WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: What Is Nuclear Pasta?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here with another classic

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<v Speaker 1>episode from the vault. This one gets into the weird

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<v Speaker 1>astrophysics of the strongest known material in the universe, Nuclear pasta,

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Laurin Vogel bomb here. Nuclear pasta might

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<v Speaker 1>sound like a fancy concoction cooked up by a chef

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<v Speaker 1>working in molecular astronomy, but it's actually light years away,

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<v Speaker 1>literally from the spaghetti you'd find in the kitchen. This

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<v Speaker 1>weird kind of noodle is needed below the crust of

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<v Speaker 1>neutron stars, and in a new study, a powerful computer

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<v Speaker 1>simulation has taken a stab at manipulating this stellar noodle

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<v Speaker 1>and found that it's the strongest material in the cosmos.

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<v Speaker 1>So how did this nuclear pasta become the super Macaroni

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<v Speaker 1>of the universe. Well, it's because it's created inside neutron stars,

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<v Speaker 1>which act like extreme pressure cookers. Neutron stars are these

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<v Speaker 1>stellar corpses of massive stars that have run out of

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<v Speaker 1>fuel and exploded as supernova. These tiny, fast spinning objects

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<v Speaker 1>are only a dozen or so miles wide and yet

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<v Speaker 1>pack in the entire mass of our Sun. They're so

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<v Speaker 1>dense that only a teaspoonful of neutron star matter weighs

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<v Speaker 1>as much as a mountain on Earth. Neutron stars are

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<v Speaker 1>therefore not composed of normal matter, but rather what astrophysicists

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<v Speaker 1>call degenerate matter. It's not an insult, it's just the

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<v Speaker 1>term for extremely compact neutrons that are crushed together under

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<v Speaker 1>incredibly powerful gravitational forces. A neutron star is extreme gravity

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<v Speaker 1>makes its outer layers freeze solid as a crust with

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<v Speaker 1>a liquid core below. Underneath the crust, powerful forces royal

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<v Speaker 1>between the neutrons and protons inside the neutron stars matter,

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<v Speaker 1>causing the material to take on some surprising shapes like

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<v Speaker 1>long cylinders and flat planes. Astrophysicists refer to these shapes

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<v Speaker 1>as things like lasagna, spaghetti, and nioki, and collectively as

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<v Speaker 1>nuclear pasta. As astrophysicists get to make their own fun.

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<v Speaker 1>Understanding how this nuclear pasta works is a key concern.

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<v Speaker 1>Researcher Matthew Kaplan, a postdoctoral research fellow at McGill University,

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<v Speaker 1>set in a statement, the strength of the neutron star crust,

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<v Speaker 1>especially the bottom of the crust, is relevant to a

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<v Speaker 1>large number of astrophysics problems, but isn't well understood their

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<v Speaker 1>outer layers, the part we actually observe, so we need

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<v Speaker 1>to understand that in order to interpret astronomical observations of

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<v Speaker 1>these stars. To get a better understanding of this noodlely

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<v Speaker 1>mess Kaplan and his team created the most complex computer

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<v Speaker 1>simulation ever carried out on neutron star crusts to understand

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<v Speaker 1>how they warp and break. It turns out that nuclear

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<v Speaker 1>pasta is way beyond Al Dente. It's the strongest known

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<v Speaker 1>material in the universe. This is especially important as physicists

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<v Speaker 1>can now measure gravitational waves, the ripples in space time

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<v Speaker 1>caused by massive cosmic objects like neutron stars and black

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<v Speaker 1>holes spinning, colliding, and merging. The st of neutron stars

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<v Speaker 1>is therefore very important for science to understand. In fact,

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<v Speaker 1>lone neutron stars may produce their own weak gravitational waves

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<v Speaker 1>by creating rigid mountains in their crests. As neutron stars spin,

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<v Speaker 1>these mountains would disturb space time like a propeller cutting

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<v Speaker 1>through a calm lake surface, generating a constant source of

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<v Speaker 1>gravitational waves that we may be able to detect in

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<v Speaker 1>the future. Kaplan said, a lot of interesting physics is

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<v Speaker 1>going on here under extreme conditions, and so understanding the

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<v Speaker 1>physical properties of a neutron star is a way for

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<v Speaker 1>scientists to test their theories and models. With this result,

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<v Speaker 1>many problems need to be revisited. How large a mountain

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<v Speaker 1>can you build on a neutron star before the crust

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<v Speaker 1>breaks and it collapses, What will it look like, and

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<v Speaker 1>most importantly, how can astronomers observe it? So the next

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<v Speaker 1>time you're boiling your penny, take a minute to ponder

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<v Speaker 1>the mountains of nuclear Pasta that could feed us a

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<v Speaker 1>lot about the nature of neutron stars. Today's episode is

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<v Speaker 1>based on the article nuclear Pasta is the super Macaroni

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<v Speaker 1>of the Universe on how stuff Works dot com, written

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<v Speaker 1>by Ian O'Neill. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's

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<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my Heart Radio,

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