Cosmic Queries: Galactic Gumbo

Neil Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice mix up a pot of Galactic Gumbo in this episode of Cosmic Queries. Ingredients for this cosmic dish include the Big Bang, string theory, the expansion of the universe, antimatter, aliens, asteroids, & much more! NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free. Find out more at https://www.startalkradio.net/startalk-all-access/

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.

• 0:18Neil 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.

• 0:32Chuck Nice?

  Hey, hey Neil.

• 0:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck Nice tweeting, Chuck Nice Comics?

• 0:35Chuck Nice?

  Thank you, sir, yes.

• 0:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, Comic.

• 0:37Chuck Nice?

  Comic?

• 0:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 0:43Chuck Nice?

  We like to call it a Galactic gumbo.

• 0:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Galactic gumbo.

• 0:46Chuck Nice?

  Guaranteed.

• 0:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 0:55Chuck Nice?

  No, we have not.

• 0:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 0:59Chuck 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.

• 1:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 1:16Chuck Nice?

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

• 1:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes!

• 1:23Chuck Nice?

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

• 1:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 1:27Chuck Nice?

  A, B...

• 1:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 1:46Chuck Nice?

  Ooh.

• 1:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And...

• 1:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What is that?

• 1:52Neil 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.

• 2:33Chuck Nice?

  But it's still the focus.

• 2:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 2:38Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 2:42Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 2:50Chuck 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,

• 3:00Chuck Nice?

  Starry Night. And somebody was like, "That's a long title, man."

• 3:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 3:09Speaker 02

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

• 3:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh.

• 3:18Chuck Nice?

  We just, we started off like, "Oh." "Oh." "Ooh," she was just like, didn't even warm up to it. I know, I was going, man. Yeah, what's that? 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."

• 3:35Neil 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.

• 3:58Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Or curved space.

• 3:59Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:59Neil 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.

• 4:10Chuck Nice?

  And now you're there.

• 4:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then you got there faster than a light beam would have. That's, 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.

• 4:32Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 4:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And whereas the speed of light limit comes from his special theory of relativity.

• 4:37Chuck Nice?

  Uh huh.

• 4:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The special theory of relativity describes things moving within the fabric of space. General relativity describes the fabric of space itself.

• 4:45Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 4:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 4:51Chuck Nice?

  So that's the rubber sheet, right?

• 4:52Neil 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.

• 5:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 5:24Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 5:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 5:26Chuck Nice?

  Way cheaper.

• 5:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Way cheaper.

• 5:27Chuck Nice?

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

• 5:36Chuck Nice?

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

• 5:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, Max.

• 5:51Chuck Nice?

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

• 5:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, there's very little I disagree with.

• 5:58Chuck Nice?

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

• 6:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now we gotta know, I wanna know.

• 6:02Chuck Nice?

  Now you wanna know?

• 6:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 6:03Chuck Nice?

  Uh, that marijuana should be legalized.

• 6:13Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 6:15Neil 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.

• 6:27Chuck Nice?

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

• 6:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 6:37Chuck Nice?

  That's absolutely...

• 6:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so...

• 6:38Chuck Nice?

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

• 6:44Chuck Nice?

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

• 6:49Chuck Nice?

  It was like an ABC after-school special.

• 6:53Chuck Nice?

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

• 6:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 7:01Chuck Nice?

  Okay, right on.

• 7:04Chuck Nice?

  Alright, let's do one quick one because we have...

• 7:07Neil 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.

• 7:15Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 7:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 7:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Share the balloon.

• 7:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's just, it's so...

• 7:26Chuck 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.

• 7:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright.

• 7:39Chuck Nice?

  Alright, here we go.

• 7:42Chuck Nice?

  Who do we have?

• 7:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hello.

• 7:44Chuck Nice?

  Timor.

• 7:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got the microphone?

• 7:47Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. Go right ahead, sir.

• 7:49Speaker 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?

• 7:57Chuck Nice?

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

• 8:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You mean when you find a planet orbiting a star?

• 8:04Speaker 03

  Either or.

• 8:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Either or. 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.

• 8:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 8:58Neil 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.

• 9:37Chuck Nice?

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

• 9:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 9:48Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 9:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 9:54Chuck Nice?

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

• 9:58Neil 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.

• 10:10Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 10:10Neil 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.

• 10:31Chuck Nice?

  You know what, only you can make that sound like it's something good. All excited about our demise. Which is very cool, and you know what, you know, not to be attenuated, but...

• 10:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not to be what?

• 10:46Chuck Nice?

  Attenuated, but...

• 10:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's like a real word?

• 10:50Chuck Nice?

  That is a word!

• 10:53Chuck Nice?

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

• 11:00Chuck Nice?

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

• 11:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 11:10Chuck 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.

• 11:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, David Grin spoon, yeah.

• 11:25Chuck Nice?

  Who is one of our Star Talk All-Stars.

• 11:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 11:34Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Had such fertility.

• 11:36Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 11:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 11:40Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 11:41Neil 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.

• 11:47Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 11:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So they got their own damn show.

• 11:49Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 11:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 11:52Chuck Nice?

  Well, that's true.

• 11:53Neil 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.

• 11:59Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 11:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 12:04Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 12:04Neil 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.

• 12:09Chuck Nice?

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

• 12:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, it's what just birthed you?

• 12:15Chuck Nice?

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

• 12:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who came up with Playing with Science? Because that's, that's a kinda weird title.

• 12:20Chuck Nice?

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

• 12:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so...

• 12:24Chuck Nice?

  Is that not a good name?

• 12:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, wait.

• 12:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Does your mama know you're playing with science?

• 12:35Chuck Nice?

  Why is this door locked?

• 12:38Chuck Nice?

  Chuck, are you playing with science?

• 12:46Speaker 04

  How may this go, mister?

• 12:51Chuck 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?

• 13:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, let's do it.

• 13:16Chuck Nice?

  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! 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?

• 13:45Chuck Nice?

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

• 13:54Neil 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.

• 14:36Neil 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 it'll be happy.

• 14:57Chuck Nice?

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

• 14:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 15:00Chuck Nice?

  He's not part of our multiverse.

• 15:01Neil 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.

• 15:16Chuck Nice?

  They're all stars.

• 15:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Stars are suns and suns are stars. Galaxy, Milky, no, they got 100 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.

• 15:37Chuck Nice?

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

• 15:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly. So we might call that a metaverse.

• 15:43Chuck Nice?

  A metaverse?

• 15:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 15:46Chuck Nice?

  It is now.

• 15:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just saying.

• 15:48Chuck Nice?

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

• 15:55Neil 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.

• 16:02Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 16:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When StarTalk returns.

• 16:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back. StarTalk. We're taking questions from Facebook Live.

• 16:41Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 16:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From every other place, and you're gonna butcher the names as you usually do.

• 16:44Chuck Nice?

  As I always do.

• 16:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 16:48Chuck Nice?

  It probably is. It's, 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.

• 16:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It could be John Smith, you say, is it Joe Smith?

• 17:01Chuck Nice?

  Excuse me, A. Aaron, yeah, that's me.

• 17:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 17:08Chuck Nice?

  Yes, I do. Here we go. In your opinion-

• 17:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 17:15Chuck Nice?

  Well, we're moving a little slowly.

• 17:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is data.

• 17:17Chuck Nice?

  I'll speed it up if you want.

• 17:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 17:18Chuck Nice?

  Okay, Scott Murray wants to-

• 17:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 17:22Chuck Nice?

  I hope so.

• 17:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, okay.

• 17:23Chuck Nice?

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

• 17:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh.

• 17:32Chuck Nice?

  The eclipse will be on the 21st of-

• 17:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of August.

• 17:35Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 17:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it's America's eclipse. Mer- apostrophe M. U-U-R-R-I-C-A. That's, I think, how you spell that. America F-Y-M! It's a mer- this- The path of totality. This is the moon's shadow being dragged across Earth's surface.

• 18:02Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 18:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 18:08Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 18:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 18:25Chuck Nice?

  USA.

• 18:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The last time that happened-

• 18:29Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 18:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Was in the 13th century, before there was a USA. So, in that sense, it's just kinda cool. It's ours. It's ours. It's ours. That's- otherwise, eclipses happen all the frickin' time.

• 18:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 18:40Neil 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.

• 18:57Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 18:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nobody says, "Rare presidential election coming up!"

• 19:01Chuck Nice?

  Oh, well, they did the last-

• 19:11Neil 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 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 sort of get over it.

• 19:31Chuck 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-

• 19:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is this Facebook Live?

• 19:43Chuck 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?

• 20:03Neil 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.

• 20:17Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 20:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 20:20Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 20:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're called tachyons.

• 20:21Chuck Nice?

  Tachyon?

• 20:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, tachyon from the Greek tachyon.

• 20:23Chuck Nice?

  No, no, no.

• 20:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, yes.

• 20:25Chuck Nice?

  No, it's from Star Trek.

• 20:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, tachotachometer also draws from this, which gives you the speed of your, of your engine, uh, 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.

• 20:50Chuck Nice?

  Oh, snap.

• 20:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right.

• 20:51Chuck Nice?

  Because, is that-

• 20:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 20:55Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 20:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so-

• 20:56Chuck Nice?

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

• 20:59Neil 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, they're just 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."

• 21:22Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 21:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 21:27Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 21:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 21:32Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 21:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 21:37Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 21:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what happens is, I send the text.

• 21:40Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 21:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You get it in the past.

• 21:42Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 21:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And your smartphone jiggles, vibrates, you pick it up.

• 21:46Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 21:46Neil 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.

• 21:54Chuck Nice?

  Oh snap, okay.

• 21:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it could be.

• 21:57Chuck Nice?

  It could be.

• 21:58Neil 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.

• 22:08Chuck Nice?

  So that would be the big argument for predetermination.

• 22:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Possibly.

• 22:11Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 22:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Possibly.

• 22:12Chuck 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."

• 22:24Chuck 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. So the first question.

• 22:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I get you, I understand.

• 22:51Chuck Nice?

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

• 22:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, that's a great question. Would we even recognize it as life?

• 22:58Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, would we know it as life?

• 22:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 23:03Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 23:04Neil 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.

• 23:21Chuck Nice?

  Got you.

• 23:21Neil 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.

• 23:29Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 23:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  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.

• 23:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 23:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  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.

• 23:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 24:06Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 24:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so to say this life is based on this other thing and it's got, it's not necessary. It's not necessary to invent something out of dark orifices to try to see what the life might be like chemically.

• 24:20Chuck Nice?

  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.

• 24:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If I have a pool of chemicals,

• 24:29Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Carbon is gonna start making molecules all by itself.

• 24:32Chuck Nice?

  Okay, I got you.

• 24:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 24:35Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 24:35Neil 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.

• 24:57Chuck Nice?

  Science only on Earth, right.

• 24:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 25:00Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 25:00Neil 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, hand and legs and they walk and they, and why?

• 25:22Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 25:22Neil 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?

• 26:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 26:12Chuck Nice?

  Well, you're right about that. That's true.

• 26:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 26:27Chuck Nice?

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

• 26:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 26:33Chuck Nice?

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

• 26:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cow's a biological machine. Vent my hand.

• 26:39Chuck Nice?

  What's in our fish? I was gonna say, you have to do this right now?

• 26:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, there you go. Sorry. Sorry.

• 26:47Chuck Nice?

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

• 26:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sorry. Did I cross the wires?

• 26:56Chuck Nice?

  Cut the red. Cut the red. Okay.

• 26:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, not the wires. Did I cross the beans?

• 27:01Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 27:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, we're talking.

• 27:02Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that's...

• 27:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 27:05Chuck Nice?

  Okay. Uh, let us... Let me find... Oh, God, it was a great question. I wanted to find this question. Give me one.

• 27:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, they're scrolling.

• 27:12Chuck Nice?

  Yes, here it is. Here it is. Uh, Ga Brasil 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.

• 27:31Chuck Nice?

  Mom, Dad, I don't care what you say. I'm gonna be an astrophysicist. Just wanna let you know it's who I am.

• 27:43Chuck Nice?

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

• 27:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 27:55Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 27:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because 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 want to be when you grow up? From age eleven onward, my answer was astrophysicist.

• 28:16Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 28:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 28:23Chuck Nice?

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

• 28:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right. They had to deal with it. They had 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.

• 28:42Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 28:42Neil 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 had no relationship with the universe because 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.

• 29:03Chuck Nice?

  When did you live here, during the industrial revolution? My god!

• 29:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 29:23Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 29:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The Hayden Planetarium.

• 29:24Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 29:25Neil 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 hoax. 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.

• 29:59Chuck Nice?

  So you're looking at the real thing.

• 30:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it's feeling like the Hayden Planetarium.

• 30:03Chuck Nice?

  That is so funny. So you know what?

• 30:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 30:09Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 30:09Neil 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 said, you realize I became director of the planet... Yeah, and your, yeah, and your point is, you know, so...

• 30:20Chuck Nice?

  Funny because you know what you bring this up and it reminds me of so in your book, chapter 12 of your book.

• 30:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The last chapter.

• 30:28Chuck Nice?

  The last chapter is reflections of the or reflections on the cosmic perspective. 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.

• 30:50Neil 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?

• 31:02Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 31:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, you ready? 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. Oh, oh, you know what?

• 31:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, he's feeling it.

• 31:37Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 31:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He was feeling that cosmic perspective.

• 31:39Chuck Nice?

  I'm feeling it right now.

• 31:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sure, are you kidding me? I have a chubby.

• 31:50Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 31:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 31:53Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely.

• 31:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 32:39Chuck Nice?

  Fantastic. So, uh, right now, I'd like to do a little something that I call cocktails in 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. Get him up, Will.

• 32:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He's like a night sky shirt with stars on. Very nice.

• 33:00Chuck Nice?

  Better known as polka dot.

• 33:06Chuck Nice?

  Murd fright.

• 33:10Chuck Nice?

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

• 33:12Speaker 05

  So, we're making tonight the Event Horizon.

• 33:14Chuck Nice?

  Ooh.

• 33:15Speaker 05

  Which is gonna be a gin cocktail.

• 33:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 33:25Chuck Nice?

  It's better. It's better.

• 33:26Speaker 05

  I'll practice, I'll practice.

• 33:28Chuck Nice?

  I like it. I like it when Will says it. He, he almost sounds like, "I don't always drink the event."

• 33:34Speaker 05

  Which actually...

• 33:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He has a little bit of... Ricardo Montalban.

• 33:37Chuck Nice?

  But when I do. Go ahead.

• 33:39Speaker 05

  So, you can use any type of gin.

• 33:41Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 33:43Chuck Nice?

  Any type of gin here? Okay.

• 33:46Speaker 05

  Fresh lemon juice?

• 33:47Chuck Nice?

  Fresh lemon juice. Okay.

• 33:49Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:49Chuck Nice?

  Lemon juice?

• 33:50Speaker 05

  We have some.

• 33:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Blue stuff.

• 33:52Chuck Nice?

  Blue stuff. Toilet water. We got toilet water.

• 33:54Speaker 05

  It's a orange blossom liquor.

• 33:56Chuck Nice?

  Orange blossom liquor.

• 33:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, what makes this the Event Horizon?

• 34:00Speaker 05

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

• 34:01Neil 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.

• 34:12Chuck Nice?

  It's gonna be a good night. That's all I said.

• 34:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There is no return.

• 34:17Chuck Nice?

  No return.

• 34:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From the Event Horizon.

• 34:19Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 34:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just saying.

• 34:21Chuck Nice?

  Here we go. What do you got going on here?

• 34:22Speaker 05

  I'm gonna add the ice.

• 34:24Chuck Nice?

  Put some ice in there?

• 34:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did you just invent this today? Cause it looks kinda random what you're putting in here. Some of this and some of that.

• 34:37Chuck Nice?

  Now we're just gonna...

• 34:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, right.

• 34:39Chuck 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.

• 34:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 34:51Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 34:52Neil 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?

• 35:10Chuck Nice?

  Wait a minute.

• 35:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Please, cheers.

• 35:11Chuck Nice?

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

• 35:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Was that the poem?

• 35:17Chuck Nice?

  That was it.

• 35:22Chuck Nice?

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

• 35:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's it.

• 35:26Chuck Nice?

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

• 35:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 35:36Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it's chill. It is.

• 35:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's chill.

• 35:37Chuck Nice?

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

• 35:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 35:45Chuck Nice?

  Event Horizon and Chill.

• 35:48Chuck Nice?

  I like it.

• 35:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is that allowed?

• 35:50Chuck Nice?

  Hey, ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Will and the Event Horizons!

• 35:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thank you, Will.

• 35:57Chuck Nice?

  Very cool. Another question from the audience, do we?

• 35:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, let's do this.

• 36:00Chuck Nice?

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

• 36:03Speaker 06

  My name is Ron Sparkman.

• 36:04Chuck Nice?

  Hey.

• 36:05Speaker 06

  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?

• 36:21Chuck Nice?

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

• 36:26Neil 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.

• 37:10Neil 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, that would be a stunning fact. An interesting fact, less stunning but deeply interesting, is if it does have DNA. 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

• 37:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  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? 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?

• 38:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They would- 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. Tardigrades. The water bears. They survive things that are not necessary to survive on Earth, because Earth doesn't have that, okay? So...

• 39:11Chuck Nice?

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

• 39:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so, so, people think that evolution and an 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 happen to have a variation in them that could survive the radiation from space, the temperatures in 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.

• 40:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 40:13Chuck Nice?

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

• 40:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 40:21Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 40:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Some, perhaps more than others.

• 40:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just saying.

• 40:28Chuck Nice?

  There you go. Oh, man. This is good. All right, so we are, we are coming down to the end of our show.

• 40:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 40:36Chuck Nice?

  And I'm gonna give you a lightning round right now, but before we do, I just wanna say that before we go, if you are just joining us, please make sure to check out StarTalkAllAccess.com where you can find all of this. Check out Neil's Facebook page where this will also live. 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 our show that you were talking about earlier, where we have other Neil deGrasse Tyson's from different parts of science who come and talk to us about various exciting things.

• 41:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 41:17Chuck 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. Subscribe and become a member there. So I just wanted to do that because we are now just about, um, 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 Gary O'Reilly, who is a footballer, and that show-

• 41:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From the UK.

• 41:45Chuck Nice?

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

• 41:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Without a concussion, exactly.

• 41:57Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, you know, very cool.

• 41:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Has this been standing up the whole time?

• 42:01Chuck Nice?

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

• 42:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, stop!

• 42:09Chuck Nice?

  Damn it, buy the book! Buy it!

• 42:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Only if you're in a hurry.

• 42:14Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, yeah, if you're in a hurry, buy the book. Alright, let's get to this. Here we go. Neil doesn't like to plug anything.

• 42:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, I ain't about plugging.

• 42:21Chuck Nice?

  I am a whore.

• 42:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I ain't about plugging.

• 42:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I ain't about plugging. I've yet to mention this book on my Twitter screen. I got 8 million people, they don't even know about the book.

• 42:33Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, but that's why I'm here, okay? Buy the book! Go to Play It With Science! StarTalkAllStars.com, okay? Everything, alright, here we go, let's go.

• 42:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright.

• 42:43Chuck Nice?

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

• 42:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is this the lightning round?

• 42:49Chuck Nice?

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

• 43:00Neil 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.

• 43:09Chuck Nice?

  There you go. Uh, Lily Brown wants-

• 43:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You can cook, I calculated this, a 16-inch pizza in 9 seconds on your windowsill.

• 43:16Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 43:17Neil 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 2 seconds."

• 43:27Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 43:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Avoid Venus, next.

• 43:28Chuck 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?"

• 43:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No!

• 43:37Chuck Nice?

  Okay, next.

• 43:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 43:48Chuck Nice?

  Oh, don't clean it up now.

• 43:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no!

• 43:55Chuck 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?"

• 44:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 44:11Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 44:11Neil 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.

• 44:34Chuck Nice?

  Uh-huh. Not smart.

• 44:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 44:43Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 44:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 44:46Chuck Nice?

  We just gave him my social security number.

• 44:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 44:53Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 44:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 45:03Chuck Nice?

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

• 45:08Neil 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. Ooh.

• 45:24Chuck Nice?

  You do realize you would die.

• 45:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Next.

• 45:35Chuck Nice?

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

• 45:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 45:41Chuck Nice?

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

• 45:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, I got that.

• 45:52Chuck Nice?

  Oh, really?

• 45:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's actually in here.

• 45:54Chuck Nice?

  Oh!

• 45:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just saying.

• 45:55Chuck Nice?

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

• 46:04Neil 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, based, 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."

• 46:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ubiquitous in the universe, in the background. We should look for a cosmic microwave background at a temperature of about five degrees.

• 46:53Chuck Nice?

  That is amazing.

• 46:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 47:00Chuck Nice?

  And they didn't even know it.

• 47:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, wait, wait.

• 47:02Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 47:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That whole story isn't it. They discovered it.

• 47:04Chuck Nice?

  I know, I read the book.

• 47:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the temperature...

• 47:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  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.

• 47:30Chuck Nice?

  That's awesome.

• 47:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 47:36Chuck Nice?

  That's awesome.

• 47:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To deduce the existence of the Big Bang and evidence for it.

• 47:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 47:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just by invoking known laws of physics.

• 47:42Chuck Nice?

  That's amazing.

• 47:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That he had.

• 47:43Chuck 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.

• 47:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, oh, okay, sure.

• 47:55Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 47:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Um, 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.

• 48:12Chuck Nice?

  Ooh.

• 48:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  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.

• 48:26Chuck Nice?

  Ooh, I will drink to that, my friend.

• 48:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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