StarTalk Radio - Cosmic Queries: The Random Edition

Episode Date: August 26, 2016

It’s time for Cosmic Queries, where your own personal astrophysicist Neil Tyson answers fan-submitted questions, sight unseen. This week, co-host Chuck Nice chooses questions about the periodic table, universal north, Ceres, exploring Europa, and more. 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'm here in studio with Chuck Nice sitting across from me. Yes. Chuck Nice, comedian. How you doing, man? I'm doing very well.

You got gigs lately? Yeah. I don't want to be your only gig, you know? I still do my little TV shows that I do. Yeah, they bring you on to comment on stuff. Yeah, you know. The latest one, you should check it out if you can on True TV called How to Be a Grown-Up. Okay.

Why they asked me to be on it, I'll never know. And I still do stand-up. Okay. Well, very cool. I still do stand-up. You know, I don't think I've ever seen you do stand-up. Oh, really? You've got to come sometime.

Let me restate that. I don't think I've ever been invited to see you do stand-up. You know, I don't think I've ever seen you do stand-up. Oh, really? You gotta come sometime. Let me restate that. I don't think I've ever been invited to see you do stand-up. Snap. From what I hear, I'm very funny. That's what people tell me all the time. So,

we've got another Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk. Yes, this one. This is like, fans and people like Cosmic Queries. You know, I'd rather, you know, I prefer to be like interviewing guests and stuff, you know. Oh, well, thanks. No, I'm not. Instead of being like encyclopedia man for the universe, but. I think people enjoy the passion that you bring to the answers of the questions.

Okay. You know, it's like, I know your thing is to empower people to find information on their own or to steer them to other information. I know that's what you like to do. As an educator. As an educator. But what I think people, you don't want to be the actual resource, like, you know. Exactly. Like my mom used to say, I was like, what's that mean?

Go look it up. That's what she used to say. Mom, what's this word mean? I don't be your damn Wikipedia page. But I think what people enjoy is the fact that you bring the information in a very entertaining and very passionate, fervent way. Okay. So that's what they really dig, not just the fact that you're giving the information.

All right. All right. So let's do this. Let's do this. And I haven't seen these questions at all. No, you have not. And these are from- And the category? No category. So there's do this. Let's do this. And I haven't seen these questions at all. No, you have not. And these are from- And the category?

No category. So there's the leftovers. Little hodgepodge. Potpourri. The potpourri. Okay. That's right. Cosmic Queries potpourri.

And in math, we would call it random. Right. Yes. Rather than potpourri hodgepodge. Right. Random. Random. Okay, go.

Cosmic Queries random. The random edition. Mm-hmm. Go. Okay. Kasim Johnson wants to know this from Facebook and Earth, because he doesn't tell me where on Earth he is from. Yeah.

If you don't say it, we're just going to say you're Earth. Right. Yeah. All right. He says, is it possible for a stable black hole to exist within a stable star? Ooh. Yeah, that's kind of a wild question. No.

No. The black hole would eat the star. Ooh, from the inside out. Yeah. Oh, my God, that's amazing. Yeah, that'd be nasty, too. That would be ugly. Ugly, totally ugly.

It's like the Asian drawing of a dragon eating itself. Oh, or its tail. Or its tail, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So no, there you have it. Wow, look at that, man. Hey.

That's a general image of a serpent. So snakes would eat their tail, too. Right. Because snakes don't have legs, so it's just a string eating itself. Right. It's a more clean version of the image of that. Right. A snake eating itself.

A snake eating itself. But no, but so that's eating it from the outside. The black hole would eat it from the inside. Nice. Yeah. Well, there you have it. Good question. And by the way, the center of a star is where it's at its hottest, which is the source of the generation of energy.

So if your center became a black hole, you're not generating any energy for the star anymore. Right. And that's all she wrote. And that's it. So the star would just get sucked right up. Yep, yep. Okay.

Nice, nice. All right, so Thomas Ballet. Wait, wait, wait. Now you have to do your imitation of the supermassive black hole after just ate something. No, no, no. Was that it? No, that wasn't it.

Okay. That's a, that wasn't it. Okay. That's a middle school version of it, right? Right, right. No, no, it was the black hole eating any star that comes nearby. And he said, he, he. It was just a fat black hole. Oh, yeah. It's a fat black hole.

Hey, hey, hey. Oh, yeah. It's a fat black hole. Hey, hey, hey. Oh, that was delicious. I believe I just had a cosmic snack. Uh-huh. It's the fat black hole. I believe that was delicious. Yeah, so black hole, yeah, it would eat the star from within. It would eat the star from within.

Thank you for the personification of the black hole. Exactly. I can't believe I just ate myself. All right, Thomas Valenzuela wants to know this. You got to admit that's a cool last name. That is, Valenzuela. Valenzuela. You can't beat that.

Yeah. I used to love that picture for the Dodgers. Yeah, yeah. All right, so does the rotation of the galaxies give us north and south orientation in the universe? Based on something similar to the Coriolis effect, and if that is the case, could it be used as a reference to measure distances and our position versus the equator of the universe? No. Okay, next question.

No, there's some interesting backstory here. Yes. So in physics, we have an unambiguous way of how to define what is north. Really? Yes. Okay. Really? Yes. Okay. Okay, please. So north has meaning only in things that rotate.

Okay. All right. If I put a book in front of you and say, what's north? That means nothing. It means nothing. Okay. Rotate something. Now, take your right hand, curl your fingers in the direction the thing is rotating.

Okay. Then stick up your thumb. Mm-hmm. That's north. Got you. Okay. Then stick up your thumb. Mm-hmm. That's north. Got you. Okay. Got you. And so that's how we can say if something is

rotating upside down. Right. Relative to north because you'd have to twist your hand upside down. Curl it. Curl the fingers and now it's rotating in that direction. Now your thumb is pointing down.

It's pointing down. Okay. So that's how we define rotation. We did not know that the galaxy was a rotating thing until long after we had named it. Why is it called galaxy? Galaktos is Greek for milk. That's the milky way going across the night sky. Because it just looked like a streak of white across the blackened night sky.

They didn't think it was literally milk, but it was the poetic reference to it. Right. And so that's the galaxy. milk but it was the poetic reference to it right and so so that's the galaxy and now if you learn that it is a flattened system and then you want to ask does it have a north and a south we astronomers in the early day assigned the north pole of the galaxy to the pole of the galaxy that happened to be in the northern hemisphere of the Earth, of Earth's sky. Gotcha. All right.

Because we're seeing it from the north or top part of our reference. We would later learn which way the galaxy was rotating, and it turns out it's turning the other way. Gotcha. So we are stuck calling the north pole of the galaxy the opposite of what our laws that we made for ourselves to define it as such would give us. Gotcha. Yeah. So in other words, what we say is the south polar of the galaxy is in the north, what

we say is the north polar of the galaxy is in the northern hemisphere sky, but it's actually the south polar of the galaxy. Yeah, yeah. So yes, we can orient the galaxy, but the universe, we've never found a way to orient it. There's no patch of material in one direction or another, an axis, a distribution, a plane, none of that. The stuff is pretty random as far out as you go. That's cool, man.

Yeah, so we could do that here on Earth because we have all of those things to measure and look at. There's a North Pole of the solar system. Which way are all the planets turning around the sun? Because we see the sun as the center. Which way is the sun rotating? So that sun has a North Pole. Everybody's got a North Pole.

Gotcha. That is cool. And that's because we didn't know it was rotating. We had to discover the galaxy because we're in it. It's like, how do you know what your mother looks like if you're an embryo within her womb? That's so funny. You don't know. No, you don't.

So one of the last things we discovered was what the hell we look like in the galaxy. What a great example. How do you know what your mom looks like before you're born? Yeah, you have no idea. Right. You know her voice. Unless you get a selfie stick and put it out there. Oh, Jesus.

What? I'm just, there could be a way to do it that's all I'm saying okay let's move on to Alex Perkins Alex is coming to us from, and Alex says, hey, I just turned 30. Hey, happy birthday, man. How feasible is it in my lifetime to see people land on Europa? Now, I suppose he's using the average lifespan, because we don't know. Alex could be hit by a bus next week. You know, that's not, what, what, what, what? Alex. I don't, that's not. What? Alex.

I don't think that's the life expectancy he's planning for this question. Okay, you're right. Alex, if you're going to hit by a bus next week, you ain't never seeing this happen. All right? So. So in the average lifespan now, I'd like to believe that before Alex turns 100, this is a positive outlook, Alex, that we might be able to send people to Europa. That would just be very cool.

That would happen only the day we are, like the solar system is our backyard. I don't see that as a destination itself. I see that as just one of the many things we're doing in space, visiting Europa. And it'd be very cool. I talk about going to Europa all the time. Yeah. Go ice fishing on Europa. It's an outer icy layer of ice.

And stress from Jupiter's gravity heats Europa. By the way, Europa and Jupiter are outside of the Goldilocks zone. Right. So if you're outside of it, your water is evaporated because you're too close. Or you're frozen because you're too far away. Right. Jupiter pumps energy into Europa because of its gravity and has melted the ice beneath the surface.

So it's like an M&M. It's an M&M moon. It's got a hard candy outside. A hard candy. Yes, it's soft and squishy. A nice, watery, squishy inside. So you're out there, and I want to go, like I've said this many times, I want to go ice fishing on Europa.

There's a movie called The Europa Report, which is about man's first mission to Europa. Nice. And they want to look for life there. So, yeah, I think that could happen, definitely in his lifetime. Well, with all those oceans underneath Europa, how likely is the possibility of life? Well, water and life go together hand in hand here on Earth. And I've said this before.

There's life every place on Earth where there's water, liquid water. Even the Dead Sea. Correct. Now, why is there life in the Dead Sea? Why is it called the Dead Sea? Because they, okay, there are no macroscopic fishes

swimming around. But at the time they named it the Dead Sea, you know what they didn't have? No. A microscope. A microscope. There you go. So there you have it.

Right. So they're defining their world by what their senses tell them, when in fact what science is all about is extending your senses and creating new ways of detection that your biological form can't even approximate. And then you deduce the nature of the world. Gotcha. Yeah. Sweet. Yeah. Sweet. Yeah. All right.

Great question, Alex, and I hope you live to be 100, buddy. Okay? Okay. All right. James Claver wants to know this. He's from Bangor, Michigan. He says, I've been reading your book, Death by Black Hole. Oh, thank you.

It's a fan favorite, Death by Black Hole. And you mentioned that scientists knew there were holes in the periodic table well before they were discovered. I'm just wondering, how did they know? Maybe a brief history of how they were originally organized. So we know these tables. We know that there's gaps. How do they know there's gaps? Yeah, so I'd love me some periodic table.

I can't get enough periodic table, just so you know. Gotcha. So once you learn how to organize the elements, which is what Mendeleev figured out, a Russian scientist. Once you do that, if you arrange them by how many protons are in their nucleus, very simple way to, okay. That's pretty simple. How many protons you got? Count the protons. You got four, then you're over here.

You got five, go next to four. You got seven, skip one. Do we have six yet? No, not, well, actually we did have six. Six is carbon. But do we have eight? That's oxygen. Give me a hard one.

Do we have nine? Right. And if, no, we don't have it yet, but we got 10. So 10 go in your 10 slot. Right. Well, who's, where's nine? We don't have it yet. Well, get, get off your ass and find me some

nine. And so this, these are how we, you establish the gaps in the periodic table. The periodic table is complete from one up to a hundred and, what are we up to 110 or 12 or something. So it's not like you're going to discover some other element that's going to pry itself.

Right, that's going to, right, because there's no 9.7. There's no 9.7, correct, correct. That's why it's complete. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. Some aspects of science are complete. Gotcha.

That's how it is. That's why it's a beautiful thing. And it's a record of discovery over the centuries, and I love it. So now- For example, the element, we discovered an element on the sun before we discovered it so now for example the element we discovered an element on the sun before we discovered it here on earth okay and we named it after the sun the sun god helios helium

which became helium which is a lot of that in the sun uh yeah it's like temper about 10 percent yeah helium and we're running out of it on earth on earth that's right that's right and so helium is not uncommon in the universe. And because we keep filling Thanksgiving Day balloons with helium. No, actually in the old days they would let it escape. Right. And then regenerate the helium, but now they recapture it. I've been told.

Okay. Because Macy's is the second biggest consumer of helium in the world. Get out of here. After the US military. And- Helium has very special properties, not all of which I can divulge. Get out. Really. After the US military. And- Helium has very special properties, not all of which I can divulge. Get out.

Really? Yeah. Come on. Yeah. Oh, like making you talk funny? That happens too. That's the best one. Not a secret.

Not a secret. Oh, okay. Because that's the best one, by the way. All right, great stuff, man. So there you have it. Periodic. So now that, okay. That's how you know you have a missing element.

That's what I'm saying. So now- Go away. Let's take it one step have a missing element. That's what I'm saying. So now, now, now. Go away. Let's take it one step further. Go ahead. There's an element that was missing and we did the calculation after quantum physics was discovered and we noticed that that element is

unstable. So even if it was ever in the universe, it would have decayed into something else by now. So it would be like a permanent gap. Anything that was there was not there now. So we said, well, okay, let's just make it, make the stuff. So we manufactured an element to fit in the gap and we named it after ourselves. We named it after technology.

It's called Technetium. Technetium. Yeah. Sweet. Yeah, yeah. Oh man. And of course, because we made it, it can't last. Plus we named it tech. I mean, tech means like artificial. Yeah, yeah. Oh, man. And of course, because we made it, it can't last. Plus, we named it tech.

I mean, tech means artificial. And in fact, technetium is a very active tool, potent tool for the radiologist. Because you can set it up in ways that have different half-lives. Gotcha. Six hours or 10 hours. And you can do experiments with your circulatory system by tracking the radioactivity. And if small amounts are okay, if it can-

Right. And you can trace it as it moves. As it moves. And the half-life, it'll go away. You don't have to worry about it. You're done. You leave the hospital, you're done. Right.

Yeah. That is brilliant. I was once in a hospital with one of my radiation detectors, which I occasionally carry. Only you would make that statement. Someone sat down next to me in the waiting room, and the alarm started going off. And I looked at the person. I said, okay, what are you in for?

They just did a radioactive dye test on him, and he was still radioactive as he would be for the next few hours. So I moved to another chair. Wow. All right. Okay, so we got- Yeah, we got one more. One more before we break. All right.

This is from Rob Z. What do you think the bright spot on Ceres is? Oh, Ceres. Ceres. Ceres. Yeah, so the largest asteroid actually has enough gravity to turn it into a round shape. So it's the only round asteroid. Technically, we shouldn't even call it an asteroid.

Is it a dwarf planet then? Precisely. No. Chuck! Oh, I've been hanging around you too long. Oh! Oh, I've been hanging around you too long. So objects that are just big enough to be turned into a sphere by their own gravity,

but they haven't cleared their orbit because Sirius is orbiting in the asteroid belt dwarf planet. Pluto, big enough to be a sphere, but it's orbiting in the Kuiper belt dwarf planet. There you go. So a bright spot on Sirius? I have no idea. I can tell you other stuff about Sirius.

It was the first asteroid discovered back in 1800 or 1801. So obviously you're going to discover the biggest, brightest one first. Right. Because that makes sense. And so they thought they discovered a planet. And planets are named after Roman gods. And so they named it after the Roman goddess of harvest. And Ceres, that's the root of the word cereal.

Right. Mm, whole grain oats. Which way? Mm. That's a delicious planet. Or dwarf planet. So that's Ceres. So I'm guessing it's a highly reflective icy area.

Right. Of the object, because ice can be very reflective relative to any other kind of rock. And it doesn't take much to be more reflective than rock to show up blazingly in images you take of an object. Gotcha. So that's my guess. Well, there you go, Rob.

Get yourself a bowl and a spoon and enjoy some series. So we got to take a break, Chuck. Yes. But when we come back, more Cosmic Queries, Pokeroo Edition. All that is random in the Quizzical Universe. We're back on StarTalk. Tyson here. Chuck Knight's there. That's right. Yeah, man. We're potpourTalk. Tyson here, Chuck Nice there. That's right.

Yeah, man. We're potpourriing together. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. And we're smelling good. Yeah. We're potpourriing together. Potpourriing.

And asking me questions drawn from our loyal fan base. Yes. And you haven't asked me a really crazy our loyal fan base. Yes. And you haven't asked me a really crazy, stupid question yet. And there's got to be some in every batch. Oh, God, yes. You're asking me very intelligent questions, but some of the weird ones, there are some interesting answers to them.

I'm just saying. Yes. Your choose, I don't know anything. You compiled this. All right. I'm just letting you know. Since you said it. Okay.

And maybe I'll change my mind after this. I don't know, because guess what? I skipped over this question in that first segment. And as you saw me just pick this page back up. Yes, you picked the page back up that was in the trash. I turned that over. I'm going to pick it back up, because here it is. It's from Inti Amartusa.

No. Amartusa. Okay. Amartusa. Okay. Okay, that's it. Yeah. Whatever you say. I think you actually have no friends ever in your life. So you never had any practice pronouncing other people's names.

Well, you got one part of that, right? Okay. Inti Amart Okay. Uh, NT, I'm a tur, uh, okay, forget it.

If you had superpowers, would you wear spandex? Okay. So if you were a superhero, would you go with the spandex? Uh, if maybe I've had a cut body and then the spandex will show off the body, that could help intimidate criminals, you know? Right. Maybe.

I'm just thinking. See, I wouldn't. I would go with a three-piece suit. Because then I'd show up and they'd think I was just a banker. And then all of a sudden I'm like blowing stuff up with my eyes and throwing guys across the room. You want to be like Kingsman. Yes. With a dapper umbrella and a cane.

And every time I shout, they'll be like, who is this guy? Who is this banker that keeps showing up and kicking our ass? That's good. I like the banker model. I like that. No, you're right. Why have spandex? Yeah, exactly.

There's no, there's no, you know, and I think in the early days, Superman was wearing pantyhose, you know, so. Pretty much. Yeah, blue pantyhose. So, yeah, there's no call for that. You're right. All right, cool. Banker, three-piece suit. Three-piece suit, man.

Sweet. All right. Let me put that back over here. You know what I would do? And I would draw from my supply of ties, and each tie would have a separate, different superpower that it gave me. Now, that's kind of cool. And if you saw my tie, you'd know what you're dealing with. You'd know how I was going to kick your ass that day.

I like it. That stuff would get telegraphed. There we go. Okay. All right, there you go. So, thank you, Inti. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

All right, here we go. Mm-hmm. This is from Nelson Sa. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All right, here we go. Mm-hmm. This is from Nelson Sa. Mm-hmm. Nelson says, what are some of the most important non-space-related advances which came directly or mostly from research at NASA? Oh. Well, of course, NASA is fully focused on space.

Oh, well, of course, NASA is fully focused on space. So maybe the way to answer this is there are advances that directly helped space and things we were doing in space and other things that not only helped space but then helped what we did here on Earth. Maybe that's the way to answer this. Right. Because NASA's not researching how to make your better cup of coffee. But they do utilize technology and technological advances. It is always with the mission of trying to improve our duration, time, technology, and space. But that doesn't mean it can't apply to very cool things on Earth.

For example. Go ahead. Something simple. You ready? Go ahead. Lately, if you have taken the exit ramp of most highways, and if that exit ramp has a pretty tight turn, the pavement is grooved. It is. Have you noticed that?

I have noticed that. Okay. That came from NASA. And why exactly would that come from NASA? Because the last time I checked space, there were no off ramps. I'm just a little curious. Okay. As I understood this when it was told to me, you have the space shuttle coming in for a landing. And the space shuttle is a glider coming in. All right.

This is back when we actually put people in space. How sad. Okay. So, but in the day, way back. Right. I remember when. As Bill Nye likes to do. He always puts on his old man voice when he's

like, way back in the day. You go back and when we flew space shuttles, when you come back to Earth and you're going to land, you are landing a glider. Right. All right. There's hardly any control over your, you know, you have heirloom flaps and things, but

you're a glider. Now, suppose it's raining or it's a little wet. Okay. You don't want the thing sliding to the left and the right. So you put grooves in the pavement, which help align the wheels in the direction the wheel is rotating, which is the direction the road points. Right. There you have it.

And so this reduced the possibility of skidding and people realize, Hey, why don't we put that on off ramps? Cause if you're going too fast and you come off the ramp, you're hitting the embankment. Right. Okay. So now you can ask, here's the fascinating point. You can say, why spend the millions of dollars or whatever it took to, why not just have somebody invent that outright?

Why? Okay. Because no one did. I mean, however cheap you think that is, the fact is that solution only came about when someone cared about space. Right. And it turns out when you go, I have found, you go into space, people gather around who care about that. Right. Smart people who care about that.

Right. And those are the problems they want to solve. who care about that. Right. And those are the problems they want to solve. You're not going to go to the smartest person in the room

and say, oh, couldn't you help me prevent cars from skidding off the off ramp of Interstate 95? Well, see, there's also no money

in that, that last point. Right. Hey, help me stop cars from skidding off the, yeah, well,

what's in it for me? Right, right. Why should I help you do that? And I'm at the top of my class. Why am I going to do that? But if I instead say, prevent the space shuttle after coming out of orbit from skidding on its runway, you're going to figure this stuff out. Right. So space exploration has a way of infusing levels and dimensions of creativity in anybody who thinks about it.

And that's how you get these amazing solutions to everyday life. Oh, man. That is a great, great point. And I'm not even calling them spinoffs, because a spinoff would be we got this widget in space, now you use the widget on Earth. It's not even about that. No, no. Some of these are direct applications just because,

as you see with the grooves, you find use for it somewhere else, and it's extremely important to have. You can't think of how many thousands of lives probably have been saved by people having grooves, that simple little thing. That's simple, and no one writes a story about the life that was not taken. So true. Yeah.

I know, which is why I often contemplate suicide. Chuck! I'm joking. I'm joking, but it was hanging there, I had to say. Medics. They're coming in. Hey, well, that was a great question, Nelson. And just remember that NASA will continue to suffer budget cuts.

Just figured I'd throw that in. Just saying. Oh, wait, wait. Let me give you one more. Just one more example. Okay. So the docking algorithms to get the space shuttle to dock with the space station. Right.

There are two sort of collars that come together. Right. And there's a laser stabilizing system that enables that to happen. Right. And there's software related to that and the like. I say right as in I'm sure you're right. I'm not saying right as in yes, you're correct because I already knew that. Right, exactly.

Go ahead. I'm saying right as in, yes, you're correct, because I already knew that. Right, exactly. But go ahead. So what we found is that the surgery used to cut your cornea, have it rehealed to adjust your vision. Which we call LASIK. LASIK surgery. Well, it didn't always use lasers. Okay.

That's true. B, so now that it uses lasers, how do you do that to someone if their eye might jiggle a little bit while you're trying to cut? Right. Okay. Because that's not what you want. That's not what you want. Two things you want. Jiggle eye and a cutting edge.

And circumcision. Right. Okay. So what they've done was adapted this laser stabilizing mechanism that allowed the cut to move with the moving eyeball in case the moving eyeball moved and it's from the docking mechanism of the space shuttle in the space station so so this nasa technology enabled this laser lasik surgery to be conducted safer and more cheaply than ever before yeah that's why all of a sudden everybody started getting it absolutely it's because of It's because it came out of space.

Oh, that's amazing. Not the concept for the surgery. No. But just the- The concept for the surgery came from an accident that a guy had and cut his eye.

No, honestly, he cut his eye and it healed and he was like, oh, okay. I don't know why, but I can see better. But-

Yeah, I can imagine. Let me try it on you. Exactly. Chase you with the kitchen knife. Yeah, I can see better because I cut it on you. Exactly. Chases you with the kitchen knife. Yeah, I can see better because I cut my eye. I should try to cut your eye. I bet you I could heal you. But that's fantastic.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So that's an example of, so two extremes of examples. One where vision has been improved. The other, your driving has been improved. Right, and both of them came out of the space program yes it happens all the time that's amazing that's a nelson great question man great question all right um here we go this is from scott and that's all he says is this is from scott i love it okay says, on your premiere of Cosmos, you mentioned that the moon was pushed away by tidal friction. Can you explain that a little bit further?

I had never heard it put like that before. Yeah, pushed is a very visual image. But what's really happening is that it's getting flung. Flung is a more sort of physically accurate thing. Right. So what's going on is the moon creates a tidal bulge on earth. Mm-hmm. And so the water that's nearest the moon pulls towards the moon.

The moon is pulling on earth a little less and the water that's on the other side of the moon is pulling on even less. So all the oceanic waters form this bulge that it's in a direct line to the moon. Okay. Okay. All right. It turns out it's not in direct line to the moon

because earth is rotating and we're rotating faster than the moon is turning around it. So we actually drag this bulge ahead of the moon. Okay. Okay. Okay. So this bulge is actually trying to slow us down. That's why we occasionally add leap seconds to the calendar.

Gotcha. And because the bulge is ahead of the moon, the moon feels a gravitational force ahead of it. And so it wants to go faster in its orbit. Right. And by going faster in its orbit, it ascends to higher distances from Earth. Gotcha. So it's a cosmic ballet choreographed by the forces of gravity.

Gosh darn it. That was fantastic. So the moon is spiraling away about five inches a year from Earth just because of this flinging effect of the leading edge of this tidal bulge. Right. Oh, Mike, that is fascinating. Because it's like the Earth is a container holding this water. Yes, yes, correct. So instead of lining up with the gravitational pull from the moon, because the Earth is a container holding this water and it's spinning,

the water wants to move ahead yeah we're dragging the water ahead of the water ahead of the moon and that costs us our rotational energy to do so that god oh my god that's that's incredible well It's physics. I know, but I don't do that a lot. I don't do physics a lot. You know what you look like at that moment? You look like a double rainbow guy. You remember double rainbow guy? He comes around the corner of the mountain.

It's on YouTube. Two rainbows. And he starts crying. I say, dude, it's physics, okay? Chill out. Oh, my gosh, this is divine. No, it's light, all right? So I don't mean to take away the beauty of this.

By the way, there are other things that are mysteries that we don't understand that are even more beautiful. But I'm saying- Like women. We are in this tango with the moon. Right. Ultimately, when the moon wins, well it's not going to win.

Ultimately, the moon wants to slow us down so much that we rotate at exactly the same rate that the moon orbits us. Right. And when that's the case, our tidal bulbs will align. We will not be fighting the bulbs and the bulbs will not be flinging the moon forward.

And the system will be called will be in what it's called a double tidal lock double tidal lock yeah which was a wrestling move I was gonna say I wanted to invent that move I used to wrestle the double tidal lock I wrestle and I know astrophysics you know I was trying to invent a double tidal lock wrestling hold right yeah

so so what so what happened at that point Earth's day will equal the lunar month. Gotcha. And one side of the Earth will only ever face the moon. Just as today, one side of the moon only ever faces the Earth, which is why there's never Earthrise on the moon. Right. It's always in the sky if you're on that half of the moon.

Gotcha. Yeah. That's awesome. Which is why that famous photo called Earthrise, taken by Apollo 8 in December 1968, it's called Earthrise, because the Earth was rising over the moon. Why? Well, it's because they were orbiting the moon. Exactly.

And they tip hole up the camera, and there's Earth rising. That's how you get Earthrise. But people thought, oh, Earth rises on the moon, just like the moon rises on Earth. Not. No. Right. That's amazing. Not until the moon, just like the moon rises on earth? Not. No. Right. That's amazing. Not until the moon wins.

Unfortunately, I'm still stuck on double title lock, because I'm trying to figure out, do you put your legs around the person's neck, and then you're hanging off of their back, and then you grab both their knees, and then you whip it? I'll show you off camera. I'll show you.

I never perfected it, but I had the ideas of one. It was good. That's pretty cool. All right. Because what happens is you face your opponent, and then I swing you until you're out of balance and then take you down while I'm still facing you. Because in a double title lock, both sides of the orbs are facing one another no matter what they do.

So the idea is to get the person still facing you and then bam. As I swing and take them down. Yeah. Yeah, that's fantastic. Maybe get a quick one in before the break. All right. Okay, go. Let's get a quick one, quick one, quick one.

All right, here's a good one, man. Yeah. Will the sky look different if we are all standing on another planet, constellations and such? So if I'm on another planet in this solar system, do I see the same sky? Yes. What? You heard what I said. You said yes.

Yeah. So it's a simple answer, okay? So the extent of our solar system is like from the sun to Neptune. Get over it. No, if you look at the planets. So basically, we're such a small little planet. Exactly. We're not going to change the frame of reference.

Exactly. So if you look at the width of the solar system, it's like 10 light hours across. Okay. It would take a beam of light 10 hours to cross the solar system. That's big. That's a long time, especially going at the speed of light. Right. across the solar system.

That's big. That's a long time, especially going at the speed of light. Right. However, as you look at the nearest stars, the stars that comprise the constellations, they are hundreds of light years away. Gotcha. So if you just shift your head 10 light hours,

you know, the stars don't mean. It means nothing. They don't mean a damn thing to the stars. So you got to start moving among the stars to change your perspective on the constellations for them to take on other shapes. Nice. And drag all the astrologers with you as they try to keep up with the new shapes. Right. Exactly.

And tell you how the universe will now affect you because of the random stars oriented in the galaxy. That one looks like someone looking at a cloud. What will we call it? That's great. Chuck, we've got to take a break. We'll come back and continue. You got more questions for me? Yes, I do.

When StarTalk continues, more from Cosmic Queries. Chuck, we're back. Yes. And this is Cosmic Queries, Star Talk Radio Cosmic Queries edition. And this, in this, our final segment, we're going to save the last several minutes for the lightning round.

Yes. I don't know if we'll get through all the questions, but then we get through like a whole boatload in a short amount of time. Exactly. So let's work up to that with some continued questions and with my fully fleshed out answers. All right.

And any more weird questions? I mean, weird questions have sometimes interesting fully fleshed out answers. All right. All righty. And any more weird questions? I mean, weird questions have sometimes interesting answers. This is true. What do you got? Okay. Okay. Here's one from Jonathan Smith from Las Vegas, Nevada. And you can pronounce his name.

You know what? That's so true. I'm going to give you a little gold star each time. Yeah. Well, you know, I don't think I can really be proud of Jonathan Smith. Is that the dude who messed with Pocahontas, Jonathan? Yeah. Was it John Smith?

Yeah, I thought that was him. Yeah, I think it is him. But who's the guy who founded the Mormons? Oh. I'm getting my people mixed up. Oh, crap. I forgot his name. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, but John Smith, definitely Pocahontas. Yes. What do you have? Neil. Yeah. I've heard that the strongest evidence for gravity waves is the spiraling together of two neutron stars as the ripples. Yes. Yes.

Okay. However, neutron stars have incredibly strong magnetic pull as well. Indeed. Is it possible that the same dynamo effect that causes our sun to slow its rotation could be causing neutron stars to lose their combined angular momentum over time? No. Ooh.

Okay, I'll tell you why. Go ahead. Because we can look at the ripples that neutron stars send out as they draw near one another, and you calculate using Einstein's general theory of relativity, at what rate would it lose orbital energy to gravitational waves? Okay.

And you write down that number. And then you look, and we have binary neutron stars in our galaxy, and they are losing energy at exactly that rate. There's no unaccounted for need to then say, here's some other mechanism. It's not even necessary. It works exactly.

We know where the energy is. We know where it came from and where it's going. Yeah, exactly. But great question. That is a very good question. And it's how you make these deductions in the universe. You look at something you know very well, if it accounts for everything,

there's no need to keep, you could keep looking, but why? Right. Yeah, I mean, maybe's no need to keep, you could keep looking, but why? Right. Yeah. I mean, maybe it's sharing the cause, but everything I know about how I've accounted for it works. Right.

So there's no need to. You're done and move on to the next problem. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Exactly. There you go. All right.

So Jesse from Vancouver, Canada would like to know this. Given that there is an upper limit or upper speed limit to the universe, being the speed of light, and a lower speed. It's not just a good idea. It's the law.

Buckle up, galaxies. Exactly. You never know. Okay. And there's a lower speed limit. Oh, by the way, the buckling up, you only buckle up because your car changes speed, not because it exists at any one speed at all.

Well, it's the change that's pretty. Change is what will kill you. Yeah. Right, that's why you can be in an airplane going 600 miles an hour at 39,000 feet, and they say, you may now unbuckle your seatbelt. Right, because nothing's going to happen. Right, if you maintain your speed, that's not a problem. It's if your speed changes, and that's what your seatbelt. Right, because nothing's going to happen. Right. If you maintain your speed, that's not a problem.

It's if your speed changes, and that's what your seatbelt is for. And I just love that they put seatbelts on airplanes as, I get it for the turbulence, but for the crash, really? Really? Do you really think that seatbelt's going to help? We're about to crash, buckle your seatbelt. Yeah, buckle up. Okay.

No, I'm not. My favorite one is, if you don't bring your seat back up the four inches, you're going to die in the crash. Yeah, what's that about? You're going to be the only one who dies. Okay, so given there's a lower speed limit, which is the absolute zero temperature, could velocity be considered a dimension like space, length, width, and depth? You have to ask, where are you going to go with that? What are you going to do with that? Because, for example, you can have a speed, and then I can slow you down with brakes.

Did you change dimension? I mean, where are you getting with that? What is the purpose of even having? Thinking about it that way. By the way creative thinking is highly a good thing in this world okay but if you do so ask yourself is there something you will now be able to explain that you couldn't before gotcha because everything we've constructed about velocity and speed and all of this it's as einstein said uh or was it his protege, said space tells matter how to move and matter tells space how to curve.

Wow. Yeah, it's deep. That's a great one. Yeah, it's deep. So in that sense, it's not your speed, but it's the gravity that's creating the dimensionality of the fabric of space. You can move within that. So we move within the fabric of space. So the velocity itself is not, there's no cause that. So we move within the fabric of space.

So the velocity itself is not, there's no cause to think about it that way. That's all. Got you. But I applaud the exercise. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's very creative thinking. And your answer, Jesse, is dark matter. I'm just saying. I will never answer one question with something else we don't know anything about.

Exactly. See, that's how I do it. No, people do. People say, oh oh can we explain this thing in terms of consciousness we don't know what consciousness is so just back up right right give it space that's funny but see you know what that's a that's a great little cheat though it is a cheat it's a great it's a complete cheat yeah people do it all the time yeah it makes i mean listen because i i don't know about this well why don't we think about it in terms of something else

we don't know about exactly that'll answer because don't we think about it in terms of something else we don't know about? Exactly. That'll answer it. Because that'll answer it, right? That's very funny. All right. This is from Amanda Milligan. She says, in every documentary-

Where's she from? She's from Earth? She is from Earth. Okay. She's just from Earth. In every documentary I have seen lately, extraterrestrial life is animal. How do you think plant life would evolve outside of our own world? Or could there be life that exists that could not be classified as either plant nor animal,

but still life? There's a famous science fiction story, and forgive me if I forgot who wrote it, because I don't come in here with notes in anticipation of questions. Well, no, you don't know these questions, so how could you? Right, right. So there's a science fiction story where the aliens came upon Earth and saw that there's like muscle tissue. Right. And they go back to their home planet and says, they're made of meat.

Because the aliens, they're made of some spirit energy. Right. Right? And we're made of meat. Right. And another thing that we take for granted, but I can imagine an alien life form that would just freak out. Mm-hmm. Other than salt, other than salt, animals have to kill to consume food.

Okay. Other than the consumption of salt. Everything else you eat was once alive. Right. Okay? Sorry, sorry, sorry. Unless you live off of milk and honey, right? Those themselves were not once alive.

That's still an animal byproduct. It's an animal byproduct. You have to kill something. And even the vegetarians- Even the vegetarians was alive. Are slaughtering carrots. That's right. All right?

Yeah. And slicing them, dicing them up and shredding them. Yes. So the fact that we have to kill other life forms on our own planet for our own sustenance could easily be seen as one of the most barbaric things to another civilization where they all absorb energy from their host star. Right. Yes.

There you have it. Because they're absorbing and not consuming. And they're ingesting. They're not ingesting. They're an unlimited source of energy from their sun, just like planets, but plants on Earth. Right. They don't have to eat anything. There's some that do, of course, but most, nearly all other planets don't.

The Venus flytrap is carnivorous. And what's that other one that eats flies that smells like? A picture plant. There's one that- Oh, you're talking about the one that smells like rotting carrion. Yeah, yeah. I forget the name of it. It smells like rotting flesh.

So that one, okay, so they're carnivorous. But all the rest are doing just fine with sunlight. Yeah. And that's an awesome way to live, I think. If I were to evolve the human into another form, I'd evolve us with solar panels on our skin. Nice. Our skin would be one big solar panel. And that way, getting sunburned, you just recharge your energetics.

Yes. I believe they call that Africans. I'm just saying. Last I heard, that's why they're black. Yep. I say they. Right. I just said that's why they're black.

That's so crazy. All right. Megan Morrissey says, hi. That's so crazy. All right. Megan Morrissey says, Hi, I'm showing for the first time an episode of Cosmos in my high school earth sciences class. Give it up for the teachers of the world.

There you go. One of my students just asked me if a ship that is designed like a ship of imagination would actually be able to fly into space. Would that be possible? Love your show and thank you. I'm not authorized to say whether I actually own one of these. No, the ship of the imagination on purpose has

mobility through space and time. And that mobility is empowered by my thoughts. So there are no controls. There's no, plus we had a mini discussion with Andrewian who specified in the script that the ship would be impossibly minimalist. Right. So I would not be wearing a badge, which would

imply that I'm captain and you're not. Right. Because you should be able to fly this as well. That's right. So the ship, no, it exists completely in my imagination as your tour guide. So no, there is no attempt to try to make it real. There you go.

As there have been with the Starship Enterprise and other sort of sci-fi creations. So yeah, it's not real or it can't even be imagined to be real. Right. Because it exists in my mind. Nice. As your private tour guide. There you go. There you go.

You know what time it is? Uh-oh. It is. I'm so bad at hitting this bell. Damn. There we go. Lightning round. Okay. Oh my god. We got a lightning round. Okay, so I'm answering in sound bites because you still have so many I didn't get to.

That's right. Okay, here we go. Jehovany Bar-era wants to know, as the sun expands, it gets closer to the earth. What will happen to the earth besides getting really hot? Oh, so the story here is that it's getting hot. Okay. That's the story.

All right. So the gravity will be the same. It will still orbit the sun in the same amount of time. But as it gets hot, the oceans will come to a rolling boil and evaporate into the atmosphere. The atmosphere will itself evaporate into space as we become engulfed by the expanding sun and we become a vaporized ember orbiting deep within Earth's surface.

Boom! Have a nice day. Okay, go. From Andrew Lounsbury, who says, this is not relevant to science, but where did Neil get his celestial vest? Ooh, actually I own about six vests. Okay.

And they're for different stages of how wide my belly is. Different times. But the one I'm most seen in, it was the last vest sold at the gift shop of the Hanson Planetarium in Utah, in Salt Lake City, Utah, before that closed and reopened in another identity. And in fact, they had no more left, and I bought it off the back of the salesperson. And I've yet to see anyone else wearing this vest ever again. Dad. So yeah, that's the one.

That person is probably so pissed off right now. Took it off their back. But they agreed. I didn't take, I didn't steal it off their back. Man, give me the vest. You know who I am. I'm NDT, bitch. No.

I'm sorry. Okay, next. Next. We're lightning round. Next. Okay. Martaqueo y Sueldo. Thank you.

Says, Mars. Pioneers will be the first true 100% renewable. Will the Mars pioneers be the first true 100% renewable energy human community ever? That's the plan. The Mars One plan is yes. Yes. Yes. That's the plan.

That is the plan. Initially, they'll get supply chain from Earth, but ultimately, they start making the stuff themselves. Go. Thank you, Margaqueo from Argentina. Next. All right. Adam Halvaka.

Oh, you son of a gun. Halvaka says, hello, I'm writing from Slovakia, and me and my friends would like to know what does Neil think about pirating, i.e. illegally downloading or torrenting the show Cosmos? Okay. What do I think of it? Because clearly they're doing that. Apparently. Get his IP address right now.

I don't know how much control there is over that. And my guess is more people pirate it than who would ever even buy it in the first place. Right. So that the exposure is greater than it would otherwise be. You know, if everyone pirated, there'd be no money to actually produce the product. Right. So what I would say is for people who are pirating, if you're doing so, let it be because you actually can't afford it. Right. And then there's the way, I'd rather you knew this than you didn't right but the minute you have cash flow then you know pay that forward right because right you know now you're screwing it up for everybody yeah so i don't want you know i can't endorse illegal

behavior but um if you can't afford it and you want to learn, it's like Abbie Hoffman wrote a book called Steal This Book. Right. Steal that book that he wrote, which is a way if you were without means to try to sort of exploit the system. There you go. Until you didn't have to. So, yeah. Now, I don't – if someone told me they pirated it and then they came to one of my lectures and bought something else later on, fine. It's an investment.

Okay. There you go. So the answer is go ahead and steal it. No. That was not the answer. Sorry. No, that was not a soundbite answer. I was supposed to give a soundbite answer.

I'll give one more and we'll soundbite that and we're done. Okay. So we're way over. Okay. One more. Go, here we go. One more, go. Here we go. With iron and low gravity, would Mars be an ideal place to build larger interstellar rocket ships and space stations?

Yes. If you build a ship and you can launch from a low gravity place, that's what you want to do. Because half of your launch energy leaving Earth is just to get the hell off of earth into orbit right the other half the energy can take you practically anywhere else in the universe it's certainly in the solar system so so yes launch from the lightest place you possibly can and you know what that is it might be empty space itself whoa there you go chuck we're out of time yes that was uh potpourri edition of StarTalk Cosmic Queries. Yes, it was.

All right, Chuck, I'll look for you on TV, on true TV. Yes, thank you. And you always make me laugh. Thanks for being a part of the StarTalk family. It's a pleasure. You've been listening to StarTalk Radio. Neil deGrasse Tyson here, your personal astrophysicist. And as always, I bid you to keep looking up.