70 Space Facts Without the Geek Speak
Ready to have your minds blown? We've got an awesome video lined up for you – "70 Space Facts That Will Blow Your Mind!" ✨ From hidden worlds to potential sources of water on other planets, get ready for a cosmic journey that'll leave you in awe. Buckle up as we explore the mysteries of the universe and unveil mind-bending facts that will make you see space in a whole new light. Don't miss out on the celestial surprises waiting for you! ️ Hit play and join us on this interstellar adventure!
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 On August 20, 1977, the most ambitious space mission took off from Earth.
00:16 The main goal of Voyager 2 was to study the outer Solar System up close.
00:21 It became possible because of a rare alignment of planets.
00:25 Voyager 2 was supposed to study all the gas giants of the Solar System – Jupiter, Saturn,
00:30 Uranus, and Neptune.
00:32 Astronomers also hoped it would be able to find and explore the edge of the Solar System.
00:37 Since Voyager 2 was built for interstellar travel, the probe was equipped with a large
00:41 12-foot-wide antenna.
00:43 It allowed the spaceship to send the data it gathered back to Earth.
00:47 During its journey, the space probe discovered a 14th moon of Jupiter.
00:51 Voyager 2 was the only spaceship to study all four giant planets from up close.
00:56 It was the first human-made object to fly past Uranus, where it found two new rings
01:01 and ten new moons.
01:03 Voyager 2 also flew by Neptune and noticed its great dark spot.
01:07 That's a colossal spinning storm in the planet's southern hemisphere.
01:11 The storm is the size of Earth and moves at a speed of 1,500 miles per hour.
01:16 These winds are the strongest ever recorded on any planet of the Solar System.
01:21 In the history of space exploration, only five spacecraft have managed to leave the
01:25 gravitational pull of the Solar System.
01:28 Those were Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, and New Horizons.
01:34 People launch thousands of objects into space.
01:37 These objects easily overcome Earth's gravity.
01:39 But the Sun is around 300,000 times as massive as our home planet.
01:44 That's why its gravitational pull is way more difficult to find.
01:48 And more impressively, Voyager 2 is the second human-made object in history to reach the
01:53 space between stars after passing through the heliosphere.
01:57 That's a bubble of magnetic fields and particles produced by the Sun and protecting the Solar
02:02 System.
02:03 Two years after its launch, Voyager 2 started transmitting the first images of Jupiter.
02:09 The space probe provided scientists with much-needed information about Io and Europa, some of the
02:14 largest of Jupiter's moons.
02:16 In the space mission, passed by the gas giant itself, the distance between the spacecraft
02:21 and the planet was around 400,000 miles.
02:24 That's when the probe noticed some changes in the shape and color of the great red spot.
02:29 It's an enormous, long-lived storm system, like a hurricane on Earth, but much, much
02:34 larger.
02:35 Two years later, Voyager 2 reached Saturn.
02:38 It discovered spokes and kinks in some of the planet's rings.
02:42 While the spacecraft was flying behind and up past the gas giant, it passed through the
02:46 plane of Saturn's rings.
02:48 At that time, Voyager's speed was around 8 miles per second.
02:52 For several minutes, the probe was hit by thousands of micron-sized grains of dust.
02:57 This kept shifting the probe's direction, and its control jets had to fire many times
03:01 to stabilize the vehicle.
03:05 After Voyager 2 explored Uranus and Neptune, it headed out of the Solar System.
03:10 Its instruments were put in low power to save energy.
03:13 In August 2007, the spacecraft passed the terminal shock.
03:17 It's the boundary marking the outer limit of the Sun's influence.
03:21 Here, the solar wind slows down.
03:24 In the summer of 2013, the probe reached interstellar space.
03:29 Now, when it comes to sending and receiving signals in space, there are three factors
03:33 you should keep in mind – distance, power, and time.
03:38 The farther away a spacecraft is, the farther a signal has to travel before it reaches it,
03:43 and the longer it takes for this signal to catch up with the spacecraft.
03:47 And when it finally gets there, it's extremely weak.
03:50 Another problem is that once the spacecraft is launched, it can't be upgraded.
03:54 It's literally stuck with the technology it was outfitted with.
03:58 Plus, such spaceships as Voyager 2 are powered by radioactive fuel.
04:03 When special material radioactively decays, it releases heat that gets converted into
04:08 electricity.
04:09 Unfortunately, the more material decays away, the less power the spacecraft has for receiving
04:14 and transmitting radio signals.
04:17 Despite this issue, we haven't lost the connection with Voyager 1 and 2.
04:21 That's because new and more powerful technologies appear on Earth.
04:26 Signals people send can reach much farther than before.
04:28 That's why it was possible to stay in touch with Voyager 2, which entered interstellar
04:33 space in 2018 and has already traveled almost 12 billion miles away from Earth.
04:39 But in March 2020, the main piece of equipment that allowed scientists to exchange signals
04:44 with the spaceship was switched off.
04:47 After the communication with the spacecraft stopped, NASA spent around 11 months upgrading
04:52 its deep space network and installing new hardware.
04:55 The DSN is an international array of huge radio antennas that help astronomers on Earth
05:01 communicate with interplanetary missions.
05:03 These antennas are located in California, Madrid, and Canberra.
05:07 The one used to keep in touch with Voyager 2 is a 230-foot-wide dish in Canberra.
05:13 This is the only equipment that can send commands that can reach the probe.
05:17 This antenna, known as DSS-43, started operating in 1972, 5 years before Voyager 2 and 1 were
05:25 launched.
05:26 At that time, it was only 210 feet across.
05:29 Since then, the dish has received a lot of repairs and upgrades, but these 11 months
05:34 were the longest the antenna was offline.
05:37 In October 2020, the antenna was finally ready for a trial after all the upgrades and repairs.
05:43 The mission operators sent a set of commands to Voyager 2, and after many months of radio
05:48 silence, the spacecraft returned the signal.
05:51 The probe confirmed it had heard the call.
05:54 After that, the spacecraft carried out the commands.
05:58 We've been focusing on trying to find life on Mars so much, while there is this gem waiting
06:03 to be explored.
06:05 This planet is the sixth farthest from the Sun and the second largest in the solar system.
06:10 You'll find it right behind Jupiter.
06:12 I'm talking about Saturn, or as they sometimes call it, the jewel of the solar system.
06:18 It's so different from our planet.
06:20 First of all, you wouldn't be able to stand there.
06:22 While Earth consists of rock and other tough stuff, this planet is like a giant ball, mostly
06:27 made of gases.
06:28 If you found a swimming pool huge enough to fit Saturn, you could see the planet floating
06:33 in the water.
06:34 No wonder Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system.
06:39 It also contains a lot of helium, you know, the gas you put in balloons to make them hover
06:43 in the air.
06:45 Saturn is a very windy planet.
06:47 Winds there are more than four times stronger than the ones we have on Earth.
06:51 A day over there lasts 10 hours and 14 minutes because Saturn spins on its axis pretty fast.
06:57 But the planet takes its time while going around the Sun.
07:00 A year there equals 29 Earth years.
07:03 Saturn's radius is more than 36,000 miles.
07:05 It means the gas giant is nine times wider than our planet.
07:09 If Earth was the size of a nickel, Saturn would be as big as a volleyball.
07:13 Even though some of our planets in our solar system also have rings, Saturn's are the most
07:18 spectacular ones.
07:20 You can even see its rings from Earth.
07:22 And no, you don't have to be a scientist with insanely expensive equipment.
07:25 All you need is a small telescope.
07:28 Saturn's rings are not firm.
07:30 They are made of pieces of dust, rock, and ice.
07:33 Some of them are as small as grains of sand, and some as big as a house or even a mountain.
07:39 These are actually bits of asteroids, comets, and shattered moons that fell apart before
07:43 reaching Saturn.
07:44 They could be torn into pieces by the planet's powerful gravitational pull.
07:49 Saturn has over 50 moons, and recently, scientists have discovered some unusual hydrothermal activity
07:54 on one of them.
07:56 Enceladus is Saturn's sixth biggest moon.
07:59 It has four tiger stripes close to one of its poles.
08:03 Researchers have found that there is an ocean underneath these stripes.
08:06 Water and ice erupt from that area.
08:09 So now we can't but wonder, maybe there's life out there.
08:13 In the oceans on Earth, some forms of life gather around similar hydrothermal vents.
08:18 They feed on the chemicals there, same as plants on the surface do with sunlight.
08:22 And not only that, some of the oldest microbial life on our planet feed on the same energy
08:28 as the one produced beneath the ocean's surface on Enceladus.
08:32 It could potentially mean there's life developing there right now.
08:35 Of course, it takes millions and millions of years for even the simplest organisms to
08:39 appear.
08:40 But hopefully, scientists will need less time to find more complex forms of life.
08:45 There are millions of exoplanets out there in space, and scientists have been searching
08:49 for those that could be potentially habitable.
08:52 Exoplanets are planets orbiting a star outside of our solar system.
08:57 Dwarf stars are similar, less luminous than the sun.
09:00 They sometimes live for more than 10 billion years.
09:03 That's enough time for a living organism to develop and evolve into a more complex form.
09:08 Life might appear on the planets orbiting such dwarf stars, or, like with Saturn, on
09:13 one of their moons.
09:15 And here it is, Gliese 876 b, that orbits the red dwarf star Gliese 876.
09:22 This planet is mostly a mystery, but scientists assume this is a gas giant that has no solid
09:27 surface.
09:28 They believe its atmosphere doesn't have clouds.
09:31 But there might be water in its liquid form on the planet's surface.
09:35 T-Gardens b orbits a red dwarf that's around 12 light years away from our solar system.
09:40 The planet's mass is just a bit higher than that of Earth.
09:44 Scientists think it may have a rocky surface.
09:46 The planet needs around 5 days to complete its orbit.
09:49 It means that one year on T-Gardens b is actually shorter than one week on Earth.
09:55 Somewhere far, far away, there's another potentially habitable planet named Kepler-1638 b.
10:01 Ok, to be more precise, it's 3,000 light years away from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus.
10:07 This planet is 4 times as heavy as Earth and twice as wide.
10:12 It needs almost 260 days to complete one orbit around its star.
10:16 The gravity on this planet is stronger than that on Earth.
10:19 It wouldn't be an easy feat to jump on its surface.
10:23 One more Kepler coming along.
10:25 This time, it's Kepler-62e, a planet that's more than 1 and a half times the size of Earth.
10:31 Scientists believe this one has a warm, humid and hospitable atmosphere with cloudy skies.
10:36 There are 1,200 light years between Earth and this planet.
10:39 Kepler-62e needs 122 days to orbit its red dwarf star.
10:45 Its neighbor, Kepler-62f, is another potentially habitable zone.
10:49 It's a world around 40% bigger than Earth.
10:52 Scientists think this planet might be covered in water.
10:55 The oceans on our planet are full of interesting creatures and organisms of all sizes.
11:00 So the chances are, this planet also hides some intriguing living beings.
11:04 Or at least, it has the potential to develop life.
11:08 When we say habitable, it doesn't mean life definitely exists there.
11:12 It just means there are conditions for some forms of life to develop.
11:16 LHS-1140b is a planet located in one of the potentially habitable zones.
11:22 Unlike its gas companions, it's solid and quite rocky.
11:26 The planet's radius is 60% larger than that of Earth, and its mass is 7 times bigger.
11:31 It's one of the densest planets found out there.
11:34 Since the planet has a big mass, an atmosphere there must be rather thick.
11:39 Plus, gravity on its surface is much stronger than here on Earth.
11:43 That's why you would likely have problems just standing on that planet.
11:47 Hello and greetings from TRAPPIST-1, an ultra-cool dwarf in the constellation Aquarius.
11:52 It's around 39 light years away from us.
11:56 Seven Earth-sized rocky planets are orbiting in the star's habitable zone.
12:00 All of them can potentially have some water on their surfaces.
12:04 The temperature on these planets is more or less similar to that on Earth.
12:07 On the Moon, gravity is only 16% of what we have on our home planet.
12:12 That's why the astronauts could hardly control their movements when they visited our natural
12:16 satellite.
12:17 But when it comes to the gravity on TRAPPIST-1 planets, you would probably feel good and comfortable
12:22 there.
12:23 And Kepler, once again.
12:25 This time it's Kepler-452b.
12:28 It's a rocky planet 60% larger than Earth.
12:30 Its parent star is similar to our Sun.
12:33 This planet has actually spent around 6 billion years in the habitable zone, while Earth has
12:38 been there for a mere 4.5 billion years.
12:42 This planet needs 385 days to orbit Kepler-452.
12:47 This star is around 20% brighter than our Sun, but has the same temperature.
12:52 The whole system is very far from our little oasis.
12:55 It would take you 28 million years to get there.
12:58 And now, how about KOI-7711.01?
13:03 It's another intriguing world 1,700 light years away from us.
13:07 This planet is only 30% bigger than Earth.
13:10 It gets almost the same amount of heat as we receive from our Sun.
13:15 So Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos.
13:18 And apart from the bizarre shape, there's nothing remarkable about them, except for
13:23 one thing.
13:25 Not so long ago, scientists discovered a strange phenomenon on the surface of Phobos, and they
13:31 still can't find any explanation for it.
13:34 What is this phenomenon?
13:36 And what does it tell us about the history of our solar system?
13:40 Let's find out!
13:42 American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Phobos and Deimos back in 1877.
13:48 Did you know that all the planets in our solar system are named after Greek and Roman deities?
13:54 For example, Mars or Aries is the famous deity of war.
13:59 That's why the satellites of this red planet were named after the sons of Aries, Phobos
14:04 and Deimos.
14:06 These beautiful names actually have creepy meanings.
14:10 Fear and horror.
14:13 In 1971, NASA's Mariner 9 telescope took the first pictures.
14:18 That's how we found out that these guys weren't at all like our moon.
14:22 They had this weird shape, a strange and unstable orbit.
14:27 Moreover, there are no other moons in the solar system that move as close to their parent
14:32 planet as these two.
14:34 Well, they are its sons after all.
14:38 But even though they are very close to Mars, if you were standing on the surface of the
14:42 red planet, you would hardly be able to see them.
14:46 That's because the curvature of Mars hides Phobos and Deimos from view.
14:51 Even if you were somewhere on the equator, Phobos would look like an ordinary asteroid
14:55 to you, and Deimos would look like a star.
14:59 All because these satellites are basically crumbs compared to our moon.
15:03 They're the smallest and least bright moons in the entire solar system, which is ironic
15:08 considering their mighty names.
15:10 Anyway, it seems that everything should be pretty clear with these two satellites.
15:15 But nope, there's a problem.
15:18 You see, scientists reconstruct the history of space based on the traces found on different
15:23 space objects.
15:25 Dents, scratches, cracks, all these things can tell us what happened billions of years
15:30 ago.
15:32 For a long time, scientists were sure that, just like their Greek prototypes, Phobos and
15:37 Deimos were twins.
15:39 But then, NASA's Viking orbiter took new photos of the satellites, and that's when
15:44 they discovered a significant difference between the two.
15:49 The entire surface of Phobos was covered with huge grooves.
15:54 Those were a series of long, deep pits stretching from one end of Phobos to the other.
16:00 You may say, "What's the big deal?
16:02 All space objects have this kind of stuff on them."
16:05 And yeah, there are other satellites with similar grooves and scratches, but none of
16:09 them has as many as Phobos.
16:11 It's completely covered in grooves, and they're huge, up to 12 miles long and 660
16:18 feet wide.
16:20 And that's not all.
16:21 Some of these grooves intersect with others.
16:23 This means that Phobos has experienced not one, but many traumatic events.
16:29 But what exactly happened to it?
16:31 Actually, scientists are still not completely sure.
16:35 However, they have a few ideas, and these theories can tell us not only about the past
16:40 of Phobos, but also predict its future.
16:44 Theory 1.
16:45 Asteroid Impact
16:46 Well, the first suspect is quite obvious.
16:49 There's a large, almost 6-mile-wide crater on Phobos.
16:52 It's called Angeline Stickney.
16:55 It was named after the wife of Asaph Hall, the scientist who discovered the satellites.
17:00 Adorable.
17:02 So that's what the first theory sounds like.
17:04 Once upon a time, an astronomical body crashed into Phobos.
17:08 The impact was so strong that it left a large crater.
17:12 And the effect of the collision left a bunch of grooves everywhere on Phobos.
17:18 It sounds logical at first.
17:20 However, scientists have noticed a flaw in this theory.
17:23 They learned that these grooves actually formed not inside the crater, but next to it.
17:29 So it wasn't a collision that created them.
17:32 Besides, what about those grooves that intersect with the others?
17:36 Or is it just a big cosmic coincidence?
17:38 Well, the search for truth continued.
17:42 Theory 2.
17:43 It's All Because of Space Debris
17:45 Yes, there's a difference between these two theories.
17:49 In this case, the grooves aren't a direct consequence of the collision.
17:53 Rather, it goes something like this.
17:57 Something crashed into Phobos.
17:59 This impact caused a bunch of rocks to be thrown into space.
18:03 Some of them were lost in the universe forever, but others were small enough to be pulled
18:07 back to Phobos.
18:09 Passing next to the moon at a steep angle, they would crash into it, jumping away, and
18:14 so on.
18:15 And since the gravity of Phobos is very weak, perhaps they couldn't stick to it.
18:20 In other words, these rocks were continuously pulled toward and pushed off of the satellite
18:25 for many, many years.
18:28 This theory explains the intersecting grooves.
18:31 It's because the rocks were constantly falling into those places.
18:35 It sounds quite logical, but there's another problem.
18:38 We don't see any boulders on Mars or on the surface of its moons.
18:43 But all this debris was supposed to get trapped by gravity and remain somewhere in the planet's
18:48 orbit.
18:49 This, or simply become part of Phobos.
18:52 In other words, if this were true, we'd find evidence of this theory under layers
18:57 of dust.
18:58 But that didn't happen, so this explanation didn't satisfy astronomers either.
19:03 Therefore, they continued to look for the culprit.
19:07 Maybe the grooves have nothing to do with Stickney Crater at all.
19:11 Maybe the real culprit is something else, something even more powerful.
19:16 Could it be Mars itself?
19:21 Theory 3.
19:22 Mars is a twist villain.
19:24 The previous theories imply that Phobos and Deimos were originally pieces of Mars.
19:30 Like once upon a time they broke away from it and became satellites, just like our moon.
19:35 But what if that wasn't the case?
19:38 Observations made by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor show that Phobos and Deimos are made
19:44 up of elements which are mainly found in meteorites and asteroids.
19:49 So what if Phobos and Deimos are asteroids?
19:54 There's an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
19:57 Given the size, shape, and composition of Phobos and Deimos, scientists have suggested
20:02 that once upon a time they belonged to this belt.
20:06 However, one day they flew out of it, and then gravity pulled them to Mars.
20:12 This phenomenon is called asteroid capture.
20:16 It's very strange though.
20:17 Yeah, the asteroid capture isn't uncommon, but these two have been flying next to Mars
20:22 for what, billions of years?
20:25 It's weird that their orbits have remained the same.
20:28 In addition, the atmosphere of Mars is very rarified, and because of this, it could hardly
20:33 capture any asteroids.
20:36 In theory, they should have separated from Mars at the first opportunity.
20:40 However, this didn't happen.
20:42 It means that somehow, they got stuck, and Mars immediately began to destroy them.
20:49 Yep, an unexpected twist.
20:52 In this version, Mars turns out to be a villain.
20:55 Earth is just sitting in its orbital path, minding its own business, revolving around
21:00 the Sun until BAM!
21:02 Venus and Mars swoop in and spoil the fun.
21:05 No one wants to leave poor Earth alone.
21:08 These two relatively large celestial objects moving toward Earth will have dire consequences
21:13 for our planet, starting with changes in its orbiting trajectory path.
21:18 The planets' orbits in the Solar System have to maintain the right balance so that
21:22 nothing goes haywire.
21:23 Of course, if any large object approaches Earth, it would throw our orbiting path off
21:29 course.
21:30 The planets will revolve around each other, which will cause plenty of natural disasters
21:34 on our lanes.
21:36 This will also affect our rotation timing, potentially slowing it down.
21:41 Days will not flow but drag by.
21:44 Animals that rely on daytime will need to readjust their biological clocks.
21:49 Nocturnal animals will also need to figure out how to cope with the long nights.
21:53 Humans have adjusted pretty well to the 24-hours-a-day timing.
21:57 Time itself is just a human construct to measure things.
22:01 We'll have a tough time sleeping and adjusting to the stretched day.
22:06 Marine animals rely on the natural current flow to migrate around the oceans.
22:10 With Mars and Venus crashing the party, it looks like they will also need to find new
22:15 paths.
22:16 Birds migrating to other lands throughout the year will also be confused and not know
22:21 what to do.
22:22 In general, the Earth's temperature will rise, and massive heat waves and permanent
22:27 climate changes will occur.
22:29 This brings us to our next issue – the heat.
22:32 The radical temperature rise will turn everything into a barren desert.
22:36 It'll be summer all year long, especially if Venus is in the picture.
22:41 Most of the planet will dry up and won't be suitable for growing crops.
22:45 Venus is hot, I mean, really hot.
22:48 Even though it's not the closest planet to the Sun, it's still the hottest.
22:52 The temperatures on Venus are close to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, which will melt you like
22:57 an ice cube.
22:58 The lands on Venus are generally flat, probably due to the temperatures.
23:02 It's mainly hot because its atmosphere is thick and traps the hazardous gases inside.
23:08 If Venus inches its way towards us, it'll invite those gases to our atmosphere and compromise
23:14 it.
23:15 Mars, or the Red Planet as we know it, is very cold.
23:19 That might stay the same if it starts rotating around us.
23:22 It's also home to the largest dormant volcano in our solar system, which makes Mount Everest
23:27 look like a tiny bush compared to a tree.
23:30 With so much instability, it might just wake up one day and spew out molten lava.
23:36 Mars has a very thin atmosphere, which makes the planet chilling.
23:40 Its gravity is quite similar to ours.
23:42 It's actually very cold and has ice caps in the poles covered with carbon dioxide.
23:47 The same is true for Mercury.
23:49 You can only last there as long as you can hold your breath and be in the sweet spot
23:53 between the sunrise and sunset.
23:56 The three planets orbiting each other will eventually collide.
24:00 It's just a matter of time.
24:05 And the Moon, just hanging out like a fly on the wall, will be so insignificant that
24:09 something will eventually throw it off course and another planet will capture it to its
24:14 orbit.
24:15 Or, in the most dire case, it will collide with one of the two intruding planets.
24:21 Earth will experience extreme tidal waves like nothing before.
24:25 The two new planets revolving around Earth will cause a major imbalance, making our gravity
24:30 shift out of control.
24:32 Each tidal wave will be bigger than the previous one and will cover the dry land.
24:37 Plenty of little scattered islands in the oceans will be completely submerged.
24:41 Coastal cities and towns will also be home to fish.
24:45 Flat countries in general will need boats to get around.
24:48 Dams and dikes won't be enough to stop the water from coming in.
24:52 Everyone needs to move towards higher ground to escape the floods.
24:56 With the climate getting hotter, the polar caps will melt like ice cream on a sweltering
25:01 summer day and add to the water level rising.
25:04 Within a few months, the whole Arctic will be nothing but liquid.
25:08 But wait, there's more!
25:10 The crust will wear out due to the instability of the Earth's surface and fluctuating gravity.
25:15 The Earth's crust is mainly made up of oxygen, which means we're basically walking on air.
25:21 We might experience more earthquakes than before, and dormant volcanoes will wake up
25:26 from their deep slumber.
25:27 The skies will be covered in ash, making flights impossible.
25:31 No one can travel by sea or by air.
25:34 Importing and exporting will become history.
25:37 The overall climate will get hotter, just like in Venus.
25:41 The three planets orbiting each other and their huge mass might even unintentionally
25:46 welcome other planets and celestial bodies to join the party.
25:50 But oh, what if Jupiter decided to turn up?
25:54 Now Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.
25:57 To give you an idea, the Earth would be just the size of a grape if Jupiter were the size
26:02 of a basketball.
26:04 It also has the largest storm we can perceive.
26:06 That's known as the Red Spot, a place twice the size of Earth that has hurricane-like
26:12 storms that have been going on for hundreds of years.
26:16 Now by the time you're done watching this video, you can expect the storm to still be
26:20 going at it.
26:21 Since the planet is huge, gravity must be quite strong here.
26:25 It also has many moons, some of them of our little Earth.
26:30 There will be no room for any proper space among the planets.
26:34 Jupiter's moons will be thrown off course and latch onto other planets around.
26:38 Some of the moons might collide with each other, causing massive debris to be displaced
26:43 all over the place.
26:44 The gravity of the planetary party will attract comets to enter the atmosphere, potentially
26:49 crashing down on us.
26:52 Oxygen levels will deplete, so the Earth's crust crumbling will continue.
26:56 It'll rip open the ozone layer, causing heavy strokes of ultraviolet waves to enter our
27:01 atmosphere.
27:02 We won't be able to step outside for too long without some protective gear and oxygen tanks.
27:08 Human civilization will change drastically.
27:11 We'll all live in sheltered containers that will provide clean air and safe and filtered
27:16 sunrays.
27:17 The shelters will be sturdy enough to withstand frequent earthquakes.
27:21 We will grow only enough crops to sustain ourselves until we leave the Earth.
27:26 Since it'll only be a matter of time before the planets collide, the next step would be
27:30 to create large rocket ships to fly us out of the Earth.
27:35 With Mars, Venus, and Jupiter revolving close to us, it won't be easy to do so.
27:41 All the space debris will be blocking us from exiting the space zone area.
27:45 The only safe place outside this region will be many millions of miles away, where only
27:50 single planets exist.
27:52 You take a rocket to the Moon.
27:54 It lands.
27:55 You put on your work uniform and go to work your shift at a local factory that extracts
27:59 water from beneath the surface of the Moon.
28:02 There's also fuel plants here.
28:04 Dozens of people in rovers are roaming the expanse of Earth's natural satellite.
28:08 When your shift ends, you board the rocket again.
28:11 It takes you back home, just like a regular bus.
28:16 That's exactly what NASA is planning to do.
28:19 In the first stage of this project is the PRIME-1 mission.
28:22 PRIME stands for Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment.
28:26 The mission starts in 2022.
28:28 Let's follow it step by step.
28:30 A booster rocket and second stage are assembled on the launch pad.
28:34 Ignition!
28:35 The rocket's engines begin to burn fuel and we go up.
28:39 Soon the rocket reaches a speed of about 24,000 miles per hour.
28:43 At that speed, you can travel the distance from New York to London in just 8 minutes.
28:50 Once the booster uses up all its fuel, it undocks and makes a soft landing on Earth.
28:55 The second stage with the payload capsule fires its engines a couple of seconds after
28:59 the first stage undocks, so the rocket continues moving up.
29:04 Once it reaches orbit, the payload capsule opens.
29:07 It releases the Lunar Lander Nova C. It's a cylindrical spacecraft as long as a sedan
29:12 and slightly wider than the height of the average person.
29:15 It starts its engine and begins its journey.
29:18 First, the Lander makes a circle around Earth.
29:21 This is a gravitational maneuver that helps it to gain speed without wasting too much
29:25 fuel.
29:28 Because the Lunar Lander is still in orbit, Earth's gravity affects it.
29:31 The spacecraft looks as if it's falling, but not to the surface of our planet.
29:37 Along its orbital trajectory.
29:39 After one lap around Earth, the Lander adjusts its trajectory and heads for the moon.
29:44 The distance it needs to cover is 238,600 miles.
29:49 That's like 9.5 trips around Earth or 93 trips across the United States from coast
29:54 to coast.
29:55 Modern spacecraft can cover this distance in as little as 9 hours.
29:59 That's a bit more than a journey from New York to Los Angeles by plane.
30:02 At the same time, it took the first astronauts about 72 hours to get to the moon.
30:08 Soon, Nova C is near its destination.
30:12 It makes another circle around the moon while it descends.
30:15 Scientists have already chosen the perfect plane for it to land.
30:18 There are several requirements.
30:20 First of all, there should be signs that there might be ice under the surface in this location.
30:25 Second, the lunar module should be able to maintain radio communication with Earth.
30:30 And this is impossible if the Lander is on the far side of the moon.
30:33 When the first astronauts flew around Earth's natural satellite, contact with them was lost
30:38 for a few minutes.
30:39 The connection only resumed when their spacecraft came out of the lunar shadow.
30:45 And the last requirement for the landing area is sunlight.
30:48 The Lander has solar panels to power its scientific equipment, onboard computers, and communication
30:54 modules, so it needs direct sunlight.
30:57 The Lander is getting closer to the surface of the moon.
30:59 The spacecraft is slowing down as it approaches the landing site.
31:03 Now, it's almost hovering in midair.
31:05 A few more seconds and touchdown.
31:09 The spacecraft makes a soft landing.
31:13 It's time to drill through the surface.
31:16 For this, the Lander has a device called the Regolith, an ice drill for exploring new terrain.
31:21 To put it simply, it's a large, three-foot-long drill.
31:25 That's almost as long as a grown-up person's leg.
31:28 Once the right spot is chosen, the device gets lowered into the lunar soil.
31:32 Drilling will have several stages.
31:34 Lander will have to lift the drill several times to get the soil out of the drill hole.
31:39 Otherwise, it may damage the drill bit.
31:41 Next, the Lander will have to analyze the soil composition.
31:46 To do this, it carries a mass spectrometer, observing lunar operations.
31:50 Shortly, M-SOLO.
31:53 Its work is based on a simple principle.
31:55 It ionizes, or charges, particles of soil, making them move.
31:59 Then it creates a strong magnetic field, which affects the charged particles, making them
32:04 change their trajectory.
32:07 Different substances, their molecules, and atoms move differently in the magnetic field.
32:12 So, by analyzing the changes in their trajectories, we can identify the mass and charge of each
32:18 particle.
32:19 What we'll do next is look at Mandeleev's periodic table and see which atoms we can
32:23 find in the samples.
32:27 Scientists hope to find H2O.
32:28 Water.
32:29 The south pole of the moon is an ideal place to keep ice within reach of our drill.
32:34 The equator would be a great place to maintain radio contact and power the solar panels of
32:39 the Lander.
32:40 But this area is likely to be too hot to have any ice.
32:43 The Lander will also carry a lunar hopper.
32:46 This thing will be used to explore the surface of the moon.
32:49 It will carry a load of about two pounds.
32:54 Scientists will also test 4G communication technology.
32:57 The Lander should have some special modules for this.
32:59 If the test is successful, people might be able to use cellular coverage for communication
33:04 on the moon, like we do on Earth.
33:07 But the main goal of the mission is to prove that the resources found on the moon can be
33:11 used in the future.
33:12 As early as 2023, NASA plans to send an autonomous rover, called VIPER, which stands for the
33:19 Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, to the moon.
33:24 It will land at the moon's south pole for the same reasons - the connection with Earth
33:28 and sunlight.
33:29 The rover itself will be about the size of a golf cart.
33:32 It will carry a drill and soil analyzer.
33:35 Scientists have already laid out a route for the rover.
33:37 It's about 10 to 15 miles long.
33:39 It will take VIPER 100 days to travel along that route.
33:43 It will drill the soil in search of lunar ice and mark its findings on the map.
33:47 It will be necessary to prepare for astronauts' arrival to the moon.
33:51 It will also help to provide them with valuable resources, like water.
33:56 Later in the 20s, NASA will launch the Artemis mission.
34:00 For this purpose, scientists have been constructing the Orion spacecraft for decades.
34:05 It can carry six astronauts.
34:06 The launch vehicle that will take Orion into orbit is called the Space Launch System.
34:11 When ready, it will be the most powerful rocket in human history.
34:17 The first flight will be uncrewed.
34:19 It's scheduled for 2022.
34:21 Like the lunar lander, the spaceship will ascend into orbit, make one revolution around
34:26 our planet, and go to the moon.
34:28 Once it reaches the satellite, it will stay in orbit for six days and then return to Earth.
34:33 It will spend a total of 25 days in outer space.
34:38 The second mission is planned for September 2023.
34:41 This time, we'll send four astronauts to the moon.
34:44 They will fly around Earth's natural satellite and return without landing on the lunar surface.
34:49 This will be the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972.
34:55 The third mission, Artemis 3, is scheduled for the 55th anniversary of the first lunar
35:00 landing in 2024.
35:02 Four astronauts will travel to the moon's orbit.
35:05 Once there, two of them will move to the starship HLS.
35:08 This is a new lunar lander designed by SpaceX.
35:11 And they will make a soft landing on the moon's surface.
35:14 In our solar system, most planets spin counterclockwise, but not Venus.
35:20 This rebel planet decided to spin clockwise, and scientists are still trying to figure
35:25 out why.
35:26 By the way, why do planets rotate in general?
35:29 What defines the speed of their rotation?
35:32 Does the sun rotate?
35:33 Buckle up and let's try to answer these questions.
35:38 Venus is the second planet from the sun and the hottest planet in our solar system.
35:43 Did you know that Venus is sometimes called Earth's twin?
35:46 That's because it's similar in size and composition to our own planet.
35:52 But that's where the similarities end because Venus is a pretty crazy place to say the least.
35:58 For example, the weather.
36:00 On Venus, it's always hot and cloudy.
36:03 And when I say hot, I mean it like it's over 800 degrees Fahrenheit there.
36:07 And those clouds?
36:08 They're not made of water like the ones on Earth.
36:11 Instead, they're made of sulfuric acid.
36:13 So yeah, you wouldn't want to go outside without a really good sunscreen on Venus.
36:18 If you look at the photos taken from its surface, you can see these toxic yellow clouds and
36:24 cracked, desolate landscapes.
36:26 And the spacecraft that captured this turned off almost immediately after sending these
36:31 photos.
36:32 Poor fella.
36:34 But the surface of Venus isn't just some solid, dark, flat land.
36:39 In fact, Venus has mountains that are taller than Mount Everest.
36:43 These mountains aren't made of rock like the ones on Earth, though.
36:46 Instead, they're made of a kind of volcanic material that's denser than that.
36:52 Venus is a pretty creepy place that holds many mysteries.
36:56 One of them has been puzzling scientists for years.
36:59 And this is the planet's rotation.
37:01 Most planets in our solar system rotate counterclockwise.
37:05 But Venus isn't like the other girls.
37:07 It rotates clockwise.
37:09 And that's not all.
37:11 It also rotates around the sun faster than it rotates around itself.
37:16 In other words, a year on this planet passes faster than a day.
37:20 It's almost like Venus made being quirky its life mission.
37:24 But why is that?
37:26 Well, scientists have a few theories.
37:29 The most popular theory says that Venus was actually spinning counterclockwise like the
37:34 other planets.
37:35 But then something happened to flip it around.
37:37 And what could that something be, you ask?
37:40 A planet-sized object.
37:42 Yep, astronomers believe that something huge once collided with Venus, causing it to spin
37:48 in the opposite direction.
37:50 You can imagine this like a cosmic billiard shot, with this mysterious huge object being
37:56 the cue ball and Venus being the target ball.
38:00 But we can't actually say that Venus is spinning the wrong way.
38:04 There's no such thing as a wrong direction of spin in the universe.
38:08 This is actually called the retrograde rotation.
38:11 This is when a planet rotates in the opposite direction to its orbit around the sun.
38:16 Venus, for example, has a retrograde rotation, which means that the sun rises in the west
38:22 and sets in the east on that planet.
38:25 So now when the horoscope says something like "Mercury in retrograde," you'll know
38:30 what it means.
38:31 Oh, but Venus isn't the only weird one in our solar system.
38:35 There are definitely some wacky ways that planets can rotate.
38:40 For example, most planets in our solar system spin around an imaginary line called an axis.
38:47 This axis is usually straight up and down in relation to the planet's orbit around
38:52 the sun.
38:53 However, some planets like Uranus have a tilted axis, which means it's almost on
38:58 its side in relation to its orbit.
39:01 This tilt causes the planet's poles to be nearly in the same place as its orbit.
39:07 The result?
39:09 As the planet orbits the sun, different parts of it receive different amounts of sunlight,
39:14 causing extreme seasonal variations.
39:17 For example, one pole might experience continuous sunlight, while the other is in complete darkness
39:23 for a long time.
39:26 Uranus is the only planet in our solar system that rotates on its side.
39:32 Scientists think that it could repeat Venus' history.
39:35 Once upon a time, a large impact knocked Uranus off its original axis of rotation, causing
39:41 it to tilt at an angle of 98 degrees.
39:45 We should be grateful for Jupiter.
39:47 Its crazy gravity pulls all the asteroids and protects us from such collisions.
39:53 All this is somewhat similar to tidally locked planets.
39:57 Imagine going on a date with a planet, but instead of being charming and mysterious like
40:01 you'd hoped, it's just staring at you with the same face all night long.
40:06 That's basically what it's like to hang out with a tidally locked planet.
40:12 Tidally locked planets are planets that rotate around their axis at the same rate that they
40:17 orbit their star.
40:19 This means that the same side of the planet always faces the star, while the other side
40:24 is in permanent darkness.
40:27 Being tidally locked can have some weird effects on the planet's climate and weather.
40:32 The side facing the star can become extremely hot, while the other side can be incredibly
40:37 cold.
40:38 The atmosphere on the planet can also get pretty wild, with strong winds blowing from
40:43 the hot side to the cold side.
40:46 And it doesn't have to be planets only.
40:49 Our moon also works this way.
40:51 Did you know that we always see only one side of the moon?
40:55 That's because it's tidally locked to the Earth.
40:59 We can also take the dwarf planet Pluto as an example.
41:02 It has a strange rotational relationship with its largest moon, Charon.
41:07 They're tidally locked, which means that they always face each other with the same
41:11 side.
41:12 As a result, Pluto and Charon appear to waltz around a common center of gravity, creating
41:18 a unique dance in space.
41:21 But the oddities of our solar system don't end there.
41:25 There are also planets with super fast rotations.
41:29 While most planets rotate at a fairly sedate pace, some of them are sonic levels fast.
41:35 Jupiter, for example, rotates once every 9 hours and 56 minutes, which means that it
41:42 has a day that's less than 10 hours long.
41:45 That's fast enough to cause the planet to bulge out at its equator.
41:49 And also, this rapid rotation creates strong bands of winds that can reach speeds of up
41:54 to 400 miles per hour.
41:58 And if all this still seems logical and kinda makes sense, then how about chaotic rotations?
42:04 Yep, some planets have a rotation that's so irregular and unpredictable that it's
42:10 known as chaotic rotation.
42:12 This is often caused by the gravitational influence of nearby moons or other planets.
42:19 And it's mostly the case with moons and small objects like that.
42:22 In our solar system, some moons of Pluto, Saturn, and Neptune have chaotic rotation.
42:29 By the way, the sun rotates too, just like the planets.
42:35 Put on your shades because Mercury is a hotspot.
42:38 On the surface of this planet, the sun looks 3 times bigger than it does from Earth, and
42:42 the light is 11 times brighter.
42:46 Mercury may spin slower than Earth, but it still knows how to have a good time.
42:50 One day on this planet lasts a whopping 59 Earth days.
42:55 But don't worry.
42:56 A year on Mercury is only 88 Earth days long, so if you want to feel like a centenarian,
43:01 just divide your age by not .25 or multiply it by 4.
43:06 This way, you'll get your approximate Mercurian age.
43:09 Easy peasy.
43:11 And let's not forget about Mercury's funky orbit.
43:14 For every two orbits around the sun, it spins twice.
43:18 That means each hemisphere gets a full year of daylight followed by a long night.
43:23 Time zones would be a mess on this planet, so we'll just stick to GMT.
43:28 Ugh, did anyone forget to take out the trash?
43:32 Why does it smell of rotten eggs in here?
43:34 Uh, sorry, it's because we're on Venus now, and these stinky clouds don't smell like roses.
43:41 Any planet's day is basically just how long it takes for it to do a full spin on its axis.
43:46 Well, Venus takes its sweet time with this, way slower than Earth, in fact.
43:52 So a day on Venus lasts a whopping 243 Earth days, or almost 6000 hours.
43:57 Now here's where things get a bit tricky.
43:59 Because Venus's day is so long, we actually use Earth's day as standard for keeping time
44:04 on the planet.
44:05 That means there's only one time zone for the whole planet.
44:08 Seems convenient, huh?
44:10 Venus's year is about 225 days.
44:13 So if you were celebrating New Year's Eve on Earth in the year 2000, that would have
44:17 been Venus's year 3251.
44:20 So to keep track of time of Venus, we can use the local year, made up of 225 Earth days.
44:26 But every three years or so, there's an extra short year made up of only 224 days.
44:32 Not that confusing.
44:34 We have leap years on Earth too, but it works a bit differently.
44:39 We've made it to planet Earth.
44:41 Woohoo!
44:42 How many time zones do we have on this big blue ball?
44:44 Give me a drumroll.
44:45 24.
44:46 And did you know that we can actually mess with time a little bit?
44:51 Yup, in about 80 countries, mostly in Europe and North America, we have something called
44:56 daylight saving time.
44:58 It's where we move our clocks forward an hour during the summer so we can soak up all that
45:02 sweet, sweet sunshine.
45:04 But beware, each country has its own rules about DST.
45:08 So make sure you don't get caught snoozing when you're supposed to be working.
45:12 And get this, some regions even have time zones that differ from UTC by half or quarter
45:17 hour increments.
45:20 Can you imagine that the moon is getting its own time zone?
45:24 The European Space Agency announced on Monday that it's time for the moon to have its own
45:29 synchronized time zone.
45:32 With more and more countries and private companies planning missions to our lunar neighbor, it's
45:36 important that we all speak the same language when it comes to timekeeping.
45:43 Right now, each mission carries Earth's coordinated universal time with it, which is fine when
45:49 there are only a few missions happening at once.
45:51 But with dozens of moon missions planned over the next few years, things are going to get
45:56 tricky.
45:57 We need a system in place to make sure everyone's on the same page, or we'll end up with different
46:01 spacecraft out of sync with each other, and nobody wants that kind of chaos in space.
46:07 Precise timekeeping is super important for communication and navigation, so we need to
46:12 figure out a way to make sure everyone's on the same page.
46:16 The ESA hasn't figured out exactly what form this new lunar time zone will take, but they're
46:21 working on it.
46:23 Should there be a single organization responsible for keeping lunar time?
46:27 Or should we let the moon set its own time?
46:31 And what about more granular time zones based on the sun's position?
46:35 These are all important questions that need to be answered.
46:40 When it comes to a day on Mars, it's not too different from a day on Earth.
46:44 We're talking 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds.
46:48 A Martian year is 1.8 Earth years, which means the Earth year 2000 happened in Martian year
46:54 1063.
46:56 Almost forgot.
46:58 The Martian year has 668 local days.
47:01 Phew!
47:02 We sorted out the Martian calendar, but Mars will need local time zones.
47:06 Because of its elongated orbit, the difference between summer and winter hours will be significant.
47:12 Daylight saving time will be a thing on Mars.
47:17 A year on Jupiter lasts almost 12 Earth years.
47:20 Yeah, that's like a lifetime in dog years.
47:23 But don't worry.
47:24 They've got 12 seasons to keep things interesting, each almost as long as an Earth year.
47:29 But a day on Jupiter only lasts 9 hours and 55 minutes.
47:33 Also, since Jupiter doesn't have a solid surface, the clouds move at different speeds, so two
47:38 free-floating atmospheric stations could experience different days.
47:42 Hey, if we lived on Jupiter, we'd be in bad need of some cool app tracking all those things.
47:48 Anyway, if we ever terraform Jupiter's region, most of the population will still live on
47:53 Jupiter's moons, because the atmosphere is just too wild.
47:58 And get this, the moon's revolution periods are connected, so we can use the same day
48:03 counting system for all of them.
48:06 On Io, we can have two standard Jovian days in one Earth day.
48:11 How do we break that down?
48:12 Well, we could have a minute of 53 seconds and an hour of 103 minutes.
48:17 Or we could just stick with Earth's minute and hour and have a day that's 21 hours and
48:22 13 minutes long.
48:24 How old are you?
48:25 I'm 200 days old and you?
48:27 Sounds odd to you, Earth dweller, but dudes on Saturn count their age in days.
48:32 A year on Saturn is crazy long, like more than 29 Earth years.
48:36 Kiddos would only get a fraction of a year, while the oldest folks might get a whopping
48:40 three years.
48:41 That's it for today!
48:42 So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
48:47 friends!
48:48 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!