1 00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:12,840 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, do physicists ever run out of crazy ideas? Well? 2 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 1: We all have our slow days. I mean I get 3 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:18,600 Speaker 1: science blocks sometimes. Yeah. So what do you do then 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:21,040 Speaker 1: to get fresh ideas? Well? Probably very similar to what 5 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: creative people do. You know, you just let ideas bounce 6 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:26,320 Speaker 1: around in your head a little bit and see what happens. 7 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: I should try that. I usually just take an end. 8 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 1: All right, So what happens, Well, let's see, let's say, 9 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:34,080 Speaker 1: let me try, let me see. Um, I'll just let 10 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:38,160 Speaker 1: an idea bounce in my head. I'm thinking chocolate chip particles. 11 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:40,360 Speaker 1: That a good physics idea. I don't know. We have 12 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: to go see if we can find those out there 13 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:47,160 Speaker 1: in the universe. They could exist, They could exist chocolate chippos. Yeah, 14 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:49,479 Speaker 1: I mean, if I just let ideas bounce around in 15 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: my head, I think of alien black holes. Is that 16 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: a black hole that's an alien or a black hole 17 00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:58,920 Speaker 1: made by alien? It's a bifurcated ideas that allows for 18 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:02,520 Speaker 1: both possibilities. Well, does this ever work? This process? Does 19 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:05,360 Speaker 1: it ever actually give you a good ideas? Yeah? You know, 20 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 1: the universe is pretty crazy, and so sometimes the crazy 21 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 1: idea that comes out of the head of a physicist 22 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: is something that's really out there. Okay, I got a 23 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:18,240 Speaker 1: good one for you. Chocolate chip black Holes, where each 24 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: chocolate chip is actually an alien. Hi. I'm or Hammad, 25 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:40,640 Speaker 1: cartoonists and the creator of PhD Comics. Hi. I'm Daniel. 26 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:43,800 Speaker 1: I'm a particle of physicist and I'm the co author 27 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:47,440 Speaker 1: of the book We Have No Idea together with Jorge, 28 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:49,920 Speaker 1: a book all about the things we do know and 29 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: mostly the things we don't know about the universe. And 30 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:55,080 Speaker 1: it's also a huge coincidence because we don't really have 31 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:58,560 Speaker 1: an idea of what we're doing here. But welcome to 32 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:01,880 Speaker 1: our podcast, Daniel and Horr Explain the Universe, a production 33 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,480 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Danie and Jorge make it up 34 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:07,360 Speaker 1: as they go along. When it comes to podcastings, right 35 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,079 Speaker 1: it does it called science improv No, But we try 36 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:12,160 Speaker 1: to be honest about what we know and about what 37 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,600 Speaker 1: science doesn't know, because it's on that edge of knowledge 38 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:18,760 Speaker 1: that all the interesting questions lie. That's where the wonder is, 39 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: that's where the curiosity is, that's where the mental exploration is. 40 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 1: That's where people go when they want to get new 41 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: answers to questions about the universe. Things everybody wants to 42 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 1: know the answer to how our stars formed, how do 43 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:34,760 Speaker 1: they die? Can they eat each other and start taste? 44 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:37,119 Speaker 1: But yeah, it turns out there's a lot we don't 45 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:39,400 Speaker 1: know about the universe. There's more that we don't know 46 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:41,840 Speaker 1: than what we do know, kind of in a way, 47 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 1: And so it's interesting to sort of talk about that 48 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: because you know, I feel like people have the sense 49 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:48,080 Speaker 1: that the scientists know everything that's going on in the 50 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:50,640 Speaker 1: universe until they meet a scientist and then they realize, boy, 51 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:56,119 Speaker 1: that guy is clueless. This one doesn't know anything that's right. 52 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,280 Speaker 1: How can she call aselvel scientist if she doesn't understand 53 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:01,679 Speaker 1: what most of the univer versus about. But actually, that's 54 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: a key step to being a scientist is understanding what 55 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:08,639 Speaker 1: you don't know and then confronting that ignorance, because confronting 56 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 1: your ignorance is the first step in discovery. Is being 57 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: open to new ideas and asking questions about the things 58 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 1: you don't know. That's the best part of science, and 59 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: so that's why on our podcast we try to take 60 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: you to that forefront of knowledge, bring you up to 61 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:25,679 Speaker 1: speed on the questions that scientists themselves are asking. Yeah, 62 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:27,920 Speaker 1: because who knows what could be out there, what kinds 63 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: of crazy phenomenon that we've never seen before or even 64 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:34,160 Speaker 1: thought about. It could be out there right now, happening 65 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:37,120 Speaker 1: in the universe. And so to be on the podcast, 66 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:40,440 Speaker 1: we'll be talking about one such kind of crazy idea 67 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: that has been proposed by a couple of famous scientists. 68 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:47,400 Speaker 1: That's right and maybe even discovered, Because there are several 69 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: ways to find weird new things in the universe. One 70 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,560 Speaker 1: is to sort of stumble across them when you weren't looking, like, oh, 71 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:56,120 Speaker 1: what's this thing, We've never seen it before. And the 72 00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:58,720 Speaker 1: other is to think of it first and say, I 73 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 1: wonder if you could make a black hole all out 74 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:06,520 Speaker 1: of chocolate chips or whatever, you know, could you have 75 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:08,960 Speaker 1: a planet the shape of a squirrel or something like that, 76 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:12,520 Speaker 1: and then send experimentalists and astronomers out there to look 77 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:15,720 Speaker 1: forward to see could this actually work? The planet in 78 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:20,560 Speaker 1: the shape of a squirrel. That's just nuts, Daniel. But 79 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:23,039 Speaker 1: today we'll be tackling one such crazy idea, And so 80 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:30,279 Speaker 1: today on the episode we'll be asking the question, can 81 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 1: you have a star inside of another star? Sorry, I'm 82 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:40,720 Speaker 1: still having your squirrel nuts joke. Let that play out. Yeah, 83 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:42,440 Speaker 1: but This is a kind of a crazy question. I 84 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:44,320 Speaker 1: don't even think I even understand it. How can you 85 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,000 Speaker 1: have a star inside of another star? Well, you know, 86 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,520 Speaker 1: some stars are really big and some stars are really small, 87 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 1: and you're used to thinking of stars is really far apart. Right, 88 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:58,080 Speaker 1: our star is really far from other stars. But they 89 00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:00,839 Speaker 1: can get closer together, and you can imagine what might 90 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,599 Speaker 1: happen if they get really close together, with one go 91 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:06,440 Speaker 1: inside the other one. It would be a star on 92 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:10,760 Speaker 1: star battle, they merged into one megastar. Yeah. So who 93 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: came up with this crazy idea star inside of another star? 94 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:18,279 Speaker 1: Well it was from two scientists, Kip Thorne and Anna Zikkov, 95 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: and they had this idea that maybe you could have 96 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:25,320 Speaker 1: one tiny, really dense little star called the neutron star 97 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:29,440 Speaker 1: inside of a really big, puffy star called a red 98 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:33,080 Speaker 1: super giant. And they were just wondering, hey, is it possible? 99 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:35,719 Speaker 1: And they did some calculations and they thought, it doesn't 100 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:39,520 Speaker 1: seem impossible. I wonder if it's also really I think 101 00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:41,520 Speaker 1: there were signs blocked when they came up with that 102 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:45,160 Speaker 1: and just sat around drinking whiskey or eating chocolate chips, 103 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, what if you could have a 104 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:50,479 Speaker 1: star inside of another star. Yeah. I bet they just 105 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:52,560 Speaker 1: wrote a bunch of random things on the wall and 106 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 1: then threw darts at them, and they were like, all right, 107 00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:58,920 Speaker 1: neutron star, okay, red super giant. Hey, what if you 108 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:01,520 Speaker 1: got one inside the there? You know, maybe they had 109 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:03,599 Speaker 1: a hundred terrible ideas that day and this is the 110 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:05,400 Speaker 1: best one. They're like, what if they're best friends? No, 111 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:08,599 Speaker 1: not that. What if they're mortal enemies? Now? Not that? 112 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:11,840 Speaker 1: What what if one is the evil twin of the other. 113 00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:15,960 Speaker 1: We need to that's been done. We need a better 114 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,120 Speaker 1: plot twist. You see. There is something, though, there's a 115 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 1: deep connection between being creative in physics or in science 116 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,279 Speaker 1: in general, and being creative when you're doing writing or whatever. 117 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 1: You just sort of let the ideas flow and and 118 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:29,800 Speaker 1: think about what's been done before and then try to 119 00:06:29,839 --> 00:06:32,880 Speaker 1: find something new, Like has anybody thought about whether you 120 00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:35,760 Speaker 1: know these could actually be black holes reflected into this 121 00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:40,200 Speaker 1: dimension by some alien supercomputer whatever? Dot dot dot. You know, 122 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: you need to let your mind wander a little bit 123 00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:46,839 Speaker 1: when you're being scientifically creative. Sounds like there's a fine 124 00:06:46,839 --> 00:06:51,480 Speaker 1: line between science fiction and science for real. And I 125 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:55,440 Speaker 1: tried to straddle that line. All right, Well, these things, 126 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: these stars inside of other stars, they have a name, 127 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:01,320 Speaker 1: and they're called the thorn Jitkov objects. And so we 128 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:03,640 Speaker 1: were wondering, as usual, how many people had heard of 129 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:07,719 Speaker 1: these weird and crazy objects out there in the universe. 130 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:10,080 Speaker 1: And so, as usual, Daniel went out there and pulled 131 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:14,240 Speaker 1: the Internet for people to ask him this question. Yes, 132 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:17,160 Speaker 1: so thanks to everybody who volunteered. If you'd like to 133 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:20,800 Speaker 1: volunteer to answer random physics questions for a future episode, 134 00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:24,720 Speaker 1: please write to us at questions at Daniel and Jorge 135 00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:27,080 Speaker 1: dot com. All right, well here's what people had to say. 136 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:30,400 Speaker 1: I think it is some type of a hybrid star 137 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:33,840 Speaker 1: or something. I have no idea, Man, I have no idea. 138 00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:39,160 Speaker 1: I've never heard of that. Well, absolutely no idea. I 139 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: have no idea. Um, I have not heard of a 140 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:48,560 Speaker 1: thorn site cow psit Co object. So I have no 141 00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 1: idea what that is. No idea, I never heard of it. 142 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:55,200 Speaker 1: The name looks like it might be something to do 143 00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: with Kip Thorne, who is an astrophysicist, So I'm going 144 00:07:59,920 --> 00:08:03,400 Speaker 1: to guess it's something astrophysical. Al Right, not a lot 145 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:05,400 Speaker 1: of name recognition. I feel like a lot of these 146 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:07,560 Speaker 1: people maybe read our book We have no idea. We 147 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: stole our idea that we have no idea. That was 148 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:14,160 Speaker 1: our idea being clueless. It was our idea not to 149 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:16,560 Speaker 1: have an idea. I think that's that's an old human 150 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:19,240 Speaker 1: kind idea. Yes, I think that's true, but also not 151 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,800 Speaker 1: really much of an idea for how to pronounce this name? 152 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:23,679 Speaker 1: And you know, I gave it to them in writing, 153 00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:26,080 Speaker 1: and it's sort of a strangely written name because it's 154 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: got a Z with a dot on top of it. 155 00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:33,280 Speaker 1: Why t k o W. But it's pronounced jitkov to 156 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:36,240 Speaker 1: my best understanding, right right, And I guess if you're 157 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:38,600 Speaker 1: googlly and you would have to type in z y 158 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 1: t k o W. Yeah. But Kip thorne Is is 159 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:43,840 Speaker 1: sort of well known and he has kind of a 160 00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:46,600 Speaker 1: brand name in physics, he certainly does. He's also got 161 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:49,640 Speaker 1: a Nobel Prize and he's worked on Interstellar the movie, 162 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: so he's sort of a celebrity and lots of different 163 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:54,360 Speaker 1: arenas these days. And you know him, don't you. Yeah, 164 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:57,000 Speaker 1: I do. I've met him a few times before. Super 165 00:08:57,080 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 1: nice guy and very cool. So so he came up 166 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:02,840 Speaker 1: with this idea with Anna Zitkov. So let's dive into it, Daniel, 167 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:05,319 Speaker 1: How can you have a star inside I don't even 168 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:07,480 Speaker 1: know what that is or what that looks like. How 169 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:09,400 Speaker 1: can you have a star inside of another star? Yeah? Well, 170 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:11,679 Speaker 1: I think it's only possible for a couple of different 171 00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:15,200 Speaker 1: categories of stars, because what you need is one star 172 00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:17,240 Speaker 1: to be really really big and the other star to 173 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:19,280 Speaker 1: be really really small, so it can sort of like 174 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:22,880 Speaker 1: slip inside the other star. And so we've got to 175 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:26,880 Speaker 1: like extreme categories of stars involved here. One is the 176 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:31,360 Speaker 1: red super giant star, and the other is the neutron star, 177 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:33,840 Speaker 1: and that's the really small one. And each of these 178 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:37,680 Speaker 1: are like already fascinating just on their own, so you know, 179 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:39,679 Speaker 1: you could write a whole science fiction movie about just 180 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: one of these. So combining the two of them together 181 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:43,800 Speaker 1: it is like, hey, man, that's a bit too much, 182 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:47,880 Speaker 1: but you know, hey, they're not limited in their scientific creativity. Okay, 183 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:49,679 Speaker 1: so when you see a star instead of another star, 184 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:53,360 Speaker 1: then you're talking kind of about specifically two kinds of 185 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:55,360 Speaker 1: star that kind of come together, and then one of 186 00:09:55,360 --> 00:09:57,600 Speaker 1: them kind of eats the other one. Yeah, I mean, 187 00:09:57,600 --> 00:09:59,880 Speaker 1: I'm not sure which one you would describe as being active, 188 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:02,320 Speaker 1: Like is the bigger one eating the other one? Or 189 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:04,920 Speaker 1: is the smaller one sort of like boring into the 190 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:09,520 Speaker 1: larger one? Or is it a poetic dance of two stars? 191 00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:13,800 Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but I guess that can happen, right, 192 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:16,719 Speaker 1: because why not? Why can't a star fall into into 193 00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:19,960 Speaker 1: another star? Or why can't two stars kind of merge together? 194 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:22,400 Speaker 1: That thing happens, right, Yeah, that kind of thing does happen. 195 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:25,040 Speaker 1: And if the very different kinds of stars, like a 196 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:28,160 Speaker 1: red super giant is very low density compared to a 197 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:31,840 Speaker 1: neutron star, then the neutron star can enter the red 198 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:35,720 Speaker 1: super giant without being disrupted, without blowing up, without you know, 199 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:38,600 Speaker 1: being dispersed, and just merging into part of the red 200 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:42,280 Speaker 1: super giant. But aren't sons like stars. Aren't they sort 201 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:44,839 Speaker 1: of like giant explosions? You know, isn't there a lot 202 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:47,960 Speaker 1: going on? How can something hold together inside of a star? 203 00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:50,520 Speaker 1: These are some of the largest stars in the universe. Like, 204 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:54,080 Speaker 1: the largest red supergiant we've ever found has a radius 205 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:58,720 Speaker 1: that's fourteen hundred times the radius of the Sun. Fourteen hunt, 206 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:01,160 Speaker 1: you mean, if you take fourteen hundred of our sons, 207 00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:05,000 Speaker 1: you would get a super giant exactly. These things are ginormous, 208 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:08,160 Speaker 1: like they make our Sun, which is already huge compared 209 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:11,200 Speaker 1: to Jupiter, which is huge compared to the Earth, which 210 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:15,640 Speaker 1: is huge compared to you write, this thing dwarfs our Sun. 211 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 1: If you put it in our solar system, it will 212 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:20,240 Speaker 1: go all the way out to the orbit of Jupiter. 213 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,160 Speaker 1: It's incredible. It's it's almost as big as our entire 214 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:27,000 Speaker 1: solar system. Yeah, but it's not that much more massive, right, 215 00:11:27,040 --> 00:11:30,200 Speaker 1: So it's thousand times bigger and radius, which makes it, 216 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:33,200 Speaker 1: you know, like a billion times bigger in volume, but 217 00:11:33,240 --> 00:11:35,840 Speaker 1: it's only about ten to forty times the mass of 218 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:40,080 Speaker 1: the Sun. Oh. I see, it's like a thousand times 219 00:11:40,160 --> 00:11:43,800 Speaker 1: less dense than our Sun. More like ten over a 220 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:46,600 Speaker 1: billion times less dense than the Sun. So it's millions 221 00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:49,920 Speaker 1: of times less dense than our Sun. Now it's still hot, right, 222 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:52,800 Speaker 1: it's like thousands of degrees kelvin. It's not a place 223 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:55,439 Speaker 1: you'd want to be. But compared to our Sun, it's 224 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:57,679 Speaker 1: more like a cloud, right, It's more like a burning, 225 00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:02,600 Speaker 1: diffuse cloud. And so while it's a huge, burning ball 226 00:12:02,679 --> 00:12:04,440 Speaker 1: of gas and not a pleasant place to hang out 227 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:07,400 Speaker 1: or have a picnic, it's not a hot, dense environment 228 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:09,439 Speaker 1: like the center of our Sun. I see, it's just 229 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:11,640 Speaker 1: kind of a hot cloud of stuff, but it's still 230 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:14,880 Speaker 1: kind of igniting and burning, definitely burning, right. You have 231 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,640 Speaker 1: a lot of pressure and temperature and a huge amount 232 00:12:17,679 --> 00:12:20,640 Speaker 1: of fusion is going on, and you've got light being admitted. 233 00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:23,760 Speaker 1: These things are big and they're glowing their ten thousand 234 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:27,040 Speaker 1: or a hundred thousand times the luminosity of our Sun. 235 00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:29,439 Speaker 1: And they're pretty hot. You know, there's like four thousand 236 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:32,200 Speaker 1: degrees kelvin on the surface. And there's one that you 237 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:35,760 Speaker 1: can even see in the night sky. Wow, where yeh 238 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:40,520 Speaker 1: Betel Juice. Betel Juice is a red supergiant in the 239 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,040 Speaker 1: Orion constellation. You mean one of the one of the 240 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:46,880 Speaker 1: points in the Orion Baiel Juice. And these stars have 241 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:51,080 Speaker 1: fascinating histories because they started as a blue supergiant, like 242 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:54,559 Speaker 1: the same size, but much hotter and more intense when 243 00:12:54,559 --> 00:12:57,480 Speaker 1: they were burning hydrogen. And then remember they burn that 244 00:12:57,559 --> 00:12:59,960 Speaker 1: hydrogen and they sort of start run out of hydrogen, 245 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:02,680 Speaker 1: and as the temperature increases in the center, they start 246 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:05,560 Speaker 1: to burn helium instead, and then near the end of 247 00:13:05,559 --> 00:13:08,680 Speaker 1: their life they turn into these red supergiants. They're cooled 248 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:11,600 Speaker 1: off a little bit. It flipped red the sun. Yeah, 249 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:14,480 Speaker 1: you know, yeah, it got more conservative in its older age. 250 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,120 Speaker 1: I think that tends to happen. It's very brief period 251 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:20,319 Speaker 1: of moderation in the middle, and then boom all the 252 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:24,720 Speaker 1: way to the Fox News side, a Republican. Yeah. So 253 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:27,720 Speaker 1: that's the red supergiant. That's like what is going into 254 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:30,440 Speaker 1: And so you can imagine it's much easier to fall 255 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:33,280 Speaker 1: inside a red super giant than it is like our 256 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:36,960 Speaker 1: kind of sun, because it's so big, right, Yeah. And 257 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,160 Speaker 1: so then the second kind of star for this to 258 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:43,679 Speaker 1: sort of happen and stay happening, is that you need 259 00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:46,000 Speaker 1: a neutron star, which is almost like the opposite of 260 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:49,480 Speaker 1: a red super giant. Yeah, exactly. It's super duper dense. 261 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:53,520 Speaker 1: It's like the mass of our sun or the mass 262 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:56,360 Speaker 1: of the Sun, but it's collapsed to like the size 263 00:13:56,360 --> 00:13:58,920 Speaker 1: of the city of den what like an object like 264 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:03,920 Speaker 1: just like twenty kilometers. Why so the whole Sun the 265 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:06,560 Speaker 1: size of Denver. Yeah, take the whole Sun, which is 266 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:10,240 Speaker 1: already a hot, dense mess, and collapse it to something 267 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 1: that's you know, much much smaller than Earth. It's incredibly dense. 268 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,040 Speaker 1: And this is what happens when a star collapses, like 269 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:20,160 Speaker 1: at the very end of its life. It can go 270 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:23,800 Speaker 1: black hole, or can go neutron star, or various other outcomes. 271 00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:27,320 Speaker 1: This is like the core remnant, the hard little nugget 272 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:30,600 Speaker 1: that's left over after the collapse of a star. And 273 00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:33,320 Speaker 1: it's kind of almost almost at the point of a 274 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:36,280 Speaker 1: black hole, right, Like it's so dense it could kind 275 00:14:36,280 --> 00:14:38,800 Speaker 1: of maybe easily tip into a black hole. Yeah. And 276 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:41,200 Speaker 1: one way that you can get a supernova, at least 277 00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:42,960 Speaker 1: to a black holes, you start with something like a 278 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:45,840 Speaker 1: neutron star and then you add a little bit more 279 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:48,920 Speaker 1: gas and then it turns into a black hole. But 280 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:51,600 Speaker 1: these things don't yet have enough gravitation of power to 281 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,320 Speaker 1: overcome the neutron pressure. It's like a bunch of neutrons 282 00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:58,600 Speaker 1: all packed in together, really really really tightly. It's like 283 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:01,640 Speaker 1: a bunch of people squeezed onto you know, the metro 284 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: in Mexico City at rush hour. Have you ever ever 285 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:06,240 Speaker 1: done that? But it's a pretty intimate experience. It's a 286 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:10,560 Speaker 1: big negative, as they would call it. And neutron stars 287 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:14,320 Speaker 1: are fascinating because we only discovered them because we found 288 00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:17,840 Speaker 1: a particular type called a pulsar. This is the kind 289 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:21,400 Speaker 1: that shoots a huge beam of light and rotates really quickly, 290 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:24,080 Speaker 1: and so it appears on Earth like a flashing light. 291 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:26,840 Speaker 1: And they discovered this in the night sky, you know, 292 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:29,640 Speaker 1: several decades ago. And that's how we even know that 293 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:33,640 Speaker 1: neutron stars exist. Because neutron stars don't have fusion inside them. 294 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:36,280 Speaker 1: They're not fusing. They are emitting light in the same way. 295 00:15:36,400 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 1: They're not exploding. They just glow from all of the 296 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:43,440 Speaker 1: compact stuff being squished together. Yeah, they glow because they're hot. 297 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:47,480 Speaker 1: They're like six hundred thousand degrees kelvin. They're much hotter 298 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:52,360 Speaker 1: than a hundred thousand degrees kelvin. It's pretty it's pretty hot. 299 00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:55,240 Speaker 1: They're smoking hot. It's much hotter than the inside of 300 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:57,920 Speaker 1: a red super child. All right, So they're small but 301 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 1: super hot and supercompact, and so while the other one 302 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:03,760 Speaker 1: is kind of big and fluffy. And so I'm starting 303 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:05,480 Speaker 1: to get kind of the picture here what's going on, 304 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:09,000 Speaker 1: And so let's get into how these things would happen 305 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:11,360 Speaker 1: and what would happen and are they even real? But 306 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:25,920 Speaker 1: first let's take a quick break, all right, Daniel, we're 307 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:31,080 Speaker 1: talking about neutron stars being eaten up or invading the 308 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:34,200 Speaker 1: space of red super giants, and so I think I'm 309 00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:36,800 Speaker 1: getting the picture here. Another, in order for this to 310 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:39,760 Speaker 1: sort of happen, you need one big, fluffy star that's 311 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:42,080 Speaker 1: kind of it's hot and it's a star, but it's 312 00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:43,960 Speaker 1: in a big and a kind of diffuse and then 313 00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: you have one another one that's really compact and you know, 314 00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:50,800 Speaker 1: super duper hot, and then that can go inside of 315 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:54,840 Speaker 1: the first one and exist there or an orbit there, 316 00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:56,920 Speaker 1: or what does it do once it gets eaten up. Yeah, 317 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,680 Speaker 1: it's sort of like a bullet into a pillow. Right, 318 00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: one can go into the other one. And there's a 319 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:04,800 Speaker 1: few ways that this can happen. Like one way this 320 00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:07,680 Speaker 1: can happen is that they just bump into each other, 321 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:10,439 Speaker 1: like you got a bunch of stars flying around and 322 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:12,800 Speaker 1: these two things just sort of happened to hit each other. 323 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:16,280 Speaker 1: That's not very likely because stars are typically very very 324 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:20,920 Speaker 1: far apart. In some certain configurations, these things called globular clusters, 325 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:24,199 Speaker 1: you have higher density of stars, it might happen, but 326 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:26,880 Speaker 1: scientists think it's much more likely that these things already 327 00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:29,479 Speaker 1: started out near each other, like a binary star system, 328 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:32,840 Speaker 1: a system where you have two stars like regular stars, 329 00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:36,160 Speaker 1: two regular stars, and you know, stars evolve, and so say, 330 00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:39,160 Speaker 1: for example, you have two stars and one of them 331 00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:41,639 Speaker 1: already is a red super giant, the other one is 332 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,640 Speaker 1: a normal star. But then it goes supernova and at 333 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:48,119 Speaker 1: the core it leaves a little neutron star. Well, that 334 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:50,879 Speaker 1: little neutron star might not just stick around at the 335 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:53,720 Speaker 1: center of the supernova. It might get a sideways kick 336 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:57,440 Speaker 1: because these supernova aren't like totally symmetric, and so it 337 00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:01,040 Speaker 1: might get sort of shot into the red supergiant. Oh, 338 00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:05,159 Speaker 1: I see. Wow, it's like the relationship of alls. Yeah, 339 00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 1: or that means that the supernova is like a neutron 340 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:13,000 Speaker 1: star gun. It's like shoots out one huge crazy bullet 341 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:15,560 Speaker 1: from the center of it, which goes right into the 342 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:19,399 Speaker 1: red supergiant. Oh, it goes supernova and the jacksit center 343 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:22,480 Speaker 1: which is a neutron star, which is a neutron star. Yeah, 344 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:25,240 Speaker 1: what a way to go, And it goes into the 345 00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:29,280 Speaker 1: red giant super red giant. Remember, the red supergiant is enormous, 346 00:18:29,359 --> 00:18:31,240 Speaker 1: so it would be pretty hard to miss. It would 347 00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:33,639 Speaker 1: take up, you know, most of the sky from this 348 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:37,320 Speaker 1: neutron star. So it just flies off roughly in that direction. 349 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:39,920 Speaker 1: It's going to get captured by this red super giant. 350 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:42,160 Speaker 1: It's a giant pillow the size of the sky. It's 351 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 1: kind of hard to miss exactly. And the other options, 352 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:48,000 Speaker 1: the other order is that you have a neutron star 353 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:51,800 Speaker 1: and it's got some partner star which becomes a red 354 00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:55,719 Speaker 1: supergiant because these stars can grow and you know, like 355 00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:57,399 Speaker 1: our sun is going to grow near the end of 356 00:18:57,440 --> 00:18:59,320 Speaker 1: its age. It's going to grow and grow and grow 357 00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:02,000 Speaker 1: and can do a large your radius. So the other 358 00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:04,760 Speaker 1: star can just sort of like grow and gradually engulf 359 00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:07,520 Speaker 1: drown star. You can just sort of like creep on 360 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:10,040 Speaker 1: over and take over its space. But the one, the 361 00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:12,840 Speaker 1: other one needed to be a neutron star, right, yeah, okay, 362 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:15,639 Speaker 1: And and these things just happen out there in the universe, right, Like, 363 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:18,040 Speaker 1: you know, we're kind of used to this idea that 364 00:19:18,119 --> 00:19:21,400 Speaker 1: stars are really far apart because there aren't any stars 365 00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:23,919 Speaker 1: around us really close by, But there are places in 366 00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:26,680 Speaker 1: the universe where it's like a mess of stars. Yeah, 367 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:29,240 Speaker 1: And it's actually much more common for stars to form 368 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 1: together because remember stars are formed sort of in bunches 369 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:35,639 Speaker 1: when a big gas cloud collapses and so a lot 370 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:37,840 Speaker 1: of stars are formed sort of near each other, and 371 00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:40,840 Speaker 1: it's more likely for stars to have a binary partner 372 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,159 Speaker 1: than to be solo stars. Our son is unusual. In 373 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,640 Speaker 1: the Milky way, binary stars are more common than solo really. 374 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:50,840 Speaker 1: Uh yeah. Out there in the stellar dating field, almost 375 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:53,680 Speaker 1: everybody's already married as somebody. Somebody needs to get our 376 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:58,239 Speaker 1: Sun dating app or something. I'm sorry you want another star, like, 377 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,119 Speaker 1: I just feel bad for our our son. I don't know. 378 00:20:02,119 --> 00:20:03,760 Speaker 1: Then we'd have like a step star and be a 379 00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:06,640 Speaker 1: weird relationship because it wasn't around when we were formed, 380 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:09,720 Speaker 1: and it's trying to like boss us around gravitationally. I 381 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:11,560 Speaker 1: think it'd be a big mess. They won't let us 382 00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:15,600 Speaker 1: go to the ball. But yeah, more family, that always 383 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:17,879 Speaker 1: is always better. Yeah, I guess more family, more drama, 384 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:19,879 Speaker 1: But I guess if that's what you're in for. But 385 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:21,920 Speaker 1: I think this is what Kip Thorne and and a 386 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:25,040 Speaker 1: Jikov we're thinking about, Like could you have these two 387 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:27,840 Speaker 1: things end up inside each other. It's not that unlikely 388 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,080 Speaker 1: because you have pairs of stars already, So if one 389 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:33,360 Speaker 1: of them turns red super giant, or one of them 390 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:37,040 Speaker 1: turns into a neutron star. Could they then fall into 391 00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:39,760 Speaker 1: each other, could they collapse into a single object and 392 00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:41,960 Speaker 1: could that work? What would it look like? Right, Yeah, 393 00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:44,639 Speaker 1: let's get into what happens. So we have one really 394 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:48,640 Speaker 1: compact neutron star, super hot. It goes into the big 395 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:52,520 Speaker 1: fluffy red supergiant and then what does it just keep 396 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:54,560 Speaker 1: going because it come out the other end kind of 397 00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:57,720 Speaker 1: like a bullet, or does it you know, disintegrate that's 398 00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:00,480 Speaker 1: just going through or does it just kind of inside 399 00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:03,960 Speaker 1: kind of like a like eating a rock. Yeah, it 400 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:06,200 Speaker 1: mostly stays inside. I mean, it depends a little bit 401 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,880 Speaker 1: on its initial velocity. But you know, a red super 402 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:11,520 Speaker 1: giant is still a lot of mass. These things are 403 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:14,320 Speaker 1: ten or forty masses of the Sun, and so it's 404 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:17,760 Speaker 1: a big gravitational Well, so most likely the neutron star 405 00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:21,240 Speaker 1: is just gonna spiral to the center of this red supergiant. 406 00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:24,480 Speaker 1: Oh what do you means spiral? Like? Um, it can't 407 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:27,040 Speaker 1: just keep kind of orbiting around inside of the star 408 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:29,240 Speaker 1: or does it eventually you're saying it eventually kind of 409 00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 1: collapses into the middle. Yeah, you could orbit stably at 410 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,280 Speaker 1: a fixed radius if you're not losing energy, and like, 411 00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:37,800 Speaker 1: you know, if you are a spaceship orbiting the Earth, 412 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:40,720 Speaker 1: you can stay at the same altitude if there's no drag, 413 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:43,199 Speaker 1: But if you're touching even a little bit of atmosphere, 414 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:45,960 Speaker 1: then you're gonna be slowing down and spiraling back intowards 415 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:49,240 Speaker 1: the Earth. If you're inside a red supergiant, then you're 416 00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:53,000 Speaker 1: definitely going to be dragging against the hot, burning plasma. 417 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,159 Speaker 1: It's gonna be stealing your energy, so you're gonna be 418 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:58,280 Speaker 1: spiraling in towards the center. And I guess why doesn't 419 00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:01,200 Speaker 1: it dissolve? Like why doesn't a neutron star just kind 420 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:03,720 Speaker 1: of like under those conditions just kind of like break 421 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:07,679 Speaker 1: apart or evaporate because it's super duper crazy dense, Like 422 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,120 Speaker 1: a neutron star is pretty hard to break up. I mean, 423 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:13,560 Speaker 1: what you have is a basically a wind of burning 424 00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:16,800 Speaker 1: plasma that's incident on the surface of this neutron star, 425 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:19,160 Speaker 1: and so at that surface you get a lot of reaction, 426 00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:21,720 Speaker 1: but not enough to like break up a neutron star. 427 00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:25,560 Speaker 1: And the neutron star is a very tightly bound gravitational object. 428 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,640 Speaker 1: You know, it's like putting a rock in a sandstorm 429 00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:31,600 Speaker 1: or something. And eventually what happens is you know, the 430 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:34,280 Speaker 1: neutron star is also gravitationally very dense. It's just going 431 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:37,359 Speaker 1: to gather more stuff around it. And so what starts 432 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,040 Speaker 1: to happen is this really crazy reactions right at the 433 00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:43,080 Speaker 1: surface there where the neutron Star is super duper hot, 434 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,440 Speaker 1: it starts burning the inside of the red super jump 435 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:49,400 Speaker 1: because it's so much hotter. It's six hundred thousand degrees 436 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:52,360 Speaker 1: versus four thousand degrees. Yeah, and and so you get 437 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:55,160 Speaker 1: crazy stuff happening right there in the interior. And it's 438 00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:57,480 Speaker 1: also super heavy. So does it start to like kind 439 00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:00,119 Speaker 1: of suck out some of the red super Giant and 440 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:03,800 Speaker 1: kind of build up in size as it's going in. Yeah, 441 00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:06,480 Speaker 1: and so what can happen is that it accumulates enough 442 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:10,320 Speaker 1: stuff to trigger it to become eventually a black hole. Oh, 443 00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:13,679 Speaker 1: that would be some serious indigestion. Like if you like, 444 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:15,680 Speaker 1: if you eat something and it turns into a black hole, 445 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,719 Speaker 1: that's not good. Yeah, that's even more than Montezuma's revenge. Right, 446 00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:26,040 Speaker 1: it's like Nutron stars revenge it or your negative you see, 447 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:28,679 Speaker 1: things never go well when you have to star parents, right, 448 00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:31,800 Speaker 1: they always end up fighting, Alright, So then one thing 449 00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:34,160 Speaker 1: that can happen is that it goes inside and it 450 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:36,320 Speaker 1: becomes a black hole, and then it's kind of game 451 00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:38,600 Speaker 1: over for everybody, right, because then the black hole is 452 00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:41,680 Speaker 1: gonna suck in the Red super giant. Yeah, it can 453 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:43,959 Speaker 1: suck in a lot of the mass of the Red supergiant, 454 00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:46,560 Speaker 1: but also a lot of it won't collapse. Remember, black 455 00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:50,760 Speaker 1: holes don't automatically suck in everything that's nearby. They're just 456 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:54,359 Speaker 1: a powerful gravitational force. If you have enough rotational energy, 457 00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:56,679 Speaker 1: you can end up just in the accretion disk like 458 00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:59,720 Speaker 1: around the black hole. So basically the red supergiant just 459 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:03,480 Speaker 1: because material for the accretion disc that's surrounding the black hole. 460 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:06,439 Speaker 1: The black hole just kind of sucks up all of 461 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:09,480 Speaker 1: the Red supergiant, yes, the center of it at least, 462 00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:12,440 Speaker 1: and then the outside becomes this like big swirling disk. 463 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,639 Speaker 1: But you know, that's one possibility. Another possibility is that 464 00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:19,640 Speaker 1: you get crazy intense fusion and reactions at the surface 465 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,120 Speaker 1: of the neutron star where it's embedded inside this other star, 466 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:26,320 Speaker 1: and it creates a lot of energy flying out and 467 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:31,040 Speaker 1: it basically disperses the Red supergiants like a new solar wind. 468 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:35,119 Speaker 1: That's pushing out on the red supergiant and disperses it 469 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:38,600 Speaker 1: back into basically a cloud of stuff. It's kind of 470 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:42,040 Speaker 1: like dipping a hot poker into a bath of water, 471 00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,480 Speaker 1: Like it touches the water and then it just steams, 472 00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:50,080 Speaker 1: just explodes out and it just disrupts everything. And then 473 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:53,919 Speaker 1: that stuff can do interesting things like form planets, and 474 00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 1: so you might end up with like a crazy, big 475 00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:01,600 Speaker 1: spinning pulsar in the center surrounded by planets formed from 476 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:08,439 Speaker 1: the depth of that red supergiant. Wow, crazy drama fusion 477 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:12,959 Speaker 1: because you're making like a heavier element as it goes in. Yeah, yeah, 478 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,760 Speaker 1: because that the surface of the neutron star, it's super hot. 479 00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:18,080 Speaker 1: And then you have all the materials you need for 480 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:21,919 Speaker 1: fusion because there was fusion already happening inside the red Supergiant. 481 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:24,760 Speaker 1: You just like supercharged it by bringing in all this 482 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:28,720 Speaker 1: extra energy, all this extra heat. So then now suddenly 483 00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:30,800 Speaker 1: instead of a red giant and a neutron star, what 484 00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:33,760 Speaker 1: do you have? Then you have like a new solar system. Yeah, 485 00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:37,159 Speaker 1: you have a new solar system where the red supergiants 486 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,760 Speaker 1: bones have been used to like supercharge the neutron star 487 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:42,919 Speaker 1: and to form a bunch of planets, and so what 488 00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:46,000 Speaker 1: happens to the Red Supergiant just just activates, like it 489 00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:50,200 Speaker 1: just peters out and or does it just turns off. Well, 490 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:53,479 Speaker 1: it's become diffused, and so it's no longer enough energy 491 00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:56,199 Speaker 1: and the conditions for fusion. But you know, this is 492 00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,400 Speaker 1: the fate of almost every star, right, especially these really 493 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:03,439 Speaker 1: big ones. They will burn and then eventually their cores 494 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,440 Speaker 1: will collapse and they will disperse. And so that's that's 495 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:09,520 Speaker 1: just what happens anyway, that's the Red super Giant is 496 00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:12,399 Speaker 1: expecting that. It's not a surprise if it's one of 497 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:15,399 Speaker 1: these thorn jit cob objects. It's and just sort of 498 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:19,600 Speaker 1: gets accelerated by having a neutron star there in the middle. Well, 499 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:21,800 Speaker 1: it's pretty amazing to think that you start out with 500 00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:24,760 Speaker 1: a star whose size it is the size of the 501 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:27,639 Speaker 1: orbit of Jupiter, so it's huge, and then you have 502 00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:32,360 Speaker 1: this tiny little, you know, twenty kilometer wide bullet basically, 503 00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:35,639 Speaker 1: this little, tiny, superdense thing, and then it just it 504 00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,280 Speaker 1: just totally disrupts this whole ginormous star. I know, imagine 505 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:42,960 Speaker 1: if Denver right was the downfall of the whole system. 506 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,920 Speaker 1: That's pretty impressive, right, I mean, I like Denver. Denver's 507 00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:49,800 Speaker 1: got a lot of sway, but like that's pretty outsize 508 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:52,600 Speaker 1: impact for a tiny little region. Yeah, yeah, well it 509 00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:57,560 Speaker 1: is a swing state, I think, so you know who knows, right, 510 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,280 Speaker 1: it can totally tip the fate of the entire world. Yeah, 511 00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:03,560 Speaker 1: you could become a black hole or whatever. It's all 512 00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:06,119 Speaker 1: in the hands of those voters. It's all in the 513 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:11,320 Speaker 1: hands of Denver's. All right, Well, let's get into how 514 00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:14,040 Speaker 1: you could tell if these things exist and if they 515 00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:16,840 Speaker 1: even are real out there in the universe. But first, 516 00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:33,200 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. All right, Daniel red super 517 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:37,199 Speaker 1: giant eating a neutron star. Sounds like they've worked it 518 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,280 Speaker 1: out and it's totally possible and a lot of amazing 519 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,800 Speaker 1: things would happen. So are they real and how could 520 00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:45,480 Speaker 1: we tell if we where they are? Well, that's sort 521 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:48,280 Speaker 1: of the disappointing part about this thing is they had 522 00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:50,840 Speaker 1: this crazy idea. They were like, Wow, a neutron star 523 00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:53,560 Speaker 1: inside a red super giant. That would be awesome physics 524 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,439 Speaker 1: deep inside the core. And then they asked, well, what 525 00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:58,720 Speaker 1: would it look like from the outside, right, Because we 526 00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,679 Speaker 1: don't get to like go inside red super giants and 527 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:03,680 Speaker 1: take a box to see if there's a neutron star 528 00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:06,560 Speaker 1: or not. We only can observe these things, thankfully from 529 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:09,760 Speaker 1: the outside. And you know, a red super giant again 530 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:14,080 Speaker 1: is huge, and so seeing this neutron star inside of it, 531 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:18,960 Speaker 1: like directly seeing it totally impossible, and mostly from the outside, 532 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:23,560 Speaker 1: a thorn Chikov object looks just like a normal red 533 00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:27,200 Speaker 1: super giant. The differences are pretty subtle, really, But doesn't 534 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,320 Speaker 1: it the little neutron star disrupted? Wouldn't we see it 535 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:33,360 Speaker 1: kind of peter out suddenly or turn into a black 536 00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:35,320 Speaker 1: hole or turn into a solar system. Well, if you 537 00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:38,520 Speaker 1: could watch it over, you know, ten thousand or a 538 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:41,000 Speaker 1: hundred thousand or a million years, then you you might 539 00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:43,600 Speaker 1: see these effects. We only get to see these things 540 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,360 Speaker 1: in a snapshot, right You could ask like, does this 541 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,680 Speaker 1: particular star have a neutron star inside of it? Right now? 542 00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,440 Speaker 1: So we don't get to see the time series evolution. Man, 543 00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:55,640 Speaker 1: I would love to look to take an object in 544 00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:57,560 Speaker 1: the sky and just like fast forward it for a 545 00:28:57,560 --> 00:28:59,720 Speaker 1: million years and back and forth and see what's gonna happen. 546 00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:01,640 Speaker 1: That to be amazing. I see It's like if you 547 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:04,400 Speaker 1: see a dead red supergiant, it could be like, oh, 548 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:07,320 Speaker 1: it could die from natural classes or maybe a shot 549 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:10,480 Speaker 1: with a neutron star. It would be hard to tell. Yeah, 550 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:12,800 Speaker 1: And and really the game is look at all the 551 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,680 Speaker 1: red super giants out there right now, and ask do 552 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:17,880 Speaker 1: we think any of them have a neutron star in 553 00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:21,080 Speaker 1: them right now? How would they look different if they did? 554 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:24,120 Speaker 1: And can we make the measurements to tell if one 555 00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:26,760 Speaker 1: of them does? So, how can we tell if they 556 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,640 Speaker 1: did have a neutron star for a snack? Well, you know, 557 00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:32,040 Speaker 1: they have a really different interior, right they have this 558 00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:35,360 Speaker 1: crazy neutron star which is triggering this really intense reaction, 559 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,000 Speaker 1: is burning at the core, and so that does have 560 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:41,360 Speaker 1: some impact on what it looks like from the outside 561 00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:44,400 Speaker 1: in two important ways. One is that they are a 562 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:48,080 Speaker 1: little brighter, get more effusion, and so you're producing more light. 563 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:51,520 Speaker 1: And red supergiants are not famously bright. I mean, they're 564 00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:54,320 Speaker 1: ten thousand times or a hundred thousand times brighter than 565 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:57,160 Speaker 1: the sun, But for that mass in that volume, it's 566 00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 1: not a very intense source of light. So if you 567 00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:03,840 Speaker 1: see one that's like extra bright, unusually bright, then that's 568 00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:06,480 Speaker 1: a clue that maybe it's got a neutron star in 569 00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:10,760 Speaker 1: its core, because an intron star kind of creates new 570 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:14,320 Speaker 1: kinds of reactions which would make it brighter. And then 571 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,480 Speaker 1: there's a very specific kind of reaction that we think 572 00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:21,200 Speaker 1: could only happen inside one of these objects. That you 573 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:24,720 Speaker 1: have to have a neutron star inside a red supergiant 574 00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:27,040 Speaker 1: for this even to work, and so you can look 575 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:31,360 Speaker 1: for the very characteristic signs of that particular reaction. Interesting 576 00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:35,200 Speaker 1: involves elements cycling around from the surface of the red 577 00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:38,680 Speaker 1: supergiant down to the core where they get added protons 578 00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,120 Speaker 1: onto them, and then it's so hot they get shot 579 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,800 Speaker 1: back up and they get to the surface. They come 580 00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:46,160 Speaker 1: back down and they get more protons, and they shot 581 00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:48,640 Speaker 1: back up and get to the surface. And remember, for 582 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:51,320 Speaker 1: one of these objects, the core is much much hotter, 583 00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:54,160 Speaker 1: so it pushes these things out to the surface more. 584 00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:57,560 Speaker 1: See if it's something like this would make a particular 585 00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:00,720 Speaker 1: kind of element which we might be able to recognize 586 00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:02,920 Speaker 1: in the surface of these stars, that's right. And so 587 00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:06,120 Speaker 1: if it's a T c oh then you'd see much 588 00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:10,120 Speaker 1: more lithium and molybdenum and rubidium then you would see 589 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,960 Speaker 1: a normal red supergiants. And so if we look at 590 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:15,080 Speaker 1: these stars and we can tell that they have more 591 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,360 Speaker 1: of this stuff on their surface and they're extra bright, 592 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:20,200 Speaker 1: then it's a good sign that it might have a 593 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:23,080 Speaker 1: neutron star hiding inside. It. Wouldn't a lot of lithium 594 00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:29,200 Speaker 1: make it more chill and more um more more calm. 595 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:31,959 Speaker 1: You know, you can't take studies in humans and extrapolate 596 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,040 Speaker 1: those two behaviors stars for a giant. We did this 597 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:39,479 Speaker 1: study in mice, and so we're going to extrapolate, you know, 598 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:41,680 Speaker 1: what would be the dose like for a lithium for 599 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:44,040 Speaker 1: a red super using the mouse model to study this 600 00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:49,640 Speaker 1: giant supernova red supergiant totally works exactly, all right. So 601 00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:52,200 Speaker 1: there might be like if we see a red supergiant 602 00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:54,560 Speaker 1: and we see that it glows kind of in the 603 00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,520 Speaker 1: lithium range, then we're like, oh, maybe it has a 604 00:31:57,600 --> 00:31:59,800 Speaker 1: neutron star inside. Yeah, Actually it would be the that 605 00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:03,880 Speaker 1: doesn't glow in the lithium range because the opposite, because 606 00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:06,960 Speaker 1: if there's lithium on the surface, then the light is 607 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,840 Speaker 1: going to be absorbed at certain characterists of frequencies that 608 00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:12,880 Speaker 1: lithium likes to eat, and so if there are dips 609 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:16,760 Speaker 1: at certain characteristic frequencies that would indicate extra amounts of 610 00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:19,520 Speaker 1: those elements, So I see it means that that stuff 611 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:22,440 Speaker 1: is there, which means that maybe there's a neutron star 612 00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:24,920 Speaker 1: in there exactly. So that's that's would be the signature 613 00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:28,480 Speaker 1: we're looking for. And so have we found any what's 614 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:30,920 Speaker 1: kind of the likelihood of this this thing happening. Well, 615 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:33,800 Speaker 1: there's a really fun story here because there's an awesome 616 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:37,360 Speaker 1: scientist named Emily Lefek and she became an expert in 617 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,680 Speaker 1: red supergiants because her research she was fascinated by how 618 00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:43,600 Speaker 1: they were made, how how they worked, and understanding this 619 00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:46,640 Speaker 1: whole process inside them. And then she got an email 620 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,080 Speaker 1: from Anna Jikov saying, how would you be interested in 621 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:52,360 Speaker 1: trying to figure out if any of these red supergiants 622 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,080 Speaker 1: might be one of these weird objects that Kip Thorn 623 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:59,440 Speaker 1: and I thought about years ago? And so that sounded 624 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:02,560 Speaker 1: fun to Dr Levek, and so she surveyed all the 625 00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:05,800 Speaker 1: red supergiants she knew of and she found one. She 626 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:09,760 Speaker 1: found this star which looked really weird with the dip 627 00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:12,640 Speaker 1: in lithium, like with the lithium signature on. Yeah, it 628 00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:16,960 Speaker 1: was weirdly bright and it had the dip at lithium 629 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:20,960 Speaker 1: and libdenum and rubidium exactly the places you would expect 630 00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:25,000 Speaker 1: by one of these objects, unlike the other red supergiants 631 00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:28,520 Speaker 1: which didn't have these signatures exactly. And that's what she did. 632 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:32,280 Speaker 1: She compared this red supergiant to like the broader population 633 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:35,440 Speaker 1: of red supergiants, to find one that's unusual. And this 634 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:37,120 Speaker 1: is the star that we've known about from more than 635 00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:40,200 Speaker 1: a hundred years, was discovered in nineteen o eight. It's 636 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:44,720 Speaker 1: called HV two one two. It's from the Harvard Star Catalog. 637 00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:48,760 Speaker 1: It's in the small Magellanic cloud. And so this is 638 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:51,320 Speaker 1: the paper that came out in two thousand fourteen saying, 639 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,040 Speaker 1: oh my gosh, maybe we actually found one of these things. 640 00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:56,080 Speaker 1: That must have been a fun day. I bet she 641 00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:58,760 Speaker 1: was science blocked. And she said, what should I work 642 00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:03,240 Speaker 1: on next? I have no idea thing? Email from and Azikov? 643 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,760 Speaker 1: Would you like to prove my concept? Right? She's like, 644 00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:08,600 Speaker 1: I'm on it. Sometimes when you don't know what to do, 645 00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:11,320 Speaker 1: you should just check your email, right, because sometimes people 646 00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:15,719 Speaker 1: literally email you good ideas. Wow. So she went out 647 00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:17,839 Speaker 1: and she found one of these and and for real 648 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,040 Speaker 1: or what do they think? Well, you know, she was 649 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:22,600 Speaker 1: very careful because she's a good scientist, and she called 650 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:26,080 Speaker 1: it a candidate because it's really hard to know for sure, right, 651 00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:28,200 Speaker 1: And these calculations are hard to do. You have to 652 00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:30,360 Speaker 1: measure the brightness of the star, which means you have 653 00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:32,560 Speaker 1: to know how far away it is, and you have 654 00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:35,000 Speaker 1: to measure the spectra, which means you have to know 655 00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:37,919 Speaker 1: like how much the light is absorbed between here and there. 656 00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:41,520 Speaker 1: It's a candidate. It's a candidate. So then do the 657 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:45,680 Speaker 1: people of Denver and now vote on it or did 658 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:48,400 Speaker 1: they decide, Well, we're deciding whether or not to eject 659 00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:51,279 Speaker 1: Denver into the heart of that and that depends on 660 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:54,480 Speaker 1: how they vote. Denver into a star, depending on how 661 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:56,480 Speaker 1: they vote in the next election. Denver is a star. 662 00:34:56,640 --> 00:34:59,680 Speaker 1: Da It's always a star in my heart. But then 663 00:34:59,719 --> 00:35:03,000 Speaker 1: a other group of folks reanalyzed this in two thousand 664 00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:07,480 Speaker 1: eighteen with more data from this one candidate, and their 665 00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:10,480 Speaker 1: numbers disagree. They said, well, you know what, we don't 666 00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:13,160 Speaker 1: think it's as bright as you thought it was, and 667 00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:16,680 Speaker 1: we don't find these dips at those element lines as 668 00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:20,839 Speaker 1: convincing interesting using the same data well as updated data 669 00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:26,000 Speaker 1: and different analysis techniques. Yeah, so they actually used older data. 670 00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:29,200 Speaker 1: They went back into catalogs and found old data from 671 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:32,239 Speaker 1: previous telecopes. They've been looking for something else and they 672 00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:34,160 Speaker 1: had this old data and they're like, oh, let's use 673 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,560 Speaker 1: this to try to understand the behavior of this star 674 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,360 Speaker 1: more deeply interesting. So that was sort of disappointing. But 675 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,440 Speaker 1: it's one of these bad news good news situations. But 676 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:44,120 Speaker 1: but also, I mean, either of them could be wrong 677 00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:46,080 Speaker 1: kind of you know, oh, yeah, either of them could 678 00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:48,600 Speaker 1: be wrong. Sounds like you need more studies. That's right. Well, 679 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:51,160 Speaker 1: a third study that disagrees with both of them, and 680 00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:54,160 Speaker 1: they will be even more confused. But this two thousand 681 00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:58,640 Speaker 1: eighteen papers said that loves candidate maybe wasn't a t 682 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:02,520 Speaker 1: c O, but they found a better candidate. They were like, well, 683 00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:05,120 Speaker 1: when we reanalyzed all the red supergiants, we found this 684 00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:08,719 Speaker 1: other one that has a very strong rubidium line and 685 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:12,319 Speaker 1: it's very very bright. And so it's a question of like, 686 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:15,880 Speaker 1: how well do we understand the population of red supergiants. 687 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,919 Speaker 1: Maybe there's just weird behavior without having a neutron star 688 00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:21,160 Speaker 1: in the court. Maybe they just have latium on them 689 00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:24,400 Speaker 1: or rubidium, yeah, or maybe there are a lot of 690 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,560 Speaker 1: these things. You know. They did some backup the envelope calculation. 691 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:30,480 Speaker 1: They said, these things last like ten thousand or a 692 00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:33,719 Speaker 1: hundred thousand or a million years, and you can calculate 693 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:36,360 Speaker 1: like the rate of which they are formed. Then you 694 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:38,640 Speaker 1: can put together an estimate for like how many there 695 00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:40,920 Speaker 1: should be in the Milky Way right now? Wait, do 696 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,720 Speaker 1: you mean how long do you expect once the neutron 697 00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:46,160 Speaker 1: star goes into the red Giant? How long do you 698 00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:50,000 Speaker 1: expect it to to live or to just act in 699 00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:52,920 Speaker 1: an unusual way? How long you expected to continue looking 700 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,359 Speaker 1: like a red super giant before it like turns into 701 00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:58,040 Speaker 1: a black hole or blows the red super giant out 702 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:02,759 Speaker 1: into just all are remnant. I see, there's no scenario 703 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,840 Speaker 1: in which it just stays a red super giant like 704 00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:08,360 Speaker 1: once they once you shoot a neutron star and it's 705 00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:10,640 Speaker 1: it's game over for it. Yeah, well, game over meaning 706 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:12,799 Speaker 1: like you know, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, maybe a 707 00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:19,560 Speaker 1: million years right game for star lifetimes, that's pretty short. 708 00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:22,360 Speaker 1: And you know, they did some estimates for how often 709 00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:26,040 Speaker 1: these things should happen, and they figured that, like, you know, 710 00:37:26,719 --> 00:37:30,400 Speaker 1: this happens at one every ten thousand years ish or so. 711 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,000 Speaker 1: And if you do the calculations that tells you that 712 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,160 Speaker 1: there should be something like twenty to two hundred of 713 00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:40,280 Speaker 1: these things at any given moment in the Milky Way. Wow, 714 00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,040 Speaker 1: it sounds like a lot, but the Milky Way is huge. Yeah, 715 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:45,400 Speaker 1: there's like, you know, hundreds of billions of stars, and 716 00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:47,680 Speaker 1: so a twenty or two hundred of those would be 717 00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:52,080 Speaker 1: these weird category. That's not that many, but it's possible, 718 00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:54,520 Speaker 1: and it's kind of possible to spot them. Yeah, it's 719 00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:58,440 Speaker 1: totally possible. Theoretically, there's nothing preventing it from happening, and 720 00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:00,560 Speaker 1: so we think it might happen, and it's just a 721 00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:03,040 Speaker 1: question of finding one, and then you get to play 722 00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:04,880 Speaker 1: the fun game of like, well, it doesn't look like 723 00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:08,359 Speaker 1: we expected, which means maybe there's something different going on 724 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:12,840 Speaker 1: inside red supergiants. You know, we're desperately curious about what's 725 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:15,080 Speaker 1: going on in the inside of stars because that's where 726 00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:17,920 Speaker 1: all the critical stuff happens. That's where heavy metals are 727 00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:21,720 Speaker 1: man Currently, we don't have a great understanding, for example, 728 00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:25,399 Speaker 1: how lithium is made in the universe, and it might 729 00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:27,839 Speaker 1: be that this is an important component of the just 730 00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:30,680 Speaker 1: the manufacturing of lithium in the universe, and if so 731 00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,759 Speaker 1: it would change how we understand like lithium being made 732 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:36,160 Speaker 1: in the Big Bang or the early universe, and so 733 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:38,840 Speaker 1: this is really important stuff to try to get a 734 00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:43,080 Speaker 1: handle on. All Right, Well, it sounds like almost unbelievable scenario, 735 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:45,839 Speaker 1: but it sounds like it's happening all the time right now, 736 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,000 Speaker 1: Like right now, there's two hundred of these possibly red 737 00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:52,759 Speaker 1: supergiants being killed by a neutroun car right now. That's right, 738 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:55,239 Speaker 1: And I hope it inspires a future generation of scientists 739 00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:58,560 Speaker 1: to think, like, hey, let's put three objects like these 740 00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:01,080 Speaker 1: guys had a stack of two rejects, have like a 741 00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:04,600 Speaker 1: neutron star inside a bigger star, and put that whole 742 00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:07,520 Speaker 1: thing inside a red super giant, and that whole thing 743 00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:10,200 Speaker 1: wrap it all up in a you know, tortilla, and 744 00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:14,439 Speaker 1: taco bell will sell it. Gordita and red super giant crunch, 745 00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:18,720 Speaker 1: putting on the toppings there. That's right, wrapping more cheese, 746 00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:21,920 Speaker 1: wrapping another layer of tortilla called something else. I think 747 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:24,719 Speaker 1: Kip Thorns should maybe pitched his to Hollywood again as 748 00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:33,000 Speaker 1: a new movie called Interstellar Colon Star Snacks. It would 749 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:38,160 Speaker 1: be great because it already has spinoffs in terms of merchandizing, right, yeah, 750 00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:40,480 Speaker 1: all right, Well I think it's just this again, just 751 00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:42,440 Speaker 1: how about how much we don't know about the universe. 752 00:39:42,520 --> 00:39:45,640 Speaker 1: You know, we think that we know these red super 753 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:47,399 Speaker 1: giants out there, and we think we know what's going 754 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:51,120 Speaker 1: on and how often they happen, um, but who knows. 755 00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:53,080 Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot we don't know going on 756 00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:55,799 Speaker 1: inside of him, and there's a lot going on that 757 00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:58,400 Speaker 1: can happen to them in the universe. Yeah, And a 758 00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:01,200 Speaker 1: big part of the exploration, big part of answering these 759 00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:05,160 Speaker 1: questions is internal, is starting with mental creativity, is just 760 00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:07,719 Speaker 1: thinking what could be out there. And a lot of 761 00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:09,920 Speaker 1: the progress we've made is because we've come up with 762 00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:13,400 Speaker 1: the right question, because we've had the right crazy idea. 763 00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:15,520 Speaker 1: And so if you're a person who likes science but 764 00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:19,000 Speaker 1: you're also creative, remember there's a lot of creativity necessary 765 00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:21,440 Speaker 1: to do good science. And don't forget to put it 766 00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:23,440 Speaker 1: in an email. That needs to be a critical step 767 00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:27,839 Speaker 1: in any good idea. Did anybody do science before there 768 00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:30,359 Speaker 1: was email? I don't even I don't think they did. 769 00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:33,880 Speaker 1: There's definitely a correlation with the amount of science papers 770 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:39,000 Speaker 1: produced and then email scent so really negative or positive correlation, 771 00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:43,160 Speaker 1: some kind of correlation, that's all I'll say. Who knows 772 00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,359 Speaker 1: what the classation is a relationship exactly? All right, Well, 773 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,239 Speaker 1: we hope you enjoyed that and think about you know, 774 00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:51,120 Speaker 1: next time you look up at this guy, think of 775 00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:54,200 Speaker 1: red giant stars, the size of this orbit of Jupiter 776 00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:57,640 Speaker 1: being killed by tiny little stars, the size of them. 777 00:40:58,080 --> 00:40:59,960 Speaker 1: You hope you ender a dad. See you next time. 778 00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:10,920 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and remember that. Daniel and Jorge Explain 779 00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:13,840 Speaker 1: the Universe is a production of I Heart Radio. For 780 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,919 Speaker 1: more podcast For my heart Radio, visit the I Heart 781 00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:20,600 Speaker 1: Radio Apple Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 782 00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:21,400 Speaker 1: favorite shows.