1 00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:11,160 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, you know those awesome and amazing pictures of 2 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: Earth that you see from space. I love those Earth 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:16,880 Speaker 1: as the Blue Marble pictures. They are gorgeous. Yeah, but 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,840 Speaker 1: I think they're also a little bit creepy. Creepy because 5 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:22,120 Speaker 1: it gives you a sense for like how tiny we are, 6 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:25,560 Speaker 1: how insignificant we are in this vast ocean of space. No, 7 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:28,120 Speaker 1: because it sort of makes me feel like, what if 8 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:30,640 Speaker 1: there's something out there taking a picture of us, you know, 9 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,560 Speaker 1: like if I step outside in my on camera. Yeah, 10 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:37,239 Speaker 1: what if they're like aliens on other planets watching us 11 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 1: on the surface of the Earth. Well, I guess I 12 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:41,479 Speaker 1: would really worry me. Except today, I don't think I'm 13 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:44,879 Speaker 1: that interesting. I don't know. I bet everything that we 14 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: do would be hilarious to aliens live from Earth. It's 15 00:00:48,720 --> 00:01:09,560 Speaker 1: Every Night Earth, the live action comedy show. Hi. I'm 16 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:12,680 Speaker 1: or hand Ma cartoonists and the creator of PhD Comics. 17 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:16,200 Speaker 1: Hi I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, and I'm always 18 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: wondering if the aliens are watching or hearing or listening 19 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,720 Speaker 1: right they could be or or feeling us I don't know, 20 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:28,760 Speaker 1: or sending emails to our podcast. That's right, any one 21 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: of those emails you get every week every day could 22 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:33,959 Speaker 1: be from an alien. That's right. I have no idea 23 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: who's actually behind those emails. It could be a person, 24 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:38,800 Speaker 1: it could be a clever dog, It could be our 25 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 1: interstellar listeners. Bob from China could actually be Bob from 26 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:47,559 Speaker 1: Alpha Centri. You never know. It could just be their handle. 27 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 1: If he's from Alpha Centauri and he's managed to email us, 28 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: I wish he would send us some answers and not 29 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:55,400 Speaker 1: just some questions. Would would that mean? To the pointing, 30 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,080 Speaker 1: if you finally meet aliens and all they have is 31 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:02,080 Speaker 1: just more questions, Well, that really just depends on who 32 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 1: meets too. I mean, if they make it here, they 33 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 1: got to know more about physics than we. Well. Anyways, 34 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:10,880 Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, 35 00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio in which we talk 36 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:18,720 Speaker 1: about all the incredible, beautiful, amazing, weird, bonkers phenomena that 37 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:21,639 Speaker 1: make up the universe around us and share with you 38 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:24,520 Speaker 1: our wonder and trying to touch on the wonder that's 39 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:28,119 Speaker 1: inside you, the curiosity to understand the universe and try 40 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:30,679 Speaker 1: we talk about all the amazing things to see from 41 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:33,760 Speaker 1: this little rock that we're sitting on called planet Earth. 42 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:35,320 Speaker 1: And we also like to talk about all the things 43 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:38,560 Speaker 1: we can quite see just yet, but that we may 44 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: one day. That's right. The journey of humanity and science 45 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:44,880 Speaker 1: has been one of ever reaching ability to see further 46 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:47,760 Speaker 1: and further into the universe. First we just looked up 47 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: with our eyeballs. Then we build telescopes to reveal the 48 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: moons of Jupiter and the farthest planets. Then we saw 49 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 1: even further to discover that there were other galaxies out 50 00:02:57,200 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: there in the universe. And now we have an incredible 51 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: three D vision of a huge, vast reach of space. 52 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:06,920 Speaker 1: But there are questions that remain, what's out there? Who's 53 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:09,640 Speaker 1: out there? What are they doing? Are they listening to 54 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:12,519 Speaker 1: this podcast? Sorry? Who? Or what is out there? Because 55 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: who knows if aliens even go by? Who? Right? What's 56 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 1: their pronoun? Is that your first question? My first question 57 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,720 Speaker 1: is about physics. Your first question is what's your pronoun? Well, yeah, 58 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: that's kind of the standard these days. That's diplomacy will 59 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:28,160 Speaker 1: be important if we don't want to get eaten before 60 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: we even get to ask physics questions I see, or 61 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:32,920 Speaker 1: if we want to choose how we get eaten. You know, 62 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 1: you never know. But we do talk about aliens sometimes 63 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:40,120 Speaker 1: in this podcast, and it's something that you know, we 64 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 1: talked about having skepticism about, and we've talked about whether 65 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: it's possible that there are aliens out there. But I 66 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 1: guess one thing we've never really touched on is the 67 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:50,920 Speaker 1: fact that if there are aliens out there, they probably 68 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: come from a planet. Yes, a planet, or a moon 69 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:57,840 Speaker 1: or some rocky body. But you know, again, it depends 70 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: on sort of how you define aliens. If you define 71 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:03,240 Speaker 1: it to be some kind of life that's similar at 72 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:05,680 Speaker 1: all two hours, then yeah, you'll need some kind of 73 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: environment that's similar hours. But you know, you could imagine 74 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:13,800 Speaker 1: aliens living in energy streams inside suns or intergalactic media 75 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 1: on very long time scales. The more science fiction you read, 76 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:20,240 Speaker 1: the more crazy ideas you need to think about. Oh 77 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:23,640 Speaker 1: I see, huh, Well, I guess yeah, I guess I'm 78 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:26,559 Speaker 1: thinking more of like aliens who live on planets. And 79 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: so the question is, could we ever take a picture 80 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 1: of these aliens and their planets and what's possible to 81 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 1: see from other planets that are not in our Solar system. 82 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:39,040 Speaker 1: And it's crazy that we even think about this kind 83 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:42,719 Speaker 1: of question, because remember it's only like years ago that 84 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 1: we figured out that there are other planets out there 85 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:48,160 Speaker 1: and that we could detect them, we could like measure 86 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: them and prove that they exist. That's like a very 87 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:54,799 Speaker 1: recent discovery. You know, in the nineteen eighties we had 88 00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:57,599 Speaker 1: ideas we were pretty sure there were planets in other 89 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:00,320 Speaker 1: solar systems, but we've never actually seen one, and so 90 00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:03,400 Speaker 1: it's pretty recent that this is like something we can 91 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:05,480 Speaker 1: grapple with at all. And so now of course we're 92 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:08,680 Speaker 1: getting greedy and we're wondering, like, well, you know, how 93 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 1: well can we see them? Can we zoom in on 94 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:12,919 Speaker 1: these planets? So to the on the podcast, we'll be 95 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:21,719 Speaker 1: asking the question can we see the surface of exo planets? 96 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:25,039 Speaker 1: And run off the bat. I want to clarify something 97 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,600 Speaker 1: because I feel like a lot of the coverage of exoplanets, 98 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:31,520 Speaker 1: when they discover a new one, it usually says, you know, 99 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: new earthlike planet discovered, and then in the article there's 100 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:38,440 Speaker 1: a picture of a nice ocean world with continents whatever, 101 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 1: and I think people get the impression that that that's 102 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:44,360 Speaker 1: a picture of that planet. But for some reason, space 103 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:49,599 Speaker 1: journalism usually features artists Bologna renditions instead of real data. 104 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:51,800 Speaker 1: So I want you to impact their Daniel and your statement. 105 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:54,840 Speaker 1: First of all, space journalism, man, and what a fun 106 00:05:54,839 --> 00:06:00,480 Speaker 1: title to have in your business card from a space journalist. Yeah, exactly, 107 00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: space reporter. Kudos to those people, But why do they 108 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:07,120 Speaker 1: keep featuring you know, artist's imagination over data. Have nothing 109 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:10,120 Speaker 1: against artists imagination, but it's not a stand in for 110 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:14,320 Speaker 1: actual knowledge. I'll just put in my business card intrepid 111 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:18,440 Speaker 1: space reporter. Why not? But maybe this might not be 112 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: a word that everyone who's listening has heard of before. 113 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:23,640 Speaker 1: Exo planets. Does that mean that it's like an X 114 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:27,760 Speaker 1: planet or you know, like a kitchen utensile type of planet. 115 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: It just means a planet outside of our Solar system, 116 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: that right, That's why we put the word exo in 117 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:36,240 Speaker 1: front of it. It's like outside planets. Yeah, exo just 118 00:06:36,360 --> 00:06:39,599 Speaker 1: means in another solar system, and so exo planet just 119 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 1: means a planet around another star. You know, we've seen 120 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:46,359 Speaker 1: in our solar system there are eight or nine planets, 121 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:49,000 Speaker 1: depending on which side of that ridiculous argument you fall. 122 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:53,440 Speaker 1: But other solar systems are really far away three four, 123 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:57,599 Speaker 1: ten thousand light years away, and so the planets around 124 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:01,200 Speaker 1: those stars. Remember, planets are really small all compared to stars, 125 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:04,719 Speaker 1: as the planets around those stars are very difficult to 126 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:08,960 Speaker 1: even detect, not to mention, actually image or like zoom 127 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: in on to see what's going on in that neighborhood. Yeah, 128 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,040 Speaker 1: and like you said, we up until about twenty thirty 129 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: years ago, we only had an idea that there could 130 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:20,680 Speaker 1: be other planets out there, but we didn't really confirm 131 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:25,240 Speaker 1: or really have physical evidence that there exist at other planets. 132 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:27,440 Speaker 1: Like it could have been that every star we've seen 133 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:30,000 Speaker 1: the night sky doesn't have any planets, and we are 134 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:31,960 Speaker 1: the only planets in the universe. That's right. Just like 135 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:34,600 Speaker 1: we don't know whether we're alone in the universe, we 136 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: didn't until recently, know whether we were the only planets 137 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:40,240 Speaker 1: in the universe, which is kind of crazy, but you know, 138 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:43,360 Speaker 1: the universe is crazy sometimes, and you don't know if 139 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:45,720 Speaker 1: you're one of a kind, and the reason you're asking 140 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:47,840 Speaker 1: this question is because you're the only one around to 141 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: ask it, or if you're one in a trillion. So far, 142 00:07:51,960 --> 00:07:54,280 Speaker 1: the trend seems to be the one in a trillion direction. 143 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:56,640 Speaker 1: There are lots of galaxies, there are lots of stars, 144 00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:59,080 Speaker 1: and now we know there are lots of planets. But 145 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 1: you can't make as something you can't just you know, 146 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:04,200 Speaker 1: artists imagination your way to answers. You have to actually 147 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: figure them out. Yeah, and so now we know that 148 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,720 Speaker 1: there are a ton of planets out there, you know, 149 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:11,160 Speaker 1: not just like a few planets out there, but it's 150 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:14,240 Speaker 1: like almost every we know for sure, almost every star 151 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: out there has probably a handful of planets, right. Yeah, 152 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:20,119 Speaker 1: And every time we discover one of these planets, I wonder, like, wow, 153 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:23,160 Speaker 1: what does it look like it's going on over there? 154 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:26,520 Speaker 1: And it's a fascinating question. And you know, we only 155 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: recently saw close ups of the planets in our solar systems. 156 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:33,199 Speaker 1: We sent these missions just in the last twenty thirty 157 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:36,520 Speaker 1: years to take close up images of Jupiter and Saturn. 158 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:38,800 Speaker 1: And then in the last few years of Pluto, you 159 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:42,200 Speaker 1: know Pluto, until we sent New Horizons image, it was 160 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:44,280 Speaker 1: just like a little fuzzy dot and even the most 161 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:47,040 Speaker 1: powerful telescopes now we know it has that cool heart 162 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:50,120 Speaker 1: shape on it. But this is like a human need 163 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:53,600 Speaker 1: to visualize things, to see them close up. Yeah, And 164 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:56,640 Speaker 1: so the question is if we are ever going to 165 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:00,560 Speaker 1: I don't know study other exoplanets out there in the 166 00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:03,760 Speaker 1: galaxy or in the universe, or you know, sort of 167 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:06,400 Speaker 1: get confirmation of what they look like. What will we 168 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:08,600 Speaker 1: need to do, like do we need to send the 169 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:10,840 Speaker 1: satellite to take a picture or could we take a 170 00:09:10,840 --> 00:09:13,840 Speaker 1: picture from here? Yeah, it's a fascinating question. I would 171 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:16,800 Speaker 1: love to see these pictures of planets around other stars. 172 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:19,800 Speaker 1: And maybe we'll see like aliens spelling out messages for 173 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:24,240 Speaker 1: us or something s os like with rocks on the beach, 174 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:28,199 Speaker 1: send send more pizza. Maybe that's what the hard in 175 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: Pluto is a message from plutoniums right now that we're 176 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:39,960 Speaker 1: totally like, Oh that's cute. It's hard and they're in distress. 177 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:44,000 Speaker 1: Oh man, and here we are making jokes about it. Men, 178 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:47,400 Speaker 1: we are heartless. But anyways, as usual, we were curious 179 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:49,640 Speaker 1: to see how many people you know, sort of about 180 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:51,920 Speaker 1: extra planets and also whether or not we can see 181 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:55,640 Speaker 1: the surface of extra planets, and so Daniel went out 182 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 1: there into the wilds of the internet to ask this question. Yes, 183 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:01,120 Speaker 1: so thank you to everybody do you who volunteered your 184 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:05,240 Speaker 1: time to answer speculative questions online and to hear your 185 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:09,040 Speaker 1: wild speculations on the podcast. If you'd like to participate 186 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:12,520 Speaker 1: in future listener questions, please just shoot us a message 187 00:10:12,679 --> 00:10:15,560 Speaker 1: to questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com. So think 188 00:10:15,559 --> 00:10:17,240 Speaker 1: about it for a second. Do you think we can 189 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:21,040 Speaker 1: see the surface of other planets in the galaxy. Here's 190 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:23,440 Speaker 1: what people had to say. I don't think we have 191 00:10:23,559 --> 00:10:28,320 Speaker 1: any technology right now or to see planets exhort planets 192 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:30,839 Speaker 1: from space. That might depend what you mean by c. 193 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:34,319 Speaker 1: I don't think we can see the surface of exoplants, 194 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:38,320 Speaker 1: and imagine you need to get a spacecraft out there. 195 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:42,640 Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I think they might be too far away, 196 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:45,920 Speaker 1: but I don't think we can actually physically see any 197 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:49,920 Speaker 1: services of exoplanets as I don't think we've got a 198 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:55,680 Speaker 1: telescope that um is anyone near them. Yes, definitely, I 199 00:10:55,679 --> 00:10:58,839 Speaker 1: would say no, I don't think we can as far 200 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:01,679 Speaker 1: as I understand, and we can't. We can't really see 201 00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 1: extra planets at all. We can just detect them, all right. 202 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:07,080 Speaker 1: Not a lot of optimism here for taking a picture. 203 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:12,600 Speaker 1: Everyone's like, no, only a couple of yeses. Yeah, pretty 204 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:17,320 Speaker 1: much universally shot down because it seems ridiculous, right, Like, 205 00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:20,040 Speaker 1: like we said, the planets in our own Solar system 206 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:22,719 Speaker 1: are so far away that it's hard to image. So 207 00:11:22,800 --> 00:11:25,559 Speaker 1: how could you possibly imagine taking a picture of the 208 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:28,920 Speaker 1: surface of planets super far away around other stars? It 209 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,440 Speaker 1: sounds like ridiculous science picture. Yeah, it's like trying to, 210 00:11:31,559 --> 00:11:34,600 Speaker 1: I guess, take a picture of a marble that's across 211 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:37,679 Speaker 1: the world. Maybe I don't know if the scale works out, 212 00:11:37,679 --> 00:11:40,320 Speaker 1: but it sounds like that. It's not hard. Yeah, a 213 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:43,880 Speaker 1: marble across the world that's next to a really bright light, 214 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:47,400 Speaker 1: next next to a lighthouse. I've heard that, Yeah, exactly, 215 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:49,000 Speaker 1: And now you want to see, like, yeah, but is 216 00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:51,280 Speaker 1: it a blue marble? Is it a green marble? Are 217 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: there tiny little bugs walking on the surface of that marble? 218 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:56,640 Speaker 1: People want to know what's the pattern of air molly 219 00:11:56,679 --> 00:11:59,240 Speaker 1: kills around that little marble. We want to predict the 220 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:01,800 Speaker 1: weather on other planets, even though we can't even predict 221 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:03,880 Speaker 1: the weather here on Earth. All right, we'll step us 222 00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:06,880 Speaker 1: through this, I guess, um, Maybe let's start with the basics, 223 00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:10,400 Speaker 1: like how do we know where there are other planets 224 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:12,800 Speaker 1: out there? And how many they are? Like? What do 225 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:15,360 Speaker 1: we know how do we find other planets outside of 226 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,000 Speaker 1: our sources? Right? Well, the first thing to understand is 227 00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: that seeing those other planets directly is really really hard, 228 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 1: which is why this whole like topic is so ambitious 229 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:27,719 Speaker 1: and and maybe ridiculous. And the way that we know 230 00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:30,960 Speaker 1: that those planets exist is not by seeing them, right. 231 00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:33,400 Speaker 1: Those pictures you see in the science articles are not 232 00:12:33,559 --> 00:12:37,080 Speaker 1: pictures of those planets. They're totally made up. Instead, all 233 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:39,679 Speaker 1: we can do is see the effect of those planets 234 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:42,360 Speaker 1: on the stars that they are orbiting. Like, we don't 235 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:45,720 Speaker 1: see anything really directly about the planet. We see how 236 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:49,360 Speaker 1: it impacts the star and sort of in two different ways. Yeah, 237 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:51,760 Speaker 1: it's it's kind of like that listener who said it 238 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:55,040 Speaker 1: kind of depends on what you mean by seeing another planet, right, 239 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:59,000 Speaker 1: Like if we will only see its effects on other things, 240 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:00,839 Speaker 1: is that really count as seeing or not. Yeah, And 241 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:02,880 Speaker 1: we got into that whole rabbit hole when we talked 242 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:05,160 Speaker 1: about the black hole, like are we seeing the black hole? 243 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:08,720 Speaker 1: Are we seeing the gas around the black hole? Etcetera. Well, 244 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:11,800 Speaker 1: in this case, what we're seeing these two different effects 245 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:14,760 Speaker 1: on the star. One is the wobble of the star. 246 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:18,559 Speaker 1: So when a planet orbits a star, it's orbiting because 247 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:21,160 Speaker 1: the star is pulling on it with its gravity. But 248 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:24,200 Speaker 1: there's a reverse effect. Also, the planet is pulling on 249 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:27,079 Speaker 1: the star with its gravity, so the two are sort 250 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:30,040 Speaker 1: of tugging on each other. And of course the planet 251 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:32,560 Speaker 1: is much smaller, so it moves a lot more, but 252 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:35,720 Speaker 1: the star also moves. And if you take really careful 253 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:38,800 Speaker 1: pictures of the star, you can detect this wobble because 254 00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:42,920 Speaker 1: it's periodic. Right as the planet goes around, it wobbles steadily. 255 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:45,320 Speaker 1: It's not like a random jiggle. So if you watch 256 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:46,960 Speaker 1: it over a period of time, you can see the 257 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:50,640 Speaker 1: star moving and that tells you how massive the planet is, 258 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:53,559 Speaker 1: whether there's a planet there, and how massive it is. Right, 259 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 1: you measure the wiggle in the star, and you do 260 00:13:57,160 --> 00:13:59,679 Speaker 1: it through like the Doppler effect. Right when it wiggles 261 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:03,199 Speaker 1: to words us, then the light shifts a certain color, 262 00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:06,160 Speaker 1: and when it's wiggling away from us, it's just another color. 263 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:09,840 Speaker 1: And so it's a physicist astronomers can actually detect that 264 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:12,480 Speaker 1: a little bit of light that comes from that star. 265 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:15,960 Speaker 1: You can actually detect that wiggle, which is amazing, Which 266 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:19,160 Speaker 1: is amazing, right, Like everything that the astronomers are doing 267 00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:22,240 Speaker 1: here is sort of aspirational, Like twenty years beforehand, people 268 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:26,120 Speaker 1: would have scoffed like, that's impossible, but now we're doing it. 269 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:28,600 Speaker 1: And that's the kind of thing that motivates you to think, like, well, 270 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:31,080 Speaker 1: what do we think now might be impossible that in 271 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:32,960 Speaker 1: twenty years we'll have figured out and then we'll be 272 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:36,760 Speaker 1: thinking about the next thing. Right, Science and technology moves exponentially, 273 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:40,320 Speaker 1: so it's good to think anyway. So that's the first method. 274 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:44,120 Speaker 1: The second one is the brightness method, and that's if 275 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:47,000 Speaker 1: the planet happens to pass between us and the star, 276 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:50,600 Speaker 1: then it partially blocks the light from that star. It's 277 00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:52,800 Speaker 1: like a fly, you know, flying in the front of 278 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:55,720 Speaker 1: a lighthouse. You can detect a very small dip and 279 00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:58,000 Speaker 1: the amount of light that comes from the lighthouse. And 280 00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:00,720 Speaker 1: again it's periodic. You can see it regularly, so you 281 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:03,760 Speaker 1: build this up over many, many orbits and you can 282 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:06,640 Speaker 1: get evidence that it's there, right, and it's it's kind 283 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:09,280 Speaker 1: of a very specific dip in the light. Right, like 284 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:12,920 Speaker 1: a little fly flying in front of a lighthouse. You 285 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:15,720 Speaker 1: would see the light from the lighthouse sort of like 286 00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:19,080 Speaker 1: a fly eclipse almost but only a little bit. You 287 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:22,240 Speaker 1: can see the light sort of dip stay even as 288 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:25,240 Speaker 1: the fly makes it across the lighthouse surface and then 289 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:28,880 Speaker 1: pop back up when the fly leaves the kind of 290 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:31,840 Speaker 1: the brightness of the lighthouse, and so you're looking for 291 00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:34,200 Speaker 1: these very specific kind of dips in the light. Right, 292 00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:37,960 Speaker 1: that's right. Not every variation in a star's brightness is 293 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:40,120 Speaker 1: due to a planet. You're exactly right. It has to 294 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:43,440 Speaker 1: be very consistent with the orbit of an object around 295 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:45,640 Speaker 1: the star, and it would make that pattern. In fact, 296 00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:47,760 Speaker 1: there was that star recently we saw where there was 297 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:50,800 Speaker 1: a very inconsistent dip in the light around the star 298 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:54,160 Speaker 1: and people thought, oh, maybe that's aliens building some huge 299 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:56,360 Speaker 1: mega structure and it's only half finished and they haven't 300 00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:58,960 Speaker 1: finished the parking lot on that interstellar mall, and that's 301 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 1: why the light is in this weird way. They just 302 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:08,760 Speaker 1: went straight for the aliens. They're like, there's an unusual variation. Yeah, 303 00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:10,840 Speaker 1: and so we've seen this on lots and lots of 304 00:16:10,840 --> 00:16:13,960 Speaker 1: planets now. But you know, it requires the planet to 305 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:16,320 Speaker 1: be in the right plane, like the plane of these 306 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:19,880 Speaker 1: solar systems, the plane around which the planets are orbiting 307 00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:23,760 Speaker 1: the star is randomly organized in the galaxy, and so 308 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:26,160 Speaker 1: it has to be aligned just right so the planet 309 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:29,080 Speaker 1: actually goes in front of its star. So not every 310 00:16:29,160 --> 00:16:31,160 Speaker 1: big planet out there, can we even see with this 311 00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:34,040 Speaker 1: brightness method? Right? And and this sort of historical right, 312 00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:38,120 Speaker 1: because I think they started detecting planets with the wobble method, 313 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:41,280 Speaker 1: I think, and then they sort of switched to the 314 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:44,120 Speaker 1: brightness method of looking at the dips in the light, 315 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:47,920 Speaker 1: and that with the explosion of EXCE planets really or 316 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:50,720 Speaker 1: the discovery of EXCE planets happened because then we were 317 00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:54,160 Speaker 1: able with the Hubble telescope to just like survey a 318 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:55,840 Speaker 1: bunch of stores at the same time and look for 319 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:58,280 Speaker 1: these dips and brightness. Yeah, and now we have dedicated 320 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:02,200 Speaker 1: telescopes just to do this, just to find planets through 321 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:04,680 Speaker 1: the brightness method. So it's much more powerful now that 322 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:07,800 Speaker 1: we have the technology. And now we've seen thousands and 323 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:10,680 Speaker 1: thousands of planets, like we haven't seen them in the 324 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:13,560 Speaker 1: sense we don't have an image of them to resort 325 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:15,680 Speaker 1: to artists if we want to poof up our science 326 00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:18,680 Speaker 1: journalism a little bit. But we have evidence that they exist. 327 00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:21,320 Speaker 1: We know their mass, and we know they're radius, and 328 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:23,840 Speaker 1: so we know something about them, but we don't have 329 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:26,639 Speaker 1: images of them. We don't know necessarily what they look like. 330 00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:28,400 Speaker 1: We sort of I feel like we know that we've 331 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:33,040 Speaker 1: seen their shadow kind of right, We've seen their how 332 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:35,720 Speaker 1: they block the light, and that tells us a lot 333 00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:40,520 Speaker 1: about like the mass and the the orbit. We don't 334 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:42,560 Speaker 1: have a picture of a surface yet. Yeah, that's a 335 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:45,360 Speaker 1: great analogy because we know from the shadow that it exists. 336 00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:47,560 Speaker 1: It must be there because it's blocking the light. It's 337 00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:50,359 Speaker 1: having this impact on the light source. But it's not 338 00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:53,239 Speaker 1: the same thing as seeing the object itself. All right, Well, 339 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:55,719 Speaker 1: let's get into the problem of taking a picture of 340 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:58,399 Speaker 1: the surface and whether or not it's even possible. But 341 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:14,280 Speaker 1: first let's take a quick break. All right, we're talking 342 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:18,360 Speaker 1: about taking pictures of exo planets, planets outside of our 343 00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:21,280 Speaker 1: solar system, and whether or not those pictures you see 344 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:25,600 Speaker 1: in uh in science fiction or in some news reports 345 00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:29,480 Speaker 1: is to be believed. So this is really hard prompt 346 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:32,520 Speaker 1: to actually see the surface. But actually I was just 347 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:35,080 Speaker 1: kind of thinking back, isn't there do we have a 348 00:18:35,119 --> 00:18:39,240 Speaker 1: picture sort of of some exo planets orbiting around a 349 00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:42,600 Speaker 1: star like I have a memory of some of like 350 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:46,520 Speaker 1: an image of some blobs around a bigger blob, which 351 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:49,200 Speaker 1: is the Sun. Well, the thing that's important to remember though, 352 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:52,800 Speaker 1: is that it's theoretically possible. Like what happens to a 353 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:56,800 Speaker 1: photon which comes off of some exo planet, some planet 354 00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,879 Speaker 1: really far away. The light from its stars hit it, 355 00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:02,399 Speaker 1: and then it's come out into space. And we know 356 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:05,239 Speaker 1: obviously that happens. You can see the Earth from space, right, 357 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:07,360 Speaker 1: it doesn't glow on its own, it's reflecting life from 358 00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:09,880 Speaker 1: its son. But think about what happens to a photon 359 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:13,200 Speaker 1: that hits that exoplanet. It flies off into space. There's 360 00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:15,560 Speaker 1: nothing that prevents it from getting to Earth. Right, it 361 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:18,720 Speaker 1: can fly from the surface of that planet, carrying information 362 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:21,720 Speaker 1: about the aliens lunch or whatever, and come all the 363 00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:25,040 Speaker 1: way to Earth and hit your eyebland. No theoretical problem 364 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:29,840 Speaker 1: to that, Just like to see a marvel halfway across 365 00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:33,880 Speaker 1: the world if you you somehow had a good enough 366 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:37,200 Speaker 1: eye exactly. The problem is that you don't get very 367 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:41,320 Speaker 1: many of those photons, right, You get one photon from 368 00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:44,520 Speaker 1: that aliens lunch, But because the planet is so far away, 369 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:47,120 Speaker 1: most of the photons go in other directions, and those 370 00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:50,240 Speaker 1: photons spread out, and as you get further and further away, 371 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:53,119 Speaker 1: the density of those photons drops like one over the 372 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:56,720 Speaker 1: distance square. I think about the surface of a sphere 373 00:19:56,800 --> 00:19:59,439 Speaker 1: that surrounds that. The area of that surface of the 374 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:02,320 Speaker 1: sphere rose like the radius squared, and so by the 375 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:04,960 Speaker 1: time he gets here, you just have very few photons. 376 00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:08,040 Speaker 1: So really it's a questions like gathering enough light. The 377 00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:10,480 Speaker 1: light is getting here, you just need to gather enough 378 00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:13,120 Speaker 1: of it and separate it out from any other light 379 00:20:13,359 --> 00:20:16,840 Speaker 1: that might be overpowering it or confusing you. And as 380 00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:19,920 Speaker 1: you were saying earlier, there are a very small handful 381 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:23,240 Speaker 1: of these things where we have seen the planet directly. 382 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:26,560 Speaker 1: I mean, we have a few pictures where the planet 383 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:29,800 Speaker 1: is far enough from the star and big enough to 384 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:32,600 Speaker 1: reflect enough light that we can see that it's there. 385 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:36,159 Speaker 1: But that only works for a very few exoplanets when 386 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:39,080 Speaker 1: we've seen thousands of them the other ways, And for 387 00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,960 Speaker 1: the ones where we can directly image them, it's not 388 00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:45,160 Speaker 1: very satisfying. It's not seeing the surface of the exoplanet. 389 00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:48,000 Speaker 1: It's just like one pixel. It doesn't tell us if 390 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:50,600 Speaker 1: it's an ocean world or if there are forests or 391 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:54,560 Speaker 1: just dust. We really need a lot more magnification to 392 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:57,680 Speaker 1: see the features, to see the surface of the planet, right, 393 00:20:57,720 --> 00:20:59,280 Speaker 1: Because I guess you know, it's kind of like the 394 00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:01,800 Speaker 1: picture of Earth from the from the moon. You know, 395 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:03,560 Speaker 1: we can take a picture of the Earth from the moon, 396 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:06,400 Speaker 1: but then you could even go further and technically you 397 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:08,000 Speaker 1: you could still take a picture if you had to 398 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:11,399 Speaker 1: kind of a beg enough zoom lens. Yeah, exactly. And 399 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:13,520 Speaker 1: you can imagine like taking a picture of the Earth 400 00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:17,080 Speaker 1: from Pluto right, Like you've seen those pictures of satellites 401 00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:18,720 Speaker 1: that are flying out in the outer reach of the 402 00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:21,640 Speaker 1: Solar System, the Earth looks like a tiny dot. All 403 00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:24,280 Speaker 1: the information is still there when you went outside and 404 00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:26,840 Speaker 1: you waved up at the sky. The information from those 405 00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:29,720 Speaker 1: photons is still out there in space, but it's spread 406 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:33,000 Speaker 1: out really far, and so the photons density is very low. 407 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,080 Speaker 1: So you would need to either gather information for a 408 00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:40,479 Speaker 1: long time or a really big lens, like somebody did 409 00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:42,879 Speaker 1: the calculation and discovered if you wanted to take the 410 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:46,199 Speaker 1: picture of another planet around another star, you'd need a 411 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:50,920 Speaker 1: telescope that's like a hundred kilometers wide, and you'd need 412 00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:54,719 Speaker 1: to gather light for like ten thousand years. Wow. That 413 00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:58,440 Speaker 1: would not fit in my iPhone for sure, or my lifespan. 414 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:01,360 Speaker 1: You know that, paul Us When you press that take 415 00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:03,080 Speaker 1: the picture button and it actually collects the light and 416 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:04,760 Speaker 1: takes the picture and then you hear that click sound. 417 00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:08,239 Speaker 1: Imagine if that pause is ten thousand years, like, all right, 418 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:14,800 Speaker 1: take the picture, smile and hold it. So that's how 419 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:16,879 Speaker 1: much it would take. But you know, I feel like 420 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,080 Speaker 1: we have telescopes that like gather one photon at a time. 421 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:22,959 Speaker 1: You know, couldn't we make use of every photon that 422 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,160 Speaker 1: comes in and kind of reconstruct a hazy picture. Yeah, 423 00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:29,200 Speaker 1: but you know, you could imagine building a telescope that's 424 00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:32,320 Speaker 1: a hundred kilometers wide, even if it's not actually physically 425 00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:35,720 Speaker 1: a hundred kilometers wide, by assembling different telescopes that are 426 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:38,600 Speaker 1: like around the Earth, etcetera, etcetera. But you still have 427 00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:42,240 Speaker 1: to gather light for a very very long time because 428 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:44,200 Speaker 1: there just aren't that many photons. I mean, we're talking 429 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,000 Speaker 1: about a very small object that's not even that bright, 430 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,320 Speaker 1: and it's really really far away, so the numbers are 431 00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:54,160 Speaker 1: really working against you. But in principle, those photons are there. 432 00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:57,400 Speaker 1: So if you develop a big enough telescope or run 433 00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:00,480 Speaker 1: it for long enough, then hey, maybe it's post So 434 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,480 Speaker 1: that's the nexus of the idea. That's the technical challenge 435 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,240 Speaker 1: that this problem is facing, right, it's just that it's 436 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:10,120 Speaker 1: really small, and so it's really faint. Yeah, and it's 437 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:14,120 Speaker 1: super far away exactly. All right, Well, then how could 438 00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:17,040 Speaker 1: we possibly ever see the surface of these other planets? 439 00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:20,199 Speaker 1: You Well, the idea is literally build as big a 440 00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:23,399 Speaker 1: telescope as possible, and because that's the only way you 441 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: can overcome these tiny numbers is to have a massive telescope. 442 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:29,959 Speaker 1: And you know, we can't build something that's like the 443 00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:32,760 Speaker 1: size of the Earth. So the idea is to use 444 00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:36,399 Speaker 1: things that are already there. To use the Earth or 445 00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:40,200 Speaker 1: the Sun, especially as a lens, because remember, the Sun 446 00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:43,400 Speaker 1: is a big ball of stuff, and stuff has gravity, 447 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:47,159 Speaker 1: and gravity bends light, and so a big ball of 448 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,520 Speaker 1: stuff can act as a huge lens. And we've seen 449 00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:54,199 Speaker 1: this in the sky already. If you google gravitational lensing, 450 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:56,600 Speaker 1: you can see these amazing pictures where we have some 451 00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:00,240 Speaker 1: blob of dark matter and in the background. Way mind, 452 00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:02,720 Speaker 1: it is a galaxy and the life from that galaxy 453 00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 1: is distorted by the dark matter acting as a gravitational lens. Right, Yeah, 454 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,560 Speaker 1: we could use the Sun as our zoom lens. Yeah, 455 00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:13,480 Speaker 1: is that kind of the except that it's on fire. 456 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:16,919 Speaker 1: Except that it's on fire which you know causes some problems. 457 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:18,960 Speaker 1: Usually that's not what you want in your telescope, but 458 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: in this case, usually you don't want it to be 459 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:24,720 Speaker 1: too hot to handle. Yeah. Yeah, And so we're thinking, 460 00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:28,040 Speaker 1: if you're gonna build a telescope using some big massive object, 461 00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:31,080 Speaker 1: use the biggest thing nearby, and the Sun, by far 462 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:34,280 Speaker 1: is the biggest blob of mass. But you were saying 463 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:37,480 Speaker 1: you need about I guess you need a hundred kilometer 464 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,919 Speaker 1: wide lens, but over ten thousand years. I was just wondering, like, 465 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:43,000 Speaker 1: if you can you use you could use the moon 466 00:24:43,119 --> 00:24:45,320 Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, the Moon just wouldn't be big enough. 467 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:47,600 Speaker 1: To The idea is to use the Sun because it 468 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:51,240 Speaker 1: gathers a lot of light, Like it's so strong gravitationally 469 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:55,159 Speaker 1: that it's pulling photons nearby and focusing them. And so 470 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:59,359 Speaker 1: you get a factor of a hundred billion magnification if 471 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,639 Speaker 1: you use the on is a lens, which is a 472 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:04,119 Speaker 1: pretty big number, right, what was a number again? A 473 00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:09,040 Speaker 1: hundred billion, hundred billion, ten to the eleven. Wow, that's 474 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:10,960 Speaker 1: a lot of zeros. It's a lot of zeros for 475 00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:14,760 Speaker 1: the X Yeah, and your telescope. And so the idea 476 00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:16,960 Speaker 1: is you have your planet which you're on image, which 477 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:19,840 Speaker 1: is really really far away. And then between the planet 478 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,560 Speaker 1: and you you put the Sun. So then the Sun 479 00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:25,520 Speaker 1: bends a bunch of the photons which are flying towards 480 00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:28,560 Speaker 1: our Solar system but which otherwise would not have hit Earth. 481 00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,119 Speaker 1: Now get all bent together to some focal point, some 482 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,520 Speaker 1: focal point on the other side of the Sun where 483 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,800 Speaker 1: you can gather all these photons together. So it's like 484 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,640 Speaker 1: you're capturing a huge number of photons which otherwise would 485 00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:44,439 Speaker 1: have just keep flying apart, and you're bending them together 486 00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:46,840 Speaker 1: into one place that you can gather them together. That's 487 00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:50,119 Speaker 1: essentially how the magnification works. So you need to put 488 00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:53,840 Speaker 1: your camera, your sensor pretty far away from the Sun. 489 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:57,719 Speaker 1: You're saying, way past Pluto, way past Pluto. Yeah, this 490 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:02,360 Speaker 1: thing would be sixty billion else from the Sun. Yeah, 491 00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:04,679 Speaker 1: you have the exo planet, which is like light years away, 492 00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:06,199 Speaker 1: and then you have the Sun, and then you have 493 00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:08,159 Speaker 1: the focal point which is on the other side of 494 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:11,159 Speaker 1: the Sun from the exo planet. But yeah, sixteen times 495 00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,240 Speaker 1: as far away from the Sun as Pluto. Have we 496 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:17,960 Speaker 1: ever gone out that far? We have? Not? All right, No, 497 00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:22,600 Speaker 1: Voyager one is the thing that's gone the furthest the 498 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:25,680 Speaker 1: man made object that's deepest in space, and it's only 499 00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:28,879 Speaker 1: gone thirteen billion miles and so this thing would need 500 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,639 Speaker 1: to be out there sixty billion miles. And you know, 501 00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:35,400 Speaker 1: Voyager one has been going for forty years, so there 502 00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:37,560 Speaker 1: are a lot of technical hurdles to making this work. 503 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:42,000 Speaker 1: Just take a picture. Yeah, the artists do it, Daniel, 504 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:46,000 Speaker 1: use your imagination. Sounds cheaper, and they should draw more aliens. 505 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:47,720 Speaker 1: Then if you're gonna let an artist do it, then 506 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:50,280 Speaker 1: let him run wild. But I just love the you know, 507 00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:52,639 Speaker 1: the scale of this idea. The Huber is so like, 508 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,119 Speaker 1: you know, let's use the sun to take a picture. 509 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:57,240 Speaker 1: I just love it. But how would you I guess 510 00:26:57,240 --> 00:26:59,240 Speaker 1: block them. You need to block the light from the 511 00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:03,040 Speaker 1: Sun and then gathered the other you like, coming from 512 00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:05,720 Speaker 1: around the sun. Yeah, because you can't see the photons 513 00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:08,040 Speaker 1: that actually hit the sun, right, the sun is not transparent, 514 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,560 Speaker 1: but you're seeing all the photons that sort of skim 515 00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:13,120 Speaker 1: the sun. They go near the Sun and then get 516 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:17,639 Speaker 1: bent towards your camera, and your camera is some satellites. 517 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:21,199 Speaker 1: It's like super deep in space, right, But if you 518 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:24,359 Speaker 1: do this, there's a lot of information there in principle, 519 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:26,960 Speaker 1: they've crunched the numbers. You can take a picture of 520 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:31,480 Speaker 1: that planet that's like megapixels for real, for real, every 521 00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:35,400 Speaker 1: pixel that you capture in your satellite would be equivalent 522 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:38,480 Speaker 1: to like twenty five square kilometers on the surface of 523 00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,080 Speaker 1: that planet, which is not a small which is nothing. 524 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:43,680 Speaker 1: It's pretty small. You could see, you know, oceans, you 525 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:47,000 Speaker 1: could see continents. You probably couldn't see aliens spelling out 526 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:49,120 Speaker 1: s os on the beach, and then they're big aliens, 527 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:52,800 Speaker 1: they're really really they've had a lot of pizza. But yeah, 528 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:54,719 Speaker 1: you could see the shape. You can see like, you know, 529 00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:57,919 Speaker 1: even maybe meta structures, right, you could see stuff on 530 00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:02,160 Speaker 1: the surface easily. Maybe if they have like a massive 531 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,520 Speaker 1: space infrastructure, you might even be able to see that. 532 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,560 Speaker 1: So that would be incredible. I mean, imagine seeing that picture. 533 00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:11,600 Speaker 1: Imagine being those scientists building this technology, pressing the button 534 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:14,200 Speaker 1: and then you know, a few years later you get 535 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:16,920 Speaker 1: the result and you get to actually see this, Like, Wow, 536 00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:18,960 Speaker 1: what a moment that would be for humanity. Wow, So 537 00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:21,760 Speaker 1: let's do it? Why don't we do? We do it? 538 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 1: Sounds like it doesn't it sounds like you just have 539 00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:27,280 Speaker 1: to build build a satellite What's what's the technical or 540 00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:30,680 Speaker 1: financial hurdle here? Well, number one is that it will 541 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,359 Speaker 1: take a long time to get there, right, So we 542 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:36,879 Speaker 1: spent forty years getting Voyager one out thirteen billion miles, 543 00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:38,880 Speaker 1: So we don't want this to happen in a hundred 544 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:42,080 Speaker 1: and sixty years, right. We need to somehow get there faster. Right. 545 00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:45,360 Speaker 1: But but Voyager doesn't have like booster rockets or anything, 546 00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,240 Speaker 1: does it cann't. Don't we have technology now to get 547 00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,480 Speaker 1: there faster? Yeah, exactly. Voyager is not a race car, right, 548 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:53,720 Speaker 1: We have ways and ideas to make things go faster. 549 00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:58,160 Speaker 1: And the idea is, instead of sending one big satellite, 550 00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,560 Speaker 1: which is sort of hard to power, ending a bunch 551 00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:04,880 Speaker 1: of micro satellites, like streams of pearls of satellites, and 552 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:08,440 Speaker 1: each one powered by a solar sail. Solar sail is 553 00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,640 Speaker 1: not actually like a jet engine of any kind. It 554 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:15,240 Speaker 1: just captures the energy of the Sun's own light and 555 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:18,520 Speaker 1: sales on it. It captures those photons and it uses 556 00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:21,960 Speaker 1: that to pull itself along. All right, Well, it sounds 557 00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:24,600 Speaker 1: pretty cool, and I say, let's do it, Daniel. Let's 558 00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:26,840 Speaker 1: just let me hop on the phone here with NASA 559 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:31,800 Speaker 1: and I'll let him know I approved this plan. That's 560 00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:34,520 Speaker 1: what they've been waiting for. Absolutely. But let's talk about 561 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:37,200 Speaker 1: maybe when we would actually see in these other planets 562 00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,080 Speaker 1: if we ever took a picture of him. But first 563 00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:56,520 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break, all right, Daniel, So you 564 00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:59,280 Speaker 1: have a plan for taking pictures of planets outside of 565 00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,000 Speaker 1: the galaxy, and people have crunched the numbers and it 566 00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:04,560 Speaker 1: is kind of possible if you put a satellite out 567 00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:07,840 Speaker 1: past way past Pluto, you could use our son as 568 00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:12,120 Speaker 1: the lens and actually take like high resolution pictures of 569 00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:16,479 Speaker 1: planets in other stars. Yeah, yeah, exactly. What's the hurdle here. 570 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: The hurdle is really just making it work and getting 571 00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:21,000 Speaker 1: the money. We think we know how to do it. 572 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:24,520 Speaker 1: There's just a lot of technical issues to overcome. And 573 00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:26,840 Speaker 1: this is something that NASA is actually supportive of. This 574 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,280 Speaker 1: is not just like crazy bonkers idea out there on 575 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:31,760 Speaker 1: the internet, you know, in some Reddit thread. This is 576 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:34,840 Speaker 1: a proposal that's into NASA, that's moving along the stages 577 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:39,400 Speaker 1: that could actually be approved, and they're taking these challenges seriously. 578 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,240 Speaker 1: And the challenges are basically like how to get out 579 00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:45,640 Speaker 1: there quickly, how to point this thing accurately enough. How 580 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:48,320 Speaker 1: to build a big enough satellite because the image is 581 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:50,160 Speaker 1: going to be still really huge and you want to 582 00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:52,880 Speaker 1: sample at night. How to control this thing when it's 583 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:55,920 Speaker 1: really far away. Also, how to pick which planet to 584 00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:59,000 Speaker 1: look at, because one issue is you build this thing, 585 00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:01,120 Speaker 1: you send it to one place in space. You can 586 00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:03,680 Speaker 1: only look at one planet. You can't like, turn this 587 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,160 Speaker 1: thing to look at a totally new planet. We can't 588 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,000 Speaker 1: turn it. We can't turn it because the location of 589 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,800 Speaker 1: an image for an extra planet is in a specific 590 00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:14,440 Speaker 1: spot in space. And then if you want to image 591 00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:17,080 Speaker 1: another extra planet, you have to go to where that 592 00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:19,920 Speaker 1: image is. Right, the image is always on the other 593 00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:22,720 Speaker 1: side of the sun. You can't move the sun, so 594 00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:26,120 Speaker 1: you have to move where your camera is, and those 595 00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:29,520 Speaker 1: locations are really really far apart, and so basically you 596 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,040 Speaker 1: have to pick before you go. You just send your 597 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:35,080 Speaker 1: camera out there and you have a telescope dedicated to 598 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,800 Speaker 1: one planet. Really, I would think that there are so 599 00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:40,400 Speaker 1: many stars out there that we would have our thousands 600 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,800 Speaker 1: of exo planets that we know about and could focus on. 601 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,000 Speaker 1: Wouldn't the days be littered with images of these planets? Yeah, 602 00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:49,840 Speaker 1: but you have to be really precise about where you're imaging, 603 00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:53,440 Speaker 1: and so in order to change the target that you're 604 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:55,680 Speaker 1: looking at, you need to be able to move laterally. 605 00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:57,920 Speaker 1: And most of these spacecraft that we're sending are only 606 00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:00,600 Speaker 1: gonna be able to move radially, like we're sending them 607 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:03,600 Speaker 1: out there, and they're actually gonna be traveling outwards as 608 00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:05,400 Speaker 1: they take an image. They're not going to stop. It's 609 00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:07,640 Speaker 1: not like they get out there to the focal point 610 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:10,080 Speaker 1: and then they just stop. They get out there, they 611 00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,400 Speaker 1: start taking images when they get to the focal point, 612 00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,280 Speaker 1: but it's more actually a focal line, and as you 613 00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:17,960 Speaker 1: move along that line you get further from the sun, 614 00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,560 Speaker 1: you take pictures of different parts of the planet. So 615 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,040 Speaker 1: you have to integrate over many years as you move 616 00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:26,160 Speaker 1: further and further away. So it's it's like a one 617 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:29,880 Speaker 1: shot deal. What can we build a spacecraft that you know, 618 00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:32,600 Speaker 1: stands still and takes the picture. Yeah, that would be 619 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:34,920 Speaker 1: much more complicated. You'd have to be able to stop. 620 00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:37,440 Speaker 1: These things are gonna be moving really really fast by 621 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:39,120 Speaker 1: the time they get out there. To get out there 622 00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:41,240 Speaker 1: at a reasonable amount of time, you need to accelerate 623 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:44,560 Speaker 1: to a very high speed, and then to stop requires 624 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:47,920 Speaker 1: as much energy, but you no longer have access to, 625 00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:50,360 Speaker 1: you know, the solar energy in order to slow down, 626 00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:52,360 Speaker 1: and we only know how to build solar sales to 627 00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:56,280 Speaker 1: sort of speed up slowing down as a whole different problem. 628 00:32:56,360 --> 00:33:00,960 Speaker 1: You need a solar parachute or something solar break Yeah, 629 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:03,440 Speaker 1: all right, Yeah, you were telling me that these things 630 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,040 Speaker 1: would need to be would take twenty five years to 631 00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:08,880 Speaker 1: get there, and they would need to be three times 632 00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:13,000 Speaker 1: more accurate than Hubble, which is pretty kind of our 633 00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,040 Speaker 1: state of the art kind of Yeah, exactly, because you 634 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,560 Speaker 1: have to point very precisely, like the light is going 635 00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:20,800 Speaker 1: to be coming from that planet bending around the Sun, 636 00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:24,360 Speaker 1: making this Einstein ring. It gets distributed all the way 637 00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: around the Sun, and then you have to point it 638 00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:29,680 Speaker 1: exactly the right spot in the Einstein Ring. And even still, 639 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,040 Speaker 1: even though you have all this magnification from the Sun, 640 00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:34,600 Speaker 1: you still have to spend a lot of time building 641 00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:37,360 Speaker 1: up the image. You want to keep your camera pointed 642 00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:41,360 Speaker 1: exactly essentially the same target pixel for weeks and weeks 643 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:43,280 Speaker 1: and weeks or months in order to gather in a 644 00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:46,880 Speaker 1: photon to actually see what's there. Does it sounding less 645 00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:49,680 Speaker 1: appealing by the by the minute, here Daniel I'm like, 646 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:51,800 Speaker 1: how much do I want to see a picture of 647 00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:53,960 Speaker 1: another planet? What do you mean it's just engineering trouble. 648 00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:57,960 Speaker 1: You want to? You want to? I mean I want 649 00:33:57,960 --> 00:33:59,880 Speaker 1: to enough for both of us, trust me. But if 650 00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:02,560 Speaker 1: we pick one planet and we send a satellite and 651 00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:05,240 Speaker 1: it's it's a boring planet, that's a real concern. You know. 652 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: If we have four thousand plants to pick from, it 653 00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,080 Speaker 1: could be like a hundred of them have amazing superstructures 654 00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:13,160 Speaker 1: an alien life on them, and we just pick one 655 00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:16,239 Speaker 1: that's like dust and rubble and it's like yawn, And 656 00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:18,759 Speaker 1: that was a hundred billion dollars and thirty years of work. 657 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:23,240 Speaker 1: Let's send four thousand satellites. Then that's obviously the solution. 658 00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:27,680 Speaker 1: That is a great idea. I'm loving the ideas. Can 659 00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:29,560 Speaker 1: I cot People take pictures these days with their phone? 660 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:31,400 Speaker 1: You know, they don't just take one picture. They go 661 00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:34,600 Speaker 1: like and then later and you pick the one where 662 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:37,200 Speaker 1: nobody's blinking. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they do that because 663 00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:39,600 Speaker 1: those pictures are free, and if each one costs a 664 00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:42,360 Speaker 1: hundred billion dollars, people might press that button with a 665 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:45,160 Speaker 1: little more thought. Yeah, they might think about it a 666 00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:47,920 Speaker 1: little bit more, for sure. Yeah, and you know, we 667 00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:50,000 Speaker 1: think we know how to solve this problem, but there 668 00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,680 Speaker 1: are still a lot of technical issues, like we are 669 00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:57,160 Speaker 1: seeing faint photons coming through the corona of the Sun essentially, 670 00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,680 Speaker 1: and you have to pick out these photons for that corona. 671 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:03,279 Speaker 1: It's not an easy job to increase the signal to 672 00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:05,560 Speaker 1: noise ratio to the point and this is actually gonna 673 00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,400 Speaker 1: be doable. You need a pretty good set of sunglasses 674 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:12,320 Speaker 1: or pretty solid thumb to put in front of the sun. Yeah, absolutely, 675 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:15,200 Speaker 1: you do. In addition, this thing has to basically control itself. 676 00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,920 Speaker 1: It's gonna be so far away from the Earth that 677 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:21,719 Speaker 1: we can't like send messages. You can't drive this thing 678 00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:24,880 Speaker 1: with a joystick. It's it's gonna take four days for 679 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,319 Speaker 1: messages from Earth to get to our camera that's out 680 00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,279 Speaker 1: there in the solar focal point. And so basically has 681 00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:35,080 Speaker 1: to organize itself. Has to be basically AI power. My goodness, 682 00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:38,840 Speaker 1: the first AI photographer, that's right. How do we know 683 00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:41,120 Speaker 1: it's not just doing deep fakes and sending us images. 684 00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:44,880 Speaker 1: It's made up on the Internet. That's why the alien 685 00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:47,560 Speaker 1: could gain a sentience, and then it'd be like this 686 00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:50,160 Speaker 1: is too much work. If I send them a born planet. 687 00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:52,680 Speaker 1: They're gonna fire me. I'll just deep take a fun, 688 00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:57,279 Speaker 1: cool planet with aliens in it, yep, and then we'll 689 00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,799 Speaker 1: get all excited. We'll send an interstellar ship towards the 690 00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:02,960 Speaker 1: direction of that planet, and then only in a thousand 691 00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:05,480 Speaker 1: years what we discovered that we were lied to. That 692 00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:07,920 Speaker 1: sounds like an awesome plot for a science or canel 693 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:10,680 Speaker 1: a little bit of a letdown at the end, but 694 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:13,640 Speaker 1: it sounds interesting. But you're right. We could take a 695 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:16,560 Speaker 1: picture of this planet and we could discover nothing, or 696 00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:19,840 Speaker 1: it could be fascinating, or it could be like confusing 697 00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:21,960 Speaker 1: and fuzzy. Right, we're going to see a picture of 698 00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:24,120 Speaker 1: this planet. We're not going to necessarily be able to 699 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:26,800 Speaker 1: tell what we want. We're not going to see literal 700 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:31,200 Speaker 1: aliens walking around on the surface at square kilometers per pixel. 701 00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:34,000 Speaker 1: We might just be able to make out fuzzy details. 702 00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:35,919 Speaker 1: I mean, remember what it was like when we first 703 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:39,200 Speaker 1: got pictures of the surface of Mars from Earth. People 704 00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:42,440 Speaker 1: thought they saw faces and canals, and there's lots of excitement, 705 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:44,600 Speaker 1: of course, all of which was bubb kiss Like they 706 00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:47,160 Speaker 1: did see a face, didn't they Yeah, they saw a face, 707 00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:49,680 Speaker 1: but it was just a mountain shape where they happened 708 00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:53,080 Speaker 1: to have a shadow that looked like a face right now, 709 00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:54,840 Speaker 1: I mean, isn't there a big smiley face on the 710 00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:59,320 Speaker 1: surface of Mars or I'm not sure if that was 711 00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:02,360 Speaker 1: an artist in a shion our actual data? All right, Well, um, 712 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:04,719 Speaker 1: it sounds like it's going to be pretty difficult to 713 00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:07,360 Speaker 1: get a picture. Can we send a satellite to another planet, 714 00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:10,400 Speaker 1: Daniel and take a picture closer? We certainly could, and 715 00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:13,040 Speaker 1: that would be awesome, but it would take a zillion 716 00:37:13,120 --> 00:37:16,080 Speaker 1: years to get this. I guess what's the closest exo 717 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,919 Speaker 1: planet that we know about. Yeah, the closest exo planets are, 718 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:22,480 Speaker 1: you know, in the five to ten light year distance, 719 00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,200 Speaker 1: And and that's pretty far away. You know, if you 720 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:29,760 Speaker 1: built Hubble, for example, and send it that far away, 721 00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:32,279 Speaker 1: you couldn't send it really high speeds very easily. You 722 00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:34,880 Speaker 1: can't tolerate a lot of acceleration, so it would take 723 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:37,040 Speaker 1: a long time to get there and then take those 724 00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:39,120 Speaker 1: pictures and send them back. I mean, Andy, that also 725 00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:41,520 Speaker 1: sounds like a good idea. Let's do both, Let's do 726 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:43,160 Speaker 1: it all, Let's do it all. I mean, we're spending 727 00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:45,880 Speaker 1: trillions on everything these days, so why not a hundred 728 00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:48,000 Speaker 1: billion to see pictures of ailure. Yeah, well, it would 729 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,839 Speaker 1: take maybe like a couple of dozen years, you think, 730 00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:53,000 Speaker 1: or hundreds of years to go and take a picture 731 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:54,920 Speaker 1: of another planet. How long it takes to get out 732 00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:57,480 Speaker 1: there depends a lot on the propulsion you use, and 733 00:37:57,960 --> 00:38:01,399 Speaker 1: for your very expensive import and telescope, you probably want 734 00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:05,440 Speaker 1: gentle acceleration, but you also wanted to get going pretty fast. 735 00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:07,799 Speaker 1: So I think the best option is to build like 736 00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:11,239 Speaker 1: a solar sale the size of Texas, and that might 737 00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:14,040 Speaker 1: be able to get your telescope up to like ten 738 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:16,560 Speaker 1: of the speed of light, and it would still take like, 739 00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:19,959 Speaker 1: you know, fifty two hundred years to get there. But hey, yeah, 740 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,719 Speaker 1: that sounds like a great You're like, this one is 741 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:27,040 Speaker 1: Daniel approved. Let me start a ready tread here too, 742 00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:31,680 Speaker 1: to tell me, I only have enthusiasm. I have no responsibility, 743 00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:34,600 Speaker 1: and that's why I have no authority also to make 744 00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:38,239 Speaker 1: these decisions. Somehow the two are linked. I'm not quite 745 00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:42,239 Speaker 1: sure why exactly exactly, No, but I think it's a 746 00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:45,319 Speaker 1: fascinating question. I think it's sort of the next generation, 747 00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:47,960 Speaker 1: you know, the next frontier and understanding what's out there 748 00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:50,560 Speaker 1: in the universe is to get these close up pictures 749 00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:53,440 Speaker 1: of what's going on. And so I'm looking forward to it. 750 00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:55,840 Speaker 1: I'm hoping that this kind of thing happens and that 751 00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:58,040 Speaker 1: we press the button and we see the picture, and 752 00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:00,440 Speaker 1: that I get to see the picture a literal sure, 753 00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:03,359 Speaker 1: not an artist impression what's happening on these planers, right, 754 00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:06,239 Speaker 1: because you know, it feels like a basic human curiosity, 755 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,640 Speaker 1: you know, to see pictures, to see like actual photographs 756 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,319 Speaker 1: of something, not just like the blip in the light 757 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:15,960 Speaker 1: or you know, the gravitational effects or something. You know, 758 00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:19,560 Speaker 1: we there's something about our human brain that we just 759 00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:21,680 Speaker 1: we need to see it. Yeah, And you know, it 760 00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:24,440 Speaker 1: makes you wonder if there are alien civilizations out there 761 00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:27,640 Speaker 1: that already have this technology. If we're on the verge 762 00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:29,239 Speaker 1: of it and we've only been around for a few 763 00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:32,520 Speaker 1: tens of thousands of years as a civilization, certainly somebody 764 00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:34,680 Speaker 1: else has figured this out. And somebody else may have 765 00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:37,200 Speaker 1: even put a picture of Earth up on their walls 766 00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:39,439 Speaker 1: someway out there in the unit, and then tragically those 767 00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:44,799 Speaker 1: wipe left. They're like, look at this blue planet. It 768 00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:47,440 Speaker 1: looks kind of boring. Or let's keep going, yeah, or 769 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:52,320 Speaker 1: maybe that's good, right, Like this blue planet doesn't look delicious. 770 00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:54,600 Speaker 1: Let's keep on, Let's keep on. What do you want 771 00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:57,359 Speaker 1: for lunch today? You guys feeling like Earth or you know, 772 00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:03,160 Speaker 1: some other planet? That's right. Everybody look as unappealing as possible. 773 00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:05,920 Speaker 1: I think we're we're on our way there day. That's right. 774 00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:08,239 Speaker 1: I do my best not to look delicious every day. 775 00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:10,680 Speaker 1: All right, Well, we hope you enjoyed that, and then 776 00:40:10,719 --> 00:40:13,600 Speaker 1: hope you look at the night sky or look at 777 00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:16,720 Speaker 1: the sky out there and wonder what do other planets 778 00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:19,120 Speaker 1: look like? Do they look like Earth or Mars, or 779 00:40:19,239 --> 00:40:22,880 Speaker 1: Venus or Jupiter or maybe something completely different? That's right. 780 00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:26,160 Speaker 1: And remember that the technologies the capabilities that we are 781 00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:29,719 Speaker 1: scoffing at today are things that scientists and engineers are 782 00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:33,759 Speaker 1: imagining and working on to make possible for tomorrow and 783 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:36,680 Speaker 1: humanity's ability to see what's out there in the universe, 784 00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:41,560 Speaker 1: to understand what's in this crazy, bonkers cosmos, and to 785 00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:44,640 Speaker 1: peel back layers of reality to penetrate what's really happening 786 00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:49,240 Speaker 1: seems unlimitable, and so hopefully our children and our children's 787 00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:51,719 Speaker 1: children will know so much more about the way the 788 00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:55,279 Speaker 1: universe actually looks yeah, and they won't have to use 789 00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:59,359 Speaker 1: their imagination. That's right, and maybe it'll even be cheap 790 00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:02,319 Speaker 1: by then. Will be an app for that in five years, right, 791 00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:05,120 Speaker 1: that's right. You can swipe left, right, up and down 792 00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,359 Speaker 1: see any planet you like. Well, thanks for joining us, 793 00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:19,759 Speaker 1: see you next time. Thanks for listening, and remember that 794 00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:22,600 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is a production of 795 00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:26,080 Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcast from my heart Radio, 796 00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:29,800 Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 797 00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:31,560 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.