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Neutron stars are the densest things that are not black holes.
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In their cores, we might find the most dangerous substance in existence:
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Strange matter.
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A bizarre thing so extreme,
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that it bends the rules of the universe
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and could infect and destroy everything it comes into contact with--
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--or it could teach us about how the universe began.
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Maybe both.
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[Intro music]
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To understand how extreme strange matter really is, we first need to get a few basics.
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What is a neutron star, and how does strange matter break the rules of the universe?
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To get all of this into one video, we'll grossly oversimplify a few things,
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but we'll provide you with further reading if you want more details.
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A neutron star is what remains after a very massive star explodes in a supernova.
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When this happens, the star's core collapses under its own gravity
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with such a strong inward force that it squeezes nuclei and particles together violently.
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Electrons are pushed into protons, so they merge and turn into neutrons.
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All the "nothing" inside of atoms is suddenly completely filled with particles
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that really don't want to be close to each other, but have no choice.
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They desperately push back against gravity, against the collapse.
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If gravity wins, they will become a black hole.
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If they win, they become a neutron star.
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This makes neutron stars like giant atomic nuclei the size of a city,
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but holding the mass of our Sun.
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And here, things get weird.
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The environment in the core of neutron stars is so extreme that the rules of nuclear physics change.
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And this could lead to a strange and extremely dangerous substance.
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But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
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We first need to know the rules before we learn how they can be broken.
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Protons and neutrons, the particles making up the nuclei of atoms,
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are made up of smaller particles called quarks.
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Quarks really don't want to be alone.
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They are what we call confined.
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You can try to separate them,
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but the harder you pull, the harder they try to pull themselves back together.
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If you use a lot of energy, they just use this energy to create new quarks.
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Quarks only exist together as the building blocks of other particles
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and have never been observed by themselves.
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They come in many types, but only two appear to make stable matter:
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the 'up' and 'down' quarks found in protons and neutrons.
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All other quarks seem to decay away quickly,
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but this may be different inside neutron stars.
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The forces operating in their cores are so extreme
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that they are actually similar to the universe shortly after the Big Bang.
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Neutron star cores are like fossils, which can let us peer back in time to the beginning of everything.
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So learning how quarks behave inside a neutron star
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is a way of understanding the very nature of the universe itself.
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One hypothesis is that, inside a neutron star core, protons and neutrons deconfine.
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All the particles crammed shoulder-to-shoulder dissolve and melt into a sort of bath of quarks.
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Uncountable numbers of particles become one giant thing made purely from quarks:
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Quark matter.
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A star made from this is called a Quark Star.
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Though from the outside, it may not look any different than a regular neutron star.
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Now, we can finally talk about the most dangerous substance.
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If the pressure inside a quark star is great enough, it may get stranger,
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literally.
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In the cores of neutron stars, some of the quarks may be converted into 'strange' quarks.
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Strange quarks have bizarre nuclear properties,
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and they are heavier, and for the lack of a better word, stronger.
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If they turn up, they could create strange matter.
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Strange matter might be the ideal state of matter,
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perfectly dense, perfectly stable, indestructible,
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more stable than any other matter in the universe.
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So stable that it can exist outside neutron stars.
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If this is the case, we have a problem.
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It might be infectious.
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Every piece of matter it touches might be so impressed by its stability
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that it would immediately turn into strange matter, too.
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Protons and neutrons would dissolve and become part of the quark bath,
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which frees energy and creates more strange matter.
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The only way to get rid of it would be to throw it into a black hole.
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But then again, who cares?
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All of it is inside neutron stars,
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except when neutron stars collide with other neutron stars or black holes.
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They spew out tremendous amounts of their insides,
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some of which could include little droplets of strange matter called strangelets.
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Strangelets are as dense as the core of a neutron star.
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They could be really small, maybe even subatomic,
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but even the largest strangelets wouldn't be any bigger than a rocket.
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These strangelets would drift through the galaxy for millions or billions of years
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until they meet a star or planet by chance.
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If one were to strike earth, it would immediately start converting it into strange matter.
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The more it converts, the more it would grow.
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Ultimately, all of the atoms making up earth would be converted.
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Earth would become a hot clump of strange matter, the size of an asteroid.
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If a strangelet strikes the sun, it would collapse into a strange star,
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eating through it like fire through a dry forest.
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This would not change the Sun's mass much,
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but it would become way less bright.
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So Earth would freeze to death.
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And like a tiny virus, we'd have no way to see a strangelet coming.
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Worse still, some theories suggest strangelets are more than common,
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outnumbering all stars in the galaxy.
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The strangelets could've formed very early after the Big Bang,
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when it was as hot and dense as a neutron star core everywhere.
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They might be clumping around the gravity of galaxies
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as the universe expanded and evolved.
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Strangelets could even be so numerous and massive,
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that they might actually be the dark matter we suspect holds galaxies together.
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But then again, maybe not.
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This is speculation.
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And the Earth and Sun and planets haven't been consumed
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in a wildfire of strangelets in the past few billion years.
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So the odds seem good that it won't happen any time soon.
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Understanding these strange objects today
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may be the key to understanding the birth of our universe,
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and why it grew to look the way it does now.
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When scientists first started playing with magnets and wires and thinking about electrons,
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they had no idea how technology would evolve in the next hundred years.
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The scientists thinking about the cause of neutron stars and strange matter today
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may be setting up humans for a future beyond our wildest imaginations
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...or maybe not.
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Time will tell...
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So, while you're waiting to see if the universe gets destroyed,
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you might still want to find out more about it.
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We've got you.
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Our friends from Brilliant can be your insight into a whole world of science, black holes and all.
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Brilliant is a website that helps you tackle science in a practical way,
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with interactive problem-solving courses and daily challenges in maths, logic, and engineering.
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Each problem gives you all the tools you'll need to crack complex topics all by yourself.
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It's learning by doing,
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but with your brain, instead of your hands.
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Use your curiosity to get to the bottom of puzzles and courses about things
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like classical mechanics, astronomy, gravitational physics, and much more.
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you can sign up for free and learn more things than you can imagine.
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You might get hooked on the experience.
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[Outro music]12157
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