Lost in Space Game Night

Welcome to StarTalk

0:00Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.

0:16This is StarTalk. Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. And today is a special edition of StarTalk. Because, once again, StarTalk has collaborated with National Geographic Books to release our latest installment titled Lost in Space, 5,000 Facts to Navigate the Universe. And this is being held by my co-author, Lindsay Nix-Walker. Lindsay, hello.

0:51Hello. Hello, middle name Nix, N-Y-X. That's right. Not K-N-I-C-K-S. No. Nix. No, no. I had it before Nix were cool.

1:02Nix is mythological. Nix is a Greek goddess. She's supposedly the only goddess that Zeus feared. She is born of chaos and gave birth to dreams. Oh, damn. That's heavy stuff. That's heavy stuff. Paul. Yes. Hey, dude. Also Greek mythology name. God of pizza delivery. Good to see you guys. Well, welcome back to StarTalk. Thank you. Congrats on the book. Thank you. Very happy for you. Thank you. And Lindsay carrying your ass.

1:33As usual. So, you cooked up this episode. I had nothing to do with this. I'm excited about this. She put stuff together. I don't even know what I'm doing. This is a StarTalk team effort. This is, we've never done this before.

Higher or lower space game

1:46This is StarTalk Chaos Edition. We have a wheel here. It's called Wheel of Neil. Take it for a spin. And when it lands on something, can you spin it a little bit more enthusiastically? Thank you. Yeah, exactly. This is an assisted living facility. Show us some energy. Higher, lower. Higher, lower. Now, are we winning something at the end of this game? I know, right? Do I get something? Right. Do I get a watch, maybe? Like a nice watch from my friend Neil? Free tour of the museum. Yes. I have on this card numbers and facts.

2:19You have to tell me if the next number is higher or lower than the first number. To start, you're going to guess this number. The distance in feet that Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on the moon. 280 feet. Great guess. The moon's gravity is lower. It will stay airborne longer. He's got a puffy suit, but he likes golf. Right. So. And did the question include explain why? No. I'm going to say 350 feet. Okay. You're both wrong.

2:49It is less than that. It is 120 feet. What? I thought he hit it like 100 yards. I thought he hit it like a football field. Oh, you know what it could be? When you're on a smaller cosmic object, the horizon is closer to you. But what does that have to do with how? Because when you hit something a certain distance, it's like, that's halfway to the horizon. But if the horizon isn't very far, your brain misinterprets what just happened. But who calculated that number? It's an actual number. They looked where the thing hit the moon. It should, in theory, go farther if you are not wearing a puffy space suit.

3:23But he had a huge space suit on. This is Apollo. One of the Apollo missions. They had gigantic space. And it was one-handed. Right. If there were a word for non-golfer, it would be me. Yeah. You know what, Sam? Is this number higher or lower than 120? The wind speed in miles per hour at Uranus' equator. Higher or lower than 120? It feels like it should be greater than 120. I'm going to go greater. 175. 175 miles per hour.

3:53So I don't know this number, but Uranus has tipped on its axis, like a lot. And so the equator gets direct heat from the sun. It's got to be much higher than that. The sun drives convection and other air movement. Okay, I want to correct my answer, please. No. I'm going to say 500 miles an hour. It's actually 560 miles per hour top speed. What? Wait, this is rigged. I'm out. I'm out. Goodbye. Yeah. I got better things to do.

4:24I got a dog walking business now. I lost my job at the late show. There's just tremendous turbulence because different parts of that planet are being heated maximally at different times. And that does nothing but create ground winds. The number of times Uranus has orbited the sun since its discovery. So let's see. We're about to, what, 200, roughly 250 years. That would be greater than 560. He's doing math in his head. Twice. That's dangerous. This is me calculating a tip.

4:55I want to say that it's, I want to say that it's higher than that. I would give you a number of 870. Wow, that's a great guess. The number is three. Oh, I don't like you anymore. You are my favorite. I think I might have said two. Yeah. Number of Earths that could fit across Jupiter's diameter. I got this. I don't know. Let's start talking. I want to say four. I actually don't remember. I think it's 11.

5:26Is it 11? I think it's around 10. It's higher. It's 10 or 11. 10 or 11. It is that big. Jupiter has blemishes bigger than Earth. If we were Jupiterians and we were reorganizing the solar system trying to decide who to kick out because it doesn't make planet status, there would only be four planets in the solar system. And that would be Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. And everything else would just be debris. Jupiter is more bigger compared to Earth than Earth is compared to Pluto.

6:04I hate that that's grammatically correct also. Okay, last one. Last one. I'm getting this one. I can feel it. Is this higher or lower than 10 or 11? Number of monkeys named Albert sent up in rockets by the USA in the 40s and 50s. Number of monkeys? Named Albert specifically. In the 40s and 50s. Yeah. Let him answer first. There were a lot. Named Albert? Named Albert. Do we know why Albert? Einstein? Einstein, I guess?

6:34Oh, that's good. Maybe. I actually don't know. Maybe. Let's assume that. That would kind of be insulting to Einstein, especially since he was still alive at the time. If it's in the 40s and 50s. So, I'd be pissed off if you're naming chimps after me. It's like sending donkeys up named after Neil. How many asses were sent up? How many asses were sent up? Yeah, exactly. Fewer than 11. You can't send 11 Alberts in a rocket. 15. To higher than 11.

7:05Higher than 11. 15. I'm saying lower than 11. Six.

7:09Which is... There's still too many. Too many. Which is still too many. The chimps are like, come on, guys. Spoiler alert. None of them made it. Actually, the last one made it up and down, but then he died two hours later. The rest of them died. You see this fact? This is why the apes are going to take over the Earth. The first monkey, Albert the First, he was actually the first mammal to reach outer space. The first mammal. That was in the 40s, I assume.

7:39Before humans. That's right. Plus, I thought all these original animals that went to space were female. That was my understanding. Oh, maybe. Is there a reason they didn't be female? Very good reason. Oh. Because when men pee, it goes... Yeah. Yeah, but the piece coming out of a thing, whether it's a thing or another thing, and then it's like flying around. But it doesn't get aimed otherwise.

Taboo space edition

8:03Okay, next category. We need some music.

8:08Taboo it. So we're playing a version of taboo. Taboo it. We're going to taboo it. And all the taboo words are in my black hole. Yes. Okay. You can say anything but the word on the card. Okay. One minute on the clock. One minute on the clock. It starts now.

8:26It's fast. The fastest thing in the universe. Light. Speed of light. Speed of light. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! A dog. You're a dog. It's a big issue in orbital dynamics. Quantum mechanics. There's a TV show with the name. Quantum. Quantum me. A problem in orbital dynamics. You can't solve it. Oh, three body problems. Three body problems. Three body problems. There you go. Okay. I was going to say that. Okay.

8:56You are nowhere near that. This is a thing that's not silver but, and it's on the side of a space jet. Gold. Emblem. Platinum. Titanium. It's on the side of a space jet. A dice. Fuzzy dice hanging from the ship. The gold pioneer plaque. Oh. Which is, I got it right here. Wait, we both said gold. That's what this is. I should have held this up. Oh! That's not allowed though. Oh. This is one way that the, everything will end. One of the ways that everything will end is called, the, oh, is called.

9:31The apocalypse. The internet. Armageddon. It's a scientific, it's an astronomical concept and it is a way that. The big crunch. The, the, the big bang. Big bang readout. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. The, the heat death. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay, this, um, in, is, the, oh my gosh. A gaseous planet is festooned by this. Festooned? I don't even know what that word means. It is, in, in, can I say that?

10:03Encircling, uh, one of the gaseous planets. The, the, the, rings. Rings. Rings. Of. Saturn. I don't know if that's allowed. I cheat both times. Wait. No! Uh, this is, uh, it's, one of the, in a, a certain number. Round. Sister.

10:27Oh, seven sisters. Uh, there's a number. Oh, wait, you can't say sister. It's, it's round, it's orbited by, other. It's round. Moons. It's. Of Jupiter. There's more than five, less than ten. Planets. Planets. Of the solar system. Planet. Planetary bodies. I need one, one particular planet. Jupiter. Mars. Venus. Mercury. Earth. The nine planets. X. Planet X.

10:57Planet nine. That's it. Oh. Oh my God. Wow. You were, both took a long time. Uh, all right, here we go. Here we go. I think they all got lost in the black hole.

11:12That's a hard one, because I can't say nine, and I gotta say a number. That was a hard one. And then a planet is such a vague, general, you know. In your mind, yeah. But to me it's quite specific. Thank you. Yeah, okay. Space fact.

Lost in Space book facts

11:44The planet Uranus is knocked on its side, tilting 98 degrees from vertical. And as it rotates, depending on what time of year it is, one side just always faces the sun, and the other side faces deep space. Put a thermometer there, it is the coldest spot of any planet in the solar system. If you like that fact, you can find 4,999 more in Lost in Space.

12:215,000 facts to help navigate the universe. Latest collaboration between StarTalk and National Geographic Books. Lost in Space is now available for pre-order, wherever books are sold.

12:53I remember when we compiled these facts. It took a long time. 5,000. 5,000 facts. That's a lot of facts. Yeah, it's not approximately 5,000, it's exactly 5,000 facts. Why did you guys pick 5,000? No, they picked 5,000. We wanted 3,000, and they said, no, we can't do it unless it's 5,000. The publisher? Yes! Wow. I was partial to 1,000. And they said, no, we can't sell a book if it's only 1,000 facts. So they pulled it out of their ass. I don't know where they got this number. But you put three, and then the other two are made up, right? Because who's going to check after three? All I had was 3,000.

13:24We wanted all facts to be start-talk-ian in DNA. And you have to say, O'Neill, what do you mean by that? Yes. What do you mean by that? Ask me the diameter of the sun. What's the diameter of the sun? About 864,000 miles. I'm sorry. That is wrong. Go ahead. So now let's start-talk-ify that. Ask me the question again. Diameter of the sun. That's a statement. Well, we're just being loose here. If you take 100 Earths and put them side to side, you'll span the width of the sun in space.

13:59I like the non-star-talking better. I don't have all day. This is a game show. We can rotate you off the stage. Do you realize this? Does it cover, I would imagine, the way Star Talk episodes do a plethora of topics from quantum mechanics to... Almost everything you can dream of. She's back to the dream thing. Favorite facts from the book? Project Osma. Do you know about Project Osma? I do not. That is the name of the first official search for life in the universe.

14:31For intelligent life. For intelligent life. That's right. And it was named by Frank Drake. The Frank Drake who of the Drake equation. But do you know the Drake equation? I thought it was the Cakes family, the Drake Cakes family that made... Yeah, he's a nephew. A variety of desserts that we've all enjoyed as children. So the Drake equation, he pondered what questions you'd have to ask to shape your search for life, intelligent life in the universe. And he said, well, if I'm going to look for intelligent life, it's going to be on a planet.

15:04Then he said, if it's going to be on a planet, it's got to be on a planet that's not too close, not too far in the Goldilocks zone. What fraction of stars with planets have planets in that zone? And it has to have life at all. What fraction of stars with planets in the Goldilocks zone have life? That life has to have civilization. What fraction of planets with stars with life is civilization. Now, civilization is not enough because you want to talk to them through space. Right. We had the Roman Empire. If you sent radio signals to the Roman Empire, you would think nobody was here. So they have to add an extra little tech dimension to it that you're communicating via radio waves through space.

15:41You're whittling away with all of these parameters that you're putting. Correct. You have the big number of how many stars in the universe and you start taking fractions. Okay. He came up with that equation, which organizes our knowledge and even our ignorance of the likelihood of life out there with whom we can have a conversation. Take it from there. Asma was the real and true heir of Oz, Princess Asma in Wizard of Oz. The author of the Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, he supposedly communicated with this mystical land full of exotic beings through radio, using a radio.

16:15And so Frank Drake named his search for Wizard of Oz. I don't know how to follow that fact with a favorite fact because that's a good one. That is amazing because it's very personal to her. It also revealed two things that we didn't know. I wouldn't even try if I were you.

16:34As we are assembling the periodic table of elements. Oh, my God. Can you talk like a real person? Can't you just do it the way she did it? Oh, my God. Why don't you stand up and go, oh, as we draw the ball. As we were assembling the periodic table of elements. Because Mendeleev figured out that it's periodic. It's not just a sequence of elements. They have properties that repeat rhythmically. Right. All right. From top to bottom.

17:05Right. And as we're going through discovering elements, there was a hole in the periodic table. He said, there's got to be an element there. No one had ever found it. No one even knew a way to look. But how could he assume that maybe that that is, it's sort of chicken or the egg, right? Maybe the universe said, we're not filling that hole. Right. Okay. Right. Maybe. But he. He doesn't think he's on a fool's errand. He's going for it. He had enough confidence in the success of the elements that were already in place that

17:38he said, let's look for it some more. Okay. And still didn't find it. So they said, okay, well, how many protons should it have? Let's make it. So they went into the lab at a particle accelerator and made this element. It is the first artificially created element. But wait, how could that have any legitimacy if they made it, that they just made it up? Aren't we in the universe too? Yes. So therefore, we created an element in the universe. Ah, okay.

18:11Right. I forgot. Good point. Never trust an atom. They make up everything. They make up everything. All right. Okay. That's a dad joke, safe for elementary school. Exactly. So what's the word for things that you make in modern civilization? There's a word for it. It's so common, you don't even remember why we use that word. It's called tech. Tech is human-made contributions to civilization. Tech. The name of that element is tech-esium. Can I drop a book?

18:46Yeah, I like Lindsay's fact better. Don't make me slap him.

18:56Good spin. Yoda style. What is this? Yes. You have to find a fact in this book and read it as Yoda would. Ring tides. This is in the section on tides. Is that a foreign language? What do you say? Spring tides.

19:17Especially high they are.

19:22Drink full or a new moon when Earth, the moon, and the sun align. Twice per month they occur.

19:32That's my Yoda. Well done. Here's the thing. That's not too bad. I understand you better as Yoda than as you.

19:40And if I lose, I'll pull out my lightsaber and cut off both of your heads.

19:46This is way more embarrassing than when I knew this was happening.

19:52Millions.

19:57It's like you're trying to talk after you've been to the dentist and you're all numbed up. Okay, go. Millions. Now it's currently the frog. Okay, what's the cat? What's the topic? Millions of asteroids and one dwarf planet call the asteroid belt home. They do.

20:19Well done. That's good. Well done. Paul, what is the dwarf planet that resides with the asteroids in the asteroid belt? It's not Pluto, is it? No, it's Ceres. Okay. So while Pluto got demoted from planet to dwarf planet, Ceres got promoted from asteroid to dwarf planet. Ah, so they're on a level playing field. They're on a level, yeah, yeah. Very cool. Pluto can't be happy about that. But four point, four point billion years ago, outer solar system location forming, gravity strong Jupiter may have flung Ceres.

20:57Wait, Paul, who directs your one-man show? Frank Oz. And who is the voice of Yoda? Frank Oz. So that was the worst Yoda I ever heard. I want to report you to him. Frank, I'm sorry. Frank, I'm sorry. And you must die.

21:17Say good. Oh.

21:21This is for the honor of Frank Oz. I thought I did a pretty lousy. Yeah, that was pretty lousy. That thing's sick as hell. Oh, who won?

21:33Gallery?

21:35You did. I'll take it.

21:38Vote in the comments, yes.

21:42It's a really terrible spinning wheel.

Drawing space concepts

21:51Draw it. Draw it. Draw it. Okay. I didn't give anybody permission to use my hat. So what's going to happen? You're going to pull a prompt from your own hat, please. Did you know a monkey peed in that hat in space?

22:03Don't tell us. Don't show us. Okay. You have to draw it. You have to draw it. I have to draw it? Yeah. You have to draw it. Oh, okay. He's very emphatic. I'm trying not to look at this. I'm worried because he's like really like knew exactly what he wanted to draw. I think this is going to be pretty accurate.

22:20The first man on the moon. Neil Armstrong. Neil Armstrong. Neil Armstrong. All right. There you go. All right. Wow. Point for Neil. And apparently he had no eyes, ears. Well, you're looking through a visor and you can't see through the visor. What number were you going to draw? How do you know the visor wasn't up? Number one. I was going to do. Number one. Oh, no. That would have been too easy. But can I have this for a second? What happens in space that your right arm gets swollen like that? Too much golfing. That's a golfing arm. There's something wrong there.

22:51All of the iconic pictures of the first moon landing is not of Neil Armstrong. They're of Buzz Aldrin because Neil was on camera duty. This is a quote attributed to him. And when I met him, this was consistent with what he would have said, although I didn't re-verify it. He said, whenever he feels the urge to exercise, he just lays down on the couch until that urge goes away. Neil Armstrong does that? Yes! Yes! I'm going to draw. You should not let us see it while you're drawing it.

23:21Why not? Because then we're kind of cheating and coming ahead of time. No, that's all right. All right. You can be in on the process. Oh, okay. You can guess as I'm going. Maybe I need to do some more stuff. I'm a cellular manipulation. Oh, my gosh. It looks like a Jerry Garcia with sunglasses. These look like two bow ties. Yeah, Grateful Dead. Oh, no. Come on.

23:52Radio waves. Come on. No, I got this. Protons and neutrons. No, I got this. Well, guess. I guess. Wait. What is it? Proton-neutron intercourse. This is hydrogen fusion. So cool. No. There's no hydrogen fusion? No, he was very close. When he said intercourse, he's closer? Yes. Than anything I just said? Yes. Yes, which means I win. Woo-hoo! I win! This game is over. Oh, shoot. I should do something like this. Okay, it's quantum entanglement. Exactly.

24:22Entanglement is the way I describe things with my wife that we do. So it's all the same.

24:29You want to have a night of entanglement. She's like, yeah, sure. Why not?

24:36Oh, okay. All right. Okay. Okay. Oh, did you see it? No. No. It's... Can you do that in a way the camera sees it so that people can participate? Apple core. That's... That's... Right. That's, um, fission.

24:57Paul, I have no freaking idea. Cells of vision. Cellular mitosis. Focus on what this is. It's two things. It's this, and it's this. Okay? Uh-huh. And if you want, I'll take that away, and I'll draw it a little straighter. Oh, it's, it's the, the, it's like the separating of the tectonic plates. It is asteroid belt. Oh, duh. Duh.

25:28Hey, what is the rubbing of the head? That's a belt. And that's an asteroid. Oh, I see. Oh, I see. And you see? And it's moving toward Earth. Okay. Deliver me. This is... How is it? That is... All right. Here we go.

Acting out astronomy charades

25:49Oh, charades. Charades. We're acting out. Charades. Okay. In the same sort of vein, we have to act out a prompt on a card. We, and we can't use words. And I don't think we can use props. No, you can't use props. No, but you can't use words. There's too many props. Neil, you go first. You can't use sounds either. Was this in my office? It's like an urn. Is there like a dead body in here? Yeah. It's a bit more of it. It's from the 11th century. It's worth $8 million. Don't break it.

26:19Can I make sounds? No. No. No words. No. Only acting. How's that?

26:27You can make non-word sounds. Oh, I can. Okay. Oh, okay. Meow. Meow. I think it's cat. Oh, cat. Oh, oh, oh. Feline.

26:40Blind. What's his name? Blind as a cat. Blind cat. Happy cat. It's the cat. Is he dead or alive? Dead or alive cat. What's his freaking name? My mind is blank right now. This is the best day of my life watching you do this. It's not true. Death of a sailsman. Stranger's cat. Stranger's cat. Damn, y'all. What's wrong with you? I knew what I was. I gave the best imitation of a stranger's cat there ever was. It was so good. I'm sorry. That was, yeah, too much.

27:16Oh, asteroid impact. Yes. I didn't even have a chance on that one. Yeah, what a coincidence that the person who wrote the book knew the answer.

27:28Asteroid impact. Oh, okay. Well done. Okay. That was good. Can I do another one? Yeah. Oh, he looks confident.

27:39Belt. Asteroid belt. Asteroid belt. Ah! It all comes back. Nice. Wow. I thought you were taking your pants off. I know. I'm like, wow. I'm glad you recognized I was reaching for my belt. Yes, exactly. I'm like, what is going on? In the zone. This is a kid's show, everybody.

28:01Oh.

28:05Time. Clock. Hands.

28:09Time commitment. Running through time. Time. Travel. Time travel. Time speeding up.

28:19Speed of light.

28:22It's late for a bus. Oh.

28:27Time dilation. Oh! What was this? Okay. What was this? I was running faster than light. Squishy thing. Sucking.

28:46Amoeba. Molecule manipulation.

28:51Sun. Here comes the sun. SPF 50.

28:56Sheer.

29:00Aliens. Coming from space.

29:06Ninja. Ninja. Magnetic force. Force of nature.

29:13Sticky. Gravity. Drop. Gravity. Gravity attack. Oh. Supermassive black hole. A supermassive black hole. Yeah. And super scene. That was the worst supermassive black hole that I've ever seen. Okay, well, let's see you do it. Yeah. Yeah.

29:32A monkey in space. Yeah, exactly. Oh, wait. Oh, okay. Uh... Uh... Pshew.

29:46Alien. Panky. Panky. Panky. Panky. Uh... Alien. Uh... Uh... Mm.

29:53Pshw. It's floating through space. We're on a spaceship. Rocket ship. Uh... Zero g. Zero gravity. Flight. Space flight. Rocket. Space flight rocket.

30:10Astronaut.

30:12Oh. You didn't say a word. I thought... Hold on. Hold on. Wait, hold on. The game caught hold of Lindsay here. Okay. That was... So astronaut, that was the... That was it? Yeah. All that was supposed to be astronaut? Yeah, Mr. Supermassive black hole. He acted out an entire play for it. Yes, I'm going this. I'm doing like... Okay, okay, okay. Okay, here we go.

30:37Swimming... Swimming through... Space-time.

30:43Swimming through...

30:45This... There's... The ocean of space. It's a... It's a universe. It's a cosmos. Oh, it's a giant fabric of space-time. It's an amoeba.

31:03Octopus.

31:08What's going on? What are you doing? Oh. It's a turtle all the way down.

31:17The septipus. Septipod. The alien's in arrival. Spaghettification. Oh, no. That was the worst spaghettification. No, this is spaghetti. Just because you're Italian, as in wiggle your fingers, doesn't mean everyone else thinks it's spaghetti. Or you do spaghetti then. Go ahead. I'm going to do spaghetti? Yeah, go ahead. Okay, okay.

31:44That's the last bit of spaghetti. You eat spaghetti like a six-year-old? Yeah. It's more... It's harder that way. How many times do I have to... That's spaghetti. So you go into the black hole, you start as a whole being, and then you... Well, you're like spaghettified. Yeah, you don't become 20 strands of spaghetti. You become one thin strand of spaghetti. 20 spaghetti. Who invited you on this show? You could have... You don't become pasta. You don't become pasta. You don't. What do you think? I'm Joel Cherico,

32:29and I support StarTalk on Patreon. This is StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson. Mold it.

Sculpting celestial objects with play doh

32:46So what happened? How do you play this? So, each of us, pick your Play-Doh color. Okay. I'm going yellow. Okay, I'm going green. All right. And then we pick a... This is Play-Doh. Yeah, the old school. The edible Play-Doh. Oh, yeah. This is lunch, by the way. There's literally no budget on the show. Oh, this is lunch. Kids would eat it. It has, like, a salty... I love the machine. So now I grab a thing. We have to mold what's on our card. Yeah. Okay. Are you ready?

33:17Two, one. Go.

33:21I feel like a sculptor. I should be in a studio smoking a cigarette. With a beret? With a beret and a bottle of cognac and my lover... A glass of cognac. And my lover lying... Lying naked for you to draw. Yes, exactly. That's the only way I work. That's my inspiration. Oh, my God. Four, three, two, one. I am so going to win this. Two, one. I can feel it. One.

33:49Okay. You want to start with mine? Yeah. Okay. That looks like a whale. That looks like a whale. That is a whale. That's a whale. Oh! Hey, this is a drop the whale moment right there. Wait, did you show the camera before you just broke the nose on the whale? Let's see. I did hold it up. Here we go. Okay, hold that up. That is my whale. Okay. Look at that. That's really beautiful, Paul. Right? Paul, that's beautiful. It's a beluga. It's in the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut.

34:20His name is Albert.

34:23Solar System.

34:26Pancake. Oh! The Voyager plaque. Yeah! Well, it's Voyager. You know, you have fingernails to help you do that. That's true. Otherwise, I'd be cooked. I needed a little, like, thing. You have total fingernails. I was trying to... I was also sneaking a little peek at that plaque. Trying to remember how... Try making a blowhole with no fingernails. Very challenging. Okay, ready? That's a hand.

34:51Oh, galaxy. Milky Way. Spiral galaxy. Spiral galaxy! Ah, nice. Well done. But you don't need to do that with your hand.

35:02It's a new dance move. What are you, a Vegas magician? And tell us about the spiral galaxy. I will. So, spiral galaxies are where most of the stars are born in the universe. Because they still have gas. There are the galaxies that are elliptical. They ran out of the gas. And so, they're just stars. And why the spiral? Are they sort of feeding off each other? It's very flat. Mm-hmm. Flatter than a flapjack. Mm-hmm. And that spin is what's called a density wave. Mm-hmm.

35:32And the gas is moving through this density wave, collapsing, making stars. Okay. And so, that gives us the spiral. The spiral pattern is the pattern of newly born stars. And we don't know why that is that pattern. It just is. We just know. No, because it's rotating. And the inner parts are rotating faster than the outer parts. And then once it's fully formed, does it sort of, they move away from it? No, no. It's a static pattern. You know what it's like? It's like rubbernecking on the freeway. Do they still call it that? Rubbernecking? Yes. Yeah. So, you're driving, and you slow down.

36:06You don't even know you're slowing down. You're looking out at the accident or whatever. But then you continue through. Right. Okay. Back at your previous speed. Correct. A helicopter view of that shows a concentration of cars where that event is. Right. But that's not a static set of cars. They're cars moving into and out of that. Okay. Okay? Just like there's stars moving into and out of it. But while they're in there, you can be born, but then you keep going. And you can move out of it at some point. Yes. Yes. So, it's a density wave. What determines that you move out of it?

36:37Because you're moving faster than the wave itself. Do some die and are not able to move out of it? You don't stop moving just because you die. That's very profound. You're a ballistic projectile in a galaxy. Your corpse is moving just as fast as your crib. Then I know how I want to go. I don't want to be cremated. I want to be shot up dead into the universe and float around.

Decoding the Voyager golden record

36:59This is very exciting. I love that we both got this. So, on the Voyager records, the golden records that were set in 1977, this is what they look like. But on the record, it was an actual record. And there was 55 greetings in 55 human languages. But playing in the background of all of those greetings is humpback whale songs. Because they had just discovered like five years before that humpback whale sing. Forms of communication. And so, just in case aliens could decipher whale songs better than humans.

37:29Who's to say they'll first land on land? If 70% of Earth's surface is ocean, they'll land it. They'll say, Earth is primarily water. Let's land there. And they land there. And if they already value brains, who's got the biggest brains in the world? Whales. Whales. This is the distance and direction to pulsars in the Milky Way galaxy. Okay. That set of pulsars can only be in those distances and in those directions from our location. So, this is instructions for the aliens to triangulate on where we are in our galaxy.

38:03So, it's a GPS that we... They will triangulate exactly where we are. We place that pin there? Or that pin... No, no, no, no. This is... We're looking around. Okay. That's like saying, if the Empire State Building is two miles that way, and Jersey is half a mile this way, and Times Square is four blocks that way, where does that place you? Okay? Okay. That's the triangulation. Okay. So, if all these pulsars are at those distances and in those directions, where does it place you? There aren't that many pulsars in the galaxy.

38:33So, aliens would know this. So, they would find out where we are. This is how we're trying to dress. Did we discover that pulsar? Did we... No, we know all these pulsars. Okay. They're in our catalogs. Okay. Okay? All of them. Okay. So, we gave our return address to aliens. Through Voyager. Which... Through this diagram. Okay. Which seemed like a good idea at the time. Mm-hmm. But now, you wouldn't give your email to a stranger in the street, who's your species, would you? I'd choose aliens more than my species.

39:04Oh. Yeah. Oh. I choose the alien. Oh! I gave my email to Wayfair, and they will not stop. I don't need patio furniture. Take care. I'm good. I don't have a patio. Stop! So, we have at the bottom here... Sun. ...a representation of the solar system. Not to scale. Okay. Obviously. So, this is the sun. Mm-hmm. Over there on the left. Then, Mercury, Venus, Earth. A line coming from Earth, which is the trajectory of this spaceship that's carrying this. And it passes Jupiter and Saturn, and there's Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

39:37Which should not be. At the time this plaque was conceived, Pluto was a planet. They'll come to our sector of the galaxy. They will see this solar system and say, that only has eight planets. Right. That can't possibly be where we're looking. Right. Let's keep moving. So, Pluto becomes the savior of civilization. He's assuming ill intent on the aliens. That's what I'm saying. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's all, of course. Sorry, that was implicit. Why would you assume ill intent? Sorry. Sorry. I'm assuming evil aliens. Wait, so there's going to be probing, like, in the whole thing?

40:09I think they come. We want them. We want to correct that so that they come and they know that we want to communicate with them. We want to connect with them. You don't give your email address to strangers in the street. Okay. Now, Lindsay says she trusts aliens more than fellow humans. Big time. Right. This is why. I know what we're capable of. This is your negative view of things is what's keeping civilization from moving forward. And experience. Yes. Dang. Yeah. You run the Hayden Planetarium with that dark matter mind of yours, and this is why we're

40:42going to be stuck with each other for the rest of our lives. Wow. That's hard hitting right there. Yeah, he got you. Lindsay, I was delighted to be co-authors with you on this book. Likewise. This is really fun. And Netgeo, they're the ones that make it beautiful. We give it the content. And they have designers. Yep. And that's not the first time they've done this. They've done it with us before. Uh-huh. And they do this for almost their entire catalog. And that's what distinguishes what they create from what other publishers do. A lot of people don't know this about Neil, but when he's really stressed out, he sucks

41:14his thumb. Very childish.

41:19And then this is evil Neil. Hello. Welcome to StarTalk. Okay, and I have to, now I'm going to close the show, so you got to do it while I close

Closing thoughts and sign off

41:30the show. You ready? Okay. Okay. Okay. This has been another episode of StarTalk, a special edition showcasing Lost in Space. I'm here with my co-author, Lindsay Walker. Until next time, I bid you to keep looking up.

41:56Now you're creeping people out. That'll work.

42:10You're keeping небro. You're you're Kohz and my co-author. You're growing celebrities. You're bringing them to Toyo primeiro. That'll work. You're joking. You're getting mood görev, Joe. You're turning to the star. You're joking. You're helping. You're washing. You're walking. You're getting mood. And I know you're driving. You're burning people out. You're hurting. You're watering is probably not.

42:23You're drinking pure depth. You're watering. You're displaying yourself. To make sure I do this too much. Bye-bye. You're Ett is doing that much sorry. I don't wanna know you. You're listening to the most, but I am in cover.