1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,200 Welcome to Cosmos in a Pod, Space and Astronomy series, Episode 1. 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:07,160 Are you ready to tackle some of the biggest questions out there? 3 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:08,160 I think so. 4 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:12,800 I hope so, because today we're diving deep into the origin of the universe itself. 5 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:13,800 That's right. 6 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,780 We're talking about the Big Bang, which is, as you probably already know, the prevailing 7 00:00:17,780 --> 00:00:21,240 theory for how everything we know and see came to be. 8 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:26,240 I think most people have heard about the Big Bang, but when I hear those words, to be honest, 9 00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:29,720 my mind just goes straight to like, an explosion. 10 00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:30,720 Right. 11 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:32,000 Is that really an accurate picture? 12 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:36,980 It's a common misconception, but it's way more nuanced than just an explosion. 13 00:00:36,980 --> 00:00:41,560 Think of it more like an incredibly rapid expansion of space itself from a super, super 14 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:43,400 hot and dense state. 15 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:48,080 We're talking about a state where all matter and energy in the universe, like everything, 16 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:49,700 was packed into a single point. 17 00:00:49,700 --> 00:00:53,000 All the matter and energy in the entire universe was in a single point. 18 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:57,120 That is a pretty big concept to wrap my head around. 19 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:02,320 It is, and that leads us to this idea of a singularity, which is a point of infinite 20 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:04,240 density and temperature. 21 00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:07,720 It's a realm where our current understanding of physics just breaks down. 22 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:13,140 We're talking about a time before space and time, as we know them, even existed. 23 00:01:13,140 --> 00:01:14,140 Infinite density. 24 00:01:14,140 --> 00:01:15,140 No space or time. 25 00:01:15,140 --> 00:01:18,560 Okay, yeah, you're already pushing the boundaries of my imagination here. 26 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:22,720 So how do we go from the singularity to, well, a universe? 27 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:28,080 Well about 1043 seconds after the singularity, a timeframe that's known as Planck time, 28 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:33,680 the universe just started expanding and cooling at an almost unimaginable rate. 29 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:35,120 So that's a bang part. 30 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:36,120 Exactly. 31 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:40,000 But instead of picturing matter exploding outward into space that already exists, imagine 32 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:41,960 space itself expanding. 33 00:01:41,960 --> 00:01:46,240 The universe went from subatomic size to macroscopic in basically an instant. 34 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:47,240 Hold on. 35 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:48,240 Instantaneously. 36 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:50,280 We're talking faster than the speed of light, right? 37 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:51,280 Yeah. 38 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:54,520 The laws of physics as we know them, like the speed of light, didn't really work the 39 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:58,040 same way in those very, very, very first moments of the universe. 40 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:00,280 We're talking about a super unique set of circumstances. 41 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:01,280 Wild. 42 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:05,280 Okay, so while all this is happening, what's happening to all that matter and energy packed 43 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:07,160 into the singularity? 44 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:12,040 As the universe expands and cools, energy starts transforming into particles. 45 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:16,720 So first we get the basic building blocks of matter, quarks, and gluons. 46 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:21,000 Those eventually combine to form protons and neutrons, the things that make up atoms. 47 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:22,000 Right, right. 48 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,160 So we're finally seeing the ingredients for everything. 49 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:25,160 Exactly. 50 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:30,080 And about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe cools enough that protons and 51 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:33,920 electrons can finally come together and form neutral hydrogen atoms. 52 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:37,720 So things are finally starting to calm down a bit. 53 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:39,540 Yeah, you could say that. 54 00:02:39,540 --> 00:02:42,760 This moment called recombination is super important. 55 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:46,400 Before this moment, the universe was like a dense fog that was completely opaque to 56 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:47,400 light. 57 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:50,040 But after atoms formed, light could finally travel freely. 58 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:53,360 And is that light something we can still actually observe today? 59 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:54,360 Yes. 60 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,920 We observe it as the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, or CMB. 61 00:02:57,920 --> 00:03:02,040 It's basically a really faint afterglow of the Big Bang, like a baby pyre of the universe 62 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,440 from when it was just 380,000 years old. 63 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:09,360 Okay, so we have this CMB, which is light from the early universe. 64 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:13,160 But how do we actually know that the Big Bang happened? 65 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:16,300 We're talking about events that occurred billions of years ago. 66 00:03:16,300 --> 00:03:18,160 How could we possibly have evidence? 67 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,220 That's a great question, and the answer lies in a few key pieces of evidence. 68 00:03:22,220 --> 00:03:25,800 The CMB itself is one of the strongest pieces of evidence. 69 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:31,160 Discovering it in 1965 completely revolutionized how we understand the universe. 70 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:35,440 The patterns and temperature variations in the CMB align perfectly with what the Big 71 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:37,320 Bang model predicts. 72 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:42,080 So by studying the CMB, scientists are essentially looking back in time to the early universe. 73 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:43,980 Yeah, that's a great way to put it. 74 00:03:43,980 --> 00:03:45,360 But there's even more. 75 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:46,960 Remember how we talked about the universe expanding? 76 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:52,200 Well, in the 1920s, an astronomer named Edwin Hubble observed that galaxies are moving away 77 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:56,100 from us, and that the farther away they are, the faster they move. 78 00:03:56,100 --> 00:04:00,920 This observation, called Hubble's Law, strongly suggests that the universe is expanding, just 79 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:02,440 like the Big Bang predicts. 80 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:06,120 So Hubble's observations are like actually seeing the expansion billions of years after 81 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:07,380 the Big Bang. 82 00:04:07,380 --> 00:04:08,840 What else supports this theory? 83 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:13,500 The abundance of light elements like hydrogen and helium in the universe. 84 00:04:13,500 --> 00:04:17,660 The Big Bang theory predicts that these elements would have been formed in huge quantities 85 00:04:17,660 --> 00:04:20,300 in the first few minutes after the Big Bang. 86 00:04:20,300 --> 00:04:24,540 And when scientists measured the abundance of these elements, they found a remarkably 87 00:04:24,540 --> 00:04:27,280 close match to what the theory predicted. 88 00:04:27,280 --> 00:04:31,880 So the amount of hydrogen and helium acts like a fingerprint, pointing right back to 89 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:32,880 the Big Bang. 90 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:35,640 That's three really compelling pieces of evidence. 91 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:40,840 The CMB, the expanding universe, and the abundance of light elements. 92 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:42,720 It's hard to argue with that. 93 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:46,200 There's one question that just keeps popping into my head. 94 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:50,440 If the Big Bang was the beginning of the universe, then what was there before the Big Bang? 95 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:52,560 Yeah, that's the question, isn't it? 96 00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:55,360 And to be honest, it really pushes the boundaries of what we know right now. 97 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:59,780 The Big Bang theory explains how the universe evolved from that moment of expansion onward 98 00:04:59,780 --> 00:05:01,520 incredibly well. 99 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:05,120 But what caused the singularity to be there in the first place? 100 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:07,860 What existed, if anything, before it? 101 00:05:07,860 --> 00:05:09,720 Those are still big mysteries. 102 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:12,880 So we're basically looking back at the first page of the universe's story, but we have 103 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:14,640 no clue what came before. 104 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:17,040 Are there any theories that even try to address that? 105 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:18,040 Oh yeah. 106 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:22,720 There are some theories out there, and they are some of the most mind-bending ideas in 107 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:25,040 all of cosmology. 108 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:27,400 One concept is the multiverse theory. 109 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:33,040 It says that our universe may just be one of many, many universes, this vast multiverse. 110 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:37,440 And each of these universes could have its own set of physical laws, and maybe even its 111 00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:39,120 own unique origin story. 112 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:42,400 So you're saying there can be a bunch of universes out there that are totally different 113 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:43,400 from our own? 114 00:05:43,400 --> 00:05:46,040 It's a pretty crazy concept, yeah. 115 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:49,000 Another idea is something called quantum fluctuations. 116 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:53,320 This gets into some really complex quantum physics, but the main idea is that these random 117 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:58,080 fluctuations in a quantum vacuum, which is essentially nothingness, could have somehow 118 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:02,240 created the singularity, and that sparked the Big Bang and the creation of space and 119 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:04,040 time as we know them. 120 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:06,840 So something came from nothing. 121 00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:07,840 Try to imagine that one. 122 00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:11,560 Yeah, it definitely challenges how we normally think about things. 123 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:15,920 Then there are cyclic universe models, which say that the universe goes through these endless 124 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:18,920 cycles of expansion and contraction. 125 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,600 In those models, the Big Bang isn't a one-time event. 126 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:25,980 It's more like one stage in this huge cyclical process. 127 00:06:25,980 --> 00:06:30,400 So the Big Bang could be just one chapter in a never-ending story with no beginning 128 00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:32,040 and no end. 129 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:33,360 These theories are intense. 130 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:35,520 Okay, I have to ask. 131 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:38,800 If the universe is always expanding, what's it expanding into? 132 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:41,300 What's outside the edge of the universe? 133 00:06:41,300 --> 00:06:44,960 Another good question, and it's one that usually leads to some confusion. 134 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:49,520 It's totally natural to think of the universe expanding like a balloon inflating in a room, 135 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:51,100 but it doesn't really work that way. 136 00:06:51,100 --> 00:06:54,200 The Big Bang wasn't matter exploding into space that already existed. 137 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:56,560 It was space itself expanding. 138 00:06:56,560 --> 00:06:59,420 And the universe, it doesn't have an edge or a center. 139 00:06:59,420 --> 00:07:03,320 Every point in space is moving away from every other point, and there's no outside. 140 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:06,120 Okay, so the universe isn't expanding into anything. 141 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:07,120 It's just getting bigger. 142 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:09,320 I don't know if I could even picture that. 143 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:14,080 It's tough to grasp rate because we're so used to thinking in three dimensions, but 144 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:16,720 the universe is way more complex than that. 145 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:21,760 Now, you might be wondering if everything's moving away from everything else, does that 146 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:26,400 mean our galaxy, the Milky Way, is also moving away from other galaxies? 147 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:27,400 Yeah, actually. 148 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:31,920 Are we on our way to being alone out here in the vastness of space? 149 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:33,880 Well, not exactly. 150 00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:39,160 Most galaxies are moving apart, that's true, but gravity is still a major player here. 151 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:43,200 Gravity holds galaxies together in these clusters, even while the space between those clusters 152 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:44,200 is expanding. 153 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:48,840 So it's like this cosmic tug of war between the expansion of the universe and gravity. 154 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:49,840 Who's going to win? 155 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:53,880 Is the universe going to keep expanding forever, or will gravity eventually pull everything 156 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:57,440 back together in some kind of like reverse Big Bang? 157 00:07:57,440 --> 00:08:01,180 Another great question, and it's been puzzling cosmologists for decades. 158 00:08:01,180 --> 00:08:05,280 For a while, people thought that the expansion of the universe would slow down because of 159 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:09,320 gravity, maybe even leading to a Big Crunch, which is the opposite of the Big Bang. 160 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:13,920 But then, in the late 1990s, astronomers discovered something really surprising. 161 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:14,920 What did they find? 162 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:19,160 They found that the expansion isn't slowing down, it's actually speeding up. 163 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:20,160 Speeding up? 164 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:22,680 You mean things are moving apart even faster now? 165 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:25,080 I don't get how that's possible, what would cause that? 166 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,000 It's a huge mystery in cosmology. 167 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,600 Scientists think there must be some unknown force driving this acceleration, and they 168 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:33,600 call it dark energy. 169 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:34,600 Dark energy? 170 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:36,280 That sounds kind of ominous. 171 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:38,360 What exactly is dark energy? 172 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:40,600 That's the thing, we really don't know. 173 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:43,680 We can see what it does, but its nature remains a mystery. 174 00:08:43,680 --> 00:08:48,320 We do know that it makes up something like 68% of all the energy in the universe, and 175 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:52,600 it seems to act against gravity, pushing things away instead of pulling them in. 176 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:56,200 So dark energy is kind of like anti-gravity, the rebel of the universe. 177 00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:57,200 You could say that. 178 00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:01,240 But even though it's so important, dark energy is one of the most baffling puzzles 179 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:02,600 in science. 180 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:03,720 And there's another twist. 181 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:06,720 Remember how we talked about matter and energy making up the universe? 182 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:10,640 Well, it turns out that all the matter we can actually see, the stuff that makes up 183 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:15,680 stars, planets, and us, is only about 5% of the universe's total energy. 184 00:09:15,680 --> 00:09:21,320 Wait, so everything we can see, all the galaxies and stars and everything, is only a tiny fraction 185 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:22,560 of what's really out there? 186 00:09:22,560 --> 00:09:23,560 Exactly. 187 00:09:23,560 --> 00:09:25,780 Most of the matter in the universe is something we can't see. 188 00:09:25,780 --> 00:09:27,400 We call it dark matter. 189 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:30,000 Okay, another cosmic mystery. 190 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:31,300 So what is dark matter? 191 00:09:31,300 --> 00:09:34,300 If we can't see it, how do we even know it's there? 192 00:09:34,300 --> 00:09:39,080 We know it's there because we can see how its gravity affects the stuff we can see. 193 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:42,680 Dark matter doesn't interact with light, so telescopes can't see it. 194 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:47,480 But we can see its gravitational influence on galaxies and galaxy clusters. 195 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:50,480 So we can't see it, but we can feel it. 196 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:52,280 That's amazing. 197 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:54,540 How much of the universe is dark matter? 198 00:09:54,540 --> 00:09:59,040 Right now, scientists think that dark matter makes up about 27% of the total energy in 199 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:00,040 the universe. 200 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:04,680 And it plays a critical role in the formation of galaxies and the overall structure of the 201 00:10:04,680 --> 00:10:05,680 cosmos. 202 00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:09,920 So even though it's invisible, dark matter is actually shaping the universe all around 203 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:10,920 us. 204 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:14,280 It's pretty humbling to think about how much we still don't know about the universe. 205 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:15,280 It really is. 206 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:20,880 These mysteries, dark matter, dark energy, the singularity, they're all at the forefront 207 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:23,040 of what cosmologists are studying. 208 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:25,480 They really challenge us to come up with new ideas. 209 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:30,440 Yeah, my brain is definitely a bit fried after all this talk about the universe and all its 210 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:31,440 mysteries. 211 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:32,440 Yeah. 212 00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:33,440 But wow, it's just incredible. 213 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:34,440 It really is. 214 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:36,240 And honestly, we've only scratched the surface. 215 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:38,160 There's just so much more to learn. 216 00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:41,360 Welcome back to Cosmos in a Pod. 217 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:45,560 We've talked about a lot in our exploration of the Big Bang, from the singularity to the 218 00:10:45,560 --> 00:10:49,640 expansion of the universe, dark matter, and even dark energy. 219 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:51,840 Yeah, it's been quite the tour of the cosmos. 220 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:53,020 It really has. 221 00:10:53,020 --> 00:10:55,800 So now I'm super curious about what's next. 222 00:10:55,800 --> 00:10:59,120 What are the big questions that are really stumping cosmologists today? 223 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:01,640 What are they most excited about researching? 224 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:06,720 One of the hottest areas of research right now is studying the very, very early universe, 225 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:09,040 those first moments after the Big Bang. 226 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:13,320 Remember how we talked about the cosmic microwave background radiation, that baby picture of 227 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:16,160 the universe from when it was only 380,000 years old? 228 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:19,560 Yeah, it's like a little glimpse back to the universe's baby days. 229 00:11:19,560 --> 00:11:20,560 Exactly. 230 00:11:20,560 --> 00:11:24,840 With all the advancements in telescopes and technology, scientists are able to study the 231 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:30,280 CMB with crazy precision these days, and they're looking for any little patterns or variations 232 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:34,960 that could tell us what happened even earlier, maybe even fractions of a second after the 233 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:35,960 Big Bang. 234 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:40,440 So we're talking about getting closer and closer to the very beginning of time. 235 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:41,440 That's amazing. 236 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:43,480 What kind of things are they looking for in the CMB? 237 00:11:43,480 --> 00:11:48,640 One of the most exciting things is the search for evidence of something called inflation. 238 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:52,640 Inflation theory proposes that in the first tiny, tiny fraction of a second after the 239 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:57,920 Big Bang, the universe expanded unbelievably fast, way faster than how it's expanding 240 00:11:57,920 --> 00:11:58,920 today. 241 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:04,400 So inflation was like the Big Bang, but on fast forward, why do scientists think that 242 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:05,400 happened? 243 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:09,100 Well, inflation helps to explain some of the weird things we see about the universe today. 244 00:12:09,100 --> 00:12:14,040 For example, on large scales, the universe looks incredibly smooth and uniform, and that's 245 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:18,580 tough to explain without some period of rapid inflation to smooth everything out. 246 00:12:18,580 --> 00:12:21,800 So inflation helps to solve some of those cosmic mysteries. 247 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:24,720 Are they actually finding any evidence for it in the CMB? 248 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:29,180 They're looking for really, really specific patterns and variations in the temperature 249 00:12:29,180 --> 00:12:32,360 and polarization of the CMB. 250 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:36,600 Inflation theory says those patterns would have been imprinted on the early universe. 251 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:39,700 There have been some really interesting hints in recent years, but it's definitely still 252 00:12:39,700 --> 00:12:40,920 being researched. 253 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:45,560 It sounds like studying the CMB is kind of like doing cosmic archaeology, digging through 254 00:12:45,560 --> 00:12:49,880 these faint leftovers from the early universe to understand its history. 255 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:54,840 What other tools and techniques are cosmologists using to study the early universe? 256 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:59,120 One of the most powerful new tools is the James Webb Space Telescope, which we talked 257 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:00,440 about a little earlier. 258 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:05,020 It's specifically designed to observe infrared light, which can actually see through dust 259 00:13:05,020 --> 00:13:10,240 and gas, so it can see things in the early universe that are hidden from other telescopes. 260 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:14,480 So it's like having a whole new set of eyes letting us see deeper into space than ever 261 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:15,480 before. 262 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:16,480 Absolutely. 263 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:20,280 And it's already giving us some awesome images and data that are changing how we think about 264 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:24,560 galaxy formation, how stars are born, and how the early universe evolved. 265 00:13:24,560 --> 00:13:26,520 Wow, that's just incredible. 266 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:31,920 Are there any other new groundbreaking telescopes or experiments coming up? 267 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:33,340 There are a bunch. 268 00:13:33,340 --> 00:13:38,200 Another really fascinating area is detecting these things called gravitational waves. 269 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:43,000 They're basically ripples in space-time that happen when massive objects like black holes 270 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:45,560 or neutron stars accelerate. 271 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:46,560 Gravitational waves. 272 00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:47,960 It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. 273 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:48,960 Right. 274 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:53,440 But they're absolutely real, and they offer a completely new way to look at the universe. 275 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:59,160 Up until pretty recently, we could only study the universe using electromagnetic radiation, 276 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:02,400 things like light, radio waves, x-rays, and all that. 277 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:05,920 But gravitational waves, they carry information about objects and events that we can't see 278 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:10,300 with regular telescopes, things like when black holes collide or even from the very 279 00:14:10,300 --> 00:14:11,820 first moments of the Big Bang. 280 00:14:11,820 --> 00:14:15,160 So we're not just looking at the universe anymore, we're listening to it too. 281 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:16,160 That's wild. 282 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:18,920 What do we actually learn from these gravitational waves so far? 283 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:24,120 Well, the first time we detected gravitational waves back in 2015 was a huge deal. 284 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:28,800 It confirmed this big prediction from Einstein's theory of general relativity. 285 00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:33,640 And since then, we've detected dozens more of these gravitational wave events, and they've 286 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:38,880 given us insights into how black holes act, the characteristics of neutron stars, and 287 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:42,280 what goes on in the most extreme places in the universe. 288 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:47,160 It's crazy to think that now we can observe the universe in these two totally different 289 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:51,060 ways, using light and using gravitational waves. 290 00:14:51,060 --> 00:14:54,600 What kind of new discoveries do you think are possible when we combine those? 291 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:58,320 It's a super exciting time to be studying cosmology. 292 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:03,240 By combining information from regular telescopes, the James Webb Space Telescope and gravitational 293 00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:07,000 wave detectors, we're getting this much richer picture of the universe. 294 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:10,880 We're starting to really understand how stars and galaxies are born and how they change, 295 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:15,680 how black holes interact, and how the universe itself has transformed over billions of years. 296 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:20,240 It sounds like we're right on the edge of a whole new era in astronomy and cosmology. 297 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:22,020 I think so too. 298 00:15:22,020 --> 00:15:24,320 And who even knows what incredible things we'll find? 299 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:29,040 We might discover new particles, new forces, or even new laws of physics. 300 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:33,000 Maybe we'll finally get close to answering those really big questions about how the universe 301 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,880 began and what reality actually is. 302 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:38,200 I can't wait to see what the future holds. 303 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:42,600 This has been a fantastic deep dive into the Big Bang and all the mysteries of the universe. 304 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:43,600 Thanks for taking us on this journey. 305 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:44,900 It's been my pleasure. 306 00:15:44,900 --> 00:15:49,680 And to everyone listening, thanks for joining us on this wild ride through space and time. 307 00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:55,560 Make sure to subscribe to Cosmos Cinepod for more mind-blowing deep dives into the universe. 308 00:15:55,560 --> 00:16:06,280 Until next time, keep looking up and never stop asking those big questions.