Lost in Space Game Night

How far did Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on the moon? How many monkeys named Albert have been to space? Neil deGrasse Tyson, comedian Paul Mecurio, and Senior StarTalk Producer Lindsey Walker find out the answers on this Game Show Edition of Startalk celebrating the release of our new book, Lost in Space: 5,000 Facts for Navigating the Universe.

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.

• 0:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is StarTalk. Neil deGrasse Tyson, you're a personal astrophysicist. And today is a special edition of StarTalk. Because, once again, StarTalk has collaborated with National Geographic Books to release our latest installment titled, "Lost in Space: 5,000 Facts to Navigate the Universe." And this is being held by my co-author, Lindsay Nix-Walker. Lindsay, hello.

• 0:51Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 0:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hello, middle name Nix, N-Y-X.

• 0:54Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 0:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not K-N-I-C-K-S.

• 0:57Speaker 01

  No.

• 0:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nix.

• 0:58Speaker 01

  No, no, I had it before Nix were cool, so.

• 1:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nix is mythological.

• 1:04Speaker 01

  Nix is a Greek goddess. She's supposedly the only goddess that Zeus feared. She is born of chaos and gave birth to dreams.

• 1:14Paul Mecurio?

  Oh damn. That's heavy stuff.

• 1:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's heavy stuff. Paul!

• 1:17Paul Mecurio?

  Yes. Also, Greek mythology name. God of pizza delivery.

• 1:25Paul Mecurio?

  Good to see you guys.

• 1:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, welcome back to StarTalk.

• 1:28Paul Mecurio?

  Congrats on the book.

• 1:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thank you!

• 1:29Paul Mecurio?

  Very happy for you.

• 1:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thank you!

• 1:31Paul Mecurio?

  Lindsay carrying your ass, as usual.

• 1:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, you cooked up this episode. I had nothing to do with this.

• 1:38Paul Mecurio?

  I'm excited about this.

• 1:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  She put stuff together, I don't even know what I'm doing.

• 1:42Speaker 01

  This was a StarTalk team effort. This is, we've never done this before. This is StarTalk Chaos Edition. We have a wheel here. It's called Wheel of Neil. Take it for a spin. And when it lands on something... Can you spin it a little bit more enthusiastically? Thank you. Exactly.

• 1:59Paul Mecurio?

  This isn't a city living facility, show some energy.

• 2:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Higher, lower.

• 2:03Speaker 01

  Higher, lower.

• 2:04Paul Mecurio?

  Now, are we winning something at the end of the game? Do I get something? Do I get a watch? Maybe, like a nice watch from my friend Neil?

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Free tour of the museum.

• 2:13Paul Mecurio?

  Yes.

• 2:15Speaker 01

  I have on this card, numbers and facts. You have to tell me if the next number is higher or lower than the first number. To start, you're gonna guess this number. The distance in feet that Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on the moon.

• 2:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  280 feet.

• 2:31Speaker 01

  Great guess.

• 2:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The moon's gravity is lower, will stay airborne longer. He's got a puffy suit, but he likes golf.

• 2:39Paul Mecurio?

  Right.

• 2:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So...

• 2:41Paul Mecurio?

  And did the question include "explain why"? No. I'm gonna say 350 feet.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  Okay, you're both wrong. It is less than that, it is 120 feet.

• 2:52Paul Mecurio?

  What? I thought he hit it like 100 yards, I thought he hit it like a football field.

• 2:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, you know what it could be? When you're on a smaller cosmic object, the horizon is closer to you.

• 3:02Paul Mecurio?

  But what does that have to do with how...

• 3:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because when you hit something a certain distance, it's like, that's halfway to the horizon. But if the horizon isn't very far, your brain misinterprets what just happened.

• 3:13Paul Mecurio?

  But who calculated that num... It was, it's an actual number, they looked where the, where the thing hit the moon.

• 3:19Speaker 01

  Shouldn't theory go farther if you are not wearing a puffy spacesuit? But he had a huge spacesuit on, this is Apollo. One of the Apollo missions, they had gigantic, and it was one-handed.

• 3:29Paul Mecurio?

  Right.

• 3:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If there were a word for non-golfer, it would be me.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know what, same. Is this number higher or lower than 120? The wind speed in miles per hour at Uranus's equator. Higher or lower than 120?

• 3:46Paul Mecurio?

  It feels like it should be greater than 120. I'm gonna go greater. 175, 175 miles per hour.

• 3:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, I don't know this number, but Uranus has tipped on its axis, like a lot. And so the equator gets direct heat from the sun. It's gotta be much higher than that. The sun drives convection and other air movement.

• 4:08Paul Mecurio?

  Okay, I wanna correct my answer, please.

• 4:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm gonna say 500 mile an hour.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  It's actually 560 miles per hour top speed.

• 4:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What?

• 4:17Paul Mecurio?

  Wait, this is rigged!

• 4:20Paul Mecurio?

  I'm out! Goodbye! Yeah, I got better things to do. I got a dog-walking business now, I lost my job at The Late Show.

• 4:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's just tremendous turbulence because different parts of that planet are being heated maximally at different times. And that does nothing but create ground winds.

• 4:39Speaker 01

  The number of times Uranus has orbited the sun since its discovery.

• 4:43Paul Mecurio?

  So, let's see, we're about to, what, 250 years? That would be greater than 560.

• 4:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He's doing math in his head. That's dangerous.

• 4:53Paul Mecurio?

  This is me calculating a tip. I wanna say that it's, I wanna say that it's higher than that. I'm gonna give you a number of 870.

• 5:04Speaker 01

  Wow, that's a great guess. The number is 3.

• 5:10Paul Mecurio?

  I don't like you anymore. You were my favorite.

• 5:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I think I might've said 2, yeah.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  Number of Earths that could fit across Jupiter's diameter.

• 5:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I got this. That's StarTalkian.

• 5:21Paul Mecurio?

  I wanna say 4.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  I actually don't remember, I think it's 11. Is it 11?

• 5:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I think it's around 10.

• 5:28Speaker 01

  It's higher, it's 10 or 11.

• 5:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  10 or 11, okay.

• 5:32Paul Mecurio?

  It is that big.

• 5:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jupiter has blemishes bigger than Earth. If we were Jupiterarians and we were reorganizing the solar system, trying to decide who to kick out because it doesn't make planet status, there would only be four planets in the solar system. And that would be Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. And everything else would just be...

• 5:52Paul Mecurio?

  Little...

• 5:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Debris.

• 5:54Paul Mecurio?

  Little...

• 5:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jupiter is more bigger

• 6:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  compared to Earth than Earth is compared to Pluto.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  I hate that that's grammatically correct also. Okay, last one, last one.

• 6:09Paul Mecurio?

  I'm getting this one. I can feel it.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  Is this higher or lower than 10 or 11? Number of monkeys named Albert sent up in rockets by the USA in the 40s and 50s.

• 6:20Paul Mecurio?

  Number of monkeys?

• 6:22Speaker 01

  Named Albert specifically.

• 6:23Paul Mecurio?

  In the 40s and 50s?

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:26Paul Mecurio?

  Let him answer first.

• 6:27Speaker 01

  There were a lot.

• 6:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Named Albert?

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Named Albert.

• 6:31Paul Mecurio?

  Do we know why Albert? Einstein, I guess?

• 6:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, that's good, maybe.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  I actually don't know.

• 6:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Maybe, that'd kinda be insulting to Einstein, especially since he was still alive at the time. It's in the 40s or 50s. So, I'd be pissed off if you're making chim, naming chimps after me.

• 6:48Paul Mecurio?

  It's like sending donkeys up named after Neil. How many asses were sent up?

• 6:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How many ass astrophysicists?

• 6:56Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 6:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Fewer than 11. You can't send 11 Alberts in a rocket.

• 7:02Paul Mecurio?

  15.

• 7:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, higher than 11.

• 7:05Paul Mecurio?

  Higher than 11, 15.

• 7:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm saying lower than 11.

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Six.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Which is...

• 7:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's still too many.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  Too many, which is still too many.

• 7:13Paul Mecurio?

  The chimps are like, "Come on, guys."

• 7:16Speaker 01

  Spoiler alert, none of them made it. Actually, the last one made it, up and down, but then he died two hours later, the rest of them died.

• 7:28Paul Mecurio?

  You see this fact? This is why the apes are gonna take over the Earth.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  The first monkey, Albert the First, he was actually the first mammal to reach outer space. The first mammal.

• 7:38Paul Mecurio?

  That was in the 40s, I assume.

• 7:39Speaker 01

  Before humans, that's right.

• 7:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plus, I thought all of these original animals that went to space were female. That was my understanding.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  Oh, maybe.

• 7:47Paul Mecurio?

  Is there a reason it'd be female?

• 7:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Very good reason. Because when men pee, it goes...

• 7:54Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah, but the pee's coming out of a thing, whether it's a thing or another thing, and then it's like flying around.

• 8:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But it doesn't get aimed, otherwise. Okay, next category.

• 8:04Paul Mecurio?

  We need some music.

• 8:08Speaker 01

  Taboo it.

• 8:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, we're playing a version of Taboo? Taboo it?

• 8:12Speaker 01

  We're gonna taboo it.

• 8:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And all the taboo words are in my black hole.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  Yes, you can say anything but the word on the card.

• 8:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  One minute on the clock.

• 8:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  One minute on the clock.

• 8:23Paul Mecurio?

  Starts now.

• 8:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's fast, fastest thing in the universe.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  Light.

• 8:28Paul Mecurio?

  Speed of light.

• 8:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Speed of light!

• 8:34Paul Mecurio?

  A dog, you're a dog.

• 8:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a big issue in orbital dynamics and...

• 8:40Paul Mecurio?

  Quantum mechanics.

• 8:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it, there's a TV show with the name, "A Problem in Orbital Dynamics." You can't solve it.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  Oh, it's a three-body problem! Three-body problem.

• 8:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Three-body problem, there you go.

• 8:54Paul Mecurio?

  Okay, I was gonna say that.

• 8:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, you were nowhere near that. There's a thing that's not silver, but, and it's on the side of a space ship.

• 9:02Paul Mecurio?

  Gold, emblem.

• 9:03Speaker 01

  Platinum. Titanium.

• 9:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it's on the side of a ship.

• 9:07Paul Mecurio?

  Dice, fuzzy dice hanging from the ship.

• 9:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The gold pioneer plaque. Which is, I got it right here!

• 9:13Speaker 01

  Wait, we both said gold.

• 9:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what this is! I should've held this up. That's not allowed, though.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  This is one way that the, everything will end. One of the ways that everything will end is called, the, is called...

• 9:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The apocalypse.

• 9:32Paul Mecurio?

  The internet.

• 9:34Speaker 01

  It's a scientific, it's an astronomical concept, and it is a way that...

• 9:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The Big Crunch.

• 9:40Paul Mecurio?

  The, the Big Bang. Big Bang redone.

• 9:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! The, the heat death.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  Yes!

• 9:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  Okay, this, um, in, this is, the, oh my gosh. A gaseous planet is festooned by this.

• 9:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Festooned, I don't even know what that word means.

• 10:00Speaker 01

  It is, in, can I say that? Encircling one of the gaseous planets.

• 10:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Rings.

• 10:07Paul Mecurio?

  Rings.

• 10:08Speaker 01

  Of...

• 10:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Saturn.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  I don't know if that's allowed. I cheat both times, wait.

• 10:17Paul Mecurio?

  This is, uh, it's, one of the, and a certain number. Round, sister...

• 10:27Speaker 01

  Oh, seven sisters.

• 10:29Paul Mecurio?

  There's a number, it's round, it's orbited by other...

• 10:35Speaker 01

  It's round.

• 10:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Moons of Jupiter.

• 10:38Paul Mecurio?

  There's more than five, less than 10.

• 10:44Speaker 01

  Planets.

• 10:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Planets of the solar system.

• 10:46Paul Mecurio?

  Planet.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  Planetary bodies.

• 10:47Paul Mecurio?

  I need one, one particular planet.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Earth.

• 10:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The nine planets.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  Planet X.

• 10:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Planet 9.

• 10:58Paul Mecurio?

  That's it!

• 10:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh!

• 10:59Paul Mecurio?

  Oh my god. Wow, you were, both took a long time. All right, here we go. Here we go.

• 11:07Paul Mecurio?

  I think they all got lost in the black hole.

• 11:12Paul Mecurio?

  That's a hard one, because I can't say nine, and I gotta say a number.

• 11:16Speaker 01

  That was a hard one.

• 11:17Paul Mecurio?

  And then a planet is such a vague, general, you know.

• 11:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In your mind, yeah.

• 11:23Paul Mecurio?

  Okay, thank you. Here, okay.

• 11:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Space fact: The planet Uranus is knocked on its side, tilting 98 degrees from vertical. And as it rotates, depending on what time of year it is, one side just always faces the sun, and the other side faces deep space. Put a thermometer there, it is the coldest spot of any planet in the solar system. If you like that fact, you can find 4,999 more in Lost in Space: 5,000 Facts to Help Navigate

• 12:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  the Universe, latest collaboration between StarTalk and National Geographic Books. Lost in Space is now available for preorder wherever books are sold.

• 12:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I remember when we compiled these facts, it took a long time.

• 12:56Speaker 01

  5,000.

• 12:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  5,000 facts.

• 12:59Speaker 01

  That's a lot of facts.

• 13:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it's not approximately 5,000, it's exactly 5,000.

• 13:02Paul Mecurio?

  Why did you guys pick 5,000?

• 13:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They picked 5,000. We wanted 3,000, and they said, "No, we can't do it unless it's 5,000."

• 13:09Paul Mecurio?

  The publisher?

• 13:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes!

• 13:10Speaker 01

  Wow. I was partial to 1,000.

• 13:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And they said, "No, we can't sell a book if we don't have 1,000 facts." So they pulled it out of their ass. I don't know where they got this number.

• 13:18Paul Mecurio?

  But you put 3, and then the other 2 are made up, right? Because who's gonna check after 3?

• 13:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All I had was 3,000. We wanted all facts to be StarTalkian, in DNA, and you have to say, "Oh Neil, what do you mean by that?"

• 13:33Paul Mecurio?

  Yes. What do you mean by that?

• 13:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ask me the diameter of the sun.

• 13:36Paul Mecurio?

  What's the diameter of the sun?

• 13:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  About 864,000 miles.

• 13:40Paul Mecurio?

  Eh, I'm sorry, that is wrong.

• 13:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So now let's StarTalkify that. Ask me the question again.

• 13:47Paul Mecurio?

  Diameter of the sun.

• 13:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's a statement.

• 13:50Paul Mecurio?

  Well, we're just being loose here.

• 13:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you take 100 Earths and put them side to side, you'll span the width of the sun in space.

• 13:59Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah, I like the non-StarTalk better. I don't have all day.

• 14:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is a game show, we can rotate you off the stage. Do you realize this?

• 14:08Paul Mecurio?

  Does it cover, I would imagine the way StarTalk episodes do, a plethora of topics from quantum mechanics to...

• 14:17Speaker 01

  Almost everything you can dream of.

• 14:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  She's back to the dream thing.

• 14:21Paul Mecurio?

  Favorite facts from the book?

• 14:23Speaker 01

  Project Ozma. Do you know about Project Ozma?

• 14:26Paul Mecurio?

  I do not.

• 14:27Speaker 01

  That is the, that is the name of the first official search for life in the universe.

• 14:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  For intelligent life.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  For intelligent life, that's right. And it was named by Frank Drake. The Frank Drake who, of the Drake Equation.

• 14:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But you know the Drake Equation?

• 14:41Paul Mecurio?

  I thought it was the cakes family, the Drake cakes family that made...

• 14:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, he's a nephew.

• 14:45Paul Mecurio?

  A variety of desserts that we've all enjoyed as children.

• 14:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So the Drake Equation, he pondered what questions you'd have to ask to shape your search for life, intelligent life in the universe. And he said, "Well, who would look for intelligent life? It's gonna be on a planet." Then he said, "If it's gonna be on a planet, it's gotta be on a planet that's not too close, not too far, in the Goldilocks zone. What fraction of stars or planets have planets in that zone? And it has to have life at all. What fraction of stars or planets in the Goldilocks zone have life? And that life has to have civilization. What fraction of planets or stars have life, that, that, that, that, it's civilization? Now civilization is not enough, because you want to talk to them through space."

• 15:25Paul Mecurio?

  Right.

• 15:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We had the Roman Empire. If you sent radio signals to the Roman Empire, you would think nobody was here. So they had to add an extra little tech dimension to it, that you're communicating via radio waves through space.

• 15:41Paul Mecurio?

  You're whittling away with all of these parameters that you're...

• 15:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Correct, you have the big number of how many stars in the universe, and you start taking fractions, okay? He came up with that equation, which organizes our knowledge, and even our ignorance, of the likelihood of life out there, which with whom we can have a conversation. Take it from there.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  Ozma was the real and true heir of Oz, Princess Ozma in Wizard of Oz. The author of The Wizard of Oz, El Frank Baum, he supposedly communicated with this mystical land full of exotic beings through radio, using a radio. And so Frank Drake named his search for Wizard of Oz.

• 16:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't know how to follow that fact with a favorite fact, because that's a good one.

• 16:24Paul Mecurio?

  That's, that is amazing, because it's very personal to her. It also revealed 2 things that we didn't know. I wouldn't even try if I were you.

• 16:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As we are assembling the periodic table of elements...

• 16:38Paul Mecurio?

  Oh my god, can you talk like a real person?

• 16:41Paul Mecurio?

  Can't you just do it the way she did it? Oh my god, why don't you stand up and go, "Oh, as we..."

• 16:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As we were assembling the periodic table of elements, because Mendeleev figured out that it's periodic. It's not just a sequence of elements, you could, they, they have properties that repeat rhythmically.

• 17:03Paul Mecurio?

  Right.

• 17:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, from top to bottom.

• 17:05Paul Mecurio?

  Right.

• 17:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And as we're going through discovering elements, there was a hole in the periodic table. He said, "There's gotta be an element there." No one had ever found it. No one even knew where to look.

• 17:18Paul Mecurio?

  But how could he assume that, maybe that that is, you, it's sort of chicken or the egg, right?

• 17:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Maybe the universe said, "We're not filling that hole."

• 17:27Paul Mecurio?

  Right.

• 17:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 17:28Paul Mecurio?

  Right.

• 17:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Maybe, but he...

• 17:30Paul Mecurio?

  He doesn't think he's on a fool's errand, he's going for it.

• 17:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He had enough confidence in the success of the elements that were already in place, that he said, "Let's look for it some more."

• 17:43Paul Mecurio?

  Okay.

• 17:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And still didn't find it. So they said, "Okay, well, how many protons should it have? Let's make it." So they went into the lab, in a particle accelerator, and made this element. It is the first artificially created element.

• 17:58Paul Mecurio?

  But wait, how could that have any legitimacy if they made it, that they just made it up?

• 18:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Aren't we in the universe too?

• 18:04Paul Mecurio?

  Yes.

• 18:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So therefore, we created an element in the universe.

• 18:08Paul Mecurio?

  Ah, okay. Right, I forgot. Good point. Never trust an atom, they make up everything.

• 18:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They make up everything, okay. That's a dad joke, safe for elementary school.

• 18:20Paul Mecurio?

  Exactly.

• 18:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, what's the word for things that you make in modern civilization? There's a word for it. It's so common, you don't even remember why we use that word. It's called tech. Tech is human-made contributions to civilization. Tech. The name of that element is tech-ecium.

• 18:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Should I drop a book?

• 18:46Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah, I like Lindsay's fact better.

• 18:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Don't make me slap him.

• 18:56Paul Mecurio?

  Good spin.

• 18:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yoda-style.

• 18:59Paul Mecurio?

  What is this?

• 19:00Speaker 01

  You have to find a fact in this book and read it as Yoda would.

• 19:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Spring tides.

• 19:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is in the section on tides.

• 19:11Paul Mecurio?

  Is that a foreign language? What are you saying?

• 19:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Spring tides.

• 19:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Especially high they are.

• 19:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Drink full or a new moon when Earth, the moon, and the sun align twice per month.

• 19:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's my Yoda.

• 19:34Paul Mecurio?

  Well done. Here's the thing.

• 19:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's not too bad.

• 19:36Paul Mecurio?

  I understand you better as Yoda than as you.

• 19:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if I lose, I'll pull out my lightsaber and cut off both of your heads.

• 19:46Speaker 01

  This is way more embarrassing than when I knew this was happening.

• 19:52Speaker 03

  Millions.

• 19:57Paul Mecurio?

  It's like you, it's like you're trying to talk after you've been to the dentist and you're all numbed up.

• 20:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, okay, go.

• 20:03Speaker 03

  Millions. Now it's...

• 20:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What's the cat, what's the topic?

• 20:07Speaker 03

  Millions, millions of asteroids and one dwarf planet called asteroid belt home. They do.

• 20:19Paul Mecurio?

  Well done.

• 20:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's good.

• 20:20Paul Mecurio?

  Well done.

• 20:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Paul, what is the dwarf planet that resides with the asteroids, in the asteroid belt?

• 20:25Paul Mecurio?

  It's not Pluto, is it?

• 20:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, it's Ceres.

• 20:28Paul Mecurio?

  Okay.

• 20:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so while Pluto got demoted from planet to dwarf planet?

• 20:32Paul Mecurio?

  Yes.

• 20:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ceres got promoted from asteroid to dwarf planet.

• 20:36Paul Mecurio?

  Ah, so they're on a level playing field.

• 20:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're on a level, yeah, yeah. Very cool.

• 20:39Paul Mecurio?

  Pluto can't be happy about that. 4.4 billion years ago, outer solar system location forming. Gravity-strong Jupiter may have flung Ceres.

• 21:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But, Paul, who directs your one-man show?

• 21:03Paul Mecurio?

  Frank Oz.

• 21:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And who is the voice of Yoda?

• 21:06Paul Mecurio?

  Frank Oz.

• 21:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if that was the worst Yoda I ever heard, I want to report you to him.

• 21:11Paul Mecurio?

  Frank, I'm sorry.

• 21:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you must die.

• 21:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is for the honor of Frank Oz.

• 21:24Paul Mecurio?

  I thought I did a pretty lousy, yeah, that was pretty lousy.

• 21:28Speaker 01

  That thing's sick as hell. Oh, who won?

• 21:33Speaker 01

  Gallery?

• 21:35Paul Mecurio?

  You did.

• 21:36Speaker 01

  I'll take it.

• 21:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, Lindsay.

• 21:39Speaker 01

  Vote in the comments, yes.

• 21:43Paul Mecurio?

  Really terrible spinning wheel.

• 21:51Paul Mecurio?

  Draw it!

• 21:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Draw it! Draw it!

• 21:53Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 21:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I didn't give anybody permission to use my hat.

• 21:57Speaker 01

  So what's gonna happen? You're gonna pull a prompt from your own hat, please.

• 21:59Paul Mecurio?

  Did you know a monkey peed in that hat in space?

• 22:04Speaker 01

  Don't tell us. Don't show us.

• 22:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 22:06Paul Mecurio?

  You have to draw it.

• 22:06Speaker 01

  You have to draw it.

• 22:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Have to draw it?

• 22:08Speaker 01

  You have to draw it.

• 22:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, okay.

• 22:11Paul Mecurio?

  He's very emphatic.

• 22:12Speaker 01

  I'm trying not to look at it.

• 22:13Paul Mecurio?

  I'm worried because he's like, really like, knew exactly what he wanted to draw. I think this is gonna be pretty accurate.

• 22:21Paul Mecurio?

  The first man on the moon.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  Neil Armstrong.

• 22:23Paul Mecurio?

  Neil Armstrong.

• 22:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Neil Armstrong!

• 22:26Paul Mecurio?

  There you go. Wow!

• 22:27Speaker 01

  Point for Neil.

• 22:28Paul Mecurio?

  And apparently, he had no eyes, ears...

• 22:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, you're looking through a visor and you can't see through the visor.

• 22:34Speaker 01

  What number were you gonna draw?

• 22:35Paul Mecurio?

  How do you know the visor wasn't up?

• 22:36Speaker 01

  Number one.

• 22:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I was gonna do...

• 22:38Speaker 01

  I'm number one.

• 22:39Paul Mecurio?

  Oh, no, that would've been too easy, but can I have this for a second? What happens in space that your right arm gets swollen like that?

• 22:45Speaker 01

  Too much golfing.

• 22:46Paul Mecurio?

  That's...

• 22:49Paul Mecurio?

  There's something wrong there.

• 22:51Speaker 01

  All of the iconic pictures of the first moon landing is not of Neil Armstrong. They're of Buzz Aldrin because Neil was on camera duty.

• 22:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is a quote attributed to him. And when I met him, this was consistent with what he would've said, although I didn't re-verify it. He said, "Whenever he feels the urge to exercise,

• 23:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  he just lays down on the couch until that urge goes away."

• 23:14Speaker 01

  Neil Armstrong?

• 23:15Paul Mecurio?

  Yes! Yes!

• 23:17Speaker 01

  I'm gonna draw...

• 23:19Paul Mecurio?

  You should not let us see it while you're drawing it.

• 23:21Speaker 01

  Why not?

• 23:22Paul Mecurio?

  Because then we're kinda cheating and coming ahead of time.

• 23:24Speaker 01

  No, that's all right. You can be in on the process.

• 23:26Paul Mecurio?

  Oh, okay.

• 23:27Speaker 01

  You can like, guess as I'm going, maybe I need to do some more stuff.

• 23:34Paul Mecurio?

  Cellular manipulation.

• 23:41Paul Mecurio?

  It looks like a... It looks like Jerry Garcia. Sunglasses.

• 23:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  These look like two bow ties.

• 23:48Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah, Grateful Dead.

• 23:50Speaker 01

  Oh no, come on.

• 23:52Paul Mecurio?

  Radio waves.

• 23:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I got this.

• 23:55Paul Mecurio?

  Protons and neutrons.

• 23:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I got this.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Well, guess!

• 23:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I guess.

• 23:59Paul Mecurio?

  Wait!

• 23:59Speaker 01

  What is it?

• 24:00Paul Mecurio?

  Proton-neutron intercourse.

• 24:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is hydrogen fusion.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  No.

• 24:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not hydrogen fusion?

• 24:07Speaker 01

  No, he was very close.

• 24:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When he said intercourse, he's closer?

• 24:11Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 24:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Than anything I just said?

• 24:12Speaker 01

  Yes!

• 24:13Paul Mecurio?

  Yes, which means I win! I win!

• 24:16Speaker 01

  Shoot, I should do something like this.

• 24:20Speaker 01

  Okay, it's quantum entanglement.

• 24:21Paul Mecurio?

  Exactly! Entanglement is the way I describe things with my wife that we do. So it's all the same. It's, that's, you wanna have a night of entanglement. She's like, "Yeah, sure, why not?"

• 24:37Paul Mecurio?

  Oh, okay. All right. Okay. Okay. Oh, did you see it?

• 24:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No.

• 24:40Speaker 01

  No.

• 24:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can you do that in a way the camera sees it, so that people can participate with it?

• 24:45Speaker 01

  Apple core. That's...

• 24:52Speaker 01

  Right. That's, um, fission.

• 24:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Paul, I have no freaking idea.

• 24:59Speaker 01

  Cells of fission, cellular mitosis.

• 25:01Paul Mecurio?

  Focus on what this is. It's two things. It's this, and it's this. Okay? And if you want, I'll take that away and I'll draw it a little straighter.

• 25:14Speaker 01

  Oh, it's, it's the, the, it's like the separating of the tectonic plates.

• 25:20Paul Mecurio?

  It is asteroid belt.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  Oh, duh.

• 25:29Paul Mecurio?

  Wait! What is the rubbing of the head? That's a belt!

• 25:35Paul Mecurio?

  And that's an asteroid.

• 25:36Speaker 01

  Oh, I see. Oh, I see.

• 25:38Paul Mecurio?

  And it's moving toward Earth.

• 25:40Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 25:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Deliver me.

• 25:41Paul Mecurio?

  This is... How is it? That is...

• 25:47Paul Mecurio?

  All right, here we go. Ooh, charades.

• 25:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Charades.

• 25:51Paul Mecurio?

  We're acting out.

• 25:51Speaker 01

  Charades, in the same sort of vein. Um, we have to act out a prompt on a card. Um, we, and we can't use words. And I don't think we can use props.

• 26:01Paul Mecurio?

  No, you can't use props, you can't use words. There's too many props.

• 26:04Speaker 01

  Neil, you go first.

• 26:05Paul Mecurio?

  You can't use sounds either.

• 26:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Was this in my office? It's like an urn. Is there like, a dead body in here?

• 26:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a bit morbid.

• 26:11Paul Mecurio?

  It's from the 11th century. It's worth 8 million dollars. Don't break it.

• 26:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can I make sounds?

• 26:21Speaker 01

  No.

• 26:22Paul Mecurio?

  No.

• 26:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No!

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Only acting.

• 26:24Paul Mecurio?

  How's that?

• 26:27Paul Mecurio?

  You can make non-word sounds.

• 26:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, I can? Okay.

• 26:30Speaker 01

  Oh, okay. Meow! I think you're a cat! Oh, oh, oh!

• 26:35Paul Mecurio?

  Feline.

• 26:40Paul Mecurio?

  Blind...

• 26:41Speaker 01

  What's his name?

• 26:42Paul Mecurio?

  Blind as a bat. Blind cat. Happy cat.

• 26:45Speaker 01

  It's the cat. Is he dead or alive?

• 26:47Paul Mecurio?

  Dead or alive cat.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  What's his freaking name?

• 26:51Speaker 01

  My mind is blank right now.

• 26:53Paul Mecurio?

  This is the best day of my life, watching you do this.

• 26:57Paul Mecurio?

  Death, death, death of a salesman.

• 26:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Schrodinger's cat! Damn y'all! What's wrong with you?

• 27:04Speaker 01

  I knew what I was...

• 27:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I gave the best imitation of a Schrodinger's cat that ever was.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  I'm sorry.

• 27:09Paul Mecurio?

  Okay, that was, yeah, too much.

• 27:17Speaker 01

  Oh, asteroid impact!

• 27:18Paul Mecurio?

  Yes! I didn't, I didn't even have a chance on that one. Yeah, what a coincidence that the person who wrote the book knew the answer!

• 27:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Asteroid impact.

• 27:29Paul Mecurio?

  Oh, okay. Well done.

• 27:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  That was good.

• 27:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can I do another one?

• 27:32Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah. Oh, he looks confident.

• 27:39Paul Mecurio?

  Belt. Asteroid belt.

• 27:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Asteroid belt.

• 27:42Paul Mecurio?

  Ah! It all comes back!

• 27:44Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 27:45Paul Mecurio?

  Wow! I, thank God, I thought you were taking your pants off.

• 27:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I know.

• 27:48Paul Mecurio?

  I'm like, wow.

• 27:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm glad you recognized I was reaching for my belt.

• 27:51Paul Mecurio?

  Yes, exactly. I'm like, what is going on?

• 27:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the zone.

• 27:54Paul Mecurio?

  This is a kid's show, everybody.

• 28:01Speaker 01

  Oh, uh...

• 28:05Paul Mecurio?

  Time, clock, hands.

• 28:10Paul Mecurio?

  Time commitment. Running through time, time, travel, time travel, time speeding up.

• 28:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I started volatility.

• 28:22Paul Mecurio?

  It's, uh, late for a bus.

• 28:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A time dilation. Oh!

• 28:31Paul Mecurio?

  What was this?

• 28:32Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 28:33Paul Mecurio?

  What was this?

• 28:35Speaker 01

  I was running faster than light.

• 28:41Paul Mecurio?

  Squishy thing sucking...

• 28:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Amoeba.

• 28:47Paul Mecurio?

  Molecule, molecule manipulation.

• 28:51Paul Mecurio?

  Sun. Here comes the sun. SPF 50. A sheer...

• 29:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Aliens coming from space.

• 29:06Paul Mecurio?

  Ninja. Ninja...

• 29:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Magnetic force.

• 29:10Paul Mecurio?

  Force of nature.

• 29:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sticky.

• 29:15Paul Mecurio?

  Gravity, drop, gravity, gravity attack.

• 29:20Speaker 01

  A supermassive black hole?

• 29:23Paul Mecurio?

  A supermassive black hole?

• 29:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 29:25Paul Mecurio?

  And super...

• 29:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was the worst supermassive black hole that I've ever seen.

• 29:28Speaker 01

  Okay, well, let's see you do it.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  Monkey in space.

• 29:34Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 29:37Paul Mecurio?

  Oh, okay. Uh, uh...

• 29:49Speaker 01

  Alien.

• 29:55Speaker 01

  It's floating through space. We're on a spaceship, rocket ship.

• 30:00Speaker 01

  Zero G, zero gravity. Flight, spaceflight, rocket, spaceflight rocket.

• 30:10Speaker 01

  Astronaut.

• 30:13Paul Mecurio?

  You didn't say a word.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  Hold on. Hold on.

• 30:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're on the Gamecock holder, Linda here.

• 30:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So astronaut, that was the, that was it?

• 30:23Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah.

• 30:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All that was supposed to be astronaut?

• 30:25Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah, Mr. Supermassive Black Hole.

• 30:28Speaker 01

  He acted out an entire play for us.

• 30:30Paul Mecurio?

  Yes! I'm going this. I'm doing like, okay, uh... Okay, here we go.

• 30:37Speaker 01

  Swimming, swimming through spacetime.

• 30:43Speaker 01

  Swimming through...

• 30:47Speaker 01

  This, there's the ocean of space. It's a, it's a, it's a universe. It's a cosmos. It's a giant fabric of spacetime. Amoeba.

• 31:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Octopus.

• 31:08Speaker 01

  What is going on? What are you doing? Oh! It's a turtle all the way down.

• 31:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A septopus.

• 31:20Speaker 01

  A septopod.

• 31:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The aliens in arrival.

• 31:24Paul Mecurio?

  Spaghetti-ification.

• 31:26Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 31:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was the worst spaghetti.

• 31:29Paul Mecurio?

  No, this is spaghetti!

• 31:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just 'cause you're Italian, as in wiggle your fingers, doesn't mean everyone else thinks it's spaghetti.

• 31:34Paul Mecurio?

  Are you doing spaghetti then? Go ahead!

• 31:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Want me to do spaghetti?

• 31:37Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah, go ahead.

• 31:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, okay.

• 31:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's the last bit of spaghetti that's left.

• 31:46Paul Mecurio?

  You eat spaghetti like a six-year-old?

• 31:48Speaker 01

  Yeah!

• 31:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's more, it's funner that way.

• 31:50Paul Mecurio?

  How many times do I have to, that, that's spaghetti? So you go into the black hole, you start as a whole being, and then you spaghetti...

• 31:59Speaker 01

  Like spaghetti-fuck.

• 32:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, you don't become 20 strands of spaghetti. Become one thin strand of spaghetti. Who invited you on this show?

• 32:06Paul Mecurio?

  I, you could have...

• 32:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You don't become pasta! What do you think?

• 32:27Speaker 04

  I'm Joel Cherico and I support StarTalk on Patreon. This is StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  Mold it.

• 32:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what happened? How do you play this?

• 32:48Speaker 01

  So, each of us pick your Play-Doh color.

• 32:52Paul Mecurio?

  Okay, I'm going yellow.

• 32:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, I'm going green.

• 32:55Paul Mecurio?

  Alright.

• 32:56Speaker 01

  And then we pick a color.

• 32:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is Play-Doh.

• 32:57Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah, the old school.

• 32:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The edible Play-Doh.

• 33:00Paul Mecurio?

  Oh yeah, this is lunch by the way. There's literally no budget on the show, this is lunch.

• 33:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Kids would eat it. It has like a salty...

• 33:08Paul Mecurio?

  I love the machine.

• 33:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So now I grab a thing.

• 33:10Paul Mecurio?

  We have to mold what's on our card.

• 33:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, are you ready? Two, go!

• 33:21Paul Mecurio?

  I feel like a sculptor, I should be in a studio smoking a cigarette.

• 33:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  With a beret?

• 33:26Paul Mecurio?

  With a beret, and a bottle of cognac, and my lover.

• 33:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A glass of cognac.

• 33:31Paul Mecurio?

  And my lover lying...

• 33:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Lying naked for you to draw?

• 33:36Paul Mecurio?

  Yes, exactly. That's the only way I work. That's my inspiration. Oh my god. I am so gonna win this. I can feel it.

• 33:49Paul Mecurio?

  Okay. Uh, you wanna start with mine?

• 33:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah!

• 33:53Paul Mecurio?

  Okay.

• 33:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That looks like a whale.

• 33:55Speaker 01

  That looks like a whale.

• 33:56Paul Mecurio?

  That is a whale.

• 33:58Speaker 01

  That's a whale.

• 33:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh!

• 33:59Paul Mecurio?

  Hey! This is a drop the whale moment, right there.

• 34:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did you show the camera before you just broke the nose on the whale? Let's see.

• 34:07Paul Mecurio?

  I did hold it up, there we go.

• 34:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, hold that up.

• 34:10Paul Mecurio?

  That is my whale.

• 34:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 34:13Paul Mecurio?

  Look at that!

• 34:14Speaker 01

  That's really beautiful, Paul.

• 34:15Paul Mecurio?

  Right?

• 34:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Paul, that's beautiful.

• 34:16Paul Mecurio?

  It's a beluga? It's in the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. His name is Albert.

• 34:24Paul Mecurio?

  Solar system. Uh, pancake.

• 34:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh!

• 34:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The Voyager plaque.

• 34:29Speaker 01

  Yeah! Well, it's Voyager.

• 34:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, you have fingernails to help you do that.

• 34:33Paul Mecurio?

  That's true.

• 34:34Speaker 01

  Otherwise, I'd be cooked.

• 34:35Paul Mecurio?

  I need it a little like...

• 34:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You have total fingernails.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  I was also sneaking a little peek at that.

• 34:39Paul Mecurio?

  Yeah.

• 34:40Speaker 01

  Plaque.

• 34:42Paul Mecurio?

  Try making a blowhole with no fingernails. Very challenging.

• 34:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, ready?

• 34:47Paul Mecurio?

  That's a hand.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  Oh, galaxy. Milky Way. Spiral galaxy.

• 34:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Spiral galaxy!

• 34:57Paul Mecurio?

  Nice. Well done. But you don't need to do that with your hand.

• 35:03Speaker 01

  It's a new dance move.

• 35:04Paul Mecurio?

  What are you, a Vegas magician? And tell us about the spiral galaxy.

• 35:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I will. So, spiral galaxies are where most of the stars are born in the universe. Because they still have gas. There are the galaxies that are elliptical. They ran out of their gas, and so they're just stars.

• 35:22Paul Mecurio?

  And why the spiral? Are they sort of feeding off each other?

• 35:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's very flat. Flatter than a flapjack. And that spin is what's called a density wave. And the gas is moving through this density wave, collapsing, making stars. And so that gives us the spiral. The spiral pattern is the pattern of newly born stars.

• 35:42Paul Mecurio?

  And we don't know why that is that pattern, it just is. We just know...

• 35:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, because it's rotating. And the inner parts are rotating faster than the outer parts.

• 35:48Paul Mecurio?

  And then once it's fully formed, does it sort of, they move away from it?

• 35:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, it's a static pattern. You know what it's like? It's like rubbernecking on the freeway. Do they still call it that?

• 36:01Paul Mecurio?

  Yes, yeah.

• 36:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so you're driving, and you slow down. You don't even know you're slowing down, you're looking out at the accident, whatever. But then you continue through.

• 36:11Paul Mecurio?

  Right.

• 36:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 36:12Paul Mecurio?

  Back at your previous speed.

• 36:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Correct. A helicopter view of that shows a concentration of cars where that event is.

• 36:20Paul Mecurio?

  Right.

• 36:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But that's not a static set of cars. The car is moving into and out of that. Okay? Just like there's stars moving into and out of it, but while they're in there, you can be born, but then you keep going.

• 36:32Paul Mecurio?

  And you move out, you can move out of it at some point.

• 36:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, yes, so it's a density wave.

• 36:36Paul Mecurio?

  What determines that you move out of it?

• 36:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because you're moving faster than the wave itself.

• 36:39Paul Mecurio?

  Do some die and are not able to move out of it?

• 36:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You don't stop moving just because you die.

• 36:44Paul Mecurio?

  That's very profound.

• 36:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're a ballistic projectile in a galaxy. Your corpse is moving just as fast as your crib.

• 36:53Paul Mecurio?

  Then I know how I want to go. I don't want to be cremated, I want to be shot up dead into the universe and float around.

• 36:59Speaker 01

  This is very exciting. I love that we both got this. So, on the Voyager records, the golden records that were sent in 1977, this is what they look like, but on the record, it was an actual record and there was 55 greetings in 55 human languages. But playing in the background of all of those greetings is humpback whale songs. Because they had just discovered like, five years before that humpback whale sing.

• 37:24Paul Mecurio?

  Communication, right.

• 37:25Speaker 01

  And so just in case aliens could decipher whale songs better than humans.

• 37:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who's to say they'll first land on land? If 70% of Earth's surface is ocean, they'll land it, they'll say, "Earth is primarily water, let's land there." And they land there, and if they already value brains, who's got the biggest brains in the world? Whales! This is the distance and direction to pulsars in the Milky Way galaxy.

• 37:49Paul Mecurio?

  Okay.

• 37:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That set of pulsars can only be in those distances and in those directions from our location. So this is instructions for the aliens to triangulate on where we are in our galaxy.

• 38:03Paul Mecurio?

  So it's like GPS that...

• 38:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They will triangulate exactly where we are.

• 38:07Paul Mecurio?

  We place that pin there? Or that...

• 38:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, no, this is, we're looking around. That's like saying, if the Empire State Building is two miles that way, and Jersey is half a mile this way, and Times Square is four blocks that way, where does that place you? Okay?

• 38:24Paul Mecurio?

  Okay.

• 38:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's the triangulation. So if all these pulsars are at those distances and in those directions, where does it place you? There aren't that many pulsars in the galaxy. So aliens would know this. So they would find out where we are, this is our return address.

• 38:37Paul Mecurio?

  We discovered that pulsar? Did we?

• 38:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, we know all these pulsars! They're in our catalog.

• 38:42Paul Mecurio?

  Okay.

• 38:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? All of them.

• 38:43Paul Mecurio?

  Okay.

• 38:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, we gave our return address to aliens.

• 38:47Paul Mecurio?

  Through Voyager.

• 38:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Through this diagram. Which seemed like a good idea at the time. But now you wouldn't give your email to a stranger in the street who's your species, would you?

• 39:02Speaker 01

  I trust aliens more than my species.

• 39:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh!

• 39:06Speaker 01

  I choose the alien.

• 39:07Paul Mecurio?

  I gave my email to Wayfair and they will not stop. I don't need patio furniture! I'm good! I don't have a patio! Stop!

• 39:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So we have at the bottom here, a representation of the solar system, not to scale. So there's the sun, over there on the left, then Mercury, Venus, Earth, a line coming from Earth, which is the trajectory of the spaceship that's carrying this. It passes Jupiter and Saturn, and there's Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

• 39:37Paul Mecurio?

  Which should not be.

• 39:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At the time this plaque was conceived, Pluto was a planet. They'll come to our sector of the galaxy, they will see this solar system and say, "That only has eight planets." "That can't possibly be where we're looking." "Let's keep moving." So Pluto becomes the savior of civilization.

• 39:57Speaker 01

  He's assuming ill intent on the aliens.

• 39:59Paul Mecurio?

  That's what I'm saying.

• 40:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh yeah, yeah, of course.

• 40:01Speaker 01

  Why would you assume ill intent?

• 40:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sorry, sorry, I'm assuming evil aliens.

• 40:05Paul Mecurio?

  Wait, so there's gonna be probing, like, in the whole thing? I think they come, we want them, we want to correct that, so that they come and they know that we want to communicate with them, we want to connect with them.

• 40:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You don't give your email address to strangers in the street. Now, Lindsay says she trusts aliens more than fellow humans.

• 40:22Speaker 01

  Big time.

• 40:24Paul Mecurio?

  This is why...

• 40:24Speaker 01

  I know what we're capable of.

• 40:26Paul Mecurio?

  This is, your negative view of things is what's keeping civilization from moving forward.

• 40:33Paul Mecurio?

  Yes.

• 40:33Speaker 01

  Damn!

• 40:35Paul Mecurio?

  You run the Hayden Planetarium with that dark, madder mind of yours, and this is why we're gonna be stuck with each other for the rest of our lives.

• 40:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wow, that's hard hitting right there.

• 40:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, he got you.

• 40:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Lindsay, I was delighted to be co-authors with you on this book.

• 40:51Speaker 01

  Likewise. This is really fun.

• 40:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And Natchio, they're the ones that make it beautiful. We give it the content. And they have designers. And that's not the first time they've done this. They've done it with us before, and they do this for almost their entire catalog. And that's what distinguishes what they create from what other publishers do.

• 41:10Paul Mecurio?

  A lot of people don't know this about Neil, but when he's really stressed out, he sucks his thumb. Very childish.

• 41:19Paul Mecurio?

  And then this is evil Neil, hello.

• 41:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to StarTalk. Okay, now I have to, now I'm gonna close the show, so you gotta do it while I close the show. Ready? Okay. This has been another episode of StarTalk, a special edition showcasing Lost in Space. I'm here with my co-author, Lindsey Walker. Until next time, I bid you to keep looking up.

• 41:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now you're creeping people out!

• 41:58Paul Mecurio?

  Trust me, that'll work.