WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.339 What do you feel like? Good news, bad news? I 00:00:02.339 --> 00:00:04.719 feel like I've been feeling a lot like Taylor 00:00:04.719 --> 00:00:07.980 lately, and I've been bad news heavy. I've been 00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:10.359 rubbing off on you too much. Maybe we do some 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:13.019 good news. Well, let's see if I even have any. 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:15.400 And don't just make it look like good news. It 00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:17.739 better be good news. Well, I don't know. We'll 00:00:17.739 --> 00:00:20.699 see what's filed. OK, this one is from earth 00:00:20.699 --> 00:00:23.420 .com. I didn't realize that the whole planet 00:00:23.420 --> 00:00:26.420 had a website. Yeah, it needs it. It's underrepresented. 00:00:27.269 --> 00:00:30.010 It's totally under -representative and so much 00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:32.049 so that I've never even heard of its website. 00:00:32.390 --> 00:00:36.229 Moon named Miranda orbiting Uranus seems to have 00:00:36.229 --> 00:00:39.969 an ocean and possibly life. Oh wow. I didn't 00:00:39.969 --> 00:00:42.590 even know it had moons, honestly. I can't keep 00:00:42.590 --> 00:00:45.469 track of who has moons and who doesn't have moons. 00:00:45.570 --> 00:00:49.270 I'm really having trouble talking today. Well 00:00:49.270 --> 00:00:51.530 good luck with it before we are in a talking 00:00:51.530 --> 00:00:57.240 sphere right now. This one's by Eric Rawls who's 00:00:57.240 --> 00:01:00.259 representing the earth on earth .com a recent 00:01:00.259 --> 00:01:03.380 study points to an exciting Possibility that 00:01:03.380 --> 00:01:07.219 Uranus's moon Miranda Located in the far reaches 00:01:07.219 --> 00:01:10.060 of our solar system mate, but wouldn't it be 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:13.400 orbiting Uranus? Yeah, but that's in the far 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:15.599 reaches of the solar system I thought it just 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:17.459 was alluding that the moon might be anywhere 00:01:17.459 --> 00:01:21.629 in the solar system may harbor a hidden sea beneath 00:01:21.629 --> 00:01:25.909 its icy crust, making it hospitable to extraterrestrial 00:01:25.909 --> 00:01:28.989 life. Discovering water on Moon is a task. It's 00:01:28.989 --> 00:01:31.689 even harder when that moon is hundreds of millions 00:01:31.689 --> 00:01:36.090 of miles away. The John Hawkins Applied Physics 00:01:36.090 --> 00:01:39.709 Laboratory is the person who gave us a peek into 00:01:39.709 --> 00:01:42.900 these icy depths. Quote, to find evidence of 00:01:42.900 --> 00:01:46.099 an ocean inside a small object like Miranda is 00:01:46.099 --> 00:01:49.579 incredibly surprising, said Nordheim, who co 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:52.260 -authored the study. His team's work challenges 00:01:52.260 --> 00:01:55.560 our understanding of Miranda while positing new 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:58.200 questions about the potential for life on other 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:02.400 celestial bodies. Recall 1986 when Voyager 2, 00:02:02.579 --> 00:02:05.540 NASA's intrepid spacecraft, beamed back the first 00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:08.319 close -up images of Miranda. It was a sight to 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:11.000 behold. I actually don't. So I should actually 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:14.020 take a look at that right now. Voyager 2. I assume 00:02:14.020 --> 00:02:15.699 that's the photo I'm looking at on the Wikipedia 00:02:15.699 --> 00:02:19.259 page. What Wikipedia page? The Miranda bracket 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:22.120 moon Wikipedia page. I want to see what it looks 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:24.039 like. I want to see what I'm talking about. Apparently 00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:26.620 it's pretty tiny. That's a nice looking moon. 00:02:26.909 --> 00:02:29.750 Yeah, it looked like a classic moon. It looks 00:02:29.750 --> 00:02:33.009 remarkably moon -like, yes. A bizarre landscape 00:02:33.009 --> 00:02:35.409 that looked as if it had been stitched together 00:02:35.409 --> 00:02:37.870 from bits and pieces of different worlds, from 00:02:37.870 --> 00:02:41.550 deep grooves and towering cliffs to mysterious 00:02:41.550 --> 00:02:45.389 trapezoid -shaped regions known as crony. Oh 00:02:45.389 --> 00:02:47.689 yeah, then aliens have been there for sure. Yeah, 00:02:47.729 --> 00:02:50.430 for sure, but they've been to all of them probably. 00:02:50.789 --> 00:02:53.789 Mostly. Miranda appeared to be a geological wonder, 00:02:54.150 --> 00:02:56.729 but what could have caused a varied landscape? 00:02:57.250 --> 00:02:59.289 My guess would be the fact that it's so close 00:02:59.289 --> 00:03:01.990 to Uranus that its gravity is pulling on it. 00:03:02.169 --> 00:03:05.069 Just a guess though. I'm not an astronomer or 00:03:05.069 --> 00:03:07.009 a scientist in any way. I'm sure there's multiple 00:03:07.009 --> 00:03:09.569 things that could have happened to it. Uranus 00:03:09.569 --> 00:03:11.949 is one of the lesser known planets in our solar 00:03:11.949 --> 00:03:15.449 system. It is not true. It is so well known. 00:03:15.490 --> 00:03:19.169 No it is. It says that right on Earth .com. It 00:03:19.169 --> 00:03:22.530 is probably one of the more famous planets. Unlike 00:03:22.530 --> 00:03:25.770 the other planets, Uranus rotates on its side 00:03:25.770 --> 00:03:29.460 so its axis is almost parallel to its orbit. 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:32.340 This tilt causes some extreme seasons. Imagine 00:03:32.340 --> 00:03:35.740 a planet where each pole gets 42 years of continuous 00:03:35.740 --> 00:03:39.159 sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness. Scientists 00:03:39.159 --> 00:03:42.439 think a massive collision with an Earth -sized 00:03:42.439 --> 00:03:45.280 object might have knocked it over early in its 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:50.500 history. We don't know. Yeah. This is Earth .com. 00:03:50.500 --> 00:03:52.460 We probably do, but we don't know personally. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:56.259 I feel like it's just like stupid at this point. 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:59.800 Another interesting aspect is Uranus's atmosphere, 00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:02.939 which is rich in icy materials like water ammonia 00:04:02.939 --> 00:04:05.580 and methane. That methane is what gives the planet 00:04:05.580 --> 00:04:08.240 its signature blue -green color. When is it gonna 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:11.229 get to the light the ocean like on its... Moon. 00:04:11.770 --> 00:04:14.849 Uranus also has a set of faint rings and at least 00:04:14.849 --> 00:04:18.269 27 moons, many named after Shakespearean characters 00:04:18.269 --> 00:04:21.170 like Miranda, which is the subject of this article, 00:04:21.870 --> 00:04:25.310 and Ariel. Anyhow, back to everything about Uranus. 00:04:25.829 --> 00:04:30.009 Yeah. Despite being discovered way back in 1781 00:04:30.009 --> 00:04:32.990 by William Herschel, Uranus still holds many 00:04:32.990 --> 00:04:35.550 secrets and researchers are eager to explore 00:04:35.550 --> 00:04:38.209 it further to understand more about these distant 00:04:38.209 --> 00:04:41.589 icy worlds. Caleb Strom, graduate student at 00:04:41.589 --> 00:04:44.730 the University of North Dakota, and Alex Pathoff, 00:04:44.990 --> 00:04:47.790 from the Planetary Science Institution in Arizona, 00:04:48.050 --> 00:04:51.230 joined Nordheim for this fascinating study. They 00:04:51.230 --> 00:04:53.629 approached this mystery like detectives working 00:04:53.629 --> 00:04:56.930 a cold case, revisiting old Voyager 2 images, 00:04:57.149 --> 00:04:59.610 and using modern computer modeling techniques 00:04:59.610 --> 00:05:03.069 to reconstruct Miranda's geologic past. As Strom 00:05:03.069 --> 00:05:05.870 and his team mapped out Miranda's convoluted 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:08.449 surface features and modeled different scenarios 00:05:08.449 --> 00:05:11.230 for its interior structure, a startling picture 00:05:11.230 --> 00:05:14.110 became to emerge. Their findings suggested that 00:05:14.110 --> 00:05:16.910 around 100 to 500 million years ago, Miranda 00:05:16.910 --> 00:05:20.930 likely harbored a subsurface ocean at least 62 00:05:20.930 --> 00:05:23.889 miles deep beneath a frost crust no more than 00:05:23.889 --> 00:05:27.329 19 miles thick. Quote, that result was a big 00:05:27.329 --> 00:05:29.910 surprise to them, end quote said Strom. The thought 00:05:29.910 --> 00:05:32.509 that a moon as small as Miranda could contain 00:05:32.509 --> 00:05:35.129 such a large ocean is not something scientists 00:05:35.129 --> 00:05:38.269 expected. Even more confusing is the fact that 00:05:38.269 --> 00:05:40.569 this ocean could have been warm enough to remain 00:05:40.569 --> 00:05:46.310 liquid, The credit goes to a dance of gravitational 00:05:46.310 --> 00:05:48.990 forces played out between Miranda and her neighboring 00:05:48.990 --> 00:05:51.850 moon's orbiting Uranus. This phenomenon, known 00:05:51.850 --> 00:05:55.120 as orbital resonance, can generate friction and 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:57.519 heat within a moon's interior enough to sustain 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:00.420 a subsurface ocean. The case isn't closed yet. 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:03.540 The team believes that Miranda's interior hasn't 00:06:03.540 --> 00:06:06.259 entirely frozen over. If it had, we would see 00:06:06.259 --> 00:06:09.439 specific surface features that just aren't there. 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:11.959 So there's a good chance that Miranda still has 00:06:11.959 --> 00:06:14.959 a subsurface ocean, though likely thinner than 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:17.600 before. But the suggestion of an ocean inside 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:20.420 one of the most distant moons in the solar system 00:06:20.420 --> 00:06:24.129 is remarkable," remarked Strom. Sorry, didn't 00:06:24.129 --> 00:06:26.449 announce it. This isn't the first time a small 00:06:26.449 --> 00:06:30.269 moon has surprised us back in 2004. Enceladus? 00:06:30.949 --> 00:06:33.889 Enceladus. Enceladus. Oh, I like that name. I 00:06:33.889 --> 00:06:35.889 wish I would have heard that couple years ago. 00:06:39.819 --> 00:06:43.120 NC is a pretty good nickname. Oh, that is a strong 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:47.279 name. One of Saturn's moons revealed active geysers 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:50.420 spewing water vapor and ice into space, hinting 00:06:50.420 --> 00:06:53.740 at a hidden ocean. Today Enceladus is a prime 00:06:53.740 --> 00:06:56.279 target in the search for extraterrestrial life. 00:06:56.680 --> 00:06:59.660 Anyhow, it goes on and on and I've had enough 00:06:59.660 --> 00:07:02.180 reading of this because I think you get the gist 00:07:02.180 --> 00:07:04.939 and I think I get the gist. I find it a little 00:07:04.939 --> 00:07:07.379 curious that part of the reason it seems to be 00:07:07.379 --> 00:07:09.360 that they're saying it could have had an ocean 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:11.980 in their for life is that they don't have good 00:07:11.980 --> 00:07:14.680 information. Did that not come off to you that 00:07:14.680 --> 00:07:16.579 you're like, we don't know enough, so maybe, 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:20.180 I don't know. It's definitely a guess. And at 00:07:20.180 --> 00:07:22.779 earth .com they're not doing good to science. 00:07:23.540 --> 00:07:25.939 They're just saying keep it vague. They're just 00:07:25.939 --> 00:07:28.920 trying to say like this could have been a possibility 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:31.519 But I guess they don't really know for sure just 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:35.639 based on How they put the models together for 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:38.720 how the surface looks it could potentially be 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:41.439 an ocean. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know, it's too 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:45.000 blurry to tell. Maybe. The photos aren't that 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.660 good. And we're not going back. Let's face it. 00:07:47.899 --> 00:07:51.740 that's so far exactly and so with that i feel 00:07:51.740 --> 00:07:54.879 like we're making this wednesday a good one it's 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:57.480 actually weirdly a shame that we don't know much 00:07:57.480 --> 00:07:59.899 about this but like we have very detailed photos 00:07:59.899 --> 00:08:02.160 of pluto because we sent a satellite there but 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:04.839 you can't think about planets in their order 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:07.879 away from the sun as being like oh yeah because 00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:10.220 neptune and uranus come right before pluto sure 00:08:10.220 --> 00:08:12.839 it probably flies by there no they can be so 00:08:12.839 --> 00:08:15.459 far away I was just gonna say they could be on 00:08:15.459 --> 00:08:17.160 the other side of the universe. On the opposite 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:21.920 sides of the solar system. That's so true, though. 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:24.740 You really got to time it for, like, when all 00:08:24.740 --> 00:08:27.180 the planets are aligning and then you can just 00:08:27.180 --> 00:08:29.259 drive by all of them. No, that wouldn't work, 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:31.160 would it? No. And that is, in fact, what they 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:34.559 did with Voyager. It was a once in a, like, 150 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:37.460 year event where all the planets lined up for 00:08:37.460 --> 00:08:40.120 gravity pulls to get it as far as it did and 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:42.980 to see so many planets. Yeah, that they pushed 00:08:42.980 --> 00:08:45.220 it as fast as they could to get Voyager there 00:08:45.220 --> 00:08:47.759 for that particular time. And that's when I'm 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:50.639 pretty sure we'll never get it again. Why can't 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:53.360 we just start sending up like a million satellites 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:55.720 though for each one? No, those have to stay in 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:59.340 our orbit for reasons. Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. 00:08:59.659 --> 00:09:02.340 I won't ask questions. And with that, you got 00:09:02.340 --> 00:09:05.240 48 hours. Don't ponder those satellites. They 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:09.220 need to be there. Don't. I know I'm not. Good. 00:09:09.500 --> 00:09:10.240 Bye. Bye.