1
00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:12,120
Speaker 1: Hey, Jorge, what did you want for your birthday when

2
00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:15,080
Speaker 1: you were nine? I'm pretty sure I wanted legos because

3
00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:17,520
Speaker 1: I think throughout most of my childhood that's all I wanted.

4
00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,840
Speaker 1: What do I do? Yeah? Probably legos? That or having

5
00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:23,360
Speaker 1: my own bedroom. Did you want legos so you could

6
00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:26,119
Speaker 1: build your own room. I wanted my own room so

7
00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:29,320
Speaker 1: I didn't have to share my legos? Oh? So are

8
00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:32,280
Speaker 1: you saying that nine year old Jorge didn't want answers

9
00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:34,839
Speaker 1: to some big science questions. I think Jorge in the

10
00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:37,479
Speaker 1: third grade didn't know what science was, So probably my

11
00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:40,880
Speaker 1: biggest science question would be what is science? So you

12
00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:43,920
Speaker 1: weren't wondering about aliens and black holes? I did probably

13
00:00:43,960 --> 00:00:47,680
Speaker 1: have a question about the universe back then? What was that? Well,

14
00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:49,560
Speaker 1: what's the biggest thing you can build out of legos?

15
00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:52,960
Speaker 1: All right, I'm going online after this to buy you

16
00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:57,040
Speaker 1: a bunch of legos. Done, I'll take it. It's on

17
00:00:57,080 --> 00:00:59,280
Speaker 1: the record. You know my address. Did they make a

18
00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:02,760
Speaker 1: entire universe set for legos? I'm thinking of adding to

19
00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:04,520
Speaker 1: our house, so I think we'll we'll just make it

20
00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:07,600
Speaker 1: out of legos. Did you send me save on constructor materials?

21
00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,119
Speaker 1: Hi'm r Hammack, cartoonists and the creator of PhD Comics. Hi,

22
00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:29,640
Speaker 1: I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, and I'm not great

23
00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:32,720
Speaker 1: at building real things out of legos. Really, you never

24
00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:34,280
Speaker 1: play with them as a kid. No, I play with

25
00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:36,400
Speaker 1: legos all the time, but I always end up making

26
00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:40,399
Speaker 1: weird abstract stuff rather than like ships or dinosaurs or

27
00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,200
Speaker 1: you know, cartoon characters. I would have thought as a

28
00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:46,160
Speaker 1: future particle physicist, all you would do is build stuff

29
00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:50,000
Speaker 1: and then smashing together. Is there another reason to make legos?

30
00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:54,480
Speaker 1: Then knocking them down? That is the joyful part. Now,

31
00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:57,800
Speaker 1: the joys putting them together, right, seeing how everything fits together,

32
00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:00,320
Speaker 1: that's part of the wonder Well, there is a wonderful

33
00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,400
Speaker 1: connection between legos and particle physics because it turns out

34
00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:07,000
Speaker 1: that our universe follows the lego principle. It's made of tiny,

35
00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:10,600
Speaker 1: little interlocking pieces, and everything that's unique about you is

36
00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:13,919
Speaker 1: how those pieces are put together, not the pieces themselves.

37
00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:16,760
Speaker 1: Are quarks also painful when you step on them, by

38
00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:19,600
Speaker 1: excellent absolutely, since legos are made out of quarks, it's

39
00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:22,320
Speaker 1: really the quarks that you're stepping on at three in

40
00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:24,800
Speaker 1: the morning. But welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge

41
00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,600
Speaker 1: explain the university production of I Heart Radio, in which

42
00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:30,440
Speaker 1: we knock down everything about the universe and break it

43
00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:33,480
Speaker 1: up in the tiny, little lego sized pieces so that

44
00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:36,360
Speaker 1: we can explain it to you. We tackle black holes

45
00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:40,080
Speaker 1: and neutron stars and galaxies and the tiniest of little particles.

46
00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:42,400
Speaker 1: We tear all of it apart and show you what

47
00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:44,840
Speaker 1: it's made out of, the pieces that we understand and

48
00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:48,000
Speaker 1: the pieces that we are still puzzling over. Yeah, because

49
00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:51,440
Speaker 1: it is a pretty wonderful universe, very complex, very interesting,

50
00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:54,160
Speaker 1: very fascinating to see how it all sort of fits together,

51
00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:56,840
Speaker 1: because it does seem like sometimes somebody put it together

52
00:02:56,919 --> 00:02:59,680
Speaker 1: using some kind of instruction manual. It does sometimes, and

53
00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:02,240
Speaker 1: it makes me wonder if we ever do figure out

54
00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,399
Speaker 1: what the smallest thing is, what that will sort of mean,

55
00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:08,240
Speaker 1: you know, what we will learn from that philosophically, how

56
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:10,600
Speaker 1: we will interpret that if the universe is made out

57
00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:14,200
Speaker 1: of strings or tiny little foaming bits of space or

58
00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:17,400
Speaker 1: something else entirely, Eventually we'll be faced with the question,

59
00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:20,799
Speaker 1: what does that mean about the universe? Yeah, because there

60
00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:23,040
Speaker 1: might be a tiny little particle at the end of

61
00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,760
Speaker 1: everything that everything is made out of and Daniel, I

62
00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:27,800
Speaker 1: think if you ever discovered I think you should call

63
00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:30,200
Speaker 1: it with some sort of acronym that spells out lego,

64
00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:33,840
Speaker 1: because that would be just so wonderfully ironic, maybe like

65
00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:41,120
Speaker 1: light energetic gluon ob oreo oreo. You can't call a

66
00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,760
Speaker 1: particle an oreo because oreos have something inside them, so

67
00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:47,120
Speaker 1: it can't be fundamental. Oh boy, you can go in

68
00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,680
Speaker 1: loops like maybe oreos are then made out of legos,

69
00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:52,520
Speaker 1: and legos are made out of oreosa. Our oreos and acronym.

70
00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:55,000
Speaker 1: I just wonder because I always see them capitalized. Hey,

71
00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:58,800
Speaker 1: you're right, Yeah, what does oreo stand for? Another secret

72
00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:01,800
Speaker 1: of the universe uncovered here? Yeah, listeners out there educated

73
00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:05,120
Speaker 1: us what does oreo mean? But it is a wonderful universe,

74
00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:07,440
Speaker 1: and you know, as human beings, we sort of can't

75
00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:09,720
Speaker 1: help as we look at it. We can't help but

76
00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:12,160
Speaker 1: wonder about it and ask questions about it. You know,

77
00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:14,520
Speaker 1: we see things that we don't understand, or see things

78
00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:17,560
Speaker 1: that are maybe seem unexplainable, and you have to ask,

79
00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:19,520
Speaker 1: why is it the way that is or how does

80
00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:21,720
Speaker 1: that work? Yeah, and we are surfing along on this

81
00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:25,520
Speaker 1: incredible wave of scientific knowledge. People a hundred years ago

82
00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:28,479
Speaker 1: do so much less about the universe than we do,

83
00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:31,080
Speaker 1: and people in a hundred years will know exponentially more

84
00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:33,479
Speaker 1: about the universe than we do. So every year that

85
00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:36,919
Speaker 1: goes by, we gain more and more insight into this crazy,

86
00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,360
Speaker 1: bonkers universe. And all you have to do is sit

87
00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:41,520
Speaker 1: back and enjoy the wave, or you can come join

88
00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:44,920
Speaker 1: us and pitch in to create that knowledge. Yeah, there's

89
00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:46,400
Speaker 1: a lot we know and a lot we don't know,

90
00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:48,839
Speaker 1: and people have questions. And by the way, I should

91
00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,200
Speaker 1: give a shout out again to our book. Frequently ask

92
00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:53,640
Speaker 1: questions about the universe, which is out down people can

93
00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:56,520
Speaker 1: get it, and we answer all kinds of amazing questions

94
00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:59,000
Speaker 1: in it for you. That's right, And for those moments

95
00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:01,679
Speaker 1: on our podcast when we're he says, Oh, that's tricky

96
00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:04,080
Speaker 1: to do on a podcast. I wish I could scribble

97
00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:05,680
Speaker 1: on a piece of paper. Well, the book is a

98
00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:07,320
Speaker 1: bunch of pieces of paper. A lot of them have

99
00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,560
Speaker 1: Jorges hilarious scribbles on them. Because don't forget he's not

100
00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:13,960
Speaker 1: just a podcaster. He's also a cartoonist. Just a cartoonists, yes,

101
00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:16,720
Speaker 1: but yeah, we askewer all kinds of awesome questions in it,

102
00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:19,240
Speaker 1: So please support the podcast. Get a book for yourself

103
00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:22,160
Speaker 1: when you read over the holidays, or for a friend,

104
00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:23,960
Speaker 1: or maybe as a leg gift to that special love

105
00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:26,280
Speaker 1: when you totally forgot about. Or if you're building an

106
00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:28,640
Speaker 1: extension to your house and you need some building materials,

107
00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:31,680
Speaker 1: order a bunch of copies. Yeah, they staged pretty well, right,

108
00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:34,640
Speaker 1: the rectangular they're sort of brick like they're made out

109
00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:37,719
Speaker 1: of dance matter as well, that's right. But yeah, people

110
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:40,359
Speaker 1: have questions, and we get so many questions on the

111
00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:42,800
Speaker 1: podcast here through social media that we couldn't fit them

112
00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:45,000
Speaker 1: all in one book, and so we like to answer

113
00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:48,159
Speaker 1: those questions here on the podcast live. That's right. We

114
00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:50,760
Speaker 1: encourage you when you are thinking about the universe and

115
00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:54,400
Speaker 1: wondering how something works to write to us two questions

116
00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:57,400
Speaker 1: at Daniel and Jorge dot com. I can usually answer

117
00:05:57,480 --> 00:05:59,600
Speaker 1: people's emails in less than a day and give them

118
00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:02,480
Speaker 1: a clear answer about their question. Sometimes the question is

119
00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:04,320
Speaker 1: so good that I want to talk about it on

120
00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:07,240
Speaker 1: the podcast. When we ask listeners to send in audio

121
00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:10,279
Speaker 1: of themselves asking their question. Yeah, so to be on

122
00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:19,200
Speaker 1: the program will be tackling listener questions. Number twenty two

123
00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:22,880
Speaker 1: twenty two. Have we actually recorded twenty two of these

124
00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:25,840
Speaker 1: listener question episodes? We have in our more than three

125
00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:29,279
Speaker 1: hundred fifty episodes that we've done so far, we've done

126
00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:32,520
Speaker 1: twenty two listener question episodes, which means we've answered like

127
00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:36,280
Speaker 1: sixty six questions on the air. Wow. And the questions

128
00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:39,200
Speaker 1: keep on coming, right. They come into your inbox every day. Absolutely,

129
00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:41,719
Speaker 1: we get dozens of questions every single day, and they're

130
00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:43,880
Speaker 1: a joy to read because it shows me that people

131
00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:47,159
Speaker 1: out there are thinking. They're using physics to try to

132
00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:49,960
Speaker 1: understand the universe. They're taking the ideas we are giving

133
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,279
Speaker 1: them and trying to apply them elsewhere and saying, hey,

134
00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:54,280
Speaker 1: how come this doesn't work? Or I don't get it?

135
00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:57,480
Speaker 1: What happens when the ship turns around in the twin paradox.

136
00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,279
Speaker 1: So if you're confused about something or you see something

137
00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:03,080
Speaker 1: in physics you don't understand, please don't be shy right

138
00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:05,760
Speaker 1: to us. Two questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com.

139
00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:09,159
Speaker 1: We love your emails. Do you ever get questions about legos?

140
00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:12,520
Speaker 1: Which color should I use? Next door? Have you seen

141
00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:14,880
Speaker 1: my four by one piece? Have you seen my lego

142
00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:17,880
Speaker 1: model of the fundamental particle of the universe. No, but

143
00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:19,440
Speaker 1: I think we should have a contest. We should have

144
00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:25,040
Speaker 1: listeners send in pictures of their most physics Lego creations. Interesting,

145
00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:27,640
Speaker 1: So email those to us two questions at Daniel and

146
00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:31,160
Speaker 1: Jorge dot com, and we'll post our favorites online. And

147
00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:32,880
Speaker 1: you can't just have like one little piece in the

148
00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:35,080
Speaker 1: middle there and say it's like a model the fundamental

149
00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:37,840
Speaker 1: particle of nature. That's that's right, or just a black

150
00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:40,160
Speaker 1: picture and say hey it's a black hole. Yeah, it's

151
00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:43,160
Speaker 1: a dark matter. That's an empty picture, and then and

152
00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:45,280
Speaker 1: just say it's dark matter, lego, that's right. In this

153
00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:47,520
Speaker 1: episode is airing just after Christmas, so I hope that

154
00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:49,600
Speaker 1: all of you folks out there have been lucky and

155
00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:52,320
Speaker 1: gotten some nice pile of new Legos for Christmas and

156
00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:54,480
Speaker 1: can make something physics see out of it and send

157
00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:57,280
Speaker 1: us a nice snapshot. Yeah. So we'll be answering questions

158
00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:00,600
Speaker 1: from listeners here today, and we have some awesome questions

159
00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:06,080
Speaker 1: about asteroids and dinosaurs and black holes, the cane stars

160
00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:08,920
Speaker 1: and and that's all just one question or maybe two questions,

161
00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:12,360
Speaker 1: and also aliens of course, what's happening in proximusentri So

162
00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:14,559
Speaker 1: these are awesome questions, and we'll start for this first

163
00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:18,680
Speaker 1: one from Spencer from Melbourne, who, by the way, is

164
00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:21,880
Speaker 1: having a birthday right now. That's right, December twenty ninth

165
00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:26,200
Speaker 1: is Spencer's birthday, So happy birthday, Spencer. He's in Melbourne, Australia.

166
00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:28,680
Speaker 1: But does that mean that if it's decembery here, it's

167
00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:31,800
Speaker 1: actually already December twenty nine in Australia. Yeah, but three

168
00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:35,480
Speaker 1: years in the future, because those Australians are ahead of

169
00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:38,720
Speaker 1: their time. That's right through the wormhole. We are also

170
00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:43,200
Speaker 1: communicating with Spencer's and seventy five birthday parties. Yeah, well

171
00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:46,000
Speaker 1: we should record his next like three birthdays here right

172
00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:49,559
Speaker 1: now so you can just replay them. So happy ninth birthday, Spencer,

173
00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:53,360
Speaker 1: and happy tenth birthday, Spencer. And happy eleventh birthday that's right,

174
00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:55,560
Speaker 1: and happy seventy fifth birthday. I hope we're all still

175
00:08:55,600 --> 00:09:00,280
Speaker 1: around by Yeah. I doubt it though, unless we moved

176
00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:03,840
Speaker 1: to Australia and they have that fasting technology. That's right,

177
00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:06,880
Speaker 1: Australia is going to deflect the asteroid, but only from Australia.

178
00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:10,240
Speaker 1: They're gonna send it our way instead. Yeah, but happy birthday, Spencer,

179
00:09:10,360 --> 00:09:12,280
Speaker 1: and thank you for listening to the podcast. We hear

180
00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:14,640
Speaker 1: you're a big fan and we have your question here

181
00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:18,800
Speaker 1: that's really awesome and it's about asteroids and dinosaurs. Hi,

182
00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:21,679
Speaker 1: Daniel and j Hi. My name is Spencer. I live

183
00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:25,360
Speaker 1: in Australia and um eight years old. So I have

184
00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:29,560
Speaker 1: this questions for you. So, um, what would happen if

185
00:09:29,840 --> 00:09:34,000
Speaker 1: the asteroid that killed the Donna Shaws missed us? And

186
00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:36,520
Speaker 1: I really love your podcast and I can't waite to

187
00:09:36,559 --> 00:09:40,680
Speaker 1: hear your answer. Oh so awesome. Thank you Spencer. That's

188
00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:42,560
Speaker 1: such a great question. I feel like that's a plot

189
00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:45,120
Speaker 1: of a movie, the voice of a future scientist, I

190
00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:47,719
Speaker 1: love it, or a science fiction author. Yeah maybe, Yeah,

191
00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:49,560
Speaker 1: I think there's a job for you at Marvel. They

192
00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:54,600
Speaker 1: have a whole show called What If Agents. Somebody get

193
00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:56,920
Speaker 1: out there and get Spencer on contract. Well, it's a

194
00:09:56,920 --> 00:09:59,439
Speaker 1: great question, and his question is what would happen if

195
00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:03,000
Speaker 1: the aster right that killed the dinosaurs had actually missed

196
00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:05,400
Speaker 1: the Earth? That's a pretty big one, right, like would

197
00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:08,040
Speaker 1: we still be around? Even? It's a wonderful idea to

198
00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,280
Speaker 1: think about because it really shows you how our existence

199
00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:15,240
Speaker 1: depends on a huge sequence of random events. Things that

200
00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:18,320
Speaker 1: might have gone slightly differently and could have had very

201
00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:22,400
Speaker 1: very different outcomes. It's really amazingly improbable that we are

202
00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,040
Speaker 1: even here. Yeah, it's sort of a crazy coincidence that

203
00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:27,560
Speaker 1: we're all here right now the way we are right now.

204
00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:30,080
Speaker 1: Like any sort of small event in the past could

205
00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:32,480
Speaker 1: have changed the course of history or even the course

206
00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:34,920
Speaker 1: of your life exactly. And you might imagine that, you know,

207
00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:37,160
Speaker 1: things would have roughly gone the same way. But there

208
00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:40,120
Speaker 1: are moments in evolution of life and in our cosmic

209
00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:43,400
Speaker 1: history when very small changes would lead to very large

210
00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,240
Speaker 1: differences in the outcome. And this is a great example,

211
00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:48,520
Speaker 1: because for that asteroid to hit the Earth, it had

212
00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:51,880
Speaker 1: to be on exactly the right trajectory, a tiny little

213
00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:54,760
Speaker 1: deviation earlier on like a hundred or a thousand years

214
00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:57,480
Speaker 1: earlier in its history, and it would have missed the Earth,

215
00:10:57,559 --> 00:10:59,920
Speaker 1: and the Earth could have had a totally different history.

216
00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:02,880
Speaker 1: So like some little rock bouncing against that asteroid a

217
00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:06,240
Speaker 1: thousand years before it hit totally determined the future of

218
00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:08,800
Speaker 1: life on Earth. Yeah, all right, Well, let's get to

219
00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:11,520
Speaker 1: answering Spencer's question. And I guess, first of all, Daniel,

220
00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:15,240
Speaker 1: an asteroid killed the dinosaurs. That's the prevailing theory these days,

221
00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:17,720
Speaker 1: we think that a piece of rock from the outer

222
00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:20,920
Speaker 1: part of the asteroid belt, something about the size of

223
00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:25,400
Speaker 1: Mount Everest, hit the Earth around sixty five million years ago,

224
00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:29,720
Speaker 1: traveling around thirty kilometers per second. So that's an incredible

225
00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:32,280
Speaker 1: amount of energy to deliver to the surface of the Earth.

226
00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:37,640
Speaker 1: Thirty kilometers per second. That's faster than the speed of sound, right,

227
00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:40,480
Speaker 1: that's that's super fast. It's super fast, and it would

228
00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:43,040
Speaker 1: have caused incredible shock waves. And you know, rocks are

229
00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:45,160
Speaker 1: hitting the atmosphere all the time. Every time you see

230
00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:47,800
Speaker 1: a shooting star, that's a rock hitting the atmosphere. But

231
00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:50,319
Speaker 1: the atmosphere slows them down and there's friction, and that's

232
00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:52,480
Speaker 1: where they heat up and they burn and they turn

233
00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:54,959
Speaker 1: into flames. And a huge number of them never hit

234
00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:57,640
Speaker 1: the ground because they melt. They vaporized before they hit

235
00:11:57,679 --> 00:12:00,320
Speaker 1: the ground. But if you're big enough to serve that,

236
00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:03,720
Speaker 1: only your outer edges vaporized and the core actually hits

237
00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:07,000
Speaker 1: the surface of the Earth. And this one was definitely

238
00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:09,800
Speaker 1: plenty big to hit the surface and cause a huge

239
00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:12,760
Speaker 1: amount of damage. Yeah, it came with a ton of energy.

240
00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:15,680
Speaker 1: I mean, like much much bigger than the Hiroshima bomb

241
00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:18,280
Speaker 1: or any of those nuclear bombs we have yet. It

242
00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:23,200
Speaker 1: has the energy equivalent of ten billion Hiroshima bombs. So

243
00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:27,200
Speaker 1: it was an enormous, devastating impact and delivered an incredible

244
00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:29,320
Speaker 1: amount of energy to the atmosphere and also to the

245
00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:31,960
Speaker 1: surface of the Earth itself. Yeah, and it hits somewhere

246
00:12:32,200 --> 00:12:34,920
Speaker 1: in the Yucatan Peninsula, right, which is in Mexico. Yeah,

247
00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:36,839
Speaker 1: it hit in the Yucatan, which is really interesting and

248
00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:39,520
Speaker 1: had a big role in its effect on life on

249
00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:42,800
Speaker 1: Earth because the water there is fairly shallow. If it

250
00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:46,160
Speaker 1: had hit a few minutes earlier or a few minutes later,

251
00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:48,400
Speaker 1: like if it had gone deep into the Atlantic or

252
00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:50,480
Speaker 1: deep into the Pacific, it would have had a very

253
00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,080
Speaker 1: different effect on life on Earth. So it hit fairly shallow,

254
00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:56,400
Speaker 1: which means it didn't throw up like a huge amount

255
00:12:56,400 --> 00:12:59,640
Speaker 1: of water, just like a maybe a hundred meter high tsunami.

256
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,120
Speaker 1: It's just pretty small for such a big impact. But

257
00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:04,200
Speaker 1: it did throw up a lot of sulfur into the

258
00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:07,880
Speaker 1: atmosphere because the rocks right there, it's a carbon layer

259
00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:09,920
Speaker 1: with a lot of sulfur, So it threw up a

260
00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:12,200
Speaker 1: huge amount of sulfur into the atmosphere, which caused a

261
00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:14,280
Speaker 1: lot of problems for life on Earth. I guess maybe

262
00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:16,920
Speaker 1: a basic question is, like how do we know these things?

263
00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:18,680
Speaker 1: I know that you can see the creator there and

264
00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:20,679
Speaker 1: that you cannot peninsula, but how do we know like

265
00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:24,040
Speaker 1: that's the creator that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs

266
00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:26,200
Speaker 1: landed in. You know, like, how do we know that's

267
00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:28,640
Speaker 1: the one? And how do we know you know, when

268
00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:30,880
Speaker 1: it hit and and how big it was. These are

269
00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:33,319
Speaker 1: great questions, and it's been a while. It's been taken

270
00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:36,200
Speaker 1: like decades to really put the story together. It's always

271
00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:38,600
Speaker 1: going to be a little bit circumstantial. But you know,

272
00:13:38,679 --> 00:13:40,760
Speaker 1: we know that there was a die off around sixty

273
00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:43,000
Speaker 1: five million years ago. When you look at the fossil record,

274
00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:47,040
Speaker 1: seventy of all species when extinct around sixty five million

275
00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:50,040
Speaker 1: years ago, so clearly something happened. And then we also

276
00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:52,640
Speaker 1: see evidence for this impact, which we can date to

277
00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:55,640
Speaker 1: the same time using you know, geological layers. We can

278
00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:58,680
Speaker 1: see time pass as you dig down deeper into the earth,

279
00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:01,120
Speaker 1: and we see this creater and it's not just like

280
00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:03,679
Speaker 1: a big hole in the ground. It looks like a

281
00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:07,760
Speaker 1: crazy impact, like there are rocks that only form uncertain

282
00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:12,800
Speaker 1: circumstances like incredible high energy events. This thing called shocked quartz,

283
00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:16,160
Speaker 1: for example, only happens when there's a huge impact, and

284
00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:18,240
Speaker 1: so there's a layer there that is evidence of an

285
00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:22,320
Speaker 1: enormous impact right around the same time. How interesting, when

286
00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:25,480
Speaker 1: the asteroids hit the Earth, it actually kind of transforms

287
00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:27,160
Speaker 1: some of the rock that was there, or part of

288
00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:29,440
Speaker 1: the rock that came with the asteroid, like made new

289
00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:32,280
Speaker 1: kinds of rock. Yeah, rocks that you only see under

290
00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:36,120
Speaker 1: like devastating impacts. And so it's a pretty clear signature

291
00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:38,960
Speaker 1: that there was a devastating impact right around the same

292
00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:41,680
Speaker 1: time as a huge die off. We can time these

293
00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,320
Speaker 1: things pretty well, but it's sixty five million years in

294
00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:46,520
Speaker 1: the past, and so you know, the uncertainty of these

295
00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:49,320
Speaker 1: things is like a few thousand years by now, which

296
00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:52,360
Speaker 1: seems small compared to you know, millions of years, but

297
00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:55,000
Speaker 1: it's still pretty big. So we're pretty sure that these

298
00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,200
Speaker 1: two things are aligned, but you know, we never know

299
00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:00,080
Speaker 1: for sure in science, right six is five minut in

300
00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:03,040
Speaker 1: years is a long time, And I guess the other

301
00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:04,920
Speaker 1: question is how do we know that that it passed

302
00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:07,280
Speaker 1: by the Earth once before? Like that's the part of

303
00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:09,680
Speaker 1: the theories that this asteroid actually sort of did a

304
00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:12,080
Speaker 1: drive by before it hit the Earth, like it was

305
00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:14,720
Speaker 1: checking us out. Maybe. Yeah. When we went to JPL

306
00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:17,760
Speaker 1: to talk to the team there that watches asteroids constantly

307
00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:19,640
Speaker 1: to make sure this is not about to happen to us,

308
00:15:19,800 --> 00:15:22,760
Speaker 1: they told us that that's the theory, that this asteroid

309
00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:25,360
Speaker 1: didn't just like come straight out of the asteroid belt

310
00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:27,160
Speaker 1: and hit the Earth. You know, it does a bunch

311
00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:29,760
Speaker 1: of orbits before it actually hits the Earth. And in

312
00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:32,400
Speaker 1: one of their reconstructions, they think that it made a

313
00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:35,200
Speaker 1: really near miss one time when it run around the

314
00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:37,560
Speaker 1: Sun and then it looped around again and came back

315
00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:40,160
Speaker 1: and hit the Earth, which means that if you had

316
00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:42,440
Speaker 1: looked up in the sky as a dinosaur, you might

317
00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:44,280
Speaker 1: have seen it. And if you had been like a

318
00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:47,600
Speaker 1: dinosaur scientist, you might have had some like years warning,

319
00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:50,280
Speaker 1: which means, you know, you could have done something. So

320
00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:52,480
Speaker 1: this comes from, you know, it's a little bit speculative,

321
00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:54,520
Speaker 1: but they have an idea for where it came from

322
00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:57,040
Speaker 1: in the outer asteroid belt and how big it was

323
00:15:57,240 --> 00:15:59,520
Speaker 1: and where it hit and its velocity, so they can

324
00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:02,440
Speaker 1: sort of like backtrack its trajectory. And this is one

325
00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:05,200
Speaker 1: of those possible scenarios. Yeah, I bet they did see it,

326
00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:09,440
Speaker 1: and I bet the conversation when some something like meaning

327
00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:10,960
Speaker 1: like I have these little hands in front of me,

328
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,440
Speaker 1: I can't do anything with them set the t rex. Yeah,

329
00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:16,320
Speaker 1: they didn't really have like dexterous fingers which allowed them

330
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:19,600
Speaker 1: to develop technology and send emails to get stuff done,

331
00:16:19,640 --> 00:16:21,640
Speaker 1: because we all know that's how you get stuff done

332
00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:27,600
Speaker 1: in this world is sending email and that's why. Anyways,

333
00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:30,680
Speaker 1: so Spencer's question. Back to Spencer's question, his question was

334
00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:33,200
Speaker 1: what if that asteroid had not hit the Earth? Like,

335
00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:36,040
Speaker 1: what if it had missed us? What would have happened

336
00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,880
Speaker 1: to Earth? To the history of Earth. I guess, first

337
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:41,040
Speaker 1: of all, with that rock, do you think would still

338
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:44,160
Speaker 1: be flying around? And would it sort of eventually hit us? Oh? Yeah,

339
00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:47,280
Speaker 1: that's a fun question. What if it hit us later on? Right?

340
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:49,160
Speaker 1: I think the Spencer's question is like what if it

341
00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:51,520
Speaker 1: missed entirely? If that hadn't happened, what would be the

342
00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:53,560
Speaker 1: future of Earth? But you can imagine also it's of

343
00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:55,880
Speaker 1: different scenarios where you know, waits a few more years

344
00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:57,800
Speaker 1: or a few more thousands of years and then hits

345
00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:00,800
Speaker 1: us and probably has similar impacts. It's really fun to

346
00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:03,240
Speaker 1: think about, and I like to think about not just

347
00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,040
Speaker 1: whether it hit the Earth, but like if it had

348
00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:07,560
Speaker 1: hit the Earth in a different place. Because when it

349
00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:09,959
Speaker 1: hit in the Yucatan, it threw up all this sulfur

350
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:14,000
Speaker 1: into the atmosphere, which caused incredible dust and acid rain.

351
00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:19,400
Speaker 1: They were like shock waves magnitude twelve, earthquakes and volcanoes triggered.

352
00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:20,919
Speaker 1: And it would have been different if it had hit

353
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:23,399
Speaker 1: the Pacific, for example, because that would have absorbed a

354
00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:26,320
Speaker 1: lot more energy and you would have gotten more tsunamis

355
00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:29,160
Speaker 1: and fewer earthquakes. For example, you've gotten like a five

356
00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:33,400
Speaker 1: kilometer high tsunami, which would have been pretty amazing. Yeah,

357
00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:35,960
Speaker 1: like a five kilometer a tall wave of coming at

358
00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,800
Speaker 1: you that would have probably taken out most vegetation and

359
00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,720
Speaker 1: animals in most coasts around the world. Yeah, So people

360
00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:45,320
Speaker 1: speculated that maybe larger dinosaurs would have survived if it

361
00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:47,359
Speaker 1: had hit in the Pacific or in the Atlantic. But

362
00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:49,240
Speaker 1: because it hit in the Yucatan and threw up all

363
00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:52,920
Speaker 1: this like burning ejecta into the sky that started wildfires

364
00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:55,600
Speaker 1: and everything all over the Earth, that it spelled in

365
00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:58,320
Speaker 1: media doom for those guys. But let's talk about what

366
00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:01,040
Speaker 1: it would have happened if it had missed entirely. And

367
00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:04,720
Speaker 1: this is a really active area of discussion among evolutionary

368
00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:07,560
Speaker 1: biologists because some of them think that the dinosaurs were

369
00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:10,600
Speaker 1: sort of already on their way out, that the climate

370
00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:13,679
Speaker 1: was cooling and the dinosaurs were not well adapted, and

371
00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:17,000
Speaker 1: so some scientists argue that at the end of the Cretaceous,

372
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,280
Speaker 1: the dinosaurs had been declining already for forty million years

373
00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:24,080
Speaker 1: and that mammals were on the ascendants. Interesting, so like

374
00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:27,000
Speaker 1: maybe dinosaurs were about to be extinct anyways, or at

375
00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:29,080
Speaker 1: least the larger ones, right, Is that what you mean

376
00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:31,440
Speaker 1: by dinosaurs or do you mean like all dinosaurs? No,

377
00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:33,679
Speaker 1: I mean just the large ones, because you know, dinosaurs

378
00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:38,440
Speaker 1: technically not extinct. Birds are descendants of dinosaurs, so all

379
00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:41,000
Speaker 1: the birds out there are dinosaurs. So we're really just

380
00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:44,679
Speaker 1: talking about the large non avian dinosaurs, right right, the

381
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:47,639
Speaker 1: cool ones, big ones with big teeth and horns. This

382
00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:50,040
Speaker 1: is sort of like you know, your TV show quits

383
00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:52,879
Speaker 1: before it gets canceled, you know, by the network or something.

384
00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:55,320
Speaker 1: So it might be that the dinosaurs were sort of

385
00:18:55,359 --> 00:18:57,080
Speaker 1: on the way out, that the t rex is and

386
00:18:57,080 --> 00:18:59,520
Speaker 1: the Bronchosaurus is and all those guys. We're not going

387
00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:02,080
Speaker 1: to last until present day, right, But is there something

388
00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:05,040
Speaker 1: about dinosaurs and wouldn't have survived the change in climate?

389
00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:07,640
Speaker 1: Like is it just not sustainable to be that big?

390
00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:09,480
Speaker 1: Is that what you mean? I think it's more a

391
00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:12,600
Speaker 1: question of competition. You know, are the dinosaurs or were

392
00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:16,720
Speaker 1: the mammals better adapted to the climate as it was cooling.

393
00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:20,840
Speaker 1: And there's one scientist, Mike Benton, a paleontologist at Bristol University,

394
00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:23,920
Speaker 1: who argues that there's evidence that mammals were really rapidly

395
00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:26,920
Speaker 1: diversifying just before this happened, and so they were sort

396
00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:30,000
Speaker 1: of poised to fill a lot more niches than the dinosaurs.

397
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,280
Speaker 1: So it's really all about competition. But most evolution of biologists,

398
00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:36,840
Speaker 1: I think disagree and argue that dinosaurs are very, very

399
00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:39,159
Speaker 1: adaptable and then no matter what would have happened to

400
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:41,200
Speaker 1: the climate, they would have found a way to survive.

401
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:43,159
Speaker 1: I mean, one piece of evidence for that is that

402
00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:46,680
Speaker 1: there are still twice as many species of birds as

403
00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:51,520
Speaker 1: there are mammals today. So dinosaurs, including birds and their ancestors,

404
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:55,520
Speaker 1: were very, very adaptable, and then those survived the asteroid, right, Like,

405
00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:58,800
Speaker 1: something about that asteroid killed those big dinosaurs was maybe

406
00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:00,720
Speaker 1: like a sped up version of what was going to

407
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:03,480
Speaker 1: happen anyways over millions of years. It could be. But

408
00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:06,160
Speaker 1: if it happened more slowly, then those bigger dinosaurs could

409
00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:09,440
Speaker 1: have potentially survived, though they would be changed. So if

410
00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:11,840
Speaker 1: the asteroid hadn't hit the Earth and t rexes and

411
00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:14,240
Speaker 1: all those guys had survived, we wouldn't see t rex

412
00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:17,720
Speaker 1: is walking around today looking the way the fossil reconstruction does.

413
00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:20,320
Speaker 1: The same way. There's lots of animals from the past

414
00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:22,879
Speaker 1: that we don't see walking around today because they're extinct

415
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,360
Speaker 1: or because they have adapted. You know, horses don't look

416
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:28,399
Speaker 1: anything like they used to, for example, right, Yeah, maybe

417
00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 1: like there would be small t rexes running around or

418
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:34,720
Speaker 1: small you know, pterodactyls flying around, like small versions of them. Yeah,

419
00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:36,639
Speaker 1: And so people have gone back and looked at like

420
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:39,200
Speaker 1: the history of the Earth's climate and thought about how

421
00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:42,320
Speaker 1: that might have affected the dinosaurs. If the asteroid hadn't

422
00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:45,440
Speaker 1: hit so fifty five million years ago, for example, things

423
00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:48,639
Speaker 1: got really really hot. You got eight degrees celsie is

424
00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:52,160
Speaker 1: hotter than it was today, and there were rainforests spanning

425
00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:55,400
Speaker 1: much of the planet, so dinosaurs would have to adapt

426
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:58,320
Speaker 1: it to that. And then thirty five million years ago,

427
00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:02,000
Speaker 1: things got colder and draw fire, and instead of rainforest,

428
00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:05,520
Speaker 1: you had grasslands covering most of the earth, and that's

429
00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:07,680
Speaker 1: why we have things like elk and deer and all

430
00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:10,919
Speaker 1: sorts of fast four footed mammals evolved. So you know,

431
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:13,040
Speaker 1: dinosaurs would have had to adapt it to all of

432
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:15,600
Speaker 1: those and we might have had very different, very interesting

433
00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:20,080
Speaker 1: new kinds of dinosaurs evolved in response to these climate changes. Interesting,

434
00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:21,679
Speaker 1: so they would have stuck around and they would have

435
00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:24,480
Speaker 1: adapted and evolved, and I think it's sort of inevitably

436
00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:27,440
Speaker 1: maybe had a showdown with mammals, right, Like, that's sort

437
00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:30,440
Speaker 1: of like maybe more of a direct competition with mammals,

438
00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:35,240
Speaker 1: maybe a big dinosaur mammal war. Now you're writing your screenplay,

439
00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:38,159
Speaker 1: I can hear it. Something that's really interesting that I

440
00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:42,240
Speaker 1: didn't realize is that dinosaurs weren't around to see flowers.

441
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:47,240
Speaker 1: Like flowering plants evolved after dinosaurs, and flowering plants are

442
00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:50,040
Speaker 1: easier to survive on because there's like a dense packet

443
00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:52,159
Speaker 1: of nutrition there either in the fruits or in the

444
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:55,360
Speaker 1: seeds or whatever. So dinosaurs might have evolved in response

445
00:21:55,359 --> 00:21:57,280
Speaker 1: to that. They could have been smaller, for example, they

446
00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:59,680
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to be so big, and that's one reason

447
00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:02,480
Speaker 1: that our ancestors survived. You know, they were like swinging

448
00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 1: in the trees, eating fruits, and so it's interesting to

449
00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:09,000
Speaker 1: wonder like, would dinosaur have evolved to fill that niche,

450
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:11,480
Speaker 1: you know, like the dinosaur version of a monkey. What

451
00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:13,680
Speaker 1: would that have looked like? Would they have been competition

452
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:17,600
Speaker 1: with you know, our ancestors. It's fascinating. Yeah, yeah, all right,

453
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:19,320
Speaker 1: let's talk about a little bit about what that might

454
00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:22,480
Speaker 1: mean for humans, and let's answer other questions from listeners.

455
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:37,439
Speaker 1: But first let's take a quick break. All right, we

456
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 1: are answering listening to questions, and our first one was

457
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:43,040
Speaker 1: about dinosaurs and what would have happened if the asteroid

458
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:45,679
Speaker 1: that killed them had actually missed the earth, and we

459
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,800
Speaker 1: talked about how they would have adapted maybe and lived

460
00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:51,160
Speaker 1: with mammals. But do you think, Daniel, that that wouldn't

461
00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:53,560
Speaker 1: have meant no humans or do you think humans might

462
00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:56,960
Speaker 1: have still evolved with dinosaurs. It's really hard to say,

463
00:22:57,080 --> 00:23:00,639
Speaker 1: because there are no evidence of dinosaurs living in the

464
00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:04,000
Speaker 1: evolutionary niche that humans take, you know, or that our

465
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 1: ancestors took, sort of like living in trees, eating fruits,

466
00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:11,120
Speaker 1: swinging around. There really aren't any dinosaurs, but then again,

467
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 1: they weren't around when fruits and flowering plants evolved, so

468
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,359
Speaker 1: who knows how they would have responded or if they

469
00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:18,560
Speaker 1: would have figured that out. Are you saying the humans

470
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:25,560
Speaker 1: evolved intelligence because they could eat bananas despite eating bananas? Well,

471
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,679
Speaker 1: that's a competing theory. I have my own theory about

472
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,400
Speaker 1: human evolution here. But yeah, it takes like a lot

473
00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,560
Speaker 1: of dexterity to climb trees and to swing around them,

474
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 1: and that gives you dexterous fingers, which allows you to

475
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:40,680
Speaker 1: manipulate your environment and develop tools and do all sorts

476
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 1: of crazy things dot dot dot intelligence. Right, So I'm

477
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 1: not saying bananas are responsible for physics. Bananas are tricky

478
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,680
Speaker 1: to peel. I mean not everyone can peel them easily. Yeah,

479
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:52,560
Speaker 1: but do all animals actually peel them? When they do,

480
00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 1: they just chop down beneath the skin. Also, well, the

481
00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:59,000
Speaker 1: only intelligent once peel, which is what I'm saying. I see,

482
00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:02,160
Speaker 1: that's the intelligence us, right, there. But I guess another

483
00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 1: cool scenarios that dinosaurs could have evolved intelligence and maybe

484
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,280
Speaker 1: they would have been like the primary species on Earth

485
00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 1: and developed spaceships and internet and phones. It's one of

486
00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 1: those deep questions what forms can intelligence take and what

487
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 1: makes it evolve? Something we see about life on Earth

488
00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:22,160
Speaker 1: is that life on Earth started fairly shortly after it

489
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:24,920
Speaker 1: was possible, like life has been around a long long time.

490
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 1: Once the earth cooled and the chemistry was around, it

491
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:29,720
Speaker 1: didn't take that long for life to kick off, but

492
00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:33,159
Speaker 1: it did take billions of years for intelligence to evolve,

493
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:36,960
Speaker 1: which might suggest that it's rare or difficult or unlikely.

494
00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:39,840
Speaker 1: But you know, we're extrapolating from one example, so we

495
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,840
Speaker 1: don't know if another species might have developed intelligence, or

496
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,480
Speaker 1: if it would have taken another billion years for dinosaurs

497
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,160
Speaker 1: to become intelligent, or you know, maybe something else would

498
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:51,119
Speaker 1: have happened. Another afteroid would have come and killed everybody,

499
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:53,600
Speaker 1: and then the slugs would have become intelligent. Who knows,

500
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,920
Speaker 1: and everything would have been a lot slower. That sounds great, Actually,

501
00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:00,400
Speaker 1: I bet slugs don't send him an emails. I bet

502
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 1: they just sit in the couch all day. Into physics

503
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:06,360
Speaker 1: all right, well, thank you Spencer for that awesome question,

504
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:09,679
Speaker 1: that big what if question? And again, happy birthday. So

505
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:11,400
Speaker 1: we'll get to our next question here, and this one

506
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:15,400
Speaker 1: is from Corin, who is eleven years old. Hy Daniel Joy.

507
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:17,639
Speaker 1: My name is Julian love the show. Thank you so

508
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:21,400
Speaker 1: much for making it. Um. My son Corne recently asked

509
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:23,240
Speaker 1: me a question that I did not know how to answer,

510
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 1: so I was really hoping you could help. How do

511
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 1: we know that black holes come from the Kyne Star?

512
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 1: Awesome question? Thank you Corne and Dad. That's so great.

513
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,760
Speaker 1: Did you guys listen to the podcast together? That is wonderful.

514
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:39,600
Speaker 1: I really enjoy hearing people out there supporting the next

515
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:43,120
Speaker 1: generation of curious scientists. So thank you all your parents

516
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:47,720
Speaker 1: and teachers of course for encouraging thinkers of the next generation. Yeah,

517
00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:50,480
Speaker 1: so this one is a pretty tricky question and it's

518
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 1: a little bit technical, but Corn wants to know how

519
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,199
Speaker 1: do we know that black holes come from the Kayne Stars? Like,

520
00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:58,919
Speaker 1: you know, we black holes are so mysterious, we barely

521
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 1: have a picture of them. They were mostly theoretical for

522
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 1: a long time, Like how do we know their origin

523
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:04,840
Speaker 1: and how do we know where they come? From It's

524
00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 1: a great question, and it's important to think about what

525
00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: we do know and how we've drawn these conclusions, because

526
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: sometimes we led astray. Sometimes we don't actually have evidence

527
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: for something, we assume it's true, and then we discover, oh,

528
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 1: that was a big mistake. It turns out that the

529
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,120
Speaker 1: universe works in a totally different way. So it's really

530
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:23,239
Speaker 1: good idea to go back and examine what we do

531
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:26,480
Speaker 1: know and how we know it. And it's especially tricky

532
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:30,160
Speaker 1: to understand how things in the universe turn into other

533
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,120
Speaker 1: things because it usually takes a long time. It might

534
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:35,639
Speaker 1: take a million years or a billion years for a

535
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:37,960
Speaker 1: start to burn out. So how do you learn about

536
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,800
Speaker 1: how this thing happens. You don't have a billion years

537
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:43,400
Speaker 1: to watch something, right, You can't just watch a star

538
00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 1: for a billion years until it turns into a black hole.

539
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:48,880
Speaker 1: It's pretty tricky to figure this stuff out. There would

540
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 1: be a long PhD. I mean, that would take you

541
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:53,479
Speaker 1: billion years just to get that degree. But we do

542
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,240
Speaker 1: have another tool, which is that we can look out

543
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,359
Speaker 1: into the universe, and we can look further and further out,

544
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:02,600
Speaker 1: which means we're looking further and further back in time.

545
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 1: Because remember light travels at a finite though dizzy lee

546
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:09,320
Speaker 1: fast speed, and that means that as we look further

547
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 1: out into the universe, we're looking further back in time.

548
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:15,640
Speaker 1: So we can sort of like rewind and fast forward

549
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:18,439
Speaker 1: movies of the universe to see what happened. You can

550
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:21,359
Speaker 1: never look at one object at different slices in time,

551
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:23,520
Speaker 1: but you can look at different populations and you can

552
00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:26,879
Speaker 1: see how things on average evolve. Right. It's like you

553
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:29,160
Speaker 1: can see a whole group of people are a little

554
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,160
Speaker 1: town of people, and you can see, oh, there are babies,

555
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 1: and then there are also a little slightly bigger humans,

556
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,080
Speaker 1: and then slightly bigger humans, and then there's humans again

557
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:39,159
Speaker 1: wrinkles and seem to get old. And then so you

558
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:40,920
Speaker 1: sort of piece it together and say, okay, I think

559
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 1: these humans go from babies to old people exactly. And

560
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:47,640
Speaker 1: we can't follow one individual person in that analogy through

561
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 1: their whole life, but we can sort of piece that

562
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:53,560
Speaker 1: story together by seeing different slices from sort of different villages,

563
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: and that story tells us that there is this evolution

564
00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:00,080
Speaker 1: of stars, that stars are formed, we see that, and

565
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 1: that they burn for a long time, that they expand,

566
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 1: and that they collapse and sometimes make supernova and all

567
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 1: those things we see again, not from an individual star,

568
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:12,679
Speaker 1: but we can see different stars at various points in

569
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:16,160
Speaker 1: their evolution. And sometimes we look at what happens after

570
00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:19,800
Speaker 1: a supernova and we see this incredible cloud of stuff,

571
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 1: this rememnants of the supernova blowing out most of its contents.

572
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 1: But at the heart you can see something dark and

573
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:31,160
Speaker 1: something massive right there where the star used to be. Right,

574
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:33,960
Speaker 1: And I think we've actually seen sort of seem supernovas

575
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 1: right like throughout our history. We've sort of seen a

576
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 1: few of them and also at least see them as

577
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,960
Speaker 1: just as after they happen. Yes, we can see supernova happen.

578
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:45,200
Speaker 1: It's incredible because they're very short lived, right, They burn

579
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 1: like brighter than the entire galaxy that they're in, and

580
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:51,719
Speaker 1: sometimes they last a few days, sometimes a few weeks,

581
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 1: but there are these very brief moments in time. Then,

582
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: of course we can't wait around for the black hole

583
00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:59,160
Speaker 1: to form or to show it's as evidence, but we

584
00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:01,560
Speaker 1: can look somewhere else from the universe, somewhere where we

585
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 1: think a supernova happened recently, and we can tell a

586
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: supernova happened because we see, for example, these clouds of

587
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 1: gas and dust shooting out from the center at very

588
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 1: high speeds, which is the kind of thing that only

589
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: happens in a supernova. So we see, oh, here's the

590
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: supernova that happened a thousand years ago or a million

591
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 1: years ago, And we can look at the heart of

592
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: that and ask, is there a black hole right there

593
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,400
Speaker 1: at the heart of this cloud that came from a

594
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:27,880
Speaker 1: dying star? Yeah, and sometimes you can see it, right,

595
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:29,520
Speaker 1: I mean you don't see it directly, you don't see

596
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 1: the black hole and like a picture of it, but

597
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 1: you see it kind of tugging on the things around it,

598
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:37,080
Speaker 1: but without any sort of bright light coming from it exactly.

599
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:40,240
Speaker 1: And we did actually once recently see a black hole

600
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:44,360
Speaker 1: that had just been born. There's this supernova called a

601
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 1: T two thousand eighteen c o W, which is known

602
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:50,880
Speaker 1: to astronomers as the cow. Is that like the goat,

603
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 1: but different accomplishment level? That's right, there's a different acronym

604
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: there for cow. And this was very dark at the

605
00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:01,000
Speaker 1: center and then suddenly it became very very bright. So

606
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: this is like a supernova remnant, and at the heart

607
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 1: of it was dark and then all of a sudden

608
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 1: it turned on and was very very bright. And that's

609
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:12,880
Speaker 1: actually counterintuitively evidence for a black hole, because what happens

610
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,760
Speaker 1: in a black hole is that while it itself doesn't

611
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 1: give off light, the gas and the dust swirling around

612
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,280
Speaker 1: it and the accretion disk get very very hot and

613
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:24,160
Speaker 1: they can admit a lot of radiation, very very bright

614
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: sources of X rays, for example. And so what they saw,

615
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 1: they think, is this black hole sort of turning on

616
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 1: and giving off these beams of X rays from a

617
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:36,479
Speaker 1: secretion disk. So that's a pretty good evidence of seeing

618
00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 1: a black hole form after the death of a star. Wow,

619
00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 1: so you can actually we've actually seen this baby black

620
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 1: hole and saw that it came from a star that imploded. Yeah,

621
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 1: and it makes sense because if you keep looking around

622
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: long enough, you should capture a star basically every stage

623
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: of its life cycle. And so if you look at

624
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,520
Speaker 1: enough stars, you'll see these things. For me, you'll see

625
00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 1: black holes. For me, you'll see supernovas at all different stages.

626
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 1: It really pretty fun. And on top of that experimental evidence,

627
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 1: you know, seeing all these things at different stages, we

628
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 1: also have a model. We have a theory for how

629
00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:10,960
Speaker 1: stars form, and we can do this in simulation, we

630
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: can say we know what the laws of physics are.

631
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 1: We think we understand the starting point for stars, what

632
00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 1: should happen according to the laws of physics, And when

633
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:21,880
Speaker 1: you do those calculations, you get a supernova and then

634
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 1: you get a collapse and you get a black hole.

635
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:26,600
Speaker 1: And the black holes that are formed are about the

636
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 1: size of black holes that we see out there in

637
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,719
Speaker 1: the universe. So the story sort of all hangs together.

638
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:34,520
Speaker 1: There's you know, little bits of it that are circumstantial.

639
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 1: You can't actually see the whole life cycle of a star,

640
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:39,360
Speaker 1: but we try to tell a complete scientific story and

641
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:41,520
Speaker 1: probe it from lots of different angles, and it mostly

642
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:43,719
Speaker 1: hangs together. Yeah, you mean, like we can sort of

643
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: think about how a star works and predict what's going

644
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:48,720
Speaker 1: to happen, and some of sometings a black hole will form,

645
00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 1: and you can also sort of see these evidence of

646
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:53,680
Speaker 1: them out there, and so it matches what you predict

647
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 1: and it also matches what do you see right now. Yeah,

648
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:58,680
Speaker 1: and we can also see when a black hole doesn't form,

649
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:01,480
Speaker 1: because if there's not enough mass to make a black hole,

650
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 1: then instead it will make a neutron star as other

651
00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:07,520
Speaker 1: very very dense object, but not quite a black hole.

652
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: It's part of a gray hole. Yeah, And we see

653
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,120
Speaker 1: those also, and that helps us validate, like in general,

654
00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:15,880
Speaker 1: our understanding of stars and how they die and how

655
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:18,000
Speaker 1: they collapse, so we can predict not just when it

656
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 1: makes a black hole, but when it fails to make

657
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: a black hole, and our models also describe that pretty well.

658
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,280
Speaker 1: All right, well, I think that answers the question. We

659
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:28,760
Speaker 1: can predict that they come from the king and collapsing stars,

660
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:31,240
Speaker 1: and you can also see them out there that have

661
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:34,080
Speaker 1: the black holes that have come from collapsing stars and

662
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:36,720
Speaker 1: some that came a long time ago from the king stars.

663
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into our last question. But first

664
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:41,239
Speaker 1: we'll do the side question here, Daniel, and this one

665
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:43,760
Speaker 1: is sort of about your emotional state. Did this one

666
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 1: come from a reader or your your parents? This one

667
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 1: came from a listener here it is. Hey, guys, it's

668
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:52,680
Speaker 1: Daniel from the UK. Here. I've been thinking a lot

669
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 1: about this recently, and I thought who better to ask

670
00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 1: it too? Then you, guys. I mean, you've got a

671
00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 1: lot of podcasts You've thought about the universe and fast

672
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 1: get all the various questions that no one knows the

673
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:08,200
Speaker 1: answers to and I'm just thinking, do you ever get

674
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 1: a bit sad and depressed that you probably won't be

675
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 1: alive long enough to find out some of these big answers?

676
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:19,720
Speaker 1: Are there aliens? What they like? What stark matter? What's

677
00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:22,520
Speaker 1: the meaning life? You know? What's inside a black hole?

678
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 1: Does the universe ever end? I don't know. I'm excited

679
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,239
Speaker 1: for the future and to see what we discover, but

680
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:33,400
Speaker 1: also occasionally, you know, true in the extertential crisis, I'll

681
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 1: be a bit bummed out about the fact I probably

682
00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:39,400
Speaker 1: won't be alive to find out a lot of these things. Cheers,

683
00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 1: all right, great question, thank you, And yeah, Daniel, it's

684
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 1: sort of an interesting question. I guess are they concerned

685
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:47,720
Speaker 1: about you, do you think, or are they worried that

686
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:50,240
Speaker 1: you're leading an unhappy life? I think they're just sort

687
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:54,640
Speaker 1: of capturing the feeling of living in primitive times. You know,

688
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:56,960
Speaker 1: we know that we know so little about the universe,

689
00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:00,240
Speaker 1: and we hope that our Greek grandchildren in their great

690
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 1: grandchildren will know more. And that's exciting, but it's also

691
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: sort of frustrating because we know the information is out there.

692
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 1: We know humans eventually will probably figure this stuff out.

693
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,480
Speaker 1: Somebody will know the answers to these questions that keep

694
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,279
Speaker 1: us up at night, and yet we probably will not

695
00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:18,279
Speaker 1: or we may not, depending on how smart the next

696
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:22,120
Speaker 1: generation is, and that is sort of frustrating but exciting. Well,

697
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:23,879
Speaker 1: the question is sort of like, are you sad that

698
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:26,479
Speaker 1: you mind in your lifetime because you devoted your life

699
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,840
Speaker 1: to answering some of these big questions, Like are you

700
00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:30,319
Speaker 1: a little bit sad that you may not know the

701
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:32,359
Speaker 1: answers by the end of your life? Like you may

702
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 1: you may never know the answers. Well, I'm planning to

703
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:37,040
Speaker 1: invest in cryogenics so that a year before I die,

704
00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 1: I can just freeze my body and then thought every

705
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:41,719
Speaker 1: hundred years or so instead of good an update on

706
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:44,359
Speaker 1: the physics. But if you did right before you die,

707
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 1: you would just be dying fifty years into the future.

708
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: That's right. I'll spend my last year sort of like

709
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:53,320
Speaker 1: surfing through the future learning about what happens in physics.

710
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 1: You want to spend the last year of your life

711
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,920
Speaker 1: in school, is what you're saying. I've spent all of

712
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:00,040
Speaker 1: my life in school so far. I'm in like of

713
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:03,000
Speaker 1: hundredth grade right now. Yeah, and I guess you haven't

714
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,600
Speaker 1: had enough. It sounds like a premise for a show

715
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:10,719
Speaker 1: called Futurama exactly. So it's really fun. But you know,

716
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:13,359
Speaker 1: even if we get the answers to those questions, then

717
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,680
Speaker 1: our descendants who know those things about the universe, they're

718
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:19,240
Speaker 1: going to have new questions. Because we know the answers

719
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 1: to questions that people puzzled over five hundred years ago.

720
00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: We know those things definitively, but we're still tortured with

721
00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: new questions about the universe. So it's not like this

722
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 1: ever going to be a moment where we're like, Okay, yeah,

723
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:32,880
Speaker 1: we got it. We have it figured out. Because we

724
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 1: are curious, because we wonder, and because we explore, they're

725
00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:37,799
Speaker 1: always going to be more things to wonder about. And

726
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:40,440
Speaker 1: I also kind of get this answer. What's fun for

727
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,120
Speaker 1: you for scientists, for all of us who sort of

728
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:45,200
Speaker 1: think about these things is sort of the asking of

729
00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:47,319
Speaker 1: the question. You know. It's like it's the journey, not

730
00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:50,000
Speaker 1: the destination. Like it's fun just to be part of

731
00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:52,560
Speaker 1: this moment in time we're asking these questions and learning

732
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:54,879
Speaker 1: more about it. It's almost like if you actually found

733
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:57,040
Speaker 1: out the answer, it would be not as fun anymore.

734
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 1: Depends on what the answer is. But yeah, often the

735
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:03,440
Speaker 1: joy isn't asking the questions, because we certainly ask a

736
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 1: lot more questions than we get answers. So the sign

737
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:07,440
Speaker 1: that you're a scientist, it might be that you like

738
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: asking questions and puzzling over them, not necessarily just getting

739
00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:13,760
Speaker 1: the answers. All right, Well, we'll get to our last question,

740
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 1: and it's it's an interesting one about maybe sending your

741
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:19,759
Speaker 1: in laws to another planet. So we'll get into that,

742
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:34,680
Speaker 1: but first let's take another quick break. All right, we're

743
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:37,720
Speaker 1: answering listener questions today here on the podcast, and we've

744
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: gotten some awesome questions, and we've talked about some awesome

745
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 1: answers here about dinosaurs, asteroids and black holes and collapsing stars.

746
00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 1: And our last question comes from Nick. Hello, Daniel and

747
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 1: Jorge and all the guests hosts. I really appreciate the podcast.

748
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 1: My question today is if we could put someone on

749
00:36:57,680 --> 00:37:02,840
Speaker 1: a planet near another are, for example approximates Centauri, and

750
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:06,200
Speaker 1: have them try to detect the civilization on Earth with

751
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:10,440
Speaker 1: current Earth technology, would they be able to thank you

752
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:13,920
Speaker 1: very much asking for a friend. I guess if you

753
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:17,759
Speaker 1: could banish someone to another planet like a Proximus Centauri,

754
00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:20,279
Speaker 1: and Nick wants to know could they find this with

755
00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 1: current Earth technology? Like, do you think he's asking if

756
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:25,799
Speaker 1: they would be out there forever or lost? Or is

757
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:27,399
Speaker 1: there a sort of an easy way to get back

758
00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:30,920
Speaker 1: to Earth. I don't think he's thinking at all about

759
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,400
Speaker 1: sending one of his friends or your in laws to

760
00:37:33,560 --> 00:37:36,719
Speaker 1: Proximates Centauri. I think he's wondering about if there are

761
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:40,120
Speaker 1: aliens on Proximates Centauri, would they have discovered that we

762
00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:43,880
Speaker 1: exist if they had sort of like earthlike technology? Oh?

763
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:45,839
Speaker 1: I see, I see all right, yeah, so like if

764
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:48,760
Speaker 1: there is already somebody there, maybe your future in laws.

765
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:51,399
Speaker 1: You never know, right, I mean life takes interesting turn

766
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:54,440
Speaker 1: sometimes they could be futured in laws. How would they

767
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:56,800
Speaker 1: find this? I guess? Yeah, it's a fun question because

768
00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:59,839
Speaker 1: we don't know where the aliens might be, and so

769
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:03,319
Speaker 1: it's worth asking should we have heard from them or

770
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:06,279
Speaker 1: should they have discovered us? So it's an important sort

771
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:09,440
Speaker 1: of thought experiment. If there were aliens there, shouldn't we

772
00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: have heard from them? Because you know, there are only

773
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:13,279
Speaker 1: four light years away, which means if they knew that

774
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 1: we are here, it wouldn't take very long for them

775
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 1: to send us a message back. Right. It's actually the

776
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,520
Speaker 1: kind of conversation we might be able to have much

777
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:23,719
Speaker 1: better than discovering aliens across the galaxy, where it takes

778
00:38:23,719 --> 00:38:27,719
Speaker 1: fifty years to send a message. These are basically our neighbors,

779
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:30,400
Speaker 1: and so it's important to wonder whether or not they

780
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:34,040
Speaker 1: would even know that we are here. I see. Well,

781
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:35,880
Speaker 1: let's maybe break it down a little bit. What is

782
00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:38,920
Speaker 1: Proxima Centauri. It's a it's a nearby star or a

783
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 1: nearby planet. It's a nearby star. It's a red dwarf,

784
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:44,480
Speaker 1: and it's got two planets that we've discovered around it,

785
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:46,799
Speaker 1: and it's only three point seven light years away. It's

786
00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:50,319
Speaker 1: the closest star to our sun. So if there's any

787
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:54,360
Speaker 1: place we'd like to discover friendly aliens, then it's Proximus

788
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:56,480
Speaker 1: Centre because it's very close by. And then there are

789
00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:59,759
Speaker 1: other stars almost as close by, but this one edges

790
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 1: out the other ones, and it's the closest I see,

791
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,160
Speaker 1: and these planets are sort of habitable, you think, all right, yes,

792
00:39:06,239 --> 00:39:09,000
Speaker 1: so there are two planets out there, Proximus Centaurri B

793
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:13,239
Speaker 1: and Proximates Centauri C. One of them, Proximate B, is

794
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:17,239
Speaker 1: orbiting within proximates habitable zone, meaning that like the temperatures

795
00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:20,320
Speaker 1: are right for liquid water to exist on its surface.

796
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:23,479
Speaker 1: But you know, Proximus Centauri is actually a flare star.

797
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:26,839
Speaker 1: It gets like brighter and darker, and so it's not

798
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:30,360
Speaker 1: really clear whether any aliens could survive there. Interesting, and

799
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,879
Speaker 1: so it's it's the closest basically outposed or like non

800
00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:37,560
Speaker 1: empty space that is the closest to us in our galaxy, right,

801
00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:39,920
Speaker 1: that's right, right, Well, the question is if they have

802
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:42,279
Speaker 1: if there are aliens, if you put a scientist there

803
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:45,200
Speaker 1: with Earth technology, or if there are aliens they're living there,

804
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:47,799
Speaker 1: could they find us? Would they know we're here? And

805
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 1: three point seven light years away is not that far, right,

806
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:52,680
Speaker 1: Like if I shine a flashlight in their direction right

807
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:54,759
Speaker 1: now tonight, it would get there in four years. It

808
00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:57,200
Speaker 1: would get there in four years, and some of those

809
00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:01,120
Speaker 1: photons from your flashlight would actually hit Roxima B. And

810
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:03,440
Speaker 1: so that's pretty exciting because your flashlight sends out light

811
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:05,840
Speaker 1: in a cone, and that cone expands, so when you

812
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 1: get really really far out, that cone is really really wide,

813
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:12,480
Speaker 1: so your flashlight would cover like the entire Solar system

814
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:14,840
Speaker 1: out there in Proxima b every point in that solar

815
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:17,960
Speaker 1: system could potentially see your flashlight, but of course it

816
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,360
Speaker 1: wouldn't be very bright anymore because it would have spread

817
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:22,560
Speaker 1: out so much. Right, Well, what you could use maybe

818
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:24,520
Speaker 1: a laser. You could use a laser. And so that's

819
00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:27,320
Speaker 1: exactly the issue is that we could send signals to

820
00:40:27,520 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 1: Proximates Centauri using Earth technology and they could discover it

821
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 1: if it was sent intentionally. Right, So, if we on

822
00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:37,440
Speaker 1: purpose sent a message to Proximates Centauri that was focused

823
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:39,480
Speaker 1: saying like we want to beam a whole bunch of

824
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:42,719
Speaker 1: light right at this one place, then yes, we could

825
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:45,080
Speaker 1: send a message that they could discover. But if we're

826
00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:48,040
Speaker 1: just sort of like sending signals out into space generally,

827
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:50,680
Speaker 1: then it'd be much harder to discover it because those

828
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:53,520
Speaker 1: signals would die off very very rapidly. You mean, the

829
00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:56,680
Speaker 1: way we're like broadcasting TV signals and radio signals out

830
00:40:56,719 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 1: there and into the atmosphere and out into space. Like

831
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:02,200
Speaker 1: that's not focused, right, Like that's just going everywhere, and

832
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:05,359
Speaker 1: so that would get diluted pretty quickly, exactly. And if

833
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:08,279
Speaker 1: they have technology and Proximus Centauri like we do, you know,

834
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:11,480
Speaker 1: a dish like Aricibo or something. They only see those

835
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:13,839
Speaker 1: kinds of signals if you were within about a light

836
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:16,839
Speaker 1: year of the source. So to detect signals from Earth

837
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,359
Speaker 1: using a dish like Aricibo, you'd have to be within

838
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:21,839
Speaker 1: about a light year of Earth. So if you had

839
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 1: a dish like that on Approximus Centauri, we'd have to

840
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:28,360
Speaker 1: send signals that were like sixteen times stronger in order

841
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:32,360
Speaker 1: for an aero Cibo on Proximus Centauri to pick them up. Interesting,

842
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:34,319
Speaker 1: or I guess maybe the hope that they have a

843
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: bigger receiving dish, right, Yeah, maybe they have a sixteen

844
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:40,200
Speaker 1: times bigger dish than they could see us. But next

845
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:43,120
Speaker 1: question was sort of like with current Earth technology, and

846
00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:45,719
Speaker 1: so if we sent a directed message there, then they

847
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:47,640
Speaker 1: could definitely pick it up. If we have no idea

848
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 1: that they're there and we're not sending them many messages,

849
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:51,960
Speaker 1: which is sort of like blathering out into the universe,

850
00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 1: then it's unlikely with current Earth technology they would even

851
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 1: know that we are here. I see, So they can't

852
00:41:57,239 --> 00:41:59,640
Speaker 1: eaves drop on us that what you're saying, they can

853
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:02,840
Speaker 1: which off of our Netflix subscription, that's right, And the

854
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:06,640
Speaker 1: latency from there is terrible. Yeah, they're barely just watching

855
00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:12,240
Speaker 1: season one of Springer things buffering, buffering, buffering for four years.

856
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:16,239
Speaker 1: All right, well, I guess that's sort of talking to them.

857
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:17,840
Speaker 1: But could they see us? Like we can see we

858
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 1: can sort of see them, right, we can see these

859
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:21,920
Speaker 1: planets out there, and you can actually sort of almost

860
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:24,560
Speaker 1: take pictures of it, right, it's not just being detected

861
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:27,359
Speaker 1: by the gravity there. Could they see us? And could

862
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,040
Speaker 1: they take a picture of us almost? Like these are

863
00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:33,120
Speaker 1: the closest planets and so if we use Earth like technology,

864
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:36,160
Speaker 1: we can tell that those planets are there. And now

865
00:42:36,239 --> 00:42:39,200
Speaker 1: we can make some measurements of what's in the atmosphere

866
00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:42,279
Speaker 1: of those planets, Like we don't yet have telescopes that

867
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:45,400
Speaker 1: are powerful enough to directly take pictures of them. That

868
00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:48,880
Speaker 1: we will in about ten or fifteen years, but currently

869
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:51,239
Speaker 1: what we can do is like see how the light

870
00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:54,800
Speaker 1: changes as it passes through the atmosphere of those planets

871
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:58,239
Speaker 1: and use that to get estimates for what's in the atmosphere,

872
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:01,160
Speaker 1: and like is their methane? Is there oxygen? Are there

873
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:03,840
Speaker 1: signs of life in that atmosphere? What's the weather like

874
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:06,719
Speaker 1: on those planets? Interesting? Yeah, they could tell that we

875
00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:09,680
Speaker 1: are polluting our atmosphere and not doing a great job

876
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:12,200
Speaker 1: and maybe decided not to con visit us. Yeah, but

877
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:14,920
Speaker 1: it's not easy to just look at the atmosphere and

878
00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:18,399
Speaker 1: conclude that life exists. People used to think, well, all

879
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:21,120
Speaker 1: you need to do is see oxygen, because oxygen is

880
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:23,840
Speaker 1: evidence of life. But now we have lots of ideas

881
00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:25,880
Speaker 1: for how you can make a lot of oxygen on

882
00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:29,080
Speaker 1: the surface of a planet without life. And we recently discovered,

883
00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 1: for example, phosphene on Venus, or people thought we did.

884
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:35,520
Speaker 1: That was thought to be like clear evidence of life,

885
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:37,759
Speaker 1: but now it turns out that that wasn't such a

886
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:40,560
Speaker 1: strong discovery. So it's a really vibrant and fast moving

887
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:43,320
Speaker 1: field of study. Right now, what can you learn about

888
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:46,920
Speaker 1: potential life on the surface just from understanding the atmosphere.

889
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:49,279
Speaker 1: But in about ten or fifteen years, some of these

890
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:52,320
Speaker 1: other devices like the thirty meter telescope where the giant

891
00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:55,160
Speaker 1: Magellan telescope will turn on, and those will give us

892
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:57,920
Speaker 1: much better resolving power and they might be able to

893
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 1: take direct pictures and give us a set for what's

894
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:03,160
Speaker 1: going on on those planets. Right, Yeah, that would be cool.

895
00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:05,359
Speaker 1: I wonder if we could also send a probe, right

896
00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:08,359
Speaker 1: like four light years away, you know, maybe fifty years

897
00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:12,000
Speaker 1: we could send something there that reaches there. Right, Yeah,

898
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:14,480
Speaker 1: it's possible. It would take a long time because a

899
00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:17,160
Speaker 1: probe like that would have to accelerate to a good

900
00:44:17,200 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 1: fraction of the speed of light to get there in

901
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:22,359
Speaker 1: fifty years, but it would be pretty awesome. The most

902
00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:25,440
Speaker 1: distant probe we have ever sent only recently left the

903
00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:27,640
Speaker 1: Solar system, so it takes a long time. Though our

904
00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 1: technology has improved a little bit. Yeah, just make them faster,

905
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:33,920
Speaker 1: I guess. So this is kind of us sort of

906
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:36,120
Speaker 1: talking and seeing each other. But it turns out that

907
00:44:36,239 --> 00:44:41,640
Speaker 1: maybe we've actually heard from Proximus centaurians. Right. There's a

908
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:44,480
Speaker 1: story of a famous signal that came from there recently. Yeah,

909
00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:47,280
Speaker 1: it said help, we're Jorges in laws and he trapped

910
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:51,399
Speaker 1: us here on Proximus centar. No. No, it's more like, hey,

911
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:54,399
Speaker 1: we want to meet this horhe we have some good

912
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:57,120
Speaker 1: prospects for him here. This was a fun story, though

913
00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:00,160
Speaker 1: it was a brief excitement. Last year they collected some

914
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:03,600
Speaker 1: signals at the Park's telescope in Australia and it's part

915
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:07,400
Speaker 1: of the Breakthrough Listen project, which is looking for evidence

916
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:10,640
Speaker 1: of life in the universe by listening for potential signals.

917
00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:13,960
Speaker 1: They are scanning lots of frequencies and looking for potential

918
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:17,760
Speaker 1: technological signals, and people got really excited for a few

919
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:20,440
Speaker 1: weeks that maybe we had heard something. And it's a

920
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:24,080
Speaker 1: really difficult problem to know how to scan radio signals

921
00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:26,080
Speaker 1: for signs of life, because we don't know what that

922
00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:27,920
Speaker 1: life would be like. We don't know whether it be

923
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:30,360
Speaker 1: a technological civilization, and we don't even know if they

924
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:33,560
Speaker 1: would use radio, how they would structure a message. It's

925
00:45:33,560 --> 00:45:35,880
Speaker 1: a hard thing to do, but there are some basic

926
00:45:35,960 --> 00:45:38,120
Speaker 1: things to look for if you want a message that

927
00:45:38,239 --> 00:45:41,440
Speaker 1: comes not from Earth, and one of those, for example,

928
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:44,640
Speaker 1: is to see that there are shifting frequencies. You know,

929
00:45:44,719 --> 00:45:47,280
Speaker 1: if you send a message from something that's in motion

930
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:50,000
Speaker 1: that has a velocity, then the waves from that object

931
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:52,799
Speaker 1: get shifted by the Doppler shift, because, like if it's

932
00:45:52,840 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 1: coming from Proximates Centauri, that planet is going around it's star,

933
00:45:56,680 --> 00:45:59,000
Speaker 1: and so it's moving away from us and then towards us,

934
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,080
Speaker 1: and away from us and then towards us. So a

935
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:04,440
Speaker 1: message from there should have that kind of Doppler shift

936
00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:07,359
Speaker 1: as that planet goes around the star. Or maybe even

937
00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:10,080
Speaker 1: a different kind of Doppler shift as the planet is spinning,

938
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:12,680
Speaker 1: if the message actually comes from the surface. So they

939
00:46:12,719 --> 00:46:15,280
Speaker 1: look through all the information to get from the telescope,

940
00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:17,239
Speaker 1: and they actually found one that seemed to have the

941
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 1: right Doppler shift. Interesting, I see, because you want to

942
00:46:20,080 --> 00:46:21,839
Speaker 1: make sure that it's not a signal that's coming from

943
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:24,200
Speaker 1: the star right, which is shining brightly. If you see

944
00:46:24,239 --> 00:46:26,560
Speaker 1: something that looks like it's coming from something that's moving

945
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:28,359
Speaker 1: around the star, then you're like, hey, that came from

946
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:31,080
Speaker 1: the planet, and planets don't usually have bright sources, so

947
00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:34,000
Speaker 1: it might be technology from these ailings, that's right. And

948
00:46:34,040 --> 00:46:36,640
Speaker 1: then the second thing they do is they make sure

949
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 1: that it really is coming from that direction. So they

950
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:41,440
Speaker 1: take the telescope and they pointed in another direction sort

951
00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:43,799
Speaker 1: of like off of the target, and they hope that

952
00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 1: the signal disappears, and then they turn it back towards

953
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:49,120
Speaker 1: the target and the hope that the signal reappears. And

954
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:52,080
Speaker 1: so this one also survived that test, so it had

955
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:54,480
Speaker 1: the right Doppler shift and it seemed to be coming

956
00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:57,239
Speaker 1: from that direction. You know, it only appeared when we

957
00:46:57,239 --> 00:47:00,880
Speaker 1: were pointing towards proximates centauri. So people kind of excited

958
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:03,560
Speaker 1: and they start digging into the details, like what is

959
00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:06,359
Speaker 1: this message? Is there information in it? Can we decoded?

960
00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:09,040
Speaker 1: There was a moment we thought maybe we had heard

961
00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:12,240
Speaker 1: a signal from the aliens. And it must be really

962
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:15,040
Speaker 1: exciting but also difficult to work in this field where

963
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:17,720
Speaker 1: every day could be the day that you like change

964
00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:21,480
Speaker 1: the history of humanity by hearing from aliens or not.

965
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:24,800
Speaker 1: You know, it must be hard to maintain your excitement

966
00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:27,920
Speaker 1: every time it's either a big discovery or a big disappointment.

967
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:29,919
Speaker 1: But you know that's that everyone is at the work

968
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:31,920
Speaker 1: right every day you go to work, it could be

969
00:47:31,960 --> 00:47:34,080
Speaker 1: the day you come up with the brilliant ideal that

970
00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:36,239
Speaker 1: changes the world. It could be. And so what they

971
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:38,839
Speaker 1: found when they dug deeper into the signal is they

972
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:41,960
Speaker 1: actually discovered a bunch of other signals in their data

973
00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:45,879
Speaker 1: which looked almost exactly the same And we're clearly not

974
00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:48,879
Speaker 1: coming from Proximus centauri because they picked up these other

975
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:52,760
Speaker 1: signals and pointing in other directions. So what they discovered

976
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:55,120
Speaker 1: is that it's some weird kind of interference. I think

977
00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:57,960
Speaker 1: it's still not totally understood, but it might be some

978
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:00,760
Speaker 1: weird kind of connection between some are kind of signal.

979
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:04,680
Speaker 1: It's the aliens here on Earth that are giving you signal,

980
00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 1: not the ones in Proximus sentari. But for a moment

981
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:11,040
Speaker 1: we thought maybe we had heard something from intelligent technological

982
00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:14,600
Speaker 1: civilizations on our neighboring star. That would have been awesome.

983
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:16,960
Speaker 1: And I guess my question is, is Proximus centaur is

984
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:19,560
Speaker 1: everyone they're a centaur like? That would be pretty cool,

985
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 1: the whole planet of half horse people. It's Proximus centauri.

986
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:31,960
Speaker 1: So there's center adjacent. They're approximately center like person, not

987
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:34,520
Speaker 1: the perfect balance. Yeah, you gotta go to like asymptotic

988
00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:38,120
Speaker 1: centauri to get to you know, almost get fully centaurs,

989
00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:40,880
Speaker 1: that's right, or O G Centauri for the for the

990
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:46,640
Speaker 1: true stuff, maximum Centauri. That's where you gotta go. Ultimate Centauri.

991
00:48:46,719 --> 00:48:50,200
Speaker 1: There you go, best centaur. Al right, well, I think

992
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:53,320
Speaker 1: that answers nixt question and the answer is cut someone

993
00:48:53,400 --> 00:48:56,360
Speaker 1: in approximate centauri fines And the answer is yes. But

994
00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:58,799
Speaker 1: you need to be pretty focused on listening for us,

995
00:48:58,840 --> 00:49:01,360
Speaker 1: and you need to be pretty focus on sending a

996
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:04,000
Speaker 1: signal here like it can just sort of happen by accident,

997
00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:07,080
Speaker 1: at least with current Earth technology, that's right. And with

998
00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:10,160
Speaker 1: technology that we'll have in a dozen or so years,

999
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:12,759
Speaker 1: we might be able to see the surface of those

1000
00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:15,520
Speaker 1: planets and see what's going on and learn something about

1001
00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:18,240
Speaker 1: the surface of another planet. Would you go there, Daniel?

1002
00:49:18,239 --> 00:49:20,560
Speaker 1: Would you pick up and you know, right before you die,

1003
00:49:21,760 --> 00:49:24,120
Speaker 1: so that you wouldn't have to waste your time here?

1004
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:26,600
Speaker 1: Would you go there? No? I really don't like travel.

1005
00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:29,080
Speaker 1: I don't even really like being on an airplane, So

1006
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:32,440
Speaker 1: spaceships no, thank you. Would you'd be asleep and you'd

1007
00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:36,279
Speaker 1: be almost dead anyway, I would say, why not? Right?

1008
00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 1: M I guess it depends on the snacks n see

1009
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:41,200
Speaker 1: did you eat while you're sleeping and they stuff up

1010
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:44,080
Speaker 1: your nose while you're taking your nap? And the peanuts

1011
00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 1: they feed me bananas without even peeling them. Oh boy.

1012
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:50,320
Speaker 1: But let's move on here and thank everyone for sending

1013
00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:53,160
Speaker 1: their questions. We love answering these questions. We love tapping

1014
00:49:53,160 --> 00:49:56,560
Speaker 1: into your curiosity and getting us to think about these

1015
00:49:56,600 --> 00:50:00,440
Speaker 1: crazy scenarios and wonderful mysteries about the universe. That's right,

1016
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:03,680
Speaker 1: So please continue to send us your wonderings and your

1017
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:07,400
Speaker 1: questions and your puzzles to Questions at Daniel and Jorge

1018
00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:10,000
Speaker 1: dot com. We can't get enough. Yeah, we hope you

1019
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:12,799
Speaker 1: enjoyed that. Thanks for joining us, See you next time.

1020
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:23,440
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel and Jorge explained.

1021
00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:26,320
Speaker 1: The Universe is a production of I Heart Radio. For

1022
00:50:26,480 --> 00:50:29,399
Speaker 1: more podcast from my Heart Radio, visit the i heart

1023
00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:33,080
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

1024
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:39,480
Speaker 1: favorite shows. Ye