Uranus & Neptune: Crash Course Astronomy #19
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- Today we’re rounding out our planetary tour with ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Both have small rocky cores, thick mantles of ammonia, water, and methane, and atmospheres that make them look greenish and blue. Uranus has a truly weird rotation and relatively dull weather, while Neptune has clouds and storms whipped by tremendous winds. Both have rings and moons, with Neptune’s Triton probably being a captured iceball that has active geology.
This episode was brought to you by Squarespace www.squarespace.com/crashcourse
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Chapters:
Introduction: Uranus 00:00
Uranus's Structure 1:35
Uranus's Atmosphere 2:53
Uranus's Weird Tilt 3:55
Uranus's Moons 5:12
Uranus's Rings 6:00
Neptune's Structure 6:35
Neptune's Atmosphere 7:02
Neptune's Magnetic Field & Rings 8:10
Triton: Neptune's Largest Moon 8:36
The Discovery of Neptune 9:52
Review 11:27
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PHOTOS/VIDEOS
Uranus en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_... [credit: NASA/JPL/Voyager mission]
Neptune www.nasa.gov/content/25-years... [credit: NASA]
King George III en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_I...
Uranus from Earth picture by Phil Plait
Uranus, Earth size comparison en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ura... [credit: NASA]
Uranus core, reconstructed from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ura... [credit: Wikimedia Commons]
Uranus www.spacetelescope.org/static/... [credit: NASA, ESA, L. Sromovsky and P. Fry (University of Wisconsin), H. Hammel (Space Science Institute), and K. Rages (SETI Institute)]
Uranus storms www.keckobservatory.org/images... [credit: Imke de Pater (UC-Berkeley)/Keck Observatory]
Uranus and rings (tilt demonstration) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus#/... [credit: Hubble Space Telescope - NASA Marshall Space Flight Center]
Uranus with rings and moons www.eso.org/public/images/eso0... [credit: ESO]
Miranda en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of... [credit: NASA]
Verona Rupes apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110404.html [credit: NASA]
Neptune’s Interior solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimed... [credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute]
Neptune clouds en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nep... [credit: NASA]
Neptune’s Great Dark Spot en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune#... [credit: NASA / Jet Propulsion Lab]
Neptune’s Rings www.rolfolsenastrophotography.... [credit: Rolf Wahl Olsen / NASA/JPL (Voyager 2, NASA Planetary Data System)]
Triton en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_(... [credit: NASA / Jet Propulsion Lab / U.S. Geological Survey]
Triton flipped en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PIA... [credit: NASA/JPL]
Triton Nitrogen Geysers en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_(...[credit: NASA]
Shout out to Neptune for being the only planet in our solar system found by math. Humans can be pretty smart when they want to be!
interesting tid bit - Uranus is the only planet to be given the name of a Greek god rather than a Roman one.
I guess Uranus is a Greek god...🤪
But Miaunus ain’t
5:22 Aerial? I thought that was Disney?
Because Romans didn't take Ouranos into their copypasta mythology?
@@supaooze3600 Evidently, its named after the Ariel from the Tempest.
"Luckily that name didn't stick"
...
At least we can say Georgium Sidus without being laughed at
Only in english tho, thankfully.
Yeah but...
Uranus rotates on it's side.
Uranus is blue.
Uranus smells like rotten eggs.
Uranus is mostly methane.
Think of how much fun a planet report can be.
This isn't exactly brown nosing. It's an homage. I find his comment unnecessary.
Well the name did come from a "brown-noser".
no such thing as stick or luckily or laughx or not, doesn't matter, cepiux, laugh , say any nmw and any be perfx
I never ever want these series to end. Simply extraordinary subject with Phil as an amazing host.
FRY: This is a great, as long as you don't make me smell Uranus. Heh heh.
LEELA: I don't get it.
PROFESSOR FARNSWORTH: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.
FRY: Oh. What's it called now?
PROFESSOR FARNSWORTH: Urectum.
Amarís Blackscale LOL
Amarís Blackscale Urectum? Damn near killed 'em!
No but Youre mom
what about...
Urekt? no? ok.....
Amarís Gloomwing w
Did he just tell me that Uranus got wacked hard?
TheMrzippie hahahaha...made my night
TheMrzippie Something about 'brown nosing' and 'hairy' aswel.
Katie S "Shocker!" uhhhh wut?
+TheMrzippie by a big object
+TheMrzippie By a very big object xD
Despite how super awesome this series is, and how greatly Phil Plait deliveres - I just love his surrounding - Kerbals, books, legos, all together :)
"Where the solid ones, will, errgg... Float, like an eughhh, diamondberg" Best quote of all astronomy time.
This is by far my favourite crash course. Could listen to Phil aaaall day long.
"It has rings but, shocker, they're weird."
So you're saying that Uranus has a river of diamonds? Neat.
Try an OCEAN
Try an entire PLANET
"i'd avoid breathing through your nose on uranus"
I don't know if this pun was intended or not
I got that too
That just came on.
Fauzan Rahardian lmao
Fauzan Rahardian I'd rather never breathe from someone's nose
I doubt it,since it was pronounced Ur-in-is.
"Like it's green brother, Neptune..." 6:40
"Who the F is Hank?"
"Hank is the outermost planet in the solar system, with an atmosphere of primarily hydrogen, helium, and methane. Hank is the guardian of the solar system's nether regions."
Love this
+Gergenhimer nice one
i was thinking Seth but sure why not
Uranus jokes in coming
Coming in uranus
Coming in Uranus jokes
Uranus is a nice shade of blue today
Tiber Septim he said uranus smells really bad like rotten eggs
Tiber Septim
Both planets look so beautiful. Makes me wonder what it would be like on the surface. What a pity we humans are so squishy :(
Jeremy J.
Why don't you put together a committee and talk to the government
Jeremy J. Definitely beautiful planets:-)
Well if we could land on their surface, it'd be pitch black. So I'm happier admiring them from afar
Uranus is very beautiful. Yep, I got jokes
Its not solid its all just a mixture of freezing gases
It's still weird that they called it Uranus, considering that that's the Greek name. The roman name is Caelus. So many shitty jokes we could have avoided if they just stuck with the Roman nomenclature...
....shitty Uranus jokes......
Ikr
No pun intended??
It even sounds cooler than uranus
@@bopisbobuzuli9806 Prince and Tom Petty tribute to George Harrison I know you come back in tomorrow if that's what you want to do but you're welcome to come back Inn Devon still don't make a note out get Omega stuff to best I seen the commercial on that you know why you can't if you can't I'll cooking cuz you can't cook what he cooks I bet he can cook with you too no she can't cook cuz you can't cook with what makes him a shilling what makes you he will not born hater
"The Pale Winds of Saturn" is the name of my Moody Blues cover band.
Nice.
You've got a Moody Blues cover band!?!? That's so awesome. Im just a singer in a rock-n-roll band!!
there's going to be so many mature jokes here in the comment section.
PMW3 it's unavoidable
+PMW3 It's a natural response from the 13 year old minds. They haven't yet learned proper behavior. Those are the same people who can't keep their mouths shut in the movie theaters.
D.E.B. B Or maybe it's because it's fucking funny you douche nugget
+PMW3 There's a time and a place even for mature people to make immature jokes. UA-cam comments sections are ALWAYS that time and place...
+PMW3 I can't put my finger on Uranus... Seriously, youtube it!
I'm done with this comment section
Ben Langtry I wish i would be
Phil your videos are great: educational, smart and really well narrated. Thank you.
Uranus should be prounounced: Ooranos. That is the greek pronounciation, where the o is much more flat than what english speaker are normaly used to. Go to google translate, change to from greek to english and write down "Ουρανός" or "ό" then listen to how it should be pronounciated.
But then it wouldn't be funny.
I really wish that uranus is renamed or had the joke gone. The jokes got stale quick.
I like the name when it's pronounced correctly (Ouranos). I'm just afraid if I say the name, nobody will know which planet I'm talking about.
No, Herschel named the planet Caelus (Roman). Then Bode suggested it be changed to its Greek equivalent, Ouranus. Then it was changed to its Latin form, Uranus.
Thank you. I secretly hate when it gets mispronounced. I can tolerate all the stupid jokes if I know a person knows better.
Aw, I am dissapointed that we had Neptune and Uranus in one only chapter... Would have liked to know more about their moons and if there is any other relevant information regarding life or exploration...
Also, by the way you guys talk about Pluto it would seem as though if Pluto will not have a chapter for his own... :(
Ok now time to play kerbal space program!! :D
The reason is probably because we know so little about them. Voyager 2 is the ONLY probe that has visited the two ice Giants, and being flybys the data gathered would be limited to a quick glance, if you will
Mauro De Simone We just don't know as much =/
Mauro De Simone i hope they do pluto along with the other dwarf planets! or maybe a special on the oort cloud...
Gregory Samuel Teo Its already there :0
Mauro De Simone Get the 'Outer planets mod' to have your very own Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus Kerbal analogues!
I can't express how much I enjoy these astronomy lessons
I WAS looking up a ship video for Sailor Moon but this works too
Weeb
"In true brown-nosing style..." 1:08
"...hairy edge of visibility." 1:27
I'm not part of this Ur-anus crowd, but I couldn't help but notice those hah. I prefer to call the plant U-rah-nis.
So what you are telling me is that uranus smells really bad?
Mandlize Like rotten eggs, specifically.
***** just FYI... hydrogen sulphide doesn't stink when in high concentrations. it is also chemically very similar to molecular oxygen, so in high concentrations (when it is odourless), it can suffocate you by replacing oxygen in your bloodstream. this happens sometimes to workers in leaky sewer lines.
Gregory Samuel Teo Oh, I see. Thanks for the facts
+Mandlize Uranus is the smelliest thing in the hole universe
+
I love crash course, and have watched literally every video on the channel.
But the topic in this particular run is very interesting, and i look forward to these episodes every week.
Thanks guys.
Uranus is a gift that keeps of giving
Really love your videos Phil! Outer space really captivates me. Keep it up!
PLUTO NEEDS ITS OWN EPISODE!!!!!!
yea that'd be a great idea except PLUTO IS NOT A GOD DAMN PLANET. Maybe an episode on Kuiper Belt Objects, or dwarf planets, though.
And also, you misused '"it's"
William Tannery most people have the opposite problem, be proud for him using it at all.
William Tannery This isn't "Crash Course Planets." Pluto is an astronomical object and well-known enough that an episode on it wouldn't be absurd. I expect it'll be used as an example of dwarf planets, though.
William Tannery Only because of arbitrary scientific decisions made to classify objects. Sure, it's fine to say it's not a planet, but in general conversation it really isn't a huge deal to call it one. After all, it used to be considered one, before the bigheads decided that it didn't need to be anymore.
Also, he used "its" correctly. For ownership (its) for contraction "it is" (it's). I know it seems backward, but that's really how to use it.
I love this series.
Sorry to have not responded earlier. The Astronomy videos are funny and full of excellent information. The recap at the end of each episode is most helpful. Thanks and keep 'em coming!
I cannot tell you how aggravating it is to have an intelligent conversation with someone only to mention Uranus and for them to smirk.
+WankersCramp69 probably how everyone else feels talking to you
Well that's what happens when you pause, look them in the eye, and whisper "your anus" at a frequency only the two of you can hear, and then you start wiggling your eyebrows and inching closer and closer to him, and right when he starts feeling really uncomfortable you squeal like an orc that just crawled out from Sauron's bunghole and rip off your shirt and start chasing him around the room howling like a panicked baboon
+Kahandran that escalated quickly
+WankersCramp69 It's probably very hard for anybody to have an intelligent conversation with you when you call your UA-cam profile "WankersCramp69" #JustSaying
+WankersCramp69 Agreed.
Love this series of videos. Very well made and explained! Would love to see them keep going in some way!
9:00 Could you make an episode on gravitational capture? I feel like this topic is way deeper than this simple statement "captured by gravity" can convey. What kept Triton from leaving Neptune again after approaching it? Some force must have been there, and I would love an episode that explains all the different possibilities how that could happen :D
ruolbu when a gravity capture happens, the extra energy that would otherwise allow the satellite to escape get transferred to the planet, and it speeds up.
Ethen Sun Randomness
Do you have a source for this, that explains it in more detail? I don't understand what interaction between bodies you are talking about.
ruolbu too complicated, take 3 bodies to capture a satellite. but basically energy has to be conserved, and i'm telling you where the energy goes
Ethen Sun Randomness Well that's why I did not ask for an indepth explanation, youtube comments are usually a bad choice to explain complicated things due to their short nature. But if you are aware of a good website, blog, or other medium/source that explains the nature of this process, I would really like to read it.
ruolbu this would be your best bet unless you have university physics
physics.stackexchange.com/questions/134819/how-can-a-planet-gravitationally-capture-objects
Uranus deserves its own episode.
It is amazing how these planets were created. I have leanred so many about them and I want CrashCourse to continue making these simple but very understandable videos. Bravo CrashCourse
This is literally the best video I could have asked for while taking a poo after a long days work
Not a rare Pepe 2/10
I am currently watching this while I poo and I agree
I too poo.
Your videos are interesting, inspiring and very appreciated. Thank you.
This is one of the best produced videos I have seen on UA-cam, with exactly the right amount of information. Spectacular.
I've heard all this stuff before, I think... but the way this guy tells it makes it that much cooler to listen to and absorb. Stellar job.
I love how you started the video with how to properly pronounce Uranus, ever since I became an astronomy geek I've been correcting people LOL
When you said it would take 6 mins to fall down the cliff on one of Uranus' moons, was that with Earth's gravity or that moon's gravity?
Great job guys, the host is really good.
I wish it was explained in separate videos and Pluto would get its own episode.
Keep up the good work!
Yes! Thanks for another amazing episode! Keep up the great work!
I've have watched all of your videos! You do such a wonderful job conveying so much information in a concise and entertaining way! Please keep doing more!
OMG THIS CHANNEL IS SO AWESOME!!!
I would've never thought Uranus and Neptune were so interesting!
So many information! Very learning! Such facts!
Uranus Planet Power... Neptune Planet Power...
Make up!!!
Finally some quality joke i can smile at. My hero.
Finally something that makes my day. Thank you!!!
I just knew someone who knows about Sailor Moon.
Even here in an astronomy video, the two of them can never be separated. You just don't separate them
2:25 ultimate diss
Thanks for the great video! Really glad that you mentioned Pluto as well. For some reason Neptune and Uranus creep me out, when I think about how dark they must really be. Really interesting to know that apparently Uranus smells terribly bad.
You wanna know what else is dense hot and under a lot of pressure, THIS GUY!
"Studies have shown that the pressure inside Uranus can break up Methane molecules"
Uranus was actually a Greek god. His Roman equivalent's name was Caelus.
Why they didn't just name the planet after the Roman god, like all the other planets, instead of the Greek one, I don't know.
He wasn't a god. He was actually above the titans. Idk what him and Gaia were called though. (Gaia is earth, by the way.)
Uranus was the King Of The Heaven’s in Roman Mythology.
Herschel was the one who wanted to name the planet Caelus (Roman). But then Bode was the one who suggested it be changed to the Greek equivalent Ouranus. Then it got changed Latin to what we currently call it as Uranus. I actually prefer it that way, it’s the only planet to have it be named as Greek. It’s different than the others like the way it’s different in everything. Uranus is the silliest, but it’s the most memorable.
i do not have maturity for this discution lol
Beat me to it. With all the awesome stuff I've learned from this series, I'm surprised they messed up on that. But no one's perfect, I guess.
Maybe we should start a petition and get it re-named to Caelus. People might make fun it even more at first, but it will phase out over time.
im loving this series,phil would make an awesome teacher
Great vid! Here's why Uranus is tilted: Another rocky planet with a moon (Triton) passed close enough to Uranus to tip it on its side. Gravity interaction with Uranus flung the visiting planet and moon outward where the planet collided with Neptune, causing Neptune to actually SWALLOW the planet, with the result that Triton continued to orbit Neptune in retrograde fashion. This not only explains Triton's nonstandard orbit, but also the fact that Neptune is warmer than Uranus, even though Uranus is closer to the sun.
Two beautiful planets. National Geographic did phenomenal articles on each planet just after their respective visits by Voyager 2. They were exciting times only matched belatedly by New Horizons visit to Pluto
Neptune was seen twice by Galileo in 1613, but he thought it was a fixed star.
I love this Narraror! Love the video. Good content and explained exceptionally well. Thank you.
"I'd avoid breathing through your nose in Uranus"
...
...
Brilliant!
Tired of all the jokes about how to pronounce Neptune
AbuserTube
Nepchuun~~
Hey, at least it wasn’t a Sera Uranus joke.
Neptune-chan
"I'd avoid breathing through your nose in Uranus"
Just accept the jokes. They're inevitable.
Stick the jokes in Urass.
....I love you as a host you make me happy to hear about such unimaginable things .fascinating
thank you guys for making these videos. it really helps me at school for projects and studying :)
Did he just say jumping off a 10 kilometer Cliff would be fantastic?
this guy is a bad influence
Lol
probing Uranus, really Shepard?
I effing love this stuff. Thanks CCAstronomy.
Thank you for this excellent series.
I think it's time to change the name of Uranus to put a stop to these silly jokes once and for all! I propse Urectum.
Or urasse
teknokryptik Or UraValid&RespectablePlanet. It may need some affirmation after all those years of ridicule.
teknokryptik no that can't happen till 2620
teknokryptik - They could call it "Ouranos" (with the accent on the "nos"), which is the correct Greek pronunciation (means sky), but it would probably cause a comedian's strike :)
Let's go back to calling it George.
Thank you very much for making this video, Phil Plait and the others at _SciShow_ Astronomy! Really interesting to learn about Uranus and Neptune. I just have one question: how you did a single video about these ice giants and not two separate videos, i.e. one for Uranus and one for Neptune? Was there not enough information about each planet? _Wikipedia_ wrote two different articles, one for Uranus and one of Naptune, so why should you do one video about them?
***** I like it’s colour. What fascinates you about the planet of the ocean god, Neptune?
Marius Alsén I like Neptune too. Probably because of the Roman sea god.
A crashcourse of physics would be so cool!
One thing why I really enjoy "Crash Course Astronomy" is the fascination and excitement Phil brings into the show. If just every teacher I had in school was this absorbent of my attention. This course is almost totally free of general opinions or opinion at all, except that astronomy is fascinating, which is in stark contrast to the shows by Hank Green, which are almost only composed of his opinion.
Markus Bina Damn it! I meant his brother John. I always mix them up ... sorry :(
Cryovolcano is my favorite word ever
Next episode..."Astroids" whoops!
This was my favorite video in the series so far. This is because I realized I knew nothing about these two planets except their names and colors. Thank you.
This guys does an excellent presentation and is cool to listen to.
How come you guys put Uranus and Neptune in one video?
I remember I saw Uranus when i was 7 i was looking at it through a telescope and it had a greenish tinge when I saw it I saw this where there was no light pollution
I love space. Thanks for making these awesome videos
I'm protesting already. 2 planets should mean a 20 minute video!
But sorry, would it take those 6 minutes the jump calculating from what kind or gravity? 'Cause is just not the same to fall from that high depending on it... and if gravity at that moon is lower then not only because it's the biggest mountain but because of the moon's gravity it would take a lot more than six minutes, isn't it?
xurirux Earth gravity I assume.
xurirux I did the calculation using Miranda's gravity, of course, and assuming no air resistance. That fall on Earth would be much, much faster.
xurirux Huh, good catch. Acceleration due to Earth's gravity is 9.8 m/s^2, but I'd suspect that the small moon would have a different acceleration due to gravity.
***** do you know the time taken (roughly under Miranda's gravity? I am curious.
Xuri Fenton We can solve for it!
d=0.5at^2
I'm pretty sure he mentioned the height...?
Then you use the time, in seconds, for t. The height of the cliff for d. Solve for a.
Or just look it up...
I should pay more attention to math
BlueTank You totally should. Applied mathematics and engineering is awesome!
I love these series
It's the crash course astronomy drinking game! Take a shot every time an unusual thing in space is thought to have been caused by something colliding with it.
I feel both pronunciations of Uranus (urine-is/your-anus) are awful and the planet should be renamed Oranos. It doesn't help since the guy who advocated the name Uranus was German, and in German Uranus sounds like the original Oranos.
You ran is is NY favorite way f saying. Thanks sailormoon
Alex Raffeo I always pronounce it Ouranos, although most people don't know what I'm on about.
Alex Raffeo lotsa words get mashed up in english, especially american speakers who like to replace the 'ah' sounds with 'eh' or 'ay' sounds. in the romance languages (spanish, italian, french, etc), Uranus would be pronounced "oo-rah-noos".
Alex Raffeo it shouldn't even be named Uranus but Caelus to keep the Roman gods theme
Gregory Samuel Teo The Greeks pronounced it "oo-rah-nos" (not "oo-rah-noos"). The Latin word for it is Uranus, pronounced "oo-rah-noos", but they couldn't confuse it with "anus" because the syllables are "thrown" in a different "tempo". But anyway, the Romans knew of that Greek god Ouranos, whom they called Uranus, but they didn't worship him as much (if at all) as their own god of the sky, "Caelus".
As for modern languages, planet then deity:
English: "Uranus" / "Uranus"
French: "Uranus" / "Uranus"
German: "Uranos" / "Uranus"
Italian: "Urano" / "Urano"
Spanish: "Urano" / "Urano"
In English, French and German, the "-us" part does sound like in "anus". But French don't make jokes about that. I'm not sure about Germans but I'm pretty sure they don't either. In English however you have to make an effort not to see that joke coming.
There's no such thing as a video about the planet Uranus where there won't be any jokes about it.
Amazing Video!! I improve my knowledge, thank you so much.
Wow thank you so much for this video.
I really was wondering a lot about
Uranus and Neptune and how they came
To be. Thanks so much for educating me
This video will come in handy one day :)
"Uranus sounds dirty, how can we fix it?"
"Urine-ous"
A+
How abour "rrr-run-us"
Ur-Anus
This solar system have so many resources we can plunder! If only we had the technology... :(
***** That notion that our resources are valuable just because of their desirability which is high because of their of their scarcity is kind of silly, but lets put aside the fact that desirability hikes up the price for a moment and pretend that their value was determined rationally.
Diamonds are very useful, but their value doesn't have much to do with that usefulness, it's got more to with how hard they are to obtain, or if we oversimplify how much energy is required to get diamonds.
Unfortunately there's no real way out of that energy cost, and it would be much higher there than on earth pretty much regardless of the technology. Extracting diamonds from a gas giant requires far more energy for precisely the same reason that they have an abundance of what we consider resources here on earth.
I guess my point is that I think it makes more sense to think about this sort of plundering solar systems in terms of energy than in terms of materials, because that's where the real fundamental difficulties lie, it is by far the biggest limiting factor here on earth and dominates even more the farther we go. And if we were to somehow overcome those difficulties regarding the energy, that would probably completely change the rules for what is even considered valuable or a resource...
foobargorch I'm thinking real value in metals, water and gas. Although, gas giants are the plunderer's dream; I guess a more realistic, but dangerous, is asteroid/ moon mining. There would be so much to take back to Earth, not to mention the jobs. Still... technology... :\
***** To mine an asteroid you would probably need to deorbit it around the sun, bring it back to earth, etc, which requires huge amounts of energy, but is still sort of feasible because we can at least conceive of doing this to the entire asteroid, to the point that it might still be cheaper than getting it out of the earth (where we would pay mostly in terms of processing, not in terms of delta V)
But to extract materials out of a huge gravitational well such as a massive planet is incredibly expensive in terms of energy, we'd have to launch something from earth, which is already very expensive, which would also store enough energy to get things back to earth. The rocket equation applies twice in both cases, but since the escape velocity for the route back is so much bigger, this makes the equation applying to sending the equipment all the more worse.
For technology to drastically change the way the energy costs compound to actually make use of those materials, I think we would probably need to be advanced enough that taking things back to earth, jobs, etc would probably be irrelevant anyway, most likely we'll have divorced consciousness from meat before that.
foobargorch Asteroid mining (whether done entirely robotically, or not) would certainly give humanity the resources necessary to enter a post-scarcity economy. If every base material is plentiful, then it makes sense that most synthesized material, like food, would be plentiful as well. But maybe not. Carbon is plentiful, but why don't we all have diamonds? But that's no reason to call the whole idea off. I guess we'll just have to try it and find out!
Of course, any chemical rocket would be woefully unprepared for this kind of task, whether it's to send refining equipment to the asteroid and mine it there for valuables and in-situ rocket fuel, or to literally bring the entire asteroid to Earth and mine it while it's in our orbit. Fortunately, chemical rockets are not the only things that could do it. Ion drives are more efficient (but take much longer), and what's stopping us from developing VASIMR rockets or nuclear salt-water reactors or fusion drives or antimatter propulsion or so forth? The current laws of physics certainly support rapid and easy interplanetary travel, even without warp drives or reactionless engines. We could build these technologies right now, and extracting extraterrestrial materials would become relatively easy.
***** I think I should try to rearticulate my point, it isn't clear enough.
Regardless of the propulsion method, any flux of useful matter per unit time into the earth from space is proportional to the amount of energy invested in that process, and is more or less the same. And we don't have that energy within our reach yet. We definitely have the technology for it, but that's just one hurdle.
Sure, hypothetical propulsion methods have better energy densities (with some ideas you can even keep the energy on earth, and just carry propellants), but that's more of an efficiency improvement, at the end of the day to accelerate that mass.
So for asteroids this acceleration is reasonable, but for other planets, it's a completely different ballpark.
But bear in mind we have plenty of stuff here on earth, for which energy is also a limiting factor, we've barely scratched the surface, and I mean that quite literally.
Mining asteroids makes economic sense when the cost of asteroid mining is still better than concentrating or refining those materials here, but this only applies to rare materials. It would certainly be valuable (and totally awesome) to do that, but I don't think it's a game changer, with the current state of affairs.
The real game changer would be for humanity to become rational about energy, to respect low entropy energy, to make the best of it, to invest in infrastructure. I'm not holding my breath...
If we can overcome this limiting factor, then I guess the next limiting factor could be materials, and not just specific special purpose materials that would justify the investment.
So, while I totally agree that it makes sense to mine space and it's mind boggling just how much useful stuff is out there, we really can't do anything useful with it until we learn how to do (i.e. apply energy). We're still basically just monkeys playing with fire, our impact is minuscule. And given our track record perhaps that's a good thing ;-)
I suspect if we ever graduate to energy scales that would allow this to make sense, then the assumption that bringing stuff to us is how we need to use it won't necessarily hold. If we have the luxury of reconfiguring the solar system we will probably have a purpose for that reconfiguration that could be implemented without necessarily being very earth-centric.
For example, suppose we need rare metals for building computing hardware which are in abundance in asteroids (just making shit up here). When we're in a position where that's both a necessity and a possibility, don't you think it's likely that we'll have gained the ability to just convert the entire asteroid belt into a giant computer using some self replicating technology, without any net change in the momentum of the materials?
That's fundamentally what I have a hard time accepting, that once our abilities allow us to actually effect changes of that magnitude on our environment, our needs will still be rooted in today's paradigms, which are still confined to a very thin coating of stuff on a giant rock free falling around the sun...
And while I really would like to see humanity putting aside it's idiocy, and everyone joining together to form an egalitarian meritocracy that governs itself rationally and sustainably, without bureaucracy or war or poverty or any of the other anthropocentric and anthropogenic problems that are holding us back from making these ideas a reality, the sad truth is that we seem to be just too stupid and evil, at least so far, and that's a much more difficult problem to overcome than energy or material scarcity.
I hope that makes more sense, I'm not really good at conveying the subtleties of my position...
Wow! Uranus is really fascinating.
I'm a bit disappointed that you guys did them two in one episode and not in separate ones. I honestly think there was more to reveal about them and since they are less popular than the other planets, it would have been cool because more people would learn more about them and would hopefully appreciate them more. I hope they do with this video too. :)
Uranus and Neptune aren't sister planets they're "Cousins". Such beautiful cousins.
Sorry the lack of lesbian references was unbearable.
WonderfulAkari HA! I see what you did there!
I see what you did there!!
Ama-Uranus and Mich-Neptune are “cousins”. They are “so” related.
I have no idea how you tell where a planet is by maths.
aaron Gregor i know right, its amazing! but check this one out
take the numbers 0,3,6,12,24,48,96
add 4 to those numbers and divide them all by 10, so we get:
0,4 (in AU is that the distance of mercury to the sun)
0,7 (in AU is that the distance of venus to the sun)
1,0 (1 AU is the distance of earth the the sun)
1,6 (in AU is that the distance of mars to the sun)
2,8 (in AU is that the from the asteroid belt to the sun)
etc
valentijnraw Illuminati confirmed?
aaron Gregor It's all about mass, gravity, and the ellipses that make up the shape of orbits. Two things acting gravitationally with each other will cause the their elliptical paths to predictably distort. If you do the math to predict future distortions and the object isn't there when the future comes, either your math was wrong or there's another mass causing different distortions. A whole bunch of complicated back-work to figure out what kind of mass would be needed where to get the locations you actually saw in that future and, so long as your math is correct, you'll find what's out there throwing things off.
valentijnraw this is most likely due to the way gravity works. the mathematicians used orbital mechanics to predict their newfound planets' future locations, so when they failed to follow the predicted path, they had to account for something extra, like another planet's orbit and gravity.
aaron Gregor My body is Reggie.
Glad to see you here, Adam Savage
really nice video.......most extra knowledge as compared with other videos
available
9:58 "Over the decades , astronomers found something weird about *UrAnus* . It was not there where it was supposed to be." 🧐
Uranus is honestly my favorite planet and now I love it even more. And no its not because if you mispronounce its name it sounds like "Your anus". I like it because of its unique rotation, its almost completely smooth surface (the visible atmosphere), the cyan color and its slightly visible rings. And now I know its theoretically rains diamonds there. Awesome.
Your anus actually is the correct way but most scientists avoid giggles while teaching by using the urine us way of saying it. I prefer u-raun-os
Jean-Luc Maske-Stockdale do you think the weather on uranus is so bland because of its crazy axial tilt? since its orbit is really long, the seasons are also decades long, with little daily variation.
Jean-Luc Maske-Stockdale I like Uranus' smooth surface too.
Jean-Luc Maske-Stockdale I've always felt a little affinity for it, myself. Probably has to do with the fact that my earliest scientific memory is of watching a Nova episode about it in the wake of the Voyager 2 flyby. (The internet tells me it aired Oct. 21, 1986; so, I would have been four at the time - just old enough to remember a bit.)
Not my favorite planet, but it's growing on me. Saturn and Neptune are my top 2, but Uranus is # 3.
Such a beautiful video. My fav planet Neptune!
love this course !