The Neutron Star Slingshot

Could giant gravitational machines be the secret to true interstellar travel?
This video is made in paid partnership with EA. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is available now on Xbox One, PS4, and PC: bit.ly/35rHnel

[@becausescience]

Thanks for watching, Super Nerds! *CORRECTION* the "R" in the equations that I used is the radius of the *orbit* and not the stars themselves. I got this wrong and misread the paper. Sorry for any confusion. The velocity numbers are still correct. Thanks for keeping me honest. -- kH

[@ryangaming2402]

The movie Interstellar used a black hole for a slinghot im not too smart but I want to know how fast would it be.

[@edullfranz]

so... could you, good sir, tell me the song of the "pop quiz" hahhaha. Good show, btw :)

[@juang.7309]

But what about space debris?

[@kukivave]

You forgot a few more hazards, even if these binary dwarf stars, or binary neutron stars could be engineered.... you have an orbital slingshot trajectory which generates an accelerating force that would smoosh anyone on the ship into a fine paste... not to mention that the oscillating forces radiating out from both stars would rip the ship apart long before you got within the expected 20km of the star (your exit velocity is about 81,000,000 m/s, if your start velocity is 0, and the orbital radius is 20KM, the entire slingshot is going to take a thousandth of a second, which means your acceleration is going to be close to the whole 81 million G's, or technically enough to turn you, and your ship into a fine paste... If you want to take advantage of this kind of slingshot and not get smooshed into paste, you'd need to have a much much much larger orbital, perhaps using binary super giant's (or a Neutron star in orbit of a binary super giant) instead so as to ramp up the acceleration.

[@kukivave]

​@@ryangaming2402 You cannot calculate this based on the information provided by the movie, but the star system (grangantua) contains the black hole and an orbiting neutron star, so depending on that stars mass, they could pull off an acceleration maneuver because the Netutron star would be pulling on the Black hole (or vice versa), also there is a main sequence star less than a light year away which could technically allow some acceleration (again depending of masses and vectors we were not given). On a technical level you can sling shot around our sun, utilizing it's orbital around the galactic core to give you the boost. it all depends on the stellar body's orbital around another significant stellar body.

[@royadambrown3101]

This is just Kyle explaining how he could get home.

[@ZielAmerak]

or how he got here.

[@tusharanand6301]

Better than him explaining how to make a computer in a magic the gathering game

[@PashaGamingYT]

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

[@leedrage5514]

I miss Kyle 😭

[@roystondaniel2849]

@@tusharanand6301 hmm?

[@Apersonl0l]

“Ok lets go!!!” _Rips ship apart as we’re passing the stars_

[@AsbestosMuffins]

I remember a ST: voyager episode where there was a pair of pulsars that janeway was crazy enough to fly between

[@Daniel-rd6st]

That was my first thought too. The forces involved would probably rip any ship apart. It would most certainly rip any human on board apart.

[@PashaGamingYT]

That could be a slight problem.

[@Yora21]

@@Daniel-rd6st I'm not so sure. Which forces? The only detrimental forces I can think of are tidal forces from being too close to one neutron star. If you stay far enough away to avoid getting spagettified, I think you're actually completely fine.

[@Daniel-rd6st]

@@Yora21 The acceleration you would have to go through to get that fast in such a short amount of time. Though to be honest, i havent done the math how strong it really would be at its highest point.

[@yuricahere]

Between the Dyson Sphere, Dyson Swarm and the Dyson Slingshot, Im starting to think Dyson is actually a time traveler from the future and he's giving us hints on how to leave Earth.

[@Techno_Idioto]

Penrose Sphere: When Stars aren't enough, and you *really* want to build something around a Black Hole.

[@Glathgrundel]

And he really knows how to make vacuum cleaners.

[@mihailmilev9909]

Lol

[@mihailmilev9909]

@@Techno_Idioto like a kugelblitz?

[@coffzor123]

@@Glathgrundel Lmao, underrated comment 😂 He's an expert when it comes to vacuums ;)

[@zangeh]

"it's quite empowering" *Begins to doubt my 4 years of college education when my numbers just don't match up*

[@JontyLevine]

MacGamer Media I used the same numbers and got 14% of the speed of light. Not 25. And then there's the fact that you're not actually orbiting at the neutron star's surface, so the actual radius would be higher, which Because Science already addressed in the comments.

[@listlessviewer153]

I was always off by a factor of 2. Not sure why 🤷

[@manuelwie]

@@listlessviewer153 Well, you should have just let Carter do the maths for you? :)

[@Nibsipipsi]

@@listlessviewer153 you calculated V. The question is, what is 2V? A gravitational slingshot adds up to twice the orbital velocity.

[@kheldarath]

i failed the maths so badly. first one i got like 0.4 the speed of light, second one i got like 14 times the speed of light. So i've missed a step somewhere. I'm a dumbass

[@umbrascitor2079]

"Velocity Thief" = Velociraptor There goes the Starship Velociraptor, slashing through the cosmos.

[@josephlipari01]

Beat me to it.

[@apparently2]

They hunt in packs.

[@kyleward3914]

Your ship was basically named "Velociraptor," since "raptor" means "thief."

[@Kharazim]

Raptor means Bird of Prey, but the orignal latin Raptores means "Plunderer". Furtum in latin means thief.

[@kyleward3914]

@@Kharazim Huh...I always heard velociraptor translated as "speedy thief." I stand corrected.

[@osmo2384]

genius

[@aajeev]

Wow. THAT is a good one.

[@JROwensPhotos]

@@kyleward3914 Ferrets are the ones with the thiefy name. 'Ferret' itself comes from Latin 'furittus', diminutive of 'fur' or 'furs', 'thief', so it means 'little thief'. And their not-quite-binomial name is Mustela putorius furo, 'thiefy stinking weasel'. Semantically, though, I'd say 'plunderer' is close enough to 'thief' that your 'Velociraptor' ship name is totally justified.

[@goldenboss3903]

I bet Kyle doesn’t actually print the paper every time he references one. he actually just uses the same piece of folded paper every single time

[@NarwahlGaming]

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

[@n3v3rg01ngback]

golden boss I look at academic literature on big comfy screens. He probably does as well.

[@NarwahlGaming]

@@n3v3rg01ngback WITCHCRAFT!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Hey Kyle, this might be nitpicky... but as someone who did their masters thesis on white dwarfs, I just can't let it go. At 9:05, you use 1 solar mass in your calculation for a neutron star when the minimum mass for a neutron star is 1.4 solar masses. Anything less and it's a white dwarf. Also, a radius of 20 km is a little big. A 1.4 solar mass neutron star would have a _diameter_ of 20 km and a _radius_ of 10 km (I think you made the same mistake with the white dwarf radius). As the neutron star gains mass, its diameter will actually _shrink,_ so a radius of 10 km is the _maximum_ for a neutron star. The minimum would be about 8.9 km at 3 solar masses when an event horizon forms and it becomes a black hole. If you've found some way to compress matter into a neutron star with a smaller mass and you're not sharing it with the world, this just confirms your supervillain status.

[@Curts_videocassette]

Good use of your master thesis on white dwarfs :)

[@nightraithz7322]

Judging by your numbers that would equal roughly 37.4% of the speed of light/403641000km/h?

[@nosuchthing8]

Quick question, I assume this Uber sling shot would not impart any forces on the ship because it's in free fall.

[@ChemEDan]

@@nosuchthing8 Tidal forces would be high - different gravity at your feet than your head which is enough to rip you apart

[@nosuchthing8]

@@ChemEDan yeah, you got me there. Maybe that's why he focused on white dwarfs and not black holes. The spaghettificatiin should be lower. I always assume we will send software avatars to the stars. It's easier than flesh and blood bodies. And potentially far more durable.

[@orobs9780]

"We did it, we are traveling at 0.27c!!" "Awesome! So... How do we brake?"

[@runefaustblack]

If you don't want to be obliterated in a second, you don't. You use small opposite thrusters to reduce your speed over a looooong period of time.

[@storyspren]

A second binary neutron star system where you do the reverse maneuver. We remembered to set that up, right?

[@AryadiSubagio]

I believe you're already break at acceleration. Oh, you said brake?

[@thenasadude6878]

You'll need to bring your own set of neutron stars

[@Nathan_Talisien]

This sounds like a quote from a goblin in Magic, lol... Goblin Balloon Brigade. "From up here, we can throw rocks an' sticks an' fire on 'em!" "Uh, yeah, boss... But how do we get down?"

[@Sonicgott]

“This little maneuver is gonna cost us 51 years!”

[@derrenmarcusturner408]

Would you rather 1700?? 🤣 This is for the species as a whole, not so you can see cool things(ok... maybe a little of both lol)

[@Yora21]

I think with a neutron star, time dilation wouldn't make meaningful difference. If your ship survives the tidal forces, you probably would just lose a few seconds.

[@Simba436]

"You don`t look so bad for 120"

[@jeremychen5777]

ahh a shame, idk if they get the reference

[@user-uq4gr5nl5o]

@@Simba436 "We agreed, 90%"

[@elitirit9082]

When he shouted "Pop Quiz" my heart rate raced and I got flashbacks, what have u done lol

[@andrewdougherty8190]

Sure Kyle not a “villain” when you name of the ship is Velocity Thief. Not to mention you trademarked it. We’re watching you Voidmancer

[@Felipe-hl6nh]

"The correct answer is c" me: Wait, that's not poss - oooh, option C

[@deltablaze77]

I was listening from the other room and thought the same thing, was like "WTF!?"

[@Cha-Khia]

I didn't even need to do math because Kyle is such a cheeky bugger.

[@NS-xo6qe]

NEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD Very cool.

[@princevegeta6679]

It's option "c" the c is lower case.

[@Narblo]

Wait...that's illegal

[@dustineiland4606]

"POP QUIZ!" *heart sinks suddenly as years of pop quizes suddemly resurface.*

[@PHNX-ls5bt]

absolutely love interstellar travel theories, just makes me incredibly sad that I'll never see it in my lifetime :(

[@Original_Syn]

“Neutron Pressure” sounds like the name of a punk band

[@oliverdittrich2140]

Would listen to them 100%

[@liam1558]

Interstellar Operation also sounds like a band.

[@matthewcox7985]

For a heavy metal band, *Actinide Series*

[@TheLytable]

@@matthewcox7985 Well played. Would their music be rhythmically dense?

[@osmo2384]

You know that existence is terrible when even space-time has depression.

[@MatthewBaron]

Well obviously existence is suffering. Which is why non-existence is the ultimate goal if one is to be free from suffering.

[@DeadMarine1980]

@@MatthewBaron but I like to suffer. Non Existence is agonizing. Before and after.

[@daniilmorillo5326]

😂

[@erbgorre]

@@MatthewBaron im mr meeseeks, look at me! existence is pain..

[@grimcatnip]

This made my day xD!!!!

[@graylinshowell7051]

Velocity Thief? This feels like a missed opportunity to use Velocirobber.

[@MaiiOrduna]

Or Veloci"raptor" hehe

[@GenJuhru]

Really not Veloci-Thief

[@gonzalez8juan]

Velocirobbor. New band name, called it.

[@thenasadude6878]

Velocity Thief has some 19th century ring to it, could have been the name of some record setting steam locomotive

[@ViviDimension]

I propose the name "Velarceny" for your second ship.

[@NarwahlGaming]

He'd have a captain's yacht called the 'Velooter'. ....cuz it's like 'scooter'...

[@jackielinde7568]

8:30 - Kyle: "If these assist want even more mass and more velocity, why don't we use the densest objects in the universe?" Because it's still considered amoral to eject politicians into space, Kyle. I know we all dream of the day we can put our politicians to some good use, but we still have to operate within ethical and moral boundaries. Also, I'm pretty sure the people in the Alpha Centauri system frown on littering as well. We don't want to make our future friends upset, now do we.

[@runefaustblack]

You are awesome.

[@MatthewBaron]

Immoral. Amoral means lacking morality. Immoral means not meeting ethical mores.

[@notchbeard9007]

The politicians are like the wolf pup compared to the Alpha Male Adult Wolf that the MSM is. Lets jettison them all, worry about morality later when we are in a better world.

[@DoctorT144]

well fucking played LMAO

[@ZielAmerak]

the people of Alpha Centauri will be like, Why do you still have politicians? we threw them to space eons ago

[@theCodyReeder]

Great! I’ll just pull a couple Stars out of my back pocket and we’ll be good to go!

[@nadekocovska6255]

Idiot

[@nadekocovska6255]

Dumb

[@BaconKFilms]

Nade Kocovska this guy is smarter than you’ll ever be lmao don’t trash my boy cody

[@darenmiller2218]

Holy crap never thought I’d see Cody’s lab catch shit from someone. If you happen to read this, your channel is freaking awesome bro!!

[@Gamefreak8112]

I bet you're working on it. Don't doom us all!

[@Charmanduhh]

Almost feels like the mass relays from Mass Effect.

[@roxasthesquiddog]

Ikr?

[@NicholasJeffery]

Kyle: Don't do that! Me: *wants to do that*

[@papaglock6587]

Kyle : " Let's get technical" Me : gets goosebumps

[@En_theo]

I'm growing tired of these "he/me: blablala" jokes .

[@AvangionQ]

The trouble being to reach the nearest neutron star binary in the first place ... 🚀💫

[@PopeGoliath]

"Gravity assists rely on how immovably massive a planet is!" "Now, just move a solar mass into position..." By the time we can move stars, we'll have figured out the propulsion necessary to visit them.

[@cookiee818]

But the propulsion hardware and fuel could be extremely expensive, so it'd cut down on costs and possibly weight as well once we can move them big boys

[@PopeGoliath]

@@cookiee818 "Engines and fuel are heavy to move from star to star, so let's move the stars instead."

[@walfman100]

@@PopeGoliath but when you talk about constant return trips to and from the places that the star system was created travel between it could potentially have exponetiel savings over time, given that the energy required to maintain the system is less than that saved by requiring less energy for the travel itself

[@PopeGoliath]

@@walfman100 The scale difference between a star and a ship is so, so huge that the inefficiencies here are hard to comprehend. You could move the Seawise Giant, the largest ship ever constructed, ten times a second for the next quadrillion years for the same cost as moving a star once. Nobody needs to front startup costs that disproportionately large for anything, ever. Just move your ships. :)

[@adolfodef]

The whole point of this is not MAKING them, but merely USING the ones ALREADY INSTALLED all across the galaxy (by unknown advanced precursors). -> And before even that, just "point telescopes" at them to get proof of aliens.

[@tonechild5929]

So the neutron highway is going to be more than a thing in the game: Elite Dangerous?

[@PhantomXT]

Hey, you won’t have to worry about your FSD breaking down!

[@Ryan-lk4pu]

@@PhantomXT don't forget your AMFU Cmdr o7

[@Vashu627]

So was this idea the basis of the white dwarf/neutron star boost in ED to begin with? They just changed the mechanics because slingshotting was not something that made sense in the game engine?

[@Sevik07]

@@Vashu627 If i remember correctly it was a bug, they just left it in game and turned it into feature.

[@Vevvev8]

@@Sevik07 I don't think it was a bug because it's a delibretly programmed feature. Fly into the energy coming out of the poles to charge the FSD. This mechanic came in the same update the energy coming out of the poles came out.

[@DoctorT144]

One teensy little problem: How do you intend to accelerate to 1/4 of the speed of light in a tiny fraction of a second without turning your entire crew into sloshy soup? Not only that, but even if our spaceship was built out of super future materials with the theoretical maximum possible tensile strength, it would likely still be ripped into atoms by such an insane maneuver. I tried to calculate the number of G's you'd be experiencing, but these numbers horribly broke every relativistic calculator I found online (likely BILLIONS of G's if not TRILLIONS). When talking about relativistic velocities, the problem isn't "how do you speed up that much?" It's "how do you speed up that much without destroying whatever you're trying to transport in the first place?" And that's before we even begin to discuss the problem of "how do you slow down at the end?" Which has no easy answer either with this method of acceleration, unless your destination also happens to have a similar set of ridiculous rotating death balls (meaning you'd probably already visited via much slower means). And trying to slow down that fast would also obliterate you in the same way as the rapid acceleration in the beginning. So you'd be DOUBLE DEMOLISHED. I'm not a scientist, I just spend way too much time on Isaac Arthur's channel. Love the show by the way! Keep up the good work Kyle. :D

[@coachnutt61]

I was just getting ready to post the same thing. I have to be some sort of inertial dampening going on on both ends of the trip! if you have ever watched the TV show The expanse when the guy tries to go through the ring and it stops him but his bones and everything shoot out of his body that's what I envisioned happening except backwards! Lol

[@tusharanand6301]

"It's not the fall that kills you, but the landing." Which translates to slow change in speed isn't harmful but the same change suddenly will kill you. Which also translates to, I agree.

[@victorcastillo8900]

Actually, the gravity from the stars also would also affect the crew. So, in theory, they wouldn't feel any acceleration (unless engines were on). What I think the problem would be is the actual difference in gravity between different point on the ship. Furthest point would experience less gravity than the closest one. This could acutally rip the ship apart.

[@FangvsCrow]

My understanding of physics is that you wouldn't suffer any ill effects. The inertia wouldn't be a major problem, so far as I'm aware, because you and the ship are already in motion, and while the increase seems incredibly massive, it isn't all that dissimilar from doubling your speed on the ground. The main difference is the numbers. As for slowing down, well, it seems you assume a "slam the brakes" situation, where all the speed is lost in a very short amount of time, and yes, you'd be obliterated by that. But if the deceleration is done over a longer period of time, it isn't a problem.

[@victorcastillo8900]

@@FangvsCrow Not really. It would be similar to falling from a cliff in your car. The gravity from Earth, or a neutron star in this case, would pull you quite fast, but you wouldn't feel any force at all pushing you to your car's ceiling. With the ship is the same, it accelerates as it fall into the gravity well, but the crew doesn't feel any force. And this is why gravity is a big clusterf**k that is barely understood.

[@Sneakybeans4]

Kyle just crushed a star with his bare hands, do we finally have a challenger that could contend against shaggy?

[@thenasadude6878]

"Finally, a worthy opponent!"

[@KeysmashGirl]

Surely Kyle can do the math on that

[@gandalftheantlion]

Shaggy wished he could crush a star!

[@nathanrcoe1132]

but if kyle were actually so powerful, how is it that he became trapped in the void in the first place

[@gandalftheantlion]

Nathan R Coe he was trapped by a thousand wizards in an attempt to control kyle’s great power however their power was barely able to contain him. So they made a deal with the great Kyle to educate us in humorous ways and he liked that. Thus he allowed himself to be trapped in the void, and his power can be contained.

[@greenmind3488]

Id prefer a ship named the "Momentum Marauder" This is my TM

[@VhanchyShu]

My question here is, how would you stop your ship going that fast? Also, are there any star systems like that close to us?

[@therealshavenyak]

A slingshot maneuver in the opposite direction around a neutron star binary at the destination would do the trick. And a nice thing about gravity assist maneuvers is that from the point of view of the spacecraft, it’s in free fall the whole time. So there’s no huge g force to deal with. But… with neutron stars having an orbital period of 5 milliseconds, it’s going to take a very precise approach to not end up as the space version of roadkill. Also, the tidal forces experienced in a close flyby of a neutron star will probably be pretty extreme.

[@enweave]

usual and boring implications: - how to survive acceleration? - micro meteorites at 0.25c??? - how to decelerate at destination?(presumably, without lithobraking) p.s. luv the show

[@ZielAmerak]

to decelerate you just need to do the same, but in the other direction. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqLaoYSXp9d3rc0

[@nigeldepledge3790]

Lithobraking, LOL!!

[@AsbestosMuffins]

@@ZielAmerak so you gotta have a pair of orbiting neutron stars wherever you intend to go...which would kind of necessitate having the power to 1) collapse white dwarfs and 2) move them to orbit each other

[@LestadChile]

Actually slow is easy. Just do the manouver backwards. But luck while dealing with the extreme forces implicated.

[@Wolfius68]

AmbeL Castter Easy? You need to shoot directly into another engine, and your approach needs to be timed perfectly. As for extreme forces, you would not feel the force of acceleration from such a maneuver because you’re in free fall, zero g. You can’t feel the force of acceleration due to gravity during free fall; it affects your entire frame of reference. The only perceived acceleration would be minor ones for course adjustment, or perhaps from some attempt at simulating terrestrial gravity.

[@XonixDerps]

Kinda makes me think of the mass effect relays and how they're set up everywhere like a chain

[@The47hitmen]

"This would involve a pair of binary white dwarf stars".. Yeah a 4 star system is one hell of a system indeed.. ;p Great show BTW

[@tristanswain7107]

So if this was possible how close could we put the closest binary neutron star to earth? And how long would it take to get to it?

[@DeveloperJake]

It could disrupt the entire solar system and we could find ourselves/our star orbiting to the singularity of one those beasts

[@Numidea.3]

since I'm generally interested in neutron stars and love your show, I thought I'll try learning something and get to be a super nerd at once - forgive me for my bad English, i"m also sending greetings from Germany :) To make a shortlist of problems with a "Dyson slingshot" and neutron stars: Gravity would either : - smack you against the back of your ship due to the insane acceleration g-Forces - for reference, the human body can withstand a max. of 46.2 g in the test of John Stapp (Air Force) for a few seconds. Let's say you start at the speed of Voyager 1 (ca. 17.000 m/s) and exit one revolution later (0.005 sec) at 0.27c; that would mean you accelerate at 1.651.593.562 g And to put it simply, that value doesn't really change unless you endure 48 hours at 48g using the same entering and exit speed - during which time you would weigh in at 3840kg or 8450 pounds and one side of your body would have all the blood and the other none ;) - make Spaghetti out of your Spaceship - or the ship would be literally smacked by the partner star if you came in at a bad angle due to the speed of revolution There would also be some problems due to electromagnetism but I was too lazy to look up and learn about that too. I'll do that another time. In short: Spaceship + close neutron star = no technology & 0 human brain function due to interference & ship probably at insane radiation level and so on and so forth ... ^^' Also, since neutron stars are so delicate... In layman terms, if it were more massive it would become a black hole - if less massive it would implode in a supernova due to the imbalance. A neutron star with a 20km radius would have to be more massive or else the forces wouldn't be in a stable equilibrium. The note by the Cornell University (arXiv:1205.6871) a neutron star with just 1.4 sm would already be 10.4 - 12.9 km in diameter. to make it understandable, a neutron star that size is impossible or at the least super duper improbable see iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2041-8205/765/1/L5/meta to be more precise; cdn.iopscience.com/images/2041-8205/765/1/L5/Full/apjl459797f1_lr.jpg Have a nice day :')

[@storyspren]

That slingshot maneuver is actually survivable. If you accelerate at 1g in a car (0-100km/h in 2.83sec), you feel it. In free fall you're also accelerating at 1g, but you don't feel a thing. That's because the car needs to push you, and pushing requires the push to travel through you like a sound wave, particles hitting each other and pushing them to hit the next ones over. During that (very short but nonetheless important) time, the part of you closest to the seat is being accelerated, but the part furthest isn't. In free fall, on the other hand, gravity affects each part of you at the same time, so no matter how strong it is, you'll be fine as long as there isn't too big of a difference between the forces experienced between different parts. A rocket (or anything that throws stuff behind it to accelerate) is like the car, but a slingshot maneuver is more like a carefully aimed free fall. The paper Kyle cited addresses that issue too, as well as the issue of tidal forces (different strength of gravity in different parts due to different distance), and with a 1M☉ neutron star at the distance this would be done, it'd be roughly 1g for every 80m of difference. Of course that isn't exact and only applies to the rough distance to be used in the slingshot since gravity decreases with the square of distance, not linearly. Here's the full paper that Kyle cited: www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/ast242_s14/Dyson_Machines.pdf (it's pretty short and clearly written too) On the note of neutron star sizes, yeah a solar mass neutron star would be much smaller than r=20km. The paper states that the R in the equation Kyle uses is the orbital radius of the binary system, so he probably just misspoke and we can call it a verbal typo rather than an impossible star. Edit to add: I forgot to talk about the EM radiation, as well as the crazy magnetic field. Yeah those are huge problems. So I propose we squeeze the neutron stars even more to make them into black holes. As far as I'm aware, they're ok when not feeding. I could be wrong though, and aiming the slingshot will be harder when you can't see your target.

[@storyspren]

@OriginalTharios The boson doesn't alter the mass of anything. A Higgs field interaction (which is as intrinsic to any particle as its charge) determines something's mass, and the Higgs boson is just a vibration in that field. Like a photon is a vibration in the electromagnetic field, but it doesn't alter any other particle's charge. As for taking thousands of years to set up, that's part of any space exploration project because of the sheer scale involved. And if you do have the technology to move stars, making future travel faster and cheaper is absolutely a worthwhile endeavor. It's like asking why build railroads when you can make a helicopter. Sure you could just fly over the woods in a helicopter, but if you build a railroad, more people will be able to get there AND you won't need to use the more expensive travel method either. I don't know why negative energy was brought up, since that's still very much hypothetical. We don't know if it even CAN exist, whereas neutron stars move all the time. All we need is enough force, like from the gravity of a larger star. How do we move that? Shkadov thrusters. All we're missing is the materials and engineering know-how, but it's completely within known physics. Negative energy and mass effect technology on the other hand, aren't.

[@dominikpozarko3879]

3Dom4Life there is also a problem that our closest star is probably way closer then any of the neutron stars

[@SilasMckeeIII]

I'm an art major in Texas getting a minor in English, be more confident in you English, looks near perfect to me.

[@thorthethunderdawg5289]

Max of 46.2G's? Look up Kenny Brack the poor bastard survived anywhere from 92-214 G's in a crash on texas motor speedway F1 racing event, a extraordinary case for sure, but he did survive.

[@Yora21]

I find warp drives to be more plausible than building binary neutron stars.

[@shdowdrgonrider]

But building neutron stars is not hard, only time consuming. A giant reflective hemisphere around a star can turn it into a gigantic photon drive. Just build one around two or more stars and push the stars together. Repeat a second time for the second neutron star and then give them a "little" nudge (maybe using a mirror again or other method) to push them into a binary orbit.

[@edvance1030]

Gravitation Slingshot, huh? So...like Mass Effect's Mass Effect Relays?

[@Yora21]

@@shdowdrgonrider Flying to distant stars also is not hard. Just time consuming. :D

[@kalebbruwer]

This is another case of "anyone who could do this wouldn't want to"

[@terrybullspellr8319]

The super villian kyle is at it again...plotting to steal velocity now.

[@douglasgreer7255]

2:19 oop. i think you forgot to say "sweater" of space time.

[@KeysmashGirl]

Gotem good

[@ShlokParab]

oomph mph is a unit for speed

[@drahcirtmd3924]

“We did it! We’re going .25 the speed of light!” “Awesome... how do we slow down?” “Uh...”

[@Sylfa]

At the end of the trip: "If only we had another 7 months we would have cracked it" Shortly thereafter, ship gets cracked by destination

[@derrenmarcusturner408]

We use...... A REVERSE HILL ENGINE 🤣🤣

[@ZMacZ]

This only works if the distance is really great. Given you first have to go to the neutron star, if the star you want to go to is closer, then you can actually go there, no need for slingshot. But, if you want to go to another star with slingshot you'd also have to do a gravity assist deceleration. So, if the star you want to travel to is like closer than the two travel to and fro, you might as well go directly. So basically as a rule of thumb, when Δt_direct > Δt_slingshot you'd wanna slingshot, with Δt_direct = distance_direct / speed, and Δt_slingshot = Δt_to + Δt_fro +Δt_travel, where Δ_to = distance_to_slingshot / speed, Δt_fro = distance_decel_dest / speed, and Δt_travel = distance_sling1_sling2 / speed_sling. Yes, not so hard to remember, lol. If the distance is great enough you can definitely shave off a few thousand years from an otherwise 50 century travel itinerary

[@metri0n]

This video gave me chills. I love it . Thank you for the awesome videos Kyle

[@benw543]

Not to mention be bathed in massive amounts of solar Radiation.

[@NoSubsWithContent]

From human to superheated plasma in a millisecond

[@ronenshtein7083]

Not to also mention the extreme g's you'll be pulling maneuvering around such fast spinning massive objects.... Surely enough to paste any meaty organism... And if you are an android at this point, don't forget the millions to trillions of Teslas that would surely fry any electronics (and in the extreme cases literally pull atoms apart). And you'd also need a second system closer to your destination in order to slow down or else you'll be speeding thru space for eternity.

[@georgplaz]

What about the G forces when accelerating? I think we'd just be bones stripped from their flesh

[@ronenshtein7083]

@@georgplaz technically G forces from acceleration are equivalent to ones that result from gravitation ("maneuvering around such fast spinning massive objects") - see equivalence principle, and in this case they are the same, because there's no significant external thrust - just the slingshot maneuver. And considering orbital period of less-than-a-second of objects the size of a small city (~20 km each), I think bones are going to be crushed to pulp too.

[@Vastin]

@@georgplaz As far as I know, this is a free fall maneuver - no acceleration at all in the ship's frame of reference, so no G forces. Definitely have to worry about tidal forces if you're skimming the surface of a neutron star however, that could tear your ship apart very easily.

[@Phoebus7238]

also would anyone even survive being slung that fast? wouldn't the force be outrageous?

[@theCodyReeder]

Remember anything that is only being affected by gravity feels weightless no matter how insane the gravity field. It would feel tidal forces though so a large craft would have issues.

[@trysin4704]

@@theCodyReeder I believe he was meaning Acceleration not gravity and if we accelerated that fast we would liquefy maybe even vaporize.

[@Azmarov]

Matthew Ludwig when skydiving, you don’t feel the downward acceleration. In a plane that simulates 0G, you are still falling at 9.8m/s^2, but you don’t feel it at all. Similarly, in a loop where the turn would exert exactly 1G on you, you would feel weightless at the apex because your upward momentum in that moment is equal and opposite to the force of gravity.

[@kingpolo3458]

@@Azmarov You DO feel it. In your stomach.

[@Azmarov]

King Polo that’s what weightlessness feels like.

[@MrEffNell]

So mass effects idea of mass relays is entirely possible.

[@martinroner5688]

Just finished fallen order, no regrets, finally a good star wars game

[@capitalcitygoofball1987]

Good to know

[@Darkkiinho]

More like, Space YEET

[@Anon-wh4ou]

What if science said "Gravity slingshot" But internet said "No,celestial yeet"

[@Yora21]

Wheeeeeeeeee.....

[@Firstpick]

And what's with the acceleration of this slingshot? Can we survive this? Btw love the show! :-D

[@RicardoLuna]

This is a good question.

[@alexandresilva3427]

exactly what I was thinking the whole time. Pilots have died from the acceleration of ejection sits.

[@PeterParker-tb7ce]

I was thinking the same thing. From my understanding the human body can only be accelerated to a certain amount. Then you would have to decelerate at the other end at the same rate. The other problem with this is how would you set up this system. If you had the tech to set it up you wouldn't need to do it. To me the only one who would benefit from this would be someone living in a system that had Neutron stars. Then it would be a one way trip out.

[@PiroMunkie]

Yeah that was something I was curious about as well. I imagine a slingshot around something the size of Jupiter might take a long enough time that the G-forces wouldn't be that significant, but for the Neutron star system example I feel like that would certainly kill people. xD

[@Bucky91702]

I would assume so because you'd be in orbit, which is essentially freefall with perpendicular velocity. You also have the distance it's spread over which I guess you could increase by going to a greater distance from the center of gravity.

[@Kinan.Eldari]

Clearly I am missing something because simply plugging in the values for G, M and r I don't get even close to the right answer.

[@31cvgeremy12]

"Think back to jumping on a person sized merry-go-round." There's no previous reference to a person sized merry-go-round. I hope this isn't a reference to another evil foreshadowing...

[@NarwahlGaming]

Now, is this a merry-go-round that's just the size of a person... or is it MADE of a person?!

[@brandonwood4695]

@@NarwahlGaming It is six feet tall, and gaudily dressed, with an interesting, almost musical speech.

[@echo7992]

Kyle : Pop Quiz! Me : *Grumbling* you're lucky I enjoy problem solving Kyle

[@jurijsitar5567]

This seems very similar to the mass effect "mass relay" sistem.

[@Hubert_Cumberdale_]

"Report to ship, we'll bang ok?"

[@Hornswroggle]

It kindof is... but it's used vice versa. In the game they apply electrical voltage to make the payload's mass very small to then fling this lightweight object through space with small effort However with a Dyson Slingshot you use extremely heavy (and preferrably dense) objects to accelerate a comparatively insignificant amount of payload.

[@no_nope_knope]

Great episode! Love thinking about how long distance space travel may be accomplished. Thank you! How do we initially get to the stars to begin the slingshot journey?

[@rogerpierson8319]

Just discovered the channel and love it. Unique approach and the drawing board is awesome. Took me a few days to figure it out. For a minute I thought you might have been a Navy OS, who used to be taught reverse writing.

[@becausescience]

Thank you so much! -- kH

[@_Shinasu]

All I thought was elite Dangerous and using the "neutron highway" 😂

[@psychohavoc]

I thought the same way.

[@kysier6015]

Am I the only one who's first mental image after reading the title was a giant solar system sized slingshot hurling neutron stars across the cosmos?

[@matheuswohl]

something about a lever and a fulcrum...

[@tusharanand6301]

Yup I was thinking about that since he told about this episode in the last footnotes.

[@Yora21]

Hypothetically imaginable. But since a tiny neutron star still has about the same mass as the sun, you wouldn't get a lot of speed out of that, I believe.

[@kysier6015]

@@Yora21 Ok now I'm wondering what the actual physics of something like that would be.... lol

[@christianhendrickson2969]

A couple of years ago, I came up with the idea of a starship that could produce a black hole in front of itself and use that to sling shot forwards. Granted the black hole would have to be big enough to pull the ship forwards, but unstable enough to collapse before you got sucked into it.

[@Jonny5Fails]

Questions: How would we deal with being subjected to that kind of acceleration? How fast could we get to Mars if we slingshotted from earth? What if we set up a rail gun like system in Earth's orbit?

[@rustynuggets1632]

Mathematically the rail gun seems sound but there is no way to survive the G force produced by acceleration, there could be a few hypothetical solutions to that, like a stasis field maybe?

[@davidpeabody3429]

Others watching this: oh yah dyson i know him Me: vacuums?

[@zachh6868]

The ability to shrink atoms would be amazing combined with this concept. "How many stars r' in ur engine"

[@eiecheverri2]

*slaps hood* this baby can hold 5 neutron stars and has a mileage of 2 galaxies per tank.

[@carlboard8879]

I just rediscovered the channel when I was younger I loved your vids and I fully understood the wat you told us the science. Great content.

[@thaddeusmccaustland8023]

The other problem with this is interstellar debris, micrometeors, etc. Becuase at 0.27c if you hit a grain of sand it would obliterate your entire spacecraft with kinetic energy.

[@philipcollier4883]

The easiest way to catch a bird is put salt on its tail. Love the show, Kyle. The main problem I see with the neutron star slingshot is by the time we had all the tech involved to make it work we wouldn't need to attempt it: Super materials to keep the ship intact, biotech to protect the passengers, cold fusion at the very least. By the time you got all that together you have cheap energy, funtional immortality, and ships that could probably accelerate to .01C in about a year with only 1G thrust adding only 2 years to the 470 years travel time vs the almost instant acceleration of the gravity assist.

[@cboechler7]

I'm sure they said the same thing about building a network of concrete highways. "By the time we have the equipment to build a trans-continental highways for our horse and buggy, we wont need them anymore." Still wouldn't "need" highways, but like the luxury of driving on concrete with a sports car instead of through a field with a Humvee, neutron star super highways could be a quick and easy way to travel across the galaxy star wars style.

[@walfman100]

@@cboechler7Yes, the question would probably not be about ability but efficiency and ease of travel. Like moving people and goods from solar system to solar system

[@cboechler7]

@@walfman100 can you imagine the resource exchange rates between star systems? Like, gold could be very common in Proxima Pentauri, but iron very rare. We could trade with them at 1Kg of iron for 1Kg of gold and both parties would feel like they were making the best deal in history.

[@patrickd8654]

​@@cboechler7 Or you could use nucelosynthesis to turn whichever elements you have in abundance into whatever elements are scare at lower energy cost and substantially less time than shipping raw materials across interstellar distances.

[@water2621112]

Hey Kyle, I noticed that those neutron stars are REALLY close, and wanted to give an idea of ludicrous getting between the two stellar remnants would be. Say you happened to fly directly between the two neutron stars, each at 20 km distance away due to the radius of their orbits. Using the good old acceleration due to gravity equation (g = (G * Mass of neutron star) / (distance away)^2 ), we get an acceleration due to the gravity of a solar mass neutron star is 333.5 Billion m/s^2, or put in g's, 34 Billion g's of acceleration. When paired with the fact that two of these gravitational fields are acting on your space ship, this maneuver would spaghettify any ship passing between the neutron stars. So it'd be better to put these remnants further away from one another. Thanks for the video, happy sciencing!

[@LEoX8933]

Tbh if a civilization has the capability to make a network like that they would probably have some kind of ftl making the network just a flex

[@imranshishir1947]

Thanks kyle. I've been wondering how space crafts benefit from gravitation assist since I was 8.

[@wayneharrison6621]

This reminds me of the "jump points" used by Marvel for space travel.

[@joeblandd6425]

the closed captions are travelling at ftl speeds, they're several seconds ahead

[@AndreFerreira-zt2qc]

Honestly I love his vids so sad to see that they stopped making them 😭😭 I've learned so much

[@patrickd8654]

This was the clearest explanation of a gravity slingshot I have even seen. 👍

[@kingtimot]

if we get to that kind of acceleration, how would we survive the g-forces?

[@insaneAnimeLover]

There are no g-forces when you use gravity to accelerate. When you are in free fall you feel completely weightless no matter how high the gravitational acceleration is.

[@iacobibrasiliensium2139]

Mass effect Relays? This sounds like mass effect relays....I am guessing this is mass effect relays

[@primezero86]

Except they're a lot faster. Makes u think what materials the inner rotating rings are made of for the mass lol

[@Bluedawn84_]

That was my thought

[@jeromebirth2693]

Could you increase your space ship velocity from quarter light speed to half light speed by engaging another neutron star system? Could you repeat this yet again and get to 3/4 light speed?

[@myherpesitch7763]

Thank you Kyle for explaining gravity assist. I never understood how something could gain speed without a cost.

[@elfenlies]

Now that you are going a quarter the speed of light how are you going to slow down.

[@Jason-io2vy]

Deploy a solar sail as you approach the target star. I was thinking the same thing while watching the video.

[@finickybits8055]

@@Jason-io2vy Literally lol no.

[@jackielinde7568]

13:30 - Kyle, I think you just gave The Slo Mo Guys their next project. (The tennis balls at a moving vehicle.)

[@Yora21]

Basically it's what happens when you hit a baseball with a bat. That should be very easy to capture since the batter is standing in a fixed place and you know pretty well where the impact will happen. If they find a good way to have a vehicle and a ball impact right where the camera is looking it, that would be really cool, though.

[@trainjackson63]

@@Yora21 Quick google just said a 90mph baseball can leave the batter at 110mph

[@jackielinde7568]

@@Yora21 Yeah, but it's more fun to do the experiment. And it's not like Gav and Dan are breaking much ground scientifically. (Devon, of Smarter Every Day, did help advance scientific knowledge.)

[@denvera1g1]

When i heard "the correct answer is C" i thought :there is no way this would slingshot a space craft at 1c, then i looked at the screen and realised it was a multiple choice question.

[@nosuchthing8]

I remember thinking about sling shots when I was child, wondering how a probe could gain speed. But then I thought of the plenets motion and assumed the probe had to move parallel to the planets motion.

[@codyhameha7107]

Kyle what do you think about Kurzgesagt’s video on a space tether?

[@chicomanara]

Was thinking of this too. The scale is smaller, but the idea is there.

[@derrenmarcusturner408]

I was thinking of combining these 2 ideas forreal

[@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369]

My comment: “Hey, love it!! Also, I know of a better closer version of it called the skyhook, would this system ressemble this? I know you like to appel to people with fancy Sci-Fi but shouldn’t you mention things like the skyhook to give people hope and make them understand that this is NOW”

[@derrenmarcusturner408]

@@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369 I thought the skyhook is what we were talking about here is it not?

[@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369]

Derren Marcus Turner yes it is, just quoted my comment on the video

[@Rain593]

10:27 So the Mass Relay network from Mass Effect?

[@vale.antoni]

Not calling your ship the Velocithief is just an orbitally large missed opportunity. An opportunity I would gladly take, since IT isn't trademarked.

[@calebfish7752]

The fastest your velocity thief traveled was when you used your own hand to propel it. Seems like you’ve already achieved mastery over the cosmos, at least I the void.

[@lieutenantnomad9198]

But by the time we have machines that can move planets and stars, we'll probably have something like warp drive that can get us to places faster than light.

[@patrickd8654]

As insanely impractical as it would be, moving stars is at least possible under the laws of physics. A warp drive probably is not.

[@omamba5105]

So, let me get this straight. In order to travel to the NEAREST STAR in a reasonable amount of time, we just need to slingshot around the right stars (which take a long time to get to)?

[@Tfin]

80,000 years to the first star, and we use it to get to the next one in just 8,000 years, and from there, well, you've got to go where you want to go.

[@flonomcflooneyloo7573]

One problem with this is that you'd need years and years to slow down to orbital velocity upon arrival.

[@ScienceFoundation]

The problem is then getting to a neutron star

[@Wingdnadlla]

Can you talk about how GN drives work from gundam 00 also could light sabers being made from hard light from halo help fix the issues with them

[@ethanmoses8338]

"But don't throw things at trains." You're a gentleman and a scholar Kyle.

[@dariuswurzbacher4067]

Been a while but surely any human onboard would be liquefied from being accelerated to such a high velocity in such a small space of time

[@FabricioKarim]

This remember me mass relays in Mass Effect games.

[@theancientsobek855]

Hey Kyle, love you show! We also could use black holes rotational energy instead. If we or any civilization is able to create a neutron star, they also might be able to create a black hole. Also this wouldn't be as special and rare as two neutron stars rotating each other in the perfect distance. It would be easier to maneuver near a black hole instead of through the neutron star circle of death. We probably have to drop of some mass, to escape the black hole but would increase in velocity and make a profit out of it. But to be honest, I am not to sure if we could reach the same less or even more velocity by a black hole. But overall it seems to be more efficient to me.

[@ironnwizzard]

Great video Kyle. It seems to me that any speed slower than hypothetical FTL just isn't going to cut it. Can you do an episode on some of the hypothesized FTL methods? I know a lot of people have heard of the Alcubiere drive, and it certainly has more than it's fair share of challenges ahead, but can you explain that one (and maybe some others if they're out there)? Keep up the great work!

[@denvera1g1]

79 thousand years is actually quite a lot faster than i thought for 4.3 light years.

[@davidmoore1253]

I could only match your answers to the pop quizzes by leaving the 4 out of the equation. By my calculations the correct answers are 0.0043C and 0.14C.

[@kayranis]

Yes, same results here

[@pizzas4breakfast]

I remember this one. This is the wine where the coyote say himself down in a slingshot and then strapped himself to a rocket. Is that what were doing here?

[@GarrettFinnell]

pizza 4breakfast #NeverForgetHarry

[@zacharymccutcheon8607]

A couple of considerations: 1. How would we stop? 2. How would we survive the G-forces of the sudden acceleration & rotation around the star?

[@R3_Live]

You mentioned the time dilation from traveling at that speed, but what about the time dilation from entering the gravitational field of the neutron star?