Science and Nature

PBS Space Time

PBS Space Time explores the outer reaches of space, the craziness of astrophysics, the possibilities of sci-fi, and anything else you can think of beyond Planet Earth. Host Matt O'Dowd breaks down both the basic and incredibly complex sides of space and time.

How Astrophysics Can Literally Save the World

17m 23s

Giant space rocks are definitely going to hit the Earth again. We actually do know how to deflect them, but only if we find them and correctly assess their risk. But the solar system is a chaotic place. How is it even possible to tell if a space rock will one day collide with the Earth?

Episodes

  • How Astrophysics Can Literally Save the World: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Astrophysics Can Literally Save the World

    S10 E37 - 17m 23s

    Giant space rocks are definitely going to hit the Earth again. We actually do know how to deflect them, but only if we find them and correctly assess their risk. But the solar system is a chaotic place. How is it even possible to tell if a space rock will one day collide with the Earth?

  • Your DNA's Codes Are (Probably) From Outer Space: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Your DNA's Codes Are (Probably) From Outer Space

    S10 E36 - 15m 58s

    Did you know that many of us have up to 4% neanderthal DNA? And that 100% of your DNA may come from outer space? No joke. The biochemistry that defined the coding system of your DNA may have happened off-world, and perhaps even long before Earth existed.

  • Will The Big Bang Happen Again (and Again)?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Will The Big Bang Happen Again (and Again)?

    S10 E35 - 16m 35s

    How did the universe begin? How can something come from nothing? One way to “solve” this most difficult of philosophical conundrums is to avoid it altogether. Maybe the universe didn’t begin. Maybe the Big Bang was just one in an endless cycle.

  • The Final Barrier to (Nearly) Infinite Energy: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Final Barrier to (Nearly) Infinite Energy

    S10 E34 - 19m 39s

    One of the final challenges is deciding on the physical vessel to contain our mini artificial stars--and we have some pretty sci-fi options that are nearly ready to go.

  • The Crisis in Physics: Why the Higgs Boson Should Not Exist!: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Crisis in Physics: Why the Higgs Boson Should Not Exist!

    S10 E33 - 16m 36s

    Quantum physics predicts the universe should’ve collapsed right after the Big Bang, because all particles were immeasurably heavier. Yet it obviously didn’t. Observations confirm this puzzle, and experiments at the Large Hadron Collider still haven’t explained why. At its core is the lightness of the Higgs boson, part of the “hierarchy problem,” which many call physics’ biggest unsolved mystery.

  • Does Timescapes Disprove Dark Energy?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Does Timescapes Disprove Dark Energy?

    S10 E32 - 14m 30s

    The universe is expanding and that expansion is accelerating under the power of dark energy and eventually all matter and energy will be dispersed over such unthinkable distances that nothing can stop space from blowing up infinitely. Unless of course cosmologists blundered and dark energy doesn't even exist. Then it's back to the drawing board.

  • How Many Black Holes Are In The Solar System?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Many Black Holes Are In The Solar System?

    S10 E31 - 18m 32s

    Dark matter has eluded us for many decades. Even our most advanced particle colliders and sophisticated underground detectors have come up short. But it may be that we can finally solve this mystery with a much simpler experiment, involving a ray of light, a good clock, and the planet Mars.

  • Does Infinity - Infinity = an Electron: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Does Infinity - Infinity = an Electron

    S10 E30 - 15m 35s

    What do you get if you take something that’s infinitely massive and combining with something else that’s negative infinitely massive? You get a single electron, at least that’s what it looks like in our most precise way of describing the quantum world.

  • What Does An Electron Actually Look Like?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    What Does An Electron Actually Look Like?

    S10 E29 - 13m 39s

    What does an electron really look like? I mean, if we zoom in all the way. Is it a sizeless speck of charge? Is it a multidimensional vortex of quantum strangeness? Is it the boundary of a tiny universe with universe-electrons of its own? Let’s find out.

  • The NEW Ultimate Energy Limit of the Universe: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The NEW Ultimate Energy Limit of the Universe

    S10 E28 - 16m 35s

    The James Webb Space Telescope has found a quasar that simultaneously breaks a century-old theoretical limit and may explain the conundrum of gigantic black holes in the early universe.

  • Does the Planck Length Break E=MC^2?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Does the Planck Length Break E=MC^2?

    S10 E27 - 17m 19s

    Every good nerd knows that E=mc^2. Every great nerd knows that, really, E^2=m^2c^4+p^2c^2 Want to know what that even means? Sure, I’ll tell you, but today I’d like to invite you to an even higher level of nerdom with extra bits to Einstein’s famous equation that will make even the greatest nerds quiver in their … space time merch if they turn out to be real.

  • What If the Cosmological Constant Is Not Constant?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    What If the Cosmological Constant Is Not Constant?

    S10 E23 - 15m 14s

    We know that the universe is getting bigger. And we know that the speed that the universe is getting bigger is also getting bigger. The standard assumption is that the acceleration rate is itself constant, which will result in ultimate heat death. But a recent survey of primordial sound waves frozen into the way galaxies are sprinkled through the universe reveals that this fate is now in question.

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