RocketSTEM Issue #6 - March 2014 | Page 25

Q: In the past you’ve stated that the universe called you while you were still in high school to become a scientist. For those students who have no interest in becoming a scientist or an engineer, how do we impart on them the value of still studying STEM subjects no matter what their career choice is? Tyson: I was called by the universe at age 9. Long before high school. In spite of this, I claim no special solutions to the nation’s educational woes, but I can assert without hesitation that people want to learn when flames of curiosity are lit within them. They become selfdriven, taking ownership of their educational trajectory. We’ve all had teachers in our lives who did just that for us, but their numbers are typically countable on one hand. I count them as the first candidates for the walkin cloning machine. Q: What does a ‘Eureka’ or ‘Aha!’ moment feel like for you? Q: How do we know that there is a black hole – Sagittarius A* – at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and why should we feel safe that it poses no threat to our own solar system? Tyson: The rapid movement of stars very near the galactic center gives us a measure of how much mass is there, and the volume of space it must occupy. Combining these two numbers, you get a black hole. In the case of Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole. The observations are hard, but the calculation is relatively easy. Black holes are not giant sucking machines. They do eat anything that wanders too close, but if you’re on a stable galactic orbit far away from the beast, then you are safe. Image: Richard Foreman, Jr./FOX Tyson: Most scientific discovery, as Isaac Asimov perceptively noted, arise when, in response to new data, a scientists says, “That’s odd”. To utter the word Eureka implies that you found exactly what you were looking for, and that it happens in an instant. Most (nearly all) science does not unfold that way. Instead it’s the long and slow analysis of data, extracting what you judge to be believable signals out of experimental noise. The real feeling worth describing is the act of obtaining the data – data that you know that nobody has obtained before. That’s a state of unmatched anticipation and joy. question in terms of energy.) But why this universe? And why 13.8 billion years ago? These questions live on the cosmological frontier. Q: What was the most rewarding part of doing the new “Cosmos”, and why was it important to you to add another chapter to the storied legacy of the original “Cosmos”? Tyson: I don’t think of projects such as “Cosmos” as being rewarding to me. That’s not the source of my motivation. I participated as a servant of the public’s interest in the universe and as a conduit for those who did not know they could be interested in science, and for those who were sure they were not interested in science at all. If “Cosmos” succeeds, then the rewards are to society, who desperately needs - whether it knows it or not - a dose of science literacy to become better shepherds of our future on Earth. Q: Concerning the conservation of mass: if the universe came from nothing, does that break that rule, or is it because in theory the universe was not a closed system yet? And is it now? Tyson: We don’t know where the universe came from. Recent research shows that if the net energy of the universe is zero (adding together all sources of positive and negative energy) then there’s no problem creating a universe from nothing. (Energy and mass are equivalent, via E=mc^2 ) so I’ve simply restated the Neil deGrase Tyson is hosting “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odysssey” three decades after Carl Sagan’s original “Cosmos” aired on PBS. Q: What, in your opinion, is the probability of life existing on Europa? Tyson: 50:50 Q: If not on Europa, then where do you think we are most likely to first find evidence of life beyond Earth? Tyson: Aquifers of Mars. Q: What is your favorite scientific word, and why? Tyson: syzygy When written in script, all letters but one drop below the line. The word refers to three or more cosmic objects in mutual orbit, find themselves in a straight line. 23 www.RocketSTEM.org 23