The ISS's Fiery Farewell, Self-Making Water Worlds, and The Black Hole Birth Theory

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Avery: Welcome back to Astronomy Daily, the

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podcast that brings the cosmos down to Earth.

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Uh, I'm Avery.

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Anna: And I'm Anna. Uh, we have another

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busy show for you today. We're discussing

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the end of an era for the International Space

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Station, a huge.

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Avery: Moment in space history.

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Anna: We'll also explore new research

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suggesting some planets can create their own

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water. We'll cover a ridiculously

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busy week for rocket launches around the

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globe. And we'll dive into into a mind

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bending new theory that our universe

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might have been born inside a black hole.

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Avery: That last one sounds incredible. Let's

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get right into it.

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Anna: First up, um, a story that marks a monumental

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transition in space exploration.

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After more than 25 years of continuous

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human presence in low Earth orbit.

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NASA has detailed its final plan for the

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International Space Station.

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Avery: It's hard to imagine our presence in space

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without it. So the deorbit is planned

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for late 2030. What is the final

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farewell going to look like for this

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incredible structure?

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Anna: Well, it won't be a quiet retirement.

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The plan is to perform a controlled DE

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orbit, guiding the 460

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ton station to a fiery re entry

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over the Pacific Ocean. Right.

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Avery: And they have a very specific target in mind,

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don't they?

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Anna: They do. The target is Point

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Nemo, also known as the Oceanic

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Pole of Inaccessibility. It's the point

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on Earth farthest from any land.

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Avery: The spacecraft cemetery. I remember

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reading that it's so isolated, the closest

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humans are often the astronauts flying

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overhead on the ISS itself. A

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fitting final resting place it is.

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Anna: That isolation minimizes any risk

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to people or property from falling debris.

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To get it there, NASA will use a modified

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SpaceX Dragon capsule to essentially

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act as a deorbit vehicle, providing

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the final push to guide the station's

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descent.

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Avery: And this is a big deal. Physically speaking,

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it's the largest human made object ever

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to be brought down from orbit, isn't it?

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Anna: By far. Most of the station is expected

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to vaporize due to the intense heat of

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reentry. But some some denser, more

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resilient components will likely survive the

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plunge and sink to the ocean floor.

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Avery: Mhm. And the goal is to avoid what happened

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with Skylab in 1979.

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Anna: Exactly. The uncontrolled re entry of

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Skylab scattered debris across parts of

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Western Australia, which was a major wake up

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call. They learned from that. And Russia's

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much more precise deorbit of the Mir space

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station in 2001 provided a better

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model, which this plan builds upon.

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Avery: A carefully managed end for a monumental

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piece of human history. From that story

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of cosmic endings. Let's turn to one

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about cosmic creation. Anna.

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This next story about planets making their

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own water is fascinating.

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Anna: It really is. New research

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suggests that certain types of

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exoplanets, specifically a class called

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sub neptunes, might not need water

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delivered by comets or asteroids. They might

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be able to generate it themselves.

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Avery: So they're self sufficient water factories.

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How does that work?

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Anna: The theory centers on their unique structure.

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These planets have rocky interiors, but

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they're enveloped in thick hydrogen rich

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atmospheres. During their chaotic formation

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their surfaces would have been vast magma

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oceans.

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Avery: Okay, magma and hydrogen.

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Anna: Exactly. Scientists recreated these

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conditions in a lab. They found that the

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immense pressure and heat cause

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hydrogen from the atmospher to react with

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iron rich silicates in the magma. This

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reaction releases oxygen from the rock

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which then immediately combines with the

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surrounding hydrogen to form water.

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Avery: That's incredible. So the planet

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essentially breathes in hydrogen and

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um, exhales water into its own

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geology. What does this mean for the search

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for life?

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Anna: It's a potential game changer. It offers

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a completely new pathway for how rocky

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planets can acquire water which we consider

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a key ingredient for habitability. It could

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mean that water rich worlds are far more

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common in the universe than we previously

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thought.

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Avery: Amazing. It widens the scope of

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where we might look for life now from

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planet formation to modern day exploration.

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It seems like this week is shaping up to be

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one of the busiest in recent memory for space

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launches.

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Anna: It's an absolutely packed schedule. It

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feels like someone is launching something

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every day, right?

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Avery: Kicking things off. A Chinese Shung

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Zheng 7A rocket has already

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launched the Yaogan 46 Earth

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observation satellite. Over in Europe

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an Ariane 62 is set to

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launch Sentinel 1D to

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monitor Earth's surface with radar.

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Anna: MHM and Rocket Lab is in on the action

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too.

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Avery: M of course. Their electron rocket will be

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deploying the sixth QPS SAR

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satellite for a Japanese Const.

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And then there's SpaceX which has not one,

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not two, but three Falcon 9

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launches scheduled, carrying dozens more

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Starlink satellites into orbit.

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Anna: It's always a Busy week when SpaceX has a

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triple header and we're not done.

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Avery: United Launch alliance is launching an Atlas

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V with a viasat communications satellite.

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And the grand finale is Blue Origin's new

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Glenn rocket scheduled for its second flight

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carrying a really exciting NASA mission.

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Anna: That's the escapade mission, isn't it? It's

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sending twin spacecraft to study Mars

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magnetis here which is a key to understanding

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how Mars lost its atmosphere over billions of

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years.

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Avery: Exactly. A uh, truly global and jam

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packed week for spaceflight.

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Speaking of national space programs making

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big moves. Let's talk about India's latest

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achievement.

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Anna: Yes. The Indian Space Research Organization,

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or isro, had a major success.

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They just launched their heaviest

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communications satellite to date, called

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CMS03 from the

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Srihrakota launch site.

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Avery: How heavy are we talking about?

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Anna: 4,410 kg, or nearly

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£10,000. It was launched aboard

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the LVM3M M5 vehicle, which is an

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upgraded version of the very same rocket that

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successfully sent the Chandrayaan 3 mission

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to the moon.

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Avery: That rocket is proving to be a real workhorse

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for them. This fits right in with India's

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growing ambitions in space. I know Prime

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Minister Modi praised the achievement.

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Anna: It does. It's part of a broader push that

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includes the goal of sending an Indian

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astronaut to the moon by 2040 and a crewed

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mission that's planned for as early as

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2027. They are rapidly becoming

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a major player in space exploration.

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Avery: And what's the purpose of this specific

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satellite, CMS03?

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Anna: It has a crucial role. It's designed to

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provide secure and encrypted communication

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links specifically for the Indian Navy,

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enhancing their operational capabilities

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across the region.

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Avery: Another impressive milestone for isro.

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Okay, for our final story, we're moving from

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the practical to the purely

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theoretical. And this one is a mind bender.

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Could our entire universe have been born

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inside a black hole?

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Anna: This is one of those ideas that sounds like

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science fiction, but is grounded in some

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serious physics. A new cosmological model

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is proposing just that, Challenging

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the Big Bang's concept of a singularity.

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Avery: The singularity. The idea that everything

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came from an infinitely dense point.

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So what does this new model suggest instead?

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Anna: The theory suggests that as matter collapses

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inside a black hole in a parent universe, it

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doesn't form an infinitely dense point.

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Instead, quantum pressure prevents that from

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happening. The matter reaches a point of

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maximum compression and then rebounds in what

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they call a gravitational bounce.

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Avery: And that bounce is the birth of a new

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universe. Our universe.

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Anna: That's the idea. It expands to become a new

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universe. What's compelling about this black

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hole universe model is that it uses

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established principles of quantum mechanics

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and general relativity. It doesn't need to

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invent hypothetical particles or forces to

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work.

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Avery: So it's a more elegant solution in a way.

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Could it explain some of the big mysteries

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like cosmic inflation?

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Anna: Potentially, yes. The dynamics of the

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bounce could naturally explain the rapid

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expansion phase of the early universe and

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why our universe appears to be geometrically

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flat from the outside. In the parent

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universe, it would just look like a normal

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black hole. But on the Inside, a new

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cosmos is being born.

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Avery: Wow. Is a theory like this even testable?

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Anna: It might be. The theory predicts there should

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be a very slight detectable

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curvature to our universe. Upcoming

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missions, like the European Space Agency's

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Arrake's telescope, could be sensitive enough

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to measure it and either support or

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challenge this incredible new idea.

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Avery: So if this model holds true, it implies a

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kind of cosmic recycling. A

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multiverse where universes are constantly

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budding off from one another inside black

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holes. It's a staggering thought.

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Does the theory say anything about what the

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parent universe might be like?

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Anna: That's where things get even more

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speculative. The model doesn't require the

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parent universe to have the same physical

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laws as our own. The gravitational

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bounce could effectively reset the

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fundament mental constants. So the universe

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next door, so to speak, could be utterly

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alien to ours. With different physics,

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different chemistry, perhaps not even

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allowing for stars and galaxies as we know

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them.

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Avery: It's a humbling perspective. It means our

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entire existence could just be one outcome of

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a process that's happening countless times

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across a much grander reality. And we're

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completely isolated, unable to ever see

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or interact with that parent universe.

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Anna: Precisely from our perspective, the event

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horizon of the black hole we were born from

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acts as an ultimate boundary. It's a one

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way door. Information from the parent

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universe can't get in and we can't get out.

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Our universe is self contained. It also

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solves the problem of what came before the

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Big Bang. In this scenario, there was

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another universe, another timeline, another.

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Avery: And it also suggests that, uh, black holes in

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our own universe could potentially be

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spawning new universes as we speak.

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So the cycle continues.

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Anna: That's the logical extension of the theory.

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Yes. Every supermassive black hole

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at the center of a galaxy, every stellar mass

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black hole formed from a collapsing star.

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Each one could be a seed for a new

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cosmos. It's a beautiful, if mind

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boggling picture of cosmic evolution.

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Avery: What a way to end the show. From the end of

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the ISS to the potential beginning of

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everything, that's all the time we have for

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today.

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Anna: Thanks for tuning in to Astronomy Daily. Join

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us again tomorrow as we continue to explore

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the wonders of the universe. Until then,

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keep looking up.