1 00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:10,920 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, I have a physics question for you. All right, 2 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: I didn't have a daily banana, but I'm ready. What 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:18,560 Speaker 1: makes explosions so awesome? They are awesome? But is that 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:21,360 Speaker 1: a physics question? Yeah? You know, like in the movies 5 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:24,640 Speaker 1: they always really action here walking away from an explosion 6 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: in slow motion and it looks really cool. You know, 7 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:31,080 Speaker 1: does physics tell us why that is so cool? Physics 8 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:34,040 Speaker 1: is the reason why it's cool. Man, Physics makes things 9 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:39,159 Speaker 1: cool everything except physicist. I'm pitching a movie where a 10 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:42,400 Speaker 1: physicist is the action hero slow motion walking away from 11 00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:45,519 Speaker 1: the explosion. It's called lap Code Action Hero. You're not 12 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:47,640 Speaker 1: going to fund the sequel for that one, Kanna reeves. 13 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:50,479 Speaker 1: I'm issuing an invitation for a screen test. They tried that, 14 00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: didn't they. That was that movie where he that's your 15 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:57,920 Speaker 1: wife's favorite movie? Yeah Fusion. Yeah, he's a he's an 16 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 1: action here and he's a physicist. Basically, can happen cold Fusion? 17 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:06,199 Speaker 1: Two more slow motion explosions? Does that make you feel funny? 18 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:08,560 Speaker 1: Like to know that your spouse is favorite movie is 19 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:12,120 Speaker 1: about a physicist portrayed by Kenny No. It makes me 20 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:14,839 Speaker 1: feel like she thinks physicists are sexy. I mean I'd 21 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:16,960 Speaker 1: rather that than having a physicist be played by Danny 22 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:35,640 Speaker 1: de Vito, Bie am or hand, a cartoonists and the 23 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: creator of PhD Comics. Hi, I'm Daniel Whitson. I'm a 24 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:41,920 Speaker 1: particle physicist and I don't wear a lab coat, but 25 00:01:41,959 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 1: I consider myself a science action hero. Nice. Do you 26 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:51,040 Speaker 1: code in slow motion too? My code explodes, man, I 27 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:55,559 Speaker 1: walk away those people's minds. Yeah, the explosions are all mental. 28 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: I blew your mind with my amazing coding. Well, look 29 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,040 Speaker 1: them to our mind. Explosion of a podcast Daniel and 30 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,360 Speaker 1: Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of I Heart Radio, 31 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:08,239 Speaker 1: in which we talk about all the things in the 32 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:11,239 Speaker 1: universe that do blow our minds and that are currently 33 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:15,040 Speaker 1: blowing the minds of scientists today, and we walk you 34 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:16,880 Speaker 1: through them and explain them to you and what we 35 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: hope is an understandable and maybe even entertaining style. Yeah, 36 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:22,919 Speaker 1: we talk about all the amazing stuff out there that 37 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 1: is just sitting there waiting for us to discover it 38 00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:29,640 Speaker 1: and to tell us about things that we want to 39 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:31,960 Speaker 1: know about the universe. But we also talk about the 40 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:36,000 Speaker 1: events and all the crazy and wild and sometimes dangerous 41 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,560 Speaker 1: stuff that happens out there in the cosmos. That's right, 42 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:40,640 Speaker 1: because if you look up at the night sky, you 43 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 1: are looking at one of the most amazing shows in 44 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:47,239 Speaker 1: the universe. It's not necessarily put on for your enjoyment, 45 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:50,320 Speaker 1: but it's a pretty spectacular fireworks display. You know. It 46 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:52,200 Speaker 1: is true that when you look out into this the 47 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 1: night sky and you look at all the stars, you 48 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:57,560 Speaker 1: think that they look pretty and twinkling, But really what 49 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,880 Speaker 1: you're looking at is is billions and billion some giant 50 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,919 Speaker 1: explosions happening all the time. Yes, it is very dramatic 51 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:07,639 Speaker 1: fireworks display, and it's going on all the time. It's 52 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:10,200 Speaker 1: been going on for billions of years, and I like 53 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:11,800 Speaker 1: to think of it as like the best view in 54 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:15,359 Speaker 1: the universe, because not only is it huge dramatic explosions, 55 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:17,680 Speaker 1: bigger than anything we could imagine here on Earth, but 56 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:21,359 Speaker 1: you're also looking across billions and billions of miles. It's 57 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:23,440 Speaker 1: amazing to me how much of our lives we spend 58 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:26,160 Speaker 1: without looking up at the night sky. You go around 59 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:28,960 Speaker 1: your daily business and some people never even look up 60 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,120 Speaker 1: at the night sky. But there's so much incredible universe 61 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:34,440 Speaker 1: out there waiting for us to look at it. But yeah, 62 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: we like to talk about fun things that happened in 63 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:39,840 Speaker 1: big explosions, and and sometimes we like to talk about 64 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:42,080 Speaker 1: the biggest things that happened out there in the universe, 65 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:46,880 Speaker 1: the biggest, the loudest, the craziest, the smallest, the quietest, 66 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 1: the wettest, the driest, because they remind us of the scale. 67 00:03:56,440 --> 00:03:59,200 Speaker 1: Our cozy little life here on Earth is a very 68 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: narrow sli ice of the kind of environments that are 69 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: out there in the universe. And so we want to 70 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 1: blow your mind by reminding you that most of the 71 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,640 Speaker 1: universe is quite different. Most of the universe is much 72 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:12,320 Speaker 1: more dramatic than the kind of things we experience here 73 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:14,320 Speaker 1: on Earth. And we're the best ways to learn that 74 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:17,480 Speaker 1: is to go do the extremes, the coldest, the brightest, 75 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,320 Speaker 1: the darkest, the hottest. Yeah, and so everyone loves explosions, 76 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:23,720 Speaker 1: of course, and so to the other podcast, we'll be 77 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:32,880 Speaker 1: asking a question about what is the big explosion in 78 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:36,240 Speaker 1: the universe. We've talked about explosions in this podcast before, 79 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:40,720 Speaker 1: you know, like supernovas are big explosions in nuclear when 80 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:42,440 Speaker 1: you blow up a nuclear bomb, what happens. We had 81 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: an episode about that, but here we're talking about the 82 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,240 Speaker 1: biggest explosion in the entire universe. Like if you did 83 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 1: a survey of everything, that is, what would be the 84 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:54,960 Speaker 1: coolest explosion to film in slow motion and then have 85 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 1: Kenna Rees walks at away from them precisely? Or Daniel 86 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:04,200 Speaker 1: are annual? Of course, Daniel float away. You know any 87 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:08,800 Speaker 1: lab coat wearing physicists, we are all equally sexy. Do 88 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:10,760 Speaker 1: you wear a lab coats, Daniel? Is that for safety 89 00:05:10,839 --> 00:05:13,480 Speaker 1: or just for because you're a c is too high 90 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:15,719 Speaker 1: in your office? I wear lab coat when I'm gonna 91 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 1: do a really complicated calculation, you know, just for protection 92 00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: because I break something, because the sweat pouring out of 93 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: your forehead and the intensity of the typing is just 94 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:29,440 Speaker 1: just do you want to protect your clothes? Yeah? And 95 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:31,640 Speaker 1: you know, if you think really hard about something, you're 96 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: creating very high energy density in your brain which could 97 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: collapse to a black hole. And you know, I think 98 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:39,680 Speaker 1: a lab coat would be good protection there really to 99 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 1: protect you. Or if my grad student is doing all 100 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:46,760 Speaker 1: the thinking, then I need a lab to protect myself. 101 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:50,960 Speaker 1: That's really what I'm worried about. But we are talking 102 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:54,400 Speaker 1: today about explosions because there was a recent article crowning 103 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:58,080 Speaker 1: a new champion explosion of the universe, and a lot 104 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:00,599 Speaker 1: of our listeners wrote in asking us, can you please 105 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:03,919 Speaker 1: explain what's going on? How is this possible? What's the 106 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,719 Speaker 1: deal with this crazy article? Wow? So this is a 107 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,280 Speaker 1: like hot off the presses. I mean the the article 108 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:12,200 Speaker 1: just came out last week crowning the new biggest explosion 109 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:14,440 Speaker 1: in the universe? Ye ever seen or did you think 110 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 1: this is this? Is it ever seen? No? I think 111 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: it's very unlikely that we will see the biggest explosion 112 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 1: in the universe, or that we have seen it. But 113 00:06:21,839 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: it's the biggest explosion that we have ever seen. I mean, 114 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 1: the more you look, the more you see extremes, and 115 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:31,320 Speaker 1: for this particular category of explosion, there's a potential for 116 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:33,560 Speaker 1: even bigger ones. I guess you kind of maybe don't 117 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:35,560 Speaker 1: want to see the big explosion in the universe. You 118 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:37,520 Speaker 1: want to see it on a movie screen, but you 119 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:39,680 Speaker 1: don't want to be there unless you have a really 120 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:42,159 Speaker 1: nice lab coat that could protect you. Yeah. But so, 121 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:44,720 Speaker 1: as usual, Daniel was curious to see how many people 122 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:47,400 Speaker 1: had heard of this discovery or even have thought about 123 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:50,800 Speaker 1: what is the biggest explosion in the universe? So I 124 00:06:50,839 --> 00:06:53,719 Speaker 1: walked around campus and I asked folks just after this 125 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:58,160 Speaker 1: article came out, what makes the biggest explosions in the universe? 126 00:06:58,440 --> 00:06:59,840 Speaker 1: So think about it for a second. It is so, 127 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,240 Speaker 1: and as you what the biggest explosion in the universe was, 128 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: what would you answer? Here's what people had to say. 129 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:09,280 Speaker 1: I think it's a supernova, probably when like really big 130 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:15,240 Speaker 1: things collide like stars, stars. I guess, yeah, just like 131 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:17,920 Speaker 1: normal stars doing their thing. It's when they die, right 132 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:20,160 Speaker 1: or is it is that they collapse when they knew that, 133 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:22,480 Speaker 1: like the star exploding one of the biggest I can 134 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:26,000 Speaker 1: think of, explosion of the star supernova. I think it's 135 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:30,800 Speaker 1: just called something supernova. Maybe starts dying like astronomical Yeah, 136 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 1: then that type of like I don't think anything man made. 137 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:36,800 Speaker 1: I want to say stars. Well, it was just reported 138 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:40,600 Speaker 1: that the most massive explosion I ever recorded was a 139 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 1: black hole. They believe are specifically the convitation of the 140 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 1: wall was created by the plasma admitted by the black hole. Um, 141 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:50,200 Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly where or at the center of 142 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:52,760 Speaker 1: our galaxy or something like that. Maybe your mom, so 143 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:56,520 Speaker 1: it's a nuke alright, A lot of great guesses. Most 144 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,360 Speaker 1: people say it's supernovas. Yep, supernova is a popular one. 145 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:02,280 Speaker 1: People have heard of it. The supernova pr team has 146 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:05,360 Speaker 1: done a great job, you know, does it does have 147 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:09,400 Speaker 1: their names super super you know. But you know, hypernovas 148 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:16,320 Speaker 1: are even bigger, and nobody talks about hypernovas that hypernovas. Hypernovas, Yeah, 149 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:18,080 Speaker 1: we've talked about on the podcast. They're just like a 150 00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:24,480 Speaker 1: super big category of supernovas. He's saying, I forgot, I guess. 151 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:26,920 Speaker 1: I guess it's just not as sticky as supernovas. Not 152 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:31,240 Speaker 1: a sticky The focus group for supernovas did a better job. Yeah, anyway, 153 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:33,080 Speaker 1: it was a popular answer, and it makes sense because 154 00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:37,400 Speaker 1: those are really big explosions. Some people said nuclear weapons 155 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:40,520 Speaker 1: times too, like if you multiplied a new weapon. There 156 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:42,480 Speaker 1: were a couple of people who said nuclear bombs, and 157 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:45,800 Speaker 1: I think they just haven't really expanded their mind out 158 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: to the astronomical. They were thinking about the biggest explosions 159 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:51,400 Speaker 1: on Earth, even though I asked for the biggest explosions 160 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:54,560 Speaker 1: in the universe. Um so I think those folks sort 161 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:56,960 Speaker 1: of had their brains down to Earth. And someone said 162 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:01,600 Speaker 1: black black hole merger very intrigued, which is actually maybe 163 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:03,680 Speaker 1: a little bit close to the actual answer. It's on 164 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:06,080 Speaker 1: the right track for sure. Those are all good answers. 165 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:08,920 Speaker 1: And so we're looking for the biggest explosion in the universe. 166 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:12,280 Speaker 1: And so Daniel, lets maybe first talk about you know, 167 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:15,000 Speaker 1: what an explosion means and what does it mean for 168 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:18,440 Speaker 1: something to explode, and how you would help is measure 169 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:22,679 Speaker 1: these things that you measured by like Bruce Willis's or 170 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:26,439 Speaker 1: cano reeves units of cano reeves coolness. The way to 171 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 1: think about an explosion is that it's a very rapid 172 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:32,240 Speaker 1: release of energy, like when you have a nuclear bomb. 173 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,000 Speaker 1: What's happening there is that you have an rapid release 174 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:37,959 Speaker 1: of energy from the fusion or the fission reaction, so 175 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:40,280 Speaker 1: rapid that it creates like a shock wave that then 176 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:42,880 Speaker 1: zooms out. Like if you had that whole thing happened 177 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:46,040 Speaker 1: much more slowly, it wouldn't be an explosion. Wi just 178 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:50,080 Speaker 1: like gradually dissipate. It's like if you gradually cranked up 179 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:52,440 Speaker 1: the heat of something, that heat would spread up and 180 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:55,640 Speaker 1: it wouldn't spread out and it wouldn't necessarily create any destruction. 181 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:58,280 Speaker 1: But the reason you have destruction from an explosion that 182 00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:02,320 Speaker 1: these shock waves is subd release a huge amount of energy. 183 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:05,320 Speaker 1: So that's the key for everything is leaving one place 184 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:09,959 Speaker 1: really quickly. Energy matter. Yeah, and so the way we 185 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: measure an explosion is by measuring the energy output. And 186 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:15,600 Speaker 1: so we use units of energy. And there's a lot 187 00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:17,599 Speaker 1: of different kinds of units of energy, so you just 188 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,600 Speaker 1: got to pick one. Well, what's the standard physics unit 189 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:23,520 Speaker 1: for explosions? The unit of the US in astronomy is 190 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:26,280 Speaker 1: the ERG, which is kind of a funny unit. It 191 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:28,840 Speaker 1: sounds sort of like like a grunt, you know, like 192 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:32,080 Speaker 1: it's gonna sounds like an anomotope the media, you know, 193 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:36,079 Speaker 1: like oh, somebody exploded, or it sort of sounds like 194 00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:38,600 Speaker 1: an insult, like God, can you believe the silly thing 195 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:42,880 Speaker 1: that ERG said that that can't even calculate the mass 196 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:44,920 Speaker 1: of a black hole. It sounds like a bad physics 197 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:47,440 Speaker 1: put down or something. It's like what nerds called each 198 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:50,520 Speaker 1: other to call each other out. Yeah, but it's actually 199 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: kind of a cool unit of energy. And I like 200 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:56,760 Speaker 1: it because it has a very understandable example, like one 201 00:10:56,960 --> 00:10:59,360 Speaker 1: ERG is about as much energy it would take a 202 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:02,040 Speaker 1: fly to do a push up. Wow, it's that small. 203 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:04,720 Speaker 1: It's pretty small. Yes, So it's a unit of energy 204 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:08,560 Speaker 1: like jewels, or like jewels per second or jewels per area. 205 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 1: What's the what am I thinking? Jewels is a unit 206 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:13,600 Speaker 1: of energy? Jewels per second would be power, the would 207 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:16,400 Speaker 1: be like watts, and jewels per area would be pressure. 208 00:11:16,679 --> 00:11:19,559 Speaker 1: But we're talking about just energy, and so ERG is 209 00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:22,240 Speaker 1: a unit and it's pretty small. You're right. For example, 210 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:24,720 Speaker 1: if you calculated, like how many ergs are in the 211 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:28,200 Speaker 1: rolling of a bowling ball, that's about a billion ergs. 212 00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:31,760 Speaker 1: So every time I'm bowling, I'm like putting a billion 213 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:34,400 Speaker 1: ergs and like an actual because you pull your back, 214 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:38,439 Speaker 1: the energy you spend in rolling that bowling ball is 215 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:42,000 Speaker 1: the same as if one billion flies simultaneously do one 216 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:44,199 Speaker 1: push up. It's a bit of a weird unit because 217 00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:47,440 Speaker 1: it's so small, and it's really popular in astronomy, where 218 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:49,719 Speaker 1: the numbers are really big. So I wonder if like 219 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:52,960 Speaker 1: astronomers use this unit to make their numbers seem bigger. 220 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:57,320 Speaker 1: I don't think astronomers need to inflate their numbers, you know, 221 00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:01,199 Speaker 1: they're like, you know, a billion ideas just doesn't seem 222 00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:04,440 Speaker 1: like a lot. Let's go with a billion light seconds. Yeah, Well, 223 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:09,040 Speaker 1: it's weird because the URG was officially discontinued as a unit. 224 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:12,960 Speaker 1: People like, don't use ERG, it's ridiculous, but astronomers still 225 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:15,800 Speaker 1: use it. They just like they ignore that ruling officially 226 00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:19,240 Speaker 1: from the International Court of Units and I made that up, 227 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:21,680 Speaker 1: by the way, and they just keep on using it. 228 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 1: So we get really big, ridiculous numbers. So does it 229 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,200 Speaker 1: stand for something or they it literally just just a 230 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:29,679 Speaker 1: weird word, or or is it kind of like one 231 00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:33,240 Speaker 1: of these new millennial you know, text contractions. You know 232 00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:35,480 Speaker 1: that they're too lazy to write energy, so they just 233 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:37,720 Speaker 1: picked the E, the R, and the G a little bit. 234 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:40,880 Speaker 1: It's actually got a nice history. It comes from a 235 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:43,920 Speaker 1: Greek word urgan, which is the unit of energy, and 236 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:46,520 Speaker 1: it's sort of like the eighteen hundreds and so it's 237 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:49,200 Speaker 1: a bit outdated and it's it's past its prime, but 238 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:52,080 Speaker 1: it still lives on in astronomy. Okay. So it's like 239 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:55,840 Speaker 1: an unit of energy like the jewels or calorie or 240 00:12:55,880 --> 00:12:58,040 Speaker 1: something like that, and it tells you kind of how 241 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:00,600 Speaker 1: much energy comes out of this ex osian or thing 242 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 1: exploding in a second or in at a time, or 243 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:07,040 Speaker 1: just the total energy. Yeah, so you have to integrate 244 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: over time, and so for example, if you look at 245 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:12,800 Speaker 1: something that's continuous explosion like our son. Our son is 246 00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:16,680 Speaker 1: just a constantly exploding fusion bomb. Then you can quote 247 00:13:16,679 --> 00:13:20,000 Speaker 1: the energy like per second. For example, the Sun puts 248 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:24,000 Speaker 1: out ten to the thirty four ergs per second, So 249 00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:25,960 Speaker 1: that's a lot of ergs pers, that's a lot of 250 00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:29,520 Speaker 1: flies doing a lot of push ups every second many 251 00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:32,360 Speaker 1: that that is basically ten to the thirty four flies 252 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:35,640 Speaker 1: every second. But then it depends on the time, right, 253 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:38,679 Speaker 1: the Sun is not just one explosion, so it's a 254 00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:41,640 Speaker 1: constant explosion and it only explodes in the day. Of 255 00:13:41,679 --> 00:13:46,560 Speaker 1: course at night it tucks away in terms of this 256 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:51,560 Speaker 1: is a science podcast, so that's spread misinformation, um. And 257 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:53,080 Speaker 1: in a year, you know, it will put out like 258 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:55,560 Speaker 1: ten to the forty one ergs. So that sounds like 259 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: a lot, but it's sort of a touch on. So 260 00:13:57,559 --> 00:14:01,319 Speaker 1: the bowling balls one billion ergs, the Sun is tend 261 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:05,520 Speaker 1: to the thirty four or per second. Yeah, so that's 262 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:07,720 Speaker 1: how much energy is coming out of this explosion. Yeah. 263 00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:10,040 Speaker 1: And then a popular answer of course with supernovas, and 264 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:12,280 Speaker 1: it's a great answer because there's a lot of energy 265 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:14,560 Speaker 1: put out by a supernova in a very short amount 266 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:18,200 Speaker 1: of time. That's like ten to the fifty one ergs. 267 00:14:18,679 --> 00:14:21,960 Speaker 1: So that's you know, a lot more than individual star, 268 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:25,160 Speaker 1: and it is a very short amount of time, right, Yeah, 269 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:29,000 Speaker 1: it's like five orders of magnitude. Yeah, it's like ten 270 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:31,600 Speaker 1: orders of magnitude compared to one year. And so a 271 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:34,560 Speaker 1: supernova puts out about as much energy as our Sun 272 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:37,280 Speaker 1: does in its entire lifetime, but the whole thing happens 273 00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:39,560 Speaker 1: in billions of years, over billions of years. But the 274 00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:42,840 Speaker 1: whole thing happens over just you know, days, So it's 275 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:45,200 Speaker 1: a pretty incredible explosion. If you take all of the 276 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:48,280 Speaker 1: energy that the Sun makes over billions of years and 277 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,560 Speaker 1: compressed it to one instant, that's a supernova. That's a supernova. 278 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:54,200 Speaker 1: And that's why it's dramatic. That's what makes it an explosion, 279 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:56,400 Speaker 1: is this release of energy in a very short amount 280 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,440 Speaker 1: of time. If it just gradually leaked that energy under 281 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:01,880 Speaker 1: the universe, it wouldn't be as dramatic. It's all about 282 00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:05,120 Speaker 1: concentrating that energy in a short period. That's why supernovas 283 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:08,160 Speaker 1: are so super it's almost like big, you know, concentrating 284 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:11,280 Speaker 1: a billion sons in one instant. Yeah, yeah, and that's 285 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:14,440 Speaker 1: why they can outshine an entire galaxy for a very 286 00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:18,320 Speaker 1: short amount of time. They're brilliant, literally, But you're saying 287 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:21,400 Speaker 1: the supernoives are not the biggest explosions in the universe. 288 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:23,080 Speaker 1: So even if you take a billion sons at the 289 00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:26,200 Speaker 1: same time and exploded them in one instant, that wouldn't 290 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:28,480 Speaker 1: give you the big explosion in the universe. No, So 291 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:31,000 Speaker 1: if you put that into your screenplay and expect everybody 292 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:35,200 Speaker 1: to be impressed, then astronomers would be underwhelmed. It'd be like, er, 293 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:40,400 Speaker 1: that's a lot of ergs, but it still don't impress me. No, 294 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:42,880 Speaker 1: that is not the biggest explosion in the universe, and 295 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:45,880 Speaker 1: not even close. There are much bigger explosions. But it's 296 00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:48,920 Speaker 1: a little bit counterintuitive because they come from black holes. 297 00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:53,240 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, somebody said in the answers that a black 298 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:56,320 Speaker 1: hole merger may be the biggest explosion in the universe. 299 00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:59,520 Speaker 1: So how how how exploding our black hole merger? They 300 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:02,920 Speaker 1: are blowdi oscious. They released like a thousand times as 301 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:07,400 Speaker 1: much energy as supernova. Wait, so you take a thousand 302 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:10,400 Speaker 1: supernovas put them together, that's one black hole merger. That's 303 00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:12,120 Speaker 1: one black hole merger. Now it depends, of course, on 304 00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:13,840 Speaker 1: the mass of the black holes and a little bit 305 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:16,840 Speaker 1: in the configuration. But we've only seen a few examples 306 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:21,000 Speaker 1: and they were pretty dramatic. Wow, that's so a supernova 307 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:25,000 Speaker 1: outshines the galaxy, then a black hole merger totally kind 308 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:27,840 Speaker 1: of obliterates it. Right, Yeah, but you have to compare 309 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:30,400 Speaker 1: how the energy is being released. For a supernova, a 310 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:32,440 Speaker 1: lot of the energy is released in the visible spectrum, 311 00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: but most of it is actually invisible. A huge fraction 312 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:38,480 Speaker 1: of it is in the neutrinos and in other particles 313 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: that aren't invisible light. So supernova is super duper bright, 314 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:44,320 Speaker 1: but most of the energy is not visible. For a 315 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:47,120 Speaker 1: black hole merger, almost all of the energy comes out 316 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:51,160 Speaker 1: in invisible forms like creation of gravitational waves, which you 317 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:54,680 Speaker 1: need special devices to even see, so that they are 318 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:58,280 Speaker 1: huge releases of energy but not necessarily bright. Take a 319 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: silent killer. It's a dark explosion. There's the title of 320 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:09,880 Speaker 1: our movie. Whoever smelled it? Tilted? Whoever smelt it? Oh, 321 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:12,240 Speaker 1: you're right, dark explosion is not a good name for 322 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:17,080 Speaker 1: a movie. It is an obvious part jip there. But 323 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,359 Speaker 1: even at a thousand times bigger than a supernova, a 324 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:23,359 Speaker 1: black hole merger is still not the biggest exclusion in 325 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:26,240 Speaker 1: the universe. It is not it's not even close to 326 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:29,040 Speaker 1: King of the Mountain or Queen of the Castle. All right, 327 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:32,080 Speaker 1: let's get into what is the biggest exclusion in the universe, 328 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:35,640 Speaker 1: and let's talk about this recent discovery of them finding it. 329 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:51,400 Speaker 1: But first let's take a quick break. Okay, Daniel, we're 330 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:54,280 Speaker 1: talking about the biggest explosion in the universe, and we're 331 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:57,600 Speaker 1: not just talking about mel Gibson's career here. And you 332 00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:00,600 Speaker 1: told me that supernovas are pretty big, like a billion 333 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:05,000 Speaker 1: sons explosion at ones, but those are nothing compared to 334 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:08,160 Speaker 1: black hole mergers, which are a thousand times bigger, and 335 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:12,240 Speaker 1: those even are not the biggest explosions in the universe. Yeah, 336 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,080 Speaker 1: the biggest explosions in the universe come not from black 337 00:18:15,119 --> 00:18:19,639 Speaker 1: hole mergers, but from individual super massive black holes and 338 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:22,320 Speaker 1: the chaos that they create around them. That's right, because 339 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:25,040 Speaker 1: there are different categories of black hole. So like if 340 00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:29,160 Speaker 1: two little black holes merge, which has I think happens 341 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:32,960 Speaker 1: fairly often, right, surprisingly often, you get the mergers of 342 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:34,840 Speaker 1: black holes, and those black holes can be you know, 343 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:37,119 Speaker 1: the masses of a few sons or tens of sons 344 00:18:37,359 --> 00:18:39,960 Speaker 1: or hundreds of sons. But there are other kinds of 345 00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:41,919 Speaker 1: black holes, like the kind we see in the center 346 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 1: of our galaxy. They can have millions and millions of 347 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:50,640 Speaker 1: solar masses. Oh and those themselves are you're saying, are 348 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:54,280 Speaker 1: some of the brightest or biggest explosions in the universe. Yeah, 349 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 1: these are things we do not understand very well. But 350 00:18:56,760 --> 00:19:00,080 Speaker 1: they are gargantulan and they're basically keen or queen in 351 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:03,320 Speaker 1: every category. They can get pretty crazy massive. So some 352 00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:07,080 Speaker 1: black holes are you know, thousands or millions of times 353 00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: the mass of our sun. Yes, and that creates an 354 00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:14,199 Speaker 1: very intense gravitational field nearby. And so what happens is 355 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 1: that the stuff near the black hole gets squeezed and 356 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:21,680 Speaker 1: pushed and and excited, and you can generate incredible amounts 357 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:26,359 Speaker 1: of radiation and also sometimes enormous explosions on the vicinity 358 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:29,040 Speaker 1: of the black hole. Oh I see. So just their 359 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:33,159 Speaker 1: very existence and the chaos they produced around them, just 360 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:37,439 Speaker 1: from being so crazy massive creates the biggest explosions in 361 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,360 Speaker 1: the universe, bigger than these black hole mergers and supernoice. Yeah, 362 00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:42,679 Speaker 1: and it's not something that we understand very well. Like 363 00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:45,560 Speaker 1: we keep being surprised. We find a huge explosion and 364 00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:48,600 Speaker 1: we're like, wow, that's bigger than we thought possible. And 365 00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:51,040 Speaker 1: then somebody finds one that's ten times bigger and they're like, 366 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:53,360 Speaker 1: that's insane, what are you talking about? And we're gonna 367 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: see one that's a thousand times bigger and then and 368 00:19:56,600 --> 00:19:59,560 Speaker 1: then we'll be over. But it's it's incredible, the scale 369 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:02,320 Speaker 1: of these things, the massive these objects, the amount of 370 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:04,520 Speaker 1: energy that's stored in them, the amount of energy that's 371 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:07,600 Speaker 1: radiated out from them. When nobody has a calculation that 372 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:10,760 Speaker 1: explains this, nobody can say, here's my black hole simulation, 373 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:13,919 Speaker 1: and it describes how these black holes were formed and 374 00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:17,560 Speaker 1: explains why they radiate and explode so much. I see, 375 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:20,560 Speaker 1: we've seen these crazy explosions from these big black holes, 376 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:23,199 Speaker 1: but nobody can actually sort of work it out how 377 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:25,919 Speaker 1: that works. Yeah, nobody can even explain why we have 378 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:29,560 Speaker 1: these supermassive black holes. If you do simulations of galaxies forming, 379 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:32,199 Speaker 1: you don't get black holes this big, and so we 380 00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:34,639 Speaker 1: don't even understand like what's making these We'll do a 381 00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:37,879 Speaker 1: whole other podcast episode about like the weird science behind 382 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:40,719 Speaker 1: how these things form. But once you have them, then 383 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:43,160 Speaker 1: they do all sorts of crazy stuff. You know, people 384 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,320 Speaker 1: out there might be thinking, like, hold on a second, 385 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:47,960 Speaker 1: how do black holes explode or how do black holes 386 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:52,000 Speaker 1: emit radiation? Because they're black, nothing's Yeah, their holes they're 387 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:55,160 Speaker 1: supposed to be sucking stuff in, and and they do. 388 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:57,720 Speaker 1: They do suck stuff in. So anything that goes past 389 00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:01,000 Speaker 1: the event horizon definitely never coming out. But we're talking 390 00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:03,880 Speaker 1: about this stuff in the neighborhood, right. A black hole 391 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:06,560 Speaker 1: like this is so powerful that it's going to mess 392 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:09,199 Speaker 1: up everything nearby? Is it kind of like you know 393 00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:11,920 Speaker 1: those um Sometimes you go to like a public toilet 394 00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:15,520 Speaker 1: and you flush it and it's like tourbo charged. Do 395 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:18,199 Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about? Like there's just like 396 00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:22,320 Speaker 1: freeloaded or something, and you flush and it's like everything 397 00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:24,359 Speaker 1: things are sucking down the toilet, but they're also kind 398 00:21:24,359 --> 00:21:27,800 Speaker 1: of exploding time. I have no idea what you're talking about, 399 00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:31,479 Speaker 1: but that sounds like a perfect analogy. Yes, and especially 400 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:34,080 Speaker 1: because black holes do this really weird thing that they have, 401 00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:37,480 Speaker 1: these jets. There's two main structures around a black hole 402 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,200 Speaker 1: that people should be familiar with. One is the accretion disc. 403 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:43,840 Speaker 1: That's this disc of stuff that's swirling around the black 404 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,120 Speaker 1: holes like on deck to get sucked in and people 405 00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:50,320 Speaker 1: are generally familiar with that, but then shooting out sort 406 00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:52,840 Speaker 1: of perpendicular to the plane of the accretion disc like 407 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:55,400 Speaker 1: on the north and the South pole, are these enormous 408 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:59,080 Speaker 1: jets of matter and radiation that can be like longer 409 00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:01,840 Speaker 1: than entire gall e sees. Yeah, I think you maybe 410 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:03,760 Speaker 1: like a good visual is kind of like how you 411 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:06,399 Speaker 1: imagine Saturn the planet to have this ring around it. 412 00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:08,320 Speaker 1: The black holes kind of have a ring of stuff 413 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 1: around them too, They have a ring around them, yes, Yeah, 414 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:14,280 Speaker 1: and it's like glowing and it's it's gassing and glowing 415 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,399 Speaker 1: and wild as well because it's being sucked into the 416 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:21,480 Speaker 1: giant toilet. Yeah, and the jets create this radiation which 417 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:24,240 Speaker 1: is huge. We call those quasars, and we don't understand 418 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:26,479 Speaker 1: what's going on there. We think there's some weird thing 419 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,840 Speaker 1: going on with intense magnetic fields. It's like funneling really 420 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:32,760 Speaker 1: high energy particles towards the North pole, so like some 421 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:37,240 Speaker 1: sort of reverse Northern Lights effect. Um, And if it's 422 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:39,280 Speaker 1: pointed right at Earth, then we call it a we 423 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:41,280 Speaker 1: call it a blazer. And those are some of the 424 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:44,159 Speaker 1: brightest things in the universe. Yeah, we had a whole 425 00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:47,000 Speaker 1: podcast about the brightest things in the universe. Yeah, But 426 00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:49,280 Speaker 1: on top of being the brightest things in the universe, 427 00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:51,360 Speaker 1: the most massive things in the universe, and being a 428 00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:55,720 Speaker 1: mystery under themselves, they also create a ridiculous explosions because 429 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:59,320 Speaker 1: quasars are not explosions. They're just like a constant funneling 430 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,080 Speaker 1: of enormal energy like a flashlight kind of. Yeah, they're 431 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:04,560 Speaker 1: like a flashlight. But on top of that, these black 432 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:09,600 Speaker 1: holes sometimes also create really dramatic explosions. Really yeah, like 433 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,199 Speaker 1: the top on top of the quazer is like that 434 00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:15,719 Speaker 1: wasn't enough. They're also doing stuff on the side, and 435 00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:18,440 Speaker 1: that comes from things going on in the accretion disk. 436 00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:21,880 Speaker 1: Like you know, there's lumps. Accretion discs aren't totally smooth. 437 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:25,240 Speaker 1: You got like, you know, masses and masses of stars 438 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:28,920 Speaker 1: in their whole solar systems and enormous lumps of rock 439 00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:32,200 Speaker 1: bigger than you can imagine. And this stuff sometimes smashes 440 00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:34,440 Speaker 1: into itself or gets torn apart, and so you get 441 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:38,840 Speaker 1: really enormous explosions and again not something that's well understood. 442 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:41,800 Speaker 1: Like you see these explosions and it seems like there's 443 00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,479 Speaker 1: more energy and the explosion than is contained in the 444 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:47,040 Speaker 1: entire system there. But how does that even work? It 445 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:48,640 Speaker 1: means that there's stuff going on there that we don't 446 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,199 Speaker 1: yet understand. I guess. How do you know that it 447 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:54,200 Speaker 1: came from somewhere around a black hole? Like if you 448 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:56,240 Speaker 1: see a giant explosion, how do you how can you 449 00:23:56,359 --> 00:23:58,640 Speaker 1: tell that where it came from? Well, you just look 450 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:00,480 Speaker 1: for the center, right, you look for of the stuff 451 00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:02,760 Speaker 1: that it hit, and you sort of pointed all back. 452 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,800 Speaker 1: And so in the case of these um explosions, you 453 00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:08,440 Speaker 1: can see the effect of these explosions on like nearby 454 00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 1: gas clouds. And for example, you look at a gas 455 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,520 Speaker 1: cloud and has like a shell in it. It's like 456 00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:16,160 Speaker 1: looks like part of a spear, and you can tell 457 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:19,320 Speaker 1: sort of that sphere points points back to where as 458 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:22,119 Speaker 1: you can reconstruct where the explosion was. You know, it's 459 00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:24,399 Speaker 1: like if somebody drops their coffee, you look at the 460 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,199 Speaker 1: spill pattern, you can pretty much tell where the coffee hit, right, 461 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,040 Speaker 1: the same story. Oh, I see, and then you track 462 00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:31,600 Speaker 1: it down to where it came from, and you see, oh, 463 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:34,440 Speaker 1: there's a giant black hole there precisely, So it must 464 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:37,959 Speaker 1: have been a an explosion that happened not in the 465 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:40,520 Speaker 1: black hole or shooting from the black hole, but just 466 00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:43,040 Speaker 1: in the chaos around the black hole. Yeah, because we 467 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:45,480 Speaker 1: don't think that black holes emit anything, Like, we don't 468 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:47,760 Speaker 1: know what's going on inside a black hole. It's one 469 00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:50,200 Speaker 1: of the favorite questions people writing in abound, like what's 470 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,120 Speaker 1: going on inside a black hole? Does it look like this? 471 00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:53,760 Speaker 1: Does it look like that? And I always have to 472 00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:57,080 Speaker 1: write back and say, we have no idea because nobody 473 00:24:57,119 --> 00:24:59,480 Speaker 1: knows what's going on inside a black hole. Only Matthew 474 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:04,880 Speaker 1: mcconic knows. Nobody knows, and so we can only imagine. 475 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:08,120 Speaker 1: But if there are dramatic explosions inside the black hole, 476 00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:11,480 Speaker 1: they're definitely not getting out. They're not coming out. You 477 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:14,480 Speaker 1: could have way crazier stuff happening inside of the black hole, 478 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 1: but we would never know. Yeah, We'll remember we asked 479 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:20,439 Speaker 1: that quantum gravity theorist what she thought was going on 480 00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:23,080 Speaker 1: inside a black hole, and she went off on that 481 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,960 Speaker 1: hilarious digression. You know, maybe their whole universe is in 482 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,800 Speaker 1: there doing who knows what, and so that's a deep mystery. 483 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:33,879 Speaker 1: She used several ers of brain power to come up 484 00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:37,120 Speaker 1: with a creative answer to that question. Okay, so you're 485 00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:40,400 Speaker 1: saying the biggest explosions in the universe are not even 486 00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:43,480 Speaker 1: black holes themselves, it's just the craziness that comes from 487 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:46,679 Speaker 1: getting sucked into a giant black hole. I don't know. 488 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:48,720 Speaker 1: Don't try to take the credit away from the black 489 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:50,840 Speaker 1: hole like it's doing all the work there. It's it's 490 00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:54,359 Speaker 1: gravitational energy is fueling this craziness. Yeah, but it's happening 491 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,360 Speaker 1: outside of it, not as part of its existence. It's 492 00:25:57,359 --> 00:25:59,720 Speaker 1: definitely passed into the horizon. And that other time we 493 00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:02,199 Speaker 1: talk about where had the size of black holes and 494 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:04,919 Speaker 1: we decided to use the event horizon as the radius. 495 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:07,800 Speaker 1: But you know, if all the stuff nearby the event 496 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:11,040 Speaker 1: horizon is because of the gravity of the black hole, 497 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:13,119 Speaker 1: then I think it gets credit. I guess I'm saying. 498 00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 1: You know, if my kids create a little explosion here, 499 00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:19,960 Speaker 1: I'm not taking credit for that. If your kids flush 500 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,600 Speaker 1: your toilet and it splashes onto you, you're gonna blame 501 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:26,040 Speaker 1: them for that, though, aren't you. I'm gonna blame it 502 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:29,359 Speaker 1: on the toilet manufacturer, not my not me or my kids. 503 00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:31,760 Speaker 1: The expect the lawsuits, folks. So and so this is 504 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:34,600 Speaker 1: just stuff that's around the black hole smashing into itself 505 00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:37,040 Speaker 1: or being pulled apart, or does it create like a 506 00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:40,440 Speaker 1: chain reaction? What's actually going on? Like can kind of 507 00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:44,760 Speaker 1: collision of things really create something bigger than you know, 508 00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:47,760 Speaker 1: a thousand black hole mergers. Well, you are now at 509 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:50,320 Speaker 1: the forefront of knowledge because all ideas you just had 510 00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:54,640 Speaker 1: are basically what's happening inside offices in astrophysics departments around 511 00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,199 Speaker 1: the country. People are asking the same question. Mind are 512 00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:00,359 Speaker 1: being blown by this discovery we just made, and people like, 513 00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:03,000 Speaker 1: well maybe it's this maybe stuff. That's exactly how we start. 514 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:04,880 Speaker 1: We're like, I don't know, what are your five top 515 00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:07,359 Speaker 1: ideas for what this might be? What would that look like? 516 00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:09,280 Speaker 1: How can we rule those out? Do we know anything 517 00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:11,760 Speaker 1: about these? And that's how these theories start forming. So 518 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:14,480 Speaker 1: we're really at the beginning stages of trying to understand 519 00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,360 Speaker 1: what could cause these explosions, Like if we hadn't seen them, 520 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:19,920 Speaker 1: nobody would have predicted them. So so this is where 521 00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,760 Speaker 1: we are. We we've seen these explosions. We're like, whoa, 522 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:26,160 Speaker 1: these things are even that black hole mergers, and we've 523 00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:30,280 Speaker 1: traced them to just supermassive black holes, or at least 524 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:34,600 Speaker 1: the area around them. But we don't know what's going on. Yeah, 525 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,639 Speaker 1: we just know there are crazy intense forces there. And 526 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,320 Speaker 1: there's really basic stuff about black holes we don't know, like, 527 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:44,119 Speaker 1: for example, do they spin. We think they probably spin 528 00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,439 Speaker 1: sometimes because the stuff falling into them spins, and you know, 529 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:50,919 Speaker 1: angular momentum is conserved in our universe and so but 530 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:52,760 Speaker 1: we don't know. And that could be an enormous source 531 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:54,679 Speaker 1: of energy. Like you look at a black hole, it 532 00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:57,639 Speaker 1: has huge amount of energy just from the mass it's storing. 533 00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:01,000 Speaker 1: It could additionally have even more energy from its rotation, 534 00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:03,720 Speaker 1: and that rotation could be fueling all sorts of stuff 535 00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,880 Speaker 1: like these magnetic fields and these explosions could come from 536 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,080 Speaker 1: the black hole spin. But we don't even know if 537 00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:12,040 Speaker 1: that's a thing. It's like the toilet itself could be spinning. Yeah, 538 00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:14,320 Speaker 1: there could be all sorts of weird stuff. And you know, 539 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:17,679 Speaker 1: remember how little we really understand about the fundamental nature 540 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:20,440 Speaker 1: of the universe. We've explained a tiny fraction of it. 541 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,760 Speaker 1: And these are the most intense environments anywhere, so there 542 00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:26,240 Speaker 1: are definitely secrets to be revealed. All right, let's get 543 00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:29,680 Speaker 1: into what this reason discovery was and what they found 544 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:34,160 Speaker 1: and what scientists think could be happening in these giant explosions. First, 545 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:49,240 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break, all right, Daniel, So take 546 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:53,400 Speaker 1: us through the news reports from last week. They think 547 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:56,920 Speaker 1: they maybe they found the biggest explosions in the universe 548 00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,520 Speaker 1: ever recorded by humans. That's right. There were a lot 549 00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:02,800 Speaker 1: of articles going around last week talking about the biggest 550 00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:05,880 Speaker 1: explosion ever found. And I first got wind of it 551 00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:07,960 Speaker 1: when I got a tweet from somebody who sent me 552 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,200 Speaker 1: this headline from the Guardian that read biggest cosmic explosion 553 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:18,720 Speaker 1: ever detected left huge dent in space. And somebody sent 554 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,280 Speaker 1: me this and said, what is going on here? This 555 00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:25,400 Speaker 1: was Mike Kerr now um, and he asked me to 556 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:27,760 Speaker 1: explain that, And so I started reading about it, that 557 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,040 Speaker 1: it caused a dent in space. It caused a dent 558 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:31,880 Speaker 1: in space. And you know, I'm not a big fan 559 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,040 Speaker 1: of a lot of science reporting. It's a hard job 560 00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,880 Speaker 1: and they have to try to communicate scientific stuff to 561 00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:40,240 Speaker 1: the general audience and way that makes sense, and you 562 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,360 Speaker 1: and I know that's difficult. But a dent in space, 563 00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:45,680 Speaker 1: I don't even know what that means. Maybe this reporter 564 00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:50,960 Speaker 1: should get a Nobel prize. Just invented a new physics phenomena. Yeah, well, 565 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:52,720 Speaker 1: you know in one sense, like there are dent in 566 00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:56,200 Speaker 1: space all over the place, Like every massive object bends space, 567 00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:58,920 Speaker 1: so your dentic space and I'm dentic space causing a 568 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:02,440 Speaker 1: dent in space right now, right, I hope that buffs out, 569 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:04,920 Speaker 1: you know, like do you have insurance for those dents? 570 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,120 Speaker 1: And my kids are causing a dent in my wallet 571 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:11,440 Speaker 1: as well. Um so, but there was a really big 572 00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 1: explosion and it's a really amazing story because it takes 573 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:19,440 Speaker 1: place in the center of a galaxy cluster. A galaxy cluster, remember, 574 00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:22,880 Speaker 1: is a bunch of galaxies all sort of gravitationally bound together. 575 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,360 Speaker 1: And in that cluster there's also a lot of leftover 576 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,880 Speaker 1: gas that was used to make the galaxies. Remember, galaxies 577 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:33,200 Speaker 1: are gas that's been coalesced by gravity into stars that 578 00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:35,640 Speaker 1: are burning. It's a cluster of galaxy, so it's not 579 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:38,040 Speaker 1: just like a milky way. It's like a group of 580 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:41,280 Speaker 1: milky ways. Yeah, it's a big group of galaxies and 581 00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:43,240 Speaker 1: there's a bunch of gas that sort of spread out 582 00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:45,560 Speaker 1: in between them. It must be a huge gas cloud. 583 00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,840 Speaker 1: It's a huge gas cloud, so, you know, bigger than galaxies. 584 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:54,480 Speaker 1: Absolutely it's a massive scale thing. And about two thousand sixteen, 585 00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:56,000 Speaker 1: they were looking at this thing in the X ray, 586 00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:57,520 Speaker 1: which is a good way to look at the shape 587 00:30:57,560 --> 00:30:59,880 Speaker 1: of gas clouds because they emit in the X ray, 588 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,040 Speaker 1: and what they noticed was what looked like a crater. 589 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:05,600 Speaker 1: They saw sort of an edge, like a circular edge, 590 00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:07,600 Speaker 1: and they were like, huh, that looks like sort of 591 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:09,960 Speaker 1: the edge of a bubble, almost as if there was 592 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,400 Speaker 1: a huge explosion. It looks like a constant gas cloud, 593 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:16,720 Speaker 1: but inside of it they saw like an empty space. Yeah, 594 00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:19,560 Speaker 1: they saw a big bubble inside the gas cloud. But 595 00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:21,640 Speaker 1: this is two thousand sixteen. They didn't think that was 596 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,200 Speaker 1: an explosion for one reason is it would have to 597 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,840 Speaker 1: be ridiculously big, like bigger than any explosion ever. So 598 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:29,760 Speaker 1: they were just kind of skeptical, like as big as 599 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:32,800 Speaker 1: a galaxy or bigger, bigger, like this gas cloud bubble 600 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:36,920 Speaker 1: is fifteen times bigger than our galaxy. A bubble inside 601 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:40,920 Speaker 1: of a cloud the size of fifteen milky milky ways. 602 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:42,920 Speaker 1: Like how many keen in reeves do you need to 603 00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:47,120 Speaker 1: walk away from that explosion? Just one man, There's only one. 604 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:51,120 Speaker 1: He's can handle it. He can do it. He's super 605 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:53,880 Speaker 1: galactic I mean he can handle three John Wick movie, 606 00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:58,360 Speaker 1: just one fight scene. I'm sure he can handle this. 607 00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:01,480 Speaker 1: And so that was two. And you can look at 608 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:03,360 Speaker 1: the edge of that bubble and try to find the 609 00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:05,280 Speaker 1: center of it, and they did, and at the center 610 00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:08,200 Speaker 1: of it is a galaxy and that galaxy has at 611 00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:12,560 Speaker 1: its center a super crazy, ridunculous black hole. Oh, they 612 00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:14,440 Speaker 1: looked at the center of the bubble and there's a 613 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:16,400 Speaker 1: you can actually see the galaxy in the middle. You 614 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:18,280 Speaker 1: can see the galaxy in the middle because it shines 615 00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:22,160 Speaker 1: invisible light, and it's called the oats how do you 616 00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:28,600 Speaker 1: pronounce this galaxy? Opacas? But you can actually see a 617 00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:31,479 Speaker 1: black hole in the galaxy, but it's so far away. 618 00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:34,880 Speaker 1: That's that's crazy. Well, you can see the galaxy, and 619 00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:36,840 Speaker 1: they know that there's a black hole. They're just sort 620 00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:39,400 Speaker 1: of by looking at the mass distribution, and so you know, 621 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:42,080 Speaker 1: most of these black holes have not been directly imaged. 622 00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:44,200 Speaker 1: Only a few of them have. That's very difficult. You 623 00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:46,760 Speaker 1: remember that came out last year. But we can infer 624 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:49,320 Speaker 1: the mass to the black hole without directly imaging it, 625 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:51,840 Speaker 1: just by sort of the orbiting speeds and stuff like that. 626 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:53,840 Speaker 1: It's almost like there was an explosion and there was 627 00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:56,520 Speaker 1: somebody left in the middle of it. But you know, 628 00:32:56,600 --> 00:32:58,920 Speaker 1: I guess my question is, wouldn't that galaxy also have 629 00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:02,000 Speaker 1: blown up? Why didn't that galaxy blow up too? If 630 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,480 Speaker 1: it pushed away all that guests, that's a great question 631 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:06,960 Speaker 1: you should be asked for physicists, because that's exactly on 632 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:10,080 Speaker 1: the list of questions people are wondering like this. A 633 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:12,200 Speaker 1: lot of this story makes sense and it's consistent with 634 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,200 Speaker 1: a huge explosion, but there are still a lot of 635 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:17,320 Speaker 1: unanswered questions. I think maybe the galasy just farted and 636 00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:21,640 Speaker 1: everyone was just like clear the room for fifteen galaxies 637 00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:25,720 Speaker 1: um And so that was two thousand and sixteen. And 638 00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:29,400 Speaker 1: the reason it's making news now is that the skepticism 639 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:32,080 Speaker 1: has been sort of overcome because they found a new 640 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,080 Speaker 1: piece of evidence to support this like gigantic explosion hypothesis. 641 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:39,680 Speaker 1: What did they find, Well, if they looked inside that 642 00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:44,040 Speaker 1: bubble and they looked for really high speed electrons, basically 643 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:47,400 Speaker 1: looked for this stuff doing the exploding, and they found 644 00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:51,800 Speaker 1: radio emissions consistent with like really really high speed relativistic electrons, 645 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:53,720 Speaker 1: And that's what you would expect if there was a 646 00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:56,920 Speaker 1: huge explosion at these like electrons would get boosted by 647 00:33:56,960 --> 00:34:00,240 Speaker 1: those shock waves. Fast moving electrons have kind of like 648 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 1: a signature, they give off a special signal they do, 649 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:06,600 Speaker 1: and you can see those in the radio waves. And 650 00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:09,279 Speaker 1: so what they've seen is like the crater, and then 651 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,399 Speaker 1: inside the crater in the radio waves, they've seen electrons 652 00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:15,520 Speaker 1: emitting at very high speeds and exactly the shape that 653 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:18,560 Speaker 1: fits right into the crater. And so it really looks 654 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:20,480 Speaker 1: like you have an edge there, like the edge of 655 00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:22,560 Speaker 1: a shock wave. And those are the two things you 656 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:24,640 Speaker 1: would expect to see if you have an explosion, the 657 00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:26,920 Speaker 1: stuff doing the explosion, and then the sort of the 658 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,840 Speaker 1: gas being pushed away by those electrons and the shock wave. 659 00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:33,040 Speaker 1: So that was like a second piece of information that 660 00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:35,480 Speaker 1: really made it seem like, wow, there's something doing some 661 00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:39,080 Speaker 1: exploding here. But as you said, it doesn't answer every question. 662 00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,120 Speaker 1: There's still a lot of things about it we don't understand. 663 00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:43,200 Speaker 1: So you can see both. You can see like the 664 00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:46,120 Speaker 1: hole and made in the gas cloud, and you can 665 00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,960 Speaker 1: also see the stuff still coming out of this explosion. Yeah, precisely, 666 00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:52,799 Speaker 1: And you can use all that together to measure the 667 00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:56,840 Speaker 1: energy of this. You know, Grandma explosion. The champion of 668 00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:00,439 Speaker 1: the world, all right, hit us with the Earth's how many? 669 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:04,200 Speaker 1: How many flies are pushing up in this explosion? That's 670 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:07,160 Speaker 1: the size of fifty milky ways. Yes, I remember supernovas 671 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:09,719 Speaker 1: ten to the fifty one. Black hole mergers are like 672 00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:12,560 Speaker 1: ten of the fifty four. This thing is like ten 673 00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:15,720 Speaker 1: to the sixty one or ten to the sixty two ergs. 674 00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:19,160 Speaker 1: I don't even know the name for that scientific prefix. 675 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:21,879 Speaker 1: What is it? A million times more than a black 676 00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,719 Speaker 1: hole merger? Which is which is itself? You know, a 677 00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,120 Speaker 1: bazillion times more than a supernova. Yeah, it's something like 678 00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:33,560 Speaker 1: millions or ten million black hole mergers simultaneously. So this 679 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:36,840 Speaker 1: is this is the biggest explosion anybody has ever seen. 680 00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:39,520 Speaker 1: And you know, like I said earlier, this is the 681 00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:42,480 Speaker 1: biggest explosion we've seen. We haven't even been looking that long, 682 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:46,000 Speaker 1: and so it's definitely more stuff going out on out there. 683 00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:48,440 Speaker 1: Like if every time we look we see something bigger, 684 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:50,680 Speaker 1: that suggested there's a lot more stuff out there we 685 00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:54,239 Speaker 1: haven't even seen. There could be something bigger explosion than this, 686 00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:57,760 Speaker 1: almost certainly, Almost certainly, and especially because we don't understand 687 00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,440 Speaker 1: the mechanism right, and we think that you need our 688 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:02,400 Speaker 1: supermassive black holes, and we know there's a lot of 689 00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:06,040 Speaker 1: those out there, and so there's a lot of opportunity 690 00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:08,920 Speaker 1: for bigger explosions. So they'll probably a new king, you know, 691 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,120 Speaker 1: a new new champion explosion crownd every few years from 692 00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:15,319 Speaker 1: now on the King of the Herds. But like I said, 693 00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:17,200 Speaker 1: there's a lot of things we don't understand about it. 694 00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:19,920 Speaker 1: One question is when you raised is like why is 695 00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:23,480 Speaker 1: that galaxy still there the right And so they're trying 696 00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:26,880 Speaker 1: to understand like maybe the explosion happened slightly off center 697 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:29,640 Speaker 1: or only went in one direction, because they see this 698 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:32,400 Speaker 1: only on one side of the black hole but not 699 00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:35,080 Speaker 1: on the other, Like where is the explosion on the 700 00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:38,719 Speaker 1: other side. It's sort of missing, which is what you mean, 701 00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:42,759 Speaker 1: like it only exploded it to one side. We can't 702 00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:44,400 Speaker 1: see it on the other side. And it might be 703 00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:46,560 Speaker 1: that it did explode in that side, but it didn't 704 00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:49,759 Speaker 1: there wasn't gas there to sort of leave this impression, 705 00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:53,480 Speaker 1: or that the explosion was like weirdly asymmetric, which would 706 00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:55,400 Speaker 1: be really weird because then it would like be a 707 00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:58,800 Speaker 1: jet he would like push this galaxy through the universe, 708 00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:01,759 Speaker 1: which would be crazy oh wow. So it sort of 709 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:04,399 Speaker 1: exploded towards us kind of, and so we can't tell 710 00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:06,680 Speaker 1: what's on the other side. Well, it didn't explode towards us, 711 00:37:06,719 --> 00:37:10,760 Speaker 1: exploded sort of an angle that's um, not exactly towards 712 00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:13,719 Speaker 1: us and not exactly perpendicular, but in the direction of 713 00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:15,840 Speaker 1: a big cloud of gas that's sort of left a 714 00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:19,160 Speaker 1: big footprint. On the other side. There either there's not 715 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:22,200 Speaker 1: gas there to leave a footprint, or the explosion didn't happen. 716 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,359 Speaker 1: So we're not quite sure. You know, we don't have evidence, um, 717 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:27,960 Speaker 1: and absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence. So we 718 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:30,320 Speaker 1: don't really know what's going on on the other side. 719 00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:32,520 Speaker 1: Well I think, I think, Daniel, you can just go 720 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:34,480 Speaker 1: ahead and press your alien button. I know you're dying 721 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:37,880 Speaker 1: to press the Alian button. It's aliens who build a 722 00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:41,319 Speaker 1: giant galaxy engine and they're moving their galaxy, isn't it 723 00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:44,320 Speaker 1: or you know, blame it on alien physicists. Some alien 724 00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:47,600 Speaker 1: physicists build a particle collider and it went bad, and wow, 725 00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:51,080 Speaker 1: was there a bad explosion. It doesn't matter how many 726 00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:55,240 Speaker 1: lab coats they were wearing. They are obliterated. Oh man, 727 00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:58,720 Speaker 1: So the big mystery nobody knows what could have cost 728 00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:01,920 Speaker 1: is or how I could have been so big, and 729 00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,319 Speaker 1: and nobody knows why that galaxy is still standing there. Yeah, 730 00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:07,759 Speaker 1: but it's exactly the kind of mystery we need to 731 00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:10,680 Speaker 1: advance science. Whenever we see something out of the extreme, 732 00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:13,959 Speaker 1: something that tells us what's possible, it makes us think 733 00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:15,960 Speaker 1: more broadly. But the kind of things that are happening 734 00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:18,360 Speaker 1: out there, it's exactly what we need to sort of 735 00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:21,279 Speaker 1: open our minds and push our ideas even further. And 736 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,880 Speaker 1: so every time we discover something bigger, something heavier, something smaller, 737 00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:28,440 Speaker 1: it pushes these extremes. And the extremes are really valuable 738 00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:31,759 Speaker 1: for helping us understand what's possible because that's going to 739 00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:34,720 Speaker 1: reveal sort of the fundamental nature of the whole structure. 740 00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:38,080 Speaker 1: It gets you to rethink about the rule what you 741 00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:40,960 Speaker 1: thought were the rules of the universe. Yeah, and so 742 00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:43,120 Speaker 1: people are excited to work on this kind of stuff, 743 00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:45,280 Speaker 1: you know, and answering questions like why is the galaxy 744 00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:47,640 Speaker 1: still there? What happened on the other side, or why 745 00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:50,800 Speaker 1: is the explosion still going on? Or our more explosion 746 00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:53,239 Speaker 1: is going to come from this black hole? We don't know, 747 00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:56,640 Speaker 1: but it makes people excited to monitor other supermassive black 748 00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:59,400 Speaker 1: holes around here. And also people should not be worried 749 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:04,879 Speaker 1: because this happened three ninety million light years away and 750 00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:08,160 Speaker 1: obviously a long time ago, a long time ago. Yeah, yeah, 751 00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:11,839 Speaker 1: and so the energy of that enormous explosion dispersed so 752 00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:14,359 Speaker 1: much that you know, we're not in danger, all right, 753 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,560 Speaker 1: So that is Offecially, the new biggest explosion in the 754 00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:23,400 Speaker 1: universe is um, what's the name again, opie Ocus. Congratulations 755 00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:26,240 Speaker 1: to the Opiecus galaxy. And maybe in your press release 756 00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:29,880 Speaker 1: you shouldn't include some information about how to pronounce your name. Yeah, 757 00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:33,560 Speaker 1: that would that would be helpful. Um. And so, but 758 00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:37,120 Speaker 1: it's still a giant mystery, it seems. It seems like, um, 759 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:40,839 Speaker 1: we are trying to find out, but we may never 760 00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:43,239 Speaker 1: find out. Yep. And it just continues the run of 761 00:39:43,280 --> 00:39:46,399 Speaker 1: black holes sort of maxing out all the categories. They 762 00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:48,799 Speaker 1: are the most powerful, they are the brightest, they are 763 00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:51,799 Speaker 1: the darkest, they make the biggest explosions. They're sort of 764 00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:54,719 Speaker 1: hogging all the all the champion categories in sort of 765 00:39:54,760 --> 00:40:00,800 Speaker 1: the universe extremes until somebody finds hyper black holes, lacquer holes, 766 00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:05,240 Speaker 1: the black holes. They seem to break all the rules. 767 00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:09,040 Speaker 1: They hold secrets of the universe, um their incredible objects, 768 00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:11,400 Speaker 1: and I hope that one day we get to explore 769 00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:15,040 Speaker 1: one from a safe Give me somebody listening to this podcast, 770 00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:18,000 Speaker 1: one of our young listeners might be the one who 771 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:21,040 Speaker 1: discovered these things, or goes there even yeah, or just 772 00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:23,759 Speaker 1: cracks open the secret to make black holes work and 773 00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:27,399 Speaker 1: reveal something incredible about the universe and changes the way 774 00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:29,319 Speaker 1: we think about our universe and the way we fit 775 00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:31,799 Speaker 1: into it. I mean, that's the scale of discoveries that's 776 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:34,399 Speaker 1: available when it comes to black holes. People will look 777 00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:36,879 Speaker 1: back in hundred two years and be like, wow, those 778 00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:39,680 Speaker 1: people understood nothing. So the next time you look out 779 00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:42,960 Speaker 1: into the nice sky and see all the amazing things 780 00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:46,120 Speaker 1: and potentially giants exploding things that are having out there, 781 00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:49,200 Speaker 1: I hope you take a minute and you think erg. 782 00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:54,600 Speaker 1: So congratulations to our new champion, and thank you to 783 00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:57,000 Speaker 1: all the listeners who wrote in and asked us to 784 00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:58,879 Speaker 1: talk about this topic. It was a lot of fun. 785 00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:09,040 Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us. See you next time. Before you 786 00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:12,000 Speaker 1: still have a question after listening to all these explanations, 787 00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:15,040 Speaker 1: please drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. 788 00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:17,879 Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at 789 00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:21,319 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge That's one Word, or email us at 790 00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:25,280 Speaker 1: Feedback at Daniel and Jorge dot com. Thanks for listening, 791 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,040 Speaker 1: and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is 792 00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:31,600 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from 793 00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:35,319 Speaker 1: My Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 794 00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:43,239 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah.