Cosmic Queries – New Mysteries of the Universe

About This Episode

Alien megastructures? Gravitational waves? Time travel via wormhole? Crack open the latest cosmic conundrums when astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson answers fan submitted questions, thrown at him by co-host Eugene Mirman. Find out what Neil thinks is actually going on around star KIC 8462852, and whether it’s more likely that aliens are building a Dyson Sphere or we’re seeing the signs of a comet swarm. Explore the recent discovery of gravitational waves with StarTalk All-Star host and frequent guest Dr. Charles Liu, who Skypes in to discuss LIGO and what it found. You’ll hear about the current debate over whether space is continuous or granular that’s dividing quantum physicists and supporters of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. But that’s not all. Neil answers your questions about carbon nanotubes and space elevators, bases on the Moon, water on Mars, black holes and accretion disks, Voyager and New Horizons, the impact of universal expansion on the Higgs field, and whether asteroid mining could affect the orbits of the Earth and the Moon. Plus, Neil speculates on life extension technologies and whether living forever might be overrated, and tells us about a recent discovery that has him freaking out: that there seem to be some places in the Universe where the fabric of space-time “melts.”

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: Cosmic Queries – New Mysteries of the Universe.