:51:57,719 --> 00:52:01,000 Speaker 1: from a start that necessary to life. To be fair, 932 00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:03,919 Speaker 1: I guess the supermassive black hole what it Emits lots 933 00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:06,360 Speaker 1: of radiation, so you can think of that is it? Anyway, 934 00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:11,080 Speaker 1: It's not venom It's just a fantastically interesting object out 935 00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:13,200 Speaker 1: there in space, so much so that we want to 936 00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:15,840 Speaker 1: do a whole other episode on it. We we wanted 937 00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:18,239 Speaker 1: to come back next time and deal with everything you've 938 00:52:18,239 --> 00:52:20,480 Speaker 1: always wanted to know about the supermassive black hole at 939 00:52:20,480 --> 00:52:22,640 Speaker 1: the center of the galaxy. But we're afraid to ask, Yeah, 940 00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:25,600 Speaker 1: can you live on it? Um? Can you eat it? 941 00:52:26,200 --> 00:52:28,520 Speaker 1: Questions like this? You know we will. We will get 942 00:52:28,560 --> 00:52:31,440 Speaker 1: into in our next episode. In the meantime, if you 943 00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:33,080 Speaker 1: want to check out other episodes of Stuff to Blow 944 00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:34,800 Speaker 1: your Mind, you know where to find them. Stuff to 945 00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:36,680 Speaker 1: Blow your Mind dot com. That's where you'll find them all, 946 00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:41,880 Speaker 1: including those previous episodes on black holes. Likewise, we mentioned 947 00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:44,200 Speaker 1: Invention If you go to invention pot dot com you'll 948 00:52:44,200 --> 00:52:47,200 Speaker 1: find our other podcast, Invention. That's where you'll find that, uh, 949 00:52:47,360 --> 00:52:51,839 Speaker 1: that episode on the telescope that came out, as well 950 00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:55,360 Speaker 1: as episodes on the you know, the the the invention 951 00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:58,480 Speaker 1: of the photograph, the motion picture, etcetera. It is a 952 00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:03,279 Speaker 1: invention by invention, an exploration of human techno history and 953 00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:05,720 Speaker 1: let's see what else. Yeah, If you want to support 954 00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:07,680 Speaker 1: our show, really, the best thing you can do is 955 00:53:07,880 --> 00:53:10,560 Speaker 1: spread the word, tell your friends about about us, tell 956 00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:13,560 Speaker 1: your family members about us, and if you have the 957 00:53:13,640 --> 00:53:16,520 Speaker 1: ability to do so, rate and review us wherever you 958 00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:19,880 Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Huge thanks as always to our excellent 959 00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:22,640 Speaker 1: audio producer Maya Cole. If you'd like to get in 960 00:53:22,760 --> 00:53:25,040 Speaker 1: touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, 961 00:53:25,239 --> 00:53:27,799 Speaker 1: suggest a topic for the future, just to say hello, 962 00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:31,080 Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 963 00:53:31,160 --> 00:53:42,719 Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is 964 00:53:42,719 --> 00:53:45,040 Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more 965 00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:47,479 Speaker 1: podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 966 00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:50,280 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. 967 00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:05,759 Speaker 1: Its duty proper f