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A newly discovered exoplanet is capturing global attention—and not just for its size or distance. Its unusual characteristics don’t fit current models, leaving scientists scrambling to understand what they’re seeing. Now, this strange world is raising bigger questions about how planets form—and what else might be out there.
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00:00Hey, scientists may have just found a new planet that looks a lot like Earth, with a big icy catch.
00:07This world is about 150 light-years away, rocky, and circles a sun-like star on a schedule pretty close
00:14to ours.
00:14At first sight, it sounds promising, right?
00:17Well, slow down, there's a catch here.
00:20It might be insanely cold, as cold as Mars in the deep freeze.
00:24You see, HD 137-010b doesn't seem to be a gas ball, so we would probably be able to stand
00:33on its surface.
00:34It's a little bigger than Earth and goes around a star that's pretty similar to our Sun.
00:39This star is about 146 light-years away from our planet, which, in space terms, is close enough for scientists
00:45to study it instead of just, you know, squinting at it.
00:48But what made people excited is the fact that this planet takes about one Earth-year to go around its
00:55star.
00:55Now, that's a big deal, because most exoplanets dash around their stars in days or weeks.
01:01Even better, this newly discovered one might sit right on the outer edge of the habitable zone, also called the
01:08Goldilocks zone.
01:09This region is not too hot and not too cold, which means that liquid water might exist on the planet
01:16if it has the right atmosphere.
01:18A big if, but still cool.
01:21Another thing that makes this planet extra special is how we see it.
01:25From Earth, it actually passes in front of its star.
01:28Imagine a tiny bug crawling across a flashlight beam.
01:32You got it.
01:33That makes it way easier for scientists to study things like its size, orbit, and maybe even what its atmosphere
01:40is made of.
01:40And if all of this checks out, it could be one of the best Earth-like planet candidates we've ever
01:46found.
01:46And now, the bad news.
01:49This planet does not get much sunlight.
01:52HD 137010 b gets less than one-third of the heat and light Earth gets from the Sun.
01:58Even though its star is similar to our Sun, it's basically the Sun's quieter, dimmer cousin.
02:04You know, same type, lower wattage.
02:06What does that mean for the planet?
02:08It could be insanely cold.
02:10Scientists think the surface temperature might max out at around minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
02:16And that's not a grab-a-jacket cold, that's your face-freezes-right-away cold.
02:22For comparison, Mars has an average temperature of around minus 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
02:27So this planet could actually be colder than Mars.
02:30A frozen desert.
02:32Not to be confused with a frozen dessert that looks like it gave up on life a long time ago.
02:38Another plot twist.
02:39This planet isn't officially a planet yet.
02:42At the moment, it's still labeled a candidate.
02:45Scientists usually confirm planets by watching them pass in front of their star over and over again.
02:51Every time that happens, the star dims just a little bit.
02:54But with this new space body, we've only seen one transit.
02:59A single, 10-hour-long mini-eclipse, spotted during Kepler's second mission, called K2.
03:05Even with that one pass, astronomers could still learn a lot.
03:09They measured how long the planet's shadow took to cross the star.
03:13About 10 hours.
03:14For comparison, Earth takes about 13 hours to cross the Sun.
03:18Then, they plugged that into orbital models and estimated that the planet probably takes
03:24about a year to go around its star.
03:26That's impressive, but it's still not enough.
03:29Astronomers need to see that dip in starlight repeat on schedule
03:33to be sure it's really a planet and not some weird stellar wanderer.
03:38Unfortunately, this planet orbits far out, and those transits are rare.
03:42You don't get one every few days or weeks.
03:44You might have to wait a year or more for the next one.
03:48That's one of the big reasons Earth-like planets are so hard to find in the first place.
03:53So now, scientists are just hoping that other space telescopes can help out.
03:58NASA's TESS might catch another transit.
04:00Or Europe's KEOPS telescope could help pin it down.
04:04If neither of those catches it, we might have to wait for the next generation of space telescopes
04:09to get better data.
04:10Because even though this planet sounds like an ice cube in space,
04:14it's not totally doomed.
04:16If it has a thick atmosphere, especially if it's rich in carbon dioxide,
04:20it could trap heat really well, like a planet-sized winter coat.
04:25In that case, the planet might actually have a mild climate,
04:28or even liquid water on its surface.
04:31Well, based on computer models, scientists say there's about a 40% chance
04:35this distant world sits in the safe, conservative, habitable zone.
04:39A chance that is located in a more relaxed, optimistic, habitable zone reaches 51%.
04:46But there's also a 50-50 chance that the planet is actually outside the habitable zone altogether.
04:53In other words, this planet is basically a cosmic coin toss.
04:57It could be a frozen wasteland worse than Mars,
05:00a chilly, barely survivable world.
05:02Or a watery planet hiding under a thick atmosphere.
05:06HD 137010b isn't the only place that has the potential to host human civilization in the future.
05:13In recent years, astronomers have been spotting new super-Earth planets orbiting remote stars.
05:19Now, checking our space vocabulary,
05:21super-Earth means a planet beyond the solar system with a mass higher than that of Earth,
05:27but below those of the ice giants of the solar system, Uranus and Neptune.
05:31One of those planets is Gliese 667 cc.
05:35It's just 22 light-years from Earth.
05:37But even though it seems pretty close,
05:39it's still around 129 trillion miles away from us.
05:44That's around 1.4 million times the average distance from the Earth to the Sun.
05:49So, very, very far.
05:51The planet itself is around 3.8 times as massive as Earth,
05:55and completes one orbit around its host star within 28 days.
05:59In other words, a year on that Earth-like planet is 13 times shorter than a year on our planet.
06:06Luckily, the star is a cool red dwarf,
06:08so the exoplanet most likely lies in its habitable zone.
06:12But there's still a chance that this world might be regularly baked by the flares from its parent star.
06:20Then, there's Kepler-22b.
06:23This world is way farther away than the previous world,
06:26more like 600 light-years away from our planet.
06:29It's larger than Earth, and is about 2.5 times our planet's size.
06:34Sadly, we still don't know whether this planet is rocky, liquid, or gaseous.
06:38The orbit of Kepler-22b is pretty similar to Earth's.
06:42It takes the planet 290 days to orbit its G-class star, which is kinda similar to our Sun.
06:48But this star is smaller and colder than ours.
06:52Now, don't confuse this world with Kepler-69c.
06:56It lies a whopping 2,700 light-years away from us,
07:00and is almost 70% larger than Earth.
07:03Researchers know nothing about its composition,
07:05but they found out that the planet needs 242 days to complete one orbit.
07:10This makes its position in its system similar to that of Venus in our solar system.
07:15At the same time, this world might be more hospitable than Venus
07:19since its host star is a bit less luminous, 80% of our Sun.
07:24As for our Venus, it's an extremely hostile place.
07:27You don't want to go there.
07:29A runaway greenhouse effect caused by an atmosphere that's about 96% carbon dioxide
07:34traps the heat that pushes surface temperatures up to around 878 degrees Fahrenheit,
07:41which is hot enough to melt lead.
07:43On top of that, the air pressure is about 90 times stronger than that of Earth.
07:48And the whole planet is covered in thick clouds of corrosive sulfuric acid.
07:52Oh boy.
07:53Compared to our neighbor,
07:55TOI-733b seems like a pretty friendly world.
07:59This planet was found in 2023.
08:02It's floating 245 light-years away from Earth.
08:06The coolest thing about this planet is that it might have a massive ocean.
08:10According to scientists, this planet is likely to be completely covered with water.
08:15Does it mean there could be life on this super-Earth?
08:18Well, time will show.
08:20And who knows?
08:21Maybe soon we'll find even more planets
08:24that could become a new home for people looking to explore the universe.
08:28As for HD 137010b,
08:31the fact that it checks so many Earth-style boxes
08:34makes it a really interesting find.
08:37It's not a backup Earth yet,
08:38but it makes scientists stop and say,
08:40OK, this one's worth a closer look.
08:43Or something similar.
08:45Yes, we have maps,
08:47we have math,
08:48and we have the laws of physics.
08:50We also know how stars burn
08:52and how black holes eat light.
08:55Let's be honest,
08:56we like to think we understand the universe
08:58and feel pretty confident about it.
09:00And now imagine that all of that is correct
09:03and wrong at the same time.
09:06There are specific spots in deep space that shouldn't exist.
09:10We're talking about places that are too big,
09:13too empty,
09:14or too powerful for our science to handle.
09:17When astronomers look at them,
09:19the data doesn't just look weird,
09:21it looks broken,
09:22like a glitch in a video game.
09:23So, forget the standard textbook stuff.
09:26Today, we're looking at anomalies.
09:29The places where science hits a wall
09:32and the mystery begins.
09:34So, maybe in the end,
09:36we will find out that we do,
09:38in fact,
09:39live in a multiverse?
09:42First, let's talk about speed.
09:44We can assume that right now
09:46you are sitting still,
09:47but you aren't.
09:48Earth is moving.
09:49The sun is moving.
09:51Our entire galaxy,
09:52the Milky Way,
09:53is rushing through space
09:54at over 1.2 million miles per hour.
09:57To put that in perspective,
09:59at this speed,
10:00you could travel from Earth to the moon
10:02in about 10 minutes.
10:04It is a velocity that the human brain
10:06can barely comprehend.
10:07And the scary part isn't the speed,
10:10but the destination.
10:11We're being dragged toward a specific point in the sky.
10:15Something massive is out there,
10:17acting like a cosmic vacuum cleaner,
10:19pulling thousands of galaxies toward it.
10:22Scientists call it the Great Attractor.
10:26So, what is it?
10:27A super-dense black hole?
10:29A cluster of dark matter.
10:31Are you ready for the truth?
10:33We have no idea.
10:35The cruel cosmic joke
10:36is that we can't even see it.
10:38By pure bad luck,
10:39the Great Attractor sits in the zone of avoidance.
10:42That's a fancy way of saying
10:44it's hiding directly behind
10:45the center of our own galaxy.
10:47The dust and gas of the Milky Way
10:50act like a brick wall,
10:51blocking our view.
10:54Is it only me who thinks
10:55that the universe is deliberately
10:57keeping a secret from us?
10:59Basically, we're like poor sailors
11:00on a ship pulled into a fog
11:02by a strange force.
11:04We know it's there.
11:05We can feel its gravity.
11:07But we have no idea
11:08what this thing is.
11:10If the Great Attractor is too heavy,
11:13the next place is too empty
11:15and also a bit extreme.
11:17The universe usually looks like a spiderweb.
11:20Galaxies are everywhere,
11:22clustered together.
11:23Even the empty space between them
11:25usually has a few modest neighbors.
11:27But in 1981,
11:29astronomers found a patch of sky
11:32in the vicinity of constellation Bodice
11:34that was just wrong.
11:37Too empty,
11:38a perfect sphere of nothingness.
11:40And it is huge.
11:42330 million light-years across huge.
11:46To give you some context,
11:48a space this size
11:49should contain at least 2,000 galaxies.
11:53Do you know how many we found inside?
11:5660.
11:57Not 60,000.
11:59Just 60.
12:00It's one of the emptiest places
12:02in the known universe.
12:04It is so desolate
12:05that if our galaxy were in the center of it,
12:07we wouldn't have known
12:09other galaxies existed
12:10until we invented
12:11powerful telescopes in the 1960s.
12:15We would have looked up
12:16and seen nothing but black ink.
12:19Not the best scenario
12:21for medieval astronomers.
12:23Why does this patch of space exist?
12:26Standard physics says
12:27matter should be spread out evenly.
12:29A hole this precise suggests
12:31that something cleared it out.
12:33Some theories say
12:35it's just random.
12:37Others whisper
12:37about supervoids
12:39merging together.
12:40But there's always
12:41that one creeping thought.
12:43It looks artificial.
12:45Like someone
12:46or something
12:47cleared the board
12:49with a sponge.
12:51Now that we have enough room,
12:53let's explore
12:54the next structure.
12:55It's simply too big to exist.
12:58Spoiler!
12:59It actually does.
13:00There is a rule in astronomy
13:03called the cosmological principle.
13:05It basically says,
13:07don't worry,
13:08the universe is uniform.
13:09Even if you seriously zoom out,
13:11everything will still look the same.
13:13There are no giant structures.
13:16Calculations say
13:17that nothing in the universe
13:18should be bigger
13:19than 1.2 billion light-years across.
13:22This limit isn't just a suggestion.
13:24It's more like
13:25the bedrock of modern astronomy.
13:27If things bigger than that limit exist,
13:30it means the universe
13:32might be lopsided.
13:33And physics doesn't allow it.
13:36There hasn't been enough time
13:38since the Big Bang
13:39for anything larger to form.
13:40Well,
13:41nobody showed those calculations
13:43to the giant arc,
13:45which was discovered recently.
13:47This is a crescent-shaped chain
13:49of galaxies
13:50that spans 3.3 billion light-years.
13:53That's three times
13:55the theoretical limit.
13:56It's enormous.
13:58Finding this thing
13:59is like walking into a desert
14:01where you were told
14:02only sand dunes exist
14:04and finding a skyscraper.
14:06It shouldn't be there.
14:07Its existence implies
14:09that our fundamental understanding
14:11of how gravity and matter work
14:13might be flawed.
14:14It's a structure
14:15that breaks the rules
14:16just by being there.
14:19Should we go back even further?
14:21Maybe to the very beginning.
14:23When we look at the heat
14:25left over from the Big Bang,
14:27the universe is surprisingly even.
14:29It's like a warm blanket
14:30with the exact same temperature everywhere,
14:33except for one spot.
14:35In the southern sky,
14:37there's a massive bruise.
14:39A region that is significantly colder
14:41than everything around it.
14:43It's also huge.
14:44We're talking about
14:45a billion light-years wide.
14:47The odds of this happening
14:49by chance
14:50are less than 1%.
14:51It's a statistical impossibility.
14:54Of course,
14:56scientists tried to explain it away.
14:58Maybe it's an instrument error.
15:00Nope.
15:01Multiple satellites confirmed it.
15:03Maybe it's a supervoid
15:05pulling energy out of light.
15:07Maybe.
15:09But there is a more radical theory
15:11gaining traction.
15:12One that sounds like science fiction.
15:15Some physicists suggest
15:16this cold spot
15:18is a collision mark.
15:20Imagine that our universe
15:21is just one massive bubble
15:23floating in a sea of other bubbles.
15:25Yes, we're talking about a multiverse.
15:28If our bubble bumped
15:29into another universe
15:31billions of years ago,
15:32it might have left a scar.
15:34Think of it like soap bubbles
15:36in a kitchen sink.
15:37When two bubbles touch,
15:39they flatten against each other.
15:41That flattened wall
15:42is exactly what we might be seeing
15:44right now.
15:46A boundary
15:47where our reality
15:48literally touched
15:49another dimension.
15:51If that's true,
15:52we aren't looking
15:53at a random anomaly.
15:54We are looking
15:55at the first physical proof
15:57that we are not alone
15:58in this reality.
16:00And finally,
16:01the most disturbing
16:02mystery of them all.
16:04We've already talked about
16:05the great attractor
16:06pulling on our galaxy.
16:08But recently,
16:09researchers have noticed
16:10something much bigger.
16:12They've realized
16:13that huge clusters
16:14of galaxies,
16:15and we're talking about
16:16hundreds of millions
16:17of light years apart,
16:19are all drifting
16:20in the same direction.
16:21It's like a cosmic river
16:23flowing toward
16:24a patch of sky
16:25between Centaurus
16:26and Vela.
16:27They call it
16:29the dark flow.
16:30But according to science,
16:32the universe is supposed
16:33to be expanding
16:34in all directions.
16:36There shouldn't be
16:37any flow.
16:39And even worse,
16:40there's nothing
16:41in our observable universe
16:43massive enough
16:44to cause this movement.
16:45We checked.
16:46The visible universe
16:47ends about 46 billion
16:49light years away,
16:50and there is no object
16:51big enough
16:52to affect all these galaxies.
16:53So,
16:55what is pulling us?
16:57The only logical conclusion
16:58is terrifying.
17:00Whatever is dragging
17:01these galaxies
17:02is located
17:03outside
17:04our observable universe.
17:06It's a structure
17:07of unimaginable size,
17:09sitting just beyond
17:10the edge of the map.
17:12We know it's there
17:13because we can measure
17:14its gravity,
17:15but its light
17:16will never reach us.
17:18It is a monster
17:19in the dark,
17:20forever out of reach,
17:22slowly reeling in
17:23parts of our cosmos.
17:26These places serve
17:27as a humble reminder.
17:29We have mapped
17:30the continents,
17:31but we have barely
17:32dipped our toes
17:33into the cosmic ocean.
17:35The universe
17:36is full of ghosts,
17:38broken laws of physics,
17:39and things that make
17:40our galaxy
17:41look like a speck
17:42of dust.
17:43Please remember
17:44to keep looking up,
17:45even if you don't
17:47always understand
17:48what you see.
17:49Here's our home,
17:51good old Earth.
17:52Let's zoom out,
17:53way, way out,
17:54until we're roughly
17:55100,000 light-years away.
17:57Okay, from here,
17:58it's possible to see
17:59our entire galaxy,
18:00the Milky Way.
18:02It looks like a huge
18:03shiny disk in the dark.
18:05But new models suggest
18:06that what we can't see
18:08is that this bright disk
18:10is actually floating
18:11inside a giant pancake
18:13made of the mysterious
18:14dark matter.
18:16Ooh, pancakes.
18:17I'm getting hungry.
18:18Want to learn more?
18:19Well, follow me.
18:21The Milky Way
18:22is like a colossal
18:23spinning pinwheel
18:24in space.
18:25If you step outside
18:26on a clear night
18:27and get away
18:28from city lights,
18:29you'll see a bright
18:30milky band
18:31stretching across the sky.
18:33That glowing stripe
18:34is our galaxy,
18:35and we're looking at it
18:36from the inside.
18:38We're positioned
18:38on one of the outer arms,
18:40gazing toward
18:41the bright,
18:42packed center.
18:42Our galaxy
18:43has close to
18:44400 billion stars,
18:46and our sun
18:47is just one
18:47ordinary star
18:49floating in that
18:49huge crowd.
18:50Yet,
18:51on a universal scale,
18:52our massive home
18:54is basically
18:54a single grain of sand
18:56on an endless beach.
18:58The observable universe
18:59spans over
19:0093 billion light years
19:01across.
19:02It holds billions
19:03of other galaxies.
19:05That's so many zeros,
19:06it's worth talking
19:07about them.
19:08So,
19:08let's zoom back in.
19:10What does it mean
19:11to be sitting
19:11on a giant flat slab
19:13of dark matter?
19:14Well,
19:15regular matter
19:16creates everything
19:17we can actually look at.
19:18It builds glowing stars.
19:20It forms rocky planets.
19:22It even makes up
19:23your own body.
19:24Regular matter
19:25interacts with light,
19:26so our telescopes
19:27can measure it.
19:29Dark matter
19:29is the opposite.
19:31It is invisible.
19:32It does not reflect light.
19:34And,
19:34as far as we can tell,
19:36it doesn't interact
19:36with light
19:37in any direct way.
19:40Scientists know
19:41that this hidden material
19:42exists
19:42because of what
19:43gravity gives away.
19:44The Milky Way
19:45spins at roughly
19:46130 miles per second.
19:48At that speed,
19:50the outer stars
19:51should literally
19:51fling right off
19:52into empty space.
19:54They should fly away
19:55like water droplets
19:56spinning off
19:57a wet tennis ball.
19:58The gravity
19:59provided by
20:00all the visible stars
20:01is simply
20:02not strong enough
20:03to keep the galaxy intact.
20:05There has to be
20:06far more unseen mass
20:08creating extra gravity.
20:10That hidden mass
20:11is dark matter.
20:12It accounts
20:13for about 85%
20:14of all the material
20:15in the universe.
20:16It acts
20:17like an invisible skeleton
20:19keeping galaxies together.
20:21Without it,
20:22the Milky Way
20:22would rip itself apart.
20:24But dark matter
20:25is usually imagined
20:27as a giant round halo
20:28around a galaxy,
20:29almost like
20:30an invisible cocoon.
20:32This recent study
20:33suggests that
20:34on a much bigger scale,
20:35the Milky Way
20:36is sitting inside
20:37a broad, dark sheet,
20:39something more like
20:40a pancake
20:41than a ball.
20:42Our region
20:43has three clues.
20:44Nearby galaxies
20:45form a flat structure,
20:47huge voids
20:48sit next to it,
20:49and the local expansion
20:50looks oddly tidy.
20:52The study says
20:53those may all be parts
20:55of the same bigger shape.
20:58According to the model,
20:59the Milky Way
21:00and its neighbors
21:01may sit inside
21:02a much larger,
21:03pancake-shaped
21:04concentration
21:05of dark matter
21:06stretching tens of millions
21:07of light years,
21:08more like a broad,
21:09spread-out slab
21:11of invisible mass.
21:12That hidden mass
21:14could shape
21:14the whole neighborhood.
21:16It could help
21:16pull galaxies
21:17into a flatter arrangement
21:18instead of letting them
21:20spread more evenly
21:21in every direction.
21:22It could also help
21:23create emptier regions
21:24above and below
21:25that layer.
21:26It may even explain
21:28the smooth motion.
21:29If nearby galaxies
21:30are moving inside
21:31a much larger structure,
21:33then their paths
21:34are being guided
21:35by that structure.
21:36The quiet Hubble flow
21:38may not be a coincidence.
21:39It may be a clue.
21:42Now, astronomers
21:43did not see
21:44this dark sheet directly.
21:45They worked backward
21:46from motion.
21:47They measured
21:48where nearby galaxies are
21:50and how they move,
21:51then asked
21:52what kind of hidden mass
21:53would produce that pattern.
21:55The answer
21:56was not a blob,
21:57not a sphere,
21:58not a random cloud.
22:00It was a flattened structure
22:02on an enormous scale.
22:03So, how do you find
22:05a giant invisible structure
22:07you can't see at all?
22:08Well, you look at
22:10what it does.
22:11Scientists tracked
22:12how isolated galaxies
22:13near us are moving
22:15and used them
22:15like bright markers
22:17in the dark,
22:17revealing how unseen gravity
22:19is tugging on them.
22:21Then, they ran simulations
22:23to test what kind
22:24of hidden structure
22:25could create that pattern.
22:26A big, invisible sphere
22:28did not fit very well
22:30because gravity
22:31from a round cloud
22:32would pull things
22:33inward more evenly.
22:35A broad, flat shape
22:36matched the observations
22:38far better.
22:39This flat structure
22:40reshapes how we explain
22:42our part of the universe.
22:43It acts like a huge,
22:45invisible tabletop
22:46where galaxies
22:47tend to line up.
22:48Because of this,
22:49the space right above
22:51and below is empty.
22:52It explains why we have
22:54these giant, uninhabited
22:56zones of space nearby.
22:57This pancake
22:58is like a hidden framework
23:00that keeps our corner
23:01of the universe organized.
23:03And this hidden structure
23:04does not just shape
23:06where galaxies sit.
23:07It may also be moving
23:09as part of a larger
23:10cosmic flow.
23:11The entire dark matter
23:13pancake is hurtling
23:14through space.
23:15We are surfing
23:16on a cosmic wave
23:18through space
23:18at a ridiculous speed.
23:20The whole flat sheet
23:21is being dragged
23:22toward a dense region
23:23of space
23:24astronomers call
23:25the Great Attractor.
23:27It is the gravitational
23:28anchor
23:29of our local universe.
23:31Basically,
23:32it's a dense,
23:33packed region
23:33containing tens of thousands
23:35of other galaxies
23:36grouped closely together.
23:37All those galaxies
23:39combined
23:39create an immense
23:41amount of mass.
23:42That weight generates
23:43a gravitational pull
23:44so intense
23:45it bends
23:46the fabric of space.
23:48It forces everything
23:49within hundreds
23:50of millions
23:50of light years
23:51to fall toward it.
23:53It acts like
23:54the low point
23:54in a giant
23:55cosmic landscape,
23:56pulling our entire
23:58dark matter pancake
23:59with it.
23:59The wild part
24:01is that we still
24:01can't see this structure.
24:03The Great Attractor
24:04hides behind
24:05a thick, glowing
24:06band of stars
24:07at the center
24:08of the Milky Way.
24:09Astronomers call
24:10this blocked area
24:11the Zone of Avoidance.
24:13Ooh, good nickname.
24:14Trying to look at it
24:15is like trying
24:16to admire a mountain
24:17through a completely
24:18mud-splattered
24:19car windshield.
24:20We know
24:21a massive cluster
24:22of galaxies
24:22is pulling us,
24:23but the dust
24:24and gas
24:25of our own galaxy
24:26block the view.
24:27Our dark matter pancake
24:29is actually
24:30just a tiny crumb
24:31inside a much
24:32larger structure.
24:33We belong
24:34to a colossal
24:35cosmic continent
24:36called Laniakeia.
24:38That word means
24:39immense heaven
24:40in Hawaii.
24:40It stretches
24:42520 million
24:43light-years wide.
24:45It contains
24:45the weight
24:46of 100 million
24:47billion suns.
24:48The Great Attractor
24:50is the gravitational
24:51heart of this
24:51supercluster.
24:52Our flat neighborhood
24:54is sliding down
24:55a giant invisible
24:56funnel toward
24:57that center.
24:58The quiet Hubble flow
25:00keeps most of our
25:01distant neighbors
25:02drifting away
25:03peacefully.
25:04But there was
25:05supposed to be
25:05one major exception.
25:07The Milky Way
25:08crashing head-on
25:09into Andromeda.
25:10For years,
25:11that future collision
25:12sounded almost guaranteed.
25:14A huge galactic wreck.
25:16Stars flung around,
25:18two giant spirals
25:19blending into
25:20one monster galaxy.
25:22Except now,
25:23that prediction
25:23looks a lot shakier.
25:25Newer studies suggest
25:26the odds of a crash
25:28in the next
25:285 billion years
25:29are actually tiny.
25:31Then,
25:31even over
25:3210 billion years,
25:33it is closer
25:34to a coin toss.
25:35So,
25:36the universe
25:36may be canceling
25:38one of its biggest
25:39predicted disasters.
25:40So,
25:41the discovery
25:42of this invisible
25:43flapjack
25:43changes how we
25:44look at the night sky.
25:46We used to believe
25:47glowing stars
25:48told the whole story.
25:49Now we know
25:50they're merely
25:51the sprinkles
25:52on top of
25:52an invisible pancake.
25:54The real architecture
25:55of the universe
25:56is mostly hidden
25:57from our eyes.
25:59Now,
25:59if all this talk
26:00about pancakes
26:01made you hungry,
26:02me too,
26:03here's a fun bit
26:04of trivia for the end.
26:05The famous
26:06Milky Way
26:07chocolate bar
26:08was not actually
26:08named after our galaxy.
26:10The creators
26:11named it after
26:12a hugely popular
26:13malted milkshake
26:14from the 1920s.
26:15They wanted to
26:16capture the exact
26:17flavor of a sweet
26:18diner drink
26:19in a solid candy block.
26:21But that's not
26:22the only coincidence.
26:23The company
26:24producing the Milky Way
26:25is called
26:26Mars.
26:27That title
26:28has absolutely
26:29zero connection
26:30to the red planet
26:31next door.
26:31It was simply
26:32the last name
26:33of the company's
26:34founder,
26:35Frank Mars.
26:36Since we now
26:37know our huge
26:38galactic home
26:39rests right on top
26:40of an invisible
26:41pancake,
26:42let's hope somebody
26:43actually gets inspired
26:44to invent
26:44a pancake dessert.
26:46Saturn's rings.
26:48Impressive, right?
26:49But look closer.
26:50They're crooked.
26:52Actually,
26:52the whole planet
26:53is tilted by
26:54nearly 27 degrees,
26:55which is way more
26:56than it should be.
26:57Look at its neighbor,
26:59Jupiter, for example.
27:00It has a tilt
27:01of only 3 degrees.
27:02So,
27:03what happened
27:03to the
27:04Lord of the Rings?
27:05A new study
27:06suggests that
27:07Saturn used to have
27:08a huge extra moon.
27:09Yeah,
27:10besides the other
27:11274 currently has.
27:13But who's counting?
27:14Millions of years ago,
27:15that space rock
27:16might have crashed
27:17straight into
27:18Saturn's largest moon,
27:19Titan.
27:20The collision
27:20was so massive
27:21that it could have
27:22knocked the planet
27:23off balance,
27:24leaving it even
27:25more tilted
27:26than before.
27:26This extra moon
27:28hypothesis
27:29is a pretty good one.
27:30But to fully understand it,
27:32we first need to look
27:33at previous theories
27:34on why Saturn
27:35is tilted
27:35in such a strange way.
27:37Theory number one.
27:38Blame it on Neptune.
27:40Poor guy,
27:41this planet
27:42is about
27:421.8 billion miles away,
27:45but he ended up
27:45becoming the main suspect.
27:47For years,
27:48astronomers believed
27:49Neptune's gravity
27:50slowly pulled Saturn
27:51over onto its side
27:53over billions of years.
27:54They thought
27:55the two planets
27:55were locked
27:56in something called
27:57orbital resonance
27:58that happens
27:59when two moons
28:00or planets
28:00sync up
28:01and start pulling
28:02on each other
28:02in a regular rhythm.
28:04Well, here's the thing.
28:05A planet's orbit
28:06is massive
28:07and carries
28:08a huge amount
28:08of energy.
28:09Well, the way
28:10a planet spins
28:11is much, much weaker.
28:12So, when you lock
28:13these two motions together,
28:15I mean,
28:15Neptune's orbit
28:16and Saturn's spin,
28:18it's Saturn's spin
28:19that's going to change
28:20and end up tilting.
28:21That's the power
28:22of orbital resonance.
28:23But then,
28:24Cassini happened.
28:26Back in 1997,
28:27NASA launched
28:28this spacecraft
28:29to explore Saturn
28:30and its icy moons.
28:32Cassini stayed out there
28:33for 13 years
28:34and it shared
28:35some really interesting
28:36discoveries,
28:37including the fact that,
28:38nope,
28:39Neptune is not our guy.
28:41Cassini's data
28:42showed that the two planets
28:43aren't exactly in sync.
28:45So, that couldn't explain
28:46Saturn's crooked posture.
28:48Something was missing.
28:50But what?
28:51That leads us
28:52to theory number two.
28:53It's Titan's fault.
28:55Poor guy,
28:55he was just there,
28:57hanging out as
28:57Saturn's largest moon,
28:59when suddenly,
28:59he became suspect number two.
29:02Okay,
29:02to be fair,
29:03it's more like Titan
29:04is the leader of the gang,
29:05but the other moons
29:06are helping out too.
29:08Two scientists
29:09from France
29:10came up with this theory
29:11in 2021.
29:12Back then,
29:13we already knew
29:14that Titan
29:14and the other moons
29:15were moving away
29:16from Saturn.
29:16But their observations
29:18show this is actually
29:19happening much faster
29:21than we thought,
29:22at a rate of about
29:23four inches per year.
29:24Yeah, really.
29:25Eventually,
29:26Titan could even be
29:27kicked away
29:28from Saturn's orbit entirely.
29:30And this whole process
29:31actually messes
29:32with the way Saturn leans.
29:34As the moons
29:35drift further away,
29:36the planet just tilts
29:38more and more.
29:38This explains why
29:40Saturn is still
29:41actively leaning today.
29:42In fact,
29:43over the next few
29:44billion years,
29:45the planet's tilt
29:46could more than double.
29:48Well,
29:48that's all pretty interesting.
29:49But it doesn't explain
29:51one big mystery.
29:52Saturn wasn't always
29:53that crooked.
29:54Some scientists believe
29:56that for over
29:57three billion years
29:58after the planet
29:59first formed,
30:00its lean was actually
30:01pretty small.
30:02So,
30:03something must have
30:04happened to change
30:05all that.
30:05Something big.
30:06That's how we got
30:08to theory number three.
30:09It's chrysalis' fault.
30:11And again,
30:12poor guy,
30:12this hypothetical moon
30:14might not have
30:15even existed.
30:16And we're already
30:17blaming it.
30:18Back in 2022,
30:19scientists came up
30:20with an idea
30:21about a lost moon
30:22called chrysalis
30:23that vanished
30:24about 160 million years ago.
30:26This theory says
30:27chrysalis orbited Saturn
30:29for billions of years,
30:30helping keep the planet
30:31in sync with Neptune.
30:33But then,
30:33things took a turn.
30:35As the moon
30:36spiraled inward,
30:37Saturn's massive gravity
30:38didn't just pull it in,
30:40it literally ripped
30:41the moon to shreds.
30:43Losing chrysalis' weight
30:44and its gravitational pull
30:46was like a cosmic kick.
30:47It broke Saturn's
30:49old connection
30:49with Neptune
30:50and knocked the whole planet
30:51over on its side.
30:53In other words,
30:54its disappearance
30:55could be the reason
30:56why those two planets
30:57aren't perfectly aligned anymore.
30:59Now,
31:00even though the moon's
31:01solid body
31:01is gone for good,
31:02its remains
31:03didn't just vanish.
31:05They flattened
31:06into one of the stunning rings
31:07we see today.
31:08I mean,
31:09the exact same thing
31:10that tilted the planet
31:11also gave it
31:12its most famous feature.
31:13So,
31:14basically,
31:15Saturn's famous ring system
31:16used to be a moon.
31:18Well,
31:19how cool is that?
31:20Anyway,
31:21scientists decided
31:22to test this out.
31:23But when they recently
31:24ran some simulations
31:25to see exactly
31:26how it all happened,
31:28they found a problem.
31:29In most of those versions,
31:31chrysalis didn't actually
31:32hit Saturn.
31:33Instead,
31:34it crashed into
31:35the mega moon Titan
31:36and merged with it.
31:38But,
31:38Titan wasn't Titan
31:40back then.
31:41There might have been
31:41an earlier version
31:42of Titan
31:43that was a lot more massive
31:44than chrysalis
31:45was theorized to be,
31:46about four times as big.
31:48Here's what the team
31:50thinks really happened.
31:51If we go back
31:52400 million years,
31:54Saturn looked
31:55completely different
31:56than it does now.
31:57There were no rings,
31:58and it had a different
31:59set of moons
32:00than the ones we see today.
32:01Back then,
32:02two of them were huge.
32:04Let's just call them
32:05moon A
32:06and moon B.
32:07At some point,
32:08moon A's orbit
32:10shifted
32:10and got locked
32:11into what's called
32:12a two-to-one resonance
32:13with moon B.
32:14Basically,
32:15that means
32:16for every one time
32:17moon B
32:17went around Saturn,
32:19moon A
32:19went around twice.
32:21That rhythm
32:22caused moon A
32:23to start moving
32:23inward pretty fast.
32:25Eventually,
32:26the inevitable happened.
32:27They slammed
32:28into each other.
32:29That collision
32:30ended up doing
32:31two main things.
32:32First,
32:33moon A
32:33was pretty much
32:34destroyed.
32:35A huge chunk
32:36of it
32:36crashed onto
32:37the surface
32:37of moon B,
32:38while the rest
32:39turned into
32:40a giant cloud
32:40of debris.
32:42Eventually,
32:42all those
32:43leftover pieces
32:44clumped back
32:45together into
32:45one piece,
32:46which became
32:47the current moon,
32:48Hyperion.
32:49The theory
32:50actually explains
32:51why Hyperion
32:52isn't a perfect sphere.
32:53It's shaped
32:54more like a potato.
32:55As for the rest of it,
32:57the part of moon A
32:58that hit moon B
32:59merged right into it.
33:00Together,
33:01they formed
33:02the version
33:02of Titan
33:03we know today,
33:04a massive icy moon
33:05that's bigger
33:06than the planet Mercury.
33:08This merging process
33:09might also be
33:10what created
33:11Saturn's rings,
33:12maybe about
33:13100 million years ago.
33:14As Titan's orbit
33:16expanded,
33:16it messed with
33:17some of Saturn's
33:18inner moons,
33:19shaking them up
33:20until they eventually
33:21smashed into each other.
33:22Some of that
33:23leftover debris
33:24stayed behind
33:25and became
33:26the rings
33:26we see today.
33:27But,
33:28we can't say for sure
33:29if that's exactly
33:31how it went down,
33:32mostly because
33:33we still don't know
33:34how old
33:35Saturn's rings
33:35really are.
33:36So,
33:37not every scientist
33:38is totally sold
33:39on this theory yet.
33:40Take NASA researcher
33:42Linda Spilker,
33:43for example.
33:44She says
33:44this study
33:45makes a really
33:46strong case
33:46that Hyperion
33:47and Saturn's rings
33:48actually showed up
33:50long after
33:50the planet itself
33:51was born.
33:52But,
33:52the truth is,
33:53the rings could be
33:54much older than that.
33:56And,
33:56if that's the case,
33:57the timing for this theory
33:59really doesn't line up.
34:01That means,
34:02we'll have to wait
34:03for more proof
34:04before we can say for sure.
34:05But,
34:06the answer might be
34:07coming soon,
34:07thanks to NASA's
34:09$3 billion
34:10Dragonfly mission.
34:11And,
34:12the whole idea
34:12is to explore
34:13Titan up close.
34:15This is a spacecraft
34:16about the size
34:17of a Mini Cooper
34:18that works a lot
34:19like a high-tech drone
34:20with eight rotors.
34:21It's scheduled
34:22to launch in 2028
34:23and should arrive
34:24at Titan
34:25by late 2034.
34:27Once it gets there,
34:28it's going to spend
34:29about two and a half years
34:30exploring different spots
34:32all over the Moon.
34:33Since it has propellers
34:34and landing skids,
34:36it won't be driving
34:37on the ground
34:37like a rover on Mars.
34:39Instead,
34:40Dragonfly
34:41will travel by air.
34:42It'll take off vertically,
34:44fly to a new location,
34:45and land again,
34:46basically hopping
34:47across the Moon.
34:49The mission
34:49might finally give us
34:50the answers we need.
34:52Dragonfly
34:53could test this theory
34:54by looking for
34:54geological or chemical signs
34:56of a huge crash
34:57between two moons
34:59a long time ago.
35:00And if it finds them,
35:01bingo!
35:02One of Saturn's
35:03greatest mysteries
35:04will finally be solved.
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