WEBVTT - The Very Dust, Part 2 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:09.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:14.560 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:15.880 name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.119 And I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part two 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:22.000 in our series on Dust Now. In the last episode, 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.920 we talked about how to define dust. We talked about 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.200 the definition that came from a book that I've been 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.919 reading by an author named Jay Owens, defining dust as 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:38.760 tiny flying particles. We talked about our wonderful, beautiful, swarming 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:43.440 invisible domestic companions, the dust mites, and we talked about 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:48.280 atmospheric dust and its complex relationship to weather and climate. 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.440 And hey, if you hear a little weirdness, little creak, 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.600 little croak in my throat today that may very well 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:56.960 be caused by dust. 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:02.200 There you go. Yeah, So into day's episode, we're gonna 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:04.840 we're gonna be talking about dust bunnies a bit here, 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.760 but but not just dust bunnies. Just summoning the specter 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.960 of the dust bunny is enough to diverge into topics 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:21.319 concerning cosmic horror and and cosmic mysteries. So even though 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.440 the dust bunny is pretty mundane and every day and 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.679 you could probably find one in your home within five 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:33.039 minutes if we requested it. Stick around because it's gonna 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:34.320 go interesting places. 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:36.920 I know, based on seeing some reactions to part one 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.760 of this series, that there are some real dust haters 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.600 in our audience, and so we may in fact here 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.319 from listeners who say no, no, no dust bunnies in 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.400 my house. They are there forbidden, and I do not 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:50.920 allow a single one to form. 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:53.520 All right, Well, that's it's a very Victorian mindset, as 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.320 we'll discuss here, so I don't think I have to 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.000 tell many of you what a dust bunny is, though, 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.080 as we'll discuss the terminology, there seems to be more 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.040 dominant terminology in different parts of the world, and I 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:10.480 wasn't able to find like a really exhaustive list, so 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.320 certainly I'm hoping to hear from listeners in other countries, 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.280 in other language traditions that have different terms for what 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:23.880 we're talking about here. These are vaguely animal shaped accumulations 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:26.680 of dust that one tends to find in hard to 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:31.400 dust places and corners of a home or other interior space. 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.400 A frequent place you may find these is, of course, 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:39.200 like under the bed, under and behind the dresser, places 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.440 where dust can accumulate for extended periods of time without 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.880 being noticed until you go in there looking for something, 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:50.000 or going in for a more detailed dusting of the room, 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.880 and you find something that has accumulated to the degree 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:55.840 that it is kind of vaguely animal shaped. 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.600 I must say that I find these accumulate with much 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:01.680 greater frequency if you have a dog. 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:05.440 Yeah, wow, yeah, I mean we have a cat. And 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.400 that certainly helps too, you know, because, as we'll be 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.079 discussing here, like, they are made out of the various 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.480 things that make up dust in your home, and pet 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:17.880 dand or pet hair is a large part of that 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:20.520 if pets are present or even have been present in 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:24.280 pat So I found that dust bunnies can be a 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:28.200 deceptively difficult topic to research, as they often garner nothing 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.400 more than just passing mention, even in books devoted to 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.200 the topic of dust. I didn't look in all of them, 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.240 but I didn't look in a couple of them. And yeah, 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.040 even in books devoted entirely to topics of topic of dust, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.280 you might not find much about them. So I suspect 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.400 that I'm not alone in turning up a few leads. 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.320 But there is some information out there. These accumulations have 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:53.960 been known by different names. Again, this is not an 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.520 exhaustive list, so let us know what you have come 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.160 to know them as. But in German tradition there are 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.640 often referred to as wool mouse or as it means 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:05.920 wool mouse, which I think is pretty good. You know, 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.280 looks it actually looks more like a mouse than a rabbit, 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:11.040 at least the ones I encounter. 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.720 Yeah, it's you know, you're more likely to find a 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:15.880 mouse than a rabbit inside your home. 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.600 Yeah, and you know, rabbits get rather big. Like when 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:20.760 I look into the backyard to check in the garden 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:22.920 and I see the prince with a thousand enemies back there, 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:28.320 he's kind of a chonker. I would be rather concerned 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.919 if I found a true rabbit sized dust bunny inside 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:32.320 the house. 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.160 Maybe you're supposed to think of baby bunnies or like 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.159 just maybe just the bunny's tail, a little cottontail. 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:40.200 Yeah. The other thing I was thinking is maybe it 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.160 has to do with like multiple clumps, and you can 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:44.000 be like, oh, it looks kind of like two ears 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:45.160 and a body or something. 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:47.920 That's right. So I think bunny kind of makes sense 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:51.039 because dust bunnies can be floppy. They can be almost 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:52.880 hinged in a way, if you know what I mean, 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.000 Like one part of them will fold over and they'll 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.359 flop around much like a rabbit's ears. 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.080 Now for this next one from English tradition, I do 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:02.839 want to warn everyone I am about to use a 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:07.960 word that has since this antiquated usage of the term 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:12.000 become more offensive. So you know, I don't skip a 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:14.960 few seconds of you. They're young listeners present, you don't 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:16.600 want to hear this word. And I also want to 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.839 throw a warning out there to any automated like spider 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:22.880 bots that are transcribing the podcast and then reporting back 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.520 to Apple Podcasts with inside about what we're talking about. 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.760 Please be advised antiquated use of the term here. So 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:32.719 with all that set up. In English tradition, they are 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:36.560 some They were sometimes known as sluts wool. This was 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.159 an antiquated use of that term that meant an unclean 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:41.600 or slovenly person. 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.360 So it was an unclean or slovenly person's wool, meaning 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.600 it it came from them like it was their wool 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.679 and descended to the floor, or it was like meant 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:55.279 for them like this is the wool they will use 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.680 to dress in and heat their bodies. 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:00.280 Uncertain, I guess it kind of. It also kind of 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.560 seems like, Okay, if you were busy, you would have 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.480 cleaned your home and you would have maybe produced actual wool. 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.479 I don't know, it's just kind of I guess wool 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.400 thought of as something that accumulates naturally in the context 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:16.159 of sheep, I'm not sure. I've also read it referred 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.480 to as Beggar's velvet, not to be confused with Beggar's 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.360 velvet that was also a blend of cotton and linen. 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.000 So you might find references to someone wearing a garment 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.960 made of Beggar's velvet, but they're not using a garment 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:31.039 made of dust bunnies. 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.240 Wouldn't it be funny though, if dust bunny based fabrics 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.600 became like the new hot item, Like, you know, you 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.000 have silk, you've got I don't know, angora or something, 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.080 and then you get the dust bunny. 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:46.839 I'm gonna pass on that one, but I don't know 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:48.960 if you use the next term for it, maybe because 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:51.599 the next term is house moss, and this one I 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:56.440 feel finally sounds a little less disparaging, you know, it 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.080 sounds like just something that accumulates naturally and is therefore 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.440 rather mundane. I mean, who has a vendetta against moss? 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.520 And then finally you'll find other uses such as dust kitten. 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.400 I couldn't find any information about this being anything. This 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.200 might be a more recent development where we want to 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.280 apply all things cat to things in our house, and 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.239 therefore think of it as a dust kitten, which certainly 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:19.200 does sound cuter. 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.080 Well, a dust bunny is prey, a dust kitten is 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:22.680 a predator. 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.200 Dust bunny, however, does seem to be the main US 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.400 English term for these accumulations of dust. As this is 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.680 household dust. It's generally composed of the same household components 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:37.200 that we discussed in the last episode, so things like 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:42.240 dead skin, hair, pet dander, lint, pollen, and so forth. 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:47.200 Dust mites may also reside within them, so I don't 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:51.080 think it's anything you necessarily want to form into a garment. 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.800 Not that I ever have any problem like touching the 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.480 dust bunnies of only scooping up something behind a dresser 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.000 that hasn't been moved in a while, but I also 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.240 find that I regard it rather differently than when compared 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.360 to dryer lint. Dryer lint always, to me, feels like 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.880 a like a sacred and holy substance that must be 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:13.760 removed from the machine. There's something kind of satisfying about 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.320 removing dryer lint that, especially when it comes off in 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:20.080 kind of like a clump or a patch, you know. 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.880 Yeah, when it comes out warm, Oh yeah, that really 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:25.520 emphasizes the holiness of it. 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:27.400 Yeah, it still goes straight in the trash. 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:31.880 But you know, I gotta say, dust bunnies came to 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:33.920 seem much more offensive to me. I mean that we 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.440 used to just have them around the house all the time. 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:38.360 I don't know if that's gross, but like, you know, 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:40.559 you'd see them and be like, oh, yeah, there's one 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.440 over there. Maybe I'll do something about it. Maybe not. 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:48.120 When you've got a young child who's like mobile, crawling 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:50.280 around on the floor and kind of putting whatever in 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.160 their mouth, then there's a sudden urgency to actually do 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.640 something about all these little critters piling up in the corners. 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.120 Yes, and pile up they do. Now, when you look 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.640 around for a detailed description on how dust bunnies form, 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:07.480 I found that some of the best explanations are not 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.760 really about explaining dust bunnies at all, but rather about 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.440 using them as a means to better understand accumulations of 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.480 cosmic dust and ultimately the formation of much larger bodies 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.920 in space. Sources on this include Richard Cowen's book History 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.080 of Life. I believe that's kind of like a long 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:30.320 standing like science textbook, kind of a situation. Also Formation 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:32.800 of Cosmic dust Bunnies, an article published in two thousand 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.920 and seven in the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science by 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:40.559 Matthews at All. John Hermann brought together some of these 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.960 sources for a twenty ten Gizmoto explainer, and there's also 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.559 a two thousand and nine Esquire explainer. But everyone is 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.160 pretty much circling around the same bundle of sources I find, 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.679 but still an insightful bundle of sources. So, whether we're 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.880 dealing with the formation of stars or the formation of 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.160 that epic dust bunny under your bed, it comes down 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:03.680 to the process of accretion. Now we've talked about this 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:05.720 in the show before, at least in the cosmic sense. 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:09.440 In the household sense, however, we'd be talking about a 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:14.320 very weak static electrical charge bringing together only the very 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:18.200 fine particles of dust, because you're not dealing with like 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.240 a you know, a cosmic void scenario. This is happening 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.200 under your bed. The rest of what's binding the dust 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:28.720 bunny together, it comes seems to come down to entangled 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:32.640 and matted fibers of the various components that make up 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:33.360 the bunnies. 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.600 Just based on my own observations, dust bunnies really do 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.520 seem to me to have a large hair component compared 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.160 to just the dust you'd find anywhere else in your house. 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:45.439 Yeah, and I think the hair is key. The hair 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.920 gets tangled, hair gets matted in these contexts. It's why 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.080 I also, if you're a cat owner and you're you know, 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:54.040 on the lookout for things like hair balls, dust bunnies 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:56.680 can also be instantly a little bit more alarming because 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.480 you're like, Okay, what what's the classification of this thing 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:01.520 I have found? They're like, Oh, it's just dust bunny. 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:05.400 Nobody is to blame except maybe me. Now, that giz 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.960 Moto explainer that I referenced earlier from Herman runs through 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.320 basically all this, But I thought that he has had 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.240 a really nice capper for the article, so I want 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.880 to read a quote from it. There are other minor 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:20.320 culprits like the cooking of fatty foods, which produces triglycerides 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.680 that can attach to dust particles, making them stickier. All 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:27.920 the causes, though, share one characteristic. They're subtle. It's either 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.800 electrostatic forces that are nearly impossible to measure, or air 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.920 flows that are impossible to feel, or fat deposits that 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:40.880 are unavoidable and unnoticeable byproducts of preparing. Basically any delicious 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:45.720 food actually make that two characteristics. Without dust, they can't exist, 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:50.439 So get cleaning. This is a very I thought, very 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:52.880 essential to note the airflow aspect of this, because I 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:54.800 think that's another thing you can observe in your home. 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.920 It's not only the places where dust isn't easily observed, 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.479 but also sort of the corners where like sweeping doors 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.640 and human traffic or pet traffic will sort of subtly 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:08.160 push everything together as well. 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.080 Yeah, the kind of tide pools of airflow in the home, 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.400 places where things just get deposited and left there after 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:28.160 the movement all around. Well, Rob, I want to go 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.640 from the cozy and domestic context of dust bunnies back 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:33.480 to something you mentioned a minute ago, which is the 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:38.440 cosmic context because I came across a very intriguing and 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:43.559 very cute hypothesis about the nature of a space object 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.280 that we have talked about several times on the show before, 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:47.960 and that is Omuamua. 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:50.440 Ah Yes, our old friend of Muhamoa. 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:54.760 So to briefly refresh, Omuamua is the name of a 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:59.199 fast moving object in space that was discovered in October 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:03.600 twenty seventeen through a ground based telescope and camera system 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:09.040 called pan stars one at the Haleaka Law Observatory in Hawaii, 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.480 and Omumua was big scientific news because it was the 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:19.480 first example ever confirmed of a physical object from another 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.880 star visiting our solar system, and scientists were able to 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.600 say with high confidence that it came from outside our 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:30.920 Solar system because of its speed and trajectory. So, your 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:35.120 standard asteroid or comet will will orbit our Sun in 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:37.679 a loop, and it might be a very elongated loop, 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.240 or it might be at a kind of tilted angle, 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.760 and its speed will tend to change as it goes 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.160 around this irregular orbit. Maybe it'll get faster as it 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.319 swings around the Sun and then slow down as it 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:52.240 gets farther away from the Sun in that loop. But 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.640 instead of orbiting our Sun in a loop, this object 0:13:56.240 --> 0:14:01.719 entered the Solar System going extremely fast angle nearly perpendicular 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.520 to the orbital plane of the planets. So if you 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:08.600 picture the planet circling the Sun on a basically flat disc, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.720 could this object hit the disc from the top and 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.840 then had its path sharply bent around by the gravity 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.839 of the Sun, and then continued on a course taking 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.080 it straight back out of the Solar System forever. And 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.920 the decisive factor showing that it was not from here 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:27.400 and would not be returning was speed. It had what 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.880 might be called a hyperbolic velocity, enough speed that its 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.000 path around the Sun if you zoom out, was clearly 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.080 not the tight end of an oval shape, but was 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:42.280 closer to a V shaped corner in a linear path, in. 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:43.520 Other words, just passing through. 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:48.240 Yeah. So, Omuamua got people excited for a number of reasons. 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.480 First of all, it was the very first of its kind. 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:55.880 Nobody had ever confirmed an interstellar object in our vicinity before, 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.760 though soon after its discovery we learned that it might 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:03.760 not actually be all that rare, because another interstellar object 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:07.920 called Borisov, a rogue comet this time, was spotted in 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:12.320 August twenty nineteen, and there are other indications since then 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.840 that this kind of thing might happen a lot. It's 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:17.600 just that Omumua was the first one we happened to 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.440 see it happened to catch now. Of course, one corner 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.200 of the Internet got very excited because, of course some 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.080 people thought it was aliens, right, this is an alien 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.680 probe or a techno signature of some kind. We looked 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.440 into these claims back in the day when people were 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.240 first publicizing them, and our judgment was that, you know, 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.160 there's nothing about Omumo that requires that conclusion, though it 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:44.560 did have some very odd and interesting features that require 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:49.400 some explanation. One of these features was its apparent shape. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.400 Omuamua seems to be shaped like almost nothing else we 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.320 know of in our solar system, and to be clear, 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.680 this shape is something we have to infer not able 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.720 to resolve an image of Omumua's shape directly. It's not 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.080 like we could zoom in close enough with a telescope 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.600 to see it like these pictures of asteroids we get 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.880 from like a probe that approaches really close, like the 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.160 image we got of the asteroid Binu from the Osiris 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.480 REX mission. You know that is a direct camera image 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.640 that we could get because we were close. Omuamua is 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.920 a point like source of light. It was far away 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:32.960 and very small. But by analyzing what's called a light curve, 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.560 which is the pattern of time based variations in the 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:40.560 intensity of light reflected off of the object, scientists can 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.120 put together a likely model or multiple likely models of 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.320 its shape, and according to what I've read, the best 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.120 models of its shape include either a sort of tumbling 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:55.760 elongated cigar shape or a tumbling flat disc. NASA's overview 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:58.960 of the object still leans toward the cigar shape, saying 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.440 that it is probably about four hundred meters long and 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:05.879 about ten times as long as it is wide, and 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.679 there's still some variation in those estimates. Like other sources 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.960 I've looked at the put the guess at it being 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:14.760 more like two hundred meters long and having a slightly 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:19.120 different length to with ratio. So there was a lot 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:23.080 of speculation about what this object is. Is it we 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.800 know it comes from outside the Solar System, but is 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.880 it an interstellar asteroid? Is it a rogue comet from 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.119 another star? Is it a shard of a planet that 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:37.200 got smashed to pieces? What is it another strange feature 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:41.240 of Muamua that seems to contribute to these the search 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.760 for an explanation as to its nature is its seemingly 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:50.560 anomalous acceleration. The object was caught going slightly faster and 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:52.960 faster as it moved away from the Sun, which is 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:57.439 characteristic of comets rather than asteroids. Comets, which have some 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.639 rock and dust content but are also largely made of ice, 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:05.280 can accelerate beyond the speed that would be predicted by 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:10.359 gravity alone by outgassing. When they get close to the Sun. 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.760 Comets heat up and the ice starts to melt. The 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.960 ice and the volatiles melt and they shoot out into space, 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.040 and this throwing of water and other volatiles into space 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.960 gives the comet an equal and opposite propulsive nudge, increasing 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:31.040 its speed. Omuama behaved basically as if it were receiving 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.240 this kind of cometary speed boost as it was flying 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:38.000 away from its closest brush with the Sun. But there's 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:42.199 a problem. When comets melt and outgas like this, we 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:46.919 can see it. They show a cometary tail, and Omuamua 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.440 did not show a cometary tail, and so this, by 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:52.359 the way, was one of the arguments of the people 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:56.119 claiming that it was aliens, that this strange combination of 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.800 observations showed that the object was an alien techno signature, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.959 basically a vehicle based on the principle of a solar sale. 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:07.480 And we again, we looked at that claim in more 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:10.639 depth years ago. Look up that episode to learn more 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.800 if you want. But we sort of agreed with the 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.399 skeptics that there's no reason to jump to the conclusion 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:19.520 of aliens yet. Maybe it's just a natural object with 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:21.160 some unusual features. 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.600 Yeah, I mean, it was an exciting question, to be sure, 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.679 and it got the public interested. But is it the 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:31.520 first question you should ask. Probably not, And again it 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:34.440 seems like they are far better explanations for what this was. 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:36.600 Right, So I'm about to get to one of those, 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:40.280 actually a couple, but in any case, it's weird and intriguing. 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.320 So it's an object that was from outside our solar system, 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.040 speeding up like a comet, but showing none of the 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.480 visible tale of gas and dust we would expect from 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:52.200 a comet. And that brings us back to the topic 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:55.960 at hand, the dust bunnies. One hypothesis that was put 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.879 forward to explain the observed behavior of Umuamua was this, 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.600 What if it's not really an asteroid or a comet 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:05.840 in the way we know? What if it is a 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:07.800 dust bunny from another star? 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:09.879 Dust bunnies from outer space? 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:13.800 Can your heart stand the shocking facts about dust bunnies 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.720 from outer space? So I want to mention a paper 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:23.159 called Omuamua as a cometary fractal aggregate the dust bunny model. 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.560 This was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters in twenty 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:32.640 twenty by Jane x lu Irich Fleckoy and Renaud Tousson. 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.879 In their abstract, the author's right, the first known intertellar object, 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:41.679 Omuamua displayed such unusual properties that its origin remains a 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:46.040 subject of much debate. We propose that Omuamua's properties could 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:50.640 be explained as those of a fractal dust aggregate. Parentheses, 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.560 a dust bunny formed in the inner coma of a 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.960 fragmenting exo ort cloud comet. So this would be a 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:04.200 comet coming from the sort of sphere of objects surrounding 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:09.159 another star, like the Sun's ort cloud. The authors go on, 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:15.800 such fragments could serve as accretion sites by accumulating dust particles, 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:20.360 resulting in the formation of a fractal aggregate. The fractal 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:25.560 aggregate eventually breaks off from the fragment due to hydrodynamic stress. 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:30.080 With their low density and tenuously bound orbits. Most of 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:34.919 these cometary fractal aggregates are then ejected into interstellar space 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.520 by radiation pressure. So for some more explanation on this 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:41.080 that would make better sense to a non specialist, I 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:45.240 came across an article in Popular Science which included illuminating 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:48.239 quotes from some of the authors of this paper. So 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.400 this article is called Omuamua isn't aliens, but it may 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.320 not be an asteroid either. This was by Charlie Wood 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:59.240 So according to this article. In February twenty nineteen, a 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:05.560 Space Telescope Science Institute astronomer named Amaya Moro Martin suggested 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:10.879 that the explanation for Omuamua's weird acceleration was perhaps that 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:15.200 it was unusually light weight, so less like an asteroid, 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.320 less like a space rock, and more like a space feather, 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:22.440 and this would make it possible for a natural object 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:26.200 to function more like a light sale to be significantly 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:30.960 sped up by radiation pressure from the sun. The sunlight 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:35.199 giving it a push. Scientists investigating this idea referred to 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:39.560 the model as a fractal aggregate. So aggregate, of course 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:43.359 means you know, a collection of smaller things. In the 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:47.159 words of the article, quote a fluffy conglomeration of dust 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:50.200 and ice grains, And the fractal part of that name 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:55.600 refers to a porous structure that repeats at different levels 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.320 of resolution. So if you zoom in or zoom out, 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:01.640 you would see similar patterns of holes and gaps in 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:05.840 this structure. Irich Fleckoy, a physicist at the University of 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:08.040 Oslo who was one of the authors of the dust 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:12.720 Bunny paper, said to Popular Science for this article quote, 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:15.440