This false-color mosaic of the central region of the Coma cluster combines infrared and visible-light images to reveal thousands of faint objects (green). Follow-up observations showed that many of these objects, which appear here as faint green smudges, are dwarf galaxies belonging to the cluster. Two large elliptical galaxies, NGC 4889 and NGC 4874, dominate the cluster's center. The mosaic combines visible-light data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (color coded blue) with long- and short-wavelength infrared views (red and green, respectively) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescop
This false-color mosaic of the central region of the Coma cluster combines infrared and visible-light images to reveal thousands of faint objects (green). Follow-up observations showed that many of these objects, which appear here as faint green smudges, are dwarf galaxies belonging to the cluster. Two large elliptical galaxies, NGC 4889 and NGC 4874, dominate the cluster's center. The mosaic combines visible-light data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (color coded blue) with long- and short-wavelength infrared views (red and green, respectively) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescop

Cosmic Queries – Cosmological Curiosities

NASA / JPL-Caltech / L. Jenkins (GSFC), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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About This Episode

What is nothing? Does nothing exist? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice explore cosmological curiosities about the end of the universe, dark matter, and more!

What happens in an expanding universe where galaxies get too far away from each other? Is there a way to survive a Big Rip? If matter only takes up 5 percent of the universe, are we the anomaly? We discuss the Copernican principle and whether we are special. Could we be in a cycling universe that expands and collapses or is expansion just a one way trip?

Does dark matter interact with anything beside gravity? Could it be possible for humans to create a black hole in order to study it? How big would an Earth-mass black hole be? Why do galaxies in the universe form a sponge structure when everything else creates disks? Learn about the Coma Cluster and how it helped us discover dark matter.

What would someone looking at us from 65 million light years see? What is nothing? We discuss the definition of nothing and whether we can wrap our heads around the concept. And finally, we explore The Matrix and whether our robot overlords could use humans as energy.

Thanks to our Patrons Matej Dvonč, Robert Weaver, David Lindberg, Denis, Jesus Hernandez, and Jack Reeves for supporting us this week.

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