Cosmic Queries – Space Traveler’s Delight

About This Episode

Is there anything in the universe that is not moving? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice answer fan questions about stillness, humans on Mars, and what songs they would add to the Voyager Golden Record.

Would we be stronger and faster on Mars? We talk about what it would be like to construct buildings on Mars and why the largest creature on Earth is a whale. If you fell through a hole through the center of the Earth, what would happen? Where would you pop out based on where you started?

Neil and Chuck share what songs they would add to the Voyager Golden Record to update it. Is there such a thing as absolute stillness in the universe? Learn about Lord Kelvin and absolute zero. Can we actually tell if an object is stationary relative to one in motion? Plus, we talk about the spaghettification of quarks and whether a black hole would eat itself.

We explore the role of free speech in future human space settlements. Could it be beneficial to manage or censor media while establishing a colony? Are spiral galaxies getting sucked into a black hole? How do they maintain their iconic spiral shape? Find out about spiral density waves and accretion disks.

Thanks to our Patrons Scott Nelson, Bjørn Furuknap, Paul Robinson, Jonasz Napiecek, Micheal Briggs, Blake Wolfe, Brett Maragno, Adam Stephensen, Cicero Artefon, and Paul Lesperance for supporting us this week.

NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free.