Your last quote, I want to frame that and put it on my wall: "Astronomy is really really good at putting us in our place. But it's also really good at showing us just how grand and awe inspiring that place is" Seriously excellent statement! That sums up why I love astronomy. It can make you feel so small, but at the same time so incredibly lucky and blessed to just be a part of such a breath taking universe. Thanks for the great episode! Looking forward to next week's!
+Ryan Sprenkels we have a pretty good idea of how old the universe is, given the half lives of certain elements. The question is, is this a cycle that renews itself, or is it once and done--to be destined for the heat death of the universe. The other question is are there other universes, much like the question previously raised about other worlds, galaxies,etc.
Dang, now I feel small and can't stop thinking about what consciousness is on this tiny rock within one of its billions of organisms. Oh well, back to homework.
Bob Hope We are more bacteria... No on the cosmic scale we are actually closer in size to the universe itself than a planck. Yet we are still very small and insignificant creatures.
Well we are basically learning about the great void that is space...a void that is impossible to cross, yet someday we must. Oh and that avatar though...
+Colton Wilson well...it's not impossible to cross....just really hard, and long distances are still out of our reach^^ and, what about my avatar? I can't tell if you were dismissive or admiratif....
Absolutely love this channel for astronomy, presentation is excellent and you don't have the fluff that TV programs have (the sensational dooms day rhetoric or the boring over used "are we really alone in the universe" narration).
I saw this guy on a different video that talked about galaxies and black holes and I was like "Hey that's the crash course guy." His presence made the video even more liget.
I know I already commented but I have to get this out. This is my favorite subject. I watched the segment with the galaxy collision simulation over and over again. It makes my mind buzz with ideas and questions. Just freaking amazing!
Thanks, and I always appreciate when vids point out that science has been/can be wrong about formations, and other things, be it stars, galaxies, space, time, etc.
I unsuscribed from Crash Course awhile ago because I disliked the bias in the history, but I've resubscribed just for the astronomy. Seriously loving this series.
A nice and highly informative video, thank you very much!!! And to think it took about 15 billion years for the universe to become essentially sentient and self-aware of itself in the form of us humans... just WOW!!!! No mythic religious fictional story can ever come close to the mind-blowing magnificence and grandness of the real observable universe!!!
Man, I love your Astronomy show, and the whole CrashCourse thing. It is so fun to just sit down, hit one of the videos, and listen to people, who can tell these in a fun way, instead of the boring way teachers do. Learnin' a lot from you guys, keep up the good work!
i feel so insignificant, yet truly amazing that we even exist, my brain is struggling to comprehend the size that our universe is, my city is big!, my country is huge, the earth is gigantic, the sun is titanic, out galaxy is colossal, and even our galaxy is puny compared too the rest of the universe, like a single grain of sand compared to our entire planet, thanks for reminding me how pathetic and meaningless my day too day worries are, great video!
So true. And going in the other direction, we have cells, molecules, atoms, nuclei and subatomic particles. The size of an atomic nucleus is of the order of 10^-15 meters! And ultimately that's what makes up all the matter that we know. Fascinating isn't it?
Phil Plait does such a great job at presenting very complex ideas in such a way that people just learning about the Universe can understand and really appreciate the the information. I have said what a great job that your team does putting these videos together put I have to say that the graphics and pictures that go along with the videos are truly awesome! Great job! Greetings from Atlantic City New Jersey U S A!
I'm currently in an astronomy 101 course and I must say, this series is superb nearly everything I've learned in the course has been talked about in this series.
Hi Phil and the team! Huge fan of this series :)So I had this doubt- what exactly is the difference between a globular cluster and an elliptical galaxy? Is it possible that some of the elliptical galaxies we've observed so far may happen to be globular clusters?
1:41 You've got it a bit mixed up. Both of the arguments you present - by Shapley and Curtis - are arguments that the Milly Way is the entire universe. It was actually Shapley who argued that other galaxies must be impossibly far away - not Curtis. Great video, though.
One of the consequences of insight into the structure of the universe is a feeling of disconnectedness. In the past, creation stories and geocentric assumptions placed us firmly in the center of a functioning mechanism. We were small but we felt we were watched after. The world was mysterious, but we were a thing apart from it. Now we have been thrown out of the nest and left to wander and find our own place, and the mysteries just go deeper and deeper.
Thank you very much for this video, Phil Plait and the others at _CrashCourse_ Astronomy! Galaxies are really big, immense, gigantic, and when they collide...wow! Amazing! Fascinating! I can’t help but wonder what life on planet Earth would be like if we were in another kind of galaxy, say an irregular galaxy. Today I learned that there are more types of galaxies than I thought and that some are so radically different when ours. I had no idea where was a difference between irregular galaxies and eliptical galaxies and I certainly did not know about active galaxies or perculiar galaxies. I also learned that galaxies are cannibals! Can life exist in other galaxies?! Anyway, thank you A LOT for this video!
One common thought during my studies; the vast distances and lengths of time, the sheer mass of a black hole... all of it so far away and so different from what we are accustomed to, confined to our short life on our tiny planet, all over in the "cosmic blink of an eye", our place so small it is scarcely a single subatomic particle in this grand universe, and every time I think of it I am truly humbled, for I truly cannot conceive of its beauty and depth.
All your videos are great Phil. Between the content, production and your obvious enthusiasm for the subject the results are awesomely entertaining and educational. Thank you everyone involved. Cheers
Thanks for giving proper credit to galaxy collisions, which are mind-boggling! Imagine the prospect of a galaxy collision where the supermassive black hole in one galaxy’s center sweeps through the arms of the other galaxy. Kind of horrifying.
+Danny Meléndez multiverse is no observation or even hypothesis, its just a philosophy, it has no scientific basis. That should be enough to keep it out...
gingergamergirl98 Physicist think they can proof it with Quantum Physics! And some images with different telescopes using various spectra seem to suggest 'soft' touches from other universe according to some.
sion8 Quantum Physics is still in its infancy and scientists are plunged into deep mysteries about its mere nature(just go and read about it on wikipedia) and you here you are talking mumbo jumbo...
Saad Mohd Well, so what one of the current big theory in quantum physics actually requires there to be a multiverse in order to explain all those quantum phenomena! Is not "mumbo jumbo" is just how they're currently working towards.
Can you imagine showing this to someone who grew up without modern technology, like in an Amish community or tribal village? I can literally feel my brain stretching and I "knew" this already. That would be wild.
Honestly thought you would leave us in a perfect cliffhanger when speaking of colliding galaxies and be like 'And our own Milky Way is heading towards such a collision! But that's for next episode!'
What I find fascinating about galaxy collisions is that gravity is a big component of them. On the scale of human beings, gravity during collisions is negligible, so we can have an intuitive idea of how they work. But with entire galaxies, gravity is a much more noticeable force, and the way they "crash" into each other...seems so bizarre!
Shapley wasn't completely wrong, he was right that the Solar System was not at the center of the Milky Way while Curtis (being right about more galaxies out there) thought that the Solar System was the center of the Milky Way.
I can't get over the sheer scale of everything.... How it takes 100,000 years for the FASTEST thing possible to even get across our own galaxy. I don't even want to think how long it takes light to get to other galaxies. To Andromeda, we, as humans (more specifically, homo-sapiens), don't even exist, and won't so for over a million years.
+Jordan O'C (Xenro66) "... the sheer scale of everything." Here's something else you might find interesting. Since the galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across, if there's a supernova in the galaxy every 100 years, that means the light from a *thousand* supernovae in our galaxy that have already exploded is on its way toward us right now.
At 9:20, the most interesting thing about that picture of Hoag's object is that despite the rarity of ring galaxies, you can see another one right through it in the background.
And now I am starting to wonder if there exist some bigger heavenly structures consisting of galaxies, say mega-galaxies, and even further, if there are other structures containing mega-galaxies, like babushka dolls. Truly A-M-A-Z-I-N-G !!!
Your last quote, I want to frame that and put it on my wall: "Astronomy is really really good at putting us in our place. But it's also really good at showing us just how grand and awe inspiring that place is" Seriously excellent statement! That sums up why I love astronomy. It can make you feel so small, but at the same time so incredibly lucky and blessed to just be a part of such a breath taking universe. Thanks for the great episode! Looking forward to next week's!
My mind cannot comprehend this size
+InDeepPudding Wait till he goes over cluster galaxies and how to determine which galaxies are in which cluster...and where we sit in that whole ting.
the universe is just faaaaar to big to comprehend
the universe is probably infinite.
+nilfisk think we would of moved on to some other planet/galaxy before it would hit the milky way
+Ryan Sprenkels we have a pretty good idea of how old the universe is, given the half lives of certain elements. The question is, is this a cycle that renews itself, or is it once and done--to be destined for the heat death of the universe.
The other question is are there other universes, much like the question previously raised about other worlds, galaxies,etc.
Dang, now I feel small and can't stop thinking about what consciousness is on this tiny rock within one of its billions of organisms. Oh well, back to homework.
We are mere ants.
+Bob Hope that is a bit optimistic
+Bob Hope Less than ants my friend.
HB SKATE When did ants send vehicles to other worlds?
Bob Hope We are more bacteria... No on the cosmic scale we are actually closer in size to the universe itself than a planck. Yet we are still very small and insignificant creatures.
when this series end i want crash course paleontology. a science not really talked about and would make for a fascinating series
+Dominick Luneau More likes for this guy!
+Dominick Luneau Awesome idea. I would want to see that too.
+Dominick Luneau I agree, though ultimately it would turn out to be Crash Course: Phylogeny
+Dominick Luneau that would be awesome!
I agree
Regarding to galaxies collision, our own galaxy is on it's "crashcourse ;)" with Andromeda galaxy
+Fighting_Hussar Well played pun, my friend. Well played.
-Nicole
+CrashCourse who the fuck is Nicole?
+Laura Ponicki Nicole Sweeney See Credits @11:31
+Laura Ponicki Nicole Sweeney - editor of this show.
CrashCourse Thank you :)
I like how Phil says A LOT!
haha, I was thinking the same thing 😁
+Srdjan Smudja phil saying A LOT reminded me of hank saying NO EDGE!
+Srdjan Smudja He says it A LOT
+Srdjan Smudja A LAAT
+Srdjan Smudja
hahahaha. in the course of 35 years of mainstream astronomy education BILLIONS AND BILLIONS has just been replaced by A LOT :D
I think this is the best crash course, every episode is awesome!
Well we are basically learning about the great void that is space...a void that is impossible to cross, yet someday we must.
Oh and that avatar though...
+Colton Wilson well...it's not impossible to cross....just really hard, and long distances are still out of our reach^^
and, what about my avatar? I can't tell if you were dismissive or admiratif....
+dahulius oh, sorry came off that way...I really, really like Soul Eater...
awesome and depressing at the same time
This is one of the many reasons why I love Astronomy: It helps put things in perspective.
Astronomy: the most fun you'll ever have starting at dirt.
You sir deserve a prize
+John Doe don't forget about dust
how do you look at dirt. its space
+GreenShot space dirt, clearly
wouldn't geology or archeology be a better fit for that statement?
Surprised you guys didn't mention that our Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda.
Me too! I wish I could see the collision but sadly, I'll be dead (probably)
+Jayken Serin-Tal Who cares aboout 4 billion years in the future, people barely care about the next 2 years.
They used a simulation of the Milky Way-Andromeda collision to demonstrate galaxy collisions.
I bet that'll be in the next ep
+Jayken Serin-Tal Patience.
This was one of the most exciting videos on youtube ever. You are a truly good orator.
Thank you for this episode.
Absolutely love this channel for astronomy, presentation is excellent and you don't have the fluff that TV programs have (the sensational dooms day rhetoric or the boring over used "are we really alone in the universe" narration).
slightlytwistedagain not exactly both are good
I should be writing an essay right now, instead I'm watching this. No regrets!
Me too. No ragrets.
***** Oh I know haha. It's going to be an all-nighter I'm afraid.
ayyyyy i feel you man
+MisterDutch93 If the essay is about astronomy or galaxies, you can pass it off as "research".
angeldude101 Sadly, it's not. I don't think 17th century art-guilds have anything to do with astronomy haha
I love how these build on each other. Every episode seems to have more references to prior episodes than the last
I have always felt small when talking about things on the galactic scale, but for some reason, this episode in particular has put me in awe.
I saw this guy on a different video that talked about galaxies and black holes and I was like "Hey that's the crash course guy." His presence made the video even more liget.
The A LOT thing should really be a meme.
such dank, very may mays, wow
+chaichana I agree. I think the 'space is weird' part should be also.
+chaichana This joke is too meta for me.
+chaichana how many ones are in one hundred? A LOT
+chaichana *ALOT
I am SO happy when I see crashcourse Astronomy video in my news feed!!
I know I already commented but I have to get this out. This is my favorite subject. I watched the segment with the galaxy collision simulation over and over again. It makes my mind buzz with ideas and questions. Just freaking amazing!
I think the prettiest picture from space would be the sombrero galaxy.
Thanks, and I always appreciate when vids point out that science has been/can be wrong about formations, and other things, be it stars, galaxies, space, time, etc.
I could totally relate to irregular galaxies, because I, too, am small and chaotically shaped.
YOU BROKE MY BRAIN! The numbers, the distances... They cant be imagined by human mind O_O
It makes me just a bit sad that it is so unlikely we will be able to travel to another galaxy within my life time, if ever.
Adam Craig why not?
I guess you’ll be even sadder to hear that we won’t be even leaving our solar system in your lifetime either
our satelite has
nicougrikify Pelletier only barely, in the grand scheme of things
Neil Moore
Yeah... Pretty sure it's still in the Oort Cloud
The people writing the script are underrated honestly, the description of the heavenly bodies is poetry
public schools across the nation should pay pbs to create crash courses, would be a great teaching tool for teachers
I unsuscribed from Crash Course awhile ago because I disliked the bias in the history, but I've resubscribed just for the astronomy. Seriously loving this series.
Science is the best! Thanks Crash Course!
agreed
+Forrest Rittmann and you didnt type FIRST! :)
I did think it though!
True that!
A nice and highly informative video, thank you very much!!!
And to think it took about 15 billion years for the universe to become essentially sentient and self-aware of itself in the form of us humans... just WOW!!!!
No mythic religious fictional story can ever come close to the mind-blowing magnificence and grandness of the real observable universe!!!
Man, I love your Astronomy show, and the whole CrashCourse thing. It is so fun to just sit down, hit one of the videos, and listen to people, who can tell these in a fun way, instead of the boring way teachers do. Learnin' a lot from you guys, keep up the good work!
our universe got *A lot* bigger
in the beginning of the episode he called our galaxy a neighborhood, the neighborhood got *A lot* bigger
This is by far the best show on Crash Course and I wish it would keep on going endlessly!
Yeah, boy. I get pumped for Galaxies. How much our understanding expanded once we discovered they were out there. Mind blowing.
i feel so insignificant, yet truly amazing that we even exist,
my brain is struggling to comprehend the size that our universe is, my city is big!, my country is huge, the earth is gigantic, the sun is titanic, out galaxy is colossal, and even our galaxy is puny compared too the rest of the universe, like a single grain of sand compared to our entire planet, thanks for reminding me how pathetic and meaningless my day too day worries are, great video!
So true. And going in the other direction, we have cells, molecules, atoms, nuclei and subatomic particles. The size of an atomic nucleus is of the order of 10^-15 meters! And ultimately that's what makes up all the matter that we know. Fascinating isn't it?
Best crash course thus far. Mind blown every episode.
Phil Plait does such a great job at presenting very complex ideas in such a way that people just learning about the Universe can understand and really appreciate the the information. I have said what a great job that your team does putting these videos together put I have to say that the graphics and pictures that go along with the videos are truly awesome! Great job!
Greetings from Atlantic City New Jersey U S A!
I'm currently in an astronomy 101 course and I must say, this series is superb nearly everything I've learned in the course has been talked about in this series.
Hi Phil and the team! Huge fan of this series :)So I had this doubt- what exactly is the difference between a globular cluster and an elliptical galaxy? Is it possible that some of the elliptical galaxies we've observed so far may happen to be globular clusters?
You are the second best person i know at saying the word "Billions"
Who's the first?
+gingergamergirl98 Carl Sagan!
Desmolas Omg YES
"It's a happenin' place!"
"We're out in the suburbs." Love it! Great show!
Finally, my weekly astro-fix! ~twitches~
Some decent research and hard evidence are presented.. this deserve more views
Loving this series A LOT
Really enjoying CrashCourse Astronomy a lot... A LOT!!!!
Yay! Thanks Phil and team for another great installation.
crash course is always amazingly interesting!
1:41 You've got it a bit mixed up. Both of the arguments you present - by Shapley and Curtis - are arguments that the Milly Way is the entire universe. It was actually Shapley who argued that other galaxies must be impossibly far away - not Curtis. Great video, though.
Those Kerbals look happy to learn, except the one at the far right. I think his mind was blown from the previous lecture.
You and Dr. Thaller were some of my favorites on The Universe, one of my favorite series. Glad to see you again.
One of the consequences of insight into the structure of the universe is a feeling of disconnectedness. In the past, creation stories and geocentric assumptions placed us firmly in the center of a functioning mechanism. We were small but we felt we were watched after. The world was mysterious, but we were a thing apart from it. Now we have been thrown out of the nest and left to wander and find our own place, and the mysteries just go deeper and deeper.
Wow! Great episode!
Been taking astronomy this semester and this series has been a great review tool for me. Thanks!
Thank you very much for this video, Phil Plait and the others at _CrashCourse_ Astronomy! Galaxies are really big, immense, gigantic, and when they collide...wow! Amazing! Fascinating! I can’t help but wonder what life on planet Earth would be like if we were in another kind of galaxy, say an irregular galaxy. Today I learned that there are more types of galaxies than I thought and that some are so radically different when ours. I had no idea where was a difference between irregular galaxies and eliptical galaxies and I certainly did not know about active galaxies or perculiar galaxies. I also learned that galaxies are cannibals! Can life exist in other galaxies?! Anyway, thank you A LOT for this video!
One common thought during my studies; the vast distances and lengths of time, the sheer mass of a black hole... all of it so far away and so different from what we are accustomed to, confined to our short life on our tiny planet, all over in the "cosmic blink of an eye", our place so small it is scarcely a single subatomic particle in this grand universe, and every time I think of it I am truly humbled, for I truly cannot conceive of its beauty and depth.
French toast is sooooo good! But not as good as watching phill try to explain how insane the universe is in the morning :)
Just missing such series ..one of the best I've ever watched three years ago
Wow, I love this show. Keep 'em coming.
All your videos are great Phil. Between the content, production and your obvious enthusiasm for the subject the results are awesomely entertaining and educational. Thank you everyone involved. Cheers
Thanks for giving proper credit to galaxy collisions, which are mind-boggling! Imagine the prospect of a galaxy collision where the supermassive black hole in one galaxy’s center sweeps through the arms of the other galaxy. Kind of horrifying.
Awesome episode, as always. 👍👍👍
I'm glad whoever did the captions typed "A LOT" instead of "ALOT"
7:33 Yet beautiful.
As a student in UC Berkeley Astron C10 course, i say crashcourse does a marvelous job. we were just studying galaxy this week
I love this series! Keep up the good work!
What we will find out next, that the universe is actually just a small part of a multiverse
+Danny Meléndez multiverse is no observation or even hypothesis, its just a philosophy, it has no scientific basis. That should be enough to keep it out...
I don't think that would even be possible to prove. Unless we get some SUPER advanced tech from aliens or something.
gingergamergirl98
Physicist think they can proof it with Quantum Physics! And some images with different telescopes using various spectra seem to suggest 'soft' touches from other universe according to some.
sion8 Quantum Physics is still in its infancy and scientists are plunged into deep mysteries about its mere nature(just go and read about it on wikipedia) and you here you are talking mumbo jumbo...
Saad Mohd
Well, so what one of the current big theory in quantum physics actually requires there to be a multiverse in order to explain all those quantum phenomena! Is not "mumbo jumbo" is just how they're currently working towards.
Worlds are colliding! ~George Costanza
God damn the quality of this show has gotten so good over time, great show thank you.
i love these crash courses... simplified enough to help explain to my kids too.. thanks
I think that the ring galaxy is the product of a massive event that pushed away stars into the perfect ring form
Well done. I like that you speak quickly. Lots of info packed into a short time. Thank you.
My brain cells got so shooketh from this episode that they left my brain in scrambles now...
Send help!
Well done
I love the line " Galaxies are Cannibals"
Don't forget about the Super Massive Blackholes at the Centers of most Galaxies. We have one, as does Andromeda.
when space dust settles, it's space dirt. lololol or in most cases, stars, hot jupiters and super earths.
Can you imagine showing this to someone who grew up without modern technology, like in an Amish community or tribal village? I can literally feel my brain stretching and I "knew" this already. That would be wild.
Honestly thought you would leave us in a perfect cliffhanger when speaking of colliding galaxies and be like 'And our own Milky Way is heading towards such a collision! But that's for next episode!'
What I find fascinating about galaxy collisions is that gravity is a big component of them. On the scale of human beings, gravity during collisions is negligible, so we can have an intuitive idea of how they work. But with entire galaxies, gravity is a much more noticeable force, and the way they "crash" into each other...seems so bizarre!
This is such a beautiful and powerful episode.
Mandelbrot set ,and the monsters explains it all closer we look the farther we get from the truth
phil plait is a cool dude.
Wow it's nice to have confirmation I use to call galaxies island universes and still do.
Shapley wasn't completely wrong, he was right that the Solar System was not at the center of the Milky Way while Curtis (being right about more galaxies out there) thought that the Solar System was the center of the Milky Way.
TShirt with Phil's wide-eyed face with SPACE IS WEIRD! under it. who would buy that?
2020 and this guy is still awesome
I can't get over the sheer scale of everything.... How it takes 100,000 years for the FASTEST thing possible to even get across our own galaxy. I don't even want to think how long it takes light to get to other galaxies. To Andromeda, we, as humans (more specifically, homo-sapiens), don't even exist, and won't so for over a million years.
yeah crazy right..
+Jordan O'C (Xenro66) "... the sheer scale of everything." Here's something else you might find interesting. Since the galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across, if there's a supernova in the galaxy every 100 years, that means the light from a *thousand* supernovae in our galaxy that have already exploded is on its way toward us right now.
I thought I was the only one being dramatic when it comes to astronomy but Phil is worse hahaha I love that guy so much. Great teacher!
At 9:20, the most interesting thing about that picture of Hoag's object is that despite the rarity of ring galaxies, you can see another one right through it in the background.
Thanks for doing this video.
I hope this series never ends!
6:15 Someone please make a Gif of this!
Hoag's Object is inexplicably terrifying.
Thanks
100 billion galaxies and people think there's no other life in the universe smh
Very nice galaxies
yes it is really good in putting us on our place ......
a LoT
And now I am starting to wonder if there exist some bigger heavenly structures consisting of galaxies, say mega-galaxies, and even further, if there are other structures containing mega-galaxies, like babushka dolls. Truly A-M-A-Z-I-N-G !!!
So cool