00:00few questions are as universal as are we
00:04and if our Celestial neighbors are out
00:07there who are they where are they and
00:10should we fear them these questions are
00:12just the tip of the iceberg and just a
00:15few of the questions I got to explore
00:17with astrophysicist John Mather who is
00:20also the senior project scientist on the
00:22James Webb Space Telescope plus the
00:25first NASA scientist to win a Nobel
00:28Prize in this video we get to explore
00:30the mystifying secrets of space where
00:33Jon takes us back billions of years to a
00:35time before the Big Bang and also
00:38catapults us many moons into the future
00:40one where evidence of our universe's
00:42origin may actually no longer exist if
00:45you were to come back and another say
00:48100 billion years most of the galaxies
00:50that we know about would have receded
00:52from us so far away that we couldn't see
00:54them anymore so the university will be
00:56in the process of appearing to empty
00:58itself out and if you imagine going far
01:00enough into the future with just one
01:02Milky Way left all the other galaxies
01:05are gone the evidence of the history of
01:08the universe might have disappeared so
01:10I'd like to invite you on this Cosmic
01:12Journey as we venture through wormholes
01:14quantum entanglement dark matter and
01:15dark energy and the abyss of unanswered
01:19questions that scientists like John are
01:21trying to answer through technology
01:23as a reminder the content here is for
01:25informational purposes only should not
01:27be taken as legal business tax or
01:29investment advice or be used to evaluate
01:31any investment or security and is not
01:33directed at any investors or potential
01:35investors in any ACC fund for more
01:38details please see a160z.com disclosures
01:51why don't we actually kind of look at
01:53some of these images from James Webb and
01:56maybe you could just speak to okay maybe
01:58even is there one that really you think
02:01shows us new features of understanding
02:04so we have something that
02:08Joe Biden released at the White House on
02:10July 11th last year and it shows uh
02:14right quite a few remarkable things
02:16there's some stars with six legs
02:19sticking out and that's just due to the
02:21wave nature of light because light sort
02:25of bends around the hexagonal edges of
02:27our mirrors uh so we but we knew about
02:29that so stars are not that exciting
02:31right now uh then in the middle of the
02:33picture are some giant fuzzy galaxies
02:35enormously massive and we sort of knew
02:39they were there already and so that
02:40wasn't so exciting but we wanted to know
02:42exactly how massive and exactly where
02:44all that stuff is and then uh in the
02:47background our little pink arcs
02:50um curved things that do not look like
02:52galaxies but they really are and so they
02:56are highly magnified and distorted
02:58images of very very distant objects and
03:02nature has given given us lenses extra
03:05lenses in space to magnify uh the more
03:08distant universe and this is something
03:10that Einstein predicted and we never
03:12thought it would be useful uh except in
03:15the most abstract way but so now what we
03:17see is sometimes two or three or four or
03:21five images of the same distant object
03:23all stretched out and magnified so this
03:25is a way to look farther back in time to
03:28see the details of the various first
03:30galaxies so that's the coolest thing for
03:34the astronomer in that picture
03:36um so sometimes we even see that the
03:39early Galaxy is filled up with a little
03:42sparkly things we call them globular
03:45clusters of like a hundred thousand
03:46stars uh that were presumably formed
03:49together and now our big question is
03:51well which came first galaxies or
03:53globular clusters did the universe make
03:56the little clusters first and then they
03:57joined together or did the Galaxy form
04:01first and then break up into little
04:02clusters so this is one of our generic
04:05questions of which came first chickens
04:07or eggs or breadfruit I don't know
04:12by the which brings me to another
04:14question about early galaxies there's a
04:16black hole a giant black hole in every
04:18Galaxy just about yes and so we know
04:22they're there because we see things
04:24orbiting around them so we calculate
04:26that there's something unanimously
04:27massive object in the middle sometimes
04:30they're very bright because material is
04:32falling in and getting compressed to
04:34enormous temperatures and we can see
04:36and now we want to know well which came
04:38first the Galaxy or the black hole uh
04:41did this universe start off with black
04:43holes all over the place
04:46or did it uh make galaxies first and
04:49then they made they got black holes so
04:51we've begun to observe black holes out
04:53there we've been even seen a few years
04:55ago black holes colliding with each
04:57other and joining together to make
04:58bigger black holes this is with the
05:00James Webb or that was done with the
05:01ligo observatory which is here on the
05:03ground uh and uh We've even even more
05:07remarkably seen neutron stars colliding
05:09and making a bigger neutron star and
05:13that has its own story to tell because
05:15for instance when you look at your ring
05:17if you have a wedding ring of gold then
05:20we know that most of the gold in that
05:22wedding ring came from neutron stars
05:24that collided and and blew up and
05:27material came back out into spaces and
05:29was recycled so this is a part of the
05:31most astonishing story about our own
05:33Origins that were made out of not only
05:36recycled stars but neutron stars that
05:39collided and blew up
05:40and so our own personal story is got the
05:44most remarkable threads in it and I just
05:46want to ask you about this particular
05:48image which has been referenced a lot in
05:51terms of understanding exoplanets and
05:53the composition of them and perhaps you
05:55could speak to maybe what we've learned
05:57there and also what it may indicate in
05:59terms of life that we have maybe
06:03come across not come across I think the
06:04answer is the latter but also what that
06:06maybe opens up for the future yeah sure
06:08so yeah everybody wants to know are we
06:11alone yes and uh if we're not alone
06:13where are the neighbors
06:14so I'll give you my I'll jump ahead to
06:16that but I think the answer is I think
06:18the answer is no we're not alone and I
06:21think life will occur quite frequently
06:23but it will mostly be rather Elementary
06:26and when you look at the history of
06:28Earth you see the history of the
06:30different forms of life growing it's
06:33taken all of the entire history of the
06:35universe for us to turn up so that does
06:37tell us that we're kind of rare in
06:40so probably life is everywhere that it
06:44could be which is perhaps in conditions
06:47like ours where it's there's liquid
06:49water at about the right temperature so
06:52but probably we're not going to find the
06:55similarly that we're not in danger from
06:58the neighbors so maybe we got lots of
07:00unexplained things here on planet Earth
07:02but it's not very likely to be space
07:03aliens yeah something else that we don't
07:06understand instead so
07:08um so what are we going to do about
07:09measuring well of course here in the
07:12solar system we're sending out probes to
07:14land on Mars and visit other places
07:17where there could be life
07:18and see so on Mars we're working to
07:21bring back little rocks that have the
07:24chance of having fossils in them so
07:26that's really hard but we're working on
07:28it we're already putting the rocks in
07:29little caches to get ready to bring them
07:32home yeah yeah we are sending probes out
07:35to orbit around satellites of Jupiter
07:39um water is coming out there are places
07:43where there there's a liquid water ocean
07:45covered with ice and there are cracks in
07:48the ice and the water comes out and you
07:50can see something and so if we're lucky
07:52we might find out there are organic
07:54molecules in those oceans I would say
07:57maybe there's life under there and and
07:59so it gives us impetus to track it down
08:05so then we get to what can we do about
08:07other planets around other stars can we
08:10find places that are like home little
08:13Earth's orbiting stars like the sun
08:15so far we don't know of any like that
08:18because it's a really hard observational
08:21what we're doing at the web we are
08:24looking at planets orbiting other
08:27smaller stars that are called M Stars so
08:31these are very weak little stars are
08:33hardly as big as Jupiter but they're
08:35warm enough hardly as big as Jupiter
08:37it's just funny with our sizes
08:40as a matter of scale yeah Earth is 8 000
08:43miles across uh Jupiter's 88 000 miles
08:46across and the Sun is about a million
08:48miles across that's good for you good
08:50reference roughly each one is ten times
08:52bigger than the other so
08:55um so yes we're able to study our
08:57planets around small stars because if
09:01some of the time the little planet will
09:03go in front of the star it'll block some
09:05Starlight so okay now we know it's there
09:07uh we can calculate its temperature and
09:10its size and whether it possibly host an
09:14okay now does it have an atmosphere so
09:17yes maybe uh so look to see if any of
09:20The Starlights going through the
09:21atmosphere of the planet on its way to
09:25um yeah we can do this and we have a
09:28pretty large catalog of large planets
09:30that do have an atmosphere with
09:31interesting molecules in them and so the
09:34technique works and now we're just now
09:36busy analyzing the small stars that have
09:39potentially small Earth-like planets and
09:43I can't say that we're really surprised
09:45but so far the little ones do not have
09:47atmospheres that we can tell
09:49so we shouldn't be too disappointed
09:51because we didn't really expect it but
09:54we still do really want to know yeah so
09:56what's what's next in this subject well
09:59we need to build different telescopes um
10:01tell me more about finishing up one now
10:03called the Nancy Grace Roman Space
10:04Telescope and it will have an equipment
10:07to look for planets as direct images
10:10a device called a coronagraph
10:13so if we can get that to work you never
10:15know we might see some signs of more or
10:18less Earth-like planet and the next one
10:20we're going to build is called habitable
10:21worlds Observatory and so
10:24when we do that we'll be able to see an
10:27image with a little dot next to the
10:29other Big Dot and it'll be an Earth-like
10:31object around a star like the sun which
10:33is a much more likely place to find
10:36signs of life because of course we've
10:38got one observation which is US yeah
10:40here we are so please look for another
10:43so we're building that or I should say
10:46we will be building that because that's
10:47what NASA wants to build the Congress
10:50wants to build it uh National Academy of
10:53Sciences said to build it astronomers
10:54want us to build it and I think the
10:56public wants us to build this because oh
10:58I sure want to know they all want to
11:00know are we alone we want to know I mean
11:02let me ask you a tangential question
11:04which is just there's just still so many
11:06question marks about this universe
11:10um is there a specific question mark
11:11that you know you would just love to see
11:14solved in your lifetime you would love
11:16that answer just even out of personal
11:18interest there's something gnawing at
11:20you I guess the the ones that are
11:22obvious that already are recognized by
11:25thousands of scientists Cosmic Dark
11:27Energy Cosmic dark matter they seem to
11:30be there that we can describe them
11:33mathematically they seem to fit
11:35practically everything that we know
11:38and we did not expect them there was no
11:43basic understanding of anything that
11:45said they should be there maybe just for
11:47the listeners could you explain what
11:49both of those are dark energy and dark
11:50matter so Cosmic Dark Matter appears to
11:55um transparent we shouldn't call it dark
11:57we should call it transparent
11:59there's a lot more of it than there is
12:01of ordinary matter the protons and
12:03neutrons and atoms that you all see
12:07um so it's out there it has been
12:09detected by its gravity
12:11so back in the 1930s we already had a
12:14hint that galaxies were spinning too
12:16fast which means they're being held
12:18together by more gravity than you can
12:20find cannot find the Stars to explain
12:23that amount of gravity so something
12:25something is weird so it took from then
12:28until about 1980 something before we had
12:31a lot more evidence and we could say
12:33yeah there's really there
12:35um how do we know what it is no we have
12:38been hunting in Laboratories for decades
12:41and darn it there isn't a single thing
12:43that's ever said this is a good
12:47so that means it's a wide open mystery
12:50then we have the cosmic Dark Energy you
12:53know which is something that in
12:55principle Einstein imagined uh he
12:58there's a place in his equations of the
13:00universe that could be called dark
13:02uh but we thought uh generally
13:05astronomers thought that well that would
13:07never happen so we imagined and believed
13:10that the Universe expansion will be
13:12slowing down because gravity will pull
13:13is pulling on things and to slow the
13:16expansion which seems to be true up for
13:18the first roughly 10 billion years of
13:20the expanded universe or 9 billion and
13:23then it seems to be accelerating so who
13:27asked for that well it was discovered by
13:30people who are planning to measure the
13:31deceleration and there's something
13:34around here so they got a Nobel Prize
13:37for discovering the acceleration it's
13:39going faster and faster every year which
13:41means that if you were to come back in
13:43another say 100 billion years most of
13:46the galaxies that we know about would
13:48have receded from us so far away that we
13:50couldn't see them anymore
13:52so the university will be in the process
13:54of appearing to empty itself out
13:57and if you imagine going far enough into
13:59the future with just one Milky Way left
14:02all the other galaxies are gone the
14:05evidence of the history of the universe
14:07might have disappeared from oh that's
14:09fascinating just to confirm that you're
14:12saying it still exists it would just be
14:13so far away yeah too far away to see it
14:16wow so so anyway we are here at this
14:19particularly interesting time where we
14:21still have evidence and control write
14:24the story and tell us ourselves how did
14:26we get here from something
14:28what comes before the Big Bang that's
14:30kind of like what are at least my brain
14:31was coming to as well right there's
14:34there is the big bang and then you have
14:37all of this matter expanding creating
14:39galaxies Etc but like
14:41I don't it's hard for me to wrap my
14:43brain around this idea of what comes
14:45before it yeah well maybe that's because
14:47maybe there isn't anything for it so the
14:49way I think out about it is uh so from
14:52the observer's perspective because what
14:53we see today is distant galaxies running
14:55away from us and we see the cosmic
14:57microwave radiation that tells us what
15:00it was like when it was young and when
15:01you imagine running it backwards in our
15:03minds yes so like a play button
15:05literally like run the play button
15:07backwards so the galaxies go crushing
15:09together the the stars are ripped apart
15:12the temperature goes up and up
15:14eventually the atoms are ripped apart
15:16even the protons and neutrons are ripped
15:18apart and separated into quarks and then
15:21we picture this uh soup of quarks and uh
15:24and leptons they're called and then we
15:27say well what came before that and so we
15:30have guest we have a guess that there's
15:32something called a inflation field a
15:35purely conceptual quantum mechanical
15:37idea and we say if this could happen in
15:40this particular way then it would
15:42produce the expanding universe that we
15:44have today and so it seems to hold up in
15:48the sense that there are a few
15:49predictions that it makes that we
15:51verified by observation of the cosmic
15:54background radiation
15:55so I when this was first proposed I
15:57thought oh that'll that'll never work
15:58we'd never know but there is a little
16:00bit of evidence that this Cosmic
16:02inflation story could be correct
16:04uh so but it's still pretty much of a
16:06guess so then you say well what could
16:09come before that and what does the
16:12theory predict so the theory predicts
16:15maybe there could be other universes
16:18um erupting out of this inflation field
16:21and we would never know they were
16:25um there could be billions or trillions
16:27or an infinite number of other universes
16:29according to this idea and we'd never
16:32but because this is so much of a guess
16:35we honestly can't tell you what came
16:38yeah and then we get to what about
16:41quantum gravity which we touched on very
16:44um if quantum mechanics should apply to
16:48space and time themselves then
16:52what happens if time and space don't
16:54mean what they seem to mean anymore
16:56and then all kind of all bets are
17:00we are completely confused we have no
17:03successful theoretical predictions
17:06based on that idea of quantum gravity
17:09doesn't mean there isn't any but we then
17:12it gets into all the wonderful questions
17:14about wormholes and and
17:17quantum entanglement and the other
17:21modern science and engineering oh boy my
17:24uh Cosmic dust brain is that yeah my
17:27Cosmic dust brain is not able to do that
17:29either but somebody will be working on
17:32it and some people are working on it and
17:33uh we might get some breakthroughs they
17:39what we're trying to do here we provide
17:40an informed clear-eyed but all but also
17:46in its future and we're trying to do
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18:01what you'd like to see us cover next
18:03thank you so much for listening and we
18:05will see you next time
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