And now it's time for who smart it. Psst, hey, smarty pants! Ready for another adventure through the cosmos? I'm back on board the spaceship USS Smarty Pants, and together I'm taking you way, way beyond our solar system. Let's see, before today you've heard all about asteroids and planets, including the mysterious planet X. Hello. The name's X. Planet X. But today we're in search of Nebulae. Captain Trusty. Yes, number one. Don't you mean Nebulas? No. I mean Nebulae, as in more than one Nebula. Gotcha. Um, I still think you mean Nebulas. No. Both terms are correct, but Nebulae is the more common word, so I'm using that. I thought we had settled this a while ago, back when we passed Uranus. Don't you mean Uranus? No. Oh, whatever. It doesn't matter that much anyway. Right now we're going to see just one Nebula. But first, smarty pants. Do you know what a Nebulae is? Is it A, a cluster of stars? B, a frozen planet? Or C, a giant cloud of gas? Oh. Here we go again. Sorry. Fast food does a number on my digestive system. How did you get fast food out here? Uh, McDonald's? McDonald's? Where's there are McDonald's? In space? Oh, never mind. Smarty pants. For those of you who guessed C, you're right. A Nebulae is a giant cloud of gas. Uh, sorry. In space. But why? Why do these space clouds exist? Why are they so important to the universe? And to our own planet Earth? And what makes them so colorful? It's time for another whiff of science on... Hell smart egg. Who smarted? Who smart is it you? Is it me? Is it science? Or history? Listen up. Everyone, we make smarting lots of fun on Hell smart egg. Smarty pants. Right now, the USS Smarty pants is on its way to visit the Helix Nebula. Discovered in the 1800s, it is the closest Nebula to Earth. From Earth, it appears to be half the width of the full moon. And under dark skies, it can be seen with binoculars during the spring in the southern hemisphere and at autumn in the northern hemisphere. Smarty pants. And you guess how far away the Helix Nebula is? Is it about A93 million miles? B58 billion miles? C16 trillion miles? Or D4 quadrillion miles from Earth? Well, even though this Nebula is the closest to Earth, it's still 4.2 quadrillion miles away. That's 6.3 quadrillion kilometers or as most scientists measure it, 700 light years. Now, you're probably asking yourself, how far is that? Well, it takes light just about 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth. That's 93 million miles in only 8 minutes. So if you were to travel at that speed, which I might add, no human has ever done. Correct number 1, but if you were to travel at the speed of light, it would still take you about 700 years to go from Earth to Helix. That's what we mean by 700 light years, and it's a huge distance. But since this is a podcast, we can make the trip in about 2 minutes. Captain Trusty, we're approaching the Helix Nebula. Thanks number 1, I see it. Welcome, welcome, good day. I am Helix, your thin-learned Nebula in the constellation Aquarius. It's what I owe the pleasure of your company. Oh, hey there, Helix. The smarty pants and I really wanted to meet a planetary Nebula like yourself. I planned to head in Nebula. I sove what do you mean by that? Oh, sorry, that's what you're called on Earth. Smarty pants, can you guess why Nebula, like Helix, are called planetary? Is it because A, they usually have a circular shape. B, they contain a large number of planets. Or C, they once were planets. The answer is A, planetary Nebula actually have nothing to do with planets. But they look like planets to astronomer William Hershel, who first observed them in the 1700s. So that's that. Oh, I am quite a sight to behold. You know, I used to be a star in my oven. But after a lifetime of billions of years, it was time to retire. And we stars sure know how to retire in style. Massive stars, like me, put on a shell. Busting out as bright as 10 billion of you, awesome. Smarty pants, do you know what these star explosions are called? Is it A, star booms? B, super sploters? Or C, supernovas? I heard most of you say C, supernovas. Great job. A supernova is powerful. The brief lies out incredibly fast up to tens of thousands of miles, or kilometers per second. Oh, oh, oh, quickly creating a massive cloud. Which, unearth, is known as a supernova remnant. The crab Nebula is one of these. It came from a supernova explosion in the year 1554. The supernova was over 6,000 light years away. But it was so bright, people on earth could see it during the daytime. Astronomers from around the world wrote about it. Oh, yeah, I remember that. Did you know the crab Nebula is still expanding? Right now, the crab Nebula is a bright glowing mass. That's about 11 light years wide, with lots of long fingers of dust and gas. Hello, you still here? Yes, sorry, I was expecting a noise after you said gas. A noise? What noise? You know, a particular sound that who smarted is kind of known for? No, my dear chap, we nappily are majestic. We don't double-include auditory hijinks. What was that? What was what? It wasn't me. Perhaps Uranus. No, Pishposh. I think you're missing the beauty in all that is happening, Herm. Stars like my former self were not massive giants, but rather ordered any stars like your son. We don't explode. Instead, we shed our outer layers into space, injecting a massive amount of gas. Uh-huh, and I take it, you're still ejecting gas now? No, yes, and in a variety of glowing shapes and colors, the colors come from the different elements of the original star. Smartypants, which two of these elements are the main ingredients of stars? Hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, helium, or potassium? If you said hydrogen and helium, well done. Hydrogen gives off a red glow and helium is blue, but planetary nebulae contain other elements too that were formed within the star. Elements like oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, and those give off brilliant colors as well, like greens and oranges. The core that remains from the star helps light them up. We planetary nebulae aren't quite as big as those supernova remnants, but we're still spectacular and more common. Your own son will likely become a planetary nebula at the end of its life billions of years from now, and then after 10 to 30,000 years, we're nebulae just... poof, fade away, like smook. Fascinating. Smartypants, you can check out images of planetary nebula on the NASA website. They are quite beautiful to look at. Yes, yes, and you should always think of our magnificence, and not merely the fact that we are former stars constantly ejecting tons of gas. Now that you have a sufficient amount of information about nebulae, you can conclude your episode. Bye, Smartypants. Nice to meet you. Hold on, hold on, we're not quite done here. For one thing, are there other types of nebulae? No, no need buffering with them. Oh really? Why not? Isn't that a nebula way, way over there? No, fine. That's Orion. But I'm warning you, it's not refined like me. It's, you know, it's a bit of a mess. You sure you won't stay here with me? I think I want to check out Orion. But Orion so far away, it's in an entirely different constellation, and about twice as far from Earth as I am. It will take you forever to get there. Oh, actually, we'll get there right after this quick break. Spring is here, and if you're a homeschool family trying to finish the year strong, I want to tell you about IXL. It's the award-winning online learning platform that fits seamlessly into your homeschool routine, covering math, language arts, science, and social studies from pre-K through 12th grade. What I love most about IXL is how it adapts to each child's pace. Whether your kid needs to reinforce foundational skills before an assessment, or push ahead into new material, IXL meets them exactly where they are, with no pressure and real encouragement built right in. Kids earn rewards, see their own progress, and actually feel good about learning. And for parents, the real-time progress tracking is a game-changer. You always know exactly where your child stands. Plus, it makes learning fun, and you know I love that. Over 15 million students use IXL, and it's proven to improve achievement in all 50 states. So make an impact on your child's learning. Who smarted listeners get an exclusive 20% off at ixl.com slash-smarted? That's ixl.com slash-smarted for your 20% off. Now back to who smarted? We're approaching the Orion Nebula Captain. Wow, this ship is fast! Thanks, number one. Smartypets, the Orion Nebula, is located at the constellation Orion, and is one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky. It was the first to be photographed by astronomers back in 1880, and today you can see pictures of it online. It's about 1300 light years from Earth, farther than Helix, but it's more massive. About 25 light years wide. It's a splash of many different glowing colors that look... Heavenly. Oh, it ain't working. Cut out the music. Oh, now I'm never going to get these kids to sleep. Hey, you! Me? Yeah, you. Would you mind burping that star over there? Uh... You don't ever mind. Your hold this bottle. I'll do it. I swear these babies are going to keep you busy for at least another 100,000 years or so. Babies? Yeah, babies. You're surrounded by tons of them. It's a nebula, you know. But our nebulae formed at the end of a star's life? Isn't that when we just learned, Smartypets? Oh, you must have met the planetary nebula. Charming bunch. They got it easy. Over here in this emission nebula, we're busy churning out new stars. For about two million years, this nebula and its neighbors in the Orion complex have been one of the most active star makers in this region of the galaxy. Ah, so nebulae are both the end and the beginning of stars. That's right. It's the circle of life. Now, cosmically speaking, and with new stars comes new planets. Basically, all of this, all of your existence, comes from nebula. And will end as nebula too. Wow. Whoa, indeed. Smartypets. That means our own sun came from a nebula. Do you know when scientists believe the sun was formed? Was it 30.2 million years ago? 4.5 billion years ago? Or 68 billion years ago? The answer is 4.5 billion years ago. Great job if you got that. Yeah, and it came from a nebula, which came from a supernova. And of course, all this gas originally came from the big bang that started the universe. The gas just keeps getting reused. As gravity squeezes it into new stars, and nebulae are all over. In fact, nebula take up about 3 to 5 percent of the Milky Way's mass. That means there are new stars forming everywhere. And that's why nebula like Orion are called stellar nurseries. Smartypets, sure false. Oh, nebulae glow like Orion and Helix. The answer is false. In Orion and other emission nebula, the stars energize the gas, causing them to glow. But some nebula have weaker stars that can't charge the gases. So instead the gases just reflect the light of the stars, like fog around a street light. And those are called surprise surprise reflection nebula. All their nebula don't reflect or emit light at all. So they're just dark. And you guess what they're called? Dark nebulae? Nice. They're also known as absorption nebula. Can it basically look like holes in the sky? Fortunately, we now have better telescopes on Earth and in space to actually see all these kinds of nebulae. Which I encourage all you smartypants to do when you're done listening. Hey, if you're not doing anything, maybe you could help me change some diapers. Uh, I'll get the wipe, sir. And out of this world, shout out to Eliza and Ronin in Los Angeles, California. I hear you love who smarted so much that you even made up a dance to the theme song. Amazing! Thanks for getting smarter and sillier with us. This episode, nebulae, was written by Deep Space Dave Bodry and voiced by Bo Big Bang Marie, Jason Wavelength Williams, Adam Stardust Davis, and Jerry Colbert. Technical direction and sound designed by Josh Hubble Hahn. Who smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios. Our associate producer is Max Cosmos Kamaski. The theme song is by Brian Supernova Suarez with lyrics written and performed by Adam Text Davis. Who smarted was created and produced by Adam Text Davis and Jerry Colbert. This has been an atomic entertainment production.
