Cosmic Queries – Quantumly Stupid

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Speaker 2 Chuck, every time we do a grab bag cosmic queries, the level of the question is getting higher and higher. I know.
I might have to go back to school.

Speaker 2 I have to bring in some big guns next time. They are.
Man, I'm loving it, though. Yeah, it's good stuff.
Yeah, yeah. All right.

Speaker 2 Coming up next.

Speaker 2 Welcome to Star Talk,

Speaker 2 your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide.

Speaker 2 Star Talk begins right now.

Speaker 2 This is Star Talk.

Speaker 2 Cosmic Queries. I got with me Chuck Nice.
Hey, what's happening here? All right. This is a grab bag.
Yes, it is. What's the verdict on how long it takes me to answer a question?

Speaker 2 Believe it or not, because because they put out this to the audience, they like the longer answers. The producers

Speaker 2 want us to go as quickly as possible because they want to get more answers in.

Speaker 2 But they asked the people, and the people liked the long answers. And people spoke.
Yes, people have spoken. They have risen up.
That's right. All right.
I won't do it on purpose. It's just,

Speaker 2 it's, it's organic when it happens. It's the passion.
The passion of the universe flowing through me. This is Alex Kay, who says, hello, Dr.
Tyson Lord and I's Alex from Bucharest, Romania, here.

Speaker 2 Bucharest. Bucharest.

Speaker 2 What keeps me up at night is flatlanders and 4D space. I often hear that.
Ah, I love it.

Speaker 2 That's a, that says some geeky stuff right there.

Speaker 2 That's that. We get, give them a geek award for that.

Speaker 2 He says, I often hear that dark matter or dark energy could be the 4D leaking into our 3D space. But living in 3D space, can we ever actually observe a truly 2D space?

Speaker 2 And if not, wouldn't that mean 4D beings couldn't interfere with our world either? Just as we don't notice any real 2D beings?

Speaker 2 I see where he's coming from. Yeah.
I think. What he's saying is, if there were 2D creatures in our world, how would we ever know? Right.
All right.

Speaker 2 So holding aside the fact that if you're 2D, you have no thickness. Right.
If you have zero thickness, how does any light or matter even interact with you? Because light and matter. Reflect.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 But so let's just ignore that

Speaker 2 very real complication, but let's ignore it for the moment. Okay.
Okay.

Speaker 2 There was a cartoon. Back when the internet was a fun place to just explore humor and cat videos.
Oh, yeah. There was a,

Speaker 2 there were two illustrated creatures, and one of them was 2D. I forgot their names.
It's like, hey, Joey, I just became 2D.

Speaker 2 And he's looking at him. He looks a little flat,

Speaker 2 but he wasn't sure. And all he did was turn sideways and he disappears.
Disappears. Disappears.
He turns sideways towards your sight line.

Speaker 2 And then they laughed and they were just having a good time.

Speaker 2 Those were the days on the internet. Man.
Yeah. Man.
Now it's nothing but Nazi.

Speaker 2 Stop the fucking.

Speaker 2 It's Nazi Yachty.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 So it implies that even if you're invisible edge on,

Speaker 2 that the light is somehow still reflecting off of you face on. Right.
Okay.

Speaker 2 So a 2D world in front of us would be completely visible. You would see light reflecting off of their substance.
Right. Their 2D substance, whatever that is.
Right.

Speaker 2 Only when they go sideways do they disappear

Speaker 2 from your view. Right.
Because they have no thickness. So

Speaker 2 we three-dimensional creatures,

Speaker 2 would four-dimensional, spatial-dimensional creatures be able to see us?

Speaker 2 It means there must be some orientation we can take where we disappear to them. Right.
Just following this sequence. I can't picture what that would be.

Speaker 2 Yeah, well, yeah, you know,

Speaker 2 I can't either because I'm 3D.

Speaker 2 I'm looking around, everything's 3D. So how, what,

Speaker 2 you know, what do I look like to a 4D guy? I don't know, you know.

Speaker 2 I don't know how a 3D person would hide from a 4D person, which way to orient ourselves, the way a 2D person can do that to us.

Speaker 2 I don't know how you do that. I have to think about it some more.

Speaker 2 What I do know is, and we've said this before, If you're looking at a 2D creature, you can see inside their organs, their inner organs.

Speaker 2 2d people can't see because they have skin this line which is their 2d skin they can't see through the line but we can see directly into their bodies so i i look really ugly to a 4d person 4d person they see they'll see all your guts they just see guts and yeah and i think the first thing we do when we have four-dimensional beings is to make them medical doctors and have them perform surgery.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 2 It's a game of operation for them.

Speaker 2 There's nothing to it. Take out wrenched ankle.

Speaker 2 Good to go.

Speaker 2 I forgot about that game, operation.

Speaker 2 I wonder how many people became doctors out of that.

Speaker 2 You know, that's a problem. If they did, they'd probably be pretty bad doctors.

Speaker 2 I'm just saying. Like, if the game operation was your inspiration, you know, they're standing over the operating table with a pair of tweezers.

Speaker 2 I don't know what to do.

Speaker 2 Or they're trying to settle malpractice suits. Right.

Speaker 2 So that's what I know. And for me, that's the most intriguing thing

Speaker 2 that you can see inside of somebody who's otherwise completely enclosed in skin. In the same way, the 2D person is completely enclosed by a line.
Right. And you can see what's inside that line.

Speaker 2 Inside that line. So that's the best I can give them on that question.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Well, that's cool.
Otherwise, yeah, I don't know where to take it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 All right. Well, this is Jeff Drumsights.
And Jeff Drumsight says,

Speaker 2 Greetings, Dr. Tyson, Lord Nice.
I recently began watching Apple TV's version of Ismac Asimov's Foundation. It is awesome.
Oh, yes, yes. That's the one where they have the

Speaker 2 hereditary rulers who are clones of each other.

Speaker 2 That's the limit of

Speaker 2 heredity. That's it.
That's it. All the lineage is just a clone blindness.
You have

Speaker 2 dawn, day, and dusk.

Speaker 2 So So there's. And day is the ruler.
Day is the ruler.

Speaker 2 Dusk is the wisdom. Wisdom.
And dawn is learning. And dawn is learning.

Speaker 2 And they are in that constant cyclical state of replacing one another.

Speaker 2 And at a certain time, they have to be destroyed and move on. It's pretty wild.

Speaker 2 But anyway, he says this: when I was a child in the 50s, my dad's popular science magazine depicted the idea of a space elevator, which they have in Foundation.

Speaker 2 Trantor is the planet on which which the rulers live and the way you get to Trantor is from a space elevator.

Speaker 2 So anyway, my question is, oh, he says, is the Trantor Starbridge or any type of space elevator technically conceivable? Chef sites in Galatin, Tennessee.

Speaker 2 Okay. Or Gallatin, Tennessee.
The answer is yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes.
But so some things to take note of. Okay.
The motivation for a space elevator is you can get to an orbit without ever firing a rocket.

Speaker 2 There you go. You just, all right.
You just get on the elevator. Get on the elevator.

Speaker 2 Third floor women's lingerie. And where are you going, sir? Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 is that still a joke? Lingerie, that was the big.

Speaker 2 I got it from Bugs Bunny. Okay.

Speaker 2 The real question is, what is an entire floor doing of just lingerie? Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 Nobody's asking that question.

Speaker 2 So I have a friend who composes space music, and she created an album called Space Elevator Music. That's funny.
Right.

Speaker 2 Right. On Earth, a space elevator would take you to the geosynchronous orbit because that's the only orbit that hovers, appears to hover over Earth.
Right. Its corresponding spot on Earth.

Speaker 2 Any orbit that's closer, it will speed up ahead of the orbit of the Earth. Right.
Okay.

Speaker 2 So to have an elevator go from a position on Earth's surface to a position in orbit, it has to go to geosynchronous. And on Earth, that's 23,000 miles.
So you'd be sitting in an elevator

Speaker 2 going 23,000 miles. Wow.
If your elevator were going a thousand miles an hour, how long would it take you to get?

Speaker 2 23,000 hours. No, no.
I mean, a thousand miles an hour, 23 hours. That's a full day.
It's still a full day. It took you one day to get it.
And we already get to space quicker than that. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 Okay. So the idea was getting to space must be so hard with all these rocket engines and things that we need another way.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 access to space now is routine and the price continues to drop, especially because of innovations in SpaceX.

Speaker 2 Elon Musk, it was a big mission statement of his with regard to SpaceX. You hardly hear talk of a space elevator anymore.

Speaker 2 It was a solution solution to a non-problem and you know what fuel we're using hydrogen and oxygen right there's some solid rockard boosters but the main tank is hydrogen twice as big as the oxygen tank you and it's liquefied you put them together they will combine in h2 and o

Speaker 2 okay so the exhaust is what a drinkable

Speaker 2 yeah the exhaust is just water but it's highly exothermic so Space Celebrity is a cool technological achievement, but I don't see it. Highly impractical.
I don't see it happening. All right.

Speaker 2 Well, there you go. That's, but also, though,

Speaker 2 that series is,

Speaker 2 it starts off boring as hell, but then it really gets great.

Speaker 2 So.

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Speaker 7 Hello, I'm Thinky Brooke Allen, and I support Star Talk on Patreon. This is Star Talk with Nailed Grass Tyson.

Speaker 2 All right, this is Raphael who says, hello, Raphael Vigod or Vigod in Toronto, Ontario. If a super intelligent extraterrestrial offered to grant you the answer to one specific question,

Speaker 2 what would you ask? Now, don't think too long because you have to give your immediate

Speaker 2 And we're only here for a few more minutes before their next interstellar train leaps.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 There's a question I have every night. Go ahead.

Speaker 2 Is the human brain sufficiently smart to figure out the entire universe? Wow.

Speaker 2 That's a question I want to answer. Because if it's not, then I'll buffer my expectations.
Right. But if it is,

Speaker 2 then

Speaker 2 onward we march.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 2 The universe is your oyster

Speaker 2 at that point. That's a really interesting question because basically, are we too stupid? Yeah, that's I ask that every night.
Like, we might just be like the whole quantum thing.

Speaker 2 We're like, quantum, quantum, quantum. Like, maybe we're just dumb.

Speaker 2 And it wouldn't be mysterious if we weren't so dumb. Right.
But yeah, it's obvious

Speaker 2 for these reasons, but we can't even understand the reasons. So, yeah.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 I want to know. Inquiring minds want to know.
It's a good question. I mean,

Speaker 2 I like it. Me?

Speaker 2 I would like to know,

Speaker 2 are there cheaper eggs somewhere in the universe than

Speaker 2 where I buy mine right now? Because they're hugely expensive.

Speaker 2 That's really? That's your question.

Speaker 2 My son, you can ask any question in the universe. Right.

Speaker 2 I need some cheaper eggs. Yeah, no.

Speaker 2 What would I ask if I really wanted to know anything?

Speaker 2 Mine would be what happened before the Big Bang. Really? Yeah.
Okay. Like, and I don't mean what happened.
I mean, like, because we know what happened before the Big Bang.

Speaker 2 You know, the Big Bang happened. So

Speaker 2 what caused it to happen? What was there before?

Speaker 2 Give me the lay of land before the Big Bang. Okay.
That'd be kind of cool to know.

Speaker 2 It's an origins problem. An origins problem.
Yeah, and origins questions are always the most challenging in science because you don't have other examples to compare it with.

Speaker 2 And until you do, you're kind of making stuff up. Exactly.
Right. I mean, what's the origin of the Earth? No one knew until we saw planetary systems getting formed.
Right.

Speaker 2 Then we could say, oh, it takes this long with that timeframe at this distance from the host star. You can formulate.

Speaker 2 questions that have value.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 But it'd be kind of cool if the aliens were or the terrestrials were just extraterrestrials were just like, yeah, you know, yeah, this, your, your universe is just one of 15 million that we've been to thus far.

Speaker 2 You know, and before you're, this is what happened. Two other universes got together after a night of drinking and bang, your

Speaker 2 universe was born. So anyway.

Speaker 2 I can't believe you included alcohol

Speaker 2 reference to that. This is Marcus

Speaker 2 Munslinger. And Marcus Munslinger says, hello from Germany.
Or should I say, never mind, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it.

Speaker 2 Did you ever think

Speaker 2 in my accent pronounce sink

Speaker 2 about the alien, an alien not needing any digestive organs since its blood is acid.

Speaker 2 So all human flesh it eats is directly dissolved into molecules. So the alien doesn't need to produce poop since it can use 100% of its food.
Or did you ever see the alien

Speaker 2 take a poop?

Speaker 2 Love your show.

Speaker 2 Who knows about digestive tracts? I mean, we played with Superman's digestive tract and he was an alien. Yes.
Right.

Speaker 2 We solved that one, I think. Yes, we did.

Speaker 2 He has a super digestive tract. He has a super digestive track.
That means everything about it is super. Including the gaseous effluences.
That's right. Right.

Speaker 2 A plant-based alien, however, wouldn't have any such waste products, where its waste product would be oxygen. That's pretty good.
Right. Right.
Right. Right, right.

Speaker 2 So I don't, you know, I'm cool with it. Yeah.
Yeah. It doesn't make a difference.
It's right. A poopless alien is totally fine.
That's right.

Speaker 2 You know, I mean, there's nothing wrong with a poopless alien. Yeah.
But then they have to rewrite that book, that kid's book. Which one? Everybody poops.
Everybody poops.

Speaker 2 That was originally in Italian. Did you know that? I did not.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 That's funny. Speaking of Italy,

Speaker 2 this is an old bad dad joke. Go ahead.
What Italians call suppositories? No, I don't know. In a UN, though.
Oh, no.

Speaker 2 No, please.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 You know that's good.

Speaker 2 You know it's good.

Speaker 2 Oh, man.

Speaker 2 All right. Here we go.
This is Matthew Landreth who says, greetings, Star Talk. My name is Matt, a globe trekking teacher who has lived and taught around the world.
Teacher in the house. There you go.

Speaker 2 Through these experiences, I have seen how much learning depends on human connection. Dr.
Tyson is a fellow teacher and science communicator. You know how ideas ignite in others.

Speaker 2 Science fiction imagines AI tutors or digital replicas guiding future generations. If an AI could replicate a teacher's knowledge, style, and personality, would that truly be teaching?

Speaker 2 Or is the human connection scientifically essential for learning? I love that. So a couple of things.
If you are teaching today

Speaker 2 with methods, tools, and tactics, and then I clone that, I'm not given any reason to think that your clone would not be as effective as you are in those situations. Right.
However,

Speaker 2 you have a life experience, a training, where if someone whose profile doesn't fit that of other students, you will readjust and repackage what you know works

Speaker 2 so that you have a new pathway to reach the intellectual curiosity of that student. I don't know that AI can do that just now.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 2 AI can

Speaker 2 ape your style.

Speaker 2 It can

Speaker 2 dig up some content. But it can't intuit something different that might be happening in a student and make an adjustment.
And make an adjustment, especially if students change, they mature,

Speaker 2 or they regress.

Speaker 2 Right. Right.

Speaker 2 So I think that frontier, at least for my foreseeable future, that is the future that I can foresee,

Speaker 2 remains in the realm of the inventive creative teacher. Interesting.

Speaker 2 Yeah, very cool, very cool. The human condition is still a very important part of teaching.
No, no, it's the ever-changing human condition. Or the ever-changing.
Yes.

Speaker 2 Because otherwise I can memorize everything in that moment. Right.
And then that's watching it go forward in time and be nimble enough to navigate that. That's the real test.
There you go. All right.

Speaker 2 This is DJ Seipe. He says, this is DJ from Maine.

Speaker 2 I've been curious about the properties of space-time and gravity. We know that gravity is the result of objects with mass bending space-time.

Speaker 2 To me, this implies that space-time is naturally flat, but doesn't explain why.

Speaker 2 Is there some force or property of space-time that acts to restore its natural flat state once an object and its gravitational field move away. Perhaps some form of gravitational entropy.

Speaker 2 Ooh, I like that idea. The idea of gravitational entropy.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 So he's looking at this whole rubber sheet type thing. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 So, I mean, all we can say is, by the way, it's not just matter that will bend space's energy as well, because matter and energy are equivalent through equals mc squared. Nice.

Speaker 2 So, just be broad, be more complete, addressing it that that way so if since the curvature of space and time is the manifestation of matter and energy if you remove the matter and energy there's no reason for the space-time to be to be curved at all i'm given no reason to think that space would have any shape other than flat after you remove the the items that would curve it right

Speaker 2 Keep in mind, however, the expanding or contracting universe itself has a shape unrelated to the gravity of objects it contains. Right.

Speaker 2 And this is why we talked about it as an open universe, a closed universe, or a flat universe.

Speaker 2 And those are large-scale properties that are not related to just one galaxy or another. Yeah.
There you go.

Speaker 2 Very cool, man. That's a great question, DJ.

Speaker 2 These people are thinking. I love it.
This is Keith Johnson from NorCal. And Keith says,

Speaker 2 can we think of a universal now

Speaker 2 based on the point of view of an observer? In other words, my now.

Speaker 2 Can we analyze a particular star in the night sky and determine its probable lifespan and then say that this particular star does not, in all probability, exist anymore in my now?

Speaker 2 Its ghost is seen as a shadow of light arriving billions of light years

Speaker 2 after its demise.

Speaker 2 So what's the question in there? So I guess he's saying, is that the case? Like when we look up, are we seeing stuff that's not there? We see things not as they are, but as they once were.

Speaker 2 We're not worried if they're no longer there because that's not a real thing we can interact with. We're interacting with a light that is currently reaching us.

Speaker 2 And when that light was emitted, it was alive, whatever it was. Right.
So.

Speaker 2 So we're looking back in time, but we're looking at that time.

Speaker 2 So it doesn't make a difference.

Speaker 2 Because we're looking at that time. Correct, correct.
It does make a difference. Right.
So

Speaker 2 might as well speak of it in the present. Right.
The star exploded last night. No, it was 1700 years ago.
But what do you gain by that, right?

Speaker 2 Other than like a nerdy kid saying, yeah, you got it wrong. It's not really in the now.
So the fun part would be.

Speaker 2 Find a galaxy 33 light years away. Sorry.
Find a galaxy 33 million light years away. Okay.

Speaker 2 And then if they all held up mirrors

Speaker 2 and you looked at those mirrors, you would see the dinosaurs going extinct.

Speaker 2 Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 Because it's 33 light years there. And 33 light years.
That's 66 years

Speaker 2 into the past. Look at that.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 So.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's fun to think that way.

Speaker 2 Our speeds are not high enough to generate significant relativistic

Speaker 2 phenomena. Gotcha.
Yeah. All right.
Well, there you have it. Still a fun question, though.
Thanks. Thanks for the fun question, buddy.
All right.

Speaker 2 That was Keith, and this is Anthony Calameni. Calamani.
Tony Calamene. Tony Calameni.

Speaker 2 Everyone with a tiny voice does not come from Brooklyn, okay?

Speaker 2 And they do in my world.

Speaker 2 All right. This is

Speaker 2 is Anthony, and he says, Greetings from Seattle. Dr.
Tyson, Lord Nice, my 11-year-old son, and I were discussing the pitfalls of fictional time travel within the space-time continuing.

Speaker 2 Okay, understanding that you have pointed out on many occasions that one would have to calculate not only the space-time location on the target on Earth as it rotates on its axis, revolves around the sun, and the trajectory of our solar system moving through space, but also as our galaxy moves through the universe.

Speaker 2 Well, he covered it all. Look at you, man.
Well, this was the way to go. Our question is,

Speaker 2 would one have to know the center or origin point of the universe to guarantee an accurate space-time coordinate?

Speaker 2 Or would relative distances be enough even if the universe is even if the universe isn't expanding in uniform fashion?

Speaker 2 So he's taking into account the expansion of the universe in the time travel equation as well. Yeah, but I don't, I'm trying to to figure out what he's getting at.

Speaker 2 So he's saying, I'm going to go and come back. That's what he left out.
So I got to go back and then I got to come back to my time.

Speaker 2 Is he going into the past? Into the past. So my coordinate, okay, what am I going to need?

Speaker 2 Can I accurately predict? with not only rotation of the Earth, but the solar system and the galaxy moving and also the expansion of the universe can i actually

Speaker 2 accurately predict the point where i got to go back and be back in time i traveled at the speed of light and or faster than the speed of light went back in time and then come back to that same point where i left can i do that rich gotta i think would say you can okay using sort of mathematical trajectories in the vicinity of black holes i have to trust him on that because i can't duplicate those calculations okay he's a he studied this stuff like professionally.

Speaker 2 So in fact, he wrote a book, Time Travel in Einstein's Universe. All right.
So, in principle, yes. But

Speaker 2 is there a no

Speaker 2 disruption conjecture

Speaker 2 where you're not allowed to prevent your parents from meeting, thereby preventing you from being born, thereby preventing you from coming back to try to rectify things?

Speaker 2 So, hey, Marvin.

Speaker 2 I think I got that sound you were looking for, Marvin.

Speaker 2 No, it's me, your cousin.

Speaker 2 So it's Marvin? No, that's right. He was calling Chuck Berry.
He's Marvin. He's Marvin.
It's me, your cousin, Marvin.

Speaker 2 It's me, your cousin Judge. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chuck Berry. Marvin Berry.
Marvin Berry. Yeah.

Speaker 2 From Back to the Future.

Speaker 2 Living Under a Rock.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 and by the way, I think we talked about this on another episode about gin particles. Yes, we did, which I love.
And so that's a gin song. No, we did a, we didn't explain it.
Explain it.

Speaker 2 So that'd be a gin song. A gin song.
That would be a gin song. A gin song.
Because it didn't exist until Marvin Berry put the phone out and let Chuck Berry hear Johnny Be Good. The song that he wrote.

Speaker 2 He wrote. He wrote.
And then

Speaker 2 Marty picks it up later. Right.
Right. So Marty gets it in the future, but Chuck gets it in the past.
Right.

Speaker 2 And so that song was never actually written. Never actually written.
Right. It just lives in a time loop.
It lives in a time loop. Yeah.
I love that whole gym particle thing, man. That's

Speaker 2 the gin stuff. It's a gin song.
Yeah. So.
What was the other movie we did?

Speaker 2 Oh, it was somewhere in time. It's about a woman with a

Speaker 2 piece of jewelry or something. Somewhere in time.
Somewhere in time, that's the name of it. Yeah.
Okay, cool.

Speaker 2 It's a romantic story. Oh, that's why I don't like that.
Okay.

Speaker 2 So, anyway. I was going to say rom-com, but it's not a comm.
Oh, okay. It's just a rom.
It's just a rom.

Speaker 2 But it had Christopher Reeve in it. Oh, okay.
You know, Superman. All right.
After Superman, after he did it. All right.
Well, he's a handsome guy, you know.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, listen, they can't all be winners.

Speaker 2 He did Superman.

Speaker 2 So, anyway,

Speaker 2 Rich Gott says that this can happen. Yeah, yeah.
So I can't follow his math. Okay.

Speaker 2 But,

Speaker 2 I mean, I follow it, but I couldn't derive it. I mean, he's in.
You got to repeat, right?

Speaker 2 He does it. He does it.
He figures it out. So I just recommend that book of his.
Okay. Time travel and

Speaker 2 universe.

Speaker 2 Very cool. Great question.

Speaker 2 And I just like the fact that you're talking to your 11-year-old about the universe and time travel and such

Speaker 2 specificity, which is fantastic. All right.
This is Todd Chambers who says, hello, Dr. Tyson, the Todd Chambers here from Yuba City, California.
What kind of city? Yuba. Yuba.

Speaker 2 It's right next to Yabadaba Duba.

Speaker 2 Oh, what's that? 1210 from Yuba?

Speaker 2 What's that? The train? I don't know. No, Yuma.
Yuma. Yuma, Yuma, not Yuba.

Speaker 2 310 to Yuma. 310 to Yabadabaduma.
Okay, go on.

Speaker 2 So he says, I'm a retired naval officer and earth science teacher. Nice.

Speaker 2 That's That's a nice combo, right? That's a great combo. Yeah.
He says, does light ever do any work?

Speaker 2 Well, it does light work. No.

Speaker 2 He says,

Speaker 2 I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. I had to do it.
He says, does light ever do any work? Or it does do windows. Right.

Speaker 2 And what would that look like to an observer of the night sky? All right. So there's something called a solar sail.
Yes.

Speaker 2 Where you have a big sort of mylar, low mass, high reflective.

Speaker 2 Mylar is like what they wrap around the. The balloons.

Speaker 2 Balloons are mylar balloons. Yeah.
And I think mylar might be what they wrap around the

Speaker 2 marathon runner. There might be some Mylar variant.

Speaker 2 Flexible, shiny, highly reflective. So it keeps your radiant heat in.
Right. So it can be warm without it being a blanket.
Like, right. Right?

Speaker 2 Because that's all a good blanket does is prevent your heat from getting out. Yeah.
We did a whole explainer on that. We did.
Like 100 years ago. On blankets.
On blankets a hundred years ago. Blanket.

Speaker 2 I love your blanket.

Speaker 2 Right. Many people think if you put a blanket on something, you'll make it warm.
Right. But no.
This has actually been built by funds of membership of the Planetary Society. That's right.

Speaker 2 A good friend of Star Talk is Bill Nye, who is the CEO of the Planetary Society.

Speaker 2 They funded, built, and launched a solar sail. sail.

Speaker 2 And the way it worked is, because it was a test, it was a test

Speaker 2 prototype. So it's orbiting the Earth.

Speaker 2 And if you want to see if light can do work, you open up the solar sail, angle it in ways to your advantage, and see if sunlight can press on that solar sail and increase your orbit around the Earth.

Speaker 2 And it did. Oh, snap.
So the light is doing work. Light is doing work.
Yes. Wow.
Okay. And reflection as propulsive.
Yes. That's amazing.
Yes.

Speaker 2 That's amazing. Yes.
Reflection as propulsive. Yes.
That's awesome. And

Speaker 2 there's something called the Breakthrough Initiative,

Speaker 2 which is a chunk of money. Some billionaires participated in this, where it gives awards for new

Speaker 2 inventions that we think we need, but it just takes some innovative people to do it. Someone wanted, when are we going to have a tricorder? Right.
Just a portable thing.

Speaker 2 And then you have all the reds. There you go.
Okay. That's a useful thing.
Why not? So cool. All right.
So

Speaker 2 one of them is

Speaker 2 a,

Speaker 2 it's called these nano sails.

Speaker 2 These nanoprobes.

Speaker 2 So nano means a billionth of. So people have abused the word.
Right.

Speaker 2 They just use it for anything small well that's because apple came out with the nano and that was the end that's it that was the end yeah there you go that was it they have these nano sails so they're like they fit in your palm they're like the size of a postage stamp attached to it is a huge mylar sail okay

Speaker 2 they get deployed in a rocket launch

Speaker 2 then you have ground-based gigawatt lasers. Oh,

Speaker 2 that is amazing. Beaming these things in the direction you want them to go.
And that propels them forward. Correct.

Speaker 2 And so the goal is to send these to Alpha Century. And you can accelerate it up to like 20% the speed of light.
Yes, because there's nothing to impede it because you're in the background.

Speaker 2 So the laser is. And this thing doesn't weigh very much.
That's awesome. And the sail is huge.
And the laser is powerful. That's awesome.
Right. And so, and you can pack a lot on a post-a-stamp chip.

Speaker 2 Right. Okay.
Like, you know, temperature and radiation field and

Speaker 2 magnetic field. They can do it.
So that's the goal. And so let's see how good you are at math.
I'm not.

Speaker 2 Let's not.

Speaker 2 If it goes, if it reaches 20% the speed of light, and Alpha Century is four light years away. Okay.
How long does it take to get there?

Speaker 2 It'll take

Speaker 2 20.

Speaker 2 Wait, it's four light years away and it's at 20%.

Speaker 2 So one light year would be one year.

Speaker 2 So that's four times that, right?

Speaker 2 Now, five times that.

Speaker 2 Is that your final answer? Right. So it's 20, 20 years, right? Okay, now I'm all confused.

Speaker 2 Yes, 20 years. 20 years.
Yes. Now you know how this craziness works because that's how I do math.
You just expose the wiring of your brain in that moment.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 You see how freaking nuts it is up in there, but I come out to the right stuff. But anyway, 20 years.
Yeah, if you go one-fifth the speed of light, and you're four light years, it'll be

Speaker 2 five times four is 20. So 20 years, that's within people's lifetime who are funding the thing.
And so that was the goal. That's it.

Speaker 2 However,

Speaker 2 it gets there, now it's to send a signal back. Oh, well, that's crazy.
Oh, but that's at the speed of light. Right.
So when do you know what it found there? After how much time? 24 years.

Speaker 2 Chuck.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Super.
We'll give you an honorary degree.

Speaker 2 Just being on the show. Yeah, I was going to say, yes.

Speaker 2 Well, you can. You got like 30 of them up there.
No, 27. Okay.
Nobody's counting.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 Super cool, man.

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Speaker 2 Howdy, partner. Next time you get chicken at McDonald's, you won't have to choose between the creamy flavors of ranch and the tangy kick of buffalo any longer.

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I participate in McDonald's for a limited time.

Speaker 2 This is Dusty Rock, Dusty Rock Creations.

Speaker 2 And Dusty Rock Creations says, hello from Quebec, Canada. Quebec.
Quebec. And he says, this is Jean-François Rock,

Speaker 2 who says, here from Dusty Rock Creations. Oh,

Speaker 2 he's dropping names.

Speaker 2 He says, Mr. Tyson, Lord, nice.
Let's dive into some fascinating questions if you do say so yourself.

Speaker 2 We'll be the judge of that. We'll be the judge of that.

Speaker 2 He says, supermassive black holes at the heart of galaxies hold the key key to understanding how galaxies come into being. Maybe.
Yes. Maybe.

Speaker 2 Let me tell you why it's a maybe.

Speaker 2 Because

Speaker 2 the supermassive black hole has like the big ones, like a billion solar masses. Give them 10 billion, but billions.

Speaker 2 We can Carl Saganify it. Billions.
Billions. Billions.
Right.

Speaker 2 So the mass of a galaxy, however,

Speaker 2 is hundreds of billions

Speaker 2 times the mass of the sun. So maybe the black hole nucleated some things to begin with, but the mass of the galaxy swamps the mass of the black hole.

Speaker 2 So there's a limit to how much you're going to credit the black hole for the whole damn, the kit and the caboodle. Gotcha.

Speaker 2 Let's continue. That's a good, that's a very good point.
He says,

Speaker 2 is it fair to say that entire galaxies will inevitably end up being swallowed by their own black holes and disappear forever.

Speaker 2 No, no, yep, there you go.

Speaker 2 Thank you for being my everyday source of wonder. Oh, thank you.
I love that. Chuck, did you get my name right? I don't know.

Speaker 2 Okay, what's the name? I don't know if I get anybody's name.

Speaker 2 How does he say? Just said his name was Jean-François Rock.

Speaker 2 R-O-Q-U-E? R-R-O-C-K. Oh, Rock.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 But Jean-G-E-A-N dash F-R-A-N-C-I-O-S. Francois.
François. Yeah.
Right? Rock. So maybe I got it right.

Speaker 2 Right, I bet. I bet it is.
Exactly. Okay, heck, you did pretty good.
I'll give you a B plus.

Speaker 2 I mean, I did it best I could, but you know, listen, truth is, if I mispronounce your name, I did you a favor, okay? Because now you got an alias, okay? You got a Star Talk alias.

Speaker 2 So here's the thing:

Speaker 2 a black hole is really tiny relative to the galaxy. They're big.
They're like the size. The billion solar mass black holes are like multiples of the size of the solar system.

Speaker 2 But that's still tiny in the middle of the galaxy. Okay.
Right.

Speaker 2 If it's going to eat the galaxy,

Speaker 2 the matter that's orbiting it has to stop orbiting and fall straight in. Right.
And that's just not going to happen. No, it's not.
Okay. All right.
Maybe stuff nearby,

Speaker 2 here's what will happen. A star will come nearby and tidal forces will stretch it out and you'll get this wispy stream of gas spiraling in down to the black hole.
Then it can make an accretion disk.

Speaker 2 That's what we call them.

Speaker 2 This is where, that's the holding place.

Speaker 2 It's taxiing, ready to go into the black hole.

Speaker 2 As it's falling towards the black hole,

Speaker 2 it's slowing down from the friction of all the other material there, and that energy has to go somewhere, and it goes to heating the accretion disk. Okay.

Speaker 2 So hot, millions of degrees, that it radiates ultraviolet and x-ray light.

Speaker 2 So the x-ray telescopes were the first telescopes to discover black holes because we did the math on what that should look like.

Speaker 2 Point is, you only get these accretion disks from things that are very close, that can be, that trip on

Speaker 2 the matter that'll slow them down. Anybody else doesn't even care that there's a black hole

Speaker 2 there. Right.
Yeah, that's like when you explained that even if our sun became a black hole,

Speaker 2 we would still just be orbiting a black hole now that is our sun. It doesn't have extra gravity.
It doesn't have correct. Because the gravity is due to the mass, and the total mass does not change.

Speaker 2 Yeah, if you turn our,

Speaker 2 it wouldn't happen naturally, but if you had magic hands to do it,

Speaker 2 yeah, it would just be a black hole. And if it's the same mass, it would just still orbit around.
It's just orbiting around that.

Speaker 2 So now we freeze to death. I got it.
Yeah. We freeze to death.

Speaker 2 But Jean-Francois actually has made me have a question. Francois.
So when two galaxies collide,

Speaker 2 do the black holes then

Speaker 2 actually fall into

Speaker 2 one to another and become one giant black hole around that galaxy? They will very likely eventually find each other. Ah.
Okay. They will probably, you look at the dynamics of colliding galaxies.

Speaker 2 Galaxies are mostly empty, by the way. Right.
I had in one of my Merlin, one of the questions in the Merlin book where, what are the chances of two stars colliding just in the galaxy?

Speaker 2 And I said, if there were four bumblebees in the continental United States, the chances are greater that two of them would accidentally bump into each other

Speaker 2 than two stars collide in our galaxy. Damn.

Speaker 2 Did my brother do two bumblebees that hit each other like, you know,

Speaker 2 little bumblebee iggies. No, just, you know, bumblebee stunned clouds over their heads.

Speaker 2 So it's empty. So when the stars, when the galaxies collide, they will pass through one another.
Right. It'll be this cosmic ballet choreographed by the forces of gravity.

Speaker 2 And it'll pulse like that as they pass through each other, come back, collide again. And they keep doing this until it settles down because there's energy dissipated each time that happens.

Speaker 2 And the settling down puts the heavy stuff in the middle, the heavy, slow-moving stuff in the middle, and the faster, lighter stuff in the outer region. That's when the system is settling.
Right.

Speaker 2 And the black holes, they're the heavy thing in the middle. Of course.
So they'll find each other in the middle.

Speaker 2 They'll merge, and you'll get a black hole twice the size you had before. Wow.
Yeah. We got time for one more question.
Oh, this is a very grab bag. I love it.
This was a great one. Yeah.

Speaker 2 This is Patrick. He says, Dr.
Tyson, Lord Nice, just another science nerd here from Texas. Love him.

Speaker 2 What if space-time itself is a super solid lattice where defects create natural time loops that erase paradoxes?

Speaker 2 And the so-called mystery echoes LIGO is hearing are actually the fingerprints of that lattice, meaning we've already stumbled onto evidence of a new state of reality and missed it because we were looking through the wrong lens.

Speaker 2 Wow, Patrick. I like that.
What I like about it is he's thinking of space, the fabric of space-time as a medium. You're right.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 And if you think of it as a medium, we sort of already do, but we think of it as sort of fabric rather. Lattice is a stronger entity than just fabric.
Right. Right.

Speaker 2 If it's a lattice, then you can think about like crystal lattices. And crystal lattices, things happen within them.

Speaker 2 You know, you can have like light behaves in certain ways in one direction versus another.

Speaker 2 Sound goes in different ways because the lattice forces energy to pass through it differently depending on the direction that the energy goes through it.

Speaker 2 And so we would have to propose a series of experiments to check whether phenomena that unfolds within the lattice is different when viewed at different angles.

Speaker 2 That would be, I I think, based on my understanding of

Speaker 2 the geology of a lattice, you know, the rock, rock science

Speaker 2 of lattice, of what a crystal would be. So I think he's saying without saying it that maybe the entire fabric of the universe is a crystal.

Speaker 2 I think he's saying that without saying it. Wow.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 we invented in our lifetime liquid crystal. That's right.
That's your

Speaker 2 wristwater. computer.
I mean, not your computer.

Speaker 2 Yeah, all your screens. Yeah, liquid crystal.

Speaker 2 So this, hmm. Yeah, I don't have a good answer to that other than that's intriguing.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 The universe is a television. There you go.

Speaker 2 Back in the day, nobody has. No, they're

Speaker 2 D Ds.

Speaker 2 Yeah. L C D.
Light emitting diodes, which are better. Liquid crystal displays, right? No more L C D T Vs.
Right. Yeah.
So anyhow, I like it.

Speaker 2 It's very creative. Very creative.
Very creative. Yeah.
Maybe you can develop it further. Yeah, I doubt that.

Speaker 2 Why?

Speaker 2 I'm just hating.

Speaker 2 If you came up with that question,

Speaker 2 of course, no, no, I think it's brilliant what he's came up with. Never gonna find out he's a 10-year-old kid.
Now, that would be impressive. Yeah.

Speaker 2 No, it's very cool, man. All right.
So we got to end it there. Oh, man.
That was a good one. These people, you people, you're amazing.
Chuck, always good to have you, man. Always a pleasure.

Speaker 2 Another installment of Star Talk Cosmic Queries, Grab Bag Edition. Neil deGrasse Tyson wishing you to keep looking up.

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