WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: How Can a Star Become a Giant Crystal?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbomb here with another classic episode from our archives.

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<v Speaker 1>This one first aired back in January of twenty nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>after some fascinating research came out concerning the future of

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<v Speaker 1>our Sun and other stars. It turns out they'll eventually crystallize.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey Brainstuff, Lauren voelbomb here. Our Sun may look like

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<v Speaker 1>an eternal miasma of incandescent plasma, but one day it

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<v Speaker 1>will die. This may sound like a bummer, especially for

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<v Speaker 1>anything that's living on Earth in a few billion years,

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<v Speaker 1>but there is a bright side to the solar doom.

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<v Speaker 1>According to research published in the journal Nature, this very month,

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<v Speaker 1>our dead star will leave behind a shimmering legacy. It'll

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<v Speaker 1>turn into a massive crystal. Before we start talking about

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<v Speaker 1>supersized stellar crystals, we first need to understand how stars

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<v Speaker 1>like our Sun live and die. The Sun is fueled

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<v Speaker 1>by nuclear fusion. Its massive gravity crushes hydrogen atoms together

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<v Speaker 1>in its core to create helium, and the vast quantities

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<v Speaker 1>of energy released by these fusion processes push outward, maintaining

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<v Speaker 1>a happy equilibrium so long as there's plenty of hydrogen

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<v Speaker 1>fuel feeding this process, the core remains about the same

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<v Speaker 1>size and temperature around fifteen million kelvin, producing energy that

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<v Speaker 1>radiates throughout the Solar system, ultimately nurturing the evolution of

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<v Speaker 1>life on a certain habitable planet. This hydrogen burning phase

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<v Speaker 1>of a star's life will last for ninety percent of

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<v Speaker 1>the lifetime of our Sun. The period of stellar life

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<v Speaker 1>is known as the main sequence. We're currently about four

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<v Speaker 1>point five billion years into our Sun's main sequence days,

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<v Speaker 1>or approximately halfway through its life. So what happens when

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<v Speaker 1>that hydrogen is all used up? Things start to get

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<v Speaker 1>a little wild, to put it mildly. Without the outward

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<v Speaker 1>pressure of the energy created by fusing hydrogen, the Sun's

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<v Speaker 1>gravity overwhelms the core, crushing it into a smaller space

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<v Speaker 1>and boosting its temperature tenfold. That's okay, though, the heavier

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<v Speaker 1>helium nuclei will begin to fuse together, creating the outward

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<v Speaker 1>pressure once again to maintain equilibrium. It's predicted that this

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<v Speaker 1>will start happening in about five billion years, marked with

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<v Speaker 1>a sudden outrush of energy known as a helium flash.

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<v Speaker 2>As the helium fuses, carbon and oxygen are formed, and

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<v Speaker 2>the temperature of the core rises yet again. Soon after,

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<v Speaker 2>even heavier elements also begin to fuse, and the Sun

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<v Speaker 2>on the whole will start looking a bit worse for

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<v Speaker 2>the wear. It will begin to swell, blasting into planetary

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<v Speaker 2>space with savage solar winds that will begin to strip

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<v Speaker 2>away its upper layers. Though our Sun isn't massive enough

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<v Speaker 2>to explode as a supernova, it will turn into a

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<v Speaker 2>red giant star, possibly expanding beyond the orbit of Earth.

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<v Speaker 2>Our planet will be toast. After the death of our star,

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<v Speaker 2>it will leave behind wispy remains of solar plasma, creating

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<v Speaker 2>a beautiful planetary nebula enriched with newly formed heavy elements.

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<v Speaker 1>Will go on to create the next.

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<v Speaker 2>Generation of stars and planets, and in its core will

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<v Speaker 2>be a hot stellar remnant known as a white dwarf,

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<v Speaker 2>a tiny, dense star shimmering brightly, a testament to the

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<v Speaker 2>Sun that used to be in its place. White dwarfs

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<v Speaker 2>can sustain themselves for billions of years before fizzing out

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<v Speaker 2>and dimming forever. But this isn't the end of the story.

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<v Speaker 2>Using observations by the European Gay Emission, which is currently

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<v Speaker 2>making precision measurements of stars throughout our galaxy, Researchers at

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<v Speaker 2>the University of Warwick in the UK have stumbled on

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<v Speaker 2>a white dwarf's secret that has remained hidden until now.

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<v Speaker 2>Soon after forming, white dwarfs are extremely hot, radiating the

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<v Speaker 2>intense energy that was once held in the core of

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<v Speaker 2>the main sequence star that came before them. Over billions

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<v Speaker 2>of years. After forming, white dwarfs slowly cool and at

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<v Speaker 2>a certain point, the oxygen and carbon they contain will

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<v Speaker 2>go through a phase transition akin to liquid water freezing

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<v Speaker 2>and turning into solid ice, only at much more extreme

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<v Speaker 2>temperatures and pressures, and they'll solidify to form a huge crystal.

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<v Speaker 2>Pierre Emmanuel Tremblay, from the University of Warwick's Department of

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<v Speaker 2>Physics and leader of the study, said in a press release.

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<v Speaker 2>All white dwarfs will crystallize at some point in their evolution,

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<v Speaker 2>although more massive white dwarfs go through the process sooner.

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<v Speaker 2>This means that billions of white dwarfs in our galaxy

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<v Speaker 2>have already completed the process and are essentially crystal spheres

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<v Speaker 2>in the sky. The sum itself will become a crystal

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<v Speaker 2>white dwarf in about ten billion years. Tremblay's team analyzed

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<v Speaker 2>the Gaya observations to measure the luminosities and colors of

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<v Speaker 2>fifteen thousand white dwarfs within three hundred light years of Earth.

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<v Speaker 2>What they found was an excess in the population of

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<v Speaker 2>stars of specific colors and brightness. They realized that this

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<v Speaker 2>group of stars represented a similar phase instellar evolution, where

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<v Speaker 2>the conditions are right for this phase transition to occur,

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<v Speaker 2>causing a delay in cooling, thus slowing down the aging process.

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<v Speaker 2>The researcherch found that some of these stars had extended

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<v Speaker 2>their lifespan by up to two billion year. Trembly said

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<v Speaker 2>in the statement, this is the first direct evidence that

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<v Speaker 2>white dwarfs crystallize or transition from liquid to solid. It

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<v Speaker 2>was predicted fifty years ago that we should observe a

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<v Speaker 2>pile up in the number of white dwarfs in certain

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<v Speaker 2>luminosities and colors due to crystallization, and only now has

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<v Speaker 2>this been observed. Crystallized white dwarfs aren't just a stellar curiosity.

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<v Speaker 2>Their quantum makeup is unlike anything we can recreate in

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<v Speaker 2>the laboratory. As the white star material crystallizes, its material

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<v Speaker 2>becomes ordered on a quantum level, nuclei aligning themselves in

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<v Speaker 2>a complex lattice with a metallic oxygen core and an

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<v Speaker 2>outer layer enriched with carbon. So it turns out that

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<v Speaker 2>after stars like our sun die, their stories aren't over All.

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<v Speaker 2>White dwarfs will go through this crystallization process, littering the

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<v Speaker 2>galaxy with massive diamond like stellar remnants. Today's episode is

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<v Speaker 2>based on the article After the Sun does, It'll become

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<v Speaker 2>a stellar crystal on HowStuffWorks.

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<v Speaker 1>Dot Com, written by Ian O'Neil. Brain Stuff this production

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<v Speaker 1>of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and

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<v Speaker 1>it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio,

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<v Speaker 1>visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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<v Speaker 1>to your favorite shows