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During the recent years, scientists made two breakthrough discoveries about our universe. Thanks to new technologies, we’ve looked into the distant past... and we’ve learned something that can change our understanding of the universe forever. What are these discoveries, and what do they mean to us? Let's find out.
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00:00During the recent years, scientists made two breakthrough discoveries about our universe.
00:06Thanks to new technologies, we've looked into the distant past.
00:10And we've learned something that can change our understanding of the universe forever.
00:14What are these discoveries, and what do they mean to us?
00:17Let's find out.
00:19Recently, we unveiled the first color image from the James Webb Space Telescope.
00:23It's a mind-bending photo capturing thousands of ancient galaxies.
00:28This oldest documented light in the history of the universe dates back over 13 billion years.
00:33That's just 600 million years after the Big Bang.
00:36It's like getting a sneak peek into the universe's baby album.
00:40But that was just the beginning.
00:42Astronomers were expecting to see some tiny young galaxies.
00:46But what they found was a real surprise.
00:48Impossibly early.
00:50Impossibly massive.
00:51And all that from just a tiny red dot.
00:54The lead author of the study, Ivo Laba,
00:57was working at the computer as usual.
00:59And suddenly, he got two numbers.
01:01Age.
01:0213 billion years.
01:04Wait.
01:04100 billion stars.
01:06When he realized what that meant, he nearly spit out his coffee.
01:10But that red dot was just the beginning.
01:12The next day, they found five more galaxies just like this.
01:15Turns out, these six massive galaxies are as old as the Milky Way itself.
01:20The entire research team was in disbelief.
01:23They were like,
01:24Wait.
01:25What?
01:25These guys couldn't be that mature so early in time.
01:28Did we make a mistake?
01:29But nope.
01:30The James Webb Space Telescope, the new cool guy on the space block,
01:34just has some serious skills.
01:36It can see through dust clouds with its infrared vision and spot galaxies that were previously invisible.
01:41Move over Hubble.
01:43There's a new stargazer in town.
01:45But why is it shaking things up so much?
01:48Because this discovery affects our understanding of how galaxies formed.
01:52Let's try to explain.
01:54A long time ago,
01:5613.8 billion years ago to be precise,
01:58our universe was born.
02:00It was chilling out for a while,
02:01and then it started to form the first galaxies.
02:04And these galaxies were full of gas and dust.
02:07Eventually, this gas started turning into stars.
02:10Some galaxies were more massive and had more stars.
02:13And some were lighter and had almost no stars at all.
02:16In any case, they all grew gradually.
02:18The stars in them were born slowly and smoothly.
02:22That's how our current models explain this.
02:25But these new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show an unexpected surprise.
02:30If that's the case,
02:32then these galaxies are like the overachievers of the universe.
02:35They skipped the small and gradual growth phase
02:37and went straight to being giant universe breakers.
02:40According to our current cosmological model,
02:42they shouldn't even exist.
02:44But they do, so...
02:46It looks like after the Big Bang,
02:48the stars were forming much faster than we thought.
02:51Which is pretty weird.
02:53This could mean that there's something missing
02:55in our understanding of the galaxy formation.
02:59As you can see,
03:00these universe breakers are really living up to their name,
03:03causing a potential total consensus among scientists.
03:06The universe was like,
03:08Hey, I'm about to flip cosmology models upside down.
03:12But let's not jump to conclusions.
03:14There are many theories that could explain these mind-boggling discoveries
03:17without breaking the standard model.
03:19For example, maybe the light we're seeing isn't coming from stars at all,
03:23but from the swirling disks of doom around supermassive black holes.
03:28These colossal cosmic beasts can gobble up matter and spit out a dazzling light show.
03:33And James Webb Telescope's keen eye is picking up on these enigmatic accretion disks like never before.
03:40Or maybe these galaxies could be playing hide-and-seek with us.
03:44Maybe there's more to the story that we haven't seen yet.
03:47After all, the universe is vast and mysterious,
03:50and we've only just begun to scratch the surface.
03:54And whoa, whoa, whoa, we really need to slow down here.
03:57Before we even try to explain all this stuff,
04:00we need to confirm whether these ancient galaxies really are that old.
04:04Although even if they're actually just supermassive black holes,
04:07it still shows an astounding change.
04:09We'll have to wait about a year to find out.
04:12One thing's for sure,
04:14the James Webb Space Telescope has definitely taught us a valuable lesson.
04:18Expect the unexpected.
04:20And this is just the beginning of unexpected.
04:24EvoLab's team wasn't the only one who made such a huge breakthrough.
04:27There's also a team that claims that they've unlocked the secrets of the universe's past,
04:32and that's worth two Nobel Prizes.
04:36Move over James Webb Space Telescope,
04:38because this discovery came from an antenna that's smaller than a fridge
04:42and costs less than $5 million.
04:45Talk about space bargain hunting!
04:48The astronomers caught this signal that showed some surprises.
04:51It was coming from the earliest stars of our universe,
04:54back in the days when they were just beginning to twinkle.
04:56Say hi to our celestial ancestors again!
05:00Now, the signal was pretty weird.
05:02The temperatures were unusually low,
05:04and there was a pronounced wave that left astronomers scratching their heads.
05:08What could be causing all this?
05:10Well, there's a theory.
05:12Dark matter may have been at work,
05:14and if that's the case,
05:15then we can really be on the verge of a great discovery.
05:18Imagine you're looking at the night sky filled with stars,
05:22but there's something else there that you can't see.
05:25It's like an invisible cloak that covers the entire universe.
05:29Scientists call this mysterious stuff dark matter.
05:34Dark matter is like the ghost of our world.
05:36It doesn't emit, absorb, or reflect any light.
05:40We can't see it with telescopes or our eyes.
05:42That's why we call it dark matter.
05:45But if we can't detect it in any way,
05:47how do we know it exists?
05:48Because of its gravitational pull.
05:51One day we noticed that our understanding of how galaxies were created was incorrect.
05:55According to our calculations,
05:57they should have been some chaotic gas.
05:59But something held them together, turning them into spirals.
06:02Like some kind of invisible glue.
06:06Then we thought, maybe this invisible glue really exists.
06:10If the moon was invisible,
06:12we would still suspect that it exists somewhere
06:14because its gravity affects the tides on Earth.
06:17This is also the case with dark matter.
06:19Its gravity influences the motion of galaxies and other cosmic objects.
06:24In fact, dark matter makes up a huge chunk of the universe.
06:27About 27% of it.
06:28Moreover, the normal matter we can see,
06:31like stars, planets, and galaxies,
06:33only make up about 5% of the universe.
06:36So even though we can't see dark matter,
06:38there's actually more of it in the universe than everything we can see.
06:43Scientists are still trying to figure out if dark matter exists
06:46and what it can be made of.
06:48Some theories suggest that it could be made up of exotic particles
06:51that are different from the particles that we're used to.
06:54Others think that it might be some kind of weird, undiscovered form of matter
06:58that doesn't interact with light at all.
07:00Anyway, it's an intriguing mystery.
07:02And if we ever confirm the existence of dark matter,
07:05our understanding of our world will change forever.
07:08So now you can understand why the excitement in the scientific community is palpable.
07:14If this discovery is confirmed, then we will get the first real proof of dark matter.
07:19This discovery may be even more important than the Big Bang itself because,
07:22as astronomers put it,
07:24we are made of star stuff,
07:26and so we are glimpsing at our origin.
07:29But of course,
07:30we still have to wait and explore all this in great detail.
07:33In science, one should never rush to conclusions.
07:36And while scientists study this stuff,
07:38we'll be here,
07:39on the edge of our seats waiting for the next space blockbuster to unfold.
07:44The universe never ceases to amaze us with its wonders.
07:47Who knew that such a small and humble antenna could unlock such cosmic secrets?
07:51It just goes to show that in the vastness of space,
07:54even the tiniest discoveries can have the biggest impact.
07:58Keep looking up,
07:58and who knows what other cosmic surprises are waiting to be uncovered.
08:06No one will hear your cry in space,
08:08or something like that.
08:10We've all heard this famous chilling phrase.
08:12And it's actually true.
08:14Space, for the most part,
08:16consists of a giant nothingness.
08:18There's a lot of, you know,
08:19space in space.
08:20But this doesn't mean there are no sounds in space.
08:23In fact, there are plenty of them.
08:25And some of them can even make you shiver.
08:28Let's take a look at the scariest space sounds.
08:31First of all,
08:32how are cosmic sounds even recorded?
08:34Sound is just the vibration of molecules.
08:37When you scream,
08:38you make the molecules push each other furiously
08:41until they reach the ear of the person you're yelling at.
08:44Then these vibrations get transmitted to the brain,
08:46and we recognize them as something that you might need to apologize for.
08:51In other words,
08:52to hear something,
08:53we need molecules.
08:55And that's where things get complicated.
08:57There aren't any of them in space.
08:59The entire universe almost completely consists of a vacuum.
09:02No, not a hoover.
09:04Absolute nothingness.
09:05However,
09:06the wizards from NASA still record space sounds somehow.
09:10So how do they do it?
09:11The thing is,
09:12there are some types of waves that don't care about molecules.
09:16We regular folk can't perceive them without some special devices.
09:20These waves include,
09:21for example,
09:22radio waves.
09:23We'll need a radio or something like that to recognize them.
09:26And that's exactly what NASA's satellites do.
09:29They catch random radio waves.
09:31Thanks to their heroism,
09:33we can find out how different cosmic bodies sound.
09:36These satellites record a variety of waves,
09:39fluctuations of plasmas,
09:41magnetic fields,
09:42and other,
09:42you know,
09:43stuff.
09:43And then scientists from NASA transform all this into normal soundtracks.
09:48And some of them sound quite frightening,
09:51to put it mildly.
09:52Let's take our magnetic field,
09:54for example.
09:55It surrounds our planet like an invisible shield,
09:58protecting us from all sorts of nasties,
10:00like radiation and solar winds.
10:03At the same time,
10:04we can neither see it,
10:05feel it,
10:06nor hear.
10:06Oops.
10:07Well,
10:07the last one is outdated.
10:09Scientists from the Technical University of Denmark
10:12took magnetic waves recorded by the ESSA swarm satellite.
10:16They converted them into an audio track
10:18and got a pretty creepy result.
10:24Now,
10:24to be honest,
10:25it sounds more like an eerie entity stalking you in the middle of the night.
10:29And if you remember the maps of Earth's magnetic field,
10:32it starts to feel like a spider crawling nearby.
10:36Ew.
10:36And this isn't the first strange sound that we caught on Earth.
10:40Recently,
10:40we caught another weird radio emission from space.
10:43Scientists found out that the repeating signal came from somewhere very far away,
10:48like billions of light years away from us.
10:50Such fast radio bursts usually lasted no longer than a few milliseconds.
10:54But this one was unique.
10:56It lasted about three seconds,
10:58basically thousands of times longer than usual.
11:01And at the same time,
11:03the signal was very precise.
11:05So much so,
11:06that scientists even compared it to a heartbeat.
11:10Scientists believe that this signal is caused by pulsars,
11:13or neutron stars.
11:14One time,
11:15Nikola Tesla caught something similar.
11:17But unfortunately,
11:18at that time,
11:20we didn't know about such things as pulsars.
11:22So,
11:23Tesla was sure that he had caught a message from some extraterrestrial life.
11:27It's a pity that the truth turned out to be much more boring.
11:31But let's move on from the Earth to the Moon.
11:33In 1969,
11:35the astronauts of the Apollo 10 mission,
11:38the spacecraft that made the final test flight to the Moon,
11:41flew past its surface.
11:42And then,
11:43they caught some strange signals
11:45coming from the dark side of the Moon.
11:47The side that we never see,
11:48because the Moon is tidally locked to us.
11:51The sound was so weird,
11:53that the astronauts weren't even sure whether to report it to NASA.
11:56They were afraid they wouldn't be taken seriously,
11:59and maybe even not allowed to participate in the next space missions.
12:03Here's what it sounded like.
12:08But,
12:08according to NASA,
12:09it's not some creepy extraterrestrial music at all.
12:13These may just be some radio waves
12:15that affected each other because of their proximity.
12:18Although the astronauts who heard it for the first time
12:20probably felt a little creeped out.
12:23Let's move to the other planets.
12:25Now,
12:2540 years ago,
12:27scientists actively explored the surface of Venus.
12:29They sent as many as 10 probes there,
12:32which were supposed to capture audio and video
12:34shooting from the surface.
12:35Now we know what Venus,
12:37which could easily destroy us
12:39at any attempt to even get close to it,
12:41sounds like.
12:45Horrifying.
12:46And you wouldn't expect anything else
12:48from the most dangerous planet in the solar system.
12:51Unfortunately,
12:52Venus is even more toxic than the average Twitter user.
12:56So,
12:57these probes didn't last too long.
12:58They heroically arrived on a planet
13:01and soon broke down.
13:02Next one is Jupiter.
13:04This space giant,
13:06which is 11 times larger than the Earth,
13:08never fails to scare us.
13:10One of NASA's probes,
13:12Juno,
13:12flies around Jupiter every few weeks.
13:14The probe is moving at a tremendous speed,
13:17130,000 miles per hour.
13:20One day,
13:20Juno caught one of the strongest invisible signals
13:23it had ever encountered.
13:25This was the point
13:26at which the mad solar wind
13:28came into conflict
13:29with the magnetic field of Jupiter.
13:31It kind of sounded like a cosmic boom.
13:34The original sound lasted two hours,
13:37but it was compressed to a few seconds.
13:39It actually sounds more like
13:41a collision of a sea wave and a rock.
13:43But here,
13:44in terms of horror,
13:46Jupiter surprisingly loses
13:48to one of its small moons,
13:49Ganymede.
13:50In 2021,
13:52the Galileo space probe
13:53flew past Ganymede.
13:55And during its flight,
13:56it received a rather strange recording.
14:03These sounds are satellite radiation.
14:06And it's unclear
14:07whether it sounds like
14:08a cozy sunny day in the jungle
14:09or like thousands of bats
14:11waiting for you in the night.
14:14Next one is Saturn.
14:15This signal was caught
14:16by the Cassini-Huygens
14:18Automatic Interplanetary Station,
14:20which was launched into space in 1997.
14:23When flying past Saturn,
14:25Cassini recorded a pretty scary sound.
14:29This terrifying cry
14:31of thousands of souls
14:32is actually just some radio waves.
14:34They aren't too different
14:35from what the auroras emit on Earth.
14:38A little later,
14:39Cassini received another recording.
14:41The sounds made by lightning
14:42and thunderstorms on Saturn.
14:44They sound pretty interesting, too.
14:49More like popping corn
14:50or a Geiger counter, right?
14:52But that's just because
14:53these lightning strikes
14:54have a crazy frequency.
14:56Moving on from the solar system
14:58to outer space.
14:59The famous Voyager 1
15:01was launched back in 1977
15:03and continues to send us data
15:05even 40 years after its launch.
15:08In 2012,
15:09it left the solar system
15:10and entered interstellar space.
15:13And then,
15:14while abandoning its home,
15:16Voyager 1 detected
15:17the sound of plasma waves.
15:18The original recording
15:20lasted seven months.
15:21But, fortunately,
15:23scientists felt sorry for us
15:24and reduced it to 12 seconds.
15:27It isn't really eerie,
15:29but it's still kind of unsettling.
15:32And although it feels like
15:33nothing can beat Saturn's horrors,
15:35let's end this tournament
15:36with one of the scariest objects
15:38in the universe,
15:39a black hole.
15:41This sound was recorded
15:42by the Chandra Space Telescope.
15:44While studying a cluster of galaxies
15:46in the constellation Perseus,
15:48they discovered something strange.
15:50Some undulating movements
15:52appear from the center of the cluster.
15:55They spread out in all directions,
15:57like circles on the water.
15:59Scientists have suggested
16:00that this was caused
16:01by a supermassive black hole.
16:04The thing is,
16:05black holes don't always devour
16:06space objects entirely.
16:08Sometimes they kind of spit them out.
16:11This causes vibrations of gases,
16:13which we can convert into soundtracks.
16:16What's interesting is that
16:17the oscillation of each such wave
16:19actually lasts about 10 million years.
16:22You're just listening
16:23to a very accelerated recording.
16:26Scientists have reduced the delay
16:27between oscillations
16:29by about 144 quadrillion times.
16:32So let's check it out.
16:35This is probably the eeriest sound
16:37from the whole list.
16:38Nothing too loud or wild,
16:40but there's something dark
16:41and disturbing about it.
16:43Now, those were the scariest space sounds
16:45captured by NASA.
16:47To be fair,
16:48most of them sounded creepy
16:49simply because they're radio waves,
16:51but it's still fun
16:52to get spooked sometimes.
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