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Journey through the captivating world of magnets and their mind-bending effects as we explore how flying magnets unraveled the mystery of Yellowstone and ponder the extraordinary possibility of all metal on Earth becoming magnetic. Brace yourself as we dive into the intriguing concept of a magnetic star capable of wiping every credit card on Earth!
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00:00If you've ever been to Yellowstone National Park, you were probably mesmerized by its geysers, which spew superheated water and
00:07steam high into the air.
00:09But an even more intriguing thing actually hides underground.
00:13I'm talking about that underfoot plumbing system that makes those grand eruptions possible.
00:18About that, there's good news.
00:21Recently, researchers have succeeded in mapping the National Park's hydrothermal plumbing system with the help of a giant flying magnet.
00:29As a result, scientists have managed to document all these features in stunning detail.
00:34The thing is, Yellowstone houses the world's largest hydrothermal system.
00:39It contains over 10,000 features, like geysers, mud pots, hot springs, and steam vents.
00:46They're fed by a network of underground water pathways.
00:49Those get overheated by magma flowing underground.
00:52It causes the water to rise to the surface.
00:55Now, no one actually knows much about the workings of this system.
00:59But the newly created maps might finally shed light on it.
01:03Experts explain that their knowledge of Yellowstone has a subsurface gap.
01:08That's why it's often called a mystery sandwich.
01:11Scientists know quite a lot about the features on the surface because they can observe them directly.
01:16And they know what's going on in the magmatic and tectonic system several miles below the surface.
01:21But they haven't figured out what's happening in the middle yet.
01:25So, I must tell you about that giant flying magnet used for research.
01:30It's known as SkyTem.
01:32It was attached to a helicopter and flown over Yellowstone several hundred times, scanning the ground below.
01:38The magnet is made up of an 82-foot-wide charged wire loop.
01:43Its main task is to generate a strong electromagnetic field.
01:47And since different kinds of material, like water or rock, respond to this field differently, scientists managed to create a
01:54few subsurface maps for the first time ever.
01:57The mapping technique also allowed the researchers to differentiate between magma and bedrock, since they have a bit different magnetic
02:05properties.
02:06And the team got a chance to see how the magma and water interact and create those mind-blowing geological
02:13features on the surface.
02:14The team got high-resolution maps to a depth of around 500 and 2,300 feet,
02:20and low-resolution maps showing what's going on at a depth of up to 1.5 miles.
02:25At the same time, the researchers think that the hydrothermal system itself may stretch as far as three miles below
02:32the surface.
02:33If they're right, it means they've only mapped the top half of Yellowstone's plumbing system.
02:39Anyway, remember how I said that scientists know pretty much about the bottom part of the Yellowstone sandwich?
02:45They have such a good idea about the tectonic plates and deep fault lines
02:50because the park's frequent earthquakes provide them with a lot of opportunities to study different phenomena.
02:56In July 2021, for example, more than 1,000 earthquakes rocked the area.
03:01These days, the team of researchers knows much more about some famous features,
03:06like the old faithful geyser or the grand prismatic spring.
03:10They've also found out that individual hydrothermal features on the surface can actually be connected to others,
03:17which can be as far as six miles away from them.
03:21Another interesting discovery is that even though Yellowstone geysers and hot springs vary in size, shape, color, volatility, and chemical
03:29composition,
03:30they are mostly fed by very similar underground sources.
03:34That means that the difference between the features appears closer to the surface.
03:38Now, I'm sure you've seen the iconic image of Yellowstone with a large rainbow-colored spring, fiery orange at its
03:45edges.
03:46So, what makes these hot springs so colorful?
03:49Surprisingly, these awesome hues come from microscopic creatures.
03:53The temperatures in the springs are so high, they can easily and quickly cook you.
03:59Plus, the water there is super acidic, like the liquid in a car battery.
04:03But there are certain types of heat-loving microbes that don't mind these crazy conditions.
04:08You can even say they're thriving there.
04:11So, every ring of a different color is, in most cases, a ring inhabited by different bacteria.
04:18And each species is adapted to a particular temperature or pH level, which measures how acidic this or that environment
04:25is.
04:25For example, take the Grand Prismatic Spring, yes, the iconic one.
04:30Its rainbow hues likely hint at the diversity of microbes living there.
04:35So, starting from the center of the hot spring, you can see a beautiful aquamarine color there.
04:41That's where the water temperature is the highest, reaching 189 degrees Fahrenheit.
04:46Because this area is right over the underground water source.
04:49The water there is too hot even for microbes.
04:51That's why what you see is mostly clear water.
04:55As for the reason for its blue color, it's the same as why the sky is blue.
05:00Sunlight hits the surface of the water, and the light scatters.
05:03But the blue light scatters the most, getting reflected back to your eyes.
05:08Now, the next ring of color is yellow.
05:10All thanks to certain cyanobacteria.
05:13The temperature in this yellow ring reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
05:17If the conditions in the hot spring were a bit different, these bacteria would create a blue-green hue, thanks
05:24to a green pigment called chlorophyll.
05:26But since the sunlight hitting the spring is too intense, the bacteria start producing another type of pigment.
05:33It's called carotenoids.
05:35And guess what?
05:36It acts as a sunscreen for the bacteria.
05:38And since this pigment is orange, the normally green bacteria get a yellowish hue.
05:44And finally, we've got that bright orange color closer to the edges of the prismatic spring.
05:49It's a bit cooler there, around 149 degrees Fahrenheit.
05:54In this part of the spring, you can find several types of bacteria.
05:58They all produce substances that give the spring this bright orange color.
06:02And finally, right at the edges of the spring, the temperature is cooler, around 131 degrees.
06:08And a greater variety of microbes can survive there.
06:12All of them combined give the edges of the spring that red-brown hue.
06:16But scientists believe that people and their activity may have influenced the colors of Yellowstone's hydrothermal features.
06:24For example, in the past, the temperatures in the morning glory pool used to be much higher than they are
06:30today.
06:30That's why its color was a deep blue.
06:33But trash has started to accumulate in the pool.
06:36And some of it clogged the vent.
06:38This caused the temperatures to drop, which led to microbial growth.
06:42As a result, that pretty blue color turned into orange-yellow.
06:47As for Yellowstone's geysers, the most famous one is called Old Faithful.
06:52It got this name at the end of the 19th century because of how regular its eruptions were.
06:57This geyser is more active than the others, erupting about 20 times a day.
07:02Each of these magnificent events lasts from 1 to 5 minutes.
07:06And the fountain of steaming water can reach a height of 180 feet.
07:10Now, while talking about Yellowstone National Park, we can't but mention Yellowstone's supervolcano, right?
07:18Supervolcanoes appear when huge volumes of magma are trying to escape from deep underground.
07:23Eventually, they burst through Earth's surface.
07:26Sometimes, all this magma gets stuck, unable to break through the planet's crust.
07:31And then, massive pools of pressurized magma gather at a depth of several miles.
07:36The pressure keeps growing because more and more magma is trying to get to the surface.
07:41At one point, a super-eruption goes off.
07:44You don't necessarily want to be around for that.
07:47Over the past 50 years, the Yellowstone caldera has risen almost 3 feet.
07:53It shouldn't alarm you, though.
07:55Experts are sure it's a natural behavior for Yellowstone.
07:58Periods of dome-shaped uplift are followed by the caldera lowering.
08:02Scientists think the supervolcano doesn't present any danger at the moment.
08:07For an eruption to happen, the magma inside has to be at least 50% molten.
08:13With Yellowstone, this number is just 5-15%.
08:17Even better, a recent study made the researchers believe the hotspot might be in a state of decline right now.
08:24Even despite all the breathing and dome-raising activity.
08:28There have been at least 3 other super-eruptions in the history of Yellowstone Volcano.
08:33They happened 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago.
08:39Long before video.
08:41The most recent super-eruption was dubbed the Lava Creek Eruption.
08:45It formed the Yellowstone caldera after spilling out 240 cubic miles of rock, dust, and volcanic ash.
08:53No thanks, I'll pass.
08:55You've been stuck in traffic for almost an hour.
08:58Thousands of cars are slowly passing ahead.
09:01It's unbearably hot outside, and your air conditioner is broken.
09:05At this moment, you notice dark blue clouds forming in the sky.
09:09They're huge and moving fast.
09:11The clouds obscure the sun and begin to sparkle.
09:15But instead of rain, they release only lightning.
09:19Every second, the discharge hits the road.
09:22Lightning strikes cars and knocks out all electronics.
09:26You look out the window and see dark clouds spreading all over the city.
09:30After a few minutes, the strange thunderstorm ends, and the clouds disperse as quickly as they appeared.
09:37Your car's engine stalls.
09:39You try to start it, but nothing helps.
09:41Then, you hear the metal parts of the car ringing under the hood.
09:46You want to get out of the car to see what happened.
09:48But at this moment, a sedan to your left is pressed against your door.
09:53You feel a strong push.
09:55Someone crashes into your trunk behind you.
09:57The vehicle on the right pushes away from yours, as if some invisible thing was placed between you.
10:03From all sides, except the left part, you're pressed by cars.
10:08The door is blocked.
10:10You pull back the roof and stand on the seat.
10:12What's happening?
10:14The cars around are pressed against each other by an unknown force.
10:18Some vehicles are overturned and jump on the spot.
10:21You take out your phone to record this, but it's turned off.
10:25And the most fantastic thing is that there are several coins pressed to the back of your phone.
10:31Somehow, they got stuck there, like magnets.
10:35And apparently, all the cars around are pressed against each other because of the same force.
10:40As you get out of your car, your phone falls out of your hands and sticks to the door like
10:46a magnet to the fridge.
10:47All the electronics in the city are malfunctioning.
10:50Traffic lights are flickering, as well as ad banners.
10:54And all metal objects are moving.
10:57Two garbage cans standing next to each other are shaking.
11:00A power line is magnetized to the light pole.
11:03The shop doors are closed with such force that they break the windows.
11:08The birds in the sky are going mad.
11:10Some of them are flying in random directions, others in circles.
11:15A strong wind rises and a hurricane begins.
11:18It's so strong that it tears off the roofs of houses and lifts some cars into the air.
11:24You find yourself in the epicenter of a disaster movie.
11:27Together with other people, you run to the supermarket.
11:31Before you get there, you fall.
11:33The ground is shaking under your feet.
11:35A strong earthquake begins.
11:38Houses are falling.
11:39Crevices are forming on the broken road.
11:42They're so deep, you nearly fall into one of them.
11:45You run in the other direction and jump through the broken glass of a library building.
11:50In the library, you head straight to the roof and see the earthquakes destroy the city.
11:56The flood washes away cars and small houses, but the library was sturdy enough to withstand those waves.
12:02But destructions are just the beginning.
12:05Something really weird is about to happen.
12:08It starts to rain heavily, and the sky turns pitch black.
12:13The rainstorm adds extra water to the flood.
12:16The rain ends quickly, the clouds disperse, and the sky turns so clear, you see the moon and stars.
12:23It can't be real, because it was noon five minutes ago, and all of a sudden, it's night.
12:29As you're gazing at the stars, you notice a green glow, mixed with purple and yellow.
12:35Right now, you're watching the most beautiful aurora borealis in history.
12:40It shines and sparkles countless colors.
12:43Enchanted, you take a step back and approach the edge of the roof.
12:48A strong push from an earthquake makes you fall from the roof.
12:51The library you were hiding in is a four-story building.
12:55You fall for a couple of seconds, which is too long for this distance.
12:59But the coolest thing is that you don't get harmed.
13:02You feel the lightness of your body, make a jump up, and fly to the third floor of the building.
13:08At this moment, a strong wind blows and carries you away like a feather.
13:13You see hundreds of thousands of people flying into the sky.
13:17Cars, trees, parts of houses, everything is experiencing zero gravity.
13:23The planet is torn into pieces, and each piece is hanging in the air.
13:27The water drops crash into your face.
13:30You're breathing freely, which means the Earth's atmosphere has not been destroyed.
13:35From the deep bowels of the planet, a deafening roar comes and permeates the entire surrounding space.
13:42And at this moment, you're asking yourself,
13:44How did this become possible after all metals became magnetic?
13:48To answer this question, you need to understand how magnetism works.
13:53Any material substance consists of molecules.
13:56Molecules are made of atoms.
13:58There's a nucleus inside the atom with electrons revolving around it.
14:02An electric current causes the movements of these electrons.
14:06In most substances, these particles move in different directions.
14:10But when the electrons start moving in one way, this makes the substance magnetic.
14:15In simple words, an electric current creates magnetism.
14:19Cobalt, nickel, and iron have many electrons moving in one direction, which makes these metals magnetic.
14:26But it's not enough to make them stick to your fridge.
14:29To become more magnetic, the metal needs to enter the area of another powerful magnet.
14:35This area is called a magnetic field.
14:38To make all metals magnetic, a huge magnet the size of a planet should fly near Earth.
14:43It doesn't sound real, but you already know that an electric current causes magnetism.
14:49When you were sitting in the car, the unusually powerful lightning bolts began to sparkle all over the planet.
14:55They were the cause of the disaster.
14:58All magnetic fields have north and south poles.
15:01If you put two magnets with the same sides to each other, they push off each other.
15:06If you put the northern part to the southern one, they attract.
15:09That's why some cars were pushed away, and others were pressed to each other.
15:14Our planet also has these poles.
15:17Thanks to them, a compass works.
15:19Our entire planet is a sort of giant magnet, too.
15:23The core consists of moving molten metals, mainly nickel and iron.
15:27Unusual lightning strikes made all metals magnetic on the surface.
15:32Also, it penetrated deep into the ground and charged the core with powerful energy,
15:38which caused an acceleration of the moving molten metals in one direction.
15:43The north and south poles of our planet help birds navigate in the air.
15:47The thunderstorm interrupted the ordinary work of the poles.
15:50That's why the birds were acting so weird.
15:53But the magnetic field doesn't only help to navigate.
15:56It creates a shield around our planet that repels solar particles and cosmic radiation.
16:03Sometimes, it manages to penetrate the upper atmosphere.
16:06There, they encounter various gases and create a glow, which is called the aurora borealis.
16:13After the magnetization of the Earth's core, the protective field becomes unstable,
16:17and the seepage points start moving around the planet.
16:21That's why you saw this phenomenon at noon, which felt like night since the day changed quickly.
16:26And this happened because of the accelerating planet's core.
16:29Millions of powerful lightning strikes made the inner metals move faster,
16:34which accelerated the rotation of the planet around its axis.
16:38The night came much earlier, but the morning will also begin faster.
16:43This acceleration triggered tsunamis and floods around the world.
16:47Chaos began in the Earth's atmosphere.
16:50Huge clouds form and pour thousands of tons of rain on the planet.
16:54The sea and ocean levels are rising in all parts of the world.
16:58The Earth's crust is falling apart.
17:01Gravity keeps us on the ground.
17:03But when the planet's rotation began to accelerate,
17:06the centrifugal force started to grow.
17:08Imagine you're on a huge carousel.
17:10It's rotating fast.
17:12If you don't hold on, you'll fly away.
17:15So now, our planet is the carousel.
17:18As it moves faster, you lose weight.
17:20All material objects become lighter and start literally flying.
17:25The Earth throws its contents out of the atmosphere.
17:28A global catastrophe is coming.
17:31Well, the good news is that these events are impossible.
17:34The honks pull you out of your daydreaming,
17:36and you finally get out of the traffic jam.
17:40A powerful burst of gamma radiation lasted a mere half second,
17:44but it released an enormous amount of energy.
17:47It was more than our sun would produce in 10 billion years.
17:50This free flash lit up the whole sky.
17:53Afterward, a much softer and more long-lasting glow replaced it.
17:58Astronomers examined the phenomenon with X-ray, radio, optical, and infrared waves.
18:03It turned out that people had finally seen a newborn magnetar for the first time ever.
18:09It was likely formed after two neutron stars had merged.
18:13It resulted in a kilonova, one of the brightest and largest stellar blasts.
18:18Its light finally reached our planet on May 22, 2020.
18:23Imagine a massive star, at least five times the mass of our sun, reaching the end of its life.
18:29It might be because it's run out of its nuclear fuel.
18:32If it happens, the star starts to cool off.
18:35The pressure inside drops, and the gravity starts to squeeze inward.
18:40And then, more than a million times the mass of our planet collapses within 15 seconds.
18:46It happens so fast that an enormous shockwave causes the outer part of the star to blow up.
18:52It produces a blinding burst of light.
18:54This powerful blast is called a supernova.
18:58What's left behind is an incredibly dense core with a huge cloud of hot gas called a nebula expanding around
19:05it.
19:05If the star has been massive enough, more than 10 times the size of the sun, it's likely to turn
19:11into a black hole.
19:12If not, it turns into a neutron star.
19:15It's basically a giant nucleus, the central part of an atom.
19:19These stars are mostly made up of neutrons, and are rarely larger than 20 miles across.
19:25For comparison, our sun is almost 865,000 miles across, which is 109 Earths put side by side.
19:33But don't let this relatively tiny size fool you.
19:36Any neutron star is at least one and a half times heavier than our sun, and has an intense magnetic
19:42field.
19:43If you scooped just a teaspoon of this star's insides, this matter would weigh more than a billion tons.
19:50It's so dense that it makes neutron stars some of the most extreme objects people know about.
19:56The next stop is the black hole itself.
19:59When two neutron stars merge, they most often create a new, much heavier one.
20:04Within milliseconds or even less, this star collapses into a black hole.
20:09But the astronomers who examined the flash of light recorded in March think there might be another outcome.
20:15They're almost sure they saw something never observed before.
20:19The birth of a magnetar.
20:22That's a rare form of a neutron star with an ultra-strong magnetic field.
20:26It's 1,000 trillion times stronger than our planet's.
20:30This field is also so powerful, it heats the star's surface up to 18 million degrees Fahrenheit.
20:37To put it simply, magnetars are the most powerful magnets in the universe.
20:42Their magnetic fields can seriously mess with the neighborhood.
20:46Atoms, unlucky enough to get close to such a star, get stretched into pencil-thin lines.
20:52If you somehow found yourself several hundred miles away from a magnetar, it would end badly for you.
20:58The magnetic field would first disrupt your bioelectricity.
21:01It means that your nerve impulses wouldn't work anymore.
21:04Even your molecules would change under the influence of the star's field.
21:09In the end, you'd pretty much vanish.
21:11If a magnetar flew within 100,000 miles from our planet,
21:15it would wipe out all the data on every single credit card in the world.
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21:20film on all road Probability.
21:20We'll see you next time.
21:20So everything will be Shipboard zone, Chai City, eh.
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