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Transcript

00:00:00 Recently, Chinese scientists discovered something interesting on the moon, an unusual crystal.

00:00:07 Moreover, they found out that this crystal contains an element that can literally replace

00:00:12 nuclear fuel.

00:00:14 Let's find out more.

00:00:16 The composition of the moon has long remained a mystery to us.

00:00:20 Half a century has already passed since the Apollo mission.

00:00:23 Unfortunately, we haven't traveled to the moon much since then.

00:00:27 So it's not surprising that it's not so easy for us to study it.

00:00:31 But recently, we've made a breakthrough in this area.

00:00:34 In December 2020, Chinese scientists sent the Chang'e 5 probe to the moon.

00:00:40 The mission was named after the ancient Chinese deity of the moon, Chang'e.

00:00:45 Quite poetic, isn't it?

00:00:47 Anyway, after the probe went to the nearest side of the moon, it spent several days digging

00:00:51 through the surface and rocks, and then returned to Earth.

00:00:55 In total, it collected about 4 pounds of various lunar rocks, like basalt, solidified lava,

00:01:02 and so on.

00:01:04 And yeah, maybe it doesn't sound too impressive, but it's actually a mini-breakthrough.

00:01:08 After all, we hadn't received any lunar samples since 1976.

00:01:14 And these samples are very important for learning the history of our world.

00:01:18 We've been struggling for many years to find out, for example, how the moon was born at

00:01:23 all.

00:01:24 Yes, there were a lot of theories, but we still couldn't find any proper evidence for

00:01:28 any of them.

00:01:30 But thanks to the latest missions and some computer simulations, scientists finally found

00:01:36 out the truth.

00:01:37 The moon was born when some random dwarf planet crashed into our Earth many millions of years

00:01:42 ago.

00:01:43 This dwarf planet was slightly smaller than Mars.

00:01:46 The fragments of the Earth went into space, but some of them stayed in our orbit.

00:01:52 Then they stuck together and formed the moon.

00:01:55 It sounds horrifying, but in reality, the birth of the moon was the best thing to ever

00:02:00 happen to our planet.

00:02:02 If it weren't for this beautiful satellite, all our oceans would be small puddles.

00:02:06 Life wouldn't have appeared on Earth at all.

00:02:10 So this is already an amazing discovery, but that's still not all.

00:02:14 Studying the collected rocks, scientists from the Beijing Research Institute discovered

00:02:18 something unusual - a rare lunar crystal.

00:02:24 Looks pretty boring, doesn't it?

00:02:25 Just some tiny transparent monocrystal about the thickness of a human hair.

00:02:30 We've already found such things on the moon before.

00:02:33 These crystals were formed as a result of volcanic activity, just like some garnets

00:02:37 on the Earth.

00:02:38 And yep, the place where they discovered these crystals also suffered from volcanoes - 1.2

00:02:44 billion years ago.

00:02:46 That means that this tiny baby is over a billion years old.

00:02:51 But that's not the most important thing.

00:02:54 It's the fact that this crystal is made of a unique material - the one that we've never

00:02:58 seen before.

00:03:00 Researchers from the International Mineralogical Association have confirmed that such a composition

00:03:05 can't be found anywhere on Earth.

00:03:08 The crystal was named Chang'e site, again after the same moon deity.

00:03:14 And this is another achievement.

00:03:16 This is the sixth previously unknown mineral that we've found on the moon, and the first

00:03:21 one found by China.

00:03:23 Now it has become the third country in the world to make such a lunar discovery.

00:03:28 However, this tiny crystal still wasn't the only remarkable thing they found.

00:03:33 After studying this gem and about 140,000 other lunar particles, scientists have discovered

00:03:39 something else.

00:03:41 They found Helium-3.

00:03:44 Why is it so important?

00:03:46 Because this is one of the elements that feed the Sun and other stars in our universe.

00:03:53 We tend to say stuff like "put out the Sun", "the Sun is burning", and so on.

00:03:58 And this is one of the reasons why many people actually think that the Sun is a huge fireball.

00:04:04 But it's not.

00:04:06 Its burning is actually a completely different process, which is called nuclear fusion.

00:04:12 The process itself is quite simple.

00:04:15 During this reaction, hydrogen in the star turns into helium.

00:04:19 But this simple process is actually one of the most violent and insane reactions in the

00:04:24 universe.

00:04:25 There's a real boiling broth of particles inside the Sun.

00:04:30 The hydrogen nuclei that jump and rush there are constantly repelling each other since

00:04:34 all of them are positively charged.

00:04:37 And so they could continue to boil and chill around without bothering anyone.

00:04:42 If it weren't for the stars, the stars turned out to be cheaters.

00:04:46 They have such strong gravity that they basically grab billions of these little atoms and squeeze

00:04:52 them together.

00:04:53 Combining with each other, these atoms create new heavy elements, like the mentioned helium.

00:04:59 And when this happens, they throw a lot of energy into space.

00:05:04 And that's how the Sun burns.

00:05:06 At the same time, it spreads so much energy that we can't even imagine.

00:05:11 Okay, so what is helium-3?

00:05:13 Well, this is an element to which even the Sun can say, "Whoa, dude, you should calm

00:05:19 down."

00:05:20 The fusion of helium-3 atoms releases even more energy than in typical nuclear fusion.

00:05:26 And most importantly, it doesn't pollute the atmosphere with harmful things like radiation.

00:05:32 We have very, very little helium-3 on Earth.

00:05:36 Its prevalence in our atmosphere is about one in a million.

00:05:40 And besides, it's constantly trying to escape from us back into space.

00:05:45 Probably feels some bad vibes from us.

00:05:48 However, scientists have recently found out that there's a place that contains a lot

00:05:53 of this element.

00:05:54 Yep, you guessed it.

00:05:56 It's the Moon.

00:05:58 We think that there's more helium-3 on the Moon than on Earth because of the solar winds.

00:06:03 The Sun has been hammering on the Moon with its helium-3 for billions of years.

00:06:08 So now it's all over the place.

00:06:11 It's still not too much if you compare it, for example, with Jupiter or Saturn.

00:06:15 But don't forget how much energy it can release.

00:06:20 For your information, with only 25 tons of helium-3, it's possible to provide America

00:06:25 with energy for an entire year.

00:06:28 Now, there are 35,000 tons of it here on Earth and more than a million tons on the Moon.

00:06:35 Only these sources could feed the entire US for thousands of years.

00:06:40 So basically, in the future, helium-3 may become a new source of fuel.

00:06:45 And it's better than nuclear fuel in basically everything.

00:06:49 Helium-3 won't leave any harmful waste and radiation.

00:06:53 It's more powerful and not that dangerous.

00:06:55 In other words, this environmentally friendly and efficient energy could be a revolution

00:07:00 for our planet.

00:07:02 Sounds cool, huh?

00:07:04 So what are we waiting for?

00:07:06 Grab the shovels, you might say.

00:07:08 But there's a little problem here.

00:07:10 Unfortunately, we haven't yet come up with anything as wildly strong and hot as the stars.

00:07:17 To use helium-3, we need crazy temperatures and pressure.

00:07:21 We need a thermonuclear reactor and we have no idea how to build it.

00:07:26 Yet.

00:07:27 And even if we could heat it up to such temperatures and get the needed pressure, we still don't

00:07:32 really know how to handle helium-3 correctly.

00:07:35 Therefore, even if we have an infinite amount of helium-3, we still won't be able to use

00:07:41 it.

00:07:42 But still, there's a great power behind helium-3, so it's not surprising that different countries

00:07:47 have already started a race for nuclear resources.

00:07:51 Now that Chang'an 5 has discovered a new helium-3 deposit on the nearest side of the

00:07:56 Moon, this race can become downright global.

00:08:00 For example, China already plans a new lunar mission in 2024, Chang'an 6.

00:08:06 During this mission, they want to collect the first samples from the far side of the

00:08:11 Moon.

00:08:12 As you can see, finding this lunar crystal was very important for us.

00:08:16 These crystals can help us find new ways to create helium-3.

00:08:20 And if we manage to do that, humankind will enter a new era.

00:08:25 But to do this, we still have to solve a number of problems.

00:08:29 How to deliver a bunch of these lunar crystals to Earth, how to make them produce energy,

00:08:35 and so on.

00:08:36 Let's hope that in the future these issues will be resolved and we'll find a way to

00:08:40 produce clean, safe, unlimited energy.

00:08:46 Picture this.

00:08:47 You're floating about in the depths of space, gazing down on our blue marble of a planet.

00:08:52 What's on top?

00:08:54 You might think it's the North Pole.

00:08:57 But that isn't necessarily so.

00:08:59 The truth is, our collective belief that the North is at the top of the world doesn't

00:09:04 have any solid scientific backing.

00:09:06 It's just one of those things we've accepted over time.

00:09:09 And this acceptance has a compelling history.

00:09:12 With a dash of astrophysics, a bit of psychology, and a surprising twist, it influences how

00:09:18 we feel about our world more than we might think.

00:09:21 Figuring out where you are is crucial for survival, and that's true for most species,

00:09:25 not just us humans.

00:09:27 Similar to honeybees, for example, humans have a knack for creating mental maps of our

00:09:31 surroundings.

00:09:32 But where we really stand out is in our efforts to share these maps with others.

00:09:38 We've been at it for a while now, drawing maps on anything from cave walls to computer

00:09:42 screens.

00:09:43 The earliest ones we've found date back to 14,000 years ago.

00:09:47 Despite this long history, it's only in the last few centuries that we've decided that

00:09:50 the North should consistently be at the top of the map.

00:09:53 History buffs tell us that for a long time, the North was hardly ever at the top because

00:09:58 it symbolized darkness.

00:10:00 The West didn't make the cut either, given that's where the sun bows out each evening.

00:10:05 However, early Asian maps seem to defy this trend.

00:10:09 Now, before you say it, their compasses weren't the reason they put North at the top.

00:10:14 Early Asian compasses were actually aligned to point South, seen as a more favorable direction

00:10:19 than the cold, dark North.

00:10:21 But in these maps, the Emperor, who resided up North, was always placed at the top, with

00:10:26 his loyal subjects gazing upwards towards him.

00:10:30 Looking back, every culture had its own idea of what was worth looking up to, leading to

00:10:34 varied orientations of early maps.

00:10:37 The Egyptians preferred the East, where the sun graces us each morning.

00:10:41 Early Arabic maps favored the South.

00:10:44 European maps from the same era put the East at the top.

00:10:48 So when did everyone decide that North was the new top?

00:10:52 You might be tempted to credit it to explorers like Columbus and Magellan who navigated by

00:10:56 the North Star, but they didn't really see the world in that light.

00:11:00 Columbus, for instance, saw the world with the East at the top, believing he was headed

00:11:04 toward paradise.

00:11:06 Mercator's 1569 world map was a game changer, considering it was the first to factor in

00:11:12 the Earth's switch to more accurate navigation.

00:11:15 But even then, the emphasis wasn't on the North.

00:11:18 Mercator projected the poles to infinity, considering them relatively unimportant as

00:11:23 sailors didn't venture there often.

00:11:25 It's possible that the choice to place North on top was simply because the Europeans, who

00:11:30 were doing their fair share of exploring, were located in the Northern Hemisphere with

00:11:34 a whole lot more land to cover and people to meet.

00:11:37 For whatever reason, this North-up idea has stuck.

00:11:41 Even when a NASA astronaut in 1972 snapped a photo of the Earth with the South at the

00:11:46 top, it was flipped over to avoid confusion.

00:11:49 Here's where it gets interesting.

00:11:51 When you gaze at Earth from space, the concept of "up" and "down" loses all sense.

00:11:57 Sure, Earth aligns with the plane of other planets in our solar system because we all

00:12:02 share a cosmic birth story, but we could just as well flip the image or put the Sun on top

00:12:07 or bottom depending on your cosmic viewpoint, even within the Milky Way.

00:12:11 Our solar system is tilted by about 63 degrees.

00:12:15 If you think about it, the concepts of "up", "down", "left", or "right" don't really

00:12:19 apply in space.

00:12:21 But how about a change of pace?

00:12:23 Should we be open to viewing our world from a different perspective?

00:12:25 There's some psychological evidence that our North-up mentality might be skewing our

00:12:30 perceptions of value.

00:12:31 Most folks consider the North to be "up" and the South "down".

00:12:35 It even made psychologists wonder if these associations might influence how people value

00:12:40 different places on a map.

00:12:42 When shown a map of a made-up city, people were more likely to choose a residence in

00:12:46 the Northern part.

00:12:47 And when asked where hypothetical people of different social status would live, they allocated

00:12:52 the rich to the North and the less fortunate to the South.

00:12:56 It's not too big of a leap to speculate that humans might be less bothered about what happens

00:13:01 to regions lower than where they are on the map.

00:13:05 But there's a simple solution.

00:13:06 Flip the map upside down.

00:13:08 These experiments showed that this simple action wiped out the North equals good bias.

00:13:13 On that note, South-up maps are already available online.

00:13:16 Australians would enjoy this change, that's for sure.

00:13:20 Whatever it is that you'd prefer at the top of your map, you would need a compass to guide

00:13:24 you.

00:13:25 Have you ever paused to think of its system?

00:13:27 It is one of the oldest gadgets we've got in our survival toolkit.

00:13:31 It's been around for centuries, serving as a beacon for adventurers, travelers and explorers,

00:13:37 guiding them through uncharted oceans and helping them discover new continents.

00:13:41 Basically, compasses turned humans from "stay-at-home" types into "globe-trotting nomads."

00:13:48 Our beautiful blue planet isn't just a spinning ball in the cosmos.

00:13:51 It also has its own magnetic field.

00:13:54 Imagine it as a colossal magnet, humming with invisible energy.

00:13:57 This is all thanks to Earth's core, a ball of molten iron under terrific pressure, right

00:14:02 at the center of our planet.

00:14:04 This core, part liquid, part solid crystal, churns and swirls due to Earth's spin, creating

00:14:09 the magnetic field that gives us our North and South poles.

00:14:13 But here's where it gets a bit complicated.

00:14:15 These magnetic poles don't perfectly line up with the Earth's geographic poles, the

00:14:19 ones that the Earth spins around.

00:14:22 They're close, sure, but not exactly in the same place.

00:14:26 This is why the compass, which reacts to magnetic fields, doesn't point directly to what we

00:14:30 call "true north," which is the geographic North Pole.

00:14:34 Instead it points to the magnetic North, located a bit off from the true one.

00:14:39 But don't worry, it's close enough to get us where we need to go.

00:14:42 Let's talk more about this "true north" vs "magnetic north" business.

00:14:48 Remember the piece of news from September 2019, when for the first time in over 360

00:14:53 years, compasses at Greenwich pointed to the true north?

00:14:57 Well, that's quite a rare occurrence.

00:15:00 Usually compasses point towards magnetic north, which isn't a constant spot on the map.

00:15:04 It changes and drifts over time, following shifts in the Earth's core.

00:15:10 On the other hand, true north refers to the geographic North Pole, a specific, unchanging

00:15:14 point on Earth's surface.

00:15:16 So when you're holding a compass, it's really the magnetic north it's directing you toward,

00:15:21 not the true north.

00:15:23 Here's where things get even more fun.

00:15:25 The angle between the direction of the true north and the magnetic north, as shown by

00:15:29 the compass, is called "declination."

00:15:32 It's a fancy word for a simple concept.

00:15:35 Now, because Earth's magnetic field isn't a simple, straightforward thing, it has its

00:15:39 wobbles and dips, the declination isn't the same everywhere, it varies from place to place.

00:15:45 Also, here's what it's made of.

00:15:48 It has this tiny needle that's made from a metal that's been magnetized.

00:15:52 Magnetization is a common one.

00:15:54 They set this needle on a little pointy thing, or pivot, and let it float in some kind of

00:15:59 liquid, often it's mineral oil, or something similar.

00:16:03 This lets the needle spin around and dance with the Earth's magnetic field.

00:16:07 When you hold your compass flat in your hand, the needle settles down and points to magnetic

00:16:11 north.

00:16:12 Now, look at your compass and you'll notice these small markings.

00:16:17 They're known as degrees, and here's the fun bit.

00:16:19 The needle's red end always points north, and the white or black end always points south.

00:16:25 That's your compass' north-south dance.

00:16:27 Plus, there's often an arrow on the compass case, right at the top.

00:16:32 That's your orientation arrow.

00:16:36 You've been training for this for years.

00:16:40 You know you're ready.

00:16:43 You're standing on the door's threshold.

00:16:45 You take a deep breath and bravely open it.

00:16:49 You jump outside the International Space Station and into the vastness of space.

00:16:54 "Ah, this never gets old," you say on the transmitter device.

00:17:01 You feel like a feather whenever moving through space.

00:17:04 Except for the suit, of course.

00:17:07 It's true what that guy told you one day.

00:17:10 Astronaut suits limit your body's movement by 20%.

00:17:14 For you, that means you've got a 20% higher chance of being clumsy in outer space, which

00:17:19 is never good odds.

00:17:20 There's not a lot of room for error during a spacewalk.

00:17:24 You finally get to the docking port.

00:17:26 You look around and see the part of the station that needs fixing.

00:17:30 This is where other space shuttles dock when they come in from Earth or other planets.

00:17:36 About a week ago, a shuttle coming from Jupiter miscalculated the landing and broke a piece

00:17:40 of the port.

00:17:43 You've attached the new shield to your suit's belt.

00:17:45 Now all you've got to do is screw it on the station.

00:17:49 You've spent hours training underwater to do this.

00:17:52 You wore a heavy, hot, uncomfortable suit inside a pool in order to get the training

00:17:56 you needed.

00:17:58 "Incoming!"

00:18:00 Sarah shouts on the transmitter.

00:18:01 You don't even have time to ask what as an absurdly fast storm of space debris catches

00:18:05 you off guard.

00:18:07 It shakes everything around you.

00:18:09 You try to hold on tight to the strap that's keeping you safe, but oh no!

00:18:12 A piece of debris just hit your helmet shield.

00:18:15 "Come in, Bob!

00:18:16 Are you okay?"

00:18:18 Sarah asks you through the radio.

00:18:19 You got a bit shocked by the impact, but everything seems fine.

00:18:24 The meteorites are finally gone, so you can focus on your task now.

00:18:28 You pull the rope that's connecting the new docking shield closer to your body, but the

00:18:31 other part of the rope has nothing on it.

00:18:34 Zip.

00:18:35 Nada.

00:18:36 "Oh my," you think to yourself.

00:18:38 "Hmm, come in, Sarah.

00:18:39 We have a lost shield.

00:18:40 Repeat, we have a lost shield."

00:18:44 This is a pretty serious situation, and you are aware of it.

00:18:47 Anything that falls into space can go into a collision route with the International Space

00:18:51 Station or with other space vehicles.

00:18:54 You try to remember your training, but your mind goes blank.

00:18:57 This is worse than that one time you broke your girlfriend's favorite ceramic jar.

00:19:02 Sarah, the other astronaut who's with you on the ship, is shouting words on the transmitter.

00:19:06 "Oh no, Bob!

00:19:08 Tell me you didn't do this!

00:19:09 This is a total catastrophe!

00:19:11 I'm coming outside!"

00:19:13 You spot the shield under the ISS.

00:19:15 It's the size of a medium-sized car door, and it's moving quite fast.

00:19:21 Here's what can happen in this scenario.

00:19:23 The shield could head back down to Earth and break into the atmosphere.

00:19:26 It would probably catch fire and disintegrate on the way down, but anyways, it would make

00:19:30 NASA and you look pretty bad.

00:19:33 The other option is the car door-sized shield gains momentum, and it orbits all the way

00:19:38 to hit the ISS, and you for that matter, or some satellite that happens to be in a similar

00:19:44 orbit.

00:19:45 Here's the thing.

00:19:46 If you ever thought that space was an infinite void, you got that part wrong.

00:19:51 Since different countries started to build equipment strong enough to travel in space,

00:19:55 space has been more crowded than ever.

00:19:57 Not with people, but with satellites, asteroids, and space debris.

00:20:01 You were surprised when you learned that Earth receives meteorite showers every single day,

00:20:05 but they're so small that no one on the surface of the planet notices it.

00:20:09 They usually turn to ashes before hitting the ground, but that's not all.

00:20:14 What just happened to you on this mission has happened on several other missions before.

00:20:19 Astronauts keep losing stuff in outer space.

00:20:21 So much so that NASA had to create a division to track down and monitor the orbit of all

00:20:25 debris that is just floating carelessly around.

00:20:29 You couldn't believe it when someone told you that there are over 23,000 softball-sized

00:20:34 pieces of debris roaming around in space.

00:20:36 And if we're talking about smaller objects, then that number goes up to half a million.

00:20:41 As you were about to unstrap yourself and dangerously venture through outer space without

00:20:45 any protection, you noticed Sarah has beat you to it.

00:20:49 You can't let her do this alone, so you decide to tag along.

00:20:53 FYI, this is against every NASA handbook and training you ever received in your life.

00:20:59 But you think, "If this works in sci-fi movies, it must work for us."

00:21:04 Even though we all know that's very far from the truth.

00:21:08 Sarah is close to the debris shield, but her body weight makes her orbit in a completely

00:21:11 different direction.

00:21:13 "Okay," you think to yourself, "this is your turn to shine and be a hero."

00:21:18 You try moving your arms like you would do underwater, but there's no friction in space.

00:21:23 Duh.

00:21:24 You can't butterfly swim your way to rescue the rogue equipment.

00:21:27 You try to contact Sarah, but she doesn't come in.

00:21:30 I guess you're on your own now.

00:21:34 For some reason, you start to orbit in a similar route as the floating car door shield.

00:21:39 It must be the amount of stuff you've got strapped onto yourself.

00:21:42 Or maybe it was the breakfast burrito you had that morning.

00:21:45 You feel like you're George Clooney in the movie Gravity.

00:21:48 No, better yet, you feel like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

00:21:51 Yes, you're feeling as strong and powerful as a Jedi right now.

00:21:55 You keep your hands stretched before your body, hoping you'll gently collide with the

00:21:59 space debris.

00:22:00 And three, two, one, and the landing was successful.

00:22:04 Just joking, but yes, you manage to dock onto the debris.

00:22:07 Hooray.

00:22:08 Now what, you think?

00:22:10 Guess you needed to have gone through that plan of yours a little bit more, huh?

00:22:14 You still have no way of steering the debris.

00:22:17 And now, you have no way to contact mission control and tell them the object, and yourself,

00:22:22 are en route to somewhere.

00:22:25 Don't get scared.

00:22:26 You didn't come this far to get scared.

00:22:28 What's the best thing you can do?

00:22:30 First, take a mental picture of the Earth.

00:22:33 It never disappoints, from up here.

00:22:36 Then, you try to play out the possible scenarios that could happen in the situation ship you're

00:22:40 in.

00:22:42 Your normal body weight would not be enough to get you out of Earth's orbit.

00:22:45 In the hypothetical scenario in which this did happen, you'd probably be vacuumed into

00:22:49 Venus's orbit, and spend a quite unpleasant period of your life around immense heat.

00:22:55 Even though in Greek mythology, Venus represents love, there is nothing lovely about orbiting

00:22:59 close to this planet, and you know this.

00:23:03 If you got too close, your spacesuit would never be able to take on the heat.

00:23:07 It's only made to sustain temperatures of around 250 degrees Fahrenheit tops, and Venus's

00:23:12 atmosphere can heat up to 700 degrees Fahrenheit.

00:23:16 But honestly, the worst case scenario is much simpler than that.

00:23:20 Your spacesuit could decide to drown your ears, nose, and mouth in water.

00:23:23 Yep, this has happened on spacewalks before yours.

00:23:28 You see, in order to keep your spacesuit chill and cool, the suit relies on a gallon's worth

00:23:33 of water that makes up for a cooling system.

00:23:36 This system, which is supposed to send recycled air into the back of your helmet, does leak

00:23:41 sometimes.

00:23:42 And since you're stranded in the middle of the big nowhere, you'd have only that nowhere

00:23:46 to run.

00:23:47 But wait, what's that popping up on the horizon?

00:23:51 It's a modular space shuttle.

00:23:53 You try shouting, but nobody can hear you outside your helmet.

00:23:56 You wave with your hands, but it's coming straight at you.

00:24:01 "Finally, it took longer than I wished to find you," Sarah said.

00:24:06 Apparently, she made it back to the space station just in time to catch you before you

00:24:10 went definitely rogue.

00:24:12 "Guess I'll be losing some astronaut points for this little misadventure, huh?" you say.

00:24:17 And yes, you definitely will.

00:24:22 Now imagine a place where a single day lasts longer than a whole year.

00:24:26 On Venus, a day (meaning one full spin on its axis) is as long as 243 Earth days.

00:24:33 And what's even weirder, despite the fact that Venus is experiencing a never-ending

00:24:38 day, it has a shorter year than Earth.

00:24:40 While Earth takes about 365 days to complete one orbit around the Sun, Venus does it in

00:24:46 just 225 days.

00:24:49 So somehow, for Venus, a day is more epic than a whole year.

00:24:54 Venus is a strange planet in general.

00:24:56 It's called Earth's twin because of how alike we are, although it's a bit smaller

00:25:01 than Earth.

00:25:02 But there are some drastic differences too.

00:25:04 For example, it spins in the opposite direction, which means the Sun there rises in the west

00:25:10 and sets in the east.

00:25:11 And Venus isn't the only one who dances to its own rhythm.

00:25:15 Uranus does that too.

00:25:17 And finally, Venus is quite crazy in terms of its atmosphere.

00:25:21 When you stand on Earth, you don't really feel the weight of the air around you.

00:25:25 While on Venus, that feeling would be like having an elephant sitting on your shoulders.

00:25:30 Venus has 90 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth.

00:25:33 The atmosphere there is a thick layer of toxic gases.

00:25:37 For example, carbon dioxide that's released by all the volcanoes.

00:25:41 It presses down with incredible force.

00:25:44 This results in very hot temperatures.

00:25:46 No wonder it'll take a long time before we'll be able to stand on this planet.

00:25:52 Meanwhile, Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, has an even more speedy orbit than

00:25:57 Venus.

00:25:58 It completes a full journey around the Sun in just about 88 Earth days.

00:26:02 However, it has a slow spin on its axis, which means that one day on Mercury takes about

00:26:08 176 Earth days.

00:26:10 Basically, half a year.

00:26:12 Just like with Venus, a day there takes much longer than a year.

00:26:16 Since it's closest to the Sun, no wonder Mercury experiences some super-extreme temperature

00:26:21 swings.

00:26:23 Daytime temperatures can soar up to a scorching 800°F — hot enough to melt lead!

00:26:29 But wait for the sunset.

00:26:31 At night, it drops to freezing -290°F.

00:26:33 That's because Mercury doesn't have a thick atmosphere like we do, so the heat doesn't

00:26:40 distribute across the planet evenly.

00:26:42 If one side is in the dark, it'll be super cold, and the other side will be scorching

00:26:47 hot, just like if you let a regular big rock lie down under the Sun for a while.

00:26:52 In fact, it's so cold that there might even be some ice on it.

00:26:56 Look at the planet's north polar region, especially those sunlit yellow spots inside

00:27:01 craters.

00:27:02 These are indications of water ice.

00:27:05 Turns out, water is much more common in space than we thought.

00:27:09 Mars is often dubbed the "Red Planet."

00:27:12 It earns this nickname from the abundance of iron oxide, or rust, covering its surface.

00:27:17 The iron-rich minerals create a rusty red hue that paints the Martian landscape.

00:27:23 But it turns out, Mars isn't just red.

00:27:26 If you were standing on Mars, you'd witness desert-like butterscotch terrain with caramel

00:27:31 and golden glows, some brown, and even a glimpse of a slight greenish hue.

00:27:36 Mars also has the biggest mountain in the entire Solar System, Olympus Mons, standing

00:27:42 at a staggering height of about 13.6 miles tall.

00:27:46 It's even taller than Mount Everest.

00:27:48 It was formed by the volcanic eruption yielding low-viscosity lava, creating a shield-like

00:27:54 structure.

00:27:56 Since Mars is covered in sand, it's also famous for its crazy dust storms.

00:28:00 But it turns out, they're even more insane than we thought.

00:28:04 These storms can last for months.

00:28:06 While they might present challenges for future human missions, they also contribute to the

00:28:11 planet's mesmerizing appearance when observed from afar.

00:28:15 And not only storms, but even its own Mars quakes.

00:28:18 Also known as seismic tremors, they were first detected by NASA in 2019.

00:28:23 Unlike earthquakes, that are often triggered by tectonic plate movements, Martian quakes

00:28:28 are thought to result from the cooling and contracting of the planet's interior.

00:28:32 It's interesting how similar, yet how different the planets are.

00:28:37 Saturn's iconic rings might hold a secret link to Earth's ancient past.

00:28:42 The rings are composed mainly of ice particles and debris and are estimated to be relatively

00:28:47 young in space terms, perhaps just a few hundred million years old.

00:28:52 There are some theories that propose that they were born after some catastrophic event.

00:28:57 For example, the collision of two large moons or the breakup of a comet.

00:29:01 What's interesting is that this timeline coincides with the age of the dinosaur's

00:29:06 demise on Earth.

00:29:08 Could there be a connection?

00:29:10 Who knows?

00:29:11 By the way, while Saturn takes the crown for its rings, it's not the only planet in our

00:29:15 solar system sporting them.

00:29:17 Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all have their own set of rings, although they might not

00:29:23 be as visible and cool as Saturn's.

00:29:26 However, there's something where Saturn truly stands out – the magnificent hexagon

00:29:31 at its north pole.

00:29:32 It's a colossal six-sided figure.

00:29:35 Each side of this incredible structure measures around 9,000 miles long, which is 1,200 miles

00:29:41 longer than the Earth's diameter.

00:29:44 Scientists aren't sure how it was formed or why.

00:29:46 They think it might be due to varying wind speeds.

00:29:49 Or maybe it's shaped by a localized, slow, meandering jet stream.

00:29:54 So far, it remains another of Saturn's mysteries.

00:29:59 Much like Saturn's hexagon, Jupiter also has its own weird spot.

00:30:03 It's called the Great Red Spot.

00:30:06 This is a storm that's been raging for at least 350 years and is larger than Earth itself.

00:30:13 Despite its name, the spot's coloration has varied over the years, ranging from brick

00:30:17 red to pale salmon.

00:30:20 Scientists continue to study this enduring storm, unlocking the mysteries of its persistence

00:30:25 and ever-changing hues.

00:30:27 Meteorologically, the Great Red Spot is a powerhouse.

00:30:30 It generates enormous pressure in Jupiter's southern hemisphere.

00:30:34 Meanwhile, Jupiter itself is a powerhouse when it comes to magnetic fields.

00:30:39 Its magnetic influence is colossal.

00:30:42 It extends far beyond the planet itself and creates one of the largest and strongest magnetic

00:30:47 fields in our Solar System.

00:30:49 Because of that, Jupiter is a source of intense radiation and mesmerizing auroras.

00:30:55 While Earth's northern lights are breathtaking, Jupiter has something to offer too.

00:31:00 The magnetic field interacts with charged particles from Jupiter's moons and the solar

00:31:05 wind.

00:31:06 This creates visually striking auroras near its poles.

00:31:09 But compared to Earth, the scale of these auroras is incredible, like nothing we've

00:31:14 seen on our planet.

00:31:17 But even having a cool big spot isn't a unique feature in our Solar System.

00:31:22 A stormy giant Neptune, the 8th and farthest planet from the Sun, also has its great dark

00:31:28 spot.

00:31:29 Just like Jupiter, it's a massive vortex in Neptune's atmosphere.

00:31:33 But unlike its Jupiter counterpart, this spot tends to calm and gull because of Neptune's

00:31:38 dynamic and ever-changing weather patterns.

00:31:41 Neptune, together with Uranus, is known as an ice giant.

00:31:45 And just like other giants, it boasts some of the most ferocious winds in our Solar System.

00:31:51 Its supersonic winds can get faster than 2,200 mph.

00:31:55 What a drama queen!

00:31:57 But this explains its thick cloud formations.

00:32:00 By the way, if you ever dreamed of a planet raining diamonds, you might want to visit

00:32:04 this planet.

00:32:06 Deep within Neptune's atmosphere, where pressures are extreme, scientists theorized

00:32:11 that carbon atoms are compressed and form diamonds.

00:32:14 And then, these diamonds might be raining down!

00:32:17 What a unique touch to stormy weather!

00:32:19 Neptune's moons got from their parent with the weird weather.

00:32:23 For example, its largest moon, Triton, has a touch of cryovolcanism.

00:32:28 Instead of spewing molten rock like Earth's volcanoes, Triton's cryovolcanoes erupt

00:32:34 with a mix of water, ammonia, and nitrogen.

00:32:37 Picture it as icy geysers shooting material into space.

00:32:41 Seems like, in our Solar System alone, each planet has its own quirks and interesting

00:32:46 qualities.

00:32:47 Let's hope that we discover some more interesting things in outer space in the future!

00:32:54 Jupiter used to be flat and look like an M&M candy.

00:32:57 Now I'm hungry.

00:32:58 And it wasn't the only flat pattern in our Solar System.

00:33:02 Turns out, there are tons of things that can go wrong during a planet's formation.

00:33:06 Like locking up to the Sun or getting whooshed into open space.

00:33:10 Let's check it out!

00:33:11 The Earth isn't flat, but Jupiter might've been.

00:33:15 Instead of being a big round ball, gas giants in our system might've started more like

00:33:20 flat pancakes.

00:33:22 Jupiter is one of the oldest of our neighbors.

00:33:24 It's 4.6 billion years old, just like our Sun.

00:33:28 And when it was just a baby planet, it likely formed through a process called disk instability.

00:33:35 It all begins with stars.

00:33:38 When a star is forming, it doesn't look like a round object.

00:33:42 It's more like a big disk of stuff.

00:33:45 During this stage, really hot winds made of charged particles blow out.

00:33:49 The dust in that disk contains stuff like carbon and iron.

00:33:53 Some of them collide and stick together, forming bigger objects.

00:33:58 Dust turns into pebbles, pebbles turn into rocks, and rocks bump into each other, getting

00:34:02 bigger.

00:34:04 Dust in the disks helps all these solid bits stick together.

00:34:08 Some break apart, but others stick around, and they're the ones that become the basic

00:34:12 pieces of planets.

00:34:13 They're called planetesimals.

00:34:17 Even gas giants like Jupiter started off as tiny specks of dust, smaller than a human

00:34:22 hair.

00:34:23 Eventually, they formed their own big ring-shaped disks of gas.

00:34:26 They began to spin around our Sun, growing bigger by gathering gas and rocks like snowballs.

00:34:33 Gas giants are special.

00:34:37 They were born from the colder parts of the disk.

00:34:40 In cold areas, molecules are slower, which makes them easier to grab.

00:34:45 In these places, water could freeze, and tiny ice pieces stick together and are mixed with

00:34:50 dust.

00:34:51 These dirty snowballs gather up and then form cores of huge planets, like Jupiter, Saturn,

00:34:57 Uranus, and Neptune.

00:35:00 In the warmer areas closer to the star, rocky planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars

00:35:05 start to form.

00:35:07 After the icy giants were born, there wasn't much gas left for these smaller planets.

00:35:11 It might take tens of millions of years for these rocky planets to form after the stars

00:35:16 born.

00:35:17 And our Sun was growing at the same time, sucking up nearby gas and pushing faraway

00:35:22 stuff even farther out.

00:35:25 After billions of years, the disks change completely, turning into a round star with

00:35:29 a bunch of planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, moons, meteoroids, and comets around it.

00:35:36 Recently, simulations showed that these protoplanets, as these early dustballs are called, don't

00:35:44 start off looking like the planets we know.

00:35:46 In the case of gas giants like Jupiter, they look more like squashed balls or M&M's candies,

00:35:52 not the peanut kind.

00:35:54 When the Sun was young, the disk of gas and dust surrounding it cooled down and became

00:35:59 unstable.

00:36:00 It started breaking into big chunks.

00:36:03 These chunks dramatically collapsed together under huge gravity to create Jupiter.

00:36:08 It became a round gas giant over time.

00:36:11 There are a lot of oddities that can happen during that process of planet formation.

00:36:16 Ever wonder why Venus or Uranus spin in the opposite way compared to other planets?

00:36:21 Usually, when things form from a spinning disk of gas, they tend to spin in the same

00:36:26 direction.

00:36:27 For example, if you spin a bunch of balls on a string, they all twirl in the same way.

00:36:33 So, theoretically, all planets should spin in the same direction too.

00:36:38 But there are a lot of fast-moving objects like comets and asteroids in our Solar System.

00:36:43 When they smash into planets, especially during their early days, this collision might send

00:36:49 the planets to spin in the opposite direction.

00:36:52 Venus and Uranus probably survived a massive collision.

00:36:55 Luckily, they weren't repelled to outer space.

00:36:58 The gravity from the Sun and nearby planets pulled them back into place.

00:37:05 There are also so-called tidally locked planets.

00:37:08 These are celestial bodies that spin in a way where one side always faces their star

00:37:13 while the other side remains in perpetual darkness.

00:37:17 So one side is always very hot while the other is extremely cold.

00:37:22 If we were on a planet like that, we would only be able to live on a thin line in between.

00:37:28 These planets form when they're very close to their star.

00:37:31 The gravitational forces are extremely strong, and over time, these forces slow down the

00:37:36 planet's rotation until it matches the time it takes to orbit the star.

00:37:41 Imagine you're spinning in your chair.

00:37:44 Someone comes up to you and, holding onto your chair with their hands, starts spinning

00:37:48 with you.

00:37:49 This way, you'll always face each other.

00:37:52 Tidally locked planets kind of work like that.

00:37:55 Our Moon is tidally locked to our Earth, which is why we only see one side of it.

00:38:01 We've discovered more than 5,000 planets outside of our Solar System called exoplanets.

00:38:07 Some of them have very strange orbits.

00:38:09 For example, planets with incredibly long orbits – thousands of years to make one

00:38:14 trip around the star.

00:38:16 Or very wonky, comet-like orbits.

00:38:19 Or so-called "hot Jupiters."

00:38:20 They're super close to their star, way closer than Mercury is to our Sun.

00:38:25 But these planets couldn't have formed where they are now.

00:38:28 As their Solar System evolved, they changed their positions for some reason.

00:38:33 This rearranging is called planetary migration.

00:38:38 There are three main ways this migration happens.

00:38:41 First, because of the gas and dust spinning around the planet.

00:38:45 When a planet is bumping into this stuff, it can create spiral patterns in the gas.

00:38:50 These patterns can either push the planet closer to the center or farther away, depending

00:38:55 on how they mix together.

00:38:57 It's called a gas-driven migration.

00:39:00 This is what Jupiter experienced when it moved closer to the Sun billions of years ago.

00:39:04 I wasn't around then.

00:39:06 This also explains the existence of hot Jupiters.

00:39:09 Second, big planets can shove the smaller ones, changing their paths.

00:39:14 Third, the star's gravity can tug on the planet, making its orbit more circular.

00:39:21 Ever heard of rogue planets?

00:39:24 Imagine a lonely planet floating in the vastness of space without a star to call home.

00:39:29 They're like the wandering nomads of our galaxy, doomed to drift around forever.

00:39:34 But there are so many of them, there might be more free-floating planets than ones that

00:39:38 are tied to stars.

00:39:40 We're talking trillions of rogue planets hanging out in our Milky Way galaxy alone.

00:39:45 They're often as massive as our biggest planet, Jupiter.

00:39:48 But most of them might be Earth-sized.

00:39:51 Some might even have thick atmospheres that keep them warm, even though they're far

00:39:55 from any star.

00:39:56 Some of them might have wild auroras, while others could host moons with liquid water,

00:40:01 a potential haven for life.

00:40:03 There's even a chance that they might contain extraterrestrial life.

00:40:08 These planets might bump into other stars or even entire planetary systems as they journey

00:40:13 through space.

00:40:15 Sometimes they might get caught in a star's gravity for a while before getting flung back

00:40:19 out into space.

00:40:21 But how are they born?

00:40:23 Sometimes during this chaotic process of planet formation, not all planets can manage to stay

00:40:29 close to their parent stars.

00:40:31 Some of them get kicked out of their solar systems due to powerful gravitational interactions

00:40:35 with other planets or passing stars.

00:40:38 These ejected planets become rogue planets.

00:40:43 In 2012, astronomers found a solar system from the very beginning of the Universe.

00:40:49 This system included a star and two planets.

00:40:52 We called it a fossil system.

00:40:54 The star is super old, about 13 billion years, almost as old as our entire Universe.

00:41:00 It was mostly made of just hydrogen and helium.

00:41:03 This is unusual because planets usually form from clouds of gas that contain heavier stuff.

00:41:09 That's when we figured out that the way planets formed before was different from how they

00:41:14 form now.

00:41:16 We know that stars with more metals are more likely to have planets.

00:41:20 In astronomy lingo, "metals" means any chemical element other than hydrogen and helium.

00:41:26 But in the early Universe, there weren't many metals.

00:41:29 Most of them were created inside stars and then spread out into space when those stars

00:41:34 blew up.

00:41:35 So when did the very first planets form?

00:41:39 This newly discovered system helps answer these questions.

00:41:42 Its two giant planets are orbiting a star that's incredibly low in metals and extremely

00:41:47 old.

00:41:48 This should be really rare, if not impossible, but they exist.

00:41:53 This means that maybe there are more planets in metal-poor systems than we thought.

00:41:58 Seeing them will help us learn more about the history of planet formation.

00:42:05 Scientists were looking at a list of gas clouds when they saw something strange.

00:42:08 Five groups of blue stars that are not quite a galaxy and not a known type of star cluster

00:42:13 either.

00:42:14 These groups of stars are called blue blobs and they're located in the Virgo galaxy cluster.

00:42:20 Now the big question is, how did these blue blobs form if they don't have any nearby parent

00:42:25 galaxy where they could form?

00:42:28 Scientists realized there are some heavy metals present in these blobs.

00:42:33 Generally, when stars are born, they create heavy elements called metals.

00:42:39 These metals are essential building blocks for new stars.

00:42:42 In big galaxies, many stars form over time and as a result, more metals get created too.

00:42:48 These heavy metals in the blue blobs were a clue that the stars in these blobs were

00:42:51 formed from gas that was stripped from a larger galaxy.

00:42:56 Think of it as a piñata.

00:42:58 The candy is the gas and the piñata is this bigger galaxy.

00:43:01 The blue blobs are the leftover candy that was scattered around.

00:43:05 Wow, didn't expect to get hungry while talking about stars.

00:43:10 How did the gas get stripped away from the bigger galaxy anyway?

00:43:13 There are two ways.

00:43:15 When galaxies pass by each other, their gravitational attraction can cause gas to be pulled away

00:43:19 from one galaxy and into the other.

00:43:22 This is called tidal stripping and it's the first way these blobs can happen.

00:43:26 It's like when two magnets attract and pull metal objects toward each other.

00:43:32 Another way is ram pressure.

00:43:34 This happens when a galaxy moves through a cluster of hot gas at a pretty high speed.

00:43:39 The gas in the cluster can push against the gas in the galaxy and force it out back, similar

00:43:44 to a car pushing air out of the way as it drives.

00:43:47 And you lose your hat in a strong wind.

00:43:51 As time goes by, these stars and the blue blobs will keep on moving apart.

00:43:56 Eventually, they will form smaller clusters.

00:44:01 Have you ever seen pictures of Earth taken from space?

00:44:03 They're amazing.

00:44:05 But have you seen the one with two blue blobs of light?

00:44:09 The first blob of light you see here is a large lightning strike in the Gulf of Thailand.

00:44:14 It's rare to see lightning from space because of all the clouds.

00:44:18 But this one was so huge it lit up the clouds around it like some kind of a brilliant ring.

00:44:24 How cool is that?

00:44:27 The second blue blob of light is a bit different.

00:44:30 We're looking at the reflection of the moon's light on our home planet.

00:44:35 The moon actually reflects the light coming from the sun onto the Earth.

00:44:39 And when that light goes through the Earth's atmosphere, it creates a big blue blob with

00:44:43 a fuzzy outline.

00:44:44 It's like a shiny blue hat our planet is wearing.

00:44:49 It's similar to the reason why the sky is blue during the day.

00:44:52 When sunlight enters Earth's atmosphere, gases and particles in the air scatter it in all

00:44:57 directions.

00:44:59 Blue light has the shortest and smallest waves, so it gets scattered the most.

00:45:04 And that's why we get to enjoy a beautiful view of a clear blue sky.

00:45:08 The same thing actually happens to the light coming from the moon.

00:45:12 When it reflects off the Earth and goes through the atmosphere, the blue light waves get scattered

00:45:17 the most, making the moon appear blue in the photo.

00:45:22 Speaking of unusual stars, there's one in the Centaurus constellation called Lucy.

00:45:27 It looks like a tiny white dwarf, but it's actually very dense.

00:45:30 There's a mass of the entire sun squeezed into an object only a third of the size of

00:45:34 our home planet.

00:45:36 That's like stuffing a whole watermelon into a golf ball.

00:45:40 Lucy is also incredibly cool.

00:45:42 Its core temperature is almost 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

00:45:46 This may sound hot at first, but for comparison, our sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

00:45:53 And the best part that makes Lucy so special is the diamond at its heart.

00:45:58 Its carbon core has crystallized into a massive diamond that's 10 billion trillion trillion

00:46:03 carats in size.

00:46:05 It's hard to even imagine how big it is.

00:46:10 Astronomers found out about this awesome diamond by listening to the star's vibrations, which

00:46:14 is like a star's heartbeat.

00:46:16 And after they discovered Lucy, scientists found some other stars with crystallized cores

00:46:22 and massive diamonds the size of Earth too.

00:46:26 Our universe is like a giant jewelry store.

00:46:32 Most of the astronomers from the Northern Hemisphere are familiar with the star named

00:46:35 Vega.

00:46:36 First, it's brighter than expected, but if you could take a look at it from a different

00:46:41 angle, you'd see this star is actually squashed.

00:46:45 It has a specific oblong shape because it rotates at a high rate.

00:46:49 It spins once every 12 and a half hours, which throws the material out around its equator.

00:46:56 This material then cools and darkens and forms a dark mysterious halo around Vega.

00:47:04 When stars reach the end of their lives, they often explode in a dazzling supernova, getting

00:47:09 brighter and brighter before they finally fade away.

00:47:13 But one supernova, IPAFT-14Ls, decided not to obey the rules.

00:47:19 It started to fade away like most other stars, but then, when everyone expected it to be

00:47:24 gone, it suddenly came back to life and brightened up again.

00:47:28 And not just once, it kept fading and brightening at least five times in a row.

00:47:34 Scientists were so surprised to see this.

00:47:37 When they measured the light from the supernova, they found it was evolving 10 times slower

00:47:41 than other stars.

00:47:43 It was aging way more slowly too.

00:47:45 When it looked 60 days old, it was actually 600 days old.

00:47:50 It could be even older, because scientists had recorded another supernova in the same

00:47:54 spot almost 70 years ago.

00:47:57 There are some theories as to how it could have happened.

00:48:00 Maybe the supernova was bumping into some surrounding material and then making it glow.

00:48:04 Or maybe it was a giant star that was shedding material all the time to prevent, or at least

00:48:09 postpone, its own collapse.

00:48:13 At first, it may seem like you're looking at a simple variable star here, my Camelopardalis.

00:48:19 But when astronomers looked more closely, they realized it was a pair of stars.

00:48:25 The two stars are moving around each other at really high speeds, and their atmospheres

00:48:30 are starting to mix because they are so close.

00:48:33 People believe this example is the start of a union between two stars.

00:48:37 In the end, the two celestial bodies, which already weigh 32 and 38 solar masses each,

00:48:43 will join together to make a gigantic one with more than 60 solar masses.

00:48:49 Scientists have thought for a long time that this is how super big stars form.

00:48:53 They have never really seen it happen.

00:48:57 The universe is 13.8 billion years old, and from what we can see, one mysterious star,

00:49:04 HD 1140283, could be 14.4 billion years old.

00:49:09 Hmm, something's not right here.

00:49:12 This star has all the chemical signs of a second generation star, which is a star that

00:49:17 formed from gas and dust after the first generation of stars exploded.

00:49:22 This star, sometimes called Methuselah's star, is 190 light years away.

00:49:29 Its brightness, distance, and composition help us figure out how old it is, at least

00:49:34 13.2 billion years old, while the age of 14.4 billion years is probably put there as a potential

00:49:42 range.

00:49:43 Even if it's younger than the universe, or is it, it's still by far the oldest star near

00:49:48 us.

00:49:51 Let's not forget the one with a tail either.

00:49:54 It's called Mira.

00:49:55 Sometimes it's bright, and other times it's faint, making it a bit of a tricky one to

00:49:59 spot in its constellation.

00:50:03 Sometimes it's one of the brightest stars up there, while other times it is one of the

00:50:06 fainter ones in its constellation.

00:50:10 It's the system with two stars, a red giant and a white dwarf.

00:50:15 The red giant used to be like our own sun, but now, as it's closer to its end, it's shedding

00:50:21 its outer layers into space.

00:50:24 And Mira has a comet-like tail too.

00:50:26 As the red giant sheds its outer layers, it creates a stream of gas and dust that follows

00:50:31 the stars as they move through space.

00:50:36 See this?

00:50:37 You're looking at the best full portrait of the sun by far.

00:50:40 Thankfully, our 4.5 billion year old parent star didn't use any makeup to fix its skin

00:50:45 tone before this photoshoot.

00:50:47 And now we can study its surface in great detail.

00:50:51 This iconic image was taken in March 2022.

00:50:54 NASA wanted to gain a better understanding of solar behavior and its impact on life on

00:50:59 Earth, and the future of our space technologies, of course.

00:51:02 To do so, they launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory Satellite, or SDO, mission in

00:51:08 February 2010.

00:51:10 This legendary photoshoot happened 12 years later, when SDO was halfway between the Earth

00:51:16 and the Sun.

00:51:17 It had to assemble 25 individual images like a puzzle.

00:51:21 So the final image contains 83 million pixels.

00:51:25 Yeah, the resolution is about 10 times better than your fancy 4K TV screen.

00:51:32 Look at this amazing cookie-like pattern.

00:51:34 Typically, the bright surface of the Sun overshadows it when we observe the star from Earth.

00:51:39 Thankfully, NASA explored the light beyond the visible range, which allowed them to discover

00:51:44 some invisible details of the Sun's face.

00:51:47 When you adjust your selfie with filters and effects, you can end up with completely different

00:51:51 portraits, highlighting different spots of your face.

00:51:55 Even those you didn't know existed!

00:51:57 The same principle works here.

00:51:59 All these plasma balls are the same photo of the Sun captured at different electromagnetic

00:52:04 wavelengths.

00:52:05 The revealed spots and patterns can help us understand events happening inside the Sun's

00:52:10 skin a little better.

00:52:13 At the speed of light is supposed to mean super quick.

00:52:16 But this rose-gold ray caressing your cheek at dawn has come a long way and is incredibly

00:52:22 old in human terms.

00:52:24 Photons generated by the Sun's core take between 10,000 to 170,000 years to travel

00:52:30 through the star's atmosphere, and then around 8 minutes more to reach Earth.

00:52:35 So let's explore what's taking them so long.

00:52:39 Our tour begins with the upper layer of the Sun's atmosphere.

00:52:42 Remember solar deities in movies and theater plays?

00:52:45 They often wear luxurious crowns with golden rays.

00:52:49 Well, the real Sun does wear a fancy corona too, which is the outer layer of its atmosphere.

00:52:54 But of course, its size and glory are incomparable with those plastic costume crowns, and its

00:53:00 shape is not so stable.

00:53:02 Corona is a gas shell enveloping our parent star, so its size and form constantly fluctuate

00:53:08 under the influence of the Sun's magnetic field.

00:53:11 You can spot this crown with the naked eye from Earth during total solar eclipses.

00:53:16 It looks like a beautiful intense radiation around the solar disk, which itself is completely

00:53:21 blocked by the Moon.

00:53:23 The corona stretches 5 million miles above the Sun's surface, whereas our blue planet

00:53:28 is only about 8,000 miles in diameter.

00:53:31 So one hypothetical ray of the corona equals a row of about 625,000 Earth-sized planets.

00:53:39 And suddenly all my problems begin to seem tiny.

00:53:43 Here's another fun fact.

00:53:45 The Sun's corona kind of breaks the laws of known physics because it's hotter than

00:53:49 it should be.

00:53:50 Its temperature reaches 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, whereas the surface of the Sun

00:53:54 is only about 9,000 degrees.

00:53:57 Although the word "only" doesn't fit here, because it's still super warm in

00:54:00 human terms.

00:54:02 Usually, temperature tends to fall as you move farther from a heat source, but it's

00:54:06 not the case here.

00:54:07 Many scientists are still scratching their heads trying to investigate this mystery.

00:54:12 Thankfully, the recent photo shoot allows us to explore what's going on inside this

00:54:16 massive hot stuff without risking losing our sight.

00:54:20 Take these beautiful bright spots, for example.

00:54:23 They depict solar flares happening under the corona layer.

00:54:27 Solar flares are powerful explosions that happen when magnetic fields bump into each

00:54:31 other.

00:54:32 When it happens, they change shape and quickly reorganize.

00:54:35 These fields arise from plasma, which is very turbulent itself, so these events are no surprise

00:54:41 for the local weather.

00:54:43 Who would've thought that the Sun has dark spots on its skin, just like people?

00:54:48 These darker areas are known as coronal holes.

00:54:51 Earthlings can experience their impact when they observe the beautiful auroral lights

00:54:55 in the polar regions.

00:54:57 Coronal holes look darker because plasma in these spots is cooler, less dense, and magnetically

00:55:03 open.

00:55:04 These conditions allow the solar winds to escape outward across the solar system rather

00:55:08 than hang out at the Sun's surface.

00:55:11 And when they bump into the Earth's magnetosphere, auroras emerge to fascinate our eyes.

00:55:16 Thankfully, the local fields cool down the solar winds.

00:55:19 Nobody wants their eyes to melt, right?

00:55:23 If we were looking for an analogy to the Sun's hairs, the best candidate would be solar prominences.

00:55:29 These large bright plasma loops arise from the Sun's surface and stretch for thousands

00:55:33 of miles into space.

00:55:35 Their lifespan varies from days to several months.

00:55:38 It's one of the most common events in this region.

00:55:41 Although the first detailed description of solar prominence dates to the 14th century,

00:55:46 modern scientists are still researching how and why they're formed.

00:55:51 Diving further inwards, we're facing the transition region.

00:55:54 The thickness of this layer is about 62 miles, and the local weather is unthinkable.

00:56:00 Temperatures can rise up to 900,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

00:56:04 The transition layer sits between the corona and the last region of the Sun's atmosphere,

00:56:09 called the chromosphere.

00:56:11 Speaking of which, welcome to our next stop.

00:56:14 The chromosphere region is famous for a scientific mystery called a spicule.

00:56:18 Come on, say it with me, spicule.

00:56:21 That's fun.

00:56:22 These spectacular grassy-like jets of plasma fire upwards from the surface of the Sun and

00:56:27 reach speeds of approximately 224 miles per second, as if they're jumping on a trampoline

00:56:33 from the surface of the Sun.

00:56:35 Each spicule lasts for just a few minutes in outer space before falling back into the

00:56:40 solar atmosphere.

00:56:42 Astronauts were having a challenging time trying to explain how magnetically charged

00:56:46 particles could manage to escape the massive gravity of the Sun while being so close to

00:56:51 it.

00:56:52 The possible answer emerged in 2017.

00:56:54 A group of scientists discovered that neutral particles provided the magnetically charged

00:56:59 particles with extra buoyancy to escape the solar gravity for a while.

00:57:03 Which is better than my cousin's explanation, which is "happy thoughts and pixie dust."

00:57:08 Yeah.

00:57:09 Now let's go ahead and travel 1,000 miles inward toward the chromosphere to finally

00:57:14 reach the solar surface, the photosphere.

00:57:17 It's around 248 miles thick, but unlike planet Earth, the Sun's surface is not solid

00:57:23 or stable at all.

00:57:25 The temperatures here are insanely hot for any matter to exist.

00:57:29 On the other hand, scientists often call plasma the fourth state of matter.

00:57:33 And why not?

00:57:34 It's made of ionized atoms and free electrons, so it kind of deserves to matter.

00:57:39 So what's the matter?

00:57:41 Maybe someday we'll happen to meet the local civilization of plasmoid people, but I think

00:57:47 it's best that we skip their welcoming warm hugs.

00:57:50 You know, hot hot hot.

00:57:52 Anyway, the photosphere is our final stop because humankind doesn't have the technology

00:57:57 to explore the Sun any deeper.

00:57:59 So if you want to learn more, you'll have to invent your own spacecraft.

00:58:03 But time's a-wastin'.

00:58:04 You'll only have about 7-8 billion years.

00:58:08 After that, our Sun will fade away, according to scientists' estimates.

00:58:12 Actually, those same scientists will be going first.

00:58:18 Now you have a serious competitor, though.

00:58:21 NASA's Parker Solar Probe is the current champion for the deepest dive into the Sun.

00:58:26 The spacecraft managed to travel 4.5 million miles from the Sun's surface toward its

00:58:30 core on September 27, 2023.

00:58:34 And then the Parker Probe repeated its own record once again in December of the same

00:58:39 year.

00:58:40 So why didn't it melt, I hear you asking?

00:58:43 The probe has been designed to withstand insanely intense conditions and temperature fluctuations.

00:58:48 It's equipped with a custom heat shield and an autonomous system protecting the mission

00:58:52 from the massive solar lights.

00:58:55 NASA has further ambitious plans.

00:58:57 In December 2024, Parker will make its closest approach to the Sun.

00:59:02 It will travel faster than any man-made object has ever traveled, at the speed of 435,000

00:59:09 miles per hour.

00:59:10 The probe will be just 3.8 million miles away from the Sun's glowing hot surface.

00:59:15 It's like landing on a star.

00:59:17 Astronomers have already compared this epic upcoming milestone with the Moon landing.

00:59:22 I'm thinking, however, it might be safer if we, you know, landed at night.

00:59:27 Yeah, you're right, that's an old joke.

00:59:29 Have you heard about a diamond star that could put all the riches on Earth to shame?

00:59:35 Or how about twinkling stars with surfaces made of solid iron?

00:59:39 So let's take a look at these weird stars and try to unravel their mysteries.

00:59:46 Here's a star in the Centaurus constellation that was nicknamed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

00:59:52 Yes, it was named after a Beatles song, because it basically is a Beatles song.

00:59:57 You see, the star was discovered to have a massive diamond at its core.

01:00:03 Now, you may be wondering how big this diamond really is.

01:00:08 Well, it's estimated to be about 10 billion trillion trillion carats.

01:00:14 A one followed by 34 zeros.

01:00:18 To put that into perspective, the Hope Diamond, which is one of the largest diamonds on Earth,

01:00:23 is a measly 45.5 carats in comparison.

01:00:27 Can you imagine the size of the ring you could make with this star diamond?

01:00:31 And it's about the same mass as our Sun.

01:00:36 But don't get too excited about the prospect of owning this diamond just yet.

01:00:41 Even if you were Jeff Bezos, you wouldn't be able to afford it.

01:00:45 According to Ronald Winston, CEO of Harry Winston Inc., the diamond is so big that it

01:00:50 would likely depress the value of the market.

01:00:54 So you'd have to settle for a much smaller diamond engagement ring.

01:01:00 One interesting thing about the "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" star is that it's incredibly

01:01:05 dense.

01:01:06 In fact, it has the mass of the Sun crammed into an object only a third the diameter of

01:01:11 Earth.

01:01:12 That's like trying to fit an elephant into a shoebox.

01:01:15 And yet, despite its massive size, it's actually quite cool, with a core temperature of only

01:01:22 about 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

01:01:25 By comparison, the core temperature of our Sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

01:01:33 Since the discovery of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," several other crystallized stars

01:01:38 have been found, some with diamond hearts the size of Earth.

01:01:42 It just goes to show that the universe is full of surprises, and you never know what

01:01:47 kind of treasures you might find out there in the vast expanse of space.

01:01:53 And this isn't the only weird star we've discovered so far.

01:01:57 There are many strange, unexplained things in outer space.

01:02:03 For example, let's take Vega.

01:02:06 Vega, also known as Alpha Lyrae, is a bright star located in the constellation Lyra.

01:02:12 It's one of the brightest stars in the night sky, and is easily visible to the naked eye

01:02:17 from most parts of the world.

01:02:20 Now, Vega may look like a beautiful, bright star to us Northern Hemisphere folks, but

01:02:26 little do we know, it's hiding a secret.

01:02:29 It's actually quite squashed.

01:02:33 You see, Vega's high spin rate causes it to bulge at the equator, kind of like a cosmic

01:02:39 belly.

01:02:40 It rotates once every 12.5 hours, which is pretty fast for a star, and it throws material

01:02:46 out around its waistline.

01:02:49 It's almost like the star is hula-hooping.

01:02:52 This material is further from the center of the star, so it experiences less gravity,

01:02:57 causing it to cool and darken, leading to a gravity darkening effect.

01:03:04 So Vega is basically a cosmic fitness guru's worst nightmare.

01:03:09 Although for us stargazers, it still looks round because we're looking at it from Earth's

01:03:14 whole end.

01:03:16 However, if we saw it from a different angle, we'd get a very different view.

01:03:21 One that might make us wonder if Vega has been sneaking some cosmic doughnuts behind

01:03:25 our backs.

01:03:28 But while we might joke about its equatorial waistline, there's no denying that Vega is

01:03:34 still one of the brightest and most fascinating stars in our galaxy.

01:03:40 But if you want something actually bright, then how about a supernova?

01:03:48 Supernovas are giant space booms that occur when stars reach the end of their life cycle.

01:03:54 Just like the grand finale of a firework show, but on a cosmic scale.

01:03:58 They release more energy in a few seconds than our sun will produce in its entire lifetime.

01:04:07 And this is exactly what happened to the next star of our show.

01:04:11 This celestial object with a weird name, IPFT-14HLS.

01:04:17 But there's a catch.

01:04:19 It isn't your average supernova.

01:04:21 Even though this star made a blast in 2014 and started to fade away like usual, recently

01:04:28 it made an unexpected comeback and brightened once more.

01:04:32 Talk about a dramatic entrance.

01:04:36 And if that wasn't enough, this thing continued to fade and brighten at least five times in

01:04:41 total, which is a bit like a yo-yo.

01:04:44 It's like the star just couldn't make up its mind about whether it wanted to stay bright

01:04:48 or fade away into the abyss.

01:04:51 Also, when scientists measured the supernova's spectrum, they found that it was evolving

01:04:58 ten times slower than other stars.

01:05:01 Maybe it's a supernova that just wants to enjoy its golden years.

01:05:07 All in all, this object is a real mystery.

01:05:13 But this is not the only star suffering from the "two-in-one" syndrome.

01:05:18 At first glance, MY Camelopardalis appears to be a fairly common star.

01:05:23 But after a closer look, astronomers concluded it was actually two stars in one.

01:05:31 These two stars are orbiting each other at over 600,000 miles per hour.

01:05:36 It's a contact binary star system, which means that the stars are so close together that

01:05:42 they share a common envelope.

01:05:44 In other words, they're so close to each other that they're practically smooching.

01:05:51 These celestial Romeo and Juliet are one of the most massive known binary stars out there.

01:05:57 Each of them individually weighs in at a whopping 32 and 38 solar masses, respectively.

01:06:06 Astronomers also think that they might be on the brink of a stellar merger, which means

01:06:10 that one day they might just combine into one giant superstar.

01:06:15 Wow, who knew space could be so romantic?

01:06:20 Next, introducing another long name, HD 140283, also known as Methuselah's Star.

01:06:30 This little guy in the constellation Libra has been around for a while.

01:06:34 And by a while, I mean a really long time.

01:06:37 Actually, scientists used to think it was older than the universe itself.

01:06:45 Just imagine if it turned out to be true.

01:06:47 But eventually, they figured out that it's actually around 14.8 billion years old, a

01:06:53 peer of our universe.

01:06:55 That's still pretty impressive, though.

01:06:57 This star is so old, it remembers when the Milky Way was just a baby galaxy.

01:07:05 But despite all that, this star still has some life left in it.

01:07:10 It's just starting to expand into a red giant, which is kind of like when you hit your 30s.

01:07:15 Talk about aging well.

01:07:19 But if all these things are somewhat comprehensible, then how about a star that was literally named

01:07:24 WTF Star by scientists?

01:07:27 No, I'm not kidding.

01:07:29 At least it used to be.

01:07:31 Now, it's called Tabby's Star.

01:07:34 It also has a more scientific name, but that one is a bit of a mouthful.

01:07:41 But what's really bizarre about this star is its irregular dimming.

01:07:44 For some reason, it doesn't glow like a normal star, but blinks, as if someone turned on

01:07:50 and off a flashlight.

01:07:52 And it's not just a little dip.

01:07:54 We're talking up to a 22% drop in light.

01:07:58 So it's not because it sometimes gets blocked by a planet or something.

01:08:04 Scientists have come up with all sorts of explanations for this strange behavior, from

01:08:08 comets to dust to even an extraterrestrial megastructure.

01:08:13 That's right.

01:08:14 But before your imagination runs too wild, it's important to note that the most likely

01:08:19 explanation is just plain old dust.

01:08:22 Perhaps the star is surrounded by some kind of dust cloud, and sometimes it prevents us

01:08:27 from seeing it clearly.

01:08:30 Although this explanation is still not 100% confirmed, there are still plenty of mysteries

01:08:36 surrounding Tabby's Star.

01:08:38 One thing's for sure, it may be a bit of an oddball, but that's what makes it so fascinating.

01:08:45 So there you have it, folks.

01:08:47 We're left in awe of the incredible diversity and strangeness of the cosmos.

01:08:53 There's so much more to discover out there, so let's keep exploring and keep being amazed

01:08:58 by the wonders of the universe.

01:09:01 The protective shield of our planet decays and eventually fails.

01:09:06 So do our satellites.

01:09:08 First communication satellites in the highest orbits go down.

01:09:11 Next, astronauts in low Earth orbit can no longer contact their mission control center.

01:09:16 And finally, hazardous, relentless cosmic rays start bombarding everything on Earth,

01:09:22 causing havoc and devastation.

01:09:24 Are these the terrifying consequences of the planet's magnetic field reversal we're

01:09:29 going to face?

01:09:31 Right now, as you're watching this video, Earth's North Magnetic Pole is extremely

01:09:36 out of whack.

01:09:37 It's so serious that scientists will have to update the Global Magnetic Field Model

01:09:42 released a mere 4 years ago.

01:09:44 Does it all mean that the magnetic pole of our planet will flip soon?

01:09:48 Well, be patient, we'll figure it out a bit later.

01:09:51 You see, the magnetic pole is moving quite erratically from the Canadian Arctic toward

01:09:56 Siberia.

01:09:57 And these movements are very unpredictable.

01:10:00 But it's normal for the pole to be moving.

01:10:03 There are long-term records from London and Paris that prove that the North Magnetic Pole

01:10:08 moves randomly around the rotational North Pole over periods of several hundred years.

01:10:16 But the most astonishing thing about its movement is that it's speeding up.

01:10:21 From the mid-1990s, the magnetic pole unexpectedly accelerated from a bit over 9 miles to 34

01:10:28 miles a year.

01:10:29 And recently, the pole crossed the International Date Line, moving toward the Eastern Hemisphere.

01:10:36 The European Space Agency launched extremely accurate magnetic field satellites in 2013.

01:10:42 Thanks to them, researchers have superb data they can use not only to make magnetic field

01:10:47 maps but also to update them every 6 to 12 months.

01:10:51 That's how they were able to notice that the core field was weakening too.

01:10:56 It might be a sign that the planet's magnetic field is about to flip.

01:11:00 To understand this process better, we need to figure out how the core field works.

01:11:04 Let's say we've got a bar magnet that runs through the center of our planet and

01:11:09 has a north and a south pole.

01:11:11 This magnet is incredibly strong, representing about 75% of the intensity of our planet's

01:11:17 magnetic field at the surface.

01:11:19 Our bar magnet is not only moving but is also getting weaker, by about 7% every century.

01:11:27 Admittedly, this bar isn't the perfect representation of the core field.

01:11:32 It's more like electric currents generating Earth's magnetic field.

01:11:36 Still, this model makes it easier to see what's happening to our planet now.

01:11:41 The magnetic field of our planet plays an important role in protecting us from dangerous

01:11:46 radiation and geomagnetic activity, which is the product of the interaction between

01:11:51 the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere.

01:11:55 Earth's magnetic field also moves.

01:11:58 Scientists have been studying and tracking the movement of the magnetic poles for hundreds

01:12:02 of years.

01:12:03 The historical motions of these poles indicates changes in the global geometry of the magnetic

01:12:08 field of our planet.

01:12:10 And they may point to the beginning of the field reversal too.

01:12:14 That's what the flip between the north and south magnetic poles is sometimes called.

01:12:20 You see, if the north magnetic pole moves a bit, it isn't a big deal.

01:12:26 But a complete reversal might have a serious impact on the climate of our planet, as well

01:12:30 as modern technology.

01:12:32 Luckily, such flips don't happen overnight.

01:12:35 The entire process stretches over thousands of years.

01:12:39 Plus, even though the magnetic pole weakens during a pole reversal, it doesn't disappear

01:12:45 completely.

01:12:46 So, those scary events from the beginning of the video aren't likely to happen to

01:12:50 us.

01:12:51 The magnetosphere will continue protecting the planet from cosmic rays and charged solar

01:12:56 particles, even though there might be some amount of particulate radiation that will

01:13:01 make it to Earth's surface.

01:13:03 Magnetic fields are generated by moving electric charges.

01:13:07 If some material allows these charges to easily move in it, it's called a conductor.

01:13:12 Metal is a great conductor, and we often use it to transfer electric currents from one

01:13:17 place to another.

01:13:18 In this case, the electric current is negative charges, called electrons, moving through

01:13:23 the metal.

01:13:24 The current is what generates a magnetic field.

01:13:28 Earth has a liquid iron core.

01:13:30 In other words, there are layers and layers of conducting material inside our planet.

01:13:35 Particles of charges are constantly moving through the core, and the liquid metal is

01:13:39 also moving and circulating there, generating the magnetic field.

01:13:46 This magnetic field, in turn, produces something resembling a bubble around the planet.

01:13:51 It's called the magnetosphere, and it's located above the uppermost part of the atmosphere.

01:13:56 This layer shields and deflects high-energy cosmic radiation, which, otherwise, would

01:14:02 be extremely dangerous to people and other forms of life on Earth.

01:14:06 The magnetosphere also interacts with the ionosphere, the layer of our planet's atmosphere

01:14:11 containing loads of ions and free electrons and capable of reflecting radio waves.

01:14:17 The interaction between these two layers and the magnetized solar winds is what scientists

01:14:22 call "space weather."

01:14:24 The solar wind is normally mild, and there's no space weather whatsoever.

01:14:30 But sometimes, the Sun starts shedding gargantuan magnetized clouds of gas that can accelerate

01:14:36 to incredible speeds.

01:14:37 They're called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.

01:14:40 They're ejected from the Sun over the course of several hours.

01:14:44 CMEs usually look like giant twisted ropes and can occur spontaneously.

01:14:50 Their frequency varies according to the 11-year long solar cycle.

01:14:54 For example, at a solar minimum, you can observe one ejection per day.

01:14:59 And when the Sun is in its most active phase, there might be three CMEs per day.

01:15:05 Coronal mass ejections disrupt the calm flow of the solar wind and cause serious disturbances

01:15:10 that can damage stuff both in space near Earth, like satellites, and on the planet's surface.

01:15:16 If coronal mass ejections make it to Earth, their interaction with the magnetosphere generates

01:15:22 geomagnetic storms.

01:15:24 Those can trigger auroras, happening when a stream of energized particles hits the atmosphere

01:15:29 and lights up.

01:15:31 And then there are also solar flares.

01:15:34 They develop more rapidly and with much more energy than coronal mass ejections.

01:15:39 Solar flares often occur soon after coronal mass ejections.

01:15:43 The most powerful volcanic eruptions pale in comparison to solar flares that release

01:15:48 10 million times more energy.

01:15:50 Within a few minutes, one solar flare can give out billions of tons of charged particles.

01:15:56 Solar flares are also insanely hot, with temperatures reaching several million degrees Fahrenheit.

01:16:05 Astronomers believe that such bursts of solar radiation happen when the Sun's magnetic

01:16:09 field gets twisted in some regions.

01:16:12 At one moment, all the pent-up energy is released.

01:16:15 The star sends out light and particles, mostly electrons and protons.

01:16:20 Most solar flares last for minutes, but some continue for hours.

01:16:24 A powerful solar storm can potentially cause a devastating global blackout on Earth.

01:16:30 If not for the Earth's magnetosphere, the effects of the Sun's activity would be much

01:16:35 more devastating.

01:16:36 Luckily, the magnetosphere deflects most of the solar material hurtling towards our planet

01:16:41 from our star at a speed of over 1 million miles per hour.

01:16:46 But even so, during space weather events, there's a lot of hazardous radiation near

01:16:51 Earth.

01:16:52 It can potentially harm astronauts and spacecraft.

01:16:55 Plus, space weather can damage large conducting systems, for example, pipelines and power

01:17:00 grids, by overloading currents running inside them.

01:17:07 Scientists regularly map and track the overall orientation and shape of our planet's magnetic

01:17:11 field.

01:17:12 To do it, they use local measurements of the field's orientation and magnitude.

01:17:17 That's why they've been able to conclude that the location of the North Magnetic Pole

01:17:22 has moved by almost 600 miles since the first measurements were taken in 1831.

01:17:29 The magnetic field of our planet reverses on a time scale varying between 100,000 to

01:17:34 1 million years.

01:17:36 One can tell how often it happens by looking at volcanic rocks at the bottom of the ocean.

01:17:42 They capture the orientation and strength of Earth's magnetic field at the time of

01:17:46 their creation.

01:17:48 So dating those rocks gives us a good picture of how our planet's magnetic field has evolved

01:17:53 over time.

01:17:57 From a geological point of view, field reversals happen quite fast, but they are extremely

01:18:02 slow from a human perspective.

01:18:05 A complete reversal normally takes a couple of thousand years.

01:18:09 But during this time, the orientation of the magnetosphere may shift, exposing more of

01:18:14 Earth to cosmic radiation.

01:18:16 Such events tend to change the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere.

01:18:21 In any case, scientists can't say for sure when the next field reversal will happen.

01:18:26 But they keep mapping and tracking the movement of our planet's magnetic north.

01:18:31 By the way, the Earth isn't the only planet with a magnetic field.

01:18:36 Gas giants like Jupiter also have a conducting metallic hydrogen layer that generates their

01:18:41 magnetic fields.

01:18:43 Jupiter's internal magnetic field prevents the solar wind from interacting directly with

01:18:48 the planet's atmosphere.

01:18:52 It was 1994.

01:18:54 It was dark, so no one saw two silhouettes opening the emergency exits of a glass dome

01:18:59 complex in Arizona known as Biosphere 2.

01:19:03 They were determined to free 7 people locked inside for a month, risking their lives in

01:19:07 the name of science.

01:19:09 The mission was accomplished, but they got hit with trespassing and vandalism charges.

01:19:14 The vandals were Abigail Ehrling and Mark Van Fellow.

01:19:17 They were among the first 8 poor devils who lived in that place as guinea pigs, and they

01:19:22 didn't want anyone else to go through the same horrors they had experienced.

01:19:26 $150 million were spent to see if humans could create suitable living conditions on other

01:19:31 planets like Mars.

01:19:33 To do this, scientists built a mini-world with over 3,000 species of plants and animals.

01:19:40 Biosphere 2 was a sealed-off 3-acre habitat, complete with its own mini-rainforest, a private

01:19:45 beach with a coral reef, a grassland savanna, a marsh, and even a desert.

01:19:51 Between 1991 and 1993, nothing could enter or exit that place.

01:19:57 The group of 8 people locked inside called themselves Biospherians, rocking matching

01:20:02 Star Trek-like jumpsuits, growing their own food, and breathing their own air.

01:20:07 They began with high hopes and a 5-star hotel-style breakfast, but things took a darker turn over

01:20:13 the months.

01:20:15 The whole team was starving and turning orange.

01:20:18 In Biosphere 1, which is the real Earth, you can order a pizza in 2 minutes, but inside

01:20:23 Biosphere 2, it took them an endless 4 months to whip up a margarita-style pie.

01:20:30 They had to harvest wheat for the dough and milk goats for the cheese.

01:20:34 The goal was to be completely self-sufficient, and they became part of an atmosphere, quite

01:20:39 literally.

01:20:40 When they breathed out, their CO2 fed the sweet potatoes they were growing.

01:20:44 And those sweet potatoes became part of them since they were essentially eating the same

01:20:49 carbons over and over again.

01:20:51 They had so many sweet potato feasts that their skin actually turned orange from all

01:20:55 the excess beta-carotene.

01:20:57 It seemed like a funny situation at the time highlighted a big issue.

01:21:01 The crop yields in Biosphere 2 were a total disappointment, and the crew was starving.

01:21:08 They were going crazy from hunger, and moments of sudden anger led to doing regrettable things,

01:21:13 like stealing bananas from the basement storeroom.

01:21:16 At some point, the freezer had to be locked.

01:21:19 Over the first 6 months, each of them lost between 18 and 58 pounds of weight.

01:21:25 Every day, someone took charge of weighing out fresh food for the cook, logging the information

01:21:30 about nutrients into the computer to make sure the crew hit their recommended calorie,

01:21:34 protein, and fat goals.

01:21:36 Initially, meals were served buffet-style.

01:21:39 But as the crew got hungrier, the cooks started to meticulously divide their food into equal

01:21:44 portions.

01:21:46 Their diet – mostly sweet potatoes, carrots, fruits, and occasional meat on Sundays – were

01:21:51 supposed to keep them going during those exhausting 80-hour work weeks of heavy physical labor.

01:21:56 Biospherians were leaving every meal still hungry, and they had recurring dreams of McDonald's

01:22:02 hamburgers, sushi, Snickers bars, and cheesecake.

01:22:07 The air was running out.

01:22:09 The entire place was completely sealed, with steel and glass at the top and a solid steel

01:22:14 floor underneath.

01:22:15 Managers made sure to check everything coming in to avoid synthetic materials emitting harmful

01:22:20 gases.

01:22:22 Living areas were furnished with wood and wool, and they couldn't use chemical deodorants

01:22:26 or blow out birthday candles.

01:22:28 Biospherians were counting on the food they grew and their many rainforests to produce

01:22:33 enough oxygen for them to survive.

01:22:35 However, they were losing oxygen very fast, drowning in their own carbon dioxide emissions,

01:22:41 and worst of all, they had no idea why.

01:22:44 With another 9 months of the experiment to go, oxygen levels had dropped from 21% to

01:22:50 around 15%, which feels like living at the top of Mount Fuji.

01:22:54 They felt awful, basically dragging themselves around the biosphere.

01:22:58 They couldn't even finish a sentence without stopping to catch a breath.

01:23:02 Then sleep apnea kicked in, with some of them waking up gasping for air.

01:23:07 To bring down the carbon levels inside Biosphere 2, they tried some desperate moves, like growing

01:23:12 plants like crazy, cutting back on watering the soil as much as possible, and even giving

01:23:18 up on tilling.

01:23:19 Nothing worked, so everyone decided they had hit a dangerously low point and asked for

01:23:24 help.

01:23:25 Refrigerated trucks showed up to pump more pure oxygen into Biosphere 2.

01:23:30 As soon as the gas started flowing in, they burst out laughing and began running around.

01:23:36 The ecosystem was a total mess.

01:23:38 Hummingbirds and honeybees vanished after a couple of months, so plants weren't getting

01:23:43 pollinated anymore.

01:23:45 Worms and broad mites attacked crops, and cockroaches just took over.

01:23:50 Four species of cockroaches were brought inside to recycle organic matter, but the regular

01:23:55 household cockroach was the ultimate survivor.

01:23:58 They somehow sneaked in and multiplied, becoming a serious threat to crops.

01:24:03 At night, the kitchen got flooded with cockroaches as soon as the lights went out.

01:24:07 To combat the infestation, the group greased coffee mugs with lubricant and put pieces

01:24:12 of papaya inside as bait.

01:24:15 Cockroaches would climb inside, but they couldn't scale the slippery sides to escape.

01:24:20 Being hungry, lacking oxygen, dealing with bug infestations – that's enough to make

01:24:25 anyone go nuts.

01:24:26 Heated arguments led to cups being thrown and people being spat at.

01:24:30 Eventually, the whole group just split into two.

01:24:33 They stopped talking and could walk right past one another in the hallways without even

01:24:38 making eye contact.

01:24:40 Half of them wanted more food and oxygen to continue the research with some dignity, while

01:24:44 the other half believed in survival without external help, no matter the costs.

01:24:49 The truth is, the sealed chamber had been breached long before that.

01:24:54 Just two weeks after they got inside, a biospherian named Jane Pointer cut off the tip of her

01:24:59 finger in a cooking accident while making rice.

01:25:02 The mission's doctor tried sewing the tip back on, but it didn't work, and her finger

01:25:06 turned black within days.

01:25:08 She went to a hospital outside for surgery, and a couple hours later, she sneaked back

01:25:13 inside, carrying a duffel bag filled with supplies like computer parts and color film.

01:25:20 Reporters would only learn of that sneaky delivery months later, and because of that,

01:25:24 many people have questioned the credibility of the entire experiment.

01:25:28 Media treated the experiment like a reality show, branding it as "trendy ecological

01:25:33 entertainment."

01:25:35 Headline news around the world made it sound as if they were on the brink of losing their

01:25:38 lives to the point where families were concerned, calling the biospherians to check if they

01:25:43 were really okay.

01:25:45 The group felt like they were in a human zoo, with tourists coming from far away to peer

01:25:50 into the glass cage.

01:25:52 In the first six months alone, more than 150,000 people visited the place.

01:25:58 Biosphere 2 ended up becoming a pop culture punchline, inspiring a comedy movie called

01:26:02 Biodome and decades of funny sketches.

01:26:06 You might be wondering why none of them quit the experiment and walked out the front door.

01:26:10 Well, none of the environmentalists wanted to be the first to admit it was too much to

01:26:15 handle.

01:26:16 Plus, they were all still hopeful they could somehow crack the puzzle of building Earth

01:26:20 #2.

01:26:21 By the end, they had managed to find 7 tons of missing oxygen.

01:26:25 It had been absorbed by the concrete.

01:26:28 Even though being breathless all the time might seem like the biggest challenge they

01:26:31 face, the biospherians said that learning how to deal with people in a closed environment

01:26:37 was even harder.

01:26:39 It looks like the experiment was a huge failure, but the group did learn a lot of valuable

01:26:44 lessons.

01:26:45 They proved that a sealed ecosystem could work for years.

01:26:48 They contributed to studies on reef restoration, and their farms showed that high productivity

01:26:53 and full nutrient recycling could be achieved without toxic chemicals.

01:26:58 In case you wondered, this wasn't the end of the glass complex.

01:27:01 The second mission, Inside Biosphere 2, took place in March 1994.

01:27:06 Now you can go back to the beginning of the video to understand how that worked out.

01:27:12 Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.

01:27:14 We'll be ready to take off in 3, 2, 1…

01:27:20 Living on a spaceship sounds like a sci-fi movie topic, but gradually turns into a plan

01:27:25 for the distant future dream.

01:27:27 Let's imagine how it would be.

01:27:31 Without further ado, I'll start with the light.

01:27:34 On Earth, thanks to the atmosphere, the sky scatters the sunlight, so we get light in

01:27:39 different directions.

01:27:41 Then there are shadows, contrast, and ambient light.

01:27:45 In a spaceship, however, there's no sky to create that cool ambient light.

01:27:50 When you're in a spacecraft inside a solar system, one side of the ship can be lightened

01:27:54 by the sun or another star, and one side can stay in the shadow.

01:27:59 You can think of it as the crescent moon.

01:28:03 If your spacecraft manages to go far away from any solar system, you might say goodbye

01:28:08 to the bright side of the ship.

01:28:10 You would be very far from all stars, so the ship is going to fly in the deep darkness.

01:28:15 Don't worry though, the advanced technology will probably find a way to imitate the sunlight.

01:28:22 Maybe designers will place LED light panels similar to windows, and inhabitants of the

01:28:27 ship wouldn't notice the difference.

01:28:30 What about people?

01:28:32 A study revealed that a crew of 160 people could create a viable population for 200 years.

01:28:39 Here, the important thing is to select the crew members from a large gene pool.

01:28:44 No two passengers should be closer than sixth or seventh degree cousins.

01:28:49 This is a projection from our day.

01:28:51 Who knows, maybe hundreds of years later, whole countries will live in a spaceship.

01:28:56 Your neighbor country in the world will be your neighbor in space!

01:29:00 This reminds me of the scene from Thor Ragnarok, when the Asgardians who survived Hela escaped

01:29:06 with the Grandmaster's ship.

01:29:08 They went to Earth to settle down.

01:29:10 Maybe we would go to Proxima Centauri b.

01:29:13 It's an exoplanet, which is the term used to define planets beyond our solar system.

01:29:19 Proxima b is in another star system, and some scientists do believe it has the potential.

01:29:25 Some of them believe that there is a possibility that liquid water exists on the surface of

01:29:30 a planet.

01:29:31 It's important because this planet is our nearest neighboring exoplanet.

01:29:35 Yeah, the nearest one, but it's almost 25 trillion miles away.

01:29:40 To better understand this proximity, I'll give you a comparison.

01:29:44 Currently, one of the fastest spaceships, called New Horizons, goes a whopping speed

01:29:49 of more than 30,000 miles per hour.

01:29:53 But even with this speed, it would take thousands of years to get to Proxima b.

01:29:57 Let's hope we figure out how to warp the space-time equation by then.

01:30:02 If I'm realistic, the first option is more likely.

01:30:05 Let's assume we made a trip with our fastest spaceships.

01:30:10 This would still be a couple hundred year journey.

01:30:13 This leads to another minor problem.

01:30:16 The lifespan of humans.

01:30:18 The same crew cannot make it to the end of the ride.

01:30:21 Here, generation ships shine as a solution.

01:30:25 A community of adults enter the ship, then their children, and their children.

01:30:30 You know, until humanity finally reaches the new planet.

01:30:33 There are two other alternatives.

01:30:36 If researchers somehow made a way to make people live for centuries, we wouldn't need

01:30:40 generation ships.

01:30:41 Similarly, there could be a system to freeze people.

01:30:45 It'll take 20,000 people to start a healthy population on a new planet.

01:30:49 For now, I want to stick with the first scenario.

01:30:52 Here's how it would be to live in a generation spacecraft.

01:30:56 Dating wouldn't be as romantic as it is on Earth.

01:30:59 There's probably a geneticist who will regulate reproduction.

01:31:03 Freedom of choice in general would be decreased.

01:31:06 The rules will be strict.

01:31:08 In every generation, there should be certain tasks to manage.

01:31:12 Someone should be a doctor, and someone else should be a plumber.

01:31:16 New generations may go under a career planning test.

01:31:20 Everyone would be assigned occupations based on their merits, aptitude, passions, and available

01:31:25 jobs.

01:31:26 It reminds me of Snowpiercer, but hopefully, things would go humanely and better in this

01:31:31 version.

01:31:33 People all need water, and they'll create waste.

01:31:36 By then, maybe we wouldn't rely on plastic.

01:31:39 Plus, recycling may be on another level.

01:31:41 Still, we will need water.

01:31:44 A healthy human needs almost 300 gallons of water per year.

01:31:48 It's not like they'll stop by on a planet and refill the water reserves.

01:31:52 So how can spaceship residents solve this problem?

01:31:55 There are already systems to recycle some astronauts' waste into pure water.

01:32:01 The next issue is infirmary.

01:32:03 A spaceship might have almost no bacteria or microbes.

01:32:08 People need them for a stronger immune system.

01:32:10 If they get too isolated and land on a planet, they may have difficulty coping with the potential

01:32:15 conditions there.

01:32:18 Shielding carries importance too.

01:32:20 Deep space is a radioactive place.

01:32:23 Our planet has a magnetic field that protects us from DNA-frying waves.

01:32:28 Out in the open, the spaceship will need a strong shield.

01:32:31 We will be able to create some sort of force field.

01:32:35 NASA is working on systems to grow plants in space.

01:32:39 We will probably see special sections dedicated to farming and livestock.

01:32:44 I also feel like this type of ship would also carry flora and fauna samples too.

01:32:48 Who knows, maybe there'll be specific parks and different mini-ecosystems.

01:32:53 This would be great for the sanity of people on the ship.

01:32:56 I mean, it's great to maintain the existence of the human race.

01:33:00 Umm, existential crises can mess with the passengers.

01:33:04 They can eat their space sandwiches in the park and relax a bit with the sound of tweeting

01:33:08 birds.

01:33:09 Not just a garden, the young passengers might need a playground and school, well, in this

01:33:14 case cabins, to get an education.

01:33:17 They'll probably have a whole new curriculum, how to stay alive on a foreign planet 101.

01:33:23 By the time we have this ship AI, and high-tech robots will probably be more popular than

01:33:28 ever, there might be self-propagating robots.

01:33:32 We can send these robots to our potentially new planet first and see how it turns out.

01:33:37 We can even send robot teams to multiple worlds and see which one has a better habitat.

01:33:43 I admit, generation ships look like an idea derived from Hollywood blockbusters, but there's

01:33:48 an initiative called the 100-Year Starship Project.

01:33:53 Mark G. Millis, the founder of the Tau Zero Foundation, is one of the participants involved

01:33:58 in this project.

01:33:59 They designed a probe, named the Icarus.

01:34:02 It has the theoretical capability to accelerate to one-tenth or one-fifth the speed of light.

01:34:08 Although the current design of Icarus is not particularly sleek, resembling a skyscraper-sized

01:34:13 behemoth, composed mainly of rows and clusters of spherical fuel tanks.

01:34:18 Millis explains that it's not a definitive representation of what an interstellar craft

01:34:22 may look like, but rather the design that makes the most sense to build initially.

01:34:28 When it comes to designing starships for humans, gravity is a key consideration in preventing

01:34:32 the erosion of bone and muscle density.

01:34:35 The solution is to create gravity with a rotating cabin or centrifuge, but it must be large

01:34:41 enough to consistently simulate Earth's gravity to avoid disorientation and other

01:34:45 health issues.

01:34:48 Is there an arrival plan?

01:34:49 Assuming that we land to Europa or Proxima B, the crew and the passengers need to be

01:34:55 prepared for different scenarios.

01:34:57 There should be equipment to scan the territory, or even self-defense gadgets to protect themselves

01:35:02 from potentially hostile life forms.

01:35:05 Once they successfully arrive, they need tools to build their homes too.

01:35:10 When they finally arrive at their new planet, they might start advanced technology to travel

01:35:14 around other planets.

01:35:15 "Hi mom, I brought you a rock as a gift from the surface of Mars."

01:35:20 There could be new occupations and a live space travel guide, and we might need some

01:35:24 type of document like a visa to enter other habitable planets.

01:35:28 "There's a meteorite rain expected, so stay at your base for the next two years,"

01:35:34 says the newscaster.

01:35:35 "Ok, ok, I'll calm down here."

01:35:38 So how would you picture a vessel capable of ferrying humans from one solar system to

01:35:42 another?

01:35:43 Would it have some sort of wings, or would it look like a rocket?

01:35:46 Tell me more about the design in your mind.

01:35:49 "2, 1, 0, all engines running.

01:35:56 Lift off, we have a lift off."

01:36:03 I can hardly imagine having to travel long distances without wheeled luggage, but these

01:36:07 ones didn't pop until 1970.

01:36:10 If you think about it, this means that the astronauts that went to the moon actually

01:36:14 had to physically carry their baggage in the spaceship.

01:36:19 A lot of other daily tasks are different in space.

01:36:23 Since there's no washing machine in the International Space Station, how do astronauts

01:36:27 do their laundry?

01:36:28 The short answer is they don't.

01:36:30 They just load up the dirty clothes into a resupply ship, then let them fall back into

01:36:35 the atmosphere where it's incinerated.

01:36:38 Our atmosphere contains astronaut underwear dust if you think about it.

01:36:43 For their shower routines, astronauts had to go back to the old-fashioned way of bathing

01:36:48 too.

01:36:49 On the space station, they do not shower since the force of gravity is different and water

01:36:53 doesn't flow as it should.

01:36:55 So, they use liquid soap, water, and rinseless shampoo.

01:36:59 They first squeeze the liquid soap and water from pre-made water pouches onto their skin.

01:37:05 Next, they open the rinseless soap and add a little water to clean their hair.

01:37:09 Towels are then used to wipe off the excess water, which is really precious in space.

01:37:15 To make sure they recycle it, an airflow system nearby quickly evaporates excess water.

01:37:22 All that water recycling is thanks to an invention called the Water Reclamation System, or the

01:37:27 WRS.

01:37:28 It was developed back in 2008 and helped solve water issues on the ISS.

01:37:34 Up until then, water had to be imported from our planet on a regular basis, which was really

01:37:40 expensive.

01:37:41 What the WRS does is it gathers all the wastewater on board, the astronauts' leftover bathing

01:37:47 water, humidity, condensation on the walls and windows, and then passes it through a

01:37:52 series of filters.

01:37:53 The resulting liquid is purified and great for drinking and washing.

01:37:59 We even got the now-famous microwave because of this space mission.

01:38:03 When Neil Armstrong and his team landed back on Earth after their first visit to the moon,

01:38:08 specialists thought they might have been exposed to dangerous space particles.

01:38:13 The result?

01:38:14 They had to be placed in planetary protection quarantine on their return, as soon as their

01:38:18 space capsule safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969.

01:38:25 That specific 21-day quarantine for the Apollo 11 astronauts is one of the reasons why we

01:38:31 have microwaves in our kitchens today.

01:38:34 When they first returned from the moon, they initially spent their first few days in a

01:38:38 mobile quarantine facility, or MQF.

01:38:41 Sure, the MQF featured comfortable chairs, bunks, a toilet, and a shower, but it didn't

01:38:47 leave a lot of space for fancy cooking, since there was no room for a standard oven or grill.

01:38:53 And to also reduce the potential fires that might have happened, NASA had to get creative.

01:38:59 That's how the original countertop microwave oven was developed, to easily help astronauts

01:39:03 get their meals without the hustle of a fully equipped kitchen.

01:39:07 These days, you can see that first microwave in a museum in Oakland, California.

01:39:13 The Apollo 11 crew also carried with them 12 Hasselblad cameras.

01:39:18 They were intended to snap those valuable images of the moon's surface for all of us

01:39:21 to see.

01:39:22 So where are they today?

01:39:24 Well, they were left there on the moon.

01:39:26 Armstrong and his crew decided that the cameras were too heavy to carry back, especially since

01:39:31 they wanted to bring back home over 50 pounds worth of rock samples.

01:39:35 They did bring the film back though.

01:39:39 These days, the International Space Station has way more advanced technology, like this

01:39:43 Zero Gravity 3D printer.

01:39:46 It's responsible for making a socket wrench, which was the first tool ever made away from

01:39:51 the planet's surface.

01:39:52 The whole point of this 3D printer is to source square parts for any equipment that might

01:39:57 get broken on board.

01:39:59 This way, astronauts won't need to keep returning back to Earth to fix their gadgets,

01:40:03 making it cheaper and faster.

01:40:07 It may sound like a vacation, but did you ever think about what would happen if you

01:40:11 never got out of bed?

01:40:13 In the first 24 hours, one of the first things to see a change would be your lungs.

01:40:18 Without gravity to pull them down into their standard position, the lower part of your

01:40:22 lungs will crease.

01:40:24 Coughing every now and then might help to reduce the effects.

01:40:28 Going further, we'd start to lose small amounts of bone density each week, making

01:40:32 our skeleton more fragile.

01:40:35 It's also the reason why astronauts who can go for months without Earth's gravity at times

01:40:39 need to move around for a minimum of two hours a day and make sure they have sufficient calcium

01:40:44 in their diet.

01:40:47 For this particular reason, they use a cool device called the Advanced Resistive Exercise

01:40:51 Device, or ARED.

01:40:54 The conditions on the International Space Station not only affect the bones of personnel

01:40:58 on board, but their muscle mass.

01:41:01 And some of the changes that happen to their bodies could be permanent if they're not careful.

01:41:06 So NASA needs to keep its astronauts on a strict exercise program.

01:41:10 Because you can't work out normally in microgravity, and ARED comes in to fix this.

01:41:15 It's pretty much a resistance machine that helps astronauts to weightlift in a weightless

01:41:20 environment.

01:41:21 It also features a treadmill with a twist.

01:41:24 It straps astronauts in for running.

01:41:28 People visiting the International Space Station for longer periods of time can also develop

01:41:33 a condition called Space Flight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome.

01:41:37 The weightlessness in space causes the fluids in the body to shift towards the head.

01:41:43 This may be the reason why the optical nerve gets swollen.

01:41:46 I'll spare you the rest of the medical terms, but one of the most uncomfortable side effects

01:41:50 is that most astronauts get blurry vision.

01:41:53 To help with this, scientists developed a pair of contact lenses.

01:41:57 And you look at pictures of astronauts wearing this device, it does seem pretty cool.

01:42:03 For the time being, these lenses are just meant to measure how our eyes adapt to microgravity

01:42:08 conditions.

01:42:09 With the help of that data, we might be able to develop future gadgets that could combat

01:42:13 the consequences.

01:42:16 These contacts may not come with laser vision or holograms just yet, but another institution

01:42:22 is looking to develop some pretty cool pairs of eyeglasses that might get closer.

01:42:27 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is looking at ways to manufacture computerized

01:42:32 glasses that can help astronauts repair a ship or conduct an experiment in space.

01:42:39 These glasses could help NASA upload how-to information guides onto the glasses directly

01:42:45 so that astronauts could work without printed instruction manuals.

01:42:49 Printed information is not only difficult to work with in times of emergency, but it's

01:42:53 often not enough.

01:42:55 So, astronauts literally need to dial back at the base for more information on how to

01:43:01 fix a problem.

01:43:02 Since a call from Mars to Earth can take up to 20 minutes to connect, you can imagine

01:43:07 how helpful these glasses might be in real time.

01:43:11 NASA initially tested this approach by strapping laptops to astronauts' heads.

01:43:16 It soon became obvious they needed a better suited device.

01:43:19 These glasses would use the same microchips we have in our smartphones.

01:43:24 A gas leak can be a bad thing even in your own kitchen, let alone on the International

01:43:30 Space Station.

01:43:31 To make sure this problem doesn't happen, astronauts wear a system strapped to the front

01:43:35 of their suits.

01:43:36 It's just about the size of a shoebox.

01:43:39 This device helps detect leaking water, seeping rocket fuel, or escaping oxygen.

01:43:46 When living on the International Space Station, you might think astronauts need some sort

01:43:51 of special clothing.

01:43:52 The reality will surprise you.

01:43:54 Inside the space shuttle, both the temperature and humidity are controlled.

01:43:59 So astronauts can live there just like they would on Earth.

01:44:02 Apart from those orange flight suits you often see in pictures that are needed during launch

01:44:06 and re-entry, astronauts don't have special clothes.

01:44:10 They just use the same clothes they'd use if they were on our planet.

01:44:16 If an asteroid like Apophis hits Earth, we will be destroyed.

01:44:22 Massive earthquakes will strike, and tsunamis will flood everything.

01:44:28 Apophis is a billion-year-old celestial body that has been in the Solar System since its

01:44:33 inception.

01:44:35 So you might be thinking, "Well, how likely is it that this giant space stone will collide

01:44:40 with our planet in 2029?"

01:44:42 Well, let's find out, shall we?

01:44:46 Apophis is a big bad asteroid discovered in 2004 by the Kitt Peak National Observatory

01:44:52 in Arizona.

01:44:54 Since then, it has proudly held the title of one of the most dangerous asteroids ever

01:44:59 located.

01:45:00 It's around 1,100 feet wide, which is a bit bigger than the Empire State Building

01:45:04 and the Eiffel Tower.

01:45:07 Because of how scary it is, it was named Apophis, like the Egyptian immortal creature that was

01:45:12 considered to bring eternal darkness and destruction to Earth.

01:45:16 Oh boy!

01:45:18 In 2021, researchers had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study this floating rock when

01:45:23 it passed near our planet.

01:45:25 And we'll come back to that in a minute.

01:45:28 Some scientists say that there is a small chance of Apophis hitting the Earth on Friday,

01:45:34 April 13, 2029.

01:45:37 The Yarkovsky effect is to blame for this since it can slightly nudge this space rock

01:45:42 towards Earth.

01:45:44 This effect originates from the uneven emission of thermal photons from a rotating celestial

01:45:49 object, resulting in a fascinating force exerted upon it in space.

01:45:54 These emitted photons possess momentum and play a pivotal role in shaping the dynamics

01:45:59 of the body.

01:46:01 The asteroid has two sides, light and dark, just like the Moon.

01:46:05 The light side faces the Sun and is warmer than the dark side.

01:46:09 But the thing also turns, so the sides constantly change direction and temperature.

01:46:14 This change could be detrimental because it slightly pushes Apophis toward Earth.

01:46:20 Unfortunately, nobody knows how the Yarkovsky effect will influence the asteroid's path.

01:46:27 On the other hand, on the asteroid's last flyby of Earth in 2021, astronomers used radar

01:46:33 to take accurate measurements of its trajectory and confidently concluded Apophis will safely

01:46:39 miss Earth in 2029 by about 20,000 miles and won't bother us again for at least 100 years.

01:46:48 Generally speaking, every 8,000 years, our planet is hit by a falling star that has similar

01:46:54 dimensions to those of Apophis.

01:46:56 The last time we were hit by a slightly smaller meteor was in 2013.

01:47:04 A new spacecraft developed by NASA called the OSIRIS-REx was launched in 2016 to collect

01:47:10 samples from another slightly less terrifying celestial body called Bennu.

01:47:15 Four years later, it finally arrived at the thing, got some samples, quickly said goodbye

01:47:21 to Bennu, and started traveling back towards Earth.

01:47:25 The samples were safely stored in a capsule dropped in Utah.

01:47:29 So far, this has been the most significant sample ever taken from an asteroid.

01:47:34 After the delivery, the spacecraft didn't waste any time and started chasing Apophis.

01:47:40 Now OSIRIS-REx has been renamed to OSIRIS-APEX and is currently playing tag with Apophis.

01:47:48 With some luck, on the 2nd of April, 2029, when the asteroid zips close by Earth, the

01:47:54 spacecraft will reach Apophis and land on it.

01:47:57 It will stay on Apophis for 18 months, collecting valuable information and taking thousands

01:48:03 of pictures.

01:48:05 The asteroid will be monitored with the help of powerful telescopes.

01:48:10 At some point, Apophis will get too close to the Sun, and then all the monitoring work

01:48:14 will be on OSIRIS-APEX back.

01:48:18 If you live in Europe, West Asia, or Africa, you're one of those lucky people who will

01:48:23 have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Apophis with the unaided eye.

01:48:28 It will be visible in the sky in these regions in 2029, and those who have telescopes will

01:48:34 be able to spot it once again in 2036.

01:48:39 OSIRIS-APEX will experience some problems because the asteroid has a thick crust, and

01:48:44 the spacecraft won't be able to collect data as easily as it did with Bennu.

01:48:49 OSIRIS-APEX has a unique thruster that will blow all the dust from Apophis while landing.

01:48:55 This will be a perfect chance to analyze the surface of the asteroid to see what it's

01:48:59 made of.

01:49:00 The craft will spend 1.5 years mapping the asteroid, trying to detect changes in its

01:49:06 shape.

01:49:07 All this research will show how the celestial body is likely to move so we can better design

01:49:11 plans to protect Earth from such things.

01:49:15 In 2025, NASA is also going to launch the mission Apophis Pathfinder, and it will be

01:49:20 the first spaceship to ever touch this asteroid.

01:49:24 It will land approximately a year after its launch.

01:49:27 Also, NASA has proposed sending a swarm of tiny craft into space to help humanity develop

01:49:33 effective protective tactics against asteroid strikes.

01:49:38 We know that Apophis originated in the primary asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

01:49:44 In the past million years, this celestial body has changed its path because of the considerable

01:49:49 influence of Jupiter's gravitation.

01:49:51 Now it seems like it favors the Sun more, meaning this asteroid will come very close

01:49:56 to Earth.

01:49:57 That's why it's classified as a near-Earth celestial body.

01:50:01 A lot of tests and research have been done to find a way to deal with asteroids.

01:50:06 Some solutions include drilling and detonating the space body from inside, or testing new

01:50:11 technologies like attaching rockets to it and trying to steer it away from Earth.

01:50:17 We can also hit it with something moving at high speeds to make it change its course.

01:50:23 Apophis is an S-type asteroid made of rocks and minerals like iron and nickel, and is

01:50:28 shaped like a peanut.

01:50:30 It can tell us a lot about the past and possibly the future.

01:50:34 Sampling this space object could reveal how life on Earth began and how plants appeared.

01:50:41 There are many theories that suggest that water arrived on our planet on an asteroid

01:50:45 or a comet.

01:50:48 Asteroids are like priceless time capsules.

01:50:50 Unlike rocks on Earth, which have undergone thousands of changes, like erosion, most celestial

01:50:55 bodies are still intact and much easier to study.

01:50:59 When meteors fall on Earth, they get covered in debris that's impossible to clean.

01:51:04 That's why studying Apophis while it's still in space is so important.

01:51:09 Also, some asteroids are made of precious metals like platinum.

01:51:14 Right now we have a high demand for metals that we use in production, and mining metals

01:51:19 on Earth is quite tricky.

01:51:21 Just one large meteor might have iron, nickel, gold, and platinum that could last us millions

01:51:27 of years.

01:51:28 If Apophis has this amount of metals, well, we'd want to break it down and bring it

01:51:33 back to Earth.

01:51:34 One space rock could be worth quadrillions of dollars, making space mining highly profitable.

01:51:40 And still, it would cost us more to get it back to Earth than to dig up these materials

01:51:45 here.

01:51:47 As technology progresses, and new kinds of rockets are developed, this might become possible

01:51:52 at some point.

01:51:54 So, even though we're safe for the next hundred years from Apophis, you probably still want

01:52:00 to see what would happen if something like it did impact.

01:52:03 Come on, sure you do!

01:52:05 Well, first let me tell you, you'll hear the sound of the collision and know what's

01:52:10 happened even if you're miles away.

01:52:12 You should leave your house or apartment immediately.

01:52:15 Shortly after the impact, massive earthquakes will strike, and many tall buildings will

01:52:20 fall, so staying away from cities might be your best option if you have a choice.

01:52:27 But don't escape by car, there will be massive traffic jams, and everyone will panic.

01:52:33 Travelling on foot or by bike is your best option in this scenario.

01:52:37 A prime way of transportation will be travelling by plane, so if you've always wanted to

01:52:42 get that pilot license, now you've got a good excuse.

01:52:47 If you have time, take along extra snacks and water, and an extra pair of socks.

01:52:53 It's nice to live by the ocean or the sea, but in this scenario, it's the worst place

01:52:58 to be, because giant tsunami waves will hit coastlines after the impact.

01:53:04 If you live far away from the impact area, the tsunami might take 30 hours to arrive.

01:53:09 You'll have a bit of time to prepare.

01:53:15 If one of the many apocalyptic scenarios come true, and humanity is wiped out completely,

01:53:21 a black box will tell whoever comes after us about what has led to that scary day.

01:53:28 The 33-foot long vault in a remote part of western Tasmania is supposed to document all

01:53:34 the mistakes humanity has made that led to an apocalypse.

01:53:39 The artists, architects and researchers behind the Earth's black box hope that the art

01:53:44 installation made of thick reinforced steel will withstand fire, water and any other natural

01:53:51 disasters, except probably for total planetary destruction.

01:53:56 Just like the black box you can find in planes, this time capsule is supposed to help the

01:54:01 next civilization do better and avoid the probable sad and tragic fate of our humanity.

01:54:09 The project is fully non-commercial and has an important message.

01:54:14 The box will be full of storage drives and have access to the internet.

01:54:18 Solar panels on the roof will power it, and batteries will take care of backup power storage.

01:54:24 Whenever the sun's out, the black box will be updating itself with new scientific data.

01:54:30 A special algorithm will sort it only to save the information relevant to the project.

01:54:35 It will be measurements of land and sea temperatures, ocean acidification, species extinction, land

01:54:41 use changes as well as data on human population and energy consumption.

01:54:47 The second type of data for the box will be newspaper headlines, social media posts and

01:54:52 news from the key global events focusing on the environment.

01:54:57 The creators of the box decided to encode and store data for it in several formats,

01:55:02 including binary code.

01:55:05 The instructions on how to retrieve all that priceless knowledge would be etched into the

01:55:10 outside of the box.

01:55:13 Some of the big brains involved in the project are afraid that this could inspire some curious

01:55:18 bad guys to break into the box long before it's time to do it.

01:55:23 The solar-powered hard drive will have enough space to collect data over 50 years.

01:55:30 Even the most pessimistic scientific models don't predict the end of the world any sooner

01:55:34 anyway.

01:55:35 It might even take centuries before the worst happens.

01:55:39 The idea of a box that would record everything that happened before an accident in aviation

01:55:44 was born in the middle of the 20th century.

01:55:48 Back then, the world's first jetliner, de Havilland's Comet, crashed seven times over

01:55:53 two years, taking the lives of 110 people.

01:55:59 The Department of Civil Aviation in Australia wanted to find the possible cause of all these

01:56:04 crashes.

01:56:06 One of these experts was Dr. David Warren, a chemist specializing in aviation fuels.

01:56:13 He realized that there was simply not enough data to make any conclusions.

01:56:18 There was no one to tell what had really happened before the crash.

01:56:22 He remembered seeing a dictaphone that recorded sound on steel wire at a trade fair.

01:56:28 Soon Dr. Warren wrote a memo to his manager offering to design a voice recorder to follow

01:56:33 what was going on in the cockpit.

01:56:36 It would also record flight data and be stored in a crash-proof container.

01:56:42 Flying wasn't a huge thing in Australia back then, so the manager didn't appreciate the

01:56:46 idea.

01:56:47 Dr. Warren then started working on a prototype in his own garage.

01:56:54 He showed the ready device to the secretary of the British Air Registration Board when

01:56:58 he was in Australia.

01:57:00 He absolutely loved the idea, so later, Dr. Warren got a whole team to help him develop

01:57:06 a pre-production prototype.

01:57:09 The correct way to call his invention is actually not "black box" but "flight data recorder"

01:57:15 and it's orange, not black.

01:57:18 We probably call it black because those gadgets get charred black after a crash.

01:57:24 Or maybe because the first boxes were painted that color to prevent reflection.

01:57:29 Or because that's the general name scientists use for devices with in and output of data

01:57:34 with complex internal workings.

01:57:38 So the flight data recorder consists of two parts, the data recorder and the cockpit voice

01:57:45 recorder.

01:57:46 Historically, they were two boxes but now they're just two cylinders.

01:57:49 The data recorder keeps track of such important flight data as engine exhaust, temperature,

01:57:55 fuel flow, aircraft velocity, altitude, and rate of descent.

01:58:00 The second part records sound in the cockpit to analyze communication with air traffic

01:58:04 control in case of an accident.

01:58:07 The device only records data for up to two hours and then overwrites the previous sounds.

01:58:13 Sometimes, the two parts are combined and they look like a box.

01:58:19 The devices record data and voices from the cockpit, but they are actually located in

01:58:24 the tail end of the aircraft where the structure of the plane will protect them best in case

01:58:28 of a crash.

01:58:31 The black box has a locator beacon which is activated when water gets on it, but it will

01:58:36 send out a pulse for 30 days.

01:58:39 Search parties use the bright orange color of the recorder as a visual beacon.

01:58:44 Sometimes it takes a long time to find the box and in some cases they don't find it at

01:58:49 all.

01:58:51 Long before the first plane was invented, there was an original black box of planetary

01:58:55 meaning, the ancient library of Alexandria.

01:59:00 Back in the ancient days, people in places like Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece were no

01:59:05 strangers to libraries and archives.

01:59:08 But these early institutions were more about preserving local traditions and heritage.

01:59:14 The whole concept of a universal library only became a thing when the Greeks started thinking

01:59:18 big.

01:59:19 They were so impressed by what their neighbors in Egypt were doing that they arranged expeditions

01:59:25 to acquire knowledge.

01:59:28 Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia, seeing that hunger for knowledge required

01:59:32 his companions, generals, and scholars to report to him in detail on regions that were

01:59:37 previously unmet.

01:59:40 It helped collect plenty of information on geography and contributed to the creation

01:59:44 of a great library.

01:59:46 Most of the information it had was written in Greek.

01:59:50 It had the books of Aristotle as part of the whole corpus of Greek literature.

01:59:55 Some sources say that in the hunt for new books, the library's founders would stop every

02:00:00 ship sailing into the harbor of Alexandria.

02:00:03 If they found books, they would take them to the library.

02:00:07 If they decided it was valuable, they'd make a quick copy and return it to the owner with

02:00:11 some compensation, leaving the original at the library.

02:00:16 Another story tells us that Ptolemy III, grandson of the founder of the library, offered the

02:00:21 governors of Athens a huge compensation to copy the original texts of the greatest poets.

02:00:28 He then kept the originals and sent them back copies.

02:00:33 Once the Roman Empire arrived, they burnt all that knowledge, not thinking that it might

02:00:37 lead to their own collapse.

02:00:40 There was no easy way of spreading information across the world, so one source had most of

02:00:46 the knowledge humanity had accumulated by then.

02:00:50 The great minds of those times didn't just fill it with knowledge, but also made important

02:00:55 connections, trying to make the best use of that information.

02:01:00 If the library of Alexandria hadn't burnt, we could have gotten some priceless knowledge

02:01:05 about the people who had lived before the current era.

02:01:09 Some scientists believe that big data could have saved the Vikings that had settled in

02:01:13 Greenland many centuries ago.

02:01:16 It might have also helped the Easter Island civilization to identify and address problems

02:01:21 caused by volcanic activity, latitude, and rainfall patterns, and restore soil fertility.

02:01:30 They say that a typical person living today is exposed to as much data in one day as someone

02:01:35 in the 15th century would learn in their entire lifetime.

02:01:41 And there's a theory that every papyrus scroll on the whole library of Alexandria could probably

02:01:45 fit onto an ordinary flash drive you have in your pocket.

02:01:51 There's so much big data generated every day that it might do us more harm than good because

02:01:56 of a huge information overload.

02:01:59 We're moving towards a global civilization, so if all that knowledge disappears, we'd

02:02:04 lose not one empire, but the entire world.

Fresh Space Facts to Twist Your Reality

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