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Join us as we explore the unsettling discoveries from NASA, including eerie galaxy-eating phenomena, groundbreaking findings from the James Webb Space Telescope, and strange activities that have scientists on edge. This captivating journey into the cosmos reveals the enigmatic forces and wonders that continue to challenge our understanding of the universe.
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00:00These eerie objects are called quasars.
00:02They're some of the brightest and most powerful objects in the universe.
00:06They lurk in the depths of space, consuming entire galaxies with their insatiable hunger.
00:12But what are quasars? Where do they come from?
00:15And most importantly, are they dangerous to us?
00:20Picture a supermassive black hole, a cosmic monster so massive
00:24that it can swallow entire stars and bend the fabric of time.
00:29Usually, there's such a black hole in the center of every galaxy.
00:33That includes our own Milky Way galaxy.
00:36Ours is named Sagittarius A-star.
00:39Sounds like the name of a hipster coffee shop.
00:41But in reality, it's a terrifying celestial body,
00:44which is 4 million times heavier than our sun.
00:47You could even see it online.
00:49For the first time, we took a photo of this black hole in May 2022.
00:54Ah, but don't worry.
00:55Even though it's supermassive, it's not going to swallow us up anytime soon.
00:59This black hole is relatively small and is too tiny to eat an entire galaxy.
01:05So it's more like a cosmic vacuum cleaner that sucks up stars or gas that gets too close.
01:11But there are black holes in the centers of galaxies that are way heavier and more dangerous than ours.
01:16They can weigh millions or even billions of times more than our own sun.
01:21Now, imagine one of these monsters.
01:24Usually, they're surrounded by a swirling, glowing disk of gas and dust,
01:28like water swirling down a drain.
01:31It's called an accretion disk, and it's where the magic of quasars happens.
01:35As material from the accretion disk falls toward the center,
01:39it heats up to millions of degrees, releasing vast amounts of energy in the form of radiation.
01:44And this radiation is what we observe as a quasar.
01:48So, basically, the more material a black hole can consume from its surroundings,
01:53the brighter its quasar will be.
01:55This is what makes them so bright and powerful,
01:58shining like beacons in the night sky.
02:01And just imagine, some black holes can actually make entire galaxies their meal.
02:06Now, combine their ravenous appetite with some intense radiation,
02:10and you'll get a truly awe-inspiring display of cosmic power.
02:14No wonder we can see them,
02:16even though they're some of the most distant objects in the universe.
02:19Quasars were discovered in the late 1950s by accident.
02:23Astronomers were just chilling and looking at the sky,
02:26when suddenly, they stumbled upon something strange.
02:29Radio signals that had no visible source.
02:32By 1960, hundreds of these strange objects had been found.
02:37Astronomers named them quasars, short for Quasi-Stellar Radio Source.
02:42These objects were small and far away,
02:44but their energy output was immense and difficult to explain.
02:48Some thought that these were new types of stars.
02:51Others even proposed wild things,
02:53like quasars being made of antimatter or being the end of a wormhole.
02:58But all these theories were discarded.
03:00A scientist named Martin Schmidt was the first one to get to the truth.
03:04However, many astronomers didn't believe him.
03:07Schmidt had to do a lot of extra work
03:09and gather lots of evidence to prove his theory.
03:12And finally, he prevailed.
03:14And that's how we discovered quasars.
03:16Don't you love the scientific method?
03:19And since then, astronomers have been captivated by these objects.
03:23Why?
03:23Because they have some pretty eerie qualities.
03:26Hey, you could call them Quasi-Quasars.
03:29For example, they kind of defy the laws of physics.
03:32They emit jets of particles that travel at speeds close to the speed of light.
03:37These particles move so fast that they can even distort the very fabric of space and time.
03:43But sometimes, they also help us confirm the laws of physics.
03:46Now, imagine driving a car.
03:49As you drive, objects in the rear window start to appear smaller and smaller
03:53until they disappear from view entirely.
03:56That's exactly what happens with quasars.
03:59Except they're moving away from us at incredibly fast speeds.
04:02Up to 90% the speed of light.
04:05Wonder why they're trying so hard to sprint away from us.
04:08But in any case, this helps us confirm that the universe does expand for real.
04:13Another eerie thing about quasars is that they're incredibly old.
04:18Some even date back to the time when galaxies were forming or to the birth of our universe.
04:24Additionally, quasars are some of the most distant objects that we can observe in the universe.
04:29Some of them are located billions of light-years away from us.
04:32This means that when we observe a quasar,
04:35we're actually seeing light that was emitted billions of years ago,
04:38when the Earth was much younger and different than it is today.
04:42And that's why they work like cosmic time capsules.
04:45Studying them gives us a glimpse into the distant past.
04:49You see, galaxies are like giant cities,
04:51with stars and planets serving as the inhabitants.
04:54But just like cities evolve over time,
04:57galaxies also undergo changes as they age.
05:00And that's where quasars come in.
05:02They're like the urban planners of the universe.
05:05They shape the galaxies through their powerful gravitational influence.
05:09By eating galaxies and releasing intense radiation,
05:12they can trigger star formation and shape the structure of the galaxy itself.
05:17It's like the cosmic equivalent of a master chef.
05:20Or a leaf blower.
05:22You pick.
05:23For example, let's take galaxy mergers.
05:26Here are two massive entities coming together,
05:28swirling and spinning around each other.
05:30As they get closer and closer,
05:33their gravitational pull becomes stronger,
05:35and they start to merge into a new, bigger galaxy.
05:38It's a beautifully dramatic process,
05:41one that can take millions of years to complete.
05:44But all this doesn't go without consequences.
05:47The gas and dust within the galaxies collide,
05:50creating massive shockwaves that trigger the birth of new stars
05:54and even supermassive black holes.
05:56And this is where the quasars come into play.
05:59Some quasars may be born during these galactic get-togethers.
06:03And thanks to this,
06:04they help us study the effects of this process
06:06and the evolution of galaxies over time.
06:10But it's not all serious science and no fun.
06:13For example, how about gravitational lensing?
06:16Now, that's something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
06:19It happens when the gravity of a massive object,
06:22like a quasar,
06:23bends the path of light from a more distant object,
06:26like a galaxy, behind it.
06:28It's like having a really big magnifying glass in space.
06:32When you combine a quasar with gravitational lensing,
06:35you get some seriously awesome cosmic eye candy.
06:39The result is kind of like a funhouse mirror,
06:41where objects appear warped and twisted
06:44in strange and mesmerizing ways.
06:46Gravitational lensing isn't just for show.
06:49It's also a powerful tool for astronomers
06:51to study the distribution of dark matter
06:54and the structure of the universe.
06:55And that's not all.
06:57Some scientists have proposed that quasars
07:00could help us build the map of the universe.
07:02They can work like giant neon road signs.
07:05Turn left at the quasar,
07:07and you'll reach your destination.
07:08They're like lighthouses
07:10that help us navigate through space.
07:12By analyzing the light from different quasars,
07:15astronomers can determine the distances between them
07:18and create a 3D map of the universe.
07:20And the best part?
07:22Quasars are located throughout the entire universe.
07:25That's why this cosmic map can give us
07:27a comprehensive view of the universe
07:29on a scale that was previously unimaginable.
07:32Who knew that a giant galaxy eater could be so useful?
07:36There's still a lot we don't know
07:37about these mysterious objects.
07:39In 2007, a team of astronomers
07:42made an astonishing discovery,
07:44the first true binary quasar.
07:46Basically, this means two huge quasars
07:49spiraling around each other.
07:51What's more, they were hiding in plain sight.
07:54For years, scientists had known about this radio source,
07:58but had never realized that it actually comes
08:01from one lovely couple.
08:02The astronomers also estimated
08:04that this pair may have a mass
08:06of about 100 billion suns.
08:08They're super distant, though,
08:10at an astounding 12 billion light-years
08:12away from our blue planet.
08:14Overall, quasars are a fascinating
08:16and complex phenomenon
08:18that continues to baffle and intrigue scientists.
08:21They may be cosmic galaxy eaters,
08:24but they're also playing a critical role
08:26in the formation and evolution of the universe.
08:28And who knows?
08:30Maybe one day, they'll become one of the keys
08:32to unlocking the mysteries of our universe.
08:34Oh, you quasi-quasars.
08:38It's been more than a year
08:39since the James Webb Telescope,
08:41which had taken over 20 years to complete,
08:43was launched.
08:44And for such a relatively short time,
08:47the ultra-modern and most powerful
08:50in history piece of equipment
08:51has already made plenty of discoveries.
08:54By observing the universe at infrared wavelength,
08:57James Webb lets us see things
08:59no other telescope has ever shown before.
09:01The primary goal of this incredible piece of equipment
09:04is to study the formation of galaxies and stars
09:06that appeared in the early universe.
09:12For example, look at the closest to a stellar nursery,
09:15a region of space where new stars get born.
09:18NASA has shared an image from James Webb
09:20that shows a small star-forming region.
09:23If you look at the picture attentively,
09:25you'll see jets bursting from infant stars.
09:28Around them, different colored clouds of cosmic dust
09:31are colliding with one another.
09:32The view is mesmerizing.
09:35The red dust consists of molecular hydrogen.
09:38You can also notice that some stars
09:39have something like shadows.
09:41Those hint at the creation
09:43of what will later become planets.
09:45At first sight,
09:46the image may seem chaotic,
09:48but astronomers claim
09:49that it's a relatively small
09:50and quiet stellar nursery
09:52in comparison to some others.
09:54Many young stars there
09:56are similar in size to our sun
09:57or a bit smaller.
09:58The photo itself was taken
10:00with the help of Webb's
10:01near-infrared camera, NIRCAM.
10:04It's the observatory's primary camera
10:06that snaps images of the cosmos
10:07in two different infrared ranges.
10:12Another amazing discovery
10:14the Webb telescope has made
10:15is smoke molecules in a distant galaxy.
10:18It's the first time such molecules
10:20have been discovered
10:21so far away from our planet.
10:23The galaxy in question lies
10:2512.3 billion light-years away from Earth.
10:28It most likely formed
10:29about one and a half billion years
10:31after the Big Bang.
10:32Despite such a huge distance
10:34between the galaxy and our planet,
10:36scientists have managed
10:37to detect chemical compounds
10:38found in soot or smoke,
10:40and it's quite a big deal
10:41since it has pushed the record
10:43for detecting similar complex molecules
10:45back by around a billion years.
10:47This study has also confirmed
10:49the sheer power of the coolest
10:51piece of space equipment of all time.
10:53It managed to make this discovery
10:55despite the fact
10:55that the spectrometer needed
10:57for the measurements
10:58didn't perform to the fullest
11:00after having experienced
11:01a sudden and surprising degradation.
11:07The James Webb telescope
11:09has also helped to boost
11:10our understanding of exoplanets.
11:12Those are planets orbiting stars
11:13other than our own sun.
11:15At the beginning of 2023,
11:17the observatory spotted
11:18its first exoplanet,
11:20LHS 475b.
11:22It's located 41 light-years away from Earth
11:24and is approximately
11:26the same size as our planet.
11:28According to NASA,
11:30nowadays,
11:30James Webb is the only operating telescope
11:33capable of categorizing
11:34the atmosphere of Earth-sized exoplanets.
11:37The research team behind the discovery
11:39believes such results
11:40underline the precision of the telescope.
11:42They hope that it will help us locate
11:44many more rocky exoplanets
11:46that we might be able to colonize
11:47in the future.
11:50Even though,
11:51at first sight,
11:51it may seem that the universe
11:52is pretty empty,
11:53it's actually a very busy place.
11:55And Webb has all the necessary instruments
11:57to see all kinds of cosmic events
11:59happening out there.
12:00Just look at this image of WR-124.
12:03It's a star on the cusp
12:04of its explosive demise.
12:10In the image,
12:11the star is about to go supernova.
12:13It happens when a star runs out of its fuel
12:16and explodes at the end of its life cycle,
12:18releasing a giant cloud of space dust
12:20and hot gas into space.
12:22The star captured by the Webb telescope
12:24was at the wolf-rayet stage of its life.
12:27That's a period when a star is shedding
12:28its outer layers before going supernova.
12:31The next amazing thing discovered by James Webb
12:34is a star-planet hybrid
12:35with very strange clouds.
12:37This bizarre world,
12:39VHS-1256b,
12:41is actually a brown dwarf.
12:43Those are bigger than planets
12:44but too small to classify as stars.
12:47They emit some light of their own
12:48and are quite hot.
12:49But their mass is simply not enough
12:51to fuse hydrogen into helium
12:52like full-fledged stars do.
12:54Space bodies of this kind
12:56aren't actually brown.
12:57They occur in a wide variety of colors,
12:59but those are mostly invisible
13:01to the human eye.
13:02What we can see
13:03is the light they emit.
13:05And to us,
13:06it appears to be dark orange or magenta.
13:12The brown dwarf discovered by the Webb telescope
13:14is almost 20 times the size of Jupiter.
13:17It orbits two red dwarf stars,
13:19and to complete one orbit,
13:21it needs over 10,000 years.
13:23Astronomers first found out
13:24about this unusual exoplanet in 2016.
13:27But at that time,
13:29they didn't classify it as a brown dwarf
13:31and thus couldn't explain
13:33its puzzling reddish glow.
13:35Now, thanks to the James Webb telescope,
13:38they know the space object's origin.
13:42Now, in the 70s,
13:43we received a radio signal
13:45that lasted more than a minute.
13:47And to this day,
13:48no one knows what it was
13:50or where it was coming from.
13:51But now,
13:52a new theory has appeared.
13:54Could the mystery
13:55finally be solved?
13:58In 1977,
14:00at 11.16 p.m.,
14:02a telescope in Ohio
14:03caught something very unusual in space.
14:06It was a super short radio signal,
14:09just 72 seconds long.
14:11The signal was so strong and weird
14:13that the scientist who found it
14:14wrote WOW in red ink next to it.
14:17That's why it's called the WOW signal.
14:20Now, in space,
14:21hydrogen gas sometimes releases radio waves,
14:24a type of electromagnetic radiation.
14:27They emit at a specific frequency,
14:29which is like a unique signature
14:31for hydrogen gas.
14:32This helps us to find,
14:34identify, and study it.
14:35Thanks to this,
14:36we noticed that the WOW signal frequency
14:39came from the same place as this gas.
14:41But it's not like it helps much,
14:43because we still have no idea
14:46what emitted it.
14:47What's even stranger,
14:48the signal happened only once.
14:51Even though we tried really hard
14:53to hear it again,
14:54we never did.
14:55And without a repeat signal,
14:57it was impossible to tell what it was.
15:00It's hard for us to even get
15:01its precise location,
15:03because the signal was short-lived.
15:05After a certain distance,
15:06it's very hard to tell
15:07where different radio signals
15:09are coming from.
15:10And that's where the theory started.
15:15This particular frequency
15:16that the WOW signal was on
15:18is special.
15:19It's not crowded with a lot of other signals.
15:21It's like finding a quiet spot
15:23in a noisy room.
15:25Because there's not much
15:26interference or noise.
15:28So if you send a signal
15:29on this frequency really far,
15:31it won't get lost or distorted.
15:33And that's curious,
15:34because it means
15:35that there might be
15:36a perfect place
15:37to send messages
15:38if we want to communicate
15:39with any extraterrestrial
15:41creatures out there.
15:42So could it be
15:44that they're trying to contact us?
15:46Well, it's a real
15:47scientific possibility.
15:48No one knows for sure
15:50what caused the WOW signal.
15:52But if it was from
15:53something extraterrestrial,
15:55they definitely communicate
15:56not like we do.
15:57The signal looked nothing
15:59like a deliberate message.
16:00And that's weird
16:01that it happened only once.
16:03If it was little green people
16:05trying to contact us,
16:06it would be weird for them
16:08to only try once.
16:10But just in case,
16:11in 2012,
16:13on the 35th anniversary
16:14of the WOW signal,
16:15we decided to send out
16:17a bunch of messages
16:18toward certain stars.
16:19We used a special code
16:21to make sure
16:22any extraterrestrial creatures
16:24who got the messages
16:25would know they were
16:26from intelligent beings
16:28like us.
16:28Well, mostly intelligent.
16:30We even used a lot of power
16:32to make sure the messages
16:33could travel really far.
16:38Scientists have come up
16:39with lots of ideas
16:40about where the WOW signal
16:41might have come from.
16:42But none of them
16:43are widely agreed upon.
16:45We know for sure
16:46that it didn't come
16:47from anything on Earth.
16:48Earth noise can interfere sometimes,
16:51but this signal
16:51definitely came
16:52from outer space.
16:54There was also a theory
16:55that the signal
16:56might have bounced off
16:57some space junk
16:58and come back to Earth.
16:59But later,
17:00we realized
17:01that the requirements
17:02for that to happen
17:02were very unlikely.
17:04One potential idea
17:06is that the signal
17:07might have been caused
17:08by twinkling in space,
17:09like how stars
17:10twinkle in the sky.
17:12But even if that's true,
17:13it doesn't rule out
17:15the possibility
17:15that the signal
17:16was made
17:17by something artificial.
17:19Another idea
17:20is that it could have come
17:21from something spinning,
17:22like a lighthouse.
17:23Or maybe it was a signal
17:25that changed its frequency
17:26over time.
17:27Or it was just
17:28a one-time burst.
17:32It's been 50 years
17:34since a strange radio signal
17:35was caught.
17:36But recently,
17:37a new idea
17:38about its origin
17:39sparked up.
17:40Now, imagine a comet
17:42streaking through space,
17:44leaving a trail of gas
17:45behind it,
17:46like a tail.
17:47This gas could be key
17:48to understanding
17:49the mysterious radio signal
17:51that caught astronomers' attention
17:53all those years ago.
17:54One of the astronomers
17:55looked at the WOW signal
17:57and thought it might be
17:58connected to a comet
17:59called 266p-Christensen.
18:03Yeah, that's a mouthful.
18:05This comet is about
18:061,800 light-years away.
18:09It wasn't known back in 1997
18:11when the signal
18:12was first detected.
18:13But now,
18:14it could explain
18:15the strange radio waves.
18:17Comets can emit radio waves
18:19as they get closer to the sun.
18:20It's like the gases around them
18:22start buzzing with energy.
18:23This buzzing
18:24might be what the WOW signal
18:26was all about.
18:27To test this theory,
18:29we used a radio telescope
18:31to listen for radio waves
18:32from other comets.
18:33We found that some comets
18:35did indeed emit radio waves
18:37at the same frequency
18:38as the WOW signal.
18:40Then,
18:41we pointed the telescopes
18:42at this particular comet
18:43as it passed
18:44to the same part of the sky
18:46where the WOW signal
18:47was detected.
18:48The comet's radio waves
18:49could match up
18:50with the signal.
18:51And while the comet
18:52wasn't exactly
18:53in the same spot
18:54as the signal,
18:55it was close enough
18:56to feel like
18:57we were on to something here.
18:59It also might have been caused
19:00by hydrogen clouds
19:01from two comets.
19:02The ones we mentioned
19:04and another one
19:05called P-slash-2008Y2.
19:08Who picks these names?
19:12But not everyone
19:14is convinced by that idea.
19:16Some say that the theory
19:17about two comets
19:18causing the signal
19:19doesn't add up
19:20because comets
19:21don't usually emit radio waves
19:23in the way needed
19:24to explain the WOW signal.
19:26Also, the signal
19:27didn't repeat itself
19:28and only happened once,
19:30which is weird
19:31if it's really a comet.
19:32They spread out their gases
19:33over a large area,
19:35so the signal
19:36would have lingered longer.
19:37The telescope used
19:39to detect the signal
19:40should have picked it up
19:41twice in a short time span,
19:43but it didn't happen that way.
19:45Also, the comet
19:46wouldn't have moved
19:47out of the telescope's view
19:48so quickly.
19:49This shows that
19:51we need to learn more
19:52about how and why
19:53comets emit these radio waves,
19:55especially at the same frequency
19:57as the WOW signal.
20:01There are also a lot
20:02of mysterious
20:03and interesting signals
20:04in space.
20:05Most of them come
20:06from natural events,
20:07like something called
20:08fast radio bursts.
20:10These bursts of energy
20:11are incredibly powerful
20:12and occur all over the sky,
20:15but their origins
20:16are still unclear.
20:17They last for only
20:18a fraction of a second.
20:20Maybe the telescope
20:21caught just a part
20:22of one of these bursts.
20:24There's also a strange signal
20:26we've been receiving
20:26since 2018.
20:28This one actually repeats
20:30every 22 minutes,
20:31but despite our efforts,
20:33we can't figure out
20:34where it's coming from.
20:35It started way back
20:36in 1988,
20:38and we've been investigating
20:39this mystery
20:40for 36 years now.
20:42At least here,
20:43we know the distance
20:44of the mysterious object
20:45sending the signals,
20:46a distant 15,000 light-years away.
20:52Some speculate
20:53that these signals
20:54could be from
20:55extraterrestrial beings
20:57trying to communicate with us.
20:58However,
20:59we can't say for sure
21:00without solid evidence,
21:02so it remains speculative.
21:04Another explanation
21:05is a pulsar theory.
21:07Now,
21:08pulsars are neutron stars
21:09that emit beams of energy,
21:11similar to what we've been observing
21:13with the signals.
21:14However,
21:15the behavior of the signals
21:16doesn't perfectly align
21:17with what we know
21:18about pulsars.
21:20There's also
21:21the magnetar theory,
21:22suggesting that these signals
21:24could be coming
21:24from supercharged neutron stars
21:27called magnetars.
21:28Yet,
21:29none of these theories
21:30fully explain
21:31the strange behavior
21:32of the signals.
21:33Maybe,
21:34there's a new,
21:35undiscovered phenomenon
21:36in the universe.
21:40So,
21:40even though comets
21:41are a possibility,
21:43there are still
21:43a lot of unanswered questions
21:45about the WOW signal.
21:47We don't know
21:48what caused it,
21:48and we may never know.
21:50We don't even know
21:51if it came from deep space
21:52or from somewhere
21:54inside the solar system.
21:56In any case,
21:57even if the WOW signal
21:58had a natural cause,
21:59it doesn't mean
22:00that extraterrestrial life
22:02doesn't exist.
22:03The study that talked about this
22:05also discussed
22:06a sun-like star
22:07that could be
22:08a great place
22:08to look for signs
22:09of technology from space.
22:11There are 14 more stars
22:13similar to our sun in space,
22:15although we're not totally sure
22:17about their brightness.
22:18This opens up
22:19exciting possibilities
22:20for hunting down signs
22:22of advanced civilizations
22:23beyond Earth.
22:25Ooh.
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