dreds of bursts. 16 00:00:50,970 --> 00:00:53,650 And no one has a clear answer why. 17 00:00:53,650 --> 00:00:55,410 What is actually giving rise 18 00:00:55,410 --> 00:00:57,683 to these very powerful flashes? 19 00:00:59,130 --> 00:01:01,570 There's always a danger, well, maybe this is actually ET. 20 00:01:01,570 --> 00:01:04,140 We gotta make sure we're doing the right thing here. 21 00:01:04,140 --> 00:01:05,760 To solve this mystery, 22 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:07,440 scientists will search for clues 23 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:09,860 billions of light years from home. 24 00:01:09,860 --> 00:01:12,134 Then come face to face with one of the strangest 25 00:01:12,134 --> 00:01:15,253 most violent phenomena in the known universe. 26 00:01:16,250 --> 00:01:18,650 If you get close enough, it will actually start 27 00:01:18,650 --> 00:01:20,460 to elongate the molecules, 28 00:01:20,460 --> 00:01:22,660 and it would rip the water out of your body. 29 00:01:31,399 --> 00:01:34,600 (birds chirping) 30 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:36,750 The small towns of West Virginia's Highlands 31 00:01:36,750 --> 00:01:39,033 are some of the most isolated in America. 32 00:01:40,010 --> 00:01:42,570 But today, one of them finds itself 33 00:01:42,570 --> 00:01:45,370 in the center of a cosmic mystery. 34 00:01:45,370 --> 00:01:48,843 All because of this, the Green Bank Telescope. 35 00:01:49,890 --> 00:01:52,963 One of the largest movable objects on dry earth. 36 00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:59,420 The structure here stands almost 37 00:01:59,420 --> 00:02:02,800 485 feet above ground level. 38 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:05,913 It's actually taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza. 39 00:02:07,300 --> 00:02:11,690 These huge wheels, five-foot diameter steel wheels, 40 00:02:11,690 --> 00:02:14,750 are the support structure and actually roll 41 00:02:14,750 --> 00:02:16,990 on this track system. 42 00:02:16,990 --> 00:02:21,570 This structure weighs almost 17 million pounds. 43 00:02:21,570 --> 00:02:24,850 So each one of these 16 wheels carries 44 00:02:24,850 --> 00:02:26,763 more than a million pounds. 45 00:02:28,150 --> 00:02:29,330 And the GBT is more 46 00:02:29,330 --> 00:02:31,573 than just strong, it's agile. 47 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,370 We can see more of the celestial sphere 48 00:02:35,370 --> 00:02:37,560 here in Green Bank than can be seen 49 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:41,000 from any single telescope anywhere else in the world. 50 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,410 We can see 85% of the celestial sphere 51 00:02:45,410 --> 00:02:47,623 from this point right here. 52 00:02:50,144 --> 00:02:51,870 And the view from Green Bank has changed 53 00:02:51,870 --> 00:02:54,770 our understanding of the planets, the stars, 54 00:02:54,770 --> 00:02:57,170 and other cosmic phenomena. 55 00:02:57,170 --> 00:02:59,160 And from this remote place, 56 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:02,750 Dr. Frank Drake pioneered the field known as SETI, 57 00:03:02,750 --> 00:03:05,380 the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, 58 00:03:05,380 --> 00:03:08,463 using the first telescope built at this observatory. 59 00:03:09,490 --> 00:03:12,840 He developed a formula known as the Drake Equation. 60 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:15,530 To estimate the number of intelligent civilizations 61 00:03:15,530 --> 00:03:17,773 occupying our known universe today. 62 00:03:18,610 --> 00:03:20,110 Some have calculated that number 63 00:03:20,110 --> 00:03:21,893 to be well into the millions. 64 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:27,580 Astronomers are now searching these same skies 65 00:03:27,580 --> 00:03:29,623 for clues to help solve a new mystery, 66 00:03:30,460 --> 00:03:32,870 the source of a string of unidentified signals 67 00:03:32,870 --> 00:03:35,073 they call fast radio bursts. 68 00:03:38,310 --> 00:03:41,633 They will do so by scanning the cosmos for radio waves. 69 00:03:45,060 --> 00:03:49,600 Radio telescope is like any other telescope. 70 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,913 It collects radiation from the sky. 71 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:59,120 You're more familiar probably with an optical telescope, 72 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:03,140 which collects light waves at visible wavelengths. 73 00:04:03,140 --> 00:04:06,690 Well, radio waves are the same kind of thing. 74 00:04:06,690 --> 00:04:09,400 They're just longer, bigger. 75 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:11,253 Sometimes I call it tired light. 76 00:04:12,490 --> 00:04:14,150 And the radio waves being detected 77 00:04:14,150 --> 00:04:17,740 by the GBT are so faint that even the slightest 78 00:04:17,740 --> 00:04:20,640 electronic interference would drown out the signals 79 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:22,953 collected by its 100-meter dish. 80 00:04:24,300 --> 00:04:28,540 A single cellphone on standby, not even talking on it, 81 00:04:28,540 --> 00:04:31,410 but just on standby waiting on a signal, 82 00:04:31,410 --> 00:04:35,460 placed on Mars would completely overwhelm anything 83 00:04:35,460 --> 00:04:37,083 the astronomer is looking for. 84 00:04:38,610 --> 00:04:40,430 Engineers have the daily challenge 85 00:04:40,430 --> 00:04:43,150 of shielding the telescope from the electronic noise 86 00:04:43,150 --> 00:04:46,423 bombarding it from space and closer to home. 87 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:50,060 The instruments in the telescope's receiver 88 00:04:50,060 --> 00:04:53,380 are kept below minus 300 degrees fahrenheit, 89 00:04:53,380 --> 00:04:56,283 bringing molecular motion to a near halt. 90 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:01,880 The GBT's control room is sealed in copper, 91 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:05,057 preventing any manmade signals from leaking out. 92 00:05:08,510 --> 00:05:11,330 Even life in and around Green Bank is dictated 93 00:05:11,330 --> 00:05:12,873 by the needs of the telescope. 94 00:05:16,930 --> 00:05:19,180 We don't have cell service here. 95 00:05:19,180 --> 00:05:22,710 There is no Wi-Fi; it's prohibited completely. 96 00:05:22,710 --> 00:05:25,523 Television is a little tricky. 97 00:05:28,250 --> 00:05:30,010 And the few microwave ovens permitted 98 00:05:30,010 --> 00:05:32,793 on campus have been encased in metal shielding. 99 00:05:34,860 --> 00:05:38,103 You sort of live like people lived in the '50s. 100 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:45,450 The enforced silence around the telescope 101 00:05:45,450 --> 00:05:48,393 allows it to detect signals that few others can. 102 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:53,470 (dramatic music) 103 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:56,800 45 years into its journey, 104 00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:59,523 the Voyager Spacecraft has left the solar system. 105 00:06:00,940 --> 00:06:03,390 It's more than 11 billion miles from Earth, 106 00:06:03,390 --> 00:06:05,447 beyond the reach of our sun, 107 00:06:05,447 --> 00:06:10,013 a faint beacon is its only connection to its home planet. 108 00:06:12,278 --> 00:06:14,507 And it's emitting a radio signal which has the equivalent 109 00:06:14,507 --> 00:06:17,803 energy of about a 20- or 25-watt light bulb. 110 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:21,730 Astronomers at the Green Bank Telescope 111 00:06:21,730 --> 00:06:24,193 make an attempt to track Voyager down. 112 00:06:29,104 --> 00:06:31,860 (dramatic music) 113 00:06:31,860 --> 00:06:34,063 They find it in a matter of seconds. 114 00:06:36,380 --> 00:06:38,223 We can pick that signal up with the GBT. 115 00:06:38,223 --> 00:06:40,100 It's actually a really bright signal. 116 00:06:40,100 --> 00:06:41,940 No problem at all. 117 00:06:41,940 --> 00:06:43,140 The signals that we're detecting 118 00:06:43,140 --> 00:06:46,103 from fast radio bursts are even weaker than that. 119 00:06:47,987 --> 00:06:50,737 (dramatic music) 120 00:06:52,260 --> 00:06:54,630 When fast radio bursts erupt, 121 00:06:54,630 --> 00:06:57,360 they can unleash as much energy as our sun does 122 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:01,373 in an entire year in a fraction of a second. 123 00:07:03,430 --> 00:07:06,110 But by the time that energy reaches Earth, 124 00:07:06,110 --> 00:07:07,633 it's a mere whisper. 125 00:07:10,550 --> 00:07:12,910 And while astronomers have now detected dozens 126 00:07:12,910 --> 00:07:15,030 of different fast radio bursts, 127 00:07:15,030 --> 00:07:16,900 one of them is different from the rest, 128 00:07:16,900 --> 00:07:19,370 and they're determined to find out why. 129 00:07:19,370 --> 00:07:22,653 They call it FRB 121102. 130 00:07:24,630 --> 00:07:26,780 The source of that signal now enters 131 00:07:26,780 --> 00:07:28,433 the GBT's field of view. 132 00:07:31,270 --> 00:07:34,460 From the telescope's control room one mile away 133 00:07:34,460 --> 00:07:36,630 Dr. Ryan Lynch directs the telescope 134 00:07:36,630 --> 00:07:38,083 to lock in on the target. 135 00:07:39,550 --> 00:07:41,970 So the GBT sees a very small portion 136 00:07:41,970 --> 00:07:43,700 in the sky at any given time, 137 00:07:43,700 --> 00:07:45,690 so we have to be able to control where 138 00:07:45,690 --> 00:07:47,940 it's pointing very, very precisely. 139 00:07:47,940 --> 00:07:50,750 So if you think about a really little tiny crater 140 00:07:50,750 --> 00:07:52,110 or mark on the moon that you might be able 141 00:07:52,110 --> 00:07:53,210 to see with your naked eye, 142 00:07:53,210 --> 00:07:54,540 that's basically the amount of sky 143 00:07:54,540 --> 00:07:56,660 that we're seeing right now. 144 00:07:56,660 --> 00:07:58,320 And there's an even greater challenge 145 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:00,133 to observing 121102. 146 00:08:01,030 --> 00:08:04,460 We don't know when it's going to actually emit a burst. 147 00:08:04,460 --> 00:08:07,800 And the bursts only last for a fraction of a second, 148 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:09,520 only a few milliseconds. 149 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:12,680 So we have spent many tens, probably hundreds of hours 150 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:15,190 on the GBT over the course of the last few years 151 00:08:15,190 --> 00:08:16,220 observing this object, 152 00:08:16,220 --> 00:08:18,220 and hundreds of hours on other telescopes. 153 00:08:18,220 --> 00:08:21,160 And we've only detected a few hundred bursts. 154 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:23,533 And if you would add all of those bursts up, 155 00:08:24,540 --> 00:08:27,320 they would only add up to a few seconds' worth of time 156 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:29,233 when the source is actually active. 157 00:08:31,260 --> 00:08:32,860 Like most observations, 158 00:08:32,860 --> 00:08:34,920 this one comes up empty. 159 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:35,753 This is such an interesting object 160 00:08:35,753 --> 00:08:38,545 and it's such a big mystery in radio astronomy right now 161 00:08:38,545 --> 00:08:41,103 that it's worth spending all of that time. 162 00:08:46,980 --> 00:08:49,210 The Green Bank team's search for answers is 163 00:08:49,210 --> 00:08:50,663 about to get a major boost. 164 00:08:52,030 --> 00:08:54,060 They're partners with Breakthrough Listen. 165 00:08:54,060 --> 00:08:56,280 The world's largest SETI project have made 166 00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:59,283 a major investment in the telescope's computing system. 167 00:09:03,630 --> 00:09:06,500 If you have a laptop with a one terabyte hard drive, 168 00:09:06,500 --> 00:09:09,860 this represents about 4000 of those. 169 00:09:09,860 --> 00:09:12,330 Dave MacMahon has installed enough new hardware 170 00:09:12,330 --> 00:09:15,463 to effectively double the observing power of the GBT. 171 00:09:16,450 --> 00:09:18,440 So it's kind of like we got a big upgrade 172 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:22,700 to our cable box; we went from standard to deluxe package. 173 00:09:22,700 --> 00:09:23,900 We're open for business. 174 00:09:25,490 --> 00:09:27,490 The team hopes this upgrade will help them 175 00:09:27,490 --> 00:09:30,240 build on the few seconds' worth of data captured 176 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:32,803 on FRB 121102 so far. 177 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:37,020 A few seconds that have set off a series of discoveries 178 00:09:37,020 --> 00:09:38,720 and made this one of the hottest topics 179 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:40,253 in astronomy today. 180 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:45,700 When FRB-121102 was first discovered, 181 00:09:45,700 --> 00:09:48,200 everything got thrown into overdrive. 182 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:50,470 We knew it was special almost right away 183 00:09:50,470 --> 00:09:53,953 because no other FRB event has been seen to repeat. 184 00:09:55,500 --> 00:09:56,990 They realized they're dealing 185 00:09:56,990 --> 00:09:58,910 with a one-of-a-kind phenomenon. 186 00:09:58,910 --> 00:10:00,456 And because this one signal repeats, 187 00:10:00,456 --> 00:10:03,463 they knew they could tease more information out of it. 188 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:06,640 It's kind of like if you're in the woods 189 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:08,196 and a bird chirps and you hear it one time, 190 00:10:08,196 --> 00:10:09,670 you're like, wait, what was that bird? 191 00:10:09,670 --> 00:10:12,060 I heard it but I couldn't quite figure out what it was. 192 00:10:12,060 --> 00:10:14,290 And if you hear a few more chirps of the bird, 193 00:10:14,290 --> 00:10:15,723 then you might be, okay, I now I know what this is. 194 00:10:15,723 --> 00:10:16,743 It's a robin. 195 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:22,134 They could now track the location of the signal 196 00:10:22,134 --> 00:10:24,573 to the Constellation of Auriga. 197 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:30,100 Once we were able to localize 121102, 198 00:10:30,100 --> 00:10:34,050 we realized that this galaxy has never been seen before. 199 00:10:34,050 --> 00:10:35,644 Sometimes I try to think about the incredible scale 200 00:10:35,644 --> 00:10:39,340 of all the distant objects that we're listening to 201 00:10:39,340 --> 00:10:41,023 and it boggles the mind. 202 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:42,993 They now knew where 203 00:10:42,993 --> 00:10:46,090 FRB 121102 was coming from. 204 00:10:46,090 --> 00:10:49,177 But they still didn't know what was generating the signal. 205 00:10:50,060 --> 00:10:52,717 But each subsequent flash of energy helped them 206 00:10:52,717 --> 00:10:55,263 narrow down their list of suspects. 207 00:10:56,610 --> 00:10:58,840 When fast radio bursts were first discovered, 208 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:00,176 they were all one-off events. 209 00:11:00,176 --> 00:11:02,320 And so a lot of the early theories focused 210 00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:05,522 on catastrophic events that would destroy 211 00:11:05,522 --> 00:11:09,620 whatever was actually causing the fast radio bursts. 212 00:11:09,620 --> 00:11:12,683 That could be things like an exploding star or supernova. 213 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:15,620 It was a huge explosion. 214 00:11:15,620 --> 00:11:17,770 Maybe two neutron stars colliding. 215 00:11:17,770 --> 00:11:19,880 So when we start to see it repeat, 216 00:11:19,880 --> 00:11:23,350 that changes our whole paradigm of what it could be. 217 00:11:23,350 --> 00:11:25,110 And it is still the only known 218 00:11:25,110 --> 00:11:27,830 fast radio burst that repeats. 219 00:11:27,830 --> 00:11:30,030 And that makes it an especially big mystery. 220 00:11:31,230 --> 00:11:32,630 Once astronomers discovered 221 00:11:32,630 --> 00:11:34,990 that this wasn't a one-and-done phenomena, 222 00:11:34,990 --> 00:11:36,620 they had to find a celestial body 223 00:11:36,620 --> 00:11:39,030 that could expel bursts of radio waves 224 00:11:39,030 --> 00:11:41,730 without destroying itself. 225 00:11:41,730 --> 00:11:43,790 They began to suspect that the signal 226 00:11:43,790 --> 00:11:45,387 could be coming from a pulsar. 227 00:11:48,293 --> 00:11:51,400 Pulsars are dead stars that emit radio waves 228 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:54,430 so predictably that NASA has discussed using them 229 00:11:54,430 --> 00:11:57,733 as cosmic beacons, guiding future space missions. 230 00:11:59,430 --> 00:12:01,980 But the strength of 121102's signal is 231 00:12:01,980 --> 00:12:04,003 far beyond the typical pulsar's. 232 00:12:04,890 --> 00:12:06,820 And there's something else about these bursts 233 00:12:06,820 --> 00:12:08,770 that puzzles astronomers. 234 00:12:08,770 --> 00:12:10,060 You might think to yourself 235 00:12:10,060 --> 00:12:11,950 that with all of those bursts 236 00:12:11,950 --> 00:12:14,270 we would be able to find some sort of a pattern 237 00:12:14,270 --> 00:12:17,280 or a regularity in when they're going off. 238 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:18,210 But we've looked really hard 239 00:12:18,210 --> 00:12:21,380 and we haven't been able to find anything like that yet. 240 00:12:21,380 --> 00:12:22,940 Because astronomers haven't been able 241 00:12:22,940 --> 00:12:25,000 to uncover a pattern to 121102's 242 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:27,370 seemingly random burst cycle, 243 00:12:27,370 --> 00:12:30,363 they've had to search beyond pulsars for an explanation. 244 00:12:32,930 --> 00:12:35,700 Continuing the work begun here by Frank Drake 245 00:12:35,700 --> 00:12:37,780 more than 50 years ago, 246 00:12:37,780 --> 00:12:40,390 the astronomers from Breakthrough Listen wonder 247 00:12:40,390 --> 00:12:43,090 if signals like these could conceal a message 248 00:12:43,090 --> 00:12:44,633 from a distant civilization. 249 00:12:45,790 --> 00:12:49,320 Anytime there's a new astrophysical phenomenon 250 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:52,938 discovered, I think aliens are one of the explanations 251 00:12:52,938 --> 00:12:56,273 for it that people put on a list. 252 00:12:57,660 --> 00:13:00,190 In space, radio waves can be created 253 00:13:00,190 --> 00:13:03,533 by natural cosmic events, but they're rare. 254 00:13:04,650 --> 00:13:06,380 On Earth, we've learned that they can 255 00:13:06,380 --> 00:13:10,403 be created artificially by intelligent species, like us. 256 00:13:12,710 --> 00:13:16,600 The energy emitted by 121102 is staggering, 257 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:18,943 equivalent to 500 million suns, 258 00:13:19,910 --> 00:13:21,823 far beyond human capacity. 259 00:13:22,740 --> 00:13:24,510 But the scale of that explosive power 260 00:13:24,510 --> 00:13:26,763 does not concern SETI's astronomers. 261 00:13:28,090 --> 00:13:30,480 Part of our assumptions in the SETI field 262 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:33,350 is that we are just getting into radio technology. 263 00:13:33,350 --> 00:13:35,240 We've only had it for 100 years. 264 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:38,512 And other civilizations could be far more 265 00:13:38,512 --> 00:13:40,710 developed than we are. 266 00:13:40,710 --> 00:13:42,900 I don't think that there's some fundamental limit 267 00:13:42,900 --> 00:13:45,610 to how strong a signal some intelligence 268 00:13:45,610 --> 00:13:47,160 could create if they wanted to. 269 00:13:51,340 --> 00:13:53,120 The question for astronomers then 270 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:56,090 is not just why this signal is so strong, 271 00:13:56,090 --> 00:13:58,233 but whether it carries any information. 272 00:13:59,550 --> 00:14:01,489 When one gets a radio signal from outer space 273 00:14:01,489 --> 00:14:05,200 you automatically start to think about extraterrestrials. 274 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:07,550 While we can't rule out all FRB sources, 275 00:14:07,550 --> 00:14:08,690 we're pretty confident that 276 00:14:08,690 --> 00:14:12,453 FRB 121102 is not an ET source. 277 00:14:13,370 --> 00:14:15,790 With ET signals, one would expect a lot of information 278 00:14:15,790 --> 00:14:18,540 to be encoded into that signal. 279 00:14:18,540 --> 00:14:19,820 And all the information that we're getting 280 00:14:19,820 --> 00:14:22,710 from this burst has a natural explanation. 281 00:14:22,710 --> 00:14:24,710 To demonstrate what an encoded message 282 00:14:24,710 --> 00:14:26,850 could look and sound like, 283 00:14:26,850 --> 00:14:29,253 Andrew Seymour has created one from scratch. 284 00:14:30,270 --> 00:14:31,700 Each pixel in this image of the 285 00:14:31,700 --> 00:14:34,270 Green Bank Observatory's logo corresponds 286 00:14:34,270 --> 00:14:36,283 to a different frequency and time. 287 00:14:37,340 --> 00:14:40,503 Think about them like a series of notes on a sheet of music. 288 00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:44,700 Here, instead of having seven or 12 notes 289 00:14:44,700 --> 00:14:46,530 that we may have on other instruments, 290 00:14:46,530 --> 00:14:49,850 we have over 1000 notes being played here. 291 00:14:49,850 --> 00:14:51,590 When all of those notes are played together 292 00:14:51,590 --> 00:14:54,308 we see and hear this. 293 00:14:54,308 --> 00:14:57,641 (electronic screeching) 294 00:14:59,060 --> 00:15:02,440 And if we were to broadcast those frequencies into space. 295 00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:04,306 If another civilization was recording 296 00:15:04,306 --> 00:15:06,460 with computers the same way we are, 297 00:15:06,460 --> 00:15:07,650 they would see this image come 298 00:15:07,650 --> 00:15:09,150 across their computer screens. 299 00:15:10,698 --> 00:15:14,031 (electronic screeching) 300 00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:17,990 But when Andrew analyzed this signal 301 00:15:17,990 --> 00:15:20,619 from one of FRB 121102's bursts, 302 00:15:20,619 --> 00:15:22,963 he discovered something very different. 303 00:15:25,026 --> 00:15:28,600 (electronic screeching) 304 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:30,710 One may think that there's information coded in that, 305 00:15:30,710 --> 00:15:32,360 but it has a natural explanation. 306 00:15:33,230 --> 00:15:35,920 As strange as the sound and image may appear, 307 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:39,420 Andrew finds nothing unusual or alien about them. 308 00:15:39,420 --> 00:15:42,020 Instead of a message, he sees a snapshot 309 00:15:42,020 --> 00:15:44,673 of an explosive moment from a distant galaxy. 310 00:15:46,301 --> 00:15:49,634 (electronic screeching) 311 00:15:53,476 --> 00:15:56,809 (electronic screeching) 312 00:15:57,660 --> 00:15:59,730 Many still believe that if we were to receive 313 00:15:59,730 --> 00:16:01,487 a message from a distant civilization, 314 00:16:01,487 --> 00:16:05,083 it would come to us cloaked in a radio signal like this. 315 00:16:07,030 --> 00:16:10,000 And that is one more reason why every new radio burst 316 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:12,013 is met with such anticipation. 317 00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:17,340 Now that scientists have determined 318 00:16:17,340 --> 00:16:20,260 that the source of the unidentified repeating signal is 319 00:16:20,260 --> 00:16:23,330 unlikely to be a supernova or a pulsar 320 00:16:25,190 --> 00:16:28,310 or even a message from beyond our galaxy 321 00:16:30,570 --> 00:16:33,210 they've turned their attention to one of the most exotic 322 00:16:33,210 --> 00:16:36,710 and violent phenomena in the universe, magnetars. 323 00:16:41,430 --> 00:16:43,927 It's something that we love to study from afar. 324 00:16:43,927 --> 00:16:45,693 (Chuckle) Don't wanna get too close. 325 00:16:47,250 --> 00:16:50,350 Like pulsars, magnetars are superdense 326 00:16:50,350 --> 00:16:52,963 remnants of stars that have gone supernova. 327 00:16:55,250 --> 00:16:59,310 Imagine an object with the same mass as 500000 Earths 328 00:16:59,310 --> 00:17:03,010 but squeezed into about the size of a city. 329 00:17:03,010 --> 00:17:05,330 That's the equivalent density of taking every person 330 00:17:05,330 --> 00:17:07,943 on the planet and squeezing them into a sugar cube. 331 00:17:09,110 --> 00:17:12,033 What sets them apart is their magnetic force. 332 00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:15,480 Magnetars have the strongest magnetic fields 333 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:16,313 in the universe. 334 00:17:16,313 --> 00:17:18,520 If you were to take a magnetar and place it 335 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:20,080 at the distance of the moon, 336 00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:21,210 which would not be a good idea, 337 00:17:21,210 --> 00:17:22,660 because it would destroy the Earth, 338 00:17:22,660 --> 00:17:24,750 but in the process it would also erase all 339 00:17:24,750 --> 00:17:26,950 of the computer hard drives and credit cards on the Earth 340 00:17:26,950 --> 00:17:29,183 because of the strength of the magnetic field. 341 00:17:30,830 --> 00:17:33,080 What a magnetar would do to a human body 342 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:34,323 is even more alarming. 343 00:17:35,540 --> 00:17:38,020 It will actually start to elongate the molecules 344 00:17:38,020 --> 00:17:40,050 in your body, and it would rip the water out 345 00:17:40,050 --> 00:17:41,620 of your body because those molecules 346 00:17:41,620 --> 00:17:43,270 themselves are slightly magnetic. 347 00:17:44,510 --> 00:17:46,110 It's not gonna end well for you. 348 00:17:48,270 --> 00:17:50,060 When a crack forms on a magnetar's 349 00:17:50,060 --> 00:17:54,420 rigid surface, it can set off a starquake, 350 00:17:54,420 --> 00:17:57,410 ejecting so much energy that it can be felt 351 00:17:57,410 --> 00:17:59,773 billions of light years across the universe. 352 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:04,810 Magnetars are extremely rare on their own. 353 00:18:04,810 --> 00:18:06,730 And when scientists observed the radio waves 354 00:18:06,730 --> 00:18:10,923 from FRB 121102 they discovered something rarer still. 355 00:18:13,650 --> 00:18:15,250 We saw that they were really twisted up, 356 00:18:15,250 --> 00:18:16,800 kind of like a corkscrew. 357 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:19,100 And the degree of twist is higher 358 00:18:19,100 --> 00:18:21,700 than in any other source of radio waves 359 00:18:21,700 --> 00:18:22,950 that we've ever detected. 360 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:26,970 So we think that this could be a sign 361 00:18:26,970 --> 00:18:29,950 that FRB 121102 is itself living 362 00:18:29,950 --> 00:18:31,573 somewhere near a black hole. 363 00:18:33,020 --> 00:18:35,710 With radio telescopes like the GBD, 364 00:18:35,710 --> 00:18:38,460 astronomers are peering into deep space, 365 00:18:38,460 --> 00:18:41,743 tracing a series of cataclysmic events from deep time. 366 00:18:43,780 --> 00:18:48,063 A white hot magnetar nestled in the orbit of a black hole, 367 00:18:48,910 --> 00:18:51,320 firing off instantaneous bursts of energy 368 00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:55,973 that billions of years later can be observed from Earth. 369 00:18:58,350 --> 00:19:01,393 But with every new discovery comes a new set of questions. 370 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:03,890 Within our own galaxy we have something 371 00:19:03,890 --> 00:19:05,430 that's very similar. 372 00:19:05,430 --> 00:19:07,930 So why are these energetic events happening 373 00:19:07,930 --> 00:19:10,247 in other galaxies, but yet not our own? 374 00:19:13,150 --> 00:19:15,230 I think all scientists are just naturally drawn 375 00:19:15,230 --> 00:19:17,080 to something that they can't explain. 376 00:19:18,610 --> 00:19:21,790 Decoding FRB 121102 has revealed 377 00:19:21,790 --> 00:19:24,820 a part of the universe we never knew before. 378 00:19:24,820 --> 00:19:26,820 And it could also help us better understand 379 00:19:26,820 --> 00:19:28,790 the explosive magnetars discovered 380 00:19:28,790 --> 00:19:30,513 in our own galaxy as well. 381 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:34,280 But in this quest, astronomers understand 382 00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:35,813 that timing is everything. 383 00:19:37,098 --> 00:19:40,650 Even though we're only detecting the bursts now 384 00:19:40,650 --> 00:19:42,850 they were actually emitted hundreds of millions 385 00:19:42,850 --> 00:19:44,710 to billions of years ago. 386 00:19:44,710 --> 00:19:45,814 So it seems like we're watching 387 00:19:45,814 --> 00:19:48,480 this drama unfold in real time, 388 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:51,380 but in fact the objects that have created these bursts 389 00:19:51,380 --> 00:19:52,733 may very well be long gone. 390 00:19:53,740 --> 00:19:55,830 But even a signal from the distant past 391 00:19:55,830 --> 00:19:57,043 can be meaningful. 392 00:19:57,990 --> 00:19:59,590 I almost feel like a moral compunction 393 00:19:59,590 --> 00:20:02,740 to listen if we can because it would be a shame 394 00:20:02,740 --> 00:20:04,690 to have these signals coming from somewhere else 395 00:20:04,690 --> 00:20:05,550 and we just sort of missed out 396 00:20:05,550 --> 00:20:08,120 because we didn't wanna listen for them. 397 00:20:08,120 --> 00:20:12,010 Our radio programs have looked at a few thousand stars. 398 00:20:12,010 --> 00:20:15,810 The optical people have maybe looked at maybe 10000 stars. 399 00:20:15,810 --> 00:20:20,550 So that's 10000 stars out of a few hundred billion. 400 00:20:20,550 --> 00:20:21,883 So not a lot. 401 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:26,196 And then I say, okay, let's set the volume of that space 402 00:20:26,196 --> 00:20:28,863 equal to the volume of the Earth's oceans. 403 00:20:29,890 --> 00:20:33,000 Then you come up with a very sobering analogy 404 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,280 that so far we've search about 405 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:37,483 one eight-ounce glass out of the ocean. 406 00:20:38,530 --> 00:20:42,210 So not a lot, but we're on an exponential curve. 407 00:20:42,210 --> 00:20:45,253 Our tools are getting better and faster. 408 00:20:46,950 --> 00:20:48,730 The growing number of signals picked up 409 00:20:48,730 --> 00:20:51,100 by the world's radio telescopes are generating 410 00:20:51,100 --> 00:20:53,230 an ever increasing flow of information 411 00:20:53,230 --> 00:20:55,173 from across time and space. 412 00:20:56,730 --> 00:20:58,470 There is no limit to what they might tell us 413 00:20:58,470 --> 00:21:00,100 about our universe. 414 00:21:00,100 --> 00:21:02,090 So long as we remain curious 415 00:21:02,090 --> 00:21:04,873 and continue to look and listen to the stars. 416 00:21:09,075 --> 00:21:11,825 (dramatic music)