JWST Galaxies Take Another Turn // Ice Giants Collide // Psyche Launch

Astronomers see ice giants colliding. We peek into the OSIRIS-REx sample collector. Even more evidence that the Big Bang hasn’t been overturned.
😍 1 Year of JWST Special:
• Everything NASA Discov...
🦄 Support us on Patreon:
/ universetoday
📚 Suggest books in the book club:
/ universe-today-book-club
00:00 Intro
00:17 Two ice giants collide
www.universetoday.com/163615/...
01:58 OSIRIS-REx samples opened
www.universetoday.com/163636/...
04:45 Psyche finally launched
www.universetoday.com/163684/...
06:14 Size of early galaxies
www.universetoday.com/163648/...
10:47 Vote
11:59 Gaia data
www.universetoday.com/163669/...
14:14 Euclid problems
www.universetoday.com/163579/...
15:54 Support what we do
16:47 Another russian ISS leak
blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2...
18:06 Flight over Mars
universetoday.com/163666/this...
19:31 Are we alone
Host: Fraser Cain
Producer: Anton Pozdnyakov
Editing: Artem Pozdnyakov
📰 EMAIL NEWSLETTER
Read by 60,000 people every Friday. Written by Fraser. No ads.
Subscribe Free: universetoday.com/newsletter
🎧 PODCASTS
Universe Today: universetoday.fireside.fm/
Astronomy Cast: www.astronomycast.com/
🤳 OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA
Mastodon: astrodon.social/@fcain
Twitter: / fcain
Twitter: / universetoday
Facebook: / universetoday
Instagram: / universetoday
📩 CONTACT FRASER
[e-mail]
⚖️ LICENSE
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
You are free to use my work for any purpose you like, just mention me as the source and link back to this video.

[@suesun7072]

I like this quote "If we are alone in the Universe, it sure seems like an awful waste of space." by Carl Sagan. And the deeper we look, the more likely it seems to me that there is a star system with the same type of star, with the same number of planets orbiting it in the same distance like our planets orbit the sun, where someone sits outside and looks into the night sky asking exactly the same question. "Are we alone?" They might see a slightly red shifted spiral galaxy in their telescope but don't give it much attention, not knowing that we call it the Milky Way.

[@BennyKleykens]

Would we be less 'alone' if there were life on another planet though?

[@ilya_95]

Well said, poetically in a way.

[@smallpeople172]

My teacher for music theory used to tell me "you should be an astronaut because all you do is take up space"... I think that's a way better quote

[@simonjacksons]

​@@BennyKleykens yes, because then we will start wanting to be left alone.

[@513AxeManF33]

50 million live on the moon.

[@BlueNeonBeasty]

I enjoyed the 'would you rather aliens were visiting earth or had never visited earth' poll, but I think from what you've said here Fraser that it didn't quite ask what you intended. The 'aliens have never visited the earth' option still leaves lots of scope for aliens of all sorts to exist anywhere that isn't earth :)

[@robertwalhout8982]

Glad to have found you again. We are definitely not alone, sir. In two hundred billion galaxies each with a hundred billion stars mixing one hundred chemiical compounds repeatedly, as rare as it might be, life IS out there. Carl Sagan and his contemporaries crunched the numbers in the seventies and thought there were likely one hundred civilizations at our level or better just in our galaxy alone.

[@MichelleHell]

I believe right now at this moment in time, there is at least 1 civilization per galaxy. This would mean we have billions of civilizations, and none of them will ever communicate.

[@olliverklozov2789]

To me it's more a question of whether we are alone in the GALAXY, because if all other civilizations are in other galaxies we may as well be alone.

[@chrisbuxton1958]

We’ll never know 😮

[@Chyrre]

Well, not excactly. If they build Dyson swarms around the stars in their galaxy, we would see it. The question is why don't we see this in any galaxy?

[@MrBashem]

@@Chyrre Because we are assuming they think like us?

[@PetiePieGuy]

First, love your show and all that you cram into a compact format. The only reason that I don't use it in my astronomy class is that there is so much disparate information that I don't think a class of high school students could absorb it. I want to comment on your poll. Whether there are aliens in the universe and whether they are visiting us are two very different questions. It sounded to me like you conflated those in your elaboration on your own feelings. And of course, it is only tangentially related to that excellent ACC quote.

[@cheset]

I love your updates and informative videos so much. Thank you! You’re my go to for space news/updates!

[@MCsCreations]

Thanks a lot for all the news, Fraser! 😊 Keep up the amazing work! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@247tubefan]

That would make Astrologists go Crazy. Can you imagine them trying to match people for romance after that collision.

[@918Boyz]

Romance is out the window if something that big collides with Uranus.

[@TheMartialMasters]

You will run into an old friend...

[@ThomasHooper1993]

I always enjoy seeing polls from the channel in feed. Glad to hear there will be more. They're fun to think about.

[@LostCylon]

Oddly enough, I had never seen your channel enough, but after watching Undecided with Matt Ferrell, this clip started playing. I watch a few other space stuff, and will here again :)

[@EdAllen]

They must know exactly how much they retrieved by weighing the retrieval capsule and subtracting its empty weight. They could do this before opening it.

[@jamesmatheson1409]

But wouldn't you not know its empty weight becasue you dont know how exactly how much was ablated from the heatshield on the way back down?

[@EdAllen]

Good point. You would have to scan the outside volume before and after and subtract out the volume lost times the density of the heat shield. So error might start to stack up to make it only an approximation.@@jamesmatheson1409

[@Violingirl79]

That picture from Euclid of the wandering star trails is amazing. Shows how far away some of those background stars are!

[@alanhyland5697]

Cosmologists getting things wrong is so great. Science in action, right there.

[@notmyname327]

New Gaia data! I love that there's a lot more data on Omega Centauri, globular clusters blow my mind and we know too little about them. I hadn't heard about Euclid's problems, I'm glad they could fix it because (much like Gaia) we should get lots of information from this mission.

[@jakeleach6212]

Really excited for Euclid updates, was glad to see it smoothly worked out!

[@edwardrhoads7283]

Another thing to consider for early universe... Galaxy collisions and mergers would be far more common than today. Also, since those galaxies would be gas rich that would drive massive amounts of star formation. So I wonder how much those bright galaxies is reflective of galaxy mergers.

[@tonywells6990]

Yes bright bursts of star formation would partly explain these massive or over bright early galaxies, as well as the "JWST's optical overperformance due to cleanliness and an underestimate of early, massive galaxies due to simulation resolution" -(Ethan Siegel)

[@RodMartinJr]

As an astronomy data nerd, I'm excited every time I hear the words "Gaia data." *_Thanks!_*

[@ArodWinterbornSteed]

If the aliens are coming to earth all the time then they are much more likely to be friendly. That seems the least scary option to me 😁

[@smallpeople172]

If they were not friendly it would be unlikely they could work together long enough to get to space

[@masi416]

And it also shows that interstellar travel is possible.

[@smallpeople172]

@@masi416 we already know it's possible. Even if you move at one foot per hour you can still make it to another solar system

[@Merecir]

@@smallpeople172 Not at all, one dominating faction could win and form a classic empire.

[@smallpeople172]

@@Merecir what?

[@Starchface]

The poll involving extraterrestrials was brilliantly structured. When I voted it was very close to 50-50. I voted "against" the alien incursions because I don't imagine they would be here for our benefit. That said, I _believe_ they exist, but not in huge numbers as I once did. My back-of-the-envelope calculations tell me there could be half a dozen civilizations currently in the galaxy, but given the variables we certainly could be the only one. As time passes with exactly zero other Earthlike planets discovered despite astronomers' best efforts, my expectations are slowly diminishing further-but not to zero. If there are no other civilizations in our own galaxy, certainly there must be in other galaxies (or so I tell myself). I cannot make myself believe that we could be the only inhabited planet in the entire Universe, but it is somehow surprising to me that you, Fraser, believe just that. Interesting.

[@OslerWannabe]

Your survey was reassuring, for me, in one regard. If you use it as a test for a cognitive bias, then it gives a result that I like. Therefore it must be sensitive and specific. And wise. I recently retired from 45 years of practicing medicine, but I never lost my love of math, physics and chemistry. The recent explosion in astrophysics suits my retirement perfectly. From my near-degree in math, I feel that it is a virtual certainty that intelligent and creative life exists elsewhere. At the same time, it's clear to me that Earth has never been visited by other civilizations. The limitations of distance and on velocity, combined with the uncertainty in the characteristics of the proposed destination seem to eliminate the possibility that a rational, reasonable collection of beings responsible for initiating an interstellar voyage would gamble the resources, lives and planning effort to declare "It's a Go." We wouldn't. My own personal belief is that there are a thousand, maybe a hundred thousand, maybe 10 million, maybe a gazillion intelligent and creative species out there, somewhere on the line of cultural and technological evolution, and periodically (?daily) one of them shoots something into orbit for the first time. I also believe that none of them survive beyond a universal Great Filter, so that consideration of concepts like the Kardashev scale are unnecessary. What is that Great Filter? You're in luck, because I know. We have no idea of the physical characteristics of any of these alien species, nor of their intellectual, emotional or spiritual traits, but we can be certain that their current "configuration" is one that developed slowly over time via a process of evolution by natural selection. That MUST be universal. We also know that their civilization undergoes a process of cultural (hence technological) evolution. As we've observed with our own experience, physical evolution proceeds gradually regardless of the input stimuli. At the same time cultural evolution follows a hyperboloid graph of Technological Attainment vs Time. When the trajectories of those two curves are roughly parallel, as in our pre-industrial revolution existence, cultural/tech evolution does not strain our ability to adjust and accommodate ourselves to the marginally changed environment. What happens when we approach the vertex of the hyperbola (-loid)? Nothing good. We see it now in human culture. Change is occurring so fast, and that rate of change is accelerating daily, such that no individual can accommodate himself to it before the next wave the following day. The "ties that bind" begin to come undone, and we have no template for how to reverse the process. This is the Great Filter. Humanity has just stumbled over it, and I suspect it will work its magic on us within a century or two. We have developed too many ways to eradicate ourselves, and the technology to so so is available to any individual who has received instructions from his god to mete out retribution for our iniquity. Or something like that. In short, that is why we have never REALLY seen aliens around Earth.. Nor will we ever have the opportunity to BE the aliens around someone else's planet, buzzing rural roads, abducting depressed housewives from Arkansas (or the equivalent alien name) farmhouses and depositing them in their backyards at 3 am with their nightgowns up over their heads. Too bad. Woulda been good times. But it's OK. We will be the gazillionth civilization to wink out in a radioactive poof. A gazillion will follow. It's all entropy.

[@Bitchslapper316]

It's estimated that another star (not the same star, other stars in the milky way we pass on our journey around it) passes within a light year of our sun or closer every 50k years on average. I think a civilization more technologically advanced than we are with a drive to explore could make a sub 1 light year journey using science known to us now. There are humans now that have been able to come up with the design on paper of a probe that can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. We still lack the material and engineering skills to make that happen but a civilization more advanced than we are may be able to do it. Personally I have never ruled out past alien visitation to earth. I almost certain many religions, myths and legends were shaped by them.

[@kadourimdou43]

Q. Could the planetary collision be an answer for Tabby’s star light curve, and how is the explanation for this going.

[@tapuout101]

From a Christian pov, I had to place faith as my #1 truth to learn to see. Which totally is the opposite of how my mind works. Im anti social and very analytical wanting to know why things happen. I come to realise we have an internal dialog we use all day every day.(we talk to ourselves lol) I noticed other influences besides my own good choices and bad. I asked myself who the hell are they? lol Who are those good and bad suggestions/ choices coming from? I noticed most of my life I was being offensive to myself. I was really beating myself up. I questioned why is it so much easier to do bad things than good? To call someone a name is easier than saying something positive? I came to the conclusion, "God is the still small voice" which he refers to in the bible. I think he uses these things to show in our face every night he created all this. He could have people in other galaxies doing the same as us. How amazing is it to think this is all for us?

[@camsy83]

To me it seems like calling the mission Psyche when the destination is Psyche is a great idea. I think context will make it clear which one is being discussed at any time. It's also a cool sounding word worth using twice 😊

[@Al-kc2vm]

Is there any discussion in the hypothesis of the colliding Ice Giants on how these planets might have been thrust toward each other?

[@algeboy]

Fraser, great updates. Keep them coming. Question for your question show: I heard it is useless to bomb an asteroid approaching earth because in space the gravity of the debris will slowly pull it back together. That makes me wonder if the same applies to stars. After a super nova that throws its mass out into space, can there be enough gravity between the thrown off gas and material that one day it all comes back together to reform a new smaller star centered in the same place?

[@kindlin]

The answer to your supernova question is why I've never quite followed the logic of the asteroid comment. The supernova blasts things out with an escape velocity greater than that of the parent body (and sometimes causes new stars elsewhere), on top of the original mass being eviscerated, leading to a massive drop in the original escape velocity, too. If you have some explosion large enough to send a chunk of the asteroid at escape velocity, which I don't see how a nuke or 2 wouldn't do that (edit: because you can almost jump off of the smaller asteroids, which isn't much force at all, and escape velocity goes up with the sqrt of mass), then you are going to have a large portion of that ejected material move far enough away to miss entirely. The remaining material would likely be heavily disrupted.

[@FleshWizard69420]

I'd be more worried about turning the single asteroid into a shotgun blast of particles and chunks

[@realkarfixer8208]

The amount of energy released from a supernova exceeds that of a galaxy, for a very short period of time. The energy in a man made weapon is tiny, even compared to the binding energy of an asteroid. Using a carefully placed explosion could be helpful in deflecting an asteroid, but that depends on it's composition. Ultimately I'm less comfortable with ANY entity having large nuclear weapons being launched into space.

[@xINVISIGOTHx]

The purpose of shooting an asteroid to protect earth is not to blow it to pieces, it is to slightly shift the direction it is traveling

[@keithmacquarrie5565]

I wanted to point out that the need for an awareness of potential cognitive bias if what you believe and what you want to believe line up, does NOT imply that you can ignore the potential for cognitive bias if what you believe and what you want to believe are opposed.

[@RockinRobbins13]

First I thought the most extraordinary story was the Orion nebula Jupiter sized objects. But on further reflection, GAIA has entirely revolutionized galactic astronomy, measuring the distances, brightness, variability and 3D motion of over 1.8 billion individually named stars. Tycho Brahe was credited with progressing positional astronomy far enough that theoretical astronomy could begin. GAIA has brought us back to the beginning with measurements of more stars a thousand times more accurately than previously possible.

[@TheMartialMasters]

Another great video! High quality and very informative. Thanks!😊

[@cheradenine1980]

Those supercomputer collision simulations were incredible

[@swiftycortex]

You can add me to the poll, I prefer they were visiting all the time. Love your work huge fan of you and your team. Thank you all very much.

[@ilya_95]

I like these conversational additions on a free topic at the end of digests. Good idea.

[@frasercain]

Oh great, I want a way to celebrate the patrons, but also provide some additional value.

[@fratercontenduntocculta8161]

With all of these observations of Carbon as of late, I think we are witnessing the beginning of the era of life in the Universe at a much wider scale, we just happen to be around to see it! I do think it exists elsewhere, but the life we will be able to study will be within our capabilities and reach.

[@marianneb.7112]

Great updates. Thank you!

[@garman1966]

I want someone to make an interactive map of the CMB that shows us how it really looks from, say, the center of the Earth as you twist around. By moving around your view you can get a completely non-distorted and unbounded view in all directions that makes a lot more sense than the rectangular one we see all the time. I think someone will make a lot of money when they produce a much better map of the CMB that shows us what it really looks like.

[@hikesystem7721]

I'd like to see you do a video with biologists and a statistician where you present your case for there being no aliens in the universe. Why do you think earth is so unique among an estimated 700,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets in the universe?

[@Reyajh]

Question: "You don't know Jack, but I found him" @8:19 right there. I dub it 'The Jack o' Lantern Galaxy'. That galaxy Fraser. I've been seeing it for years all over the place and I've been wanting to know what it's designation was. My idea was going to be to get some tea-shirts made with it featured and stating my quote followed by 'The Jack o' Lantern Galaxy' and then it's actual name/designation/catalogue number, what have you. I had the idea back when the whole 'You Don't Know Jack' thing was soo big, I first saw it around then in some old Documentary. But I never could find out it's name... I don't really care anymore about the Tea Shirts Idea, run with it if you like. I'd just like to know if, cause I believe if anyone can, you could find out it's actual designation. Oh, and tell me it doesn't look like a Jack o' Lantern!!! Happy early Halloween guys! -cheers! O.O

[@wavemaker54]

Great episode, Fraser.

[@truecrony]

I've been waiting for this moment. What it's like when World's collide.

[@jamesadamo2784]

Saving the samples for future researchers is like saving a sample of sand from the beach when you're planning on buying a beach house. In a generation we'll have a significant presence in space and have an abundance of these types of material.

[@frasercain]

I'm sure they said something similar 50 years ago during Apollo.

[@bbartky]

@@frasercain I think we’ve so fortunate that the folks in the Apollo program set those samples aside for future generations.

[@loliko23]

i love Gaia so much, such an underrated telescope.

[@oberonpanopticon]

A 3D model of all the stars in our galaxy is probably the closest we’ll get to seeing the Milky Way’s true form in the next ten millennia before we can finally get a view from the outside

[@anthonyhall7019]

So your last comment reminds me of what I heard a long time ago about what humans choices are determined from, it's what we Want, what we Can Have and what we Need, so what we want is the solution, what we can have is either nothing or solution and anything in between, but what we need is the solution now which in many cases is impossible......and our wants will always mess up our needs and can haves

[@richardsleep2045]

Superb stuff, thanks!

[@ianmatthews7385]

Wow Fraiser that's really suprising point of view. I mean the law of averages would suggest we literally can't be the only civilization. Those odds are ridiculously small.

[@frasercain]

Are they? What are the odds? They could be common or they could be rare, and they could be so rare, life only appears once in a volume the size of the Universe.

[@AndrewDRSWilliamson]

Wow I'm actually here first 🎉 love your content 😊

[@pazitor]

Thank you, Fraser.

[@selatorepico5975]

What's so weird about the 50/50 poll? It makes sense. They're equally terrifying!!!

[@jasonmabie1770]

Maybe it takes a cataclysmic event like two planets, crashing together, and something reforming in order to possibly create life as we know it?

[@ponyote]

I know it's rather trivial, but I really dig the aesthetic of your left ear piece.

[@frasercain]

Hah, it's a headphone earpiece so I can chat with my producer as we're putting the episode together.

[@jaydonbooth4042]

I would rather not be alone in the universe. If the question is simply would you rather know for sure there's intelligent life somewhere out there or know for sure that we are alone. It's like asking if I'd rather be the only person on earth or have other people like we do. Sure, other people can hurt and kill you, you could be mugged, robbed, kidnapped, tortured, killed by bombs or many other things, but I'd still rather have other people and take that risk than be completely alone. The question becomes a little harder if you say that those aliens that exist would be visiting earth, but I prefer the more broad question you asked initially, simply alone or not?

[@hqcart1]

What the hell i was thinking! i thought we are going to see a 4k footage of the real collision

[@forcemultiflier1746]

Were not Alone, all you need is a microscopic lil critter spinning around in some briney muddy warm pubble, on some Earth like Planet, and bingo- were not alone !!

[@mcpr5971]

Fraser, I have a question for the next Q&A: Today you talked about a collision of planets. Is there a theoretical limit on how large a single planet could be? Gas giants could become stars eventually, but what about rocky planets? Some solar systems must have had abnormally high number of mergers, could you have a single-star solar system with one _huge_ rocky planet?

[@iambiggus]

I'm assuming it'd either collect too much gas/atmosphere and become a gas giant, or have an iron core so big it collapses into a degenerate state and the planet explodes and destroys itself.

[@oberonpanopticon]

In the far future of the universe there could be more heavy elements due to more and more material being fused in stars. Maybe the occasional gargantuan collisions long after large-scale star formation has ceased could end up forming stars with enormous rocky planets. I’d imagine that such planets would be utterly bizarre. Of course, unless it’s a pure iron planet, eventually even a rocky planet would reach a mass where fusion begins to take place. Which for something that’d probably already have a considerable metal core would probably lead to a catastrophic explosion like those that happen to white dwarves. And like the commenter above me said, even if it is made of iron, it may well collapse in on itself. Or it’d just become indistinguishable from an iron star eventually, if protons don’t decay.

[@koriko88]

Years ago I was in an airport and I saw a guy who looked EXACTLY like you - I went over and said, "Excuse me, are you Fraser Cain? The astronomer?" and he said no. He probably thought I was nuts.

[@frasercain]

People have recognized me in an airport, but I haven't been on a plane for a while. 😀

[@simfromzim]

My man... You are incredible. How do you have this ability to know what I want to know before I know I want to know it??

[@frasercain]

Time travel

[@j.pershing2197]

Velikovsky get proven correct as time goes on. He got his info from putting ancient archetype symbols together along with the understanding plasma physics in space.

[@jessesoneff3696]

Question: we hear about exotic asteroids and exoplanets with high concentrations of precious metals or even diamond, but are there any asteroids that are even more exotic than that. Like chunks of neutron stars or smashed cores that would have been metallic hydrogen? Could we even look for something like that?

[@girolamocastaldo8653]

To avoid confusion, you could use the English pronunciation for the spacecraft and the (original) Greek one for the asteroid

[@franke9448]

Considering the vastness of the universe, we can't be alone! Looking at the objects in the universe, nothing we found have been alone!

[@oberonpanopticon]

We simply don’t know how hard it is for technologically advanced life to emerge in the universe. The odds of a planet jumping through all the right hoops to eventually harbour a spacefaring species might be more infinitesimal than the universe is vast.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

How do something you do not know about exist anyhow?

[@BARELD050]

@@doncarlodivargas5497 How do something you do not know cannot exist anyhow?

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

@@BARELD050 - of course it can, I ask how

[@franke9448]

@@doncarlodivargas5497 : They call it the white Swan scenario; at least in one Galaxy human exist. Imagine about billions known Galaxies and unknown Galaxies beyond our visible sphere!

[@user-hs4it2zs7j]

You probably had checked out The electric universe utube Half of there material points out the dance of planets Like a pool table. Maybe with some big solar or electrical pool sticks! I really liked your recent show especially the speed bump around stars especially our sun.

[@sebastianclarke2441]

Viewers should click on the community tab of your home page on youtube if they really want to get involved with the vote

[@TheDeadheadable]

Thanks!

[@HeyHeyHarmonicaLuke]

If space were flat, it seems like any wormhole between two places would have to be longer than traveling through normal space. Is that right?

[@Particleman50]

Hold on Fraser!! .....did you just say you don't think aliens exist in the universe? .....like the WHOLE universe? Does your believe have to do with the "Rare Earth Hypothesis"? PS> You're my top dude for space news!!!... Can't wait to hear about the spectral data for the next 3 Trappist-1 planets.

[@hoptoads]

I can't see how it would be so hard hard to overturn our "understanding" of the big bang, when we don't actually "understand" the big bang to begin with.

[@mrtoastyman07]

Question: if the orbit of the earth is our current "best" separation for parallax astrometry - how much bigger of an orbit would we need to get a meaningful jump in measurable parallax distances? Maybe it's just easier to wait for the whole solar system to just orbit the galaxy and 125Ma years from now we can do 50kly parallax!

[@alfonsopayra]

QUESTION(s): Generally, when I find out there's going to be a solar eclipse, it never happens in my country Uruguay, and I always regret not being able to take advantage of at least SOMETHING from that amazing event. But following your channel, Fraser, I learned cool things like we can do something to block out a star and see what's nearby. My questions are: Does it make sense to try to take advantage of this astronomical event in some alternative way? Is it possible or does it make sense to look for an alternative way to see the moon?? And finally, if I were to block out the sun, would I see the moon? Or would I have to use some kind of special technique like in the case of seeing the surface of the sun due to the level of reflection from lunar dust?

[@frasercain]

During a solar eclipse, when the Sun is blocked by the Moon, you can see the faint outer atmosphere of the Sun (called the corona). Some telescopes have a disk inside, called a coronagraph that does this so they can observe the atmosphere. You're going to get an annular eclipse come really close to Uruguay on Feb 6, 2027. So put that in your calendar. www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2027-february-6

[@pauls5745]

There is support though for the point that asteroid material could've compromised in the air in the room upon opening. humidity, oxygen and trace elements instantly infiltrated the sample at opening. Not enough that it was a "clean room". I'd've thought they would only open the sample in vacuum.

[@turnerroll9431]

I’d be surprised if it wasn’t a nitrogen purged case. So no humidity or oxygen. Just inert gas

[@nah656]

Are there places in space where it so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face? Or is there always at least some light?

[@rjblaskiewicz]

Heck, yeah! Smashy smashy! Woohoo!

[@serenowsky1284]

Q: A few days ago, you said that there are likely no supernovae near us for possibly millions of years, and later you talked about the two supernovae separated by a mere two million years that hit Earth. Is it an anomaly that these two supernovae were so close together? Would we simply not be able to tell farther back than, say ten million years on Earth?

[@waynewilliamson4212]

interesting last question. I'm more in the middle. I think aliens exist, but not likely for them to have visited earth. Even if there is just one "civilization" per galaxy, then there are billions if not trillions of alien races. As a side note, any advanced civilization(space faring) will probably have explored/populated all the stars in their galaxy with in 10 million to 100 million years. There could always be that prime directive not to interfere with non space faring life(which we still are). We need to get out there and see... Keep the videos coming.

[@peterblasek7356]

For me its not about what I want to believe, but more about which answer would give me more knowledge.

[@kalrandom7387]

Could Mercury have been a gas plant that our sun devoured???so we are just looking at what is left aka the core? Would that not account for the density of Mercury?

[@ApteraEV2024]

Thanks Mr. Cain., You're the Best!🎉 Let's chat, ..about Grand Ideas, that shape our Future❤🎉

[@thedeadmoneyallstars]

You can also just go to the community tab on your channel page to get to the polls btw. That does involve 2 clicks though, so might be a bit much 😂

[@hikesystem7721]

The aliens who have not have invented a James Webb-like telescope yet and are on the opposite side of the big bang, moving in the opposite direction, probably dont believe we exist. How could they?

[@Galactic_Peabody]

Sir Fraser, Q&A Question. Shouldn't the inside of black hole continue to get brighter and brighter on the inside since no light can ever escape? Wouldn't all the light and energy also contribute to the further growth of the black hole? Thanks Fraser, your show is Awesome!

[@alyssondasilva4484]

my guess would be that light after the event Horizon moves only towards the center. Let's see

[@terryhayward7905]

My understanding is that a black hole is a centre of gravity, so that at the central point, gravity would be infinite. Light is a vibration or wave, so the gravity at the absolute centre of the black hole being infinite would mean that the wave is stopped, stationary, no time, no vibration, no radiated light.

[@MJulienVergne]

Is there a lower size limit for black holes? How small can they be and what is the smallest one observed? Thanks! Great work here.

[@Bitchslapper316]

The smallest observed until 2022 was 3.8 stellar masses then they think they found one that was about three stellar masses last November. They have about a 15 mile diameter event horizon. The largest known neutron star is 2.35 stellar masses with a similar diameter. We don't yet know the maximum mass of a neutron star or the minimum of a black hole but it's probably between those numbers.

[@hausfer]

Question: Could a black hole, if we in the perfect spot, take the light from our solar system and send it back to us so we could see what it looked like a long time ago?

[@3dflyer347]

A question on early galaxies: the JWST recently found a galaxy Jades-GS-z13-0 at a redshift of 13.2 and distance from earth 33.6 billion light-years. I expect this means light from the galaxy took 33.6 billion years to arrive on Earth. The Harvard CFA website says "The universe began 13.8 billion years ago in the event we call the Big Bang." Various astronomy texts agree. What is the explanation, keeping in mind I need it to be simple?

[@frasercain]

The light has been traveling for 13+ billion years. But the expansion of the universe has carried it 33+ billion light years away.

[@user-ok9dl7xi9h]

?For the question show. Where are all the planet discoveries around K type stars? I would think there would be a huge focus on them since they’d be easier to spot than planets around G type stars. Bonus, the stars are longer lived than the G types, and less prone to flares than the M types. And planets probably not tidally locked! (Side note, I’ve listened to EVERY one of your podcast episodes but I finally found you on KZbin just to ask the question.)

[@MrBashem]

Love how we went from wondering if there were other planets to talking about them all the time in a few years. Yet we are still unsure about planet X 😝😝

[@frasercain]

If planet 9 passed directly in front of some other star on a regular basis we would be sure that it was there. But the problem is that space is big and it's very faint and so we just can't find it

[@MrBashem]

@@frasercain That is why it's so amusing. It's like having a really bad case of farsightedness. Hopefully one day we'll have missions just to explore what is beyond the planets.

[@josephleveille1802]

love your show , question can dark energie be actually quantum gravity would be logical considering black hole and quantum gravity deep interaction would explain allot .

[@LordZordid]

2:42 Are they using surveillance camera footage? Sure looks like it. 2:47 Is that a black and white photo? Sure looks like one.

[@kalrandom7387]

I don't think we're special so we can't be alone

[@76rjackson]

Are astronomers able to resolve gravitationally lensed images? Seems that someone with software and optics knowledge could whip up a program to bring the images into focus. Could be a good project for some PhD candidates.

[@frasercain]

I'm not sure they can fully recreate what the original object looks like. They're more interesting in getting the spectra, which tells them what it's made of.

[@HotelPapa100]

The question was not really mapping A.C.Clarks statement. He says nothing about Aliens visiting us. My stance on the subject: Given the vastness of space, it's very probable that othe intelligent life exists. Given the vastness of space, it's highly unlikely that we'll ever make contact.

[@reltnek]

Question: Wouldn't it be much more efficient if astronomy wasn't always on the bleeding edge of technology? We might be able to look at more things if each individual project was cheaper. It seems that being at the steepest part of the cost vs. performance curve means that we end up with very expensive projects that are ahead of their time technologically, but if we were to wait for other developments to catch up, we'd get our answers later, but be able to look at many more things. Like most things in science, tech from other commercial areas often has the biggest uplift in astronomy (computation, satellite busses for example), so why not wait for them to mature the tech first?

[@plenum222]

Astronomers have egos. We are human, too, and want to be the first, if not, then among the first at most research activities and so use the latest in tech developments. I like your point but it negates very human attributes.

[@TheReaverOfDarkness]

I don't find the prospect of us being alone or not alone terrifying. I'd prefer that there are not aliens currently visiting us, because if they were I wouldn't want them to be bashful about it.

[@caspernowak]

Would it be possible to attach a satellite/telescope on a solid meteorite when it is close to earth and get a free ride on its orbit through the solar system or even further?

[@ambition112]

0:27: 🔭 Astronomers may have observed two ice giants colliding in a star system. 3:28: 🌍 Asteroid samples from Benu could provide insights into the origins of life on Earth. 7:08: 🌌 Astronomers are studying galaxies in the early Universe that are too big too early and using spectroscopy to measure their distance and composition. 9:56: 🔬 Astronomers may have mistaken bright galaxies for massive ones due to the presence of star formation pulses. 13:14: 🌟 Astronomers have identified 500,000 stars in a cluster and released data on gravitational lenses and asteroids. 16:49: 🚀 The International Space Station experienced a coolant leak from one of its radiators on the Russian NAA module. 19:58: 🌌 Arthur C Clark's quote about the possibility of alien life in the universe and people's preferences regarding it. Recap by Tammy AI

[@MavericksGoose]

How many types of galaxies are in the universe?

[@davidgifford8112]

Not sure Psyche 16 is really planetesimal iron core, latest estimates put its density at only 4x that of water (The Earth is 5). If it is metal rich it’s a disrupted object with lots of gaps between lumps.

[@anthonylester2128]

Could Psyche be the remnant of the Mars sized planet that possibly crashed into early Earth and created the Moon? Would there be any way they could test if that was the case?

[@alangarland8571]

It's far more likely though it has never encountered Earth, although it does seem to have collided with something. There's no reason to suspect that would be Earth though.

[@jamesbailes5314]

I personally believe aliens do exist just none have ever managed to leave there own solar system like i dont think we will.(manned mission wise.)

[@Jeroen_Mastenbroek]

Question: what would happen to the tides when the earth is tidally locked with the moon?

[@johnmann6866]

Personally I'm with you. It would be nice to know there are aliens elsewhere but I'm pretty sure they haven't visited. I know people always quote probabilities, but considering the things that need to happen (or not) to let life exist, then evolve, then form technological civilisations..... well, there's some pretty large leaps there. The dinosaurs were around for 100ma and never got close.

[@Sparkyville]

Exactly my thought. Life can be very common, but to get to where we are, required a lot of specific steps. I'd be willing to bet dinosaur worlds are far more common than our current earth. Even then, we may just find that interstellar travel isn't practical at all and all of our Sci-Fi dreams will remain just that, a dream. I certainly hope not though. I'd like to think that someday we will find a way to make vast journeys in space without taking multiple generations to get there.

[@gabbyn978]

Maybe it is because my eyes aren't good any more, but somehow I missed an 'R' in the word Overturned

[@President_Mario]

Hey Fraser, can you elaborate why you believe we are alone in the universe?

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

Aren’t Faklon Heavy or SLS powerful enough to bring people to Mars and back ?