WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.458 --> 00:00:03.545 Hi, I'm Dr. Erin, astrophysicist 2 00:00:03.545 --> 00:00:06.339 and science advisor for the Star Trek franchise. 3 00:00:06.339 --> 00:00:08.800 And this is The Science of Star Trek. 4 00:00:12.554 --> 00:00:14.264 Picking up communication, sir. 5 00:00:14.264 --> 00:00:15.598 I have a fix on it, Captain. 6 00:00:19.185 --> 00:00:20.395 I believe I can lock on it. 7 00:00:20.395 --> 00:00:22.772 We send signals all the time here on Earth 8 00:00:22.772 --> 00:00:24.774 to communicate with one another. 9 00:00:24.774 --> 00:00:27.444 A long time ago, it used to be that you'd need to have 10 00:00:27.444 --> 00:00:30.822 a wire connecting people who wanted to talk to each other. 11 00:00:30.822 --> 00:00:33.533 Now, though, we have devices like smartphones, 12 00:00:33.533 --> 00:00:35.952 which allow us to talk or message other people 13 00:00:35.952 --> 00:00:38.329 without any wires whatsoever, 14 00:00:38.329 --> 00:00:40.749 which is helpful for when starships 15 00:00:40.749 --> 00:00:43.710 like the U.S.S. Protostar are communicating with each other. 16 00:00:43.710 --> 00:00:45.128 [Dal] We're just now approaching 17 00:00:45.128 --> 00:00:48.214 the closest Federation comm relay station. 18 00:00:48.214 --> 00:00:50.925 Could you imagine a bunch of starships all connected 19 00:00:50.925 --> 00:00:53.386 by wires throughout the galaxy? 20 00:00:53.386 --> 00:00:55.513 When we send a message from our phone, 21 00:00:55.513 --> 00:00:59.225 it travels at the speed of light in a really low energy part 22 00:00:59.225 --> 00:01:02.562 of electromagnetic radiation called radio. 23 00:01:02.562 --> 00:01:04.355 The electromagnetic spectrum is made up 24 00:01:04.355 --> 00:01:05.982 of different regions. 25 00:01:05.982 --> 00:01:09.277 Radio; microwave, which heats up our food; 26 00:01:09.277 --> 00:01:11.654 infrared, which is like heat; 27 00:01:11.654 --> 00:01:13.239 visible, which is what we see 28 00:01:13.239 --> 00:01:15.366 in all the colors in a rainbow; 29 00:01:15.366 --> 00:01:18.161 ultraviolet, which gives us sunburns; 30 00:01:18.161 --> 00:01:20.705 X-ray; and gamma rays. 31 00:01:20.705 --> 00:01:23.041 As signals in the electromagnetic spectrum carry 32 00:01:23.041 --> 00:01:24.084 more and more energy, 33 00:01:24.084 --> 00:01:26.461 they move into these different regions. 34 00:01:26.461 --> 00:01:28.922 Now, signals in the electromagnetic spectrum, 35 00:01:28.922 --> 00:01:32.092 like radio signals, don't have any weight. 36 00:01:32.092 --> 00:01:33.551 So, they travel through our universe 37 00:01:33.551 --> 00:01:35.678 in a straight line at one speed, 38 00:01:35.678 --> 00:01:38.223 which we call the speed of light. 39 00:01:38.223 --> 00:01:41.351 The speed of light is so fast that, in one second, 40 00:01:41.351 --> 00:01:45.063 light could travel around the Earth over seven times. 41 00:01:45.063 --> 00:01:46.898 Try to picture it. 42 00:01:46.898 --> 00:01:49.901 One Mississippi. Seven times! 43 00:01:49.901 --> 00:01:51.986 Could someone explain that to me? 44 00:01:51.986 --> 00:01:53.154 This means if we were able 45 00:01:53.154 --> 00:01:54.948 to travel at the speed of light, 46 00:01:54.948 --> 00:01:58.076 we would be able to get anywhere really fast, right? 47 00:01:58.076 --> 00:02:00.995 Unfortunately, space is also very big. 48 00:02:00.995 --> 00:02:02.872 So big, in fact, that light 49 00:02:02.872 --> 00:02:05.375 from the next closest star to us takes 50 00:02:05.375 --> 00:02:08.294 more than four years to reach us. 51 00:02:08.294 --> 00:02:10.880 If we wanted to talk to someone on a planet, 52 00:02:10.880 --> 00:02:14.467 or starship near that star, Proxima Centauri, 53 00:02:14.467 --> 00:02:16.344 it would take more than four years 54 00:02:16.344 --> 00:02:18.388 for our text message to reach them. 55 00:02:20.640 --> 00:02:22.725 [Chakotay] Day 72 since the Vau N'Akat 56 00:02:22.725 --> 00:02:23.935 captured the Protostar. 57 00:02:23.935 --> 00:02:25.145 They're planning to launch it back 58 00:02:25.145 --> 00:02:27.021 through the wormhole with a weapon aboard. 59 00:02:27.021 --> 00:02:31.067 Half my crew's gone, but I'm trying to hang on. 60 00:02:31.067 --> 00:02:34.195 How? How is that possible? 61 00:02:34.195 --> 00:02:36.906 You can think of our space as a sort of fabric, 62 00:02:36.906 --> 00:02:38.533 and all the stars and planets 63 00:02:38.533 --> 00:02:41.035 and you and me are like bowling balls, 64 00:02:41.035 --> 00:02:44.581 marbles, or grains of rice on this fabric. 65 00:02:44.581 --> 00:02:46.541 With space being so big 66 00:02:46.541 --> 00:02:50.086 and communication between stars taking so long, 67 00:02:50.086 --> 00:02:52.797 what if there were ways we could make a shortcut? 68 00:02:52.797 --> 00:02:55.508 Well, theoretically, there might be. 69 00:02:55.508 --> 00:02:57.802 Imagine taking the sheet of our universe, 70 00:02:57.802 --> 00:03:00.680 folding it, and then stapling it together. 71 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:02.515 That staple is now a shortcut 72 00:03:02.515 --> 00:03:04.767 between one part of space to another, 73 00:03:04.767 --> 00:03:08.646 and light, a message like the one Chakotay sends to Janeway, 74 00:03:08.646 --> 00:03:10.273 or even between you and me, 75 00:03:10.273 --> 00:03:13.902 could just hop through instead of taking the long way. 76 00:03:13.902 --> 00:03:16.154 This is what we call a "wormhole". 77 00:03:16.154 --> 00:03:19.365 And while we haven't detected, or made any yet, 78 00:03:19.365 --> 00:03:21.868 it's a cool theoretical way to shorten 79 00:03:21.868 --> 00:03:24.037 these huge distances in space. 80 00:03:24.037 --> 00:03:24.996 Oh. 81 00:03:24.996 --> 00:03:27.749 Well, it looks like I won't be the only one 82 00:03:27.749 --> 00:03:30.585 who needs time to process all this information. 83 00:03:30.585 --> 00:03:34.088 I'm Dr. Erin Macdonald, bringing you all the science facts 84 00:03:34.088 --> 00:03:36.591 behind the science fiction in Star Trek.