WEBVTT 00:00:07.539 --> 00:00:10.539 Howdy Star Gazers and welcome to Star Trails. 00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:13.140 My name is Drew and I'll be your guide to the 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:16.079 night sky for the week of November 23rd to the 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:20.000 29th. This week we're doing something a little 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.800 different. We're mapping the entire history of 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:26.460 the universe onto Taylor Swift's musical eras. 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:30.859 It's part pop culture crossover, part cosmology 00:00:30.859 --> 00:00:34.380 masterclass, and all grounded in real physics. 00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:38.200 Later in the show, our night sky report includes 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:41.280 a delicate waxing crescent moon, Jupiter and 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:44.439 Saturn shining bright in the evening sky, and 00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:47.939 a return of the winter constellations. I'll also 00:00:47.939 --> 00:00:50.380 share a quick segment about the newest Hubble 00:00:50.380 --> 00:00:55.100 mosaic of the Andromeda Galaxy. An image so detailed 00:00:55.100 --> 00:00:58.799 you can zoom in and see individual stars in another 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:02.359 galaxy. Whether you're tuning in from the backyard 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:05.379 or the balcony, I'm glad you're here. So grab 00:01:05.379 --> 00:01:08.120 a comfortable spot under the night sky and let's 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:13.920 get started. Listeners, I have a confession to 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:17.569 make. I'm a Swiftie. And tonight, we're making 00:01:17.569 --> 00:01:20.769 the most scientifically accurate Taylor Swift 00:01:20.769 --> 00:01:24.530 tribute in podcast history. This isn't a joke. 00:01:24.790 --> 00:01:30.810 It's actually happening. Because when you really 00:01:30.810 --> 00:01:33.709 look at it, the universe evolves through eras, 00:01:33.989 --> 00:01:37.349 each with its own mood, color palette, and emotional 00:01:37.349 --> 00:01:41.390 signature. And as it turns out, that maps all 00:01:41.390 --> 00:01:45.379 too well onto Taylor Swift's discography. So, 00:01:45.379 --> 00:01:48.500 in honor of one of the real stars of our time, 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:51.959 and in mild violation of the Geneva Convention 00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:55.799 on Cheesy Astronomy Metaphors, I proudly present 00:01:55.799 --> 00:02:07.439 Eras of the Universe, Taylor's version. Look, 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:10.240 I know Taylor Swift might not be your cup of 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:13.319 tea, and if pop culture isn't your thing, that's 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:17.629 fine. Scientists use metaphors constantly. It's 00:02:17.629 --> 00:02:20.330 how we talk about things too large or too small 00:02:20.330 --> 00:02:24.330 to see directly. So if Taylor's eras help a few 00:02:24.330 --> 00:02:27.789 more people understand dark energy or recombination, 00:02:28.389 --> 00:02:32.129 that's a win for science. Also, I'm not just 00:02:32.129 --> 00:02:34.870 making up this stuff. When we look deep into 00:02:34.870 --> 00:02:38.060 space, we're looking back in time. the light 00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:41.020 from distant galaxies has taken billions of years 00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:44.080 to reach us. So the universe has already done 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:47.400 us the favor of preserving its childhood photos, 00:02:48.099 --> 00:02:51.259 specifically in the form of the cosmic microwave 00:02:51.259 --> 00:02:55.599 background. From a strictly scientific point 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:58.939 of view, cosmologists actually divide the universe 00:02:58.939 --> 00:03:03.479 into four grand eras. The primordial era, the 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:06.949 stelliferous era, the Degenerate Era, and the 00:03:06.949 --> 00:03:11.189 Dark Era. Basically a cosmic trilogy plus one 00:03:11.189 --> 00:03:15.469 really bleak epilogue. Our Swiftie version highlights 00:03:15.469 --> 00:03:19.069 these and adds some important sub -eras within 00:03:19.069 --> 00:03:22.969 these larger swaths of time. That being said, 00:03:23.289 --> 00:03:26.889 this episode is self -aware. It's kind of ridiculous, 00:03:27.110 --> 00:03:29.909 maybe excessive, but it's also real science. 00:03:30.270 --> 00:03:32.409 There's even a bit of a precedent for Taylor 00:03:32.409 --> 00:03:35.449 and the cosmos, at least here in my hometown. 00:03:36.550 --> 00:03:39.509 Our state museum's planetarium routinely runs 00:03:39.509 --> 00:03:42.449 a Taylor Swift laser show, projecting images 00:03:42.449 --> 00:03:46.650 of guitars, hearts, and more across an accurate 00:03:46.650 --> 00:03:50.129 star field, while Taylor songs form the soundtrack. 00:03:50.490 --> 00:03:53.689 It always sells out and it is a sing -a -long. 00:03:54.889 --> 00:03:58.250 So let's begin before Scooter Braun tries to 00:03:58.250 --> 00:04:14.650 buy the rights to this concept. Every icon has 00:04:14.650 --> 00:04:18.449 an origin story. In her self -titled debut, Taylor 00:04:18.449 --> 00:04:22.069 started with a guitar and pure emotion. The universe 00:04:22.069 --> 00:04:26.350 began with a big bang and a lot of plasma. Space 00:04:26.350 --> 00:04:30.189 literally came into existence and outward expansion 00:04:30.189 --> 00:04:34.930 began. This was the raw acoustic stage, just 00:04:34.930 --> 00:04:37.870 hydrogen and helium trying to find their rhythm. 00:04:38.470 --> 00:04:41.870 The cosmic microwave background is the teardrops 00:04:41.870 --> 00:04:46.279 on my guitar of astrophysics. pure, unfiltered, 00:04:46.519 --> 00:04:53.100 but honest. This era represents the first 300 00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:57.980 ,000 years post -Big Bang, all energy and expansion. 00:04:58.980 --> 00:05:02.019 We call this process recombination. It was the 00:05:02.019 --> 00:05:05.139 moment when the universe settled down, a sudden 00:05:05.139 --> 00:05:08.920 calm after the chaos of the Big Bang. This is 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:12.060 when free electrons finally latched onto nuclei 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:15.279 and made the first atoms. When that happened, 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:19.279 light broke free and filled the cosmos, creating 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:23.160 the cosmic microwave background, the oldest light 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:35.319 we can see. A few hundred million years later, 00:05:35.540 --> 00:05:38.519 the universe gets brave and has its first glow 00:05:38.519 --> 00:05:42.379 -up, literally. The first stars ignite, flooding 00:05:42.379 --> 00:05:45.800 the dark with light. It's the love story phase, 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:49.339 an age of illumination and hope, when hydrogen 00:05:49.339 --> 00:05:53.240 atoms and electrons just said yes to one another, 00:05:53.660 --> 00:05:57.339 combining under gravity. These first stars, called 00:05:57.339 --> 00:06:00.560 population three stars, were enormous, hundreds 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:03.759 of times the mass of the sun, burning hot and 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:07.519 fast. Technically, the very first light was the 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:10.639 cosmic microwave background, but the universe's 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:14.250 first spotlight moment came when the stars switched 00:06:14.250 --> 00:06:18.110 on for the first time. The cosmic dark age has 00:06:18.110 --> 00:06:21.290 ended. Fusion began. It's bold. It's radiant. 00:06:21.490 --> 00:06:25.110 It's like Taylor's Fearless album. If you listen 00:06:25.110 --> 00:06:27.910 closely, you can almost hear the universe strumming 00:06:27.910 --> 00:06:30.949 its first confident chord saying, you belong 00:06:30.949 --> 00:06:47.819 with me in a galaxy someday. Taylor wrote Speak 00:06:47.819 --> 00:06:51.980 Now entirely by herself, a declaration of artistic 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:55.699 independence. The universe around this time starts 00:06:55.699 --> 00:06:59.319 creating structure on its own terms. Galaxies, 00:06:59.500 --> 00:07:03.019 clusters, superclusters. This corresponds to 00:07:03.019 --> 00:07:06.199 the universe's first billion years when large 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:10.639 -scale structure emerged. Matter gathers, forms 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:14.100 stars and planets, and begins to sculpt the first 00:07:14.100 --> 00:07:18.060 grand designs, its creation by self -expression, 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:21.740 the universe claiming authorship of its own story. 00:07:25.579 --> 00:07:28.759 Consider this the enchanted era. Everywhere you 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:31.360 looked, the universe whispered, please don't 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:34.279 be in love with someone else, just collapse into 00:07:34.279 --> 00:07:44.319 a galaxy. Error 4, Red, The Age of Fire and Fury. 00:07:48.680 --> 00:07:51.899 This is where things get messy. Taylor's Red 00:07:51.899 --> 00:07:55.560 album was all about passion, heartbreak, and 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:59.319 transformation, and so was the cosmos. Stars 00:07:59.319 --> 00:08:02.480 die in violent supernova, flinging their guts 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:05.939 across space, and forging heavier elements like 00:08:05.939 --> 00:08:09.259 carbon and iron. the building blocks of life 00:08:09.259 --> 00:08:13.279 and, incidentally, red lipstick. The light from 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:16.959 these stellar deaths glows literally red, from 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:21.759 heated gas and dust. It's cosmic chaos with emotional 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:25.240 depth, the I knew you were trouble phase of physics, 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:29.120 painful but essential, because from that heartbreak 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:33.230 came everything we know. Supernova mark this 00:08:33.230 --> 00:08:36.850 age, every fiery end seeds the possibility of 00:08:36.850 --> 00:08:40.889 new worlds. Just as all too well became a ten 00:08:40.889 --> 00:08:44.330 -minute catharsis, these explosions turned pain 00:08:44.330 --> 00:08:48.629 into a state of grace. Incidentally, these explosions 00:08:48.629 --> 00:08:53.350 forged all the gold in the cosmos. So every Swifty 00:08:53.350 --> 00:08:56.330 friendship bracelet with a gold charm, well, 00:08:56.330 --> 00:08:59.809 that's brought to you by Red Era Explosive Drama. 00:09:03.660 --> 00:09:07.600 Error five, the structured shimmering chaos. 00:09:10.779 --> 00:09:15.340 Welcome to the pop era. Taylor's 1989 album was 00:09:15.340 --> 00:09:18.240 polished, confident, crystalline, and so was 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:22.399 the universe. Galaxies shook themselves off into 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:25.779 grand spirals. Planetary systems formed with 00:09:25.779 --> 00:09:29.879 elegant geometry. The messy adolescence of cosmic 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:34.000 creation gave way to sleek order, the style of 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:38.000 the stars. Welcome to the Virgo supercluster. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:42.120 By now, the universe is several billion years 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:45.559 old and the Milky Way is a pop hit spinning reliably 00:09:45.559 --> 00:10:00.669 in 4 -4 time. Error 6 Black holes emerge. Then 00:10:00.669 --> 00:10:04.549 came darkness, literally. In the Reputation album, 00:10:04.990 --> 00:10:08.070 Taylor embraced her shadows, and so did the cosmos. 00:10:09.009 --> 00:10:12.610 Supermassive black holes dominated galaxy centers, 00:10:13.110 --> 00:10:16.129 shaping everything around them. Accretion discs 00:10:16.129 --> 00:10:19.440 hotter than Taylor's tabloid drama. Look what 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:22.399 you made me do could easily be the motto of any 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:26.500 galaxy orbiting a black hole. Every space -time 00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:29.779 distortion is an act of control disguised as 00:10:29.779 --> 00:10:37.159 destruction. This is when feedback from active 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:41.019 galactic nuclei defines star formation. Chaos 00:10:41.019 --> 00:10:45.080 with boundaries, destruction as design. Quasars 00:10:45.080 --> 00:10:48.360 shooting jets light -years long, wreaking havoc. 00:10:48.519 --> 00:11:05.299 This is why we can't have nice things. After 00:11:05.299 --> 00:11:09.080 the darkness comes the pastel. Taylor's Lover 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:13.159 album is the phase of cosmic domesticity. Stars 00:11:13.159 --> 00:11:16.860 in stable orbits. Planets cozying up around them. 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:21.720 Life beginning to bloom, soft nebula pinks, warm 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:25.799 spiral arms, star formation leaning into slow 00:11:25.799 --> 00:11:30.899 burn romance. The chemistry of love becomes literal. 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:35.080 Carbon chains, amino acids, and complex molecules 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:38.899 start forming in interstellar clouds. The universe 00:11:38.899 --> 00:11:42.460 writes its first real love songs in molecular 00:11:42.460 --> 00:11:46.200 spectra lines instead of chords. Even dark matter 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:50.419 was like, can I go where you go? This was cosmology's 00:11:50.419 --> 00:11:58.360 homecoming dance. Error 8, the reflective universe. 00:11:59.539 --> 00:12:03.139 Every artist eventually turns inward. The universe, 00:12:03.419 --> 00:12:07.100 now middle -aged, slows down. Star formation 00:12:07.100 --> 00:12:11.179 declines. Things got quieter, moodier, more acoustic. 00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:15.759 Dwarf galaxies fade. Stars age into red giants 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:21.279 and white dwarfs. Folklore and Evermore are Taylor's 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:25.740 indie albums. Less spectacle, more memory. Nebula 00:12:25.740 --> 00:12:29.379 drift like melancholic chords. Ancient stars 00:12:29.379 --> 00:12:33.340 fade into embers. Gravity hums like Bon Iver 00:12:33.340 --> 00:12:37.289 in a flannel shirt. It's the cardigan -wearing 00:12:37.289 --> 00:12:41.210 phase of cosmic existence, reflective, nostalgic, 00:12:41.669 --> 00:12:44.169 a little haunted by what's gone, but grateful 00:12:44.169 --> 00:12:52.169 for what remains. This is consequently the modern 00:12:52.169 --> 00:12:55.690 era of our universe, galaxies drifting apart, 00:12:56.330 --> 00:12:59.070 expansion accelerating, but new beauty still 00:12:59.070 --> 00:13:02.700 emerging from decay. Light from distant galaxies 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:06.960 now takes billions of years to reach us. This 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:09.799 represents the latter moments of the Stelliferous 00:13:09.799 --> 00:13:13.399 Age, the long, glorious middle chapter of the 00:13:13.399 --> 00:13:17.100 universe's life, the epoch where stars dominated 00:13:17.100 --> 00:13:20.559 everything. It's the era where we, as humans, 00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:24.360 arrive in the universe. This era will last for 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:27.019 trillions of years, far longer than the universe 00:13:27.019 --> 00:13:30.210 has even existed up to now. which is around 13 00:13:30.210 --> 00:13:34.629 .8 billion years. To recap, up to this point 00:13:34.629 --> 00:13:37.330 in the evolution of the cosmos, galaxies have 00:13:37.330 --> 00:13:40.789 formed and evolved. Stars are born, burn, and 00:13:40.789 --> 00:13:44.610 even fade out. Planets form, heavy elements accumulate, 00:13:45.029 --> 00:13:50.149 and life, at least once, emerges. Stars, or Stella, 00:13:50.470 --> 00:13:53.850 are still the main actors. Their fusion furnaces 00:13:53.850 --> 00:13:56.580 shape the chemistry of the universe. They lit 00:13:56.580 --> 00:13:59.019 up galaxies, they made the heavy elements that 00:13:59.019 --> 00:14:03.220 become planets, oceans, DNA, and microphones 00:14:03.220 --> 00:14:26.220 used to record podcasts. Then comes Introspection, 00:14:26.519 --> 00:14:29.700 the late -night confessional. The Midnight's 00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:32.899 album represents cosmic self -awareness, the 00:14:32.899 --> 00:14:35.960 universe realizing it's expanding faster than 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:39.960 it ever planned to. Dark energy drives galaxies 00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:43.480 apart, while astrophysicists stare into the void 00:14:43.480 --> 00:14:46.240 and they might hear a whisper saying, it's me, 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:50.919 I, I'm the problem, it's entropy. The song You're 00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:54.309 on Your Own Kid fits perfectly here. galaxies 00:14:54.309 --> 00:14:57.570 receding, each glowing alone in the vast dark, 00:14:58.070 --> 00:15:02.529 still bejeweled but increasingly isolated. The 00:15:02.529 --> 00:15:05.470 expansion is accelerating, and the ultimate fate 00:15:05.470 --> 00:15:09.509 of everything is uncertainty. Some galaxies are 00:15:09.509 --> 00:15:12.029 receding from us even faster than the speed of 00:15:12.029 --> 00:15:15.009 light, not because they're moving fast, but because 00:15:15.009 --> 00:15:18.639 space itself is expanding. This acceleration 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:22.139 is already happening and it will shape the universe's 00:15:22.139 --> 00:15:26.379 long -term fate. Dark energy is the universe's 00:15:26.379 --> 00:15:30.039 deeply unhinged era, the one where it makes reckless 00:15:30.039 --> 00:15:34.120 choices and refuses to explain itself. It's basically 00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:45.340 the anti -hero and force of nature form. Error 00:15:45.340 --> 00:15:50.500 10 The Quantum Age and the Uncertain Future This 00:15:50.500 --> 00:15:53.580 is where it gets weird, both lyrically and physically. 00:15:54.019 --> 00:15:56.840 In the tortured poet's department, Taylor turned 00:15:56.840 --> 00:16:00.700 existential, layering self -reference and metaphor. 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:04.039 The universe, meanwhile, retreats into quantum 00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:08.340 subtlety. Particles exist in superposition, both 00:16:08.340 --> 00:16:11.360 here and not here, like Schrödinger's breakup 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:15.279 text. The quantum world is messy, poetic, and 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:19.399 brutally honest. The song Fortnite fits. Two 00:16:19.399 --> 00:16:22.919 moments overlapping in time, both true, neither 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:27.320 comfortable. Quantum fields rule the microcosm, 00:16:27.539 --> 00:16:31.039 dictating how the macrocosm behaves. It's the 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:35.200 tortured poetry of physics itself. And finally, 00:16:35.419 --> 00:16:39.279 the curtain call. Taylor's latest era celebrates 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:43.320 performance, spectacle, and survival, the endless 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:47.139 concert. This is the life of a showgirl era. 00:16:47.799 --> 00:16:51.320 The universe, too, will have its final bow, trillions 00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:55.340 of years from now. As the last stars fade, white 00:16:55.340 --> 00:16:59.440 dwarfs glow briefly, black holes evaporate, and 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:02.840 the cosmos performs one last glittering encore. 00:17:03.210 --> 00:17:06.710 It's elegant, tragic, and strangely glamorous. 00:17:07.230 --> 00:17:10.049 The alchemy of energy turning into emptiness. 00:17:11.349 --> 00:17:15.190 This is the far future heat death when entropy 00:17:15.190 --> 00:17:18.690 finally wins and the lights go out. The last 00:17:18.690 --> 00:17:22.349 black hole evaporates in a spark of hawking radiation, 00:17:22.970 --> 00:17:27.049 a final glittering bow. The universe does, indeed, 00:17:27.490 --> 00:17:36.529 do it with a broken heart. Thanks for joining 00:17:36.529 --> 00:17:40.390 me for the most chaotic astronomy crossover episode 00:17:40.390 --> 00:17:43.670 imaginable. If we zoom out far enough, Taylor 00:17:43.670 --> 00:17:47.269 Swift and the cosmos tell the same story. Creation, 00:17:47.650 --> 00:17:51.470 chaos, reinvention, reflection, both live through 00:17:51.470 --> 00:17:55.309 eras. Both leave Easter eggs for future observers, 00:17:55.769 --> 00:17:58.849 and both prove that change, no matter how dramatic, 00:17:59.109 --> 00:18:03.970 is how art and energy survive. While the metaphors 00:18:03.970 --> 00:18:07.349 might be silly, keep in mind every atom in you 00:18:07.349 --> 00:18:11.710 once glowed in a red -era supernova. Every breath 00:18:11.710 --> 00:18:14.890 you take is borrowed from lover -era chemistry. 00:18:15.509 --> 00:18:18.890 We're all tracks on the universe's album. And 00:18:18.890 --> 00:18:21.289 as you look up at the night sky this week, remember 00:18:21.289 --> 00:18:23.910 you're seeing the ultimate greatest hits album, 00:18:24.150 --> 00:18:27.329 the universe, spanning billions of years, still 00:18:27.329 --> 00:18:31.750 glowing from its earliest tracks. After a quick 00:18:31.750 --> 00:18:34.710 break, we'll listen or rather look at the night 00:18:34.710 --> 00:18:37.250 sky and see what it holds for us in the coming 00:18:37.250 --> 00:18:54.549 week. Stay with us. Welcome back. Before we get 00:18:54.549 --> 00:18:57.210 into this week's night sky, I wanted to mention 00:18:57.210 --> 00:18:59.890 something intriguing I stumbled upon the other 00:18:59.890 --> 00:19:03.990 day. The Hubble composite of the Andromeda galaxy, 00:19:04.410 --> 00:19:07.869 which was released earlier this year. Normally 00:19:07.869 --> 00:19:10.490 when we talk about deep sky objects we often 00:19:10.490 --> 00:19:13.369 think of a faint, fuzzy galaxy where the stars 00:19:13.369 --> 00:19:18.359 blur into a mist of light. Hubble's new M31 mosaic 00:19:18.359 --> 00:19:22.900 consists of 600 individual frames stitched together 00:19:22.900 --> 00:19:25.900 to create an image containing billions of pixels. 00:19:26.980 --> 00:19:29.400 But it's not the size and beauty of the image 00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:32.099 that makes it remarkable. It's what you see when 00:19:32.099 --> 00:19:36.160 you zoom into it. For the first time, in a galaxy 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:39.660 outside our own, you can see individual stars. 00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:43.559 not clusters, not smears of blended starlight, 00:19:43.880 --> 00:19:47.720 but actual solitary stars, hundreds of millions 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:51.200 of them, each a tiny point of light shining across 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:53.960 two and a half million light years of space. 00:19:55.420 --> 00:19:58.000 And here's what always blows my mind. Each one 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.240 of those points could be a sun. Each one might 00:20:01.240 --> 00:20:04.059 have its own solar system, its own planets, its 00:20:04.059 --> 00:20:07.309 own little worlds orbiting in silence. We're 00:20:07.309 --> 00:20:09.930 looking at a neighboring galaxy and seeing the 00:20:09.930 --> 00:20:14.569 stellar equivalent of faraway city lights. Andromeda, 00:20:14.990 --> 00:20:17.609 this fuzzy smudge we can see with the naked eye, 00:20:17.849 --> 00:20:20.410 is suddenly revealed to be a sprawling metropolis 00:20:20.410 --> 00:20:23.869 of stars, billions of them, each one potentially 00:20:23.869 --> 00:20:26.710 with its own story, its own family of worlds, 00:20:26.910 --> 00:20:30.109 its own physics, chemistry, atmospheres, its 00:20:30.109 --> 00:20:34.299 own eras. And here's where the scale really hits. 00:20:34.740 --> 00:20:38.160 Andromeda is just one galaxy. The observable 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:41.160 universe might contain two trillion galaxies, 00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:44.799 maybe more, each one with hundreds of billions 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:48.819 of stars. Hubble's zoom into Andromeda gives 00:20:48.819 --> 00:20:52.900 us a way to emotionally grasp that scale. Check 00:20:52.900 --> 00:20:55.299 it out for yourself. I'll leave a link to the 00:20:55.299 --> 00:21:05.299 zoomable mosaic in the show notes. We're coming 00:21:05.299 --> 00:21:08.500 off a new moon back on November the 20th, which 00:21:08.500 --> 00:21:10.920 means the first half of this week features a 00:21:10.920 --> 00:21:14.200 thin, delicate, waxing crescent. The kind of 00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:16.380 moon that looks like it's been painted on with 00:21:16.380 --> 00:21:19.980 a single brush stroke. From Sunday through Thursday, 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:22.859 that crescent will hang low in the southwestern 00:21:22.859 --> 00:21:26.140 sky after sunset, slowly growing each night. 00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:29.980 This is a good time to spot earth shine, that 00:21:29.980 --> 00:21:32.960 soft glow lighting up the dark side of the moon's 00:21:32.960 --> 00:21:36.980 disk. By Friday, we reach first quarter. That 00:21:36.980 --> 00:21:39.759 classic half -moon will be high in the south 00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:42.680 during the evening. On Saturday, the moon tips 00:21:42.680 --> 00:21:45.740 just past half into a waxing gibbous, bright 00:21:45.740 --> 00:21:48.299 enough to start washing out fainter galaxies, 00:21:48.500 --> 00:21:52.819 but still excellent for lunar detail. Let's take 00:21:52.819 --> 00:21:56.259 a tour of the planetary lineup. Right after dusk, 00:21:56.259 --> 00:21:58.839 look toward the southeast for the soft golden 00:21:58.839 --> 00:22:02.559 star. That's Saturn, still lingering in our evening 00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:06.339 skies. It's higher by mid -evening and sits beautifully 00:22:06.339 --> 00:22:09.440 in small telescopes. Though the rings are tilted 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:12.259 so narrowly this year, they look like a razor 00:22:12.259 --> 00:22:15.640 -thin line slicing across the planet. A little 00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:19.240 later, bright Jupiter climbs up in the east -northeast, 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:22.259 shining near the twin stars Castor and Pollux 00:22:22.259 --> 00:22:25.579 in Gemini. Through a small telescope, you can 00:22:25.579 --> 00:22:28.799 check out its four Galilean moons. They shift 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:31.460 positions from night to night, a dance we get 00:22:31.460 --> 00:22:34.589 to watch in real time. For telescope owners, 00:22:34.990 --> 00:22:37.589 Uranus is the subtle show -stealer of the week. 00:22:38.170 --> 00:22:40.930 It just passed opposition a few days ago, which 00:22:40.930 --> 00:22:43.569 means it's visible all night and as bright as 00:22:43.569 --> 00:22:46.650 it gets, which is to say not very bright, around 00:22:46.650 --> 00:22:50.829 magnitude 5 .5. You'll find it in Taurus, not 00:22:50.829 --> 00:22:54.130 far from the Pleiades and the V -shaped Hyades 00:22:54.130 --> 00:22:57.490 star cluster. Through binoculars, it shows up 00:22:57.490 --> 00:23:02.319 as a tiny, cold blue dot. Fainter still is Neptune, 00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:05.440 which you'll need binoculars or a telescope to 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:08.460 see. It's higher up later in the evening, near 00:23:08.460 --> 00:23:11.660 the border of Aquarius and Pisces, appearing 00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:15.660 as a tiny bluish star. In the pre -dawn hours, 00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:19.180 Venus is fading low toward the southeast, much 00:23:19.180 --> 00:23:22.880 harder to spot now. Mercury and Mars are technically 00:23:22.880 --> 00:23:25.640 in the morning sky too, but buried in the dawn 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:28.619 twilight. We'll catch them in better visibility 00:23:28.619 --> 00:23:31.970 another week. The Leonid meteor shower peaked 00:23:31.970 --> 00:23:35.450 last week, but it remains active into early December. 00:23:35.990 --> 00:23:38.690 You may catch a few stray Leonids in the pre 00:23:38.690 --> 00:23:42.309 -dawn hours. These are fast, bright streaks radiating 00:23:42.309 --> 00:23:45.730 from the constellation Leo. This week is that 00:23:45.730 --> 00:23:48.369 transition when the autumn constellations are 00:23:48.369 --> 00:23:51.269 still high overhead, while the winter giants 00:23:51.269 --> 00:23:54.630 are just beginning to rise. To the north and 00:23:54.630 --> 00:23:57.190 overhead, you'll see the Great Square of Pegasus 00:23:57.190 --> 00:23:59.900 and the Chain of Andromeda. This is a perfect 00:23:59.900 --> 00:24:03.039 time to hunt down the Andromeda Galaxy. It's 00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:07.480 a faint, elongated glow in binoculars. Nearby, 00:24:07.660 --> 00:24:10.759 the double U shape of Cassiopeia is high and 00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:13.599 bright. From there, you can hop down to the double 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:17.000 cluster in Perseus, a fan favorite for binocular 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:21.220 stargazers. In the east, the constellation Taurus 00:24:21.220 --> 00:24:24.400 is rising with the bright orange star Aldebaran, 00:24:24.700 --> 00:24:27.880 the Hyades, and the glittering Pleiades. And 00:24:27.880 --> 00:24:30.200 late in the evening, the unmistakable shape of 00:24:30.200 --> 00:24:33.500 Orion crawls over the horizon, announcing the 00:24:33.500 --> 00:24:36.779 return of winter. Take a moment to explore the 00:24:36.779 --> 00:24:41.619 Orion Nebula, M42, a glowing cradle of star formation 00:24:41.619 --> 00:24:46.000 hanging below Orion's belt. If you only get one 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:48.640 clear night this week, here's a simple observation 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:51.900 plan. In the early evening, catch the thin crescent 00:24:51.900 --> 00:24:54.880 moon in the southwest, then swing over to Saturn 00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:59.140 as twilight deepens. By mid -evening, watch Jupiter 00:24:59.140 --> 00:25:02.740 rise in the east, then tour Taurus. Visit the 00:25:02.740 --> 00:25:05.640 Pleiades, trace the Hyades, and see if you can 00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:09.200 spot Uranus with binoculars. As we enter the 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:11.779 late evening, look for Orion, and wrap up your 00:25:11.779 --> 00:25:15.279 night with a look at the Orion Nebula. That's 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:17.740 going to do it for this week. I'll return with 00:25:17.740 --> 00:25:20.839 some hardcore science in the next episode, which 00:25:20.839 --> 00:25:24.440 will close our season. I'm going to take December 00:25:24.440 --> 00:25:27.319 off like I did last year, although if any good 00:25:27.319 --> 00:25:29.559 space news comes up, I'll let you know with a 00:25:29.559 --> 00:25:33.220 special episode. As always, if you're a fan of 00:25:33.220 --> 00:25:35.359 Star Trails, please share it with a friend who 00:25:35.359 --> 00:25:38.339 might enjoy it. The easiest way to do that is 00:25:38.339 --> 00:25:42.279 by sending folks to our website, StarTrails .Show. 00:25:42.920 --> 00:25:45.420 And if you want to support the show, use the 00:25:45.420 --> 00:25:48.180 link on the site to buy me a coffee. It really 00:25:48.180 --> 00:25:51.700 helps. Be sure to follow Star Trails on Blue 00:25:51.700 --> 00:25:54.799 Sky and YouTube. Links are in the show notes. 00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:58.019 Until we meet again beneath the stars, clear 00:25:58.019 --> 00:25:58.819 skies everyone.