Extended Classic – Cosmic Queries The Random Edition

This week, Chuck Nice asks Neil deGrasse Tyson fan-submitted questions on a range of topics we couldn’t answer in other episodes. Now extended with a session of “Neil’d It” – where Neil and Chuck comb Internet comments to see if the science is right. (Adult Language). NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free. Photo Credit: Ben Ratner.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to StarTalk. Your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.

• 0:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is StarTalk. I'm your host Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. And I'm here in studio with Chuck Nice, sitting across from me.

• 0:31Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 0:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck Nice comedian, how you doing, man?

• 0:34Chuck Nice?

  I'm doing very well.

• 0:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got gigs lately? Yeah, I don't want to be your only gig, you know, I mean, you got-

• 0:39Chuck Nice?

  I know, I'm, you know, I still do my little TV shows that I do and-

• 0:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, they bring you on to comment on stuff?

• 0:46Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, you know, the latest one, you should check it out if you can, on True TV called How To Be A Grown Up.

• 0:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 0:52Chuck Nice?

  Why they asked me to be on it, I'll never know. Um, and, uh, and I still do stand-up.

• 0:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 0:58Chuck Nice?

  You know, still do stand-up.

• 1:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, I don't think I've ever seen you do stand-up.

• 1:02Chuck Nice?

  Oh, really? You gotta come sometime.

• 1:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Send me an invitation. No, let me restate that. I don't think I've ever been invited to see you stand up.

• 1:11Chuck Nice?

  Snap. Damn.

• 1:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From what I hear, I'm very funny.

• 1:15Chuck Nice?

  That's what people tell me all the time. You know, so-

• 1:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, we've got another Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk.

• 1:22Chuck Nice?

  Yes, this one-

• 1:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is like, fans and people like Cosmic Queries.

• 1:26Chuck Nice?

  You know, we-

• 1:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, I'd rather, you know, I prefer to be like interviewing guests and stuff, you know?

• 1:30Chuck Nice?

  Oh, well, thanks.

• 1:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, instead of be here, be like Encyclopedia Man for the universe, but-

• 1:39Chuck Nice?

  I think people enjoy the passion that you bring to, uh, the answers of the questions.

• 1:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 1:44Chuck Nice?

  You know, it's like, I know your thing is to empower people to find information on their own or to steer them to other information. I know that's what you like to do.

• 1:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As an educator.

• 1:53Chuck Nice?

  As an educator. But, what, I think people, you don't want to be the actual resource, like, you know?

• 1:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly.

• 1:58Chuck Nice?

  Like, my mom used to say, I was like, "What's that mean? Go look it up." That's what she used to say. "Mom, what's this word mean?"

• 2:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I don't, I don't be your damn Wikipedia page.

• 2:06Chuck Nice?

  Exactly. But I think what people enjoy is the fact that you bring the information in a very entertaining and very passionate fervent way.

• 2:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 2:14Chuck Nice?

  So that's what they really dig, not just the the fact that you're giving the information.

• 2:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. All right, so let's do this.

• 2:20Chuck Nice?

  Let's do this.

• 2:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I haven't seen these questions at all.

• 2:22Chuck Nice?

  No, you have not, and these are from.

• 2:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the category?

• 2:25Chuck Nice?

  No category.

• 2:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So this is the leftovers.

• 2:28Chuck Nice?

  Little hodgepodge.

• 2:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Potpourri.

• 2:31Chuck Nice?

  The potpourri.

• 2:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 2:32Chuck Nice?

  That's right, Cosmic Queries Potpourri.

• 2:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And in math, we would call it random.

• 2:36Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Rather than potpourri hodgepodge.

• 2:39Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Random.

• 2:40Chuck Nice?

  Random.

• 2:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, go.

• 2:41Chuck Nice?

  Cosmic Queries Random.

• 2:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The random edition.

• 2:43Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Go.

• 2:44Chuck Nice?

  Okay. Uh, Kasim Johnson wants to know this from Facebook and Earth, because he doesn't tell me where on Earth he is from.

• 2:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, if you don't say, we're just gonna say you're Earth.

• 2:54Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, all right.

• 2:55Chuck Nice?

  He says, is it possible for a stable black hole to exist within a stable star?

• 3:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh.

• 3:05Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that's kind of a wild question.

• 3:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, no. No. The black hole would eat the star.

• 3:15Chuck Nice?

  Ooh, from the inside out.

• 3:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 3:17Chuck Nice?

  Oh, my God, that's amazing.

• 3:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, that'd be nasty, dude.

• 3:21Chuck Nice?

  That would be ugly.

• 3:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ugly, totally ugly.

• 3:23Chuck Nice?

  Uh, it's it's like that, uh, the Asian, uh, drawing of a dragon eating itself.

• 3:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, or its tail.

• 3:30Chuck Nice?

  Or its tail, right.

• 3:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 3:31Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, so no, there you have it. Wow, look at that, man, hey.

• 3:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's a general, uh, image of a serpent, so that snakes would eat their tail, too.

• 3:39Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, because snakes don't have legs, so it's just a the string eating itself.

• 3:43Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a more, it's a more clean version of the image of that.

• 3:47Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A snake eating its tail.

• 3:48Chuck Nice?

  A snake eating its tail.

• 3:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But no, but so, that's eating it from the outside. The black hole would eat it from the inside.

• 3:54Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 3:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 3:56Chuck Nice?

  Well, there you have it. Good question, Kasim.

• 3:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And by the way, the center of a star is where it's at its hottest, which is the source of the generation of energy. So if your center became a black hole, you're not generating an energy for the star anymore.

• 4:07Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 4:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that's all she wrote.

• 4:09Chuck Nice?

  And that's it, so the star would just get sucked right up.

• 4:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yep, yep.

• 4:12Chuck Nice?

  Okay. Nice, nice. All right, so Thomas.

• 4:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, wait, now you have to do your imitation of the supermassive black hole after just ate something. No, no, no, it was.

• 4:23Chuck Nice?

  Was that it, no?

• 4:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, that wasn't it.

• 4:24Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 4:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's the middle school version of it, right?

• 4:30Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 4:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, it was the, um, the black hole, uh, eating any star that comes nearby. And he said, eh eh.

• 4:40Chuck Nice?

  Just a fat black hole. Oh, yeah, it's a fat black hole.

• 4:46Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that was delicious.

• 4:49Chuck Nice?

  I believe I just had a cosmic snack.

• 4:57Chuck Nice?

  It's a fat black hole.

• 5:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I believe that was delicious. Yeah, so black hole, yeah, it would eat the star.

• 5:05Chuck Nice?

  It would eat the star from within.

• 5:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thank you for the personification of the black hole.

• 5:08Chuck Nice?

  I can't believe I just ate myself. All right, Thomas Valenzuela wants to know this.

• 5:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You gotta admit, that's a cool last name.

• 5:18Chuck Nice?

  That is, Valenzuela. You can't be, you can't be that. Yeah, I used to love that picture for the Dodgers.

• 5:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, uh, yeah.

• 5:26Chuck Nice?

  All right, so, uh, does the rotation of the galaxies give us north and south orientation in the universe? Based on something similar to the, uh, Coriolis effect? And if that is the case, could it be used as a reference to measure distances and our position versus the equator of the universe?

• 5:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No. Okay, next question?

• 5:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, there's, there's some interesting backstory here.

• 5:57Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 5:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, in physics, we have an unambiguous way of how to define what is north.

• 6:04Chuck Nice?

  Really?

• 6:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 6:05Chuck Nice?

  Okay, please.

• 6:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, north has meaning only in things that rotate.

• 6:09Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 6:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. If I, if I put a book in front of you and say, what's north?

• 6:13Chuck Nice?

  That means nothing.

• 6:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It means nothing, okay. Rotate something. Now, take your right hand, curl your fingers in the direction the thing is rotating.

• 6:21Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 6:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then stick up your thumb.

• 6:22Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 6:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's north. Got you. Okay. Got you. And so that's how we can say if something is rotating upside down. Right. Relative to north, because you'd have to twist your hand upside down, curl it. Curl the fingers and now it's rotating in that direction. Now your thumb is pointing down. Pointing down. Okay, so that's how we define rotation. We did not know that the galaxy was a rotating thing until long after we had like named it. You know, why is it called galaxy? Galactos is Greek for milk. That's the Milky Way going across the night sky. Cause it just looked like a streak of white across the blackened night sky. They didn't think it was literally milk, but it was the poetic reference to it, right? And so, so that's the galaxy. And now if you learn that it is a flattened system.

• 7:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then you want to ask, does it have a north and a south? We astronomers in the early day, assigned the north pole of the galaxy to the pole of the galaxy that happened to be in the northern hemisphere of the earth. Of earth's sky. Got you. All right. Because we're seeing it from the north or top part of our reference. We would later learn which way the galaxy was rotating and it turns out it's turning the other way. Got you. So we are stuck calling the north pole of the galaxy the opposite of what our laws that we made for ourselves to define it as such would give us. Got you. Yeah, so in other words, the, the, what we say is the south pole of the galaxy is in the north.

• 7:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What we say is the north pole of the galaxy is in the northern hemisphere sky, but it's actually the south pole of the galaxy. Yeah, yeah. So yes, we can orient the galaxy, but we, the, the universe, we've never found a way to orient it. There's no patch of material in one direction or another, an axis, a distribution, a plane. Right. None of that. The stuff is like pretty random as far out as you go.

• 8:18Chuck Nice?

  That's cool, man. Yeah, so we could do that here on Earth because we have all of those things to measure and look at.

• 8:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a north pole of the solar system, which ways are all the planets turning around the sun?

• 8:28Chuck Nice?

  Because we see the sun as the center.

• 8:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, which way is the sun rotating? So that sun has a north pole. Everybody's got a north pole.

• 8:33Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha. That is cool. And that's because we didn't know it was, we didn't know it was rotating.

• 8:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We, we had to discover the galaxy because we're in it.

• 8:41Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Very, it's like, how do you know what your mother looks like if you're an embryo within her womb?

• 8:46Chuck Nice?

  That's so funny.

• 8:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You don't know. So one of the last things we discovered was the galaxy, what, what the hell we look like in the galaxy.

• 8:52Chuck Nice?

  What a great, uh, what a, what a great example. How do you know what your mom looks like before you're born?

• 8:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, you have no idea.

• 8:59Chuck Nice?

  Right. You know her voice.

• 9:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Get a selfie stick and put it out.

• 9:04Chuck Nice?

  Jesus.

• 9:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What? I'm just, there could be a way to do it.

• 9:08Chuck Nice?

  That's awesome.

• 9:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's all I'm saying.

• 9:09Chuck Nice?

  Oh my God, selfie stick. Okay, let's move on to Alex Perkins.

• 9:18Chuck Nice?

  Alex is coming to us from Earth and Alex says, um, hey, I just turned 30. Uh, hey, happy birthday, man. Uh, how feasible is it in my lifetime to see people land on Europa? Now, I, I suppose he's singing, using, uh, the average lifespan because we don't know Alex could be hit by a bus next week.

• 9:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, that's not, what, what, what, what?

• 9:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't think that's the life expectancy he's planning for this question.

• 9:50Chuck Nice?

  Okay, you're right.

• 9:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alex, if you get hit by a bus next week, you ain't never seeing this happen, all right? Uh, so.

• 10:00Chuck Nice?

  So in the average lifespan now.

• 10:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'd like to believe that before Alex turns a hundred.

• 10:06Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 10:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's the positive outlook, Alex. Uh, that we might be able to send people to Europa. That would just be very cool. That would happen only the day we are, like, the solar system is our backyard. It that would, I don't see that as a destination itself. I see that as just one of the many things we're doing in space.

• 10:22Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 10:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Visiting Europa. And it'd be very cool. I, I talk about going to Europa all the time.

• 10:26Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 10:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Go ice fishing on Europa. It's an outer icy layer, layer of ice. And stress from Jupiter's gravity heats Europa. By the way, Europa and Jupiter are outside of the Goldilocks zone.

• 10:38Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 10:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if you're outside of it, your water is, is evaporated because you're too close. You're frozen because you're too far away.

• 10:45Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 10:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jupiter pumps energy into Europa because of its gravity and has melted the ice beneath the surface.

• 10:51Chuck Nice?

  So you got a, it's like an Eminem. It's an Eminem moon. It's got a hard candy outside in it.

• 10:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, it's, it's soft and squishy.

• 11:00Chuck Nice?

  Nice watery, squishy inside.

• 11:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you're out there and I want to go, like I said this many times, I want to go ice fishing on Europa. There's a movie called The Europa Report, which is about the man, man's first mission to Europa. And so, and they, and they want to look for life there. So, yeah, I, I think that could happen, definitely in his lifetime.

• 11:18Chuck Nice?

  Well, with all those oceans underneath Europa, how likely is the, uh, the possibility of life? Because?

• 11:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, water and life go together, hand in hand here on Earth. And, and I, I, I've said this before. Uh, there's, there's life every place on Earth where there's water, liquid water, even the Dead Sea.

• 11:35Chuck Nice?

  Correct.

• 11:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, why is there life in the Dead Sea? Why is it called the Dead Sea? Because they, uh, okay, there are no macroscopic fishes swimming around. But at the time, they named it the Dead Sea. You know what they didn't have?

• 11:45Chuck Nice?

  No.

• 11:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A microscope.

• 11:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go.

• 11:49Chuck Nice?

  So there you have it.

• 11:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right. So they're defining their world by what their senses tell them, when in fact, what science is all about is extending your senses and creating new ways of detection that your biological form can't even approximate. And then you deduce the nature of the world.

• 12:04Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 12:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 12:05Chuck Nice?

  Sweet.

• 12:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 12:06Chuck Nice?

  All right. Great question, Alex, and, uh, I hope you live to be a hundred, buddy. Okay?

• 12:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 12:11Chuck Nice?

  All right. James Claver wants to know this. Uh, he's from Bangor, Michigan. He says, I've been reading your book, Death by Black Hole.

• 12:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, thank you.

• 12:20Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a fan favorite, Death by Black Hole.

• 12:22Chuck Nice?

  And you mentioned that scientists knew there were holes in the periodic table well before they were discovered. I'm just wondering, how did they know? Maybe a brief history of how they were originally organized. So, we know these tables, we know that there's gaps, how do they know there's gaps?

• 12:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so I, I'd love me some periodic table. Just, I can't get enough periodic table, just so you know.

• 12:46Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 12:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so, so, once you learn how to organize the elements, which is what, um, uh, Mendeleev figured out.

• 12:55Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 12:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A Russian scientist, right? Uh, he, once you do that, if you arrange them by how many protons are in their nucleus. Very simple way to, okay, how many proton? How many protons you got? You got four, then you're over here. You got five, go next to four. You got seven, skip one. Do we have six yet? No, not, well, actually, we did have six, six is carbon, but, um, do you have eight? Oh, that's oxygen, like, give me a hard one. Do you have nine, right? And if, no, we don't have it yet, but we got ten. So ten, go in your ten slot.

• 13:26Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 13:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, who's, where's nine? We don't have it yet. Well, get, get off your ass and find me some nine. And so, this, these are how we, you establish the gaps in the periodic table. The periodic table is complete, from one up to a hundred and, what are we, up to a hundred and ten or twelve or something? So it's not like you're gonna just discover some other element that's gonna pry.

• 13:44Chuck Nice?

  Right, that's gonna, right, cuz there's no nine point seven.

• 13:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's no nine point seven, correct. Correct. That's why it's complete.

• 13:50Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 13:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, there would, it, some, some aspects of science are complete.

• 13:55Chuck Nice?

  That's it.

• 13:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's how it is. That's why it's a beautiful thing. And it's a record of discovery over the centuries.

• 14:00Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 14:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I love it. So now, for example, the element, we, we discovered an element on the sun before we discovered it here on Earth.

• 14:08Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 14:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And we named it after the sun. The sun god, Helios.

• 14:13Chuck Nice?

  Helium.

• 14:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Which became helium.

• 14:15Chuck Nice?

  Which is, mm, a lot of that in the sun.

• 14:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, yeah, it's like ten per, about ten percent of it made of helium.

• 14:21Chuck Nice?

  And we're running out of it on Earth.

• 14:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  On Earth, that's right, that's right. And so, helium is not uncommon in the universe. And because we keep filling, like, Thanksgiving Day balloons with helium. Actually, in the old days, they would let it escape.

• 14:32Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 14:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then regenerate the helium, but, uh, now they recapture it. I've, I've been told.

• 14:36Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 14:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cuz Macy's is the second biggest consumer of helium in the world.

• 14:41Chuck Nice?

  Get out of here.

• 14:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  After the US military.

• 14:43Chuck Nice?

  And, uh...

• 14:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Helium has very special properties, not all of which I can divulge.

• 14:47Chuck Nice?

  Get out. Really?

• 14:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 14:48Chuck Nice?

  Come on.

• 14:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 14:49Chuck Nice?

  Oh, like... Making you talk funny?

• 14:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what happens too. Not a secret, not a secret.

• 14:55Chuck Nice?

  Okay, cuz that's the best one, by the way. Alright, great stuff, man. So there you have it, periodic. So now that, okay.

• 15:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's how you know you have a missing element.

• 15:04Chuck Nice?

  That's what I'm saying, so now, now, now.

• 15:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Go ahead, let's take it one step further.

• 15:07Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 15:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's an element that was missing, and we did the calculation after quantum physics was discovered, and we noticed that that element is unstable. So even if it was ever in the universe, it would have decayed into something else by now. So it would be like a permanent gap. Anything that was there was not there now. So we said, well, okay, let's just make it, make the stuff. So we manufactured an element to fit in the gap, and we named it after ourselves. We named it after technology. It's called technetium.

• 15:38Chuck Nice?

  Technetium.

• 15:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 15:39Chuck Nice?

  Sweet.

• 15:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 15:41Chuck Nice?

  Aw, man, and of course, because we made it, it can't last.

• 15:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plus, we named it tech. Tech means like artificial. And in fact, technetium is a very active tool, potent tool for the radiologist. Cuz you can set it up in ways that have different half-lives.

• 15:58Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 15:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Six hours or 10 hours, and you can do experiments with, you know, your circulatory system by tracking the radioactivity. And if small amounts are okay, if it can.

• 16:10Chuck Nice?

  Right. And you can trace it as it moves.

• 16:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As it moves.

• 16:13Chuck Nice?

  And the half-life, it'll go away, and you don't have to worry about it.

• 16:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're done, you leave the hospital, you're done.

• 16:17Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 16:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 16:18Chuck Nice?

  That is brilliant.

• 16:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I was once in a hospital with one of my radiation detectors, which I occasionally carry, and.

• 16:25Chuck Nice?

  Only you would make this.

• 16:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Someone sat down next to me in the waiting room, and then the alarm started going off. And I looked to the person, I said, okay, what are you in for? They just did a radioactive dye test on it. And he was still radioactive, as he would be for the next few hours. So I moved to another chair.

• 16:47Chuck Nice?

  Wow. All right. Um, okay. So we got

• 16:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, we got one more. We got one more before we break.

• 16:52Chuck Nice?

  All right. This is from Rob Z. What do you think the bright spot on Ceres is?

• 16:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, Ceres. Ceres. Uh, yeah. So the, the largest asteroid is actually has enough gravity to turn it into a round shape. So it's the only round asteroid. Technically, we shouldn't even call it an asteroid.

• 17:09Chuck Nice?

  Is it a, a what? Would a dwarf planet then?

• 17:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Precisely. No.

• 17:13Chuck Nice?

  Chuck!

• 17:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, I've been hanging around YouTube.

• 17:15Chuck Nice?

  Oh!

• 17:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, I've been hanging around you too long. So objects that are, that are just big enough to be turned into a sphere by their own gravity.

• 17:23Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 17:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But they haven't cleared their orbit because Ceres is orbiting in the asteroid belt dwarf planet.

• 17:29Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 17:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Pluto, big enough to be a sphere, but it's orbiting in the Kuiper belt dwarf planet. There we go. So a bright spot on Ceres? I, I have no idea.

• 17:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I can tell you other stuff about Ceres. It was the first asteroid discovered back in 1800 or 1801. And so obviously you're going to discover the biggest, brightest one first.

• 17:50Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 17:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, that makes sense. And so they wanted to, they thought they discovered a planet. And so they want, and planets are named after Roman gods, God, and so they named it after, um, Roman, Roman goddess of harvest. And Ceres, that's the root of the word cereal.

• 18:08Chuck Nice?

  Right. Mmm, whole grain oats. That's deli- that's a delicious planet or dwarf planet.

• 18:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that's Ceres. So I'm guessing it's a highly reflective icy area.

• 18:20Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 18:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of it, of the object because ice can be very reflective relative to any other kind of rock. And it doesn't take much to be more reflective than rock to show up blazingly in images you take of an object.

• 18:31Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 18:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that's my guess.

• 18:33Chuck Nice?

  Well, there you go, Rob. Get yourself a bowl and a spoon and enjoy some Ceres.

• 18:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So we, uh, we gotta take a break, Chuck?

• 18:42Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 18:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When we come back, more Cosmic Queries, Hooperu Edition. All that is random in the crystal universe.

• 19:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back on StarTalk. Tyson here, Chuck Nice there.

• 19:06Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 19:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, man. We're poperying together.

• 19:09Chuck Nice?

  Yes, we are. And we're, yes, we are. And we're smelling good.

• 19:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 19:16Chuck Nice?

  We're poperying together.

• 19:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Poperying. And asking me questions, drawn from our loyal fanbase.

• 19:25Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 19:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you haven't asked me a really crazy, stupid question yet. And, you know, there's gotta be some in every batch.

• 19:32Chuck Nice?

  Oh, God.

• 19:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're asking me very intelligent questions, but some of the weird ones, there are some interesting answers to them. I'm just saying.

• 19:37Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 19:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're choosing, I don't know anything. You compiled this.

• 19:41Chuck Nice?

  All right. Well, guess what?

• 19:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just letting you know.

• 19:42Chuck Nice?

  Since you said it.

• 19:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 19:45Chuck Nice?

  And...

• 19:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And maybe I'll change my mind after this.

• 19:47Chuck Nice?

  I don't know, because guess what? I skipped over this question in that first segment. And as you saw me just take, pick this page back up.

• 19:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, you picked the page back up that was in the trash.

• 19:55Chuck Nice?

  It was in the, I turned that over. I'm gonna pick it back up, because here it is. It's from Inti Amartusa. No. Amatersa. Okay. Amat, okay, that's it, yeah.

• 20:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Whatever you say.

• 20:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, I think, I think you actually have no friends ever in your life. So you never had any practice pronouncing other people's names.

• 20:19Chuck Nice?

  Well, you got one part of that right.

• 20:24Chuck Nice?

  Okay. Inti Amatur, okay, forget it. If you had superpowers, would you wear spandex? Okay, so if you were a superhero, would you go with the spandex?

• 20:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, if, maybe if I had a cut body, and then the spandex will show off the body, that could help intimidate criminals, you know?

• 20:47Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 20:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Maybe. I'm just thinking. I mean...

• 20:51Chuck Nice?

  See, I wouldn't. I would go with a three-piece suit. Cause then I'd show up and they think I was just a banker and then all of a sudden I'm like blowing stuff up with my eyes and throwing guys across the room.

• 21:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You wanna be like Kingsman?

• 21:04Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 21:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You wanna just walk with a dapper, you know, umbrella and a cane.

• 21:09Chuck Nice?

  And every time I showed up, they'd be like, who is this guy? Who is this banker that keeps showing up and kicking our ass?

• 21:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's good. I like the banker model. I like that. No, you're right. Why have spandex?

• 21:22Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 21:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's no, you know, and I think in the early days Superman was wearing pantyhose, you know, so.

• 21:28Chuck Nice?

  Pretty much.

• 21:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, blue pantyhose. So, yeah, there's no call for that. You're right.

• 21:33Chuck Nice?

  Alright, cool.

• 21:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm a banker, three-piece suit.

• 21:35Chuck Nice?

  Three-piece suit, man. Sweet. Alright, let me put that back over.

• 21:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know what I would do? And I would draw from my supply of ties. And each tie would have a separate, different superpower that it gave me.

• 21:46Chuck Nice?

  Now that's kinda cool.

• 21:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if you saw my tie, you know.

• 21:50Chuck Nice?

  You know what you're dealing with.

• 21:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How I was gonna kick your ass that day.

• 21:56Chuck Nice?

  I like it.

• 21:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That stuff would get telegraphed.

• 21:58Chuck Nice?

  There we go. Alright, there you go. So, thank you, Einty. Alright, here we go.

• 22:05Chuck Nice?

  This is from Nelson Sa. Nelson says, what are some of the most important non-space-related advances which came directly or mostly from research at NASA?

• 22:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, well, of course NASA is fully focused on space. So, maybe the way to answer this is there are advances that directly helped space and things we were doing in space and other things that not only helped space, but then helped what we did here on Earth. Maybe that's the way to answer this. NASA's not researching how to make your better cup of coffee.

• 22:43Chuck Nice?

  But they do utilize technology and technological advances.

• 22:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It is always with the mission of trying to improve our duration, time, technology in space. But that doesn't mean it can't apply to very cool things on Earth. For example.

• 22:58Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 22:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Something simple. Ready?

• 23:00Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 23:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Lately, if you have taken the exit ramp over of most. Highways and if that exit ramp has a pretty tight turn, the pavement is grooved.

• 23:09Chuck Nice?

  It is.

• 23:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Have you noticed?

• 23:10Chuck Nice?

  I have noticed that.

• 23:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, that came from NASA.

• 23:13Chuck Nice?

  And why exactly would that come from NASA?

• 23:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because.

• 23:16Chuck Nice?

  The last time I checked space, there were no off ramps. So I'm just a little curious.

• 23:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, as I understood this when it was told to me, the, uh, you have the space shuttle coming in for a landing. And it's not, the space shuttle's a glider coming in, alright, this back when we actually put people in space.

• 23:36Chuck Nice?

  How sad.

• 23:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so, but in the day, way back.

• 23:40Chuck Nice?

  Right. I don't remember when.

• 23:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As Bill Nye likes to do, he's, he's always puts on his old man voice when he's like, way back in the day. Um, you go back and when we flew space shuttles, when you come back to earth and you're gonna land, you are landing a glider.

• 23:54Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 23:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, there's hardly any control over your, you know, you have aero-lim flaps and things, but you're a glider. Now suppose it's raining or there's, it's a little wet, okay? You don't want the thing sliding to the left and the right, so you put grooves in the pavement, which help align the wheels in the direction the wheel is rotating, which is the direction the road points.

• 24:15Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you have it, and so this reduced the possibility of skidding and people realize, hey, why don't we put that on off ramps, because if you're going too fast and you come off the ramp, you're hitting the embankment.

• 24:27Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so now you can ask, here's, here's the fascinating point. You can say, why spend the millions of dollars or whatever it took to, why not just have somebody invent that outright? Why? Okay, because no one did.

• 24:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  However cheap you think that is.

• 24:46Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The fact is that solution only came about when someone cared about space.

• 24:51Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it turns out when you going, I have found, you go into space, people gather around who care about that. Smart people who care about that.

• 25:01Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 25:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And those are the problems they wanna solve. You're not gonna go to the smartest person in the room and say, oh, couldn't you help me prevent cars from skidding off the off-ramp of the interstate 95?

• 25:11Chuck Nice?

  Well, see, there's also no money in that. What you that last point.

• 25:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, well, yeah.

• 25:17Chuck Nice?

  Hey, help me stop cars from skidding off the yeah, well, what's in it for me?

• 25:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right, and what?

• 25:21Chuck Nice?

  Why should I help you do that?

• 25:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I'm at the top of my class. Why am I gonna do that? But if I instead say, prevent the space shuttle after coming out of orbit from skidding on its runway, you're gonna figure this stuff out.

• 25:32Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 25:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, space exploration has a way of infusing levels and dimensions of creativity in anybody who thinks about it. And that's how you get these amazing solutions to everyday life.

• 25:45Chuck Nice?

  Oh, man, that is a great, great point.

• 25:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I'm not even calling them spinoffs, because a spinoff would be, we got this widget in space, now you use the widget on earth.

• 25:53Chuck Nice?

  No.

• 25:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not even about that.

• 25:54Chuck Nice?

  No, no.

• 25:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 25:55Chuck Nice?

  These are, I mean, some of these are direct applications, just because they, as you, as, as you see with the grooves, you find use for it somewhere else, and it's extremely important to have. Uh, you can't think of how many thousands of lives probably have been saved by people having grooves, that, that's simple little thing.

• 26:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's simple, and no one writes a story about the life that was not taken.

• 26:16Chuck Nice?

  So true.

• 26:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 26:17Chuck Nice?

  I know.

• 26:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 26:18Chuck Nice?

  Which is why I often contemplate suicide. Chuck, I'm joking, I'm joking, but it just, it was hanging there, I had to say it.

• 26:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Medics.

• 26:28Chuck Nice?

  Hey, well, that was a great question, Nelson, and, uh, just remember that NASA will continue to, uh, suffer budget cuts.

• 26:37Chuck Nice?

  Just figured I'd throw that in. Just, just say it.

• 26:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, wait, wait, let me give you one more, just one more example.

• 26:43Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 26:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, the docking, uh, algorithms to get the space shuttle to dock with the space station.

• 26:48Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 26:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There are two sort of collars that come together.

• 26:51Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 26:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And there's a laser stabilizing system that enables that to happen.

• 26:54Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 26:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it's software related to that and the like.

• 26:56Chuck Nice?

  I say right as in, I'm sure you're right. I'm not saying right as in, yes, you're correct, because I already knew that.

• 27:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly, so, so, what we found is that the surgery used to cut your cornea, have it re-healed to adjust your vision.

• 27:11Chuck Nice?

  Which we call Lasik?

• 27:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Lasik surgery, uh, well, didn't always use lasers.

• 27:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. A, B, so uh, so now that it uses lasers, how do you do that to someone? If their eye might jiggle a little bit while you're trying to cut?

• 27:28Chuck Nice?

  Right, cuz that's not what you want.

• 27:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's not what you want. Two things you want, jiggle eye and.

• 27:33Chuck Nice?

  Jiggle eye and and and and circumcision.

• 27:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, okay, so, so what they've done was adapted this laser stabilizing mechanism that allowed the cut to move with the moving eyeball in case the moving eyeball moved. And it's from the docking mechanism of the space shuttle in the space station. So, so this NASA technology enabled this laser, laser surgery to be conducted safer and more cheaply than ever before.

• 28:00Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 28:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why all of a sudden, everybody started getting it.

• 28:03Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely.

• 28:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's because of, it's because it came out of space.

• 28:06Chuck Nice?

  Ah, that's amazing.

• 28:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not the concept for the surgery.

• 28:08Chuck Nice?

  No.

• 28:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But just the.

• 28:09Chuck Nice?

  The concept from the surgery came from an accident that a guy had and cut his eye. No, honestly, he cut his eye and it healed and he was like, oh, okay. I don't know why, but I could see better, you know, uh, but.

• 28:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, let's, let's, yeah, I can imagine. Let me try it on you.

• 28:23Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 28:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chasing her with a kitchen knife.

• 28:25Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I can see better cuz I cut my eye. I should try to cut your eye. I bet you I could heal you, but uh, that's, that's fantastic.

• 28:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So, that's an example of, so two extremes of examples. One where uh, uh, vision has been improved, the other your driving has been improved.

• 28:45Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, right, and they, both of them came out of the space program.

• 28:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, it happens all the time.

• 28:49Chuck Nice?

  That's amazing. That's, hey Nelson, great question, man, great question. All right, um, do, do, do, do, here we go. This is from Scott and that's all he says is, this is from Scott.

• 28:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I love it.

• 29:01Chuck Nice?

  Okay. Uh, he says, on your premiere of Cosmos, you mentioned that the moon was pushed away by tidal friction.

• 29:11Chuck Nice?

  Can you explain that a little bit further? I had never heard it put like that before.

• 29:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yep, pushed is a very visual uh uh image. But what's really happening is that it's getting flung. Flung is a more sort of uh physically accurate thing.

• 29:27Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 29:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what's going on is the moon creates a tidal bulge on Earth.

• 29:31Chuck Nice?

  Uh huh.

• 29:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so it the water that's nearest the moon pulls towards the moon. The moon is pulling on Earth a little less and the water that's on the other side of the moon is pulling on even less. So all the oceanic waters form this bulge. That's it's in a direct line to the moon, okay?

• 29:48Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 29:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, it turns out it's not in a direct line to the moon. Because Earth is rotating. And we're rotating faster than the moon is turning around it, so we actually drag this bulge ahead of the moon.

• 30:02Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 30:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 30:03Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 30:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So this bulge is actually trying to slow us down. That's why we occasionally add leap seconds to the calendar.

• 30:10Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 30:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And because the bulge is ahead of the moon.

• 30:14Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 30:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The moon feels a gravitational force ahead of it. And so it wants to go faster in its orbit.

• 30:21Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 30:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And by going faster in its orbit, it ascends to higher distances from Earth.

• 30:27Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 30:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it's a it's a it's a cosmic ballet choreographed by the forces of gravity.

• 30:33Chuck Nice?

  Gosh darn it, that was fantastic.

• 30:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So the moon the moon is spiraling away about five inches a year from Earth, just because of this flinging effect.

• 30:42Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 30:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of the leading edge of this tidal bulge.

• 30:44Chuck Nice?

  Right. Oh Mike, that is fascinating. Because it's like the Earth is a container holding this water.

• 30:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, yes, correct.

• 30:54Chuck Nice?

  So instead of lining up with the with the with the gravitational pull from the moon.

• 30:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 30:59Chuck Nice?

  Because the Earth is a container, holding this water and it's spinning.

• 31:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 31:03Chuck Nice?

  The water wants to move ahead.

• 31:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, we're we're dragging the water ahead of the moon.

• 31:07Chuck Nice?

  Water ahead of the moon.

• 31:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that costs us our rotational energy to do so.

• 31:11Chuck Nice?

  That, God.

• 31:17Chuck Nice?

  That's awesome!

• 31:20Chuck Nice?

  Oh my god, that's, that's incredible!

• 31:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, it's just, it's physics.

• 31:24Chuck Nice?

  I know, but I, you know, I don't do that a lot.

• 31:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no.

• 31:28Chuck Nice?

  I don't do, I don't do physics a lot!

• 31:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, you, you know, you, you look like a demo, you look like a double rainbow guy. Remember double rainbow guy? He comes around the corner of the mountain, it's on YouTube.

• 31:38Chuck Nice?

  Right, right.

• 31:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  "Oh, oh, oh, I'm right to two rainbows, oh, oh." And he starts crying? I say, "Dude, it's physics, okay? Chill out."

• 31:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  "Oh my gosh, this is divine." No, it's like, it's light, alright? So, so I don't mean to take away the beauty of this, could, by the way, there are other things that are mysteries that we don't understand.

• 31:59Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 31:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That are even more beautiful. But I'm saying-

• 32:01Chuck Nice?

  Like women!

• 32:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We are in this tango with the moon.

• 32:05Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ultimately, if the, when the moon wins, well, it's not gonna win. Ultimately, the moon wants to slow us down so much that we rotate at exactly the same rate that the moon orbits us.

• 32:17Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And when that's the case, our tidal bolts will align. We will not be fighting the bolts, and the bolts will not be flinging the moon forward. And the system will be called, will, will be in what is called a double tidal lock.

• 32:30Chuck Nice?

  Double tidal lock?

• 32:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, which was a wrestling move.

• 32:32Chuck Nice?

  Sounds like a, I was-

• 32:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I was gonna say, I wanted to invent that move. Well, I used to wrestle.

• 32:36Chuck Nice?

  The double tidal lock?

• 32:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I wrestle, and I know astrophysics. You know I was trying to invent a double tidal lock wrestling hold, right?

• 32:41Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 32:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so what, so, what hap- at that point, Earth's day will equal the lunar month.

• 32:49Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 32:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And one side of the Earth will only ever face the moon. Just as today, one side of the moon only ever faces the Earth. Which is why there is never Earthrise on the moon.

• 32:59Chuck Nice?

  Right?

• 33:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's always in the sky, if you're on that half of the moon.

• 33:02Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 33:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 33:03Chuck Nice?

  That's awesome.

• 33:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Which is why that famous photo called Earthrise, taken by Apollo 8 in December 1968.

• 33:09Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's called Earthrise. Cause the Earth was rising over the moon. Why? Well, it's cause they were orbiting-

• 33:13Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They were orbiting the moon.

• 33:15Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 33:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And they took hold up the camera, and there's Earth rising. That's how you get Earthrise. But people thought, oh, Earth rises on the moon, just like the moon rises on Earth? Not, right.

• 33:23Chuck Nice?

  That's amazing.

• 33:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not until the moon wins.

• 33:26Chuck Nice?

  Unfortunately, I'm still stuck on double tidal lock, because I'm trying to figure out, like, do you put your, like, legs around the person's neck? And then you're, like, hanging off of their back? And then you grab both their knees? And then you, like, whip it?

• 33:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, I got, no, I had, I had, I'll show you, off camera, I'll show you.

• 33:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I never perfected it, but I had, I had the ideas of one. It was good.

• 33:46Chuck Nice?

  That's pretty cool. All right, that was-

• 33:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because what happens is you face your opponent, and then I swing you till you're out of balance, and then take you down while I'm still facing you. Because in a double tidal lock, both sides of the orbs are facing one another, no matter what they do.

• 33:59Chuck Nice?

  So the idea is to get the person still facing you, and then-

• 34:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As I swing and take him down, right, yeah.

• 34:05Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that's fantastic.

• 34:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Maybe get a quick one in before the break.

• 34:08Chuck Nice?

  All right, so let's get a quick one, quick one, quick one. All right, here's a good one, man.

• 34:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 34:14Chuck Nice?

  Will this guy look different if we are all standing on another planet? Constellations and such, so if I'm, if I'm on another planet in this solar system? Do I see the same sky?

• 34:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 34:25Chuck Nice?

  What?

• 34:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You heard what I said?

• 34:28Chuck Nice?

  You said yes!

• 34:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so here's, it's a simple answer, okay? So the extent of our solar system is like from, like, the Sun to Neptune.

• 34:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Get over it.

• 34:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, if you look at the planets, so-

• 34:43Chuck Nice?

  So it's this, so basically, we're such a small little part-

• 34:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly, exactly.

• 34:48Chuck Nice?

  We're not gonna change the frame of reference.

• 34:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly, so if you look at the width of the solar system, it's like ten light-hours across.

• 34:56Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 34:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It would take a beam of light ten hours to cross the solar system. That's big, that's a long time, especially going at the speed of light.

• 35:04Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 35:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  However, as you look at the nearest stars, the stars that comprise the constellations, they are hundreds of light-years away.

• 35:13Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 35:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if you just shift your head ten light-hours, who, you know, the stars don't-

• 35:17Chuck Nice?

  Means nothing.

• 35:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They don't mean a damn thing to the stars. So you gotta start moving among the stars to change your perspective on the constellations for them to take on other shapes. And drag all the astrologers with you as they try to keep up with the new shapes.

• 35:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 35:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, and tell you how the universe will now affect you.

• 35:33Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 35:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because of the random stars oriented in the galaxy.

• 35:36Chuck Nice?

  That one looks like someone looking at a cloud. What will we call it?

• 35:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's great. Chuck, we got to take a break. We'll come back and continue. You got more questions for me?

• 35:44Chuck Nice?

  Yes, I do.

• 35:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When StarTalk continues, more of Cosmic Queries.

• 36:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, we're back.

• 36:03Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 36:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And this is Cosmic Queries, StarTalk Radio, Cosmic Queries Edition. And in this, our final segment, we're going to save the last several minutes for the lightning round.

• 36:12Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 36:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't know if we'll get through all the questions, but then we get through like a whole boatload in a short amount of time.

• 36:17Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 36:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So let's work up to that with some continued questions and with my fully fleshed out answers.

• 36:23Chuck Nice?

  Alrighty.

• 36:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And any more weird questions? I mean, weird questions have sometimes interesting answers.

• 36:28Chuck Nice?

  This is true.

• 36:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What do you got?

• 36:31Chuck Nice?

  Okay, okay. Here's one from Jonathan Smith from Las Vegas, Nevada.

• 36:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you can pronounce his name.

• 36:38Chuck Nice?

  You know what? That's so true.

• 36:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm gonna give you a little gold star each time.

• 36:42Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, well, you know, I don't think I can really be proud of Jonathan Smith.

• 36:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is that the dude who messed with Pocahontas, Jonathan?

• 36:51Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. Was it John Smith?

• 36:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I thought that was him.

• 36:54Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I think it is him.

• 36:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But who's the guy who founded the Mormons?

• 36:59Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 37:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  John, I'm getting my people mixed up.

• 37:02Chuck Nice?

  I forgot his name.

• 37:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, but John Smith, definitely Pocahontas.

• 37:06Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 37:08Chuck Nice?

  Neil.

• 37:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 37:09Chuck Nice?

  I've heard that the strongest evidence for gravity waves is the spiraling together of two neutron stars as the ripples.

• 37:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes. Yes.

• 37:17Chuck Nice?

  Okay. However, neutron stars have incredibly strong magnetic pull as well.

• 37:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Indeed.

• 37:23Chuck Nice?

  Is it possible that the same dynamo effect that causes our sun to slow its rotation could be causing neutron stars to lose their combined angular momentum over time?

• 37:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No.

• 37:37Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 37:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, I'll tell you why.

• 37:38Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 37:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because we can look at the ripples that neutron stars send out as they, as they draw near one another.

• 37:47Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you calculate using Einstein's general theory of relativity. At what rate would it lose orbital energy to gravitational waves?

• 37:55Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 37:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you write down that number. And then you look, and we have binary neutron stars in our galaxy, and they are losing energy at exactly that rate. There's no unaccounted for need to then say, here's some other mechanism. There's not even necessary. It works exactly.

• 38:09Chuck Nice?

  We know where the energy is.

• 38:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We know where it came from and where it's going.

• 38:12Chuck Nice?

  Where it's going, right.

• 38:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 38:14Chuck Nice?

  So.

• 38:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But great question.

• 38:14Chuck Nice?

  That is a very good one.

• 38:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it's how you, how you make these deductions in the universe. You look at something you know very well, if it accounts for everything, there's no need to keep, you could keep looking, but why?

• 38:24Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 38:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I mean, maybe it's sharing the cause, but everything I know about how I've accounted for it works.

• 38:30Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 38:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So there's no need to. You're done and move on to the next problem.

• 38:33Chuck Nice?

  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

• 38:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly.

• 38:34Chuck Nice?

  There you go. All right. So Jesse from Vancouver, Canada would like to know this. Um, given that there is an upper limit or upper speed limit to the universe, being the speed of light, and a lower speed.

• 38:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not just a good idea. It's the law.

• 38:54Chuck Nice?

  Buckle up, galaxies.

• 38:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly.

• 38:57Chuck Nice?

  You never know. Okay. Um, and there's a lower speed limit.

• 39:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, oh, by the way, the buckling up, uh, you only buckle up because the car, your car changes speed.

• 39:09Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 39:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not because it exists at any one speed at all.

• 39:11Chuck Nice?

  Well, it's the change that's pretty.

• 39:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Change is what will kill you.

• 39:14Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 39:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, that's why you can be in an airplane going 600 miles an hour at 39,000 feet and they say, you may now unbuckle your seatbelt.

• 39:20Chuck Nice?

  Right, because nothing's gonna happen.

• 39:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right. If, if you maintain your speed, that's not a problem. It's if your speed changes, and that's what your seatbelt is for.

• 39:27Chuck Nice?

  And I just love that they put seatbelts on airplanes as, not, I, I get it for the turbulence, but for the crash, really? Really? Do you really think that seatbelt's gonna help?

• 39:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Buckle your seatbelt.

• 39:38Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, buckle up, okay. No, I'm not.

• 39:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, my favorite one is like, uh, you know, if you don't, uh, bring your seat back up the four inches, you're gonna die.

• 39:46Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 39:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the crash.

• 39:47Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, what's that?

• 39:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're gonna be the only one who dies.

• 39:51Chuck Nice?

  Okay, so, uh, given there's a lower speed limit, which is the absolute zero temperature.

• 39:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mm-hmm.

• 39:56Chuck Nice?

  Could velocity be considered a dimension like space, length, width, and depth?

• 40:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, you have to ask, where, where, where are you gonna go with that? What are you gonna do with that?

• 40:10Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 40:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because, for example, you can have a speed, and then I can slow you down with brakes.

• 40:15Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 40:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did you change dimension? I mean, where, where, where are you getting with that? Why?

• 40:19Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, what is the purpose of even having?

• 40:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Have, thinking about it that way.

• 40:23Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 40:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you wanna, by the way, creative thinking is highly a good thing in this world.

• 40:28Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 40:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But if you do so, ask yourself, is there something you will now be able to explain that you couldn't before?

• 40:35Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 40:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because everything we've constructed about velocity and speed and all of this, it, it's, as Einstein said, uh, or was it, uh, his protege? Uh, said, "Space tells matter how to move, and matter tells space how to curve."

• 40:50Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 40:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it's deep.

• 40:51Chuck Nice?

  That's a great one.

• 40:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it's good, it's deep. So, um, in that sense, it's not your speed, but it's the gravity that's creating the dimensionality of the fabric of space. You can move within that. So, we move within the fabric of space. So, the velocity itself is not, there's no cause to think about it that way.

• 41:08Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 41:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, I applaud the exercise.

• 41:11Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's very creative thinking, and your answer, Jesse, is dark matter.

• 41:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'll just say. But I will never answer one question with something else we don't know anything about.

• 41:20Chuck Nice?

  Exactly. Please. See, that's how I do it.

• 41:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, people do. People say, "Oh, can we explain this thing in terms of consciousness? We don't know what consciousness is, so just back up."

• 41:30Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 41:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? Give it space.

• 41:31Chuck Nice?

  That's funny. Uh, but see, you know what? That's a, that's a great little cheat, though.

• 41:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It is a cheat.

• 41:35Chuck Nice?

  It's a great cheat.

• 41:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a complete cheat.

• 41:37Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 41:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  People do it all the time.

• 41:38Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it makes, I mean, listen, 'cause I, I don't know about this. Well, why don't we think about it in terms of something else we don't know about?

• 41:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly, that'll answer it.

• 41:46Chuck Nice?

  Because that'll answer it, right? I mean, that's very funny.

• 41:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 41:50Chuck Nice?

  All right. This is from Amanda Milligan.

• 41:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mm-hmm.

• 41:53Chuck Nice?

  And she says, "In every documentary..."

• 41:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Where's she from? She's from Earth?

• 41:55Chuck Nice?

  She is from Earth.

• 41:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 41:57Chuck Nice?

  She's just from Earth. Uh, "In every documentary I have seen lately, extraterrestrial life is animal."

• 42:04Chuck Nice?

  How do you think plant life would evolve outside of our own world? Or could there be life that exists that could not be classified as either plant nor animal? But still life?

• 42:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a famous science fiction story, and forgive me if I forgot who wrote it, because I don't come in here with notes in anticipation.

• 42:22Chuck Nice?

  Well, no, you don't know these questions, so how could you?

• 42:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right. So, so there's a science fiction story where the aliens came upon Earth and saw that we, there's like muscle tissue and they go back to their home planet and says, "They're made of meat."

• 42:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because the aliens, they're made of some spirit energy, right? And we're made of meat. And another thing that we take for granted, but I can imagine an alien life form that would just freak out. Other than salt, other than salt, animals have to kill to consume food. Other than the consumption of salt. Everything else you eat was once alive. Right. Well, sorry, sorry, sorry. Unless you live off of milk and honey, right? Those themselves were not once alive.

• 43:11Chuck Nice?

  That's still an animal byproduct.

• 43:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As an animal byproduct. You have to kill something. And even the vegetarians are slaughtering carrots.

• 43:17Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 43:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right? And slicing them, dicing them up and shredding them.

• 43:21Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 43:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, the fact that we have to kill other life forms on our own planet for our own sustenance could easily be seen as one of the most barbaric things to another civilization where they all absorb energy from their host star.

• 43:37Chuck Nice?

  Right. Yes.

• 43:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you have it.

• 43:39Chuck Nice?

  Because they're absorbing and not consuming, well, they're ingesting.

• 43:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're unlimited source of energy from their sun, just like planets, like plants on Earth.

• 43:49Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 43:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They don't have to eat anything. There's some that do, of course, but most, nearly all other planets don't. The Venus flytrap is carnivorous. And what's the other one that eats flies that smells like?

• 43:58Chuck Nice?

  A picture plant.

• 43:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's one that, that...

• 44:00Chuck Nice?

  Oh, you're talking about the one that smells like rotting carrion?

• 44:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 44:03Chuck Nice?

  I forget the name of it.

• 44:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Rotting flesh.

• 44:05Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 44:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that one, okay, so they're carnivorous. But all the rest are doing just fine with sunlight.

• 44:09Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 44:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that's, that's an awesome way to live, I think. If I were to evolve the human into another form, I'd evolve us with solar panels on our skin.

• 44:17Chuck Nice?

  Nice. Our skin would be one big solar panel.

• 44:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that way, getting sunburned, you just recharge your, your energetics.

• 44:23Chuck Nice?

  Yes. I believe they call that Africans.

• 44:27Chuck Nice?

  I'm just saying, last I heard, that's why they're black.

• 44:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yep.

• 44:33Chuck Nice?

  I say they.

• 44:37Chuck Nice?

  I just said, that's why they're black. That's so crazy. All right. Megan Morrissey says, hi, I'm showing for the first time an episode of Cosmos in my high school earth sciences class.

• 44:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Give it up for the teachers of the world.

• 44:51Chuck Nice?

  There you go. One of my students just asked me if a ship that is designed like a ship of imagination would actually be able to fly into space, would that be possible? Love your show and thank you.

• 45:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm not authorized to say whether I actually own one of these.

• 45:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, no, the, the ship of the imagination on purpose has mobility through space and time. And that mobility is empowered by my thoughts.

• 45:19Chuck Nice?

  Whoa.

• 45:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So there are no controls. There's no, plus we had a mini discussion with, with Andrew Ian, who specified in the script that the ship would be impossibly minimalist.

• 45:30Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 45:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I would not be wearing a badge, which would imply that I'm captain and you're not.

• 45:36Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 45:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause you should be able to fly this as well. So, so the ship, no, it, it exists completely in my imagination as your tour guide. So no, there is no attempt to try to make it real.

• 45:47Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 45:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As there have been with the Starship Enterprise and other sort of sci-fi creations. So yeah, it's not, it's not real or it can even be imagined to be real.

• 45:56Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 45:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause it exists in my mind.

• 45:59Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 45:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As your private tour guide.

• 46:00Chuck Nice?

  There you go. There you go.

• 46:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, we, uh, you know what time it is?

• 46:03Chuck Nice?

  Uh oh.

• 46:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It is.

• 46:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm so bad at hitting this bell. Let me tell you. Damn. There we go.

• 46:10Chuck Nice?

  Lightning round.

• 46:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 46:11Chuck Nice?

  Oh my God, we got a lightning round.

• 46:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. So I'm answering in sound bites because you still have so many I didn't get to.

• 46:16Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 46:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ready, go.

• 46:17Chuck Nice?

  Okay, here we go. Um, Jehovani Barrera wants to know, as the sun expands, it gets close to the earth, will the, what will happen to the earth besides getting really hot?

• 46:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, so the, well, uh, the, the story here is that it's getting hot.

• 46:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, that's the story. Alright, so the gravity will be the same, we'll still orbit the sun in the same amount of time, but it's as it gets hot, the oceans will come to a rolling boil and evaporate into the atmosphere. The atmosphere will itself evaporate into space as we become engulfed by the expanding sun and we become a vaporized ember orbiting deep within earth's surface. Boom. Have a nice day.

• 47:02Chuck Nice?

  From Andrew Lounsbury, who says, "This is not relevant to science, but where did Neil get his celestial vest?"

• 47:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, actually, I own about six vests.

• 47:14Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 47:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And they're for different stages of how wide my belly is at different times. But the one I'm most, the one I'm most seen in, it was the last vest sold at the gift shop of the Hanson Planetarium in Utah, in Salt Lake City, Utah, before that closed and reopened in another identity. And in fact, they had no more left, and I bought it off the back of the salesperson. And I've yet to see anyone else wearing this vest ever again.

• 47:43Chuck Nice?

  Dad.

• 47:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, yeah, that's the one.

• 47:46Chuck Nice?

  That, that person is probably so pissed off.

• 47:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Took it off their back. But they agreed. I didn't take, I didn't steal it off their back.

• 47:52Chuck Nice?

  Man, give me the vest.

• 47:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know who I am? I'm NDT bitch.

• 47:57Chuck Nice?

  No.

• 47:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm sorry.

• 47:58Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 47:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Next.

• 47:59Chuck Nice?

  And next.

• 48:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're lightning round, next.

• 48:01Chuck Nice?

  Okay, uh, Maricuayo Isueldo, thank you, says, uh, Mars pioneers will be the first true 100% renewable, will the Mars pioneers be the first true 100% renewable energy human community ever?

• 48:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, that's the, that's the plan. The Mars One plan is, yes.

• 48:22Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 48:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes. That's the plan.

• 48:23Chuck Nice?

  That is the plan.

• 48:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Initially, they'll get supplies, you know, supply chain from Earth, but ultimately, they start making the stuff themselves.

• 48:29Chuck Nice?

  Thank you, Maricuayo from Argentina.

• 48:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Next.

• 48:32Chuck Nice?

  Alright, Adam Hel, oh, you son of a gun, Hala Vaca, says, "Hello, I'm writing from Slovakia, and me and my friends would like to know what does Neil think about pirating, i.e. illegally downloading or torrenting the show Cosmos?"

• 48:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. What do I think of it?

• 48:53Chuck Nice?

  Because clearly they're doing that.

• 48:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Apparently. Get his IP address right now.

• 49:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't know how much control there is over that and my guess is more people pirate it than who would ever even buy it in the first place. So that the exposure is greater than it would otherwise be. You know, if everyone pirated, there'd be no money to actually produce the product.

• 49:19Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 49:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what I would say is for people who are pirating, if you're doing so, let it be because you actually can't afford it.

• 49:24Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 49:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, and then there's the way, I'd rather you knew this than you didn't.

• 49:29Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 49:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But the minute you have cash flow, then, you know, pay that forward.

• 49:33Chuck Nice?

  Right, because, right.

• 49:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know.

• 49:35Chuck Nice?

  Now you're screwing it up for everybody.

• 49:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so I don't want, I can't endorse illegal behavior, but if you can't afford it and you want to learn, it's like Abbie Hoffman wrote a book called Steal This Book.

• 49:46Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 49:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Steal That Book.

• 49:48Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 49:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That he wrote, which is a way, if you were without means, to try to, you know, sort of exploit the system.

• 49:53Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 49:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Until you didn't have to. So, yeah, no, I don't, if someone told me they pirated it, and then they came, and they came to one of my lectures and bought something else later on, that, well, fine. It's an investment.

• 50:05Chuck Nice?

  There you go. So, the answer is, go ahead and steal it.

• 50:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No. That was not the answer. No, that was not a soundbite answer. I was supposed to give a soundbite answer.

• 50:21Chuck Nice?

  Ah.

• 50:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'll give one more, and we'll soundbite that, and we're done. Okay, so we're way over.

• 50:24Chuck Nice?

  Okay, here we go.

• 50:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, one more, go.

• 50:26Chuck Nice?

  Here we go. With iron and low gravity, would Mars be an ideal place to build larger interstellar rocket ships and space stations?

• 50:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, if you, if you build a ship and you can launch from a low-gravity place, that's what you want to do. Because half of your launch energy leaving Earth is just to get the hell off of Earth into orbit.

• 50:47Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 50:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the other half of the energy can take you practically anywhere else in the universe, certainly in the solar system. So, so, yes, launch from the lightest place you possibly can, and you know what that is? It might be empty space itself.

• 50:59Chuck Nice?

  Woo!

• 51:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go. Chuck, we're out of time.

• 51:02Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 51:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was a popery edition of StarTalk Cosmic Query.

• 51:05Chuck Nice?

  Yes, it was.

• 51:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're listening to StarTalk Radio. Stay tuned. More up next.

• 51:24Chuck Nice?

  What we're gonna do? A little something which we have done before. People love it, I love it. And it's called kneel'd it. Had anyone ever asked me if I love it? Don't I have a say in this? No, it's like asking your parents, can you go out? You know, can you go to a concert? You never ask. Oh, you just, okay. Cause it's like, who said you could go to the concert? You did not say I could go to the concert. That's how you got out, okay? So, but uh, this is where we take, I go on the internet, namely YouTube, and find videos of you. And then, it really has nothing to do with your videos. It has to do with the comment sections underneath. Really? So, all the people. You're stalking my comment threads? Yes, so the comment threads, a lot of times,

• 52:09Chuck Nice?

  there are people who are discussing science with each other and completely. Inspired by the video. Inspired by the video, and then sometimes completely disregarding the video. So, it's so, it goes, it already takes an off-ramp? Yes. And it lands somewhere else? Right, it's just like, you know, so you'll have, like, for instance, you will say something about the globe that we live on. And then there will be a thread, right? There will be a thread that says, this is not a globe, and we are not on Earth. And, and then they will go ahead and give their argument. Okay. And, and so, I just loved it. And so, the thing is, these people make these comments. I want to read the comments to you, and then you will tell us whether or not they kneel'd it. I'll do that. Alright, here we go.

• 52:53Chuck Nice?

  So, this was a talk you gave with Sarah Silverman and Jim Gaffigan, a little while ago. That would have been a StarTalk Live, yeah. Okay, and so, B A Davis, uh, says this. "Okay, for all the overexcited nerds that keep rambling about the comedians, this format is designed, ingenuously I might add, for the ninety percent of Americans that are ignorant to the world of science. Neil deGrasse Tyson is using this as a tool to inspire and educate the part of the human race that is holding us back from furthering our future endeavors. He is the only scientist I know of trying to bridge the gap. He should be applauded for his efforts, not spewing nerd rage over Sarah Silverman's pussy jokes.

• 53:34Chuck Nice?

  If you have a problem with this, then you're part of the problem and not the solution." Did, did he kneel it?

• 53:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Problem is it.

• 53:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you're not, if you're not, if you're not.

• 53:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Part of the solution. You're part of the precipitate. A little chemistry geek humor there. Um, I would say.

• 54:02Chuck Nice?

  And by the way, go Google that joke if you don't get it. Seriously, learn something, alright? Solution, chemistry, just know that.

• 54:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And precipitate, right. It's what, everything that's not the solution. Oh, in a liquid thing. In the beaker flask thing. Alright, so. I would say. Yeah, it's a little rambly. But. I think it's hard as in the right place.

• 54:24Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 54:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 54:26Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 54:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And. I think that common commentator.

• 54:31Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 54:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is. Sorry, I can't. It's an old joke I remembered.

• 54:38Chuck Nice?

  What?

• 54:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a, there's a potato family. Family of potatoes.

• 54:45Chuck Nice?

  Family of potatoes.

• 54:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And.

• 54:47Chuck Nice?

  Mr. And Mrs.

• 54:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, and there's a daughter who goes out dating.

• 54:50Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 54:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And brings back a potato, but the parents don't like the potato.

• 54:53Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 54:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And. She says, why don't you like? My boyfriend? And I said. He's a commentator.

• 55:05Chuck Nice?

  He's a commentator.

• 55:09Chuck Nice?

  I cannot believe I have made it this far in my life without hearing.

• 55:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Without hearing that joke.

• 55:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not in the canon of, of.

• 55:19Chuck Nice?

  That was not there.

• 55:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No commentators for me. So. I think it's, he, I think he gets what we're trying to do.

• 55:26Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 55:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But he's a little aggressive.

• 55:28Chuck Nice?

  He's a little angry.

• 55:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A little angry with others, and I think there are ways to. Handle that.

• 55:34Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 55:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I think he's, he's being. So aggressive. That he will turn people off that ultimately we want to turn on.

• 55:42Chuck Nice?

  Ooh. Alright, I like that.

• 55:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The net result is you can feel righteous. But like my father used to say. Um, and thanks for coming to Memorial. Yeah, we lost him last December. Thanks for being there.

• 55:54Chuck Nice?

  My pleasure.

• 55:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Eighty-nine, so there was a full life there and.

• 55:59Chuck Nice?

  And a very important man. Like a quietly important guy. Quietly important guy.

• 56:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, he was, he did stuff in the service of keeping peace during the civil rights movement in New York City.

• 56:11Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 56:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At a time when other cities were burning and.

• 56:13Chuck Nice?

  And never had any riots here.

• 56:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, yeah, yeah, not, not over that time.

• 56:17Chuck Nice?

  Not over the time when he was here.

• 56:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Was getting shot and all of that.

• 56:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Was getting shot, yeah, when, when he got shot.

• 56:24Chuck Nice?

  It's still happening, it's still happening. I believe that I'm gonna have to stop this at some point. Too many bullets. Too many bullets. Still getting shot.

• 56:42Chuck Nice?

  One day the bullets will end. And I've seen the promised land.

• 56:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Actually, the bullets are still flying.

• 56:51Chuck Nice?

  Still flying, fortunately, yeah.

• 56:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, that, that, like, the next, if you were around today, you wonder, like, what would he be talking about? He'd probably be talking about guns.

• 56:58Chuck Nice?

  Oh, without a doubt.

• 56:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Probably.

• 57:00Chuck Nice?

  Guns and economic.

• 57:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 57:01Chuck Nice?

  Empowerment. Empowerment. And disparity. Yeah, all right, man, so don't be so, don't be so angry.

• 57:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, get that angry, then, what, what my father said was, it's not good enough to be right. You have to be effective.

• 57:15Chuck Nice?

  Ooh, that's good.

• 57:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because the urge to be right is, okay, now you can feel self-righteous, but did you accomplish what you intended?

• 57:23Chuck Nice?

  Oh, my God, let me tell you something, your parents had a good marriage, because that man understood what it takes to be married. I just figured it out. Yeah, it's not just gonna.

• 57:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Every little bit of wisdom helps in a marriage.

• 57:36Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that's for sure.

• 57:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 57:38Chuck Nice?

  And you can be right as a man, but you, it's better to be effective.

• 57:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Don't get you anywhere. I'm right, you're wrong.

• 57:49Chuck Nice?

  There you go. Alright, that was good.

• 57:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Good.

• 57:51Chuck Nice?

  Alright, and by the way, man, I think we're all on the same team. I know he had a little problem with the comedians, but you know, we're here to help.

• 57:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 57:56Chuck Nice?

  Alright, here we go. Stephen Colbert interviewed you a little less than a year ago. And you said something about how the universe is expanding and we're all moving away from one another. And this is what this person says.

• 58:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Again, in the comments, right?

• 58:13Chuck Nice?

  In the comments, right? Okay, the universe is expanding and most galaxies are moving away from us. But wouldn't galaxy clusters stick together due to gravity? Hmm. So I'm, I'm, I'm interested. This is a, a pretty cool assertion that somebody has made. The, the assumption is that if it's a galaxy cluster and it's moving away the, the same way every other. Do they, just, do they have specific gravity that keeps them together as they move apart? Or they gotta say goodbye too?

• 58:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did they kneel it? Correct.

• 58:52Chuck Nice?

  What? I thought they were wrong.

• 58:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No. If you are gravitationally bound now, you'll be gravitationally bound tomorrow.

• 59:01Chuck Nice?

  Get out.

• 59:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 59:02Chuck Nice?

  Oh my god.

• 59:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes. So, so, so in other words, the, the gravitational binding energy, that's the official term for it.

• 59:09Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 59:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of a cluster, as well as binary stars within a cluster, as well as planets in orbiting a star.

• 59:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All of that is gravitationally bound. That will not succumb to the expanding.

• 59:23Chuck Nice?

  So they have their own specific gravitational system.

• 59:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 59:28Chuck Nice?

  Inside of the larger system.

• 59:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Correct.

• 59:30Chuck Nice?

  Oh, so as the universe expands, for instance, which it's, it's doing right now.

• 59:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By the way, I, I can quantify this.

• 59:39Chuck Nice?

  Okay, cool.

• 59:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so you can look at the speeds that the galaxies have. Alright, so, so you can write down that number. In a, it's like a beehive. And there they go, and some of the clusters, that's what they're doing.

• 59:50Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 59:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Write down that number. Then you can ask, in the expanding universe, how fast are galaxies moving away from one another?

• 59:58Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 59:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the farther away they are, the faster they're moving away from one another. This is the signature of like an expanding rubber sheet.

• 1:00:07Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:00:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so in other words, if I have three points, give me three points, just like.

• 1:00:11Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:00:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? Very nice. To the camera, please.

• 1:00:15Chuck Nice?

  Oh, yeah. Oh, that's right. There's my three points.

• 1:00:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if I stretch this.

• 1:00:20Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:00:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 1:00:21Chuck Nice?

  And these go.

• 1:00:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then, then the distance between these two, let's say, separate by a centimeter.

• 1:00:26Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:00:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The difference between these separate by a centimeter.

• 1:00:28Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:00:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But the difference between these two separate by two centimeters. And a third one would be three centimeters from this. Fourth one would be four centimeters from this, in the same amount of time. So the farther away you are, the faster you are receding.

• 1:00:38Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 1:00:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, it turns out that the size of the universe over which you are separating

• 1:00:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  at the speed that these galaxies are moving on their own is much bigger than the size of a cluster.

• 1:00:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you don't have this conflicting, well, am I expanding with the universe? Or am I still orbiting over here?

• 1:01:00Chuck Nice?

  Because you see it, you see it that they are still within their, what I call, locale.

• 1:01:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 1:01:06Chuck Nice?

  They are within their locale. All right, I gotta tell you, frisson move, uh, that I, I actually picked that because I thought that was just the opposite.

• 1:01:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nope. Kneel bit.

• 1:01:18Chuck Nice?

  Kneel bit. Sweet.

• 1:01:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Although it was a question, but the fact that he knew to ask the question

• 1:01:24Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  meant he, he was coming from the right place.

• 1:01:25Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 1:01:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He thought about Yeah, yeah, yeah. Will we keep the clusters or not?

• 1:01:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:01:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. By the way, there are some very extended systems. We only loosely call them clusters, just because you can sort of, you know, galaxy hop from one edge to the other. Those are, those are goners. Those are too spread out.

• 1:01:45Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:01:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're not densely, they're too spread out, and you'll lose some of the ones on the edges of that.

• 1:01:50Chuck Nice?

  Cool. Okay, cool. Is that what happens when you have, like, colliding galaxies? And then you have, like, little dwarf galaxies left over?

• 1:01:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, that can happen, but generally, life as a dwarf galaxy is a, is, is tough. Mostly you get eaten. It's, it's called galactic cannibalism.

• 1:02:08Chuck Nice?

  Oh, really?

• 1:02:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, yeah. In fact, we, if you study our galaxy, there are systems of stars that are all moving together in the middle of other stars that are not.

• 1:02:16Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:02:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This used to be a dwarf galaxy that just, and it's, it's like, they still hold its orbit.

• 1:02:22Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:02:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But the galaxy is completely ripped apart, but the stars are still trying to hang together. But eventually you'll, you'll just get scattered.

• 1:02:29Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:02:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But it's the evidence of it having been recently eaten.

• 1:02:33Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 1:02:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright. Their official research paper is called "Collective Cannibals." That's what it's called.

• 1:02:38Chuck Nice?

  Sounds like a great group that I would love to...

• 1:02:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ah! The Collective Cannibals.

• 1:02:42Chuck Nice?

  I would love to see them at Coachella.