00:00Just when you think space couldn't get any more weird, uh, weirder?
00:05Hey, check my grammar.
00:06The universe throws a curveball in the form of a giant glowing bubble that's too perfect to be real.
00:13Astronomers have spotted something strange drifting through our galaxy.
00:17And it's not a rogue planet, which is a space body the size of a planet that doesn't orbit any star.
00:23It's not a star itself, either.
00:25It's not even your average supernova remnant.
00:27It's a perfectly round sphere, and scientists are stunned.
00:32Astronomers were going through data from a super-powerful radio telescope
00:36when they spotted something that looked like a perfect round bubble.
00:40At first, they thought it was the leftovers from a massive star explosion called a supernova.
00:45But the weird part was that the object was too perfect.
00:50Normally, such explosions leave behind messy, uneven clouds.
00:53And the newly discovered one looked like someone had drawn it with a compass.
00:58The scientists named the space bubble Teleos, which means perfect in ancient Greek.
01:04They've already looked at all the possible explanations, but none of them really make sense yet.
01:09This strange space body was discovered thanks to a telescope in Australia called ASCAP.
01:16It's been scanning the sky and finding all kinds of weird circular objects.
01:20This research was part of a project called the Evolutionary Map of the Universe.
01:25Some of the faraway circles, known as ORCs, which is short for odd radio circles, have already puzzled scientists.
01:32But this one is different, because it's inside our own galaxy.
01:37At the same time, even though Teleos is technically closer to us, scientists can't quite figure out how close it is.
01:44And that's making it harder to understand where it came from or how it formed.
01:50The researchers have taken an even closer look at this strange space bubble and found something super odd.
01:56It only gives off a very faint glow, and only in radio waves, not in visible light or x-rays.
02:03Based on that glow, they've figured it's most likely the leftover shell of a massive star explosion called a type La Supernova,
02:12one of the brightest and most powerful kinds of explosions in the Universe.
02:16This kind of explosion happens like this.
02:18A super-dense dead star called a White Dwarf starts stealing material from a nearby star.
02:24It keeps sucking in stuff until it just can't handle the weight anymore, then it blows up in a huge burst of energy.
02:32Now that part makes sense.
02:34But figuring out how far away is this thing?
02:37Strangely, it's not so easy.
02:39Scientists have run the numbers and ended up with two possible distance for Teleos.
02:44Either it's around 7,175 light-years away, or it's much farther, about 25,114 light-years away.
02:54Eh, give or take.
02:55Depending on which distance is right, the size of the bubble could be vastly different.
03:00If it's closer, then it's about 46 light-years wide.
03:04That would make it a pretty young supernova remnant, maybe less than 1,000 years old.
03:09But if it's farther away, then it's a giant 157 light-years across, which could be more than 10,000 years old.
03:18So, which one is it?
03:20That's where things get tricky.
03:22Scientists have models that tell us how these supernova leftovers should behave.
03:27And one of the most important things they expect to see is X-rays.
03:32But you might remember that Teleos doesn't show any.
03:35Not a single X-ray in sight.
03:37That's the big mystery.
03:39How can something that should be glowing with X-rays be totally silent?
03:43It just doesn't add up and leaves the scientists very puzzled.
03:47Another idea the scientists are considering is that Teleos might not be a regular supernova remnant at all.
03:55Instead, it might be the leftovers from a rarer kind of explosion called a type lax supernova.
04:02And this one?
04:02It's extra weird.
04:04In a normal type la supernova, the white dwarf star blows itself to bits.
04:09But in a type lax supernova, it doesn't get totally destroyed.
04:14It kind of survives, turning into a zombie star.
04:17It's damaged, but it's still around.
04:20This would actually explain a lot about how Teleos looks and glows.
04:25But in this case, it would have to be much closer to us, only about 3,262 light-years away.
04:32That would also make it a lot smaller, about 11 light-years wide.
04:36The coolest thing here is that there's actually a star at that distance that could be the zombie star that caused all this.
04:43But, and it's a big but, like I have,
04:46when scientists use other ways to try and measure how far away Teleos is,
04:51none of them agree that it could be this close.
04:54So, sadly, this theory hits a bit of a wall.
04:58Then there's another strange thing.
05:01Teleos' nearly perfect spherical shape.
05:04That's not normal.
05:05Usually, supernova explosions are kind of messy and uneven.
05:09The blast might push into clouds of space dust or gas,
05:13or parts of the explosion might move faster than others.
05:16Eventually, the shell that forms gets all lumpy or starts to break apart.
05:21But in this case, the object is almost perfectly round, like a balloon.
05:26And that's super rare.
05:27The only way something could stay this neat and round is if it exploded in a very empty part of space
05:34and expanded smoothly in all directions.
05:37That's actually not impossible, just really, really rare.
05:41Now, considering its unique, probably unnatural shape,
05:45could Teleos be an artificial object?
05:48Could it be a Dyson sphere?
05:51That's a hypothetical megastructure that could completely surround a star and harvest all of its energy.
05:57At first, this idea was supposed to explain how we might detect intelligent extraterrestrial life
06:03by spotting the energy they use rather than waiting for them to send us a message.
06:07You see, here on Earth, we only receive a tiny bit of the Sun's energy.
06:13Meanwhile, a whopping 386 billion billion megawatts are shooting out into space in all directions.
06:20Not to waste such a giant amount of energy.
06:23A civilization could build a Dyson sphere, or, more realistically, a Dyson swarm,
06:29loads of solar panels orbiting the star.
06:32It would help them capture every bit of that power to run their planet, technology, AI systems,
06:38and maybe even space travel across galaxies.
06:42To understand just how advanced a Dyson sphere-building species would have to be,
06:47scientists use the Kardashev scale.
06:49It ranks civilizations by how much energy they can use.
06:53Type 1 can use all the energy available on their home planet.
06:57Spoiler, we're not even there yet.
06:59Type 2 can harness all the energy from their star.
07:03That's the Dyson sphere level.
07:05Type 3 can use energy from an entire galaxy.
07:08Think Dyson spheres around every star and even extracting energy from black holes.
07:13Right now, Earth's civilization ranks about type 0.7449, give or take.
07:19That means that we haven't even maxed out the energy available to us on Earth,
07:24including fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear power.
07:27We're still taking baby steps on this cosmic scale.
07:31Anyway, the problem with the theory that our perfectly shaped object could be a Dyson sphere
07:36is that this example of super-advanced technology would give off heat.
07:41In other words, there would be thermal infrared radiation,
07:44and the object would be unusually bright in the infrared.
07:48This could be a sign that something artificial is absorbing the star's energy
07:52and re-emitting it as heat.
07:54But the scientists have found no heat signatures or anything like that when observing teleos.
08:00So, do we have the final answer?
08:02Not yet.
08:04The scientists have looked at all the existing clues.
08:07How bright the thing is, how big it looks, and how far it might be.
08:11And none of the possibilities are totally perfect.
08:14Each idea has a problem, especially the fact that we're not observing any x-rays,
08:20which should be there according to the usual rules.
08:23They still think that regular type L.A. supernova idea is the best bet for now,
08:28but they're not 100% sure.
08:31There's just not enough proof to say for certain.
08:34So, the mystery continues.
08:37The team says we'll need more powerful and detailed observations
08:40to really figure out what happened here.
08:42But, in any case, if something like teleos can exist,
08:46what else is out there,
08:48waiting to challenge everything we know about the universe?
08:54That's it for today.
08:55So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity,
08:58then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
09:00Or, if you want more, just click on these videos
09:03and stay on the bright side!
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