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Neil deGrasse Tyson is blown away by a brilliant 2nd grader's question about black holes

His answer was pretty brilliant, too.

via Kaluza Jamar/YouTube

Neil deGrasse Tyson pleasantly shocked by second-grader's question.

In March 2009, PBS sponsored an event at The Palladium in St. Petersburg, Florida, called “Cosmic Quandaries with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.” The event featured a Q and A with the famed astrophysicist and science communicator. Over 800 people attended the event and had the chance to ask Dr. Tyson a big question.

The most memorable moment of the night was when a young boy named Clayton, a second grader, asked Dr. Tyson a question that was as high-minded as scientists could ask and also something that young kids would ask each other on the playground: “Will like a black hole be able to suck in another black hole?”

Clayton’s question was so great that it surprised Dr. Tyson. “Good question, it's not past your bedtime or anything?” he joked after being challenged by the young boy. “You're in second grade, and you're thinking about colliding black holes. You belong in like 12th grade, okay? Go tell your teacher I said put you in 12th grade.”

- YouTubeyoutu.be

What would happen if 2 black holes collide?

It just so happens that a student at Dr. Tyson’s college did his PhD thesis on colliding black holes so he could answer the question, much to young Clayton’s delight. As a tribute to Clayton’s great question, Dr. Tyson admitted that there was a lot about the thesis that he didn’t understand.

Dr. Tyson said that the collision of two black holes would create an extraordinary disturbance in the fabric of space and time because 2 black holes enter each other’s event horizon. The event horizon is the opening to the black hole, where the pull is so intense that nothing, not even gravity, can escape. So what happens when 2 event horizons start pulling on each other? It opens up the opportunity for time travel.

Once Dr. Tyson said “time travel,” Clayton’s eyes lit up and he knew he had asked a dynamite question.

neil degrasse tyson, astrophysics, black holesClayton asks Dr. Tyson a question.

“They've studied what effect that has on the passage of time, and it turns out there is a path you can take around two moving black holes that haven't quite collided yet where you can end up in the past of when you started that journey,” Dr. Tyson explained. “So it's backwards time travel — according to calculations from Einstein's general relativity — is enabled by the severely distorted fabric of space and time.”

However, even though the collision of black holes makes time travel possible, you probably wouldn’t survive anywhere near the cosmic event. “So beyond that, you really want to sort of watch that from a distance,” Dr. Tyson joked. Ultimately, after the collision both black holes will come together to create a new black hole that’s twice as large.

The video is a wonderful example of how, when kids are allowed to let their incredible imaginations run wild, they can come up with ideas that impress even the world’s most famous astrophysicist. In an appearance on the “Impact Theory” podcast, Dr. Tyson remarked that one of the most important things we can do as adults is encourage children to be the little scientists they are.

"Kids are sources of chaos and disorder. Get over that fact. Where does the disorder come from? It’s because they are experimenting with their environment. Everything is new to them, everything,” he said. “Your job is less to instill curiosity than to make sure you don’t squash what is already there.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson's impassioned speech on how not to raise your children

How to raise a child to be a 'mover and a shaker.'

via NASA Goddard Space Flight/Flickr

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in 2014.

Three years ago, astrophysicist, author and science communicator Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared on the Impact Theory podcast, hosted by Tom Bilyeu, where he shared some passionate advice about preserving children’s curiosity.

Dr. Tyson believes that for a child to truly make a difference and be a “mover and shaker” in this world, the most important thing is for them to remain as curious as possible. Maintaining childlike curiosity will inspire their ambitions far more than what they gain from the educational system.

The hard thing for parents and educators is maintaining that curiosity. For Dr. Tyson, it all starts at home and parents shouldn’t let preserving a clean home get in the way of letting their kids explore with abandon.

"Kids are sources of chaos and disorder. Get over that fact. Where does the disorder come from? It’s because they are experimenting with their environment. Everything is new to them, everything,” he said.

“Your job is less to instill curiosity than to make sure you don’t squash what is already there,” Dr. Tyson said.

However, this curiosity can be diminished by the educational system that teaches to tests instead of making children excited to learn.

"School should, as a minimum, preserve that curiosity for you," he continued. "They'll retain that curiosity through the turbulent middle school years into high school. And what is an adult scientist but a kid who never lost their curiosity?"

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Neil deGrasse Tyson's viral video is straight-up scientific fire.

Science is part of how America became America, Neil deGrasse Tyson says in a video.

In the video, posted in April 2017, Tyson delivers what he says might be his most important message ever: America — stop messing around.

C'mon! We put a man on the moon! We invented the internet! And yeah, we've never been a perfect county. Every era had challenges. Tyson recalls the '60s and '70s: Vietnam, the civil rights movement, the Cold War.

But even then, he says, we never had to argue about what fundamental, scientific facts were.

[rebelmouse-image 19527740 dam="1" original_size="480x270" caption="GIF from StarTalk Radio/YouTube." expand=1]GIF from StarTalk Radio/YouTube.

We didn't have Vice President Mike Pence disparaging evolution as just a theory. We didn't have false scares about vaccines (and a president who spouts anti-vaxxer rhetoric) or GMOs. We didn't have to argue about whether the planet was getting warmer.

Over the past few decades, we've seemingly lost the ability to agree on what the truth even is, which Tyson warns is a dangerous path.

[rebelmouse-image 19527741 dam="1" original_size="480x270" caption="GIF from StarTalk Radio/YouTube." expand=1]GIF from StarTalk Radio/YouTube.

Most of all, though, Tyson is done — completely and utterly done — messing around when it comes to people who don't take science seriously.

There are solutions. Take climate change, for instance. We could fight climate change with a carbon tax, or increased regulations, or more nuclear power plants, or solar energy plants. Heck, we could do all of the above! But nooooo, instead we have a Congress that literally throws snowballs around.

You can just hear in his voice how sick and tired he is of it.

“Every minute one is in denial, you are delaying the political solution that should have been established years ago," says Tyson.

Tyson is channeling the passion and frustration that so many of us are feeling right now. It's awesome to see that brought out in force.

Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson's full, impassioned video:

Science In America

Dear Facebook UniverseI offer this four-minute video on "Science in America" containing what may be the most important words I have ever spoken.As always, but especially these days, keep looking up.—Neil deGrasse Tyson

Posted by Neil deGrasse Tyson on Wednesday, 19 April 2017
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Neil deGrasse Tyson's rational advice for life under an irrational administration.

Neil deGrasse Tyson for president?

That's what some people were shouting for during a recent appearance by the astrophysicist and pop-culture icon. Would he ever run? Tyson said, as he has before: "No. No. Uh, nooooo."

But that wasn't all he had to say on politics.

[rebelmouse-image 19526588 dam="1" original_size="750x535" caption="Surely no question gets just an easy "no" from Tyson. Photo by Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images." expand=1]Surely no question gets just an easy "no" from Tyson. Photo by Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images.

While picking up the Lincoln Leadership Prize on March 10, he dropped five to-the-heart points for his fellow American citizens:

1. Why aren't there more scientists in government? Because people vote for charisma over knowledge.

Getting different types of people in office would mean "we have to really rethink what we are as a democracy," he said. "Voting for someone because of what they know — what a concept!"

He makes it seem so mind-bogglingly simple. Photo by Thos Robinson/Getty Images for Popular Science.

2. Don't blame politicians. Blame voters.

"You voted for these people! ... If you have issues, your issues are not with the politician. Your issues are with your fellow voters," he said.

At first, it seems Tyson is repeating what so many do: Voters can just vote out leaders they don't like. But there's more to it, he explained, because just thinking this way — that merely changing one person at the top will make everything be fine — "implies that we're all just here, the electorate, and don't really matter."

Does Tyson have a fix for this kind of dysfunctional electorate? Oh, yes.

3. Fix the electorate by arming them with science!

"I will go to the electorate and say, 'Here is what science is and how and why it works, and here's how you can become empowered thinking that way,'" he explained.

It's the best kind of evil plan, isn't it?! There's no time for a presidency when you're already working to make a better government by arming voters with objective facts for their personal philosophies so they can be choosier about their leaders.

Knowledge really is power!

4. What about the EPA being headed by a climate-change denier? He says: Watch for actions, not just words.

The Trump-appointed Environmental Protection Agency head, Scott Pruitt, denies humans are causing climate change and has even sued the EPA multiple times. While you might expect a science whiz like Tyson to fire up arguments against a denier, he leaned on logic and voter responsibility.

"We live in a free country; you should think what you want," he said, and that includes Pruitt. But what the country can and must do is push back against misinformation when it turns to legislative and regulatory action.

5. Defending the truth means defending democracy.

"When people are fighting over what is actually true when we know what is true? I don't know what country that is," he said. "But what I do know is that it's the beginning of an end of an informed democracy when that happens."

Scientists often have a flair for the drama of impending doom, but these words genuinely strike loudly right now. How many of our friends' political discussions lately just seem like two siblings fighting over who's to blame for a party that left the house trashed? That's definitely not an informed democracy making any sort of progress, is it? Meanwhile, the objective fact is that something must be done about the mess.

So, take note, people of the electorate! Neil deGrasse Tyson is here to guide you.

He wouldn't be our president, but he's already giving us what we need to hear to ma​ke our own changes.

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