Did you know that
the Sun isn't really on fire?
No. Our Sun isn't a raging bonfire
in the center of the Solar System.
It's actually a nuclear reactor.
You see, inside stars,
hydrogen atoms
fuse together to form helium atoms.
And during that process
of nuclear fusion,
enormous amounts of energy
are released.
That energy shoots out in all directions,
eventually making its way to you.
Ok, let's keep the heat on
and take a closer look
at some the other
seemingly fiery objects
in our night sky.
Meteors may look like they are on fire
as they blaze their way
through our atmosphere.
But again,
that's not exactly the case.
If you're lucky enough
to catch a glimpse of a shooting star,
what you're really seeing
is the glow
from the intense air pressure
in front of the meteor.
As it speeds through our atmosphere,
the rapid compression of air
in front of the meteor
heats things up until it's glowing bright.
And as a result of all that heat,
meteors tend
to burn up in our atmosphere,
even though they aren't
technically on fire.
Did you know that 2023 is going to be the hottest year on record?
And the problem isn't just heatwaves and wildfires.
Soon you might not be able to eat raw oysters.
Warming waters are helping bacteria to flourish, making
raw oysters unsafe to eat.
Beer will taste worse and be more expensive due
to declining hops production in Europe.
That's thanks to the hotter summers.
You know, we're not quite on track to where we want to be
when it comes to climate change, but progress is still possible.
The Inflation Reduction Act is investing nearly $370
billion towards climate and clean energy initiatives.
And despite the recent acceleration of global warming,
remember, humans are in the driver's seat.
It's up to us to decide the future of climate change.
Now, while our atmosphere
is our last line of defense,
unfortunately,
some space rocks
would just be too big
for the atmosphere to consume
before they crash into Earth.
So just like in the movies,
if a giant asteroid
were headed our way,
we should probably nuke it
right?
Uh uh. No way.
While nuking
it could help take a planet
killing asteroid down
a couple notches.
It wouldn't mean we'd be totally safe.
If we nuked an asteroid,
It would break into many smaller pieces,
and any one or hundreds of those
could still pose a major hazard
to life on Earth.
Ok. Hopefully talking about
the terror of asteroids
didn't scare you too much.
If so, wipe those tears from your eyes.
Did you know that you can't cry in space?
Well, sort of.
You can cry as much as you feel like,
but your teardrops won't fall down
your cheeks like they do
here on Earth.
Thanks to the microgravity in space,
If you stubbed your toe
on the International Space Station
and started to bawl your eyes out,
your tears would gather
into a watery blob that would float
or stick to the front of your face.
And when you heard the word microgravity just now
you might have done a double take.
Weren't we always told there's no gravity in space?
And if there's no gravity,
well, then there must be no weight.
Otherwise, how could astronauts
just float around the ISS?
Well, the term zero gravity is misleading.
There will always be some amount of force
acting on an object.
In the case of astronauts on the ISS,
they aren't actually weightless,
they're in a constant state of free-fall.
Thanks to their orbit around the Earth,
they're always falling
but never landing.
In space, no one can hear you scream.
You might remember that
as the tag-line to the movie Alien.
But, it's only true to a point.
While you'd never be able
to hear spaceships
exploding like you do in the movie,
there are some areas in space
where there may be enough particles
to allow sound to travel.
Like the hot gas clouds
that surround some black holes.
If there was enough gas,
you might even catch a faint whisper
of what a black hole sounds like.
Speaking of sound,
you may have heard that the planets
all have their own song.
This one has roots
going back thousands of years
when ancient astronomers theorized
about the “Music of the Spheres.”
They thought that
the movements of the planets
might produce a form
of music in itself.
Well, that didn't exactly prove true.
But the magnetic fields
of the planets do interact
with charged particles
and radio emissions
that result from that interaction
can be turned into sound waves.
Don't worry,
scientists have already done that for you.
But these eerie sounds
aren't exactly music to my ears.
OK, if we're still making noise,
it'd be a good time to talk about
why there's mostly no sound in space.
That's because space is a vacuum.
But not completely.
A vacuum occurs when matter is absent.
No atoms, no molecules, no nothing.
Well, sure,
space is pretty empty,
but it's not a perfect vacuum.
There will always be a few stray atoms
lurking in the gigantic voids
between galaxies.
OK, maybe having less than one atom
for every cubic meter is really,
really close to a vacuum.
But still. It's a lie.
Thanks to movies and pop culture,
another lie you've been fed
is what happens
when an astronaut is directly
exposed to space without a spacesuit.
If you're out on a spacewalk
and your suit or your helmet are breached,
this would definitely be bad news.
Space is harsh to the human body,
and unless you could respond
to the situation with lightning speed,
you'd probably die.
But rest assured,
you wouldn't spontaneously explode.
While you're floating around out there,
we might as well tackle
another misconception.
But for this,
we'll need to change direction.
Maybe try blowing air in one direction
to see if that’ll move you.
Nope.
And believe me,
it's not just because you've got
that helmet on your head.
Even if you could exhale forcefully,
it wouldn't be strong enough to budge you.
And that's why staying attached
to the handrails
or having thrusters on your suit
is important to keep you close
to where you want to be.
Despite the legendary album
by the rock band Pink Floyd,
there isn't actually a dark side of the Moon.
At least not one that's permanently dark.
The reality is that the Moon
is tidally locked to Earth.
That means that the Moon
takes the same amount of time
to make one full spin
on its axis
as it does to revolve once around Earth.
That means
you only ever get to see sunlight hit one side of it.
But every side of the Moon
gets lit every day.
Alright. To wrap up this list of lies,
let's bring you all the way back home
to planet Earth.
Now, from your vantage point out in space,
this beautiful blue ball
might have looked to be a perfect sphere.
After all,
that's what you've been told your whole life.
But I bet you can guess
what I'm going to say next.
Yep, that's another lie.
Earth is technically an oblate spheroid.
That means that it is slightly flattened
on the north and south poles
while it bulges out at the equator.
How did it get this way?
Well, imagine that when the planet was forming.
it was a bit like a ball of clay.
As it spins,
the top and bottom
get a bit squished down,
while the middle looks more bloated.
OK, that's enough space myths to debunk in one sitting.
Did it make you wonder
what other lies you've been told?
How about some lies about the dinosaurs?
Well, that's a story
for another WHAT IF.