1 00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:11,520 Speaker 1: Hey, Jorgey, you like looking up at the stars, right? Yeah, 2 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:15,000 Speaker 1: I love it. The stars are beautiful and brilliant, and 3 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:17,160 Speaker 1: it just makes you think about the universe. Next time 4 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: you look with the stars, you might want to remember 5 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:21,959 Speaker 1: that the stars they can kill you. The stars that 6 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,480 Speaker 1: are billions of light years far away can kill me. 7 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:27,480 Speaker 1: That's right. Not just shooting stars, which are like meteors 8 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:29,640 Speaker 1: that could hit the earth and kill you, but the 9 00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:32,920 Speaker 1: actual stars caused the death of about a hundred people 10 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,159 Speaker 1: a year, mostly men. It turns out mostly men. Is 11 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:38,320 Speaker 1: it because they're driving while they're trying to look at 12 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:40,920 Speaker 1: the stars? No, as usual, it turns out it's all 13 00:00:40,960 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: about the particles. Hi, I'm more Hamming cartoon is and 14 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:03,680 Speaker 1: the creator of PhD comics. Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a 15 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,839 Speaker 1: particle physicist, and I have not killed anybody this year 16 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:09,160 Speaker 1: or any other year. Well that's good. That's always a 17 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:11,800 Speaker 1: good thing to put in your resume. I like just 18 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:15,200 Speaker 1: coming out denying that initially, Like nobody asks you, but 19 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 1: I just want you to know, I'm a particle physicist, 20 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: but I haven't killed anybody. Is that how you introduce yourself? 21 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 1: Every time? Hi, I'm Daniel and today. I haven't killed anybody. 22 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:28,440 Speaker 1: Day ain't over yet, right now. That's how I introduced 23 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: myself to my my girlfriend's father that you know my 24 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:34,919 Speaker 1: girlfriend now wife's father. I'm a particle physicist. Don't worry, 25 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:38,119 Speaker 1: I haven't killed anybody now. Actually he's a he's also 26 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:39,760 Speaker 1: a physicist. So as soon as he heard that I 27 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:42,120 Speaker 1: was a physicist, he was like, this is the one. Well, 28 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:46,399 Speaker 1: welcome to an electrifying episode of Daniel and Jorge Explained 29 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:49,400 Speaker 1: the Universe, a production of I Heart Radio. That's right, 30 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:52,560 Speaker 1: in which we try to unmask the mysteries of physics 31 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:55,280 Speaker 1: out there in the universe and right here on Earth. 32 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:59,560 Speaker 1: Let's try we try to uncover the shocking truth about 33 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 1: the world around you, and uh try to do it 34 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:04,560 Speaker 1: all in a quick flash. That's right. We try to 35 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 1: charge up your physics batteries and overload your bad joke capacity. 36 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,040 Speaker 1: That's right. And today we're talking about a topic which 37 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: is a particular interest to me, um, and I think 38 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,360 Speaker 1: of interest to everybody who's looked up at the sky 39 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:23,120 Speaker 1: during a thunderstorm. Yeah, it's something that I think makes 40 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:26,080 Speaker 1: everybody curious. Since you're a little kid, you're probably wonder 41 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 1: what is going on with that, and it's something that 42 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:31,960 Speaker 1: people have been wondering about for thousands and thousands of years. 43 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: You know, it's one of the earliest natural phenomena that 44 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: inspired religion. You know, people give this power to the 45 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:40,000 Speaker 1: gods because it seems so dramatic. So to be on 46 00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:48,120 Speaker 1: the program, we are going to be talking about lightning. 47 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:52,480 Speaker 1: What is lightning, what causes lightning? And where is the 48 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:56,440 Speaker 1: mystery in it? Because apparently there are still unanswered questions 49 00:02:56,440 --> 00:02:59,079 Speaker 1: about lightning. That's right. One of my favorite trends in 50 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:03,880 Speaker 1: sort of human ulture is seeing things that are obviously weird, fascinating, 51 00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:08,840 Speaker 1: amazing the humans used to describe using religion, right, or mythology, 52 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:11,800 Speaker 1: and then science slowly sort of pieces that together the 53 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 1: mystery and reveals the physics behind it. You know, Oh, 54 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:16,639 Speaker 1: it turns out it's this. It turns out it's that. Right. 55 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: One of the most amazing natural phenomena to witness is lightning. Right, 56 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: And there's of course the a nice long arc of 57 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: history of understanding lightning. But it turns out that lightning 58 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: still has a lot of mysteries. There's still a little 59 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:32,639 Speaker 1: bit of magic and mythology behind it, right until physics 60 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 1: kills it all until physicists become mythical themselves. Right. Yeah, 61 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,040 Speaker 1: but lightning, I guess you know, it's such a tangible, 62 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:44,680 Speaker 1: you know, phenomenon. It's so visually striking too, write I mean, 63 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: not just because it strikes the earth, but you know, 64 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: it's like it's seeing this giant column of light in 65 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:52,640 Speaker 1: the middle of a storm. It's just impressive and it 66 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: makes you think, man, there must be some kind of 67 00:03:55,920 --> 00:04:00,160 Speaker 1: deity or god throwing that down. It certainly is awe inspiring. Right, 68 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:02,480 Speaker 1: You look at that and you think, wow, nature or 69 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: the universe or something out there is so much more 70 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,760 Speaker 1: powerful than me. It seems like such an impressive display, 71 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:11,000 Speaker 1: you know, and it is impressive, you know, like a 72 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:15,840 Speaker 1: single lightning strike has a billion jewels of energy in it, 73 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 1: a billion, right and billion once one lightning strike a 74 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:24,720 Speaker 1: billion jewels. Yeah, And how much is that relative to like, um, 75 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: a light bulb? Yeah, well, you know, to calibrate, you 76 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:32,960 Speaker 1: and your household probably use about thirty seven billion jewels 77 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:36,280 Speaker 1: a year, So in a week your house uses a 78 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,080 Speaker 1: little less than a billion jewels of energy. So billion 79 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:41,599 Speaker 1: jewels of energy is like enough to power a house 80 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:44,120 Speaker 1: for a week. Now, is that with my kids using 81 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: the iPad all the time or not using the iPad. 82 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:48,800 Speaker 1: So I stood outside your house for this episode and 83 00:04:48,839 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 1: I measured your house is electricity usage. So this is 84 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: very specific to you. I heard the rock the actor 85 00:04:55,839 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: his punch has is about a four hundred jewels. So 86 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,200 Speaker 1: you know, a normal person's punches, you know, tens of jewels, 87 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: but like a really strong professional can get to the 88 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: hundreds of jewels. But you know that's just hundreds of jewels. 89 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,640 Speaker 1: That means that a lightning strike is like getting punched 90 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:16,720 Speaker 1: by the rock two and a half million times. So 91 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:19,880 Speaker 1: pretty serious stuff. Yeah, so it's something that it's been 92 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:22,719 Speaker 1: in mythology for a long time, and it's it seems 93 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:26,159 Speaker 1: like that it's something that signs still hasn't captured quite 94 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: in a bottle, right, there's still some mysteries about it. Yeah, 95 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,039 Speaker 1: it turns out that there's some deep connections between lightning 96 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 1: and particle physics, but we'll dig into that. Um. But 97 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:38,080 Speaker 1: I was wondering, you know, what do people know about lightning? 98 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:40,520 Speaker 1: Is people? Do people think lightning as well understood? Does 99 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:42,480 Speaker 1: everybody out there have a good model for lightning in 100 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:45,720 Speaker 1: their head or most people still just like awe inspired 101 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,200 Speaker 1: and dumb struck and have no idea what's causing it. So, 102 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:50,479 Speaker 1: as usual, Daniel went out and asked people on the 103 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:54,960 Speaker 1: street or sometimes at reports if they knew. I have 104 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:56,920 Speaker 1: been doing a lot of traveling this summer, so I've 105 00:05:56,920 --> 00:05:59,480 Speaker 1: been just taking the opportunity to ask people all around 106 00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:02,839 Speaker 1: the world random questions about physics. So as usual, Daniel 107 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:04,400 Speaker 1: went out and asked people in the street did they 108 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:08,800 Speaker 1: knew what lightning is and what causes it? So before 109 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:10,719 Speaker 1: you hear these answers, think about it for a second. 110 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:13,400 Speaker 1: If someone asked you on the street what lighting was, 111 00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: what would you answer. Here's what people had to say. 112 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:21,359 Speaker 1: I just know it's like a ray of like of 113 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:24,120 Speaker 1: like shooting really fast and then it hits a point. 114 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 1: It's like an energy that hits from one point to another. Essentially, 115 00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:31,920 Speaker 1: charge particles moving between differential charge and different positions, and 116 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:35,039 Speaker 1: they're moving for one place to another. Um you know, 117 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: usually you see it between clouds in the sky. Has 118 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: something to do with like a static electrics trusty charge. 119 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:45,440 Speaker 1: I think that builds up as maybe the water molecules 120 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:47,760 Speaker 1: are moving in the cloud. I don't think something like that. 121 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:52,480 Speaker 1: It's a charge difference between the ground of the clouds. 122 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:57,120 Speaker 1: It's like the spontaneous ionization of air like excitement of 123 00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:00,200 Speaker 1: park like protons and the clouds, and then this like 124 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,160 Speaker 1: a tracer beam to the ground and once being instaground 125 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:05,919 Speaker 1: and lightningtially strikes to know. Yeah, lightning is just the 126 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:10,360 Speaker 1: breakdown of gas or ionizing of gas and allowing electrons 127 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:13,480 Speaker 1: to float through high voltages. All right, people had long 128 00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:16,440 Speaker 1: answers for these people have thought about lightning. Lightning is 129 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:20,440 Speaker 1: definitely something that's inspired physics thoughts in people's minds. Right, 130 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:22,400 Speaker 1: They look at that and they wonder what is it? 131 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 1: And I guess they get inspired or google a little 132 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:27,280 Speaker 1: bit or read about it. But there's some knowledge about 133 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:29,559 Speaker 1: lightning out there, for sure. I was impressed. It seems 134 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 1: very more binary than usual. Some people are like, I 135 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 1: have no idea, I'm not really sure, but some people 136 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: were like, oh, it's a charge and electricity and clouds 137 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,160 Speaker 1: and ground. Yeah, And this time people who have very 138 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:43,960 Speaker 1: specific ideas have pretty specific and mostly correct ideas. Right. 139 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:47,280 Speaker 1: Didn't get a whole lot of people pontificating totally off topic. 140 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:49,560 Speaker 1: So that was pretty impressive. What do you think that 141 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:51,960 Speaker 1: comes from? Do you think, um, you know, kids TV 142 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: explains lightning or people something that maybe in high school 143 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: people here about. Yeah, I don't know. I think it 144 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:00,720 Speaker 1: has to do with the immediacy of it. Right. Lightning 145 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:03,840 Speaker 1: is something that's right there in most people's lives, and 146 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:07,120 Speaker 1: so it's not like the Higgs boson or other crazy stuff. 147 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,480 Speaker 1: It's it makes people wonder and they want answers. I 148 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:15,960 Speaker 1: think the good news is that nobody said Zeus throwing 149 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:19,160 Speaker 1: down and bolts. I thought you were a favor of 150 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,880 Speaker 1: mysticism and magic, right, so now now you're cheering physics 151 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:30,440 Speaker 1: on for destroying the old gods mooney or something. Uh. 152 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:34,959 Speaker 1: I think it's interesting, um that you said earlier, most 153 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 1: lightning strikes are happened to hid men. Yeah, that's right. 154 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:41,960 Speaker 1: About a hundred people every year are killed by lightning, 155 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:44,719 Speaker 1: and eight out of a hundred are men. I think 156 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:48,280 Speaker 1: that is really quite fascinating. Um. Yeah, what what used 157 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:51,000 Speaker 1: to that? It's so that that is so weird. Yeah. 158 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:53,960 Speaker 1: I don't think it has to do with like the 159 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:58,080 Speaker 1: physiology of men, or the height of men, or you know, 160 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:01,640 Speaker 1: the volume of their hair, or or electrical you know, 161 00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:05,240 Speaker 1: their capacity to conduct electricity or anything might have to 162 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:07,560 Speaker 1: do with where men are. You know, maybe they're out more, 163 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:11,040 Speaker 1: or they're climbing poles more or something where they're doing 164 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:16,760 Speaker 1: stupid stuff in lightning storms more. That sounds about right, 165 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:19,240 Speaker 1: Or I think this is just proved that maybe Zeus 166 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:24,560 Speaker 1: is a woman. I think all this time, Yeah, I was. 167 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:27,200 Speaker 1: I was totally floored by that fact. That was like. 168 00:09:27,559 --> 00:09:30,040 Speaker 1: And the other thing that's interesting is that lightning doesn't 169 00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:33,080 Speaker 1: just strike men more, but it's not equally distributed around 170 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:35,480 Speaker 1: the world. Right. There's some areas around the world where 171 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:38,360 Speaker 1: lightning over almost never happens in other areas where it's 172 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:41,160 Speaker 1: really common. It's just where it happens more, not just 173 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:43,360 Speaker 1: where it hits people. Yeah, just in general, where it 174 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:46,160 Speaker 1: strikes the ground, like in Central Africa and in the 175 00:09:46,200 --> 00:09:49,240 Speaker 1: Himalayas and in Florida in the US, you get a 176 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:51,480 Speaker 1: lot of lightning, but in other places, like in Europe, 177 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:54,320 Speaker 1: is much much, much less lightning. I think that's just 178 00:09:54,559 --> 00:09:59,920 Speaker 1: um the universe punishing Florida for it's roll into political 179 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:02,439 Speaker 1: for having a bunch of weird dudes in it, right, 180 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:04,920 Speaker 1: And that's because of the weather. There's just more weather 181 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 1: activity over those places. Or you need wide open fields 182 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,080 Speaker 1: what what's going on? Yeah, well we'll talk about it 183 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:13,240 Speaker 1: when we dig into how lightning is formed. But you 184 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:15,920 Speaker 1: need just the right weather conditions. Florida, for example, is 185 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:18,160 Speaker 1: very moist and has a lot of storms, and so 186 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:22,400 Speaker 1: you have the conditions to spark lightning more often than 187 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:24,920 Speaker 1: you do in other drier places. So let's break it down. Well, 188 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:27,040 Speaker 1: let's start with what is lightning Like if you had 189 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:30,480 Speaker 1: to define lightning, how would you describe it? Yeah, so 190 00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:33,840 Speaker 1: lightning a common misconception that lightning is fire, right, But 191 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:38,040 Speaker 1: it's not. Lightning is electricity, right, it's it's actually a 192 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:42,040 Speaker 1: glowing tube of plasma. Remember the states of matter. You 193 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:46,400 Speaker 1: have solid liquid gas, and then plasma, the least often 194 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:50,240 Speaker 1: discussed state of matter. That's a gas has so much 195 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:53,440 Speaker 1: energy that the atoms have become ionized. The electrons have 196 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:56,559 Speaker 1: gotten pulled off of the positive nuclei, and so it 197 00:10:56,720 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 1: conducts electricity. So it's the gas that conducts electricity usually glows. 198 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 1: That's like what's inside fluorescent light bulbs. The atoms break down, 199 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:08,480 Speaker 1: they like, they just have so much energy they break apart. 200 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:11,320 Speaker 1: The atoms exactly. The electrons have been torn off of 201 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:14,320 Speaker 1: the positive nuclei and plasma is not so weird. They 202 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:17,559 Speaker 1: can't stay start to the nucleus. Yeah, like inside a 203 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:19,720 Speaker 1: fluorescent light bulb. That's what you have is a plasma. 204 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:23,000 Speaker 1: You have a gas that's been ionized and it's glowing, right, 205 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:25,600 Speaker 1: And so that's what lightning is. It's just a long 206 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:31,480 Speaker 1: arc of conducting gas, right. Essentially, electricity is flowing through it. 207 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 1: It's just a giant fluorescent tube. Yeah, it's a giant 208 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:38,160 Speaker 1: fluorescent tube. Essentially, the air has been turned into a wire. Right. 209 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:42,559 Speaker 1: Normally air doesn't conduct electricity, it's an insulator, right. But 210 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:45,440 Speaker 1: if you get enough positive charges on one side and 211 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:48,040 Speaker 1: negative charges on the other side, then the force is 212 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:51,800 Speaker 1: so strong that that it breaks apart the atoms and 213 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:54,840 Speaker 1: turns it into a conductor. And that's what happens with lightning. 214 00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:57,760 Speaker 1: The glow that you're seeing, the flash, that's just the 215 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:02,240 Speaker 1: electricity flowing down this giant fluorescent tube. Yeah, there's so 216 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:04,600 Speaker 1: much energy in there. Stuff is vibrating and when it's 217 00:12:04,679 --> 00:12:07,559 Speaker 1: vibrating has so much energy. It's also giving off light. Right. 218 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:10,280 Speaker 1: It's a it's getting that energy and then it's trying 219 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:12,560 Speaker 1: to emit that energy. That's what the glow is. The 220 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:15,000 Speaker 1: ions haven't lost all of their electrons, right, They also 221 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,040 Speaker 1: absorbed some other energy, and those electrons bounce up and down. 222 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:20,679 Speaker 1: When the electrons go down, they give off a photon. 223 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:23,080 Speaker 1: So that's what you're seeing. That's the glow from the 224 00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:26,600 Speaker 1: plasma I see. But is it like a flow of electrons? What? 225 00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:28,000 Speaker 1: What are you? How do you how do you think 226 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:30,360 Speaker 1: about it? Is it electrons flowing from the clouds to 227 00:12:30,400 --> 00:12:32,720 Speaker 1: the ground. Is that a good way to think about it? Yeah, 228 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:36,440 Speaker 1: it's actually really fascinating how it happens. You have a 229 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: positive charge on the ground and a negative charge on 230 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: the bottom of the cloud, all right, So you have 231 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:46,400 Speaker 1: this separation, and then the electrons they leave the bottom 232 00:12:46,440 --> 00:12:49,320 Speaker 1: of the cloud and they explore the air. They move 233 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:53,160 Speaker 1: out and they break into these forks like the step structure, 234 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:55,680 Speaker 1: and they're looking for a path to the ground. And 235 00:12:55,720 --> 00:12:58,600 Speaker 1: they when they find the path of least resistance to 236 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:01,120 Speaker 1: the ground, the one with where it's easiest to rip 237 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:03,840 Speaker 1: the electrons off the atom, right, they make a connection 238 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:07,200 Speaker 1: to the ground. Then you basically have this electrical connection 239 00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:10,920 Speaker 1: and a huge pulse of energy then travels up from 240 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:13,800 Speaker 1: the ground to the cloud. And that's what you actually 241 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:16,560 Speaker 1: see and you see a bolt of lightning, that's what 242 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,440 Speaker 1: you're seeing. You're seeing stuff come up from the ground, 243 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:22,680 Speaker 1: not the electrons coming down to the ground. That's right. 244 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:24,880 Speaker 1: What you're seeing is the pulse that goes up this 245 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:27,600 Speaker 1: this first part of lightning. It's also really quick, but 246 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:30,640 Speaker 1: it's much less bright because it's just electrons finding the path. 247 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:33,959 Speaker 1: Once they make the connection, then all of a sudden, 248 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:37,800 Speaker 1: there's this huge opportunity, right, you have this enormous charge 249 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:41,240 Speaker 1: difference between the ground and the cloud. It's desperate, desperate 250 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:43,840 Speaker 1: to connect, right, and as soon as there's a connection, 251 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,840 Speaker 1: then it all rushes through there. But it starts where 252 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:49,840 Speaker 1: the connection is formed, which is at the ground, and 253 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:52,280 Speaker 1: then the pulse goes up to the ground, up to 254 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:54,880 Speaker 1: the cloud like half the speed of light. You're saying 255 00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:58,400 Speaker 1: that the glow starts from the ground, but actually, but 256 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:00,679 Speaker 1: the whole thing is it's a it's a trons coming 257 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:03,400 Speaker 1: down from the cloud to the ground. That's right. Whenever 258 00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:05,640 Speaker 1: you have a circuit and you have charges moving, it's 259 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:08,120 Speaker 1: always electrons that are moving because they're much lighter than 260 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 1: the nuclei, the positively charged nuclei, so it's always about 261 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:13,920 Speaker 1: negative charges moving and in this case, you have electrons 262 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:17,960 Speaker 1: flowing down to the ground, right, But the electrons find 263 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:20,520 Speaker 1: the path down to the ground, and then the pulse, 264 00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:23,920 Speaker 1: the actual movement of the electricity, starts at the ground 265 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:26,720 Speaker 1: and then it works its way back up to the cloud. 266 00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:30,280 Speaker 1: You're saying that the plasma ification of the air starts 267 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:32,960 Speaker 1: at the ground, Yeah, because that's when that's when the 268 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,520 Speaker 1: connection is first made. I think about this like the 269 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:38,120 Speaker 1: way water is always trying to flow down to the ground. 270 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:41,320 Speaker 1: So imagine you had like a huge bag of water 271 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:44,080 Speaker 1: or something. It's like looking for a hole in the 272 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:46,680 Speaker 1: bottom of the bag. It's trying to find its way out, right. 273 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:48,720 Speaker 1: We're trying to find the weakest spot in the bag 274 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:52,480 Speaker 1: and keep pouring water into the bag. And eventually the 275 00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:54,440 Speaker 1: weakest spot in the bag is gonna pop. And when 276 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:57,640 Speaker 1: that happens, boom, all the water is going to rush out, right, Like, 277 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:00,200 Speaker 1: that's what happens when you pop a water balloon. Right. 278 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:03,040 Speaker 1: A water balloon doesn't explode everywhere at once, explodes in 279 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:06,280 Speaker 1: one tiny point and then the rest of it follows. 280 00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:08,200 Speaker 1: So you're saying, like, as soon as it touches the ground, 281 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,680 Speaker 1: the first electrons, then then the rushing of the electrons 282 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:14,000 Speaker 1: happens first at the ground, and then the rushing kind 283 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:17,000 Speaker 1: of propagates up. And so that's why, like, if you 284 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:20,160 Speaker 1: look at high speed high speed movie of lightning, it 285 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:23,720 Speaker 1: looks like it's actually moving up from the ground. That's right, exactly, 286 00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:26,160 Speaker 1: because when the bottom makes the connection with the electrons 287 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:29,040 Speaker 1: first touched the ground, the top doesn't yet know. Right, 288 00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:31,640 Speaker 1: No information in the universe travels faster than the speed 289 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:34,680 Speaker 1: of light. Nothing is instantaneous. So the connection is first 290 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:37,280 Speaker 1: made at the bottom, and the rushing, the glowing the 291 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:40,600 Speaker 1: plasmifications start there and then moves very rapidly up to 292 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:43,880 Speaker 1: the clouds. And I only learned this when I actually 293 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:47,680 Speaker 1: pointed a high speed camera at a lightning strike. You 294 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:49,520 Speaker 1: said you found this out when you pointed a camera 295 00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:53,000 Speaker 1: at a lightning Yeah. One of my first science summer 296 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:57,240 Speaker 1: jobs was working with a plasma physics group. They're the 297 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:00,400 Speaker 1: kind of folks that build fusion reactors, and they would 298 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,480 Speaker 1: inject fuel into these reactors and wanted to see what happened. 299 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 1: So they bought a hugely expensive super high speed camera 300 00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:11,640 Speaker 1: that could take like fifteen thousand frame digital pictures a 301 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:14,120 Speaker 1: second at the time. This is in the nineties. That 302 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:17,560 Speaker 1: was super duper high tech. And but then the fusion 303 00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:20,240 Speaker 1: reactor wasn't working, and so we thought, well, let's test 304 00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:22,920 Speaker 1: it on something else. So the scientist I was working with, 305 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:26,480 Speaker 1: Glenn Wharton, Um he lived in Um. You guys were like, 306 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:30,800 Speaker 1: we need five point one exactly. We're like our our 307 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:36,680 Speaker 1: fusion reactor. We were like, what's a good reliable source 308 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:40,520 Speaker 1: of plasma? And in northern New Mexico every afternoon there's 309 00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:43,280 Speaker 1: a thunderstorm. It's crazy. It's like sunny skies at two 310 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,840 Speaker 1: o'clock to fifteen, nothing and then all of a sudden 311 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:50,520 Speaker 1: to twenty or so huge thunderstorm, pouring rain for about 312 00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:54,640 Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, and then blue skies again pretty reliably. So 313 00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:56,840 Speaker 1: we took the camera to his garage and we set 314 00:16:56,840 --> 00:16:58,680 Speaker 1: it up and we just sort of pointed in a 315 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:02,400 Speaker 1: random direction and turned it on and boomed the huge 316 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:04,840 Speaker 1: lightning strike right when we turned it on, and we 317 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:08,520 Speaker 1: got this incredible footage and you could see the lightning 318 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:11,240 Speaker 1: breaking out, stepping down to the ground, and then this 319 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:14,159 Speaker 1: huge pulse that went up. And so we wrote a 320 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,240 Speaker 1: paper science paper that was essentially like, look at this 321 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:21,120 Speaker 1: awesome footage we got, and that was it Nobody else 322 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:23,360 Speaker 1: had done it before. No, it was the first one 323 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:26,040 Speaker 1: as far as I'm aware of. And so we published 324 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:33,040 Speaker 1: it and it's got six citations so far. That's uh, 325 00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:36,320 Speaker 1: that's a lot for particle physics, isn't it? Plasma physics? 326 00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:39,320 Speaker 1: And um Interestingly, three of those citations came in the 327 00:17:39,359 --> 00:17:41,879 Speaker 1: last few years, so it's gathering some attention. You know, 328 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:43,880 Speaker 1: maybe it's gonna be one of these papers that gets 329 00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:47,480 Speaker 1: no citations and then changes the world. Wow. So when 330 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:50,359 Speaker 1: they say of lightning strikes are men, they really just 331 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:54,800 Speaker 1: mean like male physicists think it's a good idea to 332 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:58,280 Speaker 1: go out into the store to take pictures. That's right now. 333 00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:01,480 Speaker 1: We were safely ensconced in in his garage. But it 334 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:04,240 Speaker 1: was a pretty awesome experience. I had never seen lightning, 335 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,879 Speaker 1: um in slow motion. It was pretty exhilarating. Cool. That 336 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:10,440 Speaker 1: sounds really cool. So that's lightning, and so let's get 337 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:14,439 Speaker 1: into what causes lightning and let's get into where the 338 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:19,240 Speaker 1: mystery is that scientists haven't figured out. But first let's 339 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:34,439 Speaker 1: take a quick break. All right, we talked about what 340 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:37,600 Speaker 1: lightning is. It's essentially giant fluorescent tube. So it's like 341 00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:40,960 Speaker 1: a giant. It's like the neon sign of nature. That's right. 342 00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:43,280 Speaker 1: It's sort of like a giant fluorescent tube and you 343 00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:45,359 Speaker 1: can see sort of many lightning all the time. Like 344 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:47,760 Speaker 1: do you ever get static electricity? You know, you like 345 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:51,080 Speaker 1: rub your feet across carpet um essentially build up a 346 00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:53,240 Speaker 1: bunch of charge and then if you touch something, you 347 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:55,760 Speaker 1: feel a little zapp Right, if you look carefully, you 348 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:58,840 Speaker 1: can see a little arc of electricity that's sort of 349 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:01,760 Speaker 1: like mini lightning from your fingertips, like you are mini 350 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:04,400 Speaker 1: Zeus in that case. And it's the same thing happening 351 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:07,320 Speaker 1: is that electrons from my finger are jumping over to 352 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:12,560 Speaker 1: the door knob, which ionizes the air between there, and 353 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,879 Speaker 1: that's what causes this part exactly. And it only happens 354 00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:18,639 Speaker 1: when you get close enough because it's easier to ionize 355 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:21,240 Speaker 1: a smaller amount of air. Either you can get closer 356 00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:23,399 Speaker 1: or you can increase the amount of power and then 357 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,280 Speaker 1: you get a bigger arc. So anyone can shoot plasma 358 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:30,560 Speaker 1: from their finger, that's right, yeah, exactly. You might not 359 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:32,679 Speaker 1: be as powerful as the rock, but you can shoot 360 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:37,520 Speaker 1: lightning bolts from your fingertips, a little tiny one millimeter 361 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:41,800 Speaker 1: lightning bolts but still it's plasma at your fingertips. And 362 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:43,560 Speaker 1: the way that you do that here on Earth right 363 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:45,840 Speaker 1: is like you're rubbing your feet against the carpet. Or 364 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:47,600 Speaker 1: you can do this in a demonstration if you take 365 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:49,480 Speaker 1: like a glass rod and you rub it with a 366 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:52,640 Speaker 1: silk cloth or something. And essentially what you're doing there 367 00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:56,600 Speaker 1: is you're stripping electrons. You're there's some complicated physics of 368 00:19:56,680 --> 00:19:59,800 Speaker 1: the friction there, but basically you're pulling the electrons off 369 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:02,520 Speaker 1: of atoms and building up a charge. So you like 370 00:20:02,600 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: you rub two atoms together and the electrons just fly 371 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:09,399 Speaker 1: off and but don't need come back right away. It depends, 372 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:11,679 Speaker 1: right if there's something to separate them. And so in 373 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:14,760 Speaker 1: the cloud, people are not exactly sure how this happens, 374 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:18,000 Speaker 1: but they think that there's some complex interaction between sort 375 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:22,000 Speaker 1: of semi frozen pellets of water and crystals of ice 376 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:24,440 Speaker 1: that bump up against each other, and one of them 377 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: is lighter than the other, and they bump up against 378 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:29,200 Speaker 1: each other and then they have different reactions to wind 379 00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:31,479 Speaker 1: and gravity, and so they get separated, and that's how 380 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:35,000 Speaker 1: you get this charge build up inside the cloud. Essentially, 381 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:38,240 Speaker 1: it's friction between you know, crystals of ice and semi 382 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:40,640 Speaker 1: frozen drops of water. Okay, wait a minute, you're saying, 383 00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:42,840 Speaker 1: what do you mean it's not well understood. We don't 384 00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:46,200 Speaker 1: know exactly what causes lightning, but we we skipped over 385 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:49,159 Speaker 1: that and went straight for the Higgs boson and the 386 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 1: mental particles of nature. Yeah, exactly. It turns out there 387 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:56,240 Speaker 1: are huge mysteries right here on Earth. Like people have 388 00:20:56,359 --> 00:20:58,720 Speaker 1: tried to build models of what's going on inside the 389 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,159 Speaker 1: cloud and they think, Okay, if you're going to get lightning, 390 00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:05,159 Speaker 1: you need to have a huge charge difference, right. I mean, 391 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:07,600 Speaker 1: it takes a pretty good amount of of charge just 392 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:09,679 Speaker 1: to get that little zapp from your finger to the 393 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:13,800 Speaker 1: door knob. Now imagine crossing like five kilometers from the 394 00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,360 Speaker 1: ground to the cloud. You need a huge charge difference, right, 395 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:20,840 Speaker 1: So they have some idea about how much this happens 396 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:23,359 Speaker 1: and how these things build up. Um, And then they 397 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:26,120 Speaker 1: went out and they measured it. They shot these rockets 398 00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:28,840 Speaker 1: into clouds to measure the electric fields to see, like 399 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:32,359 Speaker 1: are the electric fields actually big enough to make lightning? 400 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:35,000 Speaker 1: And they found out that they're not. Right, Like, if 401 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,040 Speaker 1: you shoot rockets up in into clouds, you measure pretty 402 00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:42,119 Speaker 1: strong electric fields, but not nearly strong enough to create lightning, 403 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:45,280 Speaker 1: not nearly strong enough to to cross this huge gap 404 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:47,920 Speaker 1: of an insulator from the cloud to the ground. Wait, 405 00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:52,000 Speaker 1: so you do get a big accumulation of electrons up 406 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:54,520 Speaker 1: in the clouds, but you're saying it's not big enough 407 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:58,680 Speaker 1: to cross over to the ground. Yeah, it shouldn't happen. 408 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:02,240 Speaker 1: Lightning shouldn't happen. Like you measure the electric field inside 409 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,680 Speaker 1: a cloud, there's not enough of an electric field there. 410 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:08,480 Speaker 1: The charge difference is not big enough to cause lightning. 411 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:12,240 Speaker 1: You would need much more accumulation of electrons to actually 412 00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:16,240 Speaker 1: cause the spark exactly. We understand pretty well the physics 413 00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:19,000 Speaker 1: of of ionizing gas, right, We know what error is 414 00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:21,520 Speaker 1: made out of. We know how the water in their works. 415 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:25,679 Speaker 1: We know how much electricity, how much voltage difference it 416 00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:27,959 Speaker 1: takes to create an arc. And people can do these 417 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:30,400 Speaker 1: studies in the lab. It's not difficult, right. You mix 418 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:34,199 Speaker 1: various gases together to simulate air, You add humidity, You 419 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:36,840 Speaker 1: can stimulate the situation pretty exactly, and then you can 420 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,640 Speaker 1: put a charge difference across and you can see when 421 00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:42,600 Speaker 1: does the air breakdown? How much charge difference does it 422 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,320 Speaker 1: take to create this bolt, and so we know when 423 00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:47,920 Speaker 1: that happens, and we measure in the cloud and there's 424 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:52,200 Speaker 1: not enough charge difference, so we don't understand what makes 425 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:54,919 Speaker 1: lightning start. I feel like there's two mysteries here. One is, 426 00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:59,119 Speaker 1: you don't really understand We don't really understand what causes 427 00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:02,280 Speaker 1: the frick shin two and the rubbing of the to 428 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:06,320 Speaker 1: create the electrons to a bunch up. And also we 429 00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:09,800 Speaker 1: don't know what actually makes it come down to earth. 430 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,479 Speaker 1: That is that sort of right, there's two mysteries. That's right, 431 00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:15,240 Speaker 1: there's two mysteries there. One is you know what process 432 00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,520 Speaker 1: exactly is causing this charge difference. And people have these 433 00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:21,000 Speaker 1: models about the way the water pellets are ub up 434 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:24,560 Speaker 1: against each other um, and that partially explains it. But 435 00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:27,040 Speaker 1: there's still mysteries there. But I think the bigger mystery, 436 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:29,680 Speaker 1: the more fascinating one is you know, you measure the 437 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:31,600 Speaker 1: electric field, Like whether or not you understand how the 438 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:34,240 Speaker 1: electric field gets there, you measure it and you see 439 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:37,360 Speaker 1: that it's not strong enough to make lightning. So why 440 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 1: do we get lightning? Because obviously we get lightning, right, 441 00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:43,160 Speaker 1: Obviously it's some old white dude with a white beard 442 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:47,800 Speaker 1: throwing it down striking mortals. And this is where the 443 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:51,280 Speaker 1: particle physics comes in, because people discovered that when you 444 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:53,639 Speaker 1: get a lightning strike, is actually a huge amount of 445 00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:58,000 Speaker 1: radiation in those clouds, especially X rays lightning strikes. And 446 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:02,159 Speaker 1: people went out there with the like ray sensors and 447 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:04,520 Speaker 1: there's a big amount of X ray. You're gonna say, 448 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:11,399 Speaker 1: X rayometers, X X ray, X ray matics. Yeah, people 449 00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:13,720 Speaker 1: hadn't thought to do this right there. People hadn't fought 450 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: until very recently. This is like ten years ago. People 451 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:20,920 Speaker 1: hadn't thought to measure like is there radiation inside a thundercloud? 452 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:23,880 Speaker 1: And then they built these devices to measure X rays 453 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:26,240 Speaker 1: and other kind of particle radiation, and it turns out 454 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:29,880 Speaker 1: there's a huge amount of radiation, especially X ray radiation 455 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,760 Speaker 1: that's created when there's a lightning strike. And that's not normal. 456 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:35,400 Speaker 1: Like when you have this plasma and you have these 457 00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:39,000 Speaker 1: ions and all this physics going on, that's not normal 458 00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:42,600 Speaker 1: to just admit and give out X rays. The models 459 00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,200 Speaker 1: of of plasmas do not suggest that you should get 460 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:48,280 Speaker 1: this much X rays. So then people thought, well, maybe 461 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:51,520 Speaker 1: it's not the lightning that's causing the X rays. Maybe 462 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:54,920 Speaker 1: it's the other way around. Maybe something is happening which 463 00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:58,199 Speaker 1: generates all this radiation and that's what causes the lightning. 464 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:02,360 Speaker 1: So one of the ideas people have now is maybe 465 00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:06,480 Speaker 1: it's particles from space, right, also known as cosmic rays 466 00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:15,359 Speaker 1: um X rays are caused by rays of energy from space. Yeah, 467 00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:19,480 Speaker 1: so some star somewhere a jillion years ago goes supernova, 468 00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:23,199 Speaker 1: flings out a super high energy particle, right, which flies 469 00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:26,800 Speaker 1: across the universe, enters the Earth's atmosphere. And what happens 470 00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,760 Speaker 1: when a huge high energy particle enters your's atmosphere is 471 00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,280 Speaker 1: it creates a shower of radiation. Now, if that happens 472 00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:35,639 Speaker 1: to hit a cloud, this is a theory, right, if 473 00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:37,920 Speaker 1: that happens to hit a cloud that has a big 474 00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:40,840 Speaker 1: charge difference, not enough to cause lightning, but a pretty 475 00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:42,960 Speaker 1: good charge difference, it can give it the kick it 476 00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:46,800 Speaker 1: needs to spark that lightning to push the electrons down 477 00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:49,560 Speaker 1: into the ground exactly. That can give them that boost 478 00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:51,879 Speaker 1: to get sort of over the hump. So the model 479 00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,439 Speaker 1: is like, you've got all these clouds, they're primed to spark, right, 480 00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:57,639 Speaker 1: they don't have enough energy to spark and actually cause lightning, 481 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,679 Speaker 1: and then a particle from space how happens to hit them? 482 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:03,760 Speaker 1: And said, Ben basically starts the lightning fire. So you're 483 00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:07,160 Speaker 1: saying that lightning is caused by something in the heavens. 484 00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:13,320 Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, outside of this earth, beyond beyond our 485 00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:18,280 Speaker 1: our our existence here. It's not mythological, but it is extraterrestrial. Yes, 486 00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:22,640 Speaker 1: that's the theory, right. The amazing thing is an alien 487 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,679 Speaker 1: I have on the on the tape here now Daniel 488 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,760 Speaker 1: Zeus is an alien mostly killing men. Yes, exactly, that's 489 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:32,600 Speaker 1: physics has taught us. No, we don't know this right. 490 00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:35,480 Speaker 1: This is an active area of investigation where the most 491 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,600 Speaker 1: amazing thing to me is that we still don't understand lightning, 492 00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:41,840 Speaker 1: Like these are pretty basic questions. Until recently, we didn't 493 00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,679 Speaker 1: realize like there's a lot of radiation inside a cloud, 494 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:48,439 Speaker 1: Like an airliner that flies through a thunderstorm is actually 495 00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:52,359 Speaker 1: exposing its passengers to more radiation, right, Because it turns 496 00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:55,720 Speaker 1: out there's a lot of radiation inside these thunderstorms. There's 497 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:57,680 Speaker 1: a huge amount of stuff that we just don't understand 498 00:26:57,760 --> 00:26:59,920 Speaker 1: going on inside, and we don't have time to dig 499 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,440 Speaker 1: new to it today. But there's we're just talking about 500 00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:06,119 Speaker 1: one kind of lightning like cloud to ground, this cloud 501 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:10,040 Speaker 1: to cloud lightning, this inter cloud lightning. There's all sorts 502 00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:13,199 Speaker 1: of crazy kinds of lightning, like sprites and elves and 503 00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:15,720 Speaker 1: all sorts of crazy stuff that nobody understands at all. 504 00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:18,600 Speaker 1: I feel like maybe you guys have the large hadron colliders, 505 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,600 Speaker 1: you just like hit the pause button and um, just 506 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:25,280 Speaker 1: for a week, all those three thousand scientists, you maybe 507 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:29,159 Speaker 1: focus on this question first. That's like thinking that, like 508 00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,280 Speaker 1: science can only do one thing at a time, right, 509 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,359 Speaker 1: you know, science is multifacet and we've got folks interested 510 00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:37,160 Speaker 1: in lightning. We have folks interested in, you know, how 511 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:40,200 Speaker 1: ducks procreate. We got folks interested in the Higgs boson. 512 00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:42,480 Speaker 1: And one of my favorite things about science is that 513 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,920 Speaker 1: it's all about people following their passion. Maybe you're really 514 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:49,320 Speaker 1: interested in how snails eat other snails, awesome, go study it. 515 00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:52,359 Speaker 1: You're the right person to do that. And so I 516 00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,320 Speaker 1: think it's good that we got Higgs boson folks doing 517 00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:57,719 Speaker 1: that and lightning experts doing that, and there's apparently not 518 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:01,120 Speaker 1: enough people curious about how lightning works. Yeah. Probably most 519 00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:03,480 Speaker 1: people think lightning is solved, right, They think, oh, well, 520 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:06,280 Speaker 1: we figured that out a long time ago. Um, but 521 00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:08,080 Speaker 1: we made, you know, a little bit of progress with 522 00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:12,080 Speaker 1: Ben Franklin, and almost no progress since then until about 523 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:18,080 Speaker 1: the seventies. Does that that's the benchmark. Ben Franklin was 524 00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:20,880 Speaker 1: a pioneer of lightning research, and nobody else has done. 525 00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:24,600 Speaker 1: It's been like on the last couple of decades that 526 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:26,919 Speaker 1: people have really started started to get serious about this 527 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:29,200 Speaker 1: and attack this problem. And that's one of the best 528 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:31,800 Speaker 1: things about science when people like, all right, let's figure 529 00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:35,000 Speaker 1: this out. Does this make sense? And and and very 530 00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:38,600 Speaker 1: quickly you discover there's mysteries everywhere. Right, there's all sorts 531 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:41,320 Speaker 1: of weird stuff to explore all around the universe and 532 00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:44,360 Speaker 1: right here on Earth. Well, that's amazing, um that there 533 00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:47,080 Speaker 1: are still so many mysteries about it and how it works. 534 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,480 Speaker 1: All right, let's let's go into now lightning not just 535 00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:54,000 Speaker 1: here on Earth but in other planets. But first let's 536 00:28:54,040 --> 00:29:09,600 Speaker 1: take a quick break. All right, we've talked about lightning 537 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,200 Speaker 1: and what causes is and what we don't know about 538 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:15,000 Speaker 1: what causes it. But um, and there are still big 539 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:18,240 Speaker 1: mysteries in lightning. That's crazy, it's it's um. It's a 540 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,120 Speaker 1: big news flash for me. Yeah, and there's all sorts 541 00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:23,960 Speaker 1: of weird kinds of lightning that people don't understand. And 542 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:27,080 Speaker 1: there's sort of two categories there. There's like weird lightning 543 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 1: that we've seen, we've verified, but we don't understand like 544 00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:32,680 Speaker 1: what makes it or what causes it or how it 545 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:36,080 Speaker 1: works whatever, sort of like that's serious science. And then 546 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:40,160 Speaker 1: there's the sort of crazy lightning stories, right, like things 547 00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:42,880 Speaker 1: people talk about but no scientists haven't been able to 548 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:47,400 Speaker 1: record or verify. And yeah, and one of my first 549 00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,600 Speaker 1: is just like, um, like people see balls of lightning 550 00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,160 Speaker 1: in their house and stuff like that. Yes, exactly. This 551 00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:58,960 Speaker 1: this continuing series of anecdotal evidence for something called ball lightning, 552 00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:02,000 Speaker 1: which is suppos is to be like a glowing ball 553 00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:06,120 Speaker 1: of lightning like ten centimeters wide approximately, that they will 554 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:09,040 Speaker 1: like come down people's chimneys and like run around their 555 00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:13,080 Speaker 1: house and then go out the window. Um, it's bizarre. 556 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:15,520 Speaker 1: No scientist has ever seen it, has never been recorded. 557 00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:18,480 Speaker 1: We only have anecdotal evidence, but we have a lot 558 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,120 Speaker 1: of anecdotal evidence. It's like in history in the last 559 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:24,000 Speaker 1: few hundred years, there's a lot of examples about people 560 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,600 Speaker 1: writing about this. So if all those people saying, man, 561 00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:31,000 Speaker 1: I think it's aliens. They might be right, It might 562 00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:35,360 Speaker 1: be super supernovous are not caused by aliens or its 563 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:40,360 Speaker 1: signals from an alien dying star. Yeah. Actually, you know, 564 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:42,480 Speaker 1: I don't know that. I don't know the supernova are 565 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:44,880 Speaker 1: not caused by aliens, So I really shouldn't say that 566 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:48,760 Speaker 1: for certain. It could be um. But you know, ball 567 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:52,200 Speaker 1: lightning is like it's just a mystery. Nobody's really captured it. Um. 568 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:54,760 Speaker 1: Nobody has been able to explain it. People have done 569 00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:56,760 Speaker 1: some tests in the lab where they're able to create 570 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,480 Speaker 1: these weird glowing balls of plasma basically using very special 571 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,840 Speaker 1: arrangements of moisture and charge whenever. But we don't know 572 00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:08,160 Speaker 1: if that's really what ball lightning is, and and nobody's 573 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:10,040 Speaker 1: been able to create it in a way that like 574 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:12,640 Speaker 1: lasts as long as people say it does, you know, 575 00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:14,959 Speaker 1: all right, And so that that's one weird thinking here 576 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,120 Speaker 1: in Earth. But you're telling me that there are interesting 577 00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:22,320 Speaker 1: questions about lightning and other planets. Yeah, exactly. An awesome 578 00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:25,120 Speaker 1: thing about lightning is that's not unique to Earth. Right. 579 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,480 Speaker 1: We see weather, of course on other planets, and Saturn 580 00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:31,360 Speaker 1: and Jupiter in particular, you know, they are these amazing, 581 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,280 Speaker 1: beautiful planets with obvious cloud patterns, and you can just 582 00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:36,800 Speaker 1: look at their surface and see there's a lot of 583 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,080 Speaker 1: stuff going on there, right, And there's swirling clouds and 584 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,800 Speaker 1: huge storms, and in those storms we see lightning. So 585 00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:48,360 Speaker 1: there's extra terrestrial lightning. That's a real thing. But one 586 00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:51,720 Speaker 1: of the mysteries is like does it happen on other planets? Yeah? 587 00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:54,040 Speaker 1: And is it very similar? Like is it cloud rubbing 588 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:57,720 Speaker 1: against each other and then you know, probably costic grays 589 00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:01,600 Speaker 1: causing it to arc. That's the idea of right. Um, 590 00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:04,760 Speaker 1: we haven't been able to put probes into those clouds 591 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,240 Speaker 1: to see if the electric fields are large enough to 592 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:10,000 Speaker 1: cause lightning on their own, but it would make sense. 593 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,920 Speaker 1: I mean, Jupiter is a huge amount of radiation it's producing, 594 00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:15,360 Speaker 1: and so it would make sense if some of those 595 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:18,600 Speaker 1: are also sparked by you know, high energy electrons or 596 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:21,800 Speaker 1: protons or something. There's a lively debate also about whether 597 00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:25,680 Speaker 1: or not there's lightning on Venus, right. Venus has this 598 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:28,720 Speaker 1: really thick cloud cover, so we can't see very well 599 00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:31,600 Speaker 1: into Venus, and people think there should be lightning, and 600 00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:34,719 Speaker 1: some people claim to have evidence for lightning on Venus, 601 00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:38,040 Speaker 1: but it's not. Um, not scientifically accepted yet, but we 602 00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:40,520 Speaker 1: do know what happens on other planets, and I think 603 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,680 Speaker 1: that's pretty awesome. Like whether on other planets that's for 604 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:47,160 Speaker 1: some reason that just tickles the physicist in me. Whether 605 00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:50,120 Speaker 1: like snow, to feel snow in another planet, that would 606 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:53,520 Speaker 1: be cool. Yeah, that would be cool. Um. I also 607 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:56,800 Speaker 1: really like here on Earth, when lightning happens, not just 608 00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:00,240 Speaker 1: in your like standard vanilla thunderstorm, right, It can happen 609 00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:04,440 Speaker 1: in snow storms. It can happen hurricanes. Yeah, exactly, with 610 00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:08,200 Speaker 1: snow storms. Yeah, you get like thunder snow or something. 611 00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:11,920 Speaker 1: What's the name for that? You should be I like that. 612 00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:15,760 Speaker 1: That sounds like like one of the ThunderCats. Maybe thunder 613 00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:21,360 Speaker 1: cats snow, I don't know. Yeah, because you know, all 614 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:22,920 Speaker 1: that needs to happen is you need to get a 615 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,240 Speaker 1: charge differential and snow storms, you know, they have these 616 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,239 Speaker 1: ice crystals and they can run up against each other 617 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:29,640 Speaker 1: and you get the right combination of hail and snow 618 00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:32,440 Speaker 1: together and you get this charge differential, and then you know, 619 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:35,479 Speaker 1: Zeus does his thing and sends you a proton from 620 00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,560 Speaker 1: a supernova and boom, you get lightning in a thunderstorm. 621 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:41,760 Speaker 1: Can you can get lightning in a snowstorm, it totally happens. 622 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:44,880 Speaker 1: And then hurricanes it's also there's something weird about that. No, 623 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:46,880 Speaker 1: it's just I mean, a hurricane is just a huge storm. 624 00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,160 Speaker 1: But you know, hurricane is just this awesome wrath of nature. 625 00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:52,600 Speaker 1: And if you look at it from space, like you know, 626 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:55,560 Speaker 1: right now people are suffering suffering from that hurricane in 627 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:57,000 Speaker 1: the East Coast, but if you look at it from 628 00:33:57,040 --> 00:33:59,960 Speaker 1: space you can see lightning flashes all around the hurricane. 629 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:02,120 Speaker 1: It just makes it sort of seem like a super 630 00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:04,960 Speaker 1: hurricane to me. In those cases, it's it's like lightning 631 00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:09,360 Speaker 1: between clouds, right, Yeah, mostly that's cloud to cloud lightning, 632 00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:11,560 Speaker 1: and the principle is the same. You know, it's all 633 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:15,000 Speaker 1: about this charge differential. Something else that's fascinating about that 634 00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:17,520 Speaker 1: kind of lightning is you get this big charge differential. 635 00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:20,080 Speaker 1: The bottom of the cloud is negatively charged, well, the 636 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:23,120 Speaker 1: top of the cloud is positively charged. So when the 637 00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:26,319 Speaker 1: electrons are reaching down to the ground to try to 638 00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:30,160 Speaker 1: find a path, some other electrons are simultaneously reaching out 639 00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:34,799 Speaker 1: inside the cloud. So lightning actually starts in both directions, 640 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:37,520 Speaker 1: and then if it finds a path to the ground 641 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:40,719 Speaker 1: first you get cloud to ground lightning. But if it 642 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:43,640 Speaker 1: founds find some connection to the positively charged area of 643 00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:47,200 Speaker 1: the cloud first, then you get inter cloud lightning inside 644 00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:51,239 Speaker 1: the cloud. So lightning actually starts in two directions at once. Well, 645 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:53,719 Speaker 1: that all just sounds like some kind of Internet business 646 00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:58,640 Speaker 1: model or something. Cloud to cloud, cloud to ground, that's right. Yeah, 647 00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:01,879 Speaker 1: that's where the real money is and cloud to cloud business. Yeah, 648 00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:05,400 Speaker 1: that's really forget physics, Daniel going to plow out the 649 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,120 Speaker 1: cloud computing. I'm just gonna take one percent of every 650 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:10,160 Speaker 1: lightning strike, you know, and then eventually that I add 651 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:12,640 Speaker 1: up to a huge amount. All right, So that's um, 652 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,720 Speaker 1: that's super interesting. I learned a bunch here today about 653 00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:18,759 Speaker 1: what is lightning and what causes it and all the 654 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:21,279 Speaker 1: things we don't know about it. Yeah, and you know, 655 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:24,600 Speaker 1: shout out to those scientists who were shooting rockets up 656 00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:28,600 Speaker 1: into clouds connected to little wires and not getting struck. 657 00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:31,200 Speaker 1: But they're doing it so that we can understand how 658 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,920 Speaker 1: lightning works and we can finally maybe put to rest. Um, 659 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:36,800 Speaker 1: you know, one of the mysteries, one of the deepest 660 00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:41,080 Speaker 1: questions people have about amazing natural phenomena right here on Earth. 661 00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:43,239 Speaker 1: So thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed that, 662 00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:45,520 Speaker 1: and we hope that the next time you get to 663 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:49,080 Speaker 1: see some lightning, you will look at and get odd 664 00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:50,960 Speaker 1: not just by the flash of light, but by the 665 00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:54,120 Speaker 1: mysteries that are inside of that column of me on 666 00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:57,960 Speaker 1: natural advertisement. And remember the impetus for that lightning strike 667 00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:00,640 Speaker 1: could have happened a billion years ago in the star 668 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,440 Speaker 1: far far away, came down to Earth just for you 669 00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:05,759 Speaker 1: to see it. All right, Thank you for listening, See 670 00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:15,640 Speaker 1: you next time. If you still have a question after 671 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:18,799 Speaker 1: listening to all these explanations, please drop us a line. 672 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:21,000 Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you. You can find us 673 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:24,799 Speaker 1: at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge That's 674 00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:28,200 Speaker 1: one word, or email us at Feedback at Daniel and 675 00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:31,760 Speaker 1: Jorge dot com. Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel 676 00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:34,319 Speaker 1: and Jorge Explain the Universe is a production of I 677 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:38,000 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio, visit 678 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:41,520 Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 679 00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:43,120 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.