Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe - Listener Questions 48: Vacations, Destruction and Anti-matter Black Holes

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

Daniel and Jorge answer questions from listeners and try to avoid giving marriage advice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Ah, come on. Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity

with Intel core ultra-processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance. It keeps up with your business, not the other way around. Whoa, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search at Lenovo.com. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X-1 Carpent, powered by Intel Core Ultra processors,

so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA. terminal, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back-to-school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate.

Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's important that we just reassure people that they're not alone and there is help out there. The Good Stuff podcast, season two, takes a deep look into One Tribe Foundation. a non-profit fighting suicide in the veteran community. September is National Suicide Prevention Month, so join host Jacob and Ashley Schick as they bring you to the front lines of One Tribe's mission. One Tribe, save my life twice.

Welcome to Season 2 of the Good Stuff. Listen to the Good Stuff podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, Horace. Hey, do you have a good holiday break? I did. We were hiking near volcanoes, swimming under huge waterfalls, scuba diving, there's a whole adventure.

Sounds like you'd agree with the rest of my family. They prefer adventures to vacations, which sometimes I think can be more exhausting than our regular schedule at work. Would you prefer physics adventures? Not really. I mean, they like to go skiing, which seems like a highly dangerous physics adventure. You ski? I don't ski. They ski and I stay in the cabin and bake treats.

Oh, I see. You prefer to do chemistry while they do physics. That's your vacation. That is the one part of chemistry I do like. Yes, kitchen chemistry. Well, if you could take a physics adventure anywhere in the universe, where would you go? Do you visit a black hole, dive into a neutron star? You know, I think the best place to visit in the universe is right here around the surface of

the earth, where the fewest things are trying to kill you and we have the highest, chocolate concentration in the universe. I get the sense you're not much of an adventurer, are you? You and my family have finally figured that out. I think we've known this for a while, no. Daniel. Guilty is charged. Hi, I'm Jorge May Cartoonist, and the author of Oliver

great big universe. Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist and a professor at UC Irvine. And the kind of adventures I like are mental adventures. Mental, like radical, like, whoa, dude, that's mental. Or, like, trips to the mental institution. No, nothing that's going to drive you mentally insane. I mean, adventures into our understanding of the nature of the universe or, frankly, just

fantasies about orbiting black holes without actually going there. You prefer egotourism, not ecotourism. A fantastical exploration of the universe rather than a real one. Wouldn't you rather have both, though? Wouldn't those both be fun? Like if you could go to a black hole, you'd be there enjoying it, and it would also be stimulating your mind. Stretching your mind, as it may.

If you go to the black hole and send me back the data, then I can have the mind stretching without the body stretching. Yeah, that'd be a bit of a stretch, though. Like, I'm not sure you'd be the first person I would tell. I know you have a whole contra physicist you collaborate with. But anyways, welcome to our podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of IHeart Radio. In which we try to stretch your mind with the grandest mental adventure of all time. We want to take the entire universe and squeeze it into your brain.

We hope that everything that's out there in the universe from the tiniest particles to the biggest stuff out there can be made sense of, can be explained, and can be folded into a short audio stream and explained to you. That's where you want to be the vacation from your everyday living of the universe to thinking about the universe, taking your mind on giant journeys across the cosmos and into the deepest secrets of the universe. If you desperately want to understand how the universe works, how it all comes together, what rules it follows without reading a whole textbook filled with mathematics, then this is the right podcast for you.

Or unless you're a mathematician, in which case that sounds like a vacation. to them, probably. This podcast is a vacation from Pages of Equations. Or I guess if you want to spend your vacation sleeping, you could pick up a pretty good math physics book. Some of those are riveting. Like, oh, my God, what derivative are they going to take next? I can't even predict.

Yeah, it's all a big cliffhanger. But yeah, even in your vacations or your holiday breaks, you were probably wondering what's out there. What's out there in the universe? What's going on? How does it all work? Because part of being human is wanting to understand everything you see. Whether you're on the ski slopes or hiking up the side of a volcano or in your kitchen cooking up a treat,

there are rules that the universe follows and we want to understand them. So everybody out there asks questions about how things works and wants to know the answer. And we'd love if you shared your questions with us. Any questions you have about the physical universe or volcanoes or baking, send them to us to questions at Daniel. and Jorge.com. Oh, man. Did this just turn into a baking podcast? You're the one who brought it baking, man.

I never want to talk about chemistry. You're the one who brought out baking. Oh, no, that's true. You baked it into the intro. You're right. That's true. No, I'm guilty. You're the one who made it about chemistry, but I did bring up baking, yes.

Now, do you think about chemistry when you bake? That's my question. Yeah, you know, that's the part of baking I actually don't like because it seems like, oh, the temperature just has to be right and then it has to go up and then down and some magic. happens and the texture changes completely and the whole thing can be very frustrating yeah tasty if it works out it can be delicious well the part i get hung up in is just following the recipe whenever i see like ounces i'm like ounces is that weight or volume or teaspoons what is that

it's the units man the units yeah but anyways everyone does have questions we all have questions since we were little kids as we grew older and the questions just seems to get bigger and bigger as we think about the universe and everything in it. So on this podcast, we tackle lots of different questions, but our favorites are your questions, the questions that bubble up in your mind as you live in this universe and think about your next vacation.

So today on the podcast, we'll be tackling. Listener questions, 48. Now, Daniel, is there a theme to these questions today? Are they about baking or scuba diving? There's a lot of physics in scuba diving, actually. It's part of the certification process. Yeah. Today's questions are all but vacations and cosmic destinations.

Wait, did you say vacations? Vacations. I said vacations, but I'm never going to go on a vacation again without thinking about it as a vacation. Yeah, there you go. You can bake it into the name and the baking. I'm going to bake my way through that vacation. But yeah, so these questions are all about traveling to distant

and interesting places across the universe. Do you think people are cooped up during the holidays and we're wondering about where they can go in the universe? I think people just like to imagine themselves in various parts of the universe. What would it be like to be near a neutron star or to go visit a black hole or to see an anti-matter black hole?

What would the actual experience be like? I think people are frustrated by being trapped on the surface of the earth and want to actually go and experience the rest of the universe. Well, we have three awesome questions here about white dwarves, about destroying a whole planet. I'm not sure what kind of occasion that would be. And also one about antimatter and whether it matters in the universe. And so let's jump right in.

Our first question comes from Trey from Trabucco Canyon, California. Hello, Daniel and Jorge. This is Trey in Tribuco Canyon, California. I was hoping you could help me and my wife resolve a little disagreement about our packing for vacation. next year. You see, we really want to go to the system, Sirius B, which I believe is a white dwarf. And I'm trying to tell my wife how the rocket equation basically means we have to pack as light as possible. She's determined that you can't go on vacation without bringing sunblock. And I'm trying to explain that, you know, Sirius B is a white dwarf. There's no nuclear fusion happening

anymore. I think that means there's no UV radiation, the kind that causes sunburn. So I think we can save some of our suitcase space by leaving that at home. So please help us solve that question. And if we do have to bring the sunblock, what SPF would you recommend? Thank you so much. All right. Great question, Trey. And just to let you know, we're not qualified marriage counselors. Right? I'm not. I mean, we can help inform the decisions you make in your marriage, but no. Do you think we're qualified even for that? What would our wives do?

Would our wise agree? I'm terrified to ask them that question. But, you know, in the same way that like science can inform policy, right? We can help people just understand the nature of the situations they're getting themselves involved in without actually recommending a course of action. Well, I wonder if we should decide with his wife. just, you know, in his best interest here. You think that's always the best advice side with your life?

Yes. You're always wrong. Your spouse is always right. That is the key to a happy marriage. All right. Well, we just got a little bit of insight. If they follow it too, then it'll be a happy marriage, yes. Everybody compromises more than 50%.

It sounds like a good situation. Everyone gives in 100% of the time. That's love, man. That's love. All right, but then you have to actually decide, are you bringing the sunblock to visit series B, right? Decisions actually have to be made. All right, all right.

Let's get back to the question here. Trey seems to be planning a vacation with his wife and he wants to go to a white dwarf system and he wants to know if he should bring sunblock. That's the basic question, right? Yeah, that's right. He wants to know basically how bright would it be near there? Is it safe to be near a white dwarf

because there isn't fusion happening inside of it? Basically, what's it like to be near a white dwarf and what gear do you have to bring? Well, he mentions the system Sirius B, which he believes is a white dwarf. Now, is it a white dwarf, Daniel? Series B is a white dwarf, and it's the closest one to Earth. So it's a good choice if you want to go visit a white dwarf. So he is pretty serious about it.

He seems to be. Serious. Seems to be serious. Then he wants to go to Series B. But yeah, so it's the closest one. How close is it? You said it's the closest one? Yeah, it's just under nine light years away from here,

which is not really a practical trip for Americans, at least, who only get two weeks of vacation. But if you want to see a white dwarf, it is the most accessible. All right. Well, let's dig into the question, Daniel, and let's start maybe with the basics. What is this is white dwarf? And do you need sunblock if you're under it or above it? Yeah, white dwarf is a really fascinating object. It's basically the end point of stars, right?

Stars we think of as huge burning balls of gas, fusion happening inside them, converting lighter elements into heavier elements. But like anything that uses fuel, eventually it will run out. It will fuse all of the available materials and no longer be able to do that fusion and sputter out. And the end point of a star depends on how much mass it's started with. Smaller stars end up as white dwarves, bigger stars become neutron stars, even bigger stars become black holes. So this would be a star that's not big enough to turn into a neutron star or a black hole when it runs out of fuel. So what happens when it runs out of fuel? Does it collapse or does it just like poof or it just stops burning? Sort of all of those. I mean, the star when it's

burning is a delicate balance between gravity that's trying to collapse it into a black hole and fusion, which is pushing out, creating radiation and preventing it from collapsing into a black hole. But then the fusion runs out, right? And so no longer is it able to sustain it. So it does collapse into a much denser object. A typical white dwarf has about the mass of the sun, but the volume of the earth. So it's really a very, very incredibly dense kind of matter. Is it like a big collapse, like a supernova collapse or is it just like a let's just crumbles into a denser object? It's not like a supernova collapse. It's more like the core of the star is left over. Like when a star is burning, the fusion initiates at the core. But then as

heavier elements gather at the core, the fusion tends to move to the outer layers in the later periods of the star, the outer layers where the fusion is happening, those get puffy and the star gets really big and eventually just blows out all the outer layers and leaves behind sort of the core of the star, which is this hot blob of super dense matter, like the ash from all the fusion that's left behind. And so it's super dense, super hot, but not as dense as a neutron star, like things are still an atom form, or are they broken up? So yes, it's not as dense as a neutron star, and it doesn't have enough gravity yet to collapse

into a black hole because there are still some forces there pushing back. What exactly is the nature of the matter? We call it electron degenerate matter. It's still atomic matter in the sense that there are like protons and neutrons and electrons there, but it's all merged together really, really tightly. So it's not like they're really individual atoms. The electrons occupy these sort of like energy levels that are spread out across the star. And it's actually the electrons that are keeping the star from collapsing further into a neutron star.

So it's a giant like rock or is it like a giant soup of electrons and protons? It's a giant very dense soup of protons and electrons. And the electrons because of the poly exclusion principle are trying to avoid ending up in the same quantum state. Because remember electrons are fermions and fermions can't occupy the same state as other fermions. So the electrons don't want to be squeezed down to like lower energy states because then they would overlap with each other. And that results in a kind of pressure because electrons are. forced to stay at higher energy levels like further up the ladder in order to avoid colliding with electrons at the lower energy states.

That means that they're whizzing around and basically pushing on the star and keeping it from collapsing. If you had more mass, you would squeeze those down. Those electrons would be captured by the protons, turning them into neutrons, and you get a neutron star. But there isn't quite enough gravity to make that happen. So it's a giant, dense soup of super hot stuff, right? It's super hot, right?

It's super hot, yeah. Like, how hot is it? Well, there's actually a big range from like 4,000 Kelvin up to like 150,000 Kelvin. You mean like if you look at all the white dwarves in the universe, they have a range of temperatures. They do have a big range of temperatures, exactly. And what does that range depend on, like how old they are or how big they were or how hot the star was? How many TikTok followers they have? So what we're talking about here is the surface temperature.

And that depends, yeah, basically on the mass. So there's a bit of a range of the masses of these things. And the bigger they are, the hotter the surface temperature. Because there's no longer fusion going on at the heart of these stars, right? This is like when fusion is done, these protons are not squeezing together to make heavier elements. That's already happened. You already have like carbon or helium or whatever has been fused. You don't have the temperatures needed to fuse the heavy elements that you've gathered.

So fusion is sort of done. It's not actually burning. It's just sort of like after a fire has gone out, you still have embers and they're still. sitting there hot and glowing. That's essentially what a white dwarf is. And eventually it will cool down. It will radiate away all of its heat out into the universe and it'll become a black dwarf. Wait what? Eventually. Eventually we think every white dwarf will become a black dwarf. We think it takes a very, very long time. Is there a range where like it turns into a gray dwarf? And is this sort of like Gandalf and the wizards where they have different powers? We don't know because we've never seen what

happen and we don't think there's been enough time in the universe for this to happen. It's sort of counterintuitive, but it takes a long time for things in space to cool off. You think of spaces like cold and if you go out there, you're freeze to death, right? Well, it's actually harder to lose your heat in space because there's no air out there to rob you of your heat. There's no wind. The only way to lose heat is to radiate it away, to glow away your heat. So, for example, satellites and the space station have to worry a lot about cooling. It's complicated. Anyway, it's going to take like trillions of years for white dwarfs to turn into black

dwarfs. So we think the universe eventually will have lots of black dwarfs in it because like 90 something percent of all stars in our galaxy will become a white dwarf, but there hasn't been enough time for any of them to form. Wait, 97 percent that's almost all the stars in the universe. All of them will become white dwarves and eventually black dwarves? Yeah, because it depends on the mass of the star. Smaller stars become white dwarfs, bigger stars, neutron stars, even bigger stars black holes and most of the stars in the universe are actually less massive than our sun our sun is on the heavier side most of the stars that are out there in the universe right now are red dwarfs they're smaller they're colder they're redder than our sun which is yellower so most of the

stars in the universe have the right amount of mass to end up as white dwarfs now why do they call white dwarfs i guess and not red or black or fuchsia or cyanne yeah it's a good question, you know, white isn't really a color. It refers to like a broad spectrum of colors. And so you can ask like, well, what kind of light gets emitted from a hot blob of rock sitting out there in the universe that's like four to 150,000 degrees Kelvin? And it's very broad, right? These things glow, not because fusion is generating photons, but just because they're hot and hot things in the universe glow. It's called black body radiation. Everything out there with a temperature of the dark matter does glow and generate radiation

and that radiation depends on its temperature. So the higher the temperature, the higher the frequency of the light that you generate. And so white dwarfs happen to be in a temperature range where they generate mostly white light, at least the part of it that we can see. All right, well, then let's answer now Trey's question was if he went to this solar system,

Series B, which has a white dwarf in the middle, and they're there vacationing, do they need to wear a sunblock or are they safe without? Well, no surprise, Trey's wife is correct. You need to bring some sunscreen because even though there's no fusion happening, series B is a hot blob of rock

and it is radiating in the ultraviolet and it will give you cancer if you get too close. I feel like eventually, but like how bright is a white dwarf? Like if our son, Collasin, was replaced with a white dwarf, how bright would it be? Would it be like as bright as it is now, our sun? Or would it be sort of really dim like, you know,

maybe the sun at sunset or sundown or as bright as the moon? So the typical white dwarf is hot and dim and very dense. So mostly they're not as bright as our sun. Some of them are like one 10,000s as bright as our sun. But some of them are like a hundred times brighter than our sun. It depends on the mass. Oh. Oh. Now, what, but what is Series B then?

Because that's the question today wants to know. His marriage depends on it. So Series B is just about the same mass as our sun, but it's like a 20th of the luminosity of our sun. So it's not as bright as our sun. So it depends on how close he wants to get. I mean, that's still pretty bright. A 20th of the brightness of our sun is not a very dim object.

I see. So if it's about the same mass as our sun, then you probably want to be orbiting it. Maybe it around the same place where the earth is, which means that if they were vacationing there, it would be pretty dip. Like, they should bring some headlamps or something. It'd be like twilight all the time, exactly.

Then would they still need sunblock? They still would need sunblock because these things are pretty hot and they actually do emit significantly in the ultraviolet. Some of these, including CIRSP, also generate x-rays. So if they have no atmosphere to protect themselves, then they can just be exposed to the UV. It sounds like there's a lot of variables here that we're adding. But like if they were on Earth, similar to ours, orbiting Series B,

it's almost like they have an automatic SPF of 20 because the sun is 20 times dimmer than the sun. But even in the x-ray and UV range, it would be a 120th or it'd be less maybe because it's mostly black body radiation. But the sun is also mostly black body radiation. And so it would be pretty similar spectrum. But just one 20th. Yeah, just one 20th. So if they magically transport the Earth to that system and orbit Series B at the same distance,

then yeah, they don't have to worry about sunblock. But if they're out in space orbiting Sirius B, then yes, please bring some sunblock. So, well, I guess maybe the answer is that Trey's wife is right. You do need sunblock, but maybe you don't need like a 30 SPF or 50. You just need like a 5 SPF. I mean, just always bring sunblock. Do you wear sunblock even when you sit in your cal,

eating chocolate? I do. Yes. I put sunblock on every day. Every day. Absolutely, man. I live in Southern California. Nice.

Is that why you look so young and beautiful? Young at least. Young at least. Young and as beautiful as I ever was. All right. Well, I think we answered the question, right? I think you do need sunblock because there is still radiation x-rays and UV light there. But maybe not as much.

You don't need as much sun-block or as thick of a sunblock. SPF. If you're going to bring your planet and its atmosphere with you, then yeah. Yeah, I think the bigger question is, why would you want to go there for a vacation? It sounds kind of dim, kind of far. I mean, that's kind of personal. That's between Trey and his wife, right? You don't know what they're into.

Maybe they like dim places. Yeah, who knows, man? People like all sorts of stuff. I guess, I guess, yeah. All right, well, good luck, Trey, on your vacation and your marriage as well. If you're coming to us for advice, we already have concerns. Yeah, that's right. you're already in trouble

maybe she's turned into like a marriage legal advice podcast more stuff we're not qualified to talk about yeah all right well let's get to our other questions about destroying planets and about antimatter

but first let's take a quick break in the heat of battle your squad relies on you don't let them down Unlock Elite Gaming Tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. And push your gameplay beyond limits with Intel Core Ultra processors.

That's the power of Lenovo with Intel inside. Maximize your edge by shopping at Lenovo.com during their back-to-school sale. That's Lenovo.com. Ninth, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal glass.

The injured were being loaded into ambulances, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and Order Criminal Justice System is back. In Season 2, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight. That's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious.

Well, wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy?

That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor. and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet.

So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I don't write songs. God write songs. I take dictation. I didn't even know you've been a pastor for over 10 years. I think culture is any space that you live in that develops you.

On a recent episode of Culture Raises Us podcast, I sat down with Warren Campbell, Grammy-winning producer, pastor, and music executive to talk about the beats, the business, and the legacy behind some of the biggest names in gospel, R&B, and hip-hop. This is like watching Michael Jackson talk about Thurley before it happened. Was there a particular moment where you realized just how instrumental music culture was to shaping all of our global ecosystem? I was eight years old. And the Motown 25 special came on.

And all the great Motown artists, Marvin, Stevie Wonder, Temptations, Diana Ross. From Mary Mary to Jennifer Hudson, we get into the soul of the music and the purpose that drives it. Listen to Culture raises us on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're answering listener questions here today. fixing people's marriage or making it worse. I'm not sure. It's all a big physics experiment. We're well-intentioned, even if it's clumsy.

That's right. We're here to inform, not to reform your marriage. I have performed some marriages, though. I have married people. Oh, nice. And it's valid? Does it work if it's a physicist? Being a man of the universe?

I'm an official shaman of the universal lifechurch.com. Thank you very much. Oh, is that your title? Shaman. Shaman. I got to pick any title I want to. wanted. Isn't it shaman? Shaman? If I think if I'm the shaman, I get to decide how I pronounce it. I see. I see. There's no requirement. There's no class in how to pronounce the title as part of the

qualification process. The only qualification is can you click this button online? And I pass that with blind colors. And that makes you qualify to marry people. Yes, absolutely. Well, you should add that to your title. Physics professor slash. Officiant. Efficient. Yeah. Shaman. Or shaman. No, I did a few weddings and then I retired permanently. Oh, I see. And how are those marriages going? Still going strong? No divorces yet, yeah. Oh, good. You got a perfect record. I do, yes.

So far. Maybe the keys that they've never asked you for marriage advice. That's probably crucial, yeah. All right, well, let's get to our next question. We have a question here concerningly about how to destroy a planet. Hello, Daniel and Jorge. This is David from Menlo Park, California. I'd like some professional advice. Say I want to destroy a planet from a distance with a single particle.

What particles should I use? It needs to have at least 10 to 32 joules of energy and be stable long enough to travel, say, one light year. Please consider as well what method I will need to employ to increase the particle's energy to that level. Not asking for a friend here, this one is totally for me to advance my nefarious plans. Thanks, and have a great day.

All right. At least he's straightforward. He's not claiming to be asking for a friend or anything. Yeah, I like how he said. I like some professional advice. Yeah, like, is his job to destroy the universe or to think of a way to destroy the universe or think of a way to prevent the destruction of the planet?

I'm not quite sure what his profession is. I think his boss is Darth Vader and he works on the Death Star, right? Oh, or maybe he's Darth Vader's boss. Or Darth Vader commissioned him as an architect to design a Death Star. Oh, interesting. I see. He's designer of the future Death Star. We're going to work our way into the canon, man.

Are we going to get credit? Is there going to be a little plaque in the Death Star? Made with information obtained from a Daniel and Horace explained the universe. I don't want any kind of credit there. No, thank you very much. But it gets destroyed anyways, twice. That's true. And according to the, or three times if you count the latter movies,

in which case our plaque is gone, I think. All right, but this is an interesting question. An interesting professional question, I should say. And David wants to know if you want to destroy a planet, like, say, for example, the Earth, I imagine. And you had to do with a single particle, which particle would you use? And I guess how would you use it? Yeah, this is a really interesting question because first you have to think about what it means to destroy a planet. like do you want to annihilate the planet purely into energy or you just want to like break it up

and send all of its bits flying out into space in different directions with enough speed that they like don't gather back together into a new planet like what are the technical requirements for your planetary destruction please sir i see yeah that start from the beginning like what do you mean by destroying a planet because you're like i can help you with all the whole range we got a whole menu here folks destroy a little i can help you you want to to destroy a lot. He came to the right place. So I was assuming that what he wanted to do is make it not a planet anymore, basically break it up into chunks and send those chunks out to infinity with enough speed that they don't

come back together as a planet. Didn't want to actually like convert the mass into energy. I see. Because I guess that would be disappointing if you like destroyed a planet and then a few hundred years later it gathers back up into a planet again. Yeah, it doesn't really feel like destroying it. The explosion just like recalapses back into a planet. I mean, probably you still killed everybody on the surface. Maybe that was your goal. But there's still a planet there, right? I feel like that's usually what people or supervillains mean when they talk about destroying a planet. I mean, it depends, right? If you're like building a galactic super highway through a solar system and you have to demolish a planet because

it's in the way, then you really want to break it up into debris. Oh, I see. Maybe you're building like a galactic particle collider and you just need that space. Or maybe you just need to make space for like a new vacation resort and or a bakery and you got a pesky planet in your way yeah exactly tray has commissioned you to build something for him to visit exactly and this is interesting interesting and will he need sunblock so this is something we can actually calculate you can think about like how much energy do you need to add to the bits of a planet to send them out fast enough that they overcome the power of gravity, right? Like we talked about escape velocity.

You throw a ball from the surface of the earth fast enough. It will overcome the gravitational energy and fly out to infinity and never come back. Well, how much energy you need to do to like pick up pieces of Earth and throw them all out to infinity so they all have escape velocity? That's actually a number we can calculate. Interesting. But that's just sending it off. Don't you need extra energy to also break up all the rocks and stuff, holding

the earth together? Yeah, you do, but most of the energy is gravitational. What do you mean? How do you know? Like if I try to break a rock with my hands, it's pretty hard. But so I'm throwing that out into space fast, too, I guess. Is that kind of what you mean? Like the energy takes to launch a rock away from Earth so that it never comes back is way more than the energy might take to break it into two. Exactly. Because most of the reason that the Earth is stuck together is gravitational energy, right? It's not actually like bonded together. It's just so squeezed together by gravity. It's also a too complicated problem if you think about all those details. There's like too many ways to break up the earth. Like do you break into two halves and send them in different directions?

Do you break them into 10 to the 47 pieces? That energy is smaller, I think, than all of the gravitational binding energy. I see. You're assuming, I guess, that it's smaller. I've done some calculations. They're very hand wavy and approximate, but most of the energy you need is the gravitational binding energy and that's already a huge number we're talking like two times 10 to the 32 joules it's an enormous amount of energy we'd take to send chunks of the earth out to infinity that sounds like a lot but maybe give us some context like a stick of dynamite how many jewels can that release so a single stick of dynamite is like two million jewels right that's like 10 to the 6 joules and we're talking about 10 to the 32 joules what about like an atomic bomb you know if

you blew up all of the nuclear weapons that all humans have ever built and even deployed, then it's like 10 to the 20 joules. It's still a quadrillion times too low. Like 10 to the 12 too low. Wow. So you need a quadrillion times

all the nukes on Earth to really obliterate the Earth. Exactly. When they say that we have enough nukes to like destroy the planet, they don't literally mean blow the planet into smithereens. They just mean to create enough destruction on the surface that everybody dies. Right. We don't literally have the power to blow up the planet.

Even like massive collisions that have obliterated all life on Earth have not destroyed the planet, right? Like the collision that extinct of the dinosaurs, obviously the Earth is still here after that, even though that had like 10 to the 23 joules. What about like the collision that made the moon? That's a great question because it almost did obliterate the pre-Earth. We think that the moon was formed by a collision of a Mars-like object called Thea, where they a proto earth called Gaia, which is maybe a little bit smaller than the current earth. And that resulted in like a huge blob of like molten lava, which eventually formed into

the moon and then the earth. And we think that had about 10 to the 30 joules in that collision. So of course, not enough to obliterate the previous planet that was here because we're all still here, but close, right? Like within a factor of 100. Although it becomes kind of a philosophical question, right? Like if you take a planet and you break it up to bazillion pieces and it comes back together, Is it still the same planet?

Oh, it's the planet Theseus. That's right, planet of Theseus, the old conundrum. So it would take really an extraordinary amount of energy in order to actually blow up a planet. All right, well then David's question was, if you could do it or had to do it with just one particle, which particle would you pick and how would you do it with one particle? I guess he wants to do the least amount of work possible

or to do it in the most elegant way possible. I'm not sure what the motivation or constraints are. This sounds like a really hard way to blow up a planet to put that much energy into a single particle. I mean, we put energy into particles all the time, and it sounds very dramatic. We have a large Hadron Collider, and we have particles from space that are hitting us with a lot of energy. But, you know, we don't typically measure those in jewels because there's not a lot of jewels in those collisions. We're talking about really tiny little particles. They don't have a lot of mass.

They don't carry a whole lot of energy. Like the most energetic particle we've ever seen. hit the planet has a very large amount of electron volts, but just a few hundred joules. Like, it's called the oh my God particle. And it's three times 10 to 20 electron volts, but that just translates to a couple hundred joules. How much is that like in terms of like a baseball?

So a baseball traveling at like 100 kilometers an hour has a few hundred jewels. So like you throw a baseball and 100 kilometers an hour, it's not going to destroy the planet, even if you're like Nolan Ryan. And you're saying that's the biggest one we've seen coming from outer space? Yeah. So like cosmic colliders, which are pretty impressive, accelerate particles to very high energies, but nowhere near the amount of energy needed to destroy a planet. And that doesn't mean it's impossible, right?

It's possible, David, to accelerate particles to an arbitrary energy. There's no limit on how much you could accelerate a particle. So if you built a really enormous particle collider out there, a galactic collider, you could in principle accelerate like a proton up to 10 to the 32 joules, enough energy to demolish a planet. Right, there's no limit because just the faster it goes, the more energy it has. Yeah, there's a limit on the speed, right? You can't exceed the speed of light, but you can always pour more energy into the particle. It's just that as you approach the speed of light, the relationship between speed and energy becomes nonlinear.

But there's no limit on energy. Proton's going to have an infinite amount of energy. They'll never go fast in the speed of light. asymptotically approach it, but there's no limit on the energy. So you got more magnets and you got more little electric fields to accelerate that proton, you can just keep pushing it until it has an earth-destroaring amount of energy. Now, I guess there's several questions here. I think that David is asking, the first one is like what kind of particle would you use

as a particle physicist, like if you were doing this, and I guess the second question would be how fast do you need to accelerate it? Yeah, I guess I would use a proton because you need something that has to be. has a charge in order to accelerate. We tend to accelerate particles by putting them in electric field, which pull on them. But why a proton? Why not like a, aren't muons super heavy? Muons are heavy, but they don't last very long.

They're not stable. So you want something stable because it's going to take a while to accelerate this thing. So then your options are like a proton or an electron. And I choose a proton because a proton feels the strong force. And so when it smashes into your planet, it's going to have a bigger impact. It's going to like collide. and interact with the particles of the atmosphere more dramatically. Like what you want is for that proton to deliver the energy onto the planet.

Not to just like pass through it and create a tiny little hole in your planet that nobody's going to notice. You want it to deposit all of its energy in the planet. And so for that to happen, you want the most interactions possible. So proton's a nice choice because as an electric charge, you can accelerate it and its bits inside of it, the quarks feel a strong force. So proton smashing into the earth is just going to deliver that. Interesting. Okay, so you wouldn't just pick a quark. You'd pick a proton, which is made out of quartz.

Well, you can't accelerate just quarks. Quarks can't be on their own. So you had a minimum serving of corks is like a proton. All right. So proton would be your bullet choice here. How fast do you have to accelerate this proton? And what would it take to accelerate something, a proton that fast? It would just take a lot of money. I mean, the only thing that limits us from doing it right now is enough money to build a big enough accelerator. And like, we have the technology. We know how to do it. it, you just need to build a lot of pieces of your accelerator. The way an accelerator works is you just have a lot of little segments. Each one has an electric field to give it a little push. You want more energy? You just build more segments. So the only thing that limits you is having enough money to build those things and then enough space. Well, like paint us the picture, how big of an accelerator would you need to accelerate a proton to planet killing speed?

So I actually did this calculation and I thought, well, what if you had an accelerator? I know. It sounds like you thought about it. There's a lot. Are you sure you're not David from Menlo Park, California? I have thought about solar system science accelerators, not because I wanted to destroy a planet, but because I wanted to create collisions that could help us, like, see what's inside the smallest bits of matter, maybe like reveal the plank scale or whatever. And if you happen to get a planet destroying gun out of it, hey, you know. I think that would be a bad outcome.

You know, look, science is for people. I don't want to kill everybody. And who's going to read my paper about the great discoveries we make with this collider? if there are no people to read it. Ooh, that sounds like a movie idea. Maybe like we're getting invaded by aliens and our only hope are particle physicists who can build a big enough gun.

If your only hope is particle physicists, you're screwed. Let me just say that. Nobody's going to believe that plot. Particle physicists save the world. Like maybe in 50 years, some spinoff from one of our ideas could actually be useful,

but we can't deliver anything on schedule. All right, so you thought about this? How big of a collider do we need to build to make a planet gun? So a collider with the radius of the orbit of Jupiter would not be big enough with current acceleration technologies, which means basically you'd need something like around the scale of the Orch cloud or bigger in order to get these energies. Well, I think you're thinking about a circular collider, which is when you build like a circular

track and then you accelerate the particle going around the loop, right? You need something that big over radius because the faster it goes, the harder it is to keep it going in a loop. Yeah, exactly. And the loop is an advantage because then you get to push it lots of times. You can also build a linear accelerator, just a straight shot. But then you only get one push of the particle with each of your little segments. More like a rifle, right?

Yeah, more like a rifle. So then it has to be much, much longer. And if you had to do it that way, how big would it have to be given current technology? Because this all depends on current technology, right? It all depends on the space you need to accelerate particles. As we talked about in a recent episode about like plasma, wakefield accelerators, there are some ideas out there that you can accelerate particles much more quickly. So accelerators could be much, much smaller.

But those technologies don't really exist currently and don't really work on large scales. All right. So it's possible. And you're saying you would pick a proton as your particle of choice. Yeah. But you'd have to build a collider basically on galactic scales, you know, or interstellar scales at least. And so we're talking about like, you know, well more than quadrillions. of dollars in order to build this thing.

Well, it sounds like David is a professional planet killer. Somebody's got money for this. Yeah, David, you're going to need more paper for the budget on this thing. Really tiny thought to get all those zeros. Well, my question is like, let's say you built this gun and you accelerate a particle to 10 to the 32 jewels and you shoot it at a planet, like, is it going to destroy the planet or is it just going to make a pinpoint hole through it? You know, what happens when a particle hits the atmosphere is it's,

Just like when a meteor hits the atmosphere, it interacts with the atmosphere, deposits its energy, creates a fireball. And so enough energy, then, yeah, it's going to deposit all that energy on the planet. It's not just going to create a pinprick in the same way that, like, the collision that extincted the dinosaurs didn't just, like, make a hole through the planet, right? It created an explosion and deposited its kinetic energy on the surface. Same thing would happen here. Well, I'm thinking, like, a bullet can sometimes just fly through you or, like, if I shoot a bullet through a piece of paper, it doesn't, like, obliterate the paper. it just makes a hole in it. Would maybe like a planet, even though it's all rock and lava and all that stuff,

to a particle going that fast, would it just be like a piece of paper? It's a good question because a particle going that fast would also see the planet's sort of length contracted due to special relativity. But still, I think because of the hydronic interactions in the atmosphere, it would create a big shower and that energy would tend to spread out. And if it spreads out like that, it's not going to create a pinprick. It's going to create like a very wide shower of energy, which is going to destabil. the planet. Right. So maybe not a pinprick, but a big hole through the planet. Maybe, right? Like, it may not even obliterate as we are planning the whole planet. It might just kind of punch a big hole through it and not necessarily send every particle in it, every rock in it flying with escape velocity. Yeah, that's fair. The energy we calculated to obliterate the planet assumes that you're going to use all that energy in just the right way to like push every rock in the right direction. So you need to budget extra energy.

just in case. You might need to shoot it twice. You might want to invest in two particles, David. That might be a better idea than one part or maybe even lots more particles. Yeah. Or make the particle accelerator even bigger. Oh, there you go. All right.

Well, hopefully this doesn't help David, I guess. Do we want to help David with this question? I feel kind of conflicted about even answering this question. Although it might lead to enormous funding for a new particle collider. So, you know, win, lose, lose, win. I don't know. I see. It's all a giant ethical mess for you here.

It's a big conflict of interest, yes. Satisfar my curiosity or destroy the planet. I don't know. I don't know. I kind of do know, though. I kind of do. It's not a mess. It's crystal clear for you.

Exactly, yes. We all know what I would do in that scenario. All right. Well, let's get to our last question. It's not as ethically sticky as this question. And it's an interesting question about antimatter. So let's get to that. But first, let's take another quick break.

In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock Elite Gaming Tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. And push your gameplay beyond limits with Intel Core Ultra processors. That's the power of Lenovo with Intel Inside. Maximize your edge by shopping at Lenovo.com during their back-to-school sale.

That's Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush. Parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal glass.

The injured were being loaded into ambulances, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and order, criminal justice system is, Back. In season two, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight. That's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious.

Well, wait a minute, Sam, maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's Back to School Week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate.

Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor, and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants to wants them both to meet. So do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast. I would love for you to share your breakdown on pivoting. We feel sometimes like we're leaving a part of us behind when we enter a new space, but we're just building. On a recent episode of Culture Raises Us, I was joined by Volisha Butterfield, Media Founder, political strategist and tech powerhouse for a powerful conversation on storytelling, impact, and the intersections of culture and leadership. I am a free black woman who worked really hard to be able to say that. I'd love for you to break down.

Why was so important for you to do C. You can't win as something you didn't create. From the Obama White House to Google to the Grammys, Malicia's journey is a masterclass in shifting culture and using your voice to spark change. A very fake, capital-driven environment and society. We'll have a lot of people tell half-truths. I'm telling you, I'm on the energy committee. Like, if the energy is not right, we're not doing it, whatever that it is.

Listen to Culture raises us on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we are plotting to destroy the earth and or leave it to go on vacation. answering listener questions here that listeners like you send in. Daniel, how can people send in their questions? You can write to us to questions at danielandhorpe.com or go look at our website, Danielanhorpe.com, where there's a form you can fill out. We answer all of our questions. You can also tag us on Twitter at Daniel and Jorge and we'll respond.

And you take anonymous questions, right, from professional planet killers. Yeah, absolutely. We do not require any ID, although the FBI, might follow up with you. I see. Or the NSA. And or NASA, depending on how good your question is. And we do answer every question from listeners.

And I say that on the podcast all the time. And I mean it. And still, when people write to me, they seem surprised when I respond. We really do answer your questions. Don't be shy. All right. Well, our last question comes from Nikolai. And he has a question about antimatter.

Could a large amount of antimatter get together and form an antimatter black hole? What were to happen if this antimatter black hole were to collide with a normal black hole of a similar size? Do we have a theory or a model that would predict what happens? Thanks a lot. Yours Nikolai. So Nikolai wants to destroy a black hole. What do you think about that in conflicts of interest? Well, he wants to destroy a black hole.

He wants to make an antimatter black hole. But then he wants to smash it into a normal black hole. and I think he's hoping to use that to destroy the black hole. Oh, I see. I see. It's a two-step question. Can you make an anti-matter black hole? Now, would an anti-matter black hole be an ant, would it be anti-black or would it be an anti-hole?

Yeah, exactly. I think that's what he's asking about. Would it be like a white hole or a black lump? All right, well, let's dig into it. Daniel, what is antimatter? Yeah, so Nikolai obviously was thinking about antimatter and lots of people are fascinated with antimatter because it seems mysterious and it kind of is, right? Anti-matter is just like another kind of matter, but it has the opposite charge as our matter. Really the way to think about it is not that there's matter and antimatter, but that all matter comes in this sort of symmetric set.

Like for electrons, there's another version of that particle, the positron, which is exactly the same, but has a positive charge. And for every cork, there's an anti-cork. And for the muons is an anti-mu-on. Really, these things are like two sides of the same coin. It turns out matter can come in two flavors. And in our universe, we think things were created in balance, the equal amount of matter and antimatter. But for some reason, we don't quite understand the universe prefers matter.

And while most of the matter and antimatter annihilated away into energy, a little bit of matter was left over. And that's why we call electrons and muons and quarks matter. and the other stuff, anti-matter. It's a little bit of an arbitrary distinction. So, like, for example, like an anti-matter electron, an anti-electron is really just an electron with a positive charge. Everything else about is the same.

It has mass. It's like a particle floating out there in the universe. It just has a positive charge instead of a negative charge. Exactly. And like an anti-quark is the same, but instead of electrical charge, it's the opposite in a different kind of charge. Exactly. And you and I are made of matter and the earth.

is made of matter and the star is made of matter. And we think that all of the universe is made of matter. We're not exactly sure. We can't tell because if there's an antimatter star out there, we think it would operate under the same rules and it would emit photons in exactly the same way a star would. So it's not always easy to tell whether like distant galaxies out there are made of matter or antimatter,

but everything in our neighborhood at least is made of matter. Now, Nikolai's first part of the question is, can you make a black hole out of antimatter? If you gather enough antimatter, and it all has to be antimatter, right? Like, if you mix matter and antimatter, something special happens. So when manner and antimatter meet each other, they can annihilate. Like an electron and a positron meet each other. They can turn into a photon.

Like all of the energy that was stored in the motion and the mass of those particles gets converted into that photon. So that's annihilation, and that can happen when matter and antimatter meet, which is why antimatter is like a great fuel because 100% of the energy stored in the antimatter is converted directly into like photons, make a great battery or a great, like, fuel source for a rocket ship, much more efficient than like chemical fuels or even fusion or stuff like that. But what he's talking about is making a black hole. Like, does antimatter follow the same rules of gravity and make a black hole? And the answer is yes.

Gravity doesn't care about your electric charge. Anything that has mass, anything that has energy can be condensed into a black hole. So yeah, you take a big enough blob of antimatter, collapse it down, and it will become a black hole. An anti-black hole. Actually, just a black hole, right? What can you know about a black hole? You can know it's mass. You can know it's spin and you can know it's electrical charge.

So if you take, for example, a bunch of positrons, positively charged electrons, you collapse them down to a black hole. Then yes, you will get a positively charged black hole. It's not really an anti-black hole. It's just a black hole made of positively charged particles. There's nothing really anti about it. Well, its inside would be made out of antimatter. You think, right? Like, nobody really knows what's going on inside of a black hole.

Like, maybe the stuff inside of it is still, you know, quote, unquote, anti. Well, we don't know anything about the state of matter inside a black hole, as you say. Maybe it's all a singularity, in which case, the state of matter is something completely new, right? It's no longer really positrons. And it depends on what theory of black holes you're talking about. But in general relativity, there's no room to, like, remember that the black hole was made of positrons. Like a black hole made of positively charged positrons is no different than a black hole made of positively charged muons or protons or anything else. It's no different to us from the outside of a black hole, but it's still possible maybe if you're inside of the black hole to tell the difference.

If general relativity is correct, then no. General relativity says there's absolutely no difference. They are identical. They're as identical as two particles that have all the same properties. From the outside of the event horizon. Even from within, right? Even from within, though you can't see it. But you don't know that, do you? We don't know that. That's assuming general relativity is correct. On the other hand, we're pretty sure general relativity, not correct about what's going on inside of black hole, which is what I'm sure is motivating your question. Probably there's something else more complicated going on inside of black hole because we don't think singularities are real. We think there's something more complex happening.

And quantum mechanics tells us that you can't just, like, delete that information from the universe, that there must be some record of the fact that antimatter was used to create this black hole and not matter because you can't destroy information in the universe. It says quantum mechanics, but we don't know how to bring like the quantum mechanics ideas and the general relativity ideas and merge them together into an idea that makes sense at the heart of a black hole. So nobody really knows what's going on behind the event horizon. General relativity says it doesn't matter what was used to make the black hole.

Energy is energy is energy. Quantum mechanics says it does matter, but nobody knows who's right about which bits. All right. Well, I think that answer is the first part of Nikolai's question, which is that you can make a black hole out of antimatter. And you're saying it just becomes a regular black hole. It just has a giant different charge to it. Okay, now the second part of the question is, if you take a black hole that was made using antimatter and a black hole made with regular matter, and you put them together, would they annihilate? I wish they would.

That would be super awesome. I would love to build a positive and negative black hole collider and do that experiment. General relativity says it doesn't matter what went into your black hole. And a black hole made of matter is the same as black hole made of antimatter. And so this would be the same as any other black hole collision. And what you would get is just a bigger black hole. Remember, you can't destroy a black hole with energy. And antimatter is just more energy.

Everything is more energy and fuel for a black hole. Well, I feel like it wouldn't be quite the same, right? Because if you had like a giant positively charged black hole and a giant negatively charged black hole, they would be extra attracted to each other more than like most black hole collisions out there in the universe. That's true. Although remember antimatter doesn't have to be positively charged

and matter doesn't have to be negatively charged. You could have black holes made of matter that's like electrons so it's negatively charged or black hole made of matter that's proton so it's positively charged. Or you could have an antimatter black hole made of antiproton. so that it's negatively charged. So just because it's antimatter doesn't mean you know something about the charge. They could both be neutral, right?

You could have a black hole made of anti-electrons and anti-protons and be totally neutral. But you're right. If you have two black holes and they have opposite charges, they will be extra attracted to each other. I see. All right. So it sort of depends on how you make these black holes. Yeah, there's a lot of it depends, unfortunately, in physics. She renamed that the name of the podcast.

podcast. It depends with Daniel and Horstead. Is it good? I don't know. It depends. What's going to happen? It depends. That's almost always the answer. What's the answer to the universe? It depends. Brought to you by Depends, adult diapers. But if you collide two black holes, you get a bigger black hole. And that's what's going to happen if you collide a black hole made of antimatter with the black hole made of matter. Again, according to general relativity, which we think is probably.

wrong about some of the crucial details here and we don't really know how to do gravity for particles and really matter and antimatter is a question about particles. So we're sort of tiptoeing around like the fact that we don't understand quantum gravity and how to do gravity for particles at all. But assuming general relativity is correct, which probably isn't, then two black holes will just make a bigger black hole regardless of whether they're made of matter or antimatter. You don't get like a white hole, you don't get an annihilation or anything fun like that you just get a double black hole well i think it's interesting that to think about like maybe there is some interesting things going on inside of these two black holes when they merge like

maybe you know the antimatter and the antimatter black hole is annihilating with the matter and the matter black hole but maybe we just wouldn't see it because it's all happening inside of like a double black hole so nothing would ever come out of it right is that possible that like they do get annihilated but they stay within the hole yeah imagine you have a black hole made of electrons and another black hole made of positrons and the two black holes merge. So now the electrons and positrons can sort of see each other and interact. Then what happens? They annihilate to a bunch of photons, which are trapped inside the black hole.

And the black hole doesn't care at all about the state of matter. Photons, electrons, electrons, it's all just energy. And it's really energy that bends space time. Remember, not mass. So in order to create a black hole, you need energy density. And photons can do it just as well as electrons or positrons. The state of matter is kind of irrelevant when you're outside the event horizon. Right, right.

Like maybe it does get annihilated, but it's like annihilating something inside of a black hole, it stays in the black hole. It stays in the black hole. All those photons are just trapped inside anyway. They just move towards a singularity. Yeah. So I guess that answers Nikolai's question. But I don't want to discourage you, Nikolai. If you have access to an anti-matter black hole factory, then, hey, build one and shoot it at a black hole.

Let's see what happens. Yeah. Far away from here, potentially. Do not collaborate with our previous question, asker, please. But maybe ask Trey, he can bring it along on his trip to series B, which is probably far enough away for everybody to be safe. Yes, but would they need Sunblock to witness this collision? No, because it'd be trapped inside the black hole.

They'd be perfectly safe. Oh, there you go. If Einstein was right. And if Einstein was wrong, they'll be fried. So, hey, either way, we find out the answer. Either way, their marriage is over. Probably. They were doomed

They came to us for advice That's right It was over long before It was featured in this podcast All right Well awesome questions here today Lots of curiosity About what happens

In these extreme situations In the universe I feel Like what happens if you Accelerate something really fast A single particle Or what if you collide These different black holes Or would you need

Sunblock to go to a distant star Yeah it's these extreme situations That really teach you about what the rules mean, when you stretch them, when you push them, when you try to overlap them, when you ask what happens when they conflict with each other, those are the edge cases when you really learn about the supreme rules of the universe. And that's what we love here in the podcast, Extreme Curiosity, and Extreme Adventures, mental or physical ones.

Yeah, we're going to be the official podcast of the X games next year. Yeah, brought to you by Mountain Dew. Black Hole Dew. You probably cover a lot more physics. because we were both hot top and Red Bull or Mountain Dew. All right, well, we hope you enjoyed that. Thanks to all of our listeners for sending in their questions. And thanks to our question ask yourself today.

Although not thank you if you do succeed in destroying the planet. But thanks for your curiosity. It's your curiosity that drives this podcast and all of science forward. So keep asking questions and keep sending them to us to questions at danielanhorpe.com. You really will get an answer. You hope you enjoyed that? See you next time. For more science and curiosity,

come find us on social media where we answer questions and post videos. We're on Twitter, Discord, Insta, and now TikTok. Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is a production of IHeartRadio. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show. in the heat of battle your squad relies on you don't let them down unlock elite gaming tech at lenovo dot com dominate every match with next level speed seamless streaming and performance that won't quit and push your gameplay beyond limits with intel core ultra processors that's the power of lenovo with intel inside maximize your edge by shopping at linovo dot com during their back-to-school sale that's lenovo dot com December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys.

Then, everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot.

He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.