Dead Planets Society is a podcast that explores wild ideas for manipulating the universe and tests their impact on the laws of physics, from splitting the moon to triggering doomsday events with gravitational waves. apple, Spotify Or visit our podcast page.
The thrilling adventure begins: In the season finale of Dead Planets Society, hosts Chelsea Whyte and Leah Crane propel Earth on a cosmic journey through our solar system.
Of course, sending Earth into space without its home planet would result in a dark, frigid voyage that would extinguish all life on Earth. And without anyone to witness the wonders of the universe, the journey would be meaningless. That’s why we need to bring the Sun along. The other planets are just a bonus.
Naturally, relocating the Sun is a monumental task, especially in terms of maintaining the orbits of the planets around it. This is where astrophysicists Jay Farihi and researchers from University College London come to the rescue in the episode.
One proposed solution is to construct a colossal warp drive, a self-contained space-time bubble that moves by distorting the space ahead of it. However, these theoretical devices are known for potentially enabling faster-than-light travel, and the key to keeping all planets tethered to the Sun is moving at a slow pace. Unfortunately, we have yet to figure out how to build such a device.
Another idea involves placing a black hole just ahead of the Sun to give it a slight boost – the black hole would then need to move along with the Sun, or alternatively, a series of black holes could traverse the Solar System in a cosmic relay race.
While these notions may seem far-fetched, there are more plausible concepts – though still improbable – such as deploying giant solar sails or inserting an unbreakable tube into the Sun to release high-pressure plasma jets.
The universe offers countless destinations that our hosts would love to explore with our now navigable solar system, ranging from star clusters to nebulae to supermassive black holes – all it requires is a few technological breakthroughs to make it a reality.
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Source: www.newscientist.com
