1 00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:11,000 Speaker 1: So if you could visit any place in the universe, 2 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:13,320 Speaker 1: where would you choose to go. I'd go to the 3 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:15,640 Speaker 1: top of Mount Everest to check out the view. What 4 00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:18,880 Speaker 1: you would waste free teleportation to anywhere in the universe. 5 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:21,360 Speaker 1: I'm going to the top of Mount Everest. Yeah, I mean, 6 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:23,920 Speaker 1: how many people get to see that view of being 7 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:25,800 Speaker 1: at the top of Mount Everest? All right, Well, I'll 8 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:28,320 Speaker 1: have to remind you that this was a one way offer, 9 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:29,960 Speaker 1: So if you do that, you're gonna have to climb 10 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,880 Speaker 1: down by yourself. I'm not teleporting your bath. Great. Um, well, 11 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: where would you go, Daniel? I would go somewhere near 12 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:39,800 Speaker 1: a black hole, like the black hole in the center 13 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 1: of our galaxy. What would that look like? That's the point. 14 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:46,680 Speaker 1: Nobody really knows what a black hole looks like, and 15 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: so I want to get close enough to figure it out. 16 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,080 Speaker 1: I want to go be a tourist at a black hole. 17 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:53,120 Speaker 1: You would you would take a picture? I went to 18 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 1: see this black hole and all I got with this 19 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: crazy T shirt and you got ripped your threads by gravitation. 20 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:21,440 Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. Yeah. Hi, I'm and I'm Daniel, 21 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:25,120 Speaker 1: and welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, 22 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio, in which we zoom 23 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: around the universe and zoom inside your head and try 24 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,160 Speaker 1: to bring one inside the other. That's right. We try 25 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:36,560 Speaker 1: to taint a picture for you of all the amazing 26 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:39,480 Speaker 1: and incredible things out there in the universe to know 27 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 1: about and to see. Because all these ideas are like 28 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:45,240 Speaker 1: exploding inside our minds, and we want to share that 29 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:47,560 Speaker 1: with you. We want to take them apart, bring them 30 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:51,160 Speaker 1: into pieces, send them down the Internet and little electronic bits, 31 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: so they can reassemble inside your mind and you can 32 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:57,240 Speaker 1: also have that crazy, mind blown experience when you realize 33 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:01,559 Speaker 1: how insane the universe is. Right, And but I guess 34 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:04,360 Speaker 1: the question is are there things in the universe that 35 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: we can't see? Definitely, there are lots of things in 36 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:08,919 Speaker 1: the universe we can't see. I mean, there are lots 37 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:11,520 Speaker 1: of things we can see only very slightly. There's things 38 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 1: we can see very indirectly. Right, But there must also 39 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:19,160 Speaker 1: be things in the universe that we can't see at all. Right, Yeah, 40 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: there things that we might never see. Yeah, I mean, 41 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: imagine if the universe was filled with some sort of 42 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 1: particle that didn't interact with our kind of matter at all. Right, 43 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 1: so I had no it was like dark matter, but 44 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: I had no mass for example. Um, then we couldn't 45 00:02:33,639 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 1: interact with it at all, and we would never know 46 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:37,200 Speaker 1: it was there. There'd be no way to tell if 47 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:41,000 Speaker 1: it's there or not. Well to be on the podcast, 48 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about one such thing out there 49 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:50,520 Speaker 1: in the universe that that maybe we can or cannot see. 50 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 1: Can you see a black hole? What would a black 51 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:57,320 Speaker 1: hole look like? And what technology do you need to 52 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: use to detect it and to spot it? That's the 53 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:02,840 Speaker 1: topic of today's podcast. Yeah, Like if you were out 54 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:05,119 Speaker 1: learning in space and you saw one, and you took 55 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:07,520 Speaker 1: out your phone and took a picture, what would that 56 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:10,519 Speaker 1: picture look like? Yeah? Exactly what would your black hole 57 00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:13,240 Speaker 1: selfie look like? Right just before you get shredded by 58 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:15,760 Speaker 1: the black hole and slurped up in by the universe? 59 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 1: Is the biggest blender slash toilet? What would that awesome 60 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:22,960 Speaker 1: last Instagram post look like? And how many lights would 61 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:27,760 Speaker 1: you get? That's the that's the real question. Exactly it 62 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:31,440 Speaker 1: would be an infinitely dense like is there an option 63 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:34,800 Speaker 1: on Instagram to like things in different ways? Like thumbs up? Smile. 64 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:41,040 Speaker 1: Black hole. Yeah, so black holes are a fascinating thing, right. 65 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 1: You hear about them a lot in science fiction, and 66 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,800 Speaker 1: they're also depicted often in movies. And I wonder sometimes 67 00:03:47,040 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 1: the folks have that have to put these visuals together. 68 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 1: You know, how much research have they done to figure 69 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:54,960 Speaker 1: out what would this thing actually look like? Um? Do 70 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:57,320 Speaker 1: they just like sketch in their minds what they think 71 00:03:57,320 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 1: of black hole might be? Do they call up a 72 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:01,920 Speaker 1: physicist and say what would this look like? Um? Is 73 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:05,119 Speaker 1: a huge variety. If you just google, for example, black hole, 74 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:07,040 Speaker 1: do a Google image search for black hole, you get 75 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:10,320 Speaker 1: a big variety of results. Well, how many variations can 76 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:14,280 Speaker 1: there be? Isn't it just a black hole? Yeah? They're 77 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:17,560 Speaker 1: all just black right, very clever. No, Um, they all 78 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:20,640 Speaker 1: feature some black thing in the center, right that looks 79 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: like a hole. And then it's what's around them that's interesting. 80 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,120 Speaker 1: And that's the clue for today's episode that what's around 81 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:29,280 Speaker 1: a black hole is the fascinating bit. Some of them 82 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,720 Speaker 1: have like distorted space, some of them have like gas 83 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:36,400 Speaker 1: being pulled around, some of have just like general mystical 84 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:39,800 Speaker 1: swirly stuff. Yeah, but I guess it kind of touches 85 00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:43,160 Speaker 1: on this idea that you know, as humans we are, 86 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:45,760 Speaker 1: we like to see it to believe it, right, Like 87 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:48,960 Speaker 1: we need to see something to know that it exists. Yeah, 88 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:51,559 Speaker 1: we'd like to have the most direct evidence of something 89 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,400 Speaker 1: before we really think that it exists. And this applies 90 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:58,000 Speaker 1: in lots of cases, like you know, in solving a murder, right, 91 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:00,200 Speaker 1: you have to be basically you have to have a 92 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: body to convict somebody of murder, right, no matter what 93 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:06,599 Speaker 1: evidence you have. If there's no body, you know, no 94 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:08,840 Speaker 1: court is going to send somebody to jail. In the 95 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:11,640 Speaker 1: same way, if you speculate, oh, maybe this thing exists 96 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:14,200 Speaker 1: out there in space and people want to know, all right, 97 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:17,640 Speaker 1: we'll show us one, right. I think that's totally reasonable. Yeah, 98 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,960 Speaker 1: in the sense it's theoretical until somebody sees it or 99 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:23,919 Speaker 1: touches it, right. Yeah. And it applies also the questions 100 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:26,920 Speaker 1: of like life. We can get indirect evidence for life 101 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:28,919 Speaker 1: on another planet based on what's going on in the 102 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 1: atmosphere and changes in the methane rates to whatever. But 103 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: still people are like, Okay, send something over there with 104 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:37,560 Speaker 1: the microscope, let's see it in Actually we want to 105 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 1: see it to believe it, right, You're right. I think 106 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:44,760 Speaker 1: you're right. Like, if physicists came out with the news tomorrow, Hey, 107 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:49,480 Speaker 1: we have have some methane readings from planet the variations 108 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:53,279 Speaker 1: in the orbit of planet x y Z three thousand 109 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: light years away, that tells it there's that there's life there. 110 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:58,600 Speaker 1: How many people do you think would believe it? How 111 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:00,960 Speaker 1: many people believe is this in general? Yeah, that's another 112 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: question answer to zero? Um, I don't know. I think 113 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:09,279 Speaker 1: physics have a pretty good reputation because we don't We're 114 00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:12,559 Speaker 1: pretty conservative about making claims. We don't make big, bold 115 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: claims until we're pretty sure of them. But I think 116 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:17,919 Speaker 1: a lot of people would want to see it in anyway, 117 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:20,600 Speaker 1: even if you believed physicists, the next thing you would 118 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:22,360 Speaker 1: want them to do is like go check it out, 119 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:24,240 Speaker 1: Like let's build a bigger telescope, but let's send a 120 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:26,200 Speaker 1: ship there, or like I want to go, like what 121 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,520 Speaker 1: is on that planet? Right? Your curiosity would just demand 122 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:31,680 Speaker 1: to see this thing? Yeah? Is that? What is that? 123 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 1: The last step in the physics handbook for how do 124 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:38,560 Speaker 1: the research is check it out? Check it out? Now, 125 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:40,840 Speaker 1: we do a lot of that actually in research, right 126 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:43,559 Speaker 1: is we try to visualize our data. We try to show. 127 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:46,239 Speaker 1: We try to look at what we're studying and show 128 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: it in a clear way that that makes it obvious 129 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:50,760 Speaker 1: what it is we've learned or what it is we're 130 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:53,200 Speaker 1: trying to study. Even for example, you know, like the 131 00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:56,080 Speaker 1: Higgs boson. You know, when we will look for the 132 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:58,599 Speaker 1: Higgs boson, we you could argue with what we're just 133 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:01,280 Speaker 1: looking for the Higgs field. It's this thing that fills space. 134 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:03,400 Speaker 1: But to prove that it exists, we needed to see 135 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: it turn into the Higgs boson. We needed to actually 136 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:10,720 Speaker 1: identify this particle directly, even though all the theoretical indications 137 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:13,160 Speaker 1: suggested that it really had to exist and the universe 138 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:15,600 Speaker 1: didn't make sense without it. A lot to indirect knowledge. 139 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: Until we actually produced the Higgs and could see it, then, 140 00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:21,200 Speaker 1: you know, we couldn't really claim that we had that 141 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:25,200 Speaker 1: it was part of physics, right, even though it affects 142 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:27,440 Speaker 1: everything else you see the effects of it. It wasn't 143 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:30,280 Speaker 1: until you saw that that that that little particle turned 144 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:32,720 Speaker 1: into other particles that you were convinced that it would existed, 145 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:35,040 Speaker 1: right exactly. And now let me like get out of 146 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:36,920 Speaker 1: that chair and sit in the other chair and argue 147 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:39,960 Speaker 1: the complete opposite side of the story, which is that 148 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:46,000 Speaker 1: Daniel versus Daniel, all right, which is that's ridiculous because 149 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 1: everything we see is indirect. I mean, what does it 150 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:50,920 Speaker 1: really mean to see something directly? Right? Does it mean 151 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:54,520 Speaker 1: the photons from it landed in your eyeball? You know, 152 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:56,840 Speaker 1: most of the stuff we see from space, the photons 153 00:07:56,840 --> 00:07:59,200 Speaker 1: are not landing in your eyeball. That hit some telescope, 154 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:02,800 Speaker 1: and that telescope inverts them from radio into something else, 155 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:04,520 Speaker 1: and then you get a picture on your screen. The 156 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:07,560 Speaker 1: photons from that thing are not hitting your eyeball. Right, Yeah, 157 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:11,000 Speaker 1: but dear, like the sensor in that my telescope is 158 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:14,400 Speaker 1: acting as a proxy for your eye, right, Like, I 159 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:17,400 Speaker 1: know there's a photon that came from that star and 160 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:21,080 Speaker 1: that hits something on Earth, and I believe that the chip, 161 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:24,760 Speaker 1: the microchip registered it. Yeah, Okay, So you're saying, you're 162 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: still seeing it even if there's some indirect proxy, right, 163 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 1: if there's a step between you and it where some 164 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:33,160 Speaker 1: machine has translated the information from one kind of thing 165 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:35,480 Speaker 1: to another kind of thing, right, You're staying that's still 166 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:38,439 Speaker 1: seeing yeah, because and I think it has it has 167 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:40,480 Speaker 1: to be a photon related right, Like if you told 168 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:44,480 Speaker 1: me um, it's kind of harder to believe if it's 169 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:48,120 Speaker 1: just like the gravitational effect or you know, the the 170 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,079 Speaker 1: something else. You know, knowing that there's light coming from 171 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:55,040 Speaker 1: that thing makes me believe it more. I see, that's interesting. 172 00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:57,080 Speaker 1: Has to be light time because for example, you know 173 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:00,640 Speaker 1: cosmic great particles, right, they hit detectors and we say, oh, 174 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:03,040 Speaker 1: we saw that particle, even if it wasn't a photon 175 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:06,480 Speaker 1: um And I would say everything is indirect. I mean 176 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 1: every kind of information you get is indirect. I mean 177 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:11,200 Speaker 1: the folks who are listening to this right now, they're 178 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:13,600 Speaker 1: not actually listening to the sound waves that are coming 179 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:16,880 Speaker 1: out of my mouth. They're transformed into electrons and stored 180 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:19,280 Speaker 1: on a hard drive somewhere right and those sound waves 181 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:21,680 Speaker 1: are recreated except for the live studio audience I have 182 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: here in front of me. There is that is that 183 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:28,079 Speaker 1: all the people who've who have made the pilgrimage to 184 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:30,000 Speaker 1: your house and you've trapped them in the basements to 185 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:34,840 Speaker 1: be a live audience. I have auditorium in my garage. 186 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:37,440 Speaker 1: I mean it's empty right now. Nobody came today. But 187 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:42,000 Speaker 1: that's where you're using the laugh track. Well, I would 188 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,600 Speaker 1: say that it's a pretty subtle distinction. It's hard to 189 00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:48,400 Speaker 1: make a really solid point to distinguish between seeing things 190 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:50,839 Speaker 1: directly and seeing things indirectly, because in the end, I 191 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:54,640 Speaker 1: think everything is indirect at some level. Um, I mean, 192 00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:57,600 Speaker 1: there's there's layers there, but some things are less indirect 193 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:00,240 Speaker 1: than others. But yeah, Well, the question was can we 194 00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:02,080 Speaker 1: see a black hole? And so this touches on like 195 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:04,720 Speaker 1: if you can't see if you can't see a black hole, 196 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:07,080 Speaker 1: how do we know it exists? Yeah, exactly, And if 197 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:09,280 Speaker 1: you can't see it directly, what are you looking at? 198 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,760 Speaker 1: And the teaser is that black holes, while they're black, 199 00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:17,320 Speaker 1: actually produce some of the brightest, the strongest radiation in 200 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:20,440 Speaker 1: the universe. But before we dig into that, we thought, 201 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 1: let's find out what people around town think about seeing 202 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:26,760 Speaker 1: a black hole. Yeah, the usual Daniel went out into 203 00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:31,280 Speaker 1: the streets and as people out there, complete rangers, if 204 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:34,200 Speaker 1: they could see a black hole. Here's what they had 205 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:36,280 Speaker 1: to say. Do you think it's possible to see a 206 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:40,760 Speaker 1: black hole? Maybe detect some radiations from them? Maybe, but 207 00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:43,120 Speaker 1: I don't think the telescope would do. If I do 208 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:46,240 Speaker 1: know that, they are able to probably get pictures of 209 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:49,880 Speaker 1: black holes, but I'm not entirely sure. How cool. I 210 00:10:49,880 --> 00:10:54,319 Speaker 1: don't know much about that, but I feel like, technically 211 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:56,040 Speaker 1: you want to say that you wouldn't be able because 212 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:57,800 Speaker 1: it's a black hole, so there would be no light, 213 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:01,240 Speaker 1: but it maybe in con ts with the rest next 214 00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:06,080 Speaker 1: to it, it might be possible. Yes, yes you think so, Okay, great? 215 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:08,920 Speaker 1: I actually you don't know if it's possible to see it, 216 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:12,719 Speaker 1: but maybe you can feel it. You can feel it. Yeah, yeah, 217 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:15,640 Speaker 1: this is a really dumb answer. But like TV shows 218 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:19,520 Speaker 1: and movies, I think they depicted as if we can, 219 00:11:19,640 --> 00:11:23,040 Speaker 1: but I really don't. I think it's just for like show, 220 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:24,800 Speaker 1: for all of that. So I don't think. What does 221 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:26,800 Speaker 1: it looks like on TV or in the movies. It's 222 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:31,319 Speaker 1: just like a void, like it's literally like a black hole. Yeah. 223 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:35,680 Speaker 1: Oh well, from my understanding based on my the books 224 00:11:35,679 --> 00:11:39,000 Speaker 1: I reading, I think the black holes looks like just 225 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:42,400 Speaker 1: a hope about there's nothing can't see, just like the 226 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:46,000 Speaker 1: black daughter on the universe. Okay, black hole, I don't 227 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:49,880 Speaker 1: think we can't see with our bare eyes. What about 228 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:54,040 Speaker 1: with the telescope? Telescope, I don't think so, you know, right, 229 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:57,360 Speaker 1: the light, the light get sucked in. On the other hand, 230 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:01,040 Speaker 1: I suppose you can see the absence of in this case, 231 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:04,480 Speaker 1: absence of evidence of seven steps and something like that. 232 00:12:04,559 --> 00:12:06,520 Speaker 1: So yeah, so maybe I changed my answer to yes. 233 00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:11,960 Speaker 1: All right, a pretty good mix of opinions there. Yeah. 234 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:13,960 Speaker 1: People are really touched on the same issues that we 235 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:15,760 Speaker 1: were just raising, which is like, what does it mean 236 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:18,600 Speaker 1: to see a black hole? Right? One guy even switched 237 00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:24,600 Speaker 1: his answer mid thought, right, yes, no, yes, yes, no. 238 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:29,640 Speaker 1: I like the person who just said yes, like, did 239 00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:31,440 Speaker 1: they have to have they seen one? Did they have 240 00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:34,320 Speaker 1: some proof that nobody else has. They spoke with a 241 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:37,000 Speaker 1: lot of confidence, you know, like, yeah, wow, that's uh. 242 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:39,960 Speaker 1: I'd like to be that certain about anything. I've been 243 00:12:39,960 --> 00:12:42,320 Speaker 1: funny what they said, yes, how did you know? Or 244 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:45,640 Speaker 1: who told you? I know? If there were aliens that 245 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:47,720 Speaker 1: came here from a black hole, maybe they would have 246 00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:50,760 Speaker 1: like felt like I had outed them right, accidentally stumbled 247 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:54,240 Speaker 1: across not at all? That would be ridiculous. What are 248 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:57,280 Speaker 1: you talking about? Snap? I have never seen a black 249 00:12:57,280 --> 00:13:01,280 Speaker 1: hole or a green hole or a white hole. And 250 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:09,720 Speaker 1: that's how Daniel got fried by a laser gun. So 251 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:11,720 Speaker 1: let's dig into it. Let's think about what it's like 252 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:14,600 Speaker 1: to take a picture of a black hole. All right, Daniel, 253 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:17,560 Speaker 1: here's the question. Can you see a black hole directly? No? 254 00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:28,400 Speaker 1: Podcast over? Um? No? The obviously the black hole it 255 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:31,120 Speaker 1: self is black. Right. And for for those of you 256 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:33,200 Speaker 1: who don't know a lot about black holes, remember they 257 00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:37,320 Speaker 1: are very very dense objects, right, They enormously dense, so 258 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:40,719 Speaker 1: dense that they have really strong gravitational pull and the 259 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:43,800 Speaker 1: gravity is so strong that even light can't escape them. Right. 260 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:46,800 Speaker 1: So the general trope is that something that goes into 261 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:50,040 Speaker 1: a black hole, a light, a chair, a banana, a 262 00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:54,040 Speaker 1: podcast host will never leave, right, which means that they 263 00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 1: appear black. Well, here's here's the present that confuses me. 264 00:13:56,800 --> 00:13:59,280 Speaker 1: I thought a black hole was like a point, Like 265 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:02,040 Speaker 1: the thing that you can actually call the black hole 266 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:06,320 Speaker 1: is actually like an infinitesimal point, right, isn't it. Well 267 00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:08,440 Speaker 1: that's a great question. We don't actually know what's going 268 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:10,840 Speaker 1: on inside the black hole. But let's break it down. 269 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:13,800 Speaker 1: The black hole itself, what we consider the edge of 270 00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:16,560 Speaker 1: the black hole, something we call the event horizon, is 271 00:14:16,559 --> 00:14:19,920 Speaker 1: the point where any closer the gravity is so strong 272 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:22,320 Speaker 1: and you'll never leave. Okay, So if you say, you're 273 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:24,720 Speaker 1: right to say that there is a singularity, a super 274 00:14:24,760 --> 00:14:28,520 Speaker 1: duper dense blob of matter that's infinitely small. There would 275 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:31,000 Speaker 1: still be points even if you're not actually touching it 276 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:32,960 Speaker 1: where the gravity would be so strong and you could 277 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:36,000 Speaker 1: never leave. So there's like a circle of spear around it. 278 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:38,240 Speaker 1: We call the event horizon. And so what you would 279 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:41,960 Speaker 1: call a black hole then is basically anything inside of 280 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:44,800 Speaker 1: the event horizon. That's right, but it's important for people 281 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:47,160 Speaker 1: to know that we don't know what's going on inside 282 00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:51,240 Speaker 1: the event horizon. General relativity tells us maybe it's a singularity. 283 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:54,760 Speaker 1: There's a super dense blob of matter there that's dense 284 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:57,960 Speaker 1: enough to cause this, uh, this gravitational hole, so that 285 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:01,160 Speaker 1: this to create this event horizon, but quantum mechanics tells 286 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:03,520 Speaker 1: us that's impossible because you can't have so much stuff 287 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,240 Speaker 1: in such a tiny isolated spot. So we don't know 288 00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:08,480 Speaker 1: what's going on inside it. So generally, when we talk 289 00:15:08,520 --> 00:15:11,200 Speaker 1: about the black hole, we mean seeing inside of the 290 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:14,680 Speaker 1: event horizon, or seeing this this object which is essentially 291 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:18,040 Speaker 1: like a black sphere, right, and and that can be 292 00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:22,720 Speaker 1: of different sizes, right like between the event horizon and 293 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:26,680 Speaker 1: the actual middle of the black hole. That distance can vary, right, 294 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:28,160 Speaker 1: like you can have a little black hole, or you 295 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,960 Speaker 1: can have a huge, huge black hole. Right, yeah, exactly. 296 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:34,320 Speaker 1: You can have tiny, little, cute black holes or enormous 297 00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:37,960 Speaker 1: black holes and they would look like different size black 298 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:41,680 Speaker 1: balls basically. And the difference is in the mass. Right, 299 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:44,280 Speaker 1: the more mass you have, the further away you can 300 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:46,760 Speaker 1: be from the black hole and still have enough gravitational 301 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:49,640 Speaker 1: pull that you can't ever escape. So the mass of 302 00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:53,440 Speaker 1: the black hole determines the size of the event horizon. Okay, 303 00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:56,440 Speaker 1: so if you call the black hole basically the event horizon, 304 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:01,360 Speaker 1: which is defined as the sphere at which from which 305 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:04,880 Speaker 1: no light escapes, then by definition you cannot see a 306 00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:07,640 Speaker 1: black hole. That's right. By definition, you can't see it. 307 00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:11,400 Speaker 1: But there's always a caveat in physics, right, And in 308 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:13,920 Speaker 1: this case, you know, black holes do give off a 309 00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:17,640 Speaker 1: tiny little glow, all right, I mean they are black, right, 310 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:20,920 Speaker 1: nothing can leave them. They don't reflect any light because 311 00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:24,120 Speaker 1: the photon hitting them get sucked in. But this clever 312 00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:27,160 Speaker 1: guy named Stephen Hawking says that they do give off 313 00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:32,000 Speaker 1: a very very little glow. It's called Hawking radiation. And 314 00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:34,080 Speaker 1: so so what what is that? It means that at 315 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:39,280 Speaker 1: the edge of the event horizon. It's kind of leaking radiation, right, yeah, 316 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:42,720 Speaker 1: because remember that particles are always doing crazy stuff, and 317 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 1: sometimes a particle very close to the event horizon will 318 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 1: split into two particles momentarily. This is a normal thing 319 00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:51,120 Speaker 1: for particles to do when they're going around their business. 320 00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:53,120 Speaker 1: They split into two particles, and then they come back, 321 00:16:53,240 --> 00:16:56,120 Speaker 1: like a photon might turn into an electron and positron 322 00:16:56,200 --> 00:16:58,680 Speaker 1: and then back into a photon. So what can happen 323 00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:00,720 Speaker 1: if it's very close to the event horizon is that 324 00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:03,680 Speaker 1: one side gets bumped out of the event horizon while 325 00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:05,800 Speaker 1: one side is in the event horizon if the photon 326 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:08,720 Speaker 1: is like right on the event horizon. So once I 327 00:17:08,840 --> 00:17:11,000 Speaker 1: get sucked in and the other side leaks out, and 328 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:14,800 Speaker 1: that's called Hawking radiation. Wow. So the way you would 329 00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:17,239 Speaker 1: see that is at the very kind of surface of 330 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:20,120 Speaker 1: this black sphere, you would see kind of as kind 331 00:17:20,119 --> 00:17:22,080 Speaker 1: of a boiling, right it would. You could see kind 332 00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:25,080 Speaker 1: of these particles just kind of popping out, Yeah, exactly. 333 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:28,680 Speaker 1: And the how how often happens depends on something of 334 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:30,879 Speaker 1: the temperature of the black hole. So Stephen Hawking was 335 00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:34,359 Speaker 1: the first person to think about black hole thermodynamics I 336 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:36,600 Speaker 1: know you can have a hot black hole and a 337 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:41,000 Speaker 1: cool black hole. I know exactly. Um, you can have 338 00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:44,040 Speaker 1: a spicy black hole in a mild black hole, and 339 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:47,720 Speaker 1: there's al sorts of different black holes. No, it's actually 340 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:51,280 Speaker 1: a really interesting question, sort of philosophically and physically, is 341 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:53,960 Speaker 1: how many properties can a black hole have? You know, 342 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:55,760 Speaker 1: what can you know about a black hole? But that's 343 00:17:55,760 --> 00:18:00,560 Speaker 1: a whole other topics black hole. But but you should 344 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:03,119 Speaker 1: know that this hawking radiation is really really mild. Like 345 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:04,840 Speaker 1: you know, it's a few particles here and there. It's 346 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:07,600 Speaker 1: not something that you could reliably detect. It would be 347 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:09,720 Speaker 1: really hard to see that over the background of anything. 348 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:11,800 Speaker 1: But the point is that a black hole ifn even 349 00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:15,840 Speaker 1: if you're looking straight at it, it wouldn't be perfectly black, right, 350 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:17,840 Speaker 1: Like you know how in a computer you can have 351 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,160 Speaker 1: zero value for black. If you look at a black hole, 352 00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:23,919 Speaker 1: it would you would see just a little tiny glow, right, 353 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:26,640 Speaker 1: It wouldn't be a perfect black yeah, just a little 354 00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:29,000 Speaker 1: tiny glow. I don't think it's I don't think it's 355 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:33,720 Speaker 1: possible to detect that with any sort of current technology. Um, 356 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:35,840 Speaker 1: but I think we should you know, for those listeners 357 00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:39,000 Speaker 1: out there who are who are very knowledgeable black holes. 358 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:40,600 Speaker 1: I want to give a shout out to those folks. 359 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,159 Speaker 1: They do emit hawking radiation. But as you say, with 360 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:45,840 Speaker 1: today's technology, that's not detectable. Right. But if you were 361 00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:48,879 Speaker 1: there and you had a perfect selfie camera, you would 362 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,160 Speaker 1: you would take a little bit of stuff there, Yeah, 363 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:52,879 Speaker 1: but you would have a hard time arguing that it 364 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:54,560 Speaker 1: came from the black hole because you might just be 365 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:58,359 Speaker 1: picking up random photons, right, So distinguishing radiation from the 366 00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:01,840 Speaker 1: black hole from radio from something else nearby might be 367 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,120 Speaker 1: very difficult. That's that's why it's hard to see things 368 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:07,280 Speaker 1: that are very very soft, right, because they look like 369 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:09,200 Speaker 1: a lot of other stuff. Well, you could also see 370 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:12,040 Speaker 1: a black hole if it floated in front of something bright, 371 00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:14,280 Speaker 1: like you would see like if it passed in front 372 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:16,960 Speaker 1: of a big sun, then you would see this little 373 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:21,159 Speaker 1: black circle, right, Yeah, exactly. And so one way to 374 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:23,800 Speaker 1: see a black hole is he include something else right 375 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:26,800 Speaker 1: for it to block something bright. Um, But that has 376 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:29,520 Speaker 1: to be just the right arrangement of stuff, right. You 377 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:32,399 Speaker 1: have to have something bright line up exactly with the 378 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:34,840 Speaker 1: black hole. And it's not like we have remote control 379 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:36,800 Speaker 1: where we can like say Hey, what would happen if 380 00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:39,119 Speaker 1: I zoom this star over here? Or let me just 381 00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:42,119 Speaker 1: like pan back and forth across the sky moving stars 382 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:44,760 Speaker 1: around until I noticed one of them disappearing. Right, you 383 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:46,480 Speaker 1: have to be in the right place at the right 384 00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:50,520 Speaker 1: time and be looking for this kind of thing. Alright, 385 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:52,560 Speaker 1: So I guess the answer is no, you can't see 386 00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:55,159 Speaker 1: a black hole directly. Yeah, I think the answer is no. 387 00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:58,560 Speaker 1: The Comble caveats. Right, there is hawking radiation which maybe 388 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:01,000 Speaker 1: in the future we could detect and you could see 389 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:05,320 Speaker 1: it indirectly by seeing it block the things behind it. Okay, 390 00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:07,160 Speaker 1: well let's get into this stuff that you can see 391 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:10,120 Speaker 1: from a black hole. But let's take a quick break. 392 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:24,960 Speaker 1: All right, we're talking about whether you can see a 393 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 1: black hole, and the answer is no. It's it's called 394 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:30,800 Speaker 1: the black hole for a reason. It's black, that's right. 395 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:33,479 Speaker 1: But this is like the podcast of Caveats, because everything 396 00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:35,720 Speaker 1: we say we're gonna have to have a qualifier and explain, 397 00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:39,560 Speaker 1: and in this case, the qualifiers a pretty big one, Like, yes, 398 00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:42,800 Speaker 1: you can't directly see the black hole because it doesn't 399 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:46,199 Speaker 1: give off photons, but it has a pretty big effect 400 00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:48,400 Speaker 1: on the stuff near it, and that can turn out 401 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:50,679 Speaker 1: to be very easy to spot. Yeah, you're telling me 402 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:53,960 Speaker 1: that black holes are at the center of the brightest 403 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:57,840 Speaker 1: objects in the whole universe. Yeah. In fact, when people 404 00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:00,560 Speaker 1: saw these things they saw they're called quaisar, they were 405 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,360 Speaker 1: so bright that they were puzzled. They were like, what 406 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 1: could these things be? It was a big mystery because 407 00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:08,600 Speaker 1: they knew these things were really far away sometimes, yet 408 00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,560 Speaker 1: they were so bright here on Earth, which meant that 409 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:15,119 Speaker 1: they must be incredibly bright where they are. And people 410 00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:17,920 Speaker 1: were really puzzled. They were like, what could be so bright? Right, 411 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:20,399 Speaker 1: it's not just like a bright star. You were telling me. 412 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:26,119 Speaker 1: These quasars are a thousand times brighter than the entire 413 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:29,760 Speaker 1: Milky Way galaxy. Yeah. And so what happens is that 414 00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:32,560 Speaker 1: the black hole has a huge effect on the stuff 415 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:35,440 Speaker 1: near it. Right, So before you actually fall into their 416 00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:38,359 Speaker 1: event horizon and disappear, it's not like it's a you 417 00:21:38,359 --> 00:21:40,239 Speaker 1: can just hang out there and have a picnic. Right, 418 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,960 Speaker 1: It's a pretty intense gravitational experience. Stuff is being sucked in. 419 00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:46,920 Speaker 1: You're like at the mouth of a vacuum cleaner, Yeah, exactly. 420 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:50,080 Speaker 1: And stuff is being really smushed and pulled. And so 421 00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:52,520 Speaker 1: if you're like a big blob of gas, for example, 422 00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:55,400 Speaker 1: near the event horizon a black hole, then you're being 423 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:58,400 Speaker 1: swirled in. This is called the accretion disc accreating means 424 00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:00,879 Speaker 1: just like you know, adding, So the stuff that's about 425 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:03,480 Speaker 1: to fall into the black hole, and this stuff is 426 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:05,640 Speaker 1: getting squeezed. And what happens if you have a bunch 427 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:08,040 Speaker 1: of gas and you heat it up by squeezing it, right, 428 00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:11,240 Speaker 1: is it? It's gonna emit radiation? Right, All that energy, 429 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:14,040 Speaker 1: the squeezing of it from the gravitational field gets turned 430 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:18,320 Speaker 1: into radiation off an X ray radiation. So it's not 431 00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:20,639 Speaker 1: the black hole that's super bright, but it's just like 432 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,040 Speaker 1: all the stuff waiting in line to fall into the 433 00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:27,360 Speaker 1: black hole that's making all the noise and the crazy light. Yeah, 434 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,520 Speaker 1: exactly exactly, And it's like the paparazzi surrounding a star 435 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:35,680 Speaker 1: celebrity or something, right, And but it's direct. It only 436 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:37,760 Speaker 1: happens because the black hole is there, right, the black 437 00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:40,359 Speaker 1: holes having this effect on the gas. It's causing the 438 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,840 Speaker 1: gas to emit. And so you could say that you 439 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:45,639 Speaker 1: could even say that the gas is part of the 440 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: black hole. Right, it's a totally arbitrary definition. To say 441 00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:50,959 Speaker 1: the black hole ends at the event horizon. You can 442 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,080 Speaker 1: says the black hole you know, includes all the stuff 443 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:56,240 Speaker 1: in the accretion disc. It's like on deck to get 444 00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,120 Speaker 1: sucked in. It's like the band. It's not just the band. 445 00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:02,800 Speaker 1: It's the band and the roadies and the groupies exactly. 446 00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: That's right. It's part of a community, man, and it's 447 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:09,040 Speaker 1: a movement, not a not a band. Yeah, no, Man 448 00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:12,320 Speaker 1: is an island even a black hole. Um. And but 449 00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:14,399 Speaker 1: when this happens, when you get the right kind of 450 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:18,159 Speaker 1: stuff assembled near the black hole, it's incredibly bright. And 451 00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: so yeah, these quasars can be thousands of times brighter 452 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:25,560 Speaker 1: than in the entire galaxies. But but not every single 453 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:28,760 Speaker 1: black hole has one of these things. Oh, I see. So, 454 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,080 Speaker 1: so a quasar is just a black hole, but the 455 00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:35,160 Speaker 1: right kind of stuff around it that that is glowing 456 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:37,960 Speaker 1: and exploding kind of it's kind of exploding, right or 457 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:40,760 Speaker 1: squeezing And yeah, it's definitely it's being squeezed and it's 458 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:42,760 Speaker 1: not happy or I guess it likes it. I don't know. 459 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:45,560 Speaker 1: And it's emitting a huge amount of radiation and the 460 00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:47,800 Speaker 1: spectrum is really broad, you know, it's like X ray 461 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:51,120 Speaker 1: to radio it's on a lot to channels. And that's 462 00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:52,880 Speaker 1: one of the things that puzzled people for a long time. 463 00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:55,280 Speaker 1: It's like, what is doing this. It's such a crazy 464 00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 1: tense source. It's super far away, um. And you know, 465 00:23:58,359 --> 00:23:59,960 Speaker 1: part of it the mystery was that, like the milk 466 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:01,520 Speaker 1: e Way doesn't have one of these things. We have 467 00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:03,480 Speaker 1: a black hole in the center of our galaxy, but 468 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:05,920 Speaker 1: our galaxy doesn't have a quays are. It's not immediately 469 00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:10,280 Speaker 1: incredible radiation. Yeah, whoa wait, so um, some black holes 470 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:12,560 Speaker 1: are just there and they're sucking stuff in, but they 471 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,359 Speaker 1: don't light up to the space around them. Yeah, because 472 00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:17,880 Speaker 1: they don't have that stuff nearby that gets lit up. Right. 473 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: It's like one in a hundred galaxies have a quasar 474 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,760 Speaker 1: have just the right assembly of stuff to get squeezed 475 00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:28,960 Speaker 1: into met this crazy radiation. And how did we figure 476 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,680 Speaker 1: out that that's what was going on with these super 477 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:33,760 Speaker 1: bright objects. Well, you know, first we just didn't really 478 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:36,280 Speaker 1: believe the data. We were like, something must be wrong 479 00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:38,840 Speaker 1: with these measurements because these things can't be so far 480 00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:42,280 Speaker 1: away and so bright. Um. But you know, they checked 481 00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,200 Speaker 1: and they double checked, and it turns out they were correct. Um. 482 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:47,399 Speaker 1: And then they started to believe that, like, okay, well, 483 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,000 Speaker 1: if these things really are super bright, what could they be. 484 00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:52,639 Speaker 1: And then they noticed that they were coming from the 485 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,320 Speaker 1: you know, more accurate measurements their direction. They noticed they 486 00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:57,520 Speaker 1: were coming from the centers of galaxies, and then they 487 00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,280 Speaker 1: started to associate that with black holes. And then people 488 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:02,440 Speaker 1: build models. They're like, how could you get a black 489 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:04,679 Speaker 1: hole to give out this much radiation? And you know, 490 00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:06,679 Speaker 1: somebody had the idea, maybe it's the stuff near it, 491 00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,639 Speaker 1: and they started building simulations of it, and then they 492 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,840 Speaker 1: can reproduce the kind of thing that we're seeing in simulations, 493 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:16,040 Speaker 1: and that convinced them, Okay, we understand what we're seeing. 494 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:19,399 Speaker 1: What we're seeing is crazy radiation from the neighborhood of 495 00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:21,840 Speaker 1: a black hole. Wow. Is it just the amount of stuff, 496 00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:23,840 Speaker 1: Like if there's a lot of stuff around a black hole, 497 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,240 Speaker 1: then you'll get these quasars or is it some other 498 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:28,760 Speaker 1: strange factor. Yeah, it depends a little bit on the 499 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:31,760 Speaker 1: stuff too, Like rock doesn't, you know, give us as 500 00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:35,320 Speaker 1: much radiation as gas, for example, So more gas and 501 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,119 Speaker 1: less dust you get more radiation. But it's the kind 502 00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:40,280 Speaker 1: of thing that seemed to happen earlier in the universe, 503 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:42,600 Speaker 1: and that's not something we understand. Like a lot of 504 00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:46,160 Speaker 1: these things are also really far away, because further away 505 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:50,440 Speaker 1: means older, right, the farther away something is the older 506 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:52,800 Speaker 1: the light is that's coming from it. And so for 507 00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:55,879 Speaker 1: some reason we don't understand quasars aren't really being made anymore. 508 00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:58,119 Speaker 1: There's sort of like something that happened earlier on in 509 00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:00,200 Speaker 1: the party that is our universe and sort of out 510 00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:06,440 Speaker 1: of fashion now it's like the eighties, right, grinding, flashy, 511 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:08,960 Speaker 1: but no now now a little now, a little silly 512 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:13,840 Speaker 1: looking to be honest, Yeah, exactly in hindsight, you know, 513 00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,359 Speaker 1: kind of intense um and pretty awesome, but maybe not 514 00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:20,280 Speaker 1: something wasn't doing any more. Yeah, so something the universe 515 00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:21,800 Speaker 1: used to do a lot more of, you know, when 516 00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:23,760 Speaker 1: he was younger, for reasons if we don't quite understand, 517 00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:25,480 Speaker 1: but it must have to do with, you know, the 518 00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,200 Speaker 1: distribution of gas and dust and galaxies and how that's 519 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:30,960 Speaker 1: grown up, and supernovas and the cycle of stars and 520 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:33,679 Speaker 1: it's all part of that really amazing story that that 521 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:40,919 Speaker 1: is the history of our universe. So some black holes, 522 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:43,440 Speaker 1: if by one in a hundred, you can definitely see 523 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:46,800 Speaker 1: because they have they become quasars with all this stuff 524 00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:49,280 Speaker 1: around them exactly. And I would say that that's seeing 525 00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,920 Speaker 1: a black hole because there's no other way to make 526 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,359 Speaker 1: these things. Like a quasar means a black hole is there, 527 00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,240 Speaker 1: and so that's you know, it's the black hole sending 528 00:26:57,240 --> 00:26:59,680 Speaker 1: you a big message like, Hey, I'm destroying everything around me. 529 00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:04,639 Speaker 1: Pay tension. That sounds like like my daughter And on 530 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:07,639 Speaker 1: some days, did you just compare your daughter to a 531 00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:14,320 Speaker 1: black hole? Beautiful unique, uh stellar stellar miracle. She sucks 532 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,920 Speaker 1: in knowledge, right, she's just like a black hole for information, right, 533 00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:23,320 Speaker 1: that's what you meant. Yeah, yes, a galactic miracle. Really, 534 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:26,399 Speaker 1: she's an incredibly powerful force. But but but it's not 535 00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:28,640 Speaker 1: seeing all the black holes because not all of them 536 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,040 Speaker 1: form quasars. That's right. Then there's some of the quasars 537 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:36,640 Speaker 1: that are even weirder than that weird quasar. Yeah weird. 538 00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:38,960 Speaker 1: I mean quasar is already are kind of weird. But 539 00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,600 Speaker 1: sometimes the quasar will do this thing. It will create 540 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:45,199 Speaker 1: a galactic jet. And so if you imagine, like the 541 00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,399 Speaker 1: black holes at the center of galaxy and galaxies are 542 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:50,320 Speaker 1: usually flat, right, like not like a jet you right 543 00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:53,159 Speaker 1: around in, but like a like a like a stream 544 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:55,840 Speaker 1: of stuff, not like a jet you right around in 545 00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,080 Speaker 1: at all. Although if you are riding around in your 546 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,680 Speaker 1: private jet right now listening to this podcast, please send 547 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:04,240 Speaker 1: us a donation because that you have enough cash. Um, 548 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,680 Speaker 1: please give us a ride. We'll do a podcast from 549 00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:12,439 Speaker 1: your jet, lighting cigars, from burning hundred dollar bills. Um. No, 550 00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:14,680 Speaker 1: this is a like a jet of stuff. Like it's 551 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:15,920 Speaker 1: the stuff that comes out of the back of a 552 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:17,920 Speaker 1: jet engine. That's why it's called a jet, right, because 553 00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:20,159 Speaker 1: it creates a jet of stuff. And so if you 554 00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:22,840 Speaker 1: imagine a galaxy sort of like a cinnamon roll, because 555 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,480 Speaker 1: a big flat swirl, these jets shoot up away from 556 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,040 Speaker 1: the plane sort of like above and below. This is 557 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:33,639 Speaker 1: enormous stream of really really high velocity stuff getting shot 558 00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:36,320 Speaker 1: out from the top and the bottom. It's almost like 559 00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:39,040 Speaker 1: an escape valve, right, Like, they's so so intense and 560 00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:41,960 Speaker 1: it's swirling that it just kind of all, let's lose 561 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,640 Speaker 1: in one direction. Yeah, And these things are huge. I mean, 562 00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:47,600 Speaker 1: if you see pictures of galaxies with jets, the jets 563 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,880 Speaker 1: are like the size of the galaxy. These are not 564 00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:53,440 Speaker 1: just like tiny little um valves, you know, whistling off 565 00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:54,880 Speaker 1: at the end of the day. This is like a 566 00:28:54,960 --> 00:29:00,800 Speaker 1: huge enormous um spew of stuff going like at relativistic speed. Right, 567 00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:04,400 Speaker 1: and if they do this weird phenomenon, they're called something different. 568 00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:06,600 Speaker 1: They're not called quasars anymore, right, Yeah, they have a 569 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,920 Speaker 1: they graduate have an even cooler name. They're called blaze ours. 570 00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:13,959 Speaker 1: I don't know if that's a cooler name. Oh, blaze 571 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: aren't much rather be a blazer and than aquaz than 572 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:20,080 Speaker 1: a quasar. Oh yeah, Quazar sounds sort of iffy. There's 573 00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:22,680 Speaker 1: like a question. There's like a question you name about quasar. 574 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:24,840 Speaker 1: It's like what am I? Am? I a black hole? 575 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:27,520 Speaker 1: I'm not really sure I'm quazing. It sounds like a 576 00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:31,800 Speaker 1: quantum star, you know, a quasar. A blazer. A blazer 577 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:34,920 Speaker 1: just sounds like a you know, bluzz or No, it 578 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:36,840 Speaker 1: sounds like the coolest thing you could wear to a 579 00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,840 Speaker 1: faculty meeting, Like, Hey, I'm wearing my blaze in the eighties. 580 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,240 Speaker 1: Maybe in the eighties, Daniel, you'd buy your blazers with 581 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,640 Speaker 1: the giant shoulder pads. No. But the reason they're called 582 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:50,240 Speaker 1: blaze oers is that some of them are pointing right 583 00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:52,960 Speaker 1: at the Earth. And if they point right at the Earth. 584 00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:56,000 Speaker 1: The physics of it, the relativity of it enhances the 585 00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,240 Speaker 1: brightness of that jet, like by huge factor. If it's 586 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:03,160 Speaker 1: pointing right at you, then relativity increases the intensity of it. 587 00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:07,120 Speaker 1: And then they're just like ridunculously bright. Wow, much brighter 588 00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:11,480 Speaker 1: than even quasars. Brighter than even quasars. Yeah, and it's 589 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:14,480 Speaker 1: fascinating because they're super bright, and we don't know, like 590 00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:17,120 Speaker 1: why do some quasars have jets. You know, it must 591 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,360 Speaker 1: be related to the magnetic fields. That's why it gets 592 00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:21,920 Speaker 1: like siphoned off. Um. And then we talked to another 593 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:25,480 Speaker 1: podcast episode about neutron stars that sometimes turn into pulsars 594 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,640 Speaker 1: that admit radiation along the pole. Must be something similar 595 00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:31,800 Speaker 1: to that, some huge forces that are sliping off all 596 00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:33,920 Speaker 1: this material and sending it up and down. But we 597 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,200 Speaker 1: really don't understand it. It's a huge mystory, But this 598 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:40,040 Speaker 1: is only like one inten Quasars have these jets. Yeah, 599 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:43,080 Speaker 1: now you're talking about a one inten out of one 600 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:48,320 Speaker 1: in a hundred black holes become these blazing, blazing saddles 601 00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:54,120 Speaker 1: of bluzzy blasts, and that's see exactly. Blazars are rarer 602 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:57,280 Speaker 1: than quasars, which also makes them cooler, Like you've got 603 00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:59,960 Speaker 1: lots of quasars at the party. When the blazar shows up, 604 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,080 Speaker 1: everybody pays attention, right, But I guess the point is 605 00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:06,640 Speaker 1: that they these things only happen around black hole. So 606 00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,000 Speaker 1: if you see a blazer or a quasar, then you 607 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:10,920 Speaker 1: know there is a black hole there, and you're you're 608 00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:14,680 Speaker 1: kind of sort of practically seeing it. Exactly, it's very 609 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:16,960 Speaker 1: clear evidence that the black hole is there. So yeah, 610 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,440 Speaker 1: it's it's how direct is it? You know, the black 611 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:23,160 Speaker 1: holes creating this huge stream of radiation that's hitting a 612 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,040 Speaker 1: telescope which then gets downloaded to the internet and you 613 00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:28,200 Speaker 1: whiz by it on your Twitter feed and see this 614 00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:31,240 Speaker 1: picture for point oh two seconds. Um, have you then 615 00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:34,640 Speaker 1: seen a black hole? I would say, yes, Well, it's 616 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:37,600 Speaker 1: kind of cool that the black is things in the 617 00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:42,200 Speaker 1: universe are also the brightest. That's pretty cool. Yeah, exactly, exactly, 618 00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,720 Speaker 1: the darkest, dankest things in the universe also create the 619 00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:49,400 Speaker 1: brightest sources of radiation. There's some poetry there, and the 620 00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:53,120 Speaker 1: universe always ends up being poetic, right, like in the 621 00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:57,959 Speaker 1: like in the eighties, exactly, hot pants and poetry. That's 622 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 1: what I remember from the eighties and hammertime. Oh wait, 623 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:03,640 Speaker 1: that was nineties. Sorry, that was the nineties. Sorry. Well, 624 00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 1: let's get into the other ways that you can see 625 00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:08,560 Speaker 1: black holes quote unquote see. But first let's take a 626 00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:23,440 Speaker 1: quick break, all right, I know, so what are other 627 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,200 Speaker 1: ways that we can see black holes? So we can't 628 00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:29,760 Speaker 1: see the black holes themselves, and sometimes they're really super 629 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:34,719 Speaker 1: duper bright as quasars or blazers. But what about all 630 00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:36,760 Speaker 1: the other black holes? How can we possibly see them 631 00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:39,280 Speaker 1: or know they're there? Yeah, so I was thinking about this. 632 00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:42,080 Speaker 1: I came up with three ways to see black holes today. 633 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:44,640 Speaker 1: But then there's a bonus way we'll talk about at 634 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:47,640 Speaker 1: the end. It's only going to be possible starting tomorrow. 635 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:50,880 Speaker 1: So way number one is actually the way that we 636 00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:53,480 Speaker 1: discovered the black hole the center of our galaxy, the 637 00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:57,080 Speaker 1: Milky Way, And that's again indirect in that it affects 638 00:32:57,120 --> 00:32:59,960 Speaker 1: the stuff around it. So we're talking about quasars, how 639 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:02,360 Speaker 1: they squeeze gas and make them radiate. If you're not 640 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:04,520 Speaker 1: lucky enough to have the right kind of gas near 641 00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:06,720 Speaker 1: your black hole to make a quasar, you can still 642 00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:08,920 Speaker 1: have a big impact on the stars that are there. 643 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:12,480 Speaker 1: Just the gravity will change the orbit of those stars. 644 00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:15,959 Speaker 1: So you can see it because if you see a 645 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:20,840 Speaker 1: lot of stars kind of going around something really really massive, 646 00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:22,680 Speaker 1: then you know there must be a black hole there 647 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,200 Speaker 1: right exactly. And there's a team I think that U. C. 648 00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:27,680 Speaker 1: L A that's been pointing a telescope at the center 649 00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:30,080 Speaker 1: of the galaxy for a long time just to watch 650 00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:32,880 Speaker 1: the orbit of these stars. And they see the stars 651 00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:36,160 Speaker 1: moving around something invisible, something they don't see in a 652 00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:39,680 Speaker 1: way that's consistent with something really really heavy being there. 653 00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:42,440 Speaker 1: So we don't know that it's a black hole, but 654 00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:45,280 Speaker 1: we know that there's some really dense blob of matter 655 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,120 Speaker 1: that's invisible right at the center of the galaxy. So 656 00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:50,840 Speaker 1: that's pretty good evidence. And it's a black hole. And 657 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:53,280 Speaker 1: but invisible you mean like it doesn't shine like a star. 658 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:56,600 Speaker 1: It's not like a gigantal star. It's just something that's 659 00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:00,880 Speaker 1: really massive but doesn't shine. Yeah. Actually, and remember it's 660 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:03,160 Speaker 1: also difficult to see the center of the galaxy. It's 661 00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:05,240 Speaker 1: not like a clear view because all the gas and 662 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:07,280 Speaker 1: the dust between us and that you have to see 663 00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:10,920 Speaker 1: these things in non visible frequencies of light, you know, 664 00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:13,799 Speaker 1: like radio waves and X rays and stuff like that. Um, 665 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:16,400 Speaker 1: So even though you have like really seeing it directly. 666 00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:18,839 Speaker 1: But yeah, they don't. This black hole doesn't give off 667 00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:21,560 Speaker 1: radiation directly, right as we were saying, And it doesn't 668 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,480 Speaker 1: induce radiation and this stuff around it so effectively it 669 00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:27,680 Speaker 1: looks like there's nothing there, but we know that it's 670 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:29,759 Speaker 1: having a gravitational effect on the stuff around it. So 671 00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:31,520 Speaker 1: it's sort of like the way we see dark matter, right, 672 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:34,200 Speaker 1: we only see dark matter through gravity. We're pretty sure 673 00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:37,040 Speaker 1: it's there um and not seeing it like, well you 674 00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:40,440 Speaker 1: know it's it's um indirect evidence. But I would say 675 00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:42,759 Speaker 1: everything is indirect. Yeah, Like I always thought it was 676 00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,680 Speaker 1: pretty cool this idea that if our sun here in 677 00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:49,680 Speaker 1: our Solar System suddenly turned into a black hole, like 678 00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:52,080 Speaker 1: all that mass only compressed down into a black hole, 679 00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:54,759 Speaker 1: Like things would kind of keep going the same way, 680 00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,400 Speaker 1: would they Like, the planets would still orbit in exactly 681 00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:00,279 Speaker 1: the same way they are now. And so even though 682 00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:01,840 Speaker 1: you couldn't see anything bright in the middle of the 683 00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:06,800 Speaker 1: Solar System, you could still say there's something there dark, yeah, black, 684 00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:09,840 Speaker 1: and that has all that mass. That's true. It wouldn't 685 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: change the orbit of the Earth, but it would have 686 00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:14,719 Speaker 1: a pretty big effect on life on Earth, right, I 687 00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:17,759 Speaker 1: mean things would get a little dark. Yeah, exactly. The 688 00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 1: gravitational pull of the Sun depends only and basically on 689 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:23,880 Speaker 1: the mass of the Sun. Doesn't actually matter what the 690 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:26,840 Speaker 1: distribution of the matter is um as long as the 691 00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:29,879 Speaker 1: Sun's radius as smaller than the orbit of the Earth, 692 00:35:30,239 --> 00:35:32,200 Speaker 1: it all averages out to be the same as just 693 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:34,920 Speaker 1: like one particle with the mass of the Sun at 694 00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:37,360 Speaker 1: the center of the Sun. So if the right the 695 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:39,759 Speaker 1: Sun collapsed into a black hole, that wouldn't change the 696 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,239 Speaker 1: orbit of the Earth, right, things would just get a 697 00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:45,719 Speaker 1: little chilly. Exactly. Likely you've thought about this scenario. You 698 00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:47,919 Speaker 1: have specific plans for what to do if the Sun 699 00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:52,080 Speaker 1: goes black hole. Yeah, I know, well it thinks it 700 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:54,080 Speaker 1: would be over. You would just see the black hole 701 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:55,839 Speaker 1: and you'd be like, all right, I've seen a black hole. 702 00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:59,160 Speaker 1: You're like, I'm gonna call Daniel and Jorge and let 703 00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:02,000 Speaker 1: them know their pod cast is now out of date. Alright, 704 00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:03,640 Speaker 1: So tell me, what are the other two ways that 705 00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:06,439 Speaker 1: we can see let holes. Well, another way is from 706 00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:11,040 Speaker 1: gravitational waves. So folks might remember that we saw wiggles 707 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:14,960 Speaker 1: in space and time from black holes merging with each other. 708 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:18,040 Speaker 1: So this is two black holes spinning around each other, 709 00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:20,520 Speaker 1: getting sucked in by each other's gravity. It's like I'm 710 00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,239 Speaker 1: gonna eat you, know, I'm gonna eat you. Eventually they 711 00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:25,919 Speaker 1: just like eat each other and become one super big 712 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:29,080 Speaker 1: black hole. And when that happens, it sends off these 713 00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:31,959 Speaker 1: ripples in space and time. Right. Remember, we think about 714 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:35,160 Speaker 1: gravity not as a force, but as something that distorts 715 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:38,200 Speaker 1: space and time with mass, like a shock wave. Yeah, 716 00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:40,520 Speaker 1: it's like a shock wave. And these things when they 717 00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:42,319 Speaker 1: orbit each other and they and they emerge, it's a 718 00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:45,879 Speaker 1: lot of acceleration that creates these wiggles in space and time. 719 00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:48,839 Speaker 1: And we can see those with this awesome device called 720 00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:52,239 Speaker 1: lego Um, which sees these ripples in space and time. 721 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:56,680 Speaker 1: They've seen like eleven merger so far. So yeah, but 722 00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: it sounds like a lot. But knowing how many black 723 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:01,800 Speaker 1: closed are in the universe, it's actually kind of a 724 00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,400 Speaker 1: rare thing, right, yeah, exactly. But they can only search 725 00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:06,879 Speaker 1: a very small volume of the universe so far. Right, 726 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:09,080 Speaker 1: Things that are sensitive that they're sensitive to that have 727 00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:11,600 Speaker 1: to be pretty big black hole mergers, and they have 728 00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:14,759 Speaker 1: to be near enough by that the black hole that 729 00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:17,560 Speaker 1: the gravitational wave would have reached us for example. So 730 00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:19,520 Speaker 1: you know they're upgrading and they're looking in a larger 731 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:21,960 Speaker 1: and larger volume all the time. But we wouldn't have 732 00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:24,920 Speaker 1: these black hole merger events if you didn't have black holes. Right, 733 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:27,280 Speaker 1: So that's another like piece of evidence. The black holes 734 00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:29,160 Speaker 1: are real, that they're out there. We've seen them in 735 00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:32,279 Speaker 1: another way. I think it's cool to see things, you know, 736 00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:35,080 Speaker 1: and we call this multi messenger see them with lights, 737 00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:37,839 Speaker 1: see them with particles, see them with gravitational waves. It's 738 00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:39,879 Speaker 1: like lots of different ways to probe the same thing, 739 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:42,799 Speaker 1: and you can ask different kinds of questions and if then, 740 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,080 Speaker 1: if then, if your model of what's going on is wrong, 741 00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:47,480 Speaker 1: it's another way to figure that out, to get a 742 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:50,200 Speaker 1: clue as to what might actually be happening. Right, So 743 00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:52,120 Speaker 1: you can't see the black holes, but you can see 744 00:37:52,160 --> 00:38:00,440 Speaker 1: they're the shock waves of their crash. Yeah, exactly, all right, 745 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:02,239 Speaker 1: So what's the last kind of a way that we 746 00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:04,239 Speaker 1: can see a black hole? And my last way is 747 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:06,680 Speaker 1: my favorite way, it's my fantasy way, right, which is 748 00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:13,160 Speaker 1: what if what if we could see them more directly 749 00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:16,440 Speaker 1: because we could create them in the lab? Right, So 750 00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:18,760 Speaker 1: this is um, you know, I like to see things directly. 751 00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:20,719 Speaker 1: We were talking earlier about like if you want to 752 00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:22,759 Speaker 1: believe it, you got to see it. I think it's 753 00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:24,719 Speaker 1: more than that, Like, if you want to believe it, 754 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:26,359 Speaker 1: you are got to be able to make it. You're 755 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:28,879 Speaker 1: gonna be able to reproduce it. Like is the Higgs 756 00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:30,839 Speaker 1: boson real? Well, if so, we've got to be able 757 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:33,920 Speaker 1: to make it. Like, let's isolate the conditions needed to 758 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:35,880 Speaker 1: create it so we can really understand it and we 759 00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:39,560 Speaker 1: can control its creation and you know, study it. So 760 00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:41,319 Speaker 1: that's what we're trying to do with the Large change 761 00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:43,920 Speaker 1: on collider. We're trying to create these really really tiny 762 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:46,880 Speaker 1: and super duper many cozy black holes so that we 763 00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:50,000 Speaker 1: can understand how they're created and the radar wish they've 764 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:52,200 Speaker 1: created and what happens to them. Really, is that really 765 00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:55,759 Speaker 1: a project, like a project make black holes? I know 766 00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:58,160 Speaker 1: you have called kinds of projects like dark matter and 767 00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:02,440 Speaker 1: antimatter and looking for particles, But is there actually like 768 00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:06,839 Speaker 1: a team that's to make a black hole team? Yeah, Yeah, 769 00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:09,160 Speaker 1: that's the that's the project. You have to understand Also 770 00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:11,160 Speaker 1: that the large Hage on collider, we just do the 771 00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:13,239 Speaker 1: same experiment over and over again, which is we smash 772 00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:16,120 Speaker 1: protons together, and then there are different teams analyzing that 773 00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:19,400 Speaker 1: data looking for different stuff. Because you can't control what 774 00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:22,520 Speaker 1: happens when you smash two protons together. Basically, everything that 775 00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:25,480 Speaker 1: can happen will eventually happen. You just gotta look to 776 00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:27,719 Speaker 1: all the data see, oh, do we make any higgs is? 777 00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:29,439 Speaker 1: Do we make any top corks? Do we make any 778 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:31,880 Speaker 1: dark matter? Do we make any black holes? So the 779 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:33,960 Speaker 1: black hole team is not doing anything different from the 780 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:37,160 Speaker 1: other folks in terms of the actual experiment that are 781 00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,200 Speaker 1: not inducing black holes to be made, but they're looking 782 00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:41,960 Speaker 1: through the data to see if there's evidence that black 783 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:45,239 Speaker 1: holes were made. Right, Well, I think we should get 784 00:39:45,239 --> 00:39:48,080 Speaker 1: into the wisdom of making black holes here on Earth. 785 00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:51,799 Speaker 1: Um maybe in another episode, but I let me just 786 00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:54,719 Speaker 1: add a very quick reminded of folks who are out 787 00:39:54,719 --> 00:39:58,040 Speaker 1: there who are worried. Uh. Number one, we're very confident 788 00:39:58,160 --> 00:39:59,920 Speaker 1: this is safe that if these black holes are cre 789 00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:03,160 Speaker 1: they would evaporate and then no danger to Earth. And 790 00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:05,120 Speaker 1: if you are worried about it, there's a website you 791 00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:08,200 Speaker 1: can check called has the hag On Collider destroy the 792 00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:11,040 Speaker 1: World yet? Dot com? And we've promised to always keep 793 00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:13,880 Speaker 1: it up to date, Are you sure? Yeah, if you 794 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:16,600 Speaker 1: check that website, then you know the world has not 795 00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:20,400 Speaker 1: been destroyed. What if you're you know, credit card subscription 796 00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:23,360 Speaker 1: ends or you're gonna send the whole universe into a panic. 797 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:25,600 Speaker 1: If you don't have Internet, there's nothing I can do 798 00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:30,560 Speaker 1: for you, then you have bigger problems, all right. So 799 00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,719 Speaker 1: that's that answers the question can you see a black hole? 800 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:36,239 Speaker 1: And it sounds like the answer is, you know, you 801 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:38,200 Speaker 1: can't see it directly, that's what it's called a black hole, 802 00:40:38,239 --> 00:40:40,440 Speaker 1: But you can see all this stuff around it and 803 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:43,759 Speaker 1: the effect that it hasn't on everything around it. And 804 00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:46,120 Speaker 1: I would say that seeing it indirectly in so many 805 00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:48,919 Speaker 1: different ways, and understanding the physics of it pretty well, 806 00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:51,799 Speaker 1: I would say that's seeing it. So I think we 807 00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:54,399 Speaker 1: all understand what it means to see a black hole, 808 00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:57,080 Speaker 1: but we might disagree about whether that is seeing it 809 00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:00,520 Speaker 1: or not. Right, right, But taking a picture of it, 810 00:41:00,719 --> 00:41:03,759 Speaker 1: like a photo from your phone, we're still pretty far 811 00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:06,560 Speaker 1: away from that, right. Yeah. And you know there is 812 00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:10,120 Speaker 1: a new telescope coming online called the event horizon telescope. 813 00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:13,640 Speaker 1: Especially it's basically the patching together lots of different telescopes 814 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:16,160 Speaker 1: they're gonna trying to image the center of our galaxy 815 00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:19,080 Speaker 1: and understand exactly where is the edge of the black hole, 816 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:21,040 Speaker 1: Where is that event horizon, where is all the stuff 817 00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:22,960 Speaker 1: around it? And you know it can't see the black 818 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:25,680 Speaker 1: hole directly, but by studying in detail all the stuff 819 00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:27,400 Speaker 1: that's around the black hole will get a lot more 820 00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:29,719 Speaker 1: information about the black hole formation and the black hole 821 00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:32,839 Speaker 1: physics and is the black hole spicy or is it mild? Right? 822 00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:34,319 Speaker 1: All this kind of stuff we want to know about 823 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:37,680 Speaker 1: black holes? Cool, Well, do they have an Instagram account 824 00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:40,719 Speaker 1: that I can follow so that you know when they 825 00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:43,800 Speaker 1: finally post pictures I can see. I don't have any Internet, 826 00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:46,680 Speaker 1: so I can't answer that question for great. So the 827 00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:48,760 Speaker 1: world could have ended right now thanks to you guys, 828 00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:51,280 Speaker 1: and we wouldn't know. But you should say tuned because 829 00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:54,120 Speaker 1: the event Horizon Telescope is going to release their first 830 00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:58,279 Speaker 1: ever results tomorrow. That's right, Wednesday, April tenth will be 831 00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,319 Speaker 1: the date humanity first glimpses a black hole. Now, of course, 832 00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:04,920 Speaker 1: we're not going to see the black hole directly. The 833 00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,719 Speaker 1: event Horizon Telescope uses radio telescopes from all over the 834 00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,719 Speaker 1: Earth and stitches that together to penetrate the gas near 835 00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:14,839 Speaker 1: the galactic center and see all around the black hole. 836 00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:16,799 Speaker 1: So what we're gonna get is we're gonna see the 837 00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:19,480 Speaker 1: first image of the event horizon of a black hole, 838 00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:21,719 Speaker 1: which means we're gonna learn the shape of a black hole. 839 00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:24,160 Speaker 1: Is it a sphere, is it a square? Is it 840 00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:27,680 Speaker 1: a donut? We're going to find out tomorrow. Laugh anticol 841 00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:29,960 Speaker 1: reminder that there are still things in the universe out 842 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:34,200 Speaker 1: there that are complete mystery. You know, we haven't seen them, 843 00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:37,839 Speaker 1: We definitely won't know what's inside of them. Yet they 844 00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:40,760 Speaker 1: exist and we know they exist. It's pretty cool, yeah, 845 00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:42,720 Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the jobs of physics 846 00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,080 Speaker 1: is to like figure out ways to probe this stuff. 847 00:42:45,120 --> 00:42:47,400 Speaker 1: How can we get some information from the universe. How 848 00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:50,560 Speaker 1: can we ask questions and just the right way so 849 00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:53,279 Speaker 1: we can get some understanding of what's going on out there, 850 00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:55,319 Speaker 1: even when we can't see it directly, because that's the 851 00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:59,799 Speaker 1: easy stuff, right right. Well, coming to you live from 852 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:02,560 Speaker 1: side of dog Hole. This has been the podcast Daniel 853 00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:06,440 Speaker 1: and Jorgey explained the universe. Good luck everyone surviving the 854 00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:09,399 Speaker 1: black hole apocalypse. Thanks for listening. See you next time 855 00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:20,080 Speaker 1: if you still have a question. After listening to all 856 00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:23,360 Speaker 1: these explanations, please drop us a line. We'd love to 857 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:25,800 Speaker 1: hear from you. You can find us at Facebook, Twitter, 858 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:29,480 Speaker 1: and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge That's one Word, or 859 00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:33,600 Speaker 1: email us at Feedback at Daniel and Jorge dot com. 860 00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:36,480 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel and Jorge explained. 861 00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:39,360 Speaker 1: The Universe is a production of I Heart Radio. For 862 00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:42,439 Speaker 1: more podcast from my heart Radio, visit the i heart 863 00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:46,120 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 864 00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:46,920 Speaker 1: favorite shows.