Cosmic Queries – Gravitons & Hyperspeed

About This Episode

What if we took Earth… and pushed it somewhere else? Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice answer grab bag fan questions about gravitons, hyperspeed, saving the sun, and more!

Could you spin something in space and generate energy forever? Neil traces motion-based electricity back to Michael Faraday and electromagnetic induction. What about space-based solar power? Could orbiting panels beam limitless energy back to Earth? If the Sun were dying, could we throw Jupiter into it to refuel the core? Why do some stars, like blue stragglers, appear to get a second life? We discuss artificial gravity and warp drive. If your ship accelerates to hyperspeed, do you splatter against the wall? What does real physics say about force vectors and extreme acceleration?

Where is the graviton and why is gravity so weak compared to electromagnetism? Is time truly a dimension, or does gravity treat it more like a field? Can identical steel wire contain information, or does information require difference? Are spiral galaxies evenly split between clockwise and counterclockwise spins or are we fooled by human bias?

Could we ever move Earth to another star like Proxima Centauri? What remains invariant between observers in relativity? We talk about invariance and how galaxies can collide even though the universe is expanding. And can you ever really get behind a black hole or does curved spacetime let you see around it?

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