Extended Classic: Cosmic Queries – Office Hours

About This Episode

Now extended with more questions about Jupiter, brown dwarfs, humanity’s intelligence, Isaac Newton, the speed of sound, Star Wars, exomoons, and more.

It’s time for office hours with your own personal astrophysicist! Join Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice as they answer fan-submitted Cosmic Queries on an array of topics from across the universe to right here on Earth. To start things off, Neil and Chuck delve into the discussion on finding life elsewhere in the universe, what happens if there’s no life to be found, and why the religious debate will be even more fervent if extraterrestrial life is discovered. You’ll learn about space dust: what it is, how it’s formed, and why it wasn’t found in the early infancy of the universe.  Discover whether time expands the same way that space does, and how we can detect it happening. 

In the new segment, we discuss what it would take for Jupiter to become a star. You’ll learn about brown dwarfs. We address humanity’s intelligence and whether or not we’re intelligent enough to understand our place on the universe. Neil tells us what he would ask Sir Isaac Newton if he were alive today. We also explore the speed of sound, and Neil shares a gripe about Star Wars. Plus, we discuss the hunt for exomoons and why they’re harder to find than exoplanets. 

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: Extended Classic: Cosmic Queries – Office Hours.