1 00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:12,840 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, you have a pretty wild family, right, Well, 2 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: we don't go to raves or anything, if that's what 3 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:17,040 Speaker 1: you mean. I mean you guys like you guys like 4 00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:19,479 Speaker 1: the wilderness, right, You go camping a lot. That's true. 5 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:23,200 Speaker 1: We are big fans of camping. We do car camping, 6 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:26,759 Speaker 1: we do backpacking. We even even rented an RV and 7 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:29,240 Speaker 1: driven around Iceland. So yeah, we like to get out 8 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:31,080 Speaker 1: there in the wild US too. We also like to 9 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:33,920 Speaker 1: go camping, and I think mostly good because we just 10 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:36,720 Speaker 1: like being out in nature. You know. I like the campfire, 11 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,440 Speaker 1: and really I like being under the stars. I love 12 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: how you can see so many more stars at night 13 00:00:42,320 --> 00:01:00,920 Speaker 1: when you're camping. Hi, I'm Poor. Hey, I'm a cartoonists 14 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,560 Speaker 1: and the creator of PhD comics. Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm 15 00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:08,199 Speaker 1: a particle physicist and an avid amateur camper and also 16 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 1: a physicist. Right you sort of you're an avid physicist 17 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: as well. I am an avid physicist. During the day, 18 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:16,360 Speaker 1: I smash particles together at nearly the speed of light 19 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:19,320 Speaker 1: underground in Geneva to try to figure out what is 20 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:21,840 Speaker 1: the universe made out of? What is the smallest particle? 21 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: How how do forces actually work? Can we make new 22 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:27,480 Speaker 1: kinds of matter in the laboratory, all sorts of fun stuff. 23 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:29,840 Speaker 1: I like ripping things apart and understanding them from the 24 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: ground up. And just to be clear, you are not 25 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:34,360 Speaker 1: right now in a basement in Geneva, right, I can 26 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:38,080 Speaker 1: either confirm nor deny that. Actually I see you may 27 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:40,480 Speaker 1: or may not be in your Swiss bunker. That's right. Well, hey, 28 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:43,200 Speaker 1: quantum Mechanically, I may or may not be anywhere. Right. 29 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:45,360 Speaker 1: I could be sitting in your living room right next 30 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:48,120 Speaker 1: to you right now. You may or may not be. 31 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: That's right. I may or may not be by the 32 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,800 Speaker 1: end of this podcast. Who knows right? Life? Life is uncertain, 33 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: crazy universe, sorry, this crazy, beautiful universe that we live 34 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:00,680 Speaker 1: in where we can't really understand anything. But this is 35 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:03,960 Speaker 1: our podcast in which we try to help you understand everything, 36 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:06,800 Speaker 1: and in particularly we try to take topics and tear 37 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,079 Speaker 1: them apart so that you can understand them. That's right. 38 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:13,239 Speaker 1: Welcome to Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a production 39 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: of iheartrad You. That's right. And every week on this 40 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 1: program we take a topic that we think people are 41 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:20,640 Speaker 1: interested in, something where everybody wants to know the answer, 42 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:23,120 Speaker 1: but maybe it seems a little bit out of reach technically, 43 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:25,000 Speaker 1: or it seems a little bit hard to dig into 44 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:27,520 Speaker 1: and your Google searching is not quite sufficient, and we 45 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 1: try to break it down for you and get you 46 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:32,119 Speaker 1: to somewhere where you can understand it and maybe laugh 47 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:34,320 Speaker 1: along the way. That's right, And today on the podcast 48 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:38,279 Speaker 1: we are going to tackle another subject in our extreme 49 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:45,400 Speaker 1: Universe series, Extreme Universe, Extreme Universe exactly. I'm queuing some 50 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:51,720 Speaker 1: heavy metal guitar riffs in the background there because heavy 51 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 1: metal is so in right now? Are we are we 52 00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 1: dating ourselves? It was a little bit too much. Bill 53 00:02:57,560 --> 00:02:59,280 Speaker 1: and Ted. Bill and Ted are coming back. Have you 54 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: not heard? It's like Bill and Ted escaped the Seniors 55 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:04,640 Speaker 1: Senior Citizen Home or something. I think Kenna Reeves can 56 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:06,600 Speaker 1: pull it off. Maybe we should have an episode on 57 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,079 Speaker 1: why Kanu Reeves does not seem to age. He's sort 58 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:12,320 Speaker 1: of like plateaued around forty five. I know, he's like 59 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: fifty something and he's a he's a good looking guy. 60 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:17,079 Speaker 1: Him and Paul Rudd, I think is just sort of 61 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:21,639 Speaker 1: hit some plateau. Maybe it's like Hollywood cryogenic freezing or something, 62 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:24,399 Speaker 1: or maybe they've been replaced by robots. Anybody figure that out, 63 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: maybe their time travelers. We should have them as guests 64 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:28,800 Speaker 1: on the show. Hey, Kanu, if you happen to be 65 00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:31,359 Speaker 1: listening to this episode, come on the show, explain it 66 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: all to us. And if you're Paul rudd Um you're 67 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: also invited. You can explain kna Reeves to us. You 68 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 1: guys all know each other, right, I'm sure they're hanging 69 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:42,640 Speaker 1: out together listening to our podcast. Well, um, so this 70 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:45,160 Speaker 1: is part of our series of Extremes of the Universe. 71 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 1: So we've had episodes about the biggest thing in the universe, 72 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:52,520 Speaker 1: the emptiest place in the universe. Well, on today's episode, 73 00:03:52,560 --> 00:04:00,760 Speaker 1: we will be talking about what is the brightest thing 74 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: in the universe, Like the shiniest right, like the one 75 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:07,560 Speaker 1: that would totally most blind you if you stared at 76 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:10,760 Speaker 1: it without any sunglasses. That's right, the sparkliest thing in 77 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:14,320 Speaker 1: the universe, the most glitter covered thing in the universe. Now, 78 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:16,800 Speaker 1: I love our Extreme Universe series because I like that 79 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:19,880 Speaker 1: it reminds me and hope everybody out there listening that 80 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 1: where we live in the universe is unusual. It's it's 81 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:26,799 Speaker 1: not the most anything you know, and that there's whatever 82 00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:29,960 Speaker 1: you're thinking about whether it's temperature or brightness or size. 83 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,280 Speaker 1: There's always something out there to dwarf everything you thought 84 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,599 Speaker 1: you knew. And that's sort of the larger lesson of astronomy, 85 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: you know, is that the universe is vast and crazy 86 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:43,520 Speaker 1: and there's always something out there to surprise you. And 87 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:46,320 Speaker 1: so I love this Extreme Universe series because it shows 88 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: us how small we are or how dark we are, 89 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,240 Speaker 1: or how cold we are, or how slow we are 90 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: in the context of the whole universe. Yeah, it's fun 91 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,040 Speaker 1: to think that, Um, we're kind of in the middle, right, 92 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:59,320 Speaker 1: We're not, you know, there are they're extremes, and both 93 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:03,880 Speaker 1: directions where we stand right, like, we're not the hottest 94 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 1: or the cold is the brightest or the darkest. You know, 95 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:09,560 Speaker 1: are you saying we're just right like Goldilocks in her porridge? 96 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:11,800 Speaker 1: We are? We are all Goldilocks. That's true. I mean, 97 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:14,080 Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to live in a brighter place or 98 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:16,719 Speaker 1: a darker place, or a hotter place or a colder place. 99 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:19,200 Speaker 1: That's why you're in California, right, That's right. That's why 100 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:22,920 Speaker 1: I'm in southern California where it's nice weather every single day. Um, 101 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 1: but it's cool to learn about it, you know, I 102 00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:26,839 Speaker 1: like learning like where is the tallest mountain in the 103 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: Solar System? Or where is the hottest spot on Earth? 104 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:31,680 Speaker 1: And these sort of things. It's it's just fun to 105 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:33,880 Speaker 1: know what what's the scale? You know? Oh, man, I 106 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:36,240 Speaker 1: want to listen to those podcasts. Yeah, And I also 107 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:38,040 Speaker 1: want to remind people that tonight today we're gonna be 108 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:40,320 Speaker 1: talking about what is the brightest thing in the universe, 109 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:43,719 Speaker 1: and specifically we're talking about things that emit light, But 110 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,680 Speaker 1: there are other ways to see the universe. Right. We 111 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:49,239 Speaker 1: see a little bit of the universe, a tiny fraction 112 00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:51,839 Speaker 1: of it that gives off light that just makes itself 113 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:54,120 Speaker 1: visible to us. But there's a huge amount of stuff 114 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:56,960 Speaker 1: going on in the universe that's invisible to us. So 115 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:58,840 Speaker 1: the brightest things in the universe are not even though 116 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:02,039 Speaker 1: necessarily the most active things in the universe, they're just 117 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:05,160 Speaker 1: the things that admit the most light, the most photons, right, 118 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:08,120 Speaker 1: because you could have something that's more powerful or more 119 00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:12,960 Speaker 1: energetic that's admitting other kinds of stuff. Yeah, But of 120 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,200 Speaker 1: course light is important to us. You know, we're a 121 00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: visual species. We look at each other, we draw, you know, 122 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:21,280 Speaker 1: it's an important part of how we live, and so 123 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:23,720 Speaker 1: of course it's sort of the beginning of how we 124 00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:26,800 Speaker 1: explore space. We just turn our eyes skyword and look, 125 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:29,360 Speaker 1: and then we develop techniques to look deeper and deeper 126 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:31,919 Speaker 1: into space. But the cool thing is that recently astronomy 127 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:34,840 Speaker 1: has developed sort of other kinds of eyes, like other 128 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:36,960 Speaker 1: ways to look at the universe that are not with 129 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:41,600 Speaker 1: light but with like particles or with gravitational waves, and 130 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:44,000 Speaker 1: sort of it's sort of cool to think about humanity 131 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:47,480 Speaker 1: opening different new kinds of eyes and seeing different pictures 132 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:50,320 Speaker 1: of the universe, because every different way you have to 133 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:52,880 Speaker 1: look at the universe gives you a different picture because 134 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:56,480 Speaker 1: different things admit different kinds of radiation, and so it's 135 00:06:56,520 --> 00:06:58,800 Speaker 1: it's just it's amazing to think about all the things 136 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:01,560 Speaker 1: we will learn once we developed more and more ways 137 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:03,640 Speaker 1: to look at the universe. So anyway, so today we're 138 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:05,840 Speaker 1: tackling the brightest thing in the universe. So the thing 139 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:10,560 Speaker 1: that gives the most photons per um per I don't 140 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:14,120 Speaker 1: know for what, per per area, per for looking at it, 141 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 1: per per second. We'll talk about some things that give 142 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:20,360 Speaker 1: off sustained flows of photons and other things that are 143 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:23,600 Speaker 1: very brief. They give off just a photons very briefly, 144 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:26,280 Speaker 1: bit of very very bright. But I think we'll be 145 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:28,760 Speaker 1: talking about things that give off the most photons sort 146 00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: of at a certain distance. You know, that's a good 147 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:33,200 Speaker 1: way to measure brightness. But as a hand and then 148 00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:34,920 Speaker 1: as a little bit of a spoiler, will say that 149 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:37,360 Speaker 1: it is not the sun. If you're thinking that maybe 150 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:40,560 Speaker 1: the brightest thing was the sun, um, you're a bit 151 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:42,960 Speaker 1: far off. And as usual, I was curious, what do 152 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:45,120 Speaker 1: people think is the brightest thing in the universe? What 153 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:47,360 Speaker 1: do people have in their minds? And so I ran 154 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:50,760 Speaker 1: around campus at UC Irvine and I asked, folks, what 155 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:53,080 Speaker 1: do you think is the brightest thing in the universe? 156 00:07:53,160 --> 00:07:54,920 Speaker 1: Are you hoping some of your students would say you, 157 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:58,840 Speaker 1: Professor Daniel, you are the brightest thing, just like with 158 00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:02,040 Speaker 1: what is the hottest thing the universe? I wasn't explicitly 159 00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:04,960 Speaker 1: digging for compliments, but I guess I was secretly hoping 160 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: maybe somebody would give me one. You have sort of 161 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 1: a response prepared to meaning what me. That's right, Well, 162 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:13,520 Speaker 1: those of you listening, take a second to think about it. 163 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:15,680 Speaker 1: If someone asked you on the street, what is the 164 00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 1: brightest thing in the universe. What do you think you 165 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: would answer? Here's what people had to say to my eyes. 166 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,560 Speaker 1: The brightest thing I have ever stand is the sun. 167 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:27,280 Speaker 1: The sun, the sun, a neutron star, stars, because that's 168 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:29,840 Speaker 1: probably what I'm most familiar with. I don't know, maybe 169 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:33,559 Speaker 1: like a supernova. I'm surprised how many people said the sun. Well, 170 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:35,400 Speaker 1: I think all of these people would have benefited from 171 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:37,959 Speaker 1: your hint that it's not the sun, because as you heard, 172 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:41,120 Speaker 1: they mostly went for the Sun. Maybe it's the brightest 173 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:44,320 Speaker 1: thing in their universe technically right, Yeah, well, you know, 174 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:47,439 Speaker 1: it's the brightest thing you observe mostly. I mean that's 175 00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:49,439 Speaker 1: not even actually true, but it's the brightest thing sort 176 00:08:49,559 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: out there in the sky. Yeah, I mean sort of 177 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:56,040 Speaker 1: technically right. I mean it's like they're observable universe. We 178 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:58,600 Speaker 1: all have our little observable universe. What do you mean, 179 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:00,520 Speaker 1: do you think people have their own universe? Is like 180 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:02,880 Speaker 1: my universe? Your universe is no. I guess what I 181 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:05,720 Speaker 1: mean is like they're not observable, like if you have 182 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:08,480 Speaker 1: your physicist with a billion dollar telescope, but you know, 183 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:10,240 Speaker 1: just from what they can see with their eyes. So 184 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:12,320 Speaker 1: this is the thing about brightness right, is that Remember 185 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:16,120 Speaker 1: that brightness falls with distance. You know, some object is 186 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:19,560 Speaker 1: giving off light and that means it's shooting off photons, right, 187 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 1: But as the distance grows from that object, you have 188 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:25,760 Speaker 1: the same number of photons, but they're spread out over 189 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:29,200 Speaker 1: a larger area. Right. And think about a sphere that 190 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:32,600 Speaker 1: surrounds the sun or whatever else is giving off light. 191 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: The size of this that sphere, the surface of that 192 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,640 Speaker 1: sphere grows with the radius square because the formula for 193 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:42,640 Speaker 1: the surface of a sphere goes like radius squared, and 194 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:46,080 Speaker 1: so the same number of photons cover that sphere. So 195 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:49,760 Speaker 1: as you get further and further away, the parent brightness falls, right, 196 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:52,400 Speaker 1: and it falls like one over distance squared for that 197 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:55,319 Speaker 1: same reason, because the same number of photons are getting 198 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:58,280 Speaker 1: spread over that distance. To the point is something can 199 00:09:58,320 --> 00:10:00,560 Speaker 1: be super duper bright, but if it's far away, it 200 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:03,079 Speaker 1: won't feel as bright to you. So, yeah, you can 201 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:06,920 Speaker 1: have a laser pointer that's that feels brighter than the sun, right, 202 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:11,079 Speaker 1: and it would probably hurt. So just we're clear, we're 203 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:13,760 Speaker 1: not advocating that you shoot any light into your eyes. 204 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:15,440 Speaker 1: But why do you think a lot of people said 205 00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:17,440 Speaker 1: the sun. Do you think they actually think that's the 206 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:20,439 Speaker 1: brightest thing in the entire universe or the brightest thing 207 00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:22,240 Speaker 1: you know. Do you think maybe they were just not 208 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:26,680 Speaker 1: expanding their horizons in your answer, I think there's a 209 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:28,880 Speaker 1: lot of that. I noticed that trend that when I 210 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:31,480 Speaker 1: ask people about something, they tend to think about in 211 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:34,240 Speaker 1: the solar system and not to think more broadly. And 212 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:35,679 Speaker 1: sometimes I'll go to them like they don't know a 213 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:38,400 Speaker 1: thing bigger the whole universe. But and I did that 214 00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:40,199 Speaker 1: a couple of times here, but people were still like, no, 215 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:43,120 Speaker 1: the sun. Maybe it's a bit of local pride. You're like, yeah, 216 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:45,840 Speaker 1: our sun is awesome, man, It's so good. It's like 217 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,000 Speaker 1: the way people want to believe that their local sports 218 00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:50,360 Speaker 1: team is the best. You know, we got the best son. 219 00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:54,040 Speaker 1: That's right, our hometown sun is the best son. I 220 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:55,120 Speaker 1: think we all sort of do that. Like if I 221 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:57,400 Speaker 1: ask you, hey, Daniel, how's it going, you don't think 222 00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:01,200 Speaker 1: well right now? In alpha centri there say right, you 223 00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:03,880 Speaker 1: sort of you assume that I'm asking about you and 224 00:11:03,920 --> 00:11:05,840 Speaker 1: your day. Yeah, I mean everybody has a sort of 225 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:10,000 Speaker 1: a locust like a neighborhood they think about um. But 226 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:12,080 Speaker 1: also I think people are just not sure you know 227 00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:14,360 Speaker 1: what else is out there and how how different is it? 228 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:16,720 Speaker 1: I was I was imagining that the people might think 229 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: that the Sun is not the biggest star, the craziest star, 230 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:21,480 Speaker 1: and they would say, at least you know some other 231 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:23,319 Speaker 1: star out there. And we had we had one guy 232 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:26,320 Speaker 1: who said like a supernova um or a neutron star 233 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:28,959 Speaker 1: or something like that. So maybe they thought, you meant, 234 00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:32,439 Speaker 1: what's the brightest thing we can see from earth? Yeah, 235 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:34,559 Speaker 1: that's a good point. That's a good point. Maybe that's 236 00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:36,120 Speaker 1: what they thought, and in which case they would be 237 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:37,880 Speaker 1: mostly right. I mean, if you take away all sort 238 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:41,280 Speaker 1: of earth bound lasers, they could fry your eyeballs. It's 239 00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:43,880 Speaker 1: true that the sun is the brightest thing you can 240 00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:46,840 Speaker 1: see from the earth. So good job, Jorge just got 241 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:51,080 Speaker 1: you guys all extra credit. Good except you already marked 242 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:55,160 Speaker 1: them and sneered at them. Probably I did not sneer anybody. 243 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:58,679 Speaker 1: Thank you very much. I'm eternally grateful that, you see, 244 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:00,839 Speaker 1: students are willing to answer are my questions. I was 245 00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:03,200 Speaker 1: just walking around today, in fact, and not a single 246 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:06,800 Speaker 1: person said no to answering my questions. So continued A 247 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:08,960 Speaker 1: plus plus to you, see, I students for being open 248 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:13,240 Speaker 1: to answering crazy questions without any warning from a stranger. Well, 249 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:28,800 Speaker 1: this is a perfect point to take a break. But 250 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:31,520 Speaker 1: you do have a pretty interesting table here that you 251 00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:35,880 Speaker 1: sent me, which gives us the brightness of things relative 252 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:39,400 Speaker 1: to the sun. Yeah, because the brightness of things depends 253 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:42,240 Speaker 1: on your distance. I think it's more interesting to answer 254 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:45,840 Speaker 1: the question what is the absolute brightest thing in the universe, 255 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:48,680 Speaker 1: not what is the brightest thing in our sky? Right, 256 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: because there could be something super duper bright, but then 257 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:53,320 Speaker 1: it's really far away and it seems dim. But we're interested, 258 00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:55,920 Speaker 1: like what is that thing that's making all those photons? 259 00:12:56,400 --> 00:12:59,040 Speaker 1: So I thought less define things in terms of their 260 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:02,960 Speaker 1: brightness relative to the sun. And then let's imagine that 261 00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:05,839 Speaker 1: we're the same distance from that thing that we are 262 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:08,440 Speaker 1: from the Sun. So we call that an astronomical unit. 263 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:11,320 Speaker 1: It's about ninety three million miles. It's the distance between 264 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:13,079 Speaker 1: the Sun and the Earth. Well, I was thinking that 265 00:13:13,160 --> 00:13:14,920 Speaker 1: maybe a good way to think about it is that, 266 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:18,160 Speaker 1: you know, like if you stood outside right now and 267 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:20,880 Speaker 1: it's daylight and you looked at the sun, you would 268 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:23,720 Speaker 1: see the sun. But now if you swap the Sun 269 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:27,000 Speaker 1: with something else, this is this table tells you how 270 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:28,920 Speaker 1: bright that thing would be. Right, That seems like a 271 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:32,000 Speaker 1: totally practical experiment. Yeah, I'm going to delete the Sun 272 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:35,520 Speaker 1: and instantly transport some other crazy object there, and then 273 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:37,600 Speaker 1: I'm gonna look at it. Yeah, you just swapped it out, 274 00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:40,000 Speaker 1: So about the sun for something else, and this would 275 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:42,240 Speaker 1: tell this table will tell you how bright that thing is. Yeah, 276 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:44,360 Speaker 1: I'm imagining you have some like app on your phone 277 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:46,960 Speaker 1: where you're like select you know what you'd like at 278 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:48,679 Speaker 1: the center of your solar system, and it's got like 279 00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:50,800 Speaker 1: a menu or something, and you're like, m M, let 280 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,080 Speaker 1: me replace our sun with a supernova and see what 281 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:55,920 Speaker 1: that feels like. Anything is possible with quantum physics, right, 282 00:13:56,520 --> 00:13:59,719 Speaker 1: that's right, let's disrupt quantum physics with this app. So 283 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:03,400 Speaker 1: let's do the exercise. So, now let's say, um, what's um, 284 00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:05,520 Speaker 1: what's something that else is bright? Like, let's say we 285 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:09,120 Speaker 1: swapped out the moon for the Sun. How bright would 286 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:11,240 Speaker 1: the moon be? Well, it would be zero because the 287 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:14,440 Speaker 1: moon doesn't give off any light, right, So the moon 288 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:19,520 Speaker 1: actually just reflects light from the from the Sun. Right, Um, 289 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:21,480 Speaker 1: So that if you had no sun and you just 290 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:24,080 Speaker 1: put the moon there, then the whole whole solar system 291 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:26,760 Speaker 1: would be darker zero. All right, But let's say you 292 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:28,800 Speaker 1: wanted to upgrade the Sun, and you're like, let's look 293 00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:31,080 Speaker 1: around for the sort of a bigger star, and like, 294 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:32,840 Speaker 1: one example of a bigger star is one of them. 295 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:36,320 Speaker 1: It's called serious A, and it's a pretty serious star. 296 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:38,280 Speaker 1: It doesn't like to make jokes. But if you took 297 00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:40,320 Speaker 1: that star and you put it in place of our Sun, 298 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:43,920 Speaker 1: it would be almost thirty times brighter. So wait, what 299 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:46,360 Speaker 1: is this start to like a nearby star or the 300 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:48,400 Speaker 1: one of the brightest stars that we know about. It's 301 00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:51,320 Speaker 1: one of the brightest stars in our sky, which is 302 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: what I why I picked it. And it's bright mostly 303 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,560 Speaker 1: because it's it's sort of nearby. It's not it's not 304 00:14:56,640 --> 00:14:58,160 Speaker 1: that bright on its own, as you can tell, it's 305 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:00,480 Speaker 1: only thirty times brighter than our sun. But it's a 306 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:02,920 Speaker 1: cool star because it's part of a binary star system, 307 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:05,520 Speaker 1: which means they're two stars orbiting each other. So that's 308 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:08,880 Speaker 1: why they're serious A. It refers to which one which 309 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:10,480 Speaker 1: one it is. If you look up in the night 310 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:12,680 Speaker 1: sky from Earth, it's one of the brightest stars in 311 00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:15,400 Speaker 1: the sky. And so if you if you did the 312 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:18,960 Speaker 1: Jorge exercise and you teleported that star to the center 313 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:21,680 Speaker 1: of our solar system, then you know our days would 314 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:29,000 Speaker 1: be thirty times brighter. You would need SPF something like that. Yeah, 315 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:30,560 Speaker 1: it would be It would be pretty serious. I mean, 316 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:32,480 Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, if life could survive because 317 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:36,200 Speaker 1: the temperature with skyrocket and everything, we get fried. So 318 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:39,560 Speaker 1: not something I recommend. And you know, or you can 319 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:42,320 Speaker 1: think about it another way, like if we replace the 320 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:45,360 Speaker 1: Sun with serious A, then the Earth would have to 321 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:47,840 Speaker 1: be further from the Sun in order to have the 322 00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:50,840 Speaker 1: same temperature. Uh, we would have to be thirty times 323 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:53,160 Speaker 1: further away sort of, Well, it have to be square 324 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:57,200 Speaker 1: root of thirty. If you're five times further from the Sun, 325 00:15:57,640 --> 00:16:02,280 Speaker 1: then the brightness is one over twenty five, right, So yes, 326 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:04,000 Speaker 1: you have to be like five or five and a 327 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:08,320 Speaker 1: half AU from serious A to have the same amount 328 00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:10,720 Speaker 1: of solar activity. And that's what we do. You know, 329 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 1: when we find other star systems and planets around them, 330 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:17,520 Speaker 1: we ask for that star, where is the goldilocks zone? 331 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:19,920 Speaker 1: Where is the habitable zone, the zone where a planet 332 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:22,600 Speaker 1: would have about the same amount of brightness from the 333 00:16:22,760 --> 00:16:24,640 Speaker 1: their star as we do from our Sun. And that 334 00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:27,320 Speaker 1: depends of course, on the brightness of that star. Well, 335 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:30,920 Speaker 1: that is definitely a serious distance, that's right. But it 336 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,120 Speaker 1: turns out the serious is not even really that impressive. 337 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:36,840 Speaker 1: There's a star in than the constellation Orion, for example, 338 00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:38,440 Speaker 1: and I'm not even sure how to pronounce it. I 339 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:42,520 Speaker 1: think it's called rigel or rigel Um. And this is 340 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:45,120 Speaker 1: a pretty serious star, right, And if you put this 341 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:47,600 Speaker 1: star in our solar system, it would be thirty three 342 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:51,560 Speaker 1: thousand times brighter than our sun. So Sirius, which was 343 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:54,920 Speaker 1: a much brighter start thirty times, is nothing compared to 344 00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:57,920 Speaker 1: this one. Right, This one's thirty three thousand times brighter 345 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:00,840 Speaker 1: than the Sun. That's right, It's easy. It's a sort 346 00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:03,720 Speaker 1: of bluish white star. And the other other interesting thing 347 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:06,120 Speaker 1: about it is that the brightness varies a little bit, 348 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:09,120 Speaker 1: like there's something going on inside this star that makes 349 00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:12,399 Speaker 1: it like burn hotter sometimes or burned less, burned colder 350 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:16,080 Speaker 1: other times. It's a massive blue super giant and it's 351 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:19,680 Speaker 1: just spewing out photons thirty three thousand times more than 352 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 1: our current sun, which is pretty bright, yeah, exactly, but 353 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:24,480 Speaker 1: it's it's just much bigger, you know. It's one of 354 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:28,040 Speaker 1: these massive super giants. Which means it got more stuff, right, 355 00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:31,200 Speaker 1: So it's denser and hotter in the middle, and it's 356 00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:33,480 Speaker 1: just this it's a bigger fire burning. You know, like 357 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:36,280 Speaker 1: if you're having a little camp fire and the guys 358 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:39,800 Speaker 1: um one camp side over have like bought ten times 359 00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:42,240 Speaker 1: as much firewood and having a big bonfire than Yeah, 360 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:44,520 Speaker 1: there's just gonna be more photons coming out of their 361 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:46,879 Speaker 1: fire than yours because they've got more stuff. In the 362 00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:49,400 Speaker 1: same way, this star just has more fuel, so it's 363 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:51,760 Speaker 1: burning more fuel at the same time. It's like a 364 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:55,160 Speaker 1: quantity thing. It's not like there's different you know, physics 365 00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:57,640 Speaker 1: going on inside of it. It's just it's just there's 366 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:00,600 Speaker 1: more stuff burning. Yeah, exactly, it's just a bigger pile 367 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:03,600 Speaker 1: of fuel that that that got set on fire. Well, 368 00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:06,880 Speaker 1: thirty three thousand sounds pretty bright, brighter than the sun. 369 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:09,320 Speaker 1: It sounds pretty bright. But that's that's not even like 370 00:18:09,359 --> 00:18:12,360 Speaker 1: we're not even halfway through the table, right, That's right. Um, 371 00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:15,560 Speaker 1: there's another star it's called this one has an awesome name, 372 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:19,359 Speaker 1: Zeta Scorpi. I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that correctly, but 373 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:23,720 Speaker 1: it's a hyper giant star in the constellation Scorpius and 374 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:27,960 Speaker 1: this one burns two hundred thousand times brighter than our sun, 375 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:31,320 Speaker 1: So you need two hundred thousand suns just to match 376 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:35,000 Speaker 1: this one star, that's right, exactly. That's incredible to think 377 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:37,920 Speaker 1: of two hundred thousand of our stars of our sun. 378 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 1: That's right or um if you if Earth was orbiting 379 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:43,840 Speaker 1: this thing, then you'd have to be you know, the 380 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:47,400 Speaker 1: square root of two hundred thousand times farther away. That's 381 00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:50,280 Speaker 1: like four hundred and fifty times as far away from 382 00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:52,800 Speaker 1: this star as Earth is from the Sun in order 383 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:55,359 Speaker 1: to not get fried. Does that mean that sun, that 384 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:59,639 Speaker 1: star is two hundred times heavier also like more massive 385 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:03,280 Speaker 1: or is it just some sort of no, it's actually 386 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:06,440 Speaker 1: that that's fascinating question. It's actually only about thirty five 387 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:10,119 Speaker 1: times more massive than the Sun. What, but it's burning 388 00:19:10,119 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 1: two hundred thousand times brighter. Yeah, And you know these 389 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:16,760 Speaker 1: suns also have different life cycles, right, and they burn 390 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:20,479 Speaker 1: colder or hotter, or more brighter or or dimmer at 391 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:22,439 Speaker 1: different points in their life cycles, so that couldn't be 392 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:24,600 Speaker 1: part of it. But also when you get a you 393 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:26,520 Speaker 1: get a start that that much bigger, there can be 394 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,159 Speaker 1: different physics going on inside. But it's pretty awesome, and 395 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:31,480 Speaker 1: that's why they call it a hyper giant. Plus, it 396 00:19:31,560 --> 00:19:35,040 Speaker 1: has a pretty cool name, Zeta Scorpi. Yeah, it is 397 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:38,479 Speaker 1: pretty cool. Um, but even that's not so impressive compared 398 00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:41,840 Speaker 1: to the reigning champion of the universe. Right, is it 399 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:44,639 Speaker 1: also a star? It is? Well in terms of stars, right, 400 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:46,439 Speaker 1: we'll get um. In terms of stars, this is the 401 00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:48,800 Speaker 1: brightest star in the universe. But it doesn't have a 402 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:52,080 Speaker 1: very cool name. You know, the other ones Serious and Scorpii, 403 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:54,800 Speaker 1: those are pretty cool. This one is called wait for it, 404 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:03,000 Speaker 1: are on six three a one. That's a cool name. 405 00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:05,000 Speaker 1: You know. If this was like a Star Wars character, 406 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:08,480 Speaker 1: you know, you can make it work. Wait, I think 407 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:10,920 Speaker 1: I swapped it even I think it's our one three 408 00:20:11,119 --> 00:20:14,000 Speaker 1: six a one. Is that still cool? Yeah? I know 409 00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:18,320 Speaker 1: that's it's not that one's not as cool. Um this 410 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:20,520 Speaker 1: one comes in. I think their friends just calm our 411 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:24,680 Speaker 1: one our one. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Actually, um Our 412 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:27,480 Speaker 1: one is actually the name of the cafeteria at CERN, 413 00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:30,760 Speaker 1: also short for restaurant one, So people are always saying, hey, 414 00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:32,359 Speaker 1: I meet you at our one, and and and is 415 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:35,600 Speaker 1: the food also bright and shiny and hot? Um? Yeah, 416 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:38,960 Speaker 1: I don't think the restaurant's cern is famous for its food. Yeah, 417 00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,639 Speaker 1: that's not the that's not the most impressive thing about 418 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:43,320 Speaker 1: that restaurant. I think the view is better. You can 419 00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:45,199 Speaker 1: see them on Blanc. You can see also it's of 420 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:47,879 Speaker 1: the Alps. It's a gorgeous place to eat lunch. But 421 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,040 Speaker 1: I hear it's pretty cool because they cooked the food 422 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:53,040 Speaker 1: like where the particles collide, right, isn't that how they 423 00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:56,320 Speaker 1: heat up the food? They just they just dip it 424 00:20:56,359 --> 00:20:58,159 Speaker 1: down into the ground. Yeah, they're like, hey, the meat 425 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,560 Speaker 1: is getting cold, crank up the excel or it or no. 426 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,600 Speaker 1: But back to our star are one. It's a three 427 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:06,879 Speaker 1: hundred times as massive as the sun, but it's eight 428 00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:11,159 Speaker 1: point five million times brighter than our sun. Wait, so 429 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,560 Speaker 1: let me just wrap my head. You would need three 430 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:17,480 Speaker 1: hundred thousands of our sons just to match the size 431 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:20,240 Speaker 1: of it and the weight. But then it's eight million, 432 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:23,399 Speaker 1: three hundred, three hundred sons, not three hundred thousand or 433 00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:27,160 Speaker 1: three hundred sons three hundred sons. But it burns eight 434 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:30,800 Speaker 1: point five million times as bright eight million times, so 435 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:33,520 Speaker 1: you would need eight million of our sons just to 436 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,760 Speaker 1: match the brightness of this one star. Yeah, it's ridiculous. 437 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:38,959 Speaker 1: I mean, it's like it boggles on mine. I mean, 438 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:42,480 Speaker 1: our son already is super bright. Right, We're glad we're 439 00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:44,840 Speaker 1: ninety million miles away from it, and still it can 440 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:48,200 Speaker 1: burn your eyeballs, right, Just that's an incredibly bright source 441 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,560 Speaker 1: of light. And then to imagine something eight million times 442 00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:55,480 Speaker 1: it can burn eight million eyeballs much more easily. It's 443 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:57,160 Speaker 1: it's hard to get your head around that. And it's 444 00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:00,119 Speaker 1: like a sustained fire, right, It's like a it's just 445 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:04,000 Speaker 1: always burning at eight million times better than the sun. Yeah, exactly. 446 00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:06,600 Speaker 1: It's not like an explosion or like a supernova. It's 447 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:09,359 Speaker 1: just like it's just like a something that's just burning 448 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:11,919 Speaker 1: super bright. It just keeps going. Yeah, and it's you know, 449 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:15,960 Speaker 1: it's illuminating space all around it. Um. One thing is 450 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,879 Speaker 1: it's pretty dangerous, right, because you get too close, you're 451 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:19,960 Speaker 1: gonna get fried. On the other hand, it's like making 452 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:22,520 Speaker 1: things visible. You know, if you were near that solar system, 453 00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:24,680 Speaker 1: you could see all sorts of interesting stuff. The rocks 454 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:26,679 Speaker 1: and the planets and all all the stuff around it 455 00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:29,679 Speaker 1: are are shining brightly because of that star. But you 456 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:31,960 Speaker 1: need to be pretty far away just just to be 457 00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:35,280 Speaker 1: near it, Yeah exactly. You couldn't get too close. Exactly. 458 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:37,239 Speaker 1: It's pretty dangerous thing to visit. So any of you 459 00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:40,480 Speaker 1: guys planning to visit are one three six A one. 460 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:44,439 Speaker 1: You know, pack some protection. That's bring eight eight and 461 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:48,400 Speaker 1: a half million bottles of some block. That's right, exactly. 462 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,360 Speaker 1: You have to be like three thousand times the distance 463 00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:54,280 Speaker 1: from the Earth to the Sun in order to have 464 00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:56,880 Speaker 1: the same amount of solar energy. So that's the brightest 465 00:22:56,880 --> 00:22:59,879 Speaker 1: star that we know about in the universe, like that 466 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:03,439 Speaker 1: the draining record holder. Yeah, that's right, that's the brightest 467 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:05,760 Speaker 1: star that's been observed. And where is it. It's in 468 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:09,560 Speaker 1: a neighboring galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud. So 469 00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:12,840 Speaker 1: this is like a big cluster of stuff out there, 470 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,200 Speaker 1: and it's a hundred and sixty three light thousand light 471 00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:18,960 Speaker 1: years away, so it's in another galaxy. So it's not 472 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:20,920 Speaker 1: even in our galaxy. Yeah, no, it's not even in 473 00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:24,359 Speaker 1: our galaxy. Yeah exactly. So the Milky Way is outstripped 474 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:26,919 Speaker 1: by this other star. And you know, this is fascinating stuff, 475 00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:29,080 Speaker 1: and I think from a science point of view, and 476 00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:31,840 Speaker 1: you're always interested in the extremes because you're wondering like 477 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:34,840 Speaker 1: what is the hottest or the brightest thing, because we're 478 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:37,000 Speaker 1: trying to understand how these stars work, right, we have 479 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:39,679 Speaker 1: like models for what's going on inside them, and then 480 00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:42,280 Speaker 1: they make predictions and they always go out there and 481 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:44,840 Speaker 1: then they discover something that's like twice as crazy or 482 00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:47,000 Speaker 1: twice as bright as anything they understood, and it makes 483 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,440 Speaker 1: us tweak those models to understand what else could be 484 00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:52,480 Speaker 1: happening in those stars to produce so many photons. So 485 00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:55,600 Speaker 1: the extremes are really valuable, um scientifically because they show 486 00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:58,159 Speaker 1: us like the boundary of what can happen um. And 487 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,840 Speaker 1: so these are just stars that we're talking about right now, 488 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:05,400 Speaker 1: right now, right, there are even brighter things in the universe. 489 00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 1: Right there's other kinds of things that are brighter than 490 00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:10,879 Speaker 1: the brightest stars in the universe. That's right. These stars 491 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:13,440 Speaker 1: are crazy bright. You know, our son is pretty bright. 492 00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:15,600 Speaker 1: These other ones totally a strip it. But when it 493 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,000 Speaker 1: comes to the record holders, so the brightest things in 494 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:20,920 Speaker 1: the universe, these things are pretty dim alright. So let's 495 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:23,399 Speaker 1: let's get into those things. But first let's take a 496 00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:38,720 Speaker 1: quick break. All Right, we're talking about the brightest things 497 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,800 Speaker 1: in the universe, and we don't just mean like your kids, Daniel, 498 00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:46,359 Speaker 1: which I'm sure very bright and good looking and and 499 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,720 Speaker 1: good looking, and they have a great dad apparently. Yeah, 500 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:56,000 Speaker 1: I'd like to meet him someday. My kids are basically 501 00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: look like my wife. I mean, it's sort of funny 502 00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:01,879 Speaker 1: because I have dark eyes and dark hair, and my 503 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,800 Speaker 1: wife is Scandinavian, so she has like blue eyes and 504 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:08,920 Speaker 1: blonde hair. And interestingly, our kids both came out blonde 505 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:13,200 Speaker 1: with light colored eyes, So genetics, I don't know, explaining 506 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,520 Speaker 1: to me, maybe she just cloned herself in the lab. 507 00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:17,680 Speaker 1: She is a biologist. This sounds like a game of 508 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:23,480 Speaker 1: thrown situation. I'm not sure what you're implying over there. Um, 509 00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:28,040 Speaker 1: I prefer I'm just saying the results seemed Yes, that's true. Yes, 510 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:31,199 Speaker 1: it's it's been a mystery for a while. Um anyway, 511 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:33,840 Speaker 1: But there are brighter things in the universe than even 512 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:37,159 Speaker 1: the stars and even my family or yours. So we 513 00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,080 Speaker 1: left it at the brightest star that we know about 514 00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:43,840 Speaker 1: in the entire universe, which is our one three six 515 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,760 Speaker 1: something something a one, which was eight and a half 516 00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,680 Speaker 1: million times brighter than our sun, which is mind boggling, 517 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:55,160 Speaker 1: which is amazing. But there's are things that are even 518 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,160 Speaker 1: much more brighter than that. Right, that's right, And sort 519 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:01,760 Speaker 1: of counterintuitively, these are things that'sociated with black holes. Right, 520 00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:03,720 Speaker 1: black holes you think of immediately it's like, oh, that's 521 00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:05,919 Speaker 1: super dark. If you'd ask me what's the darkest thing 522 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:09,280 Speaker 1: in the universe, you'd say black holes. But remember black 523 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:12,479 Speaker 1: holes themselves don't give off much lighter or much radiation. 524 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:17,000 Speaker 1: They're pretty dark, but they're very powerful. They're incredibly strong 525 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,520 Speaker 1: sources of gravity, and the things that have not yet 526 00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:22,359 Speaker 1: fallen into the black hole, those things can go off 527 00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,600 Speaker 1: and give off a lot of light. Okay, so the 528 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:30,119 Speaker 1: brightest things in the universe then are paradoxically black holes. 529 00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:32,280 Speaker 1: Is that what you're saying? No, not even the brightest, 530 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,199 Speaker 1: but some of the bright but brighter than stars. And 531 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:37,879 Speaker 1: so what happens is that, you remember, the black holes 532 00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:39,719 Speaker 1: have these things around them, the stuff that has not 533 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,240 Speaker 1: yet fallen in. Right. It's like, you know, the toilet 534 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:45,080 Speaker 1: is still flushing, and these things are swirling around about 535 00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:48,840 Speaker 1: to go inside, and because of the incredible gravitational energy 536 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:51,439 Speaker 1: of the black hole, it's creating a lot of stress 537 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:53,840 Speaker 1: and strain on this gas and this dust, and so 538 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:56,200 Speaker 1: it ends up emitting a huge amount of radiation. We 539 00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:58,560 Speaker 1: cover this in another podcast episode. It's called these are 540 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,240 Speaker 1: things are called quasars, and they're so bright in the 541 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:04,760 Speaker 1: night sky that for a long time people didn't even 542 00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,080 Speaker 1: understand what they could be because they're incredibly bright and 543 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:11,159 Speaker 1: incredibly far away. So people did the math and they're like, 544 00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:14,879 Speaker 1: what if it's that bright already and it's super far away, 545 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:16,639 Speaker 1: that means if you got close to it, it would 546 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:20,240 Speaker 1: be mind bogglingly bright. So for a while, people didn't 547 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 1: even believe it until they found other ways to prove 548 00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:25,920 Speaker 1: that these things really were happening. Yeah, we talked about 549 00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:28,520 Speaker 1: that in an episode. I think the episode was titled 550 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:32,600 Speaker 1: Strange Stars, right, Yeah, exactly the strangest craziest things in 551 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:36,080 Speaker 1: the universe. Yeah, and so we talked about quasars and blazers, 552 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:41,840 Speaker 1: which um sounds like they're popular in the eighties. Exactly, 553 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,719 Speaker 1: shoulder pads. What is the biggest shoulder pad in the universe. 554 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:46,959 Speaker 1: That's the whole podcast episode right there. And so if 555 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:48,920 Speaker 1: you're curious about how what they are and how they work, 556 00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:51,240 Speaker 1: please check out that podcast. But but I don't think 557 00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,000 Speaker 1: in that podcast we talked about how actually bright they 558 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:57,600 Speaker 1: are like in comparison to other things. Yeah, exactly, Well, 559 00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:59,840 Speaker 1: it's ridiculous. It's hard to even wrap your mind around 560 00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:02,800 Speaker 1: these things. Um, these quasars. For example, one of the 561 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:05,560 Speaker 1: brightest quasars we've ever found has a sexy name of 562 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:10,760 Speaker 1: three C two seven three. It's four trillion times brighter 563 00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:12,480 Speaker 1: than our son. Like, if you put that thing in 564 00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:15,680 Speaker 1: the center of our solar system, we would get fried. Well, 565 00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:19,200 Speaker 1: first of all, who names these things? They were all 566 00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:21,679 Speaker 1: waiting for you, man, everybody's heard that you're good at 567 00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:24,560 Speaker 1: naming things. They actually get to like three hundred and 568 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:26,720 Speaker 1: seventy three of these, and so this one just happened 569 00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,520 Speaker 1: to be the number of two seventy three. Yeah. You know, 570 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:31,840 Speaker 1: there's just so many things out there you can't name 571 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,440 Speaker 1: them all. You just got to give them numbers. Um. 572 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,439 Speaker 1: But you know, sometimes one of them gets special and 573 00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:37,720 Speaker 1: then he gets a name. And I don't even know 574 00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:40,480 Speaker 1: how that works, but this one should deserve a name. 575 00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:42,840 Speaker 1: I mean, it's the brightest quasar in the universe, right, 576 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:46,520 Speaker 1: give it a name like Thour or something like Daniel's kids. 577 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:50,480 Speaker 1: That's right. I'd like to I'd like to nomin I'd 578 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,240 Speaker 1: like to name this quasar after my own kids. I'm 579 00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:55,560 Speaker 1: sure that would fly. No, no, not after your kids. 580 00:28:55,560 --> 00:29:01,440 Speaker 1: Just Daniel, Daniel, that sounds like a reference to karate 581 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:04,200 Speaker 1: kid um. But this thing is, I mean, four trillion 582 00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:06,480 Speaker 1: times brighter than our son is hard to understand. Remember, 583 00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,600 Speaker 1: there's like a hundred or two hundred billion stars in 584 00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:12,160 Speaker 1: the Milky Way, right, which means that this thing is 585 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:14,680 Speaker 1: brighter than all the stars in the Milky Way by 586 00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:17,400 Speaker 1: like a factor of a hundred. And just to be clear, 587 00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:21,400 Speaker 1: four trillion means four thousand billion, right, that's right, that's right, 588 00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:23,840 Speaker 1: or four million million, not just a million times brighter 589 00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:26,840 Speaker 1: than our sun, but like four million and then a 590 00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:29,840 Speaker 1: million times over again. Yeah, exactly. And you know at 591 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:31,760 Speaker 1: this point it's basically infinity. I mean, in my head, 592 00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:35,280 Speaker 1: I can't understand the difference between trillions and quadrillions and whatever. 593 00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:39,640 Speaker 1: It's just all big number insanity. It's just crazy. It's insanity. 594 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,280 Speaker 1: It's intensity intensities, man. And so that's a quasar, Right's 595 00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:46,040 Speaker 1: giving off a huge amount of radiation super bright. It's 596 00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:48,080 Speaker 1: not a star, but it is in the same sense, 597 00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:50,240 Speaker 1: sort of in a similar category because it's a huge 598 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:53,160 Speaker 1: amount of gas that's being compressed in generating radiation, but 599 00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:56,040 Speaker 1: it's not technically a star. But then remember that some 600 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,960 Speaker 1: of these quasars, some of these quasars we call them 601 00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:03,360 Speaker 1: blaze ours, because they also emit a beam, right, and 602 00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:05,600 Speaker 1: the beam is sort of perpendicular to the plane of 603 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:07,960 Speaker 1: the galaxy. Remember, a lot of these galaxies are sort 604 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:11,080 Speaker 1: of flat, they're swirling disks and the black holes at 605 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: the center of it, and blaze oars our galaxies that 606 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:17,600 Speaker 1: emit these huge jets of radiation sort of perpendicular to 607 00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:20,320 Speaker 1: the flat plane of the galaxy out from the center, right, 608 00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:23,560 Speaker 1: And so that it's you're saying, it's um their energy 609 00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:25,880 Speaker 1: and their light is sort of focus, it's concentrating. It's 610 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:28,920 Speaker 1: not just like a light bulb shining in all directions. 611 00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:32,360 Speaker 1: Some of these things sort of focus their um light 612 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:36,920 Speaker 1: in a particular kind of beam. Yeah, exactly, it's collimated, 613 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:39,080 Speaker 1: and we don't really even understand the physics of that, 614 00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:41,200 Speaker 1: Like how do you take all this radiation and bend 615 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:45,120 Speaker 1: it into one direction. People think it's maybe crazy magnetic fields, 616 00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:46,960 Speaker 1: but you know, it's a huge amount of stuff we 617 00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:49,600 Speaker 1: don't understand about what's going on in the center of galaxies. 618 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:53,240 Speaker 1: But sometimes one of these beams happens to be pointed 619 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:55,240 Speaker 1: right at us, you know, just by chance. And there's 620 00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:57,200 Speaker 1: a lot of galaxies and a lot of quasars, and 621 00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,160 Speaker 1: they're pointing a lot of different directions, and so one 622 00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:01,360 Speaker 1: of these blazers is going to be shining right at us. 623 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,720 Speaker 1: And because of some relativistic physics, when it's shining right 624 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,520 Speaker 1: at you, the intensity is even higher. And so um, 625 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,360 Speaker 1: you can look for um, which blaze are is the 626 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:15,520 Speaker 1: brightest from our point of view, right being pointed at us. 627 00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:18,400 Speaker 1: And so there's a blazer. It's name is three CE 628 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,200 Speaker 1: four five four point three, right, what a sexy name? 629 00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:25,120 Speaker 1: And what is the point three? I don't know what 630 00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:27,880 Speaker 1: the point three comes around the third? You know, like 631 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:32,720 Speaker 1: this is the grandson, grandson of the real grand Pappy Blazer. 632 00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:38,200 Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. I cannot give any 633 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:42,040 Speaker 1: accounting for how they name these things. Um, but this thing, 634 00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:46,240 Speaker 1: this monster, is three hundred trillion times brighter than our sun. 635 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:50,600 Speaker 1: You would need three hundred trillion pairs of sunglasses, just 636 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:53,560 Speaker 1: not so that you don't burn your eye out. That's right. 637 00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:58,000 Speaker 1: You could get three hundred trillion sunburns in one day 638 00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:02,600 Speaker 1: and one millis I can probably exactly. Yeah. Um, so 639 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:04,800 Speaker 1: we're glad that these things are pretty far away because 640 00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:07,400 Speaker 1: they're ridiculously bright. I mean, the intensity of light is 641 00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:10,160 Speaker 1: just incredible, you know, and so there's there's stuff going 642 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,120 Speaker 1: out there in the universe which is insane, you know, 643 00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:14,960 Speaker 1: which would fry us and destroy us. Also, you know, 644 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:17,320 Speaker 1: it makes me think about like our energy problems, Like 645 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:19,800 Speaker 1: we're trying to squeeze a little bits out of energy 646 00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:22,880 Speaker 1: out of like liquid stored underground, but the amount of 647 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,240 Speaker 1: energy that's out there in the universe it's just being 648 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:30,120 Speaker 1: like you know, shot out into space and wasted is incredible. Um. 649 00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:32,600 Speaker 1: You know, the scale of our problems are really tiny 650 00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,120 Speaker 1: in comparison to the stuff that's happening out there. And 651 00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:38,680 Speaker 1: so that's that's the king in terms of constant brightness, 652 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:40,600 Speaker 1: Like that blazer is going and it's not going to 653 00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:45,160 Speaker 1: stop anytime soon. It's just pumping out photons constantly, at 654 00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:47,720 Speaker 1: at the rate that makes our sun look pathetic. Now, 655 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,200 Speaker 1: is that still brighter than pointing at least or pointer 656 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:52,680 Speaker 1: in my eye? Or that's still pretty bright? Yeah? I 657 00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:55,040 Speaker 1: mean it would be hard to get a laser pointer 658 00:32:55,200 --> 00:33:02,680 Speaker 1: that's three trillion times as bright as the sun. So 659 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:06,840 Speaker 1: that would be the brightest, constantly shining thing in the universe. 660 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:10,680 Speaker 1: You're saying, that's right, But sometimes there's a crazy event 661 00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:13,600 Speaker 1: in the universe and even that gets out shown by 662 00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:17,320 Speaker 1: something else. So you know, sometimes stars go supernova. Right, 663 00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:19,000 Speaker 1: this is when they reached the end of their life 664 00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:21,960 Speaker 1: and they decided it's not worth it anymore. You know, 665 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,800 Speaker 1: I'm done, I want to check out. And they have 666 00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:27,880 Speaker 1: this massive explosion where they basically use most of the 667 00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:30,920 Speaker 1: rest of their fuel in a very brief moment, and 668 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,720 Speaker 1: they can outshine entire galaxies, they can outshine sets of galaxies, 669 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:37,760 Speaker 1: they can even outshine blaze ours. And so there's one 670 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:40,120 Speaker 1: and then they emit these huge things they called gamma 671 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:42,640 Speaker 1: ray bursts. We had a whole podcast episode about them, 672 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,880 Speaker 1: these brief pulses of gamma rays. Remember gamma rays are 673 00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:49,200 Speaker 1: just light, right, just very high energy light, and so 674 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:51,800 Speaker 1: and so we keep track of these gamma rays and 675 00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,160 Speaker 1: these gamma ray bursts, and one of them came by, 676 00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,320 Speaker 1: and this is gamma ray burst zero eight zero three 677 00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:00,200 Speaker 1: one nine B right, not to be confused with one 678 00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:04,040 Speaker 1: nine A. It's much demercust or ce right, which was 679 00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:07,120 Speaker 1: pathetic as a as a sequel. But this one is 680 00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:09,960 Speaker 1: the brightest sort of emission we've ever seen ever in 681 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:14,160 Speaker 1: the universe. And this one is twenty two quadrillion times 682 00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:16,879 Speaker 1: brighter than our sun. Wow, that sounds like a lot. 683 00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:19,440 Speaker 1: How much is how much is a quadrillion? How much 684 00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:21,880 Speaker 1: is a quadrillion? He says as he types that into Google. 685 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:25,640 Speaker 1: There's like ten thousand times brighter than the brightest blazer 686 00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:29,160 Speaker 1: in the universe. Kind of something something along with that magnetude, 687 00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,439 Speaker 1: right exactly. But the key is that it didn't last 688 00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,160 Speaker 1: very long, right, It's a it's a very short burst. 689 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:37,719 Speaker 1: You know, we're talking about things that last seconds. So 690 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:39,440 Speaker 1: it's a pretty dramatic way to go out. You know, 691 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,440 Speaker 1: it's some nice fireworks and for a few moments you 692 00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:46,480 Speaker 1: outshine the otherwise brightest thing in the universe by a 693 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,440 Speaker 1: huge factor. Right, So that's really like your your moment 694 00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:52,120 Speaker 1: of fame in the universe. But then it fades. Right, 695 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:54,239 Speaker 1: So you know, if you want the brightest thing ever 696 00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,960 Speaker 1: is gamma ray burst. If you want something consistency, you 697 00:34:56,960 --> 00:34:59,200 Speaker 1: know that's going to win the marathon rather than the sprint, 698 00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:01,960 Speaker 1: then then you want to go for blaze rs I 699 00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:03,880 Speaker 1: guess it depends on what you mean by brightest, right. 700 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:06,480 Speaker 1: It could be it depends on the time scale. Yeah, 701 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:10,839 Speaker 1: it's an integrated brightness or momentary brightness, right? Or who 702 00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:14,160 Speaker 1: can shine the brightest thing into je's eyeball? Right? Yeah, 703 00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,440 Speaker 1: let's not give our listeners any suggestions here how many 704 00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:20,200 Speaker 1: um laser pointers can be shined into an eyeball? At 705 00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:23,440 Speaker 1: the same time, there's a whole podcast episode. I'm sure. Yeah, 706 00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:27,000 Speaker 1: let's send it to Bill Knight. He knows the answer 707 00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:29,040 Speaker 1: to every question. So what is it called g r B? 708 00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:31,480 Speaker 1: Is it just some sort of physics GRB stands for 709 00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:34,359 Speaker 1: gamma ray burst? Oh, I see, Or it could be 710 00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:36,799 Speaker 1: green red blues. That what you're thinking. No, I was. 711 00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:38,239 Speaker 1: I was confused for a second. I thought it was 712 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:45,040 Speaker 1: like r GB. No RBG No, that's the Supreme Court justice, 713 00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:48,640 Speaker 1: just like what Ruth Baylor Gisbury is the brightest thing 714 00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:52,040 Speaker 1: in the universe. She may be the brightest thing on 715 00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:56,359 Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. Yeah she is. Actually, she's a She's 716 00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:59,759 Speaker 1: a star for sure. All right. So that was a 717 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:03,239 Speaker 1: two were of brightness in the universe, the brightest things 718 00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:06,160 Speaker 1: in the entire unit. We went from zero brightness, which 719 00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:10,040 Speaker 1: is a black hole to the brightest things that we 720 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:12,440 Speaker 1: know about as human beings. Right, that's right. And so 721 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:14,400 Speaker 1: next time you're out there camping and you're looking up 722 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:16,400 Speaker 1: at the night sky, I remember that there is crazy 723 00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:18,840 Speaker 1: stuff out there that's pumping out photons at levels we 724 00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:21,759 Speaker 1: could hardly imagine. Most of it seems dim because it's 725 00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:24,040 Speaker 1: far away, or because you can't see it because your 726 00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:27,120 Speaker 1: neighbor's portlight. But if you got too close, it would 727 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:29,000 Speaker 1: definitely fry you. But you know what to say, It's 728 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,160 Speaker 1: better to light one blazer than to curse the darkness. 729 00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:37,440 Speaker 1: Who says that you? I think it's my grandmother. Your 730 00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:39,320 Speaker 1: grandmother has a lot of funny things. I'd like to 731 00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:41,080 Speaker 1: meet this lady. All right, Well, thank you for joining us. 732 00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:46,480 Speaker 1: I hope you found that discussion illuminating and shining. I 733 00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:48,719 Speaker 1: hope we turned a light on in your mind but 734 00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:53,920 Speaker 1: didn't fry your eyeballs with it or your ears. But 735 00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:56,680 Speaker 1: thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time. 736 00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:59,400 Speaker 1: Tune in next time. Thanks very much, and don't forget 737 00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:01,680 Speaker 1: if you have a question about what we said, or 738 00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:03,719 Speaker 1: you have a suggestion for a topic you'd like to 739 00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:06,800 Speaker 1: hear us breakdown please send it to us at feedback 740 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:17,680 Speaker 1: at Daniel and Jorge dot com. If you still have 741 00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:21,120 Speaker 1: a question after listening to all these explanations, please drop 742 00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:23,239 Speaker 1: us a line. We'd love to hear from you. You 743 00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:26,720 Speaker 1: can find us at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Daniel 744 00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:30,239 Speaker 1: and Jorge That's one Word, or email us at feedback 745 00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:33,560 Speaker 1: at Daniel and Jorge dot com. Thanks for listening, and 746 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:36,279 Speaker 1: remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is a 747 00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,799 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. From more podcast from my 748 00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:43,480 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 749 00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:45,960 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.