The REAL Possibility of Mapping Alien Planets!
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I’m going to tell you about the craziest proposal for an astrophysics mission that has a good chance of actually happening. A train of spacecraft sailing the sun’s light to a magical point out there in space where the Sun’s own gravity turns it into a gigantic lens. What could such a solar-system-sized telescope do? Pretty much anything. But definitely map the surfaces of alien worlds.
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Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt Caplan & Matt O'Dowd
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Spacetime is produced by Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios.
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@omnijack Жыл бұрын
"Locus of Focus Hocus Pocus" is hereby a thing, as it should have always been. And so it is.
@Barmens Жыл бұрын
She sales see shells. :D
@CarFreeSegnitz Жыл бұрын
@@Barmens *she sells sea shells
@overthehilldill3626 Жыл бұрын
@@CarFreeSegnitz she sails sea shells.
@bearcubdaycare Жыл бұрын
Just tell them that you need the LFHP to better understand the universe, without explaining the acronym, and they'll assume it's another collider and give you a few billion.
@andrewkepert923 Жыл бұрын
Are we getting LFHP merch?
@iainballas Жыл бұрын
5:59 I think we can ALL agree that we'd LOVE a video about your research in particular. Hearing something from an expert that they themselves are passionate about is one of the most feel-good learning opportunities one can get. I work in a hotel, and I can say for certainty that everyone who puts their passion into something has some amazing things to say about it. One of our guys literally unclogs industrial sized drains for a living. I could have listened to him go on and on about pipes and valves and sludge all day long, he was so enthused by it it was infectious!
@TristanCleveland Жыл бұрын
Agreed.
@jeffbenton6183 Жыл бұрын
Especially since decluttering Einstein rings is such a cool and important technique for this and other applications. Astronomers see older galaxies behind younger galaxies all the time using microlensing, so understanding how scientists actually manage to study those would be really cool. (It's also worth mentioning that the Nancy Grace Roman telescope will be using microlensing to find previously undiscovered exoplanets after it launches in 2027).
@xanderunderwoods3363 Жыл бұрын
I so agree to this!
@novacat9974 Жыл бұрын
+
@Braindead_Ace Жыл бұрын
Please do a video talking about your own research. I'm certain I speak for the community of spacetime viewers when I say we'd be thrilled to learn what far reaches of astrophysics you chose to pursue yourself!
@gooflydo Жыл бұрын
I love matt's voice. He could be reading a 1985 telephone book and I would find it relaxing and yet pay attention. I seriously think he should do some voice acting for Audio books.
@tommymclaughlin-artist Жыл бұрын
Having my mind re-blown by PBS Space Time every week is always the highlight of my week.
@CraigH999 Жыл бұрын
My mind has been blown so many times by this channel I'm shocked that there is still enough brain matter in my skull to continue having it blown week after week
@fireking99 Жыл бұрын
Samesies
@tommymclaughlin-artist Жыл бұрын
@@CraigH999 ☝THIS.
@osmosisjones4912 Жыл бұрын
How about gravitational slingshots
@nobreakingthepickle3452 Жыл бұрын
Same
@jcarlile8279 Жыл бұрын
Damn!! I had always hoped something like was possible. To hear that it is not only possible but actively being worked on is beyond my wildest dreams.
@astraw13 Жыл бұрын
I know! I stopped everything I was doing to hang on every word of this episode! So amazing and exciting!
@osmosisjones4912 Жыл бұрын
How about gravitational slingshots instead of solar sales
@LuisSierra42 Жыл бұрын
Also Locus of Focus Hocus Pocus is a cute name
@petersage5157 Жыл бұрын
@@osmosisjones4912 A slingshot maneuver is part of the proposal; remember the part about bringing the craft within a quarter of Mercury's orbit? By the way, pretty much every NASA mission up to now has gotten by using Newtonian mechanics, but since we needed General Relativity to explain the orbital procession of Mercury, going that close to the sun means we'll need to plot the crafts' courses using GR.
@NemoK Жыл бұрын
This is... WOW! I never imagined something like this could be possible, not just theoretically, but also practically. That's awesome.
@DanHarkless_Halloween_YTPs_etc Жыл бұрын
"That's the trouble with _ye!"_
@NemoK Жыл бұрын
I WANT A STEAK
@takeshikovacs8756 Жыл бұрын
that's awsap
@vectoralphaAI Жыл бұрын
Of course the only problem is money. Lets just hope this is funded well enough to make it happen.
@NemoK Жыл бұрын
@@vectoralphaAI Yeah it is pretty expensive. As cool as projects like these could be, I'd much rather we invest money into protecting our own planet first. Cause if we don't, we will definitely never be able to build a solar telescope like this.
@smellthel Жыл бұрын
Sunvane is one of the coolest names for anything I’ve seen
@alansmithee419 Жыл бұрын
Had a dream a while ago where I saw a news story come on the TV saying we'd found life on another planet and then showed images of the surface of the planet showing life. Woke up thinking "I really should've noticed that was a dream, it's obviously impossible to image exoplanets like that." O_O
@osmosisjones4912 Жыл бұрын
I think gravitational slingshots might be more feasible . In long run . Building infostructure for gravitational slingshots would take centuries. .. but in long run
@charlethemagne5466 Жыл бұрын
@@osmosisjones4912 gravitational slingshots need a nearby object with a lot of mass, that might be enough for travelling the solar system but it'll be useless for interstellar space that lacks large gravity wells.
@vaka6025 Жыл бұрын
I really hope we hear more from Matt on the reconstructing techniques to account for gravitational lensing that he works on! It sounds fascinating.
@michaelblair5146 Жыл бұрын
This is incredible, I have chills. Absolutely genius application of machine learning to refine the sample set of images each satellite sends.
@osmosisjones4912 Жыл бұрын
I say take into account potential moons or rings when calculating an exoplanet's mass but distance of moon from planet and moon might create the image of higher mass .but that mass would have a certain direction ..and that might be how to detect exomoons.. if mas has a certain direction
@rolflandale2565 Жыл бұрын
To spectate an interstellar station/flag ships/colonize vessels etc. In deep distance space, one would require a team to spectate a fast-foward recording. That could take up hundreds of (humans) analysis without an AI. Light slops events in time. As it's own gravitational element size has polarity, in alignment gathers & attempts to become in eons duriation, eventually future complex matter & mass celestial chem-life entities someday. From mere particals, to moans, ions, bulk gas, dust, clouds, astroiods, bolder, moons, planets, gas giants etc.
@owenelmburg6362 Жыл бұрын
Another idea is to use the light refracted by the earths atmosphere. It would be a nice stepping stone between now and the sun telescope.
@user-yc5fq9bv3u Жыл бұрын
the learning mentioned at 12:22 won't be "machine learning" which is what simulated neuron networks are called
@kvdrr Жыл бұрын
200 likes on such a stupid comment, yikes
@DanHarkless_Halloween_YTPs_etc Жыл бұрын
Nice to have an episode that doesn't hurt my brain to comprehend! 😁 And super-amazing news; slightly shocked I've never heard of this tech being discussed before. Stellar episode, Matt et al.
@macronencer Жыл бұрын
I can't remember ever seeing this many brilliant ideas packed into one space project before. Absolutely breathtaking! I'm 57, so I'll probably have to be quite lucky to see a mapped planet one day, but my fingers are firmly crossed.
@AyatollahofRocknRola Жыл бұрын
Dr. O'Dowd, like a true physicist it truly amazes me how well you can take complex subject matter and communicate it with simplicity and brevity. I truly appreciate how well you chose your wording and I know how much time that much take you and your team. Thank you for this channel.
@Anthus. Жыл бұрын
Dude, your name, or the pseudonym you're using as your YT identity (Ayatollah of Rock 'n Rolla) is very cool. 👍🏻
@vincewilson1 Жыл бұрын
The late Dr. Carl Sagan used to do that very well back in the twentieth century. I used to watch him in his COSMOS series. Too bad, he died in the late '90s.
@jc.1191 Жыл бұрын
@@Anthus. It is 🤘
@cpt_bill366 Жыл бұрын
@@vincewilson1 Sagan didn't know anything about brevity. And what did he contribute to science besides communicating it to the masses? Hawking did more, and only barely.
@realMarkFoster Жыл бұрын
Get off his nuts…😂
@eier5472 Жыл бұрын
I love the background music in lots of PBS Digital Studios videos, and I'd love even more if you put the sources for them in the description. Royalty-free music tracks can be insanely hard to find.
@jimmyjasi-anti-descartes7088 Жыл бұрын
Could you please add new Merch something with Spooky Action Please? To honor Anton Zeilingers discoveries of Non-locality ! And well deserved Nobel Prize Please
@nachoboy3503 Жыл бұрын
+1
@MrMarvelMatt Жыл бұрын
glad I'm not the only one who's thought this!
@douglasharley2440 Жыл бұрын
maybe they license the music? it's quite good.
@schokolade1735 Жыл бұрын
I was also looking for it the other day. Nice, that there is a general interest.
@kraftwels Жыл бұрын
This sounds too good to be true. If i actually see this kind of scientific archievement in my lifetime, i will cry. But i won't get my hopes up. This sounds insanely difficult
@PeterGaunt Жыл бұрын
'Our lifetime' depends on how old you are. I'd love to see this happen but unless I live to way, way over 120 years I'm not likely to. Best of luck with this! Make it happen!
@Aztesticals Жыл бұрын
Gotta go volunteer to let a mad grad student treat you with telomerase and expiremental gene insertions from hydras. Make you geneticly immortal and deage you back to 30ish. Or you might just get cancer. We arnt quite ready for it yet
@mr.mercury4247 Жыл бұрын
I'm only 20 years old and I'll still be an old man by the time this mission gets real images lol.
@Aztesticals Жыл бұрын
@@jables3974 AZ long as they don't keep having kids. We would have to make voluntered chemical castration part of the deal. Like as long as you are immortal you don't reproduce. But you can once you decide to age again
@Aztesticals Жыл бұрын
@@jables3974 yeah. And I hope the castrate part didn't make you think of like eugenics or anything. I've gotten reported for discussing this before. So I'm just saying that those asking to be immortal would also be saying that I don't want kids for a few hundred years
@Aztesticals Жыл бұрын
@@jables3974 I'm actually very excited for it. I just think that many politicians will freak out about overpopulation so having an answer even if not great as long as it is voluntary it should help
@sirdart6915 Жыл бұрын
I honestly can’t believe that what many thought was a crazy idea is actually making it into an actual concept to reality! Very impressive to even think of this as possible, let alone feasible in our near future!
@HeyImLucious Жыл бұрын
"our near future" probably a stretch. I doubt there will be any *real* breakthroughs in the next 100 years. But, humanity is on the track to colonize the galaxy and that's enough reason to be hyped.
@sirdart6915 Жыл бұрын
@@HeyImLucious Honestly I think the technology is nearly there. Maybe 30 years to take this from concept to research and design, prototype, testing, then launch, but I still consider that near future. The past few months I have heard from a number of these KZfaq channels talk about this concept, but I do think this is something plausible today with just a little more innovation!
@arandom1024 Жыл бұрын
@@sirdart6915 for me it's both exciting and heartbreaking because I think about how far we could be if we spent more time and money on these type of endeavors, as opposed to wars and propping up so many useless bureaucracies within government.
@rbobert18 Жыл бұрын
I hate this entire thread
@LoLaSn Жыл бұрын
@@HeyImLucious The galaxy? I think not, very close-by star systems perhaps, but certainly nothing more
@c9brown Жыл бұрын
The word "spacetime" on this channel is like the ultimate endpoint of a 4D geodesic. You may orbit some various topics for a while, dancing here and there but you know that inevitably your path inexorably leads to "spacetime".
@bearcubdaycare Жыл бұрын
I was wondering how he'd end with that in this episode, but then of course it was the gravitational lensing aspect, which is so central to the idea.
@jackback70 Жыл бұрын
You can bring everything back to spacetime, since it's basically existance itself
@louissivo9660 Жыл бұрын
Love your content and especially this video. What an amazing event this would be to see detailed images of alien worlds. As I'm 63 this is something where I might see the mission begin, but I won't see the first results. Sad, but I'd be happy for those that come afterwards, other fans will get to enjoy what this generation created. I've enjoyed the fruits of those that came before.
@Bretoniac Жыл бұрын
For me, usually PBS just expands what I already know, but this, genuinely blew my mind.
@chasefrost1401 Жыл бұрын
This is mind blowing, I hope we'll get to see this sooner than later, just thinking about "Alien civilization detected xxxx light-years away" but granted we'd be seeing what used to be the civilization as it was. But still, this is such an exciting prospect.
@MijinLaw Жыл бұрын
I think for the planets we'd be imaging we'd be seeing them as they were merely decades ago from our perspective
@MrHurricaneFloyd Жыл бұрын
@@MijinLaw The light we would see would be as old as the travel time in light years.
@MijinLaw Жыл бұрын
@@MrHurricaneFloyd Exactly. AIUI, the first planets we'd be looking at would be around the nearest stars.
@rolflandale2565 Жыл бұрын
The SLGS technique, might as well be 7:03 insecta-eye on a field of astro belt rock orbit/surface. if your going to travel THAT far of a mono technique.
@chasefrost1401 Жыл бұрын
@@MijinLaw you're right for the closest ones. That would've be a lot cooler, but imagine looking at an exoplanet that's 1000 light-years away, like live archeology
@letMeSayThatInIrish Жыл бұрын
I love this idea, especially the possible dual use of the sail as a mirror and at the same time the dual use of the sun as both thruster and lens.
@LuisSierra42 Жыл бұрын
Hope science still survives after WWIII
@AndrasMihalyi Жыл бұрын
World wars tend to accelerate science...
@mr.mercury4247 Жыл бұрын
I will be as old as my father by the time this mission gets it's first image, and that'd be if it launched within 7 years from right now. I will be 60+ by the time this mission realistically gets it's 1st image, but hey at least I will be able to buy one of those desk globes you're talking about.
@joshyoung1440 Жыл бұрын
*its *its
@Light-ji4fo Жыл бұрын
You're assuming a lot of things here. Given the condition and corruption in healthcare, you'd be lucky if you survive till 60.
@elongatedmusk3132 Жыл бұрын
I have a confession & an apology. I've been watching these late as I fall asleep & been forgetting to hit the like button. I'll do that in advance from now on because every single video is amazing. Thanks for the hard work, we all appreciate it! ✌️
@Nameless742 Жыл бұрын
This was a great episode. Imagining a planet with city lights - the world would be shaken.
@agiar2000 Жыл бұрын
"It's never aliens until it's aliens." I wonder if the most likely explanation for night-time lights on the surface could be stable volcanic vents? Even so, yes, it would be amazing to get clues like that.
@freebird7369 Жыл бұрын
That would be cool but most likely they would be either far behind or ahead of us.
@Demonrifts Жыл бұрын
@@agiar2000 Only if they're incredibly large vents or a lot of smaller vents in high concentrations. If that were the case, we would likely be able to detect the chemicals they release into the atmosphere with radio spectroscopy.
@Nameless742 Жыл бұрын
@@hyperduality2838 I’ll take that on board.
@jorriffhdhtrsegg Жыл бұрын
@@agiar2000 different spectroscopy i guess. Artificial lights being the sodium, tungsten, flourescent, LED (and sure, a lot more, but aliens would have different elements? Probably, i mean considering that they may see in a different part of the EM spectrum (or even same senses). but seems doubtful they'd melt rock to do it.
@RafitoOoO Жыл бұрын
It's always cool how you find new ways to fit Space Time at the end lol.
@persona2grata Жыл бұрын
This is one of the most amazing concepts I've ever heard. The locus of focus hocus pocus SHOULD be the name for this because it sounds like magic! Absolutely incredible.
@gravelpit5680 Жыл бұрын
This is badass. PBS spacetime always does great
@AndyD25 Жыл бұрын
Can't wait to try this escape maneuver in Kerbal Space Program 2 :D
@krss6256 Жыл бұрын
Great episode! I hope to see photos of another exoplanet taken like that in my lifetime!
@1pcfred Жыл бұрын
30 years it well outside my reasonable life expectancy. I ain't never going to see 88. I know some have lived to be older than that. But I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be one of them myself. No one in my family has ever lived that long. My Uncle Joe made it to 84. That was extraordinary. Most of us tend to die in our late 70s.
@louissivo9660 Жыл бұрын
@@1pcfred I'm 63, so I won't see the results either. But as we've enjoyed the results of work started decades ago, I hope this happens for the next generation of astronomy fans. This would be mind blowing for us to be able to achieve this level of mapping.
@1pcfred Жыл бұрын
@@louissivo9660 I think it's technically just a bit out of our capabilities at the moment. We don't really have much better than what we used on the Voyager missions and it's over at a fraction of the distance. So it's demonstrably beyond us. Developing tech that's a few times better than what we have is a difficult thing to do too.
@dannybrown5744 Жыл бұрын
Real good information with imaginative conjecture... I love it. We won't get anything done without this kind of thinking.
@MrAlyxandyr Жыл бұрын
I can only imagine the absolute insane telescopic wonders we could see by creating warp bubbles specifically for the purpose of interstellar photography - Place an array of these small warped bubbles out in the same region where JWST is, for the same purposes of clarity/viewpoint, and be able to choose which light and where the focal is; depending on how big and intense the warp might be. All the more reason for the Alcubierre and other warp-drive research to continue!
@jorriffhdhtrsegg Жыл бұрын
If we do alcubierre we may need to convert some of the planets to pure energy on the way😄
@MrAlyxandyr Жыл бұрын
@@hyperduality2838 Symmetries are very important indeed my friend. Though not all are created equal and some symmetries are broken! Perhaps a marathon of PBS SpaceTime's videos on the topic is something for you to enjoy!
@tpog1 Жыл бұрын
Important correction: In fact we don‘t know if pi says “lol noobs” infinite times because while we have found a proof that pi is irrational, we still don‘t know whether it is normal. Indeed, I couldn‘t find the sequence “767976327879796683” (which is “LOL NOOBS” in ASCII) even once among the digits we know so far.
@happmacdonald Жыл бұрын
Did a search to find this comment. Upboat. Words matter, Matt! xD
@csleuthone6385 Жыл бұрын
It would be wonderful to realize such resolutions Matt. This podcast is one of my favorites. Thanks for you and your colleagues great work.
@xanderunderwoods3363 Жыл бұрын
This might be one of my favorite episodes yet! So Awesome!
@Ruminations09 26 күн бұрын
This is legitimately one of the coolest videos on this channel. I had no idea that something like this was anywhere CLOSE to being feasible yet. If you had asked me for an estimate on how long it would be before missions like this would be possible, I would have said something like 100 years from now.
@andybeans5790 Жыл бұрын
LFHP got me good 😂
@adrianhernandez-porragas7676 Жыл бұрын
The deadpan delivery is amazing, you'd never know there was a joke there.
@Mn-yh2bp Жыл бұрын
If telescopes were placed at each of the earth sun Lagrange points would it be possible to use interferometry to turn them in to 1 giant telescope or would that effectiveness of interferometry degrade at that scale? Also if that scale is too large to be effective would earth moon Lagrange points be better?
@MrPeterPanos Жыл бұрын
Another fantastic video, thank you Matt & PBS Space Time !
@alison4316 Жыл бұрын
I hope I'm not the only one who periodically has to rewind these videos to rehear some of the ideas he explains.
@bvllseye4068 Жыл бұрын
You're a womyn, that's why you have to rewind everytime
@beauw9454 Жыл бұрын
Yeah, I do that all the time too :P
@alansmithee419 Жыл бұрын
For some videos I'd say if you don't have to rewind you're not thinking hard enough (or you're already intimately familiar with the subject).
@mattandcats746 Жыл бұрын
The only times I don’t rewind is when I am either letting his voice lull me to sleep, or realized I’m just too far out of my depth to understand even if I do rewind.
@jackback70 Жыл бұрын
imagine having adhd, I have to do it with every video xD
@charlesshamseldin9555 Жыл бұрын
I feel like a little kid watching this. Thank you for piercing the darkness that surrounds us
@fugslayernominee1397 Жыл бұрын
Really hope we get to see this happen in our lifetime.
@ariadgaia5932 Жыл бұрын
"The locus of focus hocus pocus" LOL XD You're adorable!!
@xb70valkyriech Жыл бұрын
I've also heard about a similar concept, using the atmosphere of the earth (or another planet's atmosphere) as a giant refractive lens. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these as well.
@rseed42 Жыл бұрын
Wow, i remember you did a poll regarding topics some time ago. This was exactly my suggestion. Great job!
@saadqazi3833 Жыл бұрын
This is one of the most incredible... things I've ever heard period.
@jasonhallneuroverse Жыл бұрын
I've been fascinated by this concept for a while! especially given the difficulty of interstellar travel. If we take this idea to an extreme extent, do you think the future of space exploration will focus on scanning/mapping celestial worlds with ever-increasing detail and viewing them here on earth with our computers and VR? I.e. bringing space to us rather than us having to traverse space.
@williammarx7884 Жыл бұрын
Another fantastic episode Matt. Fascinating to hear a bit about your specialty
@lydianlights Жыл бұрын
That's incredible. I wonder if the mission will ever actually happen though. Sadly it just makes me think of Project Orion and how we could, starting right now, have a probe at alpha centauri within 50 years.
@acadiano10 Жыл бұрын
This was amazing to see the possibilities! Also great to see the solar sail visualization.
@thelaw300 Жыл бұрын
This mission would be absolutely amazing. Great presentation!
@metallicamadsam Жыл бұрын
This was by far one of the most mind blowing videos you guys have ever produced. Be interesting to see how they figure out the solar sail material and orientation
@metallicamadsam Жыл бұрын
@@hyperduality2838 word sauce?
@metallicamadsam Жыл бұрын
@@hyperduality2838 sexy word sauce
@realindrit Жыл бұрын
Was gonna go to bed, but saw PBS upload, soo I guess I'll stay up 21 more minutes :)
@_swordfern Жыл бұрын
Thank you for your work, Matt.
@LeoArrudaProfile Жыл бұрын
I really loved this episode awesome from start to end.
@1.4142 Жыл бұрын
I like how you covered details such as the coronagraph and spiraling maneuver.
@solsystem1342 Жыл бұрын
Well, I have a new thing to be hyped for I guess. Hope we'll see this within my lifetime because I'd love to work with mapping exoplanets!
@jl8217 Жыл бұрын
Fascinating! Thanks PBS, great episode!
@SyncJr Жыл бұрын
These are my some of my favourite bed time videos. These and ‘cool worlds’ and Anton petrov
@MirorR3fl3ction Жыл бұрын
would the SGLF be useful for interstellar communications relays? presumably the lensing would apply to radio waves as well, and the amplification of the SGLF would make it easier to pick up radio communications from other star systems, which can then be boosted back to Earth/home planet
@metallicamadsam Жыл бұрын
I commented on this because I’m not sure in the answer. But I’m sure they already use lensing to amplify radio signals. But maybe they can combine a mission to include instruments to detect multiple wave lengths. But I’m not sure how this could effect the sglf
@geedon1 Жыл бұрын
This is awesome! The best idea I’ve heard of in ages.
@TDLightt Жыл бұрын
What an amazing idea. I hope I'm around to see this happen
@SirDersthe3rd Жыл бұрын
what a wild episode these teams sound committed 😅 exo geographer sounds like a very nice job... it would be cool to see these telescopes have the ability to stop in the right spot probably some way to do it
@osmosisjones4912 Жыл бұрын
Instead of solar sales I would try gravitational slingshots . Maybe build space infostructure for gravitational slingshots.
@danieljensen2626 Жыл бұрын
@@osmosisjones4912 Gravity assists/slingshots are exactly how the Voyager probes got up to their current speed. It's more complicated and speed is slowly built up over time, so it actually makes things take longer, just saves fuel. It might be possible to do one quickly but it's not so much a matter of setting up as it is a matter of waiting for the planets to be in the right alignment, which could take hundreds of years depending on what conditions you're looking for. As for stopping at the point, unless we invent some magic rocket engine that's not really possible if we also want it to get there any kind of quickly.
@kindlin Жыл бұрын
@@osmosisjones4912 The video says that they intend for each Pearl to use the largest gravity slingshot of them all, the sun. You need something that large to send something out that far at any reasonable speed. They COULD pull a JWST and nudge the Pearl right into the best spot, but that would take 10x longer travel time (or longer), so those won't be the first missions sent.
@osmosisjones4912 Жыл бұрын
@@kindlin build things large
@kindlin Жыл бұрын
@@osmosisjones4912 Go big or go home? Well they're building small to go far from home.
@alexolas1246 Жыл бұрын
i remember from “cool worlds”’s channel, a lesser version of this concept - a “terrascope”, using the earth as a lens rather than the sun. the mechanism of its focus is not gravity, but refraction of light as it passes through earth’s upper atmosphere. by his calculations, the minimum distance from earth is also quite modest - just within the orbit of the moon. what do you think of this concept?
@jamismiscreant7514 Жыл бұрын
whats the benifit of using lensing vs just putting an array of satellites in orbit
@dragonmudd Жыл бұрын
One notable difference between gravitational lensing and refractive lensing is that refractive lensing has something called "chromatic aberration." Basically, light of different wavelengths bends different amounts when it's being refracted through a material like the atmosphere. But when it's being bent by gravity, all the different wavelengths curve equally. This is what you get from a prism or from raindrops creating a rainbow: the different colors will spread out form each other. Obviously it's not impossible to correct for, but it is an extra hurdle.
@awesomedata8973 Жыл бұрын
Epic close, Matt. -- Great job. :)
@wolvenar Жыл бұрын
I'm definitely waiting impatiently for a solar system wide VLA
@feandil666 Жыл бұрын
Amazing... never thought about that but it makes much sense, I think this would be the most mind blowing images ever produced by science for regular folks
@1pcfred Жыл бұрын
I'm sorry but we simply cannot afford to do it. We have the borders of foreign countries to defend. Maybe China can foot the bill?
@Profezzorn Жыл бұрын
Is this possible to do on a smaller scale? Like by using the moon, mars, or jupiter as a lens?
@kkrolik2106 Жыл бұрын
You can use Earth Atmosphere as Lens but image will be much blurrier. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_atmospheric_lens
@gessie Жыл бұрын
From a lay perspective: The sun's "wobbling problem" would become a "planet shooting through space at absurd speeds problem", which is especially problematic if the satellite train option is chosen.
@tubularap Жыл бұрын
3:34 - I am all concentrated on the subject, with apparently a stiff jaw, when Matt with his "Locus of Focus Hocus Pocus" joke cracks me into a universe-wide grin. Thank you !!
@himynameis3664 Жыл бұрын
While this does sound pretty complicated it also sounds pretty doable. I would be so excited to hear this getting the go ahead
@pzykostyle3075 Жыл бұрын
The neatest part of this whole video, to me, is that it opens up the idea that we could already be under observation by a (hopefully) friendly neighbor E.T. 👽
@comparatorclock Жыл бұрын
bogos binted
@nicolaiveliki1409 Жыл бұрын
great! I'm guessing if this goes forward, they're not going to wait 25-30 years between missions, but send many missions in short succession. Will then the string of pearls also work as a relay chain to transmit images back to earth with a lot lower sending power requirements? Will there be a special networking stack developed for this kind of communication, or is this already worked out for other missions?
@-_James_- Жыл бұрын
Protocols and standards for an Interplanetary Internet are already being developed and tested.
@1pcfred Жыл бұрын
Yeah who's going to pay for all of this? You didn't believe this joker when he said it was going to be cheap, did you? That's what they said about the James Webb telescope. Then it went over 10 billion dollars over budget. So not so cheap after all. We simply cannot afford to do everything regardless of how the democrats behave. They just bought themselves 260 million dollars worth of radiation sickness pills too. Which isn't as many pills as you may think it is. It's about $1,000 a dose. So no, you're not getting one. It is only for the elites.
@derasor Жыл бұрын
Fascinating!
@TheRattle Жыл бұрын
One of your best episodes. This is amazing.
@welp... Жыл бұрын
@@hyperduality2838 bro
@turtle2720 Жыл бұрын
@@welp... Don't disturb the mentally ill.
@grayaj23 Жыл бұрын
This is exciting to hear about. And I think it's worth doing even if it would take decades and multiple iterations to get good results. Just the part about getting solar sails to accelerate to those speeds is worth doing if only to say "we did it".
@grayaj23 Жыл бұрын
@@hyperduality2838 hashtag #putthebongdowndude
@zeuslgn Жыл бұрын
As I get older and continue to watch this show, I've noticed more and more often that the most exciting and fascinating scientific missions proposed for the future more and more often end in a single, constant realization: "Oh. I'll be long dead by then." Then I briefly wonder if I should finish the episode as my interest plummets. It hasn't stopped me yet but it's more and more noticeable.
@gordianknot5625 Жыл бұрын
Totally mindboggling!
@paolofaviano1 Жыл бұрын
I would really love an episode where you explain this reconstruction technique :)
@ProfessorBeautiful Жыл бұрын
My guess is that it bears a strong family resemblance to the reconstruction of internal anatomy form CT scans and the like. It's an "inverse problem".
@scottdorfler2551 Жыл бұрын
I've been waiting for Space-time to cover this mission. Launchpad Astronomy did a deep dive, almost an hour long episode about this mission two years ago. Fraser Cain covered it a few months back another deep dive. I'm hoping NASA pulls the trigger on this one.
@fatcat22able Жыл бұрын
4:27 When he said “you know what also bends light?”, I literally thought he was gonna say “your mom” lmaooo.
@kajalbera9909 Жыл бұрын
2022: Teacher:What is the full form of GPS? Student:Global Positioning System 20222: Teacher:What is the full form of GPS? Student:Galaxy Positioning System
@JoshWiniberg Жыл бұрын
I believe credit goes to Prof David Kipping for coming up with this concept. He outlined the idea, which he called the Terrascope, on his Cool Worlds channel a couple of years ago. It's such an ingenious idea, I love it!
@jeffbenton6183 Жыл бұрын
The "Terrascope" was actually a modification of the idea. Instead of using the gravity of the Sun (due to the impracticality of the idea), he proposed using the atmosphere of the Earth. The space telescope could be much closer to Earth and it would therefore be much easier to get started on that mission. He also posited that a spacecraft orbiting Jupiter from just the right distance, could use the Jovian atmosphere to magnify its radio transmissions. You're right that the Terrascope is Dr. Kipping's idea, but the idea discussed in this video (let's call it "the Solarscope") is decades older than that.
@JoshWiniberg Жыл бұрын
@@jeffbenton6183 I stand corrected. Thanks!
@nathankristofik5783 Жыл бұрын
Einstein actually proposed this originally and was the one who calculated the 550 au distance needed. Now that's just the base concept not the sat design.
@fenz1 Ай бұрын
@@nathankristofik5783 incredible!
@TheActionBastard Жыл бұрын
*your* research?! TELL ME MORE. I demand to be informed about your research, sir! I find your presentations engaging, fun, and informative. I wait for these to drop and see them within an hour of their release usually... sometimes only minutes. You caught my attention strongly when you mentioned gravity lenses are part of your research. I love that effect. I have waited for ages for someone to attempt to use it as a telescope for real... and here you are telling me my favorite science talking man is doing research on it??? Yeah I'm in. You could make several hours of content on that I'd watch it all.
@zacharywong483 Жыл бұрын
Absolutely fantastic video!
@vaka6025 Жыл бұрын
This really was such an incredible episode. This is an amazing, ambitious and complex project and your team did a fantastic job explaining it so well, as always. We had no idea Matt was working on denoising such gravitonally lens distorted images! It still leaves so many unanswered questions… what are the range limits for this technique? What exoplanet(s) would we aim to visualize first? I would imagine NASA would want to narrow in on an exoplanet that is very earth like, likely to be able to sustain human life, and is reachable within a human lifetime rather than requiring a generational ship. Getting an ocean or continent named on such a planet would be absolutely incredible! Perhaps even an explanet that is part of a multiplanetary system with two or more life compatible planets that could be visualized using the same string of pearls if that is possible to do. Of course I imagine that even if this was possible, it would require the pearls to be timed to reach each of the destination focal windows when the orbits of the exoplanets reach the same angle, which sounds like an impossible ask on an already ambitious project.
@DiracComb.7585 Жыл бұрын
2:32 I see a teapot
@efovex Жыл бұрын
This is the most insane plan I've ever heard. It really sounds damn near impossible to pull off, with so many individual points of failure. Still, now I'm excited for it to be done.
@gert-janbonnema Жыл бұрын
People probably told the Wright brothers exactly the same.
@cosmotect Жыл бұрын
I lost it at LFHP. Seriously though, make this happen. this will be the hardest engineering challenge humanity has ever faced. But who are we if not engineers?
@leodietzsanz9918 Жыл бұрын
You mentioned how we used VLBI to image M87 and Saggitarius A*. I wonder if, by placing multiple telescopes in orbit around the sun you could achieve the angular resolution of a telescope the size of that orbit. The main problem would be the timing of it all, I suppose.
@grayaj23 Жыл бұрын
it is mind-blowing to imagine devices several hundred AU apart being synchronized well enough for it to work, but heck.. if they're already going to be out there doing the other thing, it's probably worth at least trying to get the timing down.
@luudest Жыл бұрын
How long would it take to get the pearl of satellites to the focal point?
@ObjectsInMotion Жыл бұрын
He said in the video at least thirty years
@luudest Жыл бұрын
@@ObjectsInMotion thx
@JoseCastillo-wx6jd Жыл бұрын
Excellent video, keep the hard work.
@DreamChaserEiRi Жыл бұрын
You guys have an impressive Universe to play with :)
@franzcatch Жыл бұрын
Would it be at all practical or effective to try to use the Earth or maybe Jupiter to do something similar but on a lower scale? Also, thanks for this fascinating and exciting idea!
@youtubeusername1489 Жыл бұрын
I think planets are too small for the desired lensing effect for any "reasonable" distance. Cannot say for sure but i think i have watched somewhere that the sun comes very close to lower bound, in terms of mass(not the category of stars). If it goes any smaller, it will not work or will be very hard.
@franzcatch Жыл бұрын
@@youtubeusername1489 Good point. I was originally thinking about placing the telescope in a place a little closer to home. But I hadn't thought about how the lower gravitational field would put the focal point way farther away to be practical or useful.
@BookofFuture Жыл бұрын
If this is possible, someone probably has seen Earth.
@michaelblair5146 Жыл бұрын
Dude
@INVALIDZEROTheTitSucker69 Жыл бұрын
@@michaelblair5146 what?
@captsorghum Жыл бұрын
Double-star aliens have the advantage.
@wcsxwcsx Жыл бұрын
That's the first thing I thought of.
@luudest Жыл бұрын
13:10 Lol, this description of the exoplanet sounds like we want to map the earth
@samwiley331 Жыл бұрын
I think this is my all time favorite KZfaq video
@kaitlyn__L Жыл бұрын
This is making me wonder if Star Trek’s magic sensors are actually largely just constantly measuring lensing from every star they pass by, and while going into systems. You could imagine years of automatic deconvolution, assembled from all sorts of angles and times across the galaxy, allowing for all those distant views of planets on their maps.
@RedRocket4000 Жыл бұрын
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magi" Clarke Law. As Jules Verne came up with a bomb with an atomic size blast for his Sci Fi way before Relativity allowed man to actually make one Star Trek is allowed to speculate past our current knowledge of physics. Although I'm quite certain Star Trek got lots of it's ideas from Science speculation like Warp Drive even if many can't find one now after all they speculated it would require truly huge amounts of energy to run a Warp drive requiring huge amounts of anti matter to matter combination. And our current ideas on Warp Drive acknolage it takes tons of energy. I'm certain in part you're one to one way at least for long range data base to start with. But a ton of stuff Trek does requires faster than light sensors after all you need to detect enemy activity many light years away currently not the many years it takes for light to get to the ship some of their longer range scans especially by Federation would take many thousands of years to arrive at light speed. Maybe opening subspace portals to do observations at range or my Sci fi idea of way faster than light dark energy fields (yes total magic sci fi)
@disputedb2764 Жыл бұрын
This sounds very plausible. I was wondering if it would be feasible to use a distant star to picture an even more distant exo planet given we (our solar system) may fall in the SGLF region of these two bodies? This could be a practical way to test without the travel time (if we have data on the star in question).
@schmarcel4238 Жыл бұрын
You mean the LFHP
@metallicamadsam Жыл бұрын
While star shot seems to crazy within our life time, this seems possible
@henrikgiese6316 Жыл бұрын
As I understand it the focal region is of a limited length in all directions. We're far, far, away from the outer edge of focal region of any other star.
@Supernov4 Жыл бұрын
No star has a focal point that far away. The distances between stars are no joke.
@ebenolivier2762 Жыл бұрын
What about using Jupiter as a gravitational lens? I would assume the distances needed are not that far. Yes, it would not be as powerful but it could be easier to practice.
@electrospank Жыл бұрын
I love this idea. Awesome to see you on this topic, Matt!
@electrospank Жыл бұрын
@@hyperduality2838 Lots of big words but all nonsense. You're trying to make people think you're smart but most of us can see right through it. You're just trying to get attention.
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