WEBVTT - Flares from Infinity: Sagittarius A* Part 2 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:04.960 Welcome Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of I 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:13.920 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, you welcome to Stuff 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:15.960 to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:18.400 I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part two of 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:23.480 our exploration of Sagittarius, a star, the compact radio source, 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:27.000 the supermassive black hole we think at the center of 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.600 the Milky Way galaxy. Yeah, this is uh so, so, 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:32.839 as we mentioned in the last episode, we had what 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.000 three episodes we've done previously just on black holes in general, 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:39.040 and in these two episodes deal with supermassive black holes 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.720 more specifically. Uh and uh yeah, So if you're listening 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.320 to this episode, you do need to have at least 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:50.280 listened to the previous supermassive black hole episode. But I 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.320 think the supermassive black hole episodes are are are tailored 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:57.400 to stand on their own without necessarily having listened to 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.480 the previous black hole episodes. In either case, it is 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.800 recommended that you have seen either Walt Disney's The black 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:07.399 Hole or Event Horizon, so they have a proper basis 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:09.680 for all of our terrible jokes. Which one of those 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.280 two is more kid friendly? You think, Oh, blow. I 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.240 think it's the Disney movie, but the Disney movie is 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:20.280 also surprisingly dark. Like, uh, Anthony Perkins is eviscerated by 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.920 a killer robot um Like this is awful scene where 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.000 Maximilian the robots coming at him with the spinning blade 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.160 arm and he holds up like a giant dictionary to 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:32.880 block it, and he like cuts right through the dictionary 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.840 and uh and you know, apparently like just disembowels Anthony Perkins. 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.640 It cuts out the definition of in trails. Well you 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:41.760 don't see any in trails, but it's still pretty horrific. 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.399 There's some scary moments in it. But I loved it 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:46.000 as a kid. I really need to sit down and 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.680 watch it again. Now, speaking of a visceration, we're gonna 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.040 be talking about some somewhat violent events going on around 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.680 a black hole, or at least they presumed black hole today. 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.960 And one thing we promised you last time is that 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.760 we would answer a few questions every You've always wanted 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:02.600 to know about the supermassive black hole at the center 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.640 of the galaxy, but we're afraid to ask. And one 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.040 of the questions people most often ask about black holes. 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.840 If you're ready to jump right in robert Is. With 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.200 this big supermassive black hole at the center of the 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.760 Milky Way, will the rest of the Milky Way, including Earth, 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.840 one day gets sucked into this black hole? And I 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:23.520 was trying to find a good answer for this. I 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.079 think the short answer is no, or at least that's 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.920 not a given. All evidence indicates that, of course, the 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:32.920 Milky Way does have this supermassive black hole at its center. 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.160 The galaxy is sort of orbiting around it, or at 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.560 least roughly orbiting around it, But our Solar system is 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.200 in a stable orbit that is pretty far out. It's 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.960 something like light years away from the galactic center. And 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:51.560 black holes, even unbelievably giant black holes, still basically behave 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.480 like stars until you get really close to them. They're 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:59.720 not vacuum cleaners just sucking down the entire universe. You know. 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.240 They're objects traveling through space with a gravitational attraction that 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.480 is a product of their mass and your distance from them, 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:09.679 and like other objects, if you're far enough away, they're 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:14.080 gravitational attraction is negligible. So we've got no indication that 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.600 there is a risk of a black hole swallowing our 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.040 Solar system or the Earth or the rest of the 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.240 Milky Way. But of course, if anything as massive as 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.959 a black hole pass near our Solar system, I think, 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:28.040 I mean that that would be a problem. It might 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.839 not swallow our Solar System, but it's gravitational influence could 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.600 alter the orbits of the planets, which would be not good. Obviously, 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.320 life on Earth depends very heavily on us being where 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.200 we are relative to the Sun and other objects in 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.839 the Solar System staying where they are. You don't want 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.520 to say the orbits of comets and other objects like 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:49.839 that thrown out of whack, because then that can lead 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.320 to interplanetary bombardment. Yeah. I think the fact that a 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.840 black hole is an object is something that we do 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.840 have to come back to again and again because especially 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.320 with science fiction treatments, especially those especially the Disney black Hole. 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:04.760 So you know, there's this idea of like thinking of 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.720 it as a whirlpool it's a hungry, hungry hippo, yeah, 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.400 or thinking of it as a tunnel or just an 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:17.200 open like some of these you know, these analogies. They 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:18.960 they may be useful to a certain extent. It gives 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.400 us something to picture in our mind, but it kind 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.320 of drifts away from the idea that this is an object. 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:28.039 This is a highly dense thing, and now, of course 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.920 in the region really close to it, it doesn't behave 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:34.040 like most other objects too. But once once you get 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:36.279 farther away, I would say that the ways in which 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.120 it is unique become less relevant to you. Does that 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:43.160 make sense? Yes? Now, Um, you touched on some of this, 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:45.960 but but I was looking around like, Okay, what is 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:50.200 the scenario in which the supermassive black hole at the 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:55.000 center of our galaxy uh could conceivably destroy us? And 0:04:55.040 --> 0:05:00.480 that there is one very strong possibility. So and we've 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.120 mentioned that our system is again in a stable orbit 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:07.640 around the galactic center. Um, we're not being pooled pulled 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:12.000 into Sagittarius M A star. But in four point five 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:16.800 billion years, the Milky Way galaxy will likely merge with 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:21.360 the Andromeda galaxy. And when this happens, all bets are off. 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:25.039 It's possible that everything gets pushed around, gets shuffled around, 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.039 and our solar system then could be gulped up or 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:33.880 just hideously disrupted by Sagittarius A star in the process. This, 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.800 according to Fabio Pacucci, b Hi Fellow at Harvard University 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:41.640 and Clay Fellow at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He has 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.839 a wonderful ted Ed video about this. So if you 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:46.839 just go to if you go to YouTube and you 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.200 look up, just look up ted Ed in general, because 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.000 they're great educational short form videos to watch with the 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.720 entire family. We watch them all the time in my household. 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.240 But they have an extra excellent one about black holes 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.320 that Fabio is the contributor for. Yeah, now, when we 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:05.200 talk about the collision of galaxies, maybe someday we could 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.920 do a whole episode just on the upcoming collision between 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.600 the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy because yeah, so 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.479 they're on a collision course. Uh. On one hand, that 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.919 sounds like, okay, so that's just the end of everything, right, Actually, 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:21.080 I think not necessarily, because you have to remember, well, 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:23.880 you know there is a lot of space in between stars, right, 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:26.440 you know, there's there's a lot of space for things 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.279 to go by. But one of the big fears I 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.400 think is not necessarily that like Earth will smash directly 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.520 into a star from Andromeda or something. That the fear 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.520 is about gravitational disruption. Right, things moving past each other 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:44.080 in space can still have a perturbation effects on on stars, 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.159 on the planet's orbiting stars, on the objects and junk 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:51.040 in space all around stars. Well, none of that's good. Yeah, 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:52.360 I mean it's kind of like, and this is a 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.719 terrible analogy, I'm sure, but it's like, if two companies merge, 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:00.480 your your concern is not that, you know, if you're 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:02.839 an editor at one company and you emerge with another company, 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.320 you're not concerned that there's another editor over there that 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.200 you're just going to smack into so hard that you 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:12.160 both explode. No, you're worried about redundancies. You're worried about 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:16.440 reshuffling of titles and priorities, etcetera. Which you know, all 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:20.640 of that can be can can certainly be catastrophically disruptive 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.040 to your life. Um, but you're not worried about, you know, 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.720 like physically, you know, exploding or you know, melting into 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:30.800 them like Ron Silver and time coop. So I guess 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.320 that is possible. I mean, whenever things drift past each 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:35.880 other in space, there's always a potential for a collision. 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.600 It's just you know that that's not necessarily the thing 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:40.280 you should be worried about. I think the bigger thing 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.560 would be, Yeah, do you get thrown out of place? 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:45.720 You get thrown in? You getting thrown into the near 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.480 orbit or towards the black hole would obviously be bad 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.320 and and catastrophic in its own right for sure. Alright, 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.080 So the next big question that that you might be 0:07:56.080 --> 0:08:00.680 wondering about. Could intelligent life forms live of and or 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:06.080 operate in orbit around a supermassive black hole, specifically our 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:10.200 supermassive black hole? Uh? You know, how would this factor 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:13.880 into a like a galactic civilization? Yeah? Or in the 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.320 in the galaxy center more generally, right, can you get 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:20.440 close to the galaxy center and have life there? This 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:25.760 seems debatable, right, Like, So there are some scientists who 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.160 think that just the way solar systems have a habitable 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:33.400 zone for planetary orbits, the galaxy as a whole has 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.439 some kind of habitable zone for star systems. Now in 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.200 star systems, of course, this habitable zone has temperature as 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:45.319 a primary variable, right, And this depends on the radiation 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.760 coming off of the parent star and how far away 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.760 that planet is from the star. So if your planet 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.640 is too close it's too hot to have liquid water, 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:57.320 you'd be something like mercury, or could be a hot 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.360 gas planet too far away, it's too cold to have 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.440 liquid water. You might be like Jupiter or Saturn, And 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:05.880 it's generally believed that liquid water is sort of a 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:08.240 prerequisite for life, or at least the kind of life 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.720 that we understand. Could it be the galaxies as a 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.560 whole have zones kind of like this where life is 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:20.200 statistically more likely to emerge, thrive, and survive than in 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.839 other zones of the galaxy. Some scientists have proposed this. 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:29.120 And if that is the case, what characterizes this zone? Uh? 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.480 First of all, if the proponents of the idea of 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.520 a galactic hapitable zone are correct, the zone of the 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:37.240 galaxy most suitable for life would tend to be a 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:41.520 sort of wide ring around the center of the galaxy, 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.680 so not farther out in the galactic halo, not not 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.800 way out there, but also not deep in the middle 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:51.960 near the galactic center. Now, why would this region be 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:56.240 potentially better to live in than say, the galactic center. Uh? 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.880 Just the short and basic version of your main consideration 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.280 here would be first of all, conditions that give rise 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.920 to life, and then the conditions that can sustain life. 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.800 So to give rise to life, we assume you need 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.600 first of all, terrestrial planets with stable orbits, right, and 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.400 and this means solar systems with a moderate amount of 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:18.680 metal in them. If you've got a solar system that's 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.120 like mostly hydrogen and doesn't have much that looks like 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.559 it could turn into rocky terrain, that probably means you're 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:27.560 not going to have life forms at least as we 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:33.160 understand them. But this isn't the primary concern for our question. Uh. 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.960 A big one for our question would be conditions that 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:41.000 can sustain life, Like how often or how intensely would 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.840 a planet in a given region be subjected to outside 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:50.040 damaging influences. Examples of this could be radiation from violent 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:54.520 nearby phenomena their stars. Uh, you know, violent things going 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.439 on Obviously nearby supernova would be a huge problem. If 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.040 a star anywhere near I you goes supernova, it will 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:06.040 blast your planet and could potentially sterilize it. Uh. The 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:10.360 near passage of of other massive objects like stars or 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:14.120 black holes is a huge issue that could potentially disturb 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:18.520 planetary orbits or bring about a bombardment of terrestrial planets 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.240 by comets and other junk from space. So like, if 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:23.840 something passes through your Solar System, and it's really heavy. 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.400 It will disturb these commetary orbits and then suddenly, you know, 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:29.800 things that haven't been hitting your planet for a long 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.680 time suddenly are This even makes me think about the 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:37.240 Lisa Randall dark matter and the dinosaurs hypothesis. I can't 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.120 remember if we ever talked about that on the show, 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.640 but basically her idea was that, you know, it's possible that, uh, 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.960 some extinction events in Earth's history are correlated to Earth's 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:51.320 passage through a region of the galactic plane where dark 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.640 matter is concentrated, and the extra gravitational influence of that 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:59.720 dark matter along that plane, uh disturbs the orbits of 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:02.480 some objects in the Solar System and makes you know, 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.800 the Earth get bombarded by stuff or maybe influences. I 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.240 can't remember. I think it was mainly comments she was 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:10.600 talking about, but maybe it was also vulcanism. I didn't 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.000 actually read the book, but I remember reading articles about 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.280 it when it came out. It seemed interesting. Maybe we'll 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.160 have to come back and take a look at that someday. Yeah, 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:21.040 that sounds frightening. I don't know whether that theory is 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.920 widely believed to to you know, have credence or not. 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.560 But but generally, if something disturbs the gravitational field of 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:30.680 your of your star system, that can be really bad 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.240 for anything living there. Yes, and so there are a 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.760 lot of variables at play, but generally these kinds of 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.480 dangerous conditions, like being subjected to more intense or more 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:45.719 frequent radiation or radiation events, and more more frequent disturbances 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.080 of gravity by large objects, that's going to be more 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.520 likely in densely packed regions of a galaxy, like closer 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.560 to the galactic center. The higher the density of nearby 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.120 stars and other stuff, the more dangerous there are. And 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.880 a very crude analogy is you're more likely to have 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.520 some kind of auto accident or mishap on a busy 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.679 city street than on some empty country road. Right, Yeah, 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:10.600 they're just well there's you know, there's just more going 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:13.360 on there. But then again, I do want to say 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:15.640 it seems like a lot of the writing about galactic 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:19.680 habitable zones is subject to ongoing criticism and dispute. Uh, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.400 it does seem clear that there are at least some 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:26.400 risks to life associated with moving closer to the galactic center. 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.719 But you know where exactly this habitable zone of a 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.920 galaxy would be if it in fact is true that 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.280 some regions of the galaxy or on average more habitable 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.880 than others. I think that's highly disputed. So this is 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.280 not settled science. Alright, We're gonna take a quick break. 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:43.480 When we come back, we have a little more information 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:48.240 about just how chaotic and destructive uh, the inner reaches 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.880 of the galaxy seem to be, and then we'll move 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:55.880 on to some other possibilities for uh, extraterrestrial activity in 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.800 the inner galaxy. All right, we're back, all right, So 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:03.400 we were just talking about this question of like, could you, 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.160 you know, could you tend to find life for intelligent 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.480 life forms in orbit around a central supermassive black hole 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.360 in our galaxy or in the galactic center more generally, 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.160 would you expect to see something like that? Would it 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.480 be a survivable region? And and it uh, it seems 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:20.560 like this is not fully settled, but we were discussing 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:25.240 some potential risks of living in the galactic center. Yes, 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:27.440 I was looking around for some more details on this, 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:29.560 and this brought me as questions like this often due 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:33.720 to Centauri Dreams, which is a wonderful space website and 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:36.560 I was reading a blog post by the writer Paul 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.840 Gilster of The Planetary Society, in which he looks to 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.720 the work of Sergey n Action at Leicester on the 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.600 idea that the doughnut shaped dust clouds obscuring half of 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.200 supermassive black holes might be the you know, the result 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:56.120 of crashes between planets and asteroids occurring at a thousand 0:14:56.160 --> 0:15:00.760 kilometers per second speeds, pounding everything into micros copic dust. 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.520 So it's a realm of you know, of a violent 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.560 collision high radiation. But he points out that while those 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:09.840 planets are doomed, you know anything, actually any of the 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:13.160 planets actually in that region or potentially doomed, the resulting 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.480 dust blocks harmful radiation from all of this chaos from 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.600 reaching the rest of the galaxy, the host galaxy. That's interesting. 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.520 I mean, yeah, we were talking in the last episode 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.960 about how dust clouds obscure the galactic center from our 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.440 point of view, like it's harder to do astronomy looking 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.320 towards the galactic center. I mean, I would imagine that 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:34.560 brightness has something to do with it. But also, yeah, 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.240 the dust blocks our view and does significant dimming. It 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.400 causes many magnitudes of extinction to the sources coming from 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:43.680 that direction. But we do have methods of looking that 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.560 way now, and we can do astronomy focused on the 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:48.440 center of the galaxy, I think, you know, due to 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.000 stuff like looking at infrared and X rays. I was 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:54.440 also looking around, uh and found some writings on this 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.600 from Phil Plate of Bad Astronomy, always a great read 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:00.560 on space related topics, and he points out in some 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:05.520 galaxies called active galaxies, gas and dust fall into the 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:07.800 yawning black hole at the center of the galaxy, forming 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:12.040 a disc of material sometimes hundreds of light years across. Again, 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:14.120 this here is going to be a realm of high temperatures, 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.800 high radiation, and intense light that outshines the rest of 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.480 the galaxy, and that would mirror some of the phenomenon 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:22.560 we were talking about in the last episode, where yeah, 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:25.920 like you've got like this quasar or something super powerful 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.400 in the middle of the galaxy that just sort of 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.480 like you know, it sort of is the galaxy, right, 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.200 But fortunately, the Milky Way galaxy is not an active galaxy. 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.760 It's a quiescent galaxy, so it's not quite the cosmic 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.880 forge we find in other galaxies where you know, it's 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:46.040 just super intense. It is to a certain extent slumbering, 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.680 and we're able. I mean, I keep coming back to 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.720 the idea of their just being like an awful, all 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:55.960 powerful eldric deity the center of the cosmos, and we're 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.840 just lucky that it's that we're in a cosmos. It's 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.360 a little worn out and take in a lengthy slumber. 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.640 I think at the end of the last episode you Were, 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.359 You Were, you sort of fought against the idea of 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.000 thinking of black I know, I don't want to think 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:10.840 of a black hole as being you know, and this 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.160 has his off figure, but it's hard and it's hard 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.439 not to when we used to read things like this. 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.120 So I guess we've been looking at answers for mostly 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.160 like no, we're looking at the idea of the inner 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:26.320 galaxy is a place where you're probably not encountering um, 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:30.280 you know, planets where life is evolved. There. There are 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.199 a lot of risks in the galactic center because you know, 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.120 the things are more densely packed. There's probably more radiation risk, 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.080 probably more gravity disturbance risk. But at the same time 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:42.040 there are more stars. You might just get more chances 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.040 for things to evolve there. So it's it's like I 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.600 was saying, it's not settled science, but you can point 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:49.520 to some things going on there and say it looks 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:53.240 like there are are risky phenomena near the galactic center. Now, indeed, 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.639 if we are dealing with habitable zones and uh, you know, 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.280 uninhabitable zones of the galaxy, one thing to keep in 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:04.479 mind is that technology can potentially change things. Like just 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.840 look to our solar system. Yes, Earth is the like 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.520 it's it's the bowl of porridge. That's just right. But 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:13.919 we've discussed on the show plenty of times that you know, 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.359 there are plans, there are ideas and concepts where with 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:22.600 sufficient technology, humans could live on Mars, they could live 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.399 in the clouds of Venus. Even here on Earth we 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.720 have a neutrino observatory at the South Pole. You know, 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:32.760 we've got or at least yeah, deepen Antarctica. That's not 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.520 a place that's inhabitable by mammals. So you know, so 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:41.280 like we we have found technological ways of overcoming the 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.920 environmental limitations imposed by the universe. And you can see 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.119 that even without us leaving our host planet. So you know, 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.600 if you can build a research station on the South Pole, 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.960 where no mammal like us should be able to survive 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:55.520 if you can potentially build it. Oh, if you can 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:57.720 build an I. S. S. Yeah, and live out in space. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:01.919 Yeah you can imagine. Okay, just extra appellate that up. However, 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.800 many orders of magnitude of whatever scale you're talking about 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:09.600 to our power to live beyond our original organic means. Yea. 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:11.680 So we have to come back to something we've discussed 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:15.040 in the show before, sort of a propose technological ladder 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.600 to um to godhood if you will. The Cardassie of 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:22.200 scale an old favorite. Yes, so you got you got. 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.359 Basically you've got type one, Type two, and type three, 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:28.240 and you know, I've also seen people discuss the possibility 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:30.120 of the type four. But a Type four is so 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:32.200 far beyond where we are now it's almost not even 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:34.520 worth thinking about. Well, I'd say even like type three 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.880 is hard to imagine what that would look like. Uh, 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.280 you know, we've got more like science fiction that kind 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.760 of deals on the realm of one and two. Yeah, 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.840 so we're not even type ones yet. Time close. Yeah, 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:50.520 Type A Type one civilization, the cardassi of scale should 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.879 be capable of harnessing all the energy of their planet, 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:55.960 because basically that's what the scale is about. It's about, 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:00.639 you know, civilization's ability to to harness in yeah, to 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:03.040 take what's there in the universe and turn that into 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.080 the ability to do work. Now, of course that doesn't 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:08.400 necessarily mean work, like it's hard to do. That could 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:10.720 be you know, operating the video game systems of the 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:14.720 future or whatever to turn it into usable energy. Right. Yeah. 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:17.320 So so again we're not type one yet. If we 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:20.760 could harness all the power, all the energy of our planet, 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:23.679 we would be type one. The next step is is 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:25.919 a is a type two in which a civilization has 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:30.960 become masters of their own star, essentially solar solar system 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:35.479 level power. And then that type three, which is an 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:39.199 an enormous step. Then from from from step to tow 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.240 a step three civilization has the power of an entire 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.600 galaxy at its disposal. That's hard to imagine, it is, 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:48.639 It is very difficult to imagine it. It It gets so 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.520 difficult to imagine it's almost ridiculous to try and think 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.840 of what is beyond that, you know, uh, and and 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.160 so most of our contemplations deal with one, two and three. 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.200 Most deal with one and two. So level one and 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:04.320 two on the Kardaship scale would theoretically have access to 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:08.480 technology we refer to as a Dyson sphere, named for 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:13.639 theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson, and these are essentially means of 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:17.040 surrounding a power source and harvesting all of its energy. 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:19.560 There are different varieties of this. You don't need to 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:22.960 necessarily think of a hard sphere, um though I love 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:24.800 too because it should pops up in that episode of 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.080 Star Trek. But it could also be you know, more 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:29.000 like a dice in cloud. It could be you know, 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:33.840 satellites surrounding something and absorbing its energy. Um. So it's 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:38.520 maybe oversimplified, but the classic example would be just surrounding 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.560 the Sun with something like solar panels, so you get 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:43.359 all of the energy out of it. You can just 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:46.560 sort of like release the waste exhaust outside and and 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:49.760 use everything the sun can give you. Yeah, the still 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:52.399 suits of Dune are sort of like Dyson spheres for 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:56.800 human sweat, you know, for human moisture. Don't waste to drop. 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.760 So how does this tie into supermassive black hole old holes? 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.160