1 00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:11,799 Speaker 1: Hey or hey, I have a physics version of would 2 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 1: you rather? 3 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 2: Well, oh, I'd rather not play? 4 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:20,079 Speaker 1: Not an option today? So would you rather be blown 5 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:22,919 Speaker 1: up in a supernova or crushed in a black hole? 6 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:25,560 Speaker 2: Well, if I fell into a black hole, there would 7 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 2: be time dilation, so it sounds like it would take forever. 8 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:32,360 Speaker 2: So maybe I'll go with a supernova, nice and quick. 9 00:00:33,479 --> 00:00:36,760 Speaker 1: All right? Next one, would you rather be eaten by 10 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:41,320 Speaker 1: aliens or live your life never knowing if aliens exist? 11 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:43,920 Speaker 2: I would pick live my life over and being eaten 12 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 2: by anything, aliens or otherwise. 13 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:51,600 Speaker 1: Wrong answer, wrong answer. Next one, would you rather keep 14 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:53,840 Speaker 1: playing this game or start the podcast? 15 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 2: I'll pick the supernova again. Please, I'm crushed just trying 16 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:00,000 Speaker 2: to blow this up. 17 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:15,360 Speaker 1: Hi. 18 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:18,240 Speaker 2: I'm hoorhamy cartoonist and the creator of PhD comics. 19 00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 1: Hi I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist and a professor 20 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,039 Speaker 1: at UC Irvine, and I would rather be eaten by 21 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: aliens than never know if they exist for real. 22 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:28,840 Speaker 2: Well, I guess if you get do you get to 23 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 2: choose when you get eaten by aliens? You know, if 24 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:34,959 Speaker 2: you can choose to get it done right before you're 25 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:38,120 Speaker 2: gonna die of natural causes. Maybe that's okay, but like 26 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:40,200 Speaker 2: right now, you would make that choice right now. 27 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:43,000 Speaker 1: I think this game is all about those loopholes, like 28 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: when people are planning for end of life, like do 29 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: you want to get buried or do you want to 30 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:48,240 Speaker 1: get cremated. I'm going to fill out a box that 31 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: says I want to get eaten by aliens. But yeah, 32 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: it'd be nice if they waited till after I already 33 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:54,960 Speaker 1: died of natural causes. Then you know, hey, barbecue me 34 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:56,400 Speaker 1: for the alien pot luck. That's fine. 35 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:59,240 Speaker 2: You gotta be careful, though, do you mean like extraterrestrial 36 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:04,240 Speaker 2: aliens or people who are you know, alien alien to 37 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 2: your life or to your city? 38 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:09,080 Speaker 1: You know what, I'm not gonna be around, so I 39 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 1: guess it doesn't really matter. 40 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:11,960 Speaker 2: Oh you're gonna be around as you're getting in. 41 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:15,640 Speaker 1: As long as I get to learn about the aliens 42 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:18,320 Speaker 1: while I'm still alive, nothing else really matters. 43 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 2: Oh boy. Anyways, Welcome to our podcast Daniel and Jorge 44 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:26,920 Speaker 2: Explain the Universe, a production of iHeartRadio in which. 45 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 1: We take great pains and great sacrifices to try to 46 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:33,760 Speaker 1: explain the nature of the universe to you. We cast 47 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,280 Speaker 1: our minds out into that dark cosmic mystery and wonder 48 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 1: what's out there, who's out there, what's going on out there, 49 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 1: how big is it? Is it still sloshing around, and 50 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:47,160 Speaker 1: what will be its final fate. We want to understand 51 00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:50,760 Speaker 1: the cosmic context of our very existence because it drives 52 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 1: the choices we make every day about whether or not 53 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: we sign ourselves up to be part of an alien barbecue. 54 00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 2: That's right. It is a humongous universe full of amazing 55 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,840 Speaker 2: and awesome things out there that may kill you or 56 00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:06,960 Speaker 2: eat you, and or inspire you to learn more about 57 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:09,840 Speaker 2: the universe and the cosmos and how everything works in it. 58 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:12,920 Speaker 1: And it's part of this sort of incredible mental history, 59 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,960 Speaker 1: the trajectory of our sort of mental map of the cosmos. 60 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:20,120 Speaker 1: You know, it started out pretty small, your little village, 61 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 1: your neighborhood, eventually expanded to be a larger and larger region. 62 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:27,840 Speaker 1: Finally people started incorporating the cosmos into it, this mental 63 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:29,960 Speaker 1: picture of the whole universe that we were in. But 64 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:33,120 Speaker 1: it just gets bigger and bigger as we understand where 65 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:35,840 Speaker 1: our solar system sits and where our galaxy sits, and 66 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: as our telescopes get more and more powerful, we can 67 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:42,520 Speaker 1: now understand even further the context of our cosmic neighborhood. 68 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, it used to be there. Our context was pretty 69 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:48,240 Speaker 2: much like the Earth, and people thought that the Sun 70 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 2: and the moon and the stars all revolved around the Earth. 71 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:54,839 Speaker 2: People thought that the entire universe was just us. 72 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 1: Yeah. I was reading about ancient Chinese astronomy and they 73 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: even calculated like how far away the stars were. They 74 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,000 Speaker 1: thought it was something like twenty seven thousand miles above 75 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:04,440 Speaker 1: the Earth. 76 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:05,480 Speaker 2: Oh, that's pretty close. 77 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:10,160 Speaker 1: And the Greeks thought that everything moved in like literal 78 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:14,240 Speaker 1: crystal spheres around the Earth. That was the original ether. 79 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:17,679 Speaker 2: Interesting, now, Daniel, do we know for sure that's not true? 80 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:20,520 Speaker 2: Do you know for sure that's not true. 81 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:23,640 Speaker 1: I mean, we've sent probes out there to visit these things, 82 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:26,480 Speaker 1: so we're pretty sure there are no crystal spheres out 83 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: there moving the planets. 84 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:31,440 Speaker 2: By we mean the perverurial we but have you gone 85 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:33,400 Speaker 2: up there and touched these that made sure there's no 86 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 2: crystal spheres. 87 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:36,080 Speaker 1: I'm going to take NASA's word for it, you know, 88 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:38,919 Speaker 1: for sure. I'm not part of the conspiracy community that 89 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:41,440 Speaker 1: thinks NASA's been lying to us all these years. 90 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:43,680 Speaker 2: You know, part of the crystal sphere conspiracy. 91 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:48,360 Speaker 1: I'm sure there's a group of crystal truthists out there. 92 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:51,360 Speaker 2: You know, part of the China was right theory. 93 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:55,559 Speaker 1: No, but the Chinese did make a lot of really 94 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:59,120 Speaker 1: amazing observations. You know, we have like records of eclipses 95 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:02,480 Speaker 1: dating back foulands of years from China and observations is 96 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,560 Speaker 1: like super nova from almost a thousand years ago. So 97 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:09,159 Speaker 1: it's a really rich history of astronomical observations, some of 98 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:12,640 Speaker 1: which are still relevant to our studies today. Is incredible. 99 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:14,799 Speaker 2: Oh, it's pretty cool. Yeah, because, as you were saying, 100 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:18,479 Speaker 2: our understanding of where or and how we fit in 101 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:21,200 Speaker 2: this universe keeps growing and growing, and it seems like 102 00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:24,480 Speaker 2: each time we just get more and more insignificant with 103 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:25,320 Speaker 2: each step. 104 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,400 Speaker 1: But we become more and more aware of that significance, 105 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:32,240 Speaker 1: which makes us sort of like philosophically more important. Right, 106 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:35,640 Speaker 1: We're like incorporating more of the universe into our minds. 107 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:40,080 Speaker 2: No, that makes no sense. We're insignificant specs in this 108 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:41,000 Speaker 2: giant universe. 109 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 1: But it's better to know about your insignificance because then 110 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:46,600 Speaker 1: you've gained some philosophical stature. 111 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:48,480 Speaker 2: Like being know where you're being in by aliens doesn't help. 112 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 2: The fact that you're being eaten by. 113 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:53,040 Speaker 1: Eight still makes it worth. It still makes it worth. 114 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:57,880 Speaker 2: In fact, that makes it worse. But it does seem 115 00:05:57,920 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 2: like we are getting smaller and smaller in the sumer 116 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:03,640 Speaker 2: And literally that's true, right because every year, every second 117 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:06,920 Speaker 2: of the day, the universe, or our understanding of how 118 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:08,279 Speaker 2: big it is, keeps getting bigger. 119 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: Right, it does. And even though we cannot explore the 120 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:14,599 Speaker 1: far flung edges of the observable universe, we can build 121 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 1: this mental model, this sort of map of our neighborhood 122 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:20,560 Speaker 1: that tells us where we are in this glittering cosmos. 123 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:23,479 Speaker 1: And so even though no human will probably visit those 124 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:26,520 Speaker 1: planets or visit those stars, we can still tell you 125 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:28,839 Speaker 1: something about what's going on out there. And to me 126 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:31,839 Speaker 1: that's incredible. Yes, we are probably trapped on this rock 127 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,840 Speaker 1: or our neighboring rocks, but still we can build this 128 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:38,080 Speaker 1: map of the cosmos, we can understand something about it. 129 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,039 Speaker 1: And to me, that's a great achievement sort of intellectually 130 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:43,560 Speaker 1: and scientifically, and what I'm pretty proud of. 131 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:46,240 Speaker 2: Yeah, again, I think you're using the proverbial we there, 132 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:51,000 Speaker 2: you're proud of the work of others. Let's be honest here. 133 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:53,760 Speaker 1: No, I'm standing on the shoulders of many, many giants, 134 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: and I'm proud of their work. Absolutely, I'm not personally 135 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:00,279 Speaker 1: taking credit for our understanding of the universe in case 136 00:07:00,279 --> 00:07:01,599 Speaker 1: anybody misunderstood, But. 137 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:03,719 Speaker 2: At least we're helping, I guess talk about what they've 138 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:07,160 Speaker 2: done and disseminate this information out to others. And it's 139 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 2: interesting when you say like that we might never reach 140 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:11,640 Speaker 2: those places that we're seeing far far away. I'm wonder 141 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 2: if that's really true. I guess that's true because our 142 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:16,640 Speaker 2: view of the universe expanding at the speed of light, 143 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:20,280 Speaker 2: and there's no way that humans could outpacete that. Right. 144 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing we can see things that are moving 145 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:25,440 Speaker 1: away from us faster than the speed of light. A 146 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:27,800 Speaker 1: bunch of listeners wrote in and asked, like, how does 147 00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: that work? We have a whole episode covering it, but briefly, 148 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:33,840 Speaker 1: the thing to understand when you're looking at an object 149 00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:35,960 Speaker 1: and they tell you, oh, this thing is thirty billion 150 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:38,400 Speaker 1: years away and it's moving away from us faster than 151 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:40,360 Speaker 1: the speed of light, is that you're not seeing it 152 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,120 Speaker 1: where it is now. They're telling you where it is now. 153 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:45,520 Speaker 1: But you're seeing the light that was emitted from it 154 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:47,840 Speaker 1: when it was much much closer. So it used to 155 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:50,080 Speaker 1: be much closer, and it's sent a photon our way. 156 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:53,040 Speaker 1: In the meantime, it's moved really really far away. When 157 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:55,120 Speaker 1: they say here, we're looking at a galaxy that's really 158 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: really far away, we're not seeing light that came to 159 00:07:57,520 --> 00:07:59,920 Speaker 1: us from it when it was that far away. Were 160 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,120 Speaker 1: seeing light that came to us when it was much 161 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:05,360 Speaker 1: much closer. Light that leaves it now we will never see, 162 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:07,800 Speaker 1: which means also we will never visit it. 163 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:11,280 Speaker 2: Mmm. Yeah, Because the universe is expanding faster and faster 164 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:14,160 Speaker 2: every time, every second of the day. Although we don't 165 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:15,680 Speaker 2: know what's going to happen in the future right, it 166 00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:18,320 Speaker 2: could be that in the far distant future or maybe tomorrow, 167 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:20,720 Speaker 2: the universe might decide, Hey, I think I'm going to 168 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:23,080 Speaker 2: stop growing and I'm going to collapse back on myself, 169 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:26,200 Speaker 2: and in which case, we're going to basically visit every 170 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:27,679 Speaker 2: place in the universe at some point. 171 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:29,840 Speaker 1: Yeah, or they're going to come visit us and they're 172 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:31,880 Speaker 1: going to bring with them all their aliens, with all 173 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:33,120 Speaker 1: their barbecue. 174 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:35,840 Speaker 2: Tools, all their appetites. Well, maybe the big joke is 175 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:37,560 Speaker 2: that in the end, the universe eats us. 176 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:37,760 Speaker 3: All. 177 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:40,880 Speaker 1: Well, we are the universe, so I guess the universe 178 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: eats itself. I'm not sure how that works. 179 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:44,640 Speaker 2: Whoa dude. 180 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:47,720 Speaker 1: And even though we are learning that we are a 181 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:50,679 Speaker 1: tiny speck in a vast, vast cosmos, I think it 182 00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:54,240 Speaker 1: does make us sort of like philosophically or intellectually more 183 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:57,400 Speaker 1: powerful to have grappled with that vast cosmos. It's better 184 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:00,640 Speaker 1: at least than being ignorant of what's going on right right? 185 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:03,120 Speaker 2: But don't they say ignorance is bliss Sometimes? 186 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:08,000 Speaker 1: Who's looking for bliss? Man, I'm looking for knowledge. 187 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:11,240 Speaker 2: Maybe that's the difference between you and me and Daniel. 188 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:12,480 Speaker 2: I'll go for bliss any day. 189 00:09:12,679 --> 00:09:15,880 Speaker 1: Okay, Well, I'm glad we can split the tasks. But 190 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:18,320 Speaker 1: it's also fun to think about that far future you 191 00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:21,360 Speaker 1: were talking about and wondering, like, what does the future hold? 192 00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:24,079 Speaker 1: Will our solar system survive for our billion years? Will 193 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:27,360 Speaker 1: our galaxy survive for ten billion years? What exactly is 194 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 1: going to happen to our cosmic neighborhood over cosmic deep time? Yeah? 195 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:34,160 Speaker 2: Because, as we mentioned, the universe is expanding faster and 196 00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:37,559 Speaker 2: faster and faster and that has some pretty dramatic consequences 197 00:09:37,559 --> 00:09:40,520 Speaker 2: for some of the bigger structures in the universe. And 198 00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:42,679 Speaker 2: so today on the podcast we'll be tackling the question 199 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:53,079 Speaker 2: will our super cluster be torn apart? Sounds kind of sad. 200 00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:55,600 Speaker 1: Like a chunk of juicy barbecue. 201 00:09:56,280 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 2: Well, wow, who would eat a giant supercluster galaxies. 202 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:05,400 Speaker 1: Some giant super space crab? I suppose, Oh boy? 203 00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:09,000 Speaker 2: And how big does the barbecue sauce bottle need to be? Well, 204 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:11,080 Speaker 2: this is an interesting question and so we'll dig into 205 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:14,360 Speaker 2: it of what a supercluster is, what does it mean 206 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:16,080 Speaker 2: for it to be torn apart? And what could be 207 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:18,320 Speaker 2: causing it to be torn apart? But as usual, we 208 00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:21,000 Speaker 2: were wondering how many people had considered these words together 209 00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:23,600 Speaker 2: as a question out there in the internet. 210 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:26,319 Speaker 1: So thanks very much to everybody who participates in this 211 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:29,360 Speaker 1: segment of our podcast. It's super fun for us to 212 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:31,960 Speaker 1: hear what you're thinking about the topic of the day. 213 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:34,680 Speaker 1: Please don't be shy. If you'd like to participate in 214 00:10:34,679 --> 00:10:38,400 Speaker 1: the future, just write to me to Questions at Danielandjorge 215 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:39,240 Speaker 1: dot com. 216 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:40,959 Speaker 2: So think about it for a second. Do you think 217 00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:44,719 Speaker 2: our supercluster will be torn apart. Here's what people have 218 00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:47,880 Speaker 2: to say. I say no, I believe that dark matter 219 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:51,760 Speaker 2: and dark energy will keep it together, just like it 220 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:54,400 Speaker 2: build the supercluster that we see today. 221 00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 4: Well, our supercluster, if I believe right, is a collection 222 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:03,320 Speaker 4: of galaxy that we're in kind of grouped up. So 223 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:06,000 Speaker 4: if anything, I feel like it would get larger just 224 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:10,360 Speaker 4: by gravitationally attracting other galaxies that are just floating out there. 225 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:13,600 Speaker 3: If I get it right, the galaxies of our supercluster 226 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:19,080 Speaker 3: won't drift apart due to the expansion of the universe, 227 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:21,840 Speaker 3: but they might dive into each other. 228 00:11:22,440 --> 00:11:27,120 Speaker 5: A supercluster is a group of galaxy dark energy. Obviously 229 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:30,400 Speaker 5: he's moving things apart. But I think the galaxy would 230 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:36,280 Speaker 5: stay together, but that galaxies would separate from each other. 231 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:40,720 Speaker 5: So I reckon our supercluster will be torn apart. 232 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:44,640 Speaker 2: All right, Some people are feeling optimistic about our supercluster. 233 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:48,440 Speaker 1: It looks like three to one for our superclusters sticking together. 234 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:50,040 Speaker 1: We got some optimists out there. 235 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:53,400 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, everyone wants to remain I guess in the cluster. 236 00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:56,360 Speaker 1: They want to stay cozy. No one wants to blow 237 00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:56,959 Speaker 1: up our spot. 238 00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:00,720 Speaker 2: Yeah, but I guess some people mentioned gravity us together 239 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:03,840 Speaker 2: instead of letting the supercluster get torn apart, and some 240 00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:06,319 Speaker 2: people mention dark matter as a way to keep things together. 241 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:09,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, and the overall theme here is pretty much spot 242 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:11,840 Speaker 1: on that the universe is in a tug of war 243 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:16,000 Speaker 1: between gravity and dark energy and those things play out 244 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:19,840 Speaker 1: very differently on different distances and different scales. And so 245 00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:22,320 Speaker 1: the fascinating question is like, at what point does dark 246 00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 1: energy win? And where will gravity win? 247 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:28,240 Speaker 2: Who will eat who? Gravity versus dark energy. 248 00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:31,839 Speaker 1: That's like Godzilla versus King Kong. 249 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:36,440 Speaker 2: That's like slow roasted ribs versus grilled chicken. 250 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:38,400 Speaker 1: I'll just eat them both. 251 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:46,760 Speaker 2: Mane sounds good. Well, let's dive into this tasty topic here, 252 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:50,000 Speaker 2: step us through Daniel. What is a supercluster of galaxies? 253 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:53,320 Speaker 1: So a supercluster is the biggest thing in the universe. 254 00:12:53,800 --> 00:12:58,280 Speaker 1: It's the largest structure we think can exist in the universe. 255 00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 1: And this episode is going to hinge closely on what 256 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:04,640 Speaker 1: we mean by a structure. What is a thing in 257 00:13:04,679 --> 00:13:07,240 Speaker 1: the universe? Because you could just look out in space 258 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:09,240 Speaker 1: and say I'm going to group all this stuff together 259 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:10,880 Speaker 1: and call it a thing and give it a name, 260 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:13,640 Speaker 1: the way we sort of do for constellations, But astronomers 261 00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:16,360 Speaker 1: like to think about things in the universe structures as 262 00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:19,400 Speaker 1: things that sort of hold themselves together, that have enough 263 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:23,200 Speaker 1: gravity to be tied together to be an equilibrium. So 264 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:25,960 Speaker 1: in our immediate neighborhood, for example, we think of the 265 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:28,680 Speaker 1: Solar System as a thing. The Earth is going around 266 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:30,920 Speaker 1: the Sun and it's going to keep doing that. Gravity 267 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,200 Speaker 1: is holding the Earth around the Sun and all the 268 00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:35,800 Speaker 1: other planets, So we think of the Solar System as 269 00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:39,360 Speaker 1: a structure, as this gravitationally bound kind of object. 270 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:41,160 Speaker 2: Yeah, because I guess if you think about just the 271 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:43,839 Speaker 2: word structure and what it means in our everyday lives, 272 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:47,880 Speaker 2: it basically just means like things that are clumped together, right, 273 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:50,360 Speaker 2: or that move together, or that can be separated from 274 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:52,920 Speaker 2: each other. And you sort of drill down into it, 275 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:55,520 Speaker 2: like even the house you're sitting on, or the building 276 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:58,240 Speaker 2: you're sitting on, or maybe even the car you're sitting on, 277 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:02,000 Speaker 2: it's just a collection of loose parts being held together 278 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:04,480 Speaker 2: by a force in the universe. Like they're not part 279 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:07,280 Speaker 2: of the same thing. They're individual particles, but there's just 280 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:09,760 Speaker 2: some force that keeps them all moving together. 281 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:11,840 Speaker 1: Yeah, and it feels like a really natural thing. Right 282 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 1: to say I'm held together, I'm a thing. You're held together, 283 00:14:14,920 --> 00:14:17,480 Speaker 1: you're another thing. Even if we're standing next to each other, 284 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:19,560 Speaker 1: it's easy to draw the line between us and say, 285 00:14:19,600 --> 00:14:22,600 Speaker 1: like where I end and you begin. That's sort of philosophically, 286 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:25,440 Speaker 1: very straightforward, and so we imagine maybe that's possible to 287 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:27,560 Speaker 1: do for other stuff too, Right to say, well, here's 288 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:30,120 Speaker 1: one planet and there's another planet, to draw these lines 289 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:32,640 Speaker 1: and say this thing holds itself together, and that thing 290 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:34,840 Speaker 1: holds itself together. So that's sort of the idea of 291 00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:37,200 Speaker 1: a structure, But it can also get kind of fuzzy, 292 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 1: Like when you look up at the sky and you 293 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:42,640 Speaker 1: see a cloud. It's this big blob of vapor. It's 294 00:14:42,640 --> 00:14:44,920 Speaker 1: not really holding itself together. I mean, it looks like 295 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:48,160 Speaker 1: a thing sort of localized and clumped, but it's definitely 296 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:51,000 Speaker 1: not gravitationally holding itself together. It just sort of happens 297 00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:53,440 Speaker 1: to be all in the same place at the same time, 298 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,080 Speaker 1: or like a crowd in a park at lunchtime. Right, 299 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,200 Speaker 1: they all happen to be near each other. They're clumped, 300 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:01,040 Speaker 1: but they're not holding themselves together. So there can be 301 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:03,120 Speaker 1: sometimes things that are like near each other. There are 302 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:04,560 Speaker 1: clumps but not structures. 303 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:08,360 Speaker 2: Interesting, Yeah, crowd is a good example, right, because it 304 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:10,960 Speaker 2: may look like a cluster, or like from a farm, 305 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:13,160 Speaker 2: might look like a clump of things, but really there's 306 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:16,680 Speaker 2: nothing keeping those individual people or structures together. 307 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:16,960 Speaker 3: Right. 308 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:19,320 Speaker 2: They could at any moment just leave the group. 309 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:21,680 Speaker 1: Yeah. Every kindergarten teacher knows that when you try to 310 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 1: take them out on a field trip, right, they can 311 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:26,080 Speaker 1: all just suddenly run in any random direction. 312 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:29,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, Whereas maybe like for the planet Earth, all the 313 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:33,160 Speaker 2: rocks on planet Earth are being kept from flying away 314 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:34,520 Speaker 2: by gravity, by a force. 315 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:36,640 Speaker 1: And it's really fascinating to think about the sort of 316 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:39,080 Speaker 1: levels of structure, right, Like a rock is a structure, 317 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:42,320 Speaker 1: but it's also part of a larger structure the Earth, 318 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:44,880 Speaker 1: and the Earth of course is a structure, but again 319 00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:47,640 Speaker 1: it's part of a larger structure. So we have this 320 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:52,600 Speaker 1: incredible nested hierarchy of structures, which is really fascinating to 321 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:54,960 Speaker 1: think about, like the scale of those things, right, Like 322 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:57,760 Speaker 1: an atom is a structure, You're made of so many 323 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:00,960 Speaker 1: structures on so many levels. Incredible to think about, like 324 00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:04,320 Speaker 1: how organized the universe is, and as a whole group 325 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:06,600 Speaker 1: of philosophers who study this kind of thing and wonder like, 326 00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: why do we have structure of these distances and not 327 00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:11,920 Speaker 1: other distances? And does it bubble up from the fundamental 328 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:14,800 Speaker 1: laws of the universe and all sorts of fascinating philosophical 329 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:17,280 Speaker 1: rabbit holes. But it's also just kind of fun to 330 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:19,600 Speaker 1: figure out, like what is the structure? What is our 331 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,920 Speaker 1: cosmic neighborhood, and so we can like zoom out step 332 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:26,000 Speaker 1: by step and understand how we fit in to this 333 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:28,960 Speaker 1: sort of larger cosmic set of like Russian nesting dolls. 334 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:31,280 Speaker 2: Yeah, because I guess you know, sort of like you 335 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:34,840 Speaker 2: were saying, the atoms in my body make up my structure, 336 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:38,560 Speaker 2: but they're all also kind of being pulled by the 337 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:41,600 Speaker 2: gravity of the earth, right, so like is it more 338 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:44,240 Speaker 2: part of my structure or are all the atoms in 339 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:47,280 Speaker 2: my body more part of the earth structure? And even 340 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:49,320 Speaker 2: like the atoms in my body are being pulled by 341 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,640 Speaker 2: the gravity of the sun. But we wouldn't say, like, hey, 342 00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:54,320 Speaker 2: I'm just me and the sun are one, even though 343 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:57,360 Speaker 2: if you sort of follow the chain of forces that 344 00:16:57,480 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 2: we are sort of in the same structure as the Sun. 345 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:01,920 Speaker 1: Yeah, And so you're part of many structures or you 346 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,200 Speaker 1: could say that there's substructure, right, You could just look 347 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:06,240 Speaker 1: at the whole galaxy and say the galaxy is a blob, 348 00:17:06,320 --> 00:17:09,600 Speaker 1: but obviously it has substructure. It's not just a smooth 349 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:13,520 Speaker 1: distribution of atoms. There are stars and solar systems and 350 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:16,760 Speaker 1: even clumps to those stars. They are like these groups 351 00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:19,959 Speaker 1: of stars are all formed together that are still moving together, 352 00:17:20,119 --> 00:17:22,240 Speaker 1: like that Kindergarten group. So there's sort of lots of 353 00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:26,160 Speaker 1: layers of structure, and it's fascinating to ask, like how 354 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:29,520 Speaker 1: many layers are there? How many layers can we zoom 355 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,560 Speaker 1: out and still see things that seem to be holding 356 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:35,879 Speaker 1: themselves together. So we start with ourselves, and then of 357 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,840 Speaker 1: course we have the Earth, and then there's the solar system, 358 00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:41,560 Speaker 1: and then we zoom out. The next sort of big 359 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,639 Speaker 1: layer of structure would either be like a group of 360 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:47,640 Speaker 1: stars that we all form together with or you would 361 00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:50,000 Speaker 1: zoom all the way out to the galaxy. Because those 362 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:52,400 Speaker 1: groups of stars that form together, they don't really hold 363 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:55,800 Speaker 1: themselves together for very long. They tend to disperse into 364 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:56,480 Speaker 1: the galaxy. 365 00:17:56,800 --> 00:17:59,399 Speaker 2: M do we know that's for sure? Or I mean, like, 366 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:02,120 Speaker 2: do we know which stars are near us? And would 367 00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:04,639 Speaker 2: you say maybe they're too far away for their gravity 368 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:05,679 Speaker 2: to really affect us. 369 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:08,040 Speaker 1: Yeah, other stars are too far away for the gravity 370 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:10,320 Speaker 1: to really affect us. And we all have velocity through 371 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:12,560 Speaker 1: the galaxy, and so we know a lot about actually 372 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:16,160 Speaker 1: how stars dissipate from their original cluster. It can take 373 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:18,719 Speaker 1: tens or hundreds of millions of years, but we definitely 374 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:20,679 Speaker 1: see evidence of that when we look out at the 375 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:24,200 Speaker 1: pattern of the stars in our galaxy. It also helps 376 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:27,439 Speaker 1: us understand how the stars are moving. For example, like 377 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,000 Speaker 1: the Big Dipper is a group of stars that were 378 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:33,000 Speaker 1: all formed together, and they're moving together, but they're also 379 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,680 Speaker 1: moving really fast and they're kind of close by, which 380 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:38,080 Speaker 1: means that the Big Dipper is changing. You don't think 381 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:40,639 Speaker 1: about the constellations as changing very much, but they actually 382 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:42,720 Speaker 1: are all moving. We're not all moving at the same 383 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:45,760 Speaker 1: relative velocity. So like the galaxy is a big, slashing 384 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:48,680 Speaker 1: bathtub of stars. So the Big Dipper changes, and over 385 00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,399 Speaker 1: like one hundred thousand years or a few hundred thousand years, 386 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:54,080 Speaker 1: the Big Dipper will no longer look like the Big Dipper. 387 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:56,480 Speaker 2: Now are they would you say they're a structure or 388 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:59,480 Speaker 2: are they just moving together like a crowd, or like 389 00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:00,760 Speaker 2: a wisp of clouds. 390 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:02,520 Speaker 1: They are not a structure because they're not going to 391 00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:05,720 Speaker 1: hold themselves together. They're not like tight enough to be 392 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:08,399 Speaker 1: a structure. They're definitely going to dissolve into the larger 393 00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:13,040 Speaker 1: sort of bathtub of the galaxy. There are sometimes substructures 394 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:14,920 Speaker 1: to the galaxy, but those tend to be like little 395 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 1: dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way and that have 396 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 1: their own gravitational hold on themselves that haven't gotten pulled 397 00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:24,720 Speaker 1: apart by the Milky Way. But within the Milky Way, 398 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:26,440 Speaker 1: there aren't really those kinds of structures. 399 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:29,400 Speaker 2: So you would say, like after our solar system, the 400 00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:32,639 Speaker 2: next structure is a galaxy. You wouldn't maybe call the 401 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:34,280 Speaker 2: arms of a galaxy a structure. 402 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:37,119 Speaker 1: Well, those are density waves, right. Even the arms of 403 00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:40,199 Speaker 1: the galaxy are not physical structures. It's not like the 404 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:44,119 Speaker 1: same stars are moving through those arms. The arms are 405 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,000 Speaker 1: a wave through the stars. Like when you go to 406 00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:50,040 Speaker 1: a football game and people do the wave. That wave 407 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:52,320 Speaker 1: itself is not a structure. It's just an arrangement of 408 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:54,880 Speaker 1: the people as they move up and down. Galaxy arms 409 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:57,639 Speaker 1: are the same way. They're not physical structures. They're just 410 00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:01,199 Speaker 1: density waves. So they're not actually whole themselves together, just 411 00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:03,399 Speaker 1: like waves in the ocean are not really structures that 412 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:04,359 Speaker 1: I'm bound together. 413 00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:07,920 Speaker 2: And so our solar system, our star is not part 414 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,440 Speaker 2: of a like a mini dwarf galaxy. We're just out 415 00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:12,400 Speaker 2: in the larger Milky Way galaxy. 416 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:15,200 Speaker 1: Yep, we're just floating in the bathtub of the Milky Way, 417 00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:18,359 Speaker 1: along with hundreds of billions of other stars. 418 00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:22,239 Speaker 2: And potentially aliens that might eat us one of us. Right, 419 00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:25,120 Speaker 2: it sounds like a dangerous hot tub. Well, let's dig 420 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:28,119 Speaker 2: into the next level of structure in the universe, and 421 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,240 Speaker 2: let's see how big we can go. How far can 422 00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:34,440 Speaker 2: we add or recognize structure in the universe, and what's 423 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:36,480 Speaker 2: going to happen to all that structure at the end 424 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:39,560 Speaker 2: of time. So let's dig into that. But first let's 425 00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:54,600 Speaker 2: take a quick break. All right, we're asking the question 426 00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:58,320 Speaker 2: will our supercluster be torn apart? Which kind of sounds 427 00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:02,200 Speaker 2: like an oxymoron question or a contradictory question. Well, something 428 00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:04,320 Speaker 2: that's clustered together and not be clustered together. 429 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:07,159 Speaker 1: Yeah, in the end, we're going to learn that astronomers 430 00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:11,000 Speaker 1: are arguing about how to define a supercluster, and some 431 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:14,119 Speaker 1: definitions make the answer obvious, and some definitions make the 432 00:21:14,119 --> 00:21:16,280 Speaker 1: answer to this question very fuzzy. 433 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:19,040 Speaker 2: But we were talking about how you know things, how 434 00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:22,199 Speaker 2: do you define structures? And it seems like sometimes, like 435 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:23,960 Speaker 2: in a cloud or in a crowd, things might look 436 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:26,399 Speaker 2: like they're together, but really they can fall apart at 437 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:28,399 Speaker 2: any point, so you wouldn't call that a structure. But 438 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,080 Speaker 2: like the atoms in your body or the atoms in 439 00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:33,359 Speaker 2: the building or car you're sitting on, they're held together 440 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:37,640 Speaker 2: pretty tightly by forces, and they basically sort of ignore 441 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 2: other forces in favor of the forces that are holding 442 00:21:40,119 --> 00:21:42,280 Speaker 2: them together. And so maybe that's why we call them 443 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:43,000 Speaker 2: a structure. 444 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:45,320 Speaker 1: That's right, And it can be gravitational, or it can 445 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:48,840 Speaker 1: be electromagnetic, or can be the strong force that forms 446 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,720 Speaker 1: these structures, like the proton is a structure of the 447 00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:54,840 Speaker 1: strong force, and the atom is a structure of electromagnetism. 448 00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:58,920 Speaker 1: But at larger distances, basically anything bigger than a few meters, 449 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:02,760 Speaker 1: it's mostly gravity that takes over because the other forces 450 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:05,959 Speaker 1: are so powerful that they tend to neutralize themselves. Anything 451 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,639 Speaker 1: that has a large positive or negative charge is going 452 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:11,520 Speaker 1: to attract the opposite charge and end up neutralizing itself, 453 00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:15,200 Speaker 1: but over the large distances, it's gravity that forms structure 454 00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:19,480 Speaker 1: because gravity cannot be neutralized. Essentially, it's only attractive. There 455 00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:21,720 Speaker 1: are a few scenarios we can talk about with like 456 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:25,320 Speaker 1: repulsive gravity, and dark energy might be an example of that, 457 00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:27,800 Speaker 1: but on the whole, gravity is attractive, and so it's 458 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:30,399 Speaker 1: the force that's responsible for most of the structure we 459 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:31,560 Speaker 1: think about in the universe. 460 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:32,080 Speaker 5: Mmm. 461 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:34,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, Like after about the size of a planet, there's 462 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:37,320 Speaker 2: no other forces really at play in the universe that 463 00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:39,520 Speaker 2: we know of. Maybe there's something hitting out there. Could 464 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:41,200 Speaker 2: dark matter be some kind of new force? 465 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:44,440 Speaker 1: It could in dark energy is definitely in that category. 466 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,600 Speaker 1: We don't know if it's a manifestation of gravity due 467 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,960 Speaker 1: to the quantum energy of space or something totally else 468 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:51,560 Speaker 1: and weird. 469 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:54,240 Speaker 2: All right, Well, we talked about how we're part of 470 00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,080 Speaker 2: a solar system, and the Solar system is part of 471 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:00,000 Speaker 2: a bigger structure called the Milky Way galaxy. 472 00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:02,720 Speaker 1: After that, so the galaxies aren't just like floating out 473 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,240 Speaker 1: in space sprinkled evenly through the universe. They tend to 474 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:08,800 Speaker 1: clump together, and they can clump together into something that 475 00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:12,280 Speaker 1: we call a galactic group or a group of galaxies 476 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:14,440 Speaker 1: in our galaxy, the Milky Way is part of a 477 00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:17,639 Speaker 1: group we call the Local Group very cleverly, and it 478 00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:21,240 Speaker 1: has about fifty ish galaxies in it. The biggest one 479 00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:24,200 Speaker 1: is Andromeda, which is also the nearest one to us. 480 00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:27,160 Speaker 2: And so these are galaxies that are not just neros 481 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,560 Speaker 2: out of convenience. We're actually sort of locked together with 482 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:33,680 Speaker 2: them in some sort of gravitational dance. Right. 483 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:36,639 Speaker 1: Yeah. We think that these galaxies are holding themselves together. 484 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,520 Speaker 1: They're like a single gravitational object. They are orbiting the 485 00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:43,879 Speaker 1: center of mass of all of these galaxies. And people 486 00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:47,159 Speaker 1: hear a lot that the universe is expanding and everything 487 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:49,360 Speaker 1: is getting farther and farther away. And that's true sort 488 00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:51,679 Speaker 1: of on the whole when you look at vast distances, 489 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,440 Speaker 1: but nearby gravity is powerful enough to hold us together, 490 00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:59,360 Speaker 1: and that's happening also with these galaxies. That's why, for example, 491 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:02,960 Speaker 1: we are towards the Andromeda galaxy and in a few 492 00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 1: billion years our galaxy and Andromeda will collide and will 493 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,679 Speaker 1: merge because gravity is winning the battle over the expansion 494 00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:12,560 Speaker 1: of space. So this local group, we think, is a thing. 495 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:16,159 Speaker 1: It's a structure that gravity is powerful enough to hold together. 496 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:18,760 Speaker 2: And now what kind of shape does this local group have? 497 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,000 Speaker 2: Is it like a disk like our solar system or 498 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:22,919 Speaker 2: the galaxy, or is it still kind of like a 499 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:26,200 Speaker 2: fuzzy cloud of things moving in all directions. 500 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:28,960 Speaker 1: It doesn't really have a great shape because it's sort 501 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:32,440 Speaker 1: of weirdly distributed, like there's Andromeda, then there's the Milky Way, 502 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:36,000 Speaker 1: there's another galaxy called the Triangular Galaxy, and the rest 503 00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:38,879 Speaker 1: of it is like a sprinkle of little tiny galaxies. 504 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:41,800 Speaker 1: So they're not like nicely organized into a flat disc 505 00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:44,840 Speaker 1: or anything like that. It's just sort of like a blob. 506 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:47,000 Speaker 2: Or at least not yet. Right, Like, maybe if you 507 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:49,640 Speaker 2: fast forward a few billion years, things will even out 508 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:51,560 Speaker 2: into a disk, because that's what things do in space, 509 00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,640 Speaker 2: they organize themselves into discs, right. 510 00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:56,280 Speaker 1: They do tend to do that if you give them 511 00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,960 Speaker 1: enough time, because they're spinning and gravity will collapse everything 512 00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:02,439 Speaker 1: down eventually, except along the plane of their spin they 513 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,000 Speaker 1: can resist gravity a little bit, which is why they 514 00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:07,439 Speaker 1: end up as disks. So in sort of one direction 515 00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:09,720 Speaker 1: they can collapse, and along the other two dimensions on 516 00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:12,359 Speaker 1: that plane they end up sort of spinning around, which 517 00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:14,119 Speaker 1: is how you get a flat solar system and a 518 00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:17,920 Speaker 1: flat galaxy. Eventually, though, we think that gravity will win, 519 00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:20,080 Speaker 1: that those things will bump against each other and lose 520 00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:24,040 Speaker 1: angular momentum, or they will radiate gravitational waves and lose 521 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:27,600 Speaker 1: that energy. And eventually we think that gravitationally bound objects 522 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:30,840 Speaker 1: will all collapse together, first into one big galaxy and 523 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:33,040 Speaker 1: then eventually just into one big black hole. 524 00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:33,600 Speaker 3: Yit. 525 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,000 Speaker 2: But before that happens, we can see other kinds of structures, right, 526 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:40,119 Speaker 2: bigger structures, So like a group of galaxies can be 527 00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:42,840 Speaker 2: part of a larger kind of thing. 528 00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:45,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, so we call this either a group or a 529 00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:48,240 Speaker 1: cluster of galaxies. And depending on the size, like if 530 00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,919 Speaker 1: there aren't that many galaxies in it, like in hours, 531 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:53,560 Speaker 1: we call it a group. If there are more galaxies 532 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:56,040 Speaker 1: in it, you can call it a cluster. And so nearby, 533 00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:59,159 Speaker 1: for example, is the Virgo cluster. It has more than 534 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:01,919 Speaker 1: a thousand galaxies that are like the Milky Way, so 535 00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:05,119 Speaker 1: it's much much bigger than the local group, and we 536 00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:07,520 Speaker 1: think that is also like an object that has structure, 537 00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:09,800 Speaker 1: we think it's going to hold itself together, that there's 538 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:12,119 Speaker 1: enough gravity to keep itself together. 539 00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:15,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't it pretty amazing to think even at these numbers, 540 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:17,320 Speaker 2: like a thousand. A thousand doesn't sound like a lot, 541 00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:21,160 Speaker 2: But if you imagine a thousand galaxies like the Milky Way, 542 00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:23,880 Speaker 2: that is sort of mind blowing. Right, Like, we think 543 00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:27,040 Speaker 2: our galaxy is pretty huge and we'll probably never get 544 00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:29,520 Speaker 2: to the other side of it, and has billions of stars. 545 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:32,119 Speaker 2: Now imagine there are thousands of these things out there 546 00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:32,560 Speaker 2: in space. 547 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:34,800 Speaker 1: And the thing that blows my mind is the planets. Right, 548 00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:37,199 Speaker 1: even in our galaxy, we know there are hundreds of 549 00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 1: billions of stars, and a significant fraction of those have 550 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:44,000 Speaker 1: Earth like planets. You know, planets about the same size 551 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,000 Speaker 1: with about the same surface temperature. We don't really know 552 00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:49,639 Speaker 1: that much more about them, but like, that's a lot 553 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:53,200 Speaker 1: of Earth like planets. We're talking about tens of billions 554 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:56,040 Speaker 1: just in our galaxy, and now multiply that by a 555 00:26:56,119 --> 00:27:00,240 Speaker 1: thousand for all the galaxies in the Virgo clusters hard 556 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,640 Speaker 1: to keep track of, like all the places aliens could 557 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:04,280 Speaker 1: be sharpening their barbecue tools. 558 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:08,000 Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's not think about that. Yeah, I agree with. 559 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 1: You, But the Virgo cluster is like the biggest thing around. 560 00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,320 Speaker 1: There are other little galaxy groups nearby, Like there's the 561 00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,520 Speaker 1: M eighty one group, and the Sculptor group other little 562 00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:22,120 Speaker 1: groups of galaxies that are sort of in this sort 563 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,639 Speaker 1: of the same size as our group. But the Virgo 564 00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 1: cluster is like the big Papa and Mama galaxy cluster nearby. 565 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,760 Speaker 1: It's like the most massive thing in the nearby universe. 566 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,920 Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting with gravity, I feel, because gravity doesn't 567 00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:37,240 Speaker 2: have a limit, right, Like there's no distance limit for gravity, 568 00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,120 Speaker 2: Like this Virgo cluster is super dup or duper far 569 00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:43,359 Speaker 2: away from us. But technically speaking, like the atoms in 570 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,040 Speaker 2: my body and in your body and everybody's bodies is 571 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:50,680 Speaker 2: being tugged pulled by the gravity of that cluster super 572 00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:51,120 Speaker 2: far away. 573 00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:54,479 Speaker 1: That's right, Everything in the universe technically is pulling on 574 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,280 Speaker 1: you gravitationally. Gravity does have this weakness though, which is 575 00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:01,520 Speaker 1: that its power drops as the dist is squared. So 576 00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:04,360 Speaker 1: if you're twice as far away from something, it's gravity 577 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,880 Speaker 1: goes down by a factor of four. If you're ten 578 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,560 Speaker 1: times further away, then the gravity goes down by a 579 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:11,520 Speaker 1: factor of one hundred. And this gets to be a 580 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,880 Speaker 1: very powerful obstacle to gravity as distances grow large, and 581 00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:18,360 Speaker 1: so the Virgo cluster, even though it's the most massive 582 00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:21,360 Speaker 1: thing in the nearby universe. It's like fifty or sixty 583 00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:26,760 Speaker 1: million light years away. That's a big distance to square, right, 584 00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:29,840 Speaker 1: So its gravity is really tiny, which is why it's 585 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:32,720 Speaker 1: not obvious whether our little group, the local group, and 586 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,439 Speaker 1: the Virgo cluster should be considered as part of some 587 00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:36,440 Speaker 1: larger object. 588 00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:36,840 Speaker 3: Right. 589 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:39,680 Speaker 2: It gets attenuated a lot, it weakened a lot by distance, 590 00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:42,000 Speaker 2: but it's still there, right, Like I feel like like 591 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 2: I'm sensing I have this feeling of like a small 592 00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,240 Speaker 2: tendril of force that pulls me from the atoms in 593 00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:52,800 Speaker 2: my body to the Virgo cluster, right, And it also 594 00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:54,920 Speaker 2: kind of depends like what if the Virgo cluster was 595 00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:59,960 Speaker 2: super duper massive, right, we would eventually feel their gravity. 596 00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:02,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true, and we do feel it's gravity. You're 597 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,120 Speaker 1: absolutely right. I feel like you're just sort of preparing 598 00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:07,040 Speaker 1: an argument for when the aliens come and you're like, 599 00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:09,240 Speaker 1: hey man, we're all part of the same thing, and 600 00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:11,400 Speaker 1: we can feel your gravity, and we do, and we 601 00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:14,360 Speaker 1: can feel that gravity. And there's another way in which 602 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:17,040 Speaker 1: we are connected to those objects. Right now, we're just 603 00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:20,480 Speaker 1: thinking mostly about the stars, the things that shine brightly, 604 00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:23,600 Speaker 1: but there are these filaments that connect us to the 605 00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:27,640 Speaker 1: other galaxies. Like between US and ANDRAMA is not empty space. 606 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:32,160 Speaker 1: There's this filament, this string of both matter like hydrogen atoms, 607 00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,520 Speaker 1: et cetera, and also dark matter. So it's not like 608 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:38,640 Speaker 1: a bunch of dots out in space. These galaxies they're 609 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:42,080 Speaker 1: connected to each other. It's part of some huge cosmic 610 00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,040 Speaker 1: web where the other parts are more invisible because they're 611 00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:45,720 Speaker 1: not glowing. 612 00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:48,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's sort of like a spider's web right the universe. 613 00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:50,360 Speaker 2: Like if you look at a picture of the universe 614 00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:52,640 Speaker 2: and all the stars in it, the stars, even though 615 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,440 Speaker 2: they're pinpoints, they sort of don't look like a random 616 00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:58,600 Speaker 2: white noise. They sort of look like a spider's web kind. 617 00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:02,640 Speaker 1: Of mm hmm. Between those dots there really is stuff. 618 00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:06,320 Speaker 1: You know, galaxies form in certain locations because that happens 619 00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:08,640 Speaker 1: to me where there was a little bit more dark matter. 620 00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,200 Speaker 1: So there's like a blob of dark matter there that's 621 00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:16,000 Speaker 1: gathered together enough light to start fusion going in those stars. 622 00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: But between them there are these filaments of gas and 623 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:22,240 Speaker 1: dark matter still flowing into those halos. So you could 624 00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:24,760 Speaker 1: think about it like a network of lakes with rivers 625 00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:27,800 Speaker 1: flowing into them, still filling them up, So galaxies are 626 00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:32,160 Speaker 1: still gathering dark matter and gas from these filaments. Structure 627 00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:35,840 Speaker 1: there is still sort of forming. Even though fourteen billion 628 00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:38,640 Speaker 1: years have gone by, things are still happening out there 629 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:39,280 Speaker 1: in the universe. 630 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:42,000 Speaker 2: I guess if there's a big cloud of something like 631 00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:44,560 Speaker 2: hydrogen out there in the middle of empty space, gravity 632 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,680 Speaker 2: would be pulling it together, that cloud together into a 633 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 2: smaller cloud, and then our gravity would be and the 634 00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:52,840 Speaker 2: gravity of other clusters would be trying to stuck that 635 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,560 Speaker 2: gas towards them. And so that's why maybe you get 636 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,680 Speaker 2: these tendrils, these sort of like tentacles of gas out 637 00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:00,880 Speaker 2: there in space because they're being straight out and sucked 638 00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:03,000 Speaker 2: and do the different galaxies. 639 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:05,480 Speaker 1: Exactly, And mostly it's the dark matter doing that. Remember, 640 00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:09,040 Speaker 1: we only see the visible matter, but that's twenty percent 641 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,680 Speaker 1: of the matter that's out there, most of the gravity 642 00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:14,520 Speaker 1: in the universe. Most of those tendrils you feel from 643 00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:17,440 Speaker 1: the other cluster are actually from the dark matter in 644 00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:19,960 Speaker 1: that cluster, because that's most of the matter, and so 645 00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,680 Speaker 1: most of the gravity in the universe. Like, the reason 646 00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:25,000 Speaker 1: we have a galaxy here and not somewhere else is 647 00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:28,040 Speaker 1: because there was dark matter to form this structure. It 648 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:30,920 Speaker 1: created this like gravitational well, the sort of lake to 649 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:33,720 Speaker 1: pull all the other rivers of matter into it. 650 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,680 Speaker 2: Cool. Well, after a cluster of galaxies, what's next? 651 00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:40,560 Speaker 1: So what's next is a little bit controversial, and in 652 00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:42,200 Speaker 1: the last ten years or so there's been a lot 653 00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:44,960 Speaker 1: of arguments about it. But there's a group of astronomers 654 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,520 Speaker 1: out there that say that all these clusters, in these 655 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:51,160 Speaker 1: little groups can be gathered together into something bigger called 656 00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:54,960 Speaker 1: a supercluster. The supercluster would take like the Virgo cluster 657 00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:57,840 Speaker 1: and our little group, and a bunch of other things, 658 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:01,000 Speaker 1: including like the Great Attractor and them a cluster, and 659 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:04,960 Speaker 1: the Centauris cluster and many others, into some huge object 660 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,600 Speaker 1: that has like one hundred thousand galaxies in it. 661 00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:11,920 Speaker 2: Right, And this supercluster is called the Lenni Kiak supercluster. Right. 662 00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:15,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a Hawaiian word that means immense heaven, and 663 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:17,840 Speaker 1: it were defined in like twenty fourteen when a bunch 664 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: of astronomers looked at the velocity of all these things 665 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:22,640 Speaker 1: and said, you know what, all these things are sort 666 00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:26,520 Speaker 1: of like falling towards themselves, and there's another blob of 667 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:30,080 Speaker 1: stuff over there that's falling towards themselves, and so they 668 00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:32,080 Speaker 1: figure out how to sort of like draw a line 669 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:35,160 Speaker 1: between one set of blobs and another set of blobs, 670 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,680 Speaker 1: and they said, we're in this blob over here. 671 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:41,360 Speaker 2: M I see. But can you make the mathematical calculation, 672 00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:45,080 Speaker 2: like if you compute the gravity that we're feeling between 673 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:48,520 Speaker 2: these clusters, and does it really work out that you 674 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:53,280 Speaker 2: can group these superclusters as one or is it more 675 00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:55,800 Speaker 2: like an illusion like a wisp of cloud or a 676 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:57,040 Speaker 2: crowd of people in a park. 677 00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:59,680 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly the question, and that's really what we're 678 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,680 Speaker 1: in entering today is what is the future of this supercluster? 679 00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:06,240 Speaker 1: Is it going to hold itself together or is it 680 00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:08,720 Speaker 1: going to get torn apart? Because we've been talking about 681 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,120 Speaker 1: gravity so far, but there's another force at play here, 682 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,200 Speaker 1: and that's dark energy. If it was only gravity, then 683 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,480 Speaker 1: this thing would collapse. Landi Ko would definitely fall into 684 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:21,640 Speaker 1: one big object and maybe form one super galaxy and 685 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:25,280 Speaker 1: one super black hole. There is enough gravity if the 686 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:28,600 Speaker 1: universe wasn't expanding to pull this thing together, like it's 687 00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:32,480 Speaker 1: already right now falling inwards. Everything in the Lanti Kia 688 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:36,840 Speaker 1: supercluster has an overall in falling velocity. But there's another 689 00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:39,160 Speaker 1: player on this stage, right, which is the expansion of 690 00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:42,360 Speaker 1: the universe, and this has a very different behavior as 691 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,600 Speaker 1: distances grow large, like gravity gets weaker and weaker as 692 00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:49,160 Speaker 1: distances grow large, but dark energy, this accelerating expansion of 693 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:52,760 Speaker 1: the universe, gets more powerful as distances grow large. So 694 00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:55,480 Speaker 1: at some point it takes over. There's like a crossover 695 00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:57,560 Speaker 1: point where dark energy starts to win. 696 00:33:57,880 --> 00:33:59,880 Speaker 2: Well, let's stick into that to gives that is the 697 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:02,360 Speaker 2: question of the episode. Now we are in the Lenni 698 00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:05,600 Speaker 2: Kia supercluster, and so the question is is something tearing 699 00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,120 Speaker 2: it apart. It's the biggest structure in the universe, and 700 00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:12,880 Speaker 2: so Danny, you're saying that maybe dark energy is tearing 701 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,800 Speaker 2: it apart, or maybe at least fraying it at the edges. 702 00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:18,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, dark energy is definitely working to tear it apart. 703 00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:20,839 Speaker 1: And listeners right in all the time and ask about 704 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:24,040 Speaker 1: dark energy and have this idea sometimes that dark energy 705 00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:26,880 Speaker 1: is something happening at the edges of the universe, that 706 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:29,520 Speaker 1: there's something pulling on us from the outside, or that 707 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:33,239 Speaker 1: maybe the expansion is only happening out there between galaxies, 708 00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:36,160 Speaker 1: but the expansion is happening everywhere. Every chunk of space 709 00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:39,560 Speaker 1: is expanding. Like the Hubble constant is a measure of 710 00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:43,840 Speaker 1: how fast things are expanding, and it's like seventy kilometers 711 00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:47,040 Speaker 1: per second per megaparsek, which is sort of a hard 712 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:48,680 Speaker 1: thing to get your mind around, but really it just 713 00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:51,720 Speaker 1: means that, like every megaparsec, which is like three light years, 714 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,280 Speaker 1: grows by about seventy kilometers every second, and that happens 715 00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,239 Speaker 1: everywhere in space. If you have a smaller distance, like 716 00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:01,520 Speaker 1: the distance between Earth in the Sun, which is only 717 00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:04,640 Speaker 1: a few tens of millions of miles, it would grow 718 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:08,520 Speaker 1: by a much smaller amount than seventy kilometers every second. 719 00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:11,040 Speaker 1: So that expansion is happening everywhere, but it's sort of 720 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:14,800 Speaker 1: faint and weak. It's not very strong over short distances, 721 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:17,600 Speaker 1: and gravity is strong enough to hold us together against 722 00:35:17,600 --> 00:35:21,080 Speaker 1: this like very weak breeze of dark energy. But then 723 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:24,360 Speaker 1: at large distances, when gravity is weak, dark energy is 724 00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:26,920 Speaker 1: more powerful. It sort of adds up as you get 725 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:30,200 Speaker 1: to these bigger distances, and so for the supercluster, it 726 00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:33,839 Speaker 1: really is an interesting question of whether that's the crossover point. 727 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:37,319 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting to think about. Like even here in 728 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:40,120 Speaker 2: the room where I'm at, and the room where you are, 729 00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:42,520 Speaker 2: and where our listeners are. If you just stare at 730 00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:45,560 Speaker 2: your hand, like the space that your hand is occupying 731 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:49,839 Speaker 2: is expanding, it's getting trying to like pull your hand 732 00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:51,680 Speaker 2: apart in a way, except that your hand is being 733 00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:54,360 Speaker 2: held together by the bonds of the atoms in it. 734 00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:56,160 Speaker 2: But if it wasn't your hand, which is kind of 735 00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:57,440 Speaker 2: dissipate eventually. 736 00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,759 Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, exactly, if there wasn't gravity and there weren't 737 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:03,080 Speaker 1: those forces, than dark energy would pull your hand apart, 738 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:05,200 Speaker 1: and it would pull the Earth from the Sun. So 739 00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:07,520 Speaker 1: there's a bunch of really interesting things all happening at 740 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:11,520 Speaker 1: the same time. Like gravity needs time to form structure. 741 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:14,560 Speaker 1: You start from like a fuzzy universe, and it gradually 742 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:18,080 Speaker 1: pulls things together, and so as time goes on, gravity 743 00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:21,400 Speaker 1: makes bigger and bigger and bigger structures. So one reason 744 00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:24,960 Speaker 1: we don't have bigger structures than superclusters, or even if 745 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,479 Speaker 1: superclusters counter structure is just time. Like without dark energy, 746 00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:31,160 Speaker 1: if you ran the universe forward, it would form larger 747 00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:34,160 Speaker 1: and larger and larger structures. But dark energy turned on 748 00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:37,080 Speaker 1: a few billion years ago and it started accelerating the 749 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,920 Speaker 1: expansion of the universe. So gravity is sort of running 750 00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:43,000 Speaker 1: out of time, which means something kind of fascinating. It 751 00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:45,520 Speaker 1: means that we are living maybe at the moment of 752 00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:48,040 Speaker 1: the largest structures in the universe. 753 00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:50,360 Speaker 2: Well, I think that's kind of the point of discussion, 754 00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:53,600 Speaker 2: is like, is dark energy eventually going to tear our 755 00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,719 Speaker 2: supercluster apart? Or is maybe that expansion not strong enough 756 00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:59,520 Speaker 2: to really tear apart and keep things the way they 757 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:02,640 Speaker 2: are forever, Right, that's kind of the question we're asking today. 758 00:37:02,719 --> 00:37:05,839 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. But whether or not our supercluster survives, 759 00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:09,440 Speaker 1: there will never be anything bigger in the universe because 760 00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,759 Speaker 1: dark energy is getting more and more powerful, and so 761 00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:16,359 Speaker 1: gravity will never have time to make anything bigger. Like 762 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:19,480 Speaker 1: if a structure hasn't formed by now in the universe, 763 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:23,440 Speaker 1: it will not because dark energy is just growing in power. 764 00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:27,399 Speaker 1: So whether or not our supercluster survives, nothing bigger than 765 00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:29,960 Speaker 1: anything that's been made already will ever be made. 766 00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:32,919 Speaker 2: Well, let's dig into that and what it might mean 767 00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:36,880 Speaker 2: for our local structure or superstructure of galaxies. Does that 768 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:40,040 Speaker 2: reduce our chances of getting eaten by aliens? We'll see. First, 769 00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:55,360 Speaker 2: let's take another quick break all right, we're talking about 770 00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:58,840 Speaker 2: getting eaten by aliens. Now, Daniel, are you sort of prepared? 771 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:00,759 Speaker 2: It sounds like you look forward to it. Now are 772 00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:02,839 Speaker 2: you preparing yourself? Are you staying in shape? Or are 773 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:07,160 Speaker 2: you trying to fan yourself like like your goose so 774 00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:09,800 Speaker 2: that you're tastier to the aliens? You know, tag on 775 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:10,480 Speaker 2: those calories. 776 00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:13,520 Speaker 1: I just don't even know, Like what do aliens like? 777 00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:16,880 Speaker 1: How am I supposed to anticipate what they're gonna find? Yummy? Like? 778 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:19,440 Speaker 1: So I'm just living my life, you know, and hoping 779 00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:20,839 Speaker 1: and hoping that they. 780 00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:26,279 Speaker 2: Put I'm hoping they pick you two over me. 781 00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:28,640 Speaker 1: Hey, something we can agree on. Awesome. 782 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:31,879 Speaker 2: Well, we're talking about whether we're actually talking about whether 783 00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:35,640 Speaker 2: our supercluster, which is called lanny Kia, which is a 784 00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:39,120 Speaker 2: cluster of galaxy clusters, will one day be torn apart 785 00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:42,839 Speaker 2: because of dark energy. Now, dark energy is expanding all 786 00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:46,280 Speaker 2: space as far as we know, and the question is 787 00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:49,399 Speaker 2: is it expanding space faster than lanny Kiya can hold 788 00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:52,000 Speaker 2: itself together? And it sounds like you have the answer 789 00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:52,200 Speaker 2: to that. 790 00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:52,799 Speaker 3: I do. 791 00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:57,200 Speaker 1: Yeah. So originally they defined a supercluster to be this 792 00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:00,120 Speaker 1: object because everything was sort of falling in towards it. 793 00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:03,480 Speaker 1: That like delineated a blob of stuff that was moving 794 00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:05,879 Speaker 1: towards itself, and the next supercluster is a blob that's 795 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:09,080 Speaker 1: moving towards itself. But then astronomers thought, hm, that's not 796 00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:12,240 Speaker 1: really enough. Like what we want is something that's gonna survive. 797 00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:14,680 Speaker 1: We wanted to find a supercluster to be something that 798 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:18,200 Speaker 1: is going to manage to hold itself together against dark energy. 799 00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:20,720 Speaker 1: So they did a bunch of calculations and it looks 800 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:23,680 Speaker 1: like it's probably not gonna make it. It looks like 801 00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:27,319 Speaker 1: the supercluster is very loosely organized. It's just more like 802 00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:30,200 Speaker 1: a cloud or like a crowd. You know, it happens 803 00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:33,400 Speaker 1: to be nearby, but it's not really like in equilibrium. 804 00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:35,239 Speaker 1: You know, like the Earth and the Sun had a 805 00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:37,520 Speaker 1: lot of time to sort of get in balance and 806 00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:39,680 Speaker 1: find a place where they're happy together, and the Earth 807 00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:42,960 Speaker 1: can orbit forever and be here. But the supercluster, like 808 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:45,280 Speaker 1: we said earlier, hasn't really had a lot of time 809 00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:48,840 Speaker 1: to gather together and to form something solid. It's just 810 00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:51,280 Speaker 1: sort of like a big blob of stuff that happened 811 00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:53,600 Speaker 1: to be near each other and are starting to fall 812 00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:56,840 Speaker 1: in a little bit but dark energy is powerful enough 813 00:39:57,040 --> 00:39:59,000 Speaker 1: that they're pretty sure it's going to tear it apart. 814 00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:00,880 Speaker 2: Now you mentioned one one of the reasons is that 815 00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,680 Speaker 2: dark energy is getting stronger. Now, is it getting stronger 816 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:07,719 Speaker 2: at the local level or is it just or you're 817 00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:10,560 Speaker 2: saying it's getting stronger because the universe is getting bigger 818 00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:13,040 Speaker 2: and so therefore there's more dark energy. Is it getting 819 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:15,600 Speaker 2: stronger measureably like inside of my hand, Is this dark 820 00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:17,440 Speaker 2: energy that I would feel over the course of my 821 00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:20,680 Speaker 2: life getting stronger or is it going to be constant? 822 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:24,040 Speaker 1: Dark energy is everywhere at the same level, so it's 823 00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:28,640 Speaker 1: a constant in space here and there and in other galaxies. 824 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:32,760 Speaker 1: Every chunk of space has the same amount of dark energy. 825 00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:36,959 Speaker 1: So when the universe expands, it's making more space, which 826 00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:40,799 Speaker 1: means more dark energy doesn't get diluted. It's a constant 827 00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:44,920 Speaker 1: in space. That's not true for other stuff like matter 828 00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:49,040 Speaker 1: or radiation. As the universe expands, matter gets more dilute 829 00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:52,640 Speaker 1: because more space doesn't mean more matter. So as time 830 00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:55,640 Speaker 1: goes on, the expansion of the universe means dark energy 831 00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:59,319 Speaker 1: is constant, But then it's an increasing fraction of the 832 00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:02,680 Speaker 1: energy of the universe because it doesn't get diluted, and 833 00:41:02,719 --> 00:41:06,280 Speaker 1: other stuff does. And when dark energy is an increasing fraction, 834 00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:10,320 Speaker 1: that triggers more expansion, which only tells the balance further 835 00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:14,120 Speaker 1: towards dark energy. So it's like a runaway effect. Once 836 00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:17,440 Speaker 1: dark energy starts to win, which happened about six billion 837 00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,600 Speaker 1: years ago, it will zoom ahead and be impossible to 838 00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:23,600 Speaker 1: catch up to. But about seeing it change, we live 839 00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:26,560 Speaker 1: such short lives that we can't really notice it changing 840 00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:29,799 Speaker 1: on our time scales, but we can look back into 841 00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:32,680 Speaker 1: the past by looking out into deep space and seeing 842 00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:35,120 Speaker 1: how things used to be. And of course there's a 843 00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:38,759 Speaker 1: huge asterisk to all of this because we don't really 844 00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:41,600 Speaker 1: understand dark energy and what's going on and what's making 845 00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:44,320 Speaker 1: this happen, and so the rules could be very different 846 00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:47,239 Speaker 1: from this very simple model that honestly we're pretty sure 847 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:47,840 Speaker 1: is wrong. 848 00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:50,080 Speaker 2: Right, Well, I guess what I mean is that, you know, 849 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:52,680 Speaker 2: we've always talked about dark energy as being kind of 850 00:41:52,719 --> 00:41:56,400 Speaker 2: the force that's expanding the Universe's expanding space, and I 851 00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:58,640 Speaker 2: always think of it as sort of like the foot 852 00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:01,920 Speaker 2: in the accelerator. Like when I'm driving, I press the 853 00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:05,000 Speaker 2: accelerator and I usually leave it at a certain level 854 00:42:05,160 --> 00:42:07,840 Speaker 2: to keep going at a certain speed, and if I 855 00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:10,360 Speaker 2: want to accelerate go faster, I press it harder, and 856 00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:12,239 Speaker 2: if I want to go slower, I let go of 857 00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:14,919 Speaker 2: the pedal. Now, it sort of seems from what we've 858 00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:18,400 Speaker 2: talked about before that is that, you know, the pedal 859 00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:21,800 Speaker 2: of dark energy is sort of pretty constant. And for example, 860 00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:23,960 Speaker 2: our Solar system is never going to be torn apart 861 00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:27,160 Speaker 2: by dark energy because the gravitational bonds between us and 862 00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:29,400 Speaker 2: the Sun is strong enough that even if the space 863 00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:32,080 Speaker 2: between us gets bigger and bigger and bigger, we're always 864 00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:33,479 Speaker 2: going to hang on to the Sun. 865 00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:37,000 Speaker 1: Dark energy is expanding the space in our Solar system, 866 00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:39,800 Speaker 1: but it doesn't have much effect over those short distances. 867 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:43,200 Speaker 1: And short distances is when gravity is the most powerful. 868 00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:46,279 Speaker 1: So gravity is always going to be powerful enough to 869 00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:49,480 Speaker 1: hold the Solar system together if dark energy is a 870 00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:53,319 Speaker 1: constant in space. Remember, a constant in space can still 871 00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:57,560 Speaker 1: be an increasing fraction of the universe's energy budget, which 872 00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:01,680 Speaker 1: leads to accelerating expansion even if the dark energy in 873 00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:04,840 Speaker 1: any given chunk of space isn't changing. Except for the 874 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,880 Speaker 1: scenario of the Big Rip, where dark energy gets more 875 00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:10,600 Speaker 1: powerful and even tears our solar system apart and even 876 00:43:10,600 --> 00:43:13,279 Speaker 1: our atoms. But you're right, in our current projection of 877 00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:16,120 Speaker 1: dark energy, it will not tear apart our solar system. 878 00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:19,919 Speaker 2: Right, and so it's because it's not being accelerated enough. 879 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:23,040 Speaker 2: Now at the level of a galaxy, do we currently 880 00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:24,920 Speaker 2: think that our galaxy is going to be torn apart 881 00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:25,520 Speaker 2: or not? 882 00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:28,279 Speaker 1: We think our galaxy is going to survive, and we 883 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:31,760 Speaker 1: think our group is going to survive. So everything below 884 00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:35,200 Speaker 1: a supercluster, we're pretty sure gravity is already won and 885 00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:38,240 Speaker 1: it's going to continue to win again, assuming this naive 886 00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:42,359 Speaker 1: projection of dark energy continuing at the same rate that 887 00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:44,440 Speaker 1: it's been continuing, that it's not going to ramp up 888 00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:47,200 Speaker 1: into the big rip or turn around into the big crunch. 889 00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:50,400 Speaker 1: So our solar system will survive, Our galaxy will survive, 890 00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:54,280 Speaker 1: our local group will survive, The Virgo cluster nearby will survive. 891 00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:58,399 Speaker 1: But the question is will our supercluster survive? And that's 892 00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:01,359 Speaker 1: where dark energy starts to win, and dark energy will 893 00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:05,719 Speaker 1: tear these groups of galaxies apart and basically pull apart leni. 894 00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:08,799 Speaker 2: Ka because the things that make up Lenikia, you know, 895 00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:12,799 Speaker 2: our cluster, the Virgo cluster, the Great Attractor, they are 896 00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:16,839 Speaker 2: being attracted to each other, but not more than the 897 00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:19,759 Speaker 2: expansion of the huge amount of space in between them. 898 00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:20,720 Speaker 2: That's kind of what you're saying. 899 00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:24,120 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just too big, right. Gravity gets weak over 900 00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:27,040 Speaker 1: those huge distances. It does not have the strength to 901 00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:30,399 Speaker 1: overcome dark energy, and as the distances get bigger, dark 902 00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:33,720 Speaker 1: energy becomes harder and harder to surmount. Like, it doesn't 903 00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:36,680 Speaker 1: take that much mass and that much gravity to overcome 904 00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:39,440 Speaker 1: dark energy in our solar system. It takes more mass 905 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,000 Speaker 1: to overcome the dark energy in the galaxy, and even 906 00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:44,600 Speaker 1: more to overcome the dark energy of the group. But 907 00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:47,640 Speaker 1: to overcome the dark energy of the supercluster, we need 908 00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:51,040 Speaker 1: an incredible amount of mass because of the vast distances involved. 909 00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:54,400 Speaker 2: So you're saying that lani Ka, the supercluster of galaxies, 910 00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:57,719 Speaker 2: it's really more like a visual cluster, right, It's more 911 00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:00,720 Speaker 2: of a visual structure. It looks like it's holding together. 912 00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:02,920 Speaker 2: It looks like a wisp of cloud or a crowd 913 00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:05,920 Speaker 2: of people in the park, But really there's nothing that 914 00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:09,920 Speaker 2: much holding it together, or at least proportionally to the 915 00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:11,280 Speaker 2: dark energy in the universe. 916 00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:14,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, our supercluster seems to be right about that turnover 917 00:45:14,560 --> 00:45:17,600 Speaker 1: point where things that are smaller or more massive either 918 00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:20,960 Speaker 1: one would survive, and things that are bigger definitely would not. 919 00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:23,840 Speaker 1: So sort of fascinating. It's like the biggest kind of 920 00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:26,719 Speaker 1: blog we can identify, but it's not really technically a structure. 921 00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:28,800 Speaker 1: So there were some papers a few years ago suggesting 922 00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:32,160 Speaker 1: we shouldn't be calling Lenika a supercluster because it's not 923 00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:35,319 Speaker 1: a structure, And they said, maybe we should redefine what 924 00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:40,399 Speaker 1: a structure is as something that will survive in the future, right, 925 00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:43,800 Speaker 1: things that will hold themselves together in the long term 926 00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:47,759 Speaker 1: after dark energy has played itself out. So by that definition, 927 00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,560 Speaker 1: the lani Kaya supercluster is not actually a structure and 928 00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:53,520 Speaker 1: we shouldn't even be calling it a supercluster. 929 00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:56,239 Speaker 2: Well, I mean, as long as you're playing with definitions, 930 00:45:56,280 --> 00:45:58,719 Speaker 2: you can get either way. I feel like, right like 931 00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:02,000 Speaker 2: you could just read a find what a super cluster means. 932 00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:04,680 Speaker 2: A supercluster could just mean like a cloud or a 933 00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:07,320 Speaker 2: crowd in a park. Right, Maybe you can just define 934 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:11,680 Speaker 2: a supercluster as not necessarily a structure, but you can 935 00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:14,320 Speaker 2: still call it a super cluster, right because a cluster, 936 00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:16,799 Speaker 2: the word cluster just means like, hey, hanging out together. 937 00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:17,319 Speaker 2: M hmm. 938 00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,440 Speaker 1: I suppose you could call it a banana if you wanted. Yeah, 939 00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:22,759 Speaker 1: we want these words to have some meaning to them, 940 00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:25,520 Speaker 1: and so these papers suggest that we shouldn't, and they 941 00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:29,400 Speaker 1: actually suggest another name because there are some other superclusters 942 00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:32,640 Speaker 1: that they do think will hold themselves together. So some 943 00:46:32,719 --> 00:46:36,000 Speaker 1: superclusters are more massive or a little bit closer together, 944 00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:39,239 Speaker 1: and they think they will overcome dark energy, and they 945 00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:43,960 Speaker 1: suggest calling these things supersties clusters. Super So what it's 946 00:46:43,960 --> 00:46:47,320 Speaker 1: a word in Latin that means survivor probably not pronouncing 947 00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:50,000 Speaker 1: it correctly, but I think it's superstese clusters. It's the 948 00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:55,960 Speaker 1: new name for superclusters that will survive dark energy. 949 00:46:57,239 --> 00:47:00,640 Speaker 2: It sounds like we're really rather about way for what 950 00:47:00,719 --> 00:47:02,719 Speaker 2: did you say? What did you just call them structures 951 00:47:02,719 --> 00:47:05,760 Speaker 2: like superstructures? Why do we have to go Laddin? 952 00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:08,960 Speaker 1: Well, because you know, not all superclusters are structures. They 953 00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:11,360 Speaker 1: don't hold themselves together. And you're right, we could just 954 00:47:11,360 --> 00:47:13,960 Speaker 1: put a name on things. But we like this hierarchy 955 00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:16,200 Speaker 1: of structures. We like thinking about the universe in terms 956 00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:18,640 Speaker 1: of the structures all the way down from the proton 957 00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:21,960 Speaker 1: zooming out to the biggest structures in the universe. And 958 00:47:21,960 --> 00:47:24,960 Speaker 1: we want a consistency there. We want it to mean something, 959 00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:27,040 Speaker 1: for there to be a structure you don't want just 960 00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,200 Speaker 1: like an arbitrary definition at every level. 961 00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:32,160 Speaker 2: Well, I feel like maybe you're only having to adjust 962 00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:35,719 Speaker 2: this definition because of dark energy, right, Like, if it 963 00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,480 Speaker 2: wasn't for dark energy, yeah, lenning Care would be a 964 00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:40,839 Speaker 2: structure and it would be gravitational bound and it would 965 00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:43,360 Speaker 2: last until the end of time. But you have dark energy, 966 00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:47,080 Speaker 2: which will make it fuzzy up in the future, except 967 00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:49,800 Speaker 2: that you don't know what dark energy is going to do, right, 968 00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:53,120 Speaker 2: So it seems a little bit like you're rushing ahead 969 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:55,520 Speaker 2: to redefine everything based on something you don't know what's 970 00:47:55,560 --> 00:47:56,040 Speaker 2: going to happen. 971 00:47:56,680 --> 00:47:59,880 Speaker 1: Well, you know, astronomers love fights over names and definition 972 00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:02,520 Speaker 1: and who gets to name something, so this is one 973 00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:04,319 Speaker 1: of the hot topics these days. But you're right that 974 00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:06,840 Speaker 1: the definition of depends a little bit on what happens 975 00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:09,440 Speaker 1: in the future. In that sense, it's sort of like 976 00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:11,480 Speaker 1: the way you think about an event horizon for a 977 00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:14,800 Speaker 1: black hole, Like the event horizon isn't a physical structure, 978 00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:18,040 Speaker 1: it's just like a delineation that says anything passed here 979 00:48:18,239 --> 00:48:21,359 Speaker 1: in the infinite future will never escape. To really know that, 980 00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:24,000 Speaker 1: you have to see the infinite future. We just sort 981 00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:26,400 Speaker 1: of project it and in the same way, we like 982 00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:28,520 Speaker 1: group this stuff together and say, hey, is this going 983 00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:30,840 Speaker 1: to survive if so that we can call it a 984 00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:34,280 Speaker 1: cluster or a structure or a supercluster or a superstes 985 00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:38,319 Speaker 1: cluster or whatever the astronomers finally settle on. But the 986 00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:41,799 Speaker 1: basic story is that if dark energy continues the way 987 00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:45,560 Speaker 1: it has been, probably Lanikea will just dissolve into a 988 00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:47,200 Speaker 1: bunch of islands of mass. 989 00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:49,920 Speaker 2: It sounds more like you're saying that we shouldn't call 990 00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:51,560 Speaker 2: anything anything until the end of time. 991 00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:54,719 Speaker 1: You go, that's exactly right. We want to be totally 992 00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:56,680 Speaker 1: accurate about everything. We've got to wait to the end 993 00:48:56,719 --> 00:48:59,440 Speaker 1: of the universe. Then we'll know what was going on. 994 00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:01,799 Speaker 2: Well, let's spend the minute here because if we still 995 00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:04,319 Speaker 2: have like a few minutes left here talking about the 996 00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:06,320 Speaker 2: dark energy, right, because it seems like it all depends 997 00:49:06,320 --> 00:49:08,759 Speaker 2: on what dark energy is going to do, whether the 998 00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:11,440 Speaker 2: universe is going to press harder on the accelerator or 999 00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:14,480 Speaker 2: press lower on the accelerator. What's been the history of that, 1000 00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:17,200 Speaker 2: Like since the beginning of the universe, there was a 1001 00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:19,719 Speaker 2: huge expansion, and then it slowed down and now it's 1002 00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:20,560 Speaker 2: picking back up again. 1003 00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:22,480 Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that's true. And there's sort of a bunch 1004 00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:25,120 Speaker 1: of different time periods to talk about there, Like there 1005 00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:28,560 Speaker 1: was inflation very very early on, huge expansion and very 1006 00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:31,759 Speaker 1: short time scales. We don't understand what caused that at all. 1007 00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:34,480 Speaker 1: There's a few theories, the insuloton field, whatever, but it's 1008 00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:37,120 Speaker 1: a big question mark. And then after that, you know 1009 00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:38,839 Speaker 1: what we call the Big Bang, the sort of like 1010 00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:43,160 Speaker 1: more gradual expansion of the universe as it cools. We 1011 00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:46,640 Speaker 1: have pretty good models of that. We have gravity, and 1012 00:49:46,680 --> 00:49:49,000 Speaker 1: we have dark energy, we have all the other forces 1013 00:49:49,040 --> 00:49:51,719 Speaker 1: that come into play, and in that period we can 1014 00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:54,799 Speaker 1: model dark energy as constant, saying like a chunk of 1015 00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:57,400 Speaker 1: space has the same amount of potential energy, and that 1016 00:49:57,480 --> 00:50:01,360 Speaker 1: creates this repulsive field in general relative which drives the 1017 00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:04,600 Speaker 1: expansion of the universe. Remember that dark energy can be 1018 00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:07,680 Speaker 1: a constant in space, every chunk has the same amount, 1019 00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:11,520 Speaker 1: but still be a growing fraction of the universe's energy 1020 00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:15,200 Speaker 1: because other stuff is getting diluted as things expand, So 1021 00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:19,200 Speaker 1: dark energy is both constant and taking over as other 1022 00:50:19,280 --> 00:50:23,279 Speaker 1: things get more dilute. It's not exactly true, because we 1023 00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:26,320 Speaker 1: make these measurements over time we get slightly different answers, 1024 00:50:26,719 --> 00:50:29,080 Speaker 1: so nobody really knows if that's true or it needs 1025 00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:31,040 Speaker 1: a little bit of adjusting. We had a whole episode 1026 00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:34,400 Speaker 1: about early dark energy, whether dark energy was more powerful 1027 00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:37,200 Speaker 1: early on, this kind of stuff. But mostly we can 1028 00:50:37,239 --> 00:50:41,040 Speaker 1: explain the history of the universe after that first inflationary period. 1029 00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:44,440 Speaker 1: We can explain it assuming dark energy is constant, So 1030 00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:46,800 Speaker 1: that seems to be a reasonable assumption. 1031 00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:49,160 Speaker 2: Meaning that the universe is not pressing the accelerator faster, 1032 00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:50,759 Speaker 2: it's just kind of leaving it on. 1033 00:50:51,160 --> 00:50:53,880 Speaker 1: That's right. It's pressing the accelerator at the same level, 1034 00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:56,480 Speaker 1: meaning every part of space has the same amount of 1035 00:50:56,560 --> 00:51:00,400 Speaker 1: dark energy. But eventually that does take over. When you 1036 00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:03,200 Speaker 1: press the accelerator on your car. There are other things 1037 00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:06,040 Speaker 1: keeping you from going faster and faster, right, there's friction 1038 00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:08,840 Speaker 1: and this AerR, resistance whatever. That doesn't quite apply to 1039 00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:10,920 Speaker 1: this model because in this model, the level that the 1040 00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:13,640 Speaker 1: accelerator is at ends up speeding us up. It's like 1041 00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:17,640 Speaker 1: winning against the other forces. So it really is accelerating 1042 00:51:17,680 --> 00:51:20,320 Speaker 1: the expansion of the universe. So sort of two different 1043 00:51:20,320 --> 00:51:22,719 Speaker 1: ideas there. One is the amount of dark energy in 1044 00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:26,960 Speaker 1: space is constant, but because it overcomes the other things, 1045 00:51:27,200 --> 00:51:30,719 Speaker 1: it ends up accelerating the expansion of the universe. 1046 00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:34,799 Speaker 2: Meaning that the space is growing at an accelerated rate. 1047 00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:38,680 Speaker 2: But is that acceleration getting faster or is it slowing down? 1048 00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:40,160 Speaker 2: Or is it pretty constant. 1049 00:51:40,320 --> 00:51:43,640 Speaker 1: We think that acceleration itself is pretty constant, yes, and 1050 00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:45,600 Speaker 1: we can track that back through the history of the 1051 00:51:45,680 --> 00:51:47,960 Speaker 1: universe and see if that explains our history, and it 1052 00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:51,000 Speaker 1: mostly does. Again, there's some questions there about their early 1053 00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:53,840 Speaker 1: first few bits you might have read about, like different 1054 00:51:53,880 --> 00:51:57,080 Speaker 1: measurements of the Hubble constant that we can't quite reconcile. 1055 00:51:57,160 --> 00:51:59,200 Speaker 1: And that's what that's about. Is that level of acceleration 1056 00:51:59,320 --> 00:52:01,600 Speaker 1: the same all the way through time or. 1057 00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:02,799 Speaker 2: Not it is it or not? 1058 00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:05,120 Speaker 1: We think that it is, but we don't quite know 1059 00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:07,320 Speaker 1: that these measurements that we can't quite reconcile. 1060 00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:09,919 Speaker 2: I guess it's kind of the difference of whether dark 1061 00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:13,240 Speaker 2: energy is a constant, like a number in your equations 1062 00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:15,640 Speaker 2: of the universe, or is it a variable that somehow 1063 00:52:15,719 --> 00:52:18,680 Speaker 2: feeds in it itself or that maybe has a little 1064 00:52:18,680 --> 00:52:21,480 Speaker 2: button that you know, the makers of the universe are 1065 00:52:22,640 --> 00:52:23,840 Speaker 2: increasing exactly. 1066 00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:26,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, right, now, we can describe it just using a number. 1067 00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:29,560 Speaker 1: It's a cosmological constant. We don't know where that number 1068 00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:31,440 Speaker 1: comes from or why it is what it is. We 1069 00:52:31,480 --> 00:52:33,800 Speaker 1: have really no explanation for it. But we can mostly 1070 00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:36,400 Speaker 1: describe the history of the universe using just a number 1071 00:52:36,640 --> 00:52:37,520 Speaker 1: for dark energy. 1072 00:52:37,760 --> 00:52:39,600 Speaker 2: All right, Well, it sounds like the answer to the 1073 00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:43,040 Speaker 2: question of the episode is yes. It sounds like, as 1074 00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:45,160 Speaker 2: far as we know, if things stay the same with 1075 00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:49,040 Speaker 2: dark energy, are super cluster of galaxies that we live 1076 00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:52,360 Speaker 2: in will be torn apart sometime in the future. 1077 00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:56,120 Speaker 1: That's right. So our more immedia cosmic neighborhood is safe 1078 00:52:56,160 --> 00:52:59,560 Speaker 1: and probably will eventually collapse into a black hole, but 1079 00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:03,560 Speaker 1: the cluster will not be in our neighborhood forever. Dark 1080 00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:06,240 Speaker 1: energy will take over and pull us apart from it. 1081 00:53:06,239 --> 00:53:09,360 Speaker 2: It's going to be declustered, but we won't know, I 1082 00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:10,560 Speaker 2: guess until the end of time. 1083 00:53:10,760 --> 00:53:13,480 Speaker 1: That's right. So we'll do our five millionth episode at 1084 00:53:13,480 --> 00:53:15,920 Speaker 1: the end of time, and we'll answer this question definitively. 1085 00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:19,560 Speaker 2: So maybe I shouldn't call you a person, Daniel, because eventually, 1086 00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:21,840 Speaker 2: who knows, maybe aliens will come and tear you apart. 1087 00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:24,040 Speaker 2: We just have to wait and see before we call 1088 00:53:24,080 --> 00:53:24,600 Speaker 2: you a person. 1089 00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:26,440 Speaker 1: That's true. From that point of view, none of us 1090 00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:27,040 Speaker 1: are structured. 1091 00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:31,120 Speaker 2: We could all be lunch in our future, hey, fellow, 1092 00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:32,759 Speaker 2: lunch meat. 1093 00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:35,120 Speaker 1: Ashes to ashes, dust to lunch. 1094 00:53:35,120 --> 00:53:38,799 Speaker 2: And lunch to something else once the aliens digest us. 1095 00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:44,480 Speaker 2: All right, well, pretty interesting lesson to think about, not 1096 00:53:44,640 --> 00:53:47,160 Speaker 2: just like our place in the universe and how small 1097 00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:50,600 Speaker 2: we are compared to these enormous clusters of galaxies, but 1098 00:53:50,640 --> 00:53:53,880 Speaker 2: also about the permanence of the universe. Like even something 1099 00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:57,080 Speaker 2: as huge as a super cluster Lenni Kia, it may 1100 00:53:57,120 --> 00:53:59,320 Speaker 2: not be around for the entire life of the universe. 1101 00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:03,760 Speaker 1: That's right. Think about these incredibly powerful, vast forces at play, 1102 00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:08,360 Speaker 1: tugging on these galaxies with millions and billions of stars, 1103 00:54:08,760 --> 00:54:11,400 Speaker 1: all in a battle against dark energy. It's really a 1104 00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:13,960 Speaker 1: very dynamical place. If you think about the universe and 1105 00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:17,719 Speaker 1: sort of fast forward, it's slashing, it's frothen it's doing 1106 00:54:17,840 --> 00:54:18,200 Speaker 1: a lot. 1107 00:54:18,520 --> 00:54:20,960 Speaker 2: All right. We hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for joining us, 1108 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:22,719 Speaker 2: See you next time. 1109 00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:33,400 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain 1110 00:54:33,480 --> 00:54:36,719 Speaker 1: the Universe is a production of iHeart Radio. For more 1111 00:54:36,800 --> 00:54:41,640 Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio, ap Apple podcasts, or 1112 00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:43,920 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.