Cosmic Queries Live: Galactic Gumbo Edition

Explore relativity, panspermia, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, the multiverse, tachyons, marijuana legalization, and more with Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice as they answered questions in front of a live audience at Sessanta and on Facebook Live. NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free

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.

• 0:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is StarTalk. I'm your host Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. We are actually live at Sesanta, a restaurant, at 60 Thompson Street in Soho, New York. I got my co-host Chuck Nice.

• 0:39Chuck Nice?

  Hey, hey Neil.

• 0:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck Nice tweeting, Chuck Nice Comics.

• 0:41Chuck Nice?

  Thank you, sir, yes.

• 0:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, Comic.

• 0:43Chuck Nice?

  Comic?

• 0:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes. And so this is gonna be a Cosmic Queries, uh, uh, Melange.

• 0:48Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 0:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A...

• 0:50Chuck Nice?

  We like to call it a Galactic Gumbo.

• 0:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Galactic Gumbo.

• 0:53Chuck Nice?

  Guaranteed.

• 0:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if this is just whatever, so we haven't themed the questions is the point.

• 1:02Chuck Nice?

  No, we have not.

• 1:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But they're all cosmically related, hence my expertise will apply.

• 1:06Chuck Nice?

  That's correct, and we already have people chiming in on Facebook, but you know what? We're gonna start things off in our show with an actual query from the audience. Do we have our first audience member? Hello, what's your name? Please stand up.

• 1:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, wait, first she's wearing a Van Gogh dress. Can we get some attention to that?

• 1:22Chuck Nice?

  Oh my god, isn't that your, like, one of your favorite paintings?

• 1:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes!

• 1:29Chuck Nice?

  That's not one of your favorite paintings, right?

• 1:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not like one of my favorite paintings, it is my favorite painting.

• 1:34Chuck Nice?

  I...

• 1:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A, B...

• 1:35Chuck Nice?

  B.

• 1:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  B. We'll get to your question in a minute.

• 1:38Chuck Nice?

  Oh, no.

• 1:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm gonna finish riffing on your dress. So Van Gogh painted that in 1889. It's obviously an impressionistic representation. It's not the sky that he saw, it's the sky that he felt.

• 1:52Chuck Nice?

  Ooh.

• 1:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And...

• 1:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What is that?

• 1:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so while I care about accuracy and detail, if you represent through your art, how the universe makes you feel, you cannot be faulted for that. You can only be praised. And in that, I will say further, that there's the starry night in the backdrop, then there's the hills, then there's this village, with a spire and a cypress tree. He didn't call that painting Cypress Tree, or Sleepy Village, or Rolling Hills. It may have been the first time ever. In the history of art, with a name of the painting, the Starry Night, is what is in the background, rather than what's in the foreground.

• 2:40Chuck Nice?

  But it's still the focus.

• 2:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Think about when you set up a canvas, there's something there that you're painting.

• 2:45Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you're painting the sky, you're not gonna put other stuff in front of it.

• 2:49Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But he did. So there's a village, a tower, trees, hills. It is Starry Night.

• 2:56Chuck Nice?

  I think that's the original name of the piece, but he finally just settled on Starry Night. It was originally Village, Tower, Trees, Starry Night. And somebody was like, "That's a long title, man."

• 3:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, sorry to delay your question. Go on, yes, please. Yes. Okay.

• 3:16Speaker 02

  My question is, what is faster? The speed of light, or the expansion of the universe?

• 3:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh.

• 3:24Chuck Nice?

  We just, we started off like, "Ooh." "Ooh." "Ooh," she was just like, "Didn't you warm up to that?" I know, I was going, man. Yeah, but shit. At like, why couldn't you go with like, "What's a solar flare?" No. No, it's just like, "Speed of light, expansion of the universe, give it."

• 3:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, uh, speed of light, in a vacuum, in the vacuum of space, is the fastest speed that is possible moving through space. It is not just a good idea. It's the law. Okay? And it's not like one day we're gonna figure out how to go fa- that's not gonna happen. Okay? Okay, you can travel faster than light if the day we discover, like, wormholes.

• 4:04Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 4:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Or curved space.

• 4:05Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 4:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Where you're here, and you wanna go there, and actually, if you, that's, if you, that, okay, but instead you do this, and cut a hole, and then you, you bridge that gap, and then you unfold it.

• 4:17Chuck Nice?

  And now you're there.

• 4:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then you got there faster than a light beam would have. That, that's cheating in a fun way, but you're not moving through space faster than light. That is a cosmic speed limit. Now- Turns out, there is a point in the universe, where the universe is in fact, expanding faster than light. And this comes out of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

• 4:39Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 4:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And whereas the speed of light limit comes from his special theory of relativity. The special theory of relativity describes things moving within the fabric of space. General relativity describes the fabric of space itself.

• 4:52Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 4:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, if the fabric of space itself is expanding, it can expand at any rate at all.

• 4:57Chuck Nice?

  So that's the rubber sheet, right?

• 4:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's the rubber, if you embedded galaxies in it, imagine a rubber sheet, and you stretch the rubber sheet. So here are two galaxies, and so there they are stretching apart in the fabric of space. They can recede from one another arbitrarily faster than light. There is no such limit there. And love, I want, you know, I would have a sex change to wear that skirt.

• 5:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Actually, it just occurred to me, it just occurred to me, I could, I could just wear it.

• 5:30Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 5:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's way cheaper, that's way cheaper.

• 5:33Chuck Nice?

  Way cheaper.

• 5:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Way cheaper.

• 5:34Chuck Nice?

  There you go. And ain't nothing wrong with that, let me tell you something, I do it when I clean the house.

• 5:43Chuck Nice?

  Okay, um, Tom Angel. Uh, Tom Angel says this, uh, Neil, do you agree with Carl Sagan and most US voters?

• 5:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, Max.

• 5:58Chuck Nice?

  Hey Tom, there's, there's your answer, Tom. There's your answer.

• 6:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, there's very little I disagree with.

• 6:04Chuck Nice?

  And guess what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go ahead and say that, but, uh, quite frankly...

• 6:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now we gotta know, I wanna know.

• 6:08Chuck Nice?

  Now you wanna know? Uh, that marijuana should be legalized.

• 6:19Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 6:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Whoa. So, I think if you really analyze it, relative to other things that are legal, there's no reason for it to ever have been made illegal, in the, in the system of laws.

• 6:34Chuck Nice?

  That is extremely rational, which I expect from you, and you're absolutely right.

• 6:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I mean, alcohol is legal, and it can mess you up way more than smoking a few J's.

• 6:43Chuck Nice?

  That's absolutely...

• 6:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so...

• 6:45Chuck Nice?

  Boy, let me tell you something, I can tell you have never smoked weed in your life.

• 6:50Chuck Nice?

  Because you're just like, "Smoking a few J's."

• 6:55Chuck Nice?

  It was like an ABC after-school special.

• 6:59Chuck Nice?

  "Are you smoking a few J's there?"

• 7:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was the last... The last time I was like, in a cloud of it, that's how people spoke.

• 7:07Chuck Nice?

  Okay, right on. All right, let's do one quick one because we have...

• 7:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, by the way, by the way. It's just funny because if you want to sound like Mickey Mouse, you inhale the helium from a helium balloon.

• 7:21Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 7:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But the way you do that is you untie the knot and you go...

• 7:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Share the balloon. It's just... It's just, it's so...

• 7:32Chuck Nice?

  Right, right, exactly. In other words, when kids are at a party sharing helium balloons, they might as well be smoking some J's.

• 7:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 7:45Chuck Nice?

  All right, here we go.

• 7:49Chuck Nice?

  Who do we have?

• 7:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hello.

• 7:51Chuck Nice?

  Timor.

• 7:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got the microphone?

• 7:54Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. Go right ahead, sir.

• 7:55Speaker 03

  My question isn't as impactful as that first one. How do you measure the distances between stars and planets? And how important is it to be accurate?

• 8:04Chuck Nice?

  How do you measure the distances between stars and planets? And how important is it to be accurate?

• 8:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I mean, when you find a planet orbiting a star?

• 8:11Speaker 03

  Either or.

• 8:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Either or, yeah. Distances is a huge challenge in modern astrophysics. And we spent decades creating something what we call the Distance Ladder. And the Distance Ladder is, you figure out how close nearby things are. And you can do that pretty accurately with like geometry and trigonometry. But beyond that, you can't. And then you have to infer what the distance is based on things that are nearby that are familiar. And then once you get that, the things that are farther away, you build on that, and everything builds. And so, we're pretty confident right now that we understand distances, not only locally in the solar system, but across the galaxy and across the universe itself. So, it's a combination of many methods, some primary, some secondary, some tertiary.

• 8:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it's called the Distance Ladder. You Google it, you'll see a whole account of the steps that this required.

• 9:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's one of the toughest things out there. Because you don't know, because bright stars, you think, oh, it must be close. It could be a super bright star, but just far away. Because stars get really, really, super bright. I'll give you an example, the stars that are 10,000 times more luminous than our sun. These are huge, massive stars, some of which are so big, they... If you swapped them where Earth is right now, they would engulf the entire orbits of Mercury, Venus, and Earth. So, these are stars that are hugely luminous. By the way, the sun will do that one day.

• 9:44Chuck Nice?

  Oh, good, I'm so happy to hear that.

• 9:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, so we should, we need to sort of planet hop away from the sun by then.

• 9:54Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 9:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's in 5 billion years, if we don't have, if our ass is still on Earth, then that's it.

• 10:00Chuck Nice?

  You know what, if we're still on Earth in 5 billion years, we deserve it. Okay, that's all.

• 10:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because what will happen then is, as the sun gets larger, to getting more luminous, such as these highly luminous stars that we find in the galaxy, Earth will start getting hotter and hotter.

• 10:16Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 10:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And what will happen is, the oceans will come to a rolling boil and evaporate into the atmosphere. Then the atmosphere will evaporate into space. And then, as the edge of the sun overcomes the orbit of the Earth, we become this charred ember as we descend down to the core, as we vaporize.

• 10:37Chuck Nice?

  You know what, only you can make that sound like it's something good.

• 10:42Chuck Nice?

  All excited about our demise.

• 10:47Chuck Nice?

  Which is very cool, and you know what, you know, not to be attenuated, but...

• 10:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not to be what?

• 10:52Chuck Nice?

  Attenuated, but...

• 10:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's like a real word?

• 10:56Chuck Nice?

  That is a word!

• 11:00Chuck Nice?

  It's not like I'm Mike Tyson, I'm just not making words up.

• 11:06Chuck Nice?

  You know what I mean? Oh my god, these cookies are delicious, like I'm not...

• 11:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, we don't want Chuck to be attenuated.

• 11:16Chuck Nice?

  No, but I'm saying, what you were just talking about, I've actually heard from other of your colleagues, which we have on this show. You know, primarily a planetary astrophysicist, Dr. Funky Spoon, Dr. David Grin spoon.

• 11:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, David Grin spoon, yeah.

• 11:31Chuck Nice?

  Who is one of our Star Talk All-Stars.

• 11:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was, I'm just, I gotta, like, I got, I got, so Star Talk as a thing...

• 11:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Had such fertility...

• 11:42Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 11:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That it was able to like spawn off pieces of itself.

• 11:47Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 11:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  One of them was, I had like colleagues who had energy and interest and expertise, so then we created Star Talk All-Stars.

• 11:54Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 11:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So they got their own damn show.

• 11:55Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 11:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They don't need, I'm not even in the show.

• 11:58Chuck Nice?

  Well, that's true.

• 11:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right, and then, so that we had, we would occasionally have a guest who was a professional athlete, either current or former.

• 12:05Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 12:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That had huge following, those particular episodes, so then we spawned those off.

• 12:10Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 12:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To make Playing with Science. And you, you were the co-host of that, I'm not even, had nothing to do with that either.

• 12:15Chuck Nice?

  Well, yes, I am like your cosmic baby now, so...

• 12:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, it's just birthed you?

• 12:21Chuck Nice?

  No, yeah, no, but Playing with Science is a great show.

• 12:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who came up with Playing with Science? Because that's, that's a kind of weird title. Was that your idea?

• 12:27Chuck Nice?

  Okay, I, I came up with the name Playing with Science.

• 12:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so...

• 12:30Chuck Nice?

  Is that not a good name?

• 12:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, wait.

• 12:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Does your mama know you're playing with science?

• 12:41Chuck Nice?

  Why is this doing lock? Chuck, are you playing with science?

• 12:52Speaker 03

  How may this door, mister?

• 12:58Chuck Nice?

  And while we're at it, you might as well bring, there's, there's something where you can see all of this. Everything that we do is on something called StarTalkAllAccess.com. So just to let you know, and for you at home, if you just want to know, StarTalkAllAccess.com, everything that we do is available there, plus exclusive and original content. So, I just wanted to get that in there, because of what you said, that's all. Can we go to another question, shall we? From Facebook Live. Levi Silva says this, "If the multiverse theory is true, is there a universe where it isn't true?" Oh my god, what a crazy question! Oh my god, that's a crazy question!

• 13:38Chuck Nice?

  Because if the multiverse is every possible universe that could be in existence, then could there be in existence a universe where there is no multiverse?

• 13:52Chuck Nice?

  Oh wait, and let me just follow that up by saying, "I'm Pickle Rick!" Okay.

• 14:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So here's the thing. In a multiverse where there could be many, possibly infinite universes, where all possibilities manifest, this is a suggestion that's hard to argue against. So, if you have infinite number of universes, everything plays out. At all times. If this conversation is happening, it's that I'm sitting there and you're sitting here. Or I'm wearing a NASA shirt and you're wearing this flurry fluffy thing, okay? So, so, so could there be a universe in which there is no multiverse? And all I'm saying is, the different properties of each universe do not reference what's outside of them.

• 14:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, we're describing the variation, in particular, of the laws of physics in each universe. That's what's varying. So, so, you can imagine, I suppose, a universe that has no multiverse at all. But, okay. But then what? I mean, then, put that Levi in that universe and then he'll be happy.

• 15:03Chuck Nice?

  That's it, he doesn't exist, right.

• 15:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, then he's not part of our multiverse.

• 15:07Chuck Nice?

  He's not part of our multiverse.

• 15:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now here's something to think about. The universe never makes anything in ones, it seems, okay? We thought, well, Earth, Earth, no, we got, you know, eight planets. Eight, get over it. The sun... Yeah, the sun, those are stars, but this is the sun. No, they're also suns.

• 15:22Chuck Nice?

  They're all stars.

• 15:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Stars are suns and suns are stars. Galaxy, Milky, no, they've got a hundred billion galaxies. The universe, hey, no, with the multiverse, maybe there's multiple universes. But then, if that's the case, then maybe the multiverse doesn't even come in ones.

• 15:43Chuck Nice?

  Oh, snap. So you're saying it's multiple multiverses?

• 15:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly. So we might call that a metaverse.

• 15:49Chuck Nice?

  The metaverse.

• 15:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, I mean, that's not an official line of research.

• 15:53Chuck Nice?

  It is now.

• 15:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just saying.

• 15:54Chuck Nice?

  We just did it. We just did the official research. I'm calling Princeton when we leave this room.

• 16:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you got it. So Chuck, we gotta take a break? Okay. So when we come back, more Cosmic Queries Galactic Gumbo Edition.

• 16:08Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 16:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We'll start talking.

• 16:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back. StarTalk. We're taking questions from Facebook Live, from every other place, and you're gonna butcher the names as you usually do.

• 16:34Chuck Nice?

  As I always do.

• 16:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't know what's something, a missing synapses in your head.

• 16:38Chuck Nice?

  It probably is. I will say this. It's years and years of abuse to my brain. I will not tell you what kind of abuse, but yes.

• 16:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It could be John Smith. You say, is it Joe who smites it?

• 16:51Chuck Nice?

  Excuse me, A A Ron? Yeah, that's me.

• 16:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, so what's the next question? You got more from Facebook Live?

• 16:58Chuck Nice?

  Yes, I do. Here we go.

• 16:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So there are at least three people watching on Facebook Live, because we have their questions here.

• 17:04Chuck Nice?

  Well, we're moving a little slowly.

• 17:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is data.

• 17:06Chuck Nice?

  I'll speed it up if you want.

• 17:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 17:08Chuck Nice?

  Okay, Scott Murray wants...

• 17:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're gonna have a lightning round where I go through just soundbite answers.

• 17:12Chuck Nice?

  I hope so.

• 17:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, okay.

• 17:13Chuck Nice?

  Okay, here we go. In your opinion, what's the coolest, most interesting aspect of the upcoming eclipse? That is from Scott Murray.

• 17:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh.

• 17:21Chuck Nice?

  The eclipse will be on the 21st of August? Okay.

• 17:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.

• 17:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's America's eclipse.

• 17:32Chuck Nice?

  Mer.

• 17:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mer, apostrophe M, U U R R I C A. That's I think how you spell that. Merica FM. It's a mer, this, the path of totality, this is the moon's shadow being dragged across Earth's surface.

• 17:51Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 17:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At 1,700 miles an hour. And the duration of totality

• 17:57Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 17:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  is simply the time it takes the shadow to pass across you if you happen to be standing in, in the path. So, the path of totality only touches the continental United States. Touches no other country and

• 18:15Chuck Nice?

  USA.

• 18:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The, the last time that happened

• 18:18Chuck Nice?

  S.

• 18:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  was in the 13th century before there was a USA. So, in that sense, it's just kinda cool. It's, it's

• 18:25Chuck Nice?

  It's ours.

• 18:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's ours, it's ours. That's, otherwise eclipses happen all the frickin' time.

• 18:29Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 18:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Every couple of years, you have a total solar eclipse somewhere. But I bet you, I bet you, August 21st, August 22nd, there'll be headlines, rare eclipse. Oh, every journalist wants to use the word rare with the word eclipse. But eclipses are more frequent than presidential elections.

• 18:47Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 18:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nobody says, rare presidential election coming up.

• 18:50Chuck Nice?

  Oh, well, they did the last one.

• 19:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so, just like, check the rarity at the door. It, eclipses are common and in the old days, when no one traveled, you'd go your whole life without seeing one. Now, in your life, you could always pretty much drive to one. Alright, so, or fly to one. You can fly to one every couple of years, so just sorta get over it.

• 19:21Chuck Nice?

  Alright, super cool, super cool. Alright, um, let's move on to Carlos Caraballo. And Carlos would like to know this. If you could accelerate

• 19:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is Facebook Live?

• 19:33Chuck Nice?

  This is Facebook Live. All of these are coming to me from Facebook Live. And because it's coming to me live, I just lost the damn question. Okay, here we go. Carlos, I got it back. If you could accelerate past the speed of light. What would happen to your surroundings? So, what would you see if you could actually go faster than the speed of light?

• 19:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so you can't, according to Einstein and all experiments ever conducted, you can't accelerate past the speed of light. But you can imagine particles that exist only faster than the speed of light. They can work in his equations.

• 20:06Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 20:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, we have a word for those, particles. They're hypothetical.

• 20:09Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 20:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're called tachyons.

• 20:10Chuck Nice?

  Tachyon?

• 20:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, tachyon from the Greek tachyon.

• 20:13Chuck Nice?

  No, no, no.

• 20:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, yes.

• 20:15Chuck Nice?

  No, it's from Star Trek.

• 20:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, tachyometer also draws from this, which gives you the speed of your, of your engine pistons. So, so, um, what was that? Oh, so these particles exist faster than light. And if you run the numbers, if these particles exist, they would live backwards in time.

• 20:39Chuck Nice?

  Oh snap.

• 20:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right.

• 20:41Chuck Nice?

  Because, is that?

• 20:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, it just, it comes out of the mass. That's, that's all I'm saying.

• 20:44Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 20:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so.

• 20:46Chuck Nice?

  But is that part of the same, same Einstein theory?

• 20:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, but we don't, we've never found them and nothing can accelerate past it. So they'd have to be born into existence this way. People have imagined, have, have come up with experiments that would detect them if they existed and they would, they've never been detected. So, this hypothetical at this point. But it's interesting. If, so for example, if I see you walking down the hall and you slip on a banana peel, and I say, oh, let me prevent Chuck from slipping on the banana peel.

• 21:11Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 21:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, I'm gonna send you a text message via tachyons.

• 21:16Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 21:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so I say, Chuck, watch out for the banana peel. Then you get it.

• 21:21Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 21:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Like, 10 seconds before you get to the banana peel.

• 21:27Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 21:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what happens is, I send the text.

• 21:29Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 21:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You get it in the past.

• 21:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 21:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And your, your, your smartphone jiggles, uh, vibrates. You pick it up.

• 21:36Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 21:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it says, oh, I have to watch out for the banana peel. And the fact that you were looking at your smartphone meant you didn't notice the banana peel and you slipped on it.

• 21:44Chuck Nice?

  Oh snap. Okay.

• 21:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, it could be.

• 21:47Chuck Nice?

  It could be.

• 21:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It could be that certain events are embedded in the fabric of time, such that the very act of preventing you from slipping on the banana peel made you slip on the banana peel.

• 21:57Chuck Nice?

  So that would be the big argument for predetermination.

• 22:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Possibly.

• 22:01Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 22:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Possibly.

• 22:02Chuck Nice?

  I got you, I got you. However, when you sent me that tachyon text, it just came up, the subscriber you are trying to reach is not available.

• 22:13Chuck Nice?

  Alright, dude, that was amazing. That was a great, great question. Alright, let's move on to Paula Hogan, coming to us from, of course, Facebook Live, who would like to know, "How would we know we found life on another planet since it would likely look and behave very different from life here?" Now, first of all, that's a big assumption.

• 22:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I get you, I understand.

• 22:40Chuck Nice?

  I would like to know, though, if we find life, is it going to be really different from here?

• 22:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, that's a great question. Wouldn't we even recognize it as life?

• 22:48Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, would we know it as life?

• 22:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Perfectly legitimate question, but I think we have good cogent answers for that.

• 22:53Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 22:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? So, first of all, the ingredients of life, look at the chemical ingredients, the atomic ingredients, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, iron. These are the most common ingredients across the universe. We're made of the most common stuff.

• 23:10Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 23:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, if you're gonna make life with the ingredients on another planet, it's probably gonna have chemistry kinda similar to ours. It's not gonna be made of some isotope of business. No, that's not common out there. That's A. B, we are carbon-based life, as any good science fiction fan knows. Carbon on the periodic table of elements is the most sticky element. You can make more molecules using carbon than all other molecules combined. So, if you had to base the diversity of life on an element, carbon is your element.

• 23:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe.

• 23:56Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 23:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, to say, "This life is based on this other thing," and it's not necessary. It's not necessary to invent something out of dark orifices.

• 24:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To try to see what the life might be like chemically.

• 24:09Chuck Nice?

  But isn't that narcissistic because we're made, we're carbon based? Isn't that a little narcissistic? So, life is surely gonna, certainly gonna be like us.

• 24:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If I have a pool of chemicals,

• 24:19Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Carbon is gonna start making molecules all by itself.

• 24:22Chuck Nice?

  Okay, I got you.

• 24:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, that's what, now it might not have DNA.

• 24:25Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But, so, if we're gonna find life, it'll probably have carbon. And chemistry on Earth is the same as the chemistry everywhere in the universe. One of the great discoveries of 20th century astrophysics. If science were different on Earth than it was on the moon or anywhere else, there would be no science. Would we just have Earth science? I mean, science only on Earth.

• 24:46Chuck Nice?

  Science only on Earth, right.

• 24:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then you wouldn't, there would, there would be no astrophysics.

• 24:49Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause we'd have no access to what was going on elsewhere. But the laws of physics we find on Earth apply to the outer reaches of the universe. So that's why there's no reason to invoke something completely different. Now, that being said, why is it that Hollywood aliens always have a head, shoulders, two arms, head and legs? And they walk and they, and, why?

• 25:11Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 25:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Why? What, if there's a life form from another planet, it should look at least as different from us as other life forms and us on Earth look from one another. Because all life on Earth has common DNA. So, I'm here, you're here, we have jellyfish, oak trees, millipedes. Okay, bacteria, yeast cells, okay? That's life on Earth with common DNA. You're gonna pull out life from another planet? Let it look more different than that. Cause we look different from one another, that's all I'm saying. Plus, we invent life, okay? What is, what is a cow?

• 25:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A cow is a biological machine invented by humans to turn grass into steak.

• 26:01Chuck Nice?

  Right, well, you're right about that, that's true.

• 26:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, if you can invent life to serve your needs, then, then all bets are off. Just vent whatever you need. I'm gonna tweet that actually, about that.

• 26:17Chuck Nice?

  That's actually not a bad, bad tweet. Invent whatever you need if you're gonna invent life.

• 26:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, the cow, yeah, the cow.

• 26:22Chuck Nice?

  Oh, the cow, I'm messing him up. I'm gonna mess it.

• 26:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cow's a biological machine, invented by humans.

• 26:29Chuck Nice?

  What's an artificial? I was gonna say, you have to do this right now?

• 26:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, there you go, sorry, sorry.

• 26:36Chuck Nice?

  Kinda going to Facebook Live, uh... Just saying, uh...

• 26:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did I cross the wires?

• 26:46Chuck Nice?

  Cut the red, cut the red, okay.

• 26:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, in fact, not the wires, did I cross the beans?

• 26:50Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 26:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, we're talking...

• 26:52Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that's...

• 26:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, now, we're talking Ghostbusters.

• 26:55Chuck Nice?

  Okay, uh, let us, let me find, oh god, this was a great question, I wanted to find this question, give me one...

• 27:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, they're scrolling, and so...

• 27:02Chuck Nice?

  Yes, here it is, here it is. Uh, GaBrasil wants to know this. Uh, what was the reaction of your family when you told them you wanted to graduate in astrophysics? I just love that this question makes it seem like you was coming out of the closet.

• 27:20Chuck Nice?

  Mom, dad, I don't care what you say, I'm gonna be an astrophysicist!

• 27:27Chuck Nice?

  Just wanna let you know, it's who I am!

• 27:33Chuck Nice?

  Like, like... I can't change it! What you say? It's just like, I was born this way! I'm an astrophysicist!

• 27:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, it didn't quite play out that way?

• 27:45Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 27:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause I've known since age nine that I was called by the universe. And by 11, I realized you can do it professionally. So from age 11 onwards, I had an answer to that annoying question that adults always ask kids. What do you wanna be when you grow up? From age 11 onward, my answer was astrophysicist.

• 28:05Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 28:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So there was no surprise when I declared it as a major, cause it was deeply embedded in me.

• 28:12Chuck Nice?

  So you're like the little boy who was putting on a wig and high heels at 4, just like, hey, this is who I am, and y'all gonna have to deal with it.

• 28:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right, they have to deal, they have to deal with it. By the way, in all fairness to the unfolding of events, my parents took me, my brother and my sister to all the cultural institutions of the city every weekend.

• 28:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 28:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And they took us to the planetarium, that's when I first saw the night sky! I didn't know anything, what New Yorker knows anything about the night sky? We have no relationship with the universe, cause buildings are in the way, light pollution's in the way, and in my day, there was air pollution. You'd have to brush ash off your shoulders because apartment buildings were burning household garbage.

• 28:53Chuck Nice?

  When did you live here, during the Industrial Revolution?

• 28:57Chuck Nice?

  My god!

• 29:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so, all I'm saying is, it was a first encounter with my local planetarium.

• 29:12Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 29:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The Hayden Planetarium.

• 29:14Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 29:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Where I saw the night sky, I said this before, the, the, the, the, the lights dimmed and the stars came out, and I thought it was a hoax. Ain't that many stars in the night sky? I've seen every one of them from the Bronx, and there's 12 stars from the Bronx. There's not, it's a ho- later I'd figure out it was real. But to this day, I go to the finest observatories in the land, on mountain tops, and I, where you commune with the cosmos. And I look up, and I still feel this embarrassingly urban thought, that it reminds me of the Hayden Planetarium.

• 29:48Chuck Nice?

  So you're looking at the real thing?

• 29:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it's feeling like the Hayden Planetarium.

• 29:53Chuck Nice?

  That is so funny. So you know what, see, and, and-

• 29:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By the way, I'm now director of the Hayden Planetarium.

• 29:58Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 29:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that story like, plays better in like a small town, in New York, no one actually cares. I've tried it on them. I say, you realize I became director of the pla- they had to, "Yeah, and you, yeah, and your point is?", you know, so-

• 30:09Chuck Nice?

  And that's funny, because, you know what, you bring this up, and it, it reminds me of, so in your book, chapter 12, of your book-

• 30:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, the last chapter, chapter 12.

• 30:18Chuck Nice?

  Is reflections of, or reflections on the cosmic perspective.

• 30:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh huh.

• 30:24Chuck Nice?

  And it's funny when you say like, that no New Yorker has a relationship with the universe, it just reminded me of anybody who has your experience, whether it's in a planetarium or on a hilltop, looking through a telescope, that's where you find the cosmic perspective.

• 30:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's an opening quote here from James Ferguson. This, no, nobody who grows up in a city could ever pen these words, in a modern city. And so this is, can I read?

• 30:51Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 30:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, you ready? "Of all the sciences cultivated by mankind, a struck-" this is a quote from James Ferguson, 1757.

• 31:01Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 31:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of all the sciences cultivated by mankind, astronomy is a knowledge to be, and undoubtedly is, the most sublime, the most interesting, and the most useful. For by knowledge derived from this science, not only the bulk of the earth is discovered, but our very faculties are enlarged with the grander of the ideas it conveys. Our minds exalted above their low contracted prejudices.

• 31:30Chuck Nice?

  Nice! Ooh! Oh! Oh, you know what?

• 31:35Speaker 03

  Oh, he's sealing it!

• 31:36Chuck Nice?

  Yeah!

• 31:37Speaker 03

  He was sealing that cosmic perspective!

• 31:38Chuck Nice?

  I'm feeling it right now! Sure, are you kidding me? I have a chubby!

• 31:49Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 31:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, we're out of time in this segment, but you've got more questions.

• 31:52Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely.

• 31:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, we'll pick them up when we return on StarTalk.

• 32:12Chuck Nice?

  Fantastic. So, uh, right now I'd like to do a little something that I call Cocktails and Cosmos, where you talk about the cosmic perspective. This will change your cosmic perspective. This is Will, the bartender. Come on in, Will! Ladies and gentlemen! Give it up for Will!

• 32:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Looks like a night sky shirt with stars on. Very nice.

• 32:33Chuck Nice?

  Better known as polka dot.

• 32:39Speaker 03

  Murphite.

• 32:43Chuck Nice?

  Will is gonna make us. What are you making, Will?

• 32:45Speaker 04

  So we're making tonight the Event Horizon.

• 32:47Chuck Nice?

  Ooh!

• 32:48Speaker 04

  Which is gonna be a gin cocktail.

• 32:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, wait, wait. If you're gonna say those words, you gotta say it right. The Event Horizon. The Event Horizon.

• 32:58Chuck Nice?

  It's better, it's better. I'll practice, I'll practice. I like it, I like it when Will says it, he almost sounds like, "I don't always drink the event."

• 33:07Chuck Nice?

  We have a little bit of...

• 33:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Recommentable.

• 33:09Chuck Nice?

  But when I do.

• 33:12Chuck Nice?

  So, you can use any type of gin? Okay.

• 33:16Chuck Nice?

  Any type of gin here?

• 33:19Chuck Nice?

  Fresh lemon juice? Fresh lemon juice? Okay, lemon juice? We have some... Blue stuff? Blue stuff, toilet water, we got toilet water. It's an orange blossom liquor. Orange blossom liquor?

• 33:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what makes this the event horizon?

• 33:32Chuck Nice?

  So, it's gonna be actually the...

• 33:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because in the universe, beyond the event horizon, there is no return. I just wanna make sure that this is an understood fact about whatever you're doing here.

• 33:45Chuck Nice?

  It's gonna be a good night, that's all I'm saying!

• 33:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There is no return...

• 33:50Chuck Nice?

  No return!

• 33:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From the event horizon.

• 33:52Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 33:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just saying.

• 33:53Chuck Nice?

  Here we go. What do you got going on here? We're gonna add the ice. Put some ice in there? Did you just invent this today? Cause it looks kinda random what you're putting in here.

• 34:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Some of this and some of that.

• 34:10Chuck Nice?

  Now we're just gonna...

• 34:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, right.

• 34:11Chuck Nice?

  Oh, so you strain it through? Why you strain it? I like it, I like it! Oh, look at that, and it comes out like this. Just to make sure that it's absolutely clean. So, I got you, so no ice shards or anything like that? No, exactly.

• 34:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In a feet-first dive to this cosmic abyss...

• 34:24Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 34:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You will not survive because you will not miss. The tidal forces of gravity will create quite a calamity when you're stretched head to toe. Are you sure you wanna go?

• 34:42Chuck Nice?

  Wait a minute, I'm gonna answer that with a poem of my own. It is alcohol.

• 34:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Was that the poem?

• 34:50Chuck Nice?

  That was it.

• 34:55Chuck Nice?

  Alright, let's give it a taste. Let's give it a taste. Cheers, my friend.

• 34:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's it.

• 34:59Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that's, that is really good, man. It's like bright, it's herbaceous, it's light, it's, it's very cool.

• 35:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It is bright, it's cold, it's cool and, and it's chill.

• 35:10Chuck Nice?

  It is.

• 35:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's chill.

• 35:10Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, very, uh, you know what, and as, as Event Horizons go...

• 35:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, we created a new thing called Event Horizon and Chill.

• 35:18Chuck Nice?

  Event Horizon and Chill. I like it.

• 35:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is that a lap?

• 35:23Chuck Nice?

  Hey, ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Will and the Event Horizon.

• 35:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thank you, Will.

• 35:30Chuck Nice?

  Very cool. Another question from the audience?

• 35:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, let's do this.

• 35:33Chuck Nice?

  Who is it? Stand up, what's your name, sir?

• 35:36Speaker 05

  My name is Ron Sparkman.

• 35:37Chuck Nice?

  Hey.

• 35:38Speaker 05

  Alright, so, um, this kinda goes with what we were talking about a little bit earlier. If we were able to find life, maybe like microbial life on Mars, do you think it would be more likely that it's a second genesis? Or that maybe it's possibly panspermia? And if so, which one would be more impactful on humanity?

• 35:54Chuck Nice?

  Okay, all I heard was sperm and I lost it.

• 35:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, that's a great question. So, yeah, there are two possibilities. Oh, three possibilities. One, there's no life on Mars, and there never was. Another one is, there is life on Mars, and it has no... No... However it encodes its identity, has nothing to do with the way we code, encode our identity. So, we have DNA, maybe it's got something else. If that's the case, it is a complete other genesis of life. That will transform biology in ways that perhaps we cannot foresee or imagine. A whole new way of being alive. Right now, biologists, they won't admit this, but you go behind closed doors. In front of the door, they'll celebrate the diversity of life.

• 36:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Behind closed doors, the fact is, all life has common DNA. So, to an alien, we're all identical, chemically, basically. So, essentially. So, so, that, that would be a stunning fact. An interesting fact, less stunning but deeply interesting, is if it does have DNA.

• 37:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then either you can have a second genesis, and DNA is an inevitable consequence of carbon organic chemistry, or some base strands of that DNA are identical to DNA on Earth. That would mean, at some point, the bacteria on Mars transported to Earth and began Earth here. So that would mean there was only one genesis on Earth, and that would have been on Mars. So if that's the case, so in other words, you can see how close two species are to one another by how much of their DNA is identical. And if it's very low down, it's possible that that could have... How does that happen?

• 37:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If Mars, all evidence shows, was probably wet and fertile before Earth was. If that was the case, and an asteroid struck, the impact energy can fling rocks into escape velocity and roam through interplanetary space and land on other planets such as Earth. And if that hap... Now, how do they get there? These bacteria would be stowaways in the nooks and crannies of the rocks. Now, those stowaways, they'd have to be able to survive interstellar space for thousands of years. They'd have to get freeze-dried and somehow come back to life upon hitting water on Earth. There are such creatures on Earth!

• 38:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Tartar grades! The water bears, they survive things that are not necessary to survive on Earth, because Earth doesn't have that, okay? So...

• 38:44Chuck Nice?

  Man, I'm just loving you right now. I don't even give a damn about the tartar grades. I've never seen anybody in my life go, "Tartar grades!"

• 38:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so, so, people think that evolution and animal adapts to some, no, nothing adapts, they die, alright, and in the variation of that, of that generation, some may have resistance to whatever is the force that killed everything else. Nothing lives or dies in vain in the tree of life. And so, the bacteria that would have, the microbes that would have survived, are those that happened to have a variation in them that could survive the radiation from space, the temperatures of space, the freeze-driedness in space, and the tardigrades have this property. So, that, we have a word for this, it's called panspermia. And so, that would be interesting too. That's all I'm saying.

• 39:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're both interesting, but a whole other genesis would be transformative.

• 39:45Chuck Nice?

  So, the answer to your question is Mars is our baby daddy, okay? So, there you have it.

• 39:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it could mean, it could mean that we are all descendants of Martians.

• 39:54Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 39:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Some, perhaps more than others.

• 40:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just saying.

• 40:01Chuck Nice?

  Oh, there you go. Oh, man, this is good. Alright, so we are, we are coming down to the end of our show.

• 40:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, wait, we have the lightning round, we need a lightning round.

• 40:09Chuck Nice?

  And I'm gonna give you a lightning round right now, but before we do, I just wanna say, uh, that before we go, uh, if you are just joining us, please make sure, uh, to check out StarTalkAllAccess.com where you can find all of this. Check out Neil's Facebook page where this will also live, uh, the Facebook Influencers page where this show will live as well. So, if you have access to any of that, you can go ahead and find it there. Also, StarTalk All-Stars is a, our show that you were talking about earlier, where we have other Neil deGrasse Tysons from different parts of science who come and talk to us about various exciting things.

• 40:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  People who we had on as, as guests, and they were just so energetic, we just gave them their own show.

• 40:50Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely, and of course, StarTalkAllAccess.com where you can find everything that we do, and subscribe and become a member, thank you for doing that. Uh, subscribe and become a member there. So, I just wanted to do that because we are now just about... Um, uh, five minutes away. Oh, and the show you actually, see, I'm, I'm trying to be humble, but Playing with Science, which, by the way, is, is the show that I do co-host with, uh, Gary O'Reilly, who is a footballer, and that show-

• 41:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From the UK, yeah.

• 41:18Chuck Nice?

  From the UK, and, uh, that show is, uh, the mashup of sports and science. It's where geeks and jocks collide, and as I like to say, without a concussion.

• 41:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Without a concussion, exactly, exactly.

• 41:31Chuck Nice?

  Very cool. Um, so-

• 41:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Was this even standing up the whole time?

• 41:34Chuck Nice?

  I, I- You keep putting it down, I keep putting it back up. Buy this book!

• 41:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, stop!

• 41:42Chuck Nice?

  Damn it, buy the book! Buy it!

• 41:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Only if you're in a hurry, that's all I'm saying.

• 41:48Chuck Nice?

  If you're in a hurry, buy the book! Alright, let's get to this, here we go.

• 41:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright.

• 41:52Chuck Nice?

  Neil doesn't like to plug anything, I don't care.

• 41:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I ain't about plugging.

• 41:55Chuck Nice?

  I am a whore!

• 41:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I ain't about plugging.

• 41:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I ain't about plugging.

• 42:00Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 42:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I've yet to mention this book on my Twitter stream.

• 42:03Chuck Nice?

  No, I know, but he knows a lot-

• 42:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I got eight million people, they don't even know about the book.

• 42:06Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, but that's why I'm here, okay? Buy the book! Go to Playing with Science! StarTalkAllStars.com, okay, everything, alright, here we go, let's go.

• 42:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright.

• 42:15Chuck Nice?

  Alright, uh, let me get back to this, here we go. Uh, undo, undo, cancel. Alright, here we go.

• 42:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is this a lightning round?

• 42:22Chuck Nice?

  This is a lightning round, here we go. So, we don't have the bell for you to ring, so just answer us quickly here. Should we be focusing our resources and energy on the exploration of Venus versus Mars, since it's cheaper and easier to get to?

• 42:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, because on Venus it's 900 degrees Fahrenheit, and if you went there, you would vaporize. So, Venus is a bad choice of destination for space exploration. Next.

• 42:42Chuck Nice?

  There you go. Uh, Lily Brown wants-

• 42:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You can cook, I calculated this, a 16-inch pizza in nine seconds on your windowsill.

• 42:49Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 42:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then, and then someone geekier than I was says, "Dr. Tyson, you made an error. You forgot radiant heat coming from the atmosphere itself, and it'll actually cook in two seconds."

• 43:00Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 43:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Avoid Venus. Next.

• 43:01Chuck Nice?

  That guy was a dick. Um, here we go. Here we go, Lily Brown wants to know this. "Hey, will you guys officiate my wedding?"

• 43:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No!

• 43:10Chuck Nice?

  Okay, next.

• 43:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, fuck you!

• 43:16Chuck Nice?

  Julie?

• 43:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm deeply honored that people-

• 43:21Chuck Nice?

  Oh, don't clean it up now.

• 43:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no!

• 43:28Chuck Nice?

  Alright Julius Mabine wants to know this. Where is Voyager 1 and 2? And do you think any alien would be able to decode the messages on that gold plate? Or would it look like a baby scribble to them?

• 43:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, okay, so Voyager is coming up on the 40th anniversary of its launch.

• 43:44Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 43:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just in a few, in a few weeks. And so, uh, so Voyager 1 has left the influence of the sun, officially entering interstellar space. Uh, that's in one direction. Voyager 2 is off in another direction, but not as far away. Uh, so, and there's, there's pictograms on there telling aliens where we live.

• 44:07Chuck Nice?

  Uh huh. Not smart.

• 44:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I know, it's weird, because we don't, you wouldn't give your email to a stranger on the street.

• 44:16Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 44:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But we're giving the home address of Earth to aliens.

• 44:18Chuck Nice?

  We just gave them my social security number.

• 44:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so, so, I think if they're really smart, that they should figure it out.

• 44:26Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 44:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They'll figure it out. They're, they're our musings, and, I mean, we figured out hieroglyphics and things, uh, uh, of our own species. I think a smarter species should be able to figure it out if they find the spacecraft. Next.

• 44:36Chuck Nice?

  Uh, Wendy McGrew Brown wants to know this. If you could travel through time, what year would you go to and why?

• 44:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, I would go to the day Earth was hit by the Mars-sized protoplanet, sideswiped, casting crustal material into orbit to form the moon itself. I want to be witness to that event.

• 44:57Chuck Nice?

  Ooh. You do realize you would die.

• 45:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Next.

• 45:08Chuck Nice?

  I just see Neil at that moment going, "Worth it!"

• 45:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 45:14Chuck Nice?

  Uh, Alex Fawcett wants to know this. What is or was the greatest scientific prediction ever made?

• 45:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, uh, I got that.

• 45:25Chuck Nice?

  Oh, really?

• 45:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's actually in here.

• 45:27Chuck Nice?

  Oh!

• 45:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just saying.

• 45:28Chuck Nice?

  Wait, don't answer it. This one I'mma answer you.

• 45:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Based on very little information, George Gamow, a scientist in mid-century, based on very little information about the fact that the universe is expanding, which meant it was smaller yesterday than it is today. The fact that it might have been hotter in the past than it is today. Based on this, he took laws of physics and invoked them and said, "Whoa, if the laws of physics apply all the way to the beginning of the universe, there ought to be a bath of microwave energy, ubiquitous in the universe, in the background.

• 46:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We should look for a cosmic microwave background at a temperature of about five degrees."

• 46:26Chuck Nice?

  That is amazing.

• 46:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then decades later, people discovered a cosmic microwave background.

• 46:33Chuck Nice?

  And they didn't even know it.

• 46:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, wait, wait. That whole story isn't it. They discovered it.

• 46:37Chuck Nice?

  I know, I read the book.

• 46:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the temperature... Because he was in a hurry. And the temperature was three degrees. And you can say, "Oh, he was off." He was almost off by a factor of two, you know? But that prediction was so out there, so out there. It's like predicting that a 50-foot flying saucer would land on the lawn of the White House, but a 30-foot flying saucer landed instead.

• 47:03Chuck Nice?

  That's awesome.

• 47:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's how extraordinary... To me, that was one of the greatest predictions ever made.

• 47:09Chuck Nice?

  That's awesome.

• 47:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To deduce the existence of the Big Bang and evidence for it, just by invoking known laws of physics.

• 47:15Chuck Nice?

  That's amazing.

• 47:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That he had.

• 47:16Chuck Nice?

  All right, listen, here's what I want to do right now, because we are pretty much out of time. Is just leave you the last bit of time to do your thing and bid us farewell.

• 47:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, oh, okay, sure.

• 47:28Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 47:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, let me just say that the universe, to paraphrase J.B.S. Haldane, a philosopher biologist, that the universe is not only stranger than we have imagined, it may be stranger than we can imagine. And as long as that remains true, there's unlimited mysteries that lay before us. Because never forget that as the area of our knowledge grows, so too does the perimeter of our ignorance.

• 48:02Chuck Nice?

  I will drink to that, my friend.

• 48:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We will. And I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist, and I bid you all to keep looking up.