1 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:11,920 Speaker 1: In, Daniel, I have a great idea for house physicists 2 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:14,920 Speaker 1: should name things in science. Oh, I can feel my 3 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: skepticism rising up inside, like indigestion something like that. Yeah. Well, 4 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:24,639 Speaker 1: here's the idea. So the next time you guys invent 5 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: something or discover something amazing, just put the word great 6 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 1: in front of it, you know, and just to make 7 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:32,960 Speaker 1: it seem more expressive, because I feel like you guys 8 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:36,120 Speaker 1: don't sell things enough. You mean, like the great Daniel 9 00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:38,920 Speaker 1: and Jorge explain the universe? Is that what you mean? 10 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,640 Speaker 1: I'm not sure that makes grammatical sense, but I mean, 11 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:44,559 Speaker 1: you know, like you do you have do you have 12 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:46,199 Speaker 1: a model of the universe and you call it the 13 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:49,200 Speaker 1: standard model? You know, Yeah, it could be a little 14 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,360 Speaker 1: bit better, you know, the great model of particles. Oh man, 15 00:00:52,560 --> 00:01:12,280 Speaker 1: that is a great idea. I am more handmade cartoonists 16 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:16,199 Speaker 1: and the creator of PhD comics. Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm 17 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:19,440 Speaker 1: a particle physicist, and I only study stuff that's great. 18 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,959 Speaker 1: Great or grape flavor. Grape is not one of the 19 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,480 Speaker 1: great flavors. I have to say. It's like low on 20 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: the list who doesn't like grape juice. It's like the 21 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: filler of juice. Right, It's like the banana in a smoothie. Right, 22 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:36,880 Speaker 1: Nobody drinks and juice for the grape. The banana is 23 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:40,040 Speaker 1: a highlight for me in the smoothies. Bananas like the 24 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 1: canvas of smoothie on which everything else sits. You know, 25 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: it's just there support everything else. We are totally different. 26 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:48,600 Speaker 1: Wait legs here, Daniel. You go into the smoothie store. 27 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:51,200 Speaker 1: You notice this banana in almost every single smoothie. But 28 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: it's not named banana. It's like the orange smoothie, the 29 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:57,120 Speaker 1: raspberry smoothie. Banana just plays like the supporting role there. 30 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:01,120 Speaker 1: No bananas are the foundation upon which smoothies are built. 31 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: You're saying they're the underground, sort of concrete basement. That 32 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:07,400 Speaker 1: they're like the standard model of physics, but for smoothies. 33 00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:11,440 Speaker 1: But anyways, welcome to our podcast, Daniel and Jorge explained 34 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: of fruit, smoothies apparently, and the universe. Welcome to our 35 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 1: great podcast in which we try to show you how 36 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:22,280 Speaker 1: amazing and bonkers and frankly great the universe is. And 37 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:25,200 Speaker 1: it's great not just because crazy stuff happens, but because 38 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: we can't understand it. The human mind is amazingly capable 39 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,400 Speaker 1: of penetrating the cosmos and unraveling it. And that's our 40 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:35,080 Speaker 1: job today is to give you a tour of the 41 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,079 Speaker 1: cosmos in a way that you can understand and impress 42 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 1: your friends with your knowledge. Yeah, and we're also the 43 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:42,480 Speaker 1: authors of the book We Have No Idea, a Guide 44 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,000 Speaker 1: to the Unknown Universe, which apparently a lot of our 45 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:48,000 Speaker 1: listeners don't know that we wrote. That's true. I get 46 00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:50,480 Speaker 1: a lot of questions from listeners that ask us about 47 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 1: things that are really nicely explained in our book. And 48 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:55,560 Speaker 1: I'll say, oh, you should check out our book, and 49 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:57,799 Speaker 1: they right back to say, what you guys have a book, 50 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:03,400 Speaker 1: what you guys know how to write? I didn't say that. 51 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:06,760 Speaker 1: I just said we have a book. I see. It's 52 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:09,760 Speaker 1: a book, and it's not just an audiobook. There are 53 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:14,080 Speaker 1: actual words, right, and and letters in it and cartoons. Yes, 54 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:16,120 Speaker 1: it's a really fun book. It's all about the things 55 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:18,919 Speaker 1: you don't know about the universe and what scientists think 56 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:20,960 Speaker 1: they might be. And it's fun for those of you 57 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:23,120 Speaker 1: out there who are curious about the world and want 58 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:26,280 Speaker 1: to know not just what do scientists know, but what 59 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,440 Speaker 1: are scientists wondering about? And it features a bunch of 60 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: words but also dozens and dozens are really hilarious and 61 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: clear diagrams about what's going on, drawn by a hilarious cartoonist. 62 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:40,800 Speaker 1: I know. Oh really, who is it? Oh? I don't 63 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:42,520 Speaker 1: remember what his name is. It doesn't really matter, you know. 64 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:44,960 Speaker 1: It just stole his ours from the internet. Some great 65 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: guy probably know. So it's a great book. You guys 66 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:49,920 Speaker 1: should check it out. Yeah, it's about all the things 67 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,320 Speaker 1: we don't know about the universe. And there's a lot 68 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: we don't know about the universe, right, Daniel. I mean, 69 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:56,680 Speaker 1: there's we know some things here on Earth, and some 70 00:03:56,720 --> 00:03:58,720 Speaker 1: things in our solar system, and some things out there 71 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:02,320 Speaker 1: in the galaxy in the cosmos, but there is a 72 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: lot we don't know, even kind of where we are 73 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:08,200 Speaker 1: and where we sit in this big giant space. Yeah. 74 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:10,000 Speaker 1: In the book, we make this analogy a lot that 75 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:12,120 Speaker 1: we are sort of at the beginning of an age 76 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 1: of exploration of the universe. Because I think it's easy 77 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: for people to imagine back a hundred or five hundred 78 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:20,800 Speaker 1: or thousand years ago, before we even knew like the 79 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:22,960 Speaker 1: shape of the Earth and all the land on it, 80 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:25,240 Speaker 1: it was exciting to go out and exploring to learn 81 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:28,839 Speaker 1: about our our sort of neighborhood and the larger place 82 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:31,040 Speaker 1: we were on the Earth. Well, we're in that place 83 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,640 Speaker 1: sort of scientifically, we're still just learning how the universe works, 84 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,840 Speaker 1: but also very specifically, it's not like just a metaphor. 85 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:40,960 Speaker 1: We are now exploring beyond the Earth and getting maps 86 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:43,600 Speaker 1: of sort of where we are in our cosmic neighborhood, 87 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:47,360 Speaker 1: and we're really just beginning. And so every year, every decade, 88 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:49,680 Speaker 1: we look further and further out into the universe and 89 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:53,279 Speaker 1: just learn like the shape of things, how things are arranged, 90 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:57,359 Speaker 1: how the stars and the galaxies and those the clusters 91 00:04:57,400 --> 00:04:59,640 Speaker 1: of galaxies, how how it all sort of sits in 92 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:02,560 Speaker 1: the inner and where we sit on it, right like 93 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:04,520 Speaker 1: in a kind of a they called the our address 94 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:08,120 Speaker 1: in the universe. Yeah, and just like explorers who are 95 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:11,720 Speaker 1: venturing around weird places on Earth and finding strange stuff, 96 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 1: weird animals and grand canyons and new fruits and all 97 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:17,640 Speaker 1: sorts of stuff, as we look at into space, we 98 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:20,800 Speaker 1: find some weird, weird stuff out there that forces us 99 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:23,880 Speaker 1: to sort of revise our understanding of what's in the 100 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:26,680 Speaker 1: universe and how it's put together. But anyway, so, yeah, 101 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:29,720 Speaker 1: there are weird things out there that people are still discovering, 102 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:31,839 Speaker 1: and in fact, there is a really weird thing out 103 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:35,279 Speaker 1: there in space that is affecting how the galaxies and 104 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:38,120 Speaker 1: the clusters are all moving about that we really have 105 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 1: no idea about. Right, Yeah, we are building sort of 106 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 1: a map of the universe. We look out and we 107 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:44,599 Speaker 1: see our Solar system, and we know where it sits 108 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: in the galaxy. We know how the galaxy clusters together 109 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:50,599 Speaker 1: with other galaxies to make this thing we call the 110 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:54,000 Speaker 1: local group, which is a cluster of galaxies. And then 111 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:56,800 Speaker 1: we've seen further out to see how that cluster forms 112 00:05:56,839 --> 00:05:59,680 Speaker 1: into superclusters. And we talked on the program once about 113 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,120 Speaker 1: how those superclusters line up into these really weird sheets 114 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:05,600 Speaker 1: and bubbles and stuff. But the cool thing is that 115 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:08,720 Speaker 1: that stuff is not static. It's not just like sitting there, right, 116 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:11,680 Speaker 1: This is a dynamic system. If you sped up the 117 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:14,840 Speaker 1: universe on like, you know, really fast time lapse, you 118 00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:17,279 Speaker 1: would see stuff smashing into each other and whipping around 119 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:21,280 Speaker 1: each other. This is like a frothing, bubbling foam of stuff, 120 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: but in super slow motion. Right that the universe is 121 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,160 Speaker 1: not retired. It's still pretty active and moving around and 122 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:31,200 Speaker 1: and restless. Yeah, and you know, the our galaxy is 123 00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 1: like heading towards another galaxy. And so one thing that 124 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:37,480 Speaker 1: that's really fascinating to study is not just where stuff is, 125 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:40,080 Speaker 1: but where it's going. Right, what is it going to 126 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: look like? And are things going to smash together or 127 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:46,000 Speaker 1: are they gonna fly further apart or are they gonna 128 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:47,960 Speaker 1: stay kind of the same. Yeah, so this is a 129 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: fascinating question. And several listeners here I'm counting one, two, three, four, five, 130 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:56,760 Speaker 1: six listeners independently wrote in to ask us to talk 131 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:00,480 Speaker 1: about this particular weird thing that scientists found. Yeah, it's 132 00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:02,600 Speaker 1: a very big mystery. And so here's the audio from 133 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:06,440 Speaker 1: Stephen Gonda asking us what this mystery is. Hello, Daniel 134 00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:09,640 Speaker 1: and Jorge, this is Stephen from Calgary, Canada. I've read 135 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: about the phenomena called the Great Attractor, and I'd like 136 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 1: to learn more. What do we know about it? What 137 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:16,720 Speaker 1: don't we know, and what are some theories regarding what 138 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:18,920 Speaker 1: it could be? Thank you? All right, that's a great 139 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:22,080 Speaker 1: question from Stephen, and he is asking us about this 140 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:26,880 Speaker 1: interesting mystery, which is this idea of the Great Attractor. Yeah, 141 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:32,080 Speaker 1: it's this amazing mystery, this huge cosmic galactic question mark 142 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:35,920 Speaker 1: nearby in our cosmic neighborhood. And not just Stephen, but 143 00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:40,600 Speaker 1: also Mike Miller, Neil McLean, Peter McKeever, and Chris Adiquez 144 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:42,680 Speaker 1: all wrote in to asked us to talk about this. 145 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:45,680 Speaker 1: So thanks to those people who wrote to us with 146 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:48,600 Speaker 1: their burning curiosity about the universe. And if you're out 147 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:50,960 Speaker 1: there and want us to talk about something, please don't 148 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:53,960 Speaker 1: be shy. Send us your questions to Questions at Daniel 149 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:56,200 Speaker 1: and Jorge dot com. So I guess they all wrote 150 00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:59,320 Speaker 1: the same question similar the same question, which means it's 151 00:07:59,320 --> 00:08:03,520 Speaker 1: a very active question or it's a great question. It's 152 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:06,440 Speaker 1: a great question. And I'm also assuming they're not asking 153 00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:10,160 Speaker 1: about Brad Pitt, who's also pretty attractive. He has a 154 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:14,000 Speaker 1: sort of gravitational pull on everything in Hollywood, a lot 155 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,080 Speaker 1: of gravitized But it's not a mystery, right, Everybody understands 156 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:20,160 Speaker 1: like there's a strong pull there and if everything, all 157 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:22,800 Speaker 1: the projects are sort of sucked towards him, then we 158 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:26,600 Speaker 1: know that he's around. Yeah, So to be on the podcast, 159 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:29,560 Speaker 1: we'll be tackling this big mystery. We'll be asking the question, 160 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,360 Speaker 1: what is the great attractor? Is it a what is 161 00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:42,880 Speaker 1: or who is this? Another alien episode? Daniel saying it's alien. 162 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's not not aliens. But you know, 163 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: anything weird out there in space could be the beginning 164 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:52,480 Speaker 1: of that science fiction movie where they find aliens, you know. 165 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 1: And so he's some guy in a control room going, huh, 166 00:08:55,360 --> 00:08:59,000 Speaker 1: that's weird dot dot dot aliens. Good thing you're not 167 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:01,680 Speaker 1: that person, because it would be aliens every time. It 168 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:04,640 Speaker 1: seems if they put a big red aliens button next 169 00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:10,000 Speaker 1: to my desk, I'd be hitting it every single day. Aliens. 170 00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:14,319 Speaker 1: But what I have for dinner aliens? I don't have 171 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 1: aliens for dinner. We can't digest aliens. Man, oh, I 172 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:20,120 Speaker 1: want to have aliens over for dinner. We can hang 173 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:24,480 Speaker 1: out with them and ask them, right. So, yeah, so 174 00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:28,520 Speaker 1: we don't know who or what this Great Attractor is, 175 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:31,480 Speaker 1: and in fact, it just has a really pretty mysterious name. 176 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:34,320 Speaker 1: It's not even the best named attractor out there. There's 177 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,760 Speaker 1: another one out there, even bigger, more mysterious, with a 178 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:41,120 Speaker 1: better name. Is there a greatest attractor? The other one 179 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:47,000 Speaker 1: is called the Shapely Attractor. Really really, that's Angelina Jolie 180 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:53,200 Speaker 1: right in a very not safe cosmic mysteries right here 181 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:56,959 Speaker 1: on the podcast Double Mobile Prize for your heavenly gods. 182 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:59,800 Speaker 1: Just waiting for them to get back together. I mean, 183 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:03,400 Speaker 1: why shouldn't they be? Well, I walked around campus, I 184 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: use the irvine, and I asked folks if they knew 185 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:08,160 Speaker 1: what the great attractor was. To think about it for 186 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:10,920 Speaker 1: a second. If someone asked you what or who the 187 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:14,360 Speaker 1: great attractor is, what would you say? Here's what people 188 00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:16,840 Speaker 1: had to say, has something to do with magnets. Our 189 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:20,040 Speaker 1: friend who's a physics major. If you mentioned you mentioned 190 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:22,840 Speaker 1: that at some point. If it's a great quantum attractor, 191 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:24,439 Speaker 1: I would think it would have something to do with 192 00:10:24,640 --> 00:10:28,160 Speaker 1: sort of a black hole, something attracting everything around it. 193 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:31,560 Speaker 1: Is it the center of galaxies? Probably has to do 194 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:35,080 Speaker 1: with by gravity attracting something I think I may have 195 00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:37,640 Speaker 1: in physics in high schooling. I'm not too sure to 196 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:40,560 Speaker 1: be honest, right, Uh, probably not the one you're thinking here? 197 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:46,360 Speaker 1: What are you thinking of? Uh? Something gravitational? Alright, No, 198 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:48,679 Speaker 1: nobody want with Brad Pitt. I guess it's just me 199 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:51,520 Speaker 1: who much pessed with Brad Pitt. Or he's just in 200 00:10:51,559 --> 00:10:54,640 Speaker 1: the news so much. You're either a singular genius or 201 00:10:54,679 --> 00:10:57,719 Speaker 1: you're just wrong? Well, how do you how do we 202 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:01,120 Speaker 1: know it's not Brad Pitt, Daniel, I have a Brad 203 00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:04,559 Speaker 1: Pitt button right here in mind. You hit the Brad 204 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:07,280 Speaker 1: Pitt button. I hit the alien button. The logical conclusion 205 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:12,280 Speaker 1: is Brad Pitt is an alien. We're just banging out 206 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:14,920 Speaker 1: the mystery city. So after all the mysteries of the universe, 207 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:18,400 Speaker 1: if you can make that connection, you've done it. Is 208 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:23,719 Speaker 1: that why they adopted so many children? Actually human? Right? 209 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:28,720 Speaker 1: Who can survive being having so many children? You need 210 00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:34,160 Speaker 1: specially well and still and still look as good as 211 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:36,400 Speaker 1: he does. Well, I can tell you that the Great 212 00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:40,240 Speaker 1: Attractor is not Brad Pitt because the Great Attractor is 213 00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:44,280 Speaker 1: something like two hundred million light years away, and last 214 00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:47,319 Speaker 1: I checked, Brad Pitt was on Earth, which is considerably 215 00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:50,080 Speaker 1: closer than that. All right, we'll get to talking about 216 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 1: this Great attractor. So it's something that's out there in space, right, 217 00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:58,320 Speaker 1: affecting how the galaxies are moving around in space. Yeah, 218 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:01,800 Speaker 1: it seems to be this really misdu source of gravity. 219 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:04,679 Speaker 1: It's out there in space, it's really far away, and 220 00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:08,280 Speaker 1: it's pulling on everything, but nobody knows what's there, Like 221 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:11,800 Speaker 1: what is creating all of this attraction? Right, A lot 222 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:14,360 Speaker 1: of people said gravity in their answers, is that do 223 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:17,320 Speaker 1: you think? You know? Do you say great at attractor 224 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:20,040 Speaker 1: and people automatically think gravity, I guess, so, yeah, there's 225 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:23,480 Speaker 1: some connection in their minds between attraction and gravity, which 226 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:26,440 Speaker 1: makes sense. Right, If you're thinking space stuff, then it's 227 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:29,800 Speaker 1: mostly gravity that's doing the attracting. All right, we'll get 228 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:32,880 Speaker 1: into what this great mystery, this great attractor is, and 229 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:35,880 Speaker 1: what it could be or who it could be, and 230 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:39,160 Speaker 1: ask whether it's going to suck us in it. It's 231 00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:42,080 Speaker 1: gonna if we're gonna get pulled into its attractiveness once 232 00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:44,400 Speaker 1: and for all. But first let's take a quick break, 233 00:12:57,440 --> 00:12:59,440 Speaker 1: all right, Daniel. So there's a big mystery out there 234 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:02,720 Speaker 1: in space called the great Attractor. So break it down 235 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:04,840 Speaker 1: for us. What is the great Attractor? Well, as we 236 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:07,720 Speaker 1: said earlier, we're interested in where we are in space, 237 00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:10,720 Speaker 1: but also what the stuff around us is doing, where 238 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:14,240 Speaker 1: it's going, how it's moving. We know that the universe 239 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:17,839 Speaker 1: is expanding, right, more space is being made everywhere, which 240 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:20,760 Speaker 1: means that everything is moving away from each other. Right, 241 00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:23,000 Speaker 1: Everything we look at is moving away from us, So 242 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:26,040 Speaker 1: it's red shifted. It's red shifted, meaning that the light 243 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:28,960 Speaker 1: from it is shifted to longer wavelengths because it's moving 244 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:31,400 Speaker 1: away from us at some speed. Right, there's sort of 245 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:33,920 Speaker 1: a general motion of the of everything in the universe 246 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,199 Speaker 1: being pulled apart. Yeah, I mean pulled apart. But that's 247 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:40,360 Speaker 1: sort of the overall picture, that's the average picture. Then 248 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:43,880 Speaker 1: there's sort of local variations, right, Like, for example, the 249 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:46,959 Speaker 1: Earth is not moving away from the Sun. Why because 250 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:49,079 Speaker 1: the Earth is held by the gravity of the Sun. 251 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:51,720 Speaker 1: And so you can look at at how fast things 252 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:54,080 Speaker 1: are moving relative to each other, they get a sense 253 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:57,320 Speaker 1: for sort of where the gravity is. Like the Sun 254 00:13:57,440 --> 00:13:59,240 Speaker 1: is not moving away from the Milky Way for the 255 00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:01,920 Speaker 1: same reason. Gravity is holding the Sun as part of 256 00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:04,439 Speaker 1: the Milky Way. And then we could ask about like 257 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:08,280 Speaker 1: what's the relative velocity between our galaxy and another galaxy 258 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:12,520 Speaker 1: or other galaxies, right, because we're moving towards the Andromeda 259 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:15,600 Speaker 1: galaxy right, not away from it. That's right, the Andromeda 260 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:18,599 Speaker 1: galaxies moving towards us. And so this is a variation 261 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:21,960 Speaker 1: relative to this expansion. If you imagine like all that 262 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,320 Speaker 1: expansion is sort of the baseline, then we can ask 263 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:27,280 Speaker 1: like the stuff around us, How is it moving relative 264 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:29,720 Speaker 1: to what you would expect from that expansion? And some 265 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:32,040 Speaker 1: of the stuff is actually moving towards us, like Andrameda, 266 00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:34,600 Speaker 1: because of gravity. And so what they did is they 267 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:37,120 Speaker 1: did this red shift survey. They looked around at all 268 00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:40,360 Speaker 1: the galaxies and they asked where are they going relative 269 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:42,800 Speaker 1: to the sort of baseline expansion. So an average, the 270 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:45,600 Speaker 1: universe is expanding and everything is waning away from each other. 271 00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:49,360 Speaker 1: But you're saying, sort of locally, what what what are 272 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:52,640 Speaker 1: the galaxies actually doing? Or all galaxies or just the 273 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:55,160 Speaker 1: ones around us? Just the ones around us is where 274 00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:57,520 Speaker 1: we begin, and those the easiest to understand and to 275 00:14:57,560 --> 00:15:00,160 Speaker 1: see because they're closer. It gives us a pi here 276 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:02,160 Speaker 1: for where the stuff is because we measure what the 277 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:05,200 Speaker 1: gravity is. It's just like the discovery of dark matter. 278 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:08,040 Speaker 1: You look at the rotation of a galaxy and you 279 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:11,080 Speaker 1: understand how much gravity should be there to hold it together, 280 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:13,200 Speaker 1: and then you count up all the stars and you ask, 281 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:16,480 Speaker 1: can all that gravity be explained? The answer was no, 282 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:20,080 Speaker 1: so we assumed, oh, there's some extra matter inside the 283 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:23,080 Speaker 1: galaxy to explain it. This is sort of that same strategy, 284 00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:25,680 Speaker 1: but on the galactic scale, where we look at the 285 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:29,120 Speaker 1: motion of the galaxies, and then we ask can we 286 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:31,720 Speaker 1: explain the motion of those galaxies based on all the 287 00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:33,600 Speaker 1: stuff we know is there. It's kind of like you 288 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:37,240 Speaker 1: were telling me earlier that if the Sun was invisible 289 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:40,120 Speaker 1: for some reason, we could probably still know that it's there. 290 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:43,320 Speaker 1: It's just from seeing how the planets moving a circle 291 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:46,160 Speaker 1: around something that's right, you can deduce that stuff is 292 00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:50,080 Speaker 1: there by its gravitational effects. Just like the Earth moving 293 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:51,920 Speaker 1: around the Sun. You don't need to see the Sun 294 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:54,360 Speaker 1: to know that there's something heavy there that's keeping the 295 00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:57,120 Speaker 1: Earth in orbit. And the same way we discovered the 296 00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:00,080 Speaker 1: black hole at the center of our galaxy. Initially I 297 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:02,800 Speaker 1: seeing these stars orbited making these patterns that they just 298 00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:07,040 Speaker 1: wouldn't make if there wasn't some really heavy, massive, invisible 299 00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:09,760 Speaker 1: thing there. Okay, So then you're saying that we have 300 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:11,920 Speaker 1: been doing this kind of we we have done this 301 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,480 Speaker 1: kind of analysis with the galaxies all around us, just 302 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:18,160 Speaker 1: to see if everything's moving kind of in a coaster way. Yeah, 303 00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: we were curious, like where is everything going? And we 304 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:23,080 Speaker 1: did this calculation. We looked at everything, we measured its 305 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:25,240 Speaker 1: red shift, and that gives us a picture for sort 306 00:16:25,280 --> 00:16:27,560 Speaker 1: of like where everything is going. You can like take 307 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:30,160 Speaker 1: every galaxy and put an arrow on it and say, 308 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:32,640 Speaker 1: this one's going over there, this one's going over here. 309 00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:35,520 Speaker 1: And what we discovered is it. First of all, we 310 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:39,160 Speaker 1: have a velocity. We have a velocity relative to sort 311 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:42,880 Speaker 1: of like the cosmic microwave background that's sort of filling space. 312 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:45,960 Speaker 1: We are getting pulled somewhere. We are not the center 313 00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:48,120 Speaker 1: of the universe, is what you're saying. Well, you and 314 00:16:48,280 --> 00:16:50,400 Speaker 1: I are, but the whole galaxy it turns out to 315 00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:53,720 Speaker 1: just be dragging us down. Oh, we're mosing on somewhere 316 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:56,560 Speaker 1: as a galaxy. As a galaxy, we're moving actually quite 317 00:16:56,640 --> 00:17:00,680 Speaker 1: fast relative to this cosmic microwave background. Oh man, you 318 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:05,600 Speaker 1: just gave me whiplash. And I feel felt so stable there, 319 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:07,600 Speaker 1: But now I think that our whole galaxy is moving 320 00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:10,560 Speaker 1: and probably millions of miles per hour. It sort of 321 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:13,399 Speaker 1: threw me off a bit. Yeah, and all of the 322 00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:16,680 Speaker 1: galaxies together seem to be not just our galaxy, but 323 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,560 Speaker 1: all the galaxies together seemed to be sort of sucked 324 00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 1: in the same direction. All the nearby ones are getting 325 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:24,760 Speaker 1: pulled in the same direction. I mean, like that there's 326 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:27,239 Speaker 1: a galaxy to our right, and it's also going in 327 00:17:27,280 --> 00:17:29,080 Speaker 1: the same direction we are. And there's a galaxy to 328 00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:31,680 Speaker 1: our left and it's also going the same way. Now, 329 00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:34,720 Speaker 1: individual ones can have variations, like Andromeda, the closest one 330 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:37,000 Speaker 1: happens to becoming right at us. But if you look 331 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:40,320 Speaker 1: at the average sort of flow of the galaxies nearby, 332 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:43,439 Speaker 1: they're all pointing in the same direction, sort of like 333 00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:47,960 Speaker 1: there's some huge amount of mass they're creating gravity sucking 334 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:50,720 Speaker 1: everything in wait, and so we're going towards it, or 335 00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:53,880 Speaker 1: we're sort of orbiting it. We're going towards it. And 336 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:56,760 Speaker 1: this is the goal, right is to figure out how 337 00:17:56,840 --> 00:17:59,359 Speaker 1: fast everything is moving, and to use that to figure 338 00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:01,840 Speaker 1: out make sort of a map of where the mass 339 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:05,399 Speaker 1: has to be, and then compare that and say, well, 340 00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:08,080 Speaker 1: do we see all that mass? Right, just like we 341 00:18:08,119 --> 00:18:10,160 Speaker 1: did when we discovered dark matter, we make a map 342 00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:12,320 Speaker 1: of where we think the gravity is, and then we 343 00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:15,560 Speaker 1: ask can we explain all that gravity using the mass 344 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:18,879 Speaker 1: from the visible stuff from what we see and also 345 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:21,280 Speaker 1: the dark matter? Did you take that into account as well? 346 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:25,280 Speaker 1: Oh crap, we forgot to account for the dark matter. Yeah, man, no, 347 00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:28,840 Speaker 1: we we do. We know, we know that we see 348 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:31,359 Speaker 1: a galaxy that we're not seeing all the mass from it. 349 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:33,520 Speaker 1: We have pretty good ways to measure the or to 350 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,280 Speaker 1: estimate the amount of dark matter in a galaxy based 351 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:37,920 Speaker 1: on its type and its age and all this sort 352 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:43,960 Speaker 1: of stuff. There's a little insulting Daniel Well, who was 353 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:45,960 Speaker 1: being insulted because you were like, did you remember the 354 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:49,440 Speaker 1: dark matter? Yes? Thank you? Did you did you carry 355 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:52,560 Speaker 1: the two? Did you carry the ones? Daniel? Because this 356 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:54,600 Speaker 1: is all very suspicious. Are you're gonna come up here 357 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:56,919 Speaker 1: help me with my arithmetic? Did you please? I forgot 358 00:18:56,960 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 1: it's long division. I haven't done that forever. I need somehow. 359 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:03,280 Speaker 1: I guess what I mean is, how do you know 360 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:05,400 Speaker 1: that you've accounted for all the dark matter? I mean, 361 00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:08,280 Speaker 1: you can't see the dark matter. You only have sort 362 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:10,639 Speaker 1: of like mottels of it. That's right. We don't and 363 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:13,960 Speaker 1: that's a possible explanation. But we know something is there, 364 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:16,280 Speaker 1: and we don't think that there are these blobs of 365 00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:20,080 Speaker 1: invisible dark matter that are not hanging out with visible galaxies. 366 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,160 Speaker 1: And so what we do know is that there's some 367 00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:26,280 Speaker 1: region out there that is sucking us all in, that's 368 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:29,639 Speaker 1: pulling us towards it, and we didn't expect that because 369 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:32,960 Speaker 1: we don't see anything there that can explain it. And 370 00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:35,840 Speaker 1: and this is like everything. All the galaxies that we 371 00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:38,399 Speaker 1: see are just the ones around us, because you know, we, 372 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:40,840 Speaker 1: like you said, we are part of these clusters and 373 00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:45,480 Speaker 1: superclusters and gigant and genormous walls and sheets of galaxies. 374 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,600 Speaker 1: You know, is everything moving towards something or just sort 375 00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:51,600 Speaker 1: of locally local in this context means sort of part 376 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,679 Speaker 1: of our supercluster. So all the sort of clusters of 377 00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:58,320 Speaker 1: galaxies and those clusters of clusters seem to be moving 378 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:02,760 Speaker 1: in this neighborhood to awards this thing called the great attractor. 379 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:05,480 Speaker 1: So it's like a feature of our super cluster. Yeah, 380 00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:08,840 Speaker 1: but if you go even further beyond that, everything else 381 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:12,639 Speaker 1: is getting including that great attractor, is getting sucked towards 382 00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:17,040 Speaker 1: something else. It's a bigger attractor called the shapely attractor. 383 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,080 Speaker 1: Why didn't you call it the greatest? Well, it's named 384 00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:25,000 Speaker 1: after a guy named Shapely. Honestly, literally, his last name 385 00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:27,600 Speaker 1: is Shapeley. You aren't you gonna ask me if he 386 00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:32,760 Speaker 1: was pretty shapely or he or she? That would be inappropriate, Daniel, 387 00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:36,320 Speaker 1: I have I have the broadcast standards. Oh I should 388 00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:39,879 Speaker 1: read those somewhere. I'm curious. I thought he would be 389 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:43,400 Speaker 1: surprised that I have standards. But one really mysterious thing 390 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:46,120 Speaker 1: about this great attractor is that it happens to be 391 00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:52,120 Speaker 1: in a spot that's very difficult for us to look at. Mmmm, suspiciously, Suspiciously, 392 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:54,680 Speaker 1: it's a coincidence, But why is it hard to look 393 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:56,600 Speaker 1: at it? Well, if you look up in the night sky, 394 00:20:56,760 --> 00:20:59,439 Speaker 1: the places that are easiest to see are the places 395 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,280 Speaker 1: where you look away from our galaxy. You look sort 396 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:05,399 Speaker 1: of out into deep space. If there's something out in 397 00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:08,240 Speaker 1: the sky and it's hiding behind the Milky Way, it's 398 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:09,959 Speaker 1: much harder to see, just because there are a lot 399 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:12,679 Speaker 1: of stars and dust and gas between us and it, 400 00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:14,680 Speaker 1: So we sort of have a bit of a cosmic 401 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:18,440 Speaker 1: blind spot. There's a big mass of something, possibly within 402 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:22,119 Speaker 1: our supercluster cluster, and there's an even bigger mass of 403 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:26,359 Speaker 1: something you're saying, out and out in between the superclusters, 404 00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:29,320 Speaker 1: or it might be at the like the center of 405 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:33,000 Speaker 1: a bunch of superclusters. The shapely attractors even less well understood. 406 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:35,800 Speaker 1: But the frustrating things that both of them sits sort 407 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:39,680 Speaker 1: of behind the plane of the galaxy, like there if 408 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:41,480 Speaker 1: you look in that direction, if you look up in 409 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:43,399 Speaker 1: the night sky when you're camping and you see the 410 00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:46,119 Speaker 1: Milky Way, it's beautiful, it's wonderful, but it means you 411 00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:48,679 Speaker 1: can't see what's behind it very well because the Milky 412 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:51,240 Speaker 1: Way is so bright. This episode is filled with great 413 00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:54,040 Speaker 1: names because astronomers refer to that whole region of the 414 00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:57,600 Speaker 1: sky as the zone of avoidance as then don't even 415 00:21:57,680 --> 00:21:59,879 Speaker 1: try to do any signs there. It's just all lit 416 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:02,600 Speaker 1: up and it's a it's a mess. Oh. So it's 417 00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:05,440 Speaker 1: a an avoidance not because you shouldn't go there. It's 418 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,679 Speaker 1: it's more like, don't don't take your academic career on 419 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:11,119 Speaker 1: that area of the universe. Yeah, it's sort of like 420 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,480 Speaker 1: the harder region to observe anything. And so if you're 421 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:18,240 Speaker 1: looking for something clear and beautiful, look somewhere else, because 422 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:21,160 Speaker 1: this is the messy spot. You know, if you want 423 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:24,320 Speaker 1: to record a beautiful symphony, you don't do it, you know, 424 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,199 Speaker 1: on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. That's a zone of avoidance 425 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:31,119 Speaker 1: for careful recordings. All right, So, um, these things that 426 00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:33,960 Speaker 1: might be really important to the universe and to how 427 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:36,880 Speaker 1: how the universe is moving and changing are pretty much. 428 00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:39,520 Speaker 1: It's sort of occluded from us. You're saying, yeah, we 429 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:43,240 Speaker 1: can't really see in that direction, and there's something really 430 00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:46,360 Speaker 1: fascinating and interesting out there that seems to be pulling 431 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:49,120 Speaker 1: all these galaxies towards it. All right, let's get into 432 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:52,240 Speaker 1: what it could be or who it could be, and 433 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:54,080 Speaker 1: whether or not we are going to all end up 434 00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:59,680 Speaker 1: being fatally attracted. I think you've already attracted a Brad 435 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:04,760 Speaker 1: Pitt that I've already played our fatal attraction with that kid. 436 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:07,600 Speaker 1: He's gonna listen to this episode and now he's never 437 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:10,760 Speaker 1: going to come on the podcast. Or maybe it'll be 438 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: attracted coming on the podcast. But yeah, let's get into 439 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:16,600 Speaker 1: whether or not we'll we'll be sucked into it as well. 440 00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:31,800 Speaker 1: But first let's take a quick break. All right, Daniel, 441 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:36,040 Speaker 1: the great attractor out there in space is moving galaxies 442 00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:39,960 Speaker 1: in a mysterious way. So what what could it be? 443 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:42,480 Speaker 1: If we don't know what it is? Well, as usually, 444 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:45,800 Speaker 1: we'll have an escalating series of possible explanations from like 445 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:50,560 Speaker 1: super boring to mind blowingly crazy and insane? Does it 446 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:53,240 Speaker 1: end with aliens? As usual, it's gonna end with a 447 00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:56,960 Speaker 1: movie pitch of course? Is your hand over the alien 448 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,520 Speaker 1: button right now, are you itching to press it? I am, 449 00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:02,320 Speaker 1: But first we got to go through like the other 450 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:06,359 Speaker 1: possible explanations that could be like much more boring physics. Alright, alright, 451 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:09,840 Speaker 1: so there's something causing all the galaxies to move towards 452 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,000 Speaker 1: a sort of an area or a point, and so 453 00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:14,080 Speaker 1: what could it be. Is it a big blob of 454 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:18,200 Speaker 1: dark matter or is it um you know, like it's 455 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:20,240 Speaker 1: just a giant rock. Yeah, well it couldn't just be 456 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:23,040 Speaker 1: a giant rock because remember this thing has the mass 457 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:27,920 Speaker 1: of like ten quadrillion sons. It's really big. How many, 458 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:30,920 Speaker 1: like equivalently, how many galaxies is that? Yeah, that would 459 00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:34,960 Speaker 1: be like ten thousand Milky Way galaxies. So whatever this is, 460 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,280 Speaker 1: it's not small. You know. We went out to sort 461 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: of map the universe and see where stuff is and 462 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:43,920 Speaker 1: see its direction. We expected everything to have some relative velocity, 463 00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:46,480 Speaker 1: to be some sort of jiggle, you know, think about 464 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:48,720 Speaker 1: like the galaxies is like, you know, some sort of 465 00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:51,600 Speaker 1: cosmic gas. You expect them to be bouncing around a 466 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,520 Speaker 1: little bit. But we were pretty surprised to discover this 467 00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:57,440 Speaker 1: is in the eighties, that everything was really strongly getting 468 00:24:57,440 --> 00:24:59,760 Speaker 1: pulled in this one direction. So it's a big deal. 469 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:02,640 Speaker 1: And so it's the equivalent whatever it's pulling us out 470 00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:07,800 Speaker 1: there is the equivalent of ten thousand galaxies. It's hard 471 00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,560 Speaker 1: to imagine, right, And each galaxy of course has billions 472 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,080 Speaker 1: and billions and billions of stars and planets. So it's 473 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:15,680 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. Well, it's not a small mystery. 474 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,840 Speaker 1: It's not a small mystery. It's a great attractive it's 475 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:22,440 Speaker 1: a great mystery. Maybe maybe great doesn't sell it enough, 476 00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:30,960 Speaker 1: you know, amazing attractor, the unbelievably fantastic and amazing attractor. 477 00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:34,199 Speaker 1: But this sort of the simplest explanation is that it 478 00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:36,520 Speaker 1: just could be a lot of stuff. It could just 479 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:38,760 Speaker 1: be that there's a lot of galaxies over there and 480 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,800 Speaker 1: it's hard for us to see them because they're blocked 481 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,080 Speaker 1: by the Milky Way, right, Or they could be dark, 482 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:47,920 Speaker 1: like it could just be you know, matter but it's 483 00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,600 Speaker 1: not shiny. Yeah, it could be. I mean, it could 484 00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:53,679 Speaker 1: be just like normal matter, just like galaxies and that 485 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,160 Speaker 1: are bright in the same way, but you just can't 486 00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:58,440 Speaker 1: see them very well. And so people, you know, they're 487 00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:01,840 Speaker 1: doing this or pointing our telescopes at this at this 488 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,199 Speaker 1: location and trying to discover is there anything back there. 489 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:07,480 Speaker 1: We've mostly been avoiding that part of this guy because 490 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:09,560 Speaker 1: it's hard to look at. But now because of this 491 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:13,639 Speaker 1: weird gravitational anomally, there are folks pointing their infrared telescopes 492 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:16,159 Speaker 1: at this thing. Okay, so um, it could it be 493 00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:18,280 Speaker 1: like dark matter. It could be a giant blob of 494 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:21,040 Speaker 1: dark matter that we that is just floating out there 495 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:23,640 Speaker 1: by itself. It could be because what we see out 496 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:26,720 Speaker 1: there using infrared telescopes is not enough to explain it. Like, 497 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 1: we definitely see that there are clusters of galaxies out there. 498 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:32,040 Speaker 1: There's a lot of them, in fact, but not enough 499 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:34,920 Speaker 1: to explain this. There are galaxies out there where we're 500 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,400 Speaker 1: aware of the greater attractor would be, but there there 501 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:39,960 Speaker 1: aren't ten thousand galaxies. Yeah, and you know this is 502 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:42,280 Speaker 1: hard to measure, and so there's a lot of uncertainty. Still. 503 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:44,399 Speaker 1: It's not like we have a very clear picture. We 504 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:47,080 Speaker 1: have to use infrared light to penetrate the gas and 505 00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:49,680 Speaker 1: the dust of the Milky Way. It's easier to get 506 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:52,520 Speaker 1: through the Milky Way if your infrared light because you 507 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:54,919 Speaker 1: get through the gas in the dust, which seems small 508 00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 1: relative to your long wavelength right, and you get to 509 00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:01,560 Speaker 1: where those cool infrared goggles too. That's basically why people 510 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:06,119 Speaker 1: doing exactly do they wear while they're doing astronomy? I 511 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:09,159 Speaker 1: wonder they do. Yeah, that and the snacks also are 512 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:14,399 Speaker 1: also good, the bananas and these smoothies. But you know, 513 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:16,679 Speaker 1: as we said before, one of the goals is to 514 00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,000 Speaker 1: sort of make a map of the mass of the galaxy. 515 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:22,120 Speaker 1: And we just can't see enough stuff to explain all 516 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,640 Speaker 1: of this mass, all of this gravity. It's not even 517 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,719 Speaker 1: dark matter, well not even dark matter, because we expect 518 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:30,520 Speaker 1: dark matter to sort of follow the pattern of visible 519 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:34,280 Speaker 1: matter everywhere else in the universe. Galaxies form and stars 520 00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:36,600 Speaker 1: form because there's dark matter there. It makes sort of 521 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:40,520 Speaker 1: these gravitational wells that pull in gas and dust and 522 00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:43,439 Speaker 1: form galaxies, and you expect visible matters sort of give 523 00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:45,639 Speaker 1: you a map for where the dark matter is. So 524 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:47,720 Speaker 1: it would be really weird to have like a huge 525 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:51,760 Speaker 1: amount of extra dark matter, like a ginormous amount, without 526 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:54,240 Speaker 1: as much visible matter with it. It would be weird, 527 00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:57,879 Speaker 1: but not impossible. Maybe like you could thankily maybe have 528 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:00,760 Speaker 1: some dark matter floating by itself. Could Yeah, you could, 529 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:03,360 Speaker 1: and you need some sort of weird event to explain 530 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:06,920 Speaker 1: like why that dark matter hasn't already attracted a bunch 531 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,840 Speaker 1: of gas and dust to make galaxies, to sort of 532 00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:13,359 Speaker 1: give it away, right, it's like stealth dark community pressing. 533 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:17,440 Speaker 1: I'm pressing the button, all right, and you know you 534 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:19,560 Speaker 1: gotta press that aliens button. But to me, the aliens 535 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,600 Speaker 1: button represents something larger, you know, like the things we 536 00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:26,320 Speaker 1: don't understand, the reasons we're doing science, the reasons we 537 00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:29,359 Speaker 1: are interested in exploring the universe is to find the 538 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:31,840 Speaker 1: new weird stuff to sort of add to our list 539 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,760 Speaker 1: of things we have in our great model of the universe. 540 00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:37,080 Speaker 1: It's like it's almost like a mental exercise just to 541 00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:42,479 Speaker 1: keep your mind open to crazy possibilities. Yeah, exactly, you 542 00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:44,360 Speaker 1: want to know what else is out there and you 543 00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:46,800 Speaker 1: want to discover something new, and so first you have 544 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:50,160 Speaker 1: to like cross off the list other possible explanations before 545 00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:52,760 Speaker 1: you're forced to confront the fact that maybe there's something 546 00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:55,320 Speaker 1: new out there that that explains to something you haven't 547 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,800 Speaker 1: ever seen before super dark matter, yeah, or stealthy dark matter, 548 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:05,080 Speaker 1: and yeah, we don't know, and so it could, you know, 549 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:08,760 Speaker 1: potentially be aliens. But it's sort of hard to imagine 550 00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:12,720 Speaker 1: because this is a really really big lump of stuff. Well, 551 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,120 Speaker 1: let's let's take off the other one in your list. 552 00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:18,560 Speaker 1: You said it could be maybe dark energy, not just 553 00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:21,640 Speaker 1: dark matter. Yeah, remember that dark energy is just our 554 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:24,800 Speaker 1: observation of what's happening in the universe. We see that 555 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,840 Speaker 1: the universe is expanding, that space between galaxies is increasing 556 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:31,280 Speaker 1: as new space is made. But that's sort of like 557 00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:34,560 Speaker 1: an average thing. We've sort of measured that overall for 558 00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:38,040 Speaker 1: the universe. But what we don't know is is that uniform. 559 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,200 Speaker 1: Is it the same everywhere? Is the expansion constant and 560 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:44,200 Speaker 1: every point in space or are there like little variations? 561 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: Oh you mean we've been assuming that that the dark 562 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,320 Speaker 1: energy the expansion of the universe is like even and 563 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,880 Speaker 1: smooth everywhere. But you're saying, maybe it's not. Maybe it's 564 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:58,360 Speaker 1: it's like a lumpy, lumpy growth. Yeah. As we first 565 00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:01,520 Speaker 1: measure it, we sort of measure the overall expansion and 566 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:04,240 Speaker 1: we were surprised to discover, you know, wow, it's expanding 567 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,240 Speaker 1: and accelerating. And then as we get better and better measurements, 568 00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:09,480 Speaker 1: we can start to resolve it in more detail and 569 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:12,560 Speaker 1: understand like, is it different in this direction than in 570 00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:16,120 Speaker 1: that other direction? Right, the expansion of the universe. Dark 571 00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: energy is not this kind of smooth even thing. But 572 00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:20,800 Speaker 1: maybe it's like it's growing a little bit more over here, 573 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:22,920 Speaker 1: a little bit growing more over there, or maybe it's 574 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: even like it's it's like folding the universe in weird ways. Yeah, 575 00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:29,520 Speaker 1: this this whole concept of dark flows that maybe dark 576 00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:33,000 Speaker 1: energy is not constant, And we've seen other ideas that 577 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:35,960 Speaker 1: relate to that, like this idea of cosmic strings that 578 00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:38,640 Speaker 1: in the first moments of the universe when it expanded 579 00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:42,600 Speaker 1: really rapidly and cooled, that that cooling didn't happen uniformly 580 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:46,040 Speaker 1: and made these sort of discontinuities in space. So it's 581 00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:48,560 Speaker 1: not the first time we've imagined that maybe space is 582 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:52,200 Speaker 1: not uniform and homogeneous, and so it's possible that this 583 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,080 Speaker 1: is some weird place where there's less dark energy and 584 00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:59,080 Speaker 1: so it's not expanding as much. Interesting pocket of not 585 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,000 Speaker 1: dark energy of you know, where the good side of 586 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,560 Speaker 1: the force is winning of light energy. That's where that's 587 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:10,840 Speaker 1: where all the jedis are. That planet yeah, yeah, which 588 00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:14,320 Speaker 1: full of baby yo. It is where it's so cute 589 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:17,680 Speaker 1: and uh, we're gonna end up attracting everyone anyways, Yeah, 590 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:22,800 Speaker 1: their cuteness is what's defeating. Yeah, that's right. Never underestimate 591 00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:25,000 Speaker 1: the power of cute. All right, So it could be 592 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,880 Speaker 1: dark matter. It could be just a fault in our 593 00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:31,760 Speaker 1: assumption about dark energy. But you're saying it could be 594 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:34,040 Speaker 1: something else. So let's let's go ahead, Daniel, let's press 595 00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:38,800 Speaker 1: the aliens present bund. I know you're itching to present 596 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,400 Speaker 1: in which in what possible way could aliens be casting 597 00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:46,040 Speaker 1: this giant attractor in the in the in the galaxy? 598 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:49,040 Speaker 1: All right? So I have this crazy idea, right and 599 00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,360 Speaker 1: you know, you know that star we talked about before 600 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:55,400 Speaker 1: Tabby Star where people were speculating that maybe because the 601 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:59,160 Speaker 1: light was dimming and unusual regular ways, that aliens were 602 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:01,840 Speaker 1: building a shield around the sort of gather up all 603 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:05,200 Speaker 1: of its energy at Dyson sphere. That was pretty exciting. 604 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:07,680 Speaker 1: But I have an idea that's sort of like ten 605 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:12,960 Speaker 1: quadrillion times bigger than that. What yeah, what if aliens 606 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:16,880 Speaker 1: are building something and it's just like but it's huge. 607 00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:19,600 Speaker 1: It's not just like a spear a star, but it's 608 00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,720 Speaker 1: like something the mass of ten quadrillion sons. You're saying 609 00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,480 Speaker 1: the aliens have built like a city or a spaceship 610 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,800 Speaker 1: the size of ten tho galaxies. Yeah, who knows what 611 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:32,080 Speaker 1: it is they're building, Like, we have no idea what 612 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:34,920 Speaker 1: aliens would build, but if they were, you know, they 613 00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:38,000 Speaker 1: wouldn't build something that's glowing with like giving off light 614 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:40,880 Speaker 1: and shining. It would be dark, right they be they 615 00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:45,760 Speaker 1: painted black to try to for some the fairious reason, 616 00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:48,680 Speaker 1: you know. Or maybe they're just gonna throw us a 617 00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:51,320 Speaker 1: surprise party and they just want to sneak up on us, 618 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:55,800 Speaker 1: and so they just a giant billboard for us, saying 619 00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:00,880 Speaker 1: with a huge cuban for Freeman in a smooth Yeah, 620 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:03,680 Speaker 1: there you go for life, for a turn life. But 621 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,640 Speaker 1: it's hard to imagine what you could build that would 622 00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:09,000 Speaker 1: be that big. But hey, you know, the universe has 623 00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:12,040 Speaker 1: filled with crazy stuff and it's been around for billions 624 00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:15,200 Speaker 1: of years before our solar system was even formed. So 625 00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:18,560 Speaker 1: maybe this is a very old construction project and the 626 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:21,720 Speaker 1: Aliens are out there building something so big that it 627 00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:26,280 Speaker 1: sucks in whole galaxies. It's it's bending galaxies to their 628 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,440 Speaker 1: whim kind of. Yeah, maybe it's just a big art 629 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,360 Speaker 1: project for them. They're like, yeah, we don't like the 630 00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,880 Speaker 1: way these clusters look. They need a little bit more 631 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:38,560 Speaker 1: shapeliness to them. It's a huge black space banana. Is 632 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:41,080 Speaker 1: that what you're thinking? You have the space banana button 633 00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,320 Speaker 1: on your desk. Yeah, there you go. I have a 634 00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:46,840 Speaker 1: Brad Pitt bun here and a banana button, one on 635 00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:48,720 Speaker 1: each side of mine. Don't press them at the same 636 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:55,320 Speaker 1: time across the streams or let's just press all three 637 00:33:55,320 --> 00:34:03,480 Speaker 1: at the same time. All right. Um, so, maybe aliens 638 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:05,920 Speaker 1: have build something the size of ten thousand galaxies and 639 00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:08,760 Speaker 1: that's what it's um training, but is that even possible? 640 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:10,520 Speaker 1: Could you build something that big and not how it 641 00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:13,960 Speaker 1: just collapse into a black hole or or who knows? Well, 642 00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:16,600 Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure those alien engineers can solve that problem. 643 00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:18,920 Speaker 1: But this is where the movie pitch begins. You know. 644 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,120 Speaker 1: I want to see the movie where aliens make something 645 00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:24,799 Speaker 1: the size of ten quadrillion sons the city of ten 646 00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:29,720 Speaker 1: thousand galaxies. That's the title Star Star Wars, Episode fifteen 647 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:33,560 Speaker 1: of ten thousand Galaxies. Somebody out there, contact our agent. 648 00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:36,799 Speaker 1: We are ready to write that movie. We're right, We're 649 00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:40,840 Speaker 1: ready to write any screenplay. Really, that's true too. We 650 00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:44,680 Speaker 1: just want that option money, alright. So those are all 651 00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:46,719 Speaker 1: possibly for what it could be, and it sounds like 652 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:50,120 Speaker 1: we don't really know, But I guess the question is 653 00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:52,719 Speaker 1: what's going to happen? Are we all going to end up? 654 00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:56,000 Speaker 1: Is the whole universe or the whole cluster of galaxies 655 00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,160 Speaker 1: gonna end up getting sucked into it? Or we are? 656 00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:00,960 Speaker 1: Is this this is going to spell the the end 657 00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:04,440 Speaker 1: of of our existence? Or or is there a sunny 658 00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:06,400 Speaker 1: side to all of this? Well, it's a fair question 659 00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:10,040 Speaker 1: because one reason we're interested in sort of mapping where 660 00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:12,279 Speaker 1: stuff is and where it's going is that we'd like 661 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:15,480 Speaker 1: to know what the future of our galaxy is. You know, 662 00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:17,319 Speaker 1: we know that we're going to hit Andromeda in a 663 00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:20,040 Speaker 1: few billion years, but it's sort of the larger context 664 00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:21,759 Speaker 1: of what's going to happen to our local group and 665 00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:25,120 Speaker 1: are we all getting sucked into this massive alien vacuum 666 00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:27,600 Speaker 1: cleaner or whatever it is they're building. And so the 667 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:29,439 Speaker 1: way to think about it is that there's a sort 668 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,440 Speaker 1: of cosmic battle going on. On one side, you have 669 00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:35,920 Speaker 1: dark energy that's trying to pull everything apart, that's creating 670 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:40,040 Speaker 1: new space between stuff and making everything further and further apart. 671 00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:43,319 Speaker 1: And on the other hand, you have gravity that's doing 672 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:46,080 Speaker 1: its best to keep stuff together. You know, it's keeping 673 00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:48,560 Speaker 1: the Earth going around the Sun's keeping our Sun in 674 00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:50,960 Speaker 1: the Milky Way, and it's trying to keep our group 675 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,080 Speaker 1: of galaxies together. So it's just cosmic tug of war 676 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:58,440 Speaker 1: between the two man it's like the ultimate cosmic struggle, 677 00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:02,440 Speaker 1: you know, order it's just us, you know, nothings versus something. Yeah, 678 00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:05,200 Speaker 1: it totally is, and we're watching it play out on 679 00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:08,839 Speaker 1: this cosmic scale, those sort of super slow motion And 680 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:11,799 Speaker 1: the answer, unfortunately or unfortunately, I'm not sure, is that 681 00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:15,320 Speaker 1: dark energy is much more powerful. What is that? Your favorite? 682 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:17,319 Speaker 1: Is that where your money is? Are you? Are you 683 00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:20,640 Speaker 1: on the dark side, Daniel? Are you officially stepping into 684 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:23,440 Speaker 1: the dark side? Well, you know, the dark side forever 685 00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:25,600 Speaker 1: will dominate our destiny. I mean, we live in a 686 00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:29,560 Speaker 1: dark side universe because dark energy is seventy of the 687 00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:33,000 Speaker 1: energy budget of the universe and it just can't be 688 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,319 Speaker 1: beat by this little piddally gravity. W Well, I do 689 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,360 Speaker 1: like the lightning bolts coming out of your hands, my 690 00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,800 Speaker 1: hands here, So there's a plus to joining the dark side. 691 00:36:43,239 --> 00:36:46,959 Speaker 1: You've got lumpy banana smoothies and lightning bolts. Yeah, and 692 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:49,439 Speaker 1: maybe at the same time, yeah, maybe at the same time. 693 00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:51,960 Speaker 1: So dark energy is definitely gonna win. It's going to 694 00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:54,239 Speaker 1: pull things apart. But you're telling me that maybe we 695 00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:56,920 Speaker 1: don't know what dark energy is going to do, right, 696 00:36:56,960 --> 00:36:58,759 Speaker 1: Like it could just maybe give up one day and 697 00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:01,239 Speaker 1: then gravity will win. You think dark energy has been 698 00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:04,080 Speaker 1: like conquering the universe for five billion years and then 699 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:06,960 Speaker 1: it just gets bored of winning. I think it peaked already. 700 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:09,120 Speaker 1: Know so much winning, you're gonna get tired of it. 701 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,839 Speaker 1: It's gotta it's gotta to retire at some point, you know. Well, 702 00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:16,680 Speaker 1: you know gravity is very patient. It waits around forever 703 00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:19,319 Speaker 1: and gathering stuff together. So maybe it's just waiting. It's 704 00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,160 Speaker 1: biding its time until the dark force gives up. Because 705 00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:25,919 Speaker 1: as far as we know, gravity hasn't changed like dark energy. 706 00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:28,640 Speaker 1: We know gravity dark energy has changed right since the 707 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:32,120 Speaker 1: beginning of time. But that's true. Gravity has remained rock steady, 708 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,080 Speaker 1: that's true. Dark energy, we think is maybe connected to 709 00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:38,640 Speaker 1: inflation the first few moments of the universe and cosmic expansion, 710 00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:41,560 Speaker 1: and then it's sort of bided its time for ten 711 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:44,799 Speaker 1: billion years while things spread out, and then all the 712 00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:47,200 Speaker 1: matter was so dilute that dark energy had a chance 713 00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:49,560 Speaker 1: to take over and and drive the expansion of the 714 00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:51,880 Speaker 1: universe again. But you're right, we don't know the mechanism 715 00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:54,200 Speaker 1: and so we don't know the future of it. But 716 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:56,759 Speaker 1: it seems to me the most likely thing is that 717 00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:59,400 Speaker 1: dark energy wins and the universe spreads out and we 718 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,320 Speaker 1: end up as the is like tiny little crystalline points 719 00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:05,520 Speaker 1: of light, super far away from everything else, and the 720 00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,680 Speaker 1: night sky just gets darker and darker. Well, I'm trying 721 00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:10,640 Speaker 1: to look at the bright side. Maybe you know, if 722 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:13,640 Speaker 1: you were born, or if a civilization starting in one 723 00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:16,160 Speaker 1: of those planets where they can only see they don't 724 00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:18,640 Speaker 1: see any stars out there, then they would think that 725 00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:21,560 Speaker 1: they are the only living beings in the entire universe, 726 00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:24,200 Speaker 1: or that their whole universe was just them. Yeah, a 727 00:38:24,239 --> 00:38:27,000 Speaker 1: hundred years ago, we thought that our galaxy was the 728 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:29,719 Speaker 1: whole universe. We didn't even know there were other galaxies 729 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:33,080 Speaker 1: out there. It was mind blowing sort of paradigm shift 730 00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:35,759 Speaker 1: learning about our context to discover that there were other 731 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,480 Speaker 1: galaxies and lots of them. But you're right, if we 732 00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:41,000 Speaker 1: came along late enough, we would learn that we would 733 00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:43,520 Speaker 1: think that our galaxy was special. Okay, so it doesn't 734 00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:46,040 Speaker 1: sound like you're too worried about the great attractor or 735 00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:51,200 Speaker 1: the shape lea attractor or the super duper shapelier attractor, 736 00:38:51,239 --> 00:38:52,880 Speaker 1: which I just made. All this stuff is going to 737 00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:55,160 Speaker 1: happen in billions of years anyway, and so you know 738 00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:58,120 Speaker 1: our sun is going to explode in billions of years. 739 00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:01,960 Speaker 1: So before that happens, we got other problems to solve. Oh, 740 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:05,040 Speaker 1: I see, I guess maybe, Um, I'm just worried for 741 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:08,480 Speaker 1: the galaxy in general. You're a galaxy stand you're a 742 00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:12,400 Speaker 1: Milky Way supporter. Yeah, you know, I'm a fan of it. 743 00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:14,640 Speaker 1: It's done good for you. I've grown I've grown fond 744 00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:17,600 Speaker 1: of this galaxy. But you're saying it's not it's probably 745 00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:20,000 Speaker 1: it's probably not going to get crunched into this great attractor. 746 00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:24,239 Speaker 1: You know, it's going to shape the how things move 747 00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:26,279 Speaker 1: and how things look, but maybe it's not going to 748 00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:29,200 Speaker 1: crunch it all together. Yeah. In the cosmic scale, all 749 00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:32,480 Speaker 1: these vectors we're talking about, these velocities or everything is 750 00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:35,799 Speaker 1: getting pulled towards a great attractor. These are small corrections 751 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,920 Speaker 1: to what dark energy is already doing. It's helpful in 752 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:41,120 Speaker 1: the sense of like using gravity to give us a 753 00:39:41,160 --> 00:39:43,279 Speaker 1: map for where the mass and the gravity is in 754 00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:45,840 Speaker 1: the universe. But in the end, it's not the most 755 00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:49,239 Speaker 1: powerful thing. And you know, our supercluster just doesn't have 756 00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:52,480 Speaker 1: enough gravity to it to hold itself together. Dark energy 757 00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:54,359 Speaker 1: is going to tear it apart. All right, I'm gonna 758 00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:57,640 Speaker 1: press a bunce again, Daniel. I think it's aliens building 759 00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:05,200 Speaker 1: something to fight dark energy. Maybe, Yeah, they're like dark energy, 760 00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:08,319 Speaker 1: it's spreading everything apart. Let's bring it all back together. Yeah, 761 00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:10,480 Speaker 1: it could be. And you know, it could be that 762 00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:13,479 Speaker 1: human physicists figure out a way somehow to like tap 763 00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:17,080 Speaker 1: into dark energy and use it to build wormholes between 764 00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:20,160 Speaker 1: galaxies and so that even if the universe gets really 765 00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:23,040 Speaker 1: spread out, we could still somehow travel to other stars. 766 00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,640 Speaker 1: Who knows. All right, well, we hope that that answers 767 00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:27,880 Speaker 1: the question for Stephen and for Mike and Neal and 768 00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:31,239 Speaker 1: Peter and everyone who asked this question. Pretty interesting. It 769 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:34,960 Speaker 1: sounds like there are still giant, big, attractive mysteries out 770 00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:37,960 Speaker 1: there in space. Yeah, we are only beginning to explore 771 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,799 Speaker 1: the universe and discover the weird stuff that's out there 772 00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:43,920 Speaker 1: and trying to fit our models for everything we understand 773 00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:46,279 Speaker 1: to it and then you know, add to it, add 774 00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:49,640 Speaker 1: new stuff to it. New baby Yoda's, new aliens, building 775 00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:54,080 Speaker 1: cosmic cities, new banana smoothie flavors, and baby bread pits 776 00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:59,440 Speaker 1: are probably also pretty cute. Um. And so it's an 777 00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:01,760 Speaker 1: exciting time I'm to be looking out into the universe 778 00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:05,000 Speaker 1: and learning about what's out there, because every year, every decade, 779 00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:08,400 Speaker 1: there are tremendous mind blowing discoveries to just change the 780 00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:11,400 Speaker 1: way we think about what's out there. So stay tuned. 781 00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:14,920 Speaker 1: I guess it is the message, because who knows what 782 00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:19,160 Speaker 1: the universe will do. Keep funding astronomy is giving us 783 00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:21,520 Speaker 1: clues as to where we are and where we're going. 784 00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:27,880 Speaker 1: That's right. Donate to the NSFW for to support this 785 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:31,799 Speaker 1: kind of banana projects. It wouldn't be bananas to do. 786 00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:41,840 Speaker 1: So see you next time. Before you still have a 787 00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:45,359 Speaker 1: question after listening to all these explanations, please drop us 788 00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:47,480 Speaker 1: a line. We'd love to hear from you. You can 789 00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:50,880 Speaker 1: find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Daniel and 790 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:54,520 Speaker 1: Jorge that's one word, or email us at Feedback at 791 00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:58,000 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge dot com. Thanks for listening, and remember 792 00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:00,920 Speaker 1: that Daniel and Jorge explained the universe is a production 793 00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,480 Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. From more podcast from my heart Radio, 794 00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:08,200 Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever 795 00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:11,440 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. H