Bill Nye the Science Guy - S01E19 Outer Space

open the pod bay doors [Music] outerspace man is big there's a lot of it and a lot in it most of what we've learned about outer space we learned the same way that people have been learning about it for centuries by looking up in the sky and going whoa whoa whoa hey take a look careful of your eigen goofball the kids man it's big isn't it hey what's that [Music] science rules inertia is a property [Music] twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are up oh my I was just well anyway outer space is so big and everything in it is so far away do you know how we know well we'll just look by looking at the stars we've learned about outer space and you know what else everything out there is mean of the same stuff that we are isn't that wild so come with me today while we explore the vast wonderful world of space is big we have to go out way out outer [Music] things in space are very far apart what do you mean I mean very far apart uh-huh let's say that this little ball is the earth all right yeah yeah this little ball and you and I are right here at 9 laboratories how far away do you think the Sun would be to be this far away this far away I don't know be this far away maybe know what [Music] we'd be this far away Oh 20 meters that's right if the earth were this big the Sun would be this big and they'd be that far apart now what about the planets and other stars and galaxies I don't know well they're really far apart I mean they're way out there our earth is big and so is our solar system sure but what did the sky at night some of those points of light aren't stars no but they're groups of billions of stars but they look like a single point of light because they're so far away whoa whoa whoa how long do you think it would take me to get from here to where you are well let's see here I cop took about a second right how long do you think it would take the fastest thing in the universe to get from here down there how long well a lot less than a second I'll tell you here's the fastest thing in the universe it's light light goes 300,000 kilometers every second not 300,000 kilometers an hour another thirty one thousand kilometers a minute but 300,000 kilometers a second the things in the universe things like stars and galaxies things in the universe are so far apart that it can take even the fastest thing there is it can take even light millions and billions of years to get from one place to another even at the speed of light which is pretty fast so what's your same bill it's the closest star to our Sun is 4.3 light years away that's right now a light year is the distance that light travels in a year now light goes pretty fast and a year is a long time so a light year is really far nine and a half trillion kilometers Wow so that means some of the stars we can see right now may not even exist anymore that's right that's right maybe a star is burned out and collapsed okay well then it stopped giving off light well the light keeps coming here for years so in a way the star doesn't burn out and collapse here until the light stops coming here the Great Red Spot on Jupiter is actually a hurricane larger than the earth how far is far on earth far maybe to the other side of this lake or across the city or across the country but in space the Sun and moons and planets of our solar system for only tiny dots in the galaxies and the galaxies only a tiny dot in the universe you know you couldn't get to the nearest star that's our neighbor even if you spent your whole life traveling I have it I digress the thing to remember is things in space are really farley farley far far apart whoa Oh imagining distances in space is difficult because everything is so far apart but think of it this way let's say that this miniature soccer ball is the size of our Sun and it's right on the goal of a soccer field then this speck is working this is Venus this tip of a ballpoint pen is our earth two and a half meters from the miniature soccer ball Sun Mars 76 meters away and Pluto Pluto's back here what most kind of a building a hundred meters away how far do you think it is to the next star well it's not in here it's don't cry this way at home you could leave fire marks on the living room carpet I hope I point the iron but didn't leave the stove on it would be here the nearest star would be here seven hours of highway driving but 700 kilometers away the myths only if you think of the stars being this big I mean real stars are huge enormous ly human enormous ly big ly huge right all right nothing like this you couldn't get to the nearest star if you traveled your entire lifetime no way it's kind of cold out here have you ever heard of the Big Dipper the Big Dipper is a constellation now a constellation is a group of stars that we've given a name help us find certain stars or recognize now ancient Greek and Roman astronomers gave all sorts of constellations names and we still use a lot of those names today like Orion the Hunter Cassiopeia the Queen and the Big Dipper you know I don't think the Big Dipper was an ancient Greek or Roman name [Music] if you live in the northern hemisphere the northern half of the earthquake like right here is my laboratories one of the easiest stars in the sky to find is the North Star sometimes it's called Polaris and it's right over the North Pole so North Star North Pole Polaris you with me anyway the Earth's axis the imaginary line that the Earth spins around seems to point right to Polaris so let's take a look through the window of science I see Polaris is on the end of the handle of the Little Dipper and the two stars that form the front of the cup of the Big Dipper make an imaginary line that seems to point right to Polaris now get a good look at it because Polaris won't always be our North Star though the Earth's axis is wobbling just like the axis of this top see how it forms a small circle the same is true of the Earth's axis and eventually it won't be pointing to Polaris it'll be pointing to another star to Vega but that won't be for about Oh 12,000 years so I wouldn't wait up for hey [Music] dude this is awesome death and awesome I mean like all those stars dude there's millions of them and like each one of those stars it's like a son like whoa dude damn use it like oh there's tons of other solar systems yes whoa and that means that were like like little specks Oh like almost nothing [Music] people have always used their eyes to study stars and planets sometimes they use astral ABS you can make one I need to do is cut out a piece of cardboard so it looks like this then take a protractor and Mark off every tenth degree now there light now label him then take a straw and keep it on the side then take a string that has a washer tied to it and tape it on the other side there you're safe go outside at night and look through the straw in front of start find out where the weight hangs on the afterlife come on sign a couple hours later and find the same story you'll see that he moved that's because the earth is training astronomers also use astral ABS to find out the most of the stars and find planets please this reason I'm Eric oka and I'm a staff scientist an astronomer here at the Very Large Array you know what astronomers do is to try to figure out what is going on with a variety of objects out in space what we have here are basically radio dishes these big giant curved dishes which receive radio waves coming from some object out in outer space we look at planets like Mars and Jupiter and Saturn we look at stars we look at galaxies like our own Milky Way but beyond our Milky Way what we do is through a variety of computers because we turn that electronic signal into an image and then display that image on our computer screen so most of the science comes in looking at that screen looking at the image and really that's really where where we do what what astronomers do the basic idea and as a scientist in general and astronomers in particular our goal is to understand the universe whether or not there is Klingons on the other side of the galaxy I don't know [Music] ten tons of meteorites hit the earth everyday most are the size of a grain of sand about two thousand years ago in the town of Alexandria which is here near the mouth of the Nile River what is now Egypt there was a guy named Eratosthenes and he was the librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria one day he came across a note from someone who lived here in the town of Sina and the note said that known on the longest day of the year Styx cast no shadow and we can see all the way to the bottom of our wells Eratosthenes realized that where he lived Styx did cast a shadow and he couldn't see to the bottom of wells and he got to thinking about and he realized huh the earth must be round yeah we must be living on a big ball that's the only way for there to be no shadow here and a shadow here so he measured the shadow that the stick cast and then he paid someone to walk from Alexandria to Sina and keep track of the distance as carefully as he could that distance turned out to be around 800 kilometers and the shadow was about a 50th of a circle so then he multiplied 50 times 800 and he got the 40,000 kilometers and that's the distance around the earth what we call the circumference of the earth so check this up this guy made observations of a star our Sun and he figured out the size of a planet our earth the same kind of observations that you can make Hey not bad from under Halle Berry does the nice Murrow antenna yeah mg elicina or Bissell myself at a lunar calendar machmood Paulo Roy Alma safe attentively and Hodgman an Impala with the destinies it fallible Milanese and yet Maharajah who boudoir ah papa mama dada infidelity [Music] we are at t-minus four minutes and Counting Roger that you got all three fuel cells main power supply the launch conditions at Kennedy Space Center are are good well Space Camp is really just a place where you learn about space and ma the planning's watchin controlled mafia all systems ready and the crew is gold for launch the most exciting part of the day is when we do our missions Columbia start auxiliary power units Roger starting we train like an astronaut one eight well we ride simulators to teach us about what it would be like in space six by four in the future I think a lot more people will go to space it'll be like a regular thing three two one booster ignition we have learned a lot about space with the I want to be an astronaut yes I do want to become an astronaut I think that of you like the best experience that there is welcome back to this dark [Music] thank you thank you welcome back I'm Michael and I'm here with my very special guest mr. Bill Nyes thank you thank you really Michael it's so good to be back on the show and you are looking fabulous thank you so tell me though what are we going to do today we have here the ingredients to make virtually anything oh these are different kinds of atoms that's right these are all the different elements all the different kinds of atoms in the universe now atoms come from stars now take for example our planet our planet has a lot of iron and silicon along with many other elements and our star has a lot of hydrogen and helium yeah Michael that's all right Egyptian huh almost lost it there it's okay everybody it's okay now Michael you and I are 65% water right now what's water h2o that's right h2o I have some water here which I've prepared earlier and the water is two parts H and one part o h2o water so we this year we can make virtually anything well actually no because in order to make all these atoms you need the force of exploding stars and billions of years but brownies on the other hand only take about 35 minutes and even gratis are made of atoms that's right Oh bill this looks fabulous people it looks thank you thank you here Michael you please have the first one now people say you know why make observations it starts why look into space are you kidding me today it gives you a perspective of where you are in the universe of what we do what are you trying to make some kind of joke I mean we are made of the same material as stars stars you me the camera the television you're watching everything made of the same stuff that stars are made of so if you got you have to respond each stars in order to understand what we're made up for crying out loud whoa [Music] well when I looked up a night well there's so much I can tell just by being curious and automation the well but I'm so observing baby what I'm so observant I'm so observant of the sky well the solar system and solar daddy Sun and the Sun is what's down the galaxies billions and billions well deserving baby I'm so observant I'm sky [Music] baby I'll need other sister well we're all middle and sweet we're all middle that we're all me you and I [Music] you know since the show started the light coming out of your television set is gone about huh 540 million kilometers now if it happens to be headed in the direction of the nearest star Alpha Centauri it's got another arrow forty one trillion kilometers to go now that's a long trip at the speed of light so don't go asking me are we there yet are we there yet it's gonna be at least four years okay hope you'll excuse me get some still record this to record see you around the solar system produce an association with the National Science Foundation [Music]

Channel: Graskic Roki

Views: 515,298

Keywords: bill, nye, the, science, guy, usa, english, pbs, walt, disney

Id: OUD6BrP5Hmk

Length: 22min 56sec (1376 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 15 2018