WEBVTT - How Do Megamasers Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Voldebam here and I am recording this episode live

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<v Speaker 1>from the iHeart Podcast Studio powered by Bows at the

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<v Speaker 1>House of Music at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, which is

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<v Speaker 1>a wild experience and really wonderful. So Hi, thank you

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<v Speaker 1>for joining me. Okay, if there is one thing that

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<v Speaker 1>we know for sure about our universe, it's that we

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<v Speaker 1>actually know very little about it. Every year astronomers discover

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<v Speaker 1>new objects and phenomena. Sometimes they're pretty close to Earth,

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<v Speaker 1>like surprising new asteroids that go whizzing by, and other

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<v Speaker 1>times they're more distant than anything we've ever observed before.

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<v Speaker 1>Today we're talking about an example of the latter. Back

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<v Speaker 1>in April of twenty twenty two, astronomers made headlines for

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<v Speaker 1>detecting a phenomenon that occurred roughly five billion years ago.

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<v Speaker 1>A light from it traveled some thirty six thousand bills

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<v Speaker 1>billion billion miles to reach the telescopes that measured it,

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<v Speaker 1>which is about fifty eight thousand billion billion kilometers, which

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<v Speaker 1>either way is a lot. This record breaking observance was

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<v Speaker 1>conducted by the mere caat telescope in South Africa and

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<v Speaker 1>nicknamed Nkala kata, an Isuzulu word meaning big boss. The

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<v Speaker 1>scientific name for this type of phenomenon is pretty cool too.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a mega maser, which is not a supervillain's weapon

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<v Speaker 1>that I'm aware of personally. No, Mega masers are a

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<v Speaker 1>fascinating fact of life out there in the universe. But okay,

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<v Speaker 1>before we talk about what a megamser is, let's talk

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<v Speaker 1>about how a regular maser works. Strictly speaking, a maser

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<v Speaker 1>is a human built device that produces and amplifies electromagnetic waves,

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<v Speaker 1>much like the better known laser. Masers actually came first.

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<v Speaker 1>The word is an acronym that stands for microwave amplification

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<v Speaker 1>by stimulated emission of radiation. That's because the first masers

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<v Speaker 1>produced electromagnetic waves in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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<v Speaker 1>The original was built in nineteen fifty three. Lasers were

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<v Speaker 1>actually called optical masers when they were first developed a

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<v Speaker 1>few years later before they got their current name, and

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<v Speaker 1>several scientists were awarded the nineteen sixty four Nobel Prize

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<v Speaker 1>in Physics for the groundwork that made the first maser possible.

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<v Speaker 1>Since then, researchers have been able to build masers in

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<v Speaker 1>other regions of the spectrum, including in the radio and

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<v Speaker 1>infrared parts. Researchers have proposed changing the M to stand

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<v Speaker 1>for molecular instead of microwave. All of this has made

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<v Speaker 1>masers useful as microwave amplifiers in radio telescopes and deep

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<v Speaker 1>space spacecraft communication round stations. However, when we speak about

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<v Speaker 1>masers and space, there is another way to define the term.

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<v Speaker 1>An astrophysical maser is a naturally occurring emission. It's a

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<v Speaker 1>burst of electromagnetic waves, usually in the microwave part of

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<v Speaker 1>the elect her magnetic spectrum. While you may have never

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<v Speaker 1>heard of a mega maser, astronomers have been measuring them

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<v Speaker 1>since the late nineteen seventies. The first extragalactic maser, that

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<v Speaker 1>is a maser from outside the Milky Way, was observed

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen seventy seven. By the mid nineteen nineties, several

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<v Speaker 1>megamsers have been discovered, so named because of how luminous

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<v Speaker 1>they were to observers using the right tools to spot them.

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<v Speaker 1>Speaking of mega maser is an objectively cool name, but

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<v Speaker 1>the mega isn't just a fun adjective. It's an actual

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<v Speaker 1>distinction of brightness. The term kilo maser is used to

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<v Speaker 1>describe extragalactic masers that are thousands of times brighter or

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<v Speaker 1>stronger than the masers that we've observed within the Milky Way.

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<v Speaker 1>Mega masers are typically one hundred million times brighter, and

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<v Speaker 1>a gigamaser is billions of times stronger than Milky Way masers.

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<v Speaker 1>Scientists continue to research mega masers as it's believed that

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<v Speaker 1>they occur when galaxies collide, events that have become less

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<v Speaker 1>common in the history of our universe over the billions

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<v Speaker 1>of years of its existence before the article. This episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with Jeremy Darling,

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<v Speaker 1>a mega mazer expert and professor of astrophysical and planetary

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<v Speaker 1>sciences at the University of Colorado. He explained when to

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<v Speaker 1>galaxies like the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy collide,

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<v Speaker 1>beams of light shoot out from the collision and can

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<v Speaker 1>be seen a cosmological distances. Mega mazers act like bright

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<v Speaker 1>lights that say, here's a collision of galaxies that's making

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<v Speaker 1>new stars and feeding massive black holes. These astrophysical phenomena

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<v Speaker 1>are so interesting because their brightness could help us sort

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<v Speaker 1>of double check our measurements of distance too far off

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<v Speaker 1>galaxies and studying some of them could help us learn

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<v Speaker 1>more about how new stars and galaxies four, So astronomers

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<v Speaker 1>continue to peer further into our universal history to find them.

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<v Speaker 1>The oldest mega mazer measured so far, estimated to have

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<v Speaker 1>been emitted some five to six billion US years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>is the one observed in twenty twenty two from the

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<v Speaker 1>radio telescope in South Africa. We look forward to hearing

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<v Speaker 1>more about what researchers learn from observing these phenomena, especially

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<v Speaker 1>as our astronomical tools get better appearing farther into the universe.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was recorded live at the iHeart Podcasts Studio

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<v Speaker 1>powered by Bose at the House of Music at iHeartRadio

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<v Speaker 1>Music Festival. It's based on the article like from thirty

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<v Speaker 1>six thousand, billion billion miles away, Yep, I'm mega maser

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<v Speaker 1>on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Valerie Steinach. Brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com

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<v Speaker 1>and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my

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<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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<v Speaker 1>you listen to your favorite shows