StarTalk Radio - Cosmic Queries: Super Powers

Episode Date: August 2, 2015

If Superman followed the laws of physics, how could he fly? Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice answer this and other questions from our fans about super powers, from the scientifically sound, to the supremely silly. 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. And I hail from New York City, where I work, at the Hayden Planetarium, serving as its director, part of the American Museum of Natural History. You're all invited. Come on by. Upper west side of Manhattan.

I got with me in studio, the one, the only, Chuck Nice. And thank God for that, that he's the one and the only. One and the only Chuck Nice? Yes. You've been thanking God for a lot of stuff lately. Has he been that busy with you? You know, I try to keep him on his toes. You know?

Try to keep him on his toes. Just the things you thank God for. I mean, given we have a whole universe here, you thank God because you're the only Chuck Nice? Well, I'm saying that facetiously. I'm not truly grateful. Other people are grateful that there's not another me. Yeah, believe me.

So we're doing another Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk. Yes, we are. Cool. And so is today themed? Today's theme is superheroes. Superheroes. Questions you have not seen. I've got a few.

I know something about some superheroes, but I'm not the expert. Well, you know, the thing is I've just been perusing these questions right now. And they're not really about the superheroes. I think the people are very thought. Some of them are just ridiculous. Okay. But I want to hear some of those too. Okay.

You ask for them but they're pretty thoughtful in that they're not really asking you about the superhero they're asking you about the physics of the superhero with respect to real life physics gotcha so i can totally rock that yeah i got that yeah okay yeah yeah because every astrophysicist is also a physicist. This is how that works. Exactly. In fact, my undergraduate degree is in physics. Is in physics. Just to set that straight. So you're, you know, it's-

Me and physics go way back. Yeah. So you can't become an astrophysicist without becoming a regular physicist. A regular physicist. That's the deal? Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty much the deal.

Probably half of my colleagues have degrees in physics before they got the PhD in astrophysics. And even if they didn't, half their classes are all in physics. Okay. So now here's my other question. Can you be an astrophysicist without being a PhD? Perhaps, but an astrophysicist, the PhD, forget that it's an education level. The PhD is demonstration that you can perform original research on the frontier of cosmic discovery. Got you. So if you can do that at the master's level, sure, I'll call you an astrophysicist. But at the master's level, the training is less refined to get to that point.

So that's all. So you're more of a Padawan. What is that? That's a Jedi in training. Okay. Excuse me. Just geeking out for a second. By the way, there are people who are at the undergraduate level

or at the master's level who have their names on research papers. But generally they are topics that are selected by their advisors who do have the PhDs, who do understand where the frontier is and how to advance it. So that's how that plays. Yeah, but you're still not an astrophysicist.

You just got your name on a research paper. You got your name on a research paper. That's a start. That's kind of like looking through a telescope and discovering something that nobody has ever seen before and they name it after you. You're still not an astrophysicist. Okay, because you just happen to be looking at the...

You're just a dude who looked up at the right time. Right. Gotcha. Right. And the right place. And the right place. So cool. There is no place without a time and no time without a place.

Right on. Think about that. If you ever go to your friend and say, I'll meet you at 10 o'clock. Well, where? That's true. Okay. No place without time. No time and say, I'll meet you at 10 o'clock. Well, where? That's true. Okay. No place without time. No time without place.

I'll meet you at Shake Shack. When? Right? I mean, the space-time continuum is infused throughout everything we think and do, whether or not you're actively aware of that fact. Apparently, I'm not because I'm late for everything. Okay. So.

So I haven't seen these questions. No, you haven't. Okay. So let's bring it on. Here we go. Let's start. And the point is not to stump me. It's just I'm here to highlight what I know and shed some insight into the topic at hand.

Absolutely. Yeah. So this is, and some of these questions are pretty cool. the topic at hand. Absolutely. Yeah. So this is, and some of these questions are pretty cool.

I'm going to start off with one that I like a lot from Mike Dotson comes to us from earth and Facebook. Okay. Because we agreed if they don't say where they're from, you're going to say they're from earth. They're from earth. So people start telling me where you're from when you send these in, please. All right,

here we go. If there was a superhero whose power was to see the whole spectrum of light, what do you think he or she would see and what could we learn from him or her? So that, first of all,

this person doesn't exist in superhero land. So that's what I think is cool about this. But what if your power was to see all the spectrum of light at once? Such a person has already been created in the world of science fiction.

It's Geordi on Star Trek. That is correct, sir, because he is absolutely blind, but he uses his visor to see all the different spectrums of light. Correct. He has full wide spectrum vision of the world. That's right. And it was quite a discovery in astrophysics that there's more to the universe than just visible light detectable by your retina. I count it as one of the great demotions of human physiology where you learn that this cherished sense that we have called sight is actually quite feeble relative to all the things that are seeable out there in this world.

So we're not seeing anything. We ain't seeing jack. And in fact, you are familiar with the other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, whether or not you knew that that's what they were. So ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays, infrared, microwaves, radio waves, all of this, including visible light, are part of a continuum of electromagnetic energy. Wow. And so, if you could see all of that, it would be a really visually noisy world.

Okay. Because if I'm looking at you now, you'd be glowing with infrared at your 98.6 degrees. Right. I'd look at your cell phone, it would be glowing with microwaves. Right. Oh, by the way, if you it would be glowing with, with microwaves. Right.

If, oh, by the way, if you could see all spectrum, if you're driving the car, you'd be able to see the police, the police radar gun. Right. From a mile away. Because he's shooting at you from, right. Right. You'd say, oh, let me slow down. I got you.

Right. And even if he had a laser radar gun, you'd be able to see. Yeah, you'll be, no matter the frequency of light. Right. So, so it would, you'd be immensely empowered to know what's going on in this world. Right. So you'd be immensely empowered to know what's going on in this world.

Sweet. Yeah, yeah. Now that's kind of like Predator, right? No, he only was able to see his infrared. Predator saw infrared. Plus, consider the film. Plus, in that movie, so we had infrared

scopes in the day. Right. And what you saw in the infrared scopes is what it looked like to him. Right. Okay. However, the infrared scopes are like low resolution, right? You just see these blobs.

Yes, blobs are moving. Right, right. These amorphous kind of blobs. Right. If he was an alien and had advanced technology, he'd be able to see infrared with as much detail as you see visible light. Wow. Why not? Exactly. He'd be able to see infrared with as much detail as you see visible light. Wow.

Why not? Exactly. He'd be able to see like the hands are a little cool, slightly cooler than the rest of the body because it's an extremity. He'd be able to see all these details. But the best we can think of doing is give him the damn low resolution infrared scopes. And just see a bunch of blobs. And see a bunch of blobs moving around.

So he had infrared sight. But it's not clear that he could see in other wavelengths. That wasn't obvious. So that's actually a very cool superhero to be able to see in every spectrum all at once. Yeah, you can see, but then for me, a hero has to do something about, you got to do something. See, I have very low expectations for my heroes. You like the data-taking superhero. Yes, exactly.

My superhero just shows up and tells me stuff. Like, his power is, that's hot, don't touch it. So, yeah, that's just a data-collecting superhero. But fine, that would be superpowers of vision, correct. Gotcha. All right, well, that was be superpowers of vision, correct. Gotcha. All right, well, that was fascinating. Fascinating stuff, Mike Dodson. Way to go.

So Matt Eli from Earth and also Facebook wants to know this. Let's say Superman obeys the laws of physics. Okay. All right, so now we are suspending a lot of disbelief now. Mm-hmm. How does he fly could he use magnetism dark energy seamless transfer of his own mass to energy and air propulsion through his skin pores what would be the thing to cause a humanoid form to take flight without the use of wings or a rocket now when i was a kid and i saw

superman you know as a kid you want to be a superhero right and right at least i did and my favorite superhero was mighty mouse and here i come to say because he sang opera and that was just cool if i want to save women i want to do it while singing. Singing opera. And he had that operatic, you know, here I could, you know, it was a tenor, I guess. Yes, yes. So, and he had a big powerful chest and he would save the damsel. And so I thought that's the kind of superhero I wanted to be. Now, Mighty Mouse had a cape. Yes.

And Superman had a cape. Yes. So to me, I was, it was clear. The cape makes you fly. The cape makes you fly. Exactly. It was clearly the case. Right.

So that I put on a cape and I tried jumping and I didn't jump. I measured that I didn't jump any farther wearing a cape than without a cape. So then I abandoned the idea that the cape made you fly. Right. This was like when I was in third grade or something. Okay. So no, capes, no. Capes are no.

No, no. Right. So, so I, so no capes, no. Capes are no. No, no. So what you have to rely on is his muscular strength from a planet that might have a very high surface gravity. Right. That's really what you had to. Now he came here as an infant, Moses style, right? Right. Launched in a basket.

Yes. Arrived in a basket. Didn't age at all. Probably came through a wormhole so he can get here without aging. Right. And so, but he grows up with the strength of what he would have had on his home planet. Right. All right.

So if you're that strong, then you jump. It looks like you're flying when, in fact, you're just jumping. You're just leaping. You're just leaping. Right. And so look at how much the Hulk leaped. The Hulk can leap up. I hate him.

Yeah, please. And he ain't even wearing a cape. No. Yeah, exactly. Just wearing And he ain't wearing a cape. Just wearing some really sexy cut-offs. What? You know, I've never looked at the Hulk and thought, you're a sexy dude. I'm sorry.

That's kind of cool. He took off his shirt, got some cut-off jeans on. He needs some construction boots and we can talk. Well, he's the sick village people guy, right? So, were there five? I don't know. I've lost count.

So, he was very strong and so he can leap these great distances almost like he's flying. And if you remember, Superman, what's the Superman Begins, no, it was Batman Begins. Batman Begins. But Superman- His origins?

Yeah, yeah. One of the movies was about his origins. When he finally sort of realizes these powers, he's jumping. Right. That's how he starts off. That's how he starts off. It's just leaping. Right.

And he can leap so far. And I would say, if you're going to be a Superman that's real, you have extreme strength, which you know you need to bend steel with your bare hands, and that strength would then translate into your ability to leap very far distances looking like you're flying. Which is, by the way, the original intro to Superman in the television series was able to leap tall buildings in a single

bound. Leap tall buildings. Right. So it wasn't, it never said able to fly. Tall buildings. Right. Able to leap tall buildings. That's a good one.

I'd forgotten about that. So basically, if he were to obey the laws of physics, he's never flying. He'd never be floating in air, just kind of like just chilling. Right. They got that in the later ones, but if it's a Superman and the laws of physics combined yeah you'd he'd be a great leaper he's just a hell of a long jump hell of a long jumper exactly all right there you have it man that makes sense okay all right let's move on to victoria huey coming to us from earth um okay okay there theoretically dr tyson do you think a superhero with the power of

inter-universal travel could ever be truly possible or would the probability of the laws of physics in other universes being different from ours prevent that from ever happening could somebody do it awesome question so in the multiverse concept yes uh these which by the way in thor that is what happens it is the inter-universal travel because thor opens from his world opens up a portal no no no his world i think his world is in our universe he's just the portal gets you from his world to our part of the world all right so there you go isn't isn't that world sectors and we're one of those sectors? I think it is. I think you're right. You're right.

There are six sectors. Right. And we're one of them. We're one of them. And so this is easy access from one sector to another. So that's a wormhole. That's a wormhole. It's essentially a wormhole.

But this would be an inter-universal portal from the multiverse. I got you. So in the multiverse, it's prescribed by the fact that these are fluctuations in the quantum, early quantum universe, all right? And quantum physics is a fascinating understanding of the structure of matter on the smallest scales. Right. There's particles that pop in and out of existence.

I mean, it's a stunning reality that exists at those scales. Now, the whole universe doesn't do that unless the entire universe were the size of an atom. Then when you pop particles in and out of existence, you're actually popping universes in and out of existence. Whoa. Whoa. Now, see, man, now I wish I had some marijuana because that is awesome what you just said. Man, I should be high right now.

That would be so cool. Here's my question. Because that would mean that- Wait, wait, wait. Go ahead. Here's my question. now, that would be so cool. Here's my question.

Because that would mean that. Wait, wait, wait. Go ahead. Here's my question. That fact is so profound. Will the marijuana add to it or subtract? No, marijuana is definitely going to add to that. Because when I think of marijuana, I think of something that adds depth to something that doesn't otherwise have it.

That is also true. This is what I'm saying. But now I'm handing you depth on a silver platter. Now, what it can also do is augment the depth that is already resident. Okay, I hadn't thought about the augment. Yes. Okay. So, you know, it can work both ways.

It can make you look at something and go, whoa, when you shouldn't be doing that at all. You know what I mean? Just like, oh, my God, you put coffee in that coffee cup? Oh, my God, dude, that is so freaking awesome. You mean it's a container completely devoted to just one liquid? Oh, my God, coffee cup. Whoa. See?

Or it could take something that is already mind-blowing and then just cause you to get even deeper into that. Okay. Like the fact that popping in and out of the multiverse on a quantum physics level would mean that we are the atom that's popping in and out. Right. The whole universe is the atom. The whole universe is the atom that's popping in and out. Right. The whole universe is the atom. The whole universe is the atom that's popping. See, that is awesome. Yeah.

So here you have it. So now it turns out our understanding of quantum physics tells us that if you pop a new universe out of this, the laws of physics will likely be slightly different. Okay. Okay. So this ensemble of other universes could, could be dangerous to visit. Right. Crossing from one universe to the other.

And clearly the person who wrote that question understands this. Absolutely. Victoria. You would have to be a superhero who had law of physics, resistant molecules that you were composed of. Right. So maybe there are certain configurations of matter and energy that transcend

even the multiverse itself. Sweet. Then you'd make a superhero out of this super substance so that it could visit different universes and save people in all the different universes. But no one of us could do that because you could fall into a pile of goo. Right, just by popping out.

Just by popping in because the forces that bond your molecules manifest differently from one universe to another. So it would be an excuse to invent a new kind of substance out of which you would make this new kind of superhero. And this new kind of superhero would actually be a new kind of physics, too, because just like quantum physics is different, he would be the quantum physics of the multiverse because he's different. He'd be different, yeah. But what's interesting is if you can make everything out of stuff that's different, then it wouldn't matter what universe you were in. That's true.

Yeah, but you'd have to know how to interact with the stuff that isn't different. That's the fun part. See, this is why we need a marijuana man. This will tell you right now. We've got just less than a minute. What do you got? Oh, God. 30 seconds.

In this segment. Okay. What do you have? Okay. Here you go. Hello, Dr. Tyson. What's the deal with Thor's hammer? Okay. There's a story there.

Really? Yes, yes. But the clock does not provide time to contain it. Okay, well, should we do a cliffhanger? Yeah. So here's the story about Thor's hammer. Look at that. You gotta take a break.

When we come back, Chuck and I return, and we're talking about superheroes in Cosmic Furries. We're back on StarTalk. Yes. StarTalk Radio. You're asked, Tyson. I work at the American Museum of Natural History. Yes, you do.

Yeah. You got to come by sometime. I best. That's there two weeks ago. Have you ever brought any one of your nine kids? No. Well, you do. Yeah. You got to come by sometime. At best, that's there two weeks. Have you ever brought any one of your nine kids? No. Well, my wife did that. However, my son did ask me to go.

Well, you didn't say no, you don't have nine kids. I'm the old dirty bastard of StarTalk. Well, how many kids do you have? Old dirty tuck nights with nine children. I have three. Three kids. Okay, sorry. I exaggerated.

Which, by the way, I am going to come by the planetarium my son wants to go. And their ages are what? I have a 15-year-old daughter who doesn't want any part of me whatsoever. Okay. I have a nine-year-old son who we do everything together.

That's still a good age. That's still great. And I have a two-year-old because I'm an idiot. Okay. That's the answer. That's why stupid penis hate you.

Hate you stupid. Sometimes. Exactly. I can't stay mad at you. Alright. Okay. What were we talking? We left off with a Cosmic Query. What was it? Oh, we left off with a cosmic query.

What was it? Yeah, which I thought was a really simple little cosmic query. But what's up with Thor's hammer? Yeah. And this is Dietrich Iswig Kaya is just coming to us from Earth. From Earth. Okay. And once again, here's the question.

Hello, Dr. Tyson. What's the deal with Thor's hammer? Okay. So here's the deal. All right. I Tyson. What's the deal with Thor's hammer? Okay, so here's the deal. All right. I'm watching Thor, the movie. Right. All right.

Now, I don't go back to the earliest comic books, so I don't count myself as a comic book expert, but I do enjoy some good movies about superheroes. So I'm watching the Thor movie. Okay. Right? The first of the movies. The first of the movies. And there's a scene where one of the characters describes the hammer as being forged in the ashes of a dying star. Wow.

And I said, yes, I can calculate this. Now, there are many different kinds of dying stars. Right. But the Thor's hammer is very heavy. And only Thor can pick it up. Right. So let me go to the kind of dying star that's really heavy. Okay. And that would be a neutron star.

Right. Which is made of dense pack neutrons. So I said, well, how big is Thor's hammer? So a friend of mine who has a replica of Thor's hammer gave it to me and I measured the size of the hammer. And I said, okay, if we make a hammer out of neutron star matter okay i can calculate how much that would weigh awesome it would weigh as much as a herd of three billion elephants wow three billion plus or minus i have to i tweeted this i would go back and check my tweet but it's a number about it might have have been 30 billion, but it's heavy.

Right. And then I realized that's why even the Hulk couldn't pick it up. Right. Because what, there's nothing the Hulk can't do. Can't pick this up. Because it weighs as much as a herd of 3 billion elephants. Right. And again, the exact number is in my tweet.

You go back like a few months, it's there. Like a year, it's there. All right. So I tweeted that and I said, and I have a picture of my hand holding the Thor replica. And I said, Thor lent me his hammer to do some experiments. And here's the picture. At its current density, forged out of the ashes

of a dying star, bada--bing here's how much it weighs and people say oh my gosh mind blown oh my gosh that is pretty mind-blowing wait so now watch wait then a couple months later someone comes in and says i am an expert on thor and norse legends and you did not do the right calculation. Really? And I said, what? And he said, so this person is a professor of physics. Okay. And Norse god specialist. Wow.

Okay. He gets laid a lot. Okay, so I got nothing on him there. All I do is see the damn movie, all right? Okay, he's a Norse god specialist forgive me i forgot his name but he's out there and he came back and said nope you didn't do the it's made of some ethereal stuff and he made some estimate about how much the density and how much it would weigh and the thor's hammer would weigh about six pounds and i said no that ain't right no i like my answer better even if

it's wrong yeah yeah yeah i was say, that does not sound cool. Weighs about six pounds. But I suppose that what he's saying is because he's a god and you have to be worthy, only the person worthy to rule Asgard can lift the hammer. I get it, but my wrong answer was way cooler. Yeah, it is way cooler. Because six pounds, how much does Thor's hammer weigh? Six pounds.

That sucks. Right, right, exactly. Thor's hammer weigh? Six pounds. That sucks. Right, right, exactly. That's a suck-ass answer. I conceded, and I said thank you, but still. Yeah, Neutron, dying Neutron star, that's cool. Yeah, a Deutron star is the remnant of a star that has just exploded as a supernova. Right.

So there's the ashes of a dying star for you. Yeah, but he was saying it's some mythical substance that it's made of. All right, and six pounds is the answer. Whatever. There's some other. Again, the right numbers are in the tweet. Because I'm not doing calculations in front of you right now, but when I did the tweet, I did the calculation.

Yeah. Because you got me on the spot here. Well, who knew that Dietrich would come up with a super cool question so simply put, what's up with Thorstein? Well, because there's a whole story behind it. There's a back story. Exactly. My, what's up with Thor? Well, because there's a whole story behind it. There's a backstory. Exactly. My calculation,

I was shown to be wrong and it was by a physicist, Norse expert. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, what does he know? Spend all that time studying Norse gods, please. All right.

Thanks for ruining it, Dr. Norse god. And what day of the week is named after Thor? Oh, I don't know. Thursday? Thursday. It's true. Is that for real? It named after Thor? Oh, I don't know. Thursday? Thursday. It's true.

Is that for real? It's actually true. Yes, of course. Thursday. And Thor is like wheels of the lightning bolt, as does Jupiter. And Zeus. They're corresponding, yeah,

they're corresponding jobs, gods. And so in the romance languages, what is Thursday? I don't know. Don't you know any romance languages? No, because I only speak English. I don't speak Spanish, French, Italian any Romance languages? No. Because I only speak English. I don't speak Spanish, French, Italian. Romance language is named after Jupiter.

So they're corresponding gods. In English, we got the Norse gods. And in the Romance languages, they got the Roman gods. Nice. Because it's the Romance language. Romance. They get the Romance gods. I thought it was because

when you have that accent, chicks just dig you. I think that's why they call it the romance. Anytime you speak like, look, I go to a girl and I go, hey, how are you? Then she's like, yeah, whatever. But if I go, how are you? Then it's all of a sudden cool. How are you? How are you?

Right. Oh, my God, where are you from? You know, that's... But all I'm saying is that romance comes from Rome. That's all. Okay. All right. The fact that we attach sex and dating to it, that's another layer on top of...

That would be my problem. Okay. Okay. All right, let's go to Ben Croft coming to us from Earth. Mm-hmm. All right, let's go to Ben Croft coming to us from Earth. Mm-hmm. Okay, Dr. Tyson, in your opinion,

who would be the most scientifically accurate and believable superhero with superhuman abilities in relation to real-world physics and counterpoint the most unbelievable and inaccurate and why? And he is coming to us from Brisbane, Australia. Oh, cool. So I think the most reachable superhero that's out there is Batman. Got it. Because he uses real devices on his utility belt. Exactly.

And there's nothing there that you say, oh, that can't happen, or you couldn't have done that, or, you know, yeah, he's got some special materials, but that's okay, because his company makes really- He's a billionaire. Yeah, he's got some special materials, but that's okay because his company makes really – He's a billionaire. Yeah, he's a billionaire. And his company is working for the government, developing experimental technologies for the military. And he's got stuff that you don't have. Absolutely.

So for me, he's the most realistic superhero. And Robin as well. He's just an acrobat in tights. Okay. At least that's their cover. Oh, you know we know the deal. So at least that's their cover. Oh, you know we know the deal. Hanging around with that young boy all the time, putting him in underwear.

Living at your house, your big billionaire mansion. We know the deal. We know the deal. Oh, yes, that's my young ward. Oh, is that what you call him? Oh, your young ward. Oh, okay. Okay, child services won't be called because you're a billionaire and you's my young ward. Oh, is that what you call him? Oh, your young ward. Oh, okay. Okay, child services won't be called because you're a billionaire and you have a young ward, okay?

Let me do that. I am up on charges. I swear I've never thought about it that way. Nor did I ever think that Bert and Ernie were a gay couple. You know, there's a whole or that Tinky Winky was the gay one out of the, you know, there's a whole there's a whole literature on who

and what might be gay. I forgot what I was talking about. So you were saying that he's the most realistic as Batman. He's more real than Iron Man because the energy source that Iron Man is drawing from, to concentrate that much energy in one place, you would basically vaporize everything it was touching. And the other thing, too, is when you think about Tony Stark having this power source inside his chest. Right.

Okay, let's be honest. Let's just hook him up to a city and forget it because that's amazing. Right. Why is this guy flying around in a suit instead of powering New York for free? But go ahead. Right. So you can't concentrate energy. Anything that you've ever used that has a lot of energy going on with it gets very hot

very quickly. Right. That's what energy does. If you fire a gun enough times, the gun gets warm. It can even get too hot to touch. Too hot to touch, yeah. Right, right. And cannons in the old days, in fact, they

used cannons firing cannon balls and the heat, the fact that the cannon kept getting hotter and hotter and hotter to discover and come to an understanding of how heat worked. A physicist would say, you know, can we, while you're fighting this war, can we come in here and measure? Measure, right, measure.

And they thought there was a substance called caloric, which was a fluid that would be heat. And if you put caloric from one thing to the other, then that thing would be at a higher temperature. And so there were early ideas where we were intellectually sort of machinating how this would work. So Tony Stark, well, I think he could wipe the floor with Batman. Right.

If I had to be one of those, I'd definitely be Tony Stark. Yeah, because you're both billionaires. So hey, why not, right? No, they're both billionaires. That's what I'm saying. Right, right. Yeah, pick the billionaire. Pick the billionaire you want to be.

Right, right. And so definitely, but it's the energy, the concentration of energy is not real. So there you go. Now, the least- Least believable. Least believable. A Hulk. The Hulk.

Come on now. Is that because he's made from gamma radiation? Yeah. So first of all, gamma rays will kill you, first of all. But let's hold that detail aside for the moment. All right. Now, next it would mess with your dna okay so we get that so here he is turning green all right so let's even allow

that he increases in mass and then decreases in mass like where does that if you if you want to do that you're converting energy into mass and back again you he would explode wherever he was the city whatever so you can't just get bigger unless he has the same mass. And if he is, then he's less dense in the state of Hulk than he is as Bruce Banner. So he's just kind of, but he'd be very kind of like Marshmallow. Like Marshmallow, or what's the balloon you play with at the beach? A beach ball. He'd be like a beach ball. at the beach? A beach ball.

It'd be like a beach ball. It'd be like a beach ball. Right. Unless maybe that he could just like seven minute abs, perhaps. Could that? That could be the. So the Hulk, and why is he so angry so much? You know, that's anger management.

But see, that's Banner's repressed anger. Oh. So it isn't necessarily that the Hulk is- It is the manifestation. Right. It's that he is really, Banner's the angry guy. Okay. He's the guy with the psychological problems, and then the Hulk is his-

So it's an extreme Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Absolutely. But at least Mr. Hyde, no. Yeah, at least Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde didn't have more mass in his state. Right. He was just evil. Psychologically.

Right. So I would say the Hulk. Everybody else, you know, there's some plausible thing, radioactive spider, you know, okay, I'm there. You come from another planet. Easy enough. Easy enough. Don't have to explain that. Nothing to explain.

It's just like that Saturday Night Live skit, We're From France. What were they called? The Coneheads. The Coneheads. We're From France. And that was it. That was it.

Explain everything. That explains everything. Who's the rock guy? That's a little weird. That's the thing from the Fantastic Four. That's a little weird. He is also like the Hulk in that some weird experimentation turns him into that. Right, right.

But then he has to change himself molecularly. But he can't do that. See, that's the coolest thing about the thing. He's just stuck like that nasty rock looking thing. Remind me how he becomes rock? I forgot how it actually happened. But he got caught in this. No, I know.

No, I know. But in some kind of. Same radiation thing. Right. Okay. So now the stretchy people, that's a little weird. Yes, exactly. You know.

Yeah. So that's, what's his face? Plastic Man. Plastic Man. Yeah. And Elasto Man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know.

But I'd still put the Hulk at the top of the unbelievable list. He's unbelievable. Yeah, but he's still fun. And Batman is the most believable. For me, yeah. Yeah don't know. But I'd still put the Hulk at the top of the unbelievable list. He's unbelievable. Yeah, but he's still fun. And Batman is the most believable. For me, yeah. Yeah. There you go. I'm with you on the Batman thing, too.

I think that's why he's able to beat Superman is because he- That has not been established yet. I think it has. The movie's not out yet. Well, but it's been done before in the comic books and in the animated series. Batman wins, and the reason why he wins? He's a job creator. He's a billionaire. Really, that's the answer.

He's a billionaire. Alright. Maybe we can fit one more in before the break. What do you got? Okay, here we go. This is from Elijah Claude, and Elijah wants to know this. The reason why the Flash is one of the most powerful heroes is because of his speed, i.e.

He uses speed force, which apparently surpasses the cosmic speed limit of light. Seeing that the closer you get to the speed of light, the more space-time bends for you, could he speed his... Wait. Could speed itself be considered

a force? No. However, if he's actually going faster than light, which I didn't know, but let's assume that's true for the sake of this answer. For the sake of the thing. He would be moving back in time. So the cool thing about it is if he wants to go someplace so fast to stop something from happening. He would just go back in time. The act of going faster than light takes him back in time. So he's there before the person even thought to do so.

Oh, snap! He's the minority report of superheroes! Oh, that was cool, man. Yeah, so that would be the true way to stop the crime. You see it happening, and you go so fast, you catch it before it happened, and you'd be the precog. Right? In minority report.

Yeah, that would be cool. But otherwise, the bending of space-time is what, gravity does that. If he's just going fast, he's in his own little, yeah, he can go back in time, but he's not affecting everybody around him the way a gravity field would. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that'd be cool. That would be cool.

Yeah, yeah. We got to take a break, and when we come back, more StarTalk. Cosmic Prairie's edition. Superhero. I'm back with more Chuck. We're back on StarTalk. StarTalk Radio. Cosmic Prairie's edition.

Chuck, where do all these questions come from? Chuck Nice is my co-host here. Yes, I am. And we're getting them from all over. Chuck, where do all these questions come from? Chuck Nice is my co-host here. Yes, I am. And we're getting them from all over. Facebook, Twitter. So Facebook, we're StarTalk Radio on Facebook. And then- Twitter is at StarTalk Radio, yeah.

And people have actually sent some via to the startalk.net to ask. So everywhere, yeah. All over. The whole social media presence. Okay, cool. Yeah. Cool. And you're Star Chuck.

Star Chuck. Star Chuck Nice. Star Chuck Nice. You're Chuck Nice Comic on Twitter. On Twitter. And anyone cares about my tweets, it's just Neil Tyson, at Neil Tyson.

At Neil Tyson. And you're on Instagram too? Yeah, I'm on Instagram. I don't even use it, but I'm on there, at Chuck Nice Comic. Everything is at Chuck Nice. At Neil Tyson. And you're on Instagram too? Yeah, I'm on Instagram. I don't even use it, but I do. I'm on there, at Chuck Nice Comic. Everything is at Chuck Nice. It's Chuck Nice Comic. All right.

All right. We'll find you. I changed it all to Chuck Nice Comic. All right. All right. So what's the next question? Superheroes. Bring it on.

And in this segment, if we don't get through all the questions, we go into lightning round with like five minutes left. So where I soundbite all answers. All right. Here we go. All right. round with like five minutes left so okay where I sound bite all answers all right all right and you know we we had a break and you asked about how I told you how stupid some of these questions were and you said go ahead cuz you don't get to see the question so you were like you were like no give me a give me a stupid question to me what we are calling a stupid question you are not calling a

stupid maybe it's you're not you don question. You are not calling a stupid question. Maybe it's deep and you don't know why it's deep. Is that possible? That is very possible. There you go. But not for this question. Here we go. Grieg, first of all.

What a name. I like the name. Grieg Lord. Grieg. Grieg. As in the composer. Yes. Grieg Lord.

Edvard Grieg. Yes. so greek wants to know this when superman farts is the gas or the wind more lethal because he has super breath you know what i mean where he can freeze things so oh yeah so would his super farts be the same way? So I think he eats regular food. Right. Right. And so if he eats regular food, then the anaerobic digestion of that food that occurs in one's lower intestine would be creating the smelly gases that are associated with the, the effluences of the human orifices. So, well, well, cause they're human, but so

would Superman's have, would it be extra potent? One might ask. Right. I don't see why not, because here's what's interesting. Here, here's something Superman would be cool if he could do this. You know, his breath can freeze things. Yes. You cool if he could do this. You know his breath can

freeze things. You've seen that. But I've never seen his breath turn things on fire. No, it hasn't. His eyes do that. Whereas the methane, well, because he focuses a laser on it. The methane that comes out of butt effluences, methane is actually

flammable. Yes, it is. And that's the gas that is in the stove. If you have gas, typically in the city, you'll have methane coming out of your stove that lights. Okay. So. If he could look at his own butt, he could light his own farts. Well, what I'm saying, exactly. So he can use his laser to light the fart and turn it into a flamethrower.

I'm just inventing I mean you asked me the question So that would just kind of look funny Right he's got to birth him He pulls down his drawers. Chuck. No, I'm just, if it's flammable for him, it would be more flammable, right? Because whatever it is in human, it's super in him.

Chuck, you're tearing up here. You're killing me, Chuck. But that image is crazy. But it right this he does super thing chuck is crying okay you asked the question i'm just saying there's physics in everything that's what i'm I can't tell you how sorry I am. Oh, God. Oh, my God. Well, Grieg, you were too funny. Thank you. Who knew we would get all of that?

I said it was a stupid question. I take that back. And we discover a new power for Superman. Oh, God. I will never get that image out of my head. Every time I see Superman, I'm going to wait for him to pull down his pants, look at his butt, and turn his ass into a flamethrower. I'm sorry. That's amazing.

Oh, God. Okay. All right. Let's compose. Okay. Move on. Okay. Okay. All right. What's next? All right, let's compose. Move on. Okay. Okay. All right, what's next?

All right. This one's from Drew. Just him pulling down his drawers. Oh, I know. That's what got me. Just, oh, God. Or having one of those little button flaps on his leotard. That would be even better.

All right, here we go. All right, this is from Drew Del Fonte. Who wants to know this? If you, Dr. Tyson, had superpowers and could travel through space with no problems, where would you travel first? In other words, you can fly through space like Superman. Okay. Okay, so you don't need oxygen and all that.

And for what reason? My guess is that, and this is what I love about it, you would travel to a black hole to study it. This is what he's saying he thinks you would do. Now, what would you do? All right. So black holes are very cool. But rather than study a black hole, I would study phenomena in the universe that are sort of transitory. So I'd want to be right up, if I had protective shield around me,

I'd want to observe and study exactly what a star does before it explodes its guts to smithereens in the form of a supernova. Wow. I want to be there, because we can see supernova from across the universe.

Right. That's how bright they are. Right. And they wreak havoc on their environments. And that star, before it exploded, I want to see the state of matter and structure that it had. Right. Because imagine what you must be instants before you explode with enough energy to be

seen across the universe. Right. That pre-state that you're in, to me, would be immensely fascinating. Wow. That's what I would do. I, to me, would be immensely fascinating. Wow. I'd watch a supernova explode. Nice. And then I would know that the ingredients within that supernova are the very atoms that comprise life as we know it. And I'd watch the carbon and the nitrogen and the oxygen and the silicon all scatter out into the galaxy.

And I'd say to myself, there goes the birth ingredients of the next generation of stars. Wow. That's kind of cool. Basically, they're for cosmic sex. Okay. It's how stars make other stars. And, sweetheart, that's how stars

are born. Okay. All right. That was cool, man. So, not a black hole, but actually something just as cool, which is the supernova. By the way, if you want two for one, there are some supernova that our calculations suggest leave a black hole as a remnant. So then you get two for one on that one. Oh, nice. That's a threesome.

Okay. So here's the deal from Jerry James. Jerry James says, Superman coming to us from Earth and Facebook. Jerry James says, Superman absorbs radiation from the sun like a solar battery and converts it into his powers. This is what he's saying, not me. If he never used his powers, wouldn't that radiation build up inside of him, causing him to emit dangerous radiation to everyone around him? By the way, if he is doing that, wouldn't he just be a radioactive

person? Yes. And he had a very high temperature. As I said earlier, you can't store energy in an unlimited way without you getting hot. It's just how nature manifests itself. So, yeah.

So, no, no, he'd be very hot, and you'd know he was coming from long, and just carry a Geiger counter. No. That's his breathalyzer. That's his breathalyzer, yeah. So, no, I don't see that happening. Plus, the claim was our star somehow nourished his energy.

But we know how to take all the energy from our sun. We have solar panels and things. He's not going to absorb it faster or better than a solar panel will. So I'm not there on that one. Okay. Got you. Got you. All right.

Bending steels with his bare hands, I'm good with that. And flying in blue pantyhose, I'm good with that. But taking energy from the sun? No. No. No. No. Okay.

Not in a million years. All right. Okay. Jennifer Anderson. Not Aniston, but Jennifer Anderson. I just realized we're being filmed for this Cosmic Query. Yes, we are. I guess we post that on Facebook.

Yes, we do. I just realized my head has been turned away from the camera the entire show. Okay. Okay. There we camera the entire show. Okay. Okay, there we go. All right. Okay, go for it. All right, Jennifer Anderson wants to know this. In Doctor Who, the TARDIS uses a star frozen at the point of becoming a black hole as its means for time travel, the eye harmony.

Could you send a ship to a black hole and be able to travel time and interact with events? Or would it just get sucked in and only observed all the events that the black hole had eaten? Ooh. So it turns out if you have a rotating black hole, there's a trajectory through it where you could possibly come out the other side before when you left. And so there are these trajectories in specially configured black holes. So sure. So theoretically, yes. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. You can, yes. If that's how they explain time travel in the TARDIS, the time in relative dimensions in space, did you know that? That would work out. It was an acronym. So yeah, in principle,

black holes are where you would be doing this. So, even if it's impossible, even if it's impossible, if it were possible at all, you'd need the black hole. You'd need the black hole, if it were possible at all. That's how you would have to do it. But if you've ever listened to the great courses, you would know that you would be

spaghettified before that even happened. Oh, I gave one of my lectures on that. Yeah, I know. I listened to it. You listened to it. It's a great course. Well, thank you. All right.

So I think we are in the lightning round. Wait, I got my bell. Wait a minute. Boom. There we go. Okay, lightning round. All my answers will be sound bites. Go.

Orlando Alonzo from Facebook and Earth wants to know, could Magneto control the core of the Earth? Yes. Boom. Next question. But just because something's made of metal doesn't mean Magneto can control it because not all metal is magnetic. Ooh.

There you go. Great answer. I'm just saying. Nice. Okay, go. All right. Could Lois Lane have Superman's baby? Because we are aliens, all right?

Oh, well, okay. And would the baby kick through her womb? Busting out. That was funny. That was good. I would say Superman looks so humanoid that there's got to be sufficient overlap there to try a cross-species baby. Okay.

He looks so humanoid. Yeah, he's so much like us, that. Yeah, yeah. So I'd give it that. And yeah, watch out. The baby could kick out like the alien. Like an alien. Yeah.

All right. That was from Fernando Felipe Levia, by the way. I'm messing with the... There we go. Okay, go. All right. All right. Here's the next one.

If you, Dr. Tyson, could have a... Wait, wait, wait. Wait. Back up to the Superman. If Spock could be half Vulcan, half human... Right....then Lois Lane can have a half super, half human baby. Kryptonian baby. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, there you go. C. Sean Smith wants to know this. If you, Dr. Tyson, could have one superpower, what would it be and why? I like to read people's minds. Because then you know in advance if they're going to commit a crime or if they want to commit a crime

and you can keep tabs on them. You want to know if someone likes you. It would have been really useful in middle school. That would have been totally the best thing ever to have. Just read minds. Sweet. Okay, good. All right, Mark Cervantes wants to know this.

Cervantes. Cervantes wants to know this. Could Superman fly to Uranus? And if so, what would he find? He would find asteroids on Uranus. You gave it right back to him. Okay. All right, here's the deal.

Juan Herrera wants to know this. Dr. Tyson, if we only use 10% of our brains, is there any way possible that we could develop telekinetic powers like Professor X and reach the full potential of our brain? The fact is the idea that we use 10% of our brain was never true. It is a misquote from what actually was said by the actual neuroscientist 100 years ago, who said the brain is so complex, we only know what 10% of it is used for. Boom.

And that became, we only use 10% of our brain. Gotcha. So all this stuff with Professor X, and what's that movie? Oh, with the girl. Lucy. Lucy. Lucy. Lucy.

This is a fiction based on a misinterpretation of someone who's just trying to say how much we don't yet know about the brain. There you go. And why presume that extra brain power means you can move stuff? Why does it just mean you can figure stuff out better? Right, exactly. You're just smarter. You're just smarter.

I can't move stuff. I just read faster. Yeah, you read faster. You'll invent solutions to problems. So I don't know where people got this telekinetic stuff. Yeah. I want to move something. I'll reach out and touch it.

Okay? There you go. So the answer is no. No. So that's all the time we got, Chuck. Oh, man. This was fun. Chuck, thanks for having me. Chuck, thanks for go. So the answer is no. No. So that's all the time we got. Chuck. Oh, man. This was fun. Chuck, thanks for having me.

Chuck, thanks for being on Star Talk. As always. Oh, my gosh. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. You've been listening to Star Talk Radio. And as always, I bid you to keep looking up.