The Biggest Explosion in the Universe: Brandon Wiggins

What this episode is about

The content discusses the enigmatic nature of supermassive black holes and their prevalence in the universe, prompting questions about their formation in the early cosmos. It highlights a theory developed by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory that seeks to explain how these massive entities could arise so quickly after the Big Bang.

Key takeaways

• The universe's 'Jurassic period' birthed colossal stars, setting the stage for cosmic superlatives like supermassive black holes.
• What if I told you the brightest ancient explosions dwarf entire galaxies? Yes, the cosmos loves a show-off!
• Forget twinkling; early stars were cosmic cabaret acts, collapsing into supermassive black holes in an explosive finale.
• Black holes: the ultimate cosmic curiosities, sneaking into every corner of the universe—scientists still race to understand them.
• Starlight from ancient supernovae still pierces the void, echoing across time—a cosmic flashlight of our chaotic past.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Brandon Wiggins (Host) · 11 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Milky Way, cosmic blackness
2. 6:00 – 9:00: Big Bang, Milky Way

Notable quotes from "The Biggest Explosion in the Universe: Brandon Wiggins"

• At right now are the motions of individual stars in the very center of the Milky Way galaxy the motions of stars are governed by forces of gravity and if you look at these…

  about Milky Way · at 0:24

• I have to go back to a time when the universe was first emerging and cut from cosmic blackness when individual stars were coming to life for the very first time we don't have any telescope images of this period and that's kind of a.

  about cosmic blackness · at 2:02

• Twice maybe among a hundred thousand such stars the universe would put on a spectacle such has not been seen since perhaps the Big Bang itself the biggest explosions…

  about Big Bang · at 5:54

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

Concepts & topics

• Big Bang — Concept · Cosmological theory · 2 mentions · first at 6:00
  Referenced as the origin point of the universe, setting the stage for all subsequent cosmic events.
• cosmic blackness — Concept · Descriptive term · 1 mention · first at 2:04
  Used to describe the primordial state of the universe before the formation of stars.

Places & events

• Milky Way — Place · Astronomical location · 2 mentions · first at 0:25
  Our galaxy, used as a reference point for discussing the scale and location of cosmic phenomena.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:02 the universe certainly isn't lacking in spectacle and frequently its actuality surpasses the best science fiction what you're looking at right now is blackness just a minute here what you're looking at right now are the motions of individual stars in the very center of the Milky Way galaxy the motions of stars are governed by forces of gravity and if you look at these stars here on this plot you'll notice that they seem to have a common center near the center of the frame are you seeing that if you work out the mass of what that central object is you come up with a number something like four million Suns and this object doesn't shine you're actually looking into the actual layer of a supermassive black hole now as cool as the idea is to physicists of an object which twists up space and time this isn't the thing about this object which interests cosmologists the griddle is is that we seem to find them

1:07 everywhere in the universe not only across the universe but almost if we win in the universe so we find black holes the way about a billion times the mass of the Sun when the universe was only five percent it's Korean age in this is a riddle this is a question that the cosmologists wrestled with how on earth do you build something so big and so short of time what I'm going to be talking about today is a theory which has been pioneered and developed here at lost I almost national laboratory with collaborators around the world which explores this issue all right I need more of you here to look at I just keep looking back here I'm sorry which exploit essentially that this very very issue black holes may well have captured public interest but the exotic story of their origins may very well challenge our imaginations and to see this you and I have to go back go back to a time when the universe was first emerging and cut

2:06 from cosmic blackness when individual stars were coming to life for the very first time we don't have any telescope images of this period and that's kind of a main shame because this period of the universe was foundational and building all big structures but we do have computer simulations and that's what we're going to show you now these sort of bling this period of the universe this era of the posts ties to life what you're looking at right now is the formation of the first stars in the cosmos as computer simulations predict them notice that those stars that form you long strings using that and that they're collecting in hubs those hubs are going to be the very first galaxies and the cosmos conditions in the universe doing this time were alien compared to conditions in the universe now this gave rise to truly gigantic stars stars that were hundreds of times the mass of the Sun tens of millions of

2:57 times more luminous this was the universe's Jurassic period where it was manufacturing monsters and it's also the home of the biggest explosions in the cosmos when stars in their life particularly massive stars they go up in large supernova explosions here's one such explosion this is a type 1a explosion occurring outside of its galaxy here the thing I want you to notice about this is the relative brightness between the two events the supernova is on the lower left-hand corner here this galaxy which is a collection of about a hundred billion stars is rivaled and brightness by the single supernova event the absolutely luminous events in the early universe stars would have gone off an even more spectacular fashion than than stars do today some of these stars would have developed antimatter in their cores and this would have triggered an instability and explosive nuclear bony these stars would have gone off in a massive blast

3:50 of light and that light is in principle traveling through the universe today it's kind of an interesting thought right if you take a flashlight and you should try this on a clear night sky you should turn on the flashlight above your head it's an interesting thought that that light is going to keep on going until conceivably it hits something and it's no different for the light coming from these explosions in the very early universe the slide is still traveling in the cosmos so if you had a sufficiently sensitive telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope pictured here you could in principle look back in time and ce4 excels with I tell scopes the very first cosmic explosions this would be a landmark achievement and astronomy this would be the achievement of the decade but as impressive as that would be these aren't the crowning events of this period in the universe's history for that we have to think bigger

4:44 this is a simulation by Johnson who now works here at Los Alamos National Laboratory you've seen the formation of a truly gigantic object in the very early universe notice with strands that you saw before those strands of stars they're all coming together in at the extent oh in that very hot luminous spot you've seen in the center of the plot their universe is building a start the story isn't going to weigh a hundred sons like some of its neighbors isn't going to weigh 500 sons like some of its very massive members neighbors the star is going to weigh 25 thousand suns it's a monster we no longer in the realm of twinkle twinkle little star anymore are we the user the Mammoth's of the early universe creatures of almost legend it's how it even call that thing a star it will have lived a very short life stars like this will have at the end would have collapsed quickly quietly instantly and without a without struggle to form a

5:46 supermassive black hole or something that would grow up one day to be like the supermassive black holes and that we observe in galaxies today but once or twice maybe among a hundred thousand such stars the universe would put on a spectacle such has not been seen since perhaps the Big Bang itself the biggest explosions conceivably in the universe ken chen shows us what happens when a star which enters its life with 55,000 solar masses you can imagine that type of a star what happens when that type of star dies there's a consequence of Einstein's general relativity which takes over and triggers an instability deep inside the start this leads to explosive boning the star is well on its way to nuclear explosion you can see that ken chance you simulated a quarter of a star here in the aftermath of this explosion which will unleash about the equivalent of 10,000 normal supernovae the universe

6:52 will be fundamentally altered and that's something that Lionel scientists who have tried to investigate what happens when the universe's biggest explosion ripples through its own host galaxy to investigate that we have to remember the galaxies as we know them really didn't exist in the early cosmos when these stars were bound these this beautiful grand design spiral structure that you see right here this is a small dwarf galaxy by the way we see that structure the universe wasn't old enough to make things like this galaxies in the ancient universe looked more like this notice that this has the same type of structure that we saw in previous slides we have the strings of stars and you have the hub which constitutes the main galaxy there these two pictures are approximately to scale to give you an idea of how big the structure is and to put it in context the star that's going to be exploding inside of this galaxy is

7:42 about the size of one ten-thousandth of a pixel in the left hand image here so it makes you wonder what's going to take place when the biggest explosion the universe goes off where you see anything on that those types of scales we see a flash of light well individual filaments those strings move a little bit Los Alamos scientists have gone to work and use the supercomputing and facilities here to bring the biggest explosions in the universe to life so ladies and gentlemen the biggest explosions in the universe this is what happens when the biggest stars die absolutely incredible isn't it the entire galaxy dies in this colossal explosion 10,000 supernova going off in one place absolutely incredible not only these are the biggest explosions in the universe outside of the Big Bang itself these would also have been the brightest explosions conceivably and if even though they're incredibly rare events if

8:44 you had a telescope that was sufficiently sensitive such as the James Webb Space Telescope which will be launched in 2018 you could actually see the both pangs of the largest black holes in the universe these explosions do leave behind black holes that may one day grow up to become like black holes again that we see in our own galaxy give you kind of a sense of scale here here look at that we've just punched a hole directly through that galaxy pretty crazy absolutely incredible this gives you a sense of scale for the explosion you're looking at thermal energy right now of the individual particles i'm going to overlay the Triangulum galaxy here to give you an idea of how large that explosion actually is actually engulf the entire structure pretty incredible as impressive as this event is this explosion will have a more dramatic effect upon the universe this explosion and a symphony of other explosions in

9:39 the early universe are going to see the universe with heavy elements that will ultimately draw the area of the folk stars to a close but I'll bring in a new one one that's a little bit closer to home one with beautiful spoiling grand design spiral galaxies ones with planetary systems and life forms like you and me that can look up at the night sky and contemplate where a supermassive black hole came from we've talked a lot of today about theory about what we think we will see when we look back at the universe's earliest ages and it could be that we will see with our telescopes and with our eyes those things which we currently only see in our computers with simulation but whatever we see whatever we see I'm certain little deep and I sense of mystery which for beans in a universe filled with spectacle that's probably the way it should be thank you

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "The Biggest Explosion in the Universe: Brandon Wiggins"?

Brandon Wiggins (Host).

What is "The Biggest Explosion in the Universe: Brandon Wiggins" about?

The content discusses the enigmatic nature of supermassive black holes and their prevalence in the universe, prompting questions about their formation in the early cosmos. It highlights a theory developed by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory that seeks to explain how these massive entities could arise so quickly after the Big Bang.

What is mentioned in this Los Alamos National Laboratory episode?

3 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Big Bang, Milky Way, cosmic blackness. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Biggest Explosion in the Universe: Brandon Wiggins"?

The episode runs 11 min; the transcript is about 1,810 words in 11 timestamped sections.

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