Clara

Subtitles by explosiveskull

Mmm.

Sorry.

Uh, yesterday,

we were talking about the, um...

The Fermi paradox.

Right, the Fermi paradox.

Worse.

The, uh contradiction of having a high probability

of life existing elsewhere in the universe

while having no actual evidence to prove it.

The Drake equation.

It gives us every reason to believe that life should be common in our galaxy

Exciting right?

So why haven't we found anything?

Over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way,

the vast majority of which host planets,

many of those planets capable of supporting life

and still we have found nothing.

No sign of anyone or anything else.

And believe me, we're looking.

Night after night, after night, we're staring up at the sky,

burying ourselves in mountains of data.

All because we know one day, we will crack this thing.

And if we don't,

you will right?

Yeah, go ahead.

Didn't NASA predict

we'll find evidence life exists beyond Earth within the next decade?

After you've been in this field a while

you'll learn to take predictions with a grain of salt.

But the game is changing though.

The TESS and James Webb telescopes launch soon,

we'll stand a much better shot at finding something. It just seems like you...

Please. Don't stop. This is getting interesting.

If you're frustrated

that you personally haven't found anything,

then maybe it's pointless for you to keep looking.

Hmm.

I'm curious, is that a fact or just your opinion?

Look, I just think...

- You think. So it's your opinion. - Yeah.

If you feel this is a dead end that wastes your time,

might as well do other things.

What other things could be more important to humanity

than answering the question, "Are we alone?"

Uh, reproduction?

Or like, love, even?

Love? That's pretty good.

Remind me of your name.

Kiefer.

Nice, Kiefer.

Uh, you're seeing anyone, Kiefer?

- No not really. - Hmm.

Okay. Why don't we do what scientists do?

Let's take a look at the data.

All right. L is the value of love.

Now, we have 250 students in this class, or...

At least, enrolled in this class.

Four out of every five of you statistically will get married.

So, that's 200 students married.

Now last year we learned that two out of five marriages

will end in divorce.

Which gives us 120.

One hundred and twenty of you who will fall in love and stay married.

That's less than half the people in this class.

But that's just marriage.

You're absolutely right. Let's talk about the 85%

of relationships that end in break-ups.

Or the 20% of breakups that lead to depression, or the 3% that lead to suicide.

Well, wait. Let's talk about the 56% of people

who admit to a history of infidelity in their relationship.

Those are just random statistics,

they don't actually prove anything.

Proof?

Good.

I wanna ask you guys something. And be honest.

Raise your hand if you've ever been hurt by love.

Plug values into the Drake Equation,

we'll sure as hell get a number higher than zero.

You get to choose what you waste your time on, Kiefer.

Outer space is a safer bet.

Is that a fact?

Excuse me?

Is that a fact or is that just your opinion?

It's an educated opinion.

Let's open up our books to page 237.

I was reading this article online about life hacks.

I read one that says increase productivity

and maximize your health with a 30-minute bike ride every morning.

I'm like, that's not a life hack.

That's just something you can do.

Just exercise.

Hey, those aren't images from the galactic center.

Nope.

Isaac, you can't be shifting the telescope to fish for Earth masses.

This is your advisor's grant money, not yours.

- Switch it back. - I did. Relax.

It's still there. Switch it back, please.

I don't... Is that time stream data transferred yet?

It says one minute.

I don't know why you can't just wait for the TESS to launch like everyone else.

I'm just getting a head start.

While every citizen scientist and their dog wait for that data,

I can actually be looking for a habitable planet.

Come on, you're telling me you just want to be another guy

sitting at home looking at TESS data in your underwear?

Actually, yes. That's a life-hack.

I might go commando.

Just a robe. Get a nice breeze going.

- Hey, Joelle. Hi. - Hey.

You didn't hear what we were just talking about, did you?

Doesn't matter. Um...

This is somewhere here.

Ah! All right, now, your error calculations were great,

but you mislabelled the axes on your plots. I didn't dock you for it.

Just something to keep in mind for the formal report. Okay?

You should be happy. You did well.

You're falling apart, Isaac.

What were you thinking?

Misappropriating telescope time like that,

it's not acceptable

I know.

You'll be replaced on your advising professor's project.

That won't be necessary. Look, I've been detecting planet transits on my own time.

All right? It was never my intention to sabotage anyone else's project.

Right now we insist that you take a break.

What happened at yesterday's lecture? There were complaints.

Nothing. It was just a bad day.

It's been more than one day.

You're right. It's been about two years.

I know that things have been tough,

but I have to draw the line somewhere.

Use your break to get this wild goose chase out of your system.

I'd still like to be in the lab on weekends...

You aren't listening.

Facilities are for active staff only.

Three, two, one...

...and lift off...

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the TESS telescope.

Dr. John Rickman from TESS joins me.

Yes. We're inviting astronomers

from all around the world to participate in this effort.

Our data is your data.

Any one of you can lead us to what I believe

will be the greatest discovery of our time.

You see, TESS will observe hundreds of thousands of stars

during this revolutionary mission.

And this means an enormous amount of data.

And we're gonna need your help

to analyze every bit of it.

Jeremy, I need access to the cluster,

otherwise I have only my home computer and laptop to run through these test data sets.

There's a lot. It'll take me a thousand hours to do all of that work here...

We would like everyone involved

In this community-wide effort

to go ahead and reach out to others.

No matter what level of astronomer you are,

professional, academic, independent,

you can contribute to this search.

From work, from home, wherever you like.

So, we're encouraging you, prepare yourself.

Mark your colanders. Get excited.

Because in the coming weeks,

we'll be releasing the first segment of data.

I want to remind everyone that the search will enter its second phase

when the James Webb telescope launches next year.

It is 100 times more powerful than Hubble.

And allows to see into the atmospheres of planets discovered by TESS

for signs of life.

You have no messages.

So we're looking forward to a very exciting future of planet-hunting.

So nobody wants to be an unpaid intern huh?

It's better than dealing with pretentious millennials all day.

Okay. First of all, you're the most pretentious person that I know.

Thank you.

Second, you get to teach people about space.

I mean, what's bigger than that?

Literally that's the biggest thing there is.

Yeah, but all we get to do is teach it.

And in this small, tiny amount of time they give us for original research...

What are we supposed to do with that?

That's not enough time to make any significant discovery.

Who said we have to?

No one.

But don't you want to?

I'm good.

Charlie, we work in a field where we can push the boundaries of everything we know.

Sorry, I just don't feel like we can do that from a classroom.

Wow. That's an incredibly way to talk about the thing that I love doing.

Come on, Charlie, that's not what I meant.

Sure, got a big shot over here.

You know that's not what I meant.

Uh-huh.

Come on, Charlie. You and I both know that there's something out there.

Can't just stop looking.

Okay.

And besides, if someone doesn't do this kind of work then you have nothing to teach.

Jeez.

See? Pretentious.