Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down to talk about the stars, space travel

Neil deGrasse Tyson, a celebrated astrophysicist, author, and the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, spoke with AccuWeather Prime host Adam Del Rosso to discuss his love of science and his new book, which allows readers to see the wonders of space right in front of their eyes.

Tyson told AccuWeather that he first became interested in the wonders of the night sky at 9 years old after a formative visit to the very same New York City planetarium he now runs.

"The lights dimmed, and the stars came out, and I was hooked. I was, dare I say, star-struck by it," Tyson said, adding that the light pollution, air pollution and tall buildings in the New York City skyline had made it difficult for him to appreciate the stunning beauty of the stars before.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of New York's Hayden Planetarium, in 2012 (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Much like how human activity interfered with a young Neil deGrasse Tyson's ability to see the night sky, Tyson explained that the cosmic realm can influence Earth's weather. Tyson described the Milankovitch cycles, which are gradual changes in Earth's movements, such as its elliptical path or on the tilt of its axis, that can change the weather on Earth in the long term.

"There are long-term cycles that can plunge us into ice ages and back out, but these are over tens of thousands of years, not over decades," Tyson explained, noting that they do not explain the fact human-made climate change has led to a recent rise in atmospheric temperatures.

Tyson also weighed in on the growth in commercial space travel and Elon Musk's interest in taking humans to Mars.

When it comes to a Mars landing by Musk's SpaceX or a similar private company, Tyson is quite skeptical. He argued that it is difficult for a business to embark on a risky, trillion-dollar endeavor without much, or any, profit guaranteed.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches with NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft onboard from Launch Complex 39A, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Fla. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)

"What has happened historically is NASA has done things first: NASA has landed on an asteroid, NASA has chased a comet, NASA has gone to the moon, NASA has space stations," Tyson said, adding that he doesn't believe private enterprise is built for advancing space travel to new frontiers.

"Leading a frontier in space to me is going where no one has gone before. The commercial enterprise, what are they doing, they are boldly going where hundreds have gone before," Tyson said.

Tyson's book, Welcome to the Universe in 3D: A Visual Tour hit shelves last month. The revolutionary book allows viewers to see space in three dimensions. The book comes with 3D viewers, which makes the graphics inside the book leap from the pages.

Resembling a wizard's staff set aglow, NGC 1032 cleaves the quiet darkness of space in two in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. (ESA/Hubble & NASA)

This technology allows readers to see things that they might never have noticed just by looking up at the night sky. For example, it allows readers to see the moon's libration, or how it shows just a little more than just one face to Earth - it can show a little bit extra of its surface area to the left and to the right. Now, with the technology used in the book, those extra chunks of the moon can be viewed simultaneously.

"It's as though your eyes are separated by thousands of miles to create the stereo image of the moon, and the moon just pops off the page," Tyson said, adding that readers will also to be able to see beautiful images of nebulas, exoplanets and clusters of galaxies.

In the second half of the interview that aired on AccuWeather Prime, Tyson spoke about education and upcoming exciting astronomical events.

Tyson said he worries that science is being taught poorly in K-12 schools, something that might lead to skepticism about climate change and simply how science works.

"I think we're teaching science as this satchel of facts and that you learn it, memorize it, make your vocabulary list of the bold-faced words in the chapter, get tested and move on. Science is a means with methods and tools of interrogating nature so you will know what is true and what is not," Tyson said.

If science is taught well, Tyson said, he believes that it will help people be open to ideas outside their own cultural, political, social, or ethnic preferences.

When it comes to upcoming astronomical events that Tyson is looking forward to, he raved about the upcoming total solar eclipse in 2024, adding that he greatly prefers solar eclipses to their lunar counterparts.

FILE - In this Aug. 21, 2017 file photo, the moon almost eclipses the sun during a near total solar eclipse as seen from Salem, Ore. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, file)

"Between two professionals, lunar eclipses are long and boring compared to solar eclipses," Tyson said. "I think most people who don't know an eclipse is happening just think it's a crescent moon or something."

However, a total solar eclipse should be on everyone's bucket list, Tyson said, noting that they aren't quite as rare as everyone thinks. They are about as common as a lunar eclipse, but the area that they can be viewed from is far more narrow. So, if the path of totality isn't expected to cross over your head in your lifetime, Tyson highly recommends that you take the time to travel to see it.

"As more and more of the sun gets covered, it gets dark and dark and dark and in the last few seconds, boom, it's nighttime. And you see this gorgeous corona in the outer atmosphere of the sun and stars come out and oh my gosh," Tyson said.

Even without abnormal astronomical events, Tyson encouraged everyone to look up at the sky once in a while and take in the night sky, something he says he does every time he comes out on the street.

"Maybe the aliens are coming to say hi and you missed it because you were looking down at your shoes," Tyson said.

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