How the Universe Works Season 11 (2023) by cosmos space science - Dailymotion

cosmos space science

The series originally aired on the Discovery Channel in 2010. All but the second, third and eighth seasons were narrated by Mike Rowe. The second, third and eighth seasons, as well as episodes of the fifth and sixth seasons, were narrated by Erik Todd Dellums. The first season, which was broadcast on the Discovery Channel from April 25 to May 24, 2010, was released on Blu-ray on February 28, 2012. Since its second season, consisting of eight episodes broadcast between July 11 and August 29, 2012, the show has aired on the Science Channel. The third season aired between July 9 and September 3, 2014. The fourth season premiered on July 14, 2015, as part of the Science Channel's "Space Week," in honor of New Horizons' flyby of Pluto that day; the season ran through September 1, 2015. The show's fifth season aired from November 22, 2016, through February 7, 2017. The sixth season premiered on January 9, 2018, and ran through March 13, 2018. The seventh season premiered on January 8, 2019. On December 30, 2019, it was announced that the eighth season would premiere on January 2, 2020. The ninth season premiered on March 24, 2021. The tenth season premiered on March 6, 2022. The eleventh season premiered on March 5, 2023. According to the site The Futon Critic, ever since its eleventh season run ended, the show is still on hiatus, as no new seasons of the show has ever been announced. Hence, it is possible that the said documentary series has been canceled. #cosmosspacescience #howtheuniverseworksseason11 #cosmology #astronomy #spacetime #space #nasa #discoverychannel #usaastronomy #spacedocumentary

Transcript

00:00orbiting the magnificent ringed planet

00:06Saturn are a series of extraordinary moons

00:11the closer that we look the more that we

00:16see its moons are like worlds of their

00:18own so dynamic so earth-like almost a

00:22billion miles from the Sun these icy

00:26worlds could be home for life 2.0

00:29the moons of Saturn offer possibly the

00:34best chance of finding extraterrestrial

00:37life in our solar system

00:38with each new mission we get closer to

00:46unraveling the mysteries of Saturn's moons

00:49October 2019 astronomers discover 20 new

01:12moons orbiting the gas giant Saturn these

01:18tiny three-mile-wide objects bring the

01:21ringed planets moon count to over 80 the

01:27most of any planet in our solar system you

01:33hate to play favorites but I'm gonna say

01:34Saturn is my favorite planetary system it

01:39is unbelievably beautiful this incredible

01:41system of rings and moons and there's a lot

01:44of mystery kind of all bound up in there

01:47the Voyager spacecraft gave us our first close look at

01:53Saturn and its rings two decades later Cassini got us even

02:00closer to many of Saturn's moons there's Prometheus Pandora and

02:08Atlas its largest moon Titan is a moon that's shrouded in mystery there's minus that's fairly small and then Tethys and Dione are a bit larger

02:23there are a pair of moons Janus and Epimetheus that were perhaps one moon in the past

02:29Niapetus half of its bright white the other half is it sort of as dark as coal sort of ying and yang

02:37each of the moons of Saturn had remarkable stories to tell in 2005 Cassini discovered that one moon story was particularly exciting

02:53yeah Enceladus

02:55Enceladus is one of Saturn's wee little moons it's about 300 miles across for scale it's roughly the size of Colorado

03:03the spacecraft's cameras spot plumes of water vapor shooting out from Enceladus at 800 miles an hour

03:15three times as powerful than all the hot springs in Yellowstone

03:23the discovery of geysers gushing out of tiny little Enceladus that should have been cold and dead

03:31completely changed our view of what that moon exactly was

03:34it's alive that moon's alive I'd like to be standing there on the surface of Enceladus to see with

03:41this water vapor and ice crystals booming out of the surface at supersonic speeds

03:47Cassini's sensors probe deep beneath the frozen surface of Enceladus detecting hints of a rocky core

04:05and something else even more remarkable

04:08underneath that thick layer of ice there is liquid water ocean

04:15the measurements suggest this is a huge part of Enceladus's interior volume about six miles deep

04:23because it was making Enceladus wobble in its orbit imagine putting liquid inside a ball and rolling it

04:29you see the natural wobble of the ball as the liquid sloshes around

04:32giant liquid oceans on an alien world opening up exciting new possibilities

04:41where you find water you could possibly find life

04:46if you would ask me 20 years ago where there might be life in the solar system besides earth

04:54I think Saturn's moons would have been the last place I would have picked

04:57but against all odds it's looking like this tiny icy moon orbiting Saturn nearly a billion miles from the sun

05:06may be one of the best places to look for life

05:09July 2021

05:13a new study re-examines Cassini's plume data

05:18and finds huge quantities of methane

05:22this large amount can't be explained by just geochemical processes

05:29the methane might be from primordial organic matter breaking down in Enceladus's oceans

05:38or even processes we've never seen before

05:43but it could be that living microorganisms help generate the methane

05:52just like they do on earth

05:55Enceladus might actually look a lot like early earth

06:00in its deepest oceans when life was first arising

06:03because we know that there are some chemical pathways

06:05that are likely occurring on Enceladus that happened on earth

06:07these chemical pathways start with hot hydrothermal vents

06:16on earth's cold sea floor

06:18releasing important life-giving chemicals into the oceans

06:22having hydrothermal vents are a real boon to the evolution of life

06:28these are cracks in the earth's crust

06:31where hot material can then spew out into the ocean

06:36and that's the energy that life needs to be able to form

06:40and then water

06:40so everything is present

06:42and things are able to just grab all these resources and energy

06:45and just start to evolve

06:46on earth hydrothermal vents produce methane

06:51but only in small amounts

06:53microbial life living around the vents makes the rest

06:59maybe microorganisms do the same

07:06at the bottom of Enceladus's deep oceans

07:10hydrothermal vents on Enceladus

07:17could offer the perfect location

07:19for chemistry becoming biochemistry

07:22becoming life

07:24hydrothermal vents normally require heat

07:30from a hot core

07:31so what's going on inside Enceladus

07:41this is an icy moon

07:44out there in the cold outer solar system

07:46where's all this heat coming from

07:47Cassini spotted Enceladus's plumes

07:52shooting out from parallel cracks in the surface

07:55called tiger stripes

07:57the cracks are a clue to the origin of the geysers

08:05and the energy that powers them

08:08we look to the orbit of Enceladus itself

08:13it's not in a perfectly circular orbit around the planet

08:15it's on a slightly elliptical orbit

08:17and that means that the tidal forces acting on the moon

08:20change over time

08:22it's a little bit like the forces on a rubber ball

08:25when the moon is closer to the planet

08:27it's stretched out

08:29and when the moon is farther from the planet

08:31it's relaxed back a little bit

08:32so you're going to squeeze and deform

08:35and squish the body of that moon over time

08:38which is going to heat its interior

08:39the warm rocky core heats up the ocean

08:46which both powers the geysers

08:49as they burst through the surface

08:51and creates conditions

08:54that could support life

08:57we see the energy source

09:02kicking the water out of the Enceladus subsurface

09:04you combine that energy source

09:07and liquid water

09:08that harkens to putting us on the same path

09:10that early life may have taken here on the earth

09:12and if that's the case

09:14there could be little beasties

09:15swimming underneath the surface

09:17of one of Saturn's moons

09:18Saturn's squeezing of Enceladus

09:22may have transformed it

09:24into a living world

09:25but other moons weren't as lucky

09:31they've been torn apart

09:34in vicious fights

09:36to the death

09:37there are a huge variety of moons orbiting Saturn

09:58from Titan

10:01a moon larger than the planet Mercury

10:03to objects

10:07about the size of a sports stadium

10:09there must be something dramatic that happened

10:12to create a system that's so complicated

10:15and changing before our very eyes

10:17to understand such a marked difference in size

10:22scientists look for clues in the moon's orbits

10:25around Saturn itself

10:27most of the moons of that system

10:31orbit in the same direction

10:33that's obviously not a coincidence

10:34that's motion left over

10:36from the formation of our solar system

10:38this suggests the moons

10:41formed around the same time

10:43as Saturn did

10:444.6 billion years ago

10:48the ringless gas giant

10:50grows from gas

10:51rock and ice

10:52in the protoplanetary disk

10:54along with a family of moons

10:56this origin story

11:01works for most of Saturn's moons

11:03but not for the recently discovered objects

11:08orbiting in the opposite direction

11:11of the planet's rotation

11:13if there's a moon orbiting in the other direction

11:17it couldn't have formed with the planet

11:19it must have come from somewhere else

11:23Saturn captured these moons

11:26but from where?

11:33we think there's a huge upheaval

11:34on the solar system

11:35over 4 billion years ago

11:37where the giant planets

11:38went from a close and compact configuration

11:41started having interactions with each other

11:44moved each other around

11:45to end up into the orbits that they find today

11:47during that process

11:48a lot of smaller bodies

11:50like asteroids

11:51from the distant part of the solar system

11:52got scattered

11:53every which direction

11:54during this ancient upheaval

11:58Saturn grabs some of the scattered objects

12:01many bodies now crowd the region

12:07around the planet

12:08and that means collisions

12:12some are destructive

12:17others form new moons

12:20in the cosmic pinball

12:22some moons are thrown out of the system

12:25and others into Saturn

12:29only one large moon survives the carnage

12:32and all of a sudden

12:35most of the mass of all the satellites

12:36is in that single moon Titan

12:38Titan may have formed from the material

12:44in the protoplanetary disk

12:46at the same time as Saturn

12:48but then gorged on the debris

12:51created in the later lunar collisions

12:53it amassed 96% of the material orbiting Saturn

13:02and grew so large

13:04that it developed a dense atmosphere

13:06when Voyager

13:12photographed Titan

13:13it clearly showed that Titan

13:15had a thick atmosphere

13:16which was so incredibly exciting

13:17but it was so dense and impenetrable

13:20that was all we could see

13:21two decades after Voyager

13:26the Huygens probe

13:27launched from Cassini

13:29and plunged through the murky depths

13:33of Titan's atmosphere

13:34our first images

13:42of what the Titanic landscape was like

13:45were utterly and truly mind-blowing

13:48it showed there were mountains

13:51and there was sort of erosion

13:53on those mountains

13:53that looked like liquid

13:54had fallen down the mountains

13:56and brought material with it

13:58that liquid must have come from somewhere

14:01and where else than rain

14:03than weather on Titan

14:04we've only found two places

14:07in the solar system

14:09with rivers

14:10and rain

14:11earth

14:13and Titan

14:15out of this thick gloom

14:18this is the most similar place

14:19to earth we've ever seen

14:21similar but not identical

14:24that rain

14:28filling lakes and rivers

14:30on Titan

14:31isn't water

14:32it's liquid methane

14:34it's like

14:36if every oil well

14:38if every gas station

14:39on earth

14:40started leaking

14:40all over the place

14:41that is what we see

14:43on this world

14:44the methane

14:47is a liquid

14:48on Titan

14:49because the surface temperature

14:50is 290 degrees

14:52below zero

14:53which is a big problem

14:56for life

14:57as we understand it

14:58we don't know

15:01of any organism

15:02that can really survive

15:03past negative 4 degrees

15:04Fahrenheit

15:05and that's just because

15:06cells will tend

15:07to freeze there

15:08the cells that we have

15:10what they're made up from

15:12these proteins

15:13and fatty material

15:14stop working

15:15and everything will die

15:16that's what happens

15:20to earth's

15:20water-based cells

15:22but

15:26could methane-based life

15:28survive an extreme cold

15:29the ALMA telescope

15:34spotted a clue

15:35in Titan's nitrogen

15:36and methane-rich

15:38atmosphere

15:38with sunlight

15:41hitting the atmosphere

15:42of Titan

15:43things like methane

15:44and nitrogen

15:45can get broken apart

15:46and reassembled

15:48like playing

15:49with Lego blocks

15:50and then these molecules

15:52recombine

15:53to make new ones

15:55like vinyl cyanide

15:57artist's depiction

16:00used on earth

16:04to make plastics

16:05vinyl cyanide

16:06can build long chains

16:08of molecules

16:08the type you need

16:11to build cell membranes

16:12but unlike earth's

16:20water-based cells

16:21the extreme cold

16:22wouldn't destroy them

16:24it could survive

16:28at those low temperatures

16:29so on Titan

16:30it could be

16:31that this vinyl cyanide

16:33is able to form

16:33the membranes

16:34that are required

16:35for cells to develop

16:36which are required

16:37for life to happen

16:39and good news

16:44there's a lot of this stuff

16:46on Titan

16:47right now

16:48there's as much as

16:5210 billion tons

16:53of this vinyl cyanide

16:55in just one of the lakes

16:56if you want to start

16:57making creatures out of it

16:59say

16:59I don't know

16:59giant squid

17:00do you like giant squids?

17:02I hope so

17:03because you could make

17:04billions of giant squids

17:07out of this vinyl cyanide

17:10Saturn's geyser moon

17:13Enceladus

17:14could have life

17:15as we know it

17:16Titan

17:18might

17:19have something

17:20truly alien

17:21it is an unrelentingly

17:24brutal

17:25cold place

17:26compared to earth

17:27but for Titanic life

17:29it might just be ideal

17:31as we search for life

17:34beyond earth

17:35it still comes with a bias

17:36of life as we know it

17:38and so it's great

17:40as we continue to explore

17:41and continue to evolve

17:42our definitions

17:43we can expand our view

17:45of how to search for life

17:47maybe the Saturn system

17:50has two living worlds

17:52but for life to thrive

17:57on Titan's surface

17:58it must survive

18:00a storm of deadly particles

18:02racing out of the sun

18:04at over a million miles an hour

18:06the sun provides light

18:24light and warmth

18:25and something else

18:31something very dangerous

18:33the solar wind

18:35these lethal solar particles

18:40can strip away atmosphere

18:42from planets

18:43and moons

18:44without an atmosphere

18:50earth would be

18:51a barren desert

18:52right

18:53there wouldn't be any water

18:54it would just all boil away

18:55there wouldn't be any life

18:57luckily

18:59earth has a built-in

19:01defense system

19:02in the center of our earth

19:05we have a solid iron core

19:07and surrounding that

19:08is liquid iron

19:10that is constantly moving

19:11and swirling

19:13and convecting

19:14and these complex motions

19:15power up

19:17a global scale

19:18magnetic field

19:19and this acts like a force field

19:25against the solar wind

19:26pushes it away

19:27pushes it around us

19:28so it doesn't hit us

19:29we think that Saturn's moon

19:33Titan

19:34has no molten iron core

19:37and therefore

19:40no protective magnetic field

19:42so it's at the mercy

19:45of the solar wind

19:46it kind of begs the question

19:49why does Titan

19:50have such a thick

19:51dense atmosphere

19:52Titan retaining an atmosphere

19:57without a protective shield

19:58makes no sense

20:00Titan doesn't have a magnetic field

20:05but Saturn does

20:07so maybe there's

20:09some sort of interaction

20:10between the atmosphere

20:11of Titan

20:12and Saturn's giant magnetic field

20:14the gas giant Saturn

20:18generates a magnetic field

20:20around 600 times

20:21larger than Earth's

20:23large enough

20:26to shield Titan

20:28from the solar wind

20:29so Titan

20:32by itself

20:33is vulnerable

20:34Saturn is like

20:36the mothership

20:37it has this giant

20:38force field

20:39that it can use

20:40to protect Titan

20:41despite Saturn's embrace

20:46Titan still loses

20:48some of its atmosphere

20:49because occasionally

20:52the moon wanders away

20:54from its protective parents

20:56Titan orbits

20:59inside of that magnetic field

21:00mostly

21:02most of the time

21:03its orbit

21:03isn't perfectly circular

21:05it's slightly elliptical

21:06so as Titan orbits

21:10the planet

21:10for a little bit of time

21:12about 5% of its orbit

21:13it's actually slightly

21:14outside the magnetic field

21:15before dipping back in again

21:17but these short forays

21:21into the firing line

21:22don't cause any lasting damage

21:24what's really weird

21:28is that

21:29there's sort of

21:29a residual magnetic effect

21:31on Titan

21:32when it leaves

21:33Saturn's protective field

21:34it should just

21:35immediately drop to nothing

21:37but there still is

21:38this residual field

21:39protecting it

21:40from the solar wind

21:41it can maintain

21:43the memory

21:43of that magnetic field

21:45and still preserve

21:47some of that protection

21:48it's almost like

21:50Saturn is trying

21:51to teach Titan

21:52how to have

21:53a magnetic field

21:54and Titan can remember

21:55for a little bit

21:56but then it needs

21:56to come back home

21:57this magnetic memory

22:01could help support

22:03any life

22:04on Titan's surface

22:05providing a safe haven

22:07that's protected

22:08from the solar wind

22:09and Cassini

22:13spots a way

22:14Saturn's magnetism

22:16might also allow

22:17its moons

22:18to develop life

22:20one of the most amazing

22:23discoveries around Saturn

22:25was that

22:25its magnetic field

22:26is not just transporting

22:27charged particles

22:28from say

22:29the sun

22:30but it's also transporting

22:31material

22:32from one moon

22:33to another

22:34Saturn's magnetic field

22:39helps boost

22:39the chance

22:40of life

22:41on Titan

22:41by stealing material

22:44from its sister moon

22:45Enceladus

22:47magnetism is a strong force

22:50of course

22:51but to act

22:52on a scale

22:53and a range

22:53like this

22:54and maybe transport

22:55matter from moon

22:55to moon

22:56that's pretty cool

22:58Saturn's magnetic field

23:01smashes apart

23:03water molecules

23:04blasted out

23:05from Enceladus' geysers

23:06and carries

23:09the leftover oxygen

23:11to Titan

23:12the magnetic field

23:14of Saturn

23:14acts like

23:15an interlunar highway

23:18in the Saturn system

23:20transporting oxygen

23:21from Enceladus

23:23all the way

23:23to Titan

23:24but there's a problem

23:26when the oxygen

23:27tries to take

23:28the Titan exit

23:30off of this

23:31interlunar highway

23:32normally this oxygen

23:35wouldn't survive

23:36in the atmosphere

23:37of Titan

23:37it would react

23:38with the methane

23:38there and create

23:39carbon dioxide

23:40to get to the surface

23:44in one piece

23:44oxygen hitches a ride

23:47with something

23:48called

23:48a fullerene

23:49fullerene

23:55are these

23:55sort of

23:56soccer ball

23:56shaped molecules

23:57that are hollow

23:58if the oxygen atom

24:00gets in there

24:01it can be safely

24:01transported

24:02through Titan's

24:03atmosphere

24:03once on the surface

24:07the oxygen

24:08could help

24:09create amino acids

24:11the essential

24:12building blocks

24:13of proteins

24:14another stepping stone

24:17for life

24:18to emerge

24:18think of all

24:23the complex

24:24coincidences

24:25that have to happen

24:27for these

24:28chemical reactions

24:29to take place

24:30if Titan's orbit

24:32was any different

24:32it simply

24:33wouldn't exist

24:34Saturn protects

24:39any potential

24:40life

24:40on its moons

24:41and

24:44as it turns out

24:45the moons

24:46return the favor

24:47by helping create

24:50and maintain

24:52Saturn's iconic rings

24:55at 170,000 miles

25:13in diameter

25:13but only 30 feet thick

25:16in places

25:17Saturn's beautiful rings

25:20have always

25:21stolen the show

25:22but their origin

25:26is still a mystery

25:27Saturn has these

25:31beautiful rings

25:32that really define it

25:33as a planet

25:34but it's unique

25:35in the solar system

25:36in the sense that

25:36no other planet

25:37has such a big ring system

25:39all of the other gas giants

25:42have remnants

25:43of a ring

25:44kind of small

25:45thin

25:45dark rings

25:46but nothing

25:47like Saturn

25:48so something

25:49very different

25:50happened around Saturn

25:51a clue

25:53comes from

25:54the ring's

25:55composition

25:55they're around

25:5899%

25:59water ice

26:00giving the rings

26:02their sparkling

26:02appearance

26:03this leads

26:06astronomers

26:06to a bold theory

26:08we do not know

26:11how Saturn's icy rings

26:13formed

26:13we're not even sure

26:14how old they are

26:15but one idea

26:16is that

26:16they formed

26:17from ice

26:18that was existing

26:19previously

26:19on a moon

26:20how amazing is that

26:23several billion years ago

26:26Saturn

26:26may have been

26:28ringless

26:28with a large

26:31icy moon

26:32the moon

26:33was big enough

26:34that its gravity

26:35drew heavier stuff

26:36like rock

26:37to its core

26:37and lighter stuff

26:38like ice

26:39floated to the top

26:40we think the moon

26:43strayed too close

26:45to Saturn

26:45the gravity

26:49from Saturn

26:49could tear it apart

26:50and it could separate

26:53the ices

26:53from the rocky parts

26:55and the ices

26:56could stay in orbit

26:57and form our rings

26:58and the rocky parts

26:59would get swallowed up

27:00by Saturn

27:00the death of a large moon

27:08may have built the rings

27:10but they owe

27:15their current appearance

27:16to the moons

27:18that are still alive

27:20when you go back

27:23to Saturn's rings

27:24time and time again

27:25they're all slightly different

27:27they are changing

27:28they are braiding

27:29in and out of each other

27:30we had no idea

27:31there would be

27:32so much beauty

27:33and so much mystery

27:34in the rings

27:34the behavior

27:38of two of Saturn's moons

27:40Prometheus

27:41and Atlas

27:42which are embedded

27:44in the rings

27:44is especially surprising

27:46some of these

27:50smallest moons

27:50are interspersed

27:51within the ring system

27:53some of them

27:54some of them are doing

27:54something really bizarre

27:55in some cases

27:59it looks like

27:59the moons

28:00were shepherding

28:01the edges of the rings

28:02and keeping them

28:03in their place

28:04the moon's gravity

28:08cleans up the rings

28:09sometimes

28:12sculpting shapes

28:13in their wake

28:14Saturn's rings

28:17aren't static

28:18and there's some

28:19really fascinating

28:20interactions

28:21where moons

28:21are clearly pushing

28:22on the rings

28:23and causing weird

28:24and cool waves

28:25making the rings

28:27just that much

28:28more beautiful

28:28the whole dance

28:31between Saturn

28:32its moons

28:33its rings

28:34how they all

28:35are interconnected

28:36is just completely

28:37fascinating

28:38it's a dynamic

28:41amazing

28:42living

28:42geologically

28:43vibrant place

28:44Saturn's moons

28:49may keep

28:50the rings

28:50orderly

28:51but they can't

28:54explain

28:54why the rings

28:55are so clean

28:56almost pristine

28:59they're too shiny

29:03if they were

29:04billions of years

29:06old

29:06they should have

29:07collected a lot

29:08of dust

29:08by now

29:08and be a lot

29:09darker

29:09the fact that

29:10they're shiny

29:11kind of implies

29:12that maybe

29:13they're a lot

29:14younger than

29:14we first thought

29:15perhaps the rings

29:18we see today

29:19are a more

29:21recent upgrade

29:22the rings

29:24might only be

29:25a hundred million

29:26years old

29:26about the time

29:27of the dinosaurs

29:28so if the dinosaurs

29:30had invented

29:31telescopes

29:31they could have

29:33seen Saturn

29:33without rings

29:34and it makes you

29:35wonder

29:36is this the first

29:37ring system

29:37that Saturn had

29:38or was there

29:39another ring system

29:40that maybe

29:40slowly eroded away

29:42perhaps a comet

29:43or a body

29:44came in too close

29:45to Saturn

29:45and Saturn's

29:46gravity literally

29:46tore it apart

29:47and then we got

29:48a brand new

29:48ring system

29:49the later dinosaurs

29:53could have watched

29:53the rings form

29:54and then they would

29:56have been wiped

29:56out by an asteroid

29:57yeah should have

29:59built better

30:00telescopes dinosaurs

30:01sucks to be you

30:02we still don't know

30:07why the rings

30:08of Saturn

30:08are so clean

30:10it could be

30:12that the rings

30:13really are old

30:14and they have

30:14some sort of

30:15cleaning system

30:16which removes

30:16the dust from them

30:17making them

30:17look young

30:18or they may

30:19actually be young

30:21then this may be

30:22the seventh

30:23or eighth

30:23or whatever

30:24generation rings

30:25it is so different

30:27than any other

30:28planetary system

30:29and those mysteries

30:31still exist

30:32we have some idea

30:34what went on

30:35but there's a lot

30:37that we don't know

30:37about Saturn

30:38Cassini is changing

30:43that

30:43it's discovered

30:47a whole new

30:48moon making process

30:50with the rings

30:53taking the lead

30:55midway through

31:12its 13 year

31:13mission to Saturn

31:14Cassini captures

31:17an intriguing image

31:19a bright feature

31:23at the edge

31:24of one of Saturn's

31:25outermost rings

31:26something we'd

31:28never seen before

31:29I was really excited

31:33when we saw

31:33these images

31:34of Saturn's rings

31:35and it looked like

31:36there was a lump

31:37maybe a moon

31:38forming there

31:39which they nicknamed

31:40Peggy

31:40named after the mother-in-law

31:44of the scientist

31:44who discovered it

31:45Peggy

31:46was still too small

31:48to be considered

31:49a fully formed moon

31:50but nearby

31:54orbits a group

31:55of objects

31:56that are just big enough

31:58to be moons

31:59and they

32:02are really weird

32:04these moons

32:06are really unusual

32:07we don't think of them

32:09as like anything else

32:10we've seen

32:10they're kind of

32:11little fuzzy potatoes

32:13or maybe even

32:14like a ravioli

32:15is another one

32:16or a croissant

32:17why do we always

32:18come up with food

32:19but at the same time

32:20that's exactly

32:20what they look like

32:21the most bizarrely

32:23shaped moon of Saturn

32:24is Pan

32:25it's got these

32:26crisscrossing cracks

32:27just like bread

32:28and then around the

32:30outside is a belly band

32:31it's undulatory

32:32how would this get there

32:33Cassini

32:37discovered a clue

32:39like Saturn's rings

32:44these moons

32:45were made

32:45almost entirely

32:47of water ice

32:48they must have grown

32:52from tiny lumps

32:53trapped within the rings

32:55they're going to be

33:01extremely fragile

33:02kind of like a snowflake

33:04orbiting Saturn

33:05they can start

33:06drawing in material

33:07and then can grow

33:08you can actually

33:09imagine rolling up

33:10a snowball

33:11and accumulating

33:12more and more

33:12particles on the outside

33:14and in the same way

33:15you could accumulate

33:16these clumps

33:17in the rings

33:18and if they're near

33:19the edge of the rings

33:20perhaps they actually

33:21break free

33:22and go out

33:23to form tiny moons

33:24the size of these

33:28space snowballs

33:30tens of miles across

33:32or less

33:33helps explain

33:35their unusual shapes

33:36the size of the moon

33:41actually affects its shape

33:42in that once you get

33:44below a certain size

33:45threshold you cannot be

33:46round anymore

33:46that's because the

33:48strength of the rock

33:48or the ice in this case

33:49is too great to be

33:51overcome by gravity

33:52and so the kind of

33:53oblong shapes can be

33:54maintained

33:55add in a few collisions

33:58and you get

34:00Saturn's ravioli

34:01and croissant

34:02shaped moons

34:03it's a bizarre process

34:07but it leads to

34:08a beautiful form

34:09we know the moons

34:11affect the rings

34:12but it looks like

34:13in this case

34:14the rings affect

34:15the moons too

34:15they're connected

34:16in both directions

34:17the rings form

34:25a moon factory

34:26capable of building

34:32countless generations

34:33of new worlds

34:34this is a dance

34:39of physics

34:40if moonlets can form

34:43by these icy ring

34:44particles

34:45they'll grow

34:46and then their natural

34:47gravitational interaction

34:48with the rings

34:49will make them move out

34:50they keep growing

34:51as they move out

34:52but then another moon

34:53forms where the first

34:54one was

34:54so you keep getting

34:56these growing moons

34:57right and this process

34:58repeats like on a

34:59conveyor belt

35:00and what you wind up

35:01with is bigger moons

35:02orbiting farther out

35:03from Saturn

35:04and smaller ones

35:05orbiting closer in

35:05but Saturn's

35:10conveyor belt

35:10will eventually

35:11break down

35:12when ultraviolet light

35:18from the sun

35:19interacts with ring

35:21particles

35:22it throws their steady

35:24orbit around Saturn

35:26out of whack

35:27the sun energizes the rings

35:31and it gives them a charge

35:32this charge means

35:33they can get picked up

35:34by the magnetic field

35:36of Saturn

35:36so these little tiny

35:37charged particles

35:38that are lifted out

35:39of the rings

35:40fall along the magnetic

35:41field lines

35:42rain down into

35:43Saturn's atmosphere

35:44the charged particles

35:49are tiny ice crystals

35:51they rain down

35:54onto Saturn

35:54enough to fill

35:58an Olympic-sized

35:59swimming pool

36:00every second

36:01in less than

36:06a hundred million years

36:08Saturn's rings

36:09will be gone

36:10there will be

36:15no material

36:16to build new moons

36:17Saturn's moons

36:21and rings

36:21they almost make me

36:22feel bittersweet

36:23because they show you

36:24the beauty

36:25of what physics

36:26can create

36:27but also

36:27the fleetingness

36:29they'll be gone soon

36:30and that makes me sad

36:31the closer we look

36:36the more intriguing

36:38the Saturn system

36:39becomes

36:39and now

36:46scientists

36:48have an audacious

36:49new plan

36:50to fly a drone

36:55on one of

36:56Saturn's moons

37:09Saturn is one of

37:11the most dynamic

37:12places in the solar system

37:14we want to go back there

37:18to explore its moons

37:20up close

37:20and hunt directly

37:22for life 2.0

37:24for so long

37:28we've been emphasizing

37:29that to have a habitable planet

37:30you have to be warm

37:31you have to be close

37:32to your star

37:32in fact the most likely chance

37:35we have to find life

37:36may be way in the outer solar system

37:38in Saturn's moons

37:39but we won't know for sure

37:42until we send another mission there

37:44specifically to look for life

37:45the Huygens probe

37:48gave us a tantalizing glimpse

37:51of Titan's surface

37:52but it wasn't equipped

37:58to search for life

37:59now

38:01scientists are developing

38:03Dragonfly

38:04a space helicopter

38:07that can search for life

38:10Dragonfly is an amazing mission

38:14we're sending this

38:15to Titan

38:16to better understand

38:17how life might arise

38:18in a very different context

38:20than Earth

38:20one thing we know

38:24absolutely for certain

38:25is that Titan

38:25has interesting

38:26complex chemistry

38:28the question now

38:29is does that chemistry

38:31actually turn into biology

38:33a million dollar question

38:37is this a living world

38:40April

38:482021

38:49we test the concept

38:54of a space helicopter

38:56ingenuity

39:02making the first remote flight

39:04on another world

39:05launches into the thin

39:07Martian atmosphere

39:08Mars is a really difficult place

39:12to fly

39:12because the atmosphere

39:13is 100 times thinner

39:15than Earth's

39:16and remember

39:17it's the atmosphere

39:18that provides the support

39:19and the lift

39:20for a helicopter to fly

39:21so in order for ingenuity

39:23to fly

39:23it had to spin

39:24very fast

39:25in order to even

39:26get itself off the ground

39:27fortunately

39:32Titan's thick atmosphere

39:34is much more

39:36helicopter friendly

39:37the contrast

39:40between ingenuity

39:41and the Dragonfly mission

39:43is really funny

39:43because Mars has

39:45almost no atmosphere

39:46less than 1%

39:47the atmospheric pressure

39:48of Earth

39:49on Titan

39:50you have exactly

39:51the opposite

39:52the air pressure

39:53near the surface of Titan

39:54can be four times

39:55as much

39:55as the air pressure

39:56on Earth

39:56so for a helicopter

39:58or something like a drone

39:59something like an octocopter

40:01the lower the gravity is

40:02and the denser

40:03the atmosphere

40:04the better you can fly

40:05so Titan just begs

40:08to be explored

40:08because you get

40:09a lot of lift

40:10and you can actually

40:11carry heavy instruments

40:12with you

40:12it allows you

40:15to fly through

40:15the atmosphere

40:16collect samples

40:17and determine

40:18what the prebiotic chemistry

40:19is on that moon

40:20if ever there was

40:23a world built

40:24for flying drones

40:25it's Titan

40:26Dragonfly is scheduled

40:29to launch in 2027

40:31arriving at Titan

40:35around 7 years later

40:36completing the journey

40:38of moon discovery

40:39that began

40:41with Voyager

40:42and Cassini

40:43we completely transformed

40:48our picture

40:48of the Saturn system

40:49the rings

40:50and the moons

40:51it's a far more

40:52complex environment

40:53than we ever dreamed

40:54possible

40:55the moons have come alive

40:57right

40:57they're not boring

40:58dead ice balls

40:58and it just begs

41:00generation and for

41:01after generation

41:01of spacecraft follow-up

41:02we're only just

41:06beginning to unravel

41:07the secrets

41:08of Saturn's moons

41:10and with more than

41:1380 to explore

41:14the Saturn system

41:16is a gift

41:17that'll keep on giving

41:19Saturn was the very

41:24first thing

41:24I ever saw

41:25through a telescope

41:26when I was a kid

41:26and here I am

41:28clearly I was inspired

41:30by Saturn

41:31by its beauty

41:31Saturn has always

41:33been my favorite planet

41:34everything you want

41:36is there

41:37violence

41:38colliding moons

41:39how new rings

41:40form

41:41new moons

41:41form over time

41:42and there might

41:45be life there

41:46there might be life

41:46in more than one

41:48place there

41:48one destination

41:50one planetary

41:51zip code

41:52gives you all of that

41:53I say go back to Saturn

41:54I say go back to Saturn

41:56my time

41:57I say go back to Saturn

41:58I say go back to Trojan

41:59we grandiose

42:00my time

42:00and I say king

42:01comes «

42:01love and see »

42:03news

42:03as we trail

42:04your inimigos

42:05as we found out

42:05that we have a

42:06free

How the Universe Works Season 11 Episode 1 The Moons of Saturn

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How the Universe Works Season 11 (2023)

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