Why Earth may someday look like Mars | Anjali Tripathi

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Joanna Pietrulewicz

Translator: Gramoz Pisha Reviewer: Helena Bedalli

So when you look out at the stars at night,

Kur shikon yjet naten

ajo qe mund te shohesh eshte e mrekullueshme.

it's amazing what you can see.

It's beautiful.

Eshte e bukur.

But what's more amazing is what you can't see,

Por, me mahnitese eshte ajo qe nuk shohim,

because what we know now

sepse nga ato qe dime tani,

is that around every star or almost every star,

rreth yjeve ose pothuajse cdo ylli,

there's a planet,

ndodhet nje planet,

or probably a few.

ose ndoshta disa.

So what this picture isn't showing you

Pra ajo qe kjo foto nuk po ju tregon

are all the planets that we know about

jane te gjithe planetet qe ne dime

out there in space.

qe jane ne hapesire.

But when we think about planets, we tend to think of faraway things

Mendojme rreth planeteve per gjera qe jane

that are very different from our own.

shume te ndryshme nga ai i joni.

But here we are on a planet,

Pra ja ku jemi ne nje planet,

and there are so many things that are amazing about Earth

dhe ka kaq shume fakte qe jane mahnitese per Token

that we're searching far and wide to find things that are like that.

qe po i kerkojme gjere e gjate qe t'i gjejme.

And when we're searching, we're finding amazing things.

Dhe gjate kerkimeve, po gjejme gjera mahnitese.

But I want to tell you about an amazing thing here on Earth.

Por, une dua t'ju flas per nje fakt interesant ketu ne Toke.

And that is that every minute,

Kjo eshte se cdo minute,

400 pounds of hydrogen

200 kg hidrogjen,

and almost seven pounds of helium

dhe pothuajse 3,5 kg helium

escape from Earth into space.

largohen nga Toka per ne hapesire.

And this is gas that is going off and never coming back.

Ky eshte gaz qe largohet dhe nuk kthehet me pas.

So hydrogen, helium and many other things

Pra, hidrogjeni, heliumi dhe disa gjera te tjera

make up what's known as the Earth's atmosphere.

perbejne ate qe quhet atmosfera e Tokes.

The atmosphere is just these gases that form a thin blue line

Atmosfera jane thjeshte keto gazra, qe formojne nje shtrese te holle blu

that's seen here from the International Space Station,

e shikuar ketu nga Stacioni Nderkombetar Hapesinor

a photograph that some astronauts took.

ku disa astronaute e fotografuan.

And this tenuous veneer around our planet

Kjo mbulese e parendesishme ne planetin tone

is what allows life to flourish.

ben qe jeta te vazhdoje.

It protects our planet from too many impacts,

Ajo e mbron planetin tone nga shume rreziqe,

from meteorites and the like.

qe nga meteoritet dhe te tjera me rradhe.

And it's such an amazing phenomenon

Eshte aq fenomen mahnites

that the fact that it's disappearing

saqe fakti se po zhduket

should frighten you, at least a little bit.

duhet t'ju frikesoje juve, paksa.

So this process is something that I study

Pra, ky proces eshte ajo qe une studioj

and it's called atmospheric escape.

dhe quhet hollimi i atmosferes.

So atmospheric escape is not specific to planet Earth.

Hollimi i atmosferes nuk eshte specifike vetem per Token.

It's part of what it means to be a planet, if you ask me,

Sipas meje, eshte dicka qe u ndodh te gjitha planeteve

because planets, not just here on Earth but throughout the universe,

sepse planetet, jo vetem ketu ne Toke por ne te gjithe universin,

can undergo atmospheric escape.

i nenshtrohen hollimit te atmosferes.

And the way it happens actually tells us about planets themselves.

Menyra sesi ndodh kjo na tregon ne rreth vete planeteve.

Because when you think about the solar system,

Sepse kur mendon, rreth sistemit diellor,

you might think about this picture here.

mund te mendosh si kjo fotoja ketu.

And you would say, well, there are eight planets, maybe nine.

Dhe mund te thuash, ne rregull, ka 8 planete, ose ndoshta 9.

So for those of you who are stressed by this picture,

Keshtu qe per ata qe , jane shqetesuar nga kjo foto,

I will add somebody for you.

po shtoj dicka per ju.

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

Courtesy of New Horizons, we're including Pluto.

Fale dashamiresise se misionit te NASA, New Horizons, po perfshijme Plutonin.

And the thing here is,

Ceshtja ketu qendron se,

for the purposes of this talk and atmospheric escape,

per qellimin e ketij fjalimi dhe hollimit te atmosferes,

Pluto is a planet in my mind,

Plutoni eshte planet ne mendjen time,

in the same way that planets around other stars that we can't see

sic jane te gjitha planetet e tjera rreth yjeve qe ne nuk mund t'i shohim,

are also planets.

qe gjithashtu jane planete.

So fundamental characteristics of planets

Karakteristike thelbesore e planeteve

include the fact that they are bodies

eshte fakti se ata jane trupa

that are bound together by gravity.

qe jane te lidhur se bashku nga graviteti.

So it's a lot of material just stuck together

Pra eshte gjithe ai material, qe qendron i lidhur

with this attractive force.

me kete force terheqese.

And these bodies are so big and have so much gravity.

Keta trupa jane kaq te medhenj dhe kane shume gravitet.

That's why they're round.

Ja pse ata jane te rrumbullaket.

So when you look at all of these,

Pra, kur i shikon te gjithe ata,

including Pluto,

perfshire edhe Plutonin,

they're round.

ata jane te rrumbullaket.

Pra mund te shikosh qe graviteti ka nje rol te rendesishem.

So you can see that gravity is really at play here.

But another fundamental characteristic about planets

Por nje tjeter karakterisetike thelbesore per planetet

is what you don't see here,

eshte ajo qe nuk shikohet ketu,

and that's the star, the Sun,

dhe ky eshte ylli, Dielli,

that all of the planets in the solar system are orbiting around.

rreth te cilit rrotullohen gjithe planetet e sistemit diellor.

And that's fundamentally driving atmospheric escape.

Kjo arsye po shton kryesisht hollimin e atmosferes.

The reason that fundamentally stars drive atmospheric escape from planets

Arsyeja kryesore se pse yjet nxisin hollimin e atmosferes nga planetet

is because stars offer planets particles and light and heat

eshte sepse yjet u ofrojne planeteve grimca, drite dhe nxehtesi,

that can cause the atmospheres to go away.

qe mund te shkaktoje largimin e atmosferes.

So if you think of a hot-air balloon,

Nese mendon per nje balone me ajer te nxehte,

or you look at this picture of lanterns in Thailand at a festival,

ose shikoni kete foto me fanare ne nje festival ne Tajlande,

you can see that hot air can propel gasses upward.

mund te vereni se ajri i nxehte ve ne levizje gazrat perpjete.

And if you have enough energy and heating,

Dhe nese ke mjaftueshem energji dhe nxehtesi,

which our Sun does,

te cilat Dielli i ka,

that gas, which is so light and only bound by gravity,

ky gaz, i cili eshte shume i lehte dhe lidhet vetem nga graviteti,

it can escape into space.

mund te largohet neper hapesire.

And so this is what's actually causing atmospheric escape

Ajo qe aktualisht po shkakton hollimin e atmosferes

here on Earth and also on other planets --

ne Toke por edhe ne planetet e tjera gjithashtu--

that interplay between heating from the star

eshte nderveprimi midis nxehtesise nga yjet

and overcoming the force of gravity on the planet.

dhe kapercimi i forces se gravitetit ne planet.

So I've told you that it happens

Iu thashe se kjo ndodh

at the rate of 400 pounds a minute for hydrogen

ne normen e 200 kg per min per hidrogjenin

and almost seven pounds for helium.

dhe pothuajse 3,5 kg per min per heliumin.

But what does that look like?

Por si duket kjo?

Well, even in the '80s,

Ne vitet '80

we took pictures of the Earth

ne kemi bere foto te Tokes

in the ultraviolet

te rrezeve ultraviolet

using NASA's Dynamic Explorer spacecraft.

duke perdorur sonden e NASA-s "Dynamic Explorer"

So these two images of the Earth

Pra, keto dy imazhe te Tokes

show you what that glow of escaping hydrogen looks like,

paraqesin se si digjet hidrogjeni kur largohet,

shown in red.

i treguar me te kuqe.

And you can also see other features like oxygen and nitrogen

Mund te shikoni karakteristika te tjera si oksigjeni dhe nitrogjeni

in that white glimmer

ne ate dritezen e bardhe

in the circle showing you the auroras

rrethore qe na paraqesin aurorat

and also some wisps around the tropics.

dhe gjithashtu disa fije perreth tropikeve.

So these are pictures that conclusively show us

Pra, keto jane foto qe perfundimisht na tregojne

that our atmosphere isn't just tightly bound to us here on Earth

qe atmosfera jone nuk eshte thjesht e lidhur fort te planeti yne

but it's actually reaching out far into space,

por aktualisht eshte duke u larguar ne hapesire,

and at an alarming rate, I might add.

ne menyre alarmante, sipas meje.

But the Earth is not alone in undergoing atmospheric escape.

Por nuk eshte vetem Toka qe po i nenshtrohet hollimit te atmosferes.

Mars, our nearest neighbor, is much smaller than Earth,

Marsi, fqinji yne me i afert eshte shume me i vogel se Toka,

so it has much less gravity with which to hold on to its atmosphere.

keshtu qe ka shume me pak gravitet, me te cilin te mbaje atmosferen e tij.

And so even though Mars has an atmosphere,

Pra, edhe pse Marsi ka nje atmosfere,

we can see it's much thinner than the Earth's.

shohim se shume me e holle se e Tokes.

Just look at the surface.

Vetem shikoni siperfaqen.

You see craters indicating that it didn't have an atmosphere

Dallohen kratere qe tregojne se nuk ka patur nje atmosfere

that could stop those impacts.

qe mund te ndalonte rreziqet.

Also, we see that it's the "red planet,"

Gjithashtu, shikojme se eshte "planeti i kuq"

and atmospheric escape plays a role

dhe hollimi atmosferik luan nje rol

in Mars being red.

qe Marsi te jete i kuq.

That's because we think Mars used to have a wetter past,

Ne mendojme se Marsi ka patur nje te kaluar me lageshtire,

and when water had enough energy, it broke up into hydrogen and oxygen,

dhe kur uji kishte energji te mjaftueshme, u nda ne hidrogjen dhe oksigjen,

and hydrogen being so light, it escaped into space,

mirepo duke qene i lehte hidrogjeni u leshua per ne hapesire,

and the oxygen that was left

dhe oksigjeni qe ngeli

oxidized or rusted the ground,

u oksidua ose ndryshku dheun,

making that familiar rusty red color that we see.

qe u kthye ne kete ngjyren e kuqe te ndryshkut qe shohim ne.

So it's fine to look at pictures of Mars

Pranohet te shikosh fotot e Marsit

and say that atmospheric escape probably happened,

dhe te thuash se ndoshta hollimi atmosferik ka ndodhur,

but NASA has a probe that's currently at Mars called the MAVEN satellite,

por NASA ka nje sonde qe ndodhet ne Mars qe quhet sateliti MAVEN,

and its actual job is to study atmospheric escape.

ku puna e tij eshte te studioje hollimin e atmosferes.

It's the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft.

Eshte Atmosfera e Marsit dhe sonda Volatile Evolution.

And results from it have already shown pictures very similar

Gjetjet atje kane treguar foto qe jane shume te ngjashme

to what you've seen here on Earth.

me ato qe keni pare ketu ne Toke.

We've long known that Mars was losing its atmosphere,

E kemi ditur gjate qe Marsi po e humbiste atmosferen,

but we have some stunning pictures.

por kemi disa foto shokuese.

Here, for example, you can see in the red circle

Per shembull, ketu, mund te shikoni ne rrethin e kuq

is the size of Mars,

madhesine e Marsit,

and in blue you can see the hydrogen escaping away from the planet.

dhe ne blu mund te shihni hidrogjenin qe largohet nga planeti.

So it's reaching out more than 10 times the size of the planet,

Pra, po arrin 10 fishin e madhesise se planetit,

far enough away that it's no longer bound to that planet.

larg nga kufiri i ketij planeti.

It's escaping off into space.

Po leshohet neper hapesire.

And this helps us confirm ideas,

Kjo na ndihmon te konfirmojme idete,

like why Mars is red, from that lost hydrogen.

si ajo pse Marsi nga humbja e hidrogjenit, eshte i kuq.

But hydrogen isn't the only gas that's lost.

Por nuk eshte hidrogjeni gazi i vetem qe po humb.

I mentioned helium on Earth and some oxygen and nitrogen,

Permenda heliumin ne Toke dhe pak oksigjen dhe nitrogjen,

and from MAVEN we can also look at the oxygen being lost from Mars.

por nga MAVEN mund te verejme oksigjenin qe po largohet nga Marsi.

And you can see that because oxygen is heavier,

Mund te shikoni se ngaqe oksigjeni eshte me i rende,

it can't get as far as the hydrogen,

nuk mund te largohet aq larg sa hidrogjeni

but it's still escaping away from the planet.

por sidoqofte po largohet nga planeti.

You don't see it all confined into that red circle.

Nuk shihet te jete i teri i permbledhur ne ate rrethin e kuq.

So the fact that we not only see atmospheric escape on our own planet

Pra fakti qe nuk shohim hollim atmosferik vetem ne Toke

but we can study it elsewhere and send spacecraft

por mund ta studiojme kudo dhe te dergojme sonda

allows us to learn about the past of planets

na lejon te mesojme rreth te shkuares se planeteve

but also about planets in general

por gjithashtu per planetet ne pergjithesi

and Earth's future.

dhe per te ardhmen e Tokes.

So one way we actually can learn about the future

Nje menyre qe mund te mesojme per te ardhmen

is by planets so far away that we can't see.

eshte nga planetet e larget qe ne nuk mund t'i shohim.

And I should just note though, before I go on to that,

Me duhet te permend se, para se te vazhdoj me kete,

I'm not going to show you photos like this of Pluto,

nuk kam per t'iu treguar foto si Plutoni,

which might be disappointing,

qe mund te duket zhgenjyese,

but that's because we don't have them yet.

por kjo sepse nuk i kemi akoma fotot.

But the New Horizons mission is currently studying atmospheric escape

Por, misioni i New Horizons eshte qe te studioje hollimin atmosferik

being lost from the planet.

qe largohet nga planeti.

So stay tuned and look out for that.

Keshtu qe kini mendjen per kete.

But the planets that I did want to talk about

Planetet qe une dua te flas

are known as transiting exoplanets.

jane te njohur si ekzoplanetet.

So any planet orbiting a star that's not our Sun

Keshtu qe cdo planet ne orbiten e nje ylli qe nuk eshte Dielli

is called an exoplanet, or extrasolar planet.

quhet ekzoplanet, ose planet jashte sistemit solar.

And these planets that we call transiting

Dhe keto planete qe ne i quajme kalimtare

have the special feature

kane karakteristiken se

that if you look at that star in the middle,

nese shikon yllin ne mes

you'll see that actually it's blinking.

mund te shikosh se po vezullon.

And the reason that it's blinking

Arsyeja se pse po vezullon

is because there are planets that are going past it all the time,

eshte sepse atje ka planete qe kalojne me rradhe gjate gjithe kohes

and it's that special orientation

dhe eshte nje orientim special

where the planets are blocking the light from the star

ku planetet bllokojne driten nga ylli

that allows us to see that light blinking.

qe na lejon te shohim driten qe vezullon.

And by surveying the stars in the night sky

Duke survejuar yjet gjate nates

for this blinking motion,

per kete vezullim levizez,

we are able to find planets.

jemi ne gjendje te gjejme planetet.

This is how we've now been able to detect over 5,000 planets

Keshtu kemi qene ne gjendje te zbulojme mbi 5000 planete

in our own Milky Way,

ne Rrugen e Qumeshtit,

and we know there are many more out there, like I mentioned.

dhe sic e permenda atje jane shume me teper planete.

So when we look at the light from these stars,

Kur shikojme driten nga keto yje

what we see, like I said, is not the planet itself,

sic thashe, ajo qe shikojme, nuk eshte vete planeti,

but you actually see a dimming of the light

po aktualisht shikohet nje zbehje e drites

that we can record in time.

qe e regjistrojme ne kohe.

So the light drops as the planet decreases in front of the star,

Drita bie sapo planetet dalin perballe yllit

and that's that blinking that you saw before.

dhe kjo eshte vezullimi qe pate me pare.

So not only do we detect the planets

Jo vetem qe i zbulojme keto planete

but we can look at this light in different wavelengths.

por mund ta shikojme kete drite ne gjatesi vale te ndryshme.

So I mentioned looking at the Earth and Mars in ultraviolet light.

Une permenda shikimin e Tokes dhe Marsit ne driten ultraviolet.

If we look at transiting exoplanets with the Hubble Space Telescope,

Nese e shikojme nje eksoplanet me Teleskopin Hapesinor Hubble,

we find that in the ultraviolet,

zbulojme se ne rrezet ultraviolet,

you see much bigger blinking, much less light from the star,

shikohen vezullime me te medha, shume me pak drite nga ylli,

when the planet is passing in front.

kur planeti i kalon perballe.

And we think this is because you have an extended atmosphere of hydrogen

Ne mendojme se kjo ndodh se ka nje atmosfere te mbushur me hidrogjen

all around the planet

perreth planetit

that's making it look puffier

qe e ben te duket me te fryre

and thus blocking more of the light that you see.

e bllokohet me shume drite qe ne shikojme.

So using this technique, we've actually been able to discover

Nga perdorimi i kesaj teknike kemi qene ne gjendje te zbulojme

a few transiting exoplanets that are undergoing atmospheric escape.

disa eksoplanete kalimtare qe po i nenshtrohen hollimit atmosferik.

And these planets can be called hot Jupiters,

Keto planete mund te quhen Jupitere te nxehte,

for some of the ones we've found.

per disa nga ato qe gjetem.

And that's because they're gas planets like Jupiter,

Kjo, sepse ndodhen disa planete gazore si Jupiteri

but they're so close to their star,

por ato jane kaq afer me yllin e tyre,

about a hundred times closer than Jupiter.

rreth 100 here me afer se Jupiteri.

And because there's all this lightweight gas that's ready to escape,

Per shkak se atje ndodhet gjithe ky gaz i lehte qe eshte gati te largohet

and all this heating from the star,

dhe gjithe ajo nxehtesi nga ylli,

you have completely catastrophic rates of atmospheric escape.

ka norma shume katastrofike te hollimit atmosferik.

So unlike our 400 pounds per minute of hydrogen being lost on Earth,

Ndryshe nga 200 kg per min te hidrogjenit qe largohen ne Toke,

for these planets,

per keto planete,

you're losing 1.3 billion pounds of hydrogen every minute.

humbasin 590 milion kg hidrogjen cdo minute.

So you might think, well, does this make the planet cease to exist?

Pra ju mund te mendoni, a ben kjo qe keto planete te ndalojne se ekzistuari?

And this is a question that people wondered

Kjo eshte nje pyetje qe i beri te mendonin njerezit

when they looked at our solar system,

kur pane ne sistemin tone diellor,

because planets closer to the Sun are rocky,

sepse planetet sa me afer Diellit jane shkembor

and planets further away are bigger and more gaseous.

dhe planetet me larg jane me te medhenj dhe gazor.

Could you have started with something like Jupiter

Mund ta filloje me dicka si Jupiteri

that was actually close to the Sun,

qe ishte aktualisht afer Diellit,

and get rid of all the gas in it?

dhe te largosh gjithe gazin ne te?

We now think that if you start with something like a hot Jupiter,

Tani ne mendojme se nese e fillon me dicka si Jupiteri i nxehte

you actually can't end up with Mercury or the Earth.

nuk mund te perfundosh me Merkurin apo me Token.

But if you started with something smaller,

Por nese do ta nisje me dicka me te vogel,

it's possible that enough gas would have gotten away

eshte e mundur qe te largohej mjaftueshem gaz

that it would have significantly impacted it

qe do te ndkonte ndjeshem

and left you with something very different than what you started with.

dhe do te t'ju linte me dicka shume te ndryshme nga ajo qe e filluat.

So all of this sounds sort of general,

Kjo tingellon si dicka e zakonshme,

and we might think about the solar system,

dhe ne mund te mendojme rreth sistemit diellor,

but what does this have to do with us here on Earth?

por cfare ka te beje kjo me ne ketu ne Toke?

Well, in the far future,

Ne te ardhmen e larget,

the Sun is going to get brighter.

Dielli do te behet me i shndritshem.

And as that happens,

Dhe ndersa kjo ndodh,

the heating that we find from the Sun is going to become very intense.

nxehtesia qe vjen nga Dielli do te behet me e forte.

In the same way that you see gas streaming off from a hot Jupiter,

Ne te njejten menyre qe shikon gazin te leshohet nga Jupiteri i nxehte,

gas is going to stream off from the Earth.

gazi do te leshohet nga Toka.

And so what we can look forward to,

Keshtu qe ajo qe mund te presim nga

or at least prepare for,

ose te pakten te pergatitemi

is the fact that in the far future,

eshte fakti se ne te ardhmen e larget,

the Earth is going to look more like Mars.

Toka do te duket me shume si Marsi.

Our hydrogen, from water that is broken down,

Hidrogjeni jone, nga uji qe eshe i zberthyer,

is going to escape into space more rapidly,

ka per t'u leshuar neper hapesire me shpejt,

and we're going to be left with this dry, reddish planet.

dhe ne do te mbetemi me kete planet te thate dhe te kuqerremte.

So don't fear, it's not for a few billion years,

Mos u frikesoni, per disa miliarda vjet,

so there's some time to prepare.

Pra kemi kohe per tu pergatitur.

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

But I wanted you to be aware of what's going on,

Por une doja t'ju vija ne dijeni se cpo ndodh,

not just in the future,

jo vetem ne te ardhmen,

but atmospheric escape is happening as we speak.

por hollimi atmosferik po ndodh teksa ne flasim.

So there's a lot of amazing science that you hear about happening in space

Ka kaq shume shkence te mahnitshme qe degjojme se po ndodh ne hapesire

and planets that are far away,

dhe ne planete qe jane larg,

and we are studying these planets to learn about these worlds.

dhe ne po i studiojme keto planete te mesojme me shume per keto bote.

But as we learn about Mars or exoplanets like hot Jupiters,

Por teksa mesojme rreth Marsit apo eksoplaneteve si Jupiteri i nxehte,

we find things like atmospheric escape

ne gjejme gjera si hollimi i atmosferes

that tell us a lot more about our planet here on Earth.

qe na tregojne shume rreth planetit tone ketu ne Toke.

So consider that the next time you think that space is far away.

Keshtu qe mendoni kete, heren tjeter qe do te mendoni se hapesira eshte larg.

Thank you.

Faleminderit

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)