Cosmic Queries – Total Darkness

About This Episode

Are all the galaxies orbiting a superstructure in the middle of the universe? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice are reaching into the grab bag to cover questions from absolute zero to the nature of gravity, and no topic is safe.

Can you extract infinite energy from an object approaching absolute zero, given that quantum fluctuations prevent particles from ever fully stopping? Can particles ever stop? We explore thermodynamics and zero point energy. Is there a lowest energy level something can go? Are photons really everywhere, even in a dark room? Neil invokes Muhammad Ali, Isaac Newton’s questionable decision to include indigo in the rainbow, and the fact that anything with a temperature radiates photons whether your eyes can detect them or not.

We explore the law of cooling and its ties to Isaac Newton. What would Neil and Chuck do with limitless energy? We discuss orbital solar arrays, Iceland’s geothermal heating, and Chuck’s pitch for ending wars by solving food scarcity. Is the universe pancake shaped, with galaxies orbiting some vast superstructure? Neil sets the record straight on galaxy cluster dynamics and the virial theorem. Is gravity a force or just the curvature of spacetime and could the Higgs boson have something to do with it?

What would Neil do with an unlimited science budget? Is time itself permanent? How much does the universe actually weigh? We also explore what a gamma ray glow near the Milky Way’s center might reveal about dark matter annihilation. Neil closes with a warm trip down memory lane about his first telescope, his childhood visits to the Harvard Center for Astrophysics, and the time he got the cops called on him for stargazing on his roof.

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