Neil deGrasse Tyson Impressed by Science of Interstellar
Last fall, following the release of Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, astrophysicist and Cosmos-host Neil deGrasse Tyson delivered an epic Twitter rant against the many scientific inaccuracies in the film. With the opening of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar this weekend, he was at it again. But this time, Tyson was clearly more impressed with the scientific basis for the science-fiction feature.
Here is a rundown of his Sunday night tweets. Major spoilers abound:
In #Interstellar: All leading characters, including McConaughey, Hathaway, Chastain, & Caine play a scientist or engineer.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: All leading characters, including McConaughey, Hathaway, Chastain, & Caine play a scientist or engineer.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: And in the real universe, strong gravitational fields measurably slow passage of time relative to others.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
GPS satellites, located farther from Earth’s center than we are, keep faster time than do our clocks on Earth’s surface.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
GPS Satellites are pre-corrected for General Relativity, allowing them to beam us the accurate time for Earth’s surface.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: Experience Einstein’s Relativity of Time as no other feature film has shown.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: Experience Einstein's Curvature of Space as no other feature film has shown.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
Relativity. Gravity. Quantum. Electrodynamics. Evolution. Each of these theories is true, whether or not you believe in them.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: The producers knew exactly how, why, & when you’d achieve zero-G in space.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: You observe great Tidal Waves from great Tidal Forces, of magnitude that orbiting a Black Hole might create
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: You enter a 3-Dimensional portal in space. Yes, you can fall in from any direction. Yes, it’s a Worm Hole.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: They reprise the matched-rotation docking maneuver from "2001: A Space Odyssey," but they spin 100x faster.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: Of the leading characters (all of whom are scientists or engineers) half are women. Just an FYI.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: On another planet, around another star, in another part of the galaxy, two guys get into a fist fight.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar, if you didn’t understand the physics, try Kip Thorne’s highly readable Bbook “The Science of Interstellar"
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar, if you didn’t understand the plot, there is no published book to help you.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
REMINDER: Never look to me for opinions on new films. All I do is highlight the science one might or might not find in them.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
In #Interstellar: They explore a planet near a Black Hole. Personally, I’d stay as far the hell away from BlackHoles as I can
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2014
This morning, Tyson followed up his tweets with some elaborations on CBS This Morning. “Well they’re going through a wormhole to another part of the galaxy, so it’s science fiction,” he told the hosts at the top of the segment. But at the same time, he said was impressed that the film recruited Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist, to be one of its executive producers.
“A black hole, you fall in and you’re not coming out ever,” Tyson continued. “A wormhole has a lot of the similar physics of a blackhole except it’s a portal to another place in the galaxy. And you can use it, in principle, to travel great distances much faster than if you otherwise, sort of took the detour.”
Asked by host Gayle King if he got “tingly” watching a movie in which the five major characters in the film were all scientists or engineers, Tyson said, “These are my peeps.”
Watch video below, via CBS:
[Photo via screengrab]
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