Neil deGrasse Tyson

With the help of paleontologist Neil Shubin, reporter Emily Graslie and the Field Museum's Paul Mayer we discover that our world is full of ancient coral calendars

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.  He's also the narrator "Dark Universe," a new show about th...

Ann Druyan, creative director of the NASA Voyager Interstellar Record Project, Carl Sagan's widow, and now executive producer of "Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey", talks about the golden records on board Voyager 1 and reflects on the news that it is now in interstellar space. The record project was intended to demonstrate the diversity of life and culture on Earth for future humans or any intelligent extraterrestrial life it may come into contact with. Plus, Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History and author of the book The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet, joins the conversation to talk about the scientific development that Voyager represents. He's the host of the new "Cosmos" series.

A meteor exploded in the sky above Russia Friday morning. But astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson says that's tiny compared to asteroid 2012 DA14, which will be flying by the Earth Fri...

A meteor streaked across the sky in Russia today, reportedly causing hundreds of injuries. The meteor, which was captured on video, came as many were focused on another space object, ...

If you've played with a Slinky for more than five minutes, you've probably mastered all the classic moves

Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses NASA and the future of space travel, now that NASA has put human space flight on hold. In Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier , he shares his thoughts on topics from the missteps that shaped the recent history of space travel to how aliens, if they existed, might go about finding us.

 

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was on the Lopate Show to discuss the future of American space travel, now that NASA's space shuttle program has ended. He also told us that he's a fan of Broadway musicals. Find out what else Neil's been reading and listening to.

After half a century at the forefront of space exploration, NASA’s been hit by hard times. Last year, its groundbreaking and celebrated space-shuttle program was shuttered. The cosmos won’t see another American spacecraft for at least another decade, and that once dreamed of trip to Mars — not too long ago a serious interest of the U.S. government — isn't even close to being a priority.

The mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson posed a big question about mirrors in one of his best-known books: Through the Looking-Glass (yup, Dodgson's pen name was Lewis Carroll). Natasha Gostwick of Storynory reads an excerpt that gets at the heart of the trouble: is mirror milk any good to drink? ...

Just after the Big Bang, the universe was a primordial soup made of light. Then, it started belching out matter. Neil deGrasse Tyson explains how deeply shocking this is, and Marcelo Gleiser reveals an imperfection in the laws of physics that makes our very existence possible.

Photographs of Mercury have come to earth for the first time. The Messenger spacecraft entered Mercury's orbit on March 17 and has just sent back its first batch of photographs. The very first image received shows a crater near the planet's southern pole, an area that has never been seen before. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium and host of "Star Talk Radio." He helps explain why these photos are important.

When the space shuttle Discovery lands at Kennedy Space Center later today, its odometer will read somewhere in the neighborhood of 150,000,000 miles. The shuttle has flown 39 missions in its 27 year career. After today's landing, it will retire on planet earth. With Discovery's retirement, an era of American space exploration comes to a close; and, due to political and economic realities at home, future chapters remain in doubt. Yesterday, the US National Research Council reported that two planned rover missions to Mars, which NASA intended to launch along with ESA in 2018, may be about $1 billion outside of the U.S. budget.

Today, Leonard talked to Professor Mike Brown about his book, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. In the book, Professor Brown recounts how his discovery of a 10^th "dwarf" planet in the solar system inadvertently led to uproar in the astronomical community—and the eventual demotion of Pluto as a full-fledged planet. The conversation reminded us of a series of angry letters from Pluto defenders published in Neil deGrasse Tyson’s book, The Pluto Files. (Mr. Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Natural History Museum, appeared on our show to discuss his book in December 2009.) These letters came from an unlikely source: third-graders.  One letter writer accused him of being a “Pluto-hater”; another offered a carefully drawn picture of Pluto, just in case the director had had a hard time identifying it. Below, we’ve put scans of our favorites, courtesy of NOVA’s website. Let us know your favorite letter in the comments below!

For the first time in over four hundred years, a lunar eclipse lands on the winter solstice. On the morning after this auspicious coincidence, we catch up with some professional star gazers to get a sense of the event’s astronomic and historical significance. We speak with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium and host of NOVA's "Science Now," along with Cameron Hummel, a PhD Student at Columbia University’s Department of Astronomy. 

Rosemary Morton had a little ... trouble with gravity.

Two stories of falling in everyday life, and one fantastical leap:

6. Falling Asleep: Professor Frederick Coolidge argues that our tree-dwelling ancestors are to blame for a hiccup in our sleeping patterns.

7. Walking as Falling: David Eagleman explains walking as the act of calibrating our steps to turn falls into forward motion.

8. Falling Apart: Neil deGrasse Tyson takes us on a one-way trip into a black hole.

Eighty years ago an astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh, who worked at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, made a discovery that would capture the imagination of space enthusiasts for generations. He found Pluto.

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union inflamed the nation when it revoked Pluto’s planetary status. When the former planet, formerly known as Pluto got downgraded, Americans o...