Show Notes
Stars come in a wide range of sizes, but how do we calculate a star's size to determine which is the largest? In this episode, we will find out how stars are measured to determine their mind-boggling sizes, and above all, which of them are the biggest of all. PLEASE NOTE: This one is an older video of mine, back in 2021 when it was thought that the largest known star was Stephenson 2-18. It has since been reassessed as most likely not a member of the Stephenson-2 Cluster, and thus not amongst the candidates for the largest star. I plan to remake this video some time in 2026.
SOUNDTRACK: Two songs in this video were made by Chris Zabriskie. (http://chriszabriskie.com/) - Abandon Babylon (Album from which the songs came: https://chriszabriskie.bandcamp.com/album/abandon-babylon)Dark Fog & Ice Demon by Kevin MacLeod are both licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1300031 , http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1200061 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ All other music provided by the YouTube Audio Library CHAPTERS: 00:00: Introduction 01:04: What Are Stars? 05:40: How Stars Get Big 09:38: Problems with Direct Measurements 11:31: Parallax 13:01: Indirectly Measuring Stars 15:33: VY Canis Majoris 18:30: UY Scuti 22:59: Stephenson 2-18
More from SEA: Space Exploration & Astronomy
Far beyond the reaches of the four rocky planets, we find our Solar System's showpiece worlds- the two gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn. As the two largest planets, they both make tantalising targets for probes exploring the planetary neighbourhood, but both lie significantly further from the sun than the Earth and its terrestrial neighbours. But early in the 1970s, the technology for deep space voyages was primed, and missions to both Jupiter and Saturn ensued. Those missions make up the topic of our video today, in this second episode of our trilogy of Probes that Studied the Solar System.
In 2012, the world’s most advanced science experiment uncovered the signature of the Higgs Boson, the so-called “God Particle” which gives particles their masses. The Higgs was the last of the Standard Model's particles to be verified experimentally. But far from closing the case, it instead opened a new frontier in physics that today embodies everything we still don’t know about nature’s smallest scales. And so in this video, we will wind back the clock more than half a century, to unravel the history and mysteries of the elusive Higgs Boson.
Why does the universe choose life over silence? Why has its once inanimate matter and energy come alive on planet Earth? Is it chance? Fate? Or even, by design? It is this profound question that has plagued our conscious minds since the time of our earliest ancestors, and it is going to be the topic of our video today. This video is my oldest idea, and I was planning for it as early as 2021. A massive thank you to the artist Semiquaver for composing the soundtrack that brought this vision to life.
Can we ever turn back the clock? On Earth, Time is rigid and immovable, but in space, it's practically the opposite. Out in the cosmos, time is another dimension alongside the three of space- but unlike in 3D space, there is only one way we seem to be able to move through time. The cause of this directionality, and so-called "Arrow of Time" through the cosmos, makes up the topic of our video today- the second part in a double header on the mysterious workings of Time.
Tick. Tock. It's a sound you probably hear several times a day. Time dominates virtually every aspect of our lives, attuned to the rigid, unflinching regularity of Hours, Minutes and Seconds. The question how did our ancient ancestors figure out these units? Who came up with the concepts of timekeeping, like Minutes and Seconds, and why are there 60 of them, and not say, 100? The answers to such questions make up the topic of our video today- the first in a two-part series on the mysterious workings of Time.