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PBS Space Time
How An Extreme New Star Could Change All Cosmology
Season 7
Episode 25
A new white dwarf has been discovered (poetically named: ZTF J1901+1458) that’s doing some stuff that no white dwarf should ever be able to do. In fact, it has multiple properties that are so extreme that it almost certainly did NOT form in the way that we thought all white dwarfs formed. This one peculiar point of faint light may change our understanding of all cosmology.
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16:08
Here’s the story we like to tell about the beginning of the universe.
17:44
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16:51
Let’s talk about quantum gravity experiments that can be done here on Earth!
19:25
What if gravity isn’t weirdly quantum at all, but rather … just a bit messy?
17:02
Have we reached the end of the line of discoverable elements?
15:32
Can we change the color of a black hole?
18:26
Learn about Nobel laureate Roger Penrose's idea of how consciousness is caused by quantum processes.
16:28
Faster than light travel may produce gravitational waves that we could see here on Earth.
20:07
All particles belong to two large groups: fermions and bosons.
16:11
Just how much stronger is this year’s solar activity going to get?
17:25
So you’ve decided to jump into a black hole...
12:51
We only recently figured out where cosmic rays are coming from.