Weird Stars, Constellations, Distances & Space Mysteries
This podcast explores the Universe's weirdest stars, from stellar oddballs like diamond and squashed stars, to ancient ones and binary pairs. It also delves into unexplained cosmic transients, including mysterious radio signals from the Galactic Center and historical vanishing starlike points. The overview details methods for measuring vast distances in space using the cosmic distance ladder, parallax, and standard candles such as Type Ia supernovae, employing units like lightyears and parsecs. Additionally, it covers the nature and observation of constellations as celestial landmarks, and the discovery of massive neutron stars and pulsars.
0.000000 4.440000 Welcome to everyday explained, your daily 20-minute dive into the fascinating house and
4.440000 6.320000 wise of the world around you.
6.320000 10.180000 I'm your host, Chris, and I'm excited to help you discover something new.
10.180000 11.180000 Let's get started.
11.180000 12.840000 Welcome to The Deep Dive.
12.840000 16.240000 Today, we're really heading out there deep into the cosmos.
16.240000 21.040000 We're going to treat wrapper heads around the sheer scale of space, how astronomers actually
21.040000 27.680000 measure those mind-boggling distances, and we'll look at those patterns in the sky,
27.680000 29.720000 constellations, what they really are.
29.720000 33.600000 Plus, stick around for some genuinely strange stuff happening out there.
33.600000 34.600000 Absolutely.
34.600000 37.600000 We've got some great source material you sent over, it covers the methods for distance,
37.600000 42.200000 measurement, the nature of constellations, and some really peculiar stars and events.
42.200000 47.680000 So our mission today is basically to pull out the key ideas, connect some dots, and maybe
47.680000 49.500000 uncover a few surprises along the way.
49.500000 51.040000 Okay, let's dive right in.
51.040000 52.040000 Distances.
52.040000 53.520000 When you look up, it's just stars everywhere.
53.520000 56.440000 How on earth do we know how far away any of them are?
56.440000 59.740000 I mean, miles or kilometers just seem totally inadequate, right?
59.740000 60.740000 Oh, completely.
60.740000 62.840000 The numbers become astronomical, literally.
62.840000 66.080000 That's why astronomers developed what's called the cosmic distance ladder.
66.080000 70.400000 It's basically a sequence of techniques, each one building on the one before it, to measure
70.400000 71.400000 further and further out.
71.400000 72.400000 A ladder.
72.400000 73.400000 Okay, that makes sense.
73.400000 77.280000 So what's the first rung, like, for stuff nearby?
77.280000 83.700000 Well, for things inside our solar system, say planets, moons, asteroids, up to maybe a billion
83.700000 85.100000 kilometers or so.
85.100000 86.100000 We use radar ranging.
86.100000 91.680000 We literally shoot radio waves at, say, Venus or Mars, and time.
91.680000 93.900000 How long it takes for the reflection to come back?
93.900000 95.820000 Like a cosmic echo sounder.
95.820000 96.820000 Exactly.
96.820000 98.580000 Longer travel time means further away.
98.580000 100.580000 It's super precise for our own neighborhood.
100.580000 101.580000 Right.
101.580000 102.580000 But that won't work for stars.
102.580000 103.580000 They're way too far.
103.580000 104.580000 What's next?
104.580000 105.580000 That's where parallax comes in.
105.580000 107.740000 It's a really fundamental method.
107.740000 109.220000 You can actually see the principle yourself.
109.220000 112.080000 Just hold your finger out in front of you, close one eye than the other.
112.080000 114.420000 See how your finger seems to shift against the background?
114.420000 115.420000 Yeah.
115.420000 116.420000 And decide.
116.420000 117.420000 Right.
117.420000 122.060000 So imagine Earth is your head and your eyes are Earth's position six months apart in its orbit
122.060000 123.060000 around the sun.
123.060000 127.940000 A relatively nearby star will appear to shift slightly against the very distant background
127.940000 129.740000 stars as we orbit.
129.740000 130.740000 Ah, I see.
130.740000 132.980000 So we measure that tiny apparent jump.
132.980000 133.980000 Precisely.
133.980000 138.180000 The closer the star, the bigger the jump or parallax angle.
138.180000 139.180000 We measure that angle.
139.180000 142.380000 Use a bit of trigonometry and calculate the distance.
142.380000 146.660000 Great for stars up to, say, 10,000 light years out.
146.660000 151.100000 Beyond that, the shift is just too small to measure accurately from Earth, even with our
151.100000 152.100000 best telescopes.
152.100000 155.620000 10,000 light years is pretty far, but galaxies are much further.
155.620000 157.780000 So the latter needs more rungs.
157.780000 158.780000 It does.
158.780000 162.100000 For those greater distances, we need things called standard candles.
162.100000 164.580000 Standard candles like cosmic light bulbs.
164.580000 165.580000 Kind of.
165.580000 166.580000 Yeah.
166.580000 169.060000 They're objects where we know they're true intrinsic brightness, how luminous they really
169.060000 170.060000 are.
170.060000 171.140000 The idea is simple.
171.140000 175.580000 If you know how bright something truly is, then how dim it appears tells you how far away
175.580000 176.580000 it is.
176.580000 177.580000 Fainter means further.
177.580000 178.580000 Right.
178.580000 179.580000 Makes sense.
179.580000 181.220000 So what qualifies as a standard candle?
181.220000 185.220000 Two really important ones are Seffi variables and type 1a supernovae.
185.220000 187.820000 Seconds are these fascinating stars that actually pulsate.
187.820000 191.620000 They get bigger and smaller, brighter and dimmer on a really regular cycle.
191.620000 192.620000 Yeah.
192.620000 195.660000 And the crucial discovery was that the period of this pulsation, how long it takes to go
195.660000 199.900000 from bright to dim and back, is directly linked to its actual luminosity.
199.900000 205.140000 So measure the period, you know the true brightness, compare that to how bright it looks, bingo
205.140000 208.300000 you've got the distance, works out to maybe 100 million light years.
208.300000 209.300000 Okay.
209.300000 210.300000 That's a huge jump.
210.300000 213.300000 And type 1a supernovae sounds dramatic.
213.300000 214.300000 Oh, they are.
214.300000 217.380000 These are incredibly powerful stellar explosions.
217.380000 222.700000 They happen specifically when a white dwarf star in a binary system steals too much gas from
222.700000 223.700000 its companion.
223.700000 228.340000 It reaches a critical mass, about 1.4 times the mass of our sun, the Chanda Sikar limit
228.340000 232.940000 and goes boom, a massive predictable explosion, predictable brightness.
232.940000 233.940000 Exactly.
233.940000 237.720000 They all reach roughly the same peak luminosity, which is incredibly bright, brighter than
237.720000 241.540000 whole galaxies for a short time, because they're so bright and consistent, we can see them
241.540000 245.780000 across enormous distances, like halfway across the observable universe, they're crucial
245.780000 246.780000 for cosmology.
246.780000 247.780000 Wow.
247.780000 250.700000 Using exploding stars as measuring sticks.
250.700000 251.700000 Okay.
251.700000 254.820000 Briefly, you mentioned Tully Fisher, right, the Tully Fisher relation.
254.820000 259.580000 That links a spiral galaxies brightness to how fast it spins, brighter, more massive
259.580000 260.780000 galaxies spin faster.
260.780000 264.940000 It's another tool, good out to maybe 15 million light years or so.
264.940000 268.500000 And for the really, really distant stuff, the edge of what we can see.
268.500000 270.380000 That's where redshift comes in.
270.380000 274.940000 Thanks to the expansion of the universe, light from very distant galaxies gets stretched
274.940000 277.060000 as it travels towards us.
277.060000 281.980000 This stretching shifts the light towards the red end of the spectrum, hence redshift.
281.980000 286.740000 The further away it galaxies is, the faster it's receiving from us due to expansion and
286.740000 287.820000 the greater its redshift.
287.820000 292.060000 So redshift is like a cosmic speedometer that also tells us distance.
292.060000 293.060000 In a way, yes.
293.060000 297.300000 It's our main tool for mapping the large scale structure and the most distant objects billions
297.300000 298.300000 of light years away.
298.300000 299.300000 Okay.
299.300000 300.300000 The techniques are amazing.
300.300000 301.300000 But let's talk units again.
301.300000 302.300000 Miles are out.
302.300000 303.300000 What do astronomers actually use?
303.300000 304.300000 Yeah.
304.300000 308.100000 The numbers get silly fast, like 2.7 with 23 zeros miles to the edge.
308.100000 309.260000 No thanks.
309.260000 312.460000 So the first step up is the astronomical unit or AU.
312.460000 314.980000 That's the average distance between the earth and the sun.
314.980000 316.980000 About 93 million miles, right?
316.980000 317.980000 Roughly.
317.980000 318.980000 Yeah.
318.980000 319.980000 Or about 150 million kilometers.
319.980000 322.580000 It's our basic yardstick for the solar system.
322.580000 325.900000 People like Archimedes tried to figure it out ages ago.
325.900000 330.020000 And Cassini and Richard got a much better value in the 17th century.
330.020000 331.020000 Foundational stuff.
331.020000 332.020000 Okay.
332.020000 333.460000 AU for inside the solar system.
333.460000 334.460000 Then what?
334.460000 335.780000 Then we jump to the light year.
335.780000 336.780000 Probably the most famous one.
336.780000 339.340000 It's just the distance light travels in one year.
339.340000 340.580000 Which is huge.
340.580000 346.100000 It is about 9.5 trillion kilometers or nearly 6 trillion miles.
346.100000 349.300000 What's really cool about the light year is it connects distance and time.
349.300000 351.380000 You mean the whole looking back and time thing?
351.380000 352.380000 Exactly.
352.380000 354.460000 The light from the sun takes about 8.3 minutes to reach us.
354.460000 355.460000 Yes.
355.460000 357.620000 So we always see the sun as it was 8.3 minutes ago.
357.620000 358.620000 Wow.
358.620000 364.060000 The nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, with Proxima Centauri, is about 4.3 light years
364.060000 365.060000 away.
365.060000 367.300000 You can see them as they were 4.3 years in the past.
367.300000 368.540000 And then drama to Galaxy.
368.540000 370.460000 That bright smudge you can sometimes see.
370.460000 372.940000 That light left 2.5 million years ago.
372.940000 374.380000 Two and a half million years.
374.380000 382.300000 And the farthest known galaxy, GNZ 11, it's light has been traveling for 13.4 billion years.
382.300000 387.140000 We're seeing it as it was just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, a baby picture
387.140000 388.140000 of the universe.
388.140000 389.140000 That's just staggering.
389.140000 390.140000 Okay.
390.140000 391.700000 And then there's the parsec that always makes me think of Star Wars.
391.700000 397.900000 Ah, yes, the Kessel Run, Han Solo's boast about making it in less than 12 parsecs.
397.900000 400.300000 Which always sounded wrong, isn't parsec distance?
400.300000 401.300000 It absolutely is.
401.300000 406.760000 One parsec is about 3.26 light years, or roughly 30 trillion kilometers.
406.760000 408.900000 Its name actually comes from how it's defined.
408.900000 413.780000 It's the distance at which one parallax second of arc is subtended by one astronomical unit.
413.780000 414.780000 Okay.
414.780000 416.620000 Bit technical, but it relates back to parallax.
416.620000 417.620000 Exactly.
417.620000 421.100000 As for Han, well, the solo movie tried to retcon, suggesting he took a shorter route,
421.100000 422.100000 measuring distance, not time.
422.100000 426.220000 But yeah, originally it was just a cool sounding bit of space, charging to use slightly incorrectly.
426.220000 427.220000 It's still fun though.
427.220000 428.220000 Definitely fun.
428.220000 432.460000 So AU, light year, parsec, and then bigger versions.
432.460000 433.460000 Yep.
433.460000 440.860000 For really vast scales, we use kiloparsecs, thousands, megaparsecs, millions, and gigaparsecs,
440.860000 441.860000 billions.
441.860000 446.540000 The edge of the visible universe is about 14 gigaparsecs away, makes the numbers a bit
446.540000 447.540000 more manageable.
447.540000 448.540000 Okay.
448.540000 454.160000 From then, in our own Milky Way galaxy, what's the sort of average spacing between stars?
454.160000 456.040000 Are we crowded or spread out?
456.040000 459.100000 It feels crowded when you look up, but space is mostly empty.
459.100000 462.540000 The average distance between stars and our galactic neighborhood is around five light
462.540000 463.540000 years.
463.540000 467.180000 So Proxima Centauri at 4.3 light years is actually pretty typical.
467.180000 468.180000 Yeah.
468.180000 469.180000 Very typical for our neck of the woods.
469.180000 470.180000 Okay.
470.180000 472.100000 So we have a handle on the immense distances.
472.100000 475.860000 Now let's shift to those patterns we see, the constellations.
475.860000 478.820000 What exactly is a constellation scientifically speaking?
478.820000 482.580000 Well officially, a constellation is one of 88 defined regions of the sky, kind of like
482.580000 484.620000 celestial states or countries.
484.620000 488.780000 But what most people think of as a constellation is a pattern formed by bright stars within
488.780000 489.940000 that region.
489.940000 493.500000 And the crucial thing to remember, as you said earlier, is that the stars making up a pattern
493.500000 495.580000 are almost never physically related.
495.580000 497.380000 They just look close together from here.
497.380000 498.380000 Exactly.
498.380000 499.700000 It's purely a line of side effect.
499.700000 501.500000 Take Orion, the hunter.
501.500000 503.580000 Everyone knows Orion's belt, right?
503.580000 505.260000 Super recognizable in the winter sky.
505.260000 506.260000 Definitely.
506.260000 507.740000 But look at the distances.
507.740000 513.100000 Beetlejuice, the reddish shoulder star, about 640 light years away, bellatrix, the other
513.100000 519.540000 shoulder, only 250 light years, alnolum, the middle star in the belt, almost 1,400 light
519.540000 520.540000 years away.
520.540000 521.540000 Wow.
521.540000 522.540000 So they're nowhere near each other?
522.540000 523.540000 Not even close.
523.540000 528.620000 They just form that familiar shape from our particular vantage point in the galaxy.
528.620000 533.020000 Someone in a star system orbiting Beetlejuice would see a totally different night sky.
533.020000 534.860000 It really changes how you see them.
534.860000 538.660000 And our view changes, too, depending on where we are in the time of year.
538.660000 539.660000 Absolutely.
539.660000 543.860000 If you're in the southern hemisphere, you see constellations like crux, the southern cross,
543.860000 546.220000 that aren't visible from most of the north.
546.220000 551.140000 And as earth orbits the sun, the constellations visible at night change.
551.140000 555.380000 The ones behind the sun during the day become visible at night six months later.
555.380000 556.380000 Okay.
556.380000 559.020000 So constellations are the official regions and patterns.
559.020000 560.740000 But what about things like the Big Dipper?
560.740000 562.660000 I always call that a constellation.
562.660000 564.940000 It's a really common point of confusion.
564.940000 567.580000 The Big Dipper is actually an asterism.
567.580000 568.580000 Asterism.
568.580000 569.580000 What's that?
569.580000 573.580000 An asterism is just a recognizable popular pattern of stars.
573.580000 577.420000 It might be part of a larger constellation where it might even draw stars from multiple
577.420000 578.420000 constellations.
578.420000 579.420000 Oh, okay.
579.420000 581.580000 So the Big Dipper is an asterism inside.
581.580000 584.700000 Inside the official constellation or some major, the great bear.
584.700000 587.900000 The Dipper is just the brightest, most obvious part.
587.900000 588.900000 Gotcha.
588.900000 590.220000 What are some other examples?
590.220000 594.620000 Well, there's the southern cross, which is an asterism within the constellation crux.
594.620000 599.260000 The Pleiades star cluster, the seven sisters, that's an asterism in Taurus.
599.260000 602.660000 And then you have asterisms made from stars in different constellations like the summer
602.660000 608.660000 triangle that uses Vega from Lyra, to Neb from Cygnus and Altair from Aquila.
608.660000 613.060000 Or the teapot asterism in Sagittarius, which famously points towards the center of our
613.060000 614.060000 Milky Way galaxy.
614.060000 615.660000 That's a useful distinction.
615.660000 618.260000 So how have people used these patterns historically?
618.260000 619.580000 Obviously, there's mythology.
619.580000 621.300000 Oh, tons of mythology.
621.300000 625.620000 Greek and Roman myths are tied to many northern constellations, but every culture has its
625.620000 627.820000 own stories projected onto the stars.
627.820000 630.180000 It's fascinating to compare them.
630.180000 633.260000 But beyond stories, they were incredibly practical.
633.260000 634.660000 Navigation was huge.
634.660000 636.980000 Sailors navigated by the stars for centuries.
636.980000 639.780000 Polaris, the north star for finding north.
639.780000 641.620000 Other constellations for latitude.
641.620000 646.660000 NASA astronauts still train on celestial navigation, believe it or not, as a backup system.
646.660000 647.660000 Wow, really?
647.660000 648.660000 Yep.
648.660000 652.020000 And constellations were vital seasonal markers for agriculture.
652.020000 655.860000 When certain constellations appeared in the evening sky, it's signaled time to plant
655.860000 657.380000 or harvest.
657.380000 660.900000 Like Orion rising meant winter was coming from many ancient cultures.
660.900000 663.700000 So the sky was like a giant clock in calendar.
663.700000 666.460000 Now we have to touch on astrology versus astronomy.
666.460000 667.460000 Right.
667.460000 668.460000 Crucial distinction.
668.460000 673.460000 Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena based on observation,
673.460000 675.340000 evidence, and the laws of physics.
675.340000 680.380000 Astrology, on the other hand, is a belief system that claims celestial bodies influence human
680.380000 681.380000 affairs.
681.380000 684.340000 There's no scientific evidence to support astrology's claims.
684.340000 686.060000 And the Zodiac fits in here, right?
686.060000 687.060000 The signs.
687.060000 688.060000 Exactly.
688.060000 690.660000 The Zodiac is the band of sky.
690.660000 694.380000 The sun, moon, and planets appear to move through.
694.380000 697.100000 Astrology uses 12 constellations along this path.
697.100000 701.820000 But astronomically, the sun actually passes through 13 constellations, the 13th being
701.820000 703.860000 Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer.
703.860000 706.260000 Ophiuchus never hear about that one in horoscopes.
706.260000 707.260000 Nope.
707.260000 713.020000 And worse for astrology, due to a wobble in Earth's axis called procession, the dates associated
713.020000 717.260000 with the astrological signs are now off by about a month, compared to where the sun actually
717.260000 718.260000 is in the constellation.
718.260000 721.180000 So your star sign is probably wrong, astronomically speaking.
721.180000 722.180000 Pretty much.
722.180000 725.940000 If you were born in late July, astrology says you're a Leo, but the sun is actually in cancer
725.940000 726.940000 at that time.
726.940000 727.940000 Huh.
727.940000 728.940000 Good to know.
728.940000 732.180000 So for someone wanting to actually observe the sky, any tips?
732.180000 733.180000 Definitely.
733.180000 738.100000 Get out there, find a dark spot away from city lights if you can, pick a constellation,
738.100000 743.140000 maybe Orion or the Big Dipper, see how many stars you can count in it, try sketching it.
743.140000 745.740000 You don't have to be an artist, it just makes you look closer.
745.740000 746.740000 Use binoculars.
746.740000 752.140000 They reveal way more stars and even some fuzzy patches like nebulae or clusters.
752.140000 756.220000 And look for those circumpolar constellations, the ones that never set below the horizon from
756.220000 759.740000 your latitude, like Ursa Major for many in the north.
759.740000 762.580000 They circle the celestial pole all night every night.
762.580000 765.620000 OK, from vast distances to familiar patterns.
765.620000 768.220000 Now let's get into the really weird stuff.
768.220000 772.380000 The universe isn't just big and orderly, it's also home to some truly bizarre objects and
772.380000 773.380000 events, right?
773.380000 774.380000 Oh, absolutely.
774.380000 776.500000 It's full of oddballs that challenge your understanding.
776.500000 777.980000 Here's where things get really fun.
777.980000 778.980000 Lace I'm honest.
778.980000 779.980000 What's a weird star?
779.980000 780.980000 OK.
780.980000 783.820000 How about S.A.O. 206462?
783.820000 785.460000 Nicknamed the Catherine Wheel Star.
785.460000 789.100000 It's a young star, about 460 light years off.
789.100000 792.940000 It's wild as it has a disc of gas and dust around it where planets are forming, and these
792.940000 796.060000 baby planets are actually sculpting the disc into spiral arms.
796.060000 798.260000 Spiral arms, like in a galaxy.
798.260000 799.260000 Exactly.
799.260000 802.020000 Usually you only see that structure on galactic scales.
802.020000 805.340000 This star has its own miniature spiral galaxy forming around it.
805.340000 806.340000 It's incredible.
806.340000 807.340000 And that is weird.
807.340000 808.340000 OK, next.
808.340000 809.340000 How about Lucy, the diamond star?
809.340000 814.580000 It's actually a white dwarf star, the remnant core of a sunlight star, in the constellation
814.580000 815.980000 Centaurus.
815.980000 819.380000 The dwarfs are already super dense, imagine the mass of our sun squeezed into something
819.380000 820.780000 the size of Earth.
820.780000 822.500000 But Lucy is special.
822.500000 825.700000 It's cooled down enough that its carbon core has crystallized.
825.700000 826.700000 Crystallized carbon.
826.700000 827.700000 You mean it's a giant?
827.700000 828.700000 Yep.
828.700000 829.700000 A giant diamond.
829.700000 835.700000 Estimated a 10 billion trillion, trillion carrots, seriously.
835.700000 838.460000 Named after the beetles, Lucy and the sky with diamonds.
838.460000 839.460000 OK, mind blown.
839.460000 841.220000 A diamond the size of a planet.
841.220000 842.220000 What else?
842.220000 843.220000 Anything?
843.220000 844.220000 Dangerous.
844.220000 845.220000 You are 104.
845.220000 848.060000 This one's a wolf ray at star about 7,800 light years away.
848.060000 851.860000 These are a massive, very hot stars nearing the end of their lives.
851.860000 855.980000 WR104 is unstable, shedding mass via powerful stellar winds.
855.980000 859.460000 And it's expected to go supernova relatively soon, astronomically speaking.
859.460000 860.460000 Could be tomorrow.
860.460000 861.460000 Could be thousands of years.
861.460000 862.940000 So does a standard supernova?
862.940000 864.340000 Not necessarily.
864.340000 869.460000 Because of its properties and how it spins, there's a slim possibility that when it explodes,
869.460000 874.540000 it could shoot out incredibly focused jets of high energy radiation, a gamma ray burst
874.540000 875.860000 or GRB.
875.860000 876.860000 And?
876.860000 881.300000 And there's been some debate about whether its rotation axis might be pointed roughly towards
881.300000 882.300000 Earth.
882.300000 883.300000 Uh-oh.
883.300000 884.300000 Should we be worried?
884.300000 885.300000 Honestly.
885.300000 886.300000 Probably not.
886.300000 888.180000 First, the alignment would have to be very precise.
888.180000 892.780000 Second, even if it were aimed perfectly, 7,800 light years is likely far enough a way to
892.780000 894.540000 mitigate the worst effects.
894.540000 899.260000 Third, the odds of it producing a GRB at all when it goes supernova are uncertain.
899.260000 902.220000 So astronomers are watching, but panic isn't warranted.
902.220000 903.660000 It's more of a cosmic curiosity.
903.660000 904.660000 Okay.
904.660000 905.660000 Here.
905.660000 906.660000 Good.
906.660000 907.660000 What about stars that just don't follow the rules?
907.660000 908.660000 Oh, like IPTF-14 aerials.
908.660000 909.660000 Yeah.
909.660000 910.660000 They called it the star that wouldn't die.
910.660000 914.140000 It was observed undergoing a supernova explosion in 2014.
914.140000 917.340000 But supernova is supposed to brighten and then fade over weeks or months.
917.340000 920.180000 This one didn't fade in a bit and got bright again.
920.180000 923.100000 And again, it kept doing this for like 600 days.
923.100000 924.100000 What?
924.100000 925.100000 Nobody knows for sure.
925.100000 929.340000 It's behavior evolved about 10 times slower than a typical supernova.
929.340000 934.260000 And weirdly, there might have been an explosion recorded in the same spot back in 1954.
934.260000 939.300000 It basically breaks all our standard models of how massive stars are supposed to die.
939.300000 940.300000 A total puzzle.
940.300000 941.300000 A zombie star.
941.300000 942.300000 Okay.
942.300000 943.300000 Any more weird ones.
943.300000 944.820000 How about my Kamala part Alice?
944.820000 945.820000 This is one star.
945.820000 952.060000 But two massive stars, like 32 and 38 times the sun's mass orbiting each other so closely
952.060000 953.260000 that they're actually touching.
953.260000 954.260000 Touching.
954.260000 955.260000 Contact binary.
955.260000 956.980000 They're outer atmospheres emerging.
956.980000 962.260000 They're destined to spiral into each other and merge into one single gigantic supergent
962.260000 963.340000 star.
963.340000 965.300000 We think this happens theoretically.
965.300000 968.900000 But this is one of the first times we've caught a system right in the act just before the
968.900000 970.140000 final merger.
970.140000 971.740000 Seeing theory happen in real time.
971.740000 972.740000 Incredible.
972.740000 973.740000 What about really old stars?
973.740000 978.500000 Ah, you must mean HD-142-E3, nicknamed Methuselist star.
978.500000 983.340000 This one caused a stir because initial estimates of its age were older than the accepted age
983.340000 984.660000 of the universe itself.
984.660000 985.660000 Older than the universe.
985.660000 986.660000 How's it possible?
986.660000 987.660000 It wasn't, obviously.
987.660000 993.100000 It meant the measurements or the age of the universe calculation, or both, had some uncertainty.
993.100000 998.420000 Later, more refined measurements put its age in around 13.7 billion years, plus or minus
998.420000 1000.140000 a few hundred million.
1000.140000 1002.900000 So it's not older than the universe, but it's incredibly ancient.
1002.900000 1006.100000 It must have formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
1006.100000 1010.700000 It's a population two star, meaning it has very, very little metal content, mostly just
1010.700000 1012.780000 hydrogen and helium from the early universe.
1012.780000 1013.780000 A true relic.
1013.780000 1014.780000 Wow.
1014.780000 1018.480000 And finally, the one everyone talked about for a while, Tabby's star, the alien megastructure
1018.480000 1019.480000 one.
1019.480000 1020.480000 Right.
1020.480000 1023.340000 KIC 846-2852, or Tabby star.
1023.340000 1027.620000 This ordinary looking star showed these incredibly deep, irregular dips in brightness, sometimes
1027.620000 1030.260000 dimming by up to 22%.
1030.260000 1032.860000 Normal planet transits dimmer star by maybe 1%.
1032.860000 1034.260000 This was huge and totally erratic.
1034.260000 1038.460000 It sparked all sorts of speculation, including, yes, the idea of giant structures built by aliens
1038.460000 1039.740000 orbiting the star.
1039.740000 1040.820000 So was it aliens?
1040.820000 1044.780000 Well, subsequent observations across different wavelengths of light showed that the dimming
1044.780000 1050.620000 was more consistent with clouds of dust passing in front of the star, not solid objects.
1050.620000 1054.500000 The dust blocks bluer light more effectively than redder light, which is what they saw.
1054.500000 1055.900000 Ah, dust.
1055.900000 1058.100000 Less exciting than aliens, but more likely.
1058.100000 1059.100000 Much more likely.
1059.100000 1061.740000 But where the dust came from is still a mystery.
1061.740000 1064.780000 Maybe colliding asteroids, maybe disintegrating comets.
1064.780000 1067.540000 The exact cause of those bizarre dips is still debated.
1067.540000 1071.180000 It's a great example of how weird observations push science forward.
1071.180000 1072.180000 Okay.
1072.180000 1075.780000 From alien megastructures that weren't to stars that refused to die.
1075.780000 1079.740000 Let's cap this off with a genuine, unsolved historical mystery you mentioned.
1079.740000 1080.740000 Yes.
1080.740000 1085.140000 This one is properly baffling the nine weird transids from 1950.
1085.140000 1090.300000 Back on April 12, 1950, astronomers using the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey took a photographic
1090.300000 1092.340000 plate of a certain patch of sky.
1092.340000 1095.660000 On that single plate, nine points of light appear that weren't stars.
1095.660000 1096.660000 Nine points.
1096.660000 1097.660000 Meteors.
1097.660000 1099.540000 No, that's the weird thing.
1099.540000 1104.660000 They were perfect points, not streaks, like meteors or airplanes would leave during the exposure.
1104.660000 1107.100000 And they appeared simultaneously on that one plate.
1107.100000 1110.780000 They weren't on plates taken just before or after, and they've never been seen again in
1110.780000 1113.940000 that spot, despite decades of looking with much better equipment.
1113.940000 1118.140000 So they just blinked into existence and then vanished all nine at once.
1118.140000 1119.460000 Seemingly yes.
1119.460000 1124.220000 Scientists went through every possible explanation, not plate defects, not radiation hits, not
1124.220000 1129.660000 known types of variable stars or transients, way too many appeared at once in a small area,
1129.660000 1131.380000 not asteroids fragmenting.
1131.380000 1132.380000 They'd leave streaks.
1132.380000 1133.380000 So, and could it be?
1133.380000 1137.380000 The analysis showed the closest match to a known phenomenon would be glints of sunlight
1137.380000 1142.340000 off rotating objects in high Earth orbit, like geosynchronous satellites or debris.
1142.340000 1143.340000 Okay.
1143.340000 1144.980000 But wasn't 1950 before.
1144.980000 1145.980000 Exactly.
1145.980000 1150.700000 The first artificial satellites, but Nick won wasn't launched until 1957, seven years
1150.700000 1151.700000 later.
1151.700000 1152.700000 Okay.
1152.700000 1153.700000 That's genuinely strange.
1153.700000 1154.700000 So, what's the theory?
1154.700000 1156.740000 There isn't really a good one.
1156.740000 1162.660000 Unknown atmospheric phenomena, some bizarre, coordinated natural event, highly specific
1162.660000 1167.300000 plate contamination that mimicked point sources, or something else.
1167.300000 1170.340000 It remains an official astronomical mystery.
1170.340000 1175.020000 Some even use it as a sort of thought experiment for solar system setty to search for alien
1175.020000 1177.820000 artifacts or probes within our own solar system.
1177.820000 1181.180000 Could these have been glints of something artificial, but not human-made?
1181.180000 1182.180000 Wow.
1182.180000 1183.180000 That's a heck of a cliffhanger.
1183.180000 1187.660000 So, reflecting on all this, we've gone from figuring out how far, with incredible ladders
1187.660000 1192.180000 of logic, to realizing constellations are just illusions of perspective, and finally
1192.180000 1198.300000 hitting these truly bizarre stars and genuine cosmic mysteries, like those 1950 transients.
1198.300000 1202.660000 It really underscores that the universe isn't just vast, it's dynamic, it's weird, and
1202.660000 1205.980000 it's constantly throwing things at us that make us rethink what we thought we knew.
1205.980000 1209.180000 We're always observing, always questioning, the discoveries never stop.
1209.180000 1211.740000 Absolutely, it leaves you wondering, doesn't it?
1211.740000 1217.060000 What other incredibly strange stellar behaviors or unexplained blips on old photographic plates
1217.060000 1218.340000 are waiting out there?
1218.340000 1221.340000 What puzzle will make us rewrite the textbooks next?
1221.340000 1225.020000 What stood out most to you from today's deep dive into the cosmic neighborhood and its
1225.020000 1226.020000 oddities?
1226.020000 1227.780000 Until next time, keep looking up.
1227.780000 1230.820000 And that wraps up today's episode of Everyday Explained.
1230.820000 1234.300000 We love making sense of the world around you, five days a week.
1234.300000 1239.100000 If you enjoyed today's deep dive, consider subscribing so you don't miss out on our next discovery.
1239.100000 1241.420000 I'm Chris and I'll catch you in the next one.