Cosmic Queries – Space Junk! with Moriba Jah

23:53Neil deGrasse Tyson:Here's yet another fact from Lost in Space. The latest collaboration between StarTalk and National Geographic. 1995, we discover the first authentic exoplanet, a planet orbiting another living star. So, anyone born from 1995 onward, I now declare each one of you to be Generation X, O Planet. If you like that fact, you can find 4 ,999 more in Lost in Space. 5 ,000 facts to help navigate the universe. Lost in Space is now available wherever you get your books.

25:07Neil deGrasse Tyson:We're back. StarTalk. We've got special guest, Maura Bajaj, who's a professor of, was it astrodynamics? Did I get that right? Yeah, absolutely. Astrodynamics. I love it. I love it. At the University of Texas at Austin, is in their School of Engineering. and I have Chuck. Ah! No, before the break, Chuck asked a great question. And even though he's not on Patreon, I'll let him ask this question. It was, here we are pointing our fingers at China for dropping one of their boosters, who knows where, right? Well, we know where, but they didn't know where until it hit. So are we without guilt in this game of lost boosters?

25:48No, we're not. In fact, I would say in low Earth orbit, where you can think of low Earth orbit going from about, I don't know, roughly 100 kilometer altitude to about 1 ,200 kilometer altitude, there's probably about 2 ,000 dead rocket bodies, derelict rocket bodies. Of the 2 ,000, probably about 1 ,300 belong to Russia, launched from the Soviet Union era and all that stuff. Wow, still there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Still there. And out of the remaining 700, I'm thinking that somewhere about 350 of those are Chinese and the rest are American. So the U.S. has quite a few hundred dead rocket bodies that are kind of like ticking time bombs.

26:37And yeah. And none of them will have a controlled reentry.

26:42Neil deGrasse Tyson:Exactly. That's what you're telling us. That's what I'm telling you. Oh, oh. Okay, so of all the non-controlled reentries going forward, based on your statistics, half will be old Russia, half of the half that remains is China, and then what remains is going to be us. So watch that space. Plus Skylab, we didn't have that. It seems like enough people went in and out of Skylab. We should have known where that would have fallen, and we didn't at the time. I was alive and around and ready for that. And I remembered Baskin-Robbins, the ice cream store, said, if you get hit with a Skylab part, you will get an ice cream cone that has every one of their flavors stacked on top of it.

27:20Wow, what a prize, right?

27:23Neil deGrasse Tyson:What a prize for being dead, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So tell me, what happened with Skylab, America's first Skylab laboratory? Yeah, I mean, as you said, that thing reentered and people were pretty freaked out about that. I remember the Mir space station that's the one that I remember was Mir and even that was a very scary experience that's the Russian space station alright so we are not without guilt so we just have to it'd be nicer if we weren't pretend we were high and mighty as we point out that kind of brings up that brings further to bear the point that you made about having international rules actual rules you know then everybody would have to follow them or you know Yeah, yeah.

28:11Chuck, give me some more questions. All right, here we go. This is Robert Weaver, and he says, hey, would it be possible to use the Lagrange point to make a giant pile of space debris? Seems like that would be easier than bringing it all back to Earth and much more ethical than just flinging it out into space. Also, in the future, we could use it like an auto junkyard. And when we want components or metals or stuff like that, We could just go to that to build in space instead of recycling.

28:43Neil deGrasse Tyson:Oh, wow. So, Moriba, tell us first about Lagrange points. Yeah, so basically these are points in a three-body system where you have some stable and some unstable points, places where this gravitational influence in that system is, let's say, kind of null. Things cancel each other out. But yeah, out of the five points, out of the five Lagrange points, I believe two of them are stable and the other three are unstable. And so I would say this, we need to find ways of not creating orbital landfills. So the thing is, sending stuff to Lagrange point while you might be able, and oh, by the way, even when you send stuff there, it doesn't mean it just stays there forever.

29:30Like, you know, eventually the thing's going to drift out just due to perturbations that are non-gravitational, mostly in that sort of stuff. Plus, as Neil, you clearly know this, there's more than just a few bodies in the universe. And so eventually, you know, the curvature of space-time will force these things out if they're uncontrolled. So it's not a good answer and it's not a viable solution. And we should avoid trying to find a place in space to just send garbage to. So, yeah. And so basically, let me just see if I got this right. He's asking whether or not we could create a celestial equivalent of our ocean's great garbage patch.

30:18Yeah. Which is where the currents come together and create a stimulus. And let's do that in space. And let's just do that in space.

30:29Neil deGrasse Tyson:Yeah, so we don't want to do that, Chuck. Okay, so just let me throw some astrophysics in here, okay? One of the attractive Lagrange points in the Jupiter orbit, the Jupiter-Sun orbit, there's a leading Lagrange point and a trailing Lagrange point. If you look there, there are asteroids that have collected there. And they're called the Trojan asteroids. And so it's fascinating. And we knew to look there because we said, here's a place where all the gravitational forces cancel out. So there's got to be something. Anything that sort of drifts in won't have a reason to drift out very quickly at all.

31:07Neil deGrasse Tyson:So we actually find these places that are repositories. But I'd like the trash heap example. and I think of Sanford and Son Space in Space. We should do that. For sure, if we do do that, it should have the theme song that goes along with it. It should have. Without a doubt. We agree. And by the way, every time you drop something off in that great junkyard in the sky, you should hear, shut up, dummy. And that's the thing. All right, give me some more. All right, here we go. This is Chris Newbery. And Chris says, hey, Chuck, bet you don't get my last name correct on the first try. Aw, man. See, I should read these first.

32:03I'm going to say Newbry instead of Newbery. But anyway, because it's N-E-W-B-R-Y. Dr. Tyson, just love you and love your Cosmic Queries book. SpaceX, the idea that put 42 ,000 satellites into orbit for optimal internet around the world. That being said, does that put a lot of junk into orbit? How much does that increase the risk of future endeavors of this rock having such a net surrounding it?

32:38Neil deGrasse Tyson:oh so let me reshape that slightly so more about if we have functioning satellites then they're not junk but if you have thousands and thousands of functioning satellites isn't there still a risk that they could collide with each other yeah and and so and so i would say this low earth orbit is already building itself up to be this place with these functioning satellites like you said owned by different companies, but there isn't a space traffic coordination entity, right? So the thing is, people are making decisions about how to maneuver and how they want their satellites to behave, but they're doing that in the absence of coordinating with other people that are also making decisions.

33:24And so that does increase the risk of things bumping into each other in the

33:29Neil deGrasse Tyson:night, so to speak. And it's not, and space isn't just so supremely empty that we shouldn't worry about it? No, because we have very specific orbital highways where we put these satellites, given the purpose that we want. And right now, for instance, you know, with SpaceX and the Starlinks, which, oh, by the way, you know, out of the nearly 30 ,000 objects that we track, about 3 ,500 are working satellites and Elon owns about 1 ,500 of those. So it's already quite a bit. But... Wait, wait, so wait, Chuck, Elon is going to become Skynet. Oh my God. Are you good? Oh. Yes. Look at that. And Skynet's going to achieve consciousness.

34:12Neil deGrasse Tyson:Right. And then control the robots. And by the way, Neil, he's your friend. I do count him as a friend. That's true. But you say that like, OK, I'm also to blame because I know the guy. Right. Well, hold on. So I'm not saying that Elon is at fault for anything. What I am saying is that he owns most of the working satellites in Earth orbit. He will continue to own most of them, as I see now, given the fact that he's got licenses to launch. And so pretty much if you want to go beyond 500 kilometer altitude, you've got to coordinate with Elon because you've got to go through his layer of Starlink satellites.

34:58So the coordination piece is really important and that has not become manifest yet. So that is an issue.

35:07Neil deGrasse Tyson:So I got this. Elon is the next James Bond. So he's 008 and they say I'm licensed to launch. license to kill. License to launch. License to launch. Exactly. That's the next thing. Right. Oh, my God. Well, first of all, that sounds ominous. I know, right, right. Because that guy may be on his way to being the first real supervillain. And you heard how quickly Morbid backpedaled on pulling out his name. Let me say something nice about him before you go to the next topic. I didn't mean he's bad. No, no, no. He's good. There's nothing wrong with Elon. Yeah, we all know that Jeff Bezos is really the bad one.

35:53Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's the villain. Plus, he's bald like Lex Luthor. He actually does make for the perfect, like... Lex Luthor. Yeah, he's going to be the world's first trillionaire, probably, because he'll be the one that will land on an asteroid and mine it for all of its surprises. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. All right, cool. Let's go to... Keep it going. Avnish Joshi. And Avnish says this. Hi, Dr. Tyson, Mr. Nice, and Dr. Ja. I am 10 years old, and I want to be an astrophysicist. My parents gifted me with the StarTalk subscription on my birthday, and this makes me super, super excited. Damn, now we can't have potty mouth on the show.

36:34Damn. So he says this. I read that space debris is causing the night sky to be much brighter. Why does this happen if it does? And will it not make stargazing that much more difficult? How can we overcome it? Wow. Man. Look at this kid.

36:53Neil deGrasse Tyson:Man, what were you doing when you were 10? Yeah. Okay. One thing. It wasn't that. It wasn't that. That's a good answer, Moriba. I don't know the answer, but that is the answer. I was writing letters like, dear Santa Claus. And people were like, you still believe in Santa? Anyway, go ahead. So what about night sky observing? What's going on there? Yeah, so I will say this, right? I am actually working with the astronomy community to try to quantify the effects and impacts of these pieces of human stuff orbiting the Earth. And they do reflect sunlight. So in a sense, it's light pollution coming from the skies towards the ground, towards large pieces of glass.

37:40And yeah, when you look at the night sky, if you're in a place dark enough, you're going to see more dots going across the sky than you did a decade ago. That's happening now, and it's not going to get any better. So I would say to you, 10-year-old, what's his name again? Abneesh. Abneesh. So I'll say to you, Abneesh, the skies are not going to get less polluted with time because we're going to keep on launching satellites. And so the night skies are going to be changing. And I would love it if you could, you know, be part of the group of folks trying to find, you know, solutions to the problem.

38:15So how about this?

38:17Neil deGrasse Tyson:Once again, we're admitting we messed up everything. And we can't wait until the next generation get older and fix it. That's all. Yeah, the real sorry, Avnish. Yeah, you're screwed. And we did it. Basically, that's the answer. So sorry, Avnish. You're screwed and we are responsible. We're responsible, buddy. You'll find us in the Bahamas. You'll fix the world. By the way, you fix the world. I'll be in Tahiti spending your inheritance. So let me ask you. What did you say more about? Yeah, no. So basically I was just saying what Chuck had said is that, you know, basically I'm trying to quantify the problem for Abnisha's generation to try to do something about it, I guess.

39:00Yeah, that's great. I mean, you're really kind of a voice crying in the wilderness right now, my friend. you are indeed the John the Baptist of space junk because nobody is really paying attention to this. So it's important work to kind of wake people up about this issue, you know? That's a second religious reference here. Yeah, no, I really appreciate that, but I know how John's story ends. Exactly. I was about to say. That was great. That was very funny. Okay. All right, let me ask you this. All right.

39:32Neil deGrasse Tyson:Wait, wait. So for the atheists out there, John the Baptist had his head served to, is it Salome? Yes, absolutely. Who ordered up his head. Yeah. Here we go. Let me ask you this. In terms of all this. No, no, you're not. I'm on Patreon questions. I can't ask any more questions? No, no. One per segment. Okay, go. Here we go. Here we go. Here's the next one. This is from Simaya Cosmica. Okay. And she says, which is the cosmic sea. Are there noticeable effects caused by space junk in the scientific astrophotography that interfere with ground-based observatories? This is kind of like what Avnish was talking about, but more on the more professional level.

40:16When we look up into the sky, is there any research? Is there any discovery that is being hindered because of all this junk in space?

40:27Neil deGrasse Tyson:And we got to do that when we come back. From this next break, we'll find out all the ways that space junk may be harming the professional community, even if it's just another interesting object to watch from your backyard. So on StarTalk, stay tuned.

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43:18Neil deGrasse Tyson:we're back star talk and we're talking about space to be space junk and it's a cosmic queries just trying to find out what's going on and how and why. And we left off, Chuck, with the question, and who is it from? Teresina is her name, but she calls herself the Cosmic Seed. The Cosmic Seed. Oh, very nice. So I know at least this much, Morba, that these satellites that reflect sunlight, and you can see them streaking across the sky, that's primarily in twilight, when you're deep in twilight. But once all of the sky above you is Earth's shadow in space, then the satellites above you don't see sunlight and so they don't reflect.

44:02Neil deGrasse Tyson:So can you think of another cost to night sky observing if you can't otherwise see them because they're deep in Earth's shadow? Yeah, absolutely. So these objects in space, they're getting heated up by the solar radiation and also thermal radiation from the Earth, if they're sufficiently low, gets to where the satellites are as well. And so when these things go in a shadow, they're radiating heat. And so from an infrared, you know, wavelengths. Very important band that we use in modern astrophysics because not everything just gives visible light. So we want to be sensitive to infrared. Okay, go on.

44:49Neil deGrasse Tyson:Yeah. So that's where these things are now emitters of infrared radiation that then pollutes the folks that are doing IR imaging from astronomy. Wow. Observatories. that is first fascinating but just something you really wouldn't think about because we we tend to think about everything in terms of visible light which is well geordie on star trek would have seen it right away right yeah he's got full spectrum vision yes right exactly wow that is so cool all right so now there's another segment give me and and this this is same and i'm you're allowed one now i get to ask the question okay okay all right so So one of the reasons why we have all this stuff in space is because they forget just the replenishment of outdated, you know, equipment, like new satellites.

45:43They're doing something for us, like GPS or geosynchronous. Like they're all doing something. Communications, weather, they're all doing something for us. What if, would it help if there were like a giant relay station? So you wouldn't put your satellite up into space. You would connect to that satellite relay station that would serve as your satellite here on Earth. So a geosynchronous satellite hub. A satellite hub. Thank you, Neil. So a geosynchronous satellite hub that would allow you to, through like lasers, to connect anywhere on Earth. So the satellite hub is all connected. And then on Earth, you would connect to that satellite hub instead of throwing a piece of equipment in the sky.

46:39I'm making this up as an idea that I just want to know, could that work?

46:44Neil deGrasse Tyson:And Chuck, I'm going to tell you once I tell you a thousand times, stay off the drugs.

46:52Neil deGrasse Tyson:That's just a line from Coming to America, actually. But go on. Yeah, so Moriba, what do you think of that concept? Here's everybody doing independent things. Well, maybe a lot of people want to do the same thing. Right. So I want to say that there's merit to your idea, Chuck. Absolutely. Oh, man, that was the best blow-off I've received in a long time. He didn't even have to finish. He didn't have to finish. He went with, there's merit to your idea. In other words, that is the dumbest crap I've ever heard. Would you let the man be polite and be polite on the show? No, so look, I think it's a great idea if you could get enough people to buy into it, right?

47:32But the thing is, nobody's been able to kind of assemble this sort of consortium mentality behind doing something like that. Everybody wants to. They have their own investors. They want to do their own thing. They want sovereignty, full independence, yada, yada, yada. So people have thought about doing this for Mars, actually. A Mars relay. A Mars relay. So, oh my God. Now you just opened up a whole new perspective on space junk for me just now, which is it is emblematic of our greater problematic disposition here on Earth, which is. Wait, wait, wait.

48:08Neil deGrasse Tyson:It's emblematic of our problematic. Yes. Disposition. Which is. You had a sentence with those three words in it. What's wrong with that? Emblematic of a problematic disposition. Yes. Okay. Is that right? I'm just trying to follow you here. Huh? Okay. I'm thinking of what you're putting down. Yeah. Okay, go on. I mean, here's the deal. The deal is this. You know, we can't, we don't really cooperate. I mean, scientists do. But other than that, let's be for real. Outside of like scientists on this earth, we are effed. Nobody gets together and says, hey, guys, do you want to do this? Or hey, guys.

48:50There's four things.

48:51Neil deGrasse Tyson:Just to be clear, there are four things. There's science, the Olympics, the World Cup, and the waging of war. These are the only things that nations coordinate for. I'm going to eliminate one of those, Neil, for I think obvious reasons. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. But you know what I'm saying? Like, that's so weird. Like, this problem in the sky, from what you just, you know, said to us, is the fact that we're not together. We can't get together. Well, we did it with the space station, space station, except we kicked China out of it for, and then they made their own damn space station. Putting more junk in the sky.

49:28Well, space station is not really junk, though. Okay. Wow. It's the size of a football field. Yeah, that's really cool, man. All right, here we go. You got your damn question. Now let's go back to the Patreon. All right, this is Teresina Rojas, again, who says this, because I like her questions. Is there a plan underway to remove this doggone Earth junk, I mean, space junk orbiting Earth? If so, I imagine it must be really expensive. Or is there a way to put together a plan so that someone could yield a great profit? Ah. So she's tapping into the real deal, which is, how do we make money off of the space junk?

50:06Because once you start doing that, everybody will race to remove space junk.

50:11Neil deGrasse Tyson:Yeah, that's how you motivate people. So, yeah, any plans? Yeah. Because it sounds pretty hopeless. Well, so in order to like monetize the whole, you know, space garbage cleaning thing, a couple of things have to happen first. For one, I think we need sustainability metrics, like being able to say, look, here's this orbit highway. This is the carrying capacity for the orbit. It's saturated or it's going to be exceeded. And so in order to get capacity back, we need to remove some stuff, right? And then we could actually hire somebody just like a tow truck. When you see a piece of some car on the side of the freeway, you can't just go into it and pull it off the road, right?

50:58We have tow trucks that come by and do that. And so we could have the equivalent orbital tow truck company that gets paid to provide capacity back to an orbit. But without that metric, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense because there's no rhyme or reason. Like, what's the benefit of removing this object versus that one, right?

51:18Neil deGrasse Tyson:I got it. You create a space tax. And that tax supports the cleanup to the beautification of the highways. Booyah. And that way, every launch, there's a little bit of money there that'll help get your ass back out of orbit in case you go dead. How about drones? Is there any way that we would be able to dispatch drones that would attach themselves to whatever? I know these things are moving at incredibly fast speeds, but that would be able to safely de-orbit them. So the drone and whatever it is together, the drone would just drag it down to a place where... Well, normally drones have propeller blades, which require...

52:04No, no. These are jet-powered drones. Jet drones. Jet-powered drones.

52:07Neil deGrasse Tyson:Yeah, no. Jet-pack drones. Jet-pack drones, yeah. They wouldn't be, you know, but they would only fire. They would be dispatched, but they would only fire to drag the piece back down to where the gravity would then take over. I got it. What about something like that? Well, so here's the thing, Chuck. I mean, gravity is always doing its thing. So it's always there. Things are always falling, right, towards something. But yeah, I mean, basically, you know, if you could have a satellite that attaches to something to bring it back down, there's several companies that have proposed something like that.

52:43I think Astroscale out of Japan is one of them. Oh, wow. Okay. All right.

52:49Neil deGrasse Tyson:So Chuck, you do have some good, I'm getting on your case, but these are some good ideas. Okay, all right. Not bad. All right. Okay, here we go. Hey, this is Gary Marmel. And Gary Marmel says, Hey, Neil and Dr. Jha, if light photons can push and pull a spacecraft, why not bring the laser for a ride? So he's looking at like solar sails. Why can't we do something like a solar sail on the pieces that are floating up there as junk? Wow, so you have an orbiting laser that you aim and knock satellites back down in a controlled way for them to reenter and burn up. And the coolest thing about it is when the laser fires, it goes...

53:44Neil deGrasse Tyson:The space laser. Nice. We have the sound effects already here. I like that. You heard it on StarTalk. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No. So, so look, certainly there are a couple of groups of people that are trying to do something like that from the ground as kind of like a risk reduction, a demonstration of the ability of lasers to effectively remove some objects from orbit. People in Australia and Canberra are doing that. Some folks in Germany, you know, Stuttgart and that sort of thing. So people are already looking at applying these lasers, at least from the ground, to test that out. But yeah, here's the problem, Chuck, is that when you put the laser in space to do that, people from a space security perspective start having concerns because a threat is something that has the opportunity, capability, and intent to cause harm.

54:35And so with a laser, you clearly have an opportunity and capability to harm something. Then the question is, how do you rule in or out the intent of this? If you can use it to push junk out of the way, then maybe you could do some damage to a working satellite. And how would you know? And that sort of thing. So it gets a bit contentious. Right. Interesting. And interestingly enough that you said that about the threat, who is to say that you won't use it to push my working satellite and disrupt my communications? Yeah. Yeah. Right.

55:06Neil deGrasse Tyson:Right. Right. Or maybe you did have good intent and then someone else takes control that you don't have control over. Right. So it's like someone steals your gun and then they commit a crime, but it was your gun. Interesting. Oh, man. This is really a, this is quite the perplexing little problem that you have. It's because it's the Wild West. It's crazy. It's the Wild West, except it's space. It really is. That's right. Oh, my God. Okay. All right. Well, let's. It's Cowboys versus Aliens. Cowboys versus Aliens. I saw that movie. So did I. I didn't quite know what to make of it. Yeah, I didn't really like it that much.

55:44But, you know, except for the scenes where the aliens were doing, probing the humans. That was cool.

55:51Neil deGrasse Tyson:No, the weird thing is they were mining Earth for natural resources. Way easier to mine an asteroid. Right. Why would you come all the way here? Right? It's like Earth is not your best supply of rare ingredients. It's like passing by like 30 gas stations just because, you know, you want... You heard somebody, Joey, filled up a handheld tank. Exactly. That's crazy. Okay. All right. I'm really glad we debunked that movie. It doesn't deserve it. There you go. No, no. There's another one. I heard a radio play of aliens who came to Earth sucking up the water because they needed the hydrogen in the water for them to survive.

56:33Neil deGrasse Tyson:Right. And that person probably had only just learned that water molecule is H2O. and they probably just learned that but didn't learn anything else. The universe is 90 % hydrogen. Right, right. Yeah, right, exactly. You don't have to... Let me find an expensive way to get the hydrogen, right? Exactly, exactly. That's so funny, yeah. It'd be like creating a big giant tank that allows you to breathe air. Right. Right here on the surface. Absolutely. All right, here we go. Okay, I think it's time for just one more question. Give it to me. Okay, let me give you this one. We know Violetta. Violetta is the 12 and a half year old.

57:15Uh-oh, that's Violetta. This is Violetta. Brace yourself. Yeah, we got to close the show out with 12 year old Violetta, who is also going to be an astrophysicist. All right, love that at 12. She knows this. And she says this, I only ever hear space junk described as being a negative thing. So this may be kind of a weird question, but I'd like to think on the bright side a little bit. Is there any possible upside to this space jump? Like even any way to turn trash into treasure? And then she goes, ha ha. So clearly that's a 12 year old joke. Okay. But go ahead.

57:58Neil deGrasse Tyson:All right, Moriba, what do you have? Yeah, okay. So to Violeta, this is a very good question. In fact, one of the things that I've been proposing to NASA and other people is let's use the space garbage as a sensor. And what I mean by that is this, right? So, you know, Neil had raised this thing about non-gravitational astrodynamics at the beginning. And basically there's like four things that motivate motion of stuff in space. There's gravity and then there's everything else. Everything else is like radiation, electromagnetic type stuff, particles bombarding different surfaces. And so space environment, space weather, just like with Earth weather, is very complex.

58:40But the thing is, just like we can tell how global circulation of water behaves based on following where the junk goes, like Chuck had brought up earlier, we could understand what the space weather is doing by following how it influences where the junk goes. And so we could actually try to solve the inverse problem of given the behavior of the junk, what's our interpretation of the space weather and use that for space weather science? Call me crazy.

59:13Neil deGrasse Tyson:So these are proxy for like weather balloons almost or weather buoys. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. Interesting. But just to be clear, when you say space weather, it's particles from the sun that create what we could say solar wind. That's right. So the space environment. of recent decades has been known as space weather. That's right. And so, wow. So they are all just corks on the waves. Yeah. As they bob back and forth. So I'd like to use them in that way, but nobody's given me any funding for that yet, so we'll see. Well, after they hear this show. Exactly. After we edit out the Chuck Perth. Right, right, right.

59:55No. By the way, now that you said that, I take back everything I said about Jeff Bezos. I love you, Jeff. I love you.

1:00:05Cool.

1:00:06Neil deGrasse Tyson:Well, we got to end it there. But let me ask, so Moriba, what's your social media presence? Yeah, so basically, if you go to like flow.page forward slash Moriba, you'll find all my stuff there. I'm on Instagram, Twitter, MoribaJaw, and also on Facebook and everywhere else. And so, yeah, I'm easy to find. Okay. MoribaJaw, M-O-R-I-B-A. Yes. pronounced as it's spelled, spelled as it's pronounced, and J-A-H. And Chuck, you on social media? Yes, sir. At Chuck Nice Comic. There you go. And I do, I don't officially follow you. I have you on a list. Oh, wow. Or maybe I do follow you. Wait. Well, you better start.

1:00:48Neil deGrasse Tyson:I track you. I don't know if I officially follow you, but I do track you. How do you not follow me? This is so disappointing on so many levels. My God, I've never been more in here. Okay, tonight I will follow you. Thank you. All right, Chuck. I think I already do follow you, though. I follow Pee Wee Herman. And not me! Are you kidding me? Nice. Yowza, yowza. Thank you. I'll get on a bar and I'll dance in some big shoes. Maybe that will change your mind. There you go. There you go. All right, we've got to call the quiz there. More, but thanks for this. You know, as more things fall out of the sky, can we think of you?

1:01:27Yeah, absolutely. So here's what I want people to do, right? I want people to go to eyesonthesky.org, check it out, see what we're doing, make a contribution if you're so inclined, and let's keep the love on being environmentalist for the sky alive and well.

1:01:44Neil deGrasse Tyson:Because you can't love what you don't know. Exactly. Or you can't love it as deeply as you ever knew you could until you have some kind of emotional, psychological relationship with the cause. So it's all good. And continued success down there in Austin. Thank you so much. All right. So I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. As always, bidding you, keep working out.

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