Known Universe (2009) s03e05 Episode Script
Biggest Cosmic Blasts
NARRATOR: THE KNOWN UNIVERSE IS BURSTING AT ITS SEAMS, They're coming near the sun AND WE'RE GOING TO TEAR APAR EVERY MONSTROUS BLOWOUT.
FROM OUTRUNNING AN EARTH VOLCANO STEVE: Hey, Andy, you ready for the hot lava? Oh, Andy.
NARRATOR: TO FINDING AN ALIEN ONE.
SIGRID: How in the world would you be able to determine whether there's a volcanic eruption on another planet? NARRATOR: THE ERUPTIONS CAN BE UNBEARABLY COLD OR SEARINGLY HO AND THEY GET SO ENORMOUS ENTIRE GALAXIES SURRENDER TO THEM.
DIG IN, TAKE COVER BECAUSE THESE ARE THE UNIVERSE'S BIGGEST BLASTS.
MIKE: it's spectacular.
Quite a sight.
I've never seen anything like it.
NARRATOR: THIS IS THE WORLD'S LONGEST CONTINUOUS ERUPTION.
MIKE: It's just beautiful.
You can see it right over my shoulder there.
NARRATOR: HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII, A VOLCANO HAS BEEN SPEWING MAGMA FOR OVER 25 YEARS AND IT SHOWS NO SIGNS OF STOPPING.
MIKE: The lava flows about 8 miles from Mount Kilauea to make its way down here and it lights up the whole area, just like a spectacular fireworks display as it hits the ocean.
And we traveled about 15 miles in this boat.
Quite a ride to see this, just off the shoreline about 50 feet.
It is spectacular to see it in the darkness.
It's 6 am, the sun's just starting to come up, and we've already had quite an adventure.
NARRATOR: BUT THIS ADVENTURE IS JUST GETTING STARTED.
THIS DRAMATIC ERUPTION IS ONE SMALL BURST IN A UNIVERSE FILLED WITH THEM.
WE'RE ABOUT TO DIVE INTO AN INVESTIGATION OF THE MOS COLOSSAL ERUPTIONS THAT OUR EARTH, THE SOLAR SYSTEM, AND THE DEEPEST REACHES OF SPACE HAVE TO OFFER.
ANDY: There are tons of types of eruptions in the universe, from volcanoes to supernovae to outbursts on stars to jets shooting out of black holes.
You start with something high pressure and then that pressure just gets released in some huge way.
NARRATOR: BUT EXACTLY WHEN ERUPTIONS WILL OCCUR IS OFTEN A GREAT MYSTERY.
DAVID: Science is not at the level where we can predict the exact time of an eruption, but measuring activity around eruptions could give some indication.
NARRATOR: CAN WE FIGURE OUT HOW AND WHEN OUR UNIVERSE IS GOING TO SPILL ITS GUTS? FOR THIS INVESTIGATION, THE FIRST STOP HAS TO BE HAWAII, HOME TO THE MOST DANGEROUS AND ACTIVE VOLCANO IN THE UNITED STATES - MT.
KILAUEA.
AND MECHANICAL ENGINEER AND ASTRONAUT MIKE MASSIMINO AND VOLCANOLOGIST BRUCE HOUGHTON ARE HEADING OUT INTO THE VOLCANO'S LAVA FIELDS TO COLLECT THE FIRS CLUE - A SAMPLE FROM A LIVING, BREATHING ERUPTION.
MIKE: I'm in the middle of the Kilauea lava field.
The source of the lava is miles in that direction and the expanse of this field is miles in every direction, and it doesn't end until it reaches the ocean.
This place is huge.
NARRATOR: NOT ONLY IS THIS LAVA FIELD ENORMOUS, IT'S DANGEROUS.
AREAS THAT LOOK COOL AND SOLID COULD ACTUALLY BE FILLED WITH RED HOT LAVA, DECEPTIVELY HIDDEN BY A THIN DARK SKIN.
SO YOU HAVE TO BE VERY CAREFUL WHERE YOU WALK.
MIKE: Okay, Bruce.
We're in a very interesting looking area.
It almost is like we're on another planet.
BRUCE: Well, we're on the youngest part of this planet, and arguably any planet, I guess.
MIKE: Before that, what did we have? BRUCE: Before that, you and I would've been standing on a highway.
The highway is probably 15-20 feet below us and the proof of that is the sign behind our shoulder.
As we see here, this was a driveway that lived off the main highway.
Now it's a relic.
MIKE: You can see these poor people had a private driveway and no trespassing.
So now they don't have to worry about anyone parking here anymore, do they? BRUCE: No, not at all.
It's kinda spooky because you can hold a GPS and walk out across here and see that not only was it a highway, but there was a subdivision here.
MIKE: Oh my goodness.
So you can put in an address and see where you used to live.
BRUCE: 170 houses.
NARRATOR: WHEN YOU SEE WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTION LIKE THIS YOU MIGHT THINK IT WAS CAUSED BY A HUGE, EXPLOSIVE BLAST.
BUT THE TRUTH IS, NOT ALL ERUPTIONS ARE CREATED EQUAL.
ASHLEY: There are two types of eruptions.
An explosive eruption happens when lava that's quite sticky reaches the surface.
The reason why lava gets sticky is because of a mineral called silica.
The more silica you have in a lava, the stickier the lava is.
The stickier the lava is, the more gas that gets trapped in it, and the more gas that gets trapped in it, the larger the explosion.
NARRATOR: A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THIS TYPE OF ERUPTION IS THE MASSIVE 1980 BLAS BY MOUNT ST.
HELEN'S.
BUT THAT TYPE OF VIOLEN OUTBURST DOESN'T HAPPEN EVER DAY ASHLEY: The most common type of volcanic activity on earth is an effusive eruption.
The lava is less sticky.
It's quite runny.
It has a low amount of silica in it.
The lava erupts out of the ground and flows across the surface to create lava flows without a great deal of explosive activity.
NARRATOR: THE IDEAL EXAMPLE OF THIS TYPE OF ERUPTION IS HAWAII'S, AND IT'S MOLTEN LAVA IS LIKE GOLD TO VOLCANOLOGISTS.
SAMPLES OF IT IT LEAD THEM TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHEN AND WHERE AN ERUPTION BEGINS.
THIS COULD EVENTUALLY CREATE ACCURATE FORECASTS FOR VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS - CRITICAL INFORMATION THAT CAN BE USED TO EVACUATE PEOPLE AND SAVE LIVES.
MIKE: Alright, Bruce.
I really wanna go and try to get up close and sample this lava.
What do II got my pick.
What else do I need? BRUCE: Yeah, we just gotta keep you cool, so you'll need the shirtthe insulating shirt.
MIKE: Okay.
BRUCE: And then you put on the heavy duty gloves.
That should do it.
MIKE: Alright, because this could be dangerous business.
NARRATOR: WITH THE LAVA TEMPERATURE AT 2,000 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, THE INSULATED SHIRT WILL KEEP THE INTENSE HEAT OUT AND THE GLOVES WILL PROTECT MIKE AGAINST ANY STRAY LAVA AS HE TRIES TO TAKE THE SAMPLE.
MIKE: It's not a pick.
It's a dipping instrument.
Okay, hammer.
It's one thing to learn about volcanoes from afar, but it's a much different experience getting up close to it.
It's like you're actually feeling it and interacting with it.
The heat is just immense.
It is super hot and it almost has a life of it's own.
It's constantly moving.
You can hear it.
You hear the crackle.
You hear bangs underneath the surface.
It is really hot - like approaching the sun.
I think I got sunburned doing that.
It was really hot getting that close to it.
I tried to shield as best I could, but boy did I feel that heat.
NARRATOR: EACH ONE OF THESE SAMPLES PROVIDES IMPORTANT DATA FOR CRACKING THE MYSTERY OF VOLCANIC BEHAVIOR.
BUT TO FORECAST ERUPTIONS, WE'RE GONNA NEED HUGE AMOUNTS OF DATA.
WHERE ELSE CAN WE FIND IT? WHILE, VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS ARE OFTEN SEEN, BUT THE INNER RUMBLINGS THA PROCEED THEM ARE RARELY HEARD, SINCE THEY'RE INAUDIBLE TO HUMANS.
BUT MILTON GARCES HAS A WAY TO CAPTURE THEIR GROWL, AND HE THINKS HE CAN DEVELOP A WARNING SYSTEM FOR WHEN VOLCANOES ARE GOING TO ERUPT BY STUDYING THIS ELUSIVE AUDIO, CALLED INFRASOUND.
MILTON: That's the big one.
Infrasound is sound that is below the hearing threshold off the human ear, and volcanoes create a lot of sound.
It could be gas inside the lava, it could be steam expansions, they can produce sound by interacting with the water.
Infrasound can be used to monitor just about anything that's big and explosive - anything large that blows up.
NARRATOR: THIS IS A VERY BIG DEVELOPMENT IN THE WORLD OF VOLCANOES, BUT HEARING ALL THESE SOUNDS ISN'T AS SIMPLE AS PLAYING THEM BACK.
GARCES HAS TO CONDENSE RECORDINGS TAKEN OVER LONG PERIODS OF TIME, SPEED THEM UP, AND ONLY THEN CAN HE LISTEN TO THE BREATHING OF A VOLCANO.
MILTON: Volcanoes have certain patterns that are a recurrence before they erupt.
There is usually some swelling, cracking, steaming.
In that sense, you can forecast an eruption.
NARRATOR: THAT'S RIGHT, THIS APPROACH COULD BE USED TO ACTUALLY TELL WHEN A MAJOR ERUPTION IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN.
ALL OF THIS DETECTIVE WORK HAS A VERY IMPORTANT GOAL - DEVELOPING AN ERUPTION ALERT SYSTEM.
MILTON: And so we want to develop a system that will actually detect these eruptions and provide early warning and automatically notify the authorities that this is in progress and that some action must be taken.
NARRATOR: BUT AS IMPRESSIVE AS THIS APPROACH IS, IF WE WANT THE BIG PICTURE ON VOLCANOES, WE CAN'T GET IT HERE ON EARTH.
WE HAVE TO GET IT FROM SPACE.
TECHNOLOGY ABOARD OUR SPACECRAF IS ABOUT TO REVEAL JUST HOW BIG THESE BLASTS GET.
IN OUR INVESTIGATION INTO THE BIGGEST BLASTS IN THE UNIVERSE, WE'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR CLUES TO WHEN ERUPTIONS WILL HAPPEN ON EARTH.
BUT THE OUTBURSTS HERE ARE OFTEN UNPREDICTABLE.
AND STRANGELY ENOUGH, THE BES EVIDENCE TO CRACK THIS MYSTERY MIGHT NOT COME FROM INSIDE THE EARTH.
IT MIGHT COME FROM SATELLITES MILES ABOVE IT, USING A TACTIC CALLED RADAR INTERFEROMETRY.
ANDY: Radar interferometry is a technique for combining radar signals from spacecraft, and you can use them to measure the size and impact volcanoes could have on an area.
NARRATOR: GEOPHYSICIST MIKE POLAND IS USING THESE RADAR IMAGES TO DO EXACTLY THAT, TRACKING THE UNDERGROUND MOVEMENTS OF KILAUEA'S MAGMA AND HOPEFULLY FIGURING OUT WHEN THE NEXT BLAST MIGHT OCCUR.
MIKE P: This image spans some deformation that occurred in 2007.
This is the volcano's east rift zone.
Periodically, magma will drain from the summit area, intrude into the east rift, and this is what this map here is showing.
Before a volcano is going to erupt, magma has to accumulate, and that'll cause the surface to deform - to inflate like a balloon.
NARRATOR: EACH OF THESE COLOR BANDS REPRESENTS AREAS WHERE MAGMA UNDERGROUND HAS CAUSED THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH TO MOVE.
THE MORE BANDS THERE ARE, THE MORE MOTION THERE'S BEEN, AND THIS AREA HAS A LOT OF BANDS.
MIKE P: Something important happened right in this area here We're standing right there and look at what's at our feet.
MIKE M: Whoa, I better not fall in.
MIKE P: There's a very large crack right here.
This ground crack formed when there was a tremendous amount of magma that was injected underneath the surface right here.
MIKE M: So there was stuff underneath that your satellite image helped pick up? MIKE P: Exactly, magma drained from the summit and it wedged open part of the ground here.
In fact, you can even see where it comes in contact with the road.
This crack actually broke the road.
MIKE M: From the stuff that was flowing underneath here? MIKE P: Exactly.
NARRATOR: THE RADAR SHOWS A BREAK IN THE COLOR PATTERN THA MATCHES UP PERFECTLY WITH THIS SURFACE CRACK, SO WE NOW KNOW THAT THE RADAR CAN LOCATE PLACES WHERE THE GROUND HAS MOVED, AND BROKEN APART, TOO.
MIKE P: We can tell it was coming through here by all these cracks and by the deformation that we can see on this map here And in fact, so much magma passed underneath this point here that if you were to pile it on this half-mile section of road or so, it would be 3 miles high.
MIKE M: That's pretty high.
Be a lot worse than just a crack in the road.
MIKE P: This is a fantastic new tool in volcano monitoring.
NARRATOR: AND THE ADVANTAGE IS A BIG ONE.
WITH THIS TECHNOLOGY, ANY PLACE ON EARTH THAT'S SHOWING THIS TYPE OF INFLATION COULD BE A SIGN THAT AN ERUPTION IS ABOU TO STRIKE.
BUT EVEN IF WE CAN STAR DETECTING ERUPTIONS, A MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM AWAITS - THE BLAST ITSELF.
AND WHEN ONE HITS, THE SPEEDS OF THE ERUPTION ARE OFTEN UNPREDICTABLE.
ASHLEY: That depends on how much lava is erupting and what the slope is that the lava's flowing down.
These small lava flows that just ooze out of the ground and creep across the surface, but there are other eruptions where large volumes are erupting and the lava flow is moving very, very fast - 10 or 20 miles an hour.
NARRATOR: IF YOU WERE TRYING TO ESCAPE A LAVA ERUPTION, WOULD IT EVEN BE POSSIBLE? TO FIND OUT, ASTRONOMER ANDY HOWELL IS LACING UP HIS TRACK SHOES FOR THE ULTIMATE LAVA RACE, SET UP BY SCIENTIS STEVE JACOBS.
ANDY: We're here at a racetrack to day, but instead of racing cars or people, I'm gonna race lava.
I wanted to race real lava, but they said it was too dangerous.
So instead we're gonna have a stand-in for lava, and we're gonna see which ones I can outrun and which ones are gonna catch me.
STEVE: This is actually custom made lava simulation liquid.
ANDY: So STEVE: Simulated lava, alright? Now thisif you look, you can see how thick and gooey it is.
It's very viscous.
ANDY: Likelike lava.
STEVE: Like lava.
NARRATOR: IN REALITY, THIS LAVA IS MADE OF WATER, RED FOOD DYE, AND SOME WOOD PULP.
AND IF ANDY'S NOT QUICK ENOUGH, HE'LL BE BATHING IN IT.
STEVE: This is the slow stuff.
So we're gonna see if you can outrun this.
ANDY: Alright.
Well, it's liquid rocks.
How hard could that be? STEVE: That should be no sweat.
We're gonna pick up this entire tank with the crane, dump it down this trough, you're gonna be underneath and you're gonna take off running.
ANDY: Alright.
STEVE: And I'll meet you at the other end.
Sound good? ANDY: I'm not getting slimed today.
STEVE: Let's go do it.
Let's go do it.
NARRATOR: RACE #1 PITS ANDY AGAINST THE SLOW BUT STEADY 6-MILE-AN-HOUR LAVA FLOW, LIKE HAWAII'S.
ANDY: Can I outrun a Hawaiian lava flow? We're about to find out.
STEVE: Andy! Are you ready? It's been nice knowing you, Andy.
Run! Run! Here it comes! Here it comes! Oh, you beat it.
You beat it easy.
ANDY: Alright, well, I beat this slow lava.
STEVE: You beat the slow lava.
ANDY: That was easy.
STEVE: Easy.
ANDY: What else you got? STEVE: This flow is about 6 miles an hour.
I think we're gonna go up to about 15 or 20 miles an hour.
ANDY: That's a tall order.
Easy for you to say.
STEVE: Easy for me to say, absolutely.
My toes are getting warm.
I'm gonna have to move.
NARRATOR: FOR RACE #2, STEVE IS GOING TO INCREASE THE FLOW, SIMULATING THE SWIFTER LAVA THAT WOULD ERUPT DOWN A STEEP-SIDED VOLCANO.
STEVE: Hey, Andy! You ready for the hot lava? It's gonna be fast.
Here we go! On your mark, get set Oh Andy NARRATOR: ANDY'S QUICK FEET WERE NO MATCH FOR THE SPEEDY DOWNHILL LAVA FLOW.
STEVE: For a man who just burned up, you're doing pretty good.
ANDY: All in the name of science, man.
STEVE: All in the name of science.
But you can see how much faster it was flowing, right? ANDY: I'm glad I don't have to outrun lava in my day job.
STEVE: I'm proud of you, man.
I'm glad you didn't get too burned.
You look alright.
You smell like a wet astrophysicist.
ANDY: Crispy astrophysicist.
STEVE: Crispy astrophysicist.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
You did a good job, though.
ANDY: Alright, I hope this experiment's over.
NARRATOR: SOME OF THE EXPERIMENTAL LAVA MIGHT HAVE CAUGHT ANDY, BUT THESE AREN' EVEN CLOSE TO THE FASTES ERUPTIONS AROUND.
THAT TITLE BELONGS TO AN ERUPTION CALLED A PYROCLASTIC FLOW.
MIKE: When pyroclastic eruptions blow, they throw superheated gas and rock miles up into the atmosphere.
NARRATOR: HOW FAST CAN THESE SUPERHEATED CLOUDS OF GAS AND ROCK MOVE? A SPORTS CAR WOULD BE QUICKLY GOBBLED UP BY A MEDIUM-SIZED PYROCLASTIC ERUPTION, LIKE MOUNT ST.
HELEN'S, WHICH CAN CREATE FLOWS OVER 150 MILES PER HOUR.
TO ESCAPE THAT, WE'D NEED TO BE FLYING A 747.
BUT IN THE BIGGEST VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS WE KNOW OF, THE FLOW MAY REACH SUPERSONIC SPEEDS - OVER 750 MILES PER HOUR AT THOSE SPEEDS, YOU'D NEED A JET FIGHTER TO GET AWAY.
EVERYTHING ELSE WOULD BE WIPED OUT.
BUT IF YOU THINK THESE ERUPTIONS ON EARTH BLOW US OUT OF THE WATER, THE ONES ELSEWHERE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM PUT THEM TO SHAME, AND THESE BLASTS IMPACT ENTIRE PLANETS.
WE'RE INVESTIGATING THE MOS MASSIVE ERUPTIONS OUR UNIVERSE HAS TO OFFER, AND ONE TOWERS ABOVE THEM ALL.
THIS IS THE LARGEST VOLCANO IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE - MARS' OLYMPUS MONS.
IT'S 17 MILES HIGH AND ACROSS ITS BASE, IT'S MORE THAN 300 MILES.
SIGRID: It's about the size of the State of Arizona.
Just imagine a volcano the size of a whole entire state.
NARRATOR: HOW DOES A VOLCANO GET THIS BIG? IT NEEDS ERUPTIONS - A LOT OF THEM.
ASHLEY: We know that the Hawaiian hotspot has been active for at least 80 million years, but there's evidence to suggest that Olympus Mons was fed by a hotspot for a billion years.
That's the length of time you need to build up something that's so huge.
NARRATOR: OLYMPUS MONS IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST ERUPTIVE STRUCTURE WE KNOW OF, BU IT'S BEEN EXTINCT FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS.
AND YET, THE ERUPTIONS THA CREATED IT ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO EVIDENCE OF ONES WE'VE FOUND ON OUR OTHER PLANETARY NEIGHBOR - VENUS.
ANDY: Venus is interesting because it looks like the surface is not that old, so people think there was some event on Venus where you had a bunch of volcanic eruptions and lava basically resurfaced the planet.
NARRATOR: SCIENTISTS ESTIMATE THERE ARE OVER 1,600 MAJOR VOLCANOES ON VENUS.
AND IN ONE GIAN ERUPTIVE SYMPHONY, THEY'VE REPAVED THE ENTIRE PLANET.
BUT WHAT EVIDENCE DO THEY HAVE THAT THIS EVENT HAPPENED? ANDY: Astronomers can tell the age of the surface of a planet by counting up the craters.
In really old surfaces, you get lots of craters.
But if it'sthere's been a bunch of lava flow, lava just erases craters.
NARRATOR: THERE ARE A RELATIVELY LOW NUMBER OF CRATERS ACROSS THE ENTIRE PLANET, SUGGESTING THA THE SURFACE WAS CREATED IN A GEOLOGICALLY SHOR PERIOD OF TIME.
BUT WHILE THESE PLANET-WIDE ERUPTIONS ARE IMPRESSIVE, THEY HAPPENED 600-800 MILLION YEARS AGO.
EVERYWHERE WE TURN, IT SEEMS WE CAN'T FIND ANOTHER PLANET WHERE ERUPTIONS ARE ACTIVELY HAPPENING.
BUT WHAT IF WE STAR DIGGING DEEPER INTO SPACE? ANDY: Interestingly enough, we can detect volcanoes around other planets from another solar system.
Astronomers use a trick to do this.
They look at these gases from the atmosphere.
That's pretty incredible that you can tell the atmosphere of a really alien world.
NARRATOR: THIS TRICK IS CALLED SPECTROSCOPING AND IT REQUIRES A LOT OF DETECTIVE WORK, SO STEVE JACOBS HAS SET UP AN ERUPTION MYSTERY AND AEROSPACE ENGINEER SIGRID CLOSE IS GOING TO TRY AND CRACK THE CASE.
SIGRID: How in the world would you be able to determine whether there's a volcanic eruption on another planet? STEVE: Well, that's what we're gonna use my little friend for today.
SIGRID: So what is this device? STEVE: Well, this is a planetary atmosphere jar.
SIGRID: Okay.
STEVE: We'll fill this cylinder with typical gases that you might find on a planet.
SIGRID: What would that be, for example? STEVE: Water, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide - things like that - and one of them is gonna be a gas that might be around an eruption and I'm gonna have you look on this computer screen and it will send a signal, similar to that gas that that gas will give off and you're not gonna know which one of those cylinders has the volcanic gas in it.
I'm gonna see if you can detect it's trace that comes around.
SIGRID: So it's a mystery? STEVE: It's gonna be a mystery and we'll see if you can solve it, just like the scientists do that are looking on these planets.
SIGRID: Okay.
STEVE: Ready to do it? SIGRID: Let's do it.
STEVE: Okay.
NARRATOR: STEVE IS SETTING UP A SPOTLIGHT TO SIMULATE THE SUN OF A DISTANT SOLAR SYSTEM.
THE CONTAINERS OF GAS, EACH REPRESENTING ONE OF ITS PLANETS, WILL BE PLACED IN FRON OF IT ONE AT A TIME.
SIGRID HAS BROUGHT IN SPECTROSCOPY EXPER DR.
JORGE MACHO FROM THE OCEAN OPTICS FOR A LITTLE HELP IN IDENTIFYING WHAT EACH GAS IS IN EACH CONTAINER.
STEVE: Okay, Sigrid, the first gas.
I'm gonna pump some of it in now.
JORGE: Here we have the first one.
There you go.
NARRATOR: A SPECTROMETER IS MEASURING THE LIGH COMING THROUGH THE GAS.
SOME PASSES THROUGH WHILE SOME IS ABSORBED.
SINCE EACH GAS ABSORBS SPECIFIC LIGHT WAVELENGTHS, A COMPUTER PROGRAM RECEIVES THESE READINGS AND PRESENTS THE RESULTS AS LINES ON A GRAPH.
AND JORGE CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT THESE GRAPHS WHICH GAS THEY'RE SEEING.
SIGRID: Based on what we see here, what would you say this gas is? JORGE: It's the CO2 - carbon dioxide.
SIGRID: Okay, so probably not volcanic.
JORGE: No.
SIGRID: So Jake, give me the next gas.
Okay, looks like we're getting a reading.
JORGE: Basically, I can tell you that this is from water vapor.
SIGRID: This one's very structured, with lots of peaks.
STEVE: You're doing good.
This machine works.
Okay, Sigrid, take a reading on this one.
SIGRID: Okay, so for the third gas, we're getting something that's completely different.
JORGE: This one we know is sulfur dioxide.
SIGRID: Sulfur dioxide? JORGE: That is a very common gas that comes out from volcanoes.
So this would be a tracer to see if there's a volcanic eruption on that planet or not.
SIGRID: Excellent, so we've found it.
JORGE: Yes.
NARRATOR: THEY FOUND A TRACER FOR VOLCANIC ACTIVITY, BUT THERE'S STILL ONE MORE GAS, AND SIGRID WANTS TO SEE WHA IT IS.
STEVE: There, see what kind of reading you get on that one.
SIGRID: This one looks completely different.
JORGE: Right.
SIGRID: So, what is this gas? JORGE: This is nitrous oxide.
SIGRID: Nitrous oxide, okay.
JORGE: That could be used as a tracer for volcanic activity.
SIGRID: It can? okay.
So do you think Jake's trying to trick us? JORGE: He might have two of them.
Now, the kinds of volcanoes that would have those kinds of emissions might be different.
STEVE: So how did you do with the test? SIGRID: We detected not one but two tracers of volcanic activity, so you kind of tricked me.
STEVE: Did I? SIGRID: Yes, you gave me two tracers of volcanic activity.
You gave me nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide.
STEVE: I did.
I tried to trick you.
SIGRID: Jorge helped.
STEVE: He did.
Yeah, he did.
I'll have to do better next time.
Better trickery through science.
NARRATOR: SCOURING THE UNIVERSE HOT ERUPTIONS BILLIONS OF MILES AWAY MAY SEEM LIKE THE FINAL FRONTIER IN COSMIC BLASTS, BUT OUR OWN SOLAR SYSTEM HAS A BIG SURPRISE FOR US - NOT A HO ERUPTION, BUT A COLD ONE.
WHEN IT COMES TO MASSIVE ERUPTIONS, WE MIGHT THINK WE'VE SEEN THEM ALL, BUT THERE'S ONE TYPE EXTREMELY RARE ON EARTH, EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE KNOWS IT VERY WELL.
BENEATH YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IS BUILDING UP POWER, LIKE A GIGANTIC PRESSURE COOKER.
BUT INSTEAD OF A HOT MAGMA ERUPTION, YELLOWSTONE'S AWESOME POWER CAN BE SEEN IN A DECEIVINGLY BEAUTIFUL FORM - GEYSERS.
DAVID: A geyser, something you would see at Yellowstone Park, is where water flows down to a place where it gets very hot, pressure builds up, and that pressure causes it to turn to steam and shoot back out at some random intervals.
And geysers appear all over the surface of the Earth in these hotspots, but geysers also appear on different planets or moons.
NARRATOR: AND THESE SPACE GEYSERS MAY TURN OUT TO BE SOME OF THE BIGGEST BLASTS WE'VE EVER SEEN.
BUT THEY'RE NOT BOILING HOT.
THEY'RE ICE COLD.
MIKE: Enceladus is a moon of Saturn, but it's a really interesting place for a couple reasons.
One is that it contains water.
The other cool thing about it is that it has eruptions.
And we know this because Cassini spacecraft took some images and when it took those images, it saw the vapor, the leftover parts of the eruption and they knew it was water.
NARRATOR: HOW CAN THIS ICY MOON HAVE GEYSERS? TO SEE HOW THEY'RE CREATED, WE HAVE TO TUNNEL THROUGH MILES OF ENCELADUS' THICK FROZEN CRUS UNTIL WE DROP INTO A POCKET OF LIQUID WATER.
THIS SUBTERRANIAN OCEAN IS THOUGHT TO BE THE RESULT OF TIDAL HEATING CREATED BY SATURN'S GRAVITY.
AS THE HEAT RISES, THE PRESSURIZED WATER SEEKS RELEASE.
IT FINDS CRACKS IN THE ICE AND BLASTS THROUGH THEM.
WHEN IT HITS THE SURFACE, THE WATER INSTANTLY FREEZES - COLD FAITHFUL IN SPACE.
AND THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF ALL? THESE PARTICLES MAY END UP AS ONE OF THE OUTER RINGS OF SATURN.
BUT THESE ERUPTIONS ARE WILDLY UNPREDICTABLE AND MYSTERIOUS TO MANY SCIENTISTS.
WHY? MIKE MASSIMINO AND STEVE JACOBS ARE ABOUT TO CREATE THEIR OWN ICE-SPLOSION TO FIND OUT.
MIKE: We're not going swimming in here, are we, Jake? STEVE: No, I'd throw all the water out if I jumped in.
MIKE: So what are we gonna do here today, Jake? Why are we interested in this? STEVE: Well, this is our representation of the moon around the planet Saturn, Enceladus.
MIKE: If this was Enceladus, we would have a surface that is frozen.
So, we don't have that here.
STEVE: Well, we're gonna use some wax.
MIKE: Liquid wax.
STEVE: I've got a pot cooking over there with some paraffin in it, some wax, and it's hot and it'll solidify when we float it on top of this.
MIKE: So that's gonna represent the ice of Enceladus? STEVE: Oh yeah Mike: We've got ice represented by the wax.
We've got water, which we have here.
The other thing that we're gonna need is a pressure source to drive this water through the surface.
What are we gonna do for that, Jake? STEVE: We're just gonna take an old soda bottle and put some dry ice in it, seal it up tight, and the heat, it's just regular temperature water right here but there's a lot of heat content in here.
There's enough heat to make that solid carbon dioxide vaporize almost instantly.
So there's gonna be a tremendous amount of pressure inside that bottle.
MIKE: That bottle is gonna explode? STEVE: It's gonna rupture.
I think it will.
NARRATOR: ONE OF THESE FROZEN CARBON DIOXIDE BOMBS HAS TO GO INSIDE THE TANK AND HOPEFULLY EXPLODE TO CREATE A GEYSER.
STEVE: That looks pretty sweet, doesn't it? MIKE: It does and it's solid.
Once we put the pressure source inside of here STEVE: That's right.
MIKE: We make the big boom.
STEVE: We should get an eruption.
MIKE: Let's light this candle! STEVE: Let's light the candle, man.
Let's go get a bottle and see if we can make an eruption.
NARRATOR: BUT SOMETIMES, THERE'S NOT ENOUGH PRESSURE INSIDE ONE OF THESE BOMBS.
AND IF THERE'S NOT, NO ERUPTION.
STEVE: It's giving off gas now.
MIKE: There it is.
STEVE: You got the cap.
MIKE: Okay, you ready? STEVE: I'm ready.
MIKE: Okay, she's away.
STEVE: Pressure's building.
MIKE: Something's gonna happen.
STEVE: Well, you'd think.
NARRATOR: JUS LIKE ON ENCELADUS, YOU'LL NEVER KNOW WHEN AN ERUPTION WILL STRIKE.
STEVE: Whoa! Eruption! NARRATOR: ABOUT A BILLION MILES FROM EARTH, THIS IS WHAT COULD BE HAPPENING ON ENCELADUS RIGHT NOW.
STEVE: Wow, we made a mess.
MIKE: Boy, after all that work of putting a surface together.
So that's how an eruption would take place on Enceladus? STEVE: More or less, that's exactly what happens.
It gives us an idea.
NARRATOR: BUT IF WE THOUGH ENCELADUS' ICY ERUPTIONS WERE UNPREDICTABLE, THERE'S A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TYPE OF UNSTABLE BURST OU THERE, AND THESE HUGE, POWERFUL ERUPTIONS OF ELECTRICITY CREATE MAGICAL LIGH SHOWS AND INSTANT DESTRUCTION.
WHEN PROBING THE UNIVERSE FOR ITS FIERCEST ERUPTIONS, WE CAN FIND POWERHOUSES GENERATING THEM ALL THE TIME - STARS.
OUR SUN IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE, WITH FLARES CONSTANTLY ERUPTING FROM ITS SURFACE, ESPECIALLY AT THE HEIGHT OF ITS POWER - SOLAR MAXIMUM.
ANDY: Solar flares are happening all the time, but they really pick up at solar maximum.
At solar maximum, you get more sunspots, you get more magnetic field activity, and you get a lot more flares.
NARRATOR: AND ANY STAR ERUPTION, WHETHER BIG OR SMALL, IS MADE UP PRIMARILY OF A DIFFERENT TYPE OF MATTER THAN WE'RE USED TO - PLASMA.
ANDY: Different forms of matter we're familiar with on Earth are liquids, solids, and gas.
Plasma is just ionized gas.
In normal gas, you get protons and some neutrons and then electrons orbiting them.
In a plasma, the electrons have escaped.
NARRATOR: IT SOUNDS UNUSUAL, YET IN THE UNIVERSE, IT'S ANYTHING BUT.
99% OF EVERYTHING WE SEE OUT THERE IS PLASMA.
BUT WHERE DO WE FIND IT ON EARTH? ANDY: On Earth, we have fluorescent lights or neon sign or in your plasma television, there's plasma.
NARRATOR: SO WE HAVE PLASMA ON OUR PLANET, BUT DO WE HAVE PLASMA ERUPTIONS? SIGRID: One that most people have seen is lightning.
Lightning is actually a discharge plasma that has a high current associated with it and a very high temperature.
NARRATOR: SHOCKINGLY ENOUGH, THESE POWERFUL PLASMA ERUPTIONS ARE ACTUALLY HOTTER THAN THE SURFACE OF OUR SUN - 5 TIMES HOTTER AND AROUND 50,000 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT.
DESPITE THEIR POWER, THEY CAN ACTUALLY BE RECREATED AND CONTROLLED, AS DEMONSTRATED BY THE GREAT SERBIAN MASTER OF LIGHTNING, NIKOLA TESLA.
HE CREATED A WAY TO HARNESS THEM IN A SPECTACULAR DEVICE CALLED A TESLA COIL.
HERE'S HOW THEY WORK.
COMMON HOUSEHOLD ELECTRICITY, USUALLY AROUND 120 VOLTS, IS DUMPED INTO A TRANSFORMER AND THEN A CAPACITOR, BOOSTING THIS ELECTRICAL FORCE UP TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS, OR EVEN MILLIONS, OF VOLTS.
THIS GETS THE CURREN ALTERNATING SO FAST, WHEN IT REACHES THE TOP OF THE COIL, IT ERUPTS INTO THE AIR IN STUNNING BLASTS OF ELECTRICITY.
SIGRID: Tesla coils are extremely dangerous, with extremely high currents.
You can actually get voltages that are well over a million volts.
NARRATOR: BUT THESE CRAZY GUYS THINK THAT PLAYING WITH SOMETHING THAT CREATES POWERFUL ELECTRICAL ERUPTIONS IS A GOOD IDEA.
MEET ARCATTACK, THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS ROCK BAND.
JOE: I can say for sure that this is the most dangerous musical instrument that's ever been created.
We're actually vibrating the atmosphere through the plasma eruption that the Tesla coil creates, so that the actual arc from the Tesla coil is creating sound waves.
NARRATOR: ONE OF THE WAYS THEY CONTROL THE ERUPTIONS IS WITH A TRULY ELECTRIC GUITAR.
TONY: This guitar is special because it sends a signal to the Tesla coil and the Tesla coil replicates the notes that I'm playing.
JOE: Our lightning guitarist actually stands between the Tesla coils and while he plays the guitar, he is struck by the lightning of the Tesla coils.
NARRATOR: HOW DOES HE DO THIS WITHOUT FRYING HIMSELF IN THE PROCESS? WITH HIS OWN PERSONAL SUIT OF ARMOR.
JOE: A Faraday suit is a chain male suit.
It's a lot like a knight's armor.
It's a shield that you wear around your body.
So in order to be electrocuted, you actually have to pass a current through your body and so when you're wearing the Faraday suit, it keeps your whole body at the same potential.
So if your head is at a million volts and if your feet are at a million volts, there's zero current being passed through your body, and so that prevents you from being electrocuted.
TONY: When the suit is working correctly, I don't feel a single thing and that's exactly how I like it.
JOE: We know that as time goes on, it's gonna become more widespread and someday, you know, it might actually be accepted as a legitimate musical instrument.
So that would be great if it's on par with, say, the banjo.
I'd be pretty happy with that.
NARRATOR: BUT MIGHTY PLASMA BLASTS OF LIGHTNING OR SOLAR FLARES AREN'T THAT IMPRESSIVE WHEN PUT NEXT TO THE MOTHER OF ALL ERUPTIONS.
AND THIS ONE DOESN' HAPPEN ON EARTH, ON A STAR, OR ANYWHERE YOU'D EVER WANT TO GO.
THE MOST MASSIVE ERUPTION WE KNOW OF HAPPENS AT A BLACK HOLE.
IN OUR INVESTIGATION OF ERUPTIONS, WE'VE SEEN THE BIGGES ONES EARTH HAS TO OFFER.
BUT SPACE HAS A TRUMP CARD - BLACK HOLES.
AND WHEN THEY ERUPT, NOTHING IS SAFE.
DAVID: Black hole eruptions occur where the black hole is, at the center of a galaxy.
If objects swirling around those black holes start to get torn apart, the speed, temperature, and energy and electromagnetic fields can be so strong that the black hole will eject that material in a huge burst.
NARRATOR: WHERE CAN THE BIGGEST BLACK HOLE ERUPTION IN THE UNIVERSE BE FOUND? IN A GALAXY CLUSTER OVER 2 BILLION LIGHT YEARS AWAY.
HERE, THE MATTER FROM THE GALAXY SURROUNDING A BLACK HOLE IS CAUGHT IN ITS MASSIVE GRAVITATIONAL PULL, SLOWLY FOLLEN TOWARDS ITS CENTER.
WHEN IT GETS TO THE EDGE OF OBLIVION, THE MATTER COMPRESSES INTO AN INTENSELY HOT SUPER FAS WHIRLPOOL, CALLED AN ACCRETION DISC.
THE INCREDIBLE ENERGY AND INTENSE MAGNETIC FIELDS CREATE JETS OF MATTER THAT STRETCH HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF LIGHTYEARS LONG, CREATING AN ERUPTION THAT HAS LASTED FOR 100 MILLION YEARS AND STILL CONTINUES TODAY.
BUT HOW CAN AN ERUPTION ESCAPE SOMETHING WITH THE GRAVITATIONAL POWER OF A BLACK HOLE? THEORECTICAL PHYSICIST DAVID KAPLAN AND STEVE JACOBS ARE ABOUT TO CREATE THEIR OWN.
DAVID: Black hole eruptions I mean, already from the name, you can tell - black hole eruption.
It's something you want to stay away from.
It is the most powerful explosion in the universe and they're very rare.
Jake claims that he has a black hole eruption simulator.
NARRATOR: WE CAN REPLICATE A BLACK HOLE ON EARTH BU WE THE INTENSE SUCTION OF FOUR STRONG AIR-POWERED VACUUMS WE CAN TRY TO CAPTURE OUR OWN FIERY ERUPTION STEVE: What we're gonna do is, since we can't see aircan't see the atmosphere, we're gonna put a charge of propane and set it on fire.
So we should get some nice glowing red carbon atoms, and we can see those thing glowing, right? DAVID: Yeah.
STEVE: Right, and they should be sucked down, unless there's enough turbulence that some of them will be ejected up.
DAVID: So basically, everything that gets sucked into those tubes is what's getting sucked into the black hole? STEVE: Absolutely.
DAVID: And the turbulence will knock everything else out, and so whatever gets spit out here, that's basically the eruption? STEVE: That's the eruption.
DAVID: I want to see a homemade black hole.
That's what I want to see.
Can I pull the trigger? STEVE: You want to do it? DAVID: Yeah.
STEVE: I've got the switch over here.
NARRATOR: THE INVISIBLE PROPANE GAS IS NOW SWIRLING AROUND INSIDE THE DISH.
THE SUCTION IS DRAWING IT DOWN, BUT WHEN DAVID RELEASES THE EXPLOSION, THE BLAST WILL CARRY IT AWAY FROM THE SUCTION'S PULL, REPRESENTING WHAT HAPPENS IN A BLACK HOLE ERUPTION.
STEVE: Are you ready? DAVID: Ready.
STEVE: Okay, I'm gonna arm it.
It's armed, it's active.
DAVID: 3, 2, 1! That was very cool.
So what we saw was this propane gas, it was lit on fire, and made this huge explosion and a lot of it got sucked in, but the rest of it went flying out.
That's the closest I ever want to get to a black hole eruption.
It was worth it, but that's enough for me.
When you think of an eruption, you think of something destructive, like a volcano blast that destroys a nearby city.
But of course, those eruptionsthe volcanoes are also recreating the mountain itself.
Out in the galaxy, you can imagine roughly the same thing.
There are stars which are exploding and spraying material in all directions.
Those explosions are both destroying things, but also are creating new versions of the universe.
ANDY Humans generally like to live in safe places, where there's not a lot of violence going on, there's not a lot of eruptions, but we need eruptions to have life.
We don't like it when it happens to us, but we like it to have happened in the universe.
FROM OUTRUNNING AN EARTH VOLCANO STEVE: Hey, Andy, you ready for the hot lava? Oh, Andy.
NARRATOR: TO FINDING AN ALIEN ONE.
SIGRID: How in the world would you be able to determine whether there's a volcanic eruption on another planet? NARRATOR: THE ERUPTIONS CAN BE UNBEARABLY COLD OR SEARINGLY HO AND THEY GET SO ENORMOUS ENTIRE GALAXIES SURRENDER TO THEM.
DIG IN, TAKE COVER BECAUSE THESE ARE THE UNIVERSE'S BIGGEST BLASTS.
MIKE: it's spectacular.
Quite a sight.
I've never seen anything like it.
NARRATOR: THIS IS THE WORLD'S LONGEST CONTINUOUS ERUPTION.
MIKE: It's just beautiful.
You can see it right over my shoulder there.
NARRATOR: HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII, A VOLCANO HAS BEEN SPEWING MAGMA FOR OVER 25 YEARS AND IT SHOWS NO SIGNS OF STOPPING.
MIKE: The lava flows about 8 miles from Mount Kilauea to make its way down here and it lights up the whole area, just like a spectacular fireworks display as it hits the ocean.
And we traveled about 15 miles in this boat.
Quite a ride to see this, just off the shoreline about 50 feet.
It is spectacular to see it in the darkness.
It's 6 am, the sun's just starting to come up, and we've already had quite an adventure.
NARRATOR: BUT THIS ADVENTURE IS JUST GETTING STARTED.
THIS DRAMATIC ERUPTION IS ONE SMALL BURST IN A UNIVERSE FILLED WITH THEM.
WE'RE ABOUT TO DIVE INTO AN INVESTIGATION OF THE MOS COLOSSAL ERUPTIONS THAT OUR EARTH, THE SOLAR SYSTEM, AND THE DEEPEST REACHES OF SPACE HAVE TO OFFER.
ANDY: There are tons of types of eruptions in the universe, from volcanoes to supernovae to outbursts on stars to jets shooting out of black holes.
You start with something high pressure and then that pressure just gets released in some huge way.
NARRATOR: BUT EXACTLY WHEN ERUPTIONS WILL OCCUR IS OFTEN A GREAT MYSTERY.
DAVID: Science is not at the level where we can predict the exact time of an eruption, but measuring activity around eruptions could give some indication.
NARRATOR: CAN WE FIGURE OUT HOW AND WHEN OUR UNIVERSE IS GOING TO SPILL ITS GUTS? FOR THIS INVESTIGATION, THE FIRST STOP HAS TO BE HAWAII, HOME TO THE MOST DANGEROUS AND ACTIVE VOLCANO IN THE UNITED STATES - MT.
KILAUEA.
AND MECHANICAL ENGINEER AND ASTRONAUT MIKE MASSIMINO AND VOLCANOLOGIST BRUCE HOUGHTON ARE HEADING OUT INTO THE VOLCANO'S LAVA FIELDS TO COLLECT THE FIRS CLUE - A SAMPLE FROM A LIVING, BREATHING ERUPTION.
MIKE: I'm in the middle of the Kilauea lava field.
The source of the lava is miles in that direction and the expanse of this field is miles in every direction, and it doesn't end until it reaches the ocean.
This place is huge.
NARRATOR: NOT ONLY IS THIS LAVA FIELD ENORMOUS, IT'S DANGEROUS.
AREAS THAT LOOK COOL AND SOLID COULD ACTUALLY BE FILLED WITH RED HOT LAVA, DECEPTIVELY HIDDEN BY A THIN DARK SKIN.
SO YOU HAVE TO BE VERY CAREFUL WHERE YOU WALK.
MIKE: Okay, Bruce.
We're in a very interesting looking area.
It almost is like we're on another planet.
BRUCE: Well, we're on the youngest part of this planet, and arguably any planet, I guess.
MIKE: Before that, what did we have? BRUCE: Before that, you and I would've been standing on a highway.
The highway is probably 15-20 feet below us and the proof of that is the sign behind our shoulder.
As we see here, this was a driveway that lived off the main highway.
Now it's a relic.
MIKE: You can see these poor people had a private driveway and no trespassing.
So now they don't have to worry about anyone parking here anymore, do they? BRUCE: No, not at all.
It's kinda spooky because you can hold a GPS and walk out across here and see that not only was it a highway, but there was a subdivision here.
MIKE: Oh my goodness.
So you can put in an address and see where you used to live.
BRUCE: 170 houses.
NARRATOR: WHEN YOU SEE WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTION LIKE THIS YOU MIGHT THINK IT WAS CAUSED BY A HUGE, EXPLOSIVE BLAST.
BUT THE TRUTH IS, NOT ALL ERUPTIONS ARE CREATED EQUAL.
ASHLEY: There are two types of eruptions.
An explosive eruption happens when lava that's quite sticky reaches the surface.
The reason why lava gets sticky is because of a mineral called silica.
The more silica you have in a lava, the stickier the lava is.
The stickier the lava is, the more gas that gets trapped in it, and the more gas that gets trapped in it, the larger the explosion.
NARRATOR: A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THIS TYPE OF ERUPTION IS THE MASSIVE 1980 BLAS BY MOUNT ST.
HELEN'S.
BUT THAT TYPE OF VIOLEN OUTBURST DOESN'T HAPPEN EVER DAY ASHLEY: The most common type of volcanic activity on earth is an effusive eruption.
The lava is less sticky.
It's quite runny.
It has a low amount of silica in it.
The lava erupts out of the ground and flows across the surface to create lava flows without a great deal of explosive activity.
NARRATOR: THE IDEAL EXAMPLE OF THIS TYPE OF ERUPTION IS HAWAII'S, AND IT'S MOLTEN LAVA IS LIKE GOLD TO VOLCANOLOGISTS.
SAMPLES OF IT IT LEAD THEM TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHEN AND WHERE AN ERUPTION BEGINS.
THIS COULD EVENTUALLY CREATE ACCURATE FORECASTS FOR VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS - CRITICAL INFORMATION THAT CAN BE USED TO EVACUATE PEOPLE AND SAVE LIVES.
MIKE: Alright, Bruce.
I really wanna go and try to get up close and sample this lava.
What do II got my pick.
What else do I need? BRUCE: Yeah, we just gotta keep you cool, so you'll need the shirtthe insulating shirt.
MIKE: Okay.
BRUCE: And then you put on the heavy duty gloves.
That should do it.
MIKE: Alright, because this could be dangerous business.
NARRATOR: WITH THE LAVA TEMPERATURE AT 2,000 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, THE INSULATED SHIRT WILL KEEP THE INTENSE HEAT OUT AND THE GLOVES WILL PROTECT MIKE AGAINST ANY STRAY LAVA AS HE TRIES TO TAKE THE SAMPLE.
MIKE: It's not a pick.
It's a dipping instrument.
Okay, hammer.
It's one thing to learn about volcanoes from afar, but it's a much different experience getting up close to it.
It's like you're actually feeling it and interacting with it.
The heat is just immense.
It is super hot and it almost has a life of it's own.
It's constantly moving.
You can hear it.
You hear the crackle.
You hear bangs underneath the surface.
It is really hot - like approaching the sun.
I think I got sunburned doing that.
It was really hot getting that close to it.
I tried to shield as best I could, but boy did I feel that heat.
NARRATOR: EACH ONE OF THESE SAMPLES PROVIDES IMPORTANT DATA FOR CRACKING THE MYSTERY OF VOLCANIC BEHAVIOR.
BUT TO FORECAST ERUPTIONS, WE'RE GONNA NEED HUGE AMOUNTS OF DATA.
WHERE ELSE CAN WE FIND IT? WHILE, VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS ARE OFTEN SEEN, BUT THE INNER RUMBLINGS THA PROCEED THEM ARE RARELY HEARD, SINCE THEY'RE INAUDIBLE TO HUMANS.
BUT MILTON GARCES HAS A WAY TO CAPTURE THEIR GROWL, AND HE THINKS HE CAN DEVELOP A WARNING SYSTEM FOR WHEN VOLCANOES ARE GOING TO ERUPT BY STUDYING THIS ELUSIVE AUDIO, CALLED INFRASOUND.
MILTON: That's the big one.
Infrasound is sound that is below the hearing threshold off the human ear, and volcanoes create a lot of sound.
It could be gas inside the lava, it could be steam expansions, they can produce sound by interacting with the water.
Infrasound can be used to monitor just about anything that's big and explosive - anything large that blows up.
NARRATOR: THIS IS A VERY BIG DEVELOPMENT IN THE WORLD OF VOLCANOES, BUT HEARING ALL THESE SOUNDS ISN'T AS SIMPLE AS PLAYING THEM BACK.
GARCES HAS TO CONDENSE RECORDINGS TAKEN OVER LONG PERIODS OF TIME, SPEED THEM UP, AND ONLY THEN CAN HE LISTEN TO THE BREATHING OF A VOLCANO.
MILTON: Volcanoes have certain patterns that are a recurrence before they erupt.
There is usually some swelling, cracking, steaming.
In that sense, you can forecast an eruption.
NARRATOR: THAT'S RIGHT, THIS APPROACH COULD BE USED TO ACTUALLY TELL WHEN A MAJOR ERUPTION IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN.
ALL OF THIS DETECTIVE WORK HAS A VERY IMPORTANT GOAL - DEVELOPING AN ERUPTION ALERT SYSTEM.
MILTON: And so we want to develop a system that will actually detect these eruptions and provide early warning and automatically notify the authorities that this is in progress and that some action must be taken.
NARRATOR: BUT AS IMPRESSIVE AS THIS APPROACH IS, IF WE WANT THE BIG PICTURE ON VOLCANOES, WE CAN'T GET IT HERE ON EARTH.
WE HAVE TO GET IT FROM SPACE.
TECHNOLOGY ABOARD OUR SPACECRAF IS ABOUT TO REVEAL JUST HOW BIG THESE BLASTS GET.
IN OUR INVESTIGATION INTO THE BIGGEST BLASTS IN THE UNIVERSE, WE'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR CLUES TO WHEN ERUPTIONS WILL HAPPEN ON EARTH.
BUT THE OUTBURSTS HERE ARE OFTEN UNPREDICTABLE.
AND STRANGELY ENOUGH, THE BES EVIDENCE TO CRACK THIS MYSTERY MIGHT NOT COME FROM INSIDE THE EARTH.
IT MIGHT COME FROM SATELLITES MILES ABOVE IT, USING A TACTIC CALLED RADAR INTERFEROMETRY.
ANDY: Radar interferometry is a technique for combining radar signals from spacecraft, and you can use them to measure the size and impact volcanoes could have on an area.
NARRATOR: GEOPHYSICIST MIKE POLAND IS USING THESE RADAR IMAGES TO DO EXACTLY THAT, TRACKING THE UNDERGROUND MOVEMENTS OF KILAUEA'S MAGMA AND HOPEFULLY FIGURING OUT WHEN THE NEXT BLAST MIGHT OCCUR.
MIKE P: This image spans some deformation that occurred in 2007.
This is the volcano's east rift zone.
Periodically, magma will drain from the summit area, intrude into the east rift, and this is what this map here is showing.
Before a volcano is going to erupt, magma has to accumulate, and that'll cause the surface to deform - to inflate like a balloon.
NARRATOR: EACH OF THESE COLOR BANDS REPRESENTS AREAS WHERE MAGMA UNDERGROUND HAS CAUSED THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH TO MOVE.
THE MORE BANDS THERE ARE, THE MORE MOTION THERE'S BEEN, AND THIS AREA HAS A LOT OF BANDS.
MIKE P: Something important happened right in this area here We're standing right there and look at what's at our feet.
MIKE M: Whoa, I better not fall in.
MIKE P: There's a very large crack right here.
This ground crack formed when there was a tremendous amount of magma that was injected underneath the surface right here.
MIKE M: So there was stuff underneath that your satellite image helped pick up? MIKE P: Exactly, magma drained from the summit and it wedged open part of the ground here.
In fact, you can even see where it comes in contact with the road.
This crack actually broke the road.
MIKE M: From the stuff that was flowing underneath here? MIKE P: Exactly.
NARRATOR: THE RADAR SHOWS A BREAK IN THE COLOR PATTERN THA MATCHES UP PERFECTLY WITH THIS SURFACE CRACK, SO WE NOW KNOW THAT THE RADAR CAN LOCATE PLACES WHERE THE GROUND HAS MOVED, AND BROKEN APART, TOO.
MIKE P: We can tell it was coming through here by all these cracks and by the deformation that we can see on this map here And in fact, so much magma passed underneath this point here that if you were to pile it on this half-mile section of road or so, it would be 3 miles high.
MIKE M: That's pretty high.
Be a lot worse than just a crack in the road.
MIKE P: This is a fantastic new tool in volcano monitoring.
NARRATOR: AND THE ADVANTAGE IS A BIG ONE.
WITH THIS TECHNOLOGY, ANY PLACE ON EARTH THAT'S SHOWING THIS TYPE OF INFLATION COULD BE A SIGN THAT AN ERUPTION IS ABOU TO STRIKE.
BUT EVEN IF WE CAN STAR DETECTING ERUPTIONS, A MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM AWAITS - THE BLAST ITSELF.
AND WHEN ONE HITS, THE SPEEDS OF THE ERUPTION ARE OFTEN UNPREDICTABLE.
ASHLEY: That depends on how much lava is erupting and what the slope is that the lava's flowing down.
These small lava flows that just ooze out of the ground and creep across the surface, but there are other eruptions where large volumes are erupting and the lava flow is moving very, very fast - 10 or 20 miles an hour.
NARRATOR: IF YOU WERE TRYING TO ESCAPE A LAVA ERUPTION, WOULD IT EVEN BE POSSIBLE? TO FIND OUT, ASTRONOMER ANDY HOWELL IS LACING UP HIS TRACK SHOES FOR THE ULTIMATE LAVA RACE, SET UP BY SCIENTIS STEVE JACOBS.
ANDY: We're here at a racetrack to day, but instead of racing cars or people, I'm gonna race lava.
I wanted to race real lava, but they said it was too dangerous.
So instead we're gonna have a stand-in for lava, and we're gonna see which ones I can outrun and which ones are gonna catch me.
STEVE: This is actually custom made lava simulation liquid.
ANDY: So STEVE: Simulated lava, alright? Now thisif you look, you can see how thick and gooey it is.
It's very viscous.
ANDY: Likelike lava.
STEVE: Like lava.
NARRATOR: IN REALITY, THIS LAVA IS MADE OF WATER, RED FOOD DYE, AND SOME WOOD PULP.
AND IF ANDY'S NOT QUICK ENOUGH, HE'LL BE BATHING IN IT.
STEVE: This is the slow stuff.
So we're gonna see if you can outrun this.
ANDY: Alright.
Well, it's liquid rocks.
How hard could that be? STEVE: That should be no sweat.
We're gonna pick up this entire tank with the crane, dump it down this trough, you're gonna be underneath and you're gonna take off running.
ANDY: Alright.
STEVE: And I'll meet you at the other end.
Sound good? ANDY: I'm not getting slimed today.
STEVE: Let's go do it.
Let's go do it.
NARRATOR: RACE #1 PITS ANDY AGAINST THE SLOW BUT STEADY 6-MILE-AN-HOUR LAVA FLOW, LIKE HAWAII'S.
ANDY: Can I outrun a Hawaiian lava flow? We're about to find out.
STEVE: Andy! Are you ready? It's been nice knowing you, Andy.
Run! Run! Here it comes! Here it comes! Oh, you beat it.
You beat it easy.
ANDY: Alright, well, I beat this slow lava.
STEVE: You beat the slow lava.
ANDY: That was easy.
STEVE: Easy.
ANDY: What else you got? STEVE: This flow is about 6 miles an hour.
I think we're gonna go up to about 15 or 20 miles an hour.
ANDY: That's a tall order.
Easy for you to say.
STEVE: Easy for me to say, absolutely.
My toes are getting warm.
I'm gonna have to move.
NARRATOR: FOR RACE #2, STEVE IS GOING TO INCREASE THE FLOW, SIMULATING THE SWIFTER LAVA THAT WOULD ERUPT DOWN A STEEP-SIDED VOLCANO.
STEVE: Hey, Andy! You ready for the hot lava? It's gonna be fast.
Here we go! On your mark, get set Oh Andy NARRATOR: ANDY'S QUICK FEET WERE NO MATCH FOR THE SPEEDY DOWNHILL LAVA FLOW.
STEVE: For a man who just burned up, you're doing pretty good.
ANDY: All in the name of science, man.
STEVE: All in the name of science.
But you can see how much faster it was flowing, right? ANDY: I'm glad I don't have to outrun lava in my day job.
STEVE: I'm proud of you, man.
I'm glad you didn't get too burned.
You look alright.
You smell like a wet astrophysicist.
ANDY: Crispy astrophysicist.
STEVE: Crispy astrophysicist.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
You did a good job, though.
ANDY: Alright, I hope this experiment's over.
NARRATOR: SOME OF THE EXPERIMENTAL LAVA MIGHT HAVE CAUGHT ANDY, BUT THESE AREN' EVEN CLOSE TO THE FASTES ERUPTIONS AROUND.
THAT TITLE BELONGS TO AN ERUPTION CALLED A PYROCLASTIC FLOW.
MIKE: When pyroclastic eruptions blow, they throw superheated gas and rock miles up into the atmosphere.
NARRATOR: HOW FAST CAN THESE SUPERHEATED CLOUDS OF GAS AND ROCK MOVE? A SPORTS CAR WOULD BE QUICKLY GOBBLED UP BY A MEDIUM-SIZED PYROCLASTIC ERUPTION, LIKE MOUNT ST.
HELEN'S, WHICH CAN CREATE FLOWS OVER 150 MILES PER HOUR.
TO ESCAPE THAT, WE'D NEED TO BE FLYING A 747.
BUT IN THE BIGGEST VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS WE KNOW OF, THE FLOW MAY REACH SUPERSONIC SPEEDS - OVER 750 MILES PER HOUR AT THOSE SPEEDS, YOU'D NEED A JET FIGHTER TO GET AWAY.
EVERYTHING ELSE WOULD BE WIPED OUT.
BUT IF YOU THINK THESE ERUPTIONS ON EARTH BLOW US OUT OF THE WATER, THE ONES ELSEWHERE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM PUT THEM TO SHAME, AND THESE BLASTS IMPACT ENTIRE PLANETS.
WE'RE INVESTIGATING THE MOS MASSIVE ERUPTIONS OUR UNIVERSE HAS TO OFFER, AND ONE TOWERS ABOVE THEM ALL.
THIS IS THE LARGEST VOLCANO IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE - MARS' OLYMPUS MONS.
IT'S 17 MILES HIGH AND ACROSS ITS BASE, IT'S MORE THAN 300 MILES.
SIGRID: It's about the size of the State of Arizona.
Just imagine a volcano the size of a whole entire state.
NARRATOR: HOW DOES A VOLCANO GET THIS BIG? IT NEEDS ERUPTIONS - A LOT OF THEM.
ASHLEY: We know that the Hawaiian hotspot has been active for at least 80 million years, but there's evidence to suggest that Olympus Mons was fed by a hotspot for a billion years.
That's the length of time you need to build up something that's so huge.
NARRATOR: OLYMPUS MONS IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST ERUPTIVE STRUCTURE WE KNOW OF, BU IT'S BEEN EXTINCT FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS.
AND YET, THE ERUPTIONS THA CREATED IT ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO EVIDENCE OF ONES WE'VE FOUND ON OUR OTHER PLANETARY NEIGHBOR - VENUS.
ANDY: Venus is interesting because it looks like the surface is not that old, so people think there was some event on Venus where you had a bunch of volcanic eruptions and lava basically resurfaced the planet.
NARRATOR: SCIENTISTS ESTIMATE THERE ARE OVER 1,600 MAJOR VOLCANOES ON VENUS.
AND IN ONE GIAN ERUPTIVE SYMPHONY, THEY'VE REPAVED THE ENTIRE PLANET.
BUT WHAT EVIDENCE DO THEY HAVE THAT THIS EVENT HAPPENED? ANDY: Astronomers can tell the age of the surface of a planet by counting up the craters.
In really old surfaces, you get lots of craters.
But if it'sthere's been a bunch of lava flow, lava just erases craters.
NARRATOR: THERE ARE A RELATIVELY LOW NUMBER OF CRATERS ACROSS THE ENTIRE PLANET, SUGGESTING THA THE SURFACE WAS CREATED IN A GEOLOGICALLY SHOR PERIOD OF TIME.
BUT WHILE THESE PLANET-WIDE ERUPTIONS ARE IMPRESSIVE, THEY HAPPENED 600-800 MILLION YEARS AGO.
EVERYWHERE WE TURN, IT SEEMS WE CAN'T FIND ANOTHER PLANET WHERE ERUPTIONS ARE ACTIVELY HAPPENING.
BUT WHAT IF WE STAR DIGGING DEEPER INTO SPACE? ANDY: Interestingly enough, we can detect volcanoes around other planets from another solar system.
Astronomers use a trick to do this.
They look at these gases from the atmosphere.
That's pretty incredible that you can tell the atmosphere of a really alien world.
NARRATOR: THIS TRICK IS CALLED SPECTROSCOPING AND IT REQUIRES A LOT OF DETECTIVE WORK, SO STEVE JACOBS HAS SET UP AN ERUPTION MYSTERY AND AEROSPACE ENGINEER SIGRID CLOSE IS GOING TO TRY AND CRACK THE CASE.
SIGRID: How in the world would you be able to determine whether there's a volcanic eruption on another planet? STEVE: Well, that's what we're gonna use my little friend for today.
SIGRID: So what is this device? STEVE: Well, this is a planetary atmosphere jar.
SIGRID: Okay.
STEVE: We'll fill this cylinder with typical gases that you might find on a planet.
SIGRID: What would that be, for example? STEVE: Water, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide - things like that - and one of them is gonna be a gas that might be around an eruption and I'm gonna have you look on this computer screen and it will send a signal, similar to that gas that that gas will give off and you're not gonna know which one of those cylinders has the volcanic gas in it.
I'm gonna see if you can detect it's trace that comes around.
SIGRID: So it's a mystery? STEVE: It's gonna be a mystery and we'll see if you can solve it, just like the scientists do that are looking on these planets.
SIGRID: Okay.
STEVE: Ready to do it? SIGRID: Let's do it.
STEVE: Okay.
NARRATOR: STEVE IS SETTING UP A SPOTLIGHT TO SIMULATE THE SUN OF A DISTANT SOLAR SYSTEM.
THE CONTAINERS OF GAS, EACH REPRESENTING ONE OF ITS PLANETS, WILL BE PLACED IN FRON OF IT ONE AT A TIME.
SIGRID HAS BROUGHT IN SPECTROSCOPY EXPER DR.
JORGE MACHO FROM THE OCEAN OPTICS FOR A LITTLE HELP IN IDENTIFYING WHAT EACH GAS IS IN EACH CONTAINER.
STEVE: Okay, Sigrid, the first gas.
I'm gonna pump some of it in now.
JORGE: Here we have the first one.
There you go.
NARRATOR: A SPECTROMETER IS MEASURING THE LIGH COMING THROUGH THE GAS.
SOME PASSES THROUGH WHILE SOME IS ABSORBED.
SINCE EACH GAS ABSORBS SPECIFIC LIGHT WAVELENGTHS, A COMPUTER PROGRAM RECEIVES THESE READINGS AND PRESENTS THE RESULTS AS LINES ON A GRAPH.
AND JORGE CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT THESE GRAPHS WHICH GAS THEY'RE SEEING.
SIGRID: Based on what we see here, what would you say this gas is? JORGE: It's the CO2 - carbon dioxide.
SIGRID: Okay, so probably not volcanic.
JORGE: No.
SIGRID: So Jake, give me the next gas.
Okay, looks like we're getting a reading.
JORGE: Basically, I can tell you that this is from water vapor.
SIGRID: This one's very structured, with lots of peaks.
STEVE: You're doing good.
This machine works.
Okay, Sigrid, take a reading on this one.
SIGRID: Okay, so for the third gas, we're getting something that's completely different.
JORGE: This one we know is sulfur dioxide.
SIGRID: Sulfur dioxide? JORGE: That is a very common gas that comes out from volcanoes.
So this would be a tracer to see if there's a volcanic eruption on that planet or not.
SIGRID: Excellent, so we've found it.
JORGE: Yes.
NARRATOR: THEY FOUND A TRACER FOR VOLCANIC ACTIVITY, BUT THERE'S STILL ONE MORE GAS, AND SIGRID WANTS TO SEE WHA IT IS.
STEVE: There, see what kind of reading you get on that one.
SIGRID: This one looks completely different.
JORGE: Right.
SIGRID: So, what is this gas? JORGE: This is nitrous oxide.
SIGRID: Nitrous oxide, okay.
JORGE: That could be used as a tracer for volcanic activity.
SIGRID: It can? okay.
So do you think Jake's trying to trick us? JORGE: He might have two of them.
Now, the kinds of volcanoes that would have those kinds of emissions might be different.
STEVE: So how did you do with the test? SIGRID: We detected not one but two tracers of volcanic activity, so you kind of tricked me.
STEVE: Did I? SIGRID: Yes, you gave me two tracers of volcanic activity.
You gave me nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide.
STEVE: I did.
I tried to trick you.
SIGRID: Jorge helped.
STEVE: He did.
Yeah, he did.
I'll have to do better next time.
Better trickery through science.
NARRATOR: SCOURING THE UNIVERSE HOT ERUPTIONS BILLIONS OF MILES AWAY MAY SEEM LIKE THE FINAL FRONTIER IN COSMIC BLASTS, BUT OUR OWN SOLAR SYSTEM HAS A BIG SURPRISE FOR US - NOT A HO ERUPTION, BUT A COLD ONE.
WHEN IT COMES TO MASSIVE ERUPTIONS, WE MIGHT THINK WE'VE SEEN THEM ALL, BUT THERE'S ONE TYPE EXTREMELY RARE ON EARTH, EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE KNOWS IT VERY WELL.
BENEATH YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IS BUILDING UP POWER, LIKE A GIGANTIC PRESSURE COOKER.
BUT INSTEAD OF A HOT MAGMA ERUPTION, YELLOWSTONE'S AWESOME POWER CAN BE SEEN IN A DECEIVINGLY BEAUTIFUL FORM - GEYSERS.
DAVID: A geyser, something you would see at Yellowstone Park, is where water flows down to a place where it gets very hot, pressure builds up, and that pressure causes it to turn to steam and shoot back out at some random intervals.
And geysers appear all over the surface of the Earth in these hotspots, but geysers also appear on different planets or moons.
NARRATOR: AND THESE SPACE GEYSERS MAY TURN OUT TO BE SOME OF THE BIGGEST BLASTS WE'VE EVER SEEN.
BUT THEY'RE NOT BOILING HOT.
THEY'RE ICE COLD.
MIKE: Enceladus is a moon of Saturn, but it's a really interesting place for a couple reasons.
One is that it contains water.
The other cool thing about it is that it has eruptions.
And we know this because Cassini spacecraft took some images and when it took those images, it saw the vapor, the leftover parts of the eruption and they knew it was water.
NARRATOR: HOW CAN THIS ICY MOON HAVE GEYSERS? TO SEE HOW THEY'RE CREATED, WE HAVE TO TUNNEL THROUGH MILES OF ENCELADUS' THICK FROZEN CRUS UNTIL WE DROP INTO A POCKET OF LIQUID WATER.
THIS SUBTERRANIAN OCEAN IS THOUGHT TO BE THE RESULT OF TIDAL HEATING CREATED BY SATURN'S GRAVITY.
AS THE HEAT RISES, THE PRESSURIZED WATER SEEKS RELEASE.
IT FINDS CRACKS IN THE ICE AND BLASTS THROUGH THEM.
WHEN IT HITS THE SURFACE, THE WATER INSTANTLY FREEZES - COLD FAITHFUL IN SPACE.
AND THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF ALL? THESE PARTICLES MAY END UP AS ONE OF THE OUTER RINGS OF SATURN.
BUT THESE ERUPTIONS ARE WILDLY UNPREDICTABLE AND MYSTERIOUS TO MANY SCIENTISTS.
WHY? MIKE MASSIMINO AND STEVE JACOBS ARE ABOUT TO CREATE THEIR OWN ICE-SPLOSION TO FIND OUT.
MIKE: We're not going swimming in here, are we, Jake? STEVE: No, I'd throw all the water out if I jumped in.
MIKE: So what are we gonna do here today, Jake? Why are we interested in this? STEVE: Well, this is our representation of the moon around the planet Saturn, Enceladus.
MIKE: If this was Enceladus, we would have a surface that is frozen.
So, we don't have that here.
STEVE: Well, we're gonna use some wax.
MIKE: Liquid wax.
STEVE: I've got a pot cooking over there with some paraffin in it, some wax, and it's hot and it'll solidify when we float it on top of this.
MIKE: So that's gonna represent the ice of Enceladus? STEVE: Oh yeah Mike: We've got ice represented by the wax.
We've got water, which we have here.
The other thing that we're gonna need is a pressure source to drive this water through the surface.
What are we gonna do for that, Jake? STEVE: We're just gonna take an old soda bottle and put some dry ice in it, seal it up tight, and the heat, it's just regular temperature water right here but there's a lot of heat content in here.
There's enough heat to make that solid carbon dioxide vaporize almost instantly.
So there's gonna be a tremendous amount of pressure inside that bottle.
MIKE: That bottle is gonna explode? STEVE: It's gonna rupture.
I think it will.
NARRATOR: ONE OF THESE FROZEN CARBON DIOXIDE BOMBS HAS TO GO INSIDE THE TANK AND HOPEFULLY EXPLODE TO CREATE A GEYSER.
STEVE: That looks pretty sweet, doesn't it? MIKE: It does and it's solid.
Once we put the pressure source inside of here STEVE: That's right.
MIKE: We make the big boom.
STEVE: We should get an eruption.
MIKE: Let's light this candle! STEVE: Let's light the candle, man.
Let's go get a bottle and see if we can make an eruption.
NARRATOR: BUT SOMETIMES, THERE'S NOT ENOUGH PRESSURE INSIDE ONE OF THESE BOMBS.
AND IF THERE'S NOT, NO ERUPTION.
STEVE: It's giving off gas now.
MIKE: There it is.
STEVE: You got the cap.
MIKE: Okay, you ready? STEVE: I'm ready.
MIKE: Okay, she's away.
STEVE: Pressure's building.
MIKE: Something's gonna happen.
STEVE: Well, you'd think.
NARRATOR: JUS LIKE ON ENCELADUS, YOU'LL NEVER KNOW WHEN AN ERUPTION WILL STRIKE.
STEVE: Whoa! Eruption! NARRATOR: ABOUT A BILLION MILES FROM EARTH, THIS IS WHAT COULD BE HAPPENING ON ENCELADUS RIGHT NOW.
STEVE: Wow, we made a mess.
MIKE: Boy, after all that work of putting a surface together.
So that's how an eruption would take place on Enceladus? STEVE: More or less, that's exactly what happens.
It gives us an idea.
NARRATOR: BUT IF WE THOUGH ENCELADUS' ICY ERUPTIONS WERE UNPREDICTABLE, THERE'S A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TYPE OF UNSTABLE BURST OU THERE, AND THESE HUGE, POWERFUL ERUPTIONS OF ELECTRICITY CREATE MAGICAL LIGH SHOWS AND INSTANT DESTRUCTION.
WHEN PROBING THE UNIVERSE FOR ITS FIERCEST ERUPTIONS, WE CAN FIND POWERHOUSES GENERATING THEM ALL THE TIME - STARS.
OUR SUN IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE, WITH FLARES CONSTANTLY ERUPTING FROM ITS SURFACE, ESPECIALLY AT THE HEIGHT OF ITS POWER - SOLAR MAXIMUM.
ANDY: Solar flares are happening all the time, but they really pick up at solar maximum.
At solar maximum, you get more sunspots, you get more magnetic field activity, and you get a lot more flares.
NARRATOR: AND ANY STAR ERUPTION, WHETHER BIG OR SMALL, IS MADE UP PRIMARILY OF A DIFFERENT TYPE OF MATTER THAN WE'RE USED TO - PLASMA.
ANDY: Different forms of matter we're familiar with on Earth are liquids, solids, and gas.
Plasma is just ionized gas.
In normal gas, you get protons and some neutrons and then electrons orbiting them.
In a plasma, the electrons have escaped.
NARRATOR: IT SOUNDS UNUSUAL, YET IN THE UNIVERSE, IT'S ANYTHING BUT.
99% OF EVERYTHING WE SEE OUT THERE IS PLASMA.
BUT WHERE DO WE FIND IT ON EARTH? ANDY: On Earth, we have fluorescent lights or neon sign or in your plasma television, there's plasma.
NARRATOR: SO WE HAVE PLASMA ON OUR PLANET, BUT DO WE HAVE PLASMA ERUPTIONS? SIGRID: One that most people have seen is lightning.
Lightning is actually a discharge plasma that has a high current associated with it and a very high temperature.
NARRATOR: SHOCKINGLY ENOUGH, THESE POWERFUL PLASMA ERUPTIONS ARE ACTUALLY HOTTER THAN THE SURFACE OF OUR SUN - 5 TIMES HOTTER AND AROUND 50,000 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT.
DESPITE THEIR POWER, THEY CAN ACTUALLY BE RECREATED AND CONTROLLED, AS DEMONSTRATED BY THE GREAT SERBIAN MASTER OF LIGHTNING, NIKOLA TESLA.
HE CREATED A WAY TO HARNESS THEM IN A SPECTACULAR DEVICE CALLED A TESLA COIL.
HERE'S HOW THEY WORK.
COMMON HOUSEHOLD ELECTRICITY, USUALLY AROUND 120 VOLTS, IS DUMPED INTO A TRANSFORMER AND THEN A CAPACITOR, BOOSTING THIS ELECTRICAL FORCE UP TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS, OR EVEN MILLIONS, OF VOLTS.
THIS GETS THE CURREN ALTERNATING SO FAST, WHEN IT REACHES THE TOP OF THE COIL, IT ERUPTS INTO THE AIR IN STUNNING BLASTS OF ELECTRICITY.
SIGRID: Tesla coils are extremely dangerous, with extremely high currents.
You can actually get voltages that are well over a million volts.
NARRATOR: BUT THESE CRAZY GUYS THINK THAT PLAYING WITH SOMETHING THAT CREATES POWERFUL ELECTRICAL ERUPTIONS IS A GOOD IDEA.
MEET ARCATTACK, THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS ROCK BAND.
JOE: I can say for sure that this is the most dangerous musical instrument that's ever been created.
We're actually vibrating the atmosphere through the plasma eruption that the Tesla coil creates, so that the actual arc from the Tesla coil is creating sound waves.
NARRATOR: ONE OF THE WAYS THEY CONTROL THE ERUPTIONS IS WITH A TRULY ELECTRIC GUITAR.
TONY: This guitar is special because it sends a signal to the Tesla coil and the Tesla coil replicates the notes that I'm playing.
JOE: Our lightning guitarist actually stands between the Tesla coils and while he plays the guitar, he is struck by the lightning of the Tesla coils.
NARRATOR: HOW DOES HE DO THIS WITHOUT FRYING HIMSELF IN THE PROCESS? WITH HIS OWN PERSONAL SUIT OF ARMOR.
JOE: A Faraday suit is a chain male suit.
It's a lot like a knight's armor.
It's a shield that you wear around your body.
So in order to be electrocuted, you actually have to pass a current through your body and so when you're wearing the Faraday suit, it keeps your whole body at the same potential.
So if your head is at a million volts and if your feet are at a million volts, there's zero current being passed through your body, and so that prevents you from being electrocuted.
TONY: When the suit is working correctly, I don't feel a single thing and that's exactly how I like it.
JOE: We know that as time goes on, it's gonna become more widespread and someday, you know, it might actually be accepted as a legitimate musical instrument.
So that would be great if it's on par with, say, the banjo.
I'd be pretty happy with that.
NARRATOR: BUT MIGHTY PLASMA BLASTS OF LIGHTNING OR SOLAR FLARES AREN'T THAT IMPRESSIVE WHEN PUT NEXT TO THE MOTHER OF ALL ERUPTIONS.
AND THIS ONE DOESN' HAPPEN ON EARTH, ON A STAR, OR ANYWHERE YOU'D EVER WANT TO GO.
THE MOST MASSIVE ERUPTION WE KNOW OF HAPPENS AT A BLACK HOLE.
IN OUR INVESTIGATION OF ERUPTIONS, WE'VE SEEN THE BIGGES ONES EARTH HAS TO OFFER.
BUT SPACE HAS A TRUMP CARD - BLACK HOLES.
AND WHEN THEY ERUPT, NOTHING IS SAFE.
DAVID: Black hole eruptions occur where the black hole is, at the center of a galaxy.
If objects swirling around those black holes start to get torn apart, the speed, temperature, and energy and electromagnetic fields can be so strong that the black hole will eject that material in a huge burst.
NARRATOR: WHERE CAN THE BIGGEST BLACK HOLE ERUPTION IN THE UNIVERSE BE FOUND? IN A GALAXY CLUSTER OVER 2 BILLION LIGHT YEARS AWAY.
HERE, THE MATTER FROM THE GALAXY SURROUNDING A BLACK HOLE IS CAUGHT IN ITS MASSIVE GRAVITATIONAL PULL, SLOWLY FOLLEN TOWARDS ITS CENTER.
WHEN IT GETS TO THE EDGE OF OBLIVION, THE MATTER COMPRESSES INTO AN INTENSELY HOT SUPER FAS WHIRLPOOL, CALLED AN ACCRETION DISC.
THE INCREDIBLE ENERGY AND INTENSE MAGNETIC FIELDS CREATE JETS OF MATTER THAT STRETCH HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF LIGHTYEARS LONG, CREATING AN ERUPTION THAT HAS LASTED FOR 100 MILLION YEARS AND STILL CONTINUES TODAY.
BUT HOW CAN AN ERUPTION ESCAPE SOMETHING WITH THE GRAVITATIONAL POWER OF A BLACK HOLE? THEORECTICAL PHYSICIST DAVID KAPLAN AND STEVE JACOBS ARE ABOUT TO CREATE THEIR OWN.
DAVID: Black hole eruptions I mean, already from the name, you can tell - black hole eruption.
It's something you want to stay away from.
It is the most powerful explosion in the universe and they're very rare.
Jake claims that he has a black hole eruption simulator.
NARRATOR: WE CAN REPLICATE A BLACK HOLE ON EARTH BU WE THE INTENSE SUCTION OF FOUR STRONG AIR-POWERED VACUUMS WE CAN TRY TO CAPTURE OUR OWN FIERY ERUPTION STEVE: What we're gonna do is, since we can't see aircan't see the atmosphere, we're gonna put a charge of propane and set it on fire.
So we should get some nice glowing red carbon atoms, and we can see those thing glowing, right? DAVID: Yeah.
STEVE: Right, and they should be sucked down, unless there's enough turbulence that some of them will be ejected up.
DAVID: So basically, everything that gets sucked into those tubes is what's getting sucked into the black hole? STEVE: Absolutely.
DAVID: And the turbulence will knock everything else out, and so whatever gets spit out here, that's basically the eruption? STEVE: That's the eruption.
DAVID: I want to see a homemade black hole.
That's what I want to see.
Can I pull the trigger? STEVE: You want to do it? DAVID: Yeah.
STEVE: I've got the switch over here.
NARRATOR: THE INVISIBLE PROPANE GAS IS NOW SWIRLING AROUND INSIDE THE DISH.
THE SUCTION IS DRAWING IT DOWN, BUT WHEN DAVID RELEASES THE EXPLOSION, THE BLAST WILL CARRY IT AWAY FROM THE SUCTION'S PULL, REPRESENTING WHAT HAPPENS IN A BLACK HOLE ERUPTION.
STEVE: Are you ready? DAVID: Ready.
STEVE: Okay, I'm gonna arm it.
It's armed, it's active.
DAVID: 3, 2, 1! That was very cool.
So what we saw was this propane gas, it was lit on fire, and made this huge explosion and a lot of it got sucked in, but the rest of it went flying out.
That's the closest I ever want to get to a black hole eruption.
It was worth it, but that's enough for me.
When you think of an eruption, you think of something destructive, like a volcano blast that destroys a nearby city.
But of course, those eruptionsthe volcanoes are also recreating the mountain itself.
Out in the galaxy, you can imagine roughly the same thing.
There are stars which are exploding and spraying material in all directions.
Those explosions are both destroying things, but also are creating new versions of the universe.
ANDY Humans generally like to live in safe places, where there's not a lot of violence going on, there's not a lot of eruptions, but we need eruptions to have life.
We don't like it when it happens to us, but we like it to have happened in the universe.