How Wiretapping Helped Transform Astronomy
This episode is sponsored by The Ridge. Go to ridge.com/scishow and use promo code
“scishow” to get 10% off your next order. [♪ INTRO] For better or worse, World War I saw tons
of technological advancements. And one of the especially effective ones was
a method of early, remote wiretapping. During the war, militaries ran telephone lines
from their command centers to the battlefield, and the opposition did their best to intercept
those signals. To do this, they stuck two prongs into the
ground hundreds of meters away, then ran attached cables to a device called
an amplifier. The prongs could pick up signals from the
phone lines, and from a relatively safe distance, soldiers would be able to listen in on sensitive
conversations. The goal here was pretty obvious: that sweet,
sweet intel. But occasionally, those soldiers also picked
up signals that were a little more alien-sounding. Things like twangs and hisses and [whistle
sounds]. These were sounds that telegraph operators
had heard for years, and no one was quite sure what they were. But once researchers started studying them
more closely, they were able to turn those noises into one
of astronomy’s most important tools. Although soldiers continued to hear these
sounds until the end of the war, we didn’t understand what caused them until
1953. That year, researchers at Cambridge conducted
a study tracking when these noises occurred, and they realized that those sounds, which
they called whistlers, are caused by lightning. Or, more specifically, they’re caused by
the stuff that makes up lightning: plasmas. These are extremely hot, electrically-charged
gases. And because they’re charged, they can interact
with magnetic fields and form waves. When lightning strikes, these plasma waves
travel along Earth’s magnetic field lines, changing speed and pitch as they go. They vibrate at really low frequencies, and
can be heard as radio waves by field amplifiers, telegraph lines, or any
magnetic device. With this discovery, scientists could finally
explain where the weird telegraph and wiretapping
noises came from! But as they kept researching, they also realized
that whistlers weren’t the only plasma phenomenon
like this. Instead, plasma could make a bunch of sounds
depending on how it behaved. And together, these noises were named whistler-mode
instabilities or whistler-mode waves. Today, we know they aren’t just caused by
lightning. Auroras can make whistler-mode waves, too,
which sound equally bizarre. But regardless of where they come from, these
noises are more than just neat: They’re also really useful tools. Since each sound is produced by a distinct
phenomenon, we can use whistler-mode waves to understand
what’s happening in Earth’s atmosphere, on the Sun, and around other planets; really
anywhere we find charged gases. And there’s a lot we’ve learned from them! Take what we discovered with the Van Allen
Probes mission, which wrapped up operations in July 2019. It used whistler-mode waves to study the Van
Allen belts, two big lobes of plasma trapped in Earth’s
magnetic field. And it discovered that the shape of the belts changes
all the time in response to conditions on the Sun. The Van Allen belts are a major point where particles
from the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field. And since those interactions can affect things
like electronics, and satellites, and astronauts on the Space Station, they’re
pretty important to understand! Whistler-mode waves have also helped us understand
the gas giants in our neighborhood. For example, the 1970s Voyager probes heard
whistlers while flying by Jupiter and Neptune. And in 2006, the Cassini spacecraft heard
whistlers on Saturn. That allowed researchers to infer that those
planets have lightning storms, which opened up new areas of research. The Voyagers also gathered data on other whistler-mode
waves, and that gave us insight into how Jupiter
and Saturn interact with their moons. For example, Jupiter’s moon Io emits tons
of gases, which form an electrically-charged disk that
orbits the planet. This disk is pretty important to know about
when you’re planning a mission to Jupiter, at least, if you want to keep your spacecraft
functional. And whistler-mode waves have helped us figure
out how thick it is. Meanwhile, on Saturn, Voyager 1 heard specific
types of whistler-mode instabilities called hiss and
chorus waves. And analyzing them produced evidence that Saturn was pulling plasma from the atmosphere
of its moon Titan. It was siphoning the gases up along its magnetic
field lines. And although we’re not quite sure what the
implications of that are, it’s a really cool observation, because
the Earth and our Moon are totally different. Since these discoveries, probes have continued
to monitor whistler-mode waves to better understand these planets’ moons,
magnetic fields, and atmospheres. And since gas giants have a lot of atmosphere
to study, we’re really just scratching the surface. So early telegraph operators, and WWI spies
were listening to plasma, and from that we could learn about things
like gas giants! Science is so cool! Thanks for learning about this with me, and thanks to Ridge for sponsoring this episode
of SciShow Space! The Ridge make wallets and other products
to help you streamline your life. Their flagship product is The Ridge Wallet,
which launched on KickStarter in 2013 and today sits in the pockets of over half
a million people. And now they also have backpacks, phone cases,
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stuff. Like, their Commuter Backpack comes with a
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products, and free returns if you don’t love them. If you want to learn more, you can go to ridge.com/scishow. If you use the promo code “scishow,” you’ll
get 10% off and free worldwide shipping. [♪ OUTRO]
Big thanks to The Ridge for supporting the channel! Here’s the site if you want to check them out! http://ridge.com/SPACE
What do the auroras sound like?? 😟
I think she’s hot.
Every time we might evidence of alien civilazation in space .
Its turns out to be disappointment.
But what evidence would there be? Radio wave have trouble traveling through rock. When Seti started they had I'd about the Kipper belt.
And there were ships warping across the gaxay or jumping into quantum vaccumms hyper space time streams .
Space stations with energy to open wormholes could we see any of in our telepopes.
Maybe everything looks Natural because Advenced civilazation presurve nature. Unlike use destroying own planet
It was a great thing if You put some real examples of these sounds from different sources just to have a better idea of the phenomena.
…'60's kids played with small neon bulbs and transformers and depending on roomlight the bulbs flickered differently… so, radio 'whistlers' are probably also dependent on sunlight, affecting plasma waves…
You too are cool, Ms. Caitlin! 🙂
@0:28 thats a ww2 picture.
Lol Caitlin's presentation puts a smile on my face every time!
Can you jump high enough to get into the Van Allen belts ?
It's hard to sit on a leather wallet, probably harder to sit on a metal one, or at least more uncomfortable.
Lol
Wiretap into the nasa livestream. Why wouldn't they get Brad to ask those questions before filming?
I Love how excited you get about this Caitlin! Thank you
You should do a scishow episode on the World War 1 wiretapping to explain it more.
mm i want to taste your breasts milk..tell me when will you coming? the ritual can only take place when you come..once we are together at last i will receive the final crystal and that will unlock eternal life. please hurry
Cool, except the photo was WW2 equipment .
This video puzzled me — she said World War One, but the photo's from World War Two, and the answer wasn't found till 1953, which is after both those wars. As far as I can tell from other sources, WW1 is the correct war for the whistler discovery. That means it took 35 years after the war to explain them (and 8 years after the end of the NEXT war). But the photo at 0:24 is from WW2. I snipped and Google Image searched it, and that's a an EE-8 field telephone and an M-1 carbine with folding stock, neither of which existed (nor did that design of helmet, which is actually the first thing I picked up on) in WW1. I realize you needed a free-use photo of a field telephone, but I wish you'd gotten the right war.
Interesting you mentioned Astronauts on the ISS but not the Astronauts from 1969-1972. We know why you don't mention them don't we.
0:21 is talking about WW1 uses WW2 photo
Buy the ridge powerbank while youre at it because Lord knows it's not gonna fit any other type
Uh oh, paid sponsor ads will be the norm here now?
And radio bouncing your signal off the auroral curtain makes a warble, as does TEP(google it)
wow, wild sound
I like when Caitlin is hosting, she's always so fresh and bubbly …just makes my day better.
Flippin love this show
Slow down, Caitlin, for goodness sake. You are starting to sound like Brian's Griffin's girlfriend Gillian again, too.
You are better than this.
For better or worse? 😂
Featured on astral Education https://www.facebook.com/astralslate/
Seems like its a game of guessing noises
Caitlin could do a video about the world ending and still make it exciting with positive enthusiasm. Keep up the great videos sci show team.
You are all excellent humans.
Immediately guessed radio waves. 1 point for me. Yay.
Come for the science, stay for the cuteness. 📡💜
Speak more s l o w l y
Good Tube
sounds alien!
When I was a little girl, I visited a relative who had a big short-wave radio in the parlor. I played with that thing the whole time I was there. I heard the atmospheric whistles and the dawn chorus. I also heard the BBC, Radio Moscow., local ham radio folks chatting by voice or Morse code, and the odd international stations that broadcast clicks, beeps, people reading lists of numbers out loud, I even heard Sputnik's beeps! Well, I grew up to become a radio technician myself 🙂
Plz STOP USEING THIS HIGH PITCH VOICE woman for ur vids
Edit 1 : Is she British ? The teeth ?
"Science is awesome"
her expression is priceless, love to see someone so excited about science as a host.
I feel like planets are living. And they're probably sentient
Pretty cool info. Thanks.
She's the best host!!!
Stuff to carry that helps you reduce the stuff you carry? I think I peed a little.
Use code "ASTRO" to get 10% off a solar system bracelet at mixedmediumsstore.com
Why don't we call them plasma fields all the time that made since radiation belts dosn't explain varry well in Layman's terms plasma fields sounds better maybe I'm to dumb🤔
…and why can't all girls be like Caitlin 🤘😎