WEBVTT 00:00:00.600 --> 00:00:13.980 From the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and beaming out across all of space and time, this is StarTalk, where science and pop culture collide. 00:00:15.200 --> 00:00:16.760 This is StarTalk. 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:20.400 I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. 00:00:20.740 --> 00:00:27.480 And today, we're going to have a Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk with my co-host, Chuck Nice. 00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:28.640 Chuckie, baby. 00:00:29.660 --> 00:00:31.000 All right, someone slipped in between us here. 00:00:31.040 --> 00:00:31.460 That's right. 00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:36.860 I've got my friend and colleague, not only professional colleague, but museum colleague, Jackie Faherty. 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:37.980 That's right. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.140 Jackie, in the house. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:42.580 Double house here. 00:00:42.600 --> 00:00:43.160 Double house. 00:00:44.040 --> 00:00:52.360 Jackie is one of the world's experts on the worlds that exist between planets and stars. 00:00:52.380 --> 00:00:53.380 Wow. 00:00:53.400 --> 00:00:54.760 There's not a sharp boundary there. 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:56.860 You might have thought so, or maybe you never thought about it. 00:00:57.080 --> 00:00:57.920 She's thought about it. 00:00:57.920 --> 00:00:58.400 Yes. 00:00:58.400 --> 00:01:02.240 And she and her peeps, she's got a whole community of people. 00:01:02.540 --> 00:01:06.920 In fact, after we hired her, she brought other people after she came. 00:01:07.300 --> 00:01:15.000 So this place, the American Museum of Natural History, is one of the intellectual centers of this subject, because of this woman right here. 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:16.580 That's really cool. 00:01:16.600 --> 00:01:17.420 Give me another one. 00:01:17.440 --> 00:01:19.320 I'm going to take ownership of that. 00:01:19.340 --> 00:01:19.960 You sure? 00:01:20.580 --> 00:01:26.640 We actually have a, our research group has stickers and T-shirts and we have a logo. 00:01:26.660 --> 00:01:28.820 We made it out of- 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:31.260 Is that the logo with the subway letters? 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:33.300 Yeah. 00:01:33.320 --> 00:01:38.280 Oh, because our subway symbols in New York City are circles with letters inside of them. 00:01:38.300 --> 00:01:38.740 Yes, they are. 00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:40.680 So what's your design there? 00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:46.780 So we are BDNYC, which stands for Brown Dwarfs, in New York City, research group. 00:01:46.800 --> 00:01:48.280 But the B train stops at this institute. 00:01:48.300 --> 00:01:49.160 It certainly does. 00:01:49.180 --> 00:01:50.280 So does the C. 00:01:50.300 --> 00:01:50.920 That's correct. 00:01:50.940 --> 00:01:52.060 B and C, there you go. 00:01:52.440 --> 00:02:03.460 So we solicited questions from our fan base, telling them we're gonna have the world's expert on this sort of nether world between planets and stars. 00:02:03.480 --> 00:02:05.560 And then in came hundreds of questions. 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:07.020 Yes. 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:07.860 Hundreds. 00:02:08.040 --> 00:02:09.160 Hundreds of questions. 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:09.420 Yes. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:10.060 You've got them. 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:10.560 And I've got them. 00:02:10.580 --> 00:02:11.540 Neither of us have seen it. 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:12.060 No, you haven't. 00:02:12.300 --> 00:02:13.400 Not that it's a test. 00:02:13.440 --> 00:02:18.400 No, no, I love shows like this when I have one of my astrophysics colleagues, because then I'll have to say a thing. 00:02:18.820 --> 00:02:19.080 Right. 00:02:19.100 --> 00:02:19.680 She knows everything. 00:02:20.380 --> 00:02:22.800 I'm gonna go get lunch and then you tell me when you're done. 00:02:23.940 --> 00:02:26.580 I like that Neil saying I know everything. 00:02:26.600 --> 00:02:27.600 That's a nice compliment. 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:34.000 Well, listen, why don't we jump into it with our first question, which is always from a Patreon patron. 00:02:34.220 --> 00:02:34.720 All right. 00:02:34.740 --> 00:02:35.700 Okay, here we go. 00:02:35.720 --> 00:02:38.120 This is AMZ Industries. 00:02:38.140 --> 00:02:40.460 Wow, we've gone corporate with Patreon patrons. 00:02:42.160 --> 00:02:43.840 That sounds very New York Stock Exchange- 00:02:44.160 --> 00:02:44.980 Tell me about it. 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:53.720 AMZ says the sun is the biggest star in our solar system. 00:02:53.880 --> 00:02:56.280 I believe it's also the only star in our solar system. 00:02:56.300 --> 00:02:56.700 Keep going. 00:02:58.340 --> 00:02:59.020 Maybe I'm wrong. 00:02:59.060 --> 00:02:59.700 I'm just saying. 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:07.900 Do we know a star or any other object in space or interstellar space that is bigger than our sun? 00:03:09.720 --> 00:03:13.640 Okay, so just see, they just mixed galaxy with solar system. 00:03:13.660 --> 00:03:14.420 That's what they did. 00:03:14.500 --> 00:03:14.880 That's all. 00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:15.220 Thank you. 00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:17.440 I'm trying to figure this out, but you got it. 00:03:17.460 --> 00:03:18.280 That's what they did. 00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:25.180 So, also to Jackie, do you believe in zodiac signs? 00:03:26.780 --> 00:03:27.060 Uh-huh. 00:03:28.320 --> 00:03:28.920 All right. 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:33.180 Okay, two-fold question, both of which are interesting to answer. 00:03:33.200 --> 00:03:35.440 And they both sound completely unrelated to each other. 00:03:35.460 --> 00:03:38.540 They are unrelated to each other, I believe. 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:44.180 I think one is a genuine interest in the cosmos and the other is a genuine interest in you. 00:03:44.540 --> 00:03:46.240 Oh, I love it. 00:03:47.100 --> 00:03:54.320 So I will go with the first one is the sun in our, okay, so yes, it's the only star that we know of in our solar system. 00:03:54.560 --> 00:04:02.160 Although we have searched for another object that might be maybe not a star, but one of these objects I study, a brown dwarf. 00:04:02.180 --> 00:04:02.680 Brown dwarf. 00:04:02.700 --> 00:04:05.200 That might be a companion to our own sun. 00:04:05.220 --> 00:04:06.640 Since it's alone, it's by itself. 00:04:06.660 --> 00:04:07.660 It doesn't have a partner. 00:04:07.740 --> 00:04:08.180 So are you- 00:04:08.200 --> 00:04:09.700 We have to be orbiting really far away. 00:04:09.720 --> 00:04:25.040 Yeah, I was gonna say, because what I believe we're talking about, tell me if I'm wrong, is that sometimes there are anomalies in the gravitational movement of objects in our neighborhood, right? 00:04:25.180 --> 00:04:27.860 So I think you're going with the Planet Nine explanation. 00:04:27.880 --> 00:04:28.660 Okay, that's where I- 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:33.720 Which is, yeah, and that's also been pulled on and is very popular right now. 00:04:33.740 --> 00:04:36.080 Planet Nine, not Pluto, just to be clear. 00:04:36.100 --> 00:04:36.380 Right, yes. 00:04:36.400 --> 00:04:37.800 I'm just sure we gotta be clear about it. 00:04:38.300 --> 00:04:41.840 And also we can discuss why that word planet is not very good in this context anyway. 00:04:42.220 --> 00:04:49.500 So an object outside of what's currently Pluto's position that might be tugging on objects in the outer part of the solar system. 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:55.540 The Kuiper Belt, which is this area of things that are left over from when the solar system formed. 00:04:56.440 --> 00:05:01.140 And whether or not there's something else that's well beyond that, possibly there's indications. 00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:02.920 Theorists certainly think that. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:09.360 But there was this nemesis hypothesis that existed several years ago. 00:05:09.880 --> 00:05:19.920 For which that possibly you could link up mass extinctions that happened on this planet with a highly eccentric other object that might have been. 00:05:19.940 --> 00:05:21.020 The orbit is eccentric. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:22.800 Yes, orbit is eccentric. 00:05:22.860 --> 00:05:24.000 It's not emotionally eccentric. 00:05:24.520 --> 00:05:26.040 It could have been emotionally eccentric. 00:05:26.200 --> 00:05:29.340 Although it does spend a lot of time alone, so maybe you never know. 00:05:29.420 --> 00:05:31.500 Why are we giving emotions to the object? 00:05:31.520 --> 00:05:33.620 Like this is part of the problem. 00:05:33.780 --> 00:05:36.400 People put so much emotion on these objects. 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:37.860 They want to feel them. 00:05:38.440 --> 00:05:39.140 Yeah. 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:41.380 You just called the thing eccentric, that's all. 00:05:41.400 --> 00:05:41.960 Yes, eccentric. 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:55.060 Right, so that it would have an eccentric orbit and that possibly it was every time it got into some area of the outer solar system, it would kick a bunch of stuff in towards our area and cause possibly mass extinction. 00:05:55.080 --> 00:05:57.200 Comets that would then hit right over there. 00:05:57.300 --> 00:05:59.160 Comets, asteroids. 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:04.040 And so that's basically we've looked far and near and we haven't found anything. 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:06.000 So possibly that's out. 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:12.100 So nemesis was the proposed name if such an object existed and that would have been its name had we found it. 00:06:12.260 --> 00:06:22.040 Yeah, and nemesis is the idea that it's our nemesis, the Earth's nemesis, not necessarily the sun's, the Earth's because if it's gonna basically go far to- 00:06:22.060 --> 00:06:23.540 If it's launching crap at us. 00:06:23.560 --> 00:06:24.200 Salvo. 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:26.860 Why would you want that? 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:29.220 That would feel like your nemesis, right? 00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:30.140 Sure, sure, sure. 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:36.700 So that, okay, so beyond that, the question's asking if there's a star that's bigger than our own sun. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:38.440 And that's like, yeah, definitely. 00:06:38.460 --> 00:06:39.860 There's so many. 00:06:40.220 --> 00:06:45.280 My favorite star in the nighttime sky is called Ada Carina. 00:06:45.300 --> 00:06:46.700 Ada Carina? 00:06:46.700 --> 00:06:47.740 You know Ada Carina. 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:49.000 Ada Carina is a beauty. 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:52.020 And I love the fact that it actually sounds like a pop star. 00:06:53.140 --> 00:06:53.560 Ada? 00:06:53.580 --> 00:06:54.340 Ada Carina. 00:06:54.460 --> 00:06:56.520 Yeah, it's in the constellation Carina. 00:06:56.540 --> 00:06:58.600 They make a good ice cream flavor. 00:06:59.320 --> 00:07:00.300 Ada Carina. 00:07:01.760 --> 00:07:03.320 No, no, Carina is the name of the flavor. 00:07:03.340 --> 00:07:04.240 And I ate a Carina. 00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:08.340 Wow, I wouldn't have put that in there, but okay. 00:07:08.440 --> 00:07:08.980 All right. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:10.720 It's in the homunculus nebula. 00:07:11.220 --> 00:07:16.680 Can you make that look as the homunculus nuts that somehow somebody could make that you'd put on the ice cream? 00:07:17.080 --> 00:07:20.260 Well, so Ada Carina is a very large star. 00:07:20.420 --> 00:07:23.360 We now think that it's actually two stars, a binary star system. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:25.720 We call it a luminous blue variable. 00:07:25.940 --> 00:07:28.420 It's this object that's very, very massive. 00:07:28.540 --> 00:07:40.200 And so we think it's two and so 40 to 50 times the mass of our own sun, but probably two of them, they go around each other, eclipsing each other so that you can actually see the light of one dip very, very periodically. 00:07:40.220 --> 00:07:41.720 So that's a variability you were talking about. 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:42.500 Yeah. 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:44.360 So let me just ask you this. 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:54.660 Even though it's a body moving in front or transiting another body, how is one slightly larger than the other? 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:56.580 Because they're both luminous. 00:07:57.100 --> 00:08:03.600 So the idea of a transit is one blocks light from the other, but if they're both glowing, what are you measuring? 00:08:03.620 --> 00:08:05.380 So they're not the exact same mass. 00:08:05.900 --> 00:08:11.380 So you'd have one that's say 60 times the mass of the sun and the other is 30 times the mass of the sun. 00:08:11.760 --> 00:08:15.480 There's even some hypothesis that there's a triple system in there. 00:08:15.500 --> 00:08:16.960 There's three, not just two. 00:08:17.420 --> 00:08:24.620 So I'm noting Ada Carina because I think it is just an awesome star or star system. 00:08:24.740 --> 00:08:26.160 But that's not the most massive. 00:08:26.180 --> 00:08:26.440 Oh yeah. 00:08:26.460 --> 00:08:27.800 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:08:28.840 --> 00:08:30.340 Yeah, we might put one on the website here. 00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:30.740 Yeah. 00:08:30.760 --> 00:08:31.700 You should. 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:34.640 Because it was part of an HST legacy project. 00:08:34.660 --> 00:08:35.400 Hubble Space Telescope. 00:08:35.420 --> 00:08:35.980 Oh, sorry. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:37.200 Hubble Space Telescope, yes. 00:08:38.800 --> 00:08:40.160 You're in the lingo, girl. 00:08:40.180 --> 00:08:41.180 I'm in the lingo. 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:42.180 Do the lingo thing. 00:08:43.160 --> 00:08:44.880 HST and elemental peak. 00:08:46.640 --> 00:08:47.920 Thank you, Neil. 00:08:48.180 --> 00:08:53.180 And it's a, so there's a lot of data on Ada Carina. 00:08:54.100 --> 00:08:55.200 But it's not the most massive. 00:08:55.220 --> 00:08:56.260 You get even more massive. 00:08:56.280 --> 00:08:58.980 There's 100, 200 times the mass of our own sun. 00:08:59.500 --> 00:09:02.360 And these are not stable systems. 00:09:02.400 --> 00:09:03.000 This is the stars. 00:09:03.020 --> 00:09:04.640 Again, we're not referring to their motions, Chuck. 00:09:04.980 --> 00:09:06.040 Right, exactly. 00:09:06.060 --> 00:09:08.640 They have eccentric stars and unstable stars. 00:09:08.880 --> 00:09:10.080 I like where this is going. 00:09:11.060 --> 00:09:12.600 We also have degenerate stars as well. 00:09:12.620 --> 00:09:13.380 That's another thing. 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:13.880 Really? 00:09:13.900 --> 00:09:16.600 Yes, it's an actual kind of star. 00:09:16.600 --> 00:09:19.980 Okay, I can't even tell you what, forget it. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:21.900 I just, my mind immediately went to a star. 00:09:21.920 --> 00:09:29.140 And just for constellation weenies out there, Carina is a constellation visible primarily in the southern hemisphere. 00:09:29.220 --> 00:09:35.600 And it's part of a much larger constellation that used to be one piece. 00:09:36.280 --> 00:09:41.080 And it's the ship of the Argonauts, okay? 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:42.780 Argo Novus is the ship. 00:09:43.180 --> 00:09:46.960 And it's just, Carina is the keel, I think? 00:09:46.980 --> 00:09:48.040 The keel, yeah. 00:09:48.060 --> 00:09:53.240 Yeah, so what they did was that constellation was way too big for the britches, so they broke it up into parts. 00:09:53.260 --> 00:10:03.420 So there's a compass, there's a sail, there's the hull, there's the, and so this is, it is the eta if brightest object in the constellation Carina. 00:10:03.640 --> 00:10:06.980 So alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:08.640 So it'd be the seventh brightest star. 00:10:08.660 --> 00:10:21.340 And that's important also because it's not always the eta, because that's what it was cataloged at, but at one time it was one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky because the thing is going through massive and insane explosions. 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:25.060 And it's just dumping material off, which is creating this gorgeous- 00:10:26.060 --> 00:10:31.740 Yes, the nebula that's around it is so unbelievably attractive to look at. 00:10:31.980 --> 00:10:32.860 And that's just from- 00:10:32.880 --> 00:10:33.760 But Chuck, it's really a crime scene. 00:10:33.780 --> 00:10:34.500 Just dumps of material. 00:10:34.640 --> 00:10:35.120 What's that? 00:10:35.140 --> 00:10:35.480 Yeah. 00:10:35.660 --> 00:10:36.960 It's really a crime scene. 00:10:36.980 --> 00:10:39.200 You're gonna see this gas just spilling out. 00:10:39.220 --> 00:10:39.560 So good. 00:10:39.580 --> 00:10:40.820 Like something happened down in there. 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:42.080 Yeah, something bad happened. 00:10:42.580 --> 00:10:44.800 And something is continually bad happening. 00:10:44.820 --> 00:10:48.580 I mean, I would love to fly close and have a look at that thing. 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:54.080 And you wouldn't want to be close as a human because there's probably a lot of really bad radiation around there. 00:10:54.100 --> 00:10:56.280 But man, would it be a sight. 00:10:56.460 --> 00:10:58.480 Because it is really pretty. 00:10:59.080 --> 00:10:59.680 That's very cool. 00:10:59.700 --> 00:11:00.500 It's got a human eye. 00:11:00.500 --> 00:11:01.580 So, Ada Carina. 00:11:01.640 --> 00:11:02.200 Yeah. 00:11:02.220 --> 00:11:02.460 Nice. 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:07.140 Also, the sun is large enough, if you hollowed it out, you could pour a million Earths into it. 00:11:07.280 --> 00:11:07.840 Our sun. 00:11:08.180 --> 00:11:08.640 Our sun. 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:09.040 Right. 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:10.400 And now we're talking about stars bigger than that. 00:11:10.420 --> 00:11:10.780 That's right. 00:11:12.500 --> 00:11:17.160 And so these super massive stars, these are the ones that become black holes. 00:11:17.180 --> 00:11:19.160 Like, our sun couldn't become a black hole, could it? 00:11:19.280 --> 00:11:19.660 No. 00:11:19.680 --> 00:11:20.960 Our sun couldn't become a black hole. 00:11:20.980 --> 00:11:21.680 Not massive enough. 00:11:21.700 --> 00:11:28.380 But these are, these are the ones like, you look at these stars, the luminous blue variables, and then there's another kind, they're called Wolf-Rayette stars. 00:11:28.400 --> 00:11:29.900 So there's actually somebody here. 00:11:29.920 --> 00:11:30.620 Wolf-Rayette? 00:11:30.760 --> 00:11:31.240 Yes. 00:11:32.020 --> 00:11:34.340 Yes, actually debatable if it's Wolf-Rayette or Wolf-Rayette. 00:11:36.900 --> 00:11:38.240 So the people, did they discover this? 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:41.660 Well, they first studied them in an important way. 00:11:41.680 --> 00:11:42.060 All right. 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:46.460 And so then realized that no other stars look like those do, so they became their own category. 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:46.900 Nice. 00:11:46.920 --> 00:11:47.720 Wolf-Rayette. 00:11:47.880 --> 00:11:48.940 R-A-Y-E-T. 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:49.560 Okay. 00:11:49.580 --> 00:11:52.280 In French, you believe you don't pronounce the trailing consonant. 00:11:52.300 --> 00:11:53.340 Right, so Wolf-Rayette. 00:11:53.660 --> 00:11:54.220 Nice. 00:11:54.460 --> 00:11:56.180 All right, and for the second question. 00:11:57.020 --> 00:11:57.880 Reread that, please. 00:11:57.900 --> 00:12:00.560 Which is, do you believe in zodiac signs? 00:12:01.040 --> 00:12:03.860 So what I believe is such an interesting thing. 00:12:04.060 --> 00:12:14.140 There are constellations in the nighttime sky, which are the markers for where the ecliptic of the path that the sun takes in the sky and all the planets and the moon they take. 00:12:15.260 --> 00:12:21.480 And so those are designations in the sky and it's where the sun and the planets and the moon all move, yeah. 00:12:21.820 --> 00:12:28.940 I don't place any significance on what people like to do in reading their astrological sign. 00:12:29.180 --> 00:12:31.140 I'm actually not even sure what my sign is. 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:33.460 Oh wow, when were you born? 00:12:33.520 --> 00:12:35.580 Not totally true, I do know what it is, but I'm just. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:36.880 But you don't think about it or care about it. 00:12:36.900 --> 00:12:38.340 I don't think about it too much. 00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:39.080 Yeah, it's not a saying. 00:12:39.100 --> 00:12:39.340 Right. 00:12:39.500 --> 00:12:42.200 Mine is cancer, I'm a festering malignancy. 00:12:42.340 --> 00:12:42.740 Thank you. 00:12:46.740 --> 00:12:47.440 Oh man. 00:12:48.640 --> 00:12:49.060 All right. 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:49.560 All right. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:50.180 Enough of that. 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:51.380 Thank you, Jackie, for that. 00:12:51.400 --> 00:12:52.260 That was great. 00:12:52.420 --> 00:12:54.420 Wow, I got so much out of that, man. 00:12:54.420 --> 00:12:55.200 What else you got there? 00:12:55.280 --> 00:13:00.640 All right, why don't we, this is Sherman from San Diego says. 00:13:00.680 --> 00:13:02.220 Are we still on the Patreon? 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:03.940 This is a Patreon Patreon. 00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:05.260 Sherman from San Diego. 00:13:05.560 --> 00:13:07.440 Sherman says, hi Dr. 00:13:07.460 --> 00:13:08.940 Tyson, hi Dr. 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:09.380 Faherty. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:20.980 Understanding that it's only been a few decades since the discovery of the first exoplanets, there is still a lot we don't know about even the closest ones to our solar system. 00:13:21.900 --> 00:13:32.240 What tools and or resources are needed in the works or in the works to help us better understand the nature and composition of these objects? 00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:34.380 So that's a very good question. 00:13:34.740 --> 00:13:36.940 Is there anything new and exciting that helps us? 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:48.000 Can I prepend that question by asking you, are your methods and tools to find the worlds between planets and stars, do you have overlap with the methods and tools of those who are finding planets? 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:55.980 Yeah, and I actually think this would drive the question of what do we mean when we say the word planet in this particular instance? 00:13:56.500 --> 00:14:11.040 Because the objects that I study that are, that I get the most excited about studying are ones that we sometimes refer to as rogue worlds as they are the same mass as the objects that others might want to call a planet. 00:14:11.300 --> 00:14:12.720 Those objects orbit a star. 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:15.200 And the ones that I study don't orbit a star. 00:14:15.380 --> 00:14:20.580 They're in between, yeah, they just, they're off there, they're alone, they have no host star. 00:14:20.980 --> 00:14:21.980 So there's nothing. 00:14:22.880 --> 00:14:25.600 Yeah, we call them orphan to be nicer maybe. 00:14:28.660 --> 00:14:30.560 The orphaned objects that are out there. 00:14:30.740 --> 00:14:42.640 So that what I do because it's a lot easier for you to attempt to get to what's in the atmospheres of these objects when they don't have a host star that you have to block the light of because the contrast ratio is so large. 00:14:42.660 --> 00:14:43.480 I was talking about that. 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:44.600 It's so much easier. 00:14:44.620 --> 00:14:48.640 Is that like seeing a firefly in a Hollywood searchlight? 00:14:48.780 --> 00:14:53.640 You can't, the brightness contrast is so high, you can't see the dim things. 00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:58.280 So you got objects where there's no main star, so it's just the object itself. 00:14:58.380 --> 00:14:59.600 Just it on its own. 00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:01.880 But this is where it gets controversial, right? 00:15:01.880 --> 00:15:13.960 Because it could be the exact same mass, temperature, gravity, the whole deal that we would call an object around another star, but because we find it alone, we call them brown dwarfs. 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:22.360 And when they're the lowest mass, so not getting too far down this rabbit hole, which I assume you want me to define what a brown dwarf is at some point. 00:15:23.540 --> 00:15:27.020 It's probably important for your audience to understand what I'm an expert in. 00:15:27.700 --> 00:15:34.700 But just quickly, you're saying that location matters in how you classify such an object. 00:15:34.760 --> 00:15:44.520 We don't have a good running definition right now for what it is that we'll call this high mass end problem outside of our own solar system. 00:15:44.580 --> 00:15:45.540 High mass planet. 00:15:45.560 --> 00:15:46.260 High mass planet. 00:15:46.360 --> 00:15:50.280 High mass, so planet or low mass brown dwarf. 00:15:50.300 --> 00:15:50.980 So what's a brown dwarf? 00:15:51.760 --> 00:16:06.460 So brown dwarfs are these objects that exist in mass in between stars and planets or whatever, the gray area in between and the idea being that when you form a star, you have a giant molecular cloud of hydrogen and it fragments into pieces. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:11.180 Whatever causes the fragmentation, the compression of the gas, it breaks off into pieces. 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:13.880 The smallest possible pieces that could fragment off. 00:16:13.900 --> 00:16:15.800 Wait, so you have the main piece that's the main star. 00:16:16.280 --> 00:16:18.000 Well, lots of pieces, right? 00:16:18.020 --> 00:16:21.120 But one of them is gonna, the big one's gonna be the star. 00:16:21.280 --> 00:16:23.420 There could be hundreds of them that'll be stars. 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:24.320 Oh, of course, all right. 00:16:24.380 --> 00:16:25.860 So now you got the other bits and pieces, go on. 00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:31.980 Yeah, so there'll be a whole spectrum, a whole distribution of objects that will break off out of a gigantic molecular cloud. 00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:47.200 And this molecular cloud will break down into, once you compress it, so that all of the gas then gets pushed together and then enough so that the pressure there ignites the cores of these things that break off into tiny pieces. 00:16:47.540 --> 00:16:58.100 The smallest of the pieces end up being these objects that don't even know that they don't have enough mass to get the core hot enough to get nuclear burning going. 00:16:58.200 --> 00:16:59.460 But they do it anyway? 00:17:02.060 --> 00:17:05.100 They think they're gonna be a star, but they're not. 00:17:05.460 --> 00:17:07.820 So, now you guys are putting a motion on it. 00:17:07.840 --> 00:17:10.400 They don't know what they should or shouldn't be. 00:17:10.420 --> 00:17:11.580 They're just existing. 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:17.120 And so this is why people called them failed stars, because they're not getting enough mass. 00:17:17.140 --> 00:17:19.980 But I look at it and like, whatever dude, like who cares? 00:17:20.600 --> 00:17:22.760 It is existing with not enough mass. 00:17:22.780 --> 00:17:23.500 That's fine. 00:17:23.520 --> 00:17:25.100 It doesn't have the mass. 00:17:25.100 --> 00:17:29.480 Instead, it can't get that nuclear engine going that's at the center of our sun. 00:17:29.820 --> 00:17:32.520 Instead, it's like a coal plucked from a fire. 00:17:32.540 --> 00:17:34.000 It just cools through its life. 00:17:34.320 --> 00:17:35.180 And that's it. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:42.820 And that is in between basically what we say is the top mass for that, that it happens, is 75 times the mass of the Jupiter, 75 Jupiters. 00:17:42.840 --> 00:17:43.480 That would be a star. 00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:44.620 Above that is a star. 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:45.720 That's the quarter, right? 00:17:46.180 --> 00:17:46.800 Exactly. 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:52.000 And this is very metalicity dependent, like how much, how much metalicity, how much iron we have. 00:17:52.020 --> 00:17:52.500 What's metalist? 00:17:52.540 --> 00:17:53.480 Oh, okay, I got you. 00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:53.900 Heavy elements. 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:55.200 So at the core, like, okay. 00:17:55.220 --> 00:17:55.920 Heavy elements. 00:17:56.300 --> 00:18:00.620 So how much of that was available will change like how much mass you need to get the core burning. 00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:08.940 But then the lower end of it, the low end, I don't know, what's the lowest mass fragment that you can break off? 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:11.400 This is a huge discussion in astronomy right now. 00:18:11.800 --> 00:18:14.060 What is the lowest mass piece that breaks off? 00:18:14.260 --> 00:18:15.260 And still becomes a thing. 00:18:15.540 --> 00:18:16.400 And it's a thing. 00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:17.480 That right. 00:18:17.500 --> 00:18:19.000 That thing that doesn't know what it is. 00:18:19.140 --> 00:18:21.040 But then, wait, one last thing on it. 00:18:21.100 --> 00:18:22.660 One last thing, cause I know we have to stop. 00:18:22.680 --> 00:18:27.040 But the planet would be opposite end of this. 00:18:27.380 --> 00:18:35.460 Can you form an object, the planets form in a disk around a star, but how big can it get around a star? 00:18:35.660 --> 00:18:37.560 So now you've got two competing things. 00:18:37.800 --> 00:18:43.080 You've got objects that form by breaking up a cloud that then self fragments and blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:18:43.300 --> 00:18:48.840 And then you've got a disk around a forming star and how big can that object get? 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:50.480 Wow. 00:18:50.820 --> 00:18:51.620 Planet versus Brown Dwarf. 00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:52.320 We gotta take a quick break. 00:18:52.780 --> 00:18:55.920 So that's the Brown Dwarf establishment right there. 00:18:56.080 --> 00:19:01.740 As opposed to my Brown Dwarf, which was the dwarf that was never painted by Disney because he was racist. 00:19:03.360 --> 00:19:04.300 The eighth dwarf, yes. 00:19:05.460 --> 00:19:07.100 Chuck has issues, we're getting him through. 00:19:07.280 --> 00:19:13.540 When we come back more with Jackie Faraday on the world between planets and stars on StarTalk. 00:19:48.420 --> 00:19:49.100 We're back. 00:19:49.120 --> 00:19:49.760 Star Talk. 00:19:55.602 --> 00:19:56.202 Where are they? 00:19:56.862 --> 00:19:57.522 What are they? 00:19:57.982 --> 00:20:00.622 We got a word for them, but do we understand them? 00:20:01.062 --> 00:20:03.862 And our best chance of understanding them is this woman right here. 00:20:03.882 --> 00:20:04.382 Yes. 00:20:04.422 --> 00:20:05.822 Jackie Faherty in the house. 00:20:06.122 --> 00:20:06.662 Yes, yes. 00:20:06.682 --> 00:20:11.762 Friend and colleague in the department of astrophysics right here at the American Museum of Natural History. 00:20:11.922 --> 00:20:23.842 And you just described something I hadn't fully appreciated just before the break, that you have this humongous gas cloud, a molecular cloud, they call them, and it'll break into bits. 00:20:24.862 --> 00:20:28.422 And these are typically stars, but some might not be stars. 00:20:29.102 --> 00:20:39.942 In addition to that, each one of these will have a disk of material surrounding it that will then break up into little bits beyond the bits that just broke off to make the thing that had the disk. 00:20:40.502 --> 00:20:42.042 Did I understand that? 00:20:42.062 --> 00:20:42.862 You're doing good, yeah, yeah. 00:20:42.882 --> 00:20:46.702 Yeah, I will say, right, so those are the- 00:20:46.722 --> 00:20:48.762 So two different kinds of phenomenon going on. 00:20:48.822 --> 00:20:50.642 Two different formation mechanisms. 00:20:50.662 --> 00:20:52.402 Formation mechanisms, that's the phrase I'm looking for. 00:20:52.422 --> 00:20:59.462 Right, and so we want to use that as definitional for saying what kind of object are you looking at. 00:20:59.742 --> 00:21:06.202 I'd prefer to know how it formed because can you eject these objects that form around a star? 00:21:06.222 --> 00:21:06.662 Yeah, you do. 00:21:06.822 --> 00:21:08.882 Oh, 100% you do. 00:21:09.142 --> 00:21:12.502 They're launched off, we ejected stuff all sorts of ways. 00:21:12.502 --> 00:21:14.662 We might have like 30 planets or something. 00:21:14.682 --> 00:21:16.722