Cool Worlds

Many of us dream of a future for humanity in space, a civilization spanning multiple worlds and perhaps one day even star systems. But even with reusable rockets, the expense of lifting huge structures into orbit truncates our vision. Space elevators have long held promise as a possible solution, but the need for incredibly strong materials has made them a distant prospect. Today, Cool Worlds graduate student (soon to be postdoc!) Emily Sandford describes an alternative but related concept - the lunar space elevator. With no obvious technological hurdles preventing it's construction, this could be realized in our lifetimes - either for good, or for bad... Written and Presented by Emily Sandford. All space elevator images/videos shown are artistic impressions and not real photographs. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support References: ► Penoyre, Zephyr and Sandford, Emily (2020), "The Spaceline: a practical space elevator alternative achievable with current technology", Acta Astronautica, submitted: https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.09339 ► Pearson, J. (1979), "Anchored lunar satellites for cislunar transportation and communication", Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, 27, 39: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1979JAnSc..27...39P/abstract ► Eubanks, T. M. and Radley, C. F. (2016), "Scientific return of a lunar elevator", Space Policy, 37, 97: https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.00709 Video materials and graphics used: ► ESA animation of identified space debris by the US Space Surveillance Catalogue: https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris/Recognising_sustainable_behaviour ► SRM Robotics video of robot climbing rope: https://youtu.be/JxBWXOBbXFg ► Kerbal Space Program videos by maccollo (https://youtu.be/mrjpELy1xzc) and SWDennis (https://youtu.be/Ko9V8-3iwWM) ► Astronaut space walk courtesy of NASA TV ► Gravity well animation by Rob Fitzel: https://youtu.be/0iY-KrH

What does the future hold for humanity and our changing climate in the 21st century? Using projections from the IPCC Fifth Report and the climate science literature, we've put together a timelapse showing what may lie ahead. On the left hand side of the screen you'll see an "optimistic" view, where although we continue to emit carbon dioxide at significant levels, investments in clean energy and mitigation try to curb the damage. On the right hand side, you'll see a future where humanity emits as much as we please and very little mitigation takes place. The data presented in this video are a projection of the 21st century. We used two of the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP), presented in the IPCC Fifth Report, as plausible scenarios - although these are not strictly forecasts. Seasonal variations were added using a stochastic generator conditioned upon observed seasonal variability reported by NASA GISS. Similarly, seasonal variability in carbon dioxide levels were simulated based on historical seasonal variations about a moving average predicted using the RCP models. Special thanks to Gavin Schmidt for advice during the course of this video production. And sorry for the typo at the very end! *It’s!!! Resources: ► Big thanks to the huge team who helped put together the IPCC Fifth Report from which much of the projections in this video come from: http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/index.shtml ► Temperature spirals were inspired by Ed Hawkins: https://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/spirals/ ► NASA GISS global mean temperature record used to generate seasonal variations: https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs_v4/ ► Visualizations of the Earth under RCP 8.5 and RCP 4.5 by Alex Kekesi, NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio and NASA Center for Climate Simulation: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4110 ► Carbon dioxide historical data comes from Mauna Loa: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/data.html ► Represenative Concentration Pathays (RCP) Emission

30 years ago, on 14th February 1990, Voyager 1 captured an iconic image of the Earth - known as the "Pale Blue Dot". This photo was taken from a staggering 6 billion kilometers away - at the edge of the outer Solar System. Taken at the request of legendary astronomer Professor Carl Sagan, Sagan waxed poetically about the image a speech often referred to as the "Pale Blue Dot". To celebrate the 30th anniversary of this truly unique image, NASA and JPL-Caltech reprocessed the original image using modern processing techniques. In honor of the Voyager 1 team and the late Carl Sagan, we put together this short tribute video celebrating the Pale Blue Dot, with a reading of Sagan's wonderful prose by Professor David Kipping. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support There's a quite a few readings of this iconic passage out there, so hopefully this small contribution gives it a different twist! We found the following readings online, each one brings something different. ► Neil deGrasse Tyson: https://youtu.be/hZ7nXOkgTWo ► Brian Cox: https://youtu.be/XJjex_ETa8E ► Robert Picardo: https://youtu.be/EGbomrtSIYI ► Elon Musk: https://youtu.be/lVsZD2wF1vw ► And of course Carl Sagan: https://youtu.be/k-UyQfPhqwo ► You can download a high resolution version of this gorgeous reprocessed image over at NASA right now: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7593 (direct link to the best quality version is https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/tiff/PIA23645.tif). ► Background music by Joachim Heinrich, "Horizon". Distributed under Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed). Support this artist here: https://joachimheinrich.bandcamp.com/track/horizon ► More information about the Voyager spacecraft: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov ► Image credit to NASA and JPL-Caltech, taken by the Imaging Science Subsystem - Narrow Angle, onboard Voyager 1 on February 14th 1990. ► Original v

At the beginning of 2020, the world held its collective breath as a nearby behemoth star, called Betelgeuse, start to dramatically fade. Could this mean the star is about to go supernova? With the recent flutter of news activity settling down, we are now finally starting to understand what might have really happened. Today, we take a deep dive into what makes massive stars like this tick, and then get into how we might have now finally come up with answers to this bizarre event. An educational video written and presented by Prof. David Kipping. You can now support our research and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Chapters 0:00 Teaser 0:53 Massive Stars 7:07 Dying Massive Stars 12:47 Dimming 2020 17:36 Explaining the Dimming References ► Fuller, J. & Ro, S., 2018, "Pre-supernova outbursts via wave heating in massive stars - II. Hydrogen-poor stars", MNRAS 476, 1853: https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.04251 ► Dimming plots come from @betelbot (https://twitter.com/betelbot) Twitter account run by Michael Hippke, which collates AAVSO data. ► Gerhz, R. et al., 2020, "Betelgeuse remains steadfast in the infrared", Astronomer's Telegram #13518: http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=13518 ► Sukhbold, T. & Adams, A., 2019, "Missing Red Supergiants and Carbon Burning", MNRAS 492, 2578: https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.00474 ► Dolan, M. et al. 2020, "Evolutionary tracks for Betelgeuse", ApJ 819, 7: https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.3143 ► Adams, S. et al., 2017, "The search for failed supernovae with the Large Binocular Telescope: confirmation of a disappearing star", MNRAS 468, 4968: https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.01283 ► Levesque, E. & Massey, P., 2020, "Betelgeuse Just Isn't That Cool: Effective Temperature Alone Cannot Explain the Recent Dimming of Betelgeuse", arXiv preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.10463 Videos used: ► Simulation of forming protostars by Matthew Bate, The UK Astrophysics Fluid Facility, University

I think we all need a break from the coronavirus news barrage! So to take our minds off things, I (Prof David Kipping) will host a little live stream Q&A Hangouts session on Sunday night. Happy to field any questions you have about our previous videos, research happening in my team, or just general astro/planet questions (as best I can!). Join us live and feel free to get your questions in early down in the comments.

Have you ever wondered if there’s a Galactic Empire out there? How long would it take a space faring civilization to colonize the entire galaxy? Remarkably even traveling at sub-light speeds this should be possible within a fraction of our galaxy’s lifetime. Which raises the question - why hasn’t this happened yet? Today we dive into the repercussions of “Fact A” - the simple observation that Earth has not been colonized by an alien civilization. I sit down with Prof. Jason Wright who has recently co-authored a new paper that provides the most sophisticated treatment to date of this problem, and what it means for our place in the Universe. Interview with Prof. Jason Wright. Presented & Written by Prof. David Kipping. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support References: ► Carroll-Nellenback, J., Frank, A., Wright, J. & Scharf, C., 2019, "The Fermi Paradox and the Aurora Effect: Exo-civilization Settlement, Expansion, and Steady States", ApJ, 158, 117: https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.04450 ► Hart, M., 1975, "Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth", Quart. J. RAS, 16, 128: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1975QJRAS..16..128H/abstract Video materials and graphics used: ► Opening Galaxy shot by Bridge Head Productions: https://tinyurl.com/uk774j7 ► Abiogenesis animation by TheOriginOfLife https://youtu.be/j_flx26bU0Q ► Exoplanet animations ESO/M. Kornmesser: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/barnard-surface2b-v2-cc1/ & https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso0915e/ ► Galaxy zoom by Emilio Music Productions: https://youtu.be/AjRy6M1LJW8 ► Microbiology footage from Nokia Small World in Motion Competitions: https://youtu.be/lQLsyf64xak, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLftNakbifg, https://youtu.be/ZquzlvEEZq8, https://youtu.be/jOur9xoK4bE ► Sunset video by kagnet: https://youtu.be/JoyUUokcX5g ► Cave painting from Cave Art 101, National Geographic: https://y

Why haven't we found dozens of exomoons yet? With planets as small as the Moon having been detected by NASA's Kepler Mission, it's fair to wonder why we only know of a single exomoon candidate to date. Despite the lack of moon detections, there are actually hundreds of known planets that wobble around, a tell-tale sign that a moon could be present. Unfortunately, these wobbles can also be caused by other planets and so in a new research appear Prof Kipping and Alex Teachey have re-visited the theory behind exomoons and come up with a new trick to help us discern between the two - impossible moons. Presented & Written by Prof David Kipping. This video is based on research conducted at the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University, New York. You can now support our research program directly here: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support References: ► Kipping, D. & Teachey, A., 2020, "Impossible moons - Transit timing effects that cannot be due to an exomoon", MNRAS: https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.04230 ► Kipping, D., et al., 2015, "The Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler (HEK): V. A Survey of 41 Planetary Candidates for Exomoons", ApJ 813, 14 https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05555 ► Kipping, D., et al. 2009, "On the detectability of habitable exomoons with Kepler-class photometry", MNRAS 400, 398: https://arxiv.org/abs/0907.3909 ► Kipping, D., 2009a, "Transit timing effects due to an exomoon", MNRAS 392, 181: https://arxiv.org/abs/0810.2243 ► Kipping, D., 2009b, "Transit timing effects due to an exomoon II", MNRAS 396, 1797: https://arxiv.org/abs/0904.2565 Video materials & graphics used: ► Exoplanet animation by ESO/L.Calçada/M.Kornmesser: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1621a/ ► Exoplanet animation by ESO/P. Delorme/Nick Risinger/R. Saito/VVV Consortium: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1245a/ ► Exoplanet animation by ESO/M. Kornmesser: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1615b/ ► Perijove by NASA/Seán Doran: https://youtu.be/3kQbTBt418o ► Jupiter zoom ou

The Pentagon have declassified three videos showing apparent UFOs. The internet is ablaze and those of us looking for evidence of life elsewhere in the Universe are naturally curious about what these videos truly show. I hopped onto a call with Mick West to breakdown these videos. ::More about this Video:: ►Check out Mick's YouTube channel over at: https://www.youtube.com/user/mickword/ ► Intro music is Cylinder Seven (http://chriszabriskie.com/cylinders/) by Chris Zabriskie (http://chriszabriskie.com/); licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license ::Playlists For Channel:: Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorlds Cool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearch Guest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuests Q&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQA Science of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies ::Follow us:: SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribe Cool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.edu Twitter https://twitter.com/david_kipping Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worlds THANKS FOR WATCHING!! 0:00 Prologue 0:57 Introduction 5:27 "FLIR" 8:01 "Gimbel" 11:52 "GoFast" 15:29 Pilot Accounts 18:43 The Pentagon's Decision 20:26 Would Aliens Visit? 22:19 The Lure of Aliens #UFOs #NavyUFOs #PentagonUFOs

What would we see if we could journey through time, from Earth’s birth up to its death? Join us today on a voyage through time, from planetary creation to the blossoming of life, from the first civilizations to the planet’s ultimate demise. An educational video written & presented by Prof David Kipping ::Support Us:: ► New! You can now support us at https://www.coolworldslab.com/support ► For those looking to grab the audio and support the channel, head to: https://mysoundwise.com/soundcasts/1588351452669s ::Notes:: ► Fun fact! We used clips from 21 different films to make this video, trying watching through a second time and playing a quiz to see if you can get them all (answers below!). ► Disclaimer: Of course this is not exhaustive, many details/events are omitted in the interest of time. Predictions are based on current best estimates from the scientific literature and thus may be subject to change as our projections improve. ::Music:: All music used is licensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) or via Creative Commons (CC) Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ► My Unbelief by Hill licensed via SS: https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/8128 ► Ticking by Alternate Endings licensed via SS: https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/7404 ► Painted Deserts by Shimmer licensed via SS: https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/9913 ► Always Dreaming by Caleb Etheridge via SS: https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/5534 ► Arrival by Joachim Heinrich licensed under a CC Attribution license: https://joachimheinrich.bandcamp.com/track/arrival ► Horizon by Joachim Heinrich licensed under a CC Attribution license: https://joachimheinrich.bandcamp.com/track/horizon ► Reverence by Triad licensed via SS: https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/754 ► Waking Up by Atlas licensed via SS: https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/3984 ► Mountain by Stephen Keech via SS: https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/6704 ► Cylinder Seven by Chris Zabriskie licensed under a CC Attributio

If we re-ran Earth's clock, would life arise again? Would another civilization eventually evolve? Astrobiology is faced with trying to contextualize our place in the Universe using just a single data point. But even a single data point contains information. The key to unlocking it is a careful understanding of the selection biases at play and intricacies of Bayesian statistics. Today, we're thrilled to present to you our explainer video of a new research paper led by Prof David Kipping that provides a direct quantification of the odds of life and intelligence on Earth-like worlds, based on our own chronology. Presented & Written by Prof. David Kipping. This video is based on research conducted at the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University, New York. You can now support our research program directly here: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Previous episodes to catch up on: ► "Watching the End of the World": https://youtu.be/p9e8qNNe3L0 ► "Why We Could Be Alone": https://youtu.be/PqEmYU8Y_rI References: ► Kipping, D. 2020, "An Objective Bayesian Analysis of Life’s Early Start and Our Late Arrival", PNAS: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/05/12/1921655117 ► Spiegel, D. & Turner, E., 2011, "Bayesian analysis of the astrobiological implications of life's early emergence on Earth", PNAS 109, 395 https://arxiv.org/abs/1107.3835 ► Carter, B. 2007, "Five or six step scenario for evolution?", Int. J. Astrobiology 7, 177 : https://arxiv.org/abs/0711.1985 ► O'Malley-James, J. et al. 2013, "Swansong biospheres: refuges for life and novel microbial biospheres on terrestrial planets near the end of their habitable lifetimes" Int. J. Astrobiology 12, 99: https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.5721 ► Bell, E. et al., 2015, "Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon", PNAS 112, 14518: https://www.pnas.org/content/112/47/14518 ► Smith, H. & Szathmáry, E. 1995, "The Major Transitions in Evolution", Oxford, England: Oxford University Press ►

::Resources:: ► #ShutDownAcademia #ShutDownSTEM #Stike4BlackLives homepage: https://www.shutdownstem.com ► This Google Drive folder contains resources and reading on systemic racism: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10-sqmyDKIN1FK_RKOd7Anzm4E0jlnUnz ► Resources to learn about systemic and structural racism specifically here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17ctVFeXJwJwtOa7ogZ0oEiVhpH7zQQwoRdIJ6XvEM_Y/edit ► Additional resources: https://biglink.to/blmresources ► 8 ways the police can reduce deaths: https://8cantwait.org ► Petitions you can sign in support of Black Lives: https://biglink.to/blmpetitions ► Ways you can donate to support #BlackLivesMatter: https://biglink.to/blmdonations #ShutDownAcademia #Stike4BlackLives #BlackLivesMatter

The Copernican Principle has been with us for centuries. It broadly states that "we are typical" but increasingly we are beginning to question this doctrine. One famous push back is the Rare Earth hypothesis, but testing this idea will take generations. What about our Sun? Surely here we should have a better understanding as to whether our star is typical or not. Join us as we discuss why the Sun might be more special than Copernicus ever imagined. Written and presented by Prof Kipping This video is based on research conducted at the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University, New York. You can now support our research program directly here: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support *Correction, Copernicus was Polish! Thank-you to Kevin Clark, Denny Smith, Stephanie Hackley, Kolos Kantor for their support and especially to Executive Producers Tom Widdowson, Laura Sanborn & Mark Sloan. References ► Ward & Brownlee, 2010, Rare Earth, Copernicus (Göttingen) ► Gilliland et al., 2010, Kepler Mission Stellar and Instument Noise Properties, ApJS, 197, 6: https://arxiv.org/abs/1107.5207 ► Maehara et al., 2012, Superflares on solar-type stars, Nature, 485, 478: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11063 ► Tu et al., 2020, Superflares on solar-type stars from the first year observation of TESS, ApJ, 890, 46: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.11572 ► Reinhold et al., 2020, The Sun is less active than other solar-like stars, Science, 368, 518: https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.01401 ► Eric Mamajek spectral classifications: http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~emamajek/EEM_dwarf_UBVIJHK_colors_Teff.txt ► Kroupa, 2002, The Initial Mass Function of Stars: Evidence for Uniformity in Variable Systems, Science, 295, 82: https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0201098 Video materials ► Earth video credit to NASA/ESA/M.Kornmesser: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/earth_2015_4k/ ► Galaxies fly through Sloan SDSS/BOSS/Berkeley Lab: https://youtu.be/08LBltePDZw ► Flying into a galaxy by أحمد الح

There's a plausible chance that we may be alone in the galaxy right now. But the odds that the galaxy has never, and will never, host other civilizations is far less likely. Today we explore the possibility of communicating through time, and how such a feat might be accomplished. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Thank-you to Kevin Clark, Tom Widdowson, Denny Smith, Stephanie Hackley, Kolos Kantor, Patrick Herman, Abel Aganbegyan, Claudio Bottaccini, Daniel Brunk, Scott Fincher & James Kindred for their support and especially to Executive Producers Mark Sloan, Laura Sanborn & Douglas Daughaday. References: ► Freitas & Valdes (1999), "The Search for Extraterrestrial Artifacts (SETA)", JBIS, 36, 501: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1983JBIS...36..501F/abstract ► Luc Arnold (2005), "Transit Lightcurve Signatures of Artificial Objects", ApJ, 627, 534: https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0503580 ► Jeanna Bryner (2010), "Odds of Life on Newfound Earth-Size Planet '100 Percent,' Astronomer Says", Space.com: https://www.space.com/9225-odds-life-newfound-earth-size-planet-100-percent-astronomer.html ► David Kipping (2020), "An Objective Bayesian Analysis of Life's Early Start and Our Late Arrival", PNAS, 117, 11995: https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.09008 ► Denis Chow (2011), "On the Moon, Flags & Footprints of Apollo Astronauts Won't Last Forever", space.com: https://www.space.com/12846-apollo-moon-landing-sites-flags-footprints.html ::Video clips used:: ► Intro clip are images from NASA's EPIC DSCOVR mission, interpolated by BlueTurn: https://youtu.be/Mm8L6Hm6c-g ► Stars time lapse by Ben Vegel: https://youtu.be/Wl2sDEpjqQI ► Radio teleascope timelapse by Alex Cherney and CSIRO: https://youtu.be/1hawK5JwVfY ► NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC-Caltech) http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/video-audio/728?limit=20&page=1 ► Galaxy fly through animation by AA VFX: https://youtu.be/Sd

A team of astronomers recently announced six new exomoon candidates, capturing the headlines and sparking plenty of excitement. Exomoons have been broadly eluded astronomers for many years, so this is a big deal.... if true. Today, new work performing an independent analysis of these signals is presented in a Cool Worlds exclusive, detailing a new paper by Prof Kipping. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Thank-you to Tom Widdowson, Denny Smith, Stephanie Hackley, Mark Sloan, Laura Sanborn, Kolos Kantor, Patrick Herman, Abel Aganbegyan, Claudio Bottaccini, Daniel Brunk, Douglas Daughaday, Scott Fincher, James Kindred, Andrew Jones, Jason Allen, Steven Baldwin, Jason Black, Stuart Brownlee, Shivam Chaturvedi, David Denholm, Tim Dorais, Glen Downton, Eneko Xabier, Elizondo Urrestarazu, Gordon Fulton, Sean Griffiths, Peter Halloran, John Jurcevic, Niklas Kildal, Jack Kobernick, Wes Kobernick, Valeri Kremer, Marc Lijoi, Sheri Loftin, Branden Loizides, Anatoliy Maslyanchuk, Blair Matson, Ocean Mcintyre, Laini Mitchell, Jeffrey Needle, André Pelletier, Juan Rivillas, Bret Robinson, Zenith Star, Lauren Steely, Ernest Stefan-Matyus, Mark Steven, Elena West, Barrett York, Tristan Zajonc, Preetumsingh Gowd & Shaun Kelsey. References: ► Kipping (2020), "https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.03613", ApJL, accepted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.03613 ► Fox & Wiegert (2020), "Exomoon Candidates from Transit Timing Variations: Six Kepler systems with TTVs explainable by photometrically unseen exomoons", MNRAS, submitted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.12997 ► Bennett et al. (2020), "A Sub-Earth-Mass Moon Orbiting a Gas Giant Primary or a High Velocity Planetary System in the Galactic Bulge", ApJ, 785, 155: https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.3951 ► Désert et al. (2011), "The hot-Jupiter Kepler-17b: discovery, obliquity from stroboscopic starspots, and atmospheric characterization", ApJS, 197, 14: https:

Have you ever have a dream you were so sure was real? The simulation argument challenges our very notions of reality by asking whether everything we perceive is nothing more than an elaborate computer simulation. Recently, we've even seen headlines like "one in a billion" probability that we live in the real world. Could this be right? How does this affect how we think about our lives? And are there any counter-arguments to save us? New research from the Cool Worlds Lab resolves. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Thank-you to Kevin Clark, Tom Widdowson, Denny Smith, Stephanie Hackley, Mark Sloan, Laura Sanborn, Kolos Kantor, Patrick Herman, Abel Aganbegyan, Claudio Bottaccini, Daniel Brunk, Douglas Daughaday, Scott Fincher, James Kindred, Andrew Jones, Jason Allen, Steven Baldwin, Jason Black, Stuart Brownlee, Shivam Chaturvedi, David Denholm, Tim Dorais, Glen Downton, Eneko Urrestarazu, Gordon Fulton, Sean Griffiths, Peter Halloran, John Jurcevic, Niklas Kildal, Jack Kobernick, Wes Kobernick, Valeri Kremer, Marc Lijoi, Sheri Loftin, Branden Loizides, Anatoliy Maslyanchuk, Blair Matson, Ocean Mcintyre, Laini Mitchell, Jeffrey Needle, André Pelletier, Juan Rivillas, Bret Robinson, Zenith Star, Lauren Steely, Ernest Stefan-Matyus, Mark Steven, Elena West, Barrett York, Tristan Zajonc, Preetumsingh Gowd, Shaun Kelsey, Chuck Wolfred, David Vennel, Emre Dessoi, Fahid Naeem, Francisco Rebolledo, Hauke Laging, James Falls, Jon Adams, Michael Gremillion, Pierce Rutherford, Trev Kline, Tristan Leger, Lasse Skov & Takashi Hanai. ::Our new paper upon which this video is based:: ► Kipping, David (2020), "A Bayesian Approach to the SImulation Argument", Universe, 6, 109: https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/universe6080109 ::Other references used:: ► Bostrom, Nick (2003), "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?", Philosophical Quarterly, 53, 243: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9213.0

The announcement of the detection of a possible biomarker in the atmosphere of Venus has shook up the field of astrobiology and grabbed headlines across the world. Today, we explore why Venus could plausibly host life, how this detection was made, and whether it really means that we've finally found extraterrestrial life. Written and presented by Prof Kipping, featuring guest Dr Caleb Scharf. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Thank-you to Kevin Clark, Tom Widdowson, Denny Smith, Stephanie Hackley, Mark Sloan, Laura Sanborn, Kolos Kantor, Patrick Herman, Abel Aganbegyan, Claudio Bottaccini, Daniel Brunk, Douglas Daughaday, Scott Fincher, James Kindred, Andrew Jones, Jason Allen, Steven Baldwin, Jason Black, Stuart Brownlee, Shivam Chaturvedi, David Denholm, Tim Dorais, Glen Downton, Eneko Urrestarazu, Gordon Fulton, Sean Griffiths, Peter Halloran, John Jurcevic, Niklas Kildal, Jack Kobernick, Wes Kobernick, Valeri Kremer, Marc Lijoi, Sheri Loftin, Branden Loizides, Anatoliy Maslyanchuk, Blair Matson, Ocean Mcintyre, Laini Mitchell, Jeffrey Needle, André Pelletier, Juan Rivillas, Bret Robinson, Zenith Star, Lauren Steely, Ernest Stefan-Matyus, Mark Steven, Elena West, Barrett York, Tristan Zajonc, Preetumsingh Gowd, Shaun Kelsey, Chuck Wolfred, David Vennel, Emre Dessoi, Fahid Naeem, Francisco Rebolledo, Hauke Laging, James Falls, Jon Adams, Michael Gremillion, Pierce Rutherford, Trev Kline, Tristan Leger, Lasse Skov & Takashi Hanai. ::Paper announcing the detection:: ► Greaves, J. et al. (2020), "Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus", Nature Astronomy: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1174-4 ::Other references used:: ► Sousa-Silva. C. et al. (2019), "Phosphine as a Biosignature Gas in Exoplanet Atmosphere", Astrobiology, 20, 235: https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.05224 ► Way, M. et al. (2016), "Was Venus the First Habitable World of our Solar System?", Geophy

The Universe is ancient, far older than our own Solar System. What were the first stars that formed like? How different to the Sun could they have been? Today we explore 3 fascinating astrophysical stars in the early Universe. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Thank-you to Kevin Clark, Tom Widdowson, Denny Smith, Stephanie Hackley, Mark Sloan, Laura Sanborn, Kolos Kantor, Patrick Herman, Abel Aganbegyan, Claudio Bottaccini, Daniel Brunk, Douglas Daughaday, Scott Fincher, James Kindred, Andrew Jones, Jason Allen, Steven Baldwin, Jason Black, Stuart Brownlee, Shivam Chaturvedi, David Denholm, Tim Dorais, Glen Downton, Eneko Xabier, Elizondo Urrestarazu, Gordon Fulton, Sean Griffiths, Peter Halloran, John Jurcevic, Niklas Kildal, Jack Kobernick, Wes Kobernick, Valeri Kremer, Marc Lijoi, Sheri Loftin, Branden Loizides, Anatoliy Maslyanchuk, Blair Matson, Ocean Mcintyre, Laini Mitchell, Jeffrey Needle, André Pelletier, Juan Rivillas, Bret Robinson, Zenith Star, Lauren Steely, Ernest Stefan-Matyus, Mark Steven, Elena West, Barrett York, Tristan Zajonc, Preetumsingh Gowd, Shaun Kelsey, Chuck Wolfred, David Vennel, Emre Dessoi, Fahid Naeem, Francisco Rebolledo, Hauke Laging, James Falls, Jon Adams, Michael Gremillion, Pierce Rutherford, Trev Kline, Tristan Leger, Lasse Skov, Takashi Hanai, Drew Roberts, Erynn Wilson, Ian Baskerville, Jacob Bassnett, John Shackleford, Marcus Undin, Martin Kroebel, Ian Johnstone, Geoff Suter, Ian Hopcraft, James Valdes, Phil Akrill-Misso, William Robertson & Elizabeth Orman ::References used:: ► Freese, K. et al., 2015, "Dark Stars: A Review", Reports on Progress in Physics, 79, 066902 : https://arxiv.org/abs/1501.02394 ::Movies/TV scenes used:: ► Ali (2001) Sony Pictures Releasing ► Snatch (2000) Sony Pictures Releasing ► The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) New Line Cinema ::Other video footage used:: ► ESO/Ex

Are alien civilizations likely to be younger or older than us in age? A basic question that seems insurmountable until we start detecting them. But even before that, we can use some logical deduction using lifetime distribution statistics to determine the most plausible answer to this question. Join us today for an explanation of our new research paper on this topic. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Get Stash here! https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-store Thank-you to Kevin Clark, Tom Widdowson, Denny Smith, Stephanie Hackley, Mark Sloan, Laura Sanborn, Kolos Kantor, Patrick Herman, Abel Aganbegyan, Claudio Bottaccini, Daniel Brunk, Douglas Daughaday, Scott Fincher, James Kindred, Andrew Jones, Jason Allen, Steven Baldwin, Jason Black, Stuart Brownlee, Shivam Chaturvedi, David Denholm, Tim Dorais, Glen Downton, Eneko Xabier, Elizondo Urrestarazu, Gordon Fulton, Sean Griffiths, Peter Halloran, John Jurcevic, Niklas Kildal, Jack Kobernick, Wes Kobernick, Valeri Kremer, Marc Lijoi, Sheri Loftin, Branden Loizides, Anatoliy Maslyanchuk, Blair Matson, Ocean Mcintyre, Laini Mitchell, Jeffrey Needle, André Pelletier, Juan Rivillas, Bret Robinson, Zenith Star, Lauren Steely, Ernest Stefan-Matyus, Mark Steven, Elena West, Barrett York, Tristan Zajonc, Preetumsingh Gowd, Shaun Kelsey, Chuck Wolfred, David Vennel, Emre Dessoi, Fahid Naeem, Francisco Rebolledo, Hauke Laging, James Falls, Jon Adams, Michael Gremillion, Pierce Rutherford, Trev Kline, Tristan Leger, Lasse Skov, Takashi Hanai, Drew Roberts, Erynn Wilson, Ian Baskerville, Jacob Bassnett, John Shackleford, Marcus Undin, Martin Kroebel, Ian Johnstone, Geoff Suter, Ian Hopcraft, James Valdes, Phil Akrill-Misso, William Robertson, Elizabeth Orman & Giles Ingham. Video on planet cloaking: https://youtu.be/z1Pqqf_6J9w ::References used:: ► Kipping, Frank & Scharf, 2020, "Contact Inequality -- First Contact Wi

Does Venus have phosphine or not? Debate rages into the scientific community! In just two months a slew of papers have been released tackling this topic and today we catch up on what's been happening and speak with the lead scientist of the original discoverer paper - Prof. Jane Greaves - to give you the latest developments. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Thank-you to K. Clark, T. Widdowson, D. Smith, S. Hackley, M. Sloan, L. Sanborn, K. Kantor, P. Herman, A. Aganbegyan, C. Bottaccini, D. Brunk, D. Daughaday, S. Fincher, J. Kindred, A. Jones, J. Allen, S. Baldwin, J. Black, S. Brownlee, S. Chaturvedi, D. Denholm, T. Dorais, G. Downton, E. Urrestarazu, G. Fulton, S. Griffiths, P. Halloran, J. Jurcevic, N. Kildal, J. Kobernick, W. Kobernick, V. Kremer, M. Lijoi, S. Loftin, B. Loizides, A. Maslyanchuk, B. Matson, O. Mcintyre, L. Mitchell, J. Needle, A. Pelletier, J. Rivillas, B. Robinson, Z. Star, L. Steely, E. Stefan-Matyus, M. Steven, E. West, B. York, T. Zajonc, P. Gowd, S. Kelsey, C. Wolfred, D. Vennel, E. Dessoi, F. Naeem, F. Rebolledo, H. Laging, J. Falls, J. Adams, M. Gremillion, P. Rutherford, T. Kline, T. Leger, L. Skov, T. Hanai, D. Roberts, E. Wilson, I. Baskerville, J. Bassnett, J. Shackleford, M. Undin, M. Kroebel, I. Johnstone, G. Suter, I. Hopcraft, J. Valdes, P. Akrill-Misso, W. Robertson, E. Orman, G. Ingham, D. Hecke, J. Pilloff, T. Bernhard, D. Dianovszki, E. Cook, S. Mass, T. Richards, T. Lancaster. :References used:: ► Greaves et al. (2020), "Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus", Nature Astronomy: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1174-4 ► Sousa-Silva et al. (2019), "Phosphine as a Biosignature Gas in Exoplanet Atmosphere", Astrobiology, 20, 235: https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.05224 ► Mogul et al. (2020), "Is Phosphine in the Mass Spectra from Venus' Clouds?": https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.12758 ► Encrenaz et al. (2020), "A stringent upper

Exomoons represent an oustanding challenge in modern astronomy. The quest for their detection has been a topic central to Cool Worlds' mission and methods developed a decade ago have largely guided that effort. But after years of trying, we have been revisiting these methods and have an exciting breakthrough to share with you all - a new hope for finding exomoons. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Get Stash here! https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-store Thank-you to K. Clark, T. Widdowson, D. Smith, S. Hackley, M. Sloan, L. Sanborn, K. Kantor, P. Herman, A. Aganbegyan, C. Bottaccini, D. Brunk, D. Daughaday, S. Fincher, J. Kindred, A. Jones, J. Allen, S. Baldwin, J. Black, S. Brownlee, S. Chaturvedi, D. Denholm, T. Dorais, G. Downton, E. Urrestarazu, G. Fulton, S. Griffiths, P. Halloran, J. Jurcevic, N. Kildal, J. Kobernick, W. Kobernick, V. Kremer, M. Lijoi, S. Loftin, B. Loizides, A. Maslyanchuk, B. Matson, O. Mcintyre, L. Mitchell, A. Pelletier, J. Rivillas, B. Robinson, Z. Star, L. Steely, E. Stefan-Matyus, M. Steven, E. West, B. York, T. Zajonc, P. Gowd, S. Kelsey, P. Kommareddy, C. Wolfred, D. Vennel, E. Dessoi, F. Naeem, F. Rebolledo, H. Laging, J. Falls, J. Adams, M. Gremillion, P. Rutherford, T. Kline, T. Leger, L. Skov, D. Roberts, E. Wilson, I. Baskerville, J. Bassnett, J. Shackleford, M. Undin, M. Kroebel, I. Johnstone, G. Suter, I. Hopcraft, J. Valdes, P. Akrill-Misso, W. Robertson, E. Orman, G. Ingham, D. Hecke, J. Pilloff, T. Bernhard, D. Dianovszki, E. Cook, S. Mass, T. Richards, T. Lancaster, C. Stouffer, G. Benson, A. Vaal, C. Diamantis, J. Wenzel, M. Elliott, M. Wallstab, S. Bialek, B. Thomson, B. Daniluk, B. Bowen & D. Jacobson. ::The new paper is here:: ► Kipping, D., 2020, "The Exomoon Corridor: Half of all exomoons exhibit TTV frequencies within a narrow window due to aliasing", MNRAS, 500, 1851: https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.00764 ::

News has leaked of the discovery of a radio transmission from our nearest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri. Did we just detect alien communications?! Join us for this special video with Professor Kipping explaining what we know and why some skepticism is warranted. You can now support our research program and the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support Get Stash here! https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-store Thank-you to K. Clark, T. Widdowson, D. Smith, S. Hackley, M. Sloan, L. Sanborn, K. Kantor, P. Herman, A. Aganbegyan, C. Bottaccini, D. Brunk, D. Daughaday, S. Fincher, J. Kindred, A. Jones, J. Allen, S. Baldwin, J. Black, S. Brownlee, S. Chaturvedi, D. Denholm, T. Dorais, G. Downton, E. Urrestarazu, G. Fulton, S. Griffiths, P. Halloran, J. Jurcevic, N. Kildal, J. Kobernick, W. Kobernick, V. Kremer, M. Lijoi, S. Loftin, B. Loizides, A. Maslyanchuk, B. Matson, O. Mcintyre, L. Mitchell, A. Pelletier, J. Rivillas, B. Robinson, Z. Star, L. Steely, E. Stefan-Matyus, M. Steven, E. West, B. York, T. Zajonc, P. Gowd, S. Kelsey, P. Kommareddy, C. Wolfred, D. Vennel, E. Dessoi, F. Naeem, F. Rebolledo, H. Laging, J. Falls, J. Adams, M. Gremillion, P. Rutherford, T. Kline, T. Leger, L. Skov, D. Roberts, E. Wilson, I. Baskerville, J. Bassnett, J. Shackleford, M. Undin, M. Kroebel, I. Johnstone, G. Suter, I. Hopcraft, J. Valdes, P. Akrill-Misso, W. Robertson, E. Orman, G. Ingham, D. Hecke, J. Pilloff, T. Bernhard, D. Dianovszki, E. Cook, S. Mass, T. Richards, T. Lancaster, C. Stouffer, G. Benson, A. de Vaal, C. Diamantis, J. Wenzel, M. Elliott, M. Wallstab, S. Bialek, B. Thomson, B. Daniluk, B. Bowen, D. Jacobson & M. Forbes. ::Clips used:: ► Parkes timelapse by Angelo Papakostas: https://vimeo.com/66404362 ► LEO orbits by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio: https://youtu.be/gF9UlTYR5d0 ► Moon transit by NASA/NOAA/EPIC: https://youtu.be/DMdhQsHbWTs ► Satellite orbit animation by ESA: