Things You Thought You Knew – Your Zodiac is Wrong

Summary

StarTalk Radio
Episode: "Things You Thought You Knew – Your Zodiac is Wrong"
Host: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Co-host: Chuck Nice
Release Date: July 28, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this lively and humor-filled edition of StarTalk’s “Things You Thought You Knew,” Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice tackle persistent astronomical myths and misunderstandings. They riff on time dilation in Einstein’s theory of relativity, the real mechanics behind spacecraft gravity assists, the truth about the North Star, and why, due to precession, your zodiac sign may not be what you think it is. The hosts blend popular science with quick, comedic repartee—dispelling common misconceptions and dropping surprising truths about our place in the universe.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Einstein’s Time Dilation and Special Relativity

• What Is Time Dilation?
  • Time passes at different rates depending on your speed and the strength of gravity you experience.
  • The faster you move, or the closer you are to a strong gravitational source, the slower your time ticks relative to others.
    • "Your clock still ticks as far. You still got your heartbeat…this is not a physiological thing. It's an actual property of the fabric of space and time under those conditions." – Neil (02:39)
• GPS Satellites & Relativity
  • GPS satellites operate in weaker gravity than Earth's surface; their clocks run faster relative to us, and must be "pre-corrected" to maintain accuracy.
    • "We pre-correct the time signal from the GPS satellites to compensate for Einstein's general theory of relativity..." – Neil (04:35)
  • Without these relativistic adjustments, GPS would not function accurately.
• Experimental Proof: Particle Decay
  • Rapidly moving particles, like muons in accelerators, decay more slowly due to time dilation—proving Einstein’s theory.
    • "[A particle’s] decay time takes longer…in the exact amount that Einstein predicts." – Neil (08:13)
• Photons & The Age of Light
  • At light speed, time “doesn’t exist” for photons. The moment a photon is emitted, it arrives at its destination instantaneously from its own perspective.
    • "That photon, when it was born at the star that emitted it, was detected at my telescope in the same instant." – Neil (09:56)
    • Memorable moment: Chuck imagines photons dreaming of landing on a telescope, not a sunbather. (10:43)

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2. Gravity Assists: The True Slingshot in Spaceflight

• Common Misconception
  • Many imagine gravity assists as mere “slingshots”—speeding up as a probe swings by a planet.
• The Reality:
  • The gain comes from “mugging” the planet for a bit of its orbital speed, not just gravitational pull.
    • "You stole some of the planet's orbital energy." – Neil (21:49)
• Practical Example: Voyager Missions
  • Voyager probes used multiple assists, orchestrated when planets lined up for maximum cumulative gain, ultimately escaping the solar system.
    • "The mass difference is so huge that it's not relevant...like a gnat flying full speed ahead into an elephant." – Neil (25:34)
• Space Braking
  • Approaching a planet from the opposite direction can slow a spacecraft down—using the planet as a “brake.”

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3. Debunking the North Star (Polaris) Myths

• Main Points:
  • The North Star is not the brightest star in the night sky—it's only the 49th brightest.
    • "The North Star is the 49th brightest star in the night sky." – Neil (41:12)
  • People commonly mistake bright planets (like Venus) for “the North Star.”
• How To Find Polaris:
  • Use the “lip” of the Big Dipper’s cup to point towards the North Star.
  • Polaris is only close, not exactly transiting the North Celestial Pole.
• Why Do We Care About the North Star?
  • Its true distinction: the closest visible star to the point in the sky that Earth's rotational axis points toward. It has navigational importance, not visual dominance.
  • The elevation of Polaris above the horizon equals your latitude on Earth.
    • "The elevation in degrees of the North Star above your horizon is your latitude on Earth." – Neil (46:17)
• Precession and Temporary Status:
  • The Earth's axis wobbles (precesses) with a 26,000-year cycle. Polaris has not always been and will not remain the “North Star.”
    • "So the North Star is a concept..." – Neil (52:10)
    • In 14,000 years, Vega will be the pole star; ancient Egyptians had a different one.
• There Is No True “South Star”:
  • Closest candidate, Sigma Octantis, is even dimmer and largely ignored.

Notable Quotes

• "People want the sky to have more meaning than it actually does." – Neil (39:18)
• "The North Star is just lame...it is easily missable." – Neil (41:18)
• "Who knew that the North Star was such a poser?" – Chuck (46:48)
• "It's the Con man of all stars." – Chuck (52:46)

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4. Your Zodiac Is Wrong: The Astrology Mix-up

• Astrological Signs & Precession
  • The zodiac signs, as assigned thousands of years ago, are now outdated due to Earth’s precession; the sun is no longer in the same constellation for a given date as it was back then.
    • “So if you thought you were Libra, you're actually Scorpio right now.” – Neil (54:33)
• The 13th Constellation: Ophiuchus
  • The sun actually passes through Ophiuchus—the zodiac should have thirteen signs.
    • "The sun spends more time in Ophiuchus than it does in Scorpius." – Neil (55:48)
• Astrology’s Cultural Hold:
  • Despite clear astronomical shifts, the astrological calendar hasn’t changed.
    • "If they were, then all of astrology would be bull crap." – Chuck (55:17)

Humorous Highlights

• “I'm convinced that all of you guys secretly microdose and smoke weed.” – Chuck (11:23)
• Neil’s riff on the lameness of the Cancer constellation and its unfortunate symbolism (56:14)

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Memorable Moments & Quotes (With Timestamps)

• On GPS and Time Dilation:
  • "We pre-correct the time signal...so that by the time the time reaches us, it's been properly corrected..." – Neil (04:35)
• Particle Decay as a Clock:
  • "And there they are taking longer to decay and in the exact amount that Einstein predicts." – Neil (08:13)
• Photons’ Ageless Journey:
  • "That photon...was detected at my telescope in the same instant." – Neil (09:56)
• Gravity Assist as a Mugging:
  • "Yo, yo, give me some of that speed. Don't turn around, don't look at my face. Nobody needs to get hurt here." – Chuck (22:18)
• Revelation about Polaris:
  • "The North Star is the 49th brightest star in the night sky." – Neil (41:12)
• Precession’s Impact on Zodiac:
  • “If you thought you were Libra, you're actually Scorpio right now.” – Neil (54:33)
• On the Cancer Constellation:
  • "Cancer is one of the lamest constellations ever constructed in the night sky." – Neil (56:14)
• On the Evolving North Star:
  • "The North Star is a concept, and sometimes you won't have one when it's sort of between other two stars." – Neil (52:10)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Relativity & GPS Correction: 02:39 – 05:46
• Experimental Proof: Particle Lifetimes: 07:06 – 08:26
• Photons & Time: 09:06 – 11:14
• Gravity Assist Mechanics: 17:01 – 26:29
• North Star Myths Debunked: 32:20 – 41:37
• Latitude & Polaris Elevation: 44:07 – 46:24
• Precession: Earth's Wobble & Changing Poles: 47:39 – 52:19
• Zodiac Shift & 13th Sign: 53:02 – 57:04

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Conclusion: Key Takeaways

• Time isn’t as absolute as it feels—it's shaped by both speed and gravity (and critical to your GPS!).
• Gravity assists are a clever celestial mugging—probes steal a bit of planetary motion, not just ride a slingshot of gravity.
• The North Star is a remarkably unremarkable guidepost—useful, but far from the "brightest" in any sense.
• Earth’s axial wobble means every few millennia, a new star inherits the "north star" title. It's a rotating title, not a perennial honor.
• Your zodiac sign? If you believe what’s in the newspaper, it’s two millennia out of date—and missing a sign.
• As ever, science hands you stranger and wilder facts than lore or legend!

Final Quote:
"Keep looking up." – Neil deGrasse Tyson (57:20)

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For listeners and learners: This episode is a treasure trove of “wait, what?!” moments—an unmissable myth-busting journey through space and time, hosted with wit, clarity, and the occasional sharp jab at cosmic misconceptions.

Transcript

[Chuck Nice]

Streaming on July 23rd. Star Trek Strange New worlds returns with a brand new season exclusively on Paramount. Plus, get ready to boldly go one step closer to where it all began, as Captain Christopher pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise embark on thrilling new adventures across the galaxy. As they journey to strange new worlds, they battle inner demons and external threats, encounter colorful new characters, and reunite with familiar faces. Don't miss the brand new season of Star Trek, strange New Worlds, streaming on July 23rd, exclusively on Paramount.

[Kennedy Space Center Announcer]

There once was a magic sorry at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. We don't do fairytales. We do real. Like real adventures to Mars or real journeys into the future to see how imagination can really take us to strange new worlds and real trips into the past where we meet heroes and legends way ahead of their time. Real rockets, real astronauts, real adventure. All at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Discover something real.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Hello, Star talk ins. Coming up, we've got another things you thought you knew episode. This time, Chuck and I riff on Einsteinian time dilation, the mysterious gravity assist that space probes get, and the North Star. Spoiler alert. It's not all it's cracked up to be. Coming up on StarTalk. Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. I still lose sleep over this fact. Okay. I still lose sleep over it. And I want you to lose sleep, too. I don't want to be the only one staring at the ceiling at night.

[Chuck Nice]

I've got to tell you, a lot of things already beat you to that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Sure mean the asteroid strike.

[Chuck Nice]

That could happen. Or the. Exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Or the global warming, or. So here it is. You may remember, or you may have heard that Einstein's relativity.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

More specifically, you learn this in special theory of relativity, where the faster you

[Kennedy Space Center Announcer]

move,

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

the slower time ticks for you, as others view it, relative to the observer. Relative to the observer. Correct. You don't know anything's happening.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Your clock still ticks as far. You still got your heartbeat. All of this. Okay, so this is not a physiological thing. It's an actual property of the fabric of space and time under those conditions.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

That is fascinating.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is. It's completely fascinating. It's completely. So I watch you fly by, and the faster you go, the slower time ticks for you. Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

But my time stays the same to you. To me.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right to you. So not only does speed do this, also the strength of a gravitational field will help have the same effect on you. The stronger the gravitational field is the slower time ticks for you. And that wasn't formulated until his general theory of relativity 10 years later. That took a lot more math and deeper insights into the universe, but once

[Chuck Nice]

again, it makes sense because you're dealing with the fabric of space time.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's the fabric of space time. Correct. But initially, when formulated, you're thinking it's just because you're moving, but it's actually way deeper than that. And that's why that one. Oh, by the way, his original special theory of relativity was not called that. The title of the research paper was on the electrodynamics of moving bodies.

[Chuck Nice]

What?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. That was the title. We would later call it the special theory of relativity because it was a special case of what would later then be called the general theory of relativity. Okay. So the geosynchronous satellites are like middle orbit that is far enough away from Earth's source of gravity for them to have a difference immeasurably different spacetime condition. Oh. So that their clocks tick faster than our clocks on Earth's surface because they're farther away. And so remember I said the more intense the gravitational.

[Chuck Nice]

Gravitational.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The slower time ticks. So they're farther away. Their time ticks faster relative to us.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But we get precise timings from geosynchronous satellites. So how does this work? We pre correct the time signal from the GPS satellites to compensate for Einstein's general theory of relativity, so that by the time the time reaches us, it's been properly corrected and it matters to us and our space time continuum, not the one that's in middle Earth orbit.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, my goodness.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So GPS couldn't work as accurately as it does.

[Chuck Nice]

However. Wait a minute.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What?

[Chuck Nice]

I'm sorry, just for me, you would have to have a standard in order to pre correct something.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, the rate at which its time is speeding up because you can calculate what the gravitational field is up there.

[Chuck Nice]

There you go. There you go. Okay, okay, okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And once you calculate that, then you do and you say, oh my gosh, we're. The formula works. Einstein was right. This is not just something on high theory, by the way, hypothesize that may or may not be true. It is true.

[Chuck Nice]

I just want to be there when that phrase is uttered. Oh my God. Einstein was right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. These aren't just cult heroes that we wish they were right. These are real. This is real. Okay? This is the real universe we're talking about here. Okay? So now watch. Let's keep going faster and faster. Let's go half the speed of light. 3/4 of the speed. 90% the speed of light. 99% the speed of light. Time is ticking slower and slower and slower for you. You will watch the whole future history of the universe unfold in front of your eyes as fractions of a second go by for you as you go. 99. There's a formula for this, of course, but. 99. 99.9. 99.99% the speed of light, because you're

[Chuck Nice]

the observer of that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But that.

[Chuck Nice]

But for you, your time has slowed to the point where as you observe the things that are not moving at the speed of light, you see them speeding, you see them unfold.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Correct?

[Chuck Nice]

Boom. Got it?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Correct.

[Chuck Nice]

That is insane.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So now watch.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, my God.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Wait, no, watch. Okay. Wow. So I didn't even get to the part where I lose sleep.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's what happens. By the way. By the way, there are particles that decay. You've heard of like radioactivity, right?

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. One part decays and becomes another part. It releases often deadly energy.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes, okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Radioactivity. All right, Some particles. Let's take for example, the proton or the muon. One of these decays in like six minutes. When it's left out in the wild, when it's not part of an atom, when it's not in captivity. I forgot which of these. It doesn't matter. For my example, decay isn't like six minutes. Okay. Okay. What happens if you take that particle and speed it up in a particle accelerator? So you take a community of these particles, speed them up, calculate. Wait a minute. The internal wristwatch on these clocks says they should live longer. And sure enough, their decay time takes longer.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow. That's. Oh, my God.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes. Yes.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes.

[Chuck Nice]

And that becomes living proof of what Einstein said. Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Because we can't go half the speed of light. But you can accelerate a particle to do that. An internal built in clock that decays after a certain amount of time. And there they are taking longer to decay and in the exact amount that Einstein predicts.

[Chuck Nice]

That is genius.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So we don't make this stuff up. Okay? Yes, it is genius. It's like triple genius. All right, now let's take this to an extreme level. Let's go so fast that we're going the speed of light itself.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, we can't do that because we're made of material substance and there's no way to do that. But there are things that, that travel at the speed of light. And what is that?

[Chuck Nice]

Those would be photons.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes, those would be like your finger gesture. That would be. I would say, what travels at the speed of light? Light does.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

I was about to say light.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So if photons had a clock, the clock would never tick.

[Chuck Nice]

Nice.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Which means when I go to a mountaintop, as I did in graduate school, to observe the center of the Milky Way galaxy for stars that emitted their light 30,000 years ago, traveling through the gaps of interstellar space. And they move through space, come through Earth's atmosphere, they come down into the telescope, they reflect, go back to my detector and land on my CCD chip. That photon, when it was born

[Chuck Nice]

at

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

the star that emitted it, was detected at my telescope in the same instant.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

According to the photon itself, live fast, die hard. The photon has no knowledge of that trip.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Because time did not exist for it.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, that's great.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And I'm saddened that many of these photons, like, hit people tanning on the beach, you know, and to have. Imagine traveling 30,000 years and land on someone's buttocks when you could have. With the telescopes I collected, I'm now decoding the nature of the universe. And some photons go right on by Earth and are still moving, but they have no internal time clock.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow. And they're just traveling through. Like, I hope when I'm born, I hit a telescope. Bam.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You're born and you hit a telescope.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That would be an interesting. But what do I want to be when I grow up? Or the instant I am emitted, where am I going to be?

[Chuck Nice]

Where would I like to be?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right, right, right. And so just the idea that light can move across the universe and have. No, no. And not age. This is a fascinating fact to me.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So, yeah, that is.

[Chuck Nice]

That is more than fascinating. That is. I mean, that's mindboggling. Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So that is light, the age of light. It's like it doesn't age at all.

[Chuck Nice]

I am convinced that all of you guys secretly micro do and smoke weed. I'm just.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's another episode. That's all I'm saying.

[Chuck Nice]

Another episode.

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[Chuck Nice]

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[Chuck Nice]

I'm Alikan Hemraj and I support StarTalk on Patreon. This is StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tys.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Do you like these, these explainers?

[Chuck Nice]

Of course I1 because Neil splaining has always been good. Neil splaining has. That's a good thing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. For me. Okay. You know, all other splainings are not good.

[Chuck Nice]

Man, splaining, mansplaining ain't good. You know what I mean? Black splaining, white splaining ain't good, but Neil splaining, it works.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's a whole other thing. Yeah. Thank you for that, those words of encouragement. So I'll just continue.

[Chuck Nice]

Cool. And what do you got?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So I got today, we've all heard of gravity assists for a spacecraft.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes. That was in Space Jam. Right. It's a gravity assist. Oh, that was. Oh, that's it, people. I just retired. It's over. Because that was the worst I've ever done in my life. Jesus.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So a gravity assist, the way people typically think about it is you, you send out a spacecraft and you want it to give it more speed than it currently has. Right. And so you find some planet that it sort of falls towards and of course it'll speed up as it does that. And we think of it as kind of a slingshot where obviously it falls not towards it, but towards the side of it.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Otherwise it's not a gravity assist, it's a gravity crash.

[Chuck Nice]

Exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So you want it to sort of swing by and it picks up speed in so doing. And it flings out the other side. And if you angle it right and position it right, you could head towards your next destination. And as a result, you can have multiple destinations in the same voyage. So famously, Voyager 1 and 2, this is back in the 1970s when it was launched, they had trajectories that. Well, let me say that differently. The solar system's planets were configured in such a way that it could get multiple planetary assists, multiple gravitational assists, and by the time it was done, it had so many gravitational assists, it had enough energy to leave the solar system entirely.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And you could end up doing that without using a very big rocket to begin with.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So you're basically exploiting the gravitational attraction of planets rather than for your speed, rather than spending money on fuel. Poor man's way to get out of the system.

[Chuck Nice]

It's basically cosmic drafting.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Drafting, I like that.

[Chuck Nice]

Cosmic drafting is just like, why should I pedal? Let this sucker pedal for me.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Think about this. As you approach a planet and its gravity attracts you, everyone has said and believes and thinks that it pulls you in and then flings you out the other side. But wait a minute.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, just like. Just like there used to be from me with women at a nightclub.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, is that how that worked for you?

[Chuck Nice]

There was an attraction. Pull me in and they'd be like, oh, no, nah, nah, nah, nah. You got nuh out the other side.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

See you brother, completely symmetric picture there, Right?

[Chuck Nice]

Exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So the problem with thinking of it that way is the same gravity that's pulling you in is also preventing you from leaving, right? Okay. So you'll speed up as you fall in. But now as you try to escape the gravity, saying, no, I'm pulling you back.

[Chuck Nice]

Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it turns out if you look at the pure gravity picture, it is exactly symmetric to the planet, right? Okay. The planet pulls you in, you gain speed, you have maximum speed, Right. When you're passing the planet now, you want to exit the planet, the planet starts pulling you back, right? So every time I try to get out, your speed falling in, and your speed going back is an exact mirror image of your motion.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay? So then the question is, how do I end up getting all this damn speed where this slingshot effect, okay, this

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

is something that's hardly ever explained, and that's why we have these explainer videos.

[Chuck Nice]

Cool.

[Kennedy Space Center Announcer]

So.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So here's the answer. It turns out if you approach a planet from behind, okay, okay, there it is orbiting the sun, right? And you approach it from behind in its orbit.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Not only will the gravity pull you

[Chuck Nice]

in,

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

but you will gain speed just to catch up with the planet in its orbit.

[Chuck Nice]

That makes sense.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

How are we going to catch up? How are we going to hit the planet? Come near the planet. Unless you have the planet's orbital speed.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The planet's orbital speed has nothing to do with the planet, with the planet's gravity.

[Chuck Nice]

Correct.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. So even though the gravity is symmetric, all the speed and energy you gain falling in the planet takes back away from you. That's symmetrical. But the speed you get from catching up with the planet in the orbit is not symmetric.

[Chuck Nice]

Rah. Look at that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. And so what actually happened is you were tugging on the planet, okay. As the planet was moving, and you were speeding up because of this. But what it means is you stole some of the planet's orbital energy to do this. Wow. They don't tell you about that?

[Chuck Nice]

No, they don't. So you basically, you approach the planet from behind and you just like, don't make a ghetto.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No mugging out of this.

[Chuck Nice]

Yo, yo, give me some of that speed. Don't turn around. Don't look at my face. Don't look at my face. Look at my face. Just give me the speed. Nobody needs to get hurt here.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And then you take it and you

[Chuck Nice]

keep going and you got the thing. And it doesn't.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And it doesn't have it. You have it.

[Chuck Nice]

So

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

this is the art of the slingshot.

[Chuck Nice]

Dude, that's pretty amazing. That makes sense.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You can slingshot off of anything. We've had planets orbit the sun, launched from Earth, and then slingshot around Earth twice.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Wow. Okay, now it takes longer, Right? That's if you're not in a hurry. You do this and it use Earth to slingshot. You could slingshot off the moon, you can slingshot off of Mars.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It doesn't matter what planet you want a slingshot from.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

In the case of Voyager, Voyager 1, I think it was. It's slungshot. What's past tense of 2? Slingshot. It's slung shotted.

[Chuck Nice]

Slang shot.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Slang shot.

[Chuck Nice]

It was slang shot.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's slang shit off of Jupiter. And so people think, well, Jupiter has big gravity, will get a huge speed. It's only getting Jupiter's orbital speed. Just make that clear.

[Chuck Nice]

Look at that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And Jupiter's traveling slower than planets that orbit closer in.

[Chuck Nice]

So the gravitational pull cancels out, but the orbital speed is what's left over. And that's what you ended up stealing in order to get the speed to go.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And if you want an inverse mugging, which no one will actually want to do in space, if you. You can fall towards the planet right opposite the direction it's traveling.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. And if you do that, then you have sped up the planet, it eats some of your or your trajectory's energy, and you'll come out the other side moving slower than you did before.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, so you could actually use it as a break?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

As a break, that's correct.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, wow. Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

This is.

[Chuck Nice]

That's fascinating stuff.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If you need it to break in space, that's a way. And it takes a long time to line up and make it all happen. So there you have it.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow, look at that. Cosmic drafting and space breaking. That's amazing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so the more times you do this, the more energy you have, the more speed you accumulate. And that's how we leave the solar system. Cool. Yeah. And you might ask, but you didn't. If you slingshot off of Mars like 20 times, like, what happens to the Mars orbit itself if you're taking away its energy? You haven't asked that.

[Chuck Nice]

No, I don't.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Because you don't care.

[Chuck Nice]

I was gonna say, you know, I'm not worried about Mars.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

I think Mars is gonna be okay. But anyway, what does happen? Let's say over, over, over, over, over. I mean, you're basically siphoning off a tiny little bit of energy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Siphoning off a tiny little bit of energy. So, okay, so here's the thing. You know, maybe in a trillion years, if you did this every day, it would matter. But the mass of these objects relative to the mass of our measly probes. Okay, that ratio is so huge that it's like a gnat flying full speed ahead into an elephant. The elephant doesn't say, watch out. The elephant. Quit your shoving. The mass difference is so huge that it's not relevant. It's not important in what's going on in the solar system. But in addition, take Earth, for example. In any given day, we plow through a hundred tons of meteors every single day.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Tons. So this stuff falling and this stuff. So don't worry about it. We have other things we should be worrying about, like climate change.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes, tell me about it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So if you worry about. Oh, my gosh, how about Mars? Worry about your own damn planet.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm all about that. Speaking of Mars, you said, worry about your own planet, don't worry about Mars. And so I got both of them in one. I got a Mars pack from the out of this World collection from Soul Guard. Right. And check this out. Every single suitcase that they make pulls about 229bottles of plastic out of the environment. Really? Yes. So here we are with Mars, and we worried about our own planet at the same time. Boom.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Wait, wait. So you're saying I should drink more plastic bottles so you can make more of that luggage? No, nothing to take away.

[Chuck Nice]

No, I'm saying for the idiots that drink plastic bottles, this is part of the solution. And for the smart people who want to buy this in health, that's what they should do.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so it's not only gets the bottles out. If you like the universe, if you love the universe. You got one that looks like Mars.

[Chuck Nice]

Yep. That's right. That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Very cool.

[Chuck Nice]

12 million plastic bottles pulled in 20, 21. Right. See, that's what we're doing here.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Wait, Chuck, do I recognize Valles Marineris on that?

[Chuck Nice]

Really?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Don't pretend like I'm like.

[Chuck Nice]

Because here's what I'm saying.

[Sponsor/Commercial Announcer]

Do you? No.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It looks like a high resolution image of Martian surface. It's not just like red pretending to be Mars. It is Mars. It's got very good detail on the surface that's highly recognizable. If you're Mars fluent, which apparently you're not.

[Chuck Nice]

No. Okay. I don't speak Martian. I'm sorry.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Valles Marineris is basically the Mars Valley, and it's a huge canyon, way bigger than the Grand Canyon here on Earth. And it's a very striking scar in the Martians. Clearly, Mars has had a whole lot of activity long ago, shaping and forming and reshaping its surface. And that's one other bits of evidence of it. So that adds to the authenticity of what you got in your hands there.

[Chuck Nice]

Very cool. I'm just gonna let you talk while I sit here and play. Black van or white?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Is that how that goes? But I need a vowel, though.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, I got a few of them right here.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, yeah. There you go. I can tell you this, that there's nothing more boring than people's luggage.

[Chuck Nice]

So think about it. You're absolutely right, by the way. Speaking of that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So now there's a piece of luggage that, like, that's good. I want one.

[Chuck Nice]

There's some exciting lugs, by the way. The cool thing about this, not only is it like, it's Mars right here, which means that when it comes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Can't argue with Mars, it comes down the chute, right?

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Mars down the conveyor belt.

[Chuck Nice]

Mars is coming down the conveyor belt. You'll be able to recognize yours. And as a matter of fact, you can turn to somebody and go, get your ass to Mars and.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But don't take my luggage while you do that. Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

Very cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They're working on. Good stuff.

[Chuck Nice]

Gotta love this.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right, Chuck. So that's all we have.

[Chuck Nice]

That was great. I love it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So now you know. And I never thought to analogize a gravity assistant with a mugging.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm glad I could be of service.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Thank you, Chuck.

[Sponsor/Commercial Announcer]

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[Chuck Nice]

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[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What's the brightest star in the nighttime sky?

[Chuck Nice]

Are we talking my career here, Neil? Just saying. I've been waiting for us to get around to this.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

How bright is your star, Chuck?

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, no, if it were me up in the sky, I would just be a dim spot in the Milky Way.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is funny that a fundamental word in all of Hollywood is derived from my profession, astrophysics.

[Chuck Nice]

It is the most fundamental word.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is Are you a star? Meaning, are you burning thermonuclear fuel in your core?

[Chuck Nice]

Exactly right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And the Walk of Fame. It's a star.

[Chuck Nice]

It's a star. That's all.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Astro.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, well, it's Said that from everything I've ever heard, that's the North Star. That's what people say. Well, that's the North Star. You can always find your way home because it's the brightest star in the sky. Just follow the North Star.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So in my experience, 9 out of 10 people will say that, right?

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. They'll see the first bright star after sunset and then assert that it's the north star when in 100% of those cases, they're looking at a planet.

[Chuck Nice]

Well, that makes sense. Cause a planet is right there.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Well, planet's right in front of our noses.

[Chuck Nice]

Planets are right here, man.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But for me, the funny part is they'll make a wish on the, you know, star. Bright starbright. First star I see tonight. Right. And then they make a wish. And of course, the wishes don't come true because they're wishing on planets. That's why. You never knew that.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, I want to explain that to any kid now. Just.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And then if you're not wishing on the star and because you know that they're planets, it means, you know, enough science not to be wishing on stars.

[Chuck Nice]

That's pretty cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It all balances out.

[Chuck Nice]

And it's so funny that you say that. It just popped into my head what a culturally entrenched sentiment that is, wishing on a star. I mean, there's songs about transcends, you know, geography and culture. You know, you have it and pretty much all kinds of writings. Wishing on a star. That's pretty wild.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. And I'm honored that my field supplies this level of cultural referencing to all that we do.

[Chuck Nice]

So.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So the North Star is not the brightest star in the night sky.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I just want to make that clear.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, now. So now here's the thing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

Cause what is the North Star then? Like, what is the North Star? And why is it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So let's get.

[Chuck Nice]

Why is it of any significance if it's not the brightest star?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

There you go. So we'll get to the brightest star in a minute. So the North Star is the star in the sky that's. That's closest to where Earth's axis points on the sky. So you have a rotating Earth and it's just sort of rotating.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And the axis is just sort of sitting there as Earth spins around it. That axis is pointing to a spot in space. Okay. In the sky.

[Chuck Nice]

Gotcha.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So we say, is there a star near to that spot? Because then we'd always be pointing in that direction.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. So the star closest to that spot is The North Star. And the North Star has a name. Did you know this?

[Chuck Nice]

I want to guess because the only star that I hear the name of all the time is the Dog Star.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, no, that's not.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, well, there you go. I said there was a guess. It's not serious. It's not serious. The Dog Star. Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Dark Star is Sirius. Sirius is the Dark Star, not the North Star. So the name of this star is sensibly Polaris.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, for the pole or the axis. Polaris.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Polaris. And in fact, that was the name, I think, of America's first nuclear submarine, Polaris, that could launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm about to drop a star on you. So American.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's so American.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, we about to drop a star on you

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

that produces energy to vaporize you just the way the centers of stars do.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's the same thermonuclear mechanisms going on. So anyhow, so it's got a name. Polaris. Now, the Big Dipper. Okay. The lip of the Big Dipper. This part right here. Okay, the lip. So there's a handle and then there's the cup. And the lip is the front edge of that cup.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That points to the North Star.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. That's how you can always find the North Star. Because the Big Dipper is very obvious in the Northern Hemisphere.

[Chuck Nice]

Absolutely.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so you. And then it points and you go like four segments up and then boom, there it is. Okay, so there are a couple of issues with this. First, the North Star is not exactly above the Pole. Okay. You can fit two full moon widths between it and the exact spot over the North Pole.

[Chuck Nice]

Gotcha.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right. Which means if you took a camera and a long exposure photo centered on the North Star, the North Star will not be pegged in the middle. You'll see it make a circle.

[Chuck Nice]

Interesting.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it is not exactly above the North Star.

[Chuck Nice]

And the reason why you're seeing it make a circle is because you have the long exposure and the Earth is rotating where you're.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes, exactly. And so otherwise, if you just take snapshots, you just get the stars where they are, but if you take a long time exposure, you get the stars blurring, basically, but they blur with the rotation of the Earth.

[Chuck Nice]

Gotcha, gotcha.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so you'll see that it actually would trace a circle around the actual North Pole because people are saying, isn't it amazing that we have a star exactly over the North Pole? What are the odds? Well, it's not exactly.

[Chuck Nice]

The odds would be Zero. That's a bad bet. Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's not exactly over the double. Not only that, the lip of the Big Dipper kind of misses the North Star. If you did an exact line, it's off. So there's a lot of fakery going on. Not bad fakery, but just people want the sky to have more meaning than it actually does. Wow. And so you say things that are sort of partly true just cause you feel better about what it is you're talking about.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, so the North Star is kind of like, directionally. It's kind of like getting directions in the hood.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

He's kind of over there. Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, man. So what you want to do, you want to keep on down there. You want to keep going and going. Right? Right. You gonna come to. So it's a car. Right. But one of the wheels is up on a crate. Yeah, make it right there. Right there.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right.

[Chuck Nice]

You gonna keep going, right? Just keep going and going, right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's right. Directions on the sky from the stars are exactly like that. So now let me tell you how bright the North Star is. It's not the brightest, but let me tell you. Take a guess.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm gonna say it's a B student bright.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. It's not understanding.

[Chuck Nice]

First of all, how do you measure brightness in the night sky? I really don't even know that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But we have meters that do this. This is science. You don't have to worry about that. We.

[Chuck Nice]

All right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And even if you didn't have meters, you could say, yeah, that's brighter than that and that's dimmer than that. Yeah, we got this. Okay. We've had this even since before there were telescopes. Okay? So it is not in the top 10.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, no.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is not in the top 20.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, goodness.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is not in the top 30.

[Chuck Nice]

Dad, North Star. What are you talking about?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is not even in the top 40.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, my God. The North Star is like the United States with respect to math and science. We say we're number one, but we're 47.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The North Star is the 49th brightest star in the night sky.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, my gosh.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is completely uninteresting. It is easily missable. It is. Does not call attention to yourself. That's why you need the lip of the Big Dipper to find it.

[Chuck Nice]

To find it. Cause you actually need a pointer. Because it really isn't remarkable at all.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is not remarkable. Not remarkable.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow. It kind of reminds me of somebody I know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You sound like you should have your own TV show. Reminiscences. Of everyone. You grew up with stories. So, yeah. So the North Star is just lame. I mean, it's just embarrassing. And meanwhile, people think it's the brightest star in the night sky. And that's what's weird about it to me, because they've never checked. And so this is the lore overriding people's curiosity.

[Chuck Nice]

I wonder how Venus feels about that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, Venus is the most mistaken object for the North Star because it's the brightest in the night sky, the morning sky.

[Chuck Nice]

Venus is sitting around like. Just like a man. Just like a man. Here I am, just as bright as I can be every single night I come out.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Is that what Venus sounds like?

[Chuck Nice]

Look at me. And you know what they say? Oh, my God, look at the North Star. Once again, a man just taking my credit for the hard work that I do. Okay?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And no, there doesn't happen to be a star in the South Pole. It's just a big empty spot. There is a star closer to the South Pole than the North Star is to the North Pole, but it's even.

[Chuck Nice]

And we don't call that the South Star.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You can, but it has a name. It's called Sigma Octans. And it's very unassuming. And nobody cares.

[Chuck Nice]

I don't. You know why nobody cares? Because its name is Sigma Octaves. Don't nobody want to talk about Sigma Octaves.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Sigma Octave. Because there's a constellation called Octans, which is an octant, which is an early version of a sextant. And there's a lot of navigational instruments among the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere. You know why? Because when Europeans got to the Southern Hemisphere and decided to map the stars, we had already begun the Industrial Revolution. And so they weren't thinking centaurs and Greek mythology. They were thinking, oh, my gosh, I'm gonna put some badass equipment here. So there's an architect's table, there's a telescope, a microscope, a sextant, and an octant.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's all there. These are all constellations of the 88 in the night sky.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So, one last thing about the North Star, so you can picture this. If you are Santa Claus looking straight up, what star do you see?

[Chuck Nice]

Looking straight up, you see a dead spot?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, yes, because we just learned that. Right.

[Chuck Nice]

I thought it was a trick question.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, that's not true. No, you look up, Santa Claus will look up and see the North Star.

[Chuck Nice]

The North Star. Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. So how many degrees up is that? From the horizon?

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, from the horizon. Well, that. No, that should be nothing. He's already there.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, no degrees from the horizon to straight overhead for Santa Claus, Let me see.

[Chuck Nice]

Because he's at the top of the world. So the degrees on the horizon.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, forget that. It doesn't matter. Just. Yes, Santa Claus is on the, quote, top of the world, sure. But now he wants to know how high up is the North Star for him. Above the horizon. So how many degrees is that?

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, that's straight up. That's 90 degrees.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

90 degrees. What is the latitude of the North Pole?

[Chuck Nice]

360 degrees.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What is the latitude of the North Pole?

[Chuck Nice]

90 degrees.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

90 degrees.

[Chuck Nice]

Thank you.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

I just love. No, I said that. Cause I wanted to see. This is what I love. This is what I love, you being the educator that you are. Because I'll do that. And I'm just waiting for the reaction. Because if it were me, I'd be like, man, what the hell is wrong with you?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You dumb question.

[Chuck Nice]

And you do this.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I gave you a second chance. I gave you a second chance.

[Chuck Nice]

I always do this. You're.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Like I said, my boy knows better than this. I'm gonna give him a second chance. I'm not gonna say a damn thing. He's gonna fix his own damn mistake.

[Chuck Nice]

Right? But I love it. I love it. Go ahead.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The North Star is 90 degrees up when you're at the North Pole, which is at a latitude of 90 degrees. That is not a coincidence. Okay? If Santa Claus marches south, the North Star will get lower and lower and lower in the sky. Santa Claus gets to the equator. The North Star is on the horizon. The latitude of the equator is zero. The elevation of something on the horizon is zero. So the elevation in degrees of the North Star above your horizon is your latitude on Earth.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh. Because it follows all the way down.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It follows all the way down.

[Chuck Nice]

It follows all the way down. Yeah, that. Well, that's pretty interesting.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes, Very interesting. And so this was an important navigational tool that makes sense for everybody. Right? Right. And of course, the Underground Railroad. Follow the North Star because if you just walk towards the North Star, you'll eventually reach Santa Claus. But Ohio is good enough.

[Chuck Nice]

Who knew that the North Star was such a poser?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Very much a poser, actually. It's not its fault. It's. People want it to be so special, and it just isn't. So I have more to tell you about how unspecial it is.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, awesome.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We're 49th.

[Chuck Nice]

We're 49th. We'm 49th.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes. For those who missed it, the north star is the 49th brightest star in the night sky. And in the night sky. It's not saying here I am. It is not doing that. All right, so. But wait, there's more. Earth spinning on its axis, and it's at its north pole points upwards, close ish to where the North Star is on the sky. All right. What I didn't tell you is I don't know. No one has them anymore. You ever play with tops as a kid? I did. That's how old I am.

[Chuck Nice]

Of course.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You play at the top. And it spins and then eventually begins to wobble.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. We have an official term for that. It's called precession. That is wobbling. Precession. That's an official term. So Earth wobbles.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Do we spin once and how often. How long does it take to spin once?

[Chuck Nice]

24 hours, I guess.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Thank you. Yeah. If you want to be Precise, it's actually 23:56:04.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

In case. But that's another explainer. Well, you know, why do we think it's 24 hours when it's actually that. Okay, I will. That's a whole other. We'll save that.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. All right. So we Spin once in 24 hours, and we wobble. And the wobble takes 26,000 years.

[Chuck Nice]

The wobble takes 26,000 Years.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Correct. So we've only really completed one wobble since caveman days.

[Chuck Nice]

Right. Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, 30,000 years ago.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So that's slow. And it took some very careful measurements and brilliant thinkers throughout the last thousand years, 2,000 years, to figure this out, that this is actually happening in the actual sky. All right, so now, because we're wobbling, it means the North Pole of Earth isn't always pointing towards the North Star.

[Chuck Nice]

Aha.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And we called it Polaris. But wait a minute. If it's no longer. If later on, it's not going to point to Polaris, not only is it not the North Star, should we keep calling it Polaris or just sort of grandfather in. Well, that's what I once was back in the day.

[Chuck Nice]

Exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So if you look at that circle, the diameter of that circle is, in degrees, is 23 and a half degrees.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Because that's how tipped we are from vertical.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. That's Earth. That's what gives us our seasons, the fact that we're tipped. So we tip that, and then we process around that central point. All right. So if you draw that circle on the sky. Yes. It will go through the North Star, because that's what it is now. But any other stars that it comes near. One of the stars in the night sky, I think you've heard of. It's called Vega.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Vega is one of the brightest stars of the night sky. It's about 30 light years away.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We think there's a planetary system forming around it. We see a disk of material that's not quite discrete planets, but it's kind of. It's working its way towards forming planets. So we know some stuff about Vega. In 14,000 years, the wobble will take the North Pole axis close enough to Vega for that to be our pole star.

[Chuck Nice]

Gotcha.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And in ancient Egypt, that was long enough ago, you know, 4,000, 5,000 years ago. That's an appreciable fraction of the 26,000 years they had a different pole star than the North Star. Right. So in recorded history, civilizations have had different pulsars, and only right now is it what we're calling Polaris.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow. Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

There's nothing magical or permanent about it.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow. It's like being in Menudo.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Does anyone under 50 even know what that reference is?

[Chuck Nice]

No, they have no idea what I'm talking about right now. But for those of you who don't know, Menudo was a boy band, and they just kept swapping out members, one of which was Ricky Martin.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, I forgot about that.

[Chuck Nice]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So Menudo was not. Not a set of names.

[Chuck Nice]

Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It was a concept.

[Chuck Nice]

It was a concept.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes. Yes.

[Chuck Nice]

The members, as they. As they would age out, they'd be like 18. Age out.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's what it was.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah. Sorry, Manuel, your time is up. You gotta go, bro.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You are now a man. You must join the man band instead of the boy band.

[Chuck Nice]

Can't be the boy band anymore.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

So that's pretty wild.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So the North Star is a concept, and sometimes you won't have one when it's sort of between other two stars. We're not gonna have a North Star.

[Chuck Nice]

That's dope. I got it. I love it. That is the most interesting thing about the North Star is that the North Star. One, is not the North Star, and two, it ain't even. It's not even gonna be there. It's not even gonna be there in a few thousand years.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And it's not even in the top 40.

[Chuck Nice]

And it's not even top 40. 40. You know, that's.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yep.

[Chuck Nice]

That's pretty wild. All right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That is totally wild. Now, north stars, there's one other thing.

[Chuck Nice]

It's the Con man of all stars.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Don't blame. No, don't blame the star itself. Okay?

[Kennedy Space Center Announcer]

You fraud.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I got one more thing.

[Chuck Nice]

The North Star is a fraud. Go ahead.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I got one more thing. You ready?

[Chuck Nice]

All right. All right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

One of the consequences of the precession is that the sun is in a different part of the sky at the same time of the year. In other words, right now. Pick a month. Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Let's pick October.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so October, astrologically, the sun is moving through library. Okay, well, the precession of the Earth, the wobble over the 26,000 years, will systematically put the sun in a different constellation in the month of October.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. So the entire zodiac rotates through the calendar.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

In fact, when the zodiac was codified two and a half thousand years ago. Wait a minute. That's like 1 12th of 26,000. Oh, my gosh. So is October still the month for Libra? No, the sun was in library 2000 years ago in October. All of that has shifted. And so if you thought you were Libra, you're actually Scorpio right now.

[Chuck Nice]

And that's when the sun gets all sexy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I didn't know you were fluent in this. So the zodiac people, the astrologers, still describe the sun being in these various constellations as they were mapped out 2,200 years ago. Between 2000 and 2400 years ago. And so if you're. It's Cancer, Scorpio, Gemini. You would expect the sun to be in that constellation the day you were born. It was 2,200 years ago.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, man. That is.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it is not today. It's all shifted. And they don't really. They're not really forthcoming about that.

[Chuck Nice]

No, because if they were, then all of astrology would be bull crap. That is. Oh, man.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, not only that. Not only that, the zodiac. The sun in the zodiac actually passes through a 13th constellation. It's called Ophiuchus.

[Chuck Nice]

All right. God bless you.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Ophiuchus and Ophiuchus.

[Chuck Nice]

Ophiuchus. Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

In fact, the sun spends more time in Ophiuchus than it does in Scorpius. Okay, so if you thought you were Scorpio, you were probably Ophiuchon. And all Scorpios and Ophiuchens are currently Librans.

[Chuck Nice]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I just thought I'd put that out there.

[Chuck Nice]

I just want to know, where does that leave Cancer? Because that's what I am. Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, you're Cancer.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, I'm a Cancer.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So Cancer is one of the lamest constellations ever constructed in the night sky.

[Chuck Nice]

Damn.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

There's like five stars and they have like a crab with claws and it's a crustacean. It's like, what were you smoking? What opium was working in your system? Them to say, oh, let's call that a crab.

[Chuck Nice]

Man, you just. I can't believe this. It's like one, I got a lousy constellation. Two they made.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Plus those stars aren't very bright.

[Chuck Nice]

And they're not. Okay. I got a lot. If you ask.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If you ask. Astrologers say there are 12 prominent constellations in the sky. No, they're not. There's like three that kind of look like what they're supposed to.

[Chuck Nice]

I got a lousy dim constellation. They made me into a. A stupid bottom feeder crab. And on top of that, I'm a festering malignancy. So.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes. Which they named after crabs, right? Yes.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, gosh. Oh, man.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Cancer.

[Chuck Nice]

Is it too late to be a Sagittarius? Where's Cancer now?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I gotta. I don't know.

[Chuck Nice]

I don't.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Keep it. I haven't memorized that. I'll come back to you on another episode. Okay. All right. We gotta call it quits.

[Chuck Nice]

There.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Just to round out everything you didn't need to know about the North Star and its brethren. Very cool startalk explainers Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Keep looking up.

[Chuck Nice]

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