Comet Mining
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur
Isaac Arthur
4.9 • 781 Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2023
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Comets have awed, amazed, and even terrified humanity for thousands of years, with many believing they heralded the end of the world, but could they be the key to reaching and creating new worlds?
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Credits:
Comet Mining
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur
Episode 408, August 17, 2023
Written, Produced & Narrated by Isaac Arthur
Music Courtesy of:
Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Stellardrone, "Red Giant", "Between the Rings"
Sergey Cheremisinov, "Labyrinth", Forgotten Stars"
Miguel Johsnon, "So Many Stars"
Taras Karkavyi, "Alpha and ..."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory, |
| 0:05.2 | we're asked at the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge. |
| 0:10.5 | To hear it and every episode early and ad-free, plus hours of bonus content, |
| 0:15.1 | check out go.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur. |
| 0:20.7 | Comets have odd, amazed, and even terrified humanity for thousands of years, with many |
| 0:26.0 | believing they held at the end of the world, but could they be the key to reaching and creating |
| 0:31.3 | new worlds? |
| 0:46.6 | Yeah. Comets have a long and mixed history with humanity, often frightening, often seen as omens of change, but are we seen as astonishing? |
| 0:50.6 | Even in the 20th century there were fears even among scientists that passing through a comet |
| 0:55.1 | tale might kill us, and many a scientific theory then and now contemplate them as bringers |
| 1:00.6 | of death or even life to this world. |
| 1:03.9 | They are our most popular candidate for how we might have gotten oceans back on Earth after |
| 1:08.2 | the apocalyptic encounter of early Earth with a smaller planet |
| 1:11.9 | that we believe tore off the surface of the Proto Earth and from which we think the moon |
| 1:15.7 | later formed. |
| 1:17.1 | That would have taken a lot of comets, around 10 million the size of Haley's comet, the best known |
| 1:22.7 | one. |
| 1:23.7 | And there's major doubts if this was or could have been the method that got us Arushans, |
| 1:28.3 | but the impact of such bodies would not have been trivial affairs. |
| 1:32.3 | We estimate the asteroid that possibly killed the dinosaurs as only five times more massive, |
| 1:37.3 | and Haley's comet is not the largest one out there. |
| 1:40.3 | Today we will be looking at comets from three perspectives. |
... |
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