WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.919 Picture this. You step outside on a perfectly clear, dark night, right, 2 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.480 you look up and the sky feels like this vast, 3 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:14.000 unmoving tapestry. It is quiet. It is just incredibly peaksful. 4 00:00:14.119 --> 00:00:16.160 Yeah, completely serene, exactly. 5 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:19.559 The stars are fixed in their constellations, just twinkling down, 6 00:00:19.640 --> 00:00:23.440 giving us this grand illusion of a clockwork cosmos, like 7 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:27.519 everything is predictably tracing out its orbit exactly where it belongs. 8 00:00:27.640 --> 00:00:29.320 It is a very comforting thought, it is. 9 00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:32.079 But when you strip away that illusion of perspective, like 10 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:34.240 you actually look at the mechanics of what is happening 11 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:36.719 up there, that piece is a complete lie. 12 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:38.679 Oh absolutely, it is total chaos. 13 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:42.719 The cosmos isn't some clockwork machine. It is a chaotic, 14 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:46.840 violently unpredictable arena. I mean, we are orbiting in a 15 00:00:46.920 --> 00:00:51.600 universe filled with invisible wanderers, light speed snipers, and literal 16 00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:55.320 gravitational shredders that completely defy our basic understanding of reality. 17 00:00:55.479 --> 00:00:58.119 It really is the ultimate trick of human perspective. Honestly, 18 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:01.719 we evolved on this tiny blue r to track immediate 19 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:04.599 earthly threats. You know, a predator in the brush, a 20 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:07.480 storm rolling in, or I don't know, a miss deadline right. 21 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:09.959 Our brains are wired for the local stuff exactly. 22 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:13.719 Our stress responses are fundamentally built for the local and 23 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:17.640 the immediate. We perceive tranquility when we look up because 24 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.439 the scale of the universe is just so vast that 25 00:01:20.439 --> 00:01:24.280 the violence takes millions of years to unfold, or it 26 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:26.760 happens so quickly and so far away that the light 27 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:29.040 is just a tiny pinprick by the time. 28 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:32.879 It reaches us, a pinprick that actually represents something completely catastrophic. 29 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:38.359 Yes, the reality of astrophysics is intensely aggressive. The forces 30 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:42.680 at play are so unfathomably violent that they completely redefine 31 00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:44.159 what danger actually means. 32 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:46.519 And that is exactly what we are getting into today. 33 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:49.760 Welcome to Thrilling Threads. We are going to journey through 34 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:53.959 the most mind bending, deeply unsettling, and awe inspiring events 35 00:01:53.959 --> 00:01:54.560 in the universe. 36 00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:56.599 It's going to be a wild ride, it really is. 37 00:01:56.840 --> 00:01:58.400 And I want to be clear right up front to 38 00:01:58.439 --> 00:02:02.040 you listening. The goal here isn't to induce cosmic anxiety. 39 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:04.599 We aren't doing the whole doom and gloom thing. The 40 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:08.159 goal is to reveal how dynamic, how incredibly bizarre, and 41 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:11.599 how active the fabric of reality actually is. We want 42 00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:13.800 to peel back the curtain on the physics that govern 43 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:14.840 everything around. 44 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:17.520 Us, which is an essential shift in perspective. I think 45 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:21.280 if you only view the universe as static, you miss 46 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:24.879 out on the profound mechanics of how things are created, 47 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:28.919 how they evolve, and ultimately how they are destroyed. The 48 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:33.280 universe is an engine, and engines are noisy, volatile things. 49 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:36.439 To really understand our place in it, we have to 50 00:02:36.439 --> 00:02:39.639 look closely at the gears that are grinding together in 51 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:40.120 the dark. 52 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:42.240 That is a great way to put it. So let 53 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:45.840 us start by dismantling a very comforting assumption. When we 54 00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:49.000 think of space, we naturally think of it as neatly 55 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:50.520 organized into solar. 56 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:51.840 Systems, right, the classic model. 57 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:54.120 Yeah, you have a star in the middle and planets 58 00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:57.360 anchored beautifully to it, orbiting in these nice predictable ellipses. 59 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:00.759 The star provides the light, the gravity provides tether but 60 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:04.000 that completely ignores the things that aren't tethered, the things 61 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.639 that are just drifting out there in the absolute dark. 62 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:08.759 Right, the rogue planets. 63 00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:09.360 Exactly. 64 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:12.080 We have this star centric bias when we look at 65 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:15.319 the universe because stars emit photons and photons are what 66 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:18.039 our telescopes collect. We see the light, so we assume 67 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:18.960 the light is where all the. 68 00:03:18.919 --> 00:03:20.800 Action is because it's all we can see. 69 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:25.360 Yes, But the interstellar medium, the vast, seemingly empty spaces 70 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:30.240 between the stars, is actually populated by these invisible wanderers. 71 00:03:30.280 --> 00:03:32.680 And the mechanics of how a planet goes rogue is 72 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.000 fascinating to me because it isn't like they form out 73 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.560 in the middle of nowhere, right. They are born in 74 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:41.879 solar systems just like ours, but they basically get evicted. 75 00:03:41.960 --> 00:03:42.680 They get kicked out. 76 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:43.039 Yeah. 77 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:46.199 Planetary formation is not a polite process at all. When 78 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:49.319 a star is born, it is surrounded by a protoplanetary disk, 79 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:52.280 so a swirling mass of gas and dust. 80 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:54.000 Like a spinning plate of debris. 81 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:57.199 Exactly, and as that material clumps together to form planets, 82 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:01.039 the gravitational interactions are incredibly chaos. You have the n 83 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:02.879 body problem in full effect. 84 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:03.919 Break that down for us. 85 00:04:04.039 --> 00:04:07.159 Sure, So the N body problem refers to how multiple 86 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:11.400 massive objects tug on each other gravitationally. It is wildly unpredictable. 87 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:14.520 In the early days of a solar system. Gas giants 88 00:04:14.520 --> 00:04:17.079 like Jupiter don't just stay put in one nice orbit 89 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:19.319 they migrate inward and outward. 90 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:21.560 Like a bowling ball rolling through a field of marbles. 91 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:24.480 That is a perfect way to visualize it. As a 92 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:29.360 massive gas giant migrates, it exerts immense gravitational influence. If 93 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:32.759 a smaller planet, say something the size of Earth or Mars, 94 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:34.839 happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, 95 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:37.439 it can get caught in a gravitational slingshot. 96 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:40.199 Oh wow, so it just gets whipped around the gas giant. 97 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:44.759 Basically, yes, the orbital resonance essentially transfers a massive amount 98 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:48.399 of kinetic energy from the giant to the smaller planet, 99 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:52.399 accelerating it past the star's escape velocity. And just like that, 100 00:04:52.519 --> 00:04:55.399 it is forcefully ejected from the Solar System entirely. 101 00:04:55.600 --> 00:04:58.000 So it is just cast out into the interstellar void, 102 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:02.240 which means it loses its sun completely. The temperature in 103 00:05:02.279 --> 00:05:05.240 the surface would plummet instantly. We are talking about a 104 00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:09.959 world plunged into eternal, perpetual night, just freezing over, completely 105 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:13.879 drifting silently through the galaxy. There's no day, no seasons, 106 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:16.560 no warmth, just a frozen ghost ship. 107 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:19.920 A completely lightless world. And because they don't emit light 108 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.639 and they aren't reflecting the light of a host star anymore. 109 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:25.639 They are extraordinarily. 110 00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:27.759 Difficult to detect because space is black and they are black. 111 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:31.079 Right. We only catch glimpses of them through a process 112 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:33.079 called gravitational microlensing. 113 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:36.759 Okay, yes, right, where we use Einstein's general relativity to 114 00:05:36.839 --> 00:05:40.240 spot them. Can you explain how that works? Because it 115 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:42.439 is one of the coolest detection methods we have. 116 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:46.160 Honestly, it really is elegant. Einstein taught us that massive 117 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:49.879 objects bend the fabric of space time. So if a 118 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:53.079 rogue planet happens to drift perfectly between our telescopes on 119 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:57.160 Earth and a distant background star, the rogue planet's gravity 120 00:05:57.279 --> 00:05:58.959 acts like a magnifying glass. 121 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:01.360 It warps the space it yes. 122 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:04.199 It bends and focuses the light of the background star 123 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:07.120 for a brief moment, maybe a few days or weeks. 124 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:10.240 That distant background star suddenly gets much brighter and then 125 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:12.600 dims again as the rogue planet moves on, So. 126 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:14.839 We don't actually see the planet itself, We just see 127 00:06:14.839 --> 00:06:17.399 the distortion it causes in the light behind. 128 00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:19.399 It, exactly like seeing a ripple in water. 129 00:06:19.639 --> 00:06:22.560 Right, And based on how many of these microlensing ripples 130 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:26.399 we have actually managed to catch. Astronomers have extrapolated the numbers, 131 00:06:26.839 --> 00:06:29.240 And this is the part that genuinely blew my mind 132 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:30.240 when researching this. 133 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:31.680 The scale is wild. 134 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:35.480 There could be billions, maybe even trillions, of these rogue 135 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:38.600 planets drifting through the Milky Way. There might actually be 136 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.959 more rogue planets wandering the dark than there are stars 137 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:43.240 shining in the whole galaxy. 138 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:47.160 The statistical models heavily suggest that planetary ejection is a 139 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:51.279 standard expected phase of Solar system formation. I mean, our 140 00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:55.120 own solar system likely ejected several planets early in its history. 141 00:06:55.240 --> 00:06:57.279 Really, our Solar system kicked planets out. 142 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:59.839 Oh almost certainly. So, Yes, the void isn't empty. It 143 00:06:59.879 --> 00:07:02.560 is teeming with frozen, exiled worlds. 144 00:07:02.759 --> 00:07:04.399 I try to imagine what it would be like to 145 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:07.040 stand on the surface of one of those. You look 146 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:10.279 up and there's no moon, no sun, just the static 147 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:12.360 background of the Milky Way. And it brings up a 148 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:16.519 slightly unsettling thought. If space is basically a giant, dark 149 00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:20.959 billiard table filled with trillions of invisible balls, what happens 150 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:23.120 if one rolls into our neighborhood. Could a rogue planet 151 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:24.600 just drift right through our Solar System. 152 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:28.839 It's entirely possible. I mean, space is incredibly vast, so 153 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:33.240 the odds of a direct collision with Earth are vanishingly small. However, 154 00:07:33.639 --> 00:07:36.399 if a Jupiter sized rogue planet were to pass through 155 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:39.199 the outer edges of our Solar system, say through the 156 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:43.279 Ort Cloud or the Kuiper Belt, its gravitational wake would 157 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:46.120 disturb millions of icy bodies and commets. 158 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.680 Oh Man, so would send them flying at us. 159 00:07:48.920 --> 00:07:51.680 It could potentially send a barrage of them plunging toward 160 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:54.920 the inner Solar System. Yes, or if it passed close 161 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:57.800 enough to the major planets, it could perturb their orbits. 162 00:07:57.800 --> 00:07:59.439 It wouldn't even need to hit us. It would just 163 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:01.680 need to tug gon Us enough to change our distance 164 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:02.920 from the Sun, which. 165 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:06.000 Would totally wreck our climate. But okay, if rogue planets 166 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:09.079 are the invisible billiard balls of the galaxy, let us 167 00:08:09.079 --> 00:08:11.279 turn the physics up to eleven here, what about the 168 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:16.000 invisible wrecking balls. If planetary migration can kick a planet 169 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:18.639 out of a solar system, can the universe inject something 170 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:20.560 much heavier? Let's see a black hole. 171 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:23.720 Absolutely, we call them rogue black holes, and the mechanics 172 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:25.680 behind how they get cast into the void. Are some 173 00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:28.319 of the most violent processes in astrophysics. 174 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:31.560 Let us unpack that because I think most of us 175 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:35.200 picture black holes as stationary drains. You have the supermassive 176 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:38.440 ones angering the centers of galaxies, or stellar mass ones 177 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:41.799 just sitting where their parents star died, quietly pulling things in. 178 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:44.519 How on Earth does a black hole go rogue? You 179 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:47.600 can't exactly use a Jupiter sized planet to slingshot a 180 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:48.080 black hole. 181 00:08:48.200 --> 00:08:51.840 No, definitely not. You need forces much much more extreme 182 00:08:51.879 --> 00:08:57.360 than planetary migration. One primary mechanism is an asymmetric supernova. Okay, 183 00:08:57.559 --> 00:08:59.919 when a massive star runs out of fuel and it's 184 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:03.559 core collapses into a black hole. The outer layers of 185 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:09.159 the star explode outward. But that explosion isn't always perfectly spherical. 186 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:11.480 Right, So if the stars rotating wildly, or if there 187 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:14.559 are instabilities in the plasma, the explosion can be kind 188 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:15.320 of lopsided. 189 00:09:15.399 --> 00:09:18.639 Precisely, if the supernoa deetondes with slightly more force on 190 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:21.600 one side than the other, conservation of momentum dictates that 191 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:24.600 the newly formed black hole must recoil in the opposite direction, 192 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:29.200 like a gunfiring. Yes, exactly, it receives what astrophysicists call 193 00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:32.679 a natal kick, and these kicks can be incredibly powerful. 194 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:35.919 They can accelerate the black hole to millions of miles 195 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:38.799 per hour, which is easily enough to break free of 196 00:09:38.840 --> 00:09:42.279 its local stellar neighborhood and send it hurtling through the 197 00:09:42.279 --> 00:09:43.279 galactic arm. 198 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:46.519 A needle kick. So the star dies, gives birth to 199 00:09:46.519 --> 00:09:49.240 a black hole and basically blasts it out of a 200 00:09:49.279 --> 00:09:51.679 cannon in the process. That is one way, and there's 201 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:54.480 another way, too, right, involving gravitational ways. 202 00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:57.600 Yes, and this one happens on a much larger scale 203 00:09:58.039 --> 00:10:02.000 when two supermassive black hole merge, which usually happens when 204 00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:05.919 two entire galaxies collide. They spiral into each other. As 205 00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:08.440 they do, they emit massive amounts of energy in the 206 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:10.320 form of gravitational waves. 207 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:13.480 Which are literally ripples in the fabric of space time itself. 208 00:10:13.559 --> 00:10:16.159 Exactly now. If the two black holes have different masses 209 00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:21.320 or different spin rates, those gravitational waves are emitted asymmetrically. 210 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:22.919 Meaning more space time ripples are being fired off in 211 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:24.440 one direction than another. 212 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:28.000 Exactly right, space time acts like a fluid in this scenario. 213 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:32.639 The asymmetry gives the newly merged ultra massive black hole, 214 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:37.879 a massive recoil kick. It is the universe's ultimate rocket thruster, 215 00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:42.000 using space time itself as the propellant. That is insane, 216 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:45.600 it is this can eject a supermassive black hole completely 217 00:10:45.639 --> 00:10:48.039 out of its host galaxy, leaving it to drift through 218 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:49.159 intergalactic space. 219 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:53.039 Okay, so we have these invisible gravitational monsters, either stillar 220 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:56.240 mass or supermassive, just hurtling through the dark, and just 221 00:10:56.320 --> 00:10:59.399 like roade planets, they emit absolutely zero light. The event 222 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:02.799 horizon traps every single photon. So we have this major 223 00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:05.960 detection problem. A rogue black hole could be wandering through 224 00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:08.480 our spiral arm right now and we wouldn't see it 225 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:10.799 coming until it started warping the light of the stars 226 00:11:10.840 --> 00:11:11.279 behind it. 227 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:13.399 And we have actually detected a few of these candidates 228 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:17.320 using that same gravitational microlensing technique we discussed for rogue planets. 229 00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:19.720 The light distortion is just much more severe and it 230 00:11:19.799 --> 00:11:21.759 lasts longer because the mass is so much greater. 231 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:24.480 I have to ask, if one of these stellar mass 232 00:11:24.559 --> 00:11:27.759 rogue black holes wandered into our solar system, what exactly 233 00:11:27.799 --> 00:11:29.600 are we looking at? Like, do we get sucked in. 234 00:11:29.879 --> 00:11:33.120 We most likely do not get sucked in. Oh really, yeah, 235 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:36.600 The physical size of a stellar mass black hole its 236 00:11:36.679 --> 00:11:41.759 actual event horizon is surprisingly small. We are talking maybe 237 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:43.519 only a few dozen kilometers across. 238 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:44.519 Wait, that is tiny. 239 00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:47.159 It is The danger isn't that it acts like a 240 00:11:47.159 --> 00:11:50.679 cosmic vacuum kinner directly over Earth. The danger, just like 241 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:54.120 with the rogue planet, but magnified thousands of times, is 242 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:55.440 the gravitational disruption. 243 00:11:55.679 --> 00:11:58.240 Because gravity has an infinite reach, right just drops off 244 00:11:58.279 --> 00:11:59.919 according to the inverse square. 245 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:03.399 Logsrect So as the rogue black hole enters the Solar System, 246 00:12:03.480 --> 00:12:06.759 it begins a certain gravitational dominance. It would warp the 247 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:10.480 orbits of the outer planets. First. If it passed near Jupiter, 248 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:14.080 the delicate gravitational dance of the Solar System would be 249 00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:15.720 irreparably broken. 250 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:16.600 Just completely ruined. 251 00:12:16.840 --> 00:12:20.840 Yes, Earth's orbit, which is normally relatively circular, could become 252 00:12:21.159 --> 00:12:22.039 highly elliptical. 253 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:24.720 Oh wow, So for one half of the year we 254 00:12:24.759 --> 00:12:27.879 are pulled dangerously close to the sun ocean's boiling, and 255 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:30.000 then the other half we are flung out into the 256 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:31.519 freezing depths past Mars. 257 00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:36.159 Yes, we'd experience catastrophic Melankovitch cycles on steroids. 258 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:37.919 It sounds miserable, and. 259 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:39.840 That is actually the best case scenario. 260 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:41.679 Wait, that is the best case. 261 00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:44.919 The worst case scenario is that the gravitational perturbation from 262 00:12:44.919 --> 00:12:48.120 the black hole is so severe that it transfers enough 263 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:50.960 orbital energy to Earth to eject us from the Solar 264 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:54.039 system entirely. Oh no, the black hole just passes through, 265 00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:57.559 barely slowing down and leaves Earth as a rogue planet, 266 00:12:57.600 --> 00:12:59.600 itself freezing in the dark, just. 267 00:13:00.039 --> 00:13:03.200 Our own eviction. Notice. Wow, it really forces you to 268 00:13:03.240 --> 00:13:06.720 realize that the safety of our Solar system relies entirely 269 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:09.840 on the fact that space is unimaginably vast. It is 270 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:12.799 mostly empty volume. We are safe because the odds of 271 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:15.440 a direct hit are low, not because our neighborhood is 272 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:17.120 inherently peaceful exactly. 273 00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:19.200 Distance is our primary shield. 274 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:21.879 But distance doesn't mean anything if the threat moves at 275 00:13:21.879 --> 00:13:24.639 the cosmic speed limit. A rogue black hole has to 276 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:27.399 physically cross the physical space to get to us, which 277 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:30.279 takes millions of years. But let us shift gears to 278 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:34.120 a class of cosmic events where distance offers absolutely no warning. 279 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:36.840 Let us talk about the light speed snipers, things that 280 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:39.039 move at two hundred ninetynine thousand, seven hundred and ninety 281 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:41.200 two kilometers per second. By the time you see them, 282 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:42.320 you are already caught in them. 283 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:46.679 Gamma ray bursts gamma ray bursts, or GRBs, are profoundly 284 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:49.759 terrifying when you understand their mechanics. These are the most 285 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:52.559 energetic electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. 286 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:55.759 To put the energy scale in perspective for everyone, in 287 00:13:55.799 --> 00:13:58.559 a matter of a few seconds, a GRB can release 288 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:01.320 more energy than are in entire Sun will produce in 289 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:05.240 its entire ten billion year lifespan. It outshines the entire 290 00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:09.200 observable universe for a fleeting moment. But what is actually 291 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:12.159 happening physically to generate that much raw power. 292 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:16.000 Well, there are two main types, short and long duration GRBs, 293 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:18.039 but let us focus on the long ones, which are 294 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:21.399 generally associated with the collapser model. This happens when a 295 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:25.080 massive rapidly rotating star something like a wolf rayet star, 296 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:28.159 which has already stripped away its outer hydrogen envelope, reaches 297 00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:28.679 the end. 298 00:14:28.600 --> 00:14:30.679 Of its life, so the core runs out of fuel 299 00:14:30.840 --> 00:14:33.759 and gravity wins the fight. The core collapses in on 300 00:14:33.799 --> 00:14:35.080 itself to form a black hole. 301 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:38.720 Yes, but The key here is the rapid rotation. Because 302 00:14:38.759 --> 00:14:42.360 the star is spinning so incredibly fast, when the core collapses, 303 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:46.799 the infalling material doesn't just drop straight down. Conservation of 304 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:50.519 angular momentum forces the material to form a rapidly spinning 305 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:53.919 accretion disk around the newly forming black hole, like. 306 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:57.039 Water swirling down a drain, rather than just dropping straight 307 00:14:57.080 --> 00:14:57.440 into it. 308 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:01.440 Precisely, and this plasma in the acretion disk is incredibly 309 00:15:01.559 --> 00:15:04.879 hot and dense, which means the magnetic fields of the 310 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:08.279 star get wound up. They get twisted into this impossibly tight, 311 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:10.000 hyperdense magnetic coil. 312 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:11.480 Okay I can picture that this. 313 00:15:11.480 --> 00:15:15.000 Magnetic dynamo channels a fraction of the infalling material away 314 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:17.720 from the black hole and blasts it outward along the 315 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:19.039 star's axis of rotation. 316 00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:21.639 So it fires two jets of material out from the pole. 317 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:25.399 Yes, but these jets are moving at relativistic speeds, meaning 318 00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:27.919 ninety nine point nine to nine percent the speed of light. 319 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:30.960 As these jets plow through the outer layers of the 320 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:34.720 dying star, they accelerate even more internal shock waves within 321 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:37.399 the jet, where faster moving material catches up to slower 322 00:15:37.399 --> 00:15:40.559 moving material create these intense bursts of gamma radiation. 323 00:15:40.919 --> 00:15:44.639 It really is a cosmic shotgun. It doesn't explode outward 324 00:15:44.679 --> 00:15:48.480 in a sphere like a normal supernova. All that unimaginable 325 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:52.759 energy is focused into these two incredibly narrow, tight beams, 326 00:15:53.519 --> 00:15:57.320 which means the danger isn't simply that a GRB happens 327 00:15:57.399 --> 00:16:00.600 somewhere in our galaxy. The danger is entirely dependent on 328 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:03.679 whether the barrel of that magnetic shotgun happens to be 329 00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:05.879 pointing directly at Earth when the star dies. 330 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:09.679 It is a massive game of cosmic Russian roulette because 331 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:12.480 the beam is so tightly collimated. If we aren't in 332 00:16:12.519 --> 00:16:15.159 the direct line of sight, we might barely even notice it. 333 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.240 But if a GRB fired within say three to eight 334 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:20.879 thousand light years of US, and the pole was aimed 335 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:23.879 right at our Solar system, the implications for Earth would 336 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:24.600 be devastating. 337 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:28.039 It wouldn't physically incinerate the planet right, the dangerous to 338 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:28.799 the atmosphere. 339 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:32.159 Correct. Gamma rays are highly energetic photons. If a beme 340 00:16:32.200 --> 00:16:35.159 of gamma rays washed over Earth, it would interact violently 341 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:37.639 with our atmosphere, so specifically, it would break apart the 342 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:41.200 nitrogen and oxygen molecules. These would then recombine to form 343 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:42.799 nitrogen oxides. 344 00:16:42.279 --> 00:16:44.600 Which are completely terrible for the ozone layer. 345 00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:47.639 They would act as a catalyst to aggressively deplete the 346 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:50.759 ozone layer, potentially destroying up to fifty percent of it 347 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:53.399 in a matter of days or weeks. Wow, And the 348 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:58.360 ozone layer is our planetary shield against the Sun's ultraviolet radiation. 349 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:03.720 Without it, lethal levels of UV radiation would reach the surface. 350 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.519 Well phytoplankton would die off, disrupting the base of the 351 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:11.720 entire oceanic food chain. DNA mutation rates with skyrocket crops 352 00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:14.799 would fail. It would be a mass extinction event driven 353 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:17.359 by our own Sun, but initiated by a dead star 354 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:18.799 thousands of light years away. 355 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:21.920 And the paleontological record actually suggests this might not just 356 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:25.240 be a theoretical exercise. Yeah. Many researchers believe that the 357 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:28.799 Ordovision Silurian mass extinction, which happened roughly four hundred and 358 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:31.319 forty million years ago and wiped out eighty five percent 359 00:17:31.359 --> 00:17:34.799 of marine species, could have been triggered by a relatively 360 00:17:34.839 --> 00:17:38.279 close gamma ray burst. The fossil evance shows a sudden 361 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:40.640 die off of shallow water organisms that would have been 362 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:43.000 most vulnerable to a spike in UV radiation. 363 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:46.680 That is just chilling. And here's the thing that really 364 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:49.759 gets into my skin about GRBs. We wouldn't see it 365 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:52.680 coming because gamma rays are light. They travel exactly at 366 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:56.000 the speed of light. The radiation beam arrives at the 367 00:17:56.079 --> 00:17:59.440 exact same instant as the visual flash of the star exploding. 368 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:03.680 There is no early warning system. One second you're enjoying 369 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:06.720 a sunny afternoon, and the next second the chemistry of 370 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:09.200 the upper atmosphere is irrevocably altered. 371 00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:12.720 It perfectly illustrates the limits of our perception. We are 372 00:18:12.759 --> 00:18:13.480 bound by the. 373 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:15.680 Speed of light, but at least a gamma a burst 374 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:19.319 is an explosion of stuff within the universe. It's radiation 375 00:18:19.400 --> 00:18:22.240 moving through space. But let us move to another zero 376 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:25.279 warning event that is fundamentally different, something that doesn't just 377 00:18:25.319 --> 00:18:29.279 destroy matter, but actually destroy space itself. Let us talk 378 00:18:29.279 --> 00:18:32.319 about false vacuum decay. This is widely considered one of 379 00:18:32.319 --> 00:18:35.640 the most existentially terrifying concepts in quantum mechanics. 380 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:38.279 It is the ultimate paradigm shift because it forces us 381 00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:42.160 to question the stability of reality itself. To understand it, 382 00:18:42.200 --> 00:18:44.759 we have to look at the concept of a vacuum. 383 00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:48.759 In classical physics, a vacuum is just empty space. But 384 00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:53.519 in quantum field theory, empty space isn't truly empty. It 385 00:18:53.559 --> 00:18:57.559 is filled with quantum fields, like the electromagnetic field or 386 00:18:57.640 --> 00:19:01.440 the Higgs field, that permeate everything, and these fields. 387 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:04.640 Have energy levels. A system in nature always wants to 388 00:19:04.680 --> 00:19:08.200 seek its lowest possible energy state, like water flowing down 389 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:09.480 a mountain to reach sea level. 390 00:19:09.640 --> 00:19:14.160 Exactly, we call the lowest possible energy state the true vacuum. Now, 391 00:19:14.200 --> 00:19:16.200 the raining assumption for a long time was that our 392 00:19:16.279 --> 00:19:18.960 universe is currently operating in the true vacuum state. But 393 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:21.079 when the mass of the Higgs bosin was discovered in 394 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:24.960 twenty twelve, physicists crunched the numbers and realized something highly 395 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:26.839 disturbing about the Higgs field potential. 396 00:19:27.079 --> 00:19:29.759 The Higgs field is the field that gives fundamental particles 397 00:19:29.799 --> 00:19:32.480 their mass, right it determines how heavy an electronic or 398 00:19:32.519 --> 00:19:33.039 a quark is. 399 00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:35.400 Yes, and the mat suggests that the Higgs field might 400 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:37.519 not be resting at the true vacuum. It might be 401 00:19:37.559 --> 00:19:39.000