The Most Disturbing Space Events We'll Actually See Before We Die

[00:00:00]We're used to thinking that the universe is too vast and too slow to change within a single human lifetime. But that is only an illusion.

[00:00:10]Right now, space is preparing events so rare that no one alive today has ever witnessed anything like them.

[00:00:17]Some of them are powerful enough to turn night into day. Others will permanently change the familiar view of the night sky.

[00:00:26]And the most incredible part, we won't have to wait hundreds or thousands of years.

[00:00:32]Perhaps the first great cosmic event of the 21st [music] century has already begun.

[00:00:42]Let's start with a case that refuses to behave like an ordinary astronomical phenomenon.

[00:00:48]T Corona Boralius TC CB is one of the most anticipated astronomical outbursts of our time. It is often called the blaze star because most of the time it's almost invisible and then suddenly becomes so bright that it can be seen with the naked eye.

[00:01:09]It is located about 3,000 light years away in the constellation Corona Borealis, the northern crown.

[00:01:17]For most nights, it's nothing more than another entry in a star catalog.

[00:01:23]But it is also a recurrent nova, which means it has done this before.

[00:01:29]The system consists of a white dwarf and a red giant. The red giant is losing hydrogen to the compact star. This stolen gas accumulates on the surface of [music] the dwarf, becomes compressed, heats up, and eventually triggers a thermonuclear explosion.

[00:01:49]It may look like the scenario of a supernova, but it is not one.

[00:01:56]Why is everyone waiting for it right now? The eruption of this particular system was observed in 1866 [music] and again in 1946.

[00:02:08]There's also possible older records dating back to 1217 and 1787.

[00:02:15]This suggests an approximate cycle of around 80 years, meaning that according to recent predictions, the next eruption should occur sometime within the current decade.

[00:02:26]How bright will it become? Right now, its brightness is around magnitude 10.

[00:02:32]Impossible to see without a telescope.

[00:02:35]During the outburst, it could reach around magnitude 2. That means it will be visible to the naked eye. It will become one of the brightest stars in the constellation.

[00:02:48]Millions of people around the world will be able to observe it under dark skies.

[00:02:55]For the first time in modern observation history, the next eruption of the star can be monitored using instruments that did not exist in 1946.

[00:03:04]gammaray, x-ray, infrared, optical and radio observatories all waiting for the same explosion.

[00:03:12]So the mystery is not only when it will happen. The real question is what it will reveal to us.

[00:03:24]But not every rare moment is accompanied by uncertainty.

[00:03:28]Some of them arrived with almost [music] merciless precision.

[00:03:33]On August 2nd, 2027, the moon's shadow will sweep across parts [music] of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Why is it special? In the most favorable locations, the total phase will last around 6 minutes and 23 seconds.

[00:03:50]Most total solar [music] eclipses last 2 to 3 minutes. Anything longer than 5 minutes is considered extremely rare.

[00:04:00]The absolute theoretical maximum duration of a total solar eclipse is about 7 minutes and 32 seconds.

[00:04:09]That means the 2027 eclipse will come remarkably close to the maximum possible duration.

[00:04:17]Why will it last so long? Several factors will align at the same time.

[00:04:24]Earth will be close to Ailion, meaning the sun will appear slightly smaller than usual. The moon will be relatively close to Earth, making it appear larger in the sky. The moon's shadow will pass almost directly through the center of the Earth's disc. The path will cross near the equator where the shadow moves more slowly relative to the Earth's surface.

[00:04:49]Outside this narrow path, the same event becomes a partial eclipse.

[00:04:55]The sun appears as if it has been bitten rather than completely hidden. Inside the path of totality, direct sunlight disappears, the corona becomes visible, temperatures drop, and the sky transforms in a way that no camera can fully capture.

[00:05:12]This is where exaggerations often begin.

[00:05:16]Ancient civilizations believe the sun was dying and that the earth was being plunged into darkness by some mysterious force.

[00:05:24]Today we know exactly when it will happen, where it will happen, and why.

[00:05:31]However, it is important [music] to remember that observing this phenomenon is safe only when using proper solar protection equipment outside the brief phase of totality.

[00:05:44]And yet the scale of the event is breathtaking.

[00:05:48]A shadow only a few hundred miles wide races across a rotating planet. And the best viewing location can change because of weather, terrain, and the tiny irregularities along the moon's edge.

[00:06:07]But not every rare eclipse is visible only from a narrow strip of land.

[00:06:13]The blood moon of 2029 is not a single event, but two total lunar eclipses during which the moon will take on a deep red color. They are expected on June 25th [music] through 26 and December 20th through 21st, 2029.

[00:06:31]Both eclipses will be visible across huge parts of Earth, including Europe, Africa, [music] and large regions of Asia and the Americas.

[00:06:42]This is what makes the deep lunar eclipse of June 2029 so special. It will not race across continents in a matter of minutes. Instead, it will unfold slowly high above the night side of Earth as the moon sinks deeper into the darkest part of our planet shadow.

[00:07:01]During the deep [music] total lunar eclipse in June 2029, the moon will pass through the central part of Earth's shadow for more than an hour and 40 [music] minutes.

[00:07:12]This phenomenon is often called a blood moon, which accurately describes its appearance, but does not tell the full story.

[00:07:22]The moon turns red or copper colored because sunlight is filtered and bent through Earth's atmosphere before reaching the lunar surface.

[00:07:30]Shorter blue wavelengths scatter more easily, while longer red wavelengths [music] pass through the atmosphere and are reflected into the shadow.

[00:07:41]However, the exact color is never guaranteed. Volcanic aerosols, dust, clouds along Earth's horizon, and atmospheric conditions can all change the result.

[00:07:53]Some lunar eclipses appear bright orange. Others become [music] deep brown.

[00:07:59]A very dark eclipse can make the moon so faint that nearby stars become much easier to see. In that moment, Earth itself [music] becomes a giant filter.

[00:08:10]Is it dangerous? Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse is completely safe to watch with the naked eye. No special filters or glasses are required, only a clear sky.

[00:08:27]Earlier in the same year on April 13th, 2029, the asteroid Apous will pass approximately 20,000 mi above the Earth's surface.

[00:08:38]That's closer than the orbit of many high alitude satellites.

[00:08:43]It's also much closer than the moon.

[00:08:46]This will be the closest known passage of an asteroid this size in the history of modern astronomical observations.

[00:08:54]Apous is a rocky asteroid about 340 m in diameter. For comparison, its height is comparable to the Eiffel Tower.

[00:09:04]Shortly after its discovery in 2004, this object [music] became famous for the wrong reason. Concerns about a possible impact.

[00:09:15]More detailed observations later ruled out any danger during the 2029 encounter.

[00:09:22]Today, the focus is not panic. The focus is access.

[00:09:28]A large asteroid passing this close is a rare natural experiment. Earth's gravity will alter its trajectory. It may also affect its rotation.

[00:09:39]Models suggest that the encounter could trigger movements on its surface, small asteroid quakes, landslides, or shifts of loose material.

[00:09:50]This will not be a destruction in a Hollywood style scenario. It's more like shaking a pile of dustcovered rocks and watching which grains move.

[00:10:00]That is why the Osiris Apex mission is so important. The spacecraft previously known as Osirius REX delivered samples from the asteroid Bennu back to Earth in 2023.

[00:10:15]Its extended mission is now targeting Apous.

[00:10:19]After the 2029 flyby, it will study how a close planetary encounter changed the asteroid's surface and rotation.

[00:10:28]Apous represents the full cycle of asteroid fears, discovery, uncertainty, more precise measurements, and finally a close encounter that becomes a scientific opportunity rather than a catastrophe.

[00:10:45]However, with some objects, the public sees the frightening side of the story before the explanation arrives.

[00:10:54]For a while, asteroid 2024 YR4 attracted attention because early calculations left uncertainty about its future path, including discussions of a possible impact scenario involving the moon.

[00:11:09]Then additional observations arrived.

[00:11:12]The orbit became more precise. The frightening cone of uncertainty narrowed.

[00:11:20]The lesson is not that every new space rock is a hidden catastrophe.

[00:11:25]The lesson is that rare events become less mysterious as more measurements are collected.

[00:11:34]This takes us to [music] another kind of astronomical scale, a tiny black dot passing in front of a star.

[00:11:42]On November 13th, 2032, Mercury [music] will transit across the face of the sun. From Earth, the planet will appear as a small black disc slowly moving across the solar surface.

[00:11:56]According to NASA's transit catalog, the event will begin at approximately 6:41 universal time, reach its maximum phase around 8:54, and end at about 11:07.

[00:12:10]This is not a solar eclipse. Mercury is far too small to block a noticeable portion of the sun. Its diameter is only about 1 190th of the diameter of the solar disc.

[00:12:26]Mercury often passes between Earth and the Sun, but in most cases it appears above or below the solar disc because its orbit is tilted by about 7° relative to the Earth's orbital plane.

[00:12:38]transit occurs only when the inferior conjunction lines up with one of the points where Mercury's orbit [music] crosses this plane.

[00:12:48]This is why only around a dozen Mercury transits occur over the course of a century. And although every few years headlines announce a planetary alignment suggesting that the planets form a straight line in space or that their gravity will have some unusual effect on Earth, the reality is quite different.

[00:13:09]The more accurate explanation is related to perspective. The planets [music] orbit the sun in roughly the same flat system. So from Earth they appear along the ecliptic.

[00:13:22]The same general path followed by the sun and the moon. Sometimes several bright planets gather in the same region of the sky.

[00:13:34]At the beginning of September 2040, one of the most beautiful planetary alignments in many decades is expected.

[00:13:42]Before sunrise, it will be possible to see almost all of the bright planets.

[00:13:47]Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.

[00:13:54]Why is this considered a rare event?

[00:13:58]Seeing so [music] many planets at the same time is not common. Each planet moves around the sun at different speed.

[00:14:06]Mercury completes an orbit in 88 days.

[00:14:09]Earth 365 days. Jupiter almost 12 years.

[00:14:15]Saturn in almost 30 years.

[00:14:19]That is why their favorable positioning in the sky happens relatively rarely.

[00:14:28]Next on the list is Mars. A rare phenomenon that almost everyone has heard of, but often in a highly distorted form. The year 2050 could become one of the best periods for observing Mars in the 21st century.

[00:14:45]During this time, the red planet will come unusually close to Earth, making it exceptionally bright and large in the night sky.

[00:14:56]The event is called the great opposition of Mars. A moment when the Earth is positioned between the sun and Mars and the two planets almost perfectly aligned.

[00:15:08]The secret lies in scale. Why does Mars become so bright? The orbit of Mars is noticeably elliptical, which means the distance between the two planets constantly changes.

[00:15:21]During a normal opposition, Mars can be around 100 million kilometers away from Earth. During a great opposition, it comes significantly closer to approximately 50 to 60 million km.

[00:15:36]At that moment, Mars becomes [music] one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Its red color becomes [music] visible even without a telescope.

[00:15:49]And then comes a return connected with more [music] history than almost any other object.

[00:15:56]Haley's comet is famous [music] not because it's the largest comet, but because it helped transform fear into prediction. [music] For centuries, comets appeared to be mysterious visitors from the unknown.

[00:16:10]Edmund Haley provided that several [music] historical observations belong to the same object returning along a regular orbit.

[00:16:19]Haley's comet is a massive icy [music] object from the distant regions of the solar system. Its nucleus [music] is approximately 15 by 8 km in size and consists of frozen water, [music] carbon dioxide, dust, and rocky particles.

[00:16:37]When the comet approaches the sun, heat causes the ice on its [music] surface to evaporate. A bright envelope called a coma forms around the nucleus, [music] while the solar wind creates a long tail that can stretch for millions of kilome.

[00:16:53]Its last parihelion, [music] the closest point of its orbit to the sun, occurred in 1986. [music] For many observers, the site was disappointing because of unfavorable viewing [music] conditions. But from a scientific perspective, it was extremely [music] important. Spacecraft, including Gado and the Soviet Vega probes, [music] approached the comet and directly observed its dark nucleus.

[00:17:21]In 2061, [music] this same object will return.

[00:17:27]is parahhelion is expected in late July and the viewing conditions [music] will likely be much more favorable than in 1986.

[00:17:38]This does not guarantee [music] that a giant tail will be visible above every city.

[00:17:44]Comets are dusty, active, and sometimes [music] unpredictable.

[00:17:49]Their brightness depends on the comet's activity, Earth's [music] position, the sun's angle, moonlight, haze, and light pollution.

[00:17:59]Nevertheless, it'll be [music] one of the brightest astronomical events in a human lifetime because it connects human memory with orbital mechanics.

[00:18:09]A comet mentioned [music] in ancient records returns according to a schedule that modern spacecraft can once again follow.