Cosmic Queries – Gravitons & Hyperspeed

Summary

StarTalk Radio – Cosmic Queries: Gravitons & Hyperspeed

Host: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Co-host: Chuck Nice
Date: March 10, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this “Cosmic Queries – Gravitons & Hyperspeed” grab bag, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice tackle a fresh batch of listener questions about physics, astronomy, and sci-fi concepts. Topics range from how electricity is generated, solar power in space, and prolonging the Sun’s life, to the quest for the graviton, artificial gravity in movies, the possibility of moving Earth, and much more. With their signature blend of science, wit, and humor, Neil and Chuck break down complex ideas for a broad audience, often dipping into memorable anecdotes and pop culture references.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Generating Electricity: From Bicycles to Solar Farms

[03:20 – 09:20]

• Listener Question: Why can’t we use perpetual motion in space to generate endless electricity, or have large solar fields in space?
• Discussion:
  • Neil and Chuck dissect how electricity is generated using examples from bicycle dynamos to wind and hydroelectric turbines on Earth.
  • Quote (Neil):

    "All electricity is still made today... through motion. That’s why windmills, steam turbines, dam turbines—all just turn a turbine so wires pass through a magnetic field." (06:21)

  • They discuss historical context, crediting Michael Faraday with discovering electromagnetic induction.
  • Solar panels can convert sunlight directly into electricity (no turbine required).
  • China’s efforts to build solar farms and possibly a solar ring in space, allowing power generation 24/7, are highlighted.
  • Quote (Chuck):

    "The sun is 93 million miles away and if you lay your ass on the beach, it will burn you... and you want to tell me it’s not viable?" (09:06)

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2. Prolonging the Sun’s Life & Colliding Stars

[09:28 – 13:12]

• Listener Question: Could we prolong the Sun’s life by throwing Jupiter into it?
• Discussion:
  • Neil explains stellar fusion and why the Sun eventually runs out of fuel in its core.
  • The idea of "stirring" the Sun to mix in fresh hydrogen is explored; this does happen in rare cases with "blue straggler" stars after stellar collisions.
  • Tossing Jupiter into the Sun would have negligible effect due to its small mass compared to the Sun.
  • Quote (Neil):

    “As big as Jupiter is, it’s still small compared to the Sun by mass.” (12:47)

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3. Artificial Gravity and Acceleration in Science Fiction

[15:53 – 19:13]

• Listener Question: If ships have artificial gravity in movies, why do crews fly out of their seats when jolted? What about hyperspace jumps?
• Discussion:
  • Artificial gravity mimics Earth's downward force; any external jolt (like from a torpedo) is still felt just like on Earth in a vehicle crash.
  • Hyperspace or warp jumps would turn people into “goo” unless space itself is warped (as Trek-style warp drives propose).
  • Reference is made to “The Expanse,” where realistic physics results in a character’s gruesome death due to inertia.
  • Quote (Neil):

    “If you’re going to warp space, that’s space doing the work for you... but otherwise you gotta find some other way to navigate the space-time continuum.” (18:32)

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4. The Hunt for the Graviton

[20:59 – 23:19]

• Listener Question: Why haven’t we found the gravity particle (graviton)?
• Discussion:
  • Gravity is incredibly weak compared to electromagnetism (by 42 orders of magnitude), making direct detection of the graviton extremely difficult.
  • Fun thought experiment: picking up a rock overcomes the gravitational pull of the entire Earth.
  • Quote (Neil):

    “The entire Earth was insufficient to prevent you from picking up the rock... electromagnetism is 42 magnitudes powers of 10 stronger than gravity!” (21:44)

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5. Time: Field or Dimension?

[23:35 – 25:11]

• Listener Question: Is time a dimension or a field, since it can be affected by gravity?
• Discussion:
  • Neil admits it’s a great (and deep) question—he appreciates the concept.
  • Gravity distorts time, which fits time into the realm of fields and dimensions in theoretical physics.
  • Neil references a quote on the human experience of time:
  • Quote (Neil):

    “We are prisoners of the present, forever transitioning between our inaccessible past and our unknowable future.” (24:54)

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6. Information in Physical Media

[25:17 – 27:09]

• Listener Question: If you got a coil of steel wire, how could you tell if it stores information or just use it as fishing line?
• Discussion:
  • Information requires variation—if the entire wire is identical, it contains no information.
  • Analogy: two identical newspapers don’t have double information, just duplicate copies.

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7. Galaxy Spins and Human Bias

[27:49 – 32:30]

• Listener Question: Are spiral galaxies evenly split in spin direction? Is there observational bias?
• Discussion:
  • Face-on galaxies can only be oriented two ways; edge-on configurations are far more diverse (and thus more common).
  • Humans have shown psychological bias in cataloging galaxy directions—a mirrored image experiment revealed the flaw.
  • Now, AI is used to avoid human errors in classifying galactic spin.
  • Researchers claim a region with net spin, but it remains unverified.

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8. Moving Earth: Plausibility and Pop Culture

[35:27 – 39:07]

• Listener Question: How plausible is moving Earth, a la sci-fi films?
• Discussion:
  • Compared to Earth’s mass and inertia, even the biggest rocketry imaginable is negligible—like a gnat punching a blue whale.
  • "Wandering Earth 2" is referenced, where rockets slowly nudge the planet across space.
  • Quote (Neil):

    “It’s not even a mosquito punching an elephant—it’s a gnat in scuba gear punching a blue whale.” (37:20)

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9. Relativity & Invariants

[39:07 – 41:14]

• Listener Question: When observers see the same process differently, what remains invariant?
• Discussion:
  • The speed of light is invariant for all observers.
  • Space-time “interval”—the combined length of vectors in space and time—is also invariant.
  • Neil uses triangle/hypotenuse analogy to relate space and time vectors for different observers.

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10. Colliding Galaxies Despite Expanding Universe

[41:34 – 44:02]

• Listener Question: Why will the Milky Way and Andromeda collide, given cosmic expansion?
• Discussion:
  • Nearby galaxies’ gravity overpowers local effects of cosmic expansion.
  • “Big Rip” scenario: eventually, cosmic expansion could tear apart even gravitationally bound systems if it accelerates enough.

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11. Black Holes: What Can We See?

[44:12 – 46:13]

• Listener Question: Does a black hole look the same from all sides? Can you "get behind" a black hole?
• Discussion:
  • Thanks to extreme gravity, light from “behind” a black hole bends around, so we see all sides of the accretion disk—an effect spectacularly visualized in "Interstellar."
  • Quote (Neil):

    “You can go behind the black hole, but then I’m going to see your ass in front of the black hole—because the light travels to it. When you see curved light, you don’t know that it’s curved.” (45:24)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Faraday’s invention:

  “I don’t know of what value this will be to the British Empire, but I know that one day you will tax it.” – Neil recounting a possibly apocryphal Faraday quote (05:32)

• On the sunbathing proof for solar power:

  “The sun is 93 million miles away and if you lay your ass on the beach, it will burn you.” – Chuck Nice (09:06)

• On time:

  “We are prisoners of the present, forever transitioning between our inaccessible past and our unknowable future.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson (24:54)

• On futile efforts to move Earth:

  “It’s not a mosquito punching an elephant—it’s a gnat in scuba gear punching a blue whale.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson (37:20)

• On relativistic invariants:

  “The speed of light. So no matter what’s going on, if they measure the speed of light, they’re gonna get the same answer.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson (39:50)

• On black holes and curved light:

  “You can go behind the black hole, but then I’m gonna see your ass in front of the black hole.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson (45:24)

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Memorable Pop Culture and Science References:

• “The Expanse”: realistic depiction of inertia in space travel
• “Interstellar”: visualization of black holes
• “Wandering Earth 2”: concept of moving Earth
• Faraday and the origins of electricity
• Recent AI use in galaxy classification to avoid human bias

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:20 – Converting motion to electricity (Faraday’s law, turbines)
• 06:51 – Turbines in geothermal, solar differences
• 07:44 – Solar power in space, China’s plans
• 10:13 – Sun’s hydrogen fuel, “blue straggler” stars
• 15:53 – Artificial gravity & acceleration in sci-fi
• 18:15 – Warp drives, “The Expanse” and handling inertia
• 20:59 – The search for the graviton
• 23:35 – Time: field or dimension?
• 25:17 – Information in a coil of steel wire
• 27:49 – Galactic spin directions, human bias, and AI
• 35:27 – Moving Earth: real physics vs. movies
• 39:07 – Relativity: invariants across observers
• 41:34 – Milky Way/Andromeda future collision amid expansion
• 44:12 – Visualizing black holes & their accretion disks

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Tone and Language

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice maintain a lively, humorous, and accessible tone, using analogies and pop culture metaphors to clarify scientific points. Chuck often plays the comic relief and curious everyman, while Neil grounds the discussion in real astrophysics and gently ribbing his co-host. Both are quick to stray into playful banter, but always loop back to the science in a way that’s both educational and fun.

Transcript

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[Chuck Nice]

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[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So Chuck.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Are people getting PhDs before they ask questions?

[Chuck Nice]

I think they really are. Or they're trying to get us graduate

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

work on this show or do their physics homework. One or the other is true. Coming up on Star talk, Cosmic queries grab bag. A lot of physics in this edition. Welcome to Start Talk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is StarTalk. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. It's a cosmic queries grab bag. And you know what that means. Chuck. Nice is right here.

[Chuck Nice]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right, Chuck.

[Chuck Nice]

The fan favorite.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's a fan favorite.

[Chuck Nice]

It is a fan favorite. The people love the grab bag. Why?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, we have all these amazing guests and Nobel laureates and they keep coming back for the grab bags.

[Chuck Nice]

We like to grab them by the clery.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And Chuck, we still got just smart enough sitting on our YouTube channel.

[Chuck Nice]

That is correct.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That is a science, all science comedy bit.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, and it's. And. And guess what? Thank you, guys. Everybody's watching it, getting a lot of great feedback. It's my comedy special. It's on the StarTalk main YouTube channel.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We love it.

[Chuck Nice]

Please check it out.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's pushing through half a million views. So we're feeling good about it.

[Chuck Nice]

Feeling good. All right, so this is Sumit Sharma. And Sumit says, while riding my bike, I noticed the dynamo that generates light every time I pedal. I think it converts rotational energy into electricity. In space, things stay in motion. What if we rotate a turbine that keeps rotating forever, generating loads of electricity that we can send back to earth or have big solar fields? Why don't we generate electricity in this way?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So two separate things.

[Chuck Nice]

Two separate things.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Three separate things. Let's start with the bicycle.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I think what she's probably referring to is one of these devices that leans up against the wheel.

[Chuck Nice]

No, that's a generator.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, what's she talking about?

[Chuck Nice]

She's talking about you clip it onto your wheel, and then when the wheel spins, it lights up.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's all it does is light up.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, but there's also the thing you're talking about, which is the same thing. You click it on, and then it rotates a little wheel on the wheel, and that turns a turbine. And that also creates electricity for a light.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So let's go back to the middle 19th century.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Michael Faraday.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

He might be the most important person many people have never heard of. Cause he invented a way to make electricity.

[Chuck Nice]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right. He saw a wire, and he connected a wire to a little meter. The meter's not doing anything. Took the wire, passed it through a magnetic field. Didn't just have it sit there. He moved it, and the wire went like that.

[Chuck Nice]

The meter went.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

He created current in the wire by passing it through a magnetic field. Okay, so. And that was an odd little toy that he made, and he showed it around. So this is charming.

[Chuck Nice]

What a great little trick, Michael.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, it's just a trick. And there's a rumored comment where, you know, someone. Was it the parliament, whoever this is, in England? Of what value is this to the British Empire?

[Chuck Nice]

Indeed, sir. You are wasting our time. I see. And you expect us to use valuable pences and pounds and shillings.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Don't leave out the shillings. And so the reply rumored was, I don't know of what Value this will be to the British Empire, but I know that one day you will tax it.

[Chuck Nice]

Faraday was gangster. That is amazing. Yeah, that is amazing. What a great statement.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

There's another. There's another statement in the same vein, and I don't know if he really said this, but it's attributed. Another one said, what value? What good is this? And he says, of what value to the world is a newborn baby?

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, well, you lose that argument because the value is nothing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, it's, what value will it one day, One day be? Well, that's the whole point.

[Chuck Nice]

Right. That's the exact analog, and that could still be nothing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And that is how all electricity is still made today.

[Chuck Nice]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All electricity through motion.

[Chuck Nice]

Through motion.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it turns a turbine. Turbine, right. Is wires passing through a magnetic field,

[Chuck Nice]

and it creates electricity every time. And I don't care where you are in the world, that's how you get any electricity.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. That's why windmills, there's wind turbines, there's.

[Chuck Nice]

There's steam turbines.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's the steam that just creates something to spin to go through it. That's what it is. And dams, right, where they let the water go through.

[Chuck Nice]

Yep. It's turning a turbine, even geothermal, they use the heat from the Earth itself to heat water, to make steam, to turn a turbine. It's turbines all the way down, baby.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, it's not turbines just to warm your home. No, because you can. You can do something with the geothermal.

[Chuck Nice]

Well, you could warm your home with geothermal, nothing else.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Correct. But you're not generating electricity.

[Chuck Nice]

You're not generating electricity to do so. Right? Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so now, different from that, you have solar panels where the energy is already there.

[Chuck Nice]

That's called the sun, baby.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, you got it.

[Chuck Nice]

It's a solar collector.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You have your photovoltaic cells.

[Chuck Nice]

Correct.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And that converts the sunlight directly into electricity. And so, yeah, we can do that in space. China has a plan to put a

[Chuck Nice]

big ring and do exactly what Sumit is asking to do.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I don't know if it's a ring, but they have a. They're going to put up a solar farm in space.

[Chuck Nice]

Well, that's. That's the second thing they're doing. So they have a ring that they're going to do.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We know about the ring.

[Chuck Nice]

The ring is the latest thing that they're doing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You want to put a ring on it. They want to put a ring on it.

[Chuck Nice]

That's why they put a ring on it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So when you're in Space. If you're far enough out, then there is no nighttime.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Because you're not making electricity with sunlight at night.

[Chuck Nice]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And nor are you making electricity in daytime under clouds.

[Chuck Nice]

Correct.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

There are no clouds and there's no nighttime. If you're far enough out in space, you can always point something to the

[Chuck Nice]

space 24 hours a day.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They would then convert it to microwaves, beam them back down to earth to a place that will receive it and it's free electricity.

[Chuck Nice]

And here we are talking about drill, baby, drill.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Still digging oil out of ground.

[Chuck Nice]

Still digging oil out of the ground. And they are talking about putting solar arrays in space.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And we like criticizing that them because they far and away are the largest

[Chuck Nice]

coal burning, coal burning country.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it's easy to criticize that. Putting a blind eye to what they're actually doing to get ready for the future.

[Chuck Nice]

They have coal in China, but they still need more. Okay, they don't have oil, so they need to import that. Guess what? You can import and you gonna own it outright.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The sun.

[Chuck Nice]

The sun. And people are like, oh, solar power, it's not really viable. And I'm like, it's 93 million miles away and if you lay your ass on the beach, it will burn you. And you won't tell me that it's not. Anyway, I'm sorry.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

There's the evidence.

[Chuck Nice]

There's the evidence that the summit.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so. So there you have it.

[Chuck Nice]

There you go, Sumit.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right. Thank you for that.

[Chuck Nice]

Way to go, Sumit. Way to get us thinking. All right. This is Sirun's.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Don't make me come over there and read that for you. Don't make me, make me. Grab this.

[Chuck Nice]

I think it's cyrunes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, go.

[Chuck Nice]

He says in sunshine. You said that if the sun were about to run out of fuel and collapse, any amount of atomic bombs wouldn't matter. But what if we could put giant rockets on Jupiter and throw it into the sun? Would that buy more life for the sun? This guy is diabolic. He's like Dr.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Evil. He's Lex Luthor. Exactly.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm putting rockets on Jupiter.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I don't know what he's remembering that I said. Maybe I said it wrong or not remembering it right.

[Chuck Nice]

So what? He's trying to talk about the nuclear bomb.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Here's what I'm saying. Here's what I'm saying. When the sun runs out of hydrogen in its core, then the furnace turns off to run out of it. Means at the place in the sun where it's Hot enough to fuse hydrogen. They've run out of hydrogen.

[Chuck Nice]

That's it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. All right. Hydrogen is everywhere else in the sun. It's just not hot enough to fuse it.

[Chuck Nice]

Exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If you could find a way to stir the contents of the sun, bring outer layers down into the middle, conveyor belt style, you could feed this nuclear engine with an essentially unlimited amount of hydrogen.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The amount of hydrogen participating in the sun's generation of energy. I forgot 1%. I mean, it's tiny compared to. The sun is made of hydrogen.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

90% of the sun is 8% helium, 2% other.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, good, because I'm like, what, 2% other. I thought it was just. Yeah, hydrogen and helium.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, no, it's mostly hydrogen and helium. So that would be the way to prolong the life of the sun. In fact, there's star clusters in space, obviously, where they're all born at the same time. And so you expect them to evolve synchronously in a way that the high mass stars die first, the lower mass stars die second. There are some clusters where there's a star that should have died long ago and didn't.

[Chuck Nice]

Ooh.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's called a blue straggler.

[Chuck Nice]

A blue straggler.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Blue straggler.

[Chuck Nice]

I remember when this first started. I never forget the time when the nursery was over here and these other stars came out.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It was hanging out longer than it should have in that diagram of the cluster. Okay. It was in my time in graduate school where people figured out what that was, you know, what it was, what a blue striker is. Two stars that collided, stirring up their material, giving.

[Chuck Nice]

Giving each other some new energy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

New energy. That's right.

[Chuck Nice]

So what I did was I found myself another star. I'm kind of like the Keith Richards of stars. Got a younger star over here that took his energy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

How old is Keith Richard? That boy must be 100, 250.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah. Oh, that's super cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So we know, we know the stirring up would work, right? Because these stars, that's what they did. Then they're. Then they're supposed to. They're supposed to. So. But if you throw Jupiter in, that'll help a little. But Jupiter, as big as it is, is still small compared to the sun by mass.

[Chuck Nice]

By mass.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. So maybe we should just find another star system.

[Chuck Nice]

That's it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We're talking about 5 billion years in the future. If you can't have figure way to get another star, go home.

[Chuck Nice]

If we made it that far, by the way, if we do make it that far, let's just call it quits.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We're done here.

[Chuck Nice]

If we're here As a species 5 billion years from now, we need to be gone. Okay?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Anyway, give the rats a chance.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes,

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[Chuck Nice]

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[Chuck Nice]

I'm Brian Futterman, and I support StarTalk on Patreon. This is StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tys. All right, here we go. This is David Everett who says, artificial gravity in movies, tv, confuses me. When a starship gets hit by a torpedo, the crew tends to fly out of their seats. If artificial gravity is produced by the ship itself, shouldn't that not happen? And if it does happen, shouldn't the crew get splattered on the back wall when the ship goes into warp or hyperspace?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, two separate questions to our. You got hit with a torpedo, right? So your artificial gravity is creating a force vector mimicking what happens on Earth. And that force vector is always down. Down.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Let me be precise. That force vector is always towards the center of the Earth.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

For everyone experiencing that anywhere on Earth, it is down.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Pete Holmes has a. Has a gig where he set the comedian.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, I know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

He talks about, well, wait a minute. If Earth is in space, then heaven is just away from Earth, no matter where you go, no matter where you are. So if you're on one side of the Earth, you can say, I'm going to heaven and point out, or go to heaven over there. Because for someone on Earth, that's up,

[Chuck Nice]

that's up, that's up.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But anyhow, if I introduce any other force on you, you're gonna jolt from that. You're gonna feel it.

[Chuck Nice]

Same way you would on Earth.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You're gonna. Exactly.

[Chuck Nice]

Same way you would.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. If you're on a bus and you. And you. And then the bus hits a wall or stops, you'll be jolted.

[Chuck Nice]

Exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So in space, with your gravity vector doing its thing, if you get jolted, you'll get.

[Chuck Nice]

You'll get jolted.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, Right. Now, we did an explainer on all the levels of acceleration.

[Chuck Nice]

Correct?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

From. And I think we ended with splat.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, it was. It was the. It was the jerk.

[Chuck Nice]

The jerk.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The. The. The. The. And we ended with snap, crackle. And pop crackle. Dig that up.

[Chuck Nice]

I go over that again.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's all the levels of acceleration that can happen to you. So now you want to go to hyperspace, you need some sci fi hocus pocus.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

To not be splattered on the back wall.

[Chuck Nice]

But not. You don't need high sci fi hope sci fi hocus pocus for warp, because that is warping space.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

My bad. You are absolutely right. Okay. If you're gonna warp space, that's space doing the work for you.

[Chuck Nice]

Space doing the work for you.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And you just step across. You surf it. So that's not a problem. So when they show it, the way to show it cool, is the thing is there and then it's off at a thing.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right. That'll kill you, right?

[Chuck Nice]

Exactly. Everybody on that ship is dead.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That'll kill your ass.

[Chuck Nice]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Otherwise you gotta find some other way to sort of navigate the space time continuum in ways that shorten your distance from where you are to the destination. Right. So. Yeah. So genuine warp drives, if invoked properly according to manufacturer specs, you should not be a pile of goo.

[Chuck Nice]

Shouldn't be a pile of goo.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

At the end of the thing. There's a quick. If I can get morbid for a minute.

[Chuck Nice]

Go ahead.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

There's a scene in the. The TV series Expanse.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, I love that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Where there's a sort of cowboy guy.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

He's okay. He's being a cowboy. Showing off his girlfriend.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, my God.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Showing off these maneuvers. He's live streaming as he's in this craft and he's maneuvering and he's badass. Of course. He's strapped in. When you're in one of these things, you're in a five point harness. One between your legs, one on each side of your hip, and one across each shoulder. You know, it's not harnessed.

[Chuck Nice]

You hate it. Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. That's how Dale Earnhardt died.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. He hit an embankment. His head is not restrained. The head keeps going at 160 miles an hour. And the body stays there because it's strapped in.

[Chuck Nice]

They're all chained in now.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, they are. Yeah. They have a connection to the bat,

[Chuck Nice]

connection to the bent tether.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

He had that option at the time.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, damn.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But you're old school. Old school, old school. You're not gonna do it. So in this scene in the Expanse, he goes through a membrane.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Where his spacecraft stops is stopped at the membrane, but he doesn't.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And it's a pretty. It's pretty graphic It's a pretty graphic,

[Chuck Nice]

but it's kind of cool. Yeah, it's good physics. You learn physics.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's accurate ass physics. And they would later say, here's why the craft didn't crumble, because he was going really fast.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And then stopped on an instant.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

On a dime.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right. Wow.

[Chuck Nice]

It's pretty cool. All right. Very cool. This is Dave Hartman. He says, hey, where's the gravity particle? Everything else has a particle of some sort of. What's the deal with gravity?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We're looking for it. Okay. Give us a chance here. But the energy of the graviton is really low. And we don't know how to go that low.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. That's the problem.

[Chuck Nice]

Cause gravity is like a super weak force.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is the weakest force in the universe.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, you want evidence of that?

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Bend down and pick up a rock. Okay. The entire Earth was insufficient to prevent you from picking up the rock.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Think about that.

[Chuck Nice]

Because. Yeah. The gravity didn't change.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay?

[Chuck Nice]

That rock is on the ground because of gravity.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Do you know what is 42 magnitudes powers of 10 stronger than gravity? Electromagnetism.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, my God.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

42 powers of 10, that's incredible. Which is why you go to one of these magnet doors, you can't open it.

[Chuck Nice]

Right. It's true.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's just two plates, you know?

[Chuck Nice]

Or when you get electrocuted, they can't pry you from the wire.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What? Why'd you get dark?

[Chuck Nice]

So, I'm sorry, I don't know what my problem is.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No. But the doors that are magnetic. The doors that are magnetically locked. And when you push a button.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah. And they unlock.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's an electromagnet. And they just unlock.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah. And you cannot open those doors. Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, maybe if you tried really hard, you risk breaking the door. Me? And that's just. That's just the circuitry in the thing itself. And you have all of Earth trying to hold onto the rock.

[Chuck Nice]

And you swarm and all you do is come by just like, look at

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

you, little girly earth. Girly earth.

[Chuck Nice]

I pick up the rock, squeeze.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And become Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[Chuck Nice]

All right, here we go.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So, yeah, we. We presume there's a graviton particle corresponding to gravitational waves. Just as there are. There's the photon as a particle corresponding with waves of light. Yes.

[Chuck Nice]

And the electron.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes. Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

Or the electromagnetic.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. So all of that combined. So we're looking for it. Just, you know, chill.

[Chuck Nice]

Get off our ass. Like I'm one of you. Like I Have a. A stick in this game. We'll find it soon.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Like, you got your own accelerator.

[Chuck Nice]

My own accelerator. I mean. Yeah. All right, here we go. Michael de la Morena.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's good, huh?

[Chuck Nice]

Shouldn't it be Miguel? Michael.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Miguel. Don't tell the man what his name should be.

[Chuck Nice]

All right? It's time. A dimension or a field? It seems more like a field because it can be affected by gravity.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, I like that.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I like the way.

[Chuck Nice]

The way he's thinking of time. Miguel.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Miguel. I like that. I don't know that I have a good answer for that. The idea that gravity can distort time.

[Chuck Nice]

Correct.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

In the way, you know, the way things interact. In fundamental physics, there are fields that affect particles, particles that affect fields. And so that's an intriguing thought. And I might bring that up with Brian Greene. With Brian Green.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We scheduled a session for him where we're gonna pick his brain for three hours.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah. It's gonna be a long session. I'm gonna smoke weed that day.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Let's just talk, all right. It's a good look at pocus brain. I don't know how much brain will be left by the time, but we're gonna get all in it. It's an interesting concept.

[Chuck Nice]

It's a really good concept.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. And. But for now, we think of it as a dimension in which we are trapped in the present.

[Chuck Nice]

And.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know the rest of my quote there.

[Chuck Nice]

Go ahead.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We are prisoners of the present.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Forever transitioning between our inaccessible past and our unknowable future.

[Chuck Nice]

It's a really great quote. It's really good.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I'm just saying we're kind of stuck. But you're not stuck in space.

[Chuck Nice]

Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You can move this way or this way.

[Chuck Nice]

You're stuck in space any way you want.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Jump up and down any way you want. So one day, if we can conquer time, we'll have access to our entire timeline.

[Chuck Nice]

Right? I only want to see parts of my timeline. I'm going to tell you the truth. All right? This is textile Wiz. He says, hypothetical, Neil, you're given 40 yards of 0.15 millimeter steel wire on a reel with no markings. Would you use it as fishing line or listen to the 1 minute message it may contain? How could you possibly know it contained information?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Why would there be information in the wire? Why is that even a thought? Okay. By the way, if every part of the wire is identical to every other part, it cannot contain information.

[Chuck Nice]

Why not?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Because information is. This configuration of whatever you have is different from this configuration is different from that configuration. And the information is contained in the difference in these configurations. That's where you get information.

[Chuck Nice]

That's where you get information. If it's identical, there can be no information because it's all the same all the way through.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's all the same all the way through. Or the only information it's giving you

[Chuck Nice]

is

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

what's the orientation of the atoms that give you the string?

[Chuck Nice]

Correct.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. And often that repeats and it normally is in a crystal. The patterns repeat. So you only have information enough worthy of one of these patterns. Because once it repeats, it's not more information.

[Chuck Nice]

There's not more information.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Chuck Nice]

It's just repetition.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So Chuck, that's the difference between having two newspapers and two oranges. Uhuh. Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Two oranges. You got two oranges. Two oranges, two newspapers. You don't have twice as much information. Right.

[Chuck Nice]

You just got two newspapers, but they got the same information, same information.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, Right, Yeah. So I don't know how information would be embedded in the wire. I don't have to know that in advance to even attempt that.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But clearly that's what I would do if I had any suspicion.

[Chuck Nice]

If you had any suspicion. So the answer is go fishing, right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Is that the answer?

[Chuck Nice]

No, that's not the answer.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But it's a steel wire. That's a big fish.

[Chuck Nice]

We catching some tuna? Some sailfish.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What's the difference between a sailfish and a sunfish?

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, the sunfish are the big giant fish with the funny looking heads.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What's the one with the sailfish? So what's the sunfish?

[Chuck Nice]

The sunfish is the big, like, fat like it's just got a big fat long head.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

That's the sunfish. I'm just a city kid and little teeny.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, here we go.

[Chuck Nice]

Stephen R. Small says this. Assuming spiral galaxies are evenly distributed, I'd predict an even split of spirals turning counterclockwise versus clockwise, plus a small fraction on edge where spin can't be detected. What would be learned if that prediction were true or not? And putting aside expansion of space, is a galaxy's translational travel vector aligned with its equatorial plane like a Frisbee?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

For the longest time people have wanting to use these massive data sets of galaxies in the universe to see if there's an orientation of the spiral galaxies.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

One way or another. Because they're going to spin.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, they could spin that way and they could spin edge on flat. All kinds.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And who is this that asked the question?

[Chuck Nice]

This is Stephen R. Small.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So Stephen presumes that if it's edge on, you wouldn't know which waves depending. But we do. Oh, yes. You can put a slit across it and get its spectrum and you'll see that one side of the galaxy is blue shifting towards you and the other side is red shifting away.

[Chuck Nice]

That is brilliant. Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

This. Yes, yes. My people are brilliant.

[Chuck Nice]

I love that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

My people are brilliant.

[Chuck Nice]

That is so cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But go ahead. Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's how you know if it's coming towards you.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Even though it's edge on.

[Chuck Nice]

Right. Even though it's edge on.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

You can see what's blue shifted, what's red shift the other.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So another fact I must correct is if you randomly scatter spiral galaxies into any environment, the most likely way you will find them is edge on. So if here's the dish, that's the galaxy.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, here's a face on galaxy. So let's say the north pole is pointing to your head. All right? That's also face on.

[Chuck Nice]

Correct.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The North Pole is pointing that way. To get a face on galaxy, the galaxy has to be facing you to be a face on galaxy.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Or it could be the other way.

[Chuck Nice]

The other way.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So there are only two ways the pole can be pointing. If you get a face on galaxy.

[Chuck Nice]

Exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Edge on. Oh, my gosh. Oh.

[Chuck Nice]

You can go all the way around

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

the clock at edge on the pole,

[Chuck Nice]

anywhere you want to go.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Entire circle this way and you edge on the entire. There are more ways to configure edge on galaxies than face on galaxies in a random set of galaxies.

[Chuck Nice]

Absolutely.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. And you can show that probabilistically and statistically. It's an exercise in graduate school. You do this. So don't be surprised when you look at the Hubble Deep field and other things. There's a whole lot of edge on galaxies.

[Chuck Nice]

Right, Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. People have been looking for extra rotating one way versus another. And the first time someone made that claim, they had room full of people thinking, which way is the galaxy rotating? Just they ignored the edge ons. So which way is the galaxy rotating? And people made their catalog, they said, oh my gosh, there's a net rotation clockwise. Holy cow, what's going on? And then people theorists started coming in. Maybe there's leftover rotation from the big bang. And people started jumping all in. I call them ambulance chasing theorists.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, that's funny.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right, so then someone had the idea, let's give this same test to a different set of people, except have them look at the photos from the other side, the mirror image of the photo.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They evaluated the thousands and thousands of galaxies. Once again, most of them were rotating clockwise.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's not possible. I just flipped them all.

[Chuck Nice]

That's a mirror image.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. So they concluded that there's a psychological preference for noticing.

[Chuck Nice]

So we have.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We have a bias, we have a visual bias.

[Chuck Nice]

We have a bias that allows us to look for that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's right. And so we said we're not gonna have humans doing this ever again.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So we train computers. AI is coming in at the time.

[Chuck Nice]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And someone now has a section of space, not the whole all sky, a section of space where there's a net angular momentum, a net spin in one direction and not another. And that's in the last year or so.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So check that out. And we think it's not gonna hold up. But it's nonetheless an observed result that people are contending with. Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

Well, Steven, way to go, man.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And we're using spiral galaxies. Cause elliptical galaxies don't have. The stars are like behind.

[Chuck Nice]

They're doing all kinds of crazy crap.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right, Right. It's not really a.

[Chuck Nice]

The spiral galaxies are uniform.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's a uniform rotation Y.

[Chuck Nice]

Which by the way, we're in one. There you go.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

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[Chuck Nice]

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[Chuck Nice]

All right, this is Jose Ikamba. Jose Ikamba. Ikamba. Who says, by the way, is there

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

an accent over the E?

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Because I knew a guy who took off the accent. He just wanted me to call him Joe.

[Chuck Nice]

Josie?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, just Joe's.

[Chuck Nice]

Joe's.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And that felt wrong.

[Chuck Nice]

That's wrong.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's what he wanted.

[Chuck Nice]

Joe's.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Joe's.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, that sounds weird. Jose says in Fantastic Four.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Ooh, First Steps. I remember the day that movie premiered. It was highly advertised. It looked intriguing, looked even fun. I haven't seen it yet.

[Chuck Nice]

Me either. He says Reed Richards considers teleporting Earth into another universe to save it. Realistically, with current technology, what could humans do to move Earth. Earth from its orbit around the sun? Analogous to Dart or Di Omorphos or. But on a planetary scale, how plausible is it?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You gotta really understand how much mass there is on Earth.

[Chuck Nice]

Tell me about It.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. I did a calculation. Do you know they bench test rockets, okay. Space rockets in the desert? So you know how they do that? They could point them upwards and see how far they go, but they don't. They anchor them to Earth, ignite them, and measure all the forces and the pressures and the temperatures and everything. I thought to myself, if they kept

[Chuck Nice]

doing that, we could increase the rotation of the Earth.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I said, are they slowing Earth? Because if it's perpendicular to our rotation, that would have a different effect. It wouldn't speed us up or slow us down. But if it's due east or due west, yeah. Oh, my gosh. So I ran the calculation.

[Chuck Nice]

Not gonna happen, huh?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's not.

[Chuck Nice]

It's not gonna happen.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's nothing compared to the rotational inertia of the Earth.

[Chuck Nice]

So it's a mosquito punching an elephant.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Not even.

[Chuck Nice]

Not even gnat.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's a gnat.

[Chuck Nice]

A blue whale.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Give me something bigger than an elephant.

[Chuck Nice]

A gnat in a scuba gear punched a blue whale.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So it's not a thing.

[Chuck Nice]

So.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But as I said in other recordings we've made, there's a movie made in China, but with an international cast called Wandering Earth 2.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I never saw Wandering Earth 1.

[Chuck Nice]

I haven't seen either.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. But Wandering Earth 2, there's something wrong with the Sun. They gotta take Earth somewhere else. And there's no teleporting. It's kind of in present day, actually, maybe a little bit in the future where they have space elevators and things. But it's not so far. It's not Star Trek future.

[Chuck Nice]

No.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right. They got regular rockets. So they said, we gotta move Earth. And they set up these rockets around the perimeter of the Earth, all pointing the same way. And then they ignite them all. And then Earth slowly pulls out of orbit.

[Chuck Nice]

Road trip. And when.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Bottles of beer on the wall. To another star system to enter ourselves into their orbit.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Now then you could choose where to put the orbit.

[Chuck Nice]

That's true.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Get the right exact temperature.

[Chuck Nice]

Temperature with everything you want. And the closest place we could go, which is not even a real star, though.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Chuck Nice]

Isn't that Proxima?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, no. Alpha Centauri is a system. Proxima Centauri is the closest star within the Alpha Centauri system.

[Chuck Nice]

That's what I'm saying. So we would have to name Proxima. Proxima. We would have to go to Proxima because that's the closest we would.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. For every star there is a distance. That would be the right Goldilocks. Distance.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So we can pick any star in principle.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And just go to the spot.

[Chuck Nice]

To that spot.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yep.

[Chuck Nice]

All right. So this is Tam Tam. Hey, Tam Tam. In relational physics.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Relational. This is very like psychotherapy.

[Chuck Nice]

This is. Yeah. In relational physics, you know. Tell me about you. Easy MC squared. How's it make you feel?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

How's it feel? Makes me feel good, actually.

[Chuck Nice]

When different observers describe the same process differently, what is considered invariant? What actually holds across those perspectives?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I like that. Wow. You know, it's invariant. That's a great point. Because two people seeing the same thing, interpreting it differently. Is there anything that's constant?

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes. The speed of light.

[Chuck Nice]

Ah, look at that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So no matter what's going on, if they measure the speed of light, they're gonna get the same answer.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, look at that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Now, there are other invariants. That's the simplest one I could describe. There's others where there's a combination of your light, your travel in time, and your travel in space. And so the length of that vector is the same for all the observers. If I'm remembering this correctly. I'm gonna check with Brian Greene again on this. But the combination of those two is invariant. So for me, my space vector might be longer than my time vector relative to you. You can have a longer time vector relative to space vector. But to connect the two ends, that length would be the same, and that would be the same throughout the system.

[Chuck Nice]

Interesting.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I think I'm getting that right. I got you. It's been a while since I dug into it.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But you see what I'm saying? So just look at a triangle.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And the hypotenuse of the triangle would be an invariant. But the triangle that gives you that hypotenuse can have varying to the legs can be a different size relative to each other. And these two legs, one is time and one is space.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. All right.

[Chuck Nice]

I got. Now that's a very good way to explain it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

Does that make sense?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If that works out?

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Wow.

[Chuck Nice]

Tam Tam, like, it's a good, deep question.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And.

[Chuck Nice]

And what Tam Tam's doing. She like, can you do my physics homework?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So invariance are the things that would be constant. And you want to know what those are? Because they. Those are. Those are mathematical jump points from one observational system into another.

[Chuck Nice]

What a. Wow, look at these people. I know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We got some good people.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm telling you, these people are.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, we got, like, five minutes left. Give me. Maybe. Do you think we can fit two in There.

[Chuck Nice]

Diana Smith says, how can galaxies collide if everything is moving?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, I love that.

[Chuck Nice]

More precisely, how is it that while the universe is expanding and moving away from us, the Milky Way and Andromeda will collide in the near future?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, you ready for this?

[Chuck Nice]

Uh huh.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You ready? Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So galaxies that are near each other feel each other's gravity.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And they have speeds in response to that gravity. All right. So I'm gonna pick a number. Let's say 200 miles per second.

[Chuck Nice]

All right. Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Let's just say. So that's a characteristic that goes much higher in galaxy clusters. Let's just say picking a number, 200 miles per second. These galaxies feel each other and they're moving around each other. The universe is expanding. Well, the bigger is the distance between two objects, the faster it's expanding. If I'm not far away enough from this system for the expanding universe to be greater than 200 miles per second, the expanding universe will not manifest in this system.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If I go far enough away so that the Universe is expanding 400 miles per second, it's gonna rip these galaxies apart.

[Chuck Nice]

Exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So galaxies nearby each other are not spread over enough space in the universe for the expansion of the universe to manifest.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, gotcha. However. Uh oh.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

However, in the Big Rip.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The accelerating universe.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

There's a point where the expansion of the universe will rival the relative speeds of galaxies that are near one another. And it'll rip them apart. And then it'll rival the speeds within the scale of the galaxies themselves. It'll rip the stars apart, Then it'll rip the planets off the stars, Then it'll rip the atoms out of the star. Then it'll break the atoms apart, then it'll break the electrons off the atoms, then it'll break the nucleus apart.

[Chuck Nice]

And that is because the acceleration is constantly increasing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Constantly increasing.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And it'll outstrip anything.

[Chuck Nice]

Outstrips anything.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Anything that would otherwise be holding it.

[Chuck Nice]

Can't outrun it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Can't outrun it.

[Chuck Nice]

Can't outrun it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's a good way to say it.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So that's why galaxy. Only nearby galaxies will ever show a blue shift.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, look at that. Yeah, that's very cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. It's only when the redshift out muscles it that.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so no faraway galaxy has a blue shift.

[Chuck Nice]

Has a blue shift.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Nope.

[Chuck Nice]

Look at that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Wow.

[Chuck Nice]

Diana Smith. These. These people are very.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And we are on a collision course with Andromeda.

[Chuck Nice]

Andromeda. Right. Because we're close enough.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Like 7 billion years, plus or minus.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah. So stick around. Diana.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

October 3rd. It's 7 billion years.

[Chuck Nice]

All right. Bill says in the classic depiction of a supermassive black hole, interstellar, the accretion disk looks aligned flat horizontally from our point of view. Does a black hole look the same from all sides? Left, right, top, bottom? Doesn't make a difference. And is it even possible to get behind a black hole?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes. I'm impressed that he called that a classic description. That's only been with us for like 10 years or so.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Ever since we've had enough modeling, enough physics, enough theoretical understandings. So I'm impressed that that's now classic.

[Chuck Nice]

That's classic.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And it looked like you were coming in on the accretion disc. But there's distortions in the space time continuum in the vicinity of the black hole. So the accretion disk behind the black hole has sight lines that come around the black hole to you because it's

[Chuck Nice]

bending the light around. The blackness, the gravity is that deep and heavy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Bending the light around.

[Chuck Nice]

That's amazing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So you're seeing this sort of unfolded image of a black hole in all places.

[Chuck Nice]

You see behind it when you.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

In front of it.

[Chuck Nice]

You can't sneak up on a black hole.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So you can go behind the black hole, but then I'm gonna see your ass in front of the black hole. That's right, because the light travels to it. And when you see curved light, you don't know that it's curved.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

As far as you're concerned, it's a straight line. Just like when you see the sun rise, the sun isn't there. The sun is five minutes below because the light refracted. It's not for the same reasons. But I'm saying if the light bends and you see it, you don't see bent light. Right.

[Chuck Nice]

You're seeing the light.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You're seeing a straight line. You think it's a straight line because

[Chuck Nice]

that's why you see it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's where you see it. And it's the refraction of the atmosphere that five minutes later the sun actually rises. But the atmosphere bent it into your view, and you think it's in a straight line. So that's what's going on.

[Chuck Nice]

That's what's going on in the black hole.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You see all sides of the thing.

[Chuck Nice]

That's dope.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Totally dope.

[Chuck Nice]

That is amazing. I love it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I answered that quick, didn't I?

[Chuck Nice]

You did.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Whoa.

[Chuck Nice]

Quickly. Yes, you did. Thank you for doing that. My mom would be very.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Your mama Was a grammar Nazi.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes, she was.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

And my house was a hell.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's why you're so well spoken.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, dear.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, one of my favorite shirts is.

[Chuck Nice]

What's that?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

A librarian. I saw a librarian wearing it. Okay, right. Well, I don't know if she was a librarian, but she looked the part. Okay, I was at a book festival, right. Or I'm signing books.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

She's walking around, right? Kind of middle aged.

[Chuck Nice]

Card catalog behind her. That was on the duty on the Dewey decimal system.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, she had the glasses with this. With the thing and the hair was in a bun. Okay. But she wore a T shirt. And librarians don't wear a T shirt. This T shirt said, I'm silently correcting your grammar.

[Chuck Nice]

That's cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

T shirt. That's. That's gangster right there.

[Chuck Nice]

Right, right, right. Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So, Chuck, that's it. That's another.

[Chuck Nice]

That was a great episode, man. These people are. They're bringing it with the questions.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Bring it in. Bring it on. Bring it in. Y welcome back to another completed episode of Cosmic Queries, Grab Bag Edition. Thanks again, Chuck.

[Chuck Nice]

Always a pleasure for being here.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Neil Degrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. Keep looking up. Why have I asked my h vac guy I found on angie.com to change

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[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

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[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

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[Chuck Nice]

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[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

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[Chuck Nice]

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[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

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