WEBVTT - Star Wars Alien Necropsy, Part 1 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:05.040 Lord Veda requires all of these necropsies to be completed 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:07.840 by the end of the day. The surgical droids says, 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:13.280 these are substantial specimens. We might require more time two episodes. 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:17.560 Even Lord Vader is not a fan of two parts. 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.880 He says, the anatomy of the alien specimens are quite involved, 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:25.079 and if we're to perform a complete analysis, will need 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:33.000 more time. Okay, fine, but the adults better be extremely infotaining. 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.479 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of My 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:45.920 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:48.960 My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick. And 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:51.120 you know, the last couple of years, Rob, you really 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.000 leaned into the holidays. But most of those holidays were 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.600 towards the end of the year, the wintertime holidays, the 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:02.600 hibernation holidays, thanks Giving, Christmas, of course Halloween. But we 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.360 do that all the time. And and I think I 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:09.039 get the sense that you are so strongly leaning into 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:13.720 the holidays that it has continued into the month of May. Yeah, 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.120 I guess I'm bringing that spirit, uh into May, especially 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.880 for today's holiday, Uh May the Fourth, as in May 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.120 the Fourth be with you, which is of course the 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.959 one day each year that everyone gets to go crazy 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.960 for Star Wars in addition to plan, addition to all 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.920 the other days. I guess. But um, but yeah, I 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:33.480 I you know, I don't know that even though I 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.440 think my son and I had gotten super into Star 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:38.800 Wars this at this point last year, I think we 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.200 kind of forgot about May the fourth being a thing. 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:43.560 Like May the fourth was never a thing when I 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:45.760 was a Star Wars fan as a kid that I 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.960 know of, so it kind of blew right past me. Um. 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.520 But but this time, I I kind of realized that 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.040 the last minute, Oh my goodness, May fourth is next week. 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:58.600 It's it's Star Wars Day. It's just uh, just open season. 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.040 We should do some Star Wars as content. You know, 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.240 I would have guessed, even as obsessed with Star Wars 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.520 as you were last year, and I guess continuing into 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.560 this year, uh, that May the fourth wouldn't be your bag. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:11.839 I would I would expect that May the fourth would 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:13.960 kind of irritate you, would be one of those cute 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:18.560 little things that gets under your skin. Am I wrong? Um? No? No, 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:20.639 I mean I think I don't have any problem with it. 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:22.960 I mean, especially since there's like new stuff coming out. 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:25.720 I'm like, Okay, if that's if this sets the deadline 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.600 for for the Bad Batch animated series to come out 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:31.480 and makes them, you know, put it out, then I'm 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:33.480 glad that we have it. Otherwise stuff would just keep 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.160 getting delayed, right right, Okay, yes, just wedge you on 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.080 into our calendars. Yeah, maybe they'll come up with another 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.799 Star Wars holiday this year. Well, some to say that there's, well, 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:44.720 we have May the Fourth as it Made a fourth 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:46.799 be with you, and then some say there's Revenge of 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.760 the Fifth, which is tomorrow. But I don't know, Um, 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.040 I don't know how how crazy that. Maybe there's something 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.120 for the sixth as well. But I think I think 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.680 it's gonna be appropriate that it will continue after today, 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.240 because we originally planned for this to be one episode, 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.000 but then as we were working on the notes, we 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.080 were like, oh, wait a minute, we've got like, you know, 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.760 a fifty thousand pages of content or whatever it is 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.480 we've got now, so so this will definitely be at 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.000 least Tuesday and Thursday of this week. It is a 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:14.680 it is a week long Made the fourth, Yes, yes, 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.200 that is well, it should be. So Obviously we've talked 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.320 about Star Wars a bit here on the show in 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.200 the past, whether it be a discussion of you know, 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.760 the question could Jupiter be blown up by the Death 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:28.919 Star uh, and I think the answer was probably not. 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.200 We've also talked about the Mighty Sarlac, and we also 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.120 did a weird house cinema episode on e Walks the 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:37.680 Battle for Indoor. But in this episode, we're gonna take 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:41.520 the old my monster science approach to the some of 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:45.240 the aliens from the Star Wars universe, you know, using 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:49.640 some sort of some bit of fantastic biology and then 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:54.480 using that as a way to discuss real world terrestrial 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.400 biology and finding where things line up where they don't, etcetera. 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.640 Now standard disclaimer here we are Star Wars fans, but 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:05.200 we are not Star Wars experts. We're probably not going 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:10.080 to perfectly reflect cannon or legend uh with regards to 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.720 the Star Wars universe with accuracy. Here. We haven't read 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.039 every scientific meditation on Star Wars, and we don't know 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.680 the extended universe perfectly. But we'll do the best we 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:21.680 can here and we'll have some fun with the topic. 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.719 But we fully invite you to get mad about it. Well, 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:27.120 there's no reason to get mad about it. This is 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.080 all too too fun. But yes, certainly, um feel free 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.039 to write in if if you have any actually, he's 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.080 uh to share with us regarding the creatures we're talking 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.880 about here today. Well put, all right, Well let's start 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.360 with your first selection, Joe, what did you choose from 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:47.200 the the vast and exotic Star Wars universe? Okay, Well, 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:51.200 to set the stage, the film is The Empire Strikes Back. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:56.360 It's that mid movie section, the chase where han Leia, 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.480 Chewy and C three po are on the run from 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.000 the impure Real Fleet in the Millennium Falcon. This is 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.680 after they have evacuated the Hawth base and there are 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.400 a group of star destroyers that are chasing the Millennium 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.720 Falcon and they chase it into an asteroid field. This 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:13.520 was one of my favorite parts when I was a kid. 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.400 I still love it today. There's a kind of it 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.599 almost becomes like a James Bond car chase or like 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.120 Smokey and the Bandit where you know, they're like the 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:24.760 scene where the cars are zipping around, you know, through 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.200 obstacles and around traffic, but it's in space and instead 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.719 of other cars and a bunch of barrels and just 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:34.440 street you know, uh, tomato carts in the way and stuff. 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.680 It is asteroids and of course this is extremely dangerous. 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.200 Their space rocks crashing all around and uh, the Falcon 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:47.480 eventually manages to evade its imperial pursuers and it hides 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.520 in a cave on a large asteroid. Yeah, this is 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:52.520 this is a great sequence in a just a great 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:54.880 Star Wars film. It's one of those like out of 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.800 the frying pan into the fire moments where actually it's 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.400 like into a third frying pan or front because everyone's 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.480 gotten out of hot. You've had that tremendous battle sequence 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:06.760 with all of its ins and outs. Then you have 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.200 the asteroid field, and then what happens next is, uh, 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.160 it comes from an entirely different direction. Well, that's one 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.680 of the great things about the story structure of the 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.520 Empire Strikes Back is that you know you're cutting between 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:20.840 the different characters and the things they're doing. But when 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.440 you're with han Leia Chewi and c three p O, 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.400 it's just one frying pan to another. Every time they 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:28.400 get to a new place, they think that they're finally 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:30.640 safe now, but then they realize that the floor is 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.040 teflon and things start heating up and it's just on 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:37.360 to the next crisis. But in this cave we get 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:42.760 some creature encounters. So first the Millennium falcon is swarmed 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:48.239 by a flock of nasty winged creatures with ring shaped 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:52.400 sucker mouths and there they look sort of like sulfurous 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:57.239 leech bats. These are called minox Han and Chewy seem 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:00.120 to be familiar with them like that they once they 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.120 see them, Hans says, uh, my Knox, yeah, yeah, like 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.560 he talks about them like they're very common nuisance animals 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.120 for space travelers. He says that they're chewing on the 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.120 power cables, like yeah, that's what they always do. And 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.320 so our heroes they leave the ship, they go outside, 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.280 go down the ramp and start walking around outside with 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:23.679 these little oxygen masks on while they're trying to blast 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.360 the My Knox off. But then they encounter and it's 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:31.080 another realizing you're actually in another frying pan moment when 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:33.720 it is revealed that the cave that they're hiding in 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:36.960 is no cave at all. It is a giant carnivorous 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.800 worm of some kind and they have essentially parked down 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.560 its gullet, and of course there's a great escape sequence 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:45.960 where they have to rock it out between its closing 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:50.000 jaws just in time. Is the teeth are coming together? Yeah, 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.680 and it's a fabulous looking creature to this big alien 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:58.080 whlish worm monster. Yeah, one of the best, This giant 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.320 worm creature on the asteroid. It is not named in 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:03.240 the movie. I mean they say what the minox are. 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:05.320 It's like it's like it's almost as if in Star 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.040 Wars that's like saying, oh rats, we've got rats here, 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.480 we've got my knox, but they never say what this 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.400 thing is. I looked it up and some plenty of 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.120 the Elder of the Galaxy has given its species of designation. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:23.080 It is called an exo gorth or alternately a space slug. 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:25.960 And Robot got some pictures attached here for you to 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:27.920 look at. Of course, we've seen the movie, so we 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.840 know what it looks like. It's is this giant Uh 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.880 have have to be honest and say, somewhat phallic looking 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:36.160 worm comes up out of the hole. It's got the 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:39.240 big jaws clamping after the ship, so it seems to 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.280 be actively wanting to eat the space ship. Uh. And 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:44.600 then I found another image that I think is from 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.200 one of the Marvel Star Wars comics, and it's a 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.559 panel I I really don't know the context of how 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.000 this happens, but there's a panel in a comic somewhere 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:58.520 where a star destroyer flies into a giant Exo Gorth's mouth. 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.600 That doesn't look like it's going to end well for 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.040 for anybody involved there, but something that the the the 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.880 the ex it looks like that's that's too big of 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:11.600 a mouthful. Yeah. Now, there's something very interesting about both 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:15.880 of these alien species, the Minox and the Exo gorths uh. 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.000 And it's something that I've actually thought about for a 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.920 long time. I remember having this thought, maybe not when 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.079 I very first saw Star Wars when I was a kid, 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.960 but at some point it occurred to me that these 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.440 are the only aliens I can think of in the 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.400 Star Wars movies that are not found on a planet, 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:37.040 but in outer space itself, on the barren terrain of 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:41.600 an asteroid with no atmosphere, living in the vacuum. These 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.920 are vacuum dwellers. Yeah, And I think it was that 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.640 way for a long time. Eventually, they also introduced a 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.600 creature called a purgle that came around. I think it 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.319 was introduced in Star Wars Rebels, one of the animated series, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:56.160 and I have a feeling it's going to show up 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.040 in some live action stuff in the near future. But 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.600 they're like a deep space whale like organism with its 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:04.839 kind of a squid, like a combination between a space 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.320 squid and a space whale. And they're capable of entering 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.040 hyperspace even but they're kind of they have a lot 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.160 in common with the design of the Exo Gorth. They're 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:19.200 kind of like the noble Exo Gorth. The picture you 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.520 attached looks mad, he's got like the downturned eyebrow. He 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:26.000 looks like he's he's looking for a fight. Well, they 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.760 they explore this kind of like whale like nature where 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:31.480 if you're if you're not treating them right, if you're 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.200 abusing them, then yeah, they can be quite dangerous, but 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.439 if you try to understand them, then you realize that 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.800 they have this very passive and beautiful nature. Oh, I 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:42.559 can see that. So it's like the you know, somebody 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.200 says about the dog, like, oh, he doesn't like strangers, 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:47.320 but when you warm up to him, you know he's a, 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.559 he's a real cuddlebug. Yeah. So anyway, for this entry 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.640 of our Aliens Star Wars Alien neck Ropsy, I wanted 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.120 to to think about the idea of vacuum dwellers as 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.920 a as a proposal as a concept. Uh. Now, Star Wars, 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:05.120 obviously it is not hard science fiction. You know, it's 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:10.400 not trying to create a scientifically grounded experience. It's a fantasy. 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.320 And that's fine. I mean, you've got no problem at 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.280 all with with soft science fiction and space fantasy. I 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.320 love that stuff. Uh. And there are plenty of elements 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:21.480 in this sequence that are really nothing like what we'd 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:23.840 expect to find in reality. So I wanted to mention 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.520 a couple of other examples of that before we get 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:29.480 back to the idea of a vacuum dwelling organism and 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.679 consider the plausibility of that. One example of how this 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.720 doesn't really resemble reality in any recognizable way is the 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:42.160 idea of how dense the asteroid belt in the Empire 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:45.720 strikes back is how it's just crammed with rocks that 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.160 are moving really close to each other and slamming together 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.160 all the time, And how this compares to the one 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.440 example of a real asteroid belt that we know about. 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.040 And this is a standard feature of sci fi movies. 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.160 It's not just Empire strikes back. I mean I think 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:01.960 a lot of times there are space battles in an 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.440 asteroid belt that is just a mine field, this densely 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.320 packed obstacle course of of giant boulders that are going 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.560 to smash into your ship and kill you. And the 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.560 ships have to frantically dodge around through the slamming rocks 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.240 while they dog fight. Yeah, it's a great sequence, but 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:21.080 it is just um maddening just how how tired everything is, 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.800 and and it just seems like a complete nightmare that 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.280 anyone would I mean, it seems like it should be 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.000 a Butcher Cassidy and the Sundance Kid kind of moment, right, 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.960 Like why would the Thaie fighters even chase them in there? 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.760 Like how? Because how could you expect to survive unless 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.440 you were like a fourth sensitive pilot of some sort, 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:40.040 you know, or like the greatest pilot of all time, 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.800 like like a Han Solo. Yeah, they'd be crazy to 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.160 follow us, wouldn't they. And I know when I was 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.720 a kid, I pictured the asteroid belt of our Solar 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.679 system being like this, probably because of especially Empire, but 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.840 more generally movies like this that it's just you know, 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.440 it's just tight with rocks. But now we know that 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:00.440 is not the case. I was trying to find what 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:04.600 is the actual density of the asteroid belt in terms 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:08.160 of asteroids of an appreciable size. I found an explainer 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.360 about this from Scientific American that's older. It's from nine 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.000 so our our our knowledge might be a little bit 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.160 updated since then. But this, I feel like gives you 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.520 a good idea to asks several experts about this, this 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.719 question of the density of the asteroid belt. First of all, 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.199 there was an interesting story in it that's relayed by 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:30.480 Tom Garrels of the University of Arizona, who said that quote, 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.720 some scientists were seriously concerned about the possible high density 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.720 of objects in the asteroid belt, which lies between the 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:41.320 orbits of Mars and Jupiter, when the first robotic spacecraft 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.280 were scheduled to be sent through it. The first crossing 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.600 of the asteroid belt took place in the early nineteen 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:51.000 seventies when the Pioneer ten and Pioneer eleven spacecraft journey 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.400 to Jupiter and beyond. The danger lies not in the 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.520 risk of hitting a large object. In fact, such a 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:00.560 risk as minuscule because there is a tremendou this amount 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.800 of space between Mars and Jupiter, and because the objects 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.760 there are very small in relation. Even though there are 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.400 perhaps a million asteroids larger than one kilometer in diameter, 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:13.200 the chance of a spacecraft and not getting through the 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.360 asteroid belt is nearly negligible. And then there was an 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.000 updated thought that came in after that from David Morrison 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.960 of NASA AMES who said, quote, there were more than 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:27.560 a hundred thousand asteroids larger than one kilometer in diameter, 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.600 but these objects are distributed within the huge volume of 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:36.920 the asteroid belt. Their average spacing is several million kilometers. 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:41.080 Collisions are thus extremely rare. An average one kilometer asteroid 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:45.960 suffers one collision every few billion years, or maybe one 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.120 or two collisions over the lifetime of the Solar System. 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.200 The spacing is also so large that seen from one asteroid, 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.680 even the nearest one kilometer asteroid would likely be too 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:01.040 faint to be visible without a telescope. Uh So, yeah, 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:05.040 extreme distances between these objects, not because there aren't a 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.320 lot of objects. There are, but the you know, space 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.720 is gigantic, so the space between them is also gigantic. 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.440 If you were to fly into an asteroid belt, it's 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.800 actually unlikely you would even notice it. You probably wouldn't 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.760 see any asteroids while you were flying through it. Though, 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.160 I did think about something that could make another interesting. 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.320 I'm sure some movie has done this, but it could 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.240 make a different kind of threat of traveling through an 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.000 asteroid belt interesting. I think the more likely risk while 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:32.920 flying through an asteroid belt is not that you would 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.720 be smashed between giant space rocks while you're trying to 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.120 dodge through them, but the chance that you would hit 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:44.000 an invisibly tiny micro asteroid at high speed, and it 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.720 would be like a bomb because of the kinetic energy 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.160 of the impact because it's going so fast and you're 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.480 going so fast. Though I guess, of course, it would 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:53.840 depend on how fast you were going and what angle 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:56.640 you hit it at relative to its own trajectory. I mean, 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.320 a head on collision with a with a tiny asteroid 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:03.720 could be catast traffic. Yeah, but there's another thing in 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.160 the sequence that doesn't make sense if you try to 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.200 bring hard sci fi rules to it, which is the 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:12.720 part where they're in the cave and the minox show 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.880 up in that great moment where I think Leiah is 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.360 looking out the window and then suddenly the big sucker 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:21.880 comes down and got which I was talking to Rachel 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:24.560 about this earlier this morning, and she says, when she 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:27.400 saw that part in the theater when the Star Wars 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:31.120 remasters or remake, not remakes, the whatever you call him. 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.440 The remasters came out in the nineties or the earlier. 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:36.080 I guess it was the nineties. Yeah, that she just 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:40.000 like screamed in the theater, just like Bloody Murder screamed. Yeah, 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.080 it's startling and gross totally. It's like, it still gets 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.280 me when I watched the movie. It's very suddenly that 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:47.880 noise it makes. It's like when the head pops out 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.480 of the boat and Jaws, you know, when when Richard 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:53.720 Dreyfuss is like down in the water looking at it. 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:57.480 It gets you every time. But anyway, so there's yeah, 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.080 the minox come out, and so Han and she we 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.240 and lay a walk outside of the Millennium Falcon in 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:07.720 their regular clothes wearing little oxygen masks. So this is 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.960 another one of those space fantasy things, because this would 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.840 not work on a real asteroid. The vacuum would kill you. 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.200 Pretty quickly, even if you had a little oxygen mask. 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:20.800 So I found a good explainer on this. This was 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:23.639 also a Scientific American article. This was written by Anna 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.959 Goslin in two thousand eight. And of course, one thing 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:30.520 we should be clear about is that a vacuum, in 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.560 as the term is generally used, is defined as a 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.920 region of space with extremely low gas pressure. Uh. It's 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:41.199 sort of a conventional definition because even in outer space, 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.600 there's not nothing in space. You're still going to have 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:48.320 a few random hydrogen atoms floating around and stuff, but 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:51.679 it's pressure so low that it's negligible. So once you 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.440 walk out of the Millennium Falcon, once you are exposed 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.520 to the low pressure environment of a vacuum of space, 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.000 several things are going to happen pretty quickly. One is 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:05.680 that because of the lower pressure, gases tend to expand, 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.800 and this includes the gases that are trapped in your body, 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.320 trapped in your lungs. So if you're holding your breath 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:16.920 or inhaling, this expanding gas is going to cause trauma 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:21.320 in the lungs, tearing up gas exchange tissues. Also, the 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:24.240 low pressure will cause water to boil at a lower 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.480 temperature and in the case of a vacuum, this means 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.159 water boils at a temperature lower than your body temperature, 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.840 which translates to swelling in the body, rapid evaporation of 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.920 water vapor from the easiest escape roots in your body, 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.520 and primarily this will be things like the holes in 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:46.600 your face, like your mouth, nose, and eyes, and this 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.480 rapid boiling off of water will of course cause very 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.480 low temperatures around these holes in your face. I think 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.199 about the way that you know, the rapid evaporation of 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.480 water cools your body through sweat, except take that to 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.159 the extreme, like literally your tongue might freeze. And if 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.520 records of what has happened to animals that are exposed 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:09.879 to a vacuum or any indication, you also might simultaneously defecate, urinate, 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:14.760 and projectile vomit. Wow, So even event horizon scaled back 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.160 a little bit on what this would be like. Yes. Now, 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.919 on the other hand, sometimes movies make it look like 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.120 if you were exposed to a vacuum, you would explode, 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:26.800 and that doesn't seem to be true. It actually does 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:31.040 seem like you could survive being in a vacuum for 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:33.600 maybe a few minutes, I mean, it would depend on 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.360 a number of factors, but you could Most people could 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.520 probably survive being exposed to a vacuum for some amount 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:42.880 of times, like a few minutes, less than five minutes maybe, 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.840 but it would require somebody else who is not exposed 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.320 to a vacuum helping you. Because we have seen this 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:52.639 in in sci fi. I think that's basically what happens 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:54.520 in a event horizon. And I think the and yeah, 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.680 the Expense has has has explored this as well. Yeah, 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.160 because like one of the reasons you would need somebody 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:03.280 to help you is that you would you would very 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:07.440 rapidly lose consciousness. The low pressure would also cause bubbles 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:09.960 to form in your blood vessels, which would interfere with 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:13.439 oxygen circulation. And I think the estimate is that this 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.480 leads to rapid unconsciousness, probably in something like ten to 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.960 fifteen seconds after you're exposed to the vacuum, and then 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:23.200 so you lose consciousness, you probably collapse and it would 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:25.639 go on to kill you within a few minutes if 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:30.040 you're not repressurized. This article by Anna Gosline shares a 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:35.000 story of a human who actually survived vacuum exposure. So 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.479 I just want to read this part quote. In nineteen 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:40.920 sixty five, a technician inside a vacuum chamber at Johnson 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:45.480 Space Center in Houston accidentally depressurized his space suit by 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:50.600 disrupting a hose. After twelve to fifteen seconds, he lost consciousness. 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.520 He regained it at twenty seven seconds after his suit 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.320 was re pressurized to about half that of sea level. 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:00.400 The man reported that his last memory before blacking out 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:03.919 was of the moisture on his tongue beginning to boil, 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.720 as well as a loss of taste sensation that lingered 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:12.240 for four days following the incident. So all that to say, 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.840 Han Chewy and Leiah, these are experienced space travelers. They 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.240 would know better than to try to walk out into 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.240 the vacuum of space without a pressure suit. Now, I 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:24.080 want to be fair. I have seen some righteous nerds 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.639 on the Internet arguing that, well, maybe because we we 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:29.720 now we know from what happens later in the movie, 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.520 that actually they were not in a cave on an asteroid. 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:35.800