Listener Questions: The Wonders of Physics and Space ☀️

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Speaker 1: Miami. Is Walter and I live in Massachusetts and you are listening to the sleep Tight Science. Did you know that if you could travel at the speed of light, you could circle the Earth seven point five times in just one second?

00:00:31
Speaker 2: What that's super fast?

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Speaker 1: Hello friends, and welcome back to sleep Tight Science, a bedtime show that answers your questions about science. In this episode, we're doing something a little different. Instead of sticking to one specific topic, we'll spend our time together answering your excellent questions about science and the world around us.

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Speaker 2: You've sent in so many.

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Speaker 1: Excellent questions that it's hard to answer them all, but in this episode, we're focusing on the ones that explore how the universe works in fun and surprising ways.

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Speaker 2: Let's get started.

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Speaker 1: Our first question comes from Nida, who is seven years old and from Los Angeles, California. She wants to know what happens when you travel faster than the speed of.

00:01:43
Speaker 2: Light in space.

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Speaker 1: Nita, we did some reading, and as it turns out, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, at least not according to the science we know today. The speed of light is the ultimate speed limit in our universe.

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Speaker 2: Light travels at an.

00:02:08
Speaker 1: Incredibly fast two hundred and ninety nine million, seven hundred and ninety two thousand, four hundred and fifty eight meters per second. That's about six hundred and seventy million miles per hour, and nothing with mass can go faster than that. Scientists have spent a lot of time trying to understand why this is, and it all comes back to a theory created by Albert Einstein called relativity. Einstein's theory of relativity tells us that as things move faster and get closer to the speed of light, weird things start to happen. For example, time slows down for objects moving near the speed of light. This is called time dilation. So if you were traveling close to the speed of light in space, time would move more slowly for you than for someone back on Earth. This means that a trip that feels short to you could actually take many years in Earth time.

00:03:26
Speaker 2: Your mass would also.

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Speaker 1: Increase, meaning it would take more and more energy to keep speeding up, making it impossible to go faster than light. But what if somehow you could go faster than the speed of light. This is where science gets into the realm of imagination and science fiction. Some theories suggest that traveling faster than light could lead to strange effects, like traveling backward in time or warping space itself. However, since no one has ever gone faster than light, we don't know for sure what would happen. For now, the speed of light remains a hard speed limit, and traveling faster than that is just a fun idea to think about. This idea sounds like an excellent story for sleep tight stories, the girl who could travel faster than the speed of light. If you could travel that fast, where would you go? There are a couple books on this subject you might be interested in. One is called Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry by Neil de Grasse Tyson. This book simplified big topics like space travel, the universe, and the speed of light in a way that's perfect for non scientists. Another is star Stuff, Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie roth Sisson. This book explores the life of famous astronomer Carl Sagan and his curiosity about the universe, touching on ideas like space travel and how far light travels. We will include links in our show notes for books we mention, thank you for the question, Nita. Did you know that gravity keeps the planets orbiting the Sun, but without it, Earth would drift off into space like a lost balloon. Our next question comes from Elliott, who is from Saint Albert, Alberta, Canada. Elliot wants to know if there are any stars bigger than our Sun, and the answer is yes, there are stars much bigger than the.

00:06:23
Speaker 2: Sun, both in size and mass.

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Speaker 1: While our Sun seems enormous to us, it is actually a medium sized star compared to others in the universe. Its diameter is about one point three nine million kilometers or eight hundred and sixty four thousand miles, making it roughly one hundred and nine times wider than Earth. But some stars are far larger. For example, one of the biggest stars discovered is Ui Scooty, a red supergiant. Ui Scooty is estimated to be more than one thousand, seven hundred times wider than the Sun. If you replaced the Sun with Ui Scooty, it would stretch far beyond the orbit of Jupiter, engulfing Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and more. Another giant star is Beetlejuice, the bright red star in the constellation Orion, which is about seven hundred times larger than the Sun. These stars are known as supergiants and are at the end stages of their life cycles, burning through fuel much faster than stars like our Sun. While size is one way to compare stars, another important factor is mass. Even though super giant stars are enormous, they are often less dense than smaller stars like the Sun. There are also stars that aren't as large in diameter but are much more massive than the Sun. For example, neutron stars are some of the most massive objects in the universe. They are the remnants of exploded stars supernova and can be one point five to two times the mass of the Sun, but they're only about twenty kilometers or twelve miles in diameter.

00:08:45
Speaker 2: That means they pack all that.

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Speaker 1: Mass into a tiny, super dense space. Stars come in all different.

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Speaker 2: Shapes, sizes, and masses.

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Speaker 1: Some are much bigger and hotter than the Sun, while others are smaller and cooler. Our Sun is special because it's a main sequence star, which means it is in the most stable part of its life cycle. It's ideally suited for supporting life on Earth, providing just the right amount of energy and light to keep our planet warm and our ecosystem thriving. Even though there are bigger stars out there, our Sun is exactly the right size for us. Thank you for the question, Elliott, Did you know the Sun one spins faster at its equator than at its poles. This twisty behavior is called differential rotation. Our next question comes from James Bliss, and it's about our Sun too. James wants to know if the Sun spins on an axis, and the answer is yes. The Sun does spin on its axis, just like Earth and the other planets. However, its rotation is a little different from what we're used to because the Sun is not a solid object. It's made of hot gases, primarily hydrogen and helium. The Sun's equator, the middle part, rotates faster than its poles, the top and bottom. At the equator, the Sun takes about twenty five days to complete one full rotation, but near the poles it can take up to thirty five days to finish one rotation. This kind of rotation is called differential rotation, which means different parts of the Sun spin at different speeds. This rotation is really important because it plays a role in the Sun's magnetic field. The way the Sun spins and moves its gases creates magnetic activity which can lead to sunspots, solar flares.

00:11:39
Speaker 2: And even coronal.

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Speaker 1: Mass ejections, huge bursts of energy that can affect things here on Earth like our satellites and power grids.

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Speaker 2: So yes, the.

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Speaker 1: Sun spins, but it does so in a unique and dynamic way that affects the entire Solar system. Thank you for the question, James. Next, we have a question from Maxwell, who is five and a half years old and lives in Melbourne, Australia. Maxwell asked us what is gravity made of? Well, Maxwell, gravity isn't exactly made of anything. It's a force that exists between objects with mass. The more massive an object is, the stronger its gravitational pull. For example, Earth has a much stronger gravitational pull than a small object like a basketball, because Earth has a lot more mass. Gravity is the force that pulls objects toward each other, and it's what keeps us on the ground, the Moon orbiting Earth, and the planets orbiting the Sun. In simpler terms, gravity is the force that makes things fall to the ground, but it's not made up of any physical stuff. If you jump up, gravity pulls you back down. And it's the same reason why when you drop a basketball, it doesn't float away, it falls. Gravity is what keeps us standing on Earth and makes sure the planets stay in their orbits around the Sun.

00:13:43
Speaker 2: Think of it like a.

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Speaker 1: Big invisible magnet pulling everything toward the ground, but instead of a real magnet. It's just the way things work in our world. Gravity is one of the fundamental forces in our universe, shaping how everything moves and interacts. Thank you for the question.

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Speaker 2: Maxwell.

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Speaker 1: Have you ever wondered what would happen if gravity disappeared? If you could just snap your fingers and it would happen. If gravity disappeared, things would get pretty crazy. Without gravity, there would be nothing to hold us or anything else down. People, animals, and objects would start floating off the ground because nothing would be pulling them toward Earth. It would be like being in outer space where astronauts float around because there's almost no gravity. Not only would we float, but the oceans, rivers, and lakes would no longer stay in place, and the water would float away too. Even the air we breathe would drift off into space, making it impossible for us to survive on Earth.

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Speaker 2: In space.

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Speaker 1: Without gravity, the planets wouldn't stay in their orbits either. Earth would no longer orbit around the Sun, and the Moon would drift away from Earth. Everything in the universe depends on gravity to keep them in place, so without gravity, the whole Solar System and the universe would be a very messy place. Our last question comes from Colby, who is six years old and from Utah. Colby wants to know why we can't see a Air is something we experience every day, even though we often take it for granted. We can feel it when the wind blows against our faces, hear it rustle the leaves in trees, and even rely on it for sound to travel, like when someone shouts from across the room. It fills our lungs when we breathe, and keeps airplanes flying high in the sky. Air is made up of gases, primarily oxygen, nitrogen, and small amounts of other gases like carbon dioxide. These gases are made up of molecules, which are extremely tiny particles. These molecules are so small that our eyes can't detect them, and they are also spread far apart. Unlike slid objects which have tightly packed molecules that make them easy to see. The particles in the air are spread out and move freely, giving air no solid shape or color. Because gas molecules are constantly moving and don't reflect light in the way that solid or liquid objects do, air appears invisible to us. The reason we can't see air as simple. The particles are too small and too far apart to be visible, and they don't have any color to reflect light. Even though we can't see it, air is always there, supporting life and making things like breathing, wind, and flight possible. Thank you for your question, Colby. In this episode, we learn that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, and explored what might happen if we could, like time slowing down and strange space effects. We also found out that there are stars much bigger than the Sun, like the giant Ui Scooti, which is over one thousand, seven hundred times larger. We talked about how the Sun spins on its axis and how gravity, though invisible, holds everything in place. Next, we discussed what would happen if gravity disappeared. Things would float away, including people, water, and even air. We wrapped up by understanding why air, despite being all around us, remains invisible but can still be felt and experienced in many ways, like wind or when we breathe. All these topics help explain the wonders of how the universe works, from the tiniest air molecules to.

00:19:09
Speaker 2: The biggest stars.

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Speaker 1: Thank you to Walter, who is seven years old from Shelbourne Falls, Massachusetts, who introduced our show You were super Awesome. Thank you to as Mean and as Heen, six year old twins from Melbourne, Australia, Finnegan who is eight years old, Gabriel from the Philippines, Sloane who is six years old, Oliver from Dryden, New York, and Owen Andrews who is five in Seattle, Washington. We would love to hear from you. Ask your parents to help you. Write us a note to the email address in our show notes. You can also visit our webs site and send a message that way. Also be sure to leave us a rating or a comment. Wherever you listen to our podcast, we love to get your feedback. If you want to make sure you get all the episodes, please ask your parents to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or all the other cool ways you can follow us. If you'd like to send us your questions, please send them to Hello at sleep tightscience dot com. Did you know that when you sleep, your brain can go on all kinds of adventures. You might even dream about some of the cool science.

00:20:45
Speaker 2: Stuff we talked about.

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Speaker 1: You could fly through space, visit other planets, shrink to see tiny atoms, and even invent something amazing. Your dreams can take you anywhere, and who knows, maybe tonight you'll dream about discovering something new and exciting in the world of science.

00:21:12
Speaker 2: Good Night, sleep tight.