WEBVTT - Listener Questions #24 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:11.320 If the Earth and Jupiter were to collide, what would happen? 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:12.719 How would we die? 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:17.040 Circadian rhythms are corrected using the Sun's light. If you 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.279 live at the bottom of the sea, how do you 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:19.960 get that right? 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.239 How big a planet could we use rockets to escape? 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:27.000 If we'd evolved on Jupiter, would we be planet down apes? 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.160 Whatever questions keep you up at night, Daniel and Kelly's 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:32.319 answers will make it right. 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.360 Welcome to Daniel and Kelly's Extraordinary Universe. 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:54.240 With an emphasis on Jupiter, it seems. Hello, I'm Kelly Wiersmith, 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:58.360 and I study parasites and space, and clearly Jupiter is 0:00:58.400 --> 0:00:59.120 the best planet. 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.240 Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, and yes, Jupiter 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:05.319 has the most particles of any planet. 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.760 And does that make it the best As a particle physicist. 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.000 It makes it the mostiest? I guess you know. I 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.839 think people underestimate, like how much of the Solar System 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:19.760 is just the Sun in Jupiter? Like mostly it's just 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.440 the Sun, and then you want to add Jupiter, all right, 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:23.959 to round it up to nine to nine point nine, 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.039 and everything else is just details. We're really just here 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:28.199 in somebody else's party. 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:30.560 Oh, man, that's a little it's a kind of a 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.679 bummer of a way to start our episode. 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:38.160 We are all insignificant, No, I think it tells you 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.680 something though, when you look at the depiction of the 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.040 Solar System and all the planets are like big, and 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:46.360 obviously it's not the scale, but it tells you something 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.560 about what we find important. Right, Clearly, we are important 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:51.800 in the Solar System. So we zoom up. It's like 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.440 that cover of the New Yorker where they show like 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.040 a map of the United States from the New York 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.200 City perspective, and it's like mostly Manhattan and then like 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.960 a few details and that's ridiculous and you laugh at it, 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:05.600 But that's exactly what we're doing about the planets, right. 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:05.960 Well. 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.880 But you know, on the one hand, we've known about 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.320 Jupiter for much less long than we've known about Earth, 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.240 and you know, we're here on Earth, makes it easier 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:17.200 to study. I'm going to go ahead and stand down 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.800 on defensive Earth and the Earth centered view of the world. 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:22.800 I'm the saying it's wrong. I'm just saying it reveals 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:26.120 something about our biases, right, the things we think should 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:26.960 be presented first. 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.560 I grant you that, but there's probably, you know, solar 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:32.960 systems that are bigger than ours, and maybe we shouldn't 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.000 even be talking about our solar system at all. And 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.000 where do you stop, Daniel, Where does it end? 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:42.560 It never ends, Kelly, There's no bottom to the philosophical 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:43.119 rabbit hole. 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:43.960 Oh my goodness. 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.480 But we love going down rabbit holes, especially rabbit holes 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:49.760 that you are interested in. So if you have a 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.400 question about the nature of the universe, or how something works, 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.720 or how little squishy critters make their lives, please write 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:57.959 to us with your question. We would love to answer 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:00.680 it here on the pod. And today we're answering three 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.040 super fun questions from listeners. 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:05.680 That's right, so let's start with our first question from. 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.200 Brad, A great question about Jupiter, of course. 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:13.400 Hello, Daniel and Kelly. I have a question about planetary collisions. 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.760 Jupiter is classified as a gas giant planet and is 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.160 known to sweep up many stray masses flowing through our 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.000 Solar system. If something were to happen to cause Earth 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.360 and Jupiter to collide, what would happen at impact? Is 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.000 the mass of Jupiter large enough to spaghettify Earth and 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.720 destroy us like a black hole? Or is the likelihood 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:32.920 of a direct collision too small, and Earth would just 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:35.400 be ejected from the Solar System if we become too close. 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.720 Or is the surfaces of Jupiter really a gas and 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.240 Earth would just pass into the inside of Jupiter and 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.160 basically be absorbed, and Earth would just coast through a 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.080 dense atmosphere of gases and would eventually hit a solid core. 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:49.360 Thanks Brad from League City, Texas. 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.080 So, Kelly, do you think Brad is a supervillain planning 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:54.000 to push Earth into Jupiter or threatened to? 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.520 You know, I did wonder about that when I was 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.040 listening to this question. I'm a little concerned, and you 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:02.320 know what, a little concerned in general now that this 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:04.360 is something you know on my radar to worry about. 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:06.920 And then too, I'm a little worried about Brad in particular. 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:10.800 A couple of red flags here. Yeah, I'm not sure 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.280 in his question if he's worried about this or excited 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.560 about it, He's like, let's do the experiment. 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:18.599 Yeah, yeah, hard to say, hard to say. Maybe we 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.799 shouldn't give him the answer m exact. 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.640 I worry about that. Like when the kid wrote to 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:26.200 me and asked me what it would take to blow 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:28.440 up Mars. I was like, hmm, should I really be 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:30.480 telling a ten year old how to destroy a planet? 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:32.839 Well, but on the other hand, you know, you hope 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.640 they don't wield that sort of power, didn't do anything 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:36.440 about the information. 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.360 Who knows what today's ten year olds will do in 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:40.479 twenty or thirty years. 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.400 Right, that's true, that's true, and you'll beat a blame, Daniel, 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:45.640 accept that blame. 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.840 But today we're here to answer Brad's question as a 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.640 hypothetical science question about something we hope will never happen, 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.120 which does reveal a lot of really interesting solar system physics. 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:57.040 So let's get into it. 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.200 And I think we should probably start with what is 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:03.039 spaghetification because that is clearly one of the best scientific 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.599 terms our community has ever come up with. 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.600 Absolutely. Spaghetification is usually used to describe what happens to 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:12.680 an object as it approaches a black hole, in that 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:15.720 you won't just fall in, you'll be torn apart into 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.599 spaghetti essentially before you actually fall into the black hole. 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.640 And this doesn't just happen around black holes. It happens 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.840 all the time in strong gravitational environments. In fact, it's 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.560 happening to you, right now, and it's happening to the moon. 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.400 It's the result of tidal forces. And the reason simply 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.560 is that the force of gravity depends on distance. So 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:37.880 if you're falling into a black hole or you're orbiting 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.600 a planet or whatever, and your feet are closer than 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.600 your head than your feet have a stronger gravitational force 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.599 on them than your head does, and effectively, that's a 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:49.680 force pulling your feet away from your head. And if 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:51.920 that force is strong enough, it will pull your head 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.240 off your body or your feet off of your head, 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:55.520 depending on your perspective. 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:57.159 I'm going to be honest here, I feel like you've 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.480 sort of de excitified spaghetti cation for me by being like, 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.440 it's just a kind of title force. It's like, what's happening. 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:04.520 To the moon. 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.279 And I'm like, oh, but I'm spaghetific. That's not what 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:08.400 I imagined in my head. 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:10.719 Uh, you're imagining some sort of black hole magic. 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.320 Yes, yes, I thought this was a specific black holy 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.680 thing and that spighetification really, you know, required you to 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:18.160 be thin like a noodle. 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:22.400 But okay, physics has been ruining things since fifteen eighty 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:23.080 four or whatever. 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.600 Oh, and what happened in particular in fifteen eighty four. 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.000 Daniel I just. 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.360 Made it that date. I was referencing one of Zach's comics. 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:33.599 I can't remember what year he had on this or 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:34.719 why he picked it. 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.280 I think it was supposed to be like Galleo's experiments 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.480 or Bacon or somebody like that. Anyway, the point is 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.599 that tidal forces are a thing. So if you approach Jupiter, 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.840 for example, then the difference in forces between one side 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:49.440 of your object and the other side of your object, 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:51.320 those are the tidal forces. And that's why we have 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.839 tides on the Earth, because the Moon pulls on one 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:56.760 side of the Earth more strongly than on the other 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:58.479 side of the Earth, making it a little bit of 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.039 a football, and the Earth it's the same thing to 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.680 the Moon, and that's why the Moon is locked in place. 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.320 It's called tidally locked because there's a little bit of 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:08.320 a football and it's hard for it to spin away 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:10.960 from having the point a bit of its football aligned 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:12.520 with the point a bit of the Earth's football. 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.200 Okay, but so Jupiter is much bigger than the Moon, 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:18.480 so is you know you said that when the force 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:20.360 gets hard it could like pop a head off. Is 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:24.960 Earth's metaphorical head gonna pop off towards Jupiter or is 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.120 it just gonna get like weird tides. 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.320 Yes, So there's a boundary called the Roche limit. If 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:32.520 you get closer than that, you get torn into pieces. 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:34.720 If you're further away from that, you don't. And that's 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.400 why some planets have rings and some planets have moons. 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:39.960 If your moon is further away than the Roche limit, 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:42.960 it stays together. Local gravity winds over the tidal forces. 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:44.880 If you get too close, then it gets torn apart 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.640 into a ring because the tidal forces overcome the internal gravity. 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.280 So that's the Roche limit. So what happens as the 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.200 Earth approaches Jupiter, Well, the roach limit for a solid 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.560 body like the Earth is actually inside the cloud tops 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.800 of Jupiter. Jupiter is a gas giant, and the outer 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.920 layer is like fifty kilometers of just clouds blow which 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.120 you have like gaseous hydrogen, and then liquid hydrogen, and 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.800 then this crazy helium neon rain, and then ocean of 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.600 metallic hydrogen before you get to the icy, rocky core. 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.720 So the Earth would sink into the clouds without getting 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.560 torn apart. It would get torn apart after it already 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:25.000 passes into the clouds. 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.960 Okay, So at that point we are closer to Jupiter 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.680 than Jupiter's rings. Right, So Earth's not going to become 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:33.840 like a ring of Jupiter. It's going to get torn 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.800 apart and then rain down on Jupiter. Is Jupiter the 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:38.520 planet that has the diamond rain? 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:45.280 I think that's Saturn. Ah, it is so disappointing thing. Yesh, Jupiter, yawn. 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.920 Come on, Jupiter, step up your game man. 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.120 All right. So now we have a collision of an 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.200 entire Earth, right, it's whole. It has not been pulled 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.880 apart by the tidal forces of Jupiter, and it hits Jupiter, 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.640 and Brad asks like, what's going to happen? And is 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:02.520 it going to pass in and be absorbed to hit 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.160 the solid core? And you're definitely not going to make 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.000 it all the way to the solid core because even 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.600 though Jupiter is a gas giant, it has like layers 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.479 and layers of hydrogen. That hydrogen is dense, and atmospheres 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:16.240 have friction. Even here on Earth, where atmosphere is pretty 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.960 low density compared to the Jovian atmosphere, you know, there's 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.080 re entry. If a rocket or an asteroid tries to 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:25.960 enter the Earth's atmosphere. There's a lot of friction from 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.680 the atmosphere and you get all this heat, and most 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:30.840 things that hit the Earth's atmosphere don't make it to 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.599 the surface. Same principle applies when the Earth hits the 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:37.360 Jovian atmosphere. Okay, and so what's going to happen is 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:39.520 you're going to compress the Jovian atmosphere, which is going 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:41.959 to heat it up, turn it into plasma, and that's 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:47.560 going to vaporize the crust and the mantle of the Earth. Yeah. Bad, 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.360 And so essentially a massive energy release. Here did a 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.560 little bit of the back of the envelope calculation, and 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.840 assuming that the Earth hits at like sixty kilometers per second, 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.600 which is, you know, fast but not super fast for 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:03.439 Solar system speeds, you're gonna release ten to the eighteen 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.040 megatons of TNT. Wow. And you might be like, I 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.040 don't know what that number means. Well, the Hiroshima explosion 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.840 was fifteen kilotons. This is ten to the eighteen mega tons. 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:18.920 So it's like so much bigger. And you know, I 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.640 mean the entire Earth is essentially a bomb, and a 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:23.800 lot of that mass is converted into energy. So it's 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.400 an enormous explosion. You're gonna get like a fireball rising 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.280 above the surface of Jupiter. It's gonna be much bigger 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.280 than the volume of the Earth. And you're gonna have 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.080 shock waves in the Jovian atmosphere which probably will last 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.440 for years. You may even leave a spot on Jupiter. 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:41.800 It's very unlikely you're gonna make it all the way 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.400 to the core because you've got lots of dense layers 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.719 before you get there. But yeah, it's gonna be a 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.640 huge impact. But remember Jupiter is huge compared to the Earth, Like, 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.920 it's so much bigger than the Earth that even though 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.360 this is an enormous amount of energy and would devastate 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.960 the Earth vaporized essentially, Jupiter is gonna mostly shrug it off. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.760 Oh man, that's a little insulting. Every human I've ever 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.679 known or loved disappears and Jupiter's like, eh, okay. Well, 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:10.840 so say at this point, when this happens, we have 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.480 a self sustaining settlement on Mars. If the Martians were 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.480 like in the right position, could they see this or 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:22.359 would the act of Jupiter moving towards Earth have destroyed 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.200 Mars on the way or thrown Mars off orbit. This 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:28.040 is probably unfair. It's a totally different question. But am 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:29.280 I asking you anyway? Daniel? 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:31.360 Oh? I see well, I was imagining that the Earth 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.000 is getting tossed into Jupiter. Read when Jupiter is like 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.600 bullying its way into the inner Solar system. Oh okay, 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:38.679 so the Martians have a nice view of Earth shooting 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.920 by and then they yeah, they could watch Jupiter as 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.240 it gets impacted. In fact, we had ringside seats to 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.440 a similar event in the nineties. 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:47.880 And I think you told me that you were at 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.480 a telescope watching that, right, Yeah, I. 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.640 Had a super fast camera hooked up to a telescope 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.800 to watch this collision. This is in the mid nineties 0:11:55.880 --> 0:12:00.520 comet Shoemaker Levee impacted Jupiter and created all these fireballs. 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:02.560 Now the comet not nearly the size of the Earth, 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.920 of course, but still very very dramatic. And what happened 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:07.960 is that this comet, which used to be orbiting the Sun, 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:10.840 got captured by Jupiter. So now it was orbiting Jupiter 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:13.680 sometime in the sixties and in the early nineties it 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.640 passed very close to Jupiter, so Jupiter tore it apart. 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.680 It went within the roch limit, not actually within the clouds. 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.160 The roach limit weirdly and confusingly depends on the object, 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:25.840 Like if you're made out of diamond, then your rochal 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:27.840 limit is much closer. You have to get much closer 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:29.400 to get torn apart than if you're made out of 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:33.360 like cotton candy. Right, And so this comic got torn 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:38.240 apart into twenty one pieces, which they labeled ABCD all 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:39.640 the way up to w NASA. 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:41.920 Very creative, of course they did. That was an opportunity 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:44.520 for creativity. So they had to pass it by and. 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:46.760 Then it's swung around one more time, and over six 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.400 days in nineteen ninety four, each piece took turns smacking 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.319 into Jupiter. Wo really amazing, and everyone on Earth was 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.559 like turning their telescopes to it and watching these pieces hit. 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.200 And the biggest spot is the one where the g 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.199 fragment hit, and so you can imagine what that spot 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:02.920 might be called. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.760 I was just thinking that, but this is a children's show. 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.240 Exactly, and created a huge dark spot. There was a 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.000 fireball and a dark spot the width of the Earth. 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:13.240 Wow. 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:15.240 Right now, this fragment is a piece of a comet, 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.360 which is tiny compared to the Earth, but it created 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:19.599 a big spot the size of the Earth that was 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.480 visible for a year. So we've seen this kind of 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.840 impact much smaller, So essentially you just scale this up 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.600 much more dramatically, but still small compared to Jupiter. 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:30.960 Amazing. I wish I had watched them. That wasn't on 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.160 my radar because I didn't have amazing friends like you 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.480 back then. You wouldn't have let me go astray. But 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:37.160 that's all right. 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:39.680 I was in college at the time, and I was 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.560 home over the summer doing a research project on plasma physics, 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.199 and we had a super fast camera that we were 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.280 using to image what happened when you drop a little 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.800 pellet of fuel into the fusion plasma. And the guy 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.200 I worked for also had a telescope and he was like, 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.280 let's point this thing at Jupiter. So he connected the 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:58.520 camera to the telescope, pointed to Jupiter, and we had 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.240 one of the fastest digital cameras around at the time 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.560 for scientific applications, so we were hoping to have like 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:08.080 the highest time resolution photographs of this impact. But just 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:10.480 as the impact was going to happen, it went over 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.800 the horizon, so we got pictures of the fireball rising 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.959 over Jupiter, but not the impact itself. But it was 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:17.840 a lot of fun anyway. 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.720 So wait, this was ninety four though, is that right? 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:21.400 Yeah? 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.440 Okay, so I was twelve, so I probably I was 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:29.000 listening to Silverchair and I didn't care about anything other 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:29.800 than Silverchair. 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:32.560 So important stuff, important. 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:34.160 Stuff, ohs that way, at the time, the rest of us. 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:36.840 Were learning about the future impact of Earth on Jupiter. 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.880 But you know whatever, Well, I was having a good time, 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.800 so I wouldn't change it for anything, all right. Brad 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.280 asked if there was any chance we'd get ejected from 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.680 the Solar system, But you didn't mention that as a 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.560 as an option, so that's not something that would happen. 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:54.480 It could happen, It depends on how accurately Brad and 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:58.119 his supervillain team aim the Earth at Jupiter. One possibility 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:00.480 is it hits Jupiter right. Another possibility is that it's 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.000 captured and orbit Jupiter. And this has happened to a 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:04.840 bunch of stuff. We think that many of the moons 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.960 of Jupiter didn't form with Jupiter but were captured by 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.720 it later. But it's a little bit unlikely because for 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:12.360 that to happen, you have to be only at the 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.240 right angle and the right velocity at the right location 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.520 to get the orbital mechanics to work out. So more 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.120 likely you're either going to hit Jupiter or you're going 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:23.160 to get ejected from the Solar System because you're going 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.520 to have a gravitational interaction with Jupiter, which is then 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:27.480 going to throw you out of the Solar System. 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.280 All right, well, one way or another. I think someone 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.960 should be keeping a close eye on Brad and let's 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.360 see if our answer changes Brad's mind about whether or 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:39.480 not this is a good idea. 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.360 Daniel and Kelly, I absolutely love this response. I assure 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.320 you that I am not a supervillain and have no 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:48.240 plans to destroy the planet. It sounds like we would 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.120 get to watch as we pass into the gas cloud 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:52.760 layer before we heat up and explode. I like to 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:54.880 know that we would at least have a little impact 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.400 on Jupiter. I think all we need to know now 0:15:57.760 --> 0:15:59.640 is where Michael Bay wants to set up the camera 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:01.480 to catch it's the greatest collision of all the time. 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:03.000 Thanks for all y'all do. 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.600 All right, we're back and we're answering questions from listeners. 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:28.000 Now we're going to take a break from Jupiter themed 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:32.200 questions and think about sleeping. Here's a wonderful question from 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.400 one of our Discord listeners. And if you're not on Discord, Colm, 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:37.640 join us on our Discord channel. We have lots of 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.720 fun conversations about science. We answer questions on there, other 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.720 people answer questions on there. We have wonderful moderators to 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.560 keep it a really happy fun family. Colm, join us 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:48.640 for science chats on Discord. You can find a link 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.200 on our website. Anyway, here's the question from our listener. 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:57.280 In the episode about sleeping dreams, the topic of circadian 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:01.040 rhythms in various animals came up. I was curious how 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:04.119 circadian rhythms work in animals that never see the sun, 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:08.320 like cave dwellers or various deep sea creatures. Thanks for 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:10.280 taking the question, looking forward to the answer. 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:15.240 Bye, all right, t to the j on Discord. I 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:17.960 gotta say, you know, this question came in and I thought, 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.960 all right, circadian rhythms. I'm a biologist. I should be 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:23.720 able to knock this answer out pretty quick. I don't 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.520 know anything about circadian rhythms. It turns out, oh no. 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:28.440 This was biology is a big field. 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.960 That's what I'm saying, but I really enjoyed the opportunity 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.240 to get to dig into circadian rhythms again. This is 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:36.800 one of the things I love about the questions we 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.119 get from listeners. There's so many things I thought I 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:40.960 understood and then they give me a chance to dig 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:45.200 into them, and I learned so much. So uh, circadian rhythms. 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:49.720 Circadian comes from the words circa diaz, which means approximately 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:51.480 a day. And I'm you know, I don't know, maybe 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:53.960 that's Latin. I probably pronounced it wrong, but you all 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:55.480 know what I'm saying. So it's all right. We're good 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:57.760 and nobody expects me to pronounce things right at this point. 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.480 That's not what they're here for, Kelly, is not. 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:05.119 What you're here for. So circadian rhythms are like internal 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.560 rhythms that happen on an approximately twenty four hour cycle, 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.520 and they're entrained or they're sort of like synced up 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:15.760 based on outside signals like light. 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.080 But why do you say approximate? I mean, the earth 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.520 cycle is pretty crisp. Wouldn't we do best being closely 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:24.760 linked to it? Why are you saying approximate? 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.080 Because you know it's just not perfect and some people 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.400 have cycles that are a little bit longer than twenty four. 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:32.160 Some people have cycles that are a little bit shorter 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:34.560 than twenty four. We think this contributes to why some 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:36.879 people are mourning people and some people are night people. 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:41.640 And then if you're talking about organisms other than humans, 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.040 you can get some other slightly different sorts of signals 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:45.760 that are approximately twenty four hours. 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:48.800 So then what parts of the human body are affected 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.359 by it? Obviously you sleep in this sort of twenty 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:53.920 four hour cycle. Is there other stuff going on also? 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.760 Yeah, lots of things. So like sleep is important, metabolism 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:02.119 is also important. Like your body temperature is impacted by 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:03.200 circadian rhythms. 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:05.359 Right, metabolism, So that is that why I shouldn't eat 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:06.560 chips at ten pm? 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.960 That could partly be it or be involved. I think 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.600 cortisol is to some extent involved in helping with digestion 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.320