1 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:11,680 Speaker 1: Hey, Jorgey, I have a cool idea for a totally 2 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:16,680 Speaker 1: new gadget. Is it an automatic banana pelar? That's you, 3 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,960 Speaker 1: You're an automatic banana pelar. No, it's a space compass 4 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: on nice, So I tell you where to find bananas, uh, 5 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:28,639 Speaker 1: your refrigerator. Now, like a compass on Earth right tells 6 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: you where North is based on magnetic field. Right, So 7 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:36,320 Speaker 1: this space compass would use the Sun's magnetic field to 8 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:38,839 Speaker 1: tell you where you are in the Solar system. That 9 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: sounds cool, But isn't that just like a regular compass. 10 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:45,520 Speaker 1: That's the genius part. There are no engineering or design costs, 11 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:48,480 Speaker 1: just cost to bananas. Anything I can do to cut 12 00:00:48,479 --> 00:01:06,240 Speaker 1: out the engineers. Hi am or handy cartoonists and the 13 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:10,320 Speaker 1: creator of PhD comics. Hi, I'm Daniel, I'm a particle physicist, 14 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: and I'm moonlight as an inventor of ridiculous things and 15 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: ridiculous podcasts. Right, Let's see what I can make in 16 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:21,039 Speaker 1: a particle colliderary that I could sell on Etsy. Let 17 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:24,640 Speaker 1: see if we can collide science and bad puns and 18 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: see if anyone will listen. Maybe I should list many 19 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:29,720 Speaker 1: black holes on my Etsy shop and see if anybody 20 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:32,840 Speaker 1: buys one. Are those for sale? Can you buy one 21 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:35,760 Speaker 1: from the LHC. Everything has a price, right, you give 22 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:37,720 Speaker 1: me a hundred billion dollars, I will give you a 23 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: black hole. You would totally do it, wouldn't you. The 24 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 1: l a C would totally do it. They'll take that 25 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:45,080 Speaker 1: money well after the check cash is yes. But welcome 26 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,520 Speaker 1: to our podcast Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a 27 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:50,120 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio, in which we talk about 28 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:51,920 Speaker 1: all the things that we can do in the world 29 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: and all the things that we can't do in this world, 30 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:57,559 Speaker 1: even if we have a hundred billion dollars. We zoom 31 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: out into space and think about what's there, what's seeing? 32 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: Why are things here? Why does the universe work the 33 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:05,040 Speaker 1: way that it does. Why doesn't it work some other way? 34 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: All the things for sale and that you can get 35 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,000 Speaker 1: for free ad cern gift shop. Can you get a 36 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:14,639 Speaker 1: free superconducting magnet that you don't use anymore? No, we 37 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:17,240 Speaker 1: do not give those away. I think you can get 38 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:21,640 Speaker 1: a sticker though. A sticker is it a super conducting sticker? No, 39 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:23,919 Speaker 1: it might have a picture of a Higgs Boson collision 40 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:26,679 Speaker 1: on it, so it's pretty fun. Yeah, we like to 41 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:29,120 Speaker 1: talk about all the amazing things out during the universe, 42 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:31,400 Speaker 1: all of the things that are here on Earth and 43 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: that we can discover and look closely at, and all 44 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,119 Speaker 1: the things that we can quite see that are out there. 45 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: That's right, because humanity is taking a mental voyage of exploration. 46 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 1: We are stuck here on Earth for the time being. 47 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: What we'd like to understand what's out there? How do 48 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:49,560 Speaker 1: things work? So we use our telescopes and are clever 49 00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:52,720 Speaker 1: ideas to probe the cosmos, And every time we do, 50 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,800 Speaker 1: we find something weird, somebody that shakes the very foundation 51 00:02:56,840 --> 00:02:59,360 Speaker 1: of our understanding of how the universe works and what 52 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:02,120 Speaker 1: it's old with. Do you think humans have a kind 53 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 1: of a version of fomo like fear of missing out? 54 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:07,640 Speaker 1: That's what we're always looking out into space, trying to 55 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: find couder things. Yeah, maybe we're just stuck in a 56 00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:13,800 Speaker 1: boarding corner of the universe and the real party is 57 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: happening somewhere else at the center of the galaxy or 58 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,200 Speaker 1: in another galaxy, and if only we were there, we 59 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:20,799 Speaker 1: could be partner. Well, you know what they say, be 60 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 1: careful about having an interesting life. Well, maybe the aliens 61 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 1: are gathering together in some sort of like Universal Physics 62 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:30,680 Speaker 1: Conference and revealing the secrets to the universe, and we 63 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:37,880 Speaker 1: just weren't invited. Man, you do have fomo. I have 64 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,480 Speaker 1: fear of missing out on alien physics. What's the acronym 65 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:42,640 Speaker 1: for that, A phomo. But yeah, I would like to 66 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 1: talk about all the amazing things out there. And turns 67 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:47,120 Speaker 1: out that there are a lot of very interesting things 68 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 1: out in space, things you can't see, but that we 69 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:53,520 Speaker 1: can potentially feel. That's right, and humanity is busy building 70 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: new kinds of eyeballs, ways to look at space, ways 71 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 1: to hear messages from outer space to give us clue 72 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:02,560 Speaker 1: as to what's out there, and every time we do, 73 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: we find something weird. Of course, there are planets, there 74 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:08,760 Speaker 1: are stars, there are galaxies, there are supernovas, but there 75 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: are also other amazing things we can listen to. So 76 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: to be on the podcast, we will be asking the 77 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:21,919 Speaker 1: question does space have a magnetic field? Now, Daniel, we 78 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:24,359 Speaker 1: have a magnetic field here on Earth, like the Earth 79 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: has a magnetic field from the north pole to the 80 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,520 Speaker 1: south pole, and so compasses work and it helps protect 81 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:34,159 Speaker 1: us from cosmic race that are coming from space. And 82 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 1: so I guess the question is does space have a 83 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:39,800 Speaker 1: magnetic field to like, is there, you know, like a 84 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: universe wide or galaxy wide magnetic field. Yeah, it's a 85 00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:47,279 Speaker 1: great question. And if you ask people this question, you know, 86 00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:50,200 Speaker 1: maybe twenty years ago they would have said, how could 87 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:53,240 Speaker 1: the universe be filled with a magnetic field? Magnetic fields 88 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:57,000 Speaker 1: and need sources, right, they need magnets or spinning loops 89 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:00,320 Speaker 1: of charge or something. So what could possibly j generate 90 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:04,680 Speaker 1: universe wide magnetic field? That's absurd, right, And my favorite 91 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 1: thing about physics is that things that were observed twenty 92 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:10,599 Speaker 1: years ago become reality and then accepted wisdom and then 93 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:13,840 Speaker 1: later eventually obvious. And you're like grumpy its students for 94 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:16,800 Speaker 1: not understanding it in a ten minute explanation, and the 95 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,840 Speaker 1: cutscene montage of physicists throughout his roy would be like, 96 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 1: that's ridiculous. Wait, never mind, that's ridiculous. Wait never mind. Yeah, yeah, 97 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:28,520 Speaker 1: that can't be true. Oh, actually it is. And then 98 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 1: to the students, why don't you understand this? So you're 99 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:34,039 Speaker 1: saying that there are magnetic fields in space? Yeah, and 100 00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:36,599 Speaker 1: this is wonderful history of discovery. As we look further 101 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:40,240 Speaker 1: and further out into space, we discover magnetic fields where 102 00:05:40,279 --> 00:05:42,919 Speaker 1: we didn't expect to see any and we're forced to 103 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:45,120 Speaker 1: come up with more and more ideas for what could 104 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:47,880 Speaker 1: be generating them. And this is giving us a fascinating 105 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,960 Speaker 1: window into how the universe was constructed and maybe even 106 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:55,479 Speaker 1: like solving deep problems and concerns we have about understanding 107 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:59,760 Speaker 1: how the universe expands. Sounds deep. It's quite a magnetic topic. 108 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:03,800 Speaker 1: Deep answers about deep space. Is magnetically attractive to this topic? Well, 109 00:06:03,839 --> 00:06:06,240 Speaker 1: I feel kind of positive and negative about it, but yeah, 110 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: I guess the idea is that, you know, we have 111 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:09,400 Speaker 1: a magnetic field here on Earth. You know, I have 112 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 1: a compass. It tells me which way is north. But 113 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:14,880 Speaker 1: as I imagine myself floating out into space, I would 114 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:18,840 Speaker 1: imagine that that compass doesn't work. Like you know, if 115 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:21,839 Speaker 1: you're way far from the Earth, where would it point 116 00:06:21,839 --> 00:06:24,039 Speaker 1: to you. It wouldn't point to the north or the south. 117 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:26,720 Speaker 1: But you're saying that a compass in space would be 118 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:30,039 Speaker 1: pointing somewhere. Yeah, a compass in space would be pointing somewhere. 119 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:32,120 Speaker 1: And I think it's useful to sort of take a 120 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 1: mental journey from the Earth and think about the magnetic 121 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:37,520 Speaker 1: fields as you get further and further away from our 122 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:40,880 Speaker 1: Earth and Solar system and galaxy and think about where 123 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:43,640 Speaker 1: those magnetic fields come from, and that will help us 124 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:48,080 Speaker 1: understand where they're not coming from or what we're confused about. So, 125 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:51,240 Speaker 1: as usual, Daniel was wondering how many people out there 126 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:54,960 Speaker 1: knew that there are magnetic fields in deep space? That's right, 127 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,880 Speaker 1: and so I asked folks to pontificate on this question. 128 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: And if you'd like to participate and answer questions you 129 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:03,479 Speaker 1: are unprepared for, please write to us at questions at 130 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:05,960 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge dot com. Think about it for a second. 131 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:08,960 Speaker 1: If there are magnetic fields in space, where do you 132 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: think they would be coming from. Here's what people had 133 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:14,640 Speaker 1: to say. I guess this could be a definition problem 134 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:18,920 Speaker 1: of what deep spaces. If you mean like nothing in 135 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:23,080 Speaker 1: this space or quote unquote nothing possibly not, but a 136 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:27,080 Speaker 1: few mean like are there magnetars out there? Then yeah, 137 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:32,240 Speaker 1: there's magnetic fields and deep space. I guess so as 138 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:36,520 Speaker 1: long as there are electro magnetic forces, there are magnetic fields. 139 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,640 Speaker 1: I would say yes, because I think you mentioned on 140 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:45,000 Speaker 1: a previous podcast about nuance that photons travel through the 141 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:50,280 Speaker 1: electro magnetic field. I think Earth has one right for protection, 142 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:54,560 Speaker 1: but in deep space. Would it be like a field 143 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:59,560 Speaker 1: that attracts or repels objects, Possibly, but they would probably 144 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:04,120 Speaker 1: be extra dream we weak. Yes, of course, should be 145 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:06,920 Speaker 1: magetive fields. I don't know by deep space, like if 146 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:11,000 Speaker 1: it's an a void, probably not, because I think magnetic 147 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:14,760 Speaker 1: fields require like matter and energy to be there. But 148 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:18,520 Speaker 1: around nebulas and stuff, then yes, I would say there's 149 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:23,679 Speaker 1: magnetic fields alright. A lot of very um cautious answers. 150 00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:26,120 Speaker 1: We even seem to think that there are magnetic fields, 151 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:28,680 Speaker 1: but nobody seem to have an idea where they come from. Yeah, 152 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:31,800 Speaker 1: people think that there are things out there, like magnetars 153 00:08:31,840 --> 00:08:35,079 Speaker 1: and stars, etcetera. They create magnetic fields. But we're talking 154 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,680 Speaker 1: about out in deep space, far from any concrete source, 155 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:44,040 Speaker 1: things that aren't obviously generated by some spinning little particle 156 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:47,320 Speaker 1: or moving current of charge. Well, I see, we're talking 157 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:51,160 Speaker 1: about like way out there where there's nothing around you. Yeah, exactly, 158 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:54,439 Speaker 1: because I imagine if you're in your Earth, then there's 159 00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:57,319 Speaker 1: a magnetic field here, and maybe other planets have them, 160 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:00,080 Speaker 1: and maybe other objects have them. But like if your 161 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:02,440 Speaker 1: own space but nothing around you, would there still be 162 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:05,559 Speaker 1: a magnetic field. Yeah, and anywhere you find a magnetic field. 163 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:07,640 Speaker 1: You get to ask the question where did it come from? 164 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:10,840 Speaker 1: What's making it? Right? And that lets you investigate like 165 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: the source and the history and the understanding of like 166 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:16,240 Speaker 1: what's going on inside. You know, Like when you discover 167 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:18,160 Speaker 1: the Earth as a magnetic field, you get to ask, well, 168 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:21,400 Speaker 1: what's making it? And that reveals a fascinating picture of 169 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:23,600 Speaker 1: what's going on inside the Earth. It's not just like 170 00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:27,960 Speaker 1: a cold static blob. It's called like massive currents of 171 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:31,840 Speaker 1: liquid metal. That's a pretty cool realization. So discovering magnetic 172 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:34,679 Speaker 1: fields is an awesome clue that leads you to understanding 173 00:09:34,679 --> 00:09:36,600 Speaker 1: what's going on around because it's cool to think that 174 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:38,600 Speaker 1: the Earth isn't just like a you know, like your 175 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:41,839 Speaker 1: average kitchen magnet that you know, it's static and it's 176 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:44,439 Speaker 1: just it just hasn't a magnetic field to it like 177 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:46,920 Speaker 1: the one from Earth. It's because we have like a 178 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:52,200 Speaker 1: generator inside of the Earth, like a living moving you know, dynamo. Yeah, 179 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:55,040 Speaker 1: there's energy. They're right. Those liquids are flowing and they 180 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:58,400 Speaker 1: create a magnetic field, and then the magnetic field makes them. 181 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:01,319 Speaker 1: Liquids flow more because are charged and they get pushed 182 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:03,960 Speaker 1: by the magnetic field and so it builds on itself. Yeah, 183 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:06,319 Speaker 1: we call that a dynamo. So that's pretty awesome. We 184 00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:09,680 Speaker 1: have a little magnetic engine inside the Earth that's powering 185 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:12,240 Speaker 1: this magnetic field, and that lets you wonder. Every time 186 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:14,600 Speaker 1: you find a magnetic field, you can ask like, where 187 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:17,400 Speaker 1: is the energy coming from to create this magnetic field. 188 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: So it's like finding out that there's something happening in 189 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: an empty room and you're like, well, what's going on 190 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:25,040 Speaker 1: in the walls, and so that's kind of what's happening 191 00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:28,160 Speaker 1: out in space. So Daniel step us through. Maybe for 192 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:31,920 Speaker 1: those who are not super familiar with what a magnet is, 193 00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:34,120 Speaker 1: remind us where they come from and what do we 194 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:37,960 Speaker 1: know about magnetic fields. Yeah, so magnetic fields are fun, 195 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:42,200 Speaker 1: and in our universe, we don't have pure sources of 196 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:44,959 Speaker 1: magnetic fields, like you have a pure source of an 197 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:47,640 Speaker 1: electric field, which is just an electric charge like an 198 00:10:47,679 --> 00:10:50,480 Speaker 1: electron or a positron. They can just create an electric 199 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:53,240 Speaker 1: field around them, but we don't have that in our universe. 200 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:56,160 Speaker 1: That would be called a magnetic monopole. Instead, we can 201 00:10:56,200 --> 00:10:58,760 Speaker 1: only create dipole fields, and these are created by like 202 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:02,400 Speaker 1: moving elect charges spinning in a circle for example. So 203 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:05,559 Speaker 1: a ring of current can make a magnetic field. That's 204 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:08,880 Speaker 1: an electro magnet. You can also have metals that are magnetized, 205 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:11,640 Speaker 1: and there the magnetic field comes from the spin of 206 00:11:11,679 --> 00:11:14,800 Speaker 1: the electrons. There's a electrons moving around in a circle 207 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:18,720 Speaker 1: around the nucleus or actually having a weird quantum spin themselves. 208 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:23,680 Speaker 1: So fundamentally, magnetic fields always come from some electric charge 209 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:26,400 Speaker 1: that's in motion. And maybe that's the motion of the 210 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:29,840 Speaker 1: liquid inside the Earth, or conductive plasma in the sun 211 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:32,520 Speaker 1: or something else. But they always have this same kind 212 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:34,880 Speaker 1: of source as far as we're aware, Like, it doesn't 213 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:39,280 Speaker 1: seem to be like a fundamental property of the universe 214 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:42,360 Speaker 1: or of matter or of charge. It's like you need 215 00:11:42,559 --> 00:11:45,160 Speaker 1: something to be happening to have a magnetic field. Yeah, 216 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:47,400 Speaker 1: and now all of space has the capacity to have 217 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:50,360 Speaker 1: magnetic fields, right, All of space we think of has 218 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:54,640 Speaker 1: quantum fields in it. Right. Those fields are like possibilities 219 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:57,840 Speaker 1: for charge. It's like, you know, there are slots there 220 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:00,559 Speaker 1: and at any point in space you can put energy 221 00:12:00,559 --> 00:12:03,720 Speaker 1: into the magnetic field or the electric field, or the 222 00:12:03,720 --> 00:12:06,600 Speaker 1: Fermion fields or the Higgs field or whatever. Every point 223 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:09,880 Speaker 1: in space has these fields, but sometimes have zero value 224 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:12,400 Speaker 1: and some of the fields can actually go down to zero, 225 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:14,719 Speaker 1: and the magnetic field is one of those. So all 226 00:12:14,760 --> 00:12:17,280 Speaker 1: of space has the capacity for a magnetic field, but 227 00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:21,000 Speaker 1: we're interested in, like, what's creating energy in that magnetic field? 228 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:23,360 Speaker 1: Where is that coming from? In cases when there is 229 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:25,440 Speaker 1: a magnetic field like around the Earth. Wait, are you 230 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:29,040 Speaker 1: saying that there's a quantum magnetic field, just like there's 231 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:32,720 Speaker 1: an electric field for the electron. Absolutely, all these fields 232 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:35,640 Speaker 1: are quantized, and in fact it's very close connection between 233 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:38,760 Speaker 1: electricity and magnetism, and in quantum field theory we just 234 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:42,000 Speaker 1: treat those two as one. But yes, absolutely, the magnetic 235 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:46,199 Speaker 1: field is quantized, and one quantum of the electromagnetic field 236 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,960 Speaker 1: is of course a photon of the electromagnetic field. Yes, 237 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:52,920 Speaker 1: because in quantum mechanics we think of electricity and magnetism 238 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:56,280 Speaker 1: is just two sides of the same coin. Classically we 239 00:12:56,320 --> 00:12:59,000 Speaker 1: see to have slightly different phenomena, but we understand there 240 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:01,520 Speaker 1: very closely related did so we think of them as one, 241 00:13:01,679 --> 00:13:04,720 Speaker 1: and a photon actually is an electric field and a 242 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:08,040 Speaker 1: magnetic field sort of oscillating and supporting each other. It 243 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:10,520 Speaker 1: goes from a magnetic field to an electric field back 244 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:13,559 Speaker 1: to a magnetic field creating each other. A photon is 245 00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:16,920 Speaker 1: sort of this amazing cycle of energy flowing between one 246 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:18,679 Speaker 1: of the fields and the other. See. But I think 247 00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:21,440 Speaker 1: what you're saying is that, you know, unlike a matter 248 00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:25,160 Speaker 1: field or like a force field, magnetic field can't just 249 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:27,880 Speaker 1: like have energy on its own, like you're saying, it 250 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:30,599 Speaker 1: sort of needs activity in another field. You know that 251 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:33,280 Speaker 1: for it to have any kind of activity. That's what 252 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:35,520 Speaker 1: we've seen so far. All the magnets that we have 253 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:39,520 Speaker 1: seen have a source right there, are not constant, they're 254 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:42,200 Speaker 1: not fixed. The magnetic field comes from the emotion of 255 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:45,319 Speaker 1: a charged particle. We'll talk later about whether it's possible 256 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:47,920 Speaker 1: for space to just sort of have a magnetic field 257 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: on its own. That would be fascinating, all right, So 258 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:52,960 Speaker 1: we know that the Earth has a magnetic field, and 259 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:55,679 Speaker 1: we know that the Sun has a magnetic field, right 260 00:13:55,679 --> 00:13:58,120 Speaker 1: because I guess it's it has kind of a stuff 261 00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:01,319 Speaker 1: inside of it flowing in circles and creating some sort 262 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:03,560 Speaker 1: of current. That's right in the Sun. We think that, 263 00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:06,160 Speaker 1: similar to the Earth, is just like flowing currents of 264 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:09,480 Speaker 1: charred stuff creating the magnetic field, and the Sun's magnetic 265 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:12,440 Speaker 1: field is very very powerful, much more powerful than the 266 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 1: Earth's magnetic field. And if you are on the surface 267 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:17,439 Speaker 1: of the Sun, your compass would be much more effective 268 00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:19,680 Speaker 1: than the compass on the surface of the Earth. Don't 269 00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:22,000 Speaker 1: recommend doing any hikes on the surface of the Sun, 270 00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:24,520 Speaker 1: of course, and you'll need more than a compass if 271 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:26,400 Speaker 1: you do. Being lost in the surface of the Sun 272 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:29,920 Speaker 1: is the lease of your problems. That's right. And the 273 00:14:29,960 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: Sun's magnetic field is actually really fascinating. We have a 274 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,200 Speaker 1: whole episode plant about that because it's all sorts of 275 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:39,440 Speaker 1: weird mysteries, like, unlike the Earth's magnetic field, it flips also, 276 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:41,760 Speaker 1: but it does so on a very regular cycle, like 277 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:44,840 Speaker 1: every eleven years boom, it flips over the north and 278 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,760 Speaker 1: the south. The Earth's magnetic field flips very irregularly and 279 00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:50,360 Speaker 1: much more rarely. But the Sun is like clockwork, so 280 00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:54,280 Speaker 1: it's got a fickle field. So and also the galaxy 281 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:56,640 Speaker 1: as a magnetic field, I guess because the galaxy is 282 00:14:56,720 --> 00:14:58,760 Speaker 1: kind of spinning, right, it's got a lot of stuff 283 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:01,400 Speaker 1: going around in a circle. Is that what's generating the 284 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:04,200 Speaker 1: magnetic field for the galaxy. So we have some understanding 285 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:06,520 Speaker 1: of the Earth and the Sun's magnetic field. The galaxies 286 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:08,840 Speaker 1: magnetic field is where we start to be a little 287 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:12,960 Speaker 1: bit confused, like we don't really understand why the galaxy 288 00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:16,320 Speaker 1: has such a strong magnetic field. You know, if you 289 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:19,280 Speaker 1: give the galaxy sort of a seed, a magnetic field 290 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:22,720 Speaker 1: that begins, then the spinning, you're right, can make that 291 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:26,280 Speaker 1: magnetic field stronger because you're slashing around big, heavy stuff 292 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:29,360 Speaker 1: that can support it. But without that seed, you don't 293 00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:31,840 Speaker 1: get a very strong magnetic field just from the spinning. 294 00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:34,440 Speaker 1: The magnetic fields are interesting that way that they can 295 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:37,520 Speaker 1: be enhanced more easily than they can be created. Like 296 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:40,640 Speaker 1: you make a magnetic field, it organizes the magnets around 297 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:43,840 Speaker 1: it and builds on itself, but you need that initial seed, 298 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:46,440 Speaker 1: and we don't know where that initial seed for the 299 00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:49,400 Speaker 1: galaxies came from. It's actually very similar to the problem 300 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:52,440 Speaker 1: we have with supermassive black holes. It's like you can 301 00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:54,360 Speaker 1: have a big black hole in the center of a galaxy, 302 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:56,800 Speaker 1: but how does it get that big? And we have 303 00:15:56,840 --> 00:15:59,480 Speaker 1: the same problem with the galactic magnetic fields that we 304 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:02,680 Speaker 1: don't really understand how they got so strong, how they 305 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:05,800 Speaker 1: started and then got strong. Are their galaxies without a 306 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:08,640 Speaker 1: magnetic field, or did they all have them. They all 307 00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:12,120 Speaker 1: have them, and they're actually important for forming stars because 308 00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:15,120 Speaker 1: the magnetic field helps channel all the gas and dust 309 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:17,560 Speaker 1: and keep it together and not as diffuse, and that 310 00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:20,440 Speaker 1: helps of course collapse it into forming stars and all 311 00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:23,080 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And so it's pretty important part 312 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:25,280 Speaker 1: of being a galaxy as having a magnetic field. It 313 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:27,320 Speaker 1: it helps you evolve in the way that we expect. 314 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:30,160 Speaker 1: And there's some variation of course in magnetic field galaxy 315 00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,640 Speaker 1: to galaxy, but they all have them, and then having 316 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:35,880 Speaker 1: stars makes you more attractive to in magnetic yeah, exactly. 317 00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:37,920 Speaker 1: All right, so let's get into what else has a 318 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:41,160 Speaker 1: magnetic field out in space, But first let's take a 319 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:56,360 Speaker 1: quick break. All right, Daniel, we're talking about magnetic fields 320 00:16:56,400 --> 00:16:59,480 Speaker 1: in space, and we know that things have them, like 321 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:02,600 Speaker 1: the Earth in the Sun and the galaxies. But the 322 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:05,600 Speaker 1: question is does space, like empty space, like the space 323 00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:09,280 Speaker 1: between where there's nothing, does that have a magnetic field. 324 00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:12,280 Speaker 1: And so we were at the point of galaxies that 325 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:16,440 Speaker 1: have magnetic fields, but then the galaxy clusters happening that 326 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:19,720 Speaker 1: fields too. Yeah, it's amazing. You take your compass, right, 327 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:22,320 Speaker 1: you're on Earth that has a field. You zoom out 328 00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:25,360 Speaker 1: the sun controls your compass, you zoom out to the galaxy, 329 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:28,359 Speaker 1: and your galaxy then controls where your compass points. But 330 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:30,800 Speaker 1: then as you leave your galaxy, you can ask, like, 331 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:35,520 Speaker 1: are there magnetic fields between galaxies in these galactic clusters? 332 00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:38,320 Speaker 1: And so it's a very recent paper where people were 333 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:41,720 Speaker 1: studying this and trying to measure magnetic fields between galaxies, 334 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:44,920 Speaker 1: and to their frankly great surprise, they found that there 335 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:48,800 Speaker 1: are magnetic fields between these galaxies. They are these like 336 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:52,800 Speaker 1: filaments of gas between the galaxies that they used to 337 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:56,200 Speaker 1: understand whether they're magnetic fields. And there are magnetic fields there, 338 00:17:56,200 --> 00:18:00,000 Speaker 1: and nobody knows what meaning, kind of like iron filings, 339 00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:03,600 Speaker 1: Like we're seeing things move around in between galaxies that 340 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:07,480 Speaker 1: seem to be moved around by a magnetic field. Yeah, 341 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:10,440 Speaker 1: it's really hard to measure magnetic fields for something else 342 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:12,520 Speaker 1: you're looking at. Right, we can't take a compass and 343 00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:15,520 Speaker 1: like go out there and say, well, what's the magnetic 344 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:18,160 Speaker 1: field here between the galaxies because we can't get there, 345 00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:20,399 Speaker 1: we can't send a probe. So all we can do 346 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:23,600 Speaker 1: is try to understand the impact of the magnetic field 347 00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:26,200 Speaker 1: on the stuff we're looking at. And so, like you say, 348 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:28,840 Speaker 1: you can look at iron filings on the table and 349 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:31,399 Speaker 1: see the magnetic field lines. But here, we can't toss 350 00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:33,879 Speaker 1: iron filings between the galaxy. So we have to find 351 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:37,520 Speaker 1: something that's already there and use it as our indicator, 352 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:40,520 Speaker 1: like if it if it allies or it falls into 353 00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:43,080 Speaker 1: some sort of funny pattern, then that would tell you 354 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:46,440 Speaker 1: there's a magnetic field there. Yeah, and actually our best 355 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:50,720 Speaker 1: indicator are not objects like that, but electrons. Electrons as 356 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:54,280 Speaker 1: they whizz through space are bent by magnetic fields that 357 00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:57,320 Speaker 1: tend to curve around magnetic fields. Just like particles that 358 00:18:57,359 --> 00:19:00,280 Speaker 1: hit the Earth, they hit our magnetic force field, they're 359 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:03,240 Speaker 1: spiraled up around those lines towards the north pole in 360 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:05,600 Speaker 1: the South pole, which is what causes the Northern and 361 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,280 Speaker 1: Southern lights. In the same way, these electrons out there 362 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:12,200 Speaker 1: in deep space, if they feel magnetic fields, they tend 363 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:15,840 Speaker 1: to bend. And anytime a charge particle bends, it gives 364 00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 1: off a photon. It radiates a photon that's sort of 365 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,520 Speaker 1: like a signal for how it's happening. And we can 366 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:25,280 Speaker 1: capture those photons and say, oh, look, electrons over here 367 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:28,120 Speaker 1: are bending, so there must be a magnetic field. Interesting, 368 00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:31,159 Speaker 1: But how do you tell if they're bending, like can 369 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:32,919 Speaker 1: you see it on a telescope or do you have 370 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,280 Speaker 1: to somehow measure there's spin or how do you tell 371 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,439 Speaker 1: their bending? We can't see the electrons directly at all. 372 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:41,520 Speaker 1: These are electrons that are like a billion light years 373 00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:43,879 Speaker 1: away or millions of light years away. We don't ever 374 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:46,680 Speaker 1: see the electrons. We only see the photon they give 375 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,480 Speaker 1: off when they bend. And those photons have sort of 376 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:52,800 Speaker 1: a characteristic signature that have like a certain energy you 377 00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:55,679 Speaker 1: would expect, and you look at patterns, and if there 378 00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:57,720 Speaker 1: are magnetic fields, you then expect to see like a 379 00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:01,680 Speaker 1: coherent pattern of electrons all giving off this same kind 380 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,760 Speaker 1: of photon when they go through this region. What what 381 00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:06,960 Speaker 1: you mean? What how does it change the light that 382 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:10,359 Speaker 1: it's meaning just from its velocity or it's a fundamentally 383 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:13,160 Speaker 1: different these photons. When an electron gets bent, right, when 384 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:15,879 Speaker 1: it changes direction, how does it do that? To do 385 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:18,120 Speaker 1: that and conserve energy and momentum, it has to sort 386 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:20,919 Speaker 1: of push off by shooting off a photon, and so 387 00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:24,200 Speaker 1: a magnetic field induces this. It says, al right, electron, 388 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:27,360 Speaker 1: kick off a photon and change directions, and that's how 389 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 1: like all the energy momentum of the original particles preserved, 390 00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,560 Speaker 1: and we see that photon, and can we distinguish those 391 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:37,080 Speaker 1: photons from like any other random photon. Well, a photon 392 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:39,679 Speaker 1: is a photon, is a photon. They're all just photons. 393 00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:42,960 Speaker 1: But that was a pretty deep statement, huh. But these 394 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,840 Speaker 1: tend to happen at characteristic energies, Like we know how 395 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:48,760 Speaker 1: fast electrons tend to be moving and how strong these 396 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:51,840 Speaker 1: magnetic fields are, and so that predicts the energy of 397 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:54,120 Speaker 1: those photons. And again we expect them to be sort 398 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:56,480 Speaker 1: of coherent. We expect to see like these kind of 399 00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:59,520 Speaker 1: photons all coming from the same direction if there is 400 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,479 Speaker 1: a big athnic field there. But I'm glossing over a 401 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:06,200 Speaker 1: lot of technical details. It's a really hard problem. They 402 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:09,120 Speaker 1: build this amazing antenna to try to capture these photons, 403 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:11,760 Speaker 1: and it took them years of data analysis to like 404 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:14,920 Speaker 1: remove all the noise and understand if these really photons 405 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:18,399 Speaker 1: from electrons far away. It's a difficult problem, but I 406 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:20,080 Speaker 1: guess the main point is that you look out into 407 00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:22,800 Speaker 1: this sky into space, yes, and the way that we 408 00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:25,040 Speaker 1: look out into space is sort of awesome. I was 409 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:27,679 Speaker 1: talking earlier about every time we opened a new eyeball, 410 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:30,879 Speaker 1: we see something amazing in space. Here, we're looking into space, 411 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:33,560 Speaker 1: not with visible light with these are in telescopes or 412 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:36,480 Speaker 1: eyeballs in a literal sense that we're using to look 413 00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:40,000 Speaker 1: out into the universe. These are radio frequency antennas, but 414 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:42,320 Speaker 1: they're still photons, right, It's still light. It's just a 415 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:47,080 Speaker 1: higher frequency, that's exactly right. Radio waves are electromagnetic radiation, 416 00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:50,159 Speaker 1: which means that pulses in them are photons. And so 417 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:53,480 Speaker 1: these are just photons with really really long wavelength, too 418 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:55,480 Speaker 1: long for you to see with a visible eye or 419 00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:57,679 Speaker 1: for us to see with hubble. So the way they 420 00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:00,760 Speaker 1: do it is they have twenty thousand and tennas that 421 00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:05,400 Speaker 1: they spread across Europe. What really big device because these 422 00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:08,720 Speaker 1: wavelengths are so long, they can be like kilometers in 423 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:11,480 Speaker 1: wavelength that you need a really big device to capture them. 424 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:14,560 Speaker 1: Twenty Yeah, that's a lot. It's a lot. Do you 425 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,359 Speaker 1: need a grad student for each one? Or how does that? 426 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:18,760 Speaker 1: How do you keep trying them and how do you 427 00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:21,480 Speaker 1: keep them clean? It's a lot of work, right, And 428 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:23,399 Speaker 1: these things are just like sitting out in the field 429 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,239 Speaker 1: somewhere anywhere they can put one. Basically, they put one 430 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:29,560 Speaker 1: it's a really awesome distributed device because you we never 431 00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:32,159 Speaker 1: take like all of Europe and turn it into a telescope, 432 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:34,760 Speaker 1: though I'm sure some astronomers I wish you would. But 433 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:38,000 Speaker 1: you can just sort of like embed these telescopes across 434 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,679 Speaker 1: the continent and then stitch it together into effectively a 435 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:45,359 Speaker 1: virtual telescope. That's did they try to disguise as cell 436 00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:49,000 Speaker 1: phone towers, disguise as trees, but that these guys and 437 00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:52,359 Speaker 1: is like satellite TV on rooftops. It's a great program. 438 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:55,600 Speaker 1: It's called Low Far l O F a R. And 439 00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,000 Speaker 1: they have this awesome program and they really did a 440 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:00,119 Speaker 1: lot of work. And one of the hard things is 441 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:03,040 Speaker 1: that when radio waves come through the atmosphere, they get 442 00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:07,360 Speaker 1: fuzzy because the atmosphere interacts with radio waves and so 443 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,920 Speaker 1: basically the picture was like crystal clear across millions of 444 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:13,560 Speaker 1: light years and then it gets to our atmosphere and boom, 445 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,000 Speaker 1: it gets fuzzed. So they have to solve that problem, 446 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. They put like things up in 447 00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:22,080 Speaker 1: the sky, or they used sources of radio in the sky. 448 00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,320 Speaker 1: They saw how those were fuzzed, and then they try 449 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:28,440 Speaker 1: to unfuzzed their signal in the inverse way. So it's 450 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,400 Speaker 1: a really clever data analysis just to see this picture 451 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:34,560 Speaker 1: of the magnetic fields between galaxies. Did you say the 452 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:38,440 Speaker 1: project is called Loafer? Yes, it sounds kind of app 453 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:43,320 Speaker 1: for an astronomer, don't you think. I love my astronomy colleague, 454 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:45,600 Speaker 1: and so I will refraining from criticizing their acronyms. But 455 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:48,239 Speaker 1: I guess maybe a question is how strong are these 456 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:51,120 Speaker 1: magnetic fields? Like you know, I know the one here 457 00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:53,760 Speaker 1: on Earth is enough to move a compass and deflect 458 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:56,280 Speaker 1: cosmic rays. But how strong is the one in from 459 00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:58,800 Speaker 1: the Sun or the galaxy or are the How strong 460 00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:01,280 Speaker 1: are these fields that you see between galaxy? These are 461 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:03,760 Speaker 1: not really very strong compared to the kind of things 462 00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:06,359 Speaker 1: we feel on Earth or from the Sun. We're talking 463 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:09,600 Speaker 1: a few micro gals, which is a million times weaker 464 00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:12,800 Speaker 1: than the Earth's magnetic field. These are really very weak 465 00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:15,680 Speaker 1: magnetic field. But you know, there's a lot of space there, 466 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:18,239 Speaker 1: and so if you add them all up, it's a 467 00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:21,359 Speaker 1: lot of magnetism, even though it's spread out pretty thin. 468 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:25,040 Speaker 1: All right, I guess the big question then is where 469 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,280 Speaker 1: are these magnetic fields coming from? Like, if I'm out 470 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:32,000 Speaker 1: there between galaxies, there's really literally nothing around me, right, 471 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:36,360 Speaker 1: Like there's no rotating black hole or there's no planet 472 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:39,639 Speaker 1: or electrical current, So how could it possibly have a 473 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,520 Speaker 1: magnetic field. So let's get into that question, But first 474 00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:54,320 Speaker 1: let's take another quick break, all right, Daniel, So space 475 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 1: has a magnetic field. Like if you go out there 476 00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,360 Speaker 1: in space between galaxies, far from anything and you took 477 00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:03,000 Speaker 1: out a compass, it would move, it would point somewhere, 478 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:06,600 Speaker 1: it would point somewhere. Yeah, the space between galaxies has 479 00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:09,520 Speaker 1: a magnetic field. And this is something we only recently learned, 480 00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:12,520 Speaker 1: like this is the paper from this summer twenty twenty 481 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:15,920 Speaker 1: and kind of mind blowing. And you know, the history 482 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,320 Speaker 1: of this research is like, well, let's check over here, 483 00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:20,680 Speaker 1: Oh there is a magnetic field. Okay, well let's check 484 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:22,639 Speaker 1: over here. Oh my gosh, there's a magnetic field over 485 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,200 Speaker 1: there also. And so we basically never failed to find 486 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,480 Speaker 1: a magnetic field wherever we looked, which of course raises 487 00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:31,840 Speaker 1: two questions. You know, one is like how far out 488 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:33,840 Speaker 1: does it go if you go out into like the 489 00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:38,080 Speaker 1: massive voids in between superclusters where there's just nothing and 490 00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:42,040 Speaker 1: nothing from billions of light years? Are there magnetic fields there? Also? 491 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:44,960 Speaker 1: And what could be generating all these magnetic fields. Are 492 00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,840 Speaker 1: there magnetic fields out there in the middle of nowhere, 493 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:50,040 Speaker 1: So we don't know yet. We've looked out there between 494 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:54,000 Speaker 1: galaxies and we've seen magnetic fields between galaxies, like inside 495 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:57,520 Speaker 1: a galactic cluster, but it's pretty tricky to see things 496 00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:01,200 Speaker 1: where there's nothing like. Our strategy or looking for magnetic 497 00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:04,000 Speaker 1: fields relies on there being at least some matter there, 498 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:06,840 Speaker 1: some like thin filaments of gas like the ones that 499 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:11,600 Speaker 1: connects galaxies. You know, the space between galaxies isn't totally empty. 500 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:13,720 Speaker 1: There are a few particles there that we can use 501 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:16,040 Speaker 1: to trace the magnetic fields, and the way we talk 502 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,800 Speaker 1: about if we're looking deep into the void, it's much 503 00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,800 Speaker 1: harder to tell if there are magnetic fields there. So 504 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:24,600 Speaker 1: we don't know the answer to that question yet. If 505 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:27,480 Speaker 1: there are magnetic fields deep deep out there in space, 506 00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:30,760 Speaker 1: really far from anything in the megavoids. But we have 507 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:32,679 Speaker 1: ideas for how to look for the like there are 508 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,320 Speaker 1: no iron filings out there in the middle of nowhere, 509 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:37,080 Speaker 1: so you can't tell that's right. We need to come 510 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,119 Speaker 1: up with another technique for measuring those magnetic fields, and 511 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:42,679 Speaker 1: people have ideas, but to me, the big question is like, 512 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,840 Speaker 1: what could be making those magnetic fields? Like, what's the 513 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,919 Speaker 1: possible source? You mean the ones between galaxies are the 514 00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:52,080 Speaker 1: ones in deep space both, right? And it might be 515 00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:54,760 Speaker 1: the answer is the same. We have some understanding for 516 00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,480 Speaker 1: what causes the magnetic field inside the galaxy that we 517 00:26:57,520 --> 00:26:59,760 Speaker 1: don't quite know how we got started. We think the 518 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:02,919 Speaker 1: galaxies are powered by the spinning, but between the galaxies, 519 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:06,440 Speaker 1: like what could make those magnetic fields? It's just too big, 520 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:10,480 Speaker 1: too strong, too consistent between the galaxies to be coming 521 00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:13,320 Speaker 1: from the galaxies themselves. Could it be like from the 522 00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:16,439 Speaker 1: spinning of the galaxies, you know, like galaxies and the 523 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:19,879 Speaker 1: galaxy cluster could be spinning around maybe a common point 524 00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:23,280 Speaker 1: and that's what's generating the field. It might contribute, and 525 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,760 Speaker 1: also like particles and gas ejected from the galaxies and 526 00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:30,400 Speaker 1: all that craziness, But the cluster magnetic fields are too 527 00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,240 Speaker 1: strong to be explained by all of those Sometimes they're 528 00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:37,480 Speaker 1: even stronger than the galactic fields themselves. And also remember 529 00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:41,040 Speaker 1: the galaxies take a long time to orbit the galactic center, 530 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:45,440 Speaker 1: and there's all these particles between the galaxies, but those 531 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:48,280 Speaker 1: aren't again, not enough to make these magnetic fields. And 532 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:51,320 Speaker 1: so we really have nowhere to look to to say, 533 00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:54,439 Speaker 1: what's created this magnetic field, whereas the dynamo or the 534 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,720 Speaker 1: mechanism that's powering this thing. Is there a pattern to 535 00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:00,159 Speaker 1: these fields in the inside of the clusters, like to 536 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:03,000 Speaker 1: these fields kind of point everywhere? Is it kind of random? 537 00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:04,800 Speaker 1: Or like you know, like if I were out there 538 00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:07,920 Speaker 1: in space between galaxies, would my compass go wild or 539 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:10,000 Speaker 1: would it be like I think I know where the 540 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:13,199 Speaker 1: center of the cluster is. Well, we've only begun to 541 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:15,640 Speaker 1: map this out, and we can only see it so 542 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:19,040 Speaker 1: far where there are particles in these very thin filaments 543 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:21,840 Speaker 1: of particles that stretched between the galaxy, So we don't 544 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,399 Speaker 1: have a great map yet. We're really only beginning to 545 00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:26,680 Speaker 1: explore this, and so what we need is a better 546 00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:29,199 Speaker 1: technique to give us a map for where all the 547 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:31,840 Speaker 1: magnetic fields are, even like far away from any of 548 00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:34,920 Speaker 1: the galactic clusters, and based on the shape of those 549 00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:37,080 Speaker 1: we might get an idea for where it could be 550 00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:41,440 Speaker 1: coming from within a cluster, But out out between clusters, 551 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:43,760 Speaker 1: we don't know even if there are magnetic fields. We 552 00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,640 Speaker 1: know that galaxies have fields and galaxy clusters have fields, 553 00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,600 Speaker 1: and now we've learned that there are fields between clusters. 554 00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:54,360 Speaker 1: But beyond that we don't know. There could be magnetic 555 00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:56,600 Speaker 1: fields out there in deep space. We don't know. So far, 556 00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:00,800 Speaker 1: everywhere we've looked there have been magnetic fields, all right. 557 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:02,840 Speaker 1: So that's a big mystery. So what could it be. 558 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:07,520 Speaker 1: Where could these magnetic fields come from? Well, nobody really 559 00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,239 Speaker 1: has a great idea except for this one sort of 560 00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:13,720 Speaker 1: super bonker idea which might explain it. And it's a 561 00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,320 Speaker 1: fun idea because it also sort of solves another puzzle 562 00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:20,320 Speaker 1: along the way. And that idea is that magnetic fields 563 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:24,640 Speaker 1: were created all through the universe during the Big Bang, 564 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:27,720 Speaker 1: like when things were hot and nasty and crazy in 565 00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:29,760 Speaker 1: the very early universe, when there was just a lot 566 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:33,000 Speaker 1: of energy all around, some of it got dumped into 567 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,200 Speaker 1: the magnetic field and it just sort of never went away. 568 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,960 Speaker 1: And so this is energy left over in the magnetic 569 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,080 Speaker 1: field from the very early moments of the universe and 570 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,680 Speaker 1: now it's just stretching through the whole universe. Like maybe 571 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,160 Speaker 1: back when the universe was super dense and small, maybe 572 00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:51,040 Speaker 1: it had like a spin to it, or it had 573 00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,880 Speaker 1: a little bit of a magnet effect into it that 574 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:57,560 Speaker 1: then got blown up just like you know, space itself 575 00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:01,040 Speaker 1: or the energy of the univer during the Big Bank. 576 00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:04,400 Speaker 1: That's right, and today we only can make magnets by 577 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:07,880 Speaker 1: moving electrical charges. But you know, the magnetic field is 578 00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:10,440 Speaker 1: just a quantum field. If you can somehow get energy 579 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: into it, then that energy can just stick around like 580 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,840 Speaker 1: magnetic fields don't decay, they just stay. Like if you 581 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:19,920 Speaker 1: pour energy into a magnetic field, it doesn't necessarily leak 582 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:22,720 Speaker 1: out into another kind of energy. It can just hang out. 583 00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:25,720 Speaker 1: And so the question is like, is there some way 584 00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,000 Speaker 1: in the very early universe for energy to have like 585 00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:31,760 Speaker 1: poured into this magnetic field bucket and then just gotten 586 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:35,440 Speaker 1: stuck there. I think you're saying that maybe the universe itself, 587 00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:39,240 Speaker 1: the fabric of it, is magnetized. Yes, exactly. That's the 588 00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,360 Speaker 1: really deep question. And people have always thought like, of course, 589 00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,040 Speaker 1: not how could you have a universe spanning magnetic field, 590 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,480 Speaker 1: But it could be that one was made in very 591 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,840 Speaker 1: early times and now it feels all of space, even 592 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,520 Speaker 1: where there's nothing, there could be magnetic fields left over 593 00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:58,240 Speaker 1: from the Big Bang, And people have been working furiously 594 00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:01,920 Speaker 1: on It's called magneto genis on ideas for how in 595 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:03,960 Speaker 1: those very early moments in the universe when there was 596 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,520 Speaker 1: energy slashing around and you know, bubbling around, and so 597 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:09,480 Speaker 1: much energy that you couldn't even really think of like 598 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,640 Speaker 1: particles being formed. It was just like these hot fields 599 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,320 Speaker 1: bouncing around that some of it could have slashed over 600 00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,560 Speaker 1: into the magnetic field and got stuck there. Wow, NATO genesis. Yeah, 601 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:21,440 Speaker 1: I like how you guys have a need to name it, 602 00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:23,520 Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like somebody was probably writing 603 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:26,160 Speaker 1: a scientific paper and they kept having to write the 604 00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:28,880 Speaker 1: phrase where the magnetic field of the universe comes from? 605 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:30,760 Speaker 1: And so they said, you know, let's just give it 606 00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:34,080 Speaker 1: a two word, cool sounding name. Oh no, it's one word, man, 607 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:39,280 Speaker 1: It's a single word. Nothing hyphens. It's it's like German. 608 00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:42,280 Speaker 1: It's just one long word to describe your idea. All right. 609 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,200 Speaker 1: And so the itast and maybe the whole universe has 610 00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:47,520 Speaker 1: a magnetic field. Does that mean that maybe you could 611 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,840 Speaker 1: use a compass to make your way around the universe? Yeah, exactly. 612 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:53,760 Speaker 1: It could give you like directionality. There could be like 613 00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:57,959 Speaker 1: primordial flows and directions just left over from you know, 614 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:00,520 Speaker 1: whatever randomly was happening in that moment it in their 615 00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:03,640 Speaker 1: early universe. And and really the only way to tell 616 00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,800 Speaker 1: is to look where there's nothing, like there's already magnetic 617 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:08,920 Speaker 1: fields out here on Earth, so we can't search for 618 00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:11,760 Speaker 1: these like primordial magnetic fields. What we need to do 619 00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:13,760 Speaker 1: to look for them is to get really far away 620 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:17,480 Speaker 1: from everything, so far away from any physical source like 621 00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:20,520 Speaker 1: moving charge, that the only way to have the magnetic 622 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:23,959 Speaker 1: field would be if space itself had left over magnetic fields. 623 00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:26,520 Speaker 1: What you're saying, that's the only way we can tell. 624 00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:27,840 Speaker 1: That's the only way we can tell. We have to 625 00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:30,360 Speaker 1: remove all the other sources. We have to go into 626 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,880 Speaker 1: these voids and look for magnetic fields there between superclusters 627 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:36,880 Speaker 1: of galaxies, far away from any source, because there's nothing 628 00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,000 Speaker 1: there for us to look at, that's right, And so 629 00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:42,040 Speaker 1: there's nothing there to cause magnetic fields in a conventional way. 630 00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:44,920 Speaker 1: And so if we find magnetic fields there, then we 631 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:47,520 Speaker 1: can say, oh, they're probably left over from the Big Bang. 632 00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:50,560 Speaker 1: So that's really the leftover question is like, are there 633 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:54,160 Speaker 1: magnetic fields deep in the voids of space? Can we 634 00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,760 Speaker 1: measure them? How can we figure that out? All right? 635 00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:58,920 Speaker 1: So I guess the question is how could we figure 636 00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,080 Speaker 1: that out without going out there? And we can we 637 00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:03,680 Speaker 1: have some clever ideas. It's a lot harder. Right, if 638 00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 1: you don't have particles that are getting bent and shooting 639 00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:08,800 Speaker 1: us radiation, then what you can do is look for 640 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:13,920 Speaker 1: the impact on photons, like photons that fly through these voids. 641 00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:19,120 Speaker 1: Photons are magnetic objects right there, wiggles in the electromagnetic field, 642 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:22,200 Speaker 1: and so if they move through a magnetic field, it 643 00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:25,560 Speaker 1: changes their polarization. You know how light has different kinds 644 00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:29,080 Speaker 1: of polarization and basically like how its phase is spinning 645 00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:31,800 Speaker 1: and you can block them with your sunglasses and it 646 00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:35,040 Speaker 1: changes when it reflects, etcetera. Well, the photons have this 647 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:37,680 Speaker 1: little like track for how much magnetic field they have 648 00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:40,920 Speaker 1: gone through, and so we can look at these photons 649 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:44,600 Speaker 1: and try to understand, like, how is their polarization changed, 650 00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:48,680 Speaker 1: because photons they're not bent by magnetic fields, but you're 651 00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,400 Speaker 1: saying they do sort of aligned to the magnetic field. Yeah, exactly, 652 00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:54,920 Speaker 1: they aligned with the magnetic field. And they think that 653 00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:58,239 Speaker 1: maybe these voids aren't totally empty. There might be a 654 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,560 Speaker 1: few sort of dust grains that get aligned with the 655 00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:05,000 Speaker 1: magnetic fields and help support it and it could enhance it, 656 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,400 Speaker 1: and that as the photons fly through, they don't change directions, 657 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,399 Speaker 1: just changes their polarization. Basically, you can think about like 658 00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:14,440 Speaker 1: the photon spinning. We talked about how the electron has 659 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:17,280 Speaker 1: a spin, it can spin up or down. The photon also, 660 00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,080 Speaker 1: being a quantum particle, has a spin and so it's 661 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:23,120 Speaker 1: spin can change as it flies through these magnetic fields. 662 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:26,680 Speaker 1: This is even harder to do than the low far 663 00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:30,480 Speaker 1: measurement that was looking for like characteristic photons from electrons bending. 664 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:33,480 Speaker 1: This is even more subtle and actually can't be done 665 00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:35,640 Speaker 1: with low Far. They have to build something totally new 666 00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,960 Speaker 1: to do this, done with high far, not low far. 667 00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:41,920 Speaker 1: They're building in a ray that's an entire square kilometer 668 00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:45,920 Speaker 1: dedicated just to radio antennas, and that's gonna be really 669 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:48,479 Speaker 1: good for this measurement. It's called the square kilometer array. 670 00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:51,600 Speaker 1: It's gonna come online in T seven and it's gonna 671 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:54,279 Speaker 1: look at photons that have passed through these voids from 672 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:56,880 Speaker 1: you know, galaxies on the other sides of these bubbles 673 00:34:57,040 --> 00:34:58,759 Speaker 1: to see if their light is spinning in a way 674 00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:01,319 Speaker 1: that tells us whether they there are magnetic fields there. 675 00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:04,760 Speaker 1: So it like if you see them all aligne one way, 676 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,520 Speaker 1: it would be suspicious, yeah, exactly. Or if you see 677 00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:10,200 Speaker 1: patterns or something yeah, if you see patterns, well, we 678 00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:13,399 Speaker 1: don't know the directions of those magnetic fields, right. If 679 00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,319 Speaker 1: the magnetic fields are all aligned, it tells you that 680 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:19,040 Speaker 1: maybe it was made in the early universe during this moment, 681 00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:21,879 Speaker 1: or maybe if they're like curved up like a ball 682 00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:23,920 Speaker 1: of yarn, it tells you they were made in a 683 00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:26,400 Speaker 1: different way. Or if they're all aligned like a corkscrew. 684 00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:29,279 Speaker 1: The patterns of those magnetic fields are like a fingerprint 685 00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:31,480 Speaker 1: to tell us how and when they were made in 686 00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:34,400 Speaker 1: the early universe. So that would be fascinating data. If 687 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,319 Speaker 1: you could like know right now the direction of all 688 00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:39,719 Speaker 1: the magnetic fields all through the universe, that would tell 689 00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:42,439 Speaker 1: us a lot about what happened during the Big Bang, really, 690 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:46,040 Speaker 1: because these fields could be different depending on something that 691 00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:49,160 Speaker 1: happened in the Big Bang, Like are there different kinds 692 00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,160 Speaker 1: of magnetic fields? They're not different kinds of magnetic field, 693 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:55,160 Speaker 1: but depending on how the energy and when the energy 694 00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:58,239 Speaker 1: got into the magnetic field, they would arrive in different patterns, 695 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:00,439 Speaker 1: you know, like did it it s law in there 696 00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:04,120 Speaker 1: before there were particles or maybe after protons were formed, 697 00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:07,160 Speaker 1: or even maybe billions of years later. There are different 698 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,360 Speaker 1: mechanisms were sort of getting the energy into the magnetic fields, 699 00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:14,200 Speaker 1: and they leave different fingerprints on those magnetic fields. It's 700 00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:16,759 Speaker 1: like clues at a crime scene, like a picture. It's 701 00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:19,319 Speaker 1: like having a picture of what happened exactly. And you 702 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:22,160 Speaker 1: know that picture of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and 703 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:24,319 Speaker 1: it tells us like where the photons were that came 704 00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,480 Speaker 1: out of that hot plasma. That pictures so much information 705 00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:29,560 Speaker 1: about the nature of that plasma, what was going on 706 00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:32,000 Speaker 1: inside it, and how things were bouncing around in it. 707 00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:34,800 Speaker 1: We've extracted so much knowledge from that. This would be 708 00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:38,280 Speaker 1: like a magnetic equivalent, but it might look back even further. 709 00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:41,440 Speaker 1: That plasma we're talking about is like four thousand years 710 00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:44,360 Speaker 1: after the beginning of the Big Bang. This magnetic picture 711 00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:46,319 Speaker 1: might tell us about things that were happening you know, 712 00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:50,680 Speaker 1: milliseconds or nanoseconds afterwards, and so it could be very fascinating, 713 00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:54,840 Speaker 1: a big clue about the origin of the universe. Yeah, exactly. 714 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:57,400 Speaker 1: And there's another really fun way that we might be 715 00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:01,280 Speaker 1: able to see magnetic fields. We look at these weird 716 00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:05,200 Speaker 1: stars called blaze oers. Blazers are stars that have really 717 00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:09,239 Speaker 1: high energy gamma rays, and these gamma rays sometimes when 718 00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:12,279 Speaker 1: they're flying along through space. Remember they're just high energy photons. 719 00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,640 Speaker 1: Sometimes they split into an electron and a positron and 720 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:17,920 Speaker 1: then they go back to being in a photon is 721 00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,160 Speaker 1: a thing that photons do. They sometimes split and then 722 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:24,920 Speaker 1: come back. But electrons and positrons are charged particles, and 723 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:27,640 Speaker 1: so if there's a magnetic field there, then when the 724 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:31,200 Speaker 1: photon splits into the electron and positron, it's more likely 725 00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:34,320 Speaker 1: to get broken apart, to separate, to get pulled apart 726 00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:37,160 Speaker 1: by the magnetic field, and not recombine if it's going 727 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:40,719 Speaker 1: through a magnetic field to them, if it's going through 728 00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:43,239 Speaker 1: a magnetic field exactly. So what we do is we 729 00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:46,279 Speaker 1: look at blazeers and that can tell us whether there's 730 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:49,759 Speaker 1: a magnetic field between us and the blaze are. If 731 00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,640 Speaker 1: we're sort of missing some of the high energy gamma 732 00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:55,840 Speaker 1: rays from these blazers, that's suggests that they're basically getting 733 00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:59,239 Speaker 1: filtered out by a magnetic field that's between us and them. 734 00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:02,800 Speaker 1: It's sort of like magnetic lensing. Wow, I guess that 735 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:07,080 Speaker 1: the overall strategy is, since there's no stuff there is, 736 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:12,359 Speaker 1: to look at how these magnetic fields would affect light itself. Yeah, yeah, light, 737 00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:14,600 Speaker 1: that's passing through it will get affected in all sorts 738 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:17,240 Speaker 1: of weird different ways, and that's going to carry information 739 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,560 Speaker 1: about where the magnetic fields are. So these are like, 740 00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:23,400 Speaker 1: you know, crazy ideas. People are having to answer a 741 00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:25,759 Speaker 1: question that ten years ago or twenty years ago people 742 00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:28,200 Speaker 1: thought was crazy, you know, like why would you even 743 00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:30,759 Speaker 1: worry about magnetic fields and the voids. Well, now it's 744 00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:33,719 Speaker 1: a deep and fascinating question. It seems frankly kind of 745 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:37,480 Speaker 1: likely that there are magnetic fields there. I feel like 746 00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:40,359 Speaker 1: we have to update now. The Boy Scouts training do 747 00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:43,319 Speaker 1: not just include reading a compass and Earth. Now they 748 00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:45,560 Speaker 1: should be trained about how to read a compass and space. 749 00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:48,879 Speaker 1: What to do if you were lost in a Super Bowl, 750 00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:52,759 Speaker 1: you know, be prepared. You never know give up, give 751 00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:56,719 Speaker 1: up or give up. You're billions of light years from Earth. 752 00:38:57,040 --> 00:38:59,040 Speaker 1: You have no chance. A compass is not going to 753 00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:01,840 Speaker 1: save your life. Let's be realistic here, Step one, build 754 00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:08,600 Speaker 1: twenty thousand telescopes out of twigs and merit badges. All right, Well, 755 00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:12,359 Speaker 1: let's say that they do find a magnetic field of 756 00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:15,360 Speaker 1: the universe out there in the voids of space between 757 00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:18,200 Speaker 1: galaxy clusters, and let's say it has a pattern. What 758 00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:20,200 Speaker 1: what does it mean? What would it tell us about 759 00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:24,680 Speaker 1: I don't know what we know about the origins of everything. Well, 760 00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:26,360 Speaker 1: it would give us sort of a picture as to 761 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,880 Speaker 1: the early universe, which I'm sure could answer all sorts 762 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:32,040 Speaker 1: of questions we can't even imagine asking right now. You 763 00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:34,800 Speaker 1: know about how the universe went from like super duper 764 00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:37,680 Speaker 1: hot to only just super hot to only just hot, 765 00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,080 Speaker 1: and all these transitions, and we broke that down in 766 00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:43,400 Speaker 1: an episode recently about the first two seconds of the universe. 767 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:45,560 Speaker 1: There are all these transitions where you go from like 768 00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:48,040 Speaker 1: too hot to have particles, to be having these kind 769 00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:50,239 Speaker 1: of particles, to having those kind of particles, and a 770 00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:52,160 Speaker 1: lot of that is just speculations. So it would be 771 00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:55,960 Speaker 1: really awesome to have like an image captured from one 772 00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:58,400 Speaker 1: of those moments, you know, like an ultrasound to the 773 00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:00,920 Speaker 1: whole universe as it was a be You all like 774 00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:03,719 Speaker 1: to keep those pictures of when we were hot, for sure, 775 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,560 Speaker 1: minor photoshop dea. But also it's a really cool idea 776 00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:12,400 Speaker 1: because it solves an outstanding puzzle we have in cosmology. 777 00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:15,520 Speaker 1: What's the puzzle? Well, the puzzle is how fast is 778 00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:18,840 Speaker 1: the universe expanding? You know, we look out into the universe, 779 00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:21,560 Speaker 1: and we see the galaxies are moving away from us, 780 00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:23,880 Speaker 1: and that they're moving away from us faster and faster 781 00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:26,440 Speaker 1: every year. That's something we call dark energy. This is 782 00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:30,600 Speaker 1: the accelerating expansion of the universe, and we use that 783 00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:33,279 Speaker 1: to measure something we call the Hubble constant, which tells 784 00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:37,319 Speaker 1: us basically, how fast the galaxy is accelerating away from us. 785 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:41,520 Speaker 1: It's like a kilometer per second per millions of light years. 786 00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:45,880 Speaker 1: How fast that velocity is increasing, right, because it's changing, right, 787 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:49,600 Speaker 1: the expansion is changing. Yeah. And the interesting thing is 788 00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:51,799 Speaker 1: that when you look and you're trying to measure this 789 00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:54,799 Speaker 1: rate of expansion, and you measure it today using the 790 00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:57,799 Speaker 1: expansion of galaxies and they use clever tricks to try 791 00:40:57,840 --> 00:40:59,800 Speaker 1: to measure it in the early universe, you get a 792 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,399 Speaker 1: different number. And this is interesting because it tells us like, well, 793 00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:05,960 Speaker 1: we don't really know how fast the universe is expanding, 794 00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:07,799 Speaker 1: and we don't know if it's expanding at the same 795 00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:10,279 Speaker 1: rate now as it was before, or is there more 796 00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:12,719 Speaker 1: dark energy than there was before. We had a whole 797 00:41:12,719 --> 00:41:15,560 Speaker 1: podcast episode about this, it's called the Hubble tension, like 798 00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:18,360 Speaker 1: how fast is the universe expanding? We got two measurements 799 00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:22,360 Speaker 1: that disagree. But yeah, they're different by about ten percent, 800 00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:26,759 Speaker 1: but that's statistically significant. Like they're two teams are both 801 00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:30,520 Speaker 1: pretty confident in their measurements, and so the question is like, well, 802 00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:33,600 Speaker 1: what explains it? And you know, one measurement uses the 803 00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:36,640 Speaker 1: expansion of the universe, that's the Late Times measurement, and 804 00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:39,399 Speaker 1: the other one looks at the very early universe, those 805 00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:42,640 Speaker 1: blobs we were talking about in the cosmic microwave background, 806 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:44,759 Speaker 1: and looks at the shapes of those blobs and the 807 00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:47,920 Speaker 1: distances between them, and because the speed of the expansion 808 00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:50,839 Speaker 1: sort of controls how many blobs you get and how 809 00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:53,080 Speaker 1: far apart they are, and they make a measurement. So 810 00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:56,080 Speaker 1: it's like the Early Days measurement versus the Late Days measurement, 811 00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:59,799 Speaker 1: and they don't quite agree. So maybe they're saying that 812 00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:03,480 Speaker 1: there is a universal magnetic field. Maybe that's kind of 813 00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:06,640 Speaker 1: where the difference went. Yeah, exactly. The folks who analyzed 814 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:10,440 Speaker 1: their data from the very early universe assumed no magnetic field. 815 00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:13,160 Speaker 1: But if you add a magnetic field to the very 816 00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:16,200 Speaker 1: early universe, then it turns out you can have a 817 00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:19,880 Speaker 1: larger Hubble constant, but it looks smaller and so essentially 818 00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:23,040 Speaker 1: they did account for that in their early measurements. And 819 00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:26,520 Speaker 1: so if the Hubble constant is actually the one we've 820 00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:29,240 Speaker 1: measured in the late universe, it would give you exactly 821 00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:31,640 Speaker 1: the picture you see in the early universe if there 822 00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:33,960 Speaker 1: was a magnetic field. And so it's sort of like 823 00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:36,440 Speaker 1: solves so that it corrects the tension. And it's very 824 00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:40,160 Speaker 1: nice way. Now, who would be right then, the late 825 00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:43,160 Speaker 1: measurers or the early measurers. Who would get bragging? Right? 826 00:42:44,040 --> 00:42:46,400 Speaker 1: I'm sure everyone would find a way to brag, But 827 00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:49,359 Speaker 1: this would suggest that the measurement by the expansion team, 828 00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:51,279 Speaker 1: the folks who were looking at the actual expansion in 829 00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:53,959 Speaker 1: the universe right now, sort of the late measures would 830 00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:56,600 Speaker 1: be correct, all right. Well, and coincidentally they're the ones 831 00:42:56,680 --> 00:43:02,200 Speaker 1: funding these new experiments. Everybody just wants to know the answer. 832 00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:04,560 Speaker 1: But you know, that's exactly what we hope for. When 833 00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:07,400 Speaker 1: we do a measurement, two ways that we think should agree. 834 00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:09,759 Speaker 1: When we see a discrepancy, we think, well, maybe you 835 00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:12,200 Speaker 1: made some silly mistake. But once you've crossed all those 836 00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:15,759 Speaker 1: possibilities off, then the other possibility is maybe there's some 837 00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:18,719 Speaker 1: new science going on here. We didn't account for maybe 838 00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:21,600 Speaker 1: two different set of assumptions. One of them must have 839 00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:24,480 Speaker 1: a mistake if the results don't agree. And that's exactly 840 00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:26,960 Speaker 1: what we found. And so it's not like anybody screwed 841 00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:30,600 Speaker 1: up here. It's just revealed something new about the universe. 842 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:33,040 Speaker 1: And so again this is still an idea, like, we 843 00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:35,680 Speaker 1: don't know that there are magnetic fields all through space, 844 00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:38,760 Speaker 1: but if there were, it would solve this problem very nicely. 845 00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:40,960 Speaker 1: All right, Well, I think it seems like the answer 846 00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:43,800 Speaker 1: is stay tuned. The answer is that there are magnetic 847 00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:46,239 Speaker 1: fields here on Earth and the Sun and the gaxies 848 00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:49,560 Speaker 1: and the galaxy clusters, which is already pretty amazing, but 849 00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:55,520 Speaker 1: there might be an even bigger, universe wide cosmic magnetic field. Yeah, exactly. 850 00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:59,200 Speaker 1: It's incredible that we keep finding magnetic fields everywhere we look, 851 00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:02,600 Speaker 1: despite our ex pectations, and that's pretty fun. It's fun 852 00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:04,640 Speaker 1: to see surprises out there in the universe and then 853 00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:07,359 Speaker 1: to have to try to explain them to me. That's 854 00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:10,680 Speaker 1: much more exciting than finding what you expected. It's finding 855 00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:13,000 Speaker 1: what you didn't expect and then having to change your 856 00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:16,800 Speaker 1: concept of the universe, bending your concepts to the data itself. 857 00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:19,560 Speaker 1: I guess my question, Daniel is that if the universe 858 00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:21,400 Speaker 1: has a magnetic field, does that mean it has a 859 00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:25,080 Speaker 1: north and a south pole? And would you find a 860 00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:27,880 Speaker 1: universal Santa clause in the north pole? That would be 861 00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:30,120 Speaker 1: quite a gift. Jokes aside, though, we don't know the 862 00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:32,120 Speaker 1: pattern of that magnetic field, and so we don't know 863 00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:34,840 Speaker 1: it's orientation if it's totally balanced, so if it's curled 864 00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:37,200 Speaker 1: up in all sorts of ways. But that's exactly the 865 00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:39,080 Speaker 1: kind of question we'd like to ask. We'd love to 866 00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:42,360 Speaker 1: see that picture so we can ask those questions. We 867 00:44:42,400 --> 00:44:45,880 Speaker 1: need a special array, like a Santa array to be finally, 868 00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:48,799 Speaker 1: the term that all right, well it's it's again. It's 869 00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:52,000 Speaker 1: just another one of these crazy measurements and ideas that 870 00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:54,800 Speaker 1: tell you that there are invisible things out there in 871 00:44:54,840 --> 00:44:58,239 Speaker 1: the universe that we can't immediately see, but are there 872 00:44:58,239 --> 00:45:00,919 Speaker 1: and are part of the history and origin of how 873 00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:02,839 Speaker 1: things came to be the way they are. That's right, 874 00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:05,480 Speaker 1: And so the universe is filled with mystery. So there's 875 00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:09,200 Speaker 1: lots of room for your creativity and your curiosity and 876 00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:12,000 Speaker 1: vast enigmas waiting to be solved. You just need a 877 00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:14,799 Speaker 1: compass to help us find them. Thanks for joining us. 878 00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:25,520 Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed that. See you next time. Thanks 879 00:45:25,560 --> 00:45:28,200 Speaker 1: for listening, and remember that Daniel and Jorge explained. The 880 00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:31,399 Speaker 1: Universe is a production of I Heart Radio. Or more 881 00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:34,480 Speaker 1: podcast from my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio 882 00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:38,560 Speaker 1: Apple Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. 883 00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:44,160 Speaker 1: Ye