PBS_SpaceTime

Neutron stars are made of a substance known as Neutronium. It was thought that this was the densest form of matter possible but some theoretical physicists believe that at the core of some neutron stars the Neutronium breaks down even further, into quark matter. It may even evolve one step further into “strange matter", the densest and most stable substance in the universe.

What really happens when you approach the event horizon of a black hole?

Let’s look further into what we don’t yet know about the Big Bang, and how the theory could progress in the future. Since there is a discrepancy between general relativity and quantum mechanics, we continue to search for a grand unifying theory... one which may finally lead to a description of the actual moment of the Big Bang!

Our universe is not a very diverse place when it comes to shapes. Large celestial bodies become spheres, galaxies become discs, and there is little room for variation. Why is this? Well it turns out physics has some pretty strict rules when it comes to creating new planetary bodies.

The speed of light is often cited as the fastest anything can travel in our universe. While this might be true, the speed of light is the EFFECT and not the CAUSE of this phenomenon. So what's the cause? On this week's episode of Space Time, Matt helps explain what the speed of light REALLY is and why it’s the cosmic speed limit of our universe!

Lots of people believe the Universe is infinite, but there's a good possibility that might not be the case. Which means that there would be an actual edge of the Universe. What happens at that edge? Is there a restaurant?

Where are you right now? Until you interact with another particle you could be any number of places within a wave of probabilities. Matt dives into these counter-intuitive ideas and explains the bizarre phenomenon known as quantum tunneling in this episode of Space Time.

We've been through the first few episodes of our crash course on general relativity, and came out alive! But it's officially "time" for CURVED spacetime. Join Gabe on this week’s episode of PBS Space Time as he discusses Newton and Einstein's dispute over inertial frames of reference. Is Einstein's theory inconsistent? Is gravity even a force??? Check out the episode to find out!

Last year LIGO announced the detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes. The science world went a little crazy. Only a few weeks ago a new rumour emerged: that LIGO had, for the first time, spotted gravitational waves from the collision of a pair of neutron stars. If it’s true, some long-standing astrophysical mysteries are about to be unlocked.

The search for a single number: the hubble constant, which is the rate of expansion of our universe, has consumed astronomers for generations. Finally, two powerful and independent methods have refined its measurement to unprecedented precision. The only problem is that they don’t agree. This calls into question some of our most basic assumptions about the universe.

The laws of physics are the same everywhere in the universe. At least we astrophysicists hope so. After all, it’s hard to unravel the complexities of distant parts of the universe if we don’t know the basic rules. But what if this is wrong? There is a hint of evidence that the fundamental constants that govern our universe may evolve over time, and even from one location to another.

Invisible to the naked eye, our night sky is scattered with the 100s of billions of galaxies the fill the known universe. Like the stars, these galaxies form constellations – hidden patterns that echo the reverberations of matter and light in an epoch long before galaxies ever formed. These are the baryon acoustic oscillations, and they may hold the key to understanding the nature of dark energy.

The double slit experiment radically changed the way we understand reality. Find out what the ramifications of this experiment were and how we can use it to better comprehend our universe.

Stars are our stellar alchemists. They spend their entire lifespan creating and molding elements. In their final moments, a supernova spreads these elements out into the universe, providing the building blocks for new stars, planets, and even us!

Planck's Length is the length below which the concept of length loses its meaning. What exactly does that mean and what are the incredible implications this fact has upon our reality? To find out check out this episode of Space Time where Matt digs into the early history of quantum mechanics.

Black holes are the result of absolute gravitational collapse of a massive body: a point of hypothetical infinite density surrounded by an event horizon. At that horizon time is frozen and the fabric of space itself cascades inwards at the speed of light. Nothing can travel faster than light, and so nothing can escape from below the event horizon- not matter, not light, not even information.

Albert Einstein strongly disagreed with Niels Bohr when it came to Bohr’s interpretation of quantum mechanics. Quantum entanglement settled the argument once and for all.

What do the first stars in the universe, dark matter, and superior siege engines have in common?

We learned how motion gives matter its mass, but how does motion affect time? Let’s dive deeper into the true nature of matter and mass by exploring Einstein’s photon clock thought experiment, and the phenomenon that is time dilation.

Our universe is prone to increasing disorder and chaos. So how did it generate the extreme complexity we see in life? Actually, the laws of physics themselves may demand it.

In this episode, welcome in Matt O’Dowd as the new host to rigorously take you through the mysteries of space, time, and the nature of reality. We’re starting off this new season with perhaps one of the most mysterious things of all — DARK MATTER. What is it? Where does it come from? And is it even real? Watch this episode of Space Time to find out!

The silence of the galaxy and the resulting Fermi Paradox has perplexed us for nearly 50 years. But our most recent surveys of the Milky Way finally allow us to draw scientific conclusions about the depressingly persistent absence of aliens.

Most of us take gravity as an assumed part of our living realities, but why? Basic physics introduces us to the concept of gravity from a Newtonian sense, but when you start factoring Einstein into an understanding of gravity, things get… weird. For example, gravity may simply not exist. Why? Watch this week’s episode of PBS Space Time and find out why gravity may be an illusion!

When we say a planet is habitable, we aren’t REALLY saying what we think we are saying. 'Habitable' means something else. Is Kepler 186f habitable, in the true sense of the word? And if not, what other planets should we be looking at? Watch this episode of PBS SpaceTime and find out!

We've run, jumped, and stomped all over the world of Super Mario, but, where in the universe is Super Mario EXACTLY? It's virtual so it obviously DOESN'T exist but if it did, could Super Mario world be in our solar system? And what do the planet's dynamics reveal about Mario's crazy jumping ability?