Is it Aliens? The Most Unusual Star in the Galaxy - Chris Lintott

Boyajian's star, a faint and unprepossessing presence in the constellation of Cygnus, attracted astronomers' attention when it began to flicker alarmingly.
We will discuss explanations for its behaviour, from disintegrating comets to alien megastructures, and consider how modern astronomy hunts for the truly unusual objects in the Universe.
For this task, the involvement of large numbers of volunteers - citizen scientists - is essential, for example via the Zooniverse platform, which invites you to participate in classifying galaxies and discovering planets.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 29th April 2024 at Conway Hall, London
Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy.
He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/a...
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: / greshamcollege
Facebook: / greshamcollege
Instagram: / greshamcollege

Пікірлер: 118

  • @rickitynick4463
    @rickitynick446318 күн бұрын

    Fantastic presentation!

  • @mjesuiledemoisne7728
    @mjesuiledemoisne772816 күн бұрын

    Thank you. Very interesting indeed!

  • @zapfanzapfan
    @zapfanzapfan18 күн бұрын

    Excellent lecture, luckily our sun didn't eat all its children.

  • @tomolowe8654
    @tomolowe865426 минут бұрын

    There is life out there, when we find them we will join hands and rejoyce in creation❤

  • @Summerrose400
    @Summerrose40017 күн бұрын

    Very interesting thank you.

  • @myparceltape1169
    @myparceltape116921 күн бұрын

    Absorbing wavelengths preferentially is very common on Earth. Receiving high energy radiation and emitting lower energy radiation is also common.

  • @mawkernewek
    @mawkernewek23 күн бұрын

    I wonder whether we should aim for a 9 meter space telescope, this so that its 'concept mission' provisional name can be Deep Space 9 Meter Telescope, after the James Webb Space Telescope had been provisionally known as the Next Generation Space Telescope during development. And then after that a *Space Telescope: Voyaging Observatory Yonder* which will zoom out of the solar system into interstellar space at high speed to give us a bigger baseline for parallax.

  • @J56609

    @J56609

    13 күн бұрын

    Bless your heart

  • @anthonyzornig
    @anthonyzornig15 күн бұрын

    Nice. Thx.

  • @alex79suited
    @alex79suited7 күн бұрын

    Great video. Peace ✌️ 😎.

  • @GlassEyedDetectives
    @GlassEyedDetectives24 күн бұрын

    An interesting and enjoyable talk, thank you. I must say though, at around the 35ish minute mark, I nearly spat my brew out when Chris let out and then swiftly brushed aside his contractual responsibilities.....now he knows exactly how so-called 'Modern Science' really works and who it answers to; not Truth but rather it's gatekeepers and their relationship to the terrestrial powers that be, and he also knows just how Galileo must've felt! I'm glad that Chris distanced himself from the romantic notions of the so-called 'Aliens' and i'd just like to draw attention to the actual legal definition of the term 'Alien':- 'In national and international law, a foreign-born resident who is not a citizen by virtue of parentage or naturalization and who is still a citizen or subject of another country.'.... America got some, USSR got some and so did the UK and some hid in S America after WW2 and we all know who they were don't we. On a side note, i wager that the majority of Life in the universe IS extraterrestrial though i know i won't be around to collect my winnings, hee!

  • @NSBarnett
    @NSBarnett7 күн бұрын

    I assume the idea is that you don't want loads of volunteer Planet Hunters to volunteer, or the system would be overwhelmed, which is why there is no link to it given in the description.

  • @StephenCWLL
    @StephenCWLL18 күн бұрын

    It's always aliens 😇👍

  • @martensjd
    @martensjd23 күн бұрын

    So the solar panels are translucent, allowing more red light through than blue. Is this because blue is more energetic?

  • @Debbie-henri

    @Debbie-henri

    23 күн бұрын

    I did wonder if any solar panels could be translucent. After all, for the sake of other planets in that system, it may be necessary to allow some type/s of light to continue falling on them. If a civilisation turned out the lights altogether, what happens when that light fails to reach other planets, moons, comets, asteroids in the system? Have we not considered painting Earth-threatening asteroids white, so that sunlight can be reflected away, thus changing the trajectory of that asteroid? Similarly, there may be a need for orbiting solar panels within a Dyson sphere to collect only one or two particular light bands, leaving the rest to fall through, energising and and maintaining the orbits of other star system features. (That's if it's a Dyson Sphere in the making at all, of course).

  • @chrislintott1

    @chrislintott1

    23 күн бұрын

    @@Debbie-henri The thing is that solar panels - assuming they're absorbing energy - are going to be warm relative to their surroundings, so should shine in the red even if they are designed to let red light through. Though of course alien tech can do whatever, so who knows!

  • @reneaston3018
    @reneaston301817 күн бұрын

    So what I don't get is when he says he saw something moving faster than a plane and is intelligently controlled lol and it's a Chinese lantern lol

  • @devanburchett3575
    @devanburchett357511 күн бұрын

    it to thre forced ad after 50 seconds and never bothered finishing the video

  • @rogerdavies8586

    @rogerdavies8586

    4 күн бұрын

    Adblockers work despite YT efforts

  • @user-wr4uz8pg7m

    @user-wr4uz8pg7m

    3 күн бұрын

    Is your adblocker not working?

  • @jadebrownofficial
    @jadebrownofficial24 күн бұрын

    Freeman Dyson was a genius, but what I always never understood is why we assume "aliens" if they weren't human would do something that a human would think of? If "aliens" are out there it seems likely to me they would be very similar to us. Wouldn't be surprised if Evolution works across the board and there could be other humanoids out there. I can't imagine a weird looking creature that has no connection to us creating Dyson Spheres. They wouldn't need our ideas at that point and we would have to rethink how organisms evolve on other worlds.

  • @e.matthews

    @e.matthews

    19 күн бұрын

    With a sample size of 1, that is fallacious thinking. You can guess they would be terrestrial, and plenty more, but there is no reason to believe they would be like us except for your own anthropocentric bias.

  • @Mathemagical55

    @Mathemagical55

    18 күн бұрын

    Aliens might be very different to us physiologically but if they developed an advanced intelligence they would probably require a lot of energy.

  • @Stupid23590

    @Stupid23590

    14 күн бұрын

    They might not look like us but the physics wouldn't change.

  • @adrianaspalinky1986
    @adrianaspalinky198618 күн бұрын

    I wouldn't say "wrong", but ice melting, so, a cm3 block of ice, compared to say, 100m3 block of ice, will have very different behaviour.

  • @dmitryshusterman9494
    @dmitryshusterman949416 сағат бұрын

    I don't care about hunting aliens, i care about aliens hunting us

  • @PersonaJohnGrata
    @PersonaJohnGrata15 күн бұрын

    TLDR: It's aliens

  • @MagnusDidNothingWrong
    @MagnusDidNothingWrong9 күн бұрын

    How do researchers rule out Kuiper belt or Ort Cloud objects when using the transit method to discover exoplanets? I understand that the majority of the objects in both the Kuiper belt and Ort cloud are small, but at the scale of these distances wouldn't even a small object relatively close to the observer have a similar impact on the dimming of a stars light as a planet orbitting that star? To be clear, I'm not saying exoplanets don't exist. I just want to know how false readings are ruled out with the transit method.

  • @POWWOWMIK

    @POWWOWMIK

    7 күн бұрын

    I'm no expert, but I understand that the transit method of discovering planets is based on periodic dimming.

  • @reneaston3018
    @reneaston301817 күн бұрын

    Fighter pilots and other people who know what they are looking at have tracked and tried intercepting multiple radar and other instruments of more than one plane ,boat ect,,, so we can't say there isn't any other intelligent life forms out there just think of they have the tech to get here they would have the tech to avoid detection look how much we try to develop stealth tech in my opinion there is and one day we will find out I hope so anyway lol

  • @aethellstan
    @aethellstan18 күн бұрын

    excellent a salways

  • @zhavlan1258
    @zhavlan125810 күн бұрын

    ❤Меняем всю Вселенную?! Для сравнения: Подобных теории как ОТО. Эйнштейна уже написано 1001, из них опубликованных в популярных журналах более 150. Но за 150 лет, не одного прямого (выполненные на 50% есть) опыта для этих теорий. Вы готовы посмотреть на обнаженную Вселенную без шумового *загрязнения* из 1001 теории? При детектирование гравитационных волн, детектором LIGO, полезный сигнал 0,2% на шум приходится 99,8%. По другому можно сказать. - Если случайно совпадают шумы (мусор), на двух или трёх детекторах, то выдадут это за гравитационные волны, используя шаблоны как сепаратор. На “ГИБРИД оптическом гироскопе" при регистрации, квантов гравитации оптом. Возможно полезные сигнал получим 74% и на шумы 26%. - Вам выбирать рулетку, что измеряет Вселенную и из чего, главное она состоит. Итак автотранспорт или самолёт в нём выполним опыты Майкельсона-Морли, определяя им прямолинейную скорость. - О таком опыте мечтал, ещё Эйнштейн. Но мы, *возможно* будем наблюдать постулаты "Свет это упорядоченная вибрация гравитационных квантов. Доминантные гравитационные поля управляют скоростью света в вакууме". Есть предложение на совместное изобретения ГИБРИД гироскопа из некруглых, ДВУХ катушек с новым типом оптического волокна с «полой сердцевиной из фотоно-замещенной вакуумной зоной или (NANF)», где - свет в каждом плече проходит по 48000 метров при этом, не превышает параметры 40/40/40 см., и вес - 4кг. Предприятия по выпуску "Волоконно-оптических гироскопов" может выпускать ГИБРИД гироскопы, для учебно практического применения в школах и для ВУЗ. Рационализатор из Казахстана.

  • @logiclust
    @logiclust18 күн бұрын

    “Hunting”?

  • @user-vj8yh2bl9r
    @user-vj8yh2bl9r21 күн бұрын

    Bro its a Quasar

  • @alton7889
    @alton78893 күн бұрын

    Can the stars be giving birth to planets and not eating them? 🤭

  • @Gremriel
    @Gremriel4 күн бұрын

    Seriously, name an exoplanet LV-426 already.

  • @rundmk00
    @rundmk0020 сағат бұрын

    "bigfeet" pleases me

  • @christopheklinger3217
    @christopheklinger32178 күн бұрын

    I dislike the title ‘’hunting for aliens’’. Since these aliens would have a couple million years, at least, of advance compared to us, the beast ‘’to be hunted’’ would more likely be ‘’humans’’

  • @rogerc7960
    @rogerc796024 күн бұрын

    It's never aliens

  • @schm00b0

    @schm00b0

    21 күн бұрын

    Hey, hey, hey - it's never aliens when it's on Earth. It could be aliens if it's on a planet in a distant system with interesting spectrography.

  • @zapfanzapfan

    @zapfanzapfan

    18 күн бұрын

    ...until it's aliens.

  • @StephenCWLL

    @StephenCWLL

    18 күн бұрын

    It's always aliens.

  • @blakeb9964

    @blakeb9964

    Күн бұрын

    Wrong.

  • @dereksasquatchgarletts7924
    @dereksasquatchgarletts792417 күн бұрын

    Someone got rejected at Space X. Lol

  • @ivanzzz7610

    @ivanzzz7610

    16 күн бұрын

    you must be very smart ha ha ha ...tell your mum to make you dinner so that you can go sleep boy

  • @dereksasquatchgarletts7924

    @dereksasquatchgarletts7924

    16 күн бұрын

    @@ivanzzz7610 that the best you got? Better ask for your money back on that education. 🤣

  • @williamkinkade2538
    @williamkinkade253812 күн бұрын

    Always use occums Razor that means the simplest explanation is the most probable explanation.

  • @jasonpreston4976

    @jasonpreston4976

    9 күн бұрын

    No that's a misquote of it. Always start from what's known, and no more complex than that. We know intelligent life exists on every planet we have fully explored. That's our basis.

  • @THEREALMSOFREALITY
    @THEREALMSOFREALITY22 күн бұрын

    A contact guide: 1. Understand the stories and myths of history. Why? Because they were not myths, and it may help you mentally prepare. 2. It will then give you something to relate to that we know in the world. 3. you don't need to look that far out. They are already here. 58.20 they look like .... 1. tall whites 2. greys .3 . humanoid beings like in my profile picture but change it slightly to have bigger eyes. smaller mouth and a pointy chin. (almost cartoonish without the jokes) Eye colours and shapes may differ. The serpents (seraphim) have human eyes. there are many forms of beings. but the best part is they take the form. They utilize their whole body and form. they are both body and spirit in one .. it's pretty wild Thank you for the lecture :)

  • @cliveb9771
    @cliveb977124 күн бұрын

    Putting an ad for your podcast 51 seconds into what is supposed to be an academic lecture is a very bad idea.

  • @BillSikes.

    @BillSikes.

    24 күн бұрын

    That was not an advert, there a no adverts on any Gresham college podcasts

  • @austindial8386

    @austindial8386

    24 күн бұрын

    It’s a podcast that is with the lecturer that you listened to adding context to the lecture. Hardly an advertisement and certainly not something to be mad about if you actually care about the information provided.

  • @scrollop

    @scrollop

    24 күн бұрын

    Oh, come on.

  • @cliveb9771

    @cliveb9771

    24 күн бұрын

    @@BillSikes. It was an avert for their podcasts which they interrupted the lecture at 51 seconds to tell us about. First time I've ever seen them do that and not something any other on-line lectures do.

  • @cliveb9771

    @cliveb9771

    24 күн бұрын

    @@austindial8386 Did you actually watch it ? It advertised a podcast giving context to an entirely different previous lecture by the same lecturer along with unrelated podcasts. Of what relevance to this lecture is a podcast telling me that to calculate the odds of me winning the lottery I need to know about probability ? Or that New York used to have bad air pollution ? It should have come at the end of the lecture.

  • @sirbarringtonwomblembe4098
    @sirbarringtonwomblembe409823 күн бұрын

    Apollo12 did not take THE astronauts to the moon; that was Apollo 11. Apollos 12 -17 (excl 13) took astronauts to the moon. Pedantic? Moi?🙃(me - in orbit)

  • @J56609

    @J56609

    13 күн бұрын

    You are incorrect! Apollo 12 landed on the moon, Nov 24, 1969.

  • @sirbarringtonwomblembe4098

    @sirbarringtonwomblembe4098

    13 күн бұрын

    @@J56609 You misunderstood my point. I confirmed that 12 DID go to the moon.

  • @tobyclayton2597
    @tobyclayton259717 күн бұрын

    There is only one Solar System. I know that it's petty but I find it annoying when astronomers say otherwise.

  • @chrislintott1

    @chrislintott1

    17 күн бұрын

    I’m sympathetic, but what to use instead? ‘Stellar system’ sounds like a star cluster, and ‘planetary system’ could mean Jupiter and its moons. ‘Exoplanetsry system’ seems clunky

  • @tobyclayton2597

    @tobyclayton2597

    16 күн бұрын

    @chrislintott1 'Star systems' seems to be common parlance in the astronomy/astrophysics field. When an astronomer, etc, talks about other Solar Systems to me it seems condescending and reminiscent of 50s sci-fi. It has been a pet peeve of mine since my early childhood in the mid 70s. I also dislike the dumbing down; I'm dumb enough without scientists pandering to my ignorance. Told you it annoys me :)

  • @thevagabondtree6426

    @thevagabondtree6426

    12 күн бұрын

    That is petty… words evolve and extend far past their roots it makes enough sense to me

  • @tobyclayton2597

    @tobyclayton2597

    12 күн бұрын

    @thevagabondtree6426 I understand how languages develop and evolve (including the part that laziness often plays), but what I dislike is the overly dummed down that some astronomers tend towards in this particular situation. It's somewhat condescending for astronomers to think that the average person is too dim to understand that the Solar System is called that because our star is called Sol. The USA hasn't achieved idiocracy status yet.

  • @Gremriel

    @Gremriel

    4 күн бұрын

    These are planets orbiting their sun, so yes, it's another solar system.

  • @jasonshapiro9469
    @jasonshapiro946921 күн бұрын

    Definitive evidence for aliens would be peaches and cream but I'd settle for definitive evidence that we really stepped on the moon...

  • @blakeb9964

    @blakeb9964

    Күн бұрын

    Grow up, dude.

  • @watgaz518
    @watgaz51822 күн бұрын

    Strongly believe it’s one galaxy, one star with a planet harbouring life with intelligent beings. We are human beings here on 🌍. Other galaxies will have a star and a planet harbouring intelligent life with ?beings. Are we all here simultaneously? How advanced are we compared to other beings. For human beings, I think distance between galaxies, is a problem we will never resolve, whether it be communicating with or reaching/finding another planet on another galaxy.

  • @e.matthews

    @e.matthews

    19 күн бұрын

    No infrared glow means no construct or dust.

  • @BillSikes.
    @BillSikes.24 күн бұрын

    There is nothing out there, we're alone!

  • @Debbie-henri

    @Debbie-henri

    23 күн бұрын

    From the very tenacity of life on Earth, microbes living in extreme environments, complex lifeforms living on the edges of such extremes - we can surmise that there are plenty of worlds in the Universe where life can prosper.

  • @BillSikes.

    @BillSikes.

    23 күн бұрын

    @@Debbie-henri Thats a temporal point of view, "Maya" The Universe and it's entire content is created by the beings that inhabit it

  • @armandomercado2248

    @armandomercado2248

    23 күн бұрын

    The vast distances between the stars is a natural barrier to life.

  • @user-sf3dw2sm3b

    @user-sf3dw2sm3b

    22 күн бұрын

    That is insanity.

  • @CLEFT3000

    @CLEFT3000

    22 күн бұрын

    @@armandomercado2248natural barrier preventing differing life forms from extinguishing each other you mean.

  • @djsarg7451
    @djsarg745111 күн бұрын

    We have studied 20 million stars, and not one can support life as they are ALL too unstable, we are alone. The Sun is the only stable star. Of the 4,100 solar systems studied, not one looks like our solar system, able to support life. Almost all the 4,100 solar systems studied have Hot Jupiters. In normal planetary systems giant planets form beyond snow line and then migrated towards the star. A small percentage of giant planets migrate far from the star. In both types of migrations, any rocky planet like an earth is lost in these planetary migrations. Most stars do not have planets. Many stars are in bi-star systems, thus no earth-type planets. Thus we are alone.

  • @acmelka

    @acmelka

    9 күн бұрын

    The science you cite doesn't disprove the possibility of aliens. You give way too much credence to the infantile science of planetary formation. No aliens yet but we have barely even looked in a serious manner. Enceladus could be a squidopolis, we can't say it isn't or is. We don't know.

  • @djsarg7451

    @djsarg7451

    9 күн бұрын

    If the odds are 1 to 20 million, only a fool would bet that next year the odds will be better. Just 10 years ago the odds were 1 to 1 million (1 million stars studied). Each year we are finding that a stable star like our sun is very rare. The Sun's variation of only 0.1% over a 13 years cycle is very rare. The next stable start is only 2 to 3 %.

  • @774Rob
    @774Rob13 күн бұрын

    If only we had communism we could get things done.

  • @blakeb9964
    @blakeb9964Күн бұрын

    He picked the most obvious, boring examples to "debunk" at the start. So stale and I'm tired of people doing this over and over. If you want to impress me with a debunking, pick something truly anomalous. Not a piece of space junk. Lazy!

  • @Nik531
    @Nik53121 күн бұрын

    No Aliens. Sorry it's only us Humans

  • @acmelka

    @acmelka

    9 күн бұрын

    We just don't have the kit to detect them. We can't really even see Earth-like planets. They might not be common but to believe they don't exist is faith not science

  • @blakeb9964

    @blakeb9964

    Күн бұрын

    Nope! Wrong.

  • @JeffRaimer
    @JeffRaimer19 күн бұрын

    If you 0.5% as much time studying Elon Musk as you do studying astronomy, you would quickly realise that he doesn't have a giant ego. Rather, he is driven and insists on success.

  • @LynnnnnnnnnN

    @LynnnnnnnnnN

    14 күн бұрын

    Lol! What? 😂🤡

  • @NotMyShow720

    @NotMyShow720

    11 күн бұрын

    All three can be true.

  • @stoya2s
    @stoya2s14 күн бұрын

    Yet anothet arrogant astronomer who thinks everything that is out there in the sky can be explained with the science we have today.