1 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:12,360 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, I've been wondering something about the large Hadron Collider. Oh, 2 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:15,760 Speaker 1: that's right up, my alley. Is it about crazy new particles? 3 00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:19,680 Speaker 1: Not quite? Is it about making black holes? I am 4 00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:23,160 Speaker 1: concerned about that, but not this time? Alright, shoot, then 5 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:25,520 Speaker 1: what's your question? All right? Why did you call it 6 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:29,680 Speaker 1: the large hadron Collider? Why not the you know, modestly 7 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:35,600 Speaker 1: sized hadron collider, because it's pretty large in that case, 8 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 1: why not the huge hadron Collider or the ginormous hadron Collider. 9 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:42,640 Speaker 1: That's the plan for the next one. Man, you gotta 10 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:44,879 Speaker 1: leave something in the tank for the next time around. 11 00:00:44,960 --> 00:01:04,040 Speaker 1: But when does it end? Daniel? Hopefully never. Hi'm Jorgemming, 12 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:07,200 Speaker 1: cartoonist and the creator of PhD Comics. Hi. I'm Daniel. 13 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:10,280 Speaker 1: I'm a particle physicist and I hope to do experiments 14 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:14,760 Speaker 1: one day at the very large hadron collider, not just 15 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 1: the huge heatherron collider. Do you plan to retire before 16 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:21,360 Speaker 1: the ginormous hadron Collider? I want to work on the 17 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 1: ludicrously sized hadron Collider. What's the acronym for that one? 18 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:30,360 Speaker 1: I don't know, but the v LHC is an actual thing. Really, 19 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: that's like in the official name it really is the 20 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: very Large Hadron Collider. The plan is to put it underground. 21 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,640 Speaker 1: It's a hundred kilometer radius ring, and that's actually what 22 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:41,760 Speaker 1: it's called. I guess there's a you know, president for that. 23 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:46,039 Speaker 1: There's a very large array in New Mexico right exactly exactly, 24 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 1: so you can just after that, just keep adding varies 25 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: to it. I suppose the very very large Hadron Collider, 26 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: the super duper large Hadron Collider. But welcome to our 27 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,960 Speaker 1: super duper podcast Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a 28 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: production of our radiot in which we tackle things which 29 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:04,960 Speaker 1: are very very large and hard to understand and very 30 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: very small and hard to grapple with. We talk about 31 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:12,120 Speaker 1: all the incredible and amazing things and our universe, all 32 00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:15,800 Speaker 1: the open questions that scientists are puzzling over all the 33 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:18,960 Speaker 1: incredible things that we have learned, and explain all of 34 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,079 Speaker 1: them to you, sometimes with a very large banana joke, 35 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:24,079 Speaker 1: because there is a lot out there in the universe 36 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: to explore and for us to see. But I guess 37 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:28,639 Speaker 1: the problem is that we are stuck in a small 38 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 1: corner of the milk Way, which isn't a small corner 39 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 1: of the universe, and so we need some pretty big 40 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: telescopes and instruments to see what's out there in this 41 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: vast cosmos. That's right, we are exploring the universe, but 42 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 1: we're doing it just with our eyeballs. Imagine you wanted 43 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 1: to know what was all over the Earth, but you 44 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:49,600 Speaker 1: were sort of stuck in a lighthouse and all you 45 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:51,919 Speaker 1: could do is look out the window with really powerful 46 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: telescopes and trying to see as far as you could. 47 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:56,840 Speaker 1: So that's where we are as a species. We can't 48 00:02:56,919 --> 00:02:59,120 Speaker 1: yet travel to the stars, but we can wait for 49 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:02,200 Speaker 1: information from the stars to come here to Earth and 50 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:04,800 Speaker 1: give us clues because there is a lot of information 51 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 1: coming at us from everywhere, right and I meaning the 52 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: universe is basically bathing us and information and stories about 53 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,200 Speaker 1: what happened and how things came to be and why 54 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: things are the way they are. And it's really up 55 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,520 Speaker 1: to us to figure out how to decode this information 56 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: and how to read it and how to figure out 57 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: what it means. Yeah, and it's frustrating to me sometimes 58 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,280 Speaker 1: that we're not doing more to capture that information. You know, 59 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: to see deep into the universe, you need to look 60 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:33,120 Speaker 1: at really faint signals of far away galaxies, and those 61 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: things can't be seen just by your eye. You need 62 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:38,920 Speaker 1: like specialized telescopes, and so far humanity has only built 63 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 1: a few of them, which means that most of the 64 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 1: information about the secrets and the structure of the universe 65 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:45,680 Speaker 1: it's just sort of like landing on Earth and getting 66 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:48,720 Speaker 1: absorbed by, you know, plants and rocks and stuff. I'm 67 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: sure the plants are getting some pretty good information about 68 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,480 Speaker 1: the universe, probably that maybe they've already figured things out, Daniel, 69 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:56,080 Speaker 1: and we thought to ask them. Oh my god, that 70 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:58,320 Speaker 1: sounds like a really fun science fiction movie where we 71 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:01,960 Speaker 1: discovered that plants are actually a globe sized telescope and 72 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: that they're doing their own astronomy. Wow. Well, I thought 73 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:07,880 Speaker 1: you were a couch potato anyways, Daniel, wouldn't that count 74 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:10,920 Speaker 1: as a plant scientists astrophysicists. Well, that means that couch 75 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:13,400 Speaker 1: potatoes are actually doing work right, because they're sitting there 76 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:18,719 Speaker 1: absorbing information from the universe. Yeah, and so I guess 77 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:20,480 Speaker 1: the more we want to look out into the universe, 78 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:23,039 Speaker 1: the bigger the telescope we need, and the more we 79 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:26,159 Speaker 1: want to probe into the particulars of matter and what 80 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:29,479 Speaker 1: everything is made out of. The more powerful and bigger 81 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,400 Speaker 1: microscopes you need, yeah, exactly. And as we peer deeper 82 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:36,440 Speaker 1: into the universe with our bigger and bigger telescopes, were 83 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:40,920 Speaker 1: constantly finding new stuff out there, Weird things we can't understand, 84 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:44,000 Speaker 1: things that don't seem to make sense, things that surprise 85 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:46,159 Speaker 1: us about what's out there in the universe. But that's 86 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:49,120 Speaker 1: what exploration is all about. You don't look out into 87 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:51,840 Speaker 1: the universe just to have your ideas confirmed. You look 88 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,240 Speaker 1: out there to be surprised, to be shocked, to have 89 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,120 Speaker 1: your mind blown by the kinds of crazy stuff that 90 00:04:57,160 --> 00:04:59,440 Speaker 1: we see. Yeah, because it seems like we're discovering at 91 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:03,200 Speaker 1: the universe is bigger and bigger and bigger than we expected. 92 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:05,440 Speaker 1: I mean, we initially thought that was just the Earth, 93 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:08,080 Speaker 1: and then the Sun and the Moon and the Solar System, 94 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 1: and now we're up to you know, bubbles of gigantic 95 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 1: galaxy clusters. Things get pretty big out there. Things get 96 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:18,919 Speaker 1: pretty big out there. And one question we ask is 97 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:22,120 Speaker 1: like how big do things get? What is the biggest 98 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,680 Speaker 1: thing in the universe? And it feels like every year 99 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:29,839 Speaker 1: astronomy crowns a new biggest thing in the universe. I 100 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:32,560 Speaker 1: feel like that should have like stadium echo sound effects 101 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: their biggest thing in the universe. Yeah, and that also 102 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:37,680 Speaker 1: raises the problem of what do you call the new 103 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:39,599 Speaker 1: things when you find out there are bigger things? Because 104 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:41,800 Speaker 1: we call something the big dipper. You know what if 105 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 1: you find a bigger dipper exactly, well you call it 106 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:46,599 Speaker 1: the bigger dipper or the very big dipper. And so 107 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:51,040 Speaker 1: there is apparently a very large thing, possible large thing 108 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:53,479 Speaker 1: out there in the universe, so big that it needs 109 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: to adjectives to describe how big it is. It's so 110 00:05:56,920 --> 00:05:59,160 Speaker 1: big they named it twice so to be on the podcast, 111 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:07,239 Speaker 1: we'll be talking about out what is the huge Large 112 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:11,360 Speaker 1: Quasar group. You can't even get that name out without 113 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:15,599 Speaker 1: a chuckle. It's ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, I feel like 114 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 1: the most expraneous word there is group. It is the 115 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: most boring word in there. Like, if you have huge 116 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:23,600 Speaker 1: large and quasar, why do you need the group? That's 117 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:27,640 Speaker 1: like calling it, you know, the a team group. It 118 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:30,039 Speaker 1: sounds like a consulting firm, doesn't it Which part the 119 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:34,839 Speaker 1: eighteen group or the Huge Large Quasar group? Both both. 120 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:37,480 Speaker 1: We need to optimize the efficiency of this factory somebody 121 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:39,760 Speaker 1: give a call to the Huge Large Quasar Group. They 122 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:41,359 Speaker 1: know what they're doing. I don't know. They sound pretty 123 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:45,120 Speaker 1: expensive to me. I would go for the you know, 124 00:06:45,279 --> 00:06:50,000 Speaker 1: modestly sized, economically size quasar group. That sounds good. But 125 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:51,840 Speaker 1: it is the thing out there at the Huge Large 126 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:56,200 Speaker 1: Quasar Group, and it's self self explanatory. But I'm guessing 127 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:59,400 Speaker 1: there are some mysteries and some unknowns about this huge 128 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,680 Speaker 1: object in space. Absolutely, there are lots of unknowns, and 129 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:05,919 Speaker 1: there are some really basic ideas about how big things 130 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:08,400 Speaker 1: can get in the universe, and this thing flies in 131 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:13,240 Speaker 1: the face of our concepts of size. It's huge, not 132 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:16,760 Speaker 1: just in size but significance. That's right, It's more than huge. 133 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:19,120 Speaker 1: It's huge large all right. Well, as usually, we were 134 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 1: wondering how many people had heard of this Huge Large 135 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:25,200 Speaker 1: Quazer group, and so Daniel went out there into the 136 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:27,920 Speaker 1: wilds of the Internet to ask people if they knew 137 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:30,840 Speaker 1: what the Huge Large Quazer Group is. So thanks to 138 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: everybody who participated, and if you are willing to volunteer 139 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:38,520 Speaker 1: to answer questions about absurdly named astronomical objects in the future, 140 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:41,560 Speaker 1: please write to me two questions at Daniel and Jorge 141 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:43,640 Speaker 1: dot com. So think about it for a second. If 142 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:46,480 Speaker 1: someone ask you what you thought the huge Large Quazer 143 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:49,120 Speaker 1: Group is, what would you say. Here's what people had 144 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:54,560 Speaker 1: to say. I'm gonna go wild here. It's either h 145 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:59,480 Speaker 1: Bent from the eighties, or it is a huge, large 146 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: group of quasers somewhere in our universe a total guess, 147 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:10,400 Speaker 1: a very large array of radio telescopes. Maybe the huge 148 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:13,880 Speaker 1: large Quizer group is a group of quaisers that are 149 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:17,800 Speaker 1: somewhere on the outskirts of our galaxy, a big collection 150 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:22,120 Speaker 1: of large objects somewhere in the universe. So I would 151 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,360 Speaker 1: say a region of the universe where you could find 152 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:28,480 Speaker 1: a lot of these quasars. I'm guessing this is some 153 00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:32,280 Speaker 1: form of quasars that have grouped together or clustered together 154 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:36,200 Speaker 1: somewhere in the universe that we've been able to find. Well, 155 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:42,400 Speaker 1: most likely it's a an area, probably very big, where 156 00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:47,240 Speaker 1: you can find a number of quasars that you it's 157 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:49,760 Speaker 1: not common to find. It sounds like it's bigger than 158 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:53,640 Speaker 1: large Quaisar Group. It sounds like it's really huge. Um, 159 00:08:53,679 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: and it sounds like they're getting pretty lazy with the naming. 160 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:00,120 Speaker 1: Man Jorge is gonna have fun with that one. I 161 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:04,040 Speaker 1: bet um. It sounds like it's totally awesome. It sounds 162 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:08,240 Speaker 1: like a group of quasars found that's so awesome that 163 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:13,480 Speaker 1: it earned both huge and large and its title. Well, 164 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 1: first of all, that's an amazing name, and second of all, 165 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:21,240 Speaker 1: I guess it would just be somewhere out in the 166 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:26,440 Speaker 1: observable universe where we've seen a bunch of quasars together 167 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:30,400 Speaker 1: in a relatively small area for which we don't currently 168 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: have an explanation. Given the quasars are generally very bright objects, 169 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:38,920 Speaker 1: they could be potentially quite far away and we can 170 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:42,000 Speaker 1: still see them. All right, some pretty fun answers they're 171 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:44,800 Speaker 1: including one that predicted I would have fun with this one, 172 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:47,440 Speaker 1: and I have to say, I having no fun, Daniel. 173 00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:51,600 Speaker 1: It's a lot of words to say together, no fun, fun. Well, 174 00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:54,120 Speaker 1: I'm having fun with it. I definitely picked this one 175 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:57,320 Speaker 1: just to sort of taunt you about astronomical name. So 176 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,560 Speaker 1: this is an actual thing, Like there are papers with 177 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:02,800 Speaker 1: these words in the title, the Huge Large Quasar Group. 178 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:06,120 Speaker 1: It's an actual thing. Is actually a subject of controversy. 179 00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:09,440 Speaker 1: People fight about the Huge Large Quasar Group. There are 180 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:12,800 Speaker 1: like dueling presentations about it. Really, Like do they fight 181 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:16,360 Speaker 1: about whether it qualifies as huge, Like, do you fight 182 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:20,200 Speaker 1: over the adjective like, no, it's more like a really large, 183 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:24,440 Speaker 1: or it's more like a ginormous huge. Doesn't capture it now? 184 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:28,000 Speaker 1: Actually what they fight over is the word group the 185 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:30,439 Speaker 1: group or is it more like a you know, a 186 00:10:30,559 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 1: solo endeavor? Yeah? Is it a band from the eighties 187 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:35,960 Speaker 1: or is it an astronomical object? Right? Right? Do they 188 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:38,520 Speaker 1: actually you know, agree on things or is it more 189 00:10:38,559 --> 00:10:41,400 Speaker 1: like a collective? Maybe it's a huge large quasar collective. 190 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:45,200 Speaker 1: It's a co op, right, they grow their own organic veggies. 191 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:47,360 Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's get into what this huge large 192 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:50,400 Speaker 1: quasar group is. And I guess maybe we'll start with 193 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:54,320 Speaker 1: one of the first words there, quasar. Daniel, maybe remind 194 00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:56,880 Speaker 1: us what a quasar is. Yeah, My favorite thing about 195 00:10:56,880 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 1: the Huge large Quasar Group is that every word you 196 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:02,920 Speaker 1: add adds a layer of mystery and intrigue. Right, even 197 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:07,360 Speaker 1: just quasars themselves are fascinating. Quasars are some of the 198 00:11:07,440 --> 00:11:11,600 Speaker 1: brightest things in the universe. They are these sources of 199 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,319 Speaker 1: radiation that come from the centers of galaxies, and they 200 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:18,200 Speaker 1: were discovered first in the nineteen fifties. But they were 201 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:21,240 Speaker 1: a huge mystery because people found these things in the 202 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:24,800 Speaker 1: sky that were amitting crazy radiation. But then when they 203 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:26,720 Speaker 1: looked in the sky to find out what it was, 204 00:11:26,760 --> 00:11:29,680 Speaker 1: they found these objects that were like really really really 205 00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:32,880 Speaker 1: far away. And so these things seem to be super 206 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:36,120 Speaker 1: bright and really far away, which meant that they must 207 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:40,160 Speaker 1: be like incredible sources of radiation to be already that 208 00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:43,199 Speaker 1: bright when the light gets here to Earth, right, And 209 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:46,040 Speaker 1: how did they know that they weren't that far away? 210 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:48,360 Speaker 1: Can they just be like a nearby star? How did 211 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:51,160 Speaker 1: they tell the difference between this kind of object, like 212 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:53,840 Speaker 1: a bright thing in the sky or a regular star. Well, 213 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:56,240 Speaker 1: it took them decades to figure that out. What they 214 00:11:56,280 --> 00:11:58,280 Speaker 1: did is they measured the velocity of these things. So 215 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:00,960 Speaker 1: you measured the red shift, like how fast are these 216 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:03,280 Speaker 1: things moving away from us? And you can do that 217 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:05,679 Speaker 1: by looking at the light spectrum and seeing like, oh, 218 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:08,439 Speaker 1: here's the line we expect from hydrogen or from helium. 219 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:11,320 Speaker 1: How far is it shifted by the Doppler effect? And 220 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:13,960 Speaker 1: that tells you how fast this thing is moving away 221 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:16,480 Speaker 1: from us. And because of Hubble's law, we think that 222 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:19,640 Speaker 1: things that are further away from us are moving faster, 223 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:22,280 Speaker 1: so that helped us place the distance. We say, well, 224 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 1: it's moving away from us really really fast, so it 225 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:28,599 Speaker 1: might be really distant. But there was a lot of skepticism. 226 00:12:28,679 --> 00:12:30,640 Speaker 1: People just didn't believe it. It's like it gave them 227 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:32,839 Speaker 1: a number that made no sense, like how could this 228 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:36,160 Speaker 1: thing be billions of light years away and still be 229 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:39,000 Speaker 1: so bright? So they spent a lot of time wondering, 230 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:42,079 Speaker 1: just as you say, is it possible it's actually something 231 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:45,080 Speaker 1: closer that happens to have a high velocity moving away 232 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:47,640 Speaker 1: from us for some other reason. So it took a 233 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:50,760 Speaker 1: long time before people accepted that these things were actually real, 234 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:55,120 Speaker 1: that quasars really were crazy bright sources of light universe. 235 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:57,360 Speaker 1: I guess how did how were they convinced? How did 236 00:12:57,360 --> 00:12:59,600 Speaker 1: they figure out that that was what was going on? 237 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:01,960 Speaker 1: Sort of a typical process in science, and that it 238 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:04,800 Speaker 1: took one person who was like crusading for and then 239 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:07,640 Speaker 1: the rest of the community gradually came along as the 240 00:13:07,679 --> 00:13:11,040 Speaker 1: story came together. In order to really build confidence in it, 241 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:13,760 Speaker 1: you want like an understanding of the mechanism, like, well, 242 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:16,920 Speaker 1: what's generating all that radiation? You can't just believe that 243 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:19,160 Speaker 1: it's there. You have to have an understanding of the story, 244 00:13:19,679 --> 00:13:22,440 Speaker 1: and so in this case, people were wondering, like, what 245 00:13:22,679 --> 00:13:26,160 Speaker 1: could be creating so much energy? And then in the seventies, 246 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:29,360 Speaker 1: when the idea of black holes moved from like theoretical 247 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,360 Speaker 1: concepts to actually observed objects and things we believed existed 248 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:35,640 Speaker 1: in the universe, then we had a candidate for what 249 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:38,960 Speaker 1: could be providing these crazy amounts of energy needed to 250 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:42,040 Speaker 1: produce that radiation. So when we had the idea that 251 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 1: maybe they were black holes at the centers to these 252 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:47,839 Speaker 1: galaxies and that they were the engine providing the power 253 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:50,520 Speaker 1: and needed for this crazy radiation, that people started to 254 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:53,920 Speaker 1: believe maybe this could be real. I see, and are 255 00:13:53,920 --> 00:13:55,559 Speaker 1: there a lot of these in this guy or are 256 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:58,439 Speaker 1: they pretty rare or are they super common? They're actually 257 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:00,240 Speaker 1: both a lot of them in the sky, and they're 258 00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:03,720 Speaker 1: pretty rare. Like we know about seven hundred and fifty 259 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:07,319 Speaker 1: thousand quasars out there by now, but it's a very 260 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:10,959 Speaker 1: small fraction. Like most galaxies don't have a quasar. Most 261 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:16,200 Speaker 1: galaxies are not emitting crazy radiation out into the sky. Yeah, 262 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:18,040 Speaker 1: I guess that sounds like a lot, almost a million 263 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:20,400 Speaker 1: of them in the sky, But there are billions and 264 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:23,080 Speaker 1: billions of stars right. Oh, yeah, they're billions and billions 265 00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:26,320 Speaker 1: of galaxies out there, trillions of galaxies, and most of 266 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,000 Speaker 1: them are not quaisars. But you know, by now, we've 267 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:30,600 Speaker 1: mapped a lot of them and we've found a good 268 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:33,320 Speaker 1: number them. So there's basically a lot of everything in 269 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:36,400 Speaker 1: the universe just because the universe is so big and 270 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:38,760 Speaker 1: so filled with stuff, or maybe they just have small 271 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:42,480 Speaker 1: quasar groups, and it's really fun to think about, like 272 00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:46,040 Speaker 1: what's actually happening there. You know, people here that black 273 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 1: holes are the source of quasars, and they might wonder, like, 274 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:50,600 Speaker 1: hold on a second, aren't black holes black, Like they 275 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:54,240 Speaker 1: don't emit anything, right, Well, that's true, but black holes 276 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:57,240 Speaker 1: combined with like a big blob of stuff around them, 277 00:14:57,560 --> 00:15:00,400 Speaker 1: can emit a lot of radiation because that's stuff the 278 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:03,200 Speaker 1: accretion disc is getting sucked into wards the black hole, 279 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,560 Speaker 1: but doesn't just like get hoovered up instantly. Right, Things 280 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:09,400 Speaker 1: are rotating, they're swirling around the black hole. Takes a 281 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 1: while before they fall in, and before they fall in 282 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:14,800 Speaker 1: they get like bumped against each other and ground against 283 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:17,720 Speaker 1: each other, and so the friction between all the gases 284 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:20,160 Speaker 1: that are swirling into the black hole makes for a 285 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:23,760 Speaker 1: very hot and intense environment, and that's actually what's doing 286 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 1: the quais are ring or the quazing. I'm not sure 287 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:28,800 Speaker 1: what the verb is. Really, all that energy and brightness 288 00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: that we see billions of light years away, it's all 289 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:33,960 Speaker 1: just from stuff falling into the black hole. Yeah, it's 290 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:36,520 Speaker 1: from the black hole's energy. Remember that the black hole 291 00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:40,520 Speaker 1: has massive gravitational power even outside the event horizon. It 292 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:44,480 Speaker 1: squeezes and compresses all these gases that are swirling around it, 293 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:47,240 Speaker 1: and that's where the radiation is produced. So the black 294 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:51,080 Speaker 1: hole's gravitational power is compressing and squeezing these gases, they're 295 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:53,920 Speaker 1: doing the radiating, So it's sort of indirectly from the 296 00:15:53,920 --> 00:15:56,480 Speaker 1: black hole. And I see interesting. So really a quasar 297 00:15:56,800 --> 00:15:58,880 Speaker 1: is a black hole or I guess would you call 298 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:02,080 Speaker 1: up quays are the stuff around some black hole. Yeah, 299 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:04,360 Speaker 1: the black hole is sort of the engine for the quasar. 300 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:06,800 Speaker 1: It's providing the power, it's doing the thing needed to 301 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,720 Speaker 1: generate the radiation. But the quais ourselves, it's not just 302 00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:12,000 Speaker 1: the black hole. So you know, I would say the 303 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:14,320 Speaker 1: stuff at the center of the galaxy that's giving off 304 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:16,720 Speaker 1: all this light with the black hole together, that's the 305 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:20,160 Speaker 1: whole quasar. I see, And the name comes from quasi 306 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:22,560 Speaker 1: stars originally, right, Like people thought they were stars, but 307 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: they're not quite stars, right, Yeah, we didn't understand what 308 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:28,880 Speaker 1: it was, so originally they were called quasi stellar objects, 309 00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:32,080 Speaker 1: and then that was shortened to quasars. All right, let's 310 00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:35,000 Speaker 1: get into what a quasar group is. Then I'm gonna 311 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 1: guess it's not a boy band or a accounting consulting firm. 312 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:42,600 Speaker 1: But we'll dig into that and what could be a 313 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:45,360 Speaker 1: huge large quasar group. But first let's take a quick break. 314 00:16:57,680 --> 00:17:01,400 Speaker 1: All right, we're talking about the awesome named huge large 315 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:05,359 Speaker 1: quasar group, which is something that might be the biggest 316 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:07,760 Speaker 1: thing in the universe that we've seen, or I think 317 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:10,639 Speaker 1: we see. And so we talked about what a quasar is. 318 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:14,200 Speaker 1: It's a quasi stellar object powered by a black hole 319 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:17,440 Speaker 1: that's giving off a lot of radiation. Now, Daniel, what 320 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:20,880 Speaker 1: is a large quasar group? Right? So a large quasar 321 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:25,000 Speaker 1: group is basically a collection of quasars altogether in a 322 00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:28,320 Speaker 1: way that we don't necessarily expect. That is, we see 323 00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:30,399 Speaker 1: these things at the center of galaxies, but as we 324 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:33,200 Speaker 1: said earlier, they're not that common, not like every single 325 00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:35,840 Speaker 1: galaxy has a quasar in it. And so if you 326 00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:38,600 Speaker 1: see like a bunch of quasars near each other, and 327 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:41,040 Speaker 1: then you've gotta wonder, like, what's going on? Is there 328 00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:44,320 Speaker 1: some reason why you got more quasars there than anywhere else? 329 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:46,560 Speaker 1: I see, it's like you see a whole bunch of 330 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,000 Speaker 1: them together, like in the same neighborhood, or like literally 331 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:51,919 Speaker 1: one top of the other. Now just in the same neighborhood. 332 00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:55,360 Speaker 1: The first one was spotted in two when we saw 333 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:58,040 Speaker 1: four quasars really close to each other, not like on 334 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:00,520 Speaker 1: top of each other in one galaxy, but like four 335 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:03,560 Speaker 1: adjacent galaxies, and all of them are quasars. You know, 336 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:05,760 Speaker 1: if it's rare to have a single galaxy have a 337 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:09,600 Speaker 1: quasar in it, that having four neighbors altogether, all the 338 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:13,840 Speaker 1: quasars is pretty strange. Oh, I see, not all galaxies 339 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,720 Speaker 1: have a quasar at the center of them. No, exactly, 340 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:19,080 Speaker 1: it's pretty rare to have a quasar, right, And so 341 00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:23,160 Speaker 1: to see four of them together neighboring galaxies with quasars 342 00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:26,440 Speaker 1: is rare. Is rare, and quasars are not forever. Also, 343 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:28,719 Speaker 1: like the conditions you need to create a quays are 344 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:32,480 Speaker 1: a supermassive black hole and the gas that swirls around 345 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:35,640 Speaker 1: it maybe transient, so like you could have a galaxy 346 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:39,080 Speaker 1: that shines it's a quasar for a while and then doesn't. 347 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:41,640 Speaker 1: So it's sort of like finding four of these things 348 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:45,000 Speaker 1: which are pretty rare, and they're burning at the same time. 349 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:47,600 Speaker 1: So it's like an indication that there might be some 350 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:51,200 Speaker 1: underlying reason as to why there's this group, why there's 351 00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:53,919 Speaker 1: this cluster, these rare things happening together. It's like finding 352 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:57,440 Speaker 1: four diamonds next to each other. Single diamond is pretty rare. 353 00:18:57,720 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 1: Why if you find four, you let there's something extra 354 00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:02,840 Speaker 1: diamonded going on around here, right right, it's a large 355 00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:08,200 Speaker 1: diamond group. It's a large diamond group exactly. The other 356 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:10,360 Speaker 1: thing to remember is that quasars are sort of a 357 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:14,720 Speaker 1: feature of the earlier universe, Like we're still making quasars, 358 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:17,640 Speaker 1: but not as much as we used to, Like quasars 359 00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:19,600 Speaker 1: peaked a while ago. So what do you mean they're 360 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:21,840 Speaker 1: feature of the early universe, Like we're not making them 361 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:24,320 Speaker 1: anymore because we still have black holes in the center 362 00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:28,000 Speaker 1: of galaxies. Why don't we see more quasars? And what 363 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:30,040 Speaker 1: happens to them? Do they just turn off? Yeah, so 364 00:19:30,080 --> 00:19:33,359 Speaker 1: we don't really understand the mechanism for creating quasars, Like, 365 00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:37,160 Speaker 1: remember that we don't also understand supermassive black holes very well, 366 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:39,080 Speaker 1: and so this goes to the question of, like how 367 00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:42,040 Speaker 1: galaxies form, how you get this much stuff together to 368 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:45,520 Speaker 1: create these scenarios. So we don't understand how quasars form, 369 00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:47,719 Speaker 1: So we don't really know the answer to the question 370 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:50,520 Speaker 1: why do they form more in the early universe then now, 371 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:53,560 Speaker 1: but we see them all really far away, so they 372 00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:56,959 Speaker 1: aren't goal like quasars in our neighborhood, which means that 373 00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:58,920 Speaker 1: the reason we're seeing them far away is because they're 374 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:02,040 Speaker 1: basically dying out. Are only seeing the ones from the past, 375 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:05,120 Speaker 1: Like the closest quasar to us is about six hundred 376 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:08,840 Speaker 1: million light years away. We think that the peak era 377 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,280 Speaker 1: for making quasars in the universe was about ten billion 378 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:15,040 Speaker 1: years ago, and ever since then, like the number of 379 00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: quasars being produced is smaller and smaller, But we don't 380 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,280 Speaker 1: know why. That's just what we see. That's just what 381 00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:24,480 Speaker 1: we see. Yeah, and so this is why quasar groups 382 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:27,199 Speaker 1: are really interesting. It's like, well, if they're hard to 383 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:29,440 Speaker 1: make and they're not really being made very much anymore, 384 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:31,520 Speaker 1: what is it that's making them, and how does it 385 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:34,160 Speaker 1: make these groups. It's like a clue that might tell 386 00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:36,880 Speaker 1: us about, you know, the structure of the universe in general, 387 00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:40,000 Speaker 1: and also what the mechanism is for making these quasars. 388 00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:42,560 Speaker 1: I see, it's probably a good thing that there isn't 389 00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:45,560 Speaker 1: aquasor next to us, right, because like the Milky we 390 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:47,840 Speaker 1: had a quasar, and we'd be from party toes right 391 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,320 Speaker 1: like that much brightness coming from the center of the galaxy. 392 00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:53,040 Speaker 1: We'd be fried when we yeah, exactly, we would be 393 00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:55,320 Speaker 1: if a quasar were shining right at us. Like. These 394 00:20:55,359 --> 00:20:58,240 Speaker 1: things can be a thousand times as bright as an 395 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:02,960 Speaker 1: entire galaxy, so they're pretty intense. Typically, the quasars tend 396 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,280 Speaker 1: to shoot off sort of perpendicular to the plane of 397 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:07,760 Speaker 1: the galaxy. To imagine the galaxy is a big disc. 398 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:10,920 Speaker 1: Because the magnetic fields and everything swirling around, they tend 399 00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:14,160 Speaker 1: to focus their energy both above and below the disk. 400 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:16,800 Speaker 1: And so if the Milky Way was a quasar, if 401 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:18,760 Speaker 1: we had a big quasar at the heart, it would 402 00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: probably be shooting off in the space trying other aliens. 403 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,320 Speaker 1: Probably not us, Oh, I see, They're not like bright 404 00:21:24,359 --> 00:21:27,639 Speaker 1: objects like the sun that shine in all directions. Quasars 405 00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:30,879 Speaker 1: are directional that day, like they only shoot light and 406 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:34,040 Speaker 1: radiation in one particular direction. Yeah exactly, and that comes 407 00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:36,840 Speaker 1: from the swirl, right. Remember the disc is swirling around 408 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,720 Speaker 1: the black hole, and so it's swirling around an axis. 409 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:42,400 Speaker 1: So it's along that axis that all these X rays 410 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,119 Speaker 1: and crazy radiation tends to be admitted. I see. So 411 00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:48,000 Speaker 1: there may be are probably more quasars in the universe, 412 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,200 Speaker 1: they just maybe are not pointing in our direction. Yeah. Absolutely. 413 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:53,680 Speaker 1: And when we estimate, you know, the number of things 414 00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:55,760 Speaker 1: in the universe, we try to take that new account. 415 00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:58,000 Speaker 1: We try to estimate what fraction of these things could 416 00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,439 Speaker 1: we see, and we use them when we to me, like, 417 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:03,160 Speaker 1: how many of them are there that we're not seeing necessarily? 418 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:06,879 Speaker 1: All right, So they only happened with supermassive black holes, 419 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:09,040 Speaker 1: not regular black holes. Yeah exactly. You need a really 420 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:11,480 Speaker 1: big black hole to make one of these things. And 421 00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:14,200 Speaker 1: it's really interesting that they were made in the early 422 00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:16,800 Speaker 1: universe because we have a lot of questions about like 423 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,200 Speaker 1: how the structure of the universe was formed. You talked 424 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:23,119 Speaker 1: earlier about how we have galaxies and then clusters of 425 00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:27,080 Speaker 1: galaxies and then superclusters of galaxies we sort of weave 426 00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:32,000 Speaker 1: together to make this amazing cosmic structure filaments of superclusters 427 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:35,400 Speaker 1: and walls surrounding bubbles, And we'd really like to understand 428 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:37,560 Speaker 1: how that structure was formed and sort of what the 429 00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:41,240 Speaker 1: forces at play were. And so we wonder if quasars 430 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:43,800 Speaker 1: are a way to understand that, Like, do they only 431 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,600 Speaker 1: occur when there happens to be like a real density 432 00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:49,280 Speaker 1: of matter when things like really came together. You've an 433 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:52,320 Speaker 1: extra big scooping of over density from the early universe. 434 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:55,080 Speaker 1: So it might be that like these things are really 435 00:22:55,119 --> 00:22:58,560 Speaker 1: helpful probe to show us where there were really dense 436 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:00,920 Speaker 1: spots in the early universe. I see, like maybe you 437 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:04,399 Speaker 1: only get quasars if there's a particular you know, a 438 00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,520 Speaker 1: set of conditions. And if we can figure out what's 439 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:09,919 Speaker 1: going on in these groups, then that could tell us 440 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,200 Speaker 1: about what was going on early in the universe. Yeah, 441 00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:14,360 Speaker 1: because we look at the universe and we say, well, well, 442 00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:17,280 Speaker 1: this is amazing. I see a supercluster here. Why is 443 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:19,960 Speaker 1: there a supercluster here? Why is there a supercluster here 444 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:22,560 Speaker 1: and not over there? You know, is this really just 445 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,159 Speaker 1: come from the quantum fluctuations of the early universe. Is 446 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:29,120 Speaker 1: there something else going on? Could be like look back 447 00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:31,560 Speaker 1: to the very history of the early universe and see 448 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:34,560 Speaker 1: this sort of thing play out. I see interesting. And 449 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:37,479 Speaker 1: so a large quasar group is when you see like 450 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:39,879 Speaker 1: four more of them together. So the first one was 451 00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:43,560 Speaker 1: discovered eighty two has four quasars clustered together, and that 452 00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:45,800 Speaker 1: was the first time anybody had seen that, and people like, WHOA, 453 00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:49,560 Speaker 1: that seems pretty weird. And they calculated the probability of 454 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,600 Speaker 1: this thing just occurring by chance to being like ten 455 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:56,720 Speaker 1: to the minus seven. One in ten million universes would 456 00:23:56,800 --> 00:23:59,880 Speaker 1: have a quasar group like that, just by chance. If 457 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:04,959 Speaker 1: quasars were sort of distributed everywhere evenly. I see, like 458 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:07,639 Speaker 1: from what we know about the distribution and the probability 459 00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:09,840 Speaker 1: of getting a quasar to see four of them together 460 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,439 Speaker 1: is like a weird throw to die. It's a really 461 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:15,119 Speaker 1: really unusual throw the die. And anytime you see something 462 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:17,719 Speaker 1: weird like that, you wonder, is there something going on? 463 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:21,399 Speaker 1: It's just something that made this quasar group happen right 464 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:24,320 Speaker 1: here is that that the matter was extra dense, and 465 00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:26,760 Speaker 1: so you've got like extra big black holes and that's 466 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:30,159 Speaker 1: what's powering these quasars. Or you know, is there something 467 00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:32,960 Speaker 1: else going on? You know, there's plenty of room in 468 00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:36,080 Speaker 1: understanding the structure of the universe for something new. Right, 469 00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:39,240 Speaker 1: we know something about the history and the expansion of 470 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:41,720 Speaker 1: the universe, but there's a lot we also don't know 471 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:44,800 Speaker 1: about what's powering it and what's controlling it, and why 472 00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,280 Speaker 1: it looks this way and not any other way. Well, 473 00:24:47,359 --> 00:24:49,639 Speaker 1: all right, So that was the first group that they found. 474 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:51,840 Speaker 1: And how many of them have they seen so far? 475 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:54,120 Speaker 1: So only a handful of these things. They're pretty rare. 476 00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:57,359 Speaker 1: The second one that they found had twenty three quasars 477 00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:01,680 Speaker 1: in it is seven, and so that blew people's minds. 478 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:03,720 Speaker 1: They were like, if four quasars together in a group 479 00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:06,840 Speaker 1: is shocking, then twenty three together that's like an orchestra, 480 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,199 Speaker 1: you know. And so again these are you know, like 481 00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:12,879 Speaker 1: twenty some galaxies sort of in the same neighborhood, and 482 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:15,680 Speaker 1: they all have quasars pointing at us. Yeah, twenty three 483 00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:19,720 Speaker 1: quasars found in seven, all very close together and with 484 00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:23,240 Speaker 1: not consistent with just like you know, random distribution of 485 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,680 Speaker 1: quasar I see, and they're all pointing at us, which 486 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:27,600 Speaker 1: is the weird thing, isn't it. Yeah? It suggests that 487 00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:29,560 Speaker 1: there's a lot of them over there, right, And so 488 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:31,639 Speaker 1: we're seeing a tiny fraction of things, and so it 489 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:34,800 Speaker 1: suggests like, are there a lots more quasars over there 490 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:37,280 Speaker 1: that we're not seeing? And also like are there lots 491 00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:39,440 Speaker 1: more galaxies that we're not seeing? You know? Are we 492 00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:42,000 Speaker 1: just seeing the brightest things that are over there? And 493 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,520 Speaker 1: it's a very very dense region of space chalk filled 494 00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:48,200 Speaker 1: with galaxies and other crazy stuff, you know, it could 495 00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:50,320 Speaker 1: be that there's a whole structure of stuff over there 496 00:25:50,359 --> 00:25:53,160 Speaker 1: we've never seen before, right, right, And so they think 497 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,560 Speaker 1: quasars maybe are related to density of the early universe, 498 00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:59,399 Speaker 1: like you know, the desert things are, and we're the 499 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:02,440 Speaker 1: more goals you would have on some more chances for quasars. 500 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:05,119 Speaker 1: Is that the general idea, that's the general idea, but 501 00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:07,439 Speaker 1: you know, it's early days and understanding this stuff, so 502 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,360 Speaker 1: we're at the stage of like, maybe it works this way, 503 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:12,960 Speaker 1: maybe it works that way, And that's sort of the 504 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,919 Speaker 1: general idea. And one supporting piece of evidence is that 505 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:18,840 Speaker 1: when we look out for superclusters, you know, like the 506 00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:22,880 Speaker 1: big collections of galaxies that are loosely grouped together by gravity, 507 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,240 Speaker 1: we see superclusters at about the same rate as we 508 00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:29,879 Speaker 1: see large quasar groups, and so people are like, m 509 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:34,639 Speaker 1: that's interesting. Maybe superclusters are made by large quazar groups, 510 00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:37,840 Speaker 1: or maybe large quasar groups are an indication of where 511 00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:40,320 Speaker 1: you're later going to get a supercluster. Oh, I see. 512 00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:42,679 Speaker 1: It could be the other way around, like you know, 513 00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:45,840 Speaker 1: having a lot of quasars in one area somehow, you know, 514 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,479 Speaker 1: attracts more things to you. Yeah, or it's just an 515 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:52,440 Speaker 1: indication that there's already a huge density of mass there. Right. 516 00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:56,639 Speaker 1: If over density creates large quasar groups, then large quazar 517 00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,760 Speaker 1: groups could tell you where those dense spots are, and 518 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:03,399 Speaker 1: then later in the formation of the universe they create superclusters. 519 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:05,960 Speaker 1: So large quazar groups happened sort of early on, like 520 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,720 Speaker 1: a few billion years after the universe is formed. Superclusters 521 00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:13,040 Speaker 1: take a longer time to gather together the race between 522 00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:15,840 Speaker 1: gravity and the expansion of the universe. So it could 523 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,960 Speaker 1: be that where we're seeing these large quazar groups out 524 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:22,120 Speaker 1: in distant reaches of space, that this actual moment right now, 525 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,679 Speaker 1: there may be superclusters of galaxies there, all right, So 526 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:28,480 Speaker 1: then those are the large quazler groups, and now they 527 00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:32,200 Speaker 1: found anything even bigger, and so they needed another actective 528 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:35,359 Speaker 1: for these quazar groups, which is the Huge Large Quazer 529 00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:37,600 Speaker 1: Group exactly. Now, Daniel, why didn't they just call it 530 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:42,080 Speaker 1: the I don't know, super large or extra large or 531 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:46,000 Speaker 1: you know, venty, but they call it the Huge Large 532 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,080 Speaker 1: Quazer Group. You know what they were thinking. Have you 533 00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:49,920 Speaker 1: talked to any of them? I have not talked to them. 534 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:52,000 Speaker 1: I imagine that maybe it was just like an honest 535 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:56,159 Speaker 1: moment of excitement, you know, like imagine somebody discovering a 536 00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,120 Speaker 1: large Quazer group, realizing how big it is and then going, 537 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,360 Speaker 1: oh my gosh, it's huge, and then that name just sticking. 538 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:04,680 Speaker 1: It doesn't seem like the kind of name you would, 539 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,560 Speaker 1: you know, come up with after a committee meets or anything. Right, 540 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,880 Speaker 1: or maybe the lead scientist was named Hugh and which 541 00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,639 Speaker 1: would be very suspicious in my book. Maybe it's just 542 00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:17,000 Speaker 1: been a misunderstanding. He meant to name it Hughes Large 543 00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:20,119 Speaker 1: Quizer Group, and now it's called the Huge or make 544 00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 1: it's like a Danish name. It's actually like Huga. M hm. Alright, 545 00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:27,040 Speaker 1: let's get into what the Huge Large Quazer Group is 546 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,240 Speaker 1: and let's talk about how huge it actually is. But 547 00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:45,640 Speaker 1: first let's take another quick break. We're talking about the 548 00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,640 Speaker 1: huge large Quazer group, which is it an actual thing 549 00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:52,000 Speaker 1: and an actual name. They called it the huge large 550 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,880 Speaker 1: Quazer group because I guess, you know, first we discovered 551 00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:57,080 Speaker 1: quazer groups, and then they found bigger ones and called 552 00:28:57,120 --> 00:28:59,720 Speaker 1: them large Quazer groups. And then they found I guess, 553 00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:03,200 Speaker 1: really big one enough to call it huge, right, Well, 554 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,000 Speaker 1: you know, quasars are big. And then they found groups 555 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,280 Speaker 1: of quasars and they're like, wow, these groups are surprisingly large, 556 00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:12,600 Speaker 1: so they called them large Quaisar groups. And then they 557 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,560 Speaker 1: found this large Quaisar group, which is shockingly large. It's 558 00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,840 Speaker 1: the biggest large Quaisar group we've ever found, and in fact, 559 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,440 Speaker 1: it's bigger than anything in the universe is supposed to be. 560 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,280 Speaker 1: What do you mean, bigger than anything is supposed to be? 561 00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:28,720 Speaker 1: How big are things supposed to be? Yeah, so there's 562 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:31,960 Speaker 1: sort of like a maximum size. We think that things 563 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:34,560 Speaker 1: in the universe should be sort of allowed to be 564 00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,440 Speaker 1: based on our understanding of the universe and the age 565 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,840 Speaker 1: of the universe. Einstein had this idea that the universe 566 00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:45,720 Speaker 1: should be basically smooth, that if you zoom out far enough, 567 00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:48,800 Speaker 1: you shouldn't be able to notice any difference from place 568 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:51,320 Speaker 1: to place, like everywhere in the universe should be basically 569 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:54,360 Speaker 1: the same if you zoom out far enough, right, But 570 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:56,240 Speaker 1: how does that give you a limit? Well, it tells 571 00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:59,120 Speaker 1: you that you shouldn't see really big structures, Like if 572 00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:01,440 Speaker 1: you zoom out far and of everything should just be 573 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:03,440 Speaker 1: a wash. It should be like the universe is just 574 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,240 Speaker 1: like static. You shouldn't see like really big effects or 575 00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:11,040 Speaker 1: you know, large trends or really big objects. So that 576 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,040 Speaker 1: gives you a limit to like how big something can be, 577 00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:16,440 Speaker 1: so that you can zoom out and really not see 578 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,920 Speaker 1: any features anymore. It's like saying, well, the biggest building 579 00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:22,360 Speaker 1: in the United States is a certain size, and so 580 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:24,480 Speaker 1: if you zoom out far enough, you shouldn't be able 581 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:26,960 Speaker 1: to make out any buildings anymore. I see it like 582 00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:29,959 Speaker 1: zooming out of the US and finding bigger and bigger buildings. 583 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,600 Speaker 1: That would be weird. Yeah, exactly. It's like zooming out 584 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:35,040 Speaker 1: and finding a building that stretches from you know, Kansas 585 00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:37,840 Speaker 1: to California, and you're like, whoa, that's bigger than any 586 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:40,240 Speaker 1: feature I thought there was, right right, all right, Well, 587 00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:42,680 Speaker 1: I guess maybe step us through here. What is this 588 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:46,120 Speaker 1: huge large quas or group and how huge is it? 589 00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:49,000 Speaker 1: And I guess the question is why is it considered 590 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:51,520 Speaker 1: a structure in itself? Isn't it just a collection of 591 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,800 Speaker 1: cos Yeah, that's a great question. So it was found 592 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:59,200 Speaker 1: in by one of the same researchers that previously discovered 593 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:02,120 Speaker 1: other large quasar groups, so we're sort of an expert 594 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:06,000 Speaker 1: in finding these things. And this one has seventy three 595 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:11,040 Speaker 1: quasars in it. So the previous record was twenty three quasars. 596 00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,640 Speaker 1: This one just blows it away. It's seventy three quasars 597 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,600 Speaker 1: all in a big cluster, and it's like four billion 598 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:20,480 Speaker 1: light years from end to end. It's like the size 599 00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:24,959 Speaker 1: of forty thousand milky ways put end to end. Wow, 600 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,160 Speaker 1: that's a lot of light years. And so you're saying 601 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:31,320 Speaker 1: in the space of four billion light years, there's seventy 602 00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:36,120 Speaker 1: three galaxies in that space that have quasars in them. Yeah, exactly. 603 00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:39,200 Speaker 1: And are there other galaxies without quasars or is it like, 604 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:41,920 Speaker 1: you know, only quasars in galaxies there? No, there are 605 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:45,280 Speaker 1: definitely other galaxies there that don't have quasars. But this 606 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:48,560 Speaker 1: is a lot more quasars than you expect per galaxy, 607 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,840 Speaker 1: and they're clustered together in this sort of interesting, sort 608 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:55,880 Speaker 1: of blobby shape, and so it looks like a gravitational structure. 609 00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:58,840 Speaker 1: It looks like it's sort of held together. But again 610 00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:03,000 Speaker 1: that's weird because is we shouldn't have gravitational structures that 611 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 1: are bigger than about a billion and a half light 612 00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:07,520 Speaker 1: years across I see. I guess the question is how 613 00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:10,880 Speaker 1: do you make the termination that it's in the same 614 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:14,600 Speaker 1: gravitational structure, like there's nothing else around this clump or 615 00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:16,960 Speaker 1: blob of stuff. Yeah, it's a great question, and it's 616 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,760 Speaker 1: something that people debate a lot, Like when we look 617 00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:23,400 Speaker 1: at a supercluster, we asked like, is this thing really 618 00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:26,760 Speaker 1: held together gravitationally or is it stuff that just happens 619 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:29,160 Speaker 1: to be near each other? And I think one way 620 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,080 Speaker 1: to think about it is like, what is the future 621 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:34,320 Speaker 1: of this object? You know, for example, the universe is 622 00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:37,959 Speaker 1: expanding and so space is being created everywhere and pulling 623 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,840 Speaker 1: everything apart. But some objects will survive that, like your 624 00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,600 Speaker 1: body and the solar system, and the reason is that 625 00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:48,480 Speaker 1: they are gravitationally held together. They will survive this expansion. 626 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,040 Speaker 1: They will still be an object in a billion years. 627 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:55,280 Speaker 1: People don't know, and people argue about whether superclusters are 628 00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:58,120 Speaker 1: gravitationally about objects, and what they mean by that is 629 00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:01,080 Speaker 1: in a billion years, well listen, still be like this, 630 00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:03,920 Speaker 1: or will it be torn apart by dark energy? So 631 00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:07,160 Speaker 1: really it's about this battle between gravity and dark energy 632 00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:10,239 Speaker 1: and the question about being a gravitationally about object. It's 633 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,240 Speaker 1: really is gravity the dominant force? Is it the thing 634 00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:15,440 Speaker 1: that's holding it together? Or is it really just going 635 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,640 Speaker 1: to get torn apart by dark energy? I see? So 636 00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:20,320 Speaker 1: there is sort of a sense that they are going 637 00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:22,240 Speaker 1: to stick together in the future. That's why do you 638 00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:25,320 Speaker 1: call them a structure? That's the claim. So this guy 639 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:28,440 Speaker 1: discovered it, he called it a large quazar group. He said, look, 640 00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:30,960 Speaker 1: how big this is. It's bigger than anything should be. 641 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,720 Speaker 1: But it was not universally accepted in the community to 642 00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:37,520 Speaker 1: be a large quazar group. There were other people said, well, 643 00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 1: what if it's just a random collection of quasars that 644 00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:44,120 Speaker 1: aren't sort of like necessarily grouped together into a gravitational structure. 645 00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:46,360 Speaker 1: How can they not be like do you think they're 646 00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,400 Speaker 1: just like ships passing in the night kind of thing? 647 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:52,120 Speaker 1: Or they are too big to be held together by gravity? 648 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,000 Speaker 1: What would be the alternative The alternative is that it's 649 00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:57,600 Speaker 1: a random chance that they just happened to be there 650 00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:00,600 Speaker 1: and they're not held together by gravity. Remember, the reason 651 00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:03,600 Speaker 1: we're interested in large quasar groups is because we think 652 00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:06,920 Speaker 1: they might be like indicators of over density. We think 653 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,040 Speaker 1: they might be a sign that there's an extra stuff 654 00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:12,520 Speaker 1: there in the universe and that later that will lead 655 00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:16,359 Speaker 1: to interesting structures like superclusters, etcetera, etcetera. But it might 656 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:19,360 Speaker 1: just be Sometimes you get clusters of quasars, like sometimes 657 00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:21,640 Speaker 1: you find a bunch of diamonds and they're not connected 658 00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,000 Speaker 1: to each other. So there's a debate about whether they 659 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,320 Speaker 1: are gravitationally bound or not. And that's hard to resolve, 660 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,520 Speaker 1: you know. The real way to resolve is to sort 661 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:31,840 Speaker 1: of watch it for a billion years and see what happens. 662 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:34,400 Speaker 1: I see, like, what could happen. They could like you know, 663 00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,360 Speaker 1: float away, or they could stay clumped together. That's what 664 00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:39,759 Speaker 1: you mean, Like if they fall away from each other, 665 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:43,279 Speaker 1: then they weren't really gravitationally bound. Is that the idea? Yeah, exactly. 666 00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:45,560 Speaker 1: And that's the way I think about this whole question 667 00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:47,640 Speaker 1: of like what is the biggest thing in the universe. 668 00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:50,080 Speaker 1: You know, you might wonder like why should the biggest 669 00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:52,239 Speaker 1: thing in the universe be a billion and a half 670 00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:54,760 Speaker 1: light years across and not two billion or ten billion 671 00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:58,720 Speaker 1: or whatever. And it's really again about gravity having time 672 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,920 Speaker 1: to build things, Like you start from the very early universe. 673 00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:05,239 Speaker 1: Gravity starts to pull stuff together and make stars and 674 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:08,479 Speaker 1: makes galaxies eventually makes galaxy clusters. Each of these things 675 00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:12,320 Speaker 1: takes time because gravity is pretty weak and these enormous 676 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:14,480 Speaker 1: masses that play here, but it takes a long time 677 00:35:14,520 --> 00:35:17,120 Speaker 1: for gravity to gather this stuff together. And at the 678 00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:19,840 Speaker 1: same time, it has an opponent, right, dark energy is 679 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:22,719 Speaker 1: spreading everything out, and you can run a simulation to 680 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:24,919 Speaker 1: the universe and say, what's the biggest thing you would 681 00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:28,680 Speaker 1: expect gravity to have formed by now, Like in the future, 682 00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:31,560 Speaker 1: the biggest thing in the universe could be bigger, right 683 00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:34,200 Speaker 1: if dark energy wasn't playing its game, gravity could make 684 00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:36,759 Speaker 1: things that are three, four or five ten billion light 685 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:39,279 Speaker 1: years across. But we don't think it's had time to 686 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,080 Speaker 1: make anything that big yet, which is why we think 687 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,840 Speaker 1: the biggest thing in the universe should be a billion 688 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:47,359 Speaker 1: and a half light years across. So this thing being 689 00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:49,399 Speaker 1: four billion light years across, if it is a real 690 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:52,160 Speaker 1: thing built by gravity. Then we don't know how it 691 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:54,520 Speaker 1: was made interesting, Like it could have been just like 692 00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:57,160 Speaker 1: maybe two small groups that just happened to bump into 693 00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:58,680 Speaker 1: each other. Is that kind of what you mean, Or 694 00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:01,440 Speaker 1: like three groups that just happened to cluster. Yeah, exactly, 695 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:03,960 Speaker 1: They're not necessarily one thing. It could just be like 696 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:07,360 Speaker 1: three smaller things near each other. And so that's the question. 697 00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:09,880 Speaker 1: So there were these papers back and forth in astronomy, 698 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:12,080 Speaker 1: people saying, oh, look, we found this big thing and 699 00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:15,160 Speaker 1: violates a deep law of the universe, and somebody else saying, no, 700 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:17,680 Speaker 1: I think it's just random, and here's another way to 701 00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:21,239 Speaker 1: analyze its statistically that shows that's not actually that unlikely 702 00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:24,120 Speaker 1: to find that many quasars. And then another paper in 703 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:28,359 Speaker 1: response that looked at magnesium and there's absorption of magnesium 704 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,279 Speaker 1: gas there, which is another indicator of like an over 705 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:34,279 Speaker 1: dense region. And so I think the consensus right now 706 00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:37,080 Speaker 1: is that it is a large quasar group. But we 707 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:40,960 Speaker 1: still don't understand how you would make something this big 708 00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:43,920 Speaker 1: this early in the universe. I see, and we have 709 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:45,759 Speaker 1: a lot of information about it, right Like you send 710 00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:47,719 Speaker 1: me a little picture that she was kind of a 711 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:50,319 Speaker 1: three D map of all these quasars. Like when you 712 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:52,840 Speaker 1: look out there into space and you look it towards 713 00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:55,479 Speaker 1: this huge and large cluster, can you actually like tell 714 00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:58,880 Speaker 1: individual quasars apart? Yeah, you can map these individual quasars. 715 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:01,880 Speaker 1: They are really really bright. Now they're really far away, 716 00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:04,799 Speaker 1: but they're so breath that you can identify them. That 717 00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:07,319 Speaker 1: that's how they were discovered in the first place. You know, 718 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:11,160 Speaker 1: they're embedded in many, many other galaxies which are too 719 00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:15,040 Speaker 1: faint for us to see sometimes at least without dedicated viewing. 720 00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:17,480 Speaker 1: So we can spot these things because there are like 721 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:21,520 Speaker 1: extraordinarily bright lights really really far away, and you can 722 00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:24,600 Speaker 1: definitely resolve individual ones. And yeah, they've made this three 723 00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:26,719 Speaker 1: D map of them, Like what does it look like? 724 00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:29,440 Speaker 1: You know, they're trying to look at this structure and understand, 725 00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:32,000 Speaker 1: you know, why is it formed this way not that way? 726 00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:34,680 Speaker 1: Is there any pattern in there? Right? Yeah? But generally, 727 00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:37,160 Speaker 1: are people pretty sure it's a cluster or what's the 728 00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:39,960 Speaker 1: prevalent thinking about it? Is it a random coincidence or 729 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:43,200 Speaker 1: is there an actual you know, structure that was there 730 00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:45,440 Speaker 1: from the beginning of time. It's hard to say. You know, 731 00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:49,080 Speaker 1: the experimental evidence I think is pretty strong that it's there, 732 00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:51,880 Speaker 1: and then it's a thing. I think that most astronomers 733 00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:56,000 Speaker 1: believe that it is a group, but that requires something new, 734 00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:59,440 Speaker 1: that requires some explanation for how you get something this big. 735 00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:03,080 Speaker 1: How do you make a building that's from Kansas to California? 736 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:05,480 Speaker 1: How do you explain this in the existence of this 737 00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:09,040 Speaker 1: string of diamonds in the sky. We can't explain why 738 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:12,000 Speaker 1: it's there, but we think that it is there, and 739 00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:14,640 Speaker 1: so that's exciting because it tells us that something could 740 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:17,400 Speaker 1: be going on in the early universe that we don't understand. 741 00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:21,239 Speaker 1: I see, it's a huge mystery, or at least a 742 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:25,080 Speaker 1: very large one. It's a huge, large mystery, you know. 743 00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:27,200 Speaker 1: It's the kind of thing where maybe there's some new 744 00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:30,120 Speaker 1: physics that explains how things that are so far away 745 00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:32,359 Speaker 1: from each other in the universe that they didn't have 746 00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:36,160 Speaker 1: time for light to get between them could somehow be connected. 747 00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:39,600 Speaker 1: I could somehow how a correlation between them. So it's 748 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:42,000 Speaker 1: an opportunity for people to sort of go crazy and 749 00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:45,279 Speaker 1: think about new ideas to potentially explain the way the 750 00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:47,759 Speaker 1: universe was formed and the way it expanded in its 751 00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:50,600 Speaker 1: early days. Because I guess it's crazy if it's four 752 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,560 Speaker 1: billion light years across, like for one of them to 753 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:56,319 Speaker 1: talk to the other one at least gravitationally or through 754 00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:58,680 Speaker 1: light or anything. I mean that's all already like a 755 00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:00,960 Speaker 1: third of the life of the universe exactly. And now 756 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:03,400 Speaker 1: we're talking about like forming a structure. You know that 757 00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:06,680 Speaker 1: requires a lot of back and forth his paperwork. You know, 758 00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:09,360 Speaker 1: these meetings. You can't just get together and call yourself 759 00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:12,960 Speaker 1: a large quazer group or a huge one by that matter. Yeah, 760 00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:14,719 Speaker 1: I have to say I'm a little bit skeptical. I'm like, 761 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:16,920 Speaker 1: so many three quasars. I mean I was already kind 762 00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:20,120 Speaker 1: of used to forty twenty so many threat And if 763 00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:21,960 Speaker 1: I would qualify it that as huge, what do you think, 764 00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:27,120 Speaker 1: like maybe very large or extra large, but huge, Like, 765 00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:29,440 Speaker 1: you know, what if you find a thousand, Now, what 766 00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:32,719 Speaker 1: do you call that one the Nega large quasar group. 767 00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:34,400 Speaker 1: I don't know. I think you had to be impressed. 768 00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:36,520 Speaker 1: We need another digit on that, at least something in 769 00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:41,040 Speaker 1: the triple digits to earn the huge monitor exactly. Well, 770 00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:44,279 Speaker 1: that's the huge large Quazer group. Another sign that there 771 00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:46,960 Speaker 1: are still big mysteries out there, and not just big mysteries. 772 00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:51,000 Speaker 1: Huge mysteries out there in the universe, huge structures, huge 773 00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:54,200 Speaker 1: objects that we really are still discovering what they're about 774 00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:56,319 Speaker 1: and what's causing them. That's right, and we are just 775 00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,839 Speaker 1: beginning to explore our universe. We are only gathering at 776 00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:02,440 Speaker 1: high any fraction of the light that carries with it 777 00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:05,040 Speaker 1: evidence for how the universe was made and how it 778 00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:08,239 Speaker 1: looks now. Most of that is being ignored, unless you're 779 00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:11,040 Speaker 1: counting the plants. And so I hope that as a species, 780 00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:13,120 Speaker 1: we can build more and more of these eyeballs that 781 00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:16,000 Speaker 1: let us look deep into the distant universe and map 782 00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:19,719 Speaker 1: out the structure of our neighborhood and our region and 783 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:21,920 Speaker 1: the rest of the universe, and learned from that how 784 00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:24,760 Speaker 1: our universe came to me and maybe something about its future. 785 00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:26,920 Speaker 1: In the meantime, I guess we should keep looking out. 786 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,279 Speaker 1: Maybe we will find bigger ones, or maybe we will 787 00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:33,719 Speaker 1: sort of unlock what this huge structure means and what 788 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:36,880 Speaker 1: it can tell us about how everything begain And maybe 789 00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,239 Speaker 1: this time we should be prepared for finding something big, 790 00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:41,000 Speaker 1: so we come up with a better name for it. Yeah, 791 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,160 Speaker 1: we should have started with small, like the small quator group, 792 00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:47,239 Speaker 1: Like if you discover four them together, I don't know 793 00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,200 Speaker 1: you've called it a large one. I guess that's why 794 00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:54,640 Speaker 1: the English language has so many words. You can with 795 00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:57,520 Speaker 1: bigger adjectives. All right, well, we hope you enjoyed that. 796 00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:08,640 Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, see you next time. Thanks for listening, 797 00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:11,440 Speaker 1: and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is 798 00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:14,960 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from 799 00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:18,719 Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcasts, 800 00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:22,160 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H