Cosmic Queries – Black Holes and Dark Energy Part II

One episode wasn’t enough! Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice are back to answer more fan-submitted questions about black holes, dark energy, singularities, Hawking radiation, photons, and a lot more.

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.

• 0:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is StarTalk. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist, and I'm with Chuck Nice, co-host.

• 0:20Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 0:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, and we are recording live from my office at the Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History, right here in New York City.

• 0:30Chuck Nice?

  Better known as the Cosmic Crib.

• 0:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh, the crib. Welcome to the crib.

• 0:35Chuck Nice?

  Welcome to the crib.

• 0:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was high currency when I was in college.

• 0:38Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 0:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I haven't heard anybody use it anymore.

• 0:39Chuck Nice?

  No.

• 0:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 0:40Chuck Nice?

  Nah, it's kind of a...

• 0:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's just very dated.

• 0:43Chuck Nice?

  It's very dated.

• 0:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, but it still sounds cool, the crib.

• 0:46Chuck Nice?

  It does, yo, what's up, man? I'm just chilling in my crib.

• 0:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  See, that works, that still works, that still works. For anybody over 50.

• 0:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, this is actually part two of Cosmic Queries we began last time.

• 0:58Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 0:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because we had sufficient questions to populate two Cosmic Queries on black holes and dark energy.

• 1:04Chuck Nice?

  People love it.

• 1:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I know.

• 1:06Chuck Nice?

  People want to know a lot about the dark energy and black holes.

• 1:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And since we don't know anything about dark energy, I want to know about it, too.

• 1:13Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 1:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. Give it to me, what do you have?

• 1:16Chuck Nice?

  All right, so, we are going to start with a Patreon patron.

• 1:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As is our habit.

• 1:22Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely. So, uh, this is Chris Hampton, and he says, "Hey, Hawking radiation states that a black hole will eventually evaporate completely because it's releasing small amounts of energy slash mass over time. But wouldn't the black hole's consumption of matter overpower the radiation, making the black hole grow instead of evaporate?"

• 1:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, good. So, if you have an isolated black hole?

• 1:50Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not consuming matter.

• 1:51Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's nobody dared to eat.

• 1:53Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 1:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You have to come embarrassingly too close to it for it to tidily distress you and capture you.

• 2:00Chuck Nice?

  And now, now it's good, right.

• 2:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you have to be moving not too fast, otherwise you'll just whiz by.

• 2:04Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, the black holes are not some voracious vacuum cleaner that sucks up everything it sees.

• 2:09Speaker 02

  I'm so hungry!

• 2:10Chuck Nice?

  Right. That's a tiny black hole. That's a little black hole.

• 2:14Speaker 02

  I'm so hungry!

• 2:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the big black, I'm

• 2:18Chuck Nice?

  Right, the super massive black holes are like, feed me.

• 2:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It is funny, this voice frequency thing. Like, you never have a high-frequency voice selling a truck.

• 2:28Chuck Nice?

  Right, that's true. Which now, I wanna see Mike Tyson actually sell Dodge Rams, just like, you know. That's right, it's ram tough. Dodge Ram, okay?

• 2:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause he is a tough guy.

• 2:41Chuck Nice?

  He's a tough guy.

• 2:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The question whether that will compensate for the voice.

• 2:45Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 2:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plus, you know, the voice of God is never high pitch.

• 2:49Chuck Nice?

  No, it's never just like, hey guys. Hey guys, I think I'm gonna smoke you today. Oh, see, now I wish Michael Jackson was alive to be the voice of God. You know, just like, you're very ignorant.

• 3:02Chuck Nice?

  You're very ignorant, I don't like that.

• 3:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Stop it.

• 3:05Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 3:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'll send a tsunami.

• 3:06Chuck Nice?

  That's not lying. Alright, okay, there you go. So, this information that

• 3:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 3:14Chuck Nice?

  it consumes

• 3:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 3:16Chuck Nice?

  if it's by itself

• 3:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By itself, it'll just evaporate.

• 3:18Chuck Nice?

  It just evaporates.

• 3:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Clearly, and as correctly surmised, if it has a food source

• 3:24Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  it's just gonna eat and the Hawkeye radiation will be insignificant

• 3:30Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  of a loss relative to what it's eating.

• 3:32Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 3:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But eventually, all black holes will have eaten anything they can eat

• 3:37Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  in their refrigerator. At that point, then it'll slowly start evaporating. At a higher rate than it was gaining mass.

• 3:47Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 3:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that's how that plays out.

• 3:49Chuck Nice?

  And the evaporation, though,

• 3:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 3:52Chuck Nice?

  if nothing can escape, what is actually evaporating?

• 3:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Good question.

• 3:56Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 3:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Very nice.

• 3:57Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 3:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Evaporation is, we're using the term loosely here.

• 4:00Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 4:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, so, what's actually happening, and it's brilliant, it's just, it's beautiful.

• 4:06Chuck Nice?

  Okay. I have to say, it's beautiful.

• 4:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's beautiful.

• 4:11Chuck Nice?

  It's beautiful.

• 4:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, what's going on is, the gravitational field in the vicinity of a black hole

• 4:19Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 4:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  is so intense

• 4:21Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 4:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  that it will spontaneously create matter.

• 4:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Holy crap. So the energy density, cause E equals mc squared. Uh huh. If I have matter, I can turn it into energy. That's what nuclear bombs do. Right. But if I have energy, I can turn it into matter. Right. The energy density in the field of black holes is so intense, right outside the event horizon, outside the event horizon, it will create particles. Wow. Out of the gravitational energy density of the field. Now watch, here's the, here's the spooky part. Okay. Okay? These particles were not inside the event horizon. They're created outside the event horizon. Right.

• 5:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, now watch what happens. When anytime you make particles from energy, you make two particles. Every time. Okay. Uh, matter and antimatter pair. Wow. I don't know if you knew that. Oh. Yeah, okay? And they will travel in the exact opposite directions from each other. Gotcha. That means one escapes, the other goes right back on in. Right. Okay? So, but the one that escapes, escapes forever. Right. If you measure the mass of the black hole, it is now less by the mass of that one particle that escaped. Even though these particles were created in the gravity field of the black hole itself. Nice. So it's giving of itself just from the energy density of the gravitational field. It's, it's, it's really a remarkable fact. That is remarkable.

• 5:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right. Wow. Yes, and so Hawking figured this out, okay? And then concluded, if this keeps up, the whole black hole is gone. Right, at some point. Right. Right. Right. That's amazing. Mm-hmm. So it's, it's- And in fact, the smaller the black hole, the faster it will radiate. Gotcha. Okay? It's a surface area thing. Ah, here we go. Ah, surface area alert. Because we have a whole show on surface area. Uh, it's, so, um, the larger the object, if it, let's say it's a sphere, the larger the object, the less surface area it has relative to the volume. Right. Okay? And the smaller you are, the more is your surface area relative to your volume. This is why-

• 6:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Children and babies should not spend too long in the hot tub.

• 6:42Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 6:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because their connection to the hot environment is way more devastating to their body than it is if you're bigger.

• 6:49Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 6:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's all. So, as the black hole gets smaller and smaller, the rate of evaporation increases. Because its surface area gets larger and larger compared to the volume that's inside of it.

• 6:58Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 6:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Surface area of the event horizon. And the intensity of the energy goes up. And so its very last gasp is a pulse of light of the highest known energy. Which are gamma rays.

• 7:11Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 7:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 7:13Chuck Nice?

  That's pretty cool.

• 7:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, the original paper written by Hawking talked about bursts of gamma rays in the universe. From black holes evaporating in their very last gasp. And then we saw gamma rays in the universe with a telescope after the data were declassified. We had a telescope launched in the early 70s, trust but verify, right? Oh, let's sign the test ban treaty, no nuclear tests, uh, in the atmosphere, anywhere else. We said, okay, Rus- Ruskeys, but we're gonna put up a satellite that'll look for gamma rays just in case you don't fulfill the, the treaty. And we started detecting gamma, like, every day. They said, can we get some ground truth on this? Checked, are there satellites? No explosions anywhere.

• 7:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A whole brand new field of astrophysics was pried open by accident because we're trying to verify.

• 8:03Chuck Nice?

  Because we don't trust the Russians.

• 8:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because we don't trust the Russians.

• 8:06Chuck Nice?

  And I don't know why we wouldn't trust the Russians. They're such good people, I wanna be friends with them.

• 8:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Good people all around.

• 8:13Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 8:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so, those gamma ray bursts, are they these black holes? No, because you can look at the properties and it's not.

• 8:22Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 8:23Chuck Nice?

  Fascinating.

• 8:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 8:25Chuck Nice?

  Man, thank you. Hey, hey, Chris, thank you for that. That was really a nice trip, man. I love it. Okay. All right.

• 8:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is it also Patreon?

• 8:33Chuck Nice?

  Yes, these are, I, I cut them down so they're easier for me to keep in order and, you know, that way.

• 8:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so this is your second Patreon question?

• 8:39Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 8:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, good.

• 8:40Chuck Nice?

  Oh, no, no, this is just regular questions.

• 8:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, no, there's a Patreon, right, right, there it is. It's, it's color coded. This one. No, not that one.

• 8:47Chuck Nice?

  Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm.

• 8:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There.

• 8:52Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 8:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 8:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. Get that one.

• 8:56Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 8:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just pick it up. Well, here we go. All right. All right, here we go. All right, next Patreon question, go.

• 9:01Chuck Nice?

  All right, there we go. This is from Oak Steel's Funny Fake One. Okay, you're just screwing with me. I know that now. All right. I don't think I have a proper question here. I don't have a proper name either. Uh...

• 9:17Chuck Nice?

  Can you please...

• 9:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck is making people feel good.

• 9:20Chuck Nice?

  But can you tell me about the singularity of a black hole? Like, whatever you know about it, thanks in advance. Um, okay, there you go.

• 9:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, I, yeah, I'll tell you what we know.

• 9:32Chuck Nice?

  At the center of a black hole is supposedly a singularity?

• 9:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'll tell you what we know.

• 9:35Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 9:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. Uh, the collapse of a thing to a black hole, we take it to a black hole because there's no known force in the, uh, to us, in the universe, that would prevent it.

• 9:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if you do the math, the gravity is so severe that it will collapse to get denser and denser and denser until it is infinitely small, which would make it infinitely dense.

• 10:05Chuck Nice?

  Correct.

• 10:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because density is mass divided by a volume, uh, grams per cubic centimeter.

• 10:13Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 10:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? Pounds per cubic foot. These are statements of density. So if you have a certain amount of mass and the volume goes to zero, what happens if you divide by zero?

• 10:29Chuck Nice?

  Well, you get an error on my, on my calculator.

• 10:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. Before you get to zero, the numbers get astronomically large.

• 10:37Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 10:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it actually gets to infinity. So it is infinitely dense and... So can you even have that in nature, is the question?

• 10:46Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 10:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We don't know.

• 10:47Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 10:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But invoking only Einstein's general theory of relativity...

• 10:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You get a point of infinite density.

• 10:56Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 10:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  String theorists came along and said, "We got this." It's not infinite density, there's strings and there's another thing going on in the universe. That's why you bring in string theorists. Okay, you ring the bell, they come in and say, "We got this." You needed extra physics on top of general relativity to understand the singularity. And once you did that, they say, "Hey, this is good to us, let's think about the singularity that began the universe itself."

• 11:19Chuck Nice?

  Hmm.

• 11:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The Big Bang singularity.

• 11:21Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So this gives you access to previously mysterious elements, taking Einstein's theories to their limits. So, if there's no singularity, there could be something else, but according to Einstein, that's what you get.

• 11:36Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 11:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, but we're admitting that Einstein's theory is incomplete at the singularity. We're waiting for a bigger theory to come along to replace it.

• 11:43Chuck Nice?

  Right. Okay, that's pretty fascinating stuff, man.

• 11:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 11:47Chuck Nice?

  I just love it, because, yeah, that makes sense, it's like, there's a single point.

• 11:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And how do you even wrap your head around it?

• 11:53Chuck Nice?

  How do you wrap it, right?

• 11:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right.

• 11:54Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it's, that's pretty wild.

• 11:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're awaiting some new physics, or we gotta successfully wrap our head around something infinitely small and infinitely dense.

• 12:01Chuck Nice?

  See, so what, what, see, I, I get the infinitely small, infinitely dense, I mean, you know, I, I see.

• 12:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that's at the center of the black hole.

• 12:09Chuck Nice?

  That's at the center of the black hole, and so if you, if you.

• 12:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, if the black hole's rotating?

• 12:12Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 12:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then, it's not a singular, it's a donut.

• 12:16Chuck Nice?

  Ah, a ringularity.

• 12:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A ring, woo!

• 12:18Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 12:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I like that word.

• 12:19Chuck Nice?

  I learned it from my son, I gotta be honest.

• 12:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He said ringularity?

• 12:22Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 12:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He came up with that word?

• 12:23Chuck Nice?

  I don't think he came up with it, but that's what he told me it was, and I told him that it's not a ringularity. I said, "It's a singularity," and then, he went to Jan Levin, and she said, "Yes, it's a ringularity."

• 12:35Chuck Nice?

  I was like, "I hate you, boy."

• 12:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is this the one that wants to start an astrophysics club?

• 12:42Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 12:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In his middle school?

• 12:43Chuck Nice?

  In his middle school, yes.

• 12:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And not a comedy club?

• 12:44Chuck Nice?

  Not a comedy, thank you, Jesus.

• 12:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Man, he just, is that a burn?

• 12:48Chuck Nice?

  I don't care, I'm just happy that he does not wanna go down this path.

• 12:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This path?

• 12:53Chuck Nice?

  Yes, I'm serious, be an astrophysicist and write some books and take care of your father. That's what I'm saying.

• 12:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That you want him to do with you?

• 13:00Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, there you go. Yeah, uh.

• 13:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 13:04Chuck Nice?

  But anyway, yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool.

• 13:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is messy, I have a better idea.

• 13:07Chuck Nice?

  For what, the, my strips? Okay, you're taking all these papers.

• 13:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You hold, hold on.

• 13:12Chuck Nice?

  I'll hold the papers.

• 13:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, I have a black bag here.

• 13:15Chuck Nice?

  These are all my questions.

• 13:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is actually, this is an actual black hole.

• 13:18Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 13:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, because, first it says it.

• 13:20Chuck Nice?

  It says a bag.

• 13:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I got all kinds of stuff in my office.

• 13:24Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that's hilarious.

• 13:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And as all black holes.

• 13:27Chuck Nice?

  It's a black bag.

• 13:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, and as all black holes do, they'll watch you as you fall in.

• 13:34Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that's hilarious.

• 13:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so this is my black hole bag.

• 13:36Chuck Nice?

  This is a black hole bag.

• 13:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's got drawstring, okay, so put them in here.

• 13:40Chuck Nice?

  Okay, I'm putting all the bags, and now I'll just pull them out. Oh, now, listen, listen, you get your, you get your question answered.

• 13:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At random, okay, go on, go on.

• 13:49Chuck Nice?

  Okay, I'm going in, wait a minute, I can't stop. Ah!

• 14:01Chuck Nice?

  I just fell in a black hole.

• 14:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, I did an experiment with what was inside of here.

• 14:05Chuck Nice?

  Oh, okay.

• 14:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You just did that experiment.

• 14:06Chuck Nice?

  Exactly, all right, here we go.

• 14:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 14:08Chuck Nice?

  All right, wow. Here we go. Chris Wakefield wants to know this. Hi, it's Chris, it's a philosophy question. Since every galaxy we observe so far has had a supermassive black hole at the center of it, and theoretically a black hole could be turned into a wormhole, what if they were used as save points like in a video game across space and time for a creator of sorts to get across galaxies more quickly to create what we know as space? Just a weird thought I had. All right, so Chris, number one, please give me the number of your weed dealer. That is the first thing I would like. Cause this is some good stuff. All right, so anyway.

• 14:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, I think what he wants is, because black holes and wormholes are related and may be related.

• 14:57Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 14:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And he wants to know whether there's some, I might be exaggerating his question.

• 15:04Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 15:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Whether there's some intergalactic highway system.

• 15:07Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 15:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That connects one galaxy to another.

• 15:10Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 15:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Across the universe.

• 15:12Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 15:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Through these black holes.

• 15:13Chuck Nice?

  Through these black holes. In other words, like, it's, you know, kinda like, uh, what's that, what's that city? Milwaukee, where they have the.

• 15:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, no, no, no, it's not Milwaukee, you're talking about.

• 15:22Chuck Nice?

  Minnesota.

• 15:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's, it's, it's.

• 15:24Chuck Nice?

  What, what city is that?

• 15:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Minnesota's the name of the state.

• 15:26Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I'm saying, but it's in Minnesota.

• 15:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Minneapolis.

• 15:28Chuck Nice?

  Minneapolis, that's what I'm trying to think of.

• 15:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Minneapolis.

• 15:31Chuck Nice?

  They have, they have, you walk, you walk, you never have to go outside.

• 15:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I mean, when it's forty below.

• 15:35Chuck Nice?

  It's really cold.

• 15:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When it's forty below.

• 15:37Chuck Nice?

  You just walk between buildings.

• 15:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right, and there's Skyway News, it's called Skyway, I think it's called Skyway.

• 15:42Chuck Nice?

  I think it is called Skyway.

• 15:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And to me, when the first time I saw it, it, it looked like an ant farm.

• 15:46Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that's funny. The human habit trail.

• 15:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I didn't want to, I, I, I felt uncomfortable in that. I said, this is some, we're, we are in someone's zoo.

• 15:55Chuck Nice?

  Protect the queen!

• 15:59Chuck Nice?

  Protect the queen!

• 16:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, so each, buildings are connected, so you never have to go outside.

• 16:03Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 16:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, so, here's the thing. The, I lived, nobody would live the idea more than I would. Here's the thing. If a black hole, which only eats things, is a portal to a wormhole, the other side of that wormhole can't also be a black hole.

• 16:21Chuck Nice?

  Right, it has to be shoving things out.

• 16:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was, that's called a white hole.

• 16:25Chuck Nice?

  Oh, really?

• 16:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes!

• 16:26Chuck Nice?

  Now, see, why the white hole gotta be given and a black hole gotta be taken? This is what I'm trying to figure out.

• 16:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, not every reference is bad.

• 16:34Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 16:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To black things.

• 16:35Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 16:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 16:36Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 16:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright.

• 16:37Chuck Nice?

  Uh, do we have a?

• 16:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The black plague?

• 16:40Chuck Nice?

  Kiss my black.

• 16:43Chuck Nice?

  Kiss my black hole hole?

• 16:48Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 16:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're just sad you were born too late to join the Black Panthers, that's all.

• 16:54Chuck Nice?

  So, is there really a white hole? That's a white hole.

• 16:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Black Panthers, that, that's a double reference back. The Black Panthers is the, the group from the civil rights movement.

• 17:00Chuck Nice?

  And...

• 17:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not the movie.

• 17:02Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 17:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right.

• 17:02Chuck Nice?

  And the guy that uses vibranium, so...

• 17:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah. So, where were we?

• 17:07Chuck Nice?

  We were talking about the fact that there is something called a white hole.

• 17:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, so something called a white hole.

• 17:11Chuck Nice?

  That you didn't just totally make that up.

• 17:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I did not totally make it up, and this was explored in the 1970s.

• 17:15Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 17:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When the mathematics of black holes were coming to maturity, and someone pos- posited, "Well, if you have a black hole, what's on the other side? It would be like a white hole." I mean, I mean, why not? Where everything only comes out.

• 17:27Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 17:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then how would you connect them? With a wormhole. So, this, you got this, you get three for one.

• 17:32Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 17:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Deal on that. And then you can ask yourself what a white hole would look like in the universe. And then, so, in 1970s, we said, "If this is what a white hole would look like, let's check the data. Let's, let's go to the universe."

• 17:45Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 17:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nothing in the universe resembled it. Not even quasars, which are intense emanations of light from the distant universe in a very small volume. So, we abandoned that.

• 17:56Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 17:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, if you could, I don't mind wormholes connecting the galaxies, I just don't see how you would invoke the black hole to do that.

• 18:01Chuck Nice?

  To do it. Gotcha.

• 18:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, but great, great question. We gonna take a break?

• 18:04Chuck Nice?

  Yep.

• 18:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Before we get lost in the black hole bag?

• 18:07Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 18:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And when we come back, more cosmic queries, black holes, and dark energy when we return.

• 18:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back, StarTalk, Cosmic Queries, black holes, dark energy.

• 18:39Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 18:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We had so many questions, it's part two.

• 18:41Chuck Nice?

  This is part two.

• 18:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And for this part, I have my special...

• 18:44Chuck Nice?

  Black hole bag.

• 18:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Black hole bag.

• 18:46Chuck Nice?

  That's hilarious.

• 18:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's just a black hole.

• 18:48Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 18:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, and I don't know why they got little googly eyes on it, but okay.

• 18:52Chuck Nice?

  And so I'm reaching in, the black hole, and okay, it just seems to be... Wouldn't it be funny if my hand just came out of the top here?

• 19:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, that would be really freaky. That'd be a wormhole.

• 19:04Chuck Nice?

  The wormhole black hole bag.

• 19:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright.

• 19:07Chuck Nice?

  Alright, hey, this is Mike Rush from Facebook, and he says, "If nothing can escape a black hole, including light, and nothing can move or travel faster than light, how is there massive jets of X-rays coming off many supermassive black holes? Wouldn't that mean that these particles/waves have been accelerated beyond the speed of light? Ooh."

• 19:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  People paying attention to the news.

• 19:35Chuck Nice?

  These people are on top. They're on top of this!

• 19:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  On the game. Why are you ripping up the boys' question?

• 19:41Chuck Nice?

  I was trying to make it for, like, you know, just emphasis, and, um...

• 19:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Emphasis?

• 19:47Chuck Nice?

  I was trying to, you know, be emphatic, but instead I tore his question.

• 19:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know what does that really well? Or belts. Have you ever done that with a belt?

• 19:53Chuck Nice?

  Of course, yes. Snapping a belt.

• 19:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You just smack that, like this, I'm talking about?

• 19:56Chuck Nice?

  You take a belt and you snap. That's how I keep my children in line.

• 20:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, but what's good?

• 20:01Chuck Nice?

  I don't ever hit them. I just take the belt and kiss them.

• 20:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Do you have a belt?

• 20:04Chuck Nice?

  I have a belt, but it's not that kind.

• 20:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh no, it's leather. It's a leather belt? Gimme, gimme, gimme.

• 20:09Chuck Nice?

  Take my belt off.

• 20:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I just want to show you something.

• 20:11Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 20:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This leather? Yeah, that'll work.

• 20:13Chuck Nice?

  This is leather.

• 20:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so watch.

• 20:15Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 20:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So this, I just want to show you.

• 20:17Chuck Nice?

  For those of you listening, Neil now has my belt. My pants are down around my ankles.

• 20:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so I heard it.

• 20:21Chuck Nice?

  Neil has my belt.

• 20:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is just, I just want to show you, okay?

• 20:24Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 20:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You see that?

• 20:25Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 20:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so it turns out.

• 20:26Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 20:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That sound.

• 20:28Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 20:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is only made.

• 20:29Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At the last instant that these make contact.

• 20:33Chuck Nice?

  Okay, that makes sense.

• 20:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 20:35Chuck Nice?

  Right?

• 20:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But if you put your finger there.

• 20:37Chuck Nice?

  No, I'm not doing that.

• 20:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You do it, I promise. I promise. I promise.

• 20:41Chuck Nice?

  What kind of trick is this?

• 20:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We go way back.

• 20:43Chuck Nice?

  All right, here we go.

• 20:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 20:44Chuck Nice?

  I'm gonna trust you. Here we go.

• 20:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, just again.

• 20:46Chuck Nice?

  Okay. Woo! I'm not leaving my finger in there.

• 20:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, now put your finger in.

• 20:49Chuck Nice?

  Oh, come on now. Go ahead. Oh! Look at that. Oh my gosh!

• 20:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  See that?

• 20:55Chuck Nice?

  Look at that.

• 20:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You didn't know about that?

• 20:56Chuck Nice?

  I had no idea.

• 20:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you can scare people with it.

• 21:00Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 21:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But really, it's just.

• 21:02Chuck Nice?

  And nothing.

• 21:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It doesn't.

• 21:03Chuck Nice?

  That's amazing!

• 21:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because you're, because it's only the.

• 21:06Chuck Nice?

  I'm like a kid! I'm so easily impressed by stuff! I'm like, oh my god! It doesn't hurt!

• 21:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You didn't know about that?

• 21:16Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, but see, listen, I'm black. That belt represents a lot.

• 21:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A whole lot of butt whooping.

• 21:21Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 21:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 21:23Chuck Nice?

  Oh my god, I've never seen that. I can't wait to go home and do this to my five-year-old. Now put your finger in there.

• 21:32Chuck Nice?

  That was awesome.

• 21:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 21:34Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 21:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, you can put your.

• 21:36Chuck Nice?

  I can put my belt.

• 21:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  While I'm answering.

• 21:37Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 21:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what, so the question was, oh, about the, okay.

• 21:41Chuck Nice?

  So these, these supermass, these x-rays that are coming off of these supermassive black holes.

• 21:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's what happens. You have all this matter trying to get into the black hole.

• 21:51Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 21:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not on purpose.

• 21:52Chuck Nice?

  Not on purpose. Right.

• 21:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Trying to not get in the black hole.

• 21:55Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 21:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. Most matter that falls towards a black hole is not falling exactly online with its location in space.

• 22:03Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 22:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That would be unusual.

• 22:05Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 22:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Typically, it would just fall off to the side, one direction or another.

• 22:09Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 22:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it turns out, the system, the rotating system, as matter tries to come in, it'll miss the black hole, but then it'll get pulled into orbit around it.

• 22:22Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 22:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? And so now you have this circulating matter. Right. And we have a term for it, it's called an accretion disk. An accretion disk. It's a accreting material, alright. Nice. And this accretion disk feeds the black hole. The innermost part of it goes unstable in its orbit, and then it spirals down, and that's lost forever. Right. Okay. But, in order for all this matter that used to be out here. Right. To end up here. Mm-hmm. There's a lot of gravitational energy it has to release to do that. So let me, let me just a little more TMI on this, you ready? Good, go for it. If I just drop something towards Earth, what happens to its speed? It accelerates. It accelerates. Right. Right? Okay. Alright.

• 23:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nine point eight centimeters per second squared or some crap like that. Meters per second. Meters per second. Yeah, you got the significant digits. Yes, exactly. Alright, so it's nine hundred. Centimeters per second, that's funny, go ahead.

• 23:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Meters per second. Nine hundred and eighty. Right. Alright, so, so here's the thing. So, to get from some distant place to the black hole. Right. And then stop moving. Right. Where does all that energy go? Alright? And what I'm saying is, any matter that's trying to get to the black hole from far away is gonna have to release that energy. If it's gonna land where the black hole is. Right. And so, since most of it misses the black hole and goes to the side, you get this disk. And so you have this disk of material, all trying to get in, and there's friction between the inner layers that rotate faster than the outer layers.

• 24:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's material hitting it, and then again, stopping because it hit it, but that's a collision with it. And we have bright spots that show up on these accretion disks. Right. That's an active place. Yeah, that's. And if you're a disk and you're trying to radiate, you can't radiate through the disk because there's disk stuff there. Right. Where's the only place that's free and clear to spit up material and energy? Above and below the disk. Okay? Right. So.

• 24:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you have this thick accretion disk and it's basically empty on the top and bottom.

• 24:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So all the energy that is trying to get in and can't will get released in the opposite directions. And you get generally, generally you get two discs.

• 24:50Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Coming out on the poles of this accretion disk.

• 24:53Chuck Nice?

  That's beautiful.

• 24:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You get two jets.

• 24:55Chuck Nice?

  That's yeah.

• 24:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Coming out at the poles of the accretion disk.

• 24:57Chuck Nice?

  That's amazing.

• 24:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it is completely amazing.

• 24:59Chuck Nice?

  And those are all the pictures that you see of the black hole with the jets streaming out.

• 25:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, and this is material that never got into the event horizon.

• 25:06Chuck Nice?

  Right. So it's not that it's escaping the black hole. It never made it in.

• 25:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It never made it there in the first place.

• 25:11Chuck Nice?

  It's actually the dejected, non-party going club people that were not allowed into the club.

• 25:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Rejected from the velvet rope.

• 25:20Chuck Nice?

  Right. They couldn't get past the velvet rope.

• 25:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They wouldn't just walk away. They got ejected.

• 25:24Chuck Nice?

  Exactly. That is wild.

• 25:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. So there it is. And that's why. So, so, but you only get it if you have an accretion disk.

• 25:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 25:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if accretion disk is really thin and sparse.

• 25:35Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 25:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then the, the energy can go kinda in multiple directions. You won't get these, these really, uh, uh, uh, strong jets.

• 25:42Chuck Nice?

  Strong plumes that come up the top and bottom.

• 25:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And what it also has a way of doing is it's the term is collimates. So it actually makes everything come out only in that one direction, like in a pencil beam.

• 25:55Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 25:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. So if you don't happen to be in a sight line to it.

• 26:01Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 26:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not going to be very bright to you.

• 26:02Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 26:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So there's some galaxies that are supremely bright.

• 26:06Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it's because we, we think that this jet is actually facing directly towards you.

• 26:10Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 26:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  With all this energy focused down into this jet.

• 26:14Chuck Nice?

  That is amazing stuff. What a great question.

• 26:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go.

• 26:18Chuck Nice?

  Nice. Excellent.

• 26:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. Hang on.

• 26:20Chuck Nice?

  Mix it up. I'm going in, going in the black hole.

• 26:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 26:24Chuck Nice?

  And I'm pulling out. Mm-hmm. Here we go. This is, uh, Kenoda Bradford. Kenoda. Once, oh no, I'm sorry. Kianta. Kianta Bradford.

• 26:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How can Kenoda become Kianta?

• 26:37Chuck Nice?

  Uh.

• 26:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Damn.

• 26:38Chuck Nice?

  Cause I just made it that.

• 26:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 26:41Chuck Nice?

  All right. Kianta wants to know this. Um.

• 26:45Chuck Nice?

  If photons have no mass, how does the gravitational force of the black hole pull in the photons?

• 26:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh.

• 26:57Chuck Nice?

  What a great question.

• 26:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh, I can answer that in two ways.

• 27:00Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 27:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Each of them kinda mind blowing.

• 27:02Chuck Nice?

  Alright, good.

• 27:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Are you ready?

• 27:03Chuck Nice?

  Ah, yes, please.

• 27:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 27:05Chuck Nice?

  Excellent.

• 27:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, the first one is simple.

• 27:07Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 27:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, energy and mass are the same.

• 27:11Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 27:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The two sides of the same coin.

• 27:13Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 27:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You can plug the energy of the photon into E equals mc squared equation.

• 27:19Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's the E.

• 27:20Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 27:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And divide that by c squared and out the other side comes the mass.

• 27:24Chuck Nice?

  Right. And the cool thing is, and that makes sense. That's why you have an equals sign there.

• 27:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what an equals sign is. That's how equals signs roll.

• 27:32Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 27:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When you're doing a calculation, equals mc squared is the same as m equals E divided by c squared.

• 27:38Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 27:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, c is the speed of light squared. So, you take your energy of the photon divided by c squared, you get a mass out of that.

• 27:45Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 27:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So now you can think of the black hole attracting a mass.

• 27:48Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 27:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it'll attract it in exactly the way, um, it'll attract the photon exactly the way it would a mass of that amount. Okay?

• 27:55Chuck Nice?

  I love that.

• 27:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, but, but wait. That's not the more interesting answer.

• 27:59Chuck Nice?

  Okay. Well, you had me.

• 28:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. A photon.

• 28:03Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 28:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Travels along the fabric of spacetime at all times.

• 28:13Chuck Nice?

  Alright, give me a second, man. Just, just wait a second, please. Give me one second. A photon travels along the fabric of spacetime.

• 28:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 28:26Chuck Nice?

  At all times.

• 28:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 28:28Chuck Nice?

  So therefore.

• 28:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 28:29Chuck Nice?

  It is not traveling at any time, although it's traveling in time and space.

• 28:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, you went a little too far now, Chuck.

• 28:41Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, okay, okay. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not as artful at explaining this.

• 28:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here we go.

• 28:45Chuck Nice?

  My brain is.

• 28:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So here we go.

• 28:47Chuck Nice?

  Go, go for it.

• 28:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So here we go.

• 28:48Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 28:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Holding aside the fact that because the photon goes at the speed of light.

• 28:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It has no time. Let's hold that aside, because time has slowed down so much, it's actually stopped for a photon. So photon has no time at all? It has no inner clock. So, the instant it is emitted anywhere in the universe Okay. is the same instant as it is absorbed by your detector at the business end of your telescope. To it. To it. To it. It knows nothing of the journey between being formed and being hitting something and getting absorbed. Okay, wait a minute a second. Okay? By the way, I say about my photon, if you're on the beach, sunning yourself, there's a photon from across the galaxy. Right. Travel a whole galaxy and lands on your buttocks. Right. Then that's how it ended its life. Well, that was a happy photon.

• 29:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sensors, you got this? Okay, so, holding that aside. Right. You've heard of the famous experiment conducted by Sir Arthur Eddington? Oh, of course. My favorite, yes. Sir Arthur, famous experiment. Artie, Artie. Yeah, Artie, oh, Artie. So, four years after Einstein put forth his prediction Right. that gravity bends space and time. Space and time.

• 30:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Arthur Eddington, during a total solar eclipse, conducting an expedition. Yes, I know this story. That's why I knew you knew it. To measure whether light coming by the edge of the sun. Right. Whether its path was bent. And the way you do that is, you get a map of all the stars during a solar eclipse, because you can't see the stars otherwise. And get their exact position on the sky. Yes. Then wait six months later, and take a picture of that same part of the sky. Six months the sun is not in the frame. Right. There it is. And then you compare their positions. Right. And he found that the stars closer to where the sun was, their position had shifted. Wow. And so, this is the bending of starlight around the sun. So cool. Okay, so, here's the point. Go ahead. The starlight never bent.

• 30:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The light, the photons, always took a straight line.

• 31:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That straight line was bent in the fabric of space itself.

• 31:06Chuck Nice?

  Which means...

• 31:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The photon knew nothing else but to take that path.

• 31:10Chuck Nice?

  Wow, so the actual curvature of spacetime itself is the surfing...

• 31:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes!

• 31:19Chuck Nice?

  That's what, the photon is surfing.

• 31:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes!

• 31:22Chuck Nice?

  The actual curvature of spacetime itself!

• 31:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes!

• 31:27Chuck Nice?

  Holy shit!

• 31:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That is why...

• 31:29Chuck Nice?

  I'm sorry, sorry. My god!

• 31:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Holy poop!

• 31:33Chuck Nice?

  Holy poops!

• 31:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so...

• 31:36Chuck Nice?

  Oh my god, that's amazing!

• 31:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, in that context, the black hole isn't sucking in the photon.

• 31:43Chuck Nice?

  No!

• 31:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The photon is just following the curve!

• 31:45Chuck Nice?

  The photon is on a skateboard in a pool!

• 31:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes!

• 31:48Chuck Nice?

  That's what's happening!

• 31:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a skateboard!

• 31:50Chuck Nice?

  It's on a skateboard in a pool, and it's just following the dip of the pool, man!

• 31:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you have it.

• 31:55Chuck Nice?

  Dude, that is amazing!

• 31:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, photons do that.

• 31:58Chuck Nice?

  That's awesome!

• 31:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes!

• 31:59Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that's so awesome!

• 32:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, so light technically never curves, because that is a straight line to it.

• 32:07Chuck Nice?

  Wow!

• 32:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To it.

• 32:09Chuck Nice?

  Wow!

• 32:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, in other words, let's say the path came around.

• 32:13Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you stand here.

• 32:14Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And look straight in this direction, you're seeing this spot!

• 32:17Chuck Nice?

  That's right, that's what you're...

• 32:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because space curves!

• 32:20Chuck Nice?

  That's right, that's amazing, that is so cool!

• 32:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So as far as space and the photon is concerned, they're just going in a straight line.

• 32:26Chuck Nice?

  Exactly, oh my god, that's so cool! That is really great.

• 32:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go.

• 32:29Chuck Nice?

  That's good stuff right there, baby!

• 32:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's some good shit!

• 32:31Chuck Nice?

  See, I don't even wanna finish this show, let's go home! I'm good!

• 32:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We gotta take a break? Coming up, yet another segment of Cosmic Queries, Black Hole Dark Energy Edition. I'm starting.

• 32:57Chuck Nice?

  Hey, we'd like to give a Patreon shout out to the following Patreon patrons, Ricky Saul and Nasarg Yoshi. Thanks so much, guys, for your support. Without you, there's no way that we could make this trek across the cosmos. And for those of you listening who would like your own Patreon shout out, go to patreon.com/startalkradio and support us.

• 33:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back. Startalk. Cosmic query. Black hole. I guess I said it right. Black hole. Black holes. Black holes and dark energy. That's right. I gotta add something to my answer. About? But you were so... Yeah, that was good stuff.

• 33:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can you handle more? I'm not sure. My head might explode. It's great, though. Go ahead. So, the experiment that showed that light bent coming around the sun Right. in 1919. Right. Okay, four years after Einstein had his idea in 1915, published in 1916. So you might see both of those dates, but referring to the same ideas. Right. So, he predicts that space will curve in the vicinity of strong gravity, or any gravity, but you want to be able to measure it. So you want a strong gravity source like the sun. So watch. It turns out, if you plug the energy of the photon into equals mc squared

• 34:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  and get a mass, and then predict what the curve would be, you get Newton's answer to that question. Wow. You don't get Einstein's answer. Okay. In fact, Newton, that's ordinary gravity. It's a mass and a thing. Right. Okay? That would be the rubber seat. No, no, no, we're not yet at the rubber seat. We're not even at the rubber seat. Newton doesn't know anything about rubber sheets. Right. It's just, I'm a mass, you're a mass, we attract each other. Right. Okay? So, even though it would have never been measured before, the curving of light. Right.

• 35:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It had to curve by the amount predicted by Einstein.

• 35:04Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely.

• 35:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It can't have just been curved light. So you will see news accounts remembering this experiment saying, "And the light bent around the sun proving Einstein." No, that just proved that photon responds to gravity.

• 35:16Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 35:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 35:18Chuck Nice?

  I get what you're saying now, right?

• 35:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 35:19Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 35:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, when you invoke Einstein's full-blown general theory of relativity equations, you predict twice the deflection.

• 35:30Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 35:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of the beam of light than a standard calculation with Isaac Newton. And the measurements made by Sir Arthur, Artie.

• 35:38Chuck Nice?

  Artie, our boy Artie.

• 35:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And his measurements recovered that full factor of two difference between what you would have measured. So the problem is no one had measured the curvature of light before. So it gets bundled together with what would have happened if the light curved but was not as big as Einstein's number.

• 35:54Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 35:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It would have just been, "Newton, your light is also curving."

• 35:58Chuck Nice?

  Right, exactly. Because.

• 35:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Newton didn't know anything about equals mc squared.

• 36:01Chuck Nice?

  Exactly. So, yeah, so now it's just like, big object, okay? Or mass attracts, and so now that's why you got the curve.

• 36:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you get the, right, so we would have been cool with that.

• 36:10Chuck Nice?

  It would have been cool with that.

• 36:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It would just be cool. It would have curved because the gravity pulled it.

• 36:14Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 36:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Whereas Einstein, in the fabric of spacetime, run the math on his equations, you get a factor of two greater than Newton.

• 36:22Chuck Nice?

  Which, oh my god, which is right, exactly. So that's amazing. And that there shows you that it's the fabric of spacetime itself.

• 36:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Rather than just gravity pulling on.

• 36:34Chuck Nice?

  Pulling on something.

• 36:37Chuck Nice?

  Oh, I, god, I love science.

• 36:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Are you ready? Space tells matter how to move.

• 36:43Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 36:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Matter tells space how to curve.

• 36:46Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 36:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go.

• 36:48Chuck Nice?

  There you go, baby.

• 36:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's a quote from John Archibald Wheeler, a student of Albert Einstein. "And I met my to-be-wife in his relativity class."

• 36:58Chuck Nice?

  Oh, sweet.

• 36:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 36:59Chuck Nice?

  All right, let's move on.

• 37:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Go to our black hole bag.

• 37:03Chuck Nice?

  Into the black hole bag. Pulling out. All right. Hey, Fernando Rodriguez wants to know this. Is it possible that?

• 37:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He could be from Hackensack. It's just, you know, Fernando Rodriguez.

• 37:17Chuck Nice?

  Then it's just Fernando Rodriguez. All right. I like Fernando.

• 37:23Chuck Nice?

  Fernando Rodriguez. It's so very good to meet you.

• 37:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What?

• 37:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's the Puss in Boots.

• 37:35Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I was about to say. Perhaps you know my friend Kitty Sopas.

• 37:42Chuck Nice?

  Who was the actor? That's Antonio Banderas.

• 37:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Antonio Banderas, that was one of the funniest characters.

• 37:48Chuck Nice?

  I love it.

• 37:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All of Shrek. Okay, go on.

• 37:50Chuck Nice?

  Is it possible that dark energy and dark matter are stuff permeating into our universe from another nearby universe? And that our matter and energy is being permeated into another universe? Here's the caveat. Via black holes.

• 38:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, I mean, just think about it. Hold off on dark energy for a moment because that's just everywhere. And it would not lend itself as well to this expectation as dark matter would.

• 38:23Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 38:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so dark matter is a source of gravity about which we know nothing.

• 38:29Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 38:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not black holes, it's just gravity out there. We don't know what's causing it.

• 38:34Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 38:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Maybe it's some new particle? We've got top people looking for new particles?

• 38:38Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 38:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Particles that don't interact with you in any kind of way, don't care about you. So it could be just another sort of coexisting state of matter that we have to learn about. All right.

• 38:50Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 38:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What I, I, I, did you know this? I don't know if you knew.

• 38:55Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 38:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That light is trapped within our universe. It can't get out, but gravity can.

• 39:01Chuck Nice?

  That's wild.

• 39:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, isn't that interesting?

• 39:03Chuck Nice?

  That is very interesting.

• 39:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I never took a full up field theory course in graduate school where I would have learned this. So I'm describing this to you because this is what people who I trust and who are experts have told me.

• 39:16Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 39:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not because I did the calc. Mostly the other stuff I talk about here, I've done the calculations.

• 39:21Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 39:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, but the things I'm just trusting them.

• 39:24Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 39:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a field theory course, right? In it, the properties of gravity are such that it is not contained within our universe.

• 39:30Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 39:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if there's a parallel universe, it in principle could feel the effects of gravity in our universe. Well, then so would the opposite be true.

• 39:39Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 39:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, so if that's the case, maybe there's a honking universe out there because... Eighty-five percent of the gravity of our universe comes from what we call dark matter.

• 39:51Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 39:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Eighty-five percent.

• 39:53Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 39:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, so we are just blips on a you know, we're froth on the wave of the ocean.

• 39:58Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 39:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So perhaps, there's a hunkering galaxy, a hunkering universe, six times the mass of our, actually it'd have to be more than that, because to come out of the universe, it has to be even stronger than the ordinary gravity you'd feel within the universe.

• 40:14Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 40:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's because it's coming out in another dimension.

• 40:16Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 40:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, so, in other words, if you, if you scream to someone, your voice dilutes as it gets, as it spreads out.

• 40:23Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 40:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By a weight rate we can calculate. Now suppose you're also screaming into another dimension.

• 40:30Chuck Nice?

  Carol Anne. Mommy. Mommy. Carol Anne.

• 40:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's exactly what I'm saying. What? What? Okay.

• 40:44Chuck Nice?

  Turn it on. She's in the TV.

• 40:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, if you're screaming, then the energy you need to have strength going to that extra dimension.

• 40:56Chuck Nice?

  Uh huh.

• 40:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And still matter to wherever it's headed, it's gotta be much bigger than just went into your own dimensions here. So that's what I'm saying. Every dimension you add, it dilutes faster. Let me put it that way.

• 41:06Chuck Nice?

  Okay, okay.

• 41:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 41:08Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 41:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Like, for example, if I'm sending marbles down a one-way path.

• 41:12Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 41:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's no dilution.

• 41:13Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 41:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because all the marbles-

• 41:15Chuck Nice?

  They're just rolling down-

• 41:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Rolling down the path.

• 41:17Chuck Nice?

  That's it.

• 41:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now if I spread it out like this, in a fan, now the marbles will dilute into a fan.

• 41:23Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 41:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 41:24Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 41:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mathematically, they'll dilute as one over R. Okay?

• 41:27Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 41:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now if I, over, one over the distance. Now if I diluted into a cone, they'll dilute like one over R squared.

• 41:33Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 41:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As does light and as does gravity.

• 41:36Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 41:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If I now diluted into a higher dimension than that.

• 41:39Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 41:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You need, it'll dilute like one over the fourth.

• 41:42Chuck Nice?

  Got you. That's funny, because you just went, you did, you went from flat to two to three dimensional.

• 41:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right, and so the higher, add a dimension, you need that dimension to get to the other universe.

• 41:52Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 41:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, so, the gravity would have to be like that much more powerful.

• 41:56Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 41:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But suppose it was, suppose at twelve times the mass of our, our universe, or a hundred times the mass of the- it could be their gravity seeping into ordinary mass, with ordinary gravity.

• 42:07Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 42:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Seeping into our universe. And since we can't see the origin, which is this mysterious thing. What is this? Which is. That is so wild. It's mysterious. That's wild. That's right. Oh my God, that makes so much sense, though. Well. It really makes so much sense. Right, right. And here we are trying to touch an elephant that's not even there. Exactly. Right. That is cruel. So I'm all in for that. That's the solution I want. I love it. Because that would be evidence in direct, though it was, of another parallel universe to us. That's so wild. Right, because you know, you know who's looking for the new particle that it could be? Particle physicists. Right. So they're hammers looking for nails. There you go. That's it. So I'm not any of those hammers. I'm looking for whatever's out there. Right. I'll take any of it.

• 42:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Fantastic, man. That's good stuff. Yeah, no, it's a real, it's a really, it's a really, a really fun concept. That's gotta be like the cutting edge frontier of all physics. And just for reference, not that I think everyone got that example, but let me give a simpler one, just in case you want it. Yeah, I mean, I got it, but go ahead. That's a good, that's a, that's a. It was a good example. If we live within a sheet of paper. Right. Right? And that's your whole world. Right. But you're a three dimensional person looking at we poor creatures and you have a hollow sphere. And we might have done this on another show. Yes, we did. If I drop that sphere, pass that sphere through your sheet of paper. That's it. How will you describe that to your other scientists in the sheet of paper? Well, first there's a dot. Right. And then the dot.

• 43:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That becomes a circle. The circle gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and then it hits a maximum point. And it started closing up again. And then it ends, disappears. Nice. Who knows where it went? I don't know. Right. Where you just passed a sphere through us. Right. So there could be higher dimensional things influencing your space environment that you, it's just, it's the stuff of legends and lore and that sort of thing. That's cool. Yeah. Wow. All right, back to the bag. Do more. More black holes from the black hole bag. Right. Here we go. Mm-hmm.

• 44:12Chuck Nice?

  Alright, this is Jackson Welch. And Jackson Welch from Instagram wants to know, "If a solar system further from..."

• 44:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So people can send questions to us from all platforms?

• 44:21Chuck Nice?

  Everywhere.

• 44:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, okay, good.

• 44:23Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, we're everywhere, man.

• 44:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Instagram, IG.

• 44:25Chuck Nice?

  And he says, "If a solar system further from the black hole of our galaxy has a planet which inhabits intelligent life, would time be faster on that planet relative to ours? Also, if their planet had life developed at the same time as ours, might they be more advanced due to the relative time difference? And thus having had, quote-unquote, 'more time to develop'?"

• 44:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, the gravitational field of the black hole is so weak by the time you get out here, it's not a thing.

• 44:58Chuck Nice?

  It's just not a thing.

• 44:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not a thing. So, no, don't lose sleep over that.

• 45:02Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 45:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, so, but what is interesting is, and this is like inside baseball here, but it turns out, our speeds should be dropping off as you get out... So here's the whole galaxy, we're a flat disk spiral galaxy. As you get farther out, the speeds should be dropping off. Because you're farther away from the center of the action. But they're not, they're like, stable.

• 45:28Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 45:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're quote "flat." So our speed is the same, basically, as that of stars orbiting exterior to us. Something is enabling that to happen. Something is having them go faster than they otherwise would. This was a discovery made in 1976 by Vera Rubin, and that was the discovery of dark matter in galaxies themselves.

• 45:55Chuck Nice?

  Oh! So dark matter is actually influencing galaxies to the point where...

• 46:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, our rotation rate.

• 46:03Chuck Nice?

  Our rotation rate should be slower at the...

• 46:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the dark matter is giving it more gravity to turn.

• 46:10Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 46:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. So...

• 46:12Chuck Nice?

  Now, is that the...

• 46:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, all that means is that we have the same speed.

• 46:15Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 46:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so, therefore, there's not any relative anything. But, even if we did start life at the same time, it could easily have life way sooner than we did. Or way later. Because every branch in the tree of life is an enormous contingency of events.

• 46:34Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 46:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Suppose the asteroid never took out the dinosaurs.

• 46:38Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 46:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We would all still be, you know, small rodents running underfoot trying to avoid being orders for...

• 46:46Chuck Nice?

  Um, I'm gonna say, uh, uh, I'm trying to think of the dinosaur now.

• 46:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  T-Rex.

• 46:52Chuck Nice?

  Thank you. But, no, I wanted to go with the clever girl, that one.

• 46:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Which one is that?

• 46:57Chuck Nice?

  The raptor.

• 46:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, clever girl, velociraptor.

• 47:00Chuck Nice?

  Velociraptor.

• 47:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Clever, yeah, yeah, I remember that line.

• 47:02Chuck Nice?

  Clever girl.

• 47:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From Jurassic Park.

• 47:04Chuck Nice?

  Right before he gets eaten.

• 47:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By the way, you know how big those raptors actually are? They're about this big.

• 47:07Chuck Nice?

  Oh, really? They're small.

• 47:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, we have them in the, on display.

• 47:10Chuck Nice?

  Oh, in the museum?

• 47:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 47:11Chuck Nice?

  They're tiny.

• 47:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, yeah, I could kick it.

• 47:13Chuck Nice?

  You could kick it.

• 47:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I could to- I could totally bust his ass, so...

• 47:16Chuck Nice?

  That's so funny.

• 47:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here I say, I'm talking to a fossil.

• 47:19Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 47:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. But, uh, they, they pumped them up for the movie.

• 47:24Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 47:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, just to make them a little more eye to eye.

• 47:26Chuck Nice?

  Right, exactly.

• 47:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Obviously, something big can kill you, but something your size?

• 47:30Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 47:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's a little more, that's a fight.

• 47:32Chuck Nice?

  That's a fight now.

• 47:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's a fight that you're gonna lose, but it's a fight.

• 47:34Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it's still a fight.

• 47:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. You think it's a fight, and then you're gonna lose it anyway.

• 47:36Chuck Nice?

  And then you get slashed open with these razor-sharp talons of a velociraptor, and you're like, "Why did I bring a belly to a raptor fight? I don't know what I'm saying."

• 47:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, the point is, almost anything, and we went three billion years with single-celled life.

• 47:54Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 47:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If there's something else that pumped oxygen into the air faster than they did?

• 47:58Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 47:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We'd have had an oxygenated atmosphere much earlier, enabling oxygen metabolism life to take root sooner than it did on another planet perhaps, rather than here.

• 48:06Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 48:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you wanna use Earth as some kind of measure of things. So, there could be life forms on planets just as old as ours that are a billion times more evolutionarily, um, advanced than we are.

• 48:19Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 48:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A billion years.

• 48:20Chuck Nice?

  That's funny.

• 48:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Think about that.

• 48:21Chuck Nice?

  That's great.

• 48:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, yeah.

• 48:22Chuck Nice?

  That's pretty wild.

• 48:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got it.

• 48:24Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 48:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, dude, I think that's it.

• 48:26Chuck Nice?

  I know, we're out of time, this was a...

• 48:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Man, wait, wait, stick your head in there, tell me how many questions are left.

• 48:29Chuck Nice?

  Let me see.

• 48:29Speaker 02

  Oh. Ah, we lost track.

• 48:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. Well, thanks for tuning in. Nobody tunes anything anymore. This is true. Thanks for, uh... Thanks for clicking on. Click, yeah, whatever you did to hear this. Thanks for listening, watching. This has been StarTalk, Cosmic Queries Edition, Black Holes and Dark Energy. Chuck Nice. Thank you, always a pleasure, brother. All right. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist, signing off from my office at the Hayden Planetarium, where I'm telling you, as I always do, to keep looking up.