Cosmic Queries: Nuanced Realities of Space-Time and Stellar Processes

Key Quotes

"So now you want to send our measly nukes into the sun and believe that's going to make a difference? Just for context, have you ever seen spots on the sun, I mean, in pictures? You know what we call those? Sunspots. I ask easy questions here. A sunspot is typically slightly larger than Earth. The sun has blemishes bigger than our planet. That's crazy. And you want to think that our nukes will have anything to do with the sun? Why not throw spitballs at it? Just as effective."

Neil deGrasse Tyson uses the analogy of sunspots being larger than Earth to illustrate the immense scale of the sun. He argues that human-made nuclear weapons would be insignificant against such a massive celestial body, comparing their potential impact to throwing spitballs. This highlights the vast difference in power between human technology and stellar processes.

"So here's how you prolong the life of the sun, and I got to see the movie to see why they were doing it, if the sun was running out of fuel or whatever. It's an easy way to do this. Let me guess now, and this is me guessing, so shut up. I'm going to say, since the sun takes hydrogen and fuses it so that it ends up with like this four proton that creates helium, four nucleons, so it's two protons, two neutrons, so the four nucleons that creates helium, what you want to do is either send the sun more helium or send it more hydrogen. What's it need? More hydrogen."

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains a scientific method for prolonging the sun's life, contrasting it with a fictional movie plot. He correctly identifies that the sun's primary fuel is hydrogen, which undergoes fusion to create helium. He posits that adding more hydrogen, rather than helium, would be the scientifically sound approach to sustaining the fusion process.

"If you're in space, there is no air, right? So what the hell temperature are you measuring? You got to measure the temperature of the nothingness of space. Correct. And space is not entirely nothing, right? There is radiative energy moving through space. Correct. Right, photons. So it's got a little bit of a temperature. It's so it'll get a temperature if the thermometer is facing the sun, right? Because that's the radiative heat coming from the sun. Correct. It's not the air, it's just photons hitting."

Neil deGrasse Tyson clarifies the concept of temperature in space, distinguishing it from temperature on Earth. He explains that in the vacuum of space, temperature is not measured by the air but by the radiative energy, primarily from photons originating from sources like the sun. This distinction is crucial for understanding how objects behave in space environments.

"I love that because you know what he's saying is that you launch a mission today with your modern technology, and in 50 years, that's some old technology. And then the next ship just passes you by, waves to you. It's like, 'Sorry about that.' It's like you started out in a covered wagon, and then all of a sudden a Tesla is going by you like, 'What the hell?' And so, so that's a brilliant question."

Neil deGrasse Tyson acknowledges a question about generational ships and the potential for later missions to overtake earlier ones due to technological advancements. He uses the analogy of a covered wagon being passed by a Tesla to vividly illustrate how rapidly evolving propulsion technology could render initial missions obsolete. This highlights the practical challenges of long-term interstellar travel.

"You know, I'm stuck on the explosion model, right? And but it's, if you do that, it's exploding within three-dimensional space. But this is a sort of a four-dimensional with time as one of the dimensions. So I, I picture an inflated balloon. That's because that works for me, right? You got to get rid of one of the dimensions. So our three spatial dimensions are flattened into the surface of a balloon, right? And the time dimension is still there, and we're radiating from the start of the balloon where it was small, right? To any surface point on the balloon, right? And the larger surface point is later in time, right?"

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains his mental model for visualizing the Big Bang, moving beyond the common "explosion in space" concept. He uses the analogy of an inflated balloon to represent a four-dimensional expansion, where the surface of the balloon represents our three spatial dimensions and its inflation represents the passage of time. This helps to conceptualize the universe's expansion from a single point.

"All right, so time slows down for you as you, as others would observe it, but you don't shrink. Your dimensions will be measured to shrink front to back. So you'll get sort of thinner front to back. As people measure your speed increasing, they'll also measure your mass increase. They'll measure your time slow down. We have three equations that track all three of those."

Neil deGrasse Tyson addresses the relationship between speed, time, and physical dimensions, referencing Einstein's theories. He clarifies that while time slows down for an observer moving at high speeds, and their mass increases, their physical dimensions do not shrink uniformly; rather, they appear compressed from front to back. He notes that three specific equations govern these relativistic effects.