StarTalk Radio - Cosmic Queries Live: Galactic Gumbo Edition

Episode Date: November 10, 2017

Explore relativity, panspermia, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, the multiverse, tachyons, marijuana legalization, and more with Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice as they answered questions in front of a live audience at Sessanta and on Facebook Live.NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free 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. This is StarTalk. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. We are actually live at Sesanta, a restaurant at 60 Thompson Street in Soho, New York. I got my co-host, Chuck Nice. Hey, Neil. Chuck Nice tweeting. Chuck Nice Comics.

Thank you, sir. Yes. Comic. Comic. Yes. Nice tweeting, Chuck Nice Comics. Thank you, sir, yes. Yeah, comic. Comic.

Yes, and so this is going to be a Cosmic Queries melange. Yes. We like to call it a galactic gumbo. Galactic gumbo. Guarantee. No. So this is just whatever, so we haven't themed the questions is the point. No, we have not.

But they're all cosmically related, hence's right. Hence, my expertise will apply. That's correct. All right. And we already have people chiming in on Facebook. But do you know what? We're going to start things off in our show with an actual query from the audience. Do we have our first audience member? Hello.

What's your name? Please stand up. Wait, wait. First, she's wearing a Van Gogh dress. Can we get some attention to that, please? Isn't that one of your favorite paintings? Yes! That's like one of your favorite paintings, right?

It's not like one of my favorite paintings. It is my favorite painting. A. B. B. B. We'll get to your question in a minute. I'm gonna finish riffing on your dress. So Van Gogh painted that in 1889.

It's obviously an impressionistic representation. It's not the sky that he saw, it's the sky that he felt. Ooh. And... What is that? What is that? So while I care about accuracy and detail, if you represent through your art how the universe makes you feel, you cannot be faulted for that. You can only be praised. And in that, I will say further that there's the starry night in the backdrop.

Then there's the hills. Then there's this village with a spire and a cypress tree. He didn't call that painting Cypress Tree or Sleepy Village or Rolling Hills. It may have been the first time ever in the history of art where the name of the painting, The Starry Night,

is what is in the background rather than what's in the foreground. But it's still the focus. Think about when you set up a canvas, there's something there that you're painting. Right. If you're painting the sky, you're not gonna put other stuff in front of it. Right.

But he did. So there's a village, a tower, trees, hills. It is Starry Night. I think that's the original name of the piece, but he finally just settled on Starry Night. It was originally Village Tower Trees Starry Night. It was originally Village Tower Tree Starry Night. And somebody was like, that's a long title, man. So sorry to delay your question. Go on, yes, please.

You can't hear me. Yes. What are we here for? Okay. My question is, what is faster, the speed of light or the expansion of the universe? Ooh, ooh. We just, we started off like, ooh, ooh, ooh.

She was just like, let me warm up to it. I know, man. Yeah, like why couldn't you go with like, what's a solar flare? No, no, it's just like speed of light, space in the universe, give it. So speed of light in a vacuum, in the vacuum of space is the fastest speed that is possible moving through space. It is not

just a good idea. It's the law. Okay? And it's not like one day we're going to figure out how to go that's not going to happen. Okay? Okay, you can travel faster than light if the day we discover, like, wormholes or curved space where you're here and you want to go there.

And actually, if you, okay, instead you do this and cut a hole and then you bridge that gap and then you unfold it. And now you're there. Then you got there faster than a light beam would have. That's cheating in a fun way, but you're not moving through space faster than light. That is a cosmic speed limit. Now, turns out, there is a point in the universe where the universe is in fact expanding faster than light. And this comes out of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Okay. And whereas the speed of light limit comes from his special theory of relativity. The special theory of relativity describes things moving within the fabric of space. General relativity describes the fabric of space itself. Wow. So if the fabric of space itself is expanding, it can expand at any rate at all. So that's the rubber sheet, right? That's the rubber.

If you embedded galaxies in, imagine a rubber sheet, and you stretch the rubber sheet. So here are two galaxies, and so there they are stretching apart in the fabric of space. They can recede from one another arbitrarily faster than light. There is no such limit there. I'd love, I want, you know, I would have a sex change to wear that skirt.

Actually, it just occurred to me, it just to me I could I could just wear it that's way cheaper way cheaper way cheaper there you go and ain't nothing wrong with that let me tell you something I do it when I clean the house Okay Tom Angel Tom Angel says this Neil, do you agree with Carl Sagan And most US voters? Yes, next Hey Tom, there's your answer

There's your answer There's very little I disagree with And guess what, I'm going to go ahead and say that But now we got to know, I'm moving on. There's very little I disagree with. And guess what, I'm gonna go ahead and say that, but quite frankly. Now we gotta know, I wanna know. Now you wanna know? Yeah, yeah. That marijuana should be legalized.

Oh, it's- Whoa! Yeah! Uh-oh. Whoa! So, I think if you really analyze it, relative to other things that are legal, there's no reason for it to ever have been made illegal in the system of laws. That is extremely rational, which I expect from you, and you're absolutely right.

I mean, alcohol is legal, and it can mess you up way more than smoking a few J's. That's absolutely right. Boy, let me tell you something. and it can mess you up way more than smoking a few J's. That's absolute. Boy, let me tell you something. I can tell you have never smoked weed in your life. Because you're just like, smoking a few J's. It was like an ABC after school special. Are you smoking a few J's now? The last time I was like in a cloud of it, that's how people spoke.

Okay. Right on. Okay. All right. Let's do one quick one because. Oh, by the way, by the way, it's just funny because if you want to sound like Mickey Mouse, you inhale the helium from a helium balloon. Okay.

But the way you do that is you untie the knot and you go. Share the balloon. Okay. But the way you do that is you untie the knot and you go... Share the balloon. It's just... It's just... It's so... Right. Right, exactly. In other words, when kids are at a party sharing helium balloons,

they might as well be smoking some jigs. I'm sorry. All right. All right, here we go. What do we have? Hello. Timur. You get the microphone? Yeah.

Go right ahead, sir. My question isn't as impactful as that first one, but how do you measure the distances between stars and planets, and how important is it to be accurate? How do you measure the distances between stars and planets, and how important is it to be accurate? How do you measure the distances between stars and planets, and how important is it to be accurate? You mean when you find a planet orbiting a star? Either or. Either or. Distances is a huge challenge in modern astrophysics, and we spent decades

creating something what we call the distance ladder. And the distance ladder is, you figure out how close nearby things are, and you can do that pretty accurately with like geometry and trigonometry. But beyond that, you can't. And then you have to infer what the distance is based on things that are nearby that are familiar. And then once you get that, the things that are farther away, you build on that, and everything builds. So we're pretty confident right now that we understand distances not only locally in the solar system, but across the galaxy and across the universe itself. So it's a combination of many methods, some primary, some secondary, some tertiary. And it's called the distance ladder. You can Google it. You'll see a whole account of the steps that this required.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's one of the toughest things out there. Because you don't know. Because bright stars, you think, oh, it must be close. It could be a super bright star, but just far away. Because stars get really, really super bright. I'll give you an example.

There are stars that are 10,000 times more luminous than our sun. These are huge, massive stars. some of which are so big, they, if you swap them where Earth is right now, they would engulf the entire orbits of Mercury, Venus, and Earth. So these are stars that are hugely luminous. By the way, the sun will do that one day. Oh, good.

I'm so happy to hear that. Yeah, so we need to sort of planet hop away from the sun by then. Right. That's in five billion years. If our ass is still on Earth, then that's it. You know what, if we're still on Earth in five billion years, we deserve it. Okay, that's it. Right. Okay. That's all I'm saying.

Because what will happen then is, as the sun gets larger, to getting more luminous, such as these highly luminous stars that we find in the galaxy, Earth will start getting hotter and hotter. Right. And what will happen is, the oceans will come to a rolling boil and evaporate into the atmosphere. Then the atmosphere will evaporate into space. And then as the edge of the sun overcomes the orbit of the earth, we become this charred

ember as we descend down to the core as we vaporize. You know what? Only you can make that sound like it's something good. It's all excited about our demise, which very cool and you know what you know not to be attenuated but I have to be what attenuated but that's like a real word that is a word it's not like I'm Mike Tyson. I'm just not making words up. You know what I mean? Oh, my God, these cookies are malicious.

Like, I'm not doing too... Like... Okay, we don't want Chuck to be attenuated. Go ahead. No, but I'm saying, what you were just talking about, I've actually heard from other of your colleagues, which we have on this show. You know, primarily a planetary astrophysicist, Dr. Funky Spoon, Dr. David Grinspoon.

Oh, David Grinspoon, yeah. Who is one of our StarTalk All-Stars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just, I got a, like, I got, so StarTalk as a thing had such fertility that it was able to like spawn off pieces of itself. Okay. One of them was

I had like colleagues who had energy and interest and expertise so then we created StarTalk All Stars. Yes. So they got their own

damn show. That's right. They don't need, I'm not even in the show. Well, that's true. And then we would occasionally have a guest

who was a professional athlete either current or former. Yes. And that had huge followings those particular episodes so then we would occasionally have a guest who was a professional athlete, either current or former. Yes. And that had huge followings, those particular episodes. So then we spawned those off to make Playing With Science. And you were the co-host of that. I'm not even having nothing to do with that either. Well, yes.

I am like your cosmic baby now. We just birthed you? No, yeah. But Playing With Science is a great show. Who came up with Playing With Science? Because that's a kind of weird title. Was that your idea? I came, yeah, but Playing With Science is a great show. Who came up with Playing With Science? Because that's a kind of weird title. Was that your idea? I came up with the name Playing With Science.

Is that not a good name? Wait, wait. Does your mama know you're playing with science? Why is this door locked? Chuck, are you playing with space? Open this door, mister. And while we're at it, you might as well bring it. There's something where you can see all of this.

Everything that we do is on something called StarTalkAllAccess.com. So just to let you know, and for you at home, if you just want to know, StarTalkAllAccess.com. Everything that we do is available there, plus exclusive and original content. So I just wanted to get that in there because of what you said. That's all right. Can we go to another question? Yeah, let's do it.

From Facebook Live, Levi Silva says this. If the multiverse theory is true, is there a universe where it isn't true? Oh, my God. What a crazy question. Oh, my God. That's a crazy question. Because if the multiverse is every possible universe that could be in existence, then could there be in existence a universe where there is no multiverse is every possible universe that could be in existence, then could there be in existence a universe where there is no multiverse? Oh wait, and let me just follow that up by saying, I'm Pickle Rick!

Okay. So here's the thing. In a multiverse where there could be many possibly infinite universes where all possibilities manifest, this is a suggestion that's hard to argue against. So if you have an infinite number of universes, everything plays out. At all times, if this conversation is happening, you said, I'm sitting there and you're sitting here. Or I'm wearing a NASA shirt and you're wearing this flurry, fluffy thing. So could there be a universe in which

there is no multiverse? And all I'm saying is, the different properties of each universe do not reference what's outside of them. So we're describing the variation, in particular, of the laws of physics in each universe. That's what's varying. So you can imagine, I suppose, a universe that has no multiverse at all,

but okay. But then what? I mean, then put that Levi in that universe and then he'll be happy. That's it. He doesn't exist. Then he's not part of our multiverse. Now here's something to think about. The universe never makes anything in ones, it seems.

We thought, well, Earth, Earth. No, we got eight planets. Eight, get over it. The sun. Yeah, the sun. Those are stars, but this is the sun. No, they're also suns. Right, right, right.

Stars are suns and suns are stars. Galaxy, Milky Way. No, they're also stars. Right, right, right. Stars are suns, and suns are stars. And galaxies, Milky Way. No, they've got 100 billion galaxies. The universe. Hey, no. With the multiverse, maybe there's multiple universes. But then, if that's the case, then maybe the multiverse doesn't even come in ones. Oh, snap.

So you're saying it's multiple multiverses. Exactly. Oh, dang. So we might call that a metaverse, as I'm thinking. The metaverse. No, no, I mean, that's not an official line of research at this point. I'm just saying. We just did it.

We just did the official research. I'm calling Princeton when we leave this room. So you got it. So, Chuck, we got to take a break. Okay. So when we come back, more Cosmic Queries Galactic Gumbo Edition. That's right. We're back. Star Talk. We're back. StarTalk. We're taking questions from Facebook Live, from every other place, and you're going to butcher the names as you usually do?

As I always do. I don't know what's something, a missing synapse is in your head. It probably is. I will say this. It's years and years of abuse to my brain. I will not tell you what kind of abuse, but yes. It could be John Smith. You say, is it Joe Hunsmythe? Excuse me, A.A. Ron? Yeah, that's me.

All right, so what's the next question? You got more from Facebook Live. Yes, I do. Here we go. In Europe- So there are at least three people watching on Facebook Live, because we have their questions here. Okay.

Well, we're moving a little slowly. This is data. I'll speed it up if you want. Okay. Okay, Scott Murray. We're going to have a lightning round where I go through just soundbite answers. I hope so. Yeah, okay.

Okay, here we go. In your opinion, what's the coolest, most interesting aspect of the upcoming eclipse that is from Scott Murray? Ooh. The eclipse will be on the 21st? August. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it's America's eclipse. Merk.

Merk. Apostrophe M-U-U-R-R-I-C-A. That's, I think, how you spell that. Merk. F-U-M. It's a Merk. The path of totality, this is the moon's shadow being dragged across Earth's surface. Nice.

At 1,700 miles an hour. And the duration of totality is simply the time it takes the shadow to pass across you if you happen to be standing in the path. So, the path of totality only touches the continental United States. Touches no other country. And... USA.

The last time that happened was in the 13th century before there was a USA. So, in that sense, it's just kind of cool. It's ours. It's ours. It's ours. Otherwise, eclipses happen all the freaking time. Every couple of years, you have a total solar eclipse somewhere.

But I bet you, I bet you, August 21st, August 22nd, there'll be headlines, rare eclipse. Every journalist wants to use the word rare with the word eclipse. But eclipses are more frequent than presidential elections. Oh. Nobody says, rare presidential election coming up. Oh, well, they did the last one. Oh!

So, just, like, check the rarity at the door. Eclipses are common, and in the old days, when no one traveled, you'd go your whole life without seeing one. Now, in your life, you could always pretty much drive to one. Right. Or fly to one. You can fly to one every couple of years. So just sort of get over it.

Alright. Super cool, super cool. Alright. just sort of get over it. All right. Super cool. Super cool. All right. Let's move on to Carlos Caraballo. And Carlos would like to know this. If you could accelerate. Is this Facebook Live? This is Facebook Live. All of these are coming to me from Facebook Live.

And because it's coming to me live, I just lost the damn question. Okay. Here we go. Carlos, I got it back. If you could accelerate past the speed of light, what would happen to your surroundings? So what would you see if you could actually go faster than the speed of light? Okay, so you can't, according to Einstein and all experiments ever conducted, you can't accelerate past the speed of light. But you can imagine particles that exist only faster than the speed of light.

They can work in his equations. Oh. Okay, we have a word for those particles. They're hypothetical. Go ahead. Can you imagine particles that exist only faster than the speed of light? They can work in his equations. Oh. Okay, we have a word for those particles. They're hypothetical. Go ahead. They're called tachyons. Tachyons?

Yeah, tachyons from the Greek tachios. No, no, no. Yes, yes. No, it's from Star Trek. So, tachyometer also draws from this, which gives you the speed of your engine, pistons. So these particles exist faster than light, and if you run the numbers, if these particles exist they would live backwards in time. Oh, snap.

Right, right. Because, is that- No, it just comes out of the mask. That's all I'm saying. Okay. Okay, so. But is that part of the same Einstein theory? Yeah, but we don't, we've never found them and nothing can accelerate past it, so they'd have to be born into existence this way.

People have imagined, have come up with experiments that would detect them if they existed and they've never been detected. So it's hypothetical at this point. Okay. But it's interesting. So for example, if I see you walking down the hall and you slip on a banana peel, and I say, oh, let me prevent Chuck from slipping on the banana peel.

So I'm going to send you a text message via tachyons. Gotcha. So I say, Chuck, watch out for the banana peel. And then you get it, like, 10 seconds before you get to the banana peel. Alright. So what happens is, I send the text, you get it in the past, and your smartphone jiggles, vibrates, you pick it up, and it says, oh, I have to watch out for the banana

peel. And the fact that you were looking at your smartphone meant you didn't notice the banana peel and you slipped on it. Oh snap. Okay. So it could it. Oh, snap. Okay. So it could be... It could be... It could be that certain events are embedded in the fabric of time

such that the very act of preventing you from slipping on the banana peel made you slip on the banana peel. So that would be the big argument for predetermination. Possibly. Right. Possibly. I got you. I got you. However, when you sent me that tachyon text, it. Possibly. I got you. I got you.

However, when you sent me that tachyon text, it just came up. The subscriber you are trying to reach is not available. All right. What else you got? That was amazing. That was a great, great question. All right. Let's move on to Paula Hogan coming to us from, of course, Facebook Live, who would like to know, how would we know we found life on another planet

since it would likely look and behave very different from life here? Now, first of all, that's a big assumption. So the first question... I get you. I understand. I would like to know, though, if we find life, is it going to be really different from here?

Okay, that's a great question. Would we even recognize it as life? Would we know it as life? Perfectly legitimate question. But I think we have good cogent answers for that. Okay. Okay? So, first of all, the ingredients of life.

Look at the chemical ingredients, the atomic ingredients. Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, iron. These are the most common common ingredients across the universe we're made of the most common stuff got you so if you're gonna make life with the ingredients on another planet it's probably gonna have chemistry kind of similar to ours it's not going to be made of some isotope of business no it's No, that's not common out there. That's A. B, we are carbon-based life, as any good science fiction fan knows. Carbon on the periodic table of elements is the

most sticky element. You can make more molecules using carbon than all other molecules combined. So if you had to base the diversity of life on an element, carbon is your element. And carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe. Wow. So to say this life is based on this other thing and it's got, it's not necessary. It's not necessary to invent something out of dark orifices to try to see what the life might be like chemically. But isn't that narcissistic

because we're carbon-based? Isn't that a little narcissistic? So life is certainly going to be like ours. If I have a pool of chemicals, carbon is going to start making molecules all by itself. Okay, I got you. Okay? Now, it might not have DNA.

Right. So if we're going to... Now, it might not have DNA. Right. But... So, if we're going to find life, it'll probably have carbon. And chemistry on Earth is the same as the chemistry everywhere in the universe. One of the great discoveries of 20th century astrophysics. If science were different on Earth than it was on the moon or anywhere else, there would be no science. We'd just have Earth science.

I mean, science only on Earth. Science only on Earth. Then you wouldn't... There would be no science. We'd just have earth science. I mean, science only on earth. Science only on earth. Then you wouldn't, there would be no astrophysics. Right. Because we'd have no access to what was going on elsewhere. But the laws of physics we find on earth apply to the outer reaches of the universe. So that's why there's no reason to invoke something completely different. Now, that being said, why is it that Hollywood aliens always have a head, shoulders, two arms,

head and legs and they walk and they, and why? Right. Why? If there's a life form from another planet, it should look at least as different from us as other life forms and us on Earth look from one another because all life on Earth has common DNA. So I'm here. You're here. We have

jellyfish, oak trees, millipedes, okay? Bacteria, yeast cells, okay? That's life on Earth with common DNA. You're going to pull out life from another planet, let it look more different than that. Because we look different from one another.

That's all I'm saying. Plus, we invent life. Okay? What is a cow? A cow is a biological machine invented by humans to turn grass into steak. Well, you're right about that. That's true. Right, well, you're right about that. That's true.

So, if you can invent life to serve your needs, then all bets are off. Invent whatever you need. I'm going to tweet that, actually. That's actually not a bad tweet. Invent whatever you need if you're going to invent life. No, no, the cow, yeah, the cow. Oh, the cow. I'm messing them up. I don't want to mess it. No, no. The cow. Yeah. The cow. Oh, the cow. I'm messing him up.

I don't want to mess it. Cow is a biological machine. Okay. Fentanyl. What's an ointment? I was going to say, you have to do this right now. Oh, there you go. Sorry. Sorry.

Like. Kind of going to Facebook Live. Just saying. Sorry. Did I cross the wires? Cut the red. Cut the red. Okay. Did I cross the wires? Cut the red. Cut the red. Okay.

No, not the wires. Did I cross the beams? Yes. Now we're talking. We're talking Ghostbusters. Okay. Let us, let me find, oh God, this was a great question. I wanted to find this question.

Give me one second. Oh, they're scrolling. Yes, here it is. Here it is. Ga Brazil wants to know this. What was the reaction of your family when you told them you wanted to graduate

in astrophysics? I just love that this question makes it seem like you was coming out of the closet. Mom, Dad, I don't care what you say. I'm going to be an astrophysicist! I just wanna let you know it's who I am! Good.

I can't change it! It's just what? I was born this way! I'm an astrophysicist! So, it didn't quite play out that way Because I've known since age 9 That I was called by the universe And by 11 I realized you can do it professionally

So from age 11 onwards I had an answer to that annoying question That adults always ask kids What do you want to be when you grow up? From age 11 onwards my answer was Astrophysicist. Wow. So there was no surprise when I declared it as a major

because it was deeply embedded in me. So you're like the little boy who was putting on a wig in high heels at four, just like, hey, this is who I am, and y'all going to have to deal with it. Right, right. They have to deal with it. By the way, in all fairness to the unfolding of events, my parents took me, my brother, and my sister to all the cultural institutions of the city every weekend. And they took us to the planetarium.

That's when I first saw the night sky. I didn't know anything. What New Yorker knows anything about the night sky? We have no relationship with the universe because buildings are in the way. Light pollution's in the way. And in my day, there was air pollution. You'd have to brush

ash off your shoulders because apartment buildings were burning household garbage. When did you live here? During the Industrial Revolution? My God! Ha! So, so,

so, all I'm saying is it was a first encounter with my local planetarium, the Hayden Planetarium, where I saw the night sky. I've said this before, the lights dimmed and the stars came out and I thought it was a hoax. Ain't that many stars in the night sky? I've seen every one of them from the Bronx and there's 12 stars from the Bronx. There's not, it was a hoax. Ain't that many stars in the night sky? I've seen every one of them from the Bronx, and there's 12 stars from the Bronx. There's not, it's a hoax. Later, I'd figure out it was real.

But to this day, I go to the finest observatories in the land, on mountaintops, where you commune with the cosmos, and I look up, and I still feel this embarrassingly urban thought that it reminds me of the Hayden Planetarium. So you're looking at the real thing. Yeah, it's feeling like the Hayden Planetarium.

That is so funny. So you know what? By the way, I'm now director of the Hayden Planetarium. Right. So that story plays better in a small town. In New York, no one actually cares. I've tried it on them. I said, you realize I became director of the planet. Yeah, and your point is, you know. And that's funny because, you know what, you bring this up and it reminds me of,

so in your book, chapter 12 of your book. Oh, the last chapter. The last chapter is reflections of, or reflections on the cosmic perspective. And it's funny when you say like, that no New Yorker has a relationship with the universe. It just reminded me of anybody who has your experience, whether it's in a planetarium or on a hilltop looking through a telescope, that's where you find the cosmic perspective. There's an opening quote here from James Ferguson.

This, no, nobody who grows up in a city could ever pen these words. In a modern city. Okay. And so this is, can I read? Go ahead. Okay, you ready? Of all the sciences cultivated by mankind, this is a quote from James Ferguson, 1757. Okay. Of all the sciences cultivated by mankind,

astronomy is acknowledged to be, and undoubtedly is, the most sublime, the most interesting, and the most useful. For by knowledge derived from this science, not only the bulk of the earth is discovered, but our very faculties are enlarged with the grandeur of the ideas it conveys, Our faculties are enlarged with the grandeur of the ideas it conveys. Our minds exalted above their low contracted prejudices. Nice! Oh! Oh!

Oh, you know what? Oh, he's feeling it! Yeah! He was feeling that cosmic perspective! I'm feeling it right now! Are you kidding me? I have a chubby! Are you kidding me? I have a chubby! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha!

Ha ha ha! Alright. Chuck, we're out of time in this segment, but you've got more questions. Absolutely. Alright, we'll pick them up when we return on StarTalk. Fantastic. So, right now, I'd like to do a little something that I call Cocktails in Cosmos, where you talk about the cosmic perspective. This will change your cosmic perspective.

This is Will, the bartender. Come on in, Will. Let's do it. Give it up for Will. This is like a night sky shirt with stars on it. Very nice. Better known as polka dot. Murph right.

Will is going to make us. What are you making, Will? So we're making tonight the Event Horizon. Ooh! Which is gonna be a gin cocktail. If you're gonna say those words, you gotta say it right. The Event Horizon. The Event Horizon.

It's better, it's better. I'll practice, I'll practice. I like it, I like it when Will says it. He almost sounds like, I don't always drink the Event Horizon. Which actually, I'll practice. I like it. I like it when Will says it. He almost sounds like, I don't always drink the Aventador. Which actually, when I do. So, you can use any type of gin. Okay.

Any type of gin here? Yeah. Okay. Fresh lemon juice. Fresh lemon juice. Okay. Lemon juice. We have some...

Blue stuff. Blue stuff. Toilet water. We got toilet water. It's orange blossom liquor. Orange blossom liquor. There you go. So what makes this the event horizon? So it's going to be actually the...

Because in the universe, beyond the event horizon, there is no return. I just want to make sure that this is an understood fact about whatever you're doing here. This is going to be a good night. That's all I'm saying. There is no return from the event horizon. I'm just saying. Here we go.

What do you got going on here? I'm going to add the ice. Put some ice in there. Did you just invent this today? Because it looks kind of random what you're putting in here. Some of this and some of that. Now we're just going to strain it.

I like it. Just to make sure that it's absolutely clean. I got you. So no ice shards or anything like that. No, exactly. In a feet-first dive to this cosmic abyss, you will not survive because you will not miss. The tidal forces of gravity will create quite a calamity

when you're stretched head to toe. Are you sure you want to go? Wait a minute. I'm gonna answer that with a poem of my own. It is alcohol. Was that the poem? That was it. All right, let's give it a taste. Let's give it a taste.

Cheers, my friend. That's it. Oh, that is really good, man. It's like bright, it's herbaceous. It's light. It's very cool. It is bright. It's cold. It's cool.

And it's chill. It is. It's chill. Yeah, very. You know what? And as Event Horizons go. No, no. We create a new thing called Event Horizon and Chill.

Event Horizon and Chill. I like it. Is that allowed? Hey, ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Will and Amber. Thank you, Will. Thank you, Will. Very cool. Another question from the audience? Yeah, let's do this.

Who is it? Stand up. What's your name, sir? My name is Ron Sparkman. Hey. All right, so this kind of goes with what we were talking about a little bit earlier. If we were able to find life, maybe like microbial life on Mars, do you think it would be more likely

that it's a second genesis or that maybe it's possibly panspermia? And if so, which one would be more impactful on humanity? Okay, all I heard was sperm and I lost it. So that's a great question. So yeah, there are two possibilities. Oh, three possibilities. One, there's no life on Mars and there there never was. Another one is, there is life on Mars, and it has no, no, however it encodes its identity has nothing to do with the way we encode our identity.

DNA, maybe it's got something else. If that's the case, it is a complete other genesis of life. That will transform biology in ways that perhaps we cannot foresee or imagine. A whole new way of being alive. Right now, biologists, they won't admit this, but you go behind closed doors. In front of the door, they'll celebrate the diversity of life. Behind closed doors, the fact is, all life has common DNA. So to an alien, we're all identical, chemically basically. So, essentially. So that would be a stunning fact. An interesting fact, less stunning but deeply interesting, is if it does have DNA, then either you can have a second genesis and DNA is an inevitable consequence of carbon organic chemistry, or some base strands of that DNA are identical to DNA on Earth. That would mean at some point that the

bacteria on Mars transported to Earth and began Earth here. So that would mean there was only one genesis on Earth, and that would have been on Mars. So if that's the case, so in other words, you can see how close two species are to one another by how much of their DNA is identical. And if it's very low down, it's possible that that could have happened. How does that happen? If Mars, all evidence shows, was probably wet and fertile before Earth was,

if that was the case and an asteroid struck, the impact energy can fling rocks into escape velocity and roam through interplanetary space and land on other planets such as Earth.

And if that had, now how do they get there? They would, these bacteria would be stowaways in the nooks and crannies of the rocks. Now, those stowaways, they'd have to be able to survive interstellar space for thousands of years. They'd have to get freeze dried and somehow come back to life upon hitting water on Earth. There are such creatures on Earth. Tardigrades! The water bears. They survive things that are not

necessary to survive on Earth because Earth doesn't have that, okay? So... okay so so so so so people think that evolution and animal adapts to some no nothing adapts they die all. All right. And in the variation of that, of that generation, some may have resistance to whatever is the force that killed everything else. Nothing lives or dies in vain in the tree of life. And so the bacteria that would have, the microbes that would have survived are those that happen to have a variation in them that could survive the radiation from space, the temperatures in space, the freeze dryness in space, and the

tardigrades have this property. So, we have a word for this. It's called panspermia. And so, that would be interesting, too. That's all I'm saying. They're both interesting, but a whole other genesis would be transformative. Scientifically.

So the answer to your question is Mars is our baby daddy. Okay? So there you have it. Yeah, it could mean that we are all descendants of Martians. There you go. Some, perhaps more than others. I'm just saying. Oh, there you go.

Oh man, this is good. All right, so we are coming down to the end of our show. Wait, wait, we have a lightning good. All right. So we are coming down to the end of our show. Wait, wait. We have a lightning round. We need a lightning round. And I'm going to give you a lightning round right now. But before we do, I just want to say that before we go, if you are just joining us,

please make sure to check out StarTalkAllAccess.com where you can find all of this. Check out Neil's Facebook page where this will also live. The Facebook influencers page where this show will live as well. So if you have access to any of that, you can go ahead and find it there. Also, StarTalk All-Stars is our show that you were talking about earlier where we have other Neil deGrasse Tysons from different parts of science who come and talk to us about various exciting things. People who we had on as guests and they were just so energetic, we just gave them their own show.

Absolutely. And, of course, StarTalkAllAccess.com where you can find everything that we do and subscribe and become a member. Thank you for doing that. Subscribe and become a member there. So I just wanted to do that because we are now just about five minutes away. Oh, and the show you actually, see, I'm trying to be humble, but Playing With Science, which, by the way, is the show that I do co-host with Gary O'Reilly, who is a footballer. And that show- From the UK.

From the UK. And that show is the mashup of sports and science. It's where geeks and jocks collide and as I like to say, without a concussion. Without a concussion, exactly. There you go. Exactly. Very cool. Plus, this has been standing up the whole time. This is like class. You keep putting it down, I keep putting it back up.

Buy this book! No, no. Stop! Damn it, buy the book! Buy it! Only if you're in a hurry. If you're in a hurry, buy the book! Buy it! Only if you're in a hurry. If you're in a hurry, buy the book. All right, let's get to this. Here we go. Neil doesn't like to plug anything.

No, no, I ain't about plugging. I am a whore. I ain't about plugging. I ain't about plugging. I've yet to mention this book on my Twitter stream. No, I know you, but he doesn't like it. I got 8 million people that don't even know about the book. Yeah, but that's why I'm here.

Okay? Buy the book! Go to Playing With Science! StarTalkAllStars.com! Okay? Everything. Alright, here we go. Let's go. Alright, let me get back to this. Here we go. Undo, undo, cancel. Alright, here we go. This is the lightning round? This is the lightning round. Here we go.

We don't have the bell for you to ring, so just answer us quickly. Should we be focusing our resources and energy on the exploration of Venus versus Mars since it's cheaper and easier to get to? No, because on Venus it's 900 degrees Fahrenheit, and if you went there you would vaporize. So Venus is a bad choice of destination for space exploration. There you go. Lily Brown wants...

By the way, you can cook, I calculated this, a 16-inch pizza in nine seconds on your Bad choice of destination for space exploration. Next. There you go. Lily Brown wants... By the way, you can cook, I calculated this, a 16-inch pizza in nine seconds on your window sill. Nice. And then someone geekier than I was says, Dr. Tyson, you made an error. You forgot radiant heat coming from the atmosphere itself. It'll actually cook in two seconds. There you go.

Avoid Venus. Next. That guy was a dick. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Lily Brown wants to know this. Hey, will you guys officiate my wedding?

No. Next. Okay, next. But I'm deeply honored that people... Oh, don't clean it up now. No, no. that people... Oh, don't clean it up now. No, no! All right, Julius Mabine

wants to know this. Where is Voyager 1 and 2, and do you think any alien would be able to decode the messages on that gold plate, or would it look like a baby scribble to them? Oh, okay, so Voyager

is coming up on the 40th anniversary of its launch. Yes. Just in a few weeks okay, so Voyager is coming up on the 40th anniversary of its launch. Yes. Just in a few weeks. And so Voyager 1 has left the influence of the sun, officially entering interstellar

space. That's in one direction. Voyager 2 is off in another direction, but not as far away. And there's pictograms on there telling aliens where we live. Uh-huh. Not smart. I know, it's weird because we don't, you wouldn't give your email to a stranger on the street.

Exactly. But we're giving the home address of Earth to aliens. We just gave them our social security number. So, I think if they're really smart, they should figure it out. Okay. They'll figure it out. They're our musings. I mean, we figured out hieroglyphics and things of our own species.

I think a smarter species should be able to figure it out if they find the spacecraft. Next. Okay. Wendy McGrew Brown wants to know this. If you could travel through time, what year would you go to and why? Oh, I would go to the day Earth was hit by the Mars sized protoplanet, sideswiped, casting crustal material into orbit

to form the moon itself. I want to be witness to that event. Ooh. You do realize you would die. Next! Next. I just see Neil at that moment going, worth it! Yeah, yeah.

Alex Fawcett wants to know this. What is or was the greatest scientific prediction ever made? Oh, I got that. Oh, really? It's actually in here. Oh! I'm just saying. Wait, then don't answer it. This is what I'm going to answer you. Ba-da-boom! Ba-da-boom! Okay, based on

very little information, George Gamow, a scientist in mid-century, based on very little information about the fact that the universe is expanding, which meant it was smaller yesterday than it is today. The fact that it might have been hotter in the past than it is today. Based on this, he took laws of physics and invoked them and said, whoa. and invoked them and said, whoa, if the laws of physics apply all the way to the beginning of the universe,

there ought to be a bath of microwave energy ubiquitous in the universe, in the background. We should look for a cosmic microwave background at a temperature of about five degrees. That is amazing. And then decades later, people discovered a cosmic microwave background. And they didn't even know it. Wait, wait, wait.

Go ahead. That whole story's in it. They discovered it. I know. I read the book. And the temperature, because he was in a hurry. And the temperature was three degrees. And you could say, oh, he was off. He was almost off by a factor of two.

But that prediction was so out there. So out there. It's like predicting that a 50-foot flying saucer would land on the lawn of the White House, but a 30-foot flying saucer landed instead. That's awesome. That's how extraordinary. That's great. To me, that was one of the greatester landed instead. That's awesome. That's how extraordinary. No, that's great. To me, that was one of the greatest predictions ever made. That's awesome.

To deduce the existence of the Big Bang and evidence for it. Right. Just by invoking known laws of physics. That's amazing. That he had. All right, listen, here's what I want to do right now because we are pretty much out of time. Let's just leave you the last bit of time to do your thing and bid us farewell. Oh, okay. sure. So let me just say that the universe, to paraphrase J.B.S. Haldane,

a philosopher biologist, that the universe is not only stranger than we have imagined, it may be stranger than we can imagine. Ooh. And as long as that remains true, there's unlimited mysteries that lay before us. Because never forget that as the area of our knowledge grows, so too does the perimeter of our ignorance. Ooh. I will drink to that, my friend. We will.

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