Phil Plait: How to defend Earth from asteroids

Поделиться
HTML-код
  • Опубликовано: 20 ноя 2011
  • www.ted.com What's six miles wide and can end civilization in an instant? An asteroid - and there are lots of them out there. With humor and great visuals, Phil Plait enthralls the TEDxBoulder audience with all the ways asteroids can kill, and what we must do to avoid them.
    TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/translate.
  • НаукаНаука

Комментарии • 323

  • @JakeBroe
    @JakeBroe 5 лет назад +8

    "We have a space program and we can vote. Nobody has to die."

  • @AB-1023
    @AB-1023 4 года назад +1

    Severely underrated video and talk. This should have a million views. Great job, posting this to my website thank you

  • @hartmanpeter
    @hartmanpeter 12 лет назад +1

    One of the most entertaining and well put together TEDx talks I've seen. And I say that caring not even a little about asteroids and comets. Bravo!

  • @Saukko31
    @Saukko31 12 лет назад +2

    I love Phil's enthusiasm, and this was an interesting lecture.

  • @jasonsax2
    @jasonsax2 12 лет назад +1

    he's a great speaker! i enjoyed this one. great timing and content. thanks!

  • @martinbondesson
    @martinbondesson 12 лет назад +1

    Omg, Phil's got a TEDtalk now! That's awesome! I'm a huge Phil Plait fan, and have been for many, many years!

  • @wyldeman0O7
    @wyldeman0O7 12 лет назад +3

    Phil Plait has that nerdy-swag going on. He's one of my favorite public figures of science.

  • @lgrisotto
    @lgrisotto 12 лет назад +1

    great talk! i hope for more like this

  • @soulsanctuarymusic1
    @soulsanctuarymusic1 12 лет назад

    MORE SPEAKERS LIKE THIS PLEASE!!

  • @Trinivalts
    @Trinivalts 12 лет назад

    Good speaker, got me hooked during the 1st minute. Learned something aswell.

  • @dancingelf1988
    @dancingelf1988 12 лет назад

    COMPLETELY. AWESOME.
    Get this guy back. I want more!

  • @eatingtacos000
    @eatingtacos000 12 лет назад

    great video much thanks

  • @jadagod
    @jadagod 12 лет назад

    Great talk!

  • @naybobdenod
    @naybobdenod 12 лет назад

    Very entertaining and also very informative.

  • @Macc504
    @Macc504 10 лет назад +11

    Love this guy

    • @Deader87
      @Deader87 10 лет назад +3

      Me too! Lots of energy and enthusiasm!

  • @RiverSiege
    @RiverSiege 9 лет назад

    This was fascinating

  • @Heavensrun
    @Heavensrun 12 лет назад

    Hey, you got Phil Plait in my TED Talks!

  • @DanielVerberne
    @DanielVerberne 2 года назад

    Phil Plait is one of my favourite humans. I've never met him but would love to share his company; he's intellectually stimulating and has fantastic diction. Love his scientific outreach, he's a brilliant advocate of the value of science to our species.

  • @yashaouchan
    @yashaouchan 12 лет назад

    This is great. I loved it.

  • @silentdoctorable
    @silentdoctorable 12 лет назад

    I like this guy! I hope he speaks on TED again!

  • @chessdude67
    @chessdude67 12 лет назад

    Thumbs Way Up! This guy is great.

  • @Lundix
    @Lundix 12 лет назад

    @xjaskix I'm very curious about how you would handle an ailment that usually requires some form of medication. Say ... type 1 diabetes, asthma, or perhaps a little angina. Would you:
    A) Take the drug?
    B) Pray really, really hard?
    C) Refuse to acknowledge the ailment alltogether?
    Perhaps there's another alternative I've missed? Please do refrain from replying with the "it wouldn't happen" routine though, try to stick with the hypothetical case here.

  • @DaMDryer
    @DaMDryer 12 лет назад

    @dunbar9finger My point: Think about how fast a comet is.Than think about exhaust velocity of your ion drive of choice.They are around the same magnitude (10-100km/s).For Tempel 1 and a 2*10³kg probe the distance between their centers of mass would be roughly 15km, leaving at least 7km of space between them. So now, we assume Tempel 1 traveling at 20km/s and the ion drive to have double the exhaust velocity. The ions would need 0,175s to reach, but the comet already moved 3,5km!

  • @LeonidasGGG
    @LeonidasGGG 12 лет назад

    FAN-TAS-TIC! Now, THIS is TED.

  • @toonpig6345
    @toonpig6345 10 лет назад

    Real interesting talk. If you enjoyed it read his blogs very good reading

  • @ksn1337
    @ksn1337 12 лет назад

    @RareAirSupply very useful, thank you.

  • @gneisstuffwacke
    @gneisstuffwacke 11 лет назад

    I used this talk for my comm class hmwk.

  • @DaMDryer
    @DaMDryer 12 лет назад

    @DaMDryer Additionally: Comets rotate, and even if the ion hit somewhere at the edge; after said comet moved 3,5km they would speed/slow its rotation at best.
    In this case, most of the time, the ions would not even reach at all.

  • @dustintaber
    @dustintaber 3 года назад

    What a good crowd

  • @RevyNai
    @RevyNai 12 лет назад

    @Raazh Have you ever put a hot pyrex dish into cold water? (or the other way around works too). I mean, I'm definitely no expert on asteroids and such, but I have no problem imagining an icy body exploding when it's suddenly super heated.

  • @dunbar9finger
    @dunbar9finger 12 лет назад

    @DaMDryer Firstly this wasn't necessarily comets. It was any sort of impact body, comet or meteor. Secondly, this entire gravity-tow proposal is based on the premise that the probe is matching velocities with the target so it can travel alongside it. In that frame of reference it is incorrect to calculate as if the meteor moves out of the way of the particles unless you're picturing a form of friction (in a vacuum?) acting on those particles after they are expelled from the probe.

  • @DaRealPatMan
    @DaRealPatMan 12 лет назад

    This guy is a genius!! Love him!

  • @JohnMahony75
    @JohnMahony75 12 лет назад

    Cool as always, Bad Astronomer!

  • @jayswaggjones4239
    @jayswaggjones4239 12 лет назад

    He said its not but it's good to research these things

  • @NormanVsNorman
    @NormanVsNorman 12 лет назад

    Love it!

  • @Azimuthas
    @Azimuthas 12 лет назад

    I love this guy.

  • @Skeluz
    @Skeluz 12 лет назад

    Like a boss!

  • @CooperTroopa
    @CooperTroopa 12 лет назад

    quality!

  • @Iregosha
    @Iregosha 10 лет назад +1

    This guy is a good speaker.

    • @JakeBroe
      @JakeBroe 5 лет назад

      Agreed, this should have more views than it does

  • @justgivemethetruth
    @justgivemethetruth 12 лет назад

    @RevyNai
    Pyrex is not really the best substance to use for your example, it is a monocrystal so expands and contracts evenly and is break resistant in that cse. Regular glass would be a better analogy. They used to. maybe still do, make coffee pots out of pyrex to boil water.

  • @zahra-bs2pz
    @zahra-bs2pz 5 лет назад +1

    Phil Plait is an icon

  • @bizzee1
    @bizzee1 12 лет назад

    Phil Plait gives me such a nerdgasm.

  • @GMLSX
    @GMLSX 12 лет назад

    Two RUclipsrs in a row? Thats something new.

  • @1980albatros
    @1980albatros 12 лет назад

    Phil has got to be the coolest science presenter ever. how else could you make a crowd laugh while discussing impending doom and ways to prevent it. }:)

  • @dunbar9finger
    @dunbar9finger 12 лет назад

    @DaMDryer The only way to solve the problem is the make the "exhaust" of the ion drive miss the asteroid so it doesn't push it away just as hard as the gravity of the probe is pulling it. And the only way I can think of to do that is this: Aim to push away from the asteroid at a skewed angle to the left so the exhaust misses the asteroid, fire the engine for a while like that, then rotate to a new position that aims to miss the asteroid to the right, fire for a while, repeat.)

  • @karadan100
    @karadan100 12 лет назад

    Kind of ironic they did this at Boulder..

  • @dustdust7
    @dustdust7 12 лет назад

    The "if" in "if we detect them" if quite a big one.

  • @DaMDryer
    @DaMDryer 12 лет назад

    @DaMDryer ... inelastic, the ions would only erode the surface insignificantly before bouncing back into space. They would never significantly cancel out the gravitational pull of the probe.

  • @cheddar2648
    @cheddar2648 9 лет назад

    Gravity tug: simplicity, reliability. It just requires a lot of lead time.

  • @DistinctiveBlend
    @DistinctiveBlend 12 лет назад

    Hey it's Phil! This guy is great and he has his own channel.
    /user/TheBadAstronomer

  • @xyoop
    @xyoop 12 лет назад

    He is talking in such passion that I wish for asteroid to try to mess with us right now

  • @littlekima
    @littlekima 12 лет назад +1

    he is amazing:D

  • @datlik9
    @datlik9 12 лет назад

    I like this guy

  • @Trazynn
    @Trazynn 12 лет назад

    I always watch the intro twice.

  • @RockalilyDunne
    @RockalilyDunne 12 лет назад

    I like this guy :)

  • @majinspy
    @majinspy 12 лет назад

    @0r14n583lt Probably harder than you think. The HUGE gravity of the sun is causing these things to rotate around the sun. Therefore, it would be very hard to just right-angle their trajectory directly into the sun. We can probably push / pull it, but the idea of completely overriding the sun's force is a bit rough.

  • @dunbar9finger
    @dunbar9finger 12 лет назад

    But, if the probe's ion drive is throwing mass toward the meteor to propel itself away from it, how does that mass not collide with the meteor and push it in the opposite direction thus canceling things out? The ion drive exhaust would have to "miss" the meteor and that would mean the probe isn't pulling directly away from the meteor.

  • @PotadoTomado
    @PotadoTomado 12 лет назад

    Hehe, that's a good talk!

  • @evanformcr
    @evanformcr 12 лет назад

    Dean Pelton from Community 10:43

  • @invinciblemode
    @invinciblemode 12 лет назад

    Is it ironic that a talk about asteroids is happening at Boulder? xD

  • @SAsgarters
    @SAsgarters 12 лет назад

    I see the flying car commercial paid off. The quality of the last few speakers has been fairly high.

  • @caseygtr
    @caseygtr 12 лет назад

    @St8Solja it's mass could super heat to change quickly from a solid to gas, thus rapid and violent expansion in what scientist call an 'explosion'.

  •  12 лет назад

    Would it be possible to catch Apophis and place it on our orbit? I mean are we capable of building probe with enough gravitational thrust so that it would be able to stop Apophis before it comes back from the sun?

  • @GetMeThere1
    @GetMeThere1 12 лет назад

    We're here. We're self-aware and have learned a bit about ourselves and how things work. We're established. Now, the two fundamental things we have to figure out first (from a scientific AND social perspective) are how to keep our planet healthy from 1) Destructive processes generated here, 2) Big rocks from outer space whacking us.
    After that, it's star trekking time...

  • @lilgabagool
    @lilgabagool 12 лет назад

    haha great presentation

  • @delta0307
    @delta0307 12 лет назад

    at least this guy isn't boring ^__^

  • @kyral210
    @kyral210 12 лет назад

    Deep impact :D

  • @Astrostevo
    @Astrostevo 11 лет назад

    Cheers BA, superluminous interesting talk. :-)
    One small thing ,, how do we know for sure that the dinosaurs didn't vote? ;-)

  • @drorjs
    @drorjs 12 лет назад

    this is the guy from the badastronomy blog.
    in case your interested insome daily astronomy news... : )

  • @OhManTFE
    @OhManTFE 12 лет назад

    Lol love this guy!!

  • @ferocioustick
    @ferocioustick 11 лет назад

    My immediate reaction would be to say no, it cannot be slowed down to land on earth softly. However, I am not a cosmologist/astronomer/engineer, so I could be completely wrong. Smashing it into the moon or Mars? That seems possible, and it gives us the opportunity to examine a newly formed asteroid impact somewhere other than our own planet. Still, it would be difficult

  • @MrKohlenstoff
    @MrKohlenstoff 12 лет назад

    The presentation seems a bit forced during the first half, but all in all, I'm quite impressed. :>

  • @NitrEX4
    @NitrEX4 12 лет назад

    I dont wanna cloooose my eyes... I don't wanna faaaall asleep

  • @ScottishAtheist
    @ScottishAtheist 12 лет назад

    @WyldOrbit Yes, I'm sure there is.

  • @lives2live
    @lives2live 12 лет назад

    BTW this guy's channel is: TheBadAstronomer Check him out. I was never into astronomy before I stumbled on his channel a few days ago but now I'm pretty hooked.

  • @smalltownescape
    @smalltownescape 12 лет назад

    "the difference between us and the dinosaurs is that was have a space program and we can vote."
    finally! a definitive answer!

  • @shazampanda
    @shazampanda 12 лет назад

    I find the fact that he's giving this talk at TEDxBoulder hilariously coincidental.

  • @Stringprodigy
    @Stringprodigy 12 лет назад

    @leisulin "So, yeah, no need for a "facepalm"....since the "asteroid defense" you are referring to would consist, almost certainly, of simply LOOKING FOR THEM and finding out if any are going to hit us any time soon."
    Again, they've been doing this for years. Get with the program.

  • @ammiekid
    @ammiekid 11 лет назад

    I say we just pray, and the power of the "all mighty" will save us.

  • @DaMDryer
    @DaMDryer 12 лет назад

    @dunbar9finger I think the likely answer to your problem is relative movement.

  • @chasethemooseinc
    @chasethemooseinc 12 лет назад

    how ironic he's in boulder talking about space bolders

  • @Hollywood4Fun
    @Hollywood4Fun 11 лет назад

    Love his delivery.... Spock.
    We could mine the asteroid.... we could be rich.
    Funny stuff. Great comedic timing.

  • @SpartacusCZ
    @SpartacusCZ 3 года назад

    What about giant Magnets to redirect it??

  • @indalecio21
    @indalecio21 12 лет назад

    04:40
    Tunchanka!

  • @dunbar9finger
    @dunbar9finger 12 лет назад

    @DaMDrye A typical medium size passenger airplane goes about 400 miles per hour, which is about 54 m/s. Are you afraid that if you let go of your glass of water on an airplane it will suddenly fling backward and smash the rear wall at 54 m/s? No, because you, the glass, and the plane are all matching velocities. The comet will not move aside because the ions are matching its 20km/s sideways velocity already even before the probe emitted them.

  • @YawnGod
    @YawnGod 12 лет назад

    It's like he's speaking to a classroom of primary school children, but it's an interesting topic. I wish the talk was intended for adults, and not kids.

  • @TheFartoholic
    @TheFartoholic 12 лет назад

    @kirbienstien Of course it isn't. He's just using them to describe the strength of the impact.

  • @JohnBlonn
    @JohnBlonn 12 лет назад

    12:23 We'd be riiiich!!

  • @daneimp
    @daneimp 12 лет назад

    We have a spaceprogram aaaand we can VOTE! :D HAHA!

  • @RosbifFrog
    @RosbifFrog 12 лет назад

    'We cant move the Earth, at least not easily' - I'd think impossible! Lol!

  • @DaMDryer
    @DaMDryer 12 лет назад

    @dunbar9finger Thanks, I did go astray. But hopefully not meteor, as that would mean it did hit ;) Now, this leaves meager acceleration on the bodys orbit (if it has one), for it to move out of the way. These times, ions would still not hit the centre... Time to ask whether it would be bad, if those ions hit: Opposed to gravity, the ions would only affect a significantly small portion of the bodys surface. And as their collissions with the surface would by no means be perfectly...

  • @kiddhitta
    @kiddhitta 12 лет назад

    so basically what he is saying is we need to learn how to control these asteroids so we can use them as a type of weapon on other countries. i like it. i like it a lot.

  • @freesk8
    @freesk8 12 лет назад

    @SoEFleX NASA and voting are both relevant to this video.
    What bothers me is when people try to intimidate others from stating their opinion, just because they disagree with the opinion but have no rational way to oppose it.

  • @ammiekid
    @ammiekid 11 лет назад

    From what does any asteroid or comets come.

  • @SpazzyMcGee1337
    @SpazzyMcGee1337 12 лет назад

    It feels right when it's about awesome hubris. :P

  • @Gytax0
    @Gytax0 12 лет назад

    @goodvibes03 You mean 2036?

  • @TheHugosouthafrica
    @TheHugosouthafrica 12 лет назад

    this guy is hillarious!

  • @Hythloday71
    @Hythloday71 12 лет назад

    He says that big rock Apophis that passes in 2029 has a 1 in a million chance of going through that key hole thingy, well that's fine now, but as the date looms and data is aquired, those odds will either rise or fall, by the actual date of passing, i suspect we'll know to a practical certainty by the day it passes. Kind of un-nerving, regardless of the current odds.

  • @zarkoff45
    @zarkoff45 12 лет назад

    Asteroid hit or not, I think some of us will still be having our bones collecting dust in a museum for transhuman cyborgs.

  • @alejandroolivares6263
    @alejandroolivares6263 4 года назад

    Then how did all of the underground cave systems go untouched in Mexico including the giant crystal caves .how is it possible for these places survive such a impact dead on site...