Awesome Astrophysics

Astrophysicists estimate that our universe came into existence roughly 14 billion years ago, and it’s been expanding ever since. Kurzgesagt ponders the question whether the universe is truly infinite if it keeps growing, or if it has an edge somewhere that we just can’t see.

We always thought about time in very linear terms. However, scientists have theorized that the past, present, and future simultaneously exist. Kurzgesagt explores the theory that the entire history of the universe has already happened, and we’re just experiencing our tiny sliver of it. Warning: your brain might hurt after watching this.

Ready to have your mind blown? Much like a Christopher Nolan movie, PBS Space Time host Matt O’Dowd is here to make us question our understandings about time, as he explores theories that look at the relationships between the past, the present, and the future.

You might feel like you’re standing still right now, but we are always moving. But our place in the universe isn’t absolute. Instead, our location is entirely relative to other objects. Kurzgesagt explores this concept, and how each person, place, and thing has its own point of view for its position and movements.

After Kurzgesagt schooled us on how black holes work, we’re ready for some serious space exploration. In this video, the explain the relative sizes of these planet-eating phenomena, from coin-sized primordial black holes to city-sized stellar black holes to our favorite Muse song, Supermassive Black Hole… and beyond.

Unless you’re a superhuman athlete, most of us here on Earth can only jump up about 18 inches. But if you went to Venus, you could jump twice as high. Bright Side takes a look at the gravitational forces on the moon and other planets for a look at how they would affect our ability to jump – assuming we could survive the conditions.

Because of their power and extreme nature, black holes are some of the most awe-inspiring objects in the universe. Kurzgesagt offers a deep dive into these regions of spacetime and ponders what might happen if their immense gravity got a hold of you. Also, we just learned an awesome new word: spaghettification.

Woodworker Olivier Gomis shows off his build process for a really amazing sculptural piece. By arranging and gluing boards into funnel shape, then lathing out its center, he created a wooden vase that approximates the oft-seen images representing the curvature of spacetime.

The average person blinks roughly 28,800 times per day. You might not think a lot could happen during just a single blink, but that’s not the case. Melodysheep’s short film explains some of the millions and millions of events that happen in the universe in the time it takes to blink. They also made us feel really, really small.

The speed of light is pretty darned fast, but given just how far the Earth is away from the Sun, its light doesn’t get here instantly. It’s Okay to Be Smart teaches us how it’s not just a simple math equation, but complex astrophysics explain how sunlight is much older than you’d think.

Things are always changing in the universe, so it’s possible that someday in the distant future that the Earth could be in danger from a catastrophic force. But is there a way that we could avoid such a fate given enough notice and ingenuity? Kurzgesagt digs into a theoretical method to do just that, by moving our entire solar system.

The Earth’s lone moon is very important to the way the world works, affecting everything from the ocean tides, to the regularity of our seasons and the length of our days. But what would happen if another similar asteroid got pulled into the Earth’s orbit? SciShow explores some of the potentially serious implications.

Kurzgesagt takes on one of the most bizarre and terrifying objects in the universe: neutron stars. Formed when certain giant stars collapse, neutron stars are made of strange matter, which are theoretically “perfectly stable.” And that’s where Physics and English disagree.

There was a time when each of our worlds was only as big as we could see with our own eyes. These days, our knowledge of the world, our galaxy, and the universe keeps growing. It’s Okay to Be Smart explores the ever-expanding notion of “the edge of the map.”

Portholes that can instantly transport us between different areas of space and time are a staple of science fiction and fantasy. But are wormholes really a thing, and if they are, how might they work, and where could we find one? Kurzgesagt explores.

In theory, energy consumed by a black hole is trapped forever. But it turns out it might be possible to harness the rotational energy of a spinning black hole to do everything from powering civilization to creating the biggest explosive device ever. Kurzgesagt explains.

Kurzgesagt’s latest thought experiment explores what might happen to us if we somehow managed to load up bits of the Sun brought them right here to Earth. Depending on which part you captured, it could simply vanish, or destroy life as we know it.

Emic Films introduces us to Wanda Diaz-Merced, an astrophysicist and computer scientist from Puerto Rico who studies the stars not through sight, but through sound. Despite losing her eyesight due to diabetes, she’s as passionate as anyone else in her field.

While you might think the universe is just an endless expanse, it actually has a shape that holds it together. MinutePhysics teamed up with PhD Comics to explore this puzzling astrophysical question and try to suss out some answers for us.

So is the vastness of space an actual thing, or is it merely the absence of things? It’s Okay To Be Smart explores this perplexing question that at first seems to be philosophical, but is really something that can be answered with science.

They sound cute and cuddly, but the white dwarfs that Kurzgesagt is talking about here will be the last bastions of light and energy in the universe as our universe eventually expires. These highly dense objects are basically the remnants of stars after they burn out.

Reigarw presents a comparison of all kinds of matter in the universe, from the tiniest subatomic particles to giant superclusters of galaxies, you’ll quickly feel insignificant right after we zoom past the human race. The voiceover is a bit silly, but it’s still amazing.

Epic How To provides a brief lesson in physics, and delves into but a few of the complexities that stand between us and the ability to turn an 88mph trip in a DeLorean or a blue police box into a journey through space and time.