StarTalk Radio - Cosmic Queries: Defending our Planet, with Bill Nye

Episode Date: November 17, 2017

The universe is a hostile place. What would we do if a planet-destroying asteroid or comet strike were imminent? Do we have plans in place? Bill Nye and comic co-host Chuck Nice are back to answer fan-submitted Cosmic Queries about defending the Earth.NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free. Find out more here: https://www.startalkradio.net/all-access/cosmic-queries-defending-our-planet-with-bill-nye/ Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. Welcome to StarTalk All-Stars. I'm your All-Star host of the evening, Bill Nye. And I'm here with my co-host, the remarkable and exciting Chuck Nice. Hey, Bill. And on this episode of All-Stars, Chuck, we're talking about planetary defense. Nice. Defending the Earth.

I did not know that we need defending. From an asteroid. Are they defending our honor? No, it's asteroids. It's just asteroids. And comets. And comets. Yeah, which in some level are hard to distinguish.

But the universe is a hostile place. Can be. Yeah. So there is no evidence whatsoever that the ancient dinosaurs had a space program. Yeah. And it was hard on them. Is that because they didn't have opposable thumbs? Well, their arms are so short. Just tiny, tiny, tiny arms was hard on them. Is that because they didn't have opposable thumbs? Well, their arms were so short.

Just tiny, tiny, tiny arms. Some of them. I would try, but I can't reach it. But they may have. I'm not joking. Maybe they did have a space program, but it didn't show up in the fossil record. Right. Now, when you think about that, let me just ask you.

Please. Since we know that that was an event that happened right because you know they look at the layers in the earth and you got yes chuck you're such a nerd i love so layer of iridium a layer of iridium atomic number uh oh i don't know 77 there you go so 77 is an odd number it's not that common so when you find it and so on and so on right um so here's here's what i uh the following thing following thing that i read uh that that it basically uh when we had this cataclysmic collision right then up comes up comes all this detritus. It's superheated. And then it just rains fire and destroys everything.

Is that accurate? Well, yeah. So they, we, it, astronomers speculate that the cone of the ejecta, the ejected material, is bigger around than the diameter of the Earth. So gravity pulled it into a big ring of fire or sphere of fire. Right. And it was very troublesome. I love when you understate things.

So when the only animals that made it through were underground. They were underground animals. And or mostly underground. Right. Or maybe. So you're a descendant of some subterranean. Subterranean little thing that crawled up to the surface after everything. Or scurried.

Or scurried. Yes. Yeah. In my case, probably scurried. Spry. Spryly. Yeah. Very athletically bounded to the surface.

Or could have been like cave dwelling animals at the same time. Those animals. Oh, yeah. I'm an expert on cave dwelling. It could be. It's very reasonable. Yes. Okay. Cool. I mean, it's a fascinating. Oh, man. I'm an expert on cave doors. It could be. It's very reasonable. Yes. Okay, cool. I mean, it's a fascinating...

Oh, man, it's amazing. So when I was in second grade, Mrs. McGonagall reads to us from a big book. Well, the only reason the ancient dinosaurs died is they had small brains, which is just lame. Isn't that crazy? Because you have heard people say, people still say that today. The reason they died off is because they weren't intelligent creatures. They had tiny brains, and so they couldn't adapt. So make a joke there about what my old boss, right there. But he was alive. So what I'm saying is, it was in my lifetime that this discovery was made, 1980, 1983, that people discovered this layer of iridium, which is almost certainly from an ancient asteroid, which is almost certainly the ancient asteroid that finished off the ancient dinosaurs. They may have been having trouble with volcanism, sulfur being pumped into the sky from volcanoes in what is now India, where these tectonic plates are colliding.

sky from volcanoes in what is now India, where these tectonic plates are colliding. But they were finished off by a big rock from the sky, or group of rocks from the sky. Nice. Man. God. Wow. I mean, it's exciting and fascinating, and at the same time, it's kind of scary. Yes.

We don't want it to happen again. So what we want to do is deflect an asteroid if it starts coming toward us. Because it happened once. Yes. It could happen again. Well, it turns out the Earth, there's all sorts of impact craters if you know what you're looking for. Right. So you look at the Moon. I was going to say, and the Moon, God,

what a... You look at Mars. What a beautiful little snapshot you have there. It's a crater festival. Right. So it's very reasonable that the same number of impacts per square meter, kilometer happened here. But the Earth has all these processes. We have tectonic plates grinding.

We have rain, snow, wind. And so these craters get erased over millennia. Right. So what we want to do is detect all the Earth-crossing asteroids that have the potential to hit us. And then if we find one, it is to be hoped 30 years out. And we could send out the right spacecraft and give it a little whoosh. Nice.

Except it's in space. There's no sound. That was it. That was the sound. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out some more weather-related events I can bring up now.

Sound effects. So I can get you to do the sound effects. You do the thunderstorm? The thunder. The thunder. Let me see. That's pretty good, Dad. That's pretty good.

Yeah. Okay. So we've got our cosmic queries. The StarTalk sound effects show. Maybe that's coming. The sound effects fest. Coming to StarTalk very soon. We've got our cosmic queries. Of course,

we've gleaned these questions from all over the internet. All over the cosmos. All over the cosmos. You can be on Betelgeuse, in orbit around Betelgeuse if you can get us a query onto the internet, roughly

in English, we'll do what we can there you go if it comes in in Belgeusian and we can go to Google Translate yeah we're in for you man

we are here for you and I say man it could be entity right we're here for you entity or alien that's where I'm at with entity

yeah there you go this is what Paul Sykes says Mike Chuck Entity. There you go. This is what Paul Sykes says. Mike? Chuck? Yes. Paul?

Paul. You know what? Let's go with Chris. Chris? We always start with a Patreon question, and the reason why we start with a Patreon question is because those people support us directly. Directly. They are patrons.

They are patrons. Star Talk. They are infusing cash directly to us. So, yes, you can buy your way onto the show. Boom. They are patrons. Of StarTalk. They are infusing cash directly to us. So yes, you can buy your way onto this show. Boom, that's it. That's what Dr. Nice is telling us. That's exactly right. You can buy your way onto this show.

And you know what? Speaking of buying our hearts, you can also support us on StarTalkAllAccess.com. Make a subscription, and you will be supporting the show directly that way as well. And we shall forever love you. Way to go, person out there, entity. Read the question, Chuck. Here's the question, Chuck. Here we go.

Bill, do you believe the biggest threat to humanity is from asteroids, or is it from humanity? Oh, from us right now. I mean, humans are the big problem. There's a lot of us breathing and burning the same atmosphere. And right now, the world's most influential democracy is run by people who say they don't believe in human-caused climate change. I got a feeling that when shoving and pushing comes to shove, that they'll change. But right now, it's very troubling. very troubling so yes humans are the biggest problem however one rock from outer space at 11 kilometers a second is very low probability event but very high consequence event so true seldom get in a car

wreck but when you do it sucks yeah exactly right seldom get a car wreck, but when you do, it sucks. Yeah, exactly. Right. You seldom get hit with an asteroid, but when you do, man, whoa, man. You can't call State Farm. No. Or Allstate. No, yes. You can't call those guys.

Any of those guys. Right. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, whatever that is. That was it. That is. Clearly a very effective ad campaign. Here's Brittany Mencotti. What did she do to anger you or just make you, fill you with passion?

Mencotti. Mencotti. Because I think it's probably Mencotti. It is Mencotti. Brittany Mencotti says this. Hey, Bill. Chuck. Brittany Mankati says this. Hey, Bill. Chuck. Brittany. I'm a psychology student at the

University of Kentucky. Right on. Oh, cats. I was wondering if money was not an issue, what would be the very best planetary defense given our current technology? Two things. Go ahead. Invest in a spacecraft

that would be the next to follow on to, well, there's one called NEOWISE. Okay. The next spacecraft to look for asteroids. And as the saying goes,

finding an asteroid is like looking for a charcoal briquette in the dark. Ah. I gotcha. It's difficult. I gotcha.

But you can do it. Or like finding Chuck nice at night when he's not smiling. I let you make that joke, but I'm familiar with it. I love it. And Bill was just like, okay, and good for you. And I'm not going there. Not going to go with you. You're not going to drag me down that rabbit hole, Chuck.

You can do it. You guys, you can make such a joke. I can't. go with you. You're not going to drag me down that rabbit hole, Chuck. You can make such a joke. I can't. Right, exactly. I was brought up in Washington, D.C. many years ago when it really was a nice southern racist town. I've heard a lot of that, but I do my best. But see, that's because you are a great human being okay and you know you know the difference between a joke and the fact that okay i know he's joking and a joke and

well if i say it's still offensive because i'm saying it see so you know i i get what you're saying though i i have a great deal of respect for you for that so i'm playing the hand i'm dealt here people are more alike than they are different this is true now the other part of the uh uh planetary defense thing that we have to deal with or come up with the first one is detection asteroids that's the spaceship second thing is the spaceship okay so the first thing is detection and detection is probably best done with a spacecraft that's about three quarters of an astronomical unit from the sun that's about three quarters of an astronomical unit from the sun.

That's about the same distance from the sun as Venus. Okay. However, what would be styling is if you had it with a solar sail so it could go around slowly. That would be pretty styling. And then you'd look for all these asteroids that are in the infrared. So here's the thing. Even if it's a charcoal briquette in the dark, Chuck Nice joke inserted here, it still glows in the infrared.

Right. As do you, by the way. Yes, yes. I can distinguish you from asteroids. Don't worry. I saw the movie Predator. So you can see the asteroid in the infrared. They glow at about 150 kelvins.

Okay. And that's 150 Celsius degrees above absolute zero. So with the right detector, you can detect. And then that spacecraft would assay or keep track of all these asteroids. And then we'd build a spacecraft to give one of them a nudge. And that would be—this is all kind of existing technology, everybody. But she said—Britney said unlimited cash. Unlimited cash.

Doesn't make a difference. We can do whatever we want. For $450 million, $500 million, we could do the spacecraft, the detector. And then for—give me another number—$5 five billion we could build a deflector spacecraft you know i have to tell you with as much money as we waste on other things that is not a well saving the earth from death of everyone control alt delete for all humankind yeah it's well worth it not it's kind of worth it but i've been at that fancy thing, the TED talk thing. Yeah, yeah. And I mentioned this asteroid problem, and people laugh. It was an asteroid. But if it happened,

it would really suck, Chuck. Yes, it would. It would be a bad old thing. And the funny thing is, people do laugh, and there's been several major motion pictures made about it, and people, you know, they look at it as folly. But what I always say is it's already happened. Dude. Right. What don't you get about that? It's already happened. And by the way, in general, there is no business case for a commercial company to make an asteroid deflector.

There's just – there isn't a reason to do it. Yeah, I don't see a lot of profit in that. Yeah. However, people do try to raise money to observe asteroids, but that's different from building a spacecraft with no one to sell it to. Right. Cool. So what if you were?

Yes. What if you were an entrepreneur so wealthy that you built your own spacecraft and then you threatened to not use it unless they paid you? That is so delightfully evil. But it's just unlikely because what is the guy? That's a long gamble. The gal want himself to get herself to get destroyed too? Well, no, that's because you know you have an evil lair that's also orbiting the Earth. It's orbiting the Earth.

It's orbiting the Earth. So you can escape to your evil lair. You're thinking. Yeah. All right. Let's go to Nelson Saw. Nelson Saw says, what's the soon as we can detect a likely collision? And what could we do about it in that time frame?

Well, everybody wants 30 years. That's what people want. Whoa. That long? Yeah. So you deflect the asteroid. I mean, you detect the asteroid. And then you have 10 years to build the spacecraft.

And then 20 years out there with the spacecraft just gently, except in space there's no sound, on the asteroid. It's giving a little nudge. I said a little nudge. And so astronaut Ed Liu, who runs the B612 Foundation, which is named after the asteroid that the little prince lives on, and is an acquaintance of mine, and is a cornelian has a patent on the space tractor this is a spacecraft that is so massive how massive is it its own gravity would would pull the asteroid offers just ever so and that's all you ever so that's all you need doesn't

cross the Earth's orbit when we're there. Right. Wow. Cross the Earth's orbit, just not while the Earth's there. Just not while we're there. Right. Exactly. How hard could it be? Exactly.

We need some rocket science, people. Nice. Nice. That's excellent. That's you. Nice. Let's go to Sean Harris. Sean.

Sean says, what policies or plans are currently in place to detect incoming threats from asteroids? Is there a foolproof plan to eliminate those threats and avoid death and destruction here on the Earth's surface? We caution you, Sean, against anybody ever who tells you it's foolproof. Ooh. But I know what you're driving at. No, we have this NEOWISE spacecraft, NEOWISE 2, that are measuring asteroids and their trajectories. But it's not foolproof. And the more of that we do, the better.

Does that answer the question? Yeah. You could do more. You could do more. By the way, all the money that's spent in space is spent on Earth. This would be a worthy use of our intellect and treasure, people. Ah, so true. Make me come over there.

Oh, man. Hey, Kathy Francois says, how do you purpose to educate the masses on the importance of... You mean propose? Yeah, I know you're looking up and looking down.

I was, right. What did I say? Purpose. Did I say purpose? Which must be related to propose, but I'm not etymologically sophisticated enough. Yes. How do you propose

to educate the masses on an important issue such as this? I mean, StarTalk is an amazing podcast, but everyone... It's the best. Totally. But not everyone wants to listen or learn. What'd you say? Not everyone wants to listen or learn. What'd you say? Not everyone wants to listen or learn.

How can we help spread the news to those who are less passionate about science? This is a problem, I think, what Kathy says here, I think is a problem for so many science-related issues, which is if you can motivate a mass awareness, then you can actually create a campaign to get those in charge to do something. Chuck, why do you do this podcast? You're trying to change the world. This is true. You're trying to make the world scientifically literate. In my own little way, yeah.

Yes. So what I would say, Kathy, who is it? Kathy Francois. Kathy, this is what we're doing here is we're trying to change the world. We're trying to influence people. If you can spread the word about listening to StarTalk podcast, having the time of your life, then it'll build in cascade fashion. And cascade fashion. So this is why Chuck and I do this job or this activity.

This activity. It is to get people excited about science so that we'll have scientifically literate people. And especially scientifically literate voters, which it is to be hoped will lead to scientifically literate politicians. to scientifically literate politicians. Yes. We'll make scientifically literately informed, literally scientifically informed decisions about our use of intellect and treasure so that we can, dare I say it, save the world.

This is StarTalk All-Star Edition. I'm your host, Bill Nye, with Chuck Nice. We'll be right back after this. Hey, welcome back. Welcome back. Bill Nye here. Welcome back to StarTalk Cosmic Queries. I'm here with my co-host

the remarkable and exciting Chuck Nice. Hey. And this is where we take your inquiries from anywhere in the cosmos. Anywhere in the cosmos. And we do our best to provide you with a thoughtful, insightful, insightful thought. About the cosmos and your query. There you go.

Take it, Chuck. Instead of better myself. I had some trouble. You know, let me just read this one from Laurel Riffle. Here's what she says. I don't have a question for you. I just want to thank you for inspiring my generation and indirectly inspiring subsequent generations. Oh, I love you, Laurel.

There you go, man. Laurel's children. Just wanted to get that out of the way. I was like, there's really no place in the show for that, so let's just do it up front and do it. You just put a place. I had to make a place for that. That's a great sentiment. Yes, thank you.

Okay. And you know what? She is not alone, I have to tell you. Here's the best thing, guys. Going out with Bill Nye and being on the street and then watching people go, oh, my God. Oh, my God. What they mean is, oh, my God. Oh, my God. What they mean is, oh, my entity. And I presume deity.

Oh, deity. Oh, my deity. All that aside, no, it is very nice. It's a lot better than I hate you, you suck. I hear it once in a while. There you go. Hey, Justin Codes wants to know this. What level of international cooperation would be required in order to defend the planet from an asteroid or comet?

Is it even possible in today's climate of conflict, when the world's governments can't even come together to combat climate change, to get them to come together and combat this threat? Wow, that's a pretty deep question, man. No, but the answer is yes. How do you get to the International Space Station? On a Russian rocket. How do you explore Mars with cooperation from Japanese Aerospace Exploration, Roscosmos, and European Space Agency?

That's how you do things. So there's a lot of international cooperation when it comes to space. Right. Okay. Exploration. So the answer is, yeah, pretty doable. But right now, I got to speculate that the search for asteroids will still be led by the U.S. and National Aeronautic Space Administration, NASA. But then the actual deflecting, that'll be a team effort, I think.

So once we identify the problem, which it'll be easier to get people to get on board once you identify it, right? Oh, man, if you had a real asteroid really coming, you'd be really taking a meeting. You don't want to send Bruce Willis. I mean, he's a fine guy, but you don't want to blow it up. You just want to give it a nudge, because if you blow it up, there's a chance you'll make it worse. Right. So just give it a nudge. But you do want an Aerosmith soundtrack while it's happening.

Can you provide that? Not really. Do we have to pay royalties if I whistle that song? No, no. And I knew it was Dude Looks Like a lady, too, so not bad. There you go. I did what I could. Yeah.

All right. J. William Bosch wants to know this. What is the probability that whatever we do could make matters worse? It's funny you should bring that up right after that little commentation that I commented. a commentation that I commented. That, yeah, you don't want to make it so that you accidentally have a piece of it that's going even faster and going to hit the Earth earlier in its orbit,

which is apparently a possibility. Only if the asteroid is really close and there really isn't time to give it a nudge, then you'd blow it up. That's when you'd blow it up. Yeah, but we just don't want to do that, everybody. And plus, it takes a tremendous amount of energy trying to blow up a rock planet.

Right. I mean, I know people do it in science fiction, but in real life, it's a real space. It's a hard thing. But this would have to be an asteroid because now some comets are like marshmallow-y, right? Even worse. How do you blow up a marshmallow? You're just going to get more marsh and mellow. More marsh and more mellow.

You're not really going to change anything. Right. Okay. So there you go. Okay. Okay. Wait. He was ready.

Then he stopped himself. You guys stumped him somehow. You stumped me because your name was on a different page, J.D. Proust. J.D., what is J.D.'s inquiry? J.D. says this. To to the great one Bill Nye oh they have been talking a few stories about ground-based lasers being used to hit asteroids millions of miles away to change their trajectory is this tech realistic or is it even possible it's really hard. So one of the things we are considering

is putting a reflective surface on an asteroid. So sunlight would hit it and give it a little nudge. The pressure of photons, the momentum of photons, even though they have no mass. Right.

They have momentum and it would nudge the asteroid ever so nudgingly. I believe you have a little thing called a solar sail that does the same thing. Solar sail has been discussed, yes. And so trying to keep the beam of a laser on the asteroid shooting from the Earth or the far side of the moon is not trivial. I'm not saying it couldn't be done. And you could do it, let's say, every month.

not trivial. I'm not saying it couldn't be done. And you could do it, let's say, every month. The moon goes around the earth and you'd zap it for a few earth days or weeks, and then the moon would go on the other side and you'd wait. That's possible. But more likely is to go out there and change the reflectivity of the asteroid. And by the way, one of the things that makes asteroids hard to track is this Tchaikovsky effect where they reflect sunlight while they're spinning. So some sides of the asteroids are shiny. Other sides are darker. Some sides of the asteroid have potholes and don't reflect very well. Other sides of an asteroid might be smoother and more reflective. So they're spinning very slowly in space. And so they change their trajectories depending on how light is hitting them and how they're rotating.

So it's one more. Oh, wow. It just makes it a little tricky. It's a little more tricky. And so you've got to track them. You've got to track them good. Track them well. I said track them good for comedic effect. All right, all Mar You've got to track them good. Track them well. I said track them good for comedic

effect. All right. More Marians out there. Track them good. That's right. Amrat. All right. Here we go. Natalie Wilcox says, Hi, Bill. Have you heard of the Comet Research Group? Do you believe, as they do, that we need to be paying more attention to the torrid meteor stream

and that it poses a threat to us annually. Also, what do you think about their research regarding the cataclysmic impact events that potentially took place 12,800 years ago? Thank you. Something to be concerned about. But whether or not that specific comet trail that induces that specific meteor shower, whether that's a big concern, I'm not an expert on. I don't know. But was there a substantial meteoric impact 12,800 years ago? Sure. We had one at Chelyabinsk that could have been a big deal. We had one in Tunguska,

which could have... I mean, if the Tunguska event in 1908 had landed on Paris, that would be the end of Paris. That would have been the end of Paris. I mean, that's it. Or Poughkeepsie. What did I mention earlier? Kansas City. It would be done. So there's nobody in control of this right now. If one of these objects comes in, they're very hard to see. It in a moment so now the how big was the object that came in just recently tell you been sent in Russia I was they people say 25 meters 30 meters really not even that big you know like as big as you're smaller than your house I was gonna say that's not a big meter

apartment here this thing it's just They're going so fast. Right. They have so much energy that they're going at least 11 kilometers a second, which is escape velocity. Now, as another question, because I haven't, I've gone through all of these, and so I don't see anybody ask this, so I'm just going to ask. Chuck, you're the co-host of this show. So I get to ask. So lay it on us, man. So is there, you know, when this asteroid hits, okay, of course the impact, we know what that does. We do?

It's bad. But the first impact is actually with the atmosphere. That's right. So what exactly does that do? You're such a nerd. I love you, man. So in the case of Chelyabinsk, there was a sonic boom or a series of sonic booms.

It hit the ground. People hear the sonic booms. They look up. They see the streak in the sky. I mean, rather, they see the streak in the sky first. And they go, there's a streak in the sky. Well, it's not going to hit me. I'll relax. And three minutes later,'s a streak in the sky. Well, it's not going to hit me. I'll relax.

And three minutes later, the sonic boom hits the ground and blows out all the windows. And that's why there were so many, apparently 1,000 injuries, substantial sutures and stuff. People standing near glass windows. All in glass. Very strong sonic boom hit the ground and blew all the windows into everybody's face. It was a surprising result that you just wouldn't think of the first time it happened. That's really interesting. So if you see a streak in the sky, you better get someplace safe.

You've got a couple minutes to get out of the glass. A couple minutes to get out of the glass. Yeah, yeah. Wow. As the old saying goes, by analogy to earthquakes, earthquakes don't kill people. Buildings kill people. Right, right. That's right. to earthquakes. Earthquakes don't kill people. Buildings kill people. That's right.

So meteorites that cause sonic booms don't hurt people. Glass windows hurt people. This is analogy. Right, right. Not, you know, it's an aphorism. It's not going to direct your entire life. Something to think about. You see the big streak.

In three minutes, there might be a big sonic boom. There you go. It could blow all the windows. It did blow the windows out. Wow. Yeah, lead on. All right. Nathan Emily says,

Hello, Dr. Nye. What are the plans to put into orbit a satellite whose sole job is to watch the skies 24 hours a day in all directions? All directions is the tough part, but NEOWISE is a satellite that does that,

and we want to build follow-ons, do more awning of following. But watching 24-7, it does watch 24-7, but not the entire sky. It points to different places. And is that because there's— Just limitations. It's just limitations. Look at things that are you. You can't look in every direction at once.

No. Although your wife has eyes in the back of her head. Ah, there you go. That was it. Anyone? I was going with my mom, but, you know, it's the same thing. Well, they're in on it. I've been married long enough that it's the same thing.

They have slide shows on Tuesdays where they talk about how to mess with you. Right. So let me ask you. Pardon me. Squeaky situation. Yes. Is there a likelihood of a direction from which an asteroid will come, or will we just be blindsided?

I'm not an expert, but I would speculate no. Oh. Except it's probably going the same direction we are around the sun. Aha. You know what I mean? Right, right. Because the cosmic disk, primordial disk of dust that formed us would have a net direction. So here's the thing, everybody.

You have a big bunch of cosmic dust four and a half billion years ago, and it has, even if it's dust, it has gravity. In fact, if you've ever observed dust on a bookshelf, one of the little insights that Isaac Newton had was that not only does the Earth have gravity that's pulling the dust down, the dust must needs have ever so slight bit of gravity that's ever so slightly pulling the earth up mutually attracted right so attracted cosmic dust comes together it's going to have it will not be perfectly balanced it's like a cloud there'll be bulges and bubbles and so it ends up with a net as we say angular momentum it ends up with a net spin right and here we are. That resolves itself into a big disk. People do mathematical models of this. And you get little swirl pools,

and that becomes like the planet Earth. And here we are. Here we are. Swirling and pooling. And now you know your history. Of how you got here. Of the solar system. The solar system.

That really is an amazing insight. So we are made of cosmic dust. We are made of stardust. Mm-hmm. So we are, Chuck, you and I, are one of the ways the cosmos knows itself. Sweet. That to me is just, gives me the shaky wakes. It makes me feel like I have purpose.

Well, Chuck, you don't. Finally. Yeah. You're like, Chuck, let's not, Chuck, you don't. Finally. Yeah. You're like, Chuck, let's not get crazy. Let's not get carried away, Chuck. I know. The three kids are your purpose. That's what you do.

Man, on that one. All right, Steve Andrews wants to know this. If the Earth was in danger of an asteroid strike today, could we protect ourselves? I mean, okay, like this afternoon kind of thing? Well, no, not like we find out today. Yeah. Asteroid is on the way. When's it going to show up?

On the way. I don't know. If it's 30 years from now, if we discover it today that it's going to hit us in 30 years, let's get to work. All right, so now I'm going to modify Steve's question. What is the absolute... It's a friendly amendment. What is the... It's a friendly amendment. What is the absolute shortest window that we could have

as an alert to... I think it's less than 10 years. I think it's about 10 years. There are people... I've been in meetings and seen scientific papers presented on this. It's about 10 years. About 10 years. 30 is way better. 30 is better, but 10, we might be able to do.

Might have a shot. Might have a shot. And that's a maybe. That's a maybe. Wow. All right. I mean, wow. I mean, so.

I mean, 10 years is not a long time. No, yes. You think about it. Right. You know? No. You can't build a highway.

You can't build a big dig in Boston in 10 years, let alone build a spacecraft that no one's ever thought of and go out and deflect an asteroid in deep space and get everybody in the world to take your word for it that you're really doing it. That's wicked hard. Especially when you put some explosive on it to give it some pressure wave in space and everybody's taking your word for it that you're putting this enormous nuclear weapon on top of a rocket for the good of all humankind rather than for some nefarious weaponizing of space i can see where you might have a problem so you'd maybe need international

treaties with normal people who can conduct statecraft in traditional ways okay and very quickly on top of that just thinking out. Do we have in place any international protocol in case something like this happens? Well we have the International Space Treaty from 1967 which mumbles about this. When it's really time that's when we're really gonna have agreements and who's gonna build the rocket and who's gonna launch it and who's gonna track it and who's going to build the rocket and who's going to launch it and who's going to track it and who's going to take responsibility for it it's all so exciting as is all of all star star talk uh and i'm your host bill nye along with chuck nice and you and i will be back after this

welcome back welcome back to star Talk All-Star Edition. I'm your all-star host, Bill Nye. I'm here with the remarkable and charming Chuck Nice. Thank you, Bill. And the two of us are going to do our best to address your cosmic queries. These will be inquiries from anywhere, Chuck. Anywhere. Anywhere in the cosmos.

That's right. You could be out there. You could be in the icy north polar region of Mercury. Wow. And if you can transmit to us a question that's parsable in English onto the electric internet, we are right here for you. We're right here for you. You're a Korean person.

We will not be able to provide you with thermal underwear, though. Well, you figure if you're there with internet access, you probably have some warm clothes. Probably good on the... And something to breathe. Something to breathe and some thermals to keep you toasty. So hit us with the... Today, by the way, if you're just rejoining us, we're talking about planetary defense. Yes.

Keeping the Earth from getting hit with a cosmic impactor. A fascinating subject. It really is, and it's important. And important. It's near and dear to us at the Planetary Society, the world's largest non-governmental space interest organization, of which I'm the CEO, because this is our old mission. Carl Sagan, when I was in his class in the disco era, would talk about the Tunguska event, where June 30th in the modern calendar, 1908, Tunguska region of Siberia was hit with something. It blew down all the trees in a moment. And if that had happened in a big city, that would be the end of the big city.

Yeah. It would be it. And so since then, long after Carl Sagan's class, Chelyabinsk, also in Russia, got with a big sparky thing. Mm-hmm. And a much smaller event, but nevertheless recorded on countless cameras. And so it's something to think about. Don't want to get hit with an asteroid. No, you don't.

With that said, Chuck, welcome back to the show. Thank you, sir. And those two events make me think that maybe Russia should be a little more involved in this. The thing, keep in mind about Russia. First of all, let's say we take the Earth and divide it in half by hemispheres. It's going to hit one hemisphere or the other. Okay. It's one and two. Then Russia takes up nine time zones. Yes. It's a third of the, it's more than a third of the world. Right.

Or that former Soviet Union. So if it's going to hit someplace, it's likely to hit. It's likely to hit there. Yeah. There or the Pacific. Yeah, yeah. That's about it. True fact, not a false fact.

There you go. All right. I say true fact. That's a joke, everybody. Ha, ha, ha. Let's go to anna anna anna bacon uh the doomsday shows uh shows but about asteroids let me just start this yeah just do it without the the breaks between every word that i slow talkers of america exactly okay so an Bacon says this. The doomsday shows about asteroids always have it hitting the planet.

But what would happen if the asteroid passed between the Earth or the moon? Or if it hit the moon instead of the Earth? Well, we've photographed asteroids hitting the moon. Aha. I mean, small ones. It's manageable ones. Yeah. And asteroids have passed closer to the Earth than the moon aha i mean small ones it's manageable ones yeah and asteroids have passed closer to the earth than the moon's orbit that's happened right 2012 i believe is the last one so if you like to worry about things this is a great this is great for you right so so far the

ones that have passed that close have been relatively small so now now this is a, let's take a, like, extinction level size object, all right? Listen to your fluency. Extinction level size. How big is extinction level size? Let's go with something like Apophis, all right? Apophis, which is the Greek, named for the Greek god of anxiety. Really? Which is perfect.

greek god of anxiety which is perfect uh and hits the keyhole barrels towards earth instead plows into the moon i guess it would be troublesome moon was but i don't think would that do anything to us i don't think so i'm sure i am sure people have run this computer model. Okay, okay. But I don't know it. So I imagine it would just disturb the orbit of the moon rather than – it almost certainly would not be catastrophic life ending on the moon because the moon seems to be lifeless. But that's a great question. I'm sure people have run that test. And then would it deflect – you know, the moon is slowly spiraling away from us yes could it be hit hard enough to start slowly spiraling toward us i don't know i don't think so like a

pool table that'd be not awesome what am i talking about that'd be the end of all of us well not right away you'd probably have several millennia to give it some thought and you know what and you'd have some really beautiful nights in the meantime. Yeah, and I just shudder to think of all the babies. I just can't even. Yeah. It would be wild. All right.

All right, here we go. This is Ian Coleman, and Ian says this. Hey, Bill, huge fan here. I was wondering about the possibility of NASA's controversial EM drive being something that could actually work. Apparently, leaks have confirmed that this is the least moving. It's at least moving along well. And they're even saying that it may work. Could we use this in planetary defense?

I don't know what an EM drive is. Electromagnetic? What's that now it's um now there's ion drives and there's this nuclear weapon idea where you explode a nuclear weapon behind your spacecraft every few seconds for a while to get and get these pressure waves of particles that push you through space but i don't know what he means by EM drive, if he means electromagnetic. No, I think it's supposed to be some kind of new rocket engine. Well, that's why I mentioned the nuclear thing.

Then the other one that we're all hot for is solar electric propulsion, SEP, solar electric module. So this is where you have something like xenon in liquid form. Ooh. Put in a big scuba tank there on your spacecraft. Ah. Use solar power

from photovoltaic panels. Okay. To make electricity. Ionize, strip the electrons off the xenon, have a grid akin to a window screen,

and shoot the xenon out the back of the spacecraft really, really, really fast. And we do that. We have ion drives right now. Just everybody wants to build a big one, a really big one. And it takes a lot of xenon, but the other thing, it takes a lot of electricity.

And when you get things that big in space, it's just getting everything in alignment is tricky. But here's the idea. Although each atom of xenon or argon or whatever inert gas or element you're going to use, although it is very low mass, each individual atom, they're going so fast, 24-7, out the back of the spacecraft that you can go really, really fast. Okay. 24-7 out the back of the spacecraft that you can go really, really fast. Much faster is generally presumed than you can with just a regular chemical rocket because it never stops. Right.

So it's on all the time. That's actually cool. And we use ion drives, but people want to build a really big one. Okay. All right. All right. So this is Jason Leverett. Jason says this.

Using asteroids to destroy asteroids. Whoa. That's like so out there. Reflect one asteroid so its gravity nudges another asteroid. That, my friend Chuck, that would be two words. Rocket science. Rocket science. Yes. Yeah. Harnessing asteroids in a planetary-like orbit, keeping them on a proverbial lease until we need to crash them into an oncoming asteroid. That's hard. That's pretty hard. Another idea for you asteroid buffs is go to an asteroid with a big enough solar panel and yet-to-be-figured-out system to dig up the ice off the asteroid or cometary body, comet-like body. Mm-hmm.

Volatile, zap, cook the ice into liquid water and then into hydrogen and oxygen, H2O. Oh. Using electricity over months or years. Right. Then when you need to deflect an asteroid, you recombine those into rocket fuel. And now the asteroid has its own rockets. Or you take your rocket from one icy asteroid to the one you want to deflect, all out there in deep orbital space. That is rocket science, people.

It's cool to speculate, but a quite difficult thing to do. Now, you know what is at some level difficult but at another level so much fun? What's that? The lightning round. And the lightning round now has a chicken, a rubber chicken with a pneumatic system that makes it crow, except that's a surprising use of that verb.

It makes it chicken. Makes it roost. Makes it gobble. No, it makes it make a sound. Yes. So let's take a question in the lightning round, Chuck, who's thoroughly charmed by Edvina the chicken. Edvina, I'm such a juvenile person. What can I say?

We all are. We're guys. Let's get right to the lightning round with nasa more likely losing funding which will likely um which will likely happen uh which agency of defense will we see an increased budget for uh for like set, or will Russia or Japan increase funding to their native program? Well, here's the thing. Without U.S. investment in rockets, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, doesn't have as many rockets to sell.

Don't sell as many rockets, so their agency goes down. Japan is working all the time to maintain its space agency because they have other concerns there. And Japan's populace is shrinking, and people there are freaking out about, are we going to have enough workers in the future? And so they're going to have to allow immigration. Well, it's crazy. But with that said, the talk is taking earth science out of NASA and putting it into NOAA. And if it was zero sum, that is to say, if they really just transferred money rather than slashing, slashing, slashing, everything would be okay.

Chuck, what do you think the chances are of everything being okay in the next four years? Let's take another one. Let's take another one. Here we go. Alan Palasco says, Mr. Nye, how deep should I build my bunker and how much food and water should I store since the only other option is to try to get a front row seat? To an asteroid impact? To an asteroid impact. As much as you want.

Carry on. There you go. Chris Murchison says this, which is more feasible, trying to figure out how to stop the impact or learning how to survive one. Surviving, I think, is a stone drag. I guess that's a pun. I don't think you can survive a catastrophic asteroid impact where the ecosystem around the world has been completely upset. A small one that just makes tsunamis, just makes tsunamis, and just devastates a few coastal cities. Okay, maybe.

Right. But a dinosaur-killing ancient asteroid-type thing, nope. Nope. Carry on. Get a bill about it, huh? Wow. There you go. So really, prevention is it, or we're just cooked?

That's it. Well, sure, yes. It's a low-probability, high-consequence event. Man. Man. Woo! John Parker shook him up. We shook him up. You did shake me up, man. John Parker says this.

Mr. Nye, would it be feasible to send some oil rigs roughnecks armed with nuclear warheads and training to an asteroid to blow it up? If so, what would be the actual outcome in your opinion? It wouldn't work. We'd get another piece of asteroid on a different trajectory that would be just as much trouble.

Boom. There you go. James Peters would like to know this. Hey, Bill, can we use sonic technology to break them up? There's no air in space to transmit sounds. However, fluid mechanics is such that the particles coming off a nuclear blast can be modeled like a sound wave. It's a different thing, but if you're saying really sound. No real sound. Yeah. Yeah, but a sound wave model. Like that thing. Okay, there you go. I just got to read

this just to read it. I'm sorry. Read it. We got a minute. Here we go. Willie Cutsell says, hello, I'm sorry. Read it. We got a minute left. Here we go. Willie Cutsell says, hello, Dr. Nye. We need science in Guatemala. Yes. Please help.

So to that end, the planetary report, we're trying to get it translated into Spanish so it'll be a little easier for Guatemalan subscribers to enjoy, both on our website and the paper magazine. So we're doing our best to the north to enable our neighbors to the south to know and appreciate the cosmos and our place within it. Nice. I'm going to give that a chicken scream. 30 seconds, Chuck. There we go. Nick Fifield says, I love you. Could we use solar sails

and an army of solar sails to effectively turn a meteor into a space slave? Well, sort of. So what we do is drape solar sail material onto the asteroid and change its trajectory. The other thing we want to do is use lasers powered by sunlight to zap the asteroid and cause it to deflect. That's it for our show on Cosmic Queries of StarTalk. It's Chuck Nice here with your guest, all-star host Bill Nye.

This has been StarTalk. It's Chuck Nice here with your guest, all-star host Bill Nye. This has been StarTalk. Please keep looking up.