WEBVTT - The Search for a New Earth 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.000 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:15.880 My name is Robert lamp and my name is Julie 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:19.799 Tuglas Um Julie. I was over the weekend I caught 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:22.440 the film John Carter that came out. Are you familiar 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:24.279 with this one at all? I am? Uh, you know, 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.759 the some dudes of Pixar behind at Disney behind it 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.360 based on Edgar Rice Burrows stories of Mars, in which 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:32.440 this character, John Carter ends up traveling there and having 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:36.839 all sorts of squash buckling, princess laden adventures. And uh, 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.479 it's a fun flick. I recommend people see it if 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:42.839 that's the kind of thing you're into it into McNulty 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:44.800 from The Wire shows up as the villain, which is fun. 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.199 But but but what really got me thinking and how 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:50.720 it ties into this podcast is that it really calls 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:52.720 back to an age when the science fiction of the 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.680 day uh is emerging from this idea that Mars could 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:01.120 conceivably the habitated world, or a world that had been 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:05.920 habitated by a a civilization, not just some organism living 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.240 deep in the soil, but it could have had civilization 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:10.440 on it. In the past or even in the present. 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:13.000 And it's just amazing to think back to that time. 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:17.520 It's and and and try to imagine that being possible 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:21.760 in your mind. Whereas today we have this, Uh, we 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:26.240 know that Mars is virtually lifeless and if even if 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:29.319 even if it has life in it, it is Uh, 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.679 it's not cities, it's not things that can think in 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.280 a way that we understand, you know, it's not it's 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:38.440 not that that vision of swashbuckling adventure that Edgar Rice 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.960 Burrows had. Instead, we're we're looking even farther out. We're 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.440 we're looking, we're having to cast our dreams even farther 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:49.639 to try and imagine other worlds that could be like Earth, 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.720 because that's it's kind of a simple thing. We kind 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.800 of want on on this very basic level. We want 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:57.640 to find that other Earth. We want to find our 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:00.440 twin out there in the galaxy. And no, that we 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.280 are not alone. Right, That's always been the other question, right, 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.560 are are we alone? Um? You know, is there extraterrestrial 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.080 life out there? Um? We've talked about even SETTI, the 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.440 organization that is committed to trying to find a form 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.960 of life out there. And as you said, it's really 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:19.840 interesting to think that at one point all of this 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.119 just sort of existed in our minds, this idea of 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:25.800 what is out there in the cosmos, not really knowing, 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.240 not having the sort of data or the technology to 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:36.120 substantiate um are our theories. And you know, we just 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.880 talked about Prometheus and we talked about how they were 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.760 journeying to an extra planet or an extrasolar planet. The 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.800 idea that it's just it's a planet. It is encircling 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.000 another star, which is not despite what you see in 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.239 Star Trek and and everything, it's not not in every 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:54.680 and not every star is going to have planets, right right, 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:56.760 an extra planet too, I mean the planets beyond our 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.400 solar system. This used to be just a theory as well, right, 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.600 So it's it's in context of of thinking about seventeen 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.400 years ago, it's pretty amazing that we know what we 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.720 know now, and it does the question now doesn't isn't 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.600 are their exp planets? The question is where is that 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.840 earth like planet and doesn't contain life. That's that's where 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.480 we're going towards now. Seventeen years ago that we're looking 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:24.320 back to hubble Right and cast Star gaze out outward 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.640 into the stars and was able to identify what planet 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.440 candidates based on distance stars. Well, first of all, they 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.800 identified two hundred billion star systems, so this was news. 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:37.400 It wasn't like, hey, here's our solar system and then 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:42.120 nothing the two hundred billion star systems and um. And 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:46.040 they did this by gathering light for hundreds of hours 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:51.720 and staring into deep space and taking all these calculations 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.840 and figuring this out and it was amazing. So then 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.040 they took that information and the Kepler mission, which we'll 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.080 talk about a little bit um, was able, as you say, 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:08.840 to identify twenty three hundred UM possible planets extra planets. 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.520 We say possible because we don't know enough information about 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.520 and actually call them planet candidates. And they haven't made 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:18.840 it past the candidates, and they haven't made it passive. Yeah, 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.920 they haven't been vetted yet. But of these we know 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:27.320 the dimensions and weight of two hundred planets, okay, and um, 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.200 we actually have the composition of atmospheres for twelve planets. 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.000 This is amazing stuff. And we're particularly interested in those 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.440 planets that fall within that habitable zone, that sort of 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:38.960 goldielike zone, because you look at our planets we have 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:41.159 and we went into this on the Stuff to Blow 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.279 your Kid's Mind video series. You have you have Venus, 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:48.680 which is uh to have to have the atmospheres to pressurize, 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:53.240 and it's too hot. You go over to Mars, you know, 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.440 a little far too far to the right, and you 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:59.760 find not enough atmosphere and intense cold. But right there 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.320 in the little Earth, it's just right the we live 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:08.520 in this golden zone. Yeah, we evolved, lack is evolved 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:10.640 as we know it to exist within these very slim 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.960 parameters that we're specifically talking about the orbital distance from 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:16.400 a star where liquid water on a planet could exist. 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:19.159 That's just one of the things that needs to be 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.960 going on UM. So yeah, I mean, we we now 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:26.000 have seven hundred confirmed exoplanets UM. Just out of that 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.320 all the other data, I just want to mention that 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.960 we do have seven hundred confirmed exoplanets UM and it's 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.320 amazing that we're at this point in the Kepler mission 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.920 is actually looking at a tiny region of the Milky Way, 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.440 in a very small fraction of stars in the galaxy UM. 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:45.040 And because the stars are being sampled by Kepler, are 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.720 very similar to predominant types of stars in the Milky 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:52.599 Way galaxy. Uh, we are getting basically, in a sense, 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:57.520 just narrow little pencil beam of stars that may or 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.960 may not be earth like or that we discover. So 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.320 that perspective is pretty mind blowing in and of itself 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.240 because it's just that tiny little point that they're looking at, 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.000 and what else could the universe contain beyond that? So, 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.560 like I mentioned before, like every solar system is not 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:16.360 going to be a situation of oh, we have planet one, two, three, four, 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.560 and five around a single star. You have, it's not 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.719 gonna look like ours per se. You have a variety 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.040 of exoplanets in a variety of solar systems. Right. You 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.560 have planets that are orbiting multiple stars where you would 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.920 conceivably have if you had a planet you could stand 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.320 out in that system. You might have to. You would 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.119 have two sons in the sky at the same time 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.320 or at different times, depending on how things are, how 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:43.880 the celestial mechanics are panning out. Um, you have planets 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.359 that don't orbit stars at all, which sounds kind of 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.359 crazy to just kind of rogue. Yeah, it's just on 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.960 their own. Um. And then you have at least one 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.760 that is is areas styrofoam. Yeah, yeah, And this is 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:01.560 what they're calling the planetary zoo because they're talking about 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.960 that the variety of planets that they're discovering and their 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.600 atmospheres and their their weights and dimensions. And it turns 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.400 out that there are smaller, more smaller plants and then 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:16.080 there are large ones at least in the area that 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.240 they're looking in. But it does point to this diversity 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.160 and this idea that things don't always work the way 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.000 we think they do, and so we probably need to 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:29.360 reframe the way that we're approaching things sometimes, and we 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.480 may even need to reconsider what the habitable habitable zone is. 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.360 A super Earth is basically a planet that is more 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.600 massive than Earth that is still expected to be predominantly rocky. 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:42.320 And that's something that we want right when we're talking 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.400 about an earthlike planet, we want it to be rocky 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:50.280 like ours and not gaseous and hot. Um. And this 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:53.760 is a quote from Sarah Seeger. She is um an 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:58.360 amazing UM speaker, and she's actually an astrophysicist and and 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.320 um a planet hunter. Her say, and she says, the 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.440 diversity of exto planets has really forced us to reconsider 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.320 what the habitable zone really is. For example, some of 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.040 these super Earth's are massive enough that they could retain 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.680 a different atmosphere than we have on Earth. These super 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.240 earths may hold onto the light gases hydrogen and helium. 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.760 In this case, if they have a massive atmosphere, they 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.920 could have a massive greenhouse effect. So this could actually 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.680 increase the range of habitable zone in a planetary system. 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:29.320 So it's a little bit different than what we've thought of. 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.240 We thought, Okay, you have to have the exact conditions 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.520 that we have here on Earth. There's this I can't 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.800 help but think, and I imagine some of our listeners 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:39.960 are probably thinking of this as well. There was a 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.840 there was a PC game back in the day called 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:45.240 Masters of Orion. They did two of them. Oh they 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.120 did third one that was supposedly not that good, But 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.199 they did two of these things, and it's uh. We 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:54.920 have different space faring races, and you're exploring new systems. 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:57.520 In each system you discover will have a range of planets, 0:08:57.520 --> 0:08:59.160 and some of them will be too rocky, someone will 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.520 be gases only some of some of them can be 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.600 colonized with a certain extent and others not so much. 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:06.679 And a lot of thought. Wind of the game is 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:11.880 a very smart early um computer game, but but even 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.160 even it managed to feel like it misses the mark 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.120 and just the vast variety. Because if this game of 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.560 Masters a Ryan lined up with what we know now 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.880 about the layout of of other solar systems and the 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:26.600 existence of extraplanets, you would encounter a lot of these 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:30.000 systems that we just have nothing in them, right, yeah, yeah, again, 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.360 you know, we have this idea that you know, other 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.800 solar systems were supposed to be like ours, but yeah, 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:37.600 they're vastly different. Some of them are spinning in what 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.480 we think of is the wrong direction, um, like Australian 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:43.600 one that don't really a line up to the science 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.160 all that well, but but still backwards rotating solar systems. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:49.560 So actually I was just thinking, like, how cool would 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.040 it be if they had a planetary Zoo Tycoon game 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.360 similar to sort of what you're saying. If you've ever 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.960 played Zoo Tycoon, you know this is again another way 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.840 to to think about well at least start understanding of 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:02.920 what's out there. It would be very interesting. Yeah, if 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.599 they if they took that sort of that basic expansion 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.560 and colonization computer game model and really made it match 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.120 up with with what we know now and what the 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:17.280 conceivable uh near to long term future of of exploration is. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.040 I'm just thinking, you put some really cool graphics of 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:25.280 like pandas and giraffe planets and get kids to sort 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.000 through the data for you. You can have like a 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:31.400 million kids playing these games and inadvertently like punching some 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:33.000 data for you. It could it could be a win 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:37.439 win um. Alright, So here's the question, how are these 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:41.199 far flung planets actually inferred? How do we know that 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:43.480 they're out there? We suspect they're out there. They don't 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:49.440 actually say definitively out there, they say inferred. Well, you 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.200 have two types of detection. Basically, you have you have 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:56.920 direct detection and indirect detection, all right, Um, With direct 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:00.280 detection detection, and it's one thing to detect a star, 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.480 but it's another thing to detect the planet. The visible 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:06.800 light output by a planet like Jupiter is one billion 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.000 that of its star, but if you shift into the 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.000 infrared spectrum, the contrast is merely a few thousands, all right, 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:16.840 So it helps to to shift the shift out of 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.640 that visible light spectrum. You can also block out starlight 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:24.360 and just focus on the corona, that outer plasma region 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.520 of the star's atmosphere, and then you can catch the 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:30.800 shine of the planets. Um. Direct imaging is the only 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.160 way to access some of the really important qualities of 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.000 an exoplanet, like how much water it has on its surface. 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.040 But then there are these indirect detection methods, and some 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:42.840 of these are are are pretty pretty crazy, like uh 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.720 another crazy that they're they're really they're really fascinating because 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:50.160 it's not a direct method of detection. You kind of 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.880 have to find have to find a work around to 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.679 detect the presence of this planet. Yeah, are you talking 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:02.040 about the biosignature gasses. Yes, that's one of the methods 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.840 that pops up. UM. I love this because it's like 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:08.200 a game of clue, you know. Um. This is where 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.559 different chemicals absorb or they take a bite out of 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.679 the photons and light at different parts of the spectrum 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.320 and can be used as a fingerprint um of the 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:21.680 atmosphere of this planet. So if we imagine the planet, 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.040 we can run the light given off from it through 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.400 a machine called a spectrograph, which analyzes the data determine 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:31.360 the chemicals and the planet's atmosphere um some chemicals which 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:36.000 science is called biomarkers. Biomarkers may hint at life on 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.160 a planet. At least, that doesn't mean that there's life. 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:40.160 It just means that if you have certain chemicals that 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.720 are taking a bite out of that light spectrum and 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:44.800 you can see it missing, then you can start to 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:48.480 ascertain the percentages of chemicals in the atmosphere. And I 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.400 think that is amazing. Yeah, there's also the wheat gravity 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.679 of a planet pulls the star into the small circular 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:59.400 orbit and induces a minute wobble that can be detected 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:03.559 using radial velocity tracking, which is which is pretty cool. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.160 And then there's a there's also this scenaria where the 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.559 planet moves between a star and the observer and the 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:14.080 luminosity shifts. There's a that's that's the transit method, and 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.400 that's actually what the Kepler telescope is using. And just 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:19.480 to go back to the Kepler mission, we're talking about 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.959 basically a giant ninety eight megapixel digital camera that is 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:28.360 taking these photos. Like you were saying, when it crosses 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:32.040 the star, you're basically going to see um that a 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:33.959 little bit of the light is blocked out and then 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.319 the camera will measure a dip in the star's brightness, 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:38.679 and if a planet is really what's causing that dip, 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:40.520 it'll come around and cause the same kind of dip 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:42.600 again and again and again. So a lot of this 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.000 is pointing toward this idea that you have to have 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:49.240 a ton of patients if you are a planet hunter. Yeah, because, 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:51.719 like I said, it's one thing to find a start. Um. 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.760 We can sometimes detect things like black holes, for instance, 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.920 or potential black holes with gravitational lensing, where we see 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.960 the way that the mass of an object causes light 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.320 to bend around it. Well, then there's gravitational micro lensing 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.840 where you're kind of you're you're you're observing the way 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.280 that the star is causing light to bend. But then 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.400 you're also on top of that observing the way that 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.120 that stars planets are adding, uh, in a smaller sense 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.400 to the bending of that light. Yeah. What I like 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:21.880 about this too, this planet hunting, is that it kind 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.600 of pulls in so many different disciplines. And you have astrophysicists, physicists, 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:29.440 you have astrobiologists who are really interested in trying to 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.280 figure out what the atmosphere looked like in the early days, 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.800 because having that sort of data can help us then 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.080 look at another planet and say, well, this could be 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.160 an earth light planet perhaps in four billion years, because 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:43.280 it really matches what we think the Earth look like 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:47.000 back in the day um or maybe it's halfway to 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.440 that point or so. It's really interesting that everybody is 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.600 sharing all of this data and trying to to get 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.200 to the to the answer to the question, which is 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:00.360 is there another Us out there? Yeah? And you mentioned 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.040 clue earlier, and I keep coming back to that because 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.760 because it's kind of like this, it reminds me a 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:11.040 lot of high tech movie TV show crime scene where 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.200 you have like people are coming in. You have your 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.840 botanists that are looking at what what what plants are doing? 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:19.160 You have you know, biologists, you have entomologists coming in, 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:22.160 think of for an experts, people are shining lasers. All 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:24.480 of these different disciplines are coming together, all of these 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.800 different technologies coming together to put a face on this 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.680 question mark you know, where who is the killer? And uh? 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:34.320 And we see a similar thing here with it with 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.600 the question mark being is there another Earth? Is there 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.240 is there another planet out there that that resembles us? Yeah, 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:43.080 and I like that that you pointed out that way 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.880 that is sort of backing up into the equation and 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.160 taking all that data and trying to reconstruct the crime 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.040 scene or the scene of the life, I guess, the 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.560 scene of possible life. Um, let's take a quick break 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:57.760 and then when we get back, we'll talk about trying 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:07.200 to find a true Earth twin. So we're back, and uh, yeah, 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.400 the idea of finding a true Earth twin. It reminds 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.520 me a lot of house hunting because you're looking at 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.800 potential houses, and some houses are not on the market 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.560 at all, so there's not even you know, like much 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.680 like these solar systems or even non solar systems, where 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.600 there's just nothing resembling a planet, uh that we're interested in. Uh. 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.120 And then you have then you have planets. I mean, 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:32.680 then you have houses that are either they're either too 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:35.360 expensive or you get to look at them and they're 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.240 just to run down, or or they look good at first, 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:39.640 but then you find out that they have some sort 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.280 of major problem like uh, you know, it's a part 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:46.480 of the house is collapsing, or it's uh, it's atmosphere 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.240 is too heavy and won't allow life to exist. In 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:51.920 it that you see what I'm saying here, it becomes this. 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.000 It's like the Goldilocks scenario, except with a far pickier 0:16:55.040 --> 0:17:00.560 Goldilocks and so many more um unacceptable containers of poor it. Well, 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.800 if you are Sarah Seg, you're the planetary scientists, um 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.800 an astrophysicists, you do kind of want a mystery house, 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:09.520 at least for her. She she says, she that we 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.280 want to look at an atmosphere in search for things 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:16.760 that are unusual. So our own atmosphere is oxygen by volume. 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.000 If she says, an alien civilization is looking at us 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.320 from four light years away, presumably with an awesome telescope, 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.399 and it knows something about chemistry, then it will know 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.119 that we have millions to billions of times more oxygen 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.280 than we should if there were no life on Earth. 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.080 So that should be a clue to them. There's something 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:38.960 going on here through further synthesis, through the interaction of 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:43.720 oxygen and carbon dioxide, that that is not fitting uh 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.720 in line with what its composition should be, and so 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:48.560 we're looking for something that's not right. We're looking in 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.560 the same way to the murder investigation is ends up 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.080 chasing after individuals that are suspicious in some way, shape 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.840 or form, whose story doesn't quite add up. We're doing 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.600 looking for that planet with a story that doesn't quite 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.320 add up. Why does it have this much oxygen? Why 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:06.919 was it spotted leaving it's a it's apartment at the 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.120 three in the morning garbage bag. That's right to fear 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.399 the planetary dick detective. Then these are the questions that 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:17.120 they're asking and UM, And what I think is interesting 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:20.560 is that these these seventeen years, so much of this 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.560 has just been an exercise. And let's let's comb through 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:25.760 the data and let's try to take measurements. First. That 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:27.119 was the first thing that they wanted to do. Can 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:31.520 we take measurements of these planets? Um? The second thing 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:34.560 is can we figure out what's in them the habitable zone? 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:38.040 Can we start to really figure out whether native? Are 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:40.639 they hot and gassie or they rocky? And then it 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.920 became well, let's really see what's taking a bite out 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:47.040 of the atmosphere here. Let's see if if the composition 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.560 can give us um a clue as to an earth 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:56.760 like twin for us And now Seeger and obviously others 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.639 in her labs are looking much more specifically at that 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.320 data set that Kepler has given them, those twenty three 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:07.600 hundred planetary candidates, And she is actually helping to build 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:12.359 a prototype nano satellite that will be launched in and 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:13.960 she says that instead of looking at a hundred and 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:16.560 fifties six thousand distant stars, we hope to survey the 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:20.080 very nearest sunlight star for transitting Earth sized planets. So 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.000 the return to studying individual extra planets will be for 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.040 those orbiting stars that are close enough for detailed follow up. 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.600 So they just keep honing in more and more on 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.440 this idea that we can answer this question in this generation, 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:34.760 and then coming in ten, we have a James Webb 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.720 telescope which is going to just even look more laser 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:41.480 focused at those habitable zones. Yeah, and Singer was on 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.400 a panel at the World Science Festival about exp planets 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.480 along with Natalie to Halla. She's a physicist and team 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.720 leader the Kepler YEP, and that Mountain, the director of 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.760 the Space Telescope Science Institute. Now, they all it was 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.479 a very spirited conversation and they all had different ideas 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.520 about how to go about planet hunting, but I think 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:03.639 they all degree agree that UM this is something that 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:06.960 is going to happen in our generation, and they're pretty 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:09.480 much hamstrung by the technology. Now they could do it. 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.720 They could find an earthlike planet if they had every 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.880 dollar at their disposal, because they could build the right 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:19.199 sort of UM instruments to do this with it. But 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.159 they are saying that it's very hopeful that you have 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:25.960 space X, that you have asteroid mining and basically some 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.080 private companies coming in and creating the technology which will 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.600 allow them, just like the nano satellite that seekers working on, 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.960 to really get in and study it much further. And 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:40.160 it's I think it's just really exciting time to know that, um, 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.480 you know, again, this earthlike planet might be identified, Would 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:47.760 we travel to it? Would there being aliens that consume us? 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.800 I don't know. Yeah, it's I think I've missed this before, 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:54.879 but things like this kind of remind me of of 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.320 that day when I first started out stuff works and 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.399 the news head hit that some guys in World, Georgia 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:03.840 had a cooler with a big foot in it, an 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.399 actual dead sasquatch, And for a split second there I 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:09.639 was kind of like, is this really going to happen? 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:12.920 Is this really gonna turn out to be Bigfoot, and 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.760 of course it didn't. But but there was a moment 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:20.159 there of possibility, and with our search for exoplanets, that 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:25.119 moment of possibility continues to to draw out. Um, you 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:26.920 can draw out to the point where some people perhaps 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.240 lose interest in it and they just tend to think, oh, well, 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:31.080 I guess the rest of the universe is empty because 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:35.399 we haven't found uh, that magic planet yet. But you know, 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:37.159 some people would say that there are a lot of 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.040 fish in the sea, there are a lot of planets 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.680 uh out there in the universe, and if we look 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.760 long enough, uh, we will find it. Well. And what 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:47.280