A reality we have come to accept is that relative
to us almost everything in the universe is incomprehensibly distant. Presuming we're not alone, even if interstellar
communication could be established it would still take years, decades, centuries, or more
for information to be transceived. The universe may be crowded with isolated
specks of life, all willing yet unable to overcome the socially impeding physical laws
of the universe. But not every region of the universe is equally
dispersed. A good example of this are globular clusters,
abnormally dense spherical regions of stars. Each cluster can contain many hundreds of
thousands of stars and the Milky Way is currently orbited by more than a hundred such clusters. While the closest star to the Sun is over
4 light-years away, a typical distance between stars in a globular cluster is only 1 light-year. Near the center, stars may only be separated
by a few astronomical units (AU) which is the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Intelligent beings inhabiting a planet orbiting
a star inside a globular cluster may find interspecies and interstellar communication
to be the norm. The night sky would be illuminated by thousands
of nearby stars. This is one of the reasons why in 1974, a
radio message encoded with information about humanity and Earth was beamed towards the
globular cluster known as Messier 13. But given that M13 is 25,000 light-years distant, we
have to wait another 50,000 years until we don't receive a reply. However, some argue that the close proximity
of the stars may inhibit stable planetary orbits, thus rendering the development of
life improbable. As of the making of this video, only one exoplanet
has been detected inside a globular cluster. Much like all other celestial orbs of stuff,
stars are classified according to various classification systems. The current system is known as the Morgan–Keenan
classification and categorizes stars based on their temperature and luminosity. A famous representation of this system is
the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. It charts the properties of some 23,000 stars
with luminosity on the vertical axis and temperature on the horizontal. The Sun would land here, making it a fairly
average G-type main sequence star. At the very top we find hypergiants and by
volume they are the largest stars in the universe. At the bottom we find white dwarf stars, incredibly
dense but voluminously small. In some 5 billion years the Sun will first
expand into a red giant before condensing back into a white dwarf. But what happens next? Are these Caucasian Tolkien creations doomed
to roam the galaxy for all eternity? Well, not for eternity but almost. Once the Sun has evolved into a white dwarf
it will begin to cool down. This cooling process will continue for more
than a quadrillion years. To put that in perspective, I can't put that
number in perspective. Though some stars may actually dim the lights
in just a few trillion years so stay tuned for that. After an indeterminate and incomprehensible
amount of time the Sun will eventually devolve into a black dwarf. A star that emits no light nor heat. Just a dense and dark gravitational mass. Perhaps still orbited by equally dark and
lifeless planets. But as the universe is only 13.8 billion years
young, black dwarfs are purely theoretical and do not yet exist but even if they did,
they would be extremely difficult to detect. When talking about the severely deficient
budget of NASA it is often compared to the vastly superior budget of the US military. US military spending frequently exceed 50%
of the total discretionary spending of the federal government while NASA has been hovering
around 1.5% for the past couple of years. If you're a space enthusiast and you ever
find yourself in a situation where you need to fake some tears,
just picture this graph. Works every time. I don't know if the US military need $600
billion dollars every year. Perhaps they do. Perhaps that money is put to good use and
every dollar is essential. However I do know that, if they wanted to,
they could build two Hubble telescopes just for fun. Because they did. In June of 2012 NASA announced that they had
been given two space telescopes by the US intelligence agency known as the
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The NRO primarily builds and operates spy
satellites for the US government and while the two optical telescopes where built with
the intention of observing the Earth they could easily be repurposed for astronomical
observations. These two pristine telescopes have been collecting
dust since the millennium shift and are in the same class as the Hubble Space Telescope. But even though NASA avoids the cost of building
two Hubble-equivalent telescopes they still have to pay for various instruments and electronics
as well as the launch of the rocket so it will get quite expensive regardless. And with such a minuscule budget this means
that the telescopes will continue to collect dust for quite some time. If everything goes according to plan one of
the telescopes may be launched into orbit by 2024. But given that this is NASA we're talking
about a good rule of thumb is to only trust their estimations when it's about celestial
mechanics. In the Star Trek universe, there's a planet
called Vulcan which, logically, is the home of Vulcans. However, prior to the conceptualization of
this fictional alien species and their home world, there was a very real astronomical
search for a hypothetical planet called Vulcan. In previous episodes I've talked about the
French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier and his discovery of the planet Neptune. Well, after his discovery of Neptune in 1846
Le Verrier decided to tackle the puzzling discrepancy between the observed and theoretical
motion of the inner-most planet Mercury. After studying the planet for over a decade,
he published a paper in which he hypothesized that Mercury's anomalous orbit
was caused by one or multiple undetected celestial bodies
between the Sun and Mercury. Then in late 1859 an amateur astronomer claimed
to have observed the transit of this hypothetical planet. Le Verrier was now convinced
of the planet's existence and subsequently announced
its discovery in early 1860. As news of the sighting spread across the
globe this Sun grazing planet was aptly named Vulcan because in Roman mythology Vulcan is
the god of fire. While many doubted the existence of Vulcan,
Le Verrier's previous discovery of Neptune lent credence to his claim and
sporadic sightings of intramercurial planets would
continue throughout the 1800s. But as no one could seem to provide any concrete
evidence of Vulcan's existence, more and more began to question the validity of these sightings. Then in 1915, Albert Einstein published the
theory of relativity which perfectly explained the motions of Mercury and consequently eliminated
the possibility of an intramercurial planet. The supposed sightings had likely been confused
with comets, sunspots, Vulcan starships, or other celestial phenomena. As for Le Verrier, he died in 1877 still convinced
of having discovered a planet named Vulcan. If you've ever seen the launch of a Space
Shuttle you'll know that an iconic component of the launch vehicle was the enormous rust-colored
fuel tank. But the external fuel tanks attached to the
two initial Shuttle flights, known as STS-1 and STS-2,
featured a more consistent white coating. It would be easy to assume that this was a
mere aesthetic decision but it was actually intended to protect the tanks
against ultraviolet light. Once this "white privilege" was deemed unnecessary,
future tanks were simply left unpainted. This also had the added benefit of shaving
off some 270 kg. That's 270 kg of paint. Sure, the tanks may have weighed 35 tonnes
but given that each mission cost about $450,000,000, or some $18,000/kg, they saved nearly $5,000,000
by not "whitewashing" those fuel tanks. Well, I guess they did "whitewash" the
tanks given that they washed off the white paint. So they "whitewashed" the tanks by needlessly
making them white only to white-wash the tanks by reverting back to their non-white state. Or perhaps I should just avoid anthropomorphizing
the painting practices of fuel tanks. In 1981, the Soviet Union launched a probe
named Venera 14. The probe was headed for Venus and its mission
was to land on the Venusian surface to take some photographs and to gather data. In 1982 it made a successful descent and this
is one of the photos it managed to relay back to Earth before it succumbed to the extreme
Venusian climate. Before any photographs could be taken however,
the system would automatically eject the lens cap protecting the lens of the camera. An ejected lens cap can be seen resting on
the ground in this photo taken by a preceding identical probe named Venera 13. But in the Venera 14 photo, the ejected lens
cap landed here. The precise location at which this spring
loaded metal arm was intended to strike the ground to measure the
compressibility of the soil. Instead, Soviet scientists back on Earth received
data on the compressibility of a lens cap. If disaster strikes and astronauts and cosmonauts
aboard the International Space Station should be forced to make an emergency evacuation, they
would have to board one of the two Russian made Soyuz capsules, each with a capacity
of three, and descend back to Earth. All crew members are trained for these circumstances
so it shouldn't be much of an issue but one problem with returning home after an extended
stay on the ISS is that the human body requires time to readjust to Earth's gravity. If the capsule should happen to land in a
difficult to reach location, the crew will have no choice but to wait until further assistance
arrives or till their bodies will allow them to seek help by their own accord. First of all, the crew will likely find it difficult
to stand and walk for at least a couple of days. This is astronaut Scott Kelly after spending a year
in space and returning to Earth in March of 2016. SCOTT KELLY:
I feel like Jar Jar Binks. Crew members may also lapse in and
out of consciousness for short periods of time as the circulatory system would struggle to provide
an even flow of oxygen rich blood to the brain. A day after returning home in 2006, astronaut
Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper collapsed twice while addressing a crowd for this exact reason. As a direct result of this incident,
astronauts attending conferences shortly after returning from space are now required to sit. Now, if you should ever find yourself
in the vicinity of an emergency landed Soyuz capsule, as one does, you'll actually find instructions
printed on the side of the craft on how to open the hatch and assist the crew inside. In 1959, before any human had yet to venture
out into space, officials at NASA discussed whether to label such individuals as
astronauts or cosmonauts. Both terms are derivatives of Ancient Greek
and the suffix -naut initially meant sailor. The prefix astro- means star while cosmo-
means universe. So astronaut translates into star-sailor while
cosmonaut translates into universe-sailor. Even though cosmonaut would be a more accurate
description of this profession astronaut emerged as the term most favored by Americans. But once the Soviet space agency sent the
first human into space, they chose to use a term that translates into cosmonaut and
due to the competitive nature of the space race, neither country was prepared to adopt
the terminology used by the other. So instead of Soviet astronaut or American
cosmonaut, the Soviet term was Anglicized while the American term was Cyrillicized. Another reason is that both astronaut and
cosmonaut are titles of a profession and not direct synonyms for any person who ventures
into space. Thus, the agency responsible for sending people into
space is also responsible for titling that profession. And while other such titles do exist, such
as spationaut for French, taikonaut for Chinese, and vyomanaut
for Indians, astronaut is by far the most common. Except when in reference
to Russian cosmonauts. In the early 1960s the US military launched
some 480,000,000 tiny copper needles into orbit. This was done in the belief that this orbital
ring of needles could serve as an artificial ionosphere facilitating military communications
by reflecting radio signals back to Earth. This would allow for global communications
without the need for undersea cables. The project was initially deemed a success
but as the needles dispersed over time the signal strength gradually diminished. The project was eventually scrapped in favor
of communications satellites so this swarm of needles was simply abandoned under the
presumption that they would burn up on re-entry within a few years. But not only does a significant percentage
of the needles remain in orbit some five decades later, they have now coalesced into clumps
of metal due to contact welding. 39 of these clumps are currently being tracked
but more are believed to exist. The eight planets of the solar system are
currently orbited by 175 moons but how many moons does the Earth have? One. The Earth has one moon. It's this one, you may have seen it. But since 2010 you could say that Earth has
two companions in the form of the Moon and something known as a trojan. In 2010, a 300 meter wide asteroid known as
2010 TK7 was found to orbit in close proximity to the Earth around a region in space known
as a Lagrangian point. A Lagrangian point is one out of five points
in a two body system wherein the forces exerted by the two celestial masses, in this case
the Sun and the Earth, create a sort of gravitational and centripetal equilibrium. This is what the strange orbit of 2010 TK7
looks like as it guides the Earth around the Sun. The easiest way to imagine this is that the
asteroid orbits an invisible point in space known as L4 while simultaneously orbiting
the Sun. Although astronomers insist upon this being
the first and, as of yet, only Earth trojan, Windows users around the globe beg to differ. While our weak excuse of a planet has only
managed to attract a single trojan the God of the solar system, Jupiter,
has likely attracted millions. In fact, the classification trojan stems from
the fact that the asteroids around the L5 and L4 points of Jupiter are named after characters
from the Trojan War of Greek mythology. It's been hypothesized that when Earth was
still just an infant, a large planet named Theia, found itself in an orbit around the
L5 or L4 point, much like 2010 TK7. However, due to Theia being as large as Mars
its orbit quickly destabilized and the planet eventually impacted the Earth which may have
resulted in the formation of the Moon.
How does he always manage to end the video off in a way that gives you chills?
My favorite series from my favorite YouTuber! Oh boy!
I made the music of this video : a real pleasure and an honor to feature in it! If you want to check the official music it's part of a big compilation I've made of all my first albums. "Veil of Oblivion" starts at 29:57 >>> https://youtu.be/GeNTf3dfdT4?t=1797
Many thanks for your support! Erang
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!
I've been waiting for this <3 I love how you put so much work into your videos. Quality > Quantity Too bad these space facts don't get as many views as the other ones
16:10 best pun in 2017
I wrote down his space facts to help remember them. Love his videos I'm afraid posting all the facts is gonna get marked as spam or something so here's a download link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/ftmke014yt7edi1/Space+Facts.rar
I woke up this morning, pulled out my phone and saw this on my homepage of YouTube. What a way to start a day. Thank you.
I like how to video links back to itself at the end.