An astrophysicist reacts to Carl Sagan's Contact

Jodie Foster as an astrophysicist searching for alien signals - what's not to love?! To learn more about radio waves head to http://brilliant.org/DrBecky and sign up for free. The first 200 people that go to that link will get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

00:00 - Introduction
01:07 - Reaction
22:24 - Bloopers

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👕 Check out my merch here: https://teespring.com/stores/dr-becky

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📚 "Space: 10 Things You Should Know" - UK Edition: http://bit.ly/SpaceDrBecky

📚 US & Canada version: "Space at the speed of light" (same book, different title, with some beautiful illustrations): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...

📚 German translation "Das kleine Buch vom großen Knall" : https://www.dtv.de/buch/becky-smethur...

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🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive

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The artwork in the background is a scientifically accurate map showing the orbits of more than 18000 asteroids in the Solar System, created by Eleanor Lutz. Find out more and buy one here: https://eleanorlutz.com/mapping-18000...

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👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.

http://drbecky.uk.com
https://rebeccasmethurst.co.uk