November 30, 2012 5:25 pm

It’s about time… Neil’s interview with Alan Rickman premiers on The Nerdist Channel

When Curiosity landed on Mars, it took the news 14 minutes to reach us because of the speed of radio waves and the distance Mars was from Earth at that moment.

Back on May 3, 2012 I asked our audience to give us their questions for Alan Rickman, who Neil deGrasse Tyson interviewed for StarTalk Radio the next day. Neil asked Alan about the craft of acting, his role in Galaxy Quest, how well he did in physics in school, his fascination with the flight of flocks of birds, and the real magic he encountered playing Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series. Plus, guest astrophysicist Charles Liu and comic co-host Chuck Nice are the fans on hand to discuss the science and the science fiction in the studio with Neil.

Yesterday, the video of that episode premiered on The Nerdist Channel on YouTube. One way to look at it is that it took less time for the radio to get back to Earth from Mars than it took for the video to travel from the studio to your computer screen.

Another way to look at it was that they were both worth the wait.

You can watch it below and decide for yourself.