PBS Space Time

How Astrophysics Can Literally Save the World

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?

How Astrophysics Can Literally Save the World

17m 23s

  • Quantum Energy Teleportation is Real!: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Quantum Energy Teleportation is Real!

    S11 E3 - 16m 58s

    The vacuum of space is a chaotic sea of quantum fluctuations. Some have said that this vacuum energy can be harvested to build our future starship engines. It can't. But it is technically possible to move real energy through the quantum vacuum without it passing through intervening space. Quantum energy teleportation may be as close as we get to transporter beams. But how close is that?

  • Why Didn’t Antimatter Destroy The Universe?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Why Didn’t Antimatter Destroy The Universe?

    S11 E2 - 14m 50s

    At one-one-thousandth of a second after the Big Bang, the great annihilation event should have wiped out all matter, leaving a universe of only radiation. Why still don't know why any matter survived. Well, a new finding from the LHC brings us one step closer to understanding why there's something rather than nothing.

  • New Evidence: Earth Had Rings (and Might Regain Them): asset-mezzanine-16x9

    New Evidence: Earth Had Rings (and Might Regain Them)

    S11 E1 - 16m 30s

    There’s an extremely good chance that Earth once did have a ring system. At least, that’s the proposal by a recent study that has evidence that a mysterious burst in meteor activity nearly half a billion years ago was actually caused by that ancient ring system collapsing onto the Earth. And, you know, if we had a ring once maybe we can have one again.

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