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I Shall BLOW YOUR MIND

2010-04-19 · explainer · Hank · 3:22 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature · mode: Explainer

Hank builds up cosmic scale (Earth, the Sun, the galaxy's stars) to the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, where a blank speck of sky held over 3,000 galaxies, and argues that humanity's act of understanding gives us an important place in the universe.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Walking the dog, Hank decides to blow John's mind; Earth is huge; knowing its size vs mapping it (self-correction); Columbus

  • ★ While taking his dog for a walk, Hank decided he should blow John's mind today. — 00:00:00

  • ★★ Hank first says Earth's size was unknown until a few centuries ago, then corrects himself: people worked it out long ago with math, though the planet wasn't fully mapped. — 00:00:00 · Earth

    “That's not actually true. People had figured out how big the Earth was a long, long time ago”

    • check: a few hundred years ago — slip of the tongue
    • ★ Hank says 500 years ago Columbus sailed expecting to run into India, not knowing North America was there. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — The Sun would hold a million Earths; 200 to 400 billion stars in our galaxy

  • ★★ Hank says the Sun is much bigger than Earth, as They Might Be Giants have told John: if the Sun were hollow, a million Earths would fit inside. — 00:00:29 · Earth
  • ★★ Hank says our galaxy has at least 200 billion stars like the Sun, maybe as many as 400 billion, since counting them is hard. (hedged) — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — The Hubble Space Telescope; a dot on Hank's hand as the patch of empty sky NASA photographed; 'WTF NASA?'

  • ★★ Hank calls the Hubble Space Telescope the most powerful telescope ever created by humankind. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Using a dot on his hand, Hank shows the tiny patch of sky NASA scientists pointed Hubble at: empty, with no visible stars, galaxies or nebulae, so some asked why photograph nothing. — 00:00:58

00:01:58 — Shutter open for days, again in December 2009: the Hubble Ultra Deep Field shows over 3,000 galaxies

  • ★★★ Hank says they left the shutter open for days, once before and again in December 2009; the result is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. — 00:01:58
  • ★★★ Hank says that speck of black sky contained over 3,000 galaxies, every dot in the image a galaxy with billions of stars. — 00:01:58

00:02:35 — We have an important place in the universe: the act of understanding matters more than all the star stuff

  • ★★★ Hank says the universe is big, but he thinks we have an important place in it. (hedged) — 00:02:35 · meaning of life
  • ★★ Hank says it took humanity 99.9% of its existence even to understand that we live on a ball of rock circling a globe of plasma. — 00:02:35 · Earth
  • ★★★ Hank thinks understanding the scope of the universe, the act of understanding itself, is more important than the existence of all the star stuff in it. (hedged) — 00:02:35 · meaning of life

00:03:03 — Reactions to the pale blue dot: Hank asks for viewers' in the comments; sign-off

  • ★★ Noting people react differently to knowing we are on a tiny pale blue dot, Hank asks viewers to leave their reactions in the comments ('in my pants'). — 00:03:03 · in your pants

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description credits the folks at BadAstronomy for inspiring the video. — video description

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Hubble Space Telescope · Hubble Ultra-Deep Field · meaning of life

Also: People: Christopher Columbus

Works: Pale Blue Dot

Organizations: NASA

Terms: in your pants

Concepts: heliocentrism

Places: Earth · India · Milky Way · North America · Sun (star)

Only in the description or credits: Bad Astronomy · They Might Be Giants

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