10 INSANE Space Discoveries 2020 (Pt. 2)

 five four three  two one and  liftoff of the cassini spacecraft on a  million mile trek to center  we have cleared the tower  we're always pushing the boundaries of  space exploration  trying to expand our knowledge of the  universe it seems humanity  is reaching for the stars in leaps and  bounds  with technology and cooperation  accelerating exponentially new  discoveries are being unveiled  every week welcome to fact no meal  a space to learn in today's article we'll  be bringing you part two of our 10  insane space discoveries hit that  subscribe button if you're not already  on board and get ready for a countdown  that just keeps getting better and  better  all the way to number one number 10  nuclear pasta when you think strongest  material in the universe  a huge plate of steaming hot spaghetti  and meatballs is the last thing that  comes to mind  but nuclear pasta is a strange form of  matter found in ultra dense objects such  as dying neutron stars  in amongst the stars withering body  protons and neutrons are under the  influence of intense gravitational force  and pressure squeezing them into weird  quantum shapes  once the star's core is burned down to  iron it collapses and commences the  pasta making  the nuclei of the atoms are deformed and  fused together to make structures that  resemble linguine lasagna spaghetti  gnocchi and even good old-fashioned  waffles  so what will it take to serve up a bowl  of the best italian food the cosmos has  to offer  about 10 billion times the force needed  to shatter steel  number nine you shall not pass  there's a guardian at the very edge of  the solar system and it's not gandalf  the gray  it's the heliopause  crackling solar wind is pushed out  billions of miles from the center of our  solar system by the sun  to keep the good people of earth safe  from harm  this physical wall of soupy solar plasma  forms a shield that guards the realms of  men it's not just a theoretical boundary  it was  actually observed by nasa's twin voyager  probes as they broke through  and entered the realm of interstellar  travel on their quest to explore beyond  our system's border  the plasma wall blocks the evil  intentions of up to 70  of all incoming harmful cosmic radiation  and without it the bombardment of  high-energy photons may have stunted or  even prevented  life forming on our blue planet number  eight  moonception christopher nolan made the  concept of a dream within a dream famous  but did he inadvertently influence  popular scientific opinion  earth's moon is so proportionately large  that some academics want to reclassify  it as a planet  so that it begs the question could a  moon have its own moon  moon square the answer is yes  sub moons are theoretically possible  it's just that none have ever been  discovered in the milky way yet  the good news is that few of the larger  local moons like saturn's titan and  jupiter's callisto fulfills this  requirement  if certain conditions are met a  meta-moon is absolutely possible  astronomers are looking for a moon on a  wide separation orbit at around 1 000  kilometer scale that may have a smaller  10 kilometer scale friend circling  around it  number 7 the story of icarus a mission  was launched in 2018 in an effort to  teach us more about the warm life-giving  heart of our solar system to glean a  better understanding of solar mechanics  to date the parker probe has performed  four close flybys of our nearest star  and will incrementally creep closer and  closer to the sun's surface on future  laps until  2025. eventually though it will meet its  demise as it flies too close to the sun  just like the wax melting on ice's wings  in the ancient greek tale  it's clear now that space weather is  absolutely a thing with coronal mass  ejections rippling the solar wind  causing its intensity to peak and trough  similar to how weather systems work here  on earth  number six et phone home tabby star  there's a strange brightening and  dimming coming from a yellow white dwarf  star located 1280 light years away from  earth  tabby's star has left scientists  scratching their heads and baking their  noodles to explain why the light emitted  from the star can fall by as much as 21  for random lengths of time and the  cycles appear to have  no constant pattern or follow any  mathematical logic  it's been theorized that the apparently  random bursts of light and radio waves  received from this part of the universe  could be transmissions sent by the  remnants of an alien civilization  it's more likely that there's a cloud of  dust blocking the signal or an exoplanet  stuck in an irregular orbit than  intelligent life making an extremely  long distance phone call number five  saturn's many moons  saturn never fails to surprise us it  seems like it's the planet that keeps on  giving  nasa's cassini spacecraft captured  higher resolution photographs on its  last pass back in 2016 which surprised  the astronomical community  the existence of 20 more moons  this brings its grand total to 82 which  means saturn breaks the record for  having the most moons of any planet in  our solar system  and snatches the victory from the  previous record holder jupiter which has  79.  it's truly amazing that we're still  learning so much about our near  neighbors in the 21st century  well after over three quarters of a  decade exploring outer space  it's estimated that saturn may well have  in excess of 100 moons with many under a  kilometer in diameter and so small that  they evade identification  number four black hole in the  neighborhood  in 2019 the event horizon telescope made  history by giving us our first ever  glimpse of a black hole  it seems that unlike all the others the  messier 87 black hole wasn't too shy to  have its picture taken  no easy task as this ravenous beast is  over 50 million light years away  contains the equivalent mass of 6.5  billion of our suns  and has a gravitational pull so strong  not even light can escape its gaping  jaws  closer to home scientists in may  discovered another black hole  much smaller than messier 87 but just  next door in comparison  churning about 1011 light years from us  in a star system called  hr 6819 locked in orbit with two visible  stars is a black hole about  four times the mass of our sun despite  it being the closest black hole ever  discovered  don't worry just yet to put the  supermassive distance in proportion if  our solar system was the width of a  human hair  h.r 6819 would be about four miles away  to learn more about the hr 6819 black  hole discovery  check out our other article in the link in  the corner number three  the great escape there is a natural  order to things  as stars exhaust their hydrogen stores  fueling their continual creation of  helium by way of nuclear fusion  they become a white dwarf a compact  crystalline expired husk of a star  any planets unfortunate to be orbiting  the sun are either obliterated in the  final burst of energy as the sun  flares and dies or inevitably pulled in  by the growing gravity and destroyed as  a black hole forms  eventually even our own sun will die and  earth will be destroyed  just a tad morbid isn't it surprising  then that astronomers discovered a gas  giant similar to neptune orbiting a  white dwarf  this intact planet pulled off a daring  escape  number two the circle of life there is  growing evidence that the universe is  connected  causing whole galaxies to move with and  influence each other over distances so  great that current cosmological models  can't explain it  just like mufasa showed simba as they  looked out across the african savannah  everything exists together in a delicate  balance from the crawling ant to the  leaping antelope  our hometown the milky way is just one  example of hundreds of billions of  galaxies scattered across the  ever-expanding universe  it's known that galaxies within a few  million light years have gravitational  effect on each other but inexplicable  patterns of movement have emerged  between two far  distant neighbors these large-scale  structures are made from hydrogen gas  and dark matter  forming filaments sheets and knots that  tangle galaxies in  eternal cosmic dance  number one the big bend theory  the birth of the universe has forever  fascinated scientists  hubble's constant describes the rate of  expansion of the universe using the  known distance of 50 local galaxies to  determine how fast our universe is  pushing out its boundaries  this works great in the current accepted  theory that assumes that the universe  lies in a flat plane that extends out  towards infinity like a sheet of paper  what we assume happened after the big  bang could be thrown out the window  thanks to the closed model  the universe is likely curled up into a  sphere shaped more like a basketball  instead of extending out into the great  beyond the fabric of space  loops around and meets itself everything  theorized about the size  shape age and origins of the universe  could be proved  dead wrong with 99 certainty thanks to  data gathered by the planck satellite  flat universers are going to be the new  flat earthers  and that's it for 10 insane space  discoveries part 2.  if you enjoyed this article please give it  a like and make sure to check out part 1  of the insane space discoveries the link  up here in the corner  if there's any discoveries you want us  to cover in future articles make sure to  let us know in the comments  before you leave make sure to subscribe  and click that notification bell to  check out our other amazing articles  see you next time