- Space, the final frontier.
There's something on the wing.
Beam me up, Scotty.
Okay, that's enough.
We have already discovered so much in our universe,
things that are absolutely mind blowing
that we had no idea were there previously.
But with advancements in technology,
we keep finding more and more incredible things,
so many, in fact, that the topic deserves a part two.
(soaring)
Here are the 10 Most Fascinating Things
Ever Found In Space, Part Two.
(soaring)
Number 10 is Universal Acceleration.
By now, you've probably heard that universe is expanding,
but the rate of that expansion is an anomaly.
It appears that the universe is speeding up.
All of the galaxies in the known universe
are moving away from each other at a faster and faster rate.
The reason the acceleration of the universe
is such a big deal is that
a lot of physicists did not expect to see this,
and so new theories are created to explain what's going on.
Some suggest that previously undetected forces are at play,
such as dark energy, while others propose
that something called
the back reaction conjuncture is true.
This just means that the different parts of the universe
are expanding at different rates,
not all at the same speed.
We just happen to be in a region of space
that's expanding faster than the rest of the universe.
But, for now, the rate of this expansion remains an anomaly,
and there's nothing wrong with
a constantly expanding universe, #spacepositivity.
(exploding)
Number nine is The Amount of Matter in the Universe.
Current theories suggest that the big bang
should have produced
the same amount of matter and anti-matter.
In truth, there was more matter than anti-matter,
and that is an anomaly.
Matter, of course, makes up everything
that we see around us,
and anti-matter is like a mirror reflection
of that substance.
When both matter and anti-matter touch,
they should destroy each other,
so logically, if you had the exact amount of each,
there should be nothing left in the universe of note,
but here we are, all made up of matter.
That must mean then that there was more matter
in the universe than anti-matter.
As of yet, no one really understands why this is the case.
Physicists argue that there must be an unknown law
that they haven't discovered yet which explains it,
but until then, this fact is treated as an anomaly.
(exploding)
Number eight is The Pioneer Anomaly.
There's an anomaly in space
that's slowing down two of our oldest space probes.
Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 were launched in the early 70's
to investigate the outer planets and beyond.
Amazingly, after completing their missions,
they continued on into the cosmos,
transmitting data for another 20 years.
Side note, we had this technology in the 70's,
and I can't even get a battery in my phone
to last more than half a day?
While moving away from our sun,
engineers and scientists notice that
both probes were slowing very slightly,
but no one knew what was causing this change in speed.
Then, in 2012, a paper was published
claiming that they may have solved the mystery.
The explanation given was that thermal recoil force,
produced by radiation, was the culprit.
However, while many accept this explanation,
there are still issues in explaining
why the anomaly began as the probes past Saturn,
and why the anomaly seemed to change over time.
Saturn aliens!
Saturn aliens, I'm calling it right now.
It's Saturn aliens.
(exploding)
Number seven is Neith.
The mystery of Neith goes all the way back to 1672,
and is an anomaly that some struggle to explain.
Back in 1672, an astronomer named Giovanni Cassini
observed the moon of Venus.
Other astronomers soon confirmed these observations,
with the last reported sighting in 1768,
but the problem with these observations is that
Venus doesn't have any moons.
It's aliens, I'm calling it again, aliens.
The phantom moon was named Neith after the Egyptian goddess,
and is still a bizarre anomaly
in the history of astronomy.
Now, it's tempting to think that astronomers centuries ago
didn't have the tools in order to
properly observe Venus closely, but throughout that time,
telescopes were available and used.
Some of the observations were so detailed,
and provided by reputable astronomers,
that it's difficult to dismiss.
So if Venus did have a moon, what happened to it?
(sipping loudly) Deathstar!
I'm sorry, I had to, it's Deathstar.
It got destroyed.
(exploding)
Number six is Paranego's Discontinuity.
Paranego's Discontinuity is an anomaly
found in the movement of stars.
Discovered by Pavel Paranego in the 1950's,
it's a phenomenon which still baffles scientists.
Usually the orbit of stars are well defined,
except when it comes to cooler stars.
Mathematically, we should be able to predict the movement
of cooler stars as they orbit our galaxy,
but we can't do that reliably.
These stars seem to orbit our galaxy
faster than they actually should.
Perhaps the most controversial explanation for this
comes from the physicist, Gregory Matloff.
He's currently running experiments to see if
the stars are using jets of material to alter their motion.
Yes, yes, you heard me right.
Matloff believes that stars might actually
be choosing to move in certain ways themselves.
Sentient stars, that's weird.
I don't know if he's right,
but the idea's of conscious stars,
that's a lot better than Los Angeles.
We have a lot of unconscious stars.
Drugs and alcohol and stuff, it's a problem.
(exploding)
Number five is the Fly By Anomaly.
The fly by anomaly is a phenomenon
which as of yet has no explanation.
Scientists have noted that as a satellite passes
a large body such as a planet
that its speed increases more than is expected.
The anomaly seems to contradict
aspects of Newtonian physics,
and has left astronomers, engineers, and physicists
scratching their heads.
The change in speed is minute,
and isn't enough to adversely affect
the trajectory of a satellite,
but even the smallest of changes
can have the biggest of impacts in physics.
In effect, some unknown source is providing each satellite
with more kinetic energy than it actually should have.
While there's currently no consensus,
some theories have been put forward,
such as undetected fluctuations in gravity,
or the effects of solar radiation.
My theory is that there's no space cops,
so why not speed a little?
(exploding)
Number four is the Axis of Evil.
(evil laughter) Space.
There's another anomaly in our universe
which could reverse centuries of scientific understanding.
It's been labeled the axis of evil
by the scientists who study it,
because its implications are disastrous
for the Copernican view of the universe.
This view states that there's nothing special about Earth.
We're not at the center of the universe,
so things don't revolve around us.
Unlike that one friend you have
that thinks the whole world revolves around them,
cut that person off.
But the axis of evil anomaly suggests
that there's something special about our solar system.
It's a measurement of the cosmic background radiation
produced by the big bang.
Now it should be the same everywhere, but it's not.
One half of the universe is colder than the other half,
and even more mind blowing,
our solar system sits in the middle.
This is either an unbelievable coincidence,
or our solar system is special for some reason.
And there goes the comments section
of half the people saying, God is real,
and the other saying, no, he's not.
(exploding)
Number three is the Kuiper Cliff.
The Kuiper Belt is a huge disc of space
in the outer part of our solar system,
which is associated with a mysterious anomaly.
The belt itself is measured from the orbit of Neptune,
and extends around 50 astronomical units from the Sun.
That's over seven billion kilometers.
That's a long distance, in case you didn't get that.
It's very very far away.
It contains a vast number of small, rocky, and icy bodies,
such as dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets.
Now, scientific models suggest that
there should be twice as many of these objects,
but for some unknown reason,
the Keiper Belt seems to stop suddenly,
followed by an empty void of space.
Some theories suggest that we simply cannot
see what's there because the objects are too small and dim,
but others argue that there may be a large object,
perhaps a planet or a failed star,
which has sucked up the material in the past.
(exploding)
Number two is The Astronomical Unit.
The astronomical unit is one of
the most relied upon measurements in all of astronomy,
but something strange may be happening to it.
One astronomical unit is the mean distance
between the Earth and the Sun.
This equates to (loud sucking in) 149,597,870.7 kilometers.
Got that all out in on breath, yes, thank you.
Now you'd expect this measurement to be stable
as much of the life on our planet
depends upon our distance from the sun,
but the astronomical unit is changing,
and it's increasing by a few centimeters each year.
One theory for this is that it's because
our sun is decreasing in mass slightly each year,
due to producing solar radiation and flares,
and so, as it gets smaller,
our sun's gravitational pull weakens.
The problem with this is that some physicists believe
that it isn't losing enough mass
to account for the Earth moving farther away.
So the anomaly remains unsolved.
We'll figure it out, maybe.
Or we'll die.
We'll see.
(exploding)
And number one are the Stars Older than the Universe.
Using tried and tested techniques
to measure the age of objects in our cosmos,
astronomers have discovered a bizarre anomaly,
some stars are older than the universe itself.
Okay, we're getting deep here, folks.
Get ready.
The current estimate for the age of the universe
is around 13.8 billion years old,
but the oldest known star seems
to be 14.5 billion years old.
Now you might think that these ancient stars
are so far away that we can't measure them correctly,
but one of the most famous, nicknamed Methusaleh,
is just 190 light years away.
Several solutions to this problem have been offered,
including a flaw in how we measure star age,
or how we measure the universe's age,
but, as it stands, no one really knows
if these stars are older than the universe or not,
and if they are, what does that mean?
(sci-fi music)
So, the 10 Most Fascinating Things Ever Found In Space,
Part Two, but if you guys wanna watch part one,
make sure you tap or click, or whatever device you're on,
on the screen right now and you can watch Part One.
I tell ya, there's a lot of weird stuff out there.
Get ready for it. I'll see ya next time.