Diamonds, Time, and the Weird Rules of Space

The theory of relativity ... hold on, we're just kids!

Don't fret. In today's episode Fin discusses the diamond planet, which he told you about in episode 1, Einstein's theory of relativity and how you can travel forward in time.

This has to be one of the coolest ideas in science and Fin takes you through it in a fun and easy to understand way.

Transcript:

Welcome to Brain Pop! — where your brain goes boom with one mind-blowing fact every day!

I’m Fin — your curious cosmic explorer — and today, we’re going deep into outer space AND deep into our brains. This episode is going to stretch your imagination like taffy — so buckle up!

But first… have you listened to Episode 1?

If not, pause this and go back to hear about a real-life planet called 55 Cancri e — a place made almost entirely of sparkling, shiny diamond. 

Yep — a whole diamond planet. It’s wild.

Okay, ready? Let’s get that brain popping — Einstein style!

So, in Episode 1 we talked about how the planet 55 Cancri e is made mostly of carbon — and with enough heat and pressure, carbon can turn into diamond. But wait a second… how could a whole planet be made of something so dense and so heavy like diamond?

Wouldn’t it just… collapse?

And that, my friends, is where we take a peek into one of the coolest ideas in science: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Sounds big and scary? Don’t worry — we’re gonna break it down, kid-style.

Albert Einstein was a super genius with wild hair and even wilder ideas. His theory says that mass — how much “stuff” is packed into something — can actually bend space and time. Like, literally!

If you put a bowling ball on a trampoline, it sinks down, right? That’s kinda what super-dense planets or stars do to the fabric of space.

So what happens if you have too much mass in one place — like, say… a whole planet made of diamond?

Well, scientists believe that if something is super duper dense, it could create so much gravity that it collapses in on itself. That’s how black holes are formed — they’re made from massive stars that shrink into tiny, invisible points with gravity so strong, nothing can escape. Not even light!

So would 55 Cancri e collapse into a black hole? Luckily, no — not unless it was WAY bigger and denser. Right now, it’s about twice the size of Earth, so it’s still okay. But the idea gets scientists thinking: how big can a diamond planet be before it becomes something else?

And here’s something wild — because of relativity, if you lived on a super-heavy, high-gravity planet, time would move slower for you compared to someone floating in space. Imagine taking a nap on 55 Cancri e, and waking up to find out everyone back on Earth has aged faster than you. It's almost like you travelled forward in time.

Whoa — from shiny diamonds to space-time spaghetti, this episode was a total brain bender!

Thanks for popping your brain with me on today’s deep space dive into gravity and relativity.

Don’t forget to check out Episode 1 if you haven’t yet — it’s all about the incredible diamond planet.

And here’s your Einstein-inspired question of the day:

If time moved slower for you, what would you do with your extra time? Would you read every book in the world? Watch the clouds forever? Learn to speak dolphin?

See you next time on Brain Pop! — where curiosity is cool, facts are fun, and every day your brain goes BOOM!