How Plutonium got us to Pluto 

"And your suggestion is rubbish" The prof is pretty straight forward hahahaha xD

"Your suggestion is rubbish" - professor not having any of Brady's shenanigans today.

3:25 "How do you just turn hate into pure electrical energy?" I see a prospective Sith.

Plutonium coaster - the perfect gift for anyone who never wants to drink cold coffee again.

Don't forget Cerium, named after Ceres, which was also considered a planet at the time.

"It's not as if Pluto has been throwing rocks at earth" lol love this guy

That tie the Prof has on is amazing.

Heh. 'Far more efficient than gasoline'. I just love the mental image of a generator chugging along through space. *Put-put-put-put-put-put. I'M GOING TO PLUTO! Put-put-put-put-put-put.*

Pluto wasn't "demoted", it was properly classified with its friends. That's like saying a red panda was demoted because it's not classed with pandas.

Actually, The US has resumed production of Plutonium-238 since 2013. NASA's budget has been more generous as of late, and this is considered extremely high priority for deep space missions. While it'll take awhile to get back up to production as the Department of Energy re-learns how to produce it by talking to retirees and such, it's expected that 3lbs of the stuff will be produced annually. Enough to cover NASA's needs Meanwhile, in a parallel development The European Space Agency is developing an alternative nuclear power source from British Nuclear Waste. The EU is funding work at NNL in Sellafield to produce Americium-241 Batteries. While not as ideally energy dense or easily shielded as Pu-238, Am-241 can be produced from British Nuclear waste, due to the peculiar way we were sorting it that means nearly pure isotope samples have been generated over the decades of decay

Given that Plutonium 238 is radioactive, and we see from the video the kind of protective gear the crew had to wear when they entered the lab containing the isotope, I'd be interested to read about the safety precautions the New Horizons team had taken to prevent the spread of radioactive material in case the rocket was destroyed during launch.

I really love this channel :D I love learning new things I didn't know before! It's great because when people talk about subjects like these I can tell them how everything works because I have seen videos such as these and learned!

Your suggestion is rubbish, Brady. I love Sir Dr. Prof. Mr. Martyn "The Prof" Poliakoff. :)

"Pluto has done nothing wrong" Yep. Plutonium should most certainly keep it's name.

I like this guy. He explains everything clearly and does it in a charming way.

Brady is correct it should be reclassified as a dwarf element

I absolutely love Love LOVE *LOVE* that tie. Nice one, Professor!

That is a fantastic tie you have there professor! Something about the look of those pin/bolt flags i love. Another great video as well.

I love this channel because they haven’t asked for subs or likes like all the other channels, I can’t wait for this channel to reach 1 million subscribers

Such a perfect tone of voice to explain it with clarity.

It's interesting to note that when Uranium was named, the name of the planet Uranus was still not settled. Martin Klaproth named the element Uranium to support the name Uranus for the planet as an alternative to Neptune and several less impressive names (e.g. Neptune George III).

I spy a scrambled Void Cube at the very end of the video. :)

Thank-you Brady for bringing us another awesome interestingly informative and amusing video from the legendary Sir Professor Martyn Poliakoff co-starring "The Hair"! and asking the kinds of questions we would ask if we were there. :D

I believe they're trying to restart production of Plutonium at the Oak Ridge National Labs in Tennessee specifically for the space program.

I love the wit and senses of humor of high level scientists. Often it's so dry and deadpan, and sublimely esoteric.

He's wearing the tie that he got from Destin! Awesome choice for this video.

Your videos rock! This was interesting and awesome.

Good vid. Love your work.

Such a fantastic video. Thanks!

Periodic Videos, a chemistry channel; 'Pluto hard done by'; 'triumph of physics.' Sixty Symbols, a physics channel; 'Boring non-planet!' See physicists, this is why nobody invites you to parties.

It produces 1.21 gigawatt.

I love your videos about Plutonium! So much cool information about my favorite element. I showed your videos to all my university roommates, and we all like to call you Dr. Plutonium! I hope you don't mind :D

Pluto "didn't misbehave." I love the way the professor thinks.

"[...] Pluto hasn't misbehaved [...] and your suggestion rubbish." That was a pretty straight answer haha

ooooh....RBF necktie! a rare occasion, Professor without periodic table necktie.

Absolutely love your tie Professor❣💖 "Remove Before Flight."

Love this channel

That was a brave statement to end on, Mr. Haran. :)

That tie is wonderful! I need it!

Wow this is a great video bravo bravo!

I LOVE THE TIE!! I want one now.

I absolutely love the tie!!

I absolutely love your tie.

Badey, can you make a film about the Prof. and all his ties? Because I this one, and others he has worn, are just splendid!

I want that tie! That is so awesome!

I'm starting studying chemistry this fall at university.I'm almost sure that it won't be a disappointment.

As I understand it, solar power is feasible on mars, however it provides less of a stable power source compared to a nuclear source. Over time martian dust will accumulate on the solar panels which will greatly reduce their power output, and of nobody can clean them.

Very interesting video guys, thanks :)

It's my understanding that if we use Thorium in a molten salt reactor like LFTR, it would produce a small amount of U-238 just from operating it normally. And since LFTR uses its fuel in a liquid form, U-238 can be chemical separated w/o shutting down the reactor. So with LFTR it is possible to generate electricity and also produce the isotope U-238 for deep space batteries (RTG).

That tie is awesome.

Nice tie! Can we get a better look at it? The professor never fails to amuse us with his ties!

This was very interesting!

I love that tie!!!

I love this guy. And the "Remove Before Use" tie is perfect.

Pluto is my favorite planet :) I basically shut myself out of the entire world for the past few days so I could keep up with all the new pictures and science and news about New Horizons and Pluto.

Love the new tie!

Those thermocouples are called Peltier Junctions.

Great video, great tie. :D

Sir, I want that tie!

Haha I love when the professor is exited!!! ;D

i'm impressed, thank you!

Absolutely love the dude.

I love these guys

'Remove Before Flight' tie.... awesome!

"I think your suggestion is rubbish!" ~Dr. Poliakoff A quote to remember.

This is my favourite prof.

Loving the parachute tie!

love your tie Professor! :)

Nice tie! My dad's a pilot, and he has several souvenir "remove before flight" flags.

There are an enormous number of objects in the Kuiper belt, the main reason Pluto was found first was simply because it is unusually reflective. The locating of Eris, another Kuiper belt object bigger but not as bright as Pluto brought the matter to a head. Giving one of 100,000 estimated sizable objects the privilege of being a planet seemed unfair.

PLUTO IS STILL A PLANET IN MY HEART

I love the ending question

"...your suggestion is rubbish." Hahaha, cracked me up! Nice to see that Sir hasn't lost his sense of humour. :-)

"Uh, does it run, like, on regular unleaded gasoline?" "Unfortunately, no. It requires something with a little more kick. Plutonium." "Um, plutonium. Wait a minute. Are...Are you telling me that this sucker is nuclear?" "No, no, no, no, no, this sucker's electrical."

I love the tie..!

I don't think of Pluto as a demotion, rather, it has moved to the head of a new class of objects. The definitions will help us to objectively sort out what we are looking at as we learn about other solar systems. Great video, I wondered how radioactive material could be used as a "battery".

Plutonium Drinks Mat; the ultimate "Keeps your coffee warm" device....

Once you se the face of pluto on the planet pluto you can never unsee it.

love the tie

Hi, thank you for the videos. I would like to know if you guys answer questions the public make. If so, where can I make said question? Thank you very much.

Love the Tie

The main reason that they opt for generators like the one discussed in the video for Mars rovers is actually because there is a lot of dust build (from just driving around and storms) up on solar panels which decrease their efficiency.

Hello Brady, Could you make please a video about fluoroantimonic acid or other super acids?

How about a video on the chemistry of the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors that are being proposed. It is a neat system and it could produce the Pu 238 discussed in this video.

I reckon sunlight looks more like moonlight on Pluto, and a lump of Plutonium would come in handy to keep warm out there.

A "remove before flight" tie? Nice!

I am a great fan of Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff.

Got a question: Can you 'make" that plutinium in advance if it decays so rapidly ? or do you have the available components ready and then quickly make what is needed ? or can you slow the decay by cooling it down while stored ? tyvm !

This heart-shaped feature might be an easteregg left by aliens...

very interesting thanks

I have watched about 30 Videos from this channel, and i am thinking seriously about to study chemistry.

That tie. I need one.

3:00 Something that it's good to understand, is that it's not technically heat being converted to electricity here. The electricity is actually being made from the *difference* in temperature from the hot plutonium on the inside to the coldness of empty space on the outside. For the engine to work, the cold is just as important as the heat, you need both. That's why the outside of it is covered with those black fins, it's to make sure that the "cold part" is as cold as possible. The principle is very similar to why car engines are more powerful in cold weather, because they get their energy from the *difference* in temperature of the burning fuel inside the engine vs the cold air outside. If for some reason the air outside the car engine was just as hot as the burning fuel (like if you were driving through a burning building or something), then there wouldn't be a temperature difference at all, and the car engine wouldn't work! This is also why some cars equiped with turbos also have a device called an "intercooler", it's to make sure the air comming into the engine is as cold as possible, as this will give you more power than if the incomming air was warm. You want to maximise that temperature difference! It's the same with the radioactive engine this video is talking about: The outside of it must be kept cold. Because it's not just about the heat, it's about the hot-vs-cold. This principle it's prettymuch the core principle of every engine ever designed, so it's a good thing to keep in mind as it can make you start to look at engines differently. Prettymuch all energy is extracted from 2 things which have some sortof relative difference to one another: hot vs cold (thermal energy), high vs low (gravity, eg: hydroelectric energy), reacted vs unreacted (chemical energy), high pressure vs low pressure (ie: wind energy, also explosive energy). If all you've got is one homogenous thing which can't change from one state to another, you can't extract energy from it, you need 2 things. If everything was always the same temperature, ie: if we lived in a world where everything was always as hot as that lump of plutonium and nothing was ever cooler (nor hotter) than that - then we wouldn't be able to design any sortof engine to extract energy from it.

Great informative video & love the tie! Remove before use :)

Pluto will always be a planet to me! I never made the planetary connection for Uranium Neptunium & Plutonium! I'm so glad you mentioned that. I seriously had no idea. I agree, that makes it even more special that Plutonium powered New Horizons to Pluto :)

RTG's were also used on the voyagers spacecrafts as well as other spacecraft.

Totally loving the Professor's tie. Do they make him take it off before boarding a plane?

I was hoping you would discuss why we cannot just use uranium or neptunium to heat the thermocouples? What is special about plutonium-238?

One clarification. The thermocouples do not convert heat to electricity. They convert a temperature gradient to electricity. One side needs to be cooled. The fins on the RTG radiate heat into space. The RTG would not work if it was insulated.

Can thermo electric cooling be used to make electricity out of coldness or heat amd how does it work??