Did You Ever Wonder "What If ..."?

I really enjoy watching any show that Neil deGrasse Tyson is on. I had not known that I had so much interest in science and regret not learning how exciting it could be when I was so much younger.

One area I am interested in is learning about volcanoes. I would like to know if it would be possible to drill into the side of a volcano and create a shaft for the lava to flow from when it erupted, and then control where the lava flow went?

Sincerely,
Tricia Piatt

I have always wondered why we can't just dump our non recyclable materials and hazardous waste into a volcano. Wouldn't all plastics and waste, including radiation and non recyclables, be vaporized into oblivion or at least melted away into a harmless substance? If we can't do that then why not just shoot harmless materials, such as spent uranium rods from a nuclear power plant, into space - perhaps even into the swampy gases of another planet or the sun?

Thank You,
Charles Sternaimolo
Fitchburg, MA

I am wondering if you could trap light in a box.... Say you have a hollow box whose inside surface is a mirror. If there was a small hole in the box, could you shine a light into the box, quickly cover the hole with a reflective surface, and then return, say ten minutes later, and uncover the hole to see a brief flash of light?

Thank you,
Aaron Cravens
Champaign, Illinois

What if all human life on earth just suddenly ceased to exist? Someone recently published a book on such a scenario. It would be interesting to see a NOVA Science Now episode on this book and the concept it presents.

they have a 2 hour special it was on discovery, history, or nova sorry I can not remember, ah I found it,http://www.history.com/content/life_after_people

Neil actually took on the very topic of human life disappearing from the planet in a video we did last year. We'll be posting it on the Cosmic Perspective page soon. Keep sending more ideas--we'd love to get them!

OK, I know that First we are going to the moon to train to go to mars. After we get to mars what is humans next stop in the solar system on our trip to the stars?

wouldn't that mean going faster than the speed of light?

What if the United States was hit by an asteroid? Say it hit in the middle of the country... Or what if it hit in the Atlantic Ocean?

what if there was a nuclear war? would the humans that survived have to live underground and what would their life be like?

what is our gravity is as weak as moon?

Dear Aaron,

good question, undoubtedly others have also wondered about this possibility. In order to successfully trap light in a box, you would need to have absolutely perfect mirrors. Even if you had very very good mirrors with ultrahigh reflectivity, some small fraction of its electromagnetic energy would be absorbed by the mirrors, and changed into heat. Probably you could trap the light for some short period of time with really good mirrors, but it wouldn't be for long because, well, light moves at the speed of light, and you know that's quite fast. It might help to build a pretty big box.
On the other hand, the transmission quality of optical fiber is rather good nowadays, so maybe if you could find a way to inject some light into a fiber that was tied into a loop, you could store it that way for some time. However, to make a loop you'd have to fuse or weld the ends together. That's not so easy while maintaining excellent transmission quality through the joined ends. I don't believe it's ever been done, yet. --Jeff Joseph

Neil ... I would like to see a segment concerning skin color. I've long recognized skin color as natures 'sun screen'. Folks close to equator need more protection thus dark features which scales to blonde blue white folks in the far north. Brown/yellow in the middle latitudes. Dr Alice Roberts has expanded this adaptation to include Vitamin D or lack there of which deforms bones including the birth channel in females. The evolution may have taken hundreds or thousands of years. Genetic studies show 'modern man' to have originated in central Africa and then migrated other parts of the world. That leads me to a 2nd segment: Why did 'modern man' originate in Central Africa?

Well my theory is this: time and location. Central Africa has more lightning strikes year round than any other place in the world. Lightning connecting to the ground has two parts (1) a negative streamer from the atmosphere to the ground (2) a positive streamer from the ground to the incoming negative streamer. We all know negative charges are destructive however positive charges in small amounts enhance human functions. Think 'jump starting the human heart'. My case is that over time these positive charges enhanced the brain's electrical functions to higher levels of intelligence/evolution that resulted in 'modern man'. Evolution takes time and I believe your show can illustrate this concept without waiting for thousands of years.

Vince

Pensacola, FL

Like Tricia I'm also interested in volcanos - wonder why lava flow keeps burning - it if the volcano is near the ocean, Island of Hawaii for example.

Neil you have a real gift - presenting science in a easy to understand way - sad to say that when I was in school, science was taught in a way that was hard to even begin to understand. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

What if everything that Jesus said is true?

what if you could free yourself from the earth's gravitational hold while still on its surface? Would the ground suddenly speed by you as the earth continues its rotation? Would you bounce off it like a ricocheting bullet?

What if all that cosmic and theoretical stuff that Neil Tyson appears to explain so scholarly and at much expense is just accepted foolishness and as wrong as such assumptions as "the Earth is flat"?

Please help my grand daughter and I understand the leap from single-cell, random formed life forms (presumably plants?) into multi-celled plants and animals.

Do people actually believe that plants turned into animals?

It would seem that a single-celled life form, randomly formed by the forces of nature, mutated into multi-celled, complex plants, which then mutated into single-celled animals which, over time, mutated into ever more complex life forms.

Is this the accepted theory? It seems like a quantum leap of faith that the random forces of nature would work constantly and consistently in the direction of ever more complex life forms.

Please get us from the beginning of life to the split of plant and animal groups.

Jeff and Adriel

The big bang took place over 13 billion years ago and the universe has expanded out from the point of the big bang. What if I could travel to a point where the universe has not expanded into ? What would I find there? Could I travel past the point where space has expanded ?

after watching a NOVA show on fractels. I was impressed by the way the rule of similarity was used to build small cell phone antennas to interact with many radio frequencies. could the math that makes this possible be adapted to manipulate time and space on the small scale and affect it on the large scale using a lot less energy. In other words could the math that indicates you can bend space-time be done on a small scale in such a way as to leverage similar bending on a larger scale?

The show is so informative and wonderful. The explainations are brillant and full. I could watch over and over again it's that awesome.

My question is this...if scientists were to find life on the moon of Europa, would the life-forms be called "Europeans"? :)

I was flipping through the channels and happened upon your show. I am not a science geared person but you caught my attention and hels a tight grip on it. Amazing, thought provoking issues. The best part is I could understand it. It was delivered in simple, easy to understand language.
I can't wait to see the next episode!
Excellent show!.
Nalini

What if all cars WERE powered by hydrojen (I know how to spell the element.....my JEE key doesn't work). Has anyone considered how much water would be exhausted and what we we do with it all?

Neil,

After watching tonights episode I thought about what you said regarding deflecting an earth-bound asteroid. I've seen several potential solutions on TV and in movies and thought of my own. Fight mass with mass. What would be the potential of "trapping" a relatively slow moving asteroid of moderate to light mass in orbit around the earth? Then equipping it with propulsion and guidance equipment so that we could send it off to intercept an incoming asteroid? Working through this potential solution would make a great episode! I hope you find this as interesting and plausible as I do.

Regards

You mean what Jesus actually said or what people wrote that he said centuries later?

What if the Federal government's 9/11 conspiracy theory was a total fabrication? What if the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, or the Bogeyman had nothing to do with control of Eurasian oil deposits and transportation routes? What if the World Trade Center towers were built by oil interests and destroyed by oil interests for control of oil interests?

i just watched the show and was blowing away.Neil tyson is a great host.AWSOME SHOW cant wait for the next episode.

Thank you, Neil, for your final thoughts this evening on Nova Now.
I'm not a serious "worry-wart". Yet I found comforting, your reminder of our needless fear of the unknown and how challenges in life lead to greater things.

I enjoyed the whole program.
Par for PBS.

Mona

Whether you agree or disagree with what Dr.Tyson presents, he makes you think, and if you can keep an open mind, who knows to what exciting places it will take you.

What if you were placed at the the bottom of the mariana trench? And how do fish, that live in extreme deep waters, such as the anglerfish, live with such pressure?

I belive in God and that there is absolutly NO other life besides on earth, but if there was life besides this planet, why would you think that it would be at all like us and our world? Scientists are saying that you absolutly have to have certain gasses and minerals and so on for life to exist. That may be true for us, but I don't think it would be at all true for any other life. If there was, they would probably breathe gasses we've never discovered, or not breathe at all! I know that there is no other life besides us, but I do strongly believe in the supernatural. There ARE things that we can't see, can't touch, and usualy can't feel. I believe in angels, demons, and God. I also believe that if we ever fully saw these things all at once we wouldn't be able to handle it. We would just die. Mabey even so strong that we COULDN'T die.

It is often said that modern cars are more aerodynamic going backwards than forwards. WHAT IF cars were taxed based on their co-efficient of drag? Worst-performing cars in a wind tunnel would cost the consumer more in taxes, not just fuel. What if industry was stood on it's head and awarded by super efficiency and actually penalized by waste? It would seem that modern design, is actually designed to waste resources rather than conserve them. Too big to fail, but failing none the less. What role does science play in helping us to see the errors of industry, taxes and design? Since industry is not alive, is it sublect to the same rules as nature?

Many thanks in advance for your time in reading my silliness ;) - what I wonder about are things like the following:

1) What if mass doesn't just warp spacetime, but creates it?
2) What if you traveled out to a place equidistant from the gravitational effect of galaxies etc. - would time appear, in that zone, to speed up as it appears to when one approaches the speed of light?
3) What if time only *appears* to slow down under various conditions, because the devices or processes we use to measure time are altered as a function of their distance from a mass?
4) What if gravity is a massive (no pun intended) amplification of the strong nuclear force? Would anit-gravity be achievable by accumulating certain anti-particles?

Thank you!

what if an explosion just as big as the "big bang" could happen again. Would the universe rip to shred's or would it destroy all life and planets and create new ones?

I enjoy the programs very much. As I thought about the shows, especially those dealing with astronomy/physics, I wondered what earth would be like without the Moon. Since, the Moon, exterts an enormous amount of pull on the Earth, tides for instances, what would happen if this gravitational pull was no longer there? If there was no Moon how would that effect animal life such as nocturnal ones like bats, owls even foxes? Would these animals have evolved? Would Earth have sustained many more meteor hits without the protection of the Moon to absorb those meteors or its gravity to deflect meteors? And what about the song writers, we would never have had songs like Moon Over Miami, or How High the Moon if we didn't have a Moon. And finally, what about Cher, she would never have won an Oscar for her marvelous role in Moonstruck?

If you could travel back in time and prevent a particular event from happening (ie telling President Kennedy that going to Dallas in Novemember will be a bad thing. Telling President Lincoln that it might be better to stay home. Rather then go to the theater). Would you do it? Now let's say that changing that event; actually made things in the future/present worse. Would you still attempt it?

The question formed in 1964, and still remains: "Why is Space?" I understand the Universe, and the expansion of Matter within it. It's the "empty" of the nothing receiving the Matter which puzzles me still. Was it always there, awaiting the Matter it would contain, or was Space created at the same nanosecond Matter expanded into being? Regardless; if Space was always there, upon what "canvas" is Space "painted?" If created at the same nanosecond, upon what "canvas" were both created?

What if there was a parallel universe with a parallel earth. Where everything was the same. Except inverted (bird swim, fish fly, left handed people are right handed and right handed people are left handed). Would you want to meet Neil Degrasse Tyson on Earth 2?

suppose you standing in one place , then canyou point your fingure at the center of universe . my understandin is universe is originated from single point

I like this todays show. I liked the last story about the lady.
You got be your self in this life time right now and can't be scared.
Neil your aswome dude.

What If: You did a show on bio fuels that is not politically charged. You state that by using corn in the U.S. we cause rain forest to be burn down in other countries to grow corn.
Are you really serious? The only answer is algae but it is not economical? Hmmmm. Our government pays farmers not to plant in fields. Yes it is true. Some of my family get a check to set aside certain amounts of land and not plant on on them.
When I was a kid barges of corn were shipped as a donation to Russia because we had a surplus of corn in our country. If you are in your late 30's you probably remember that.

Here is one: I want you to do a What if show...
What if we produce all our fuel ourselves like Brazil does.
What if we made our fuels from the sugar beet just like Brazil has done for 40 years. You could even show all the cars that are made in the U.S. that are produced for export only that run on 100% ethanol in Brazil. Why dont you show that our country has developed a way to make alcohol from cut grass. How about the ability to make alcohol from plants using enzymes.
Please just tell the truth. We can produce our own fuels a lot cheaper than we can transport oil from Arabia.

Think about it you grow your own plants make your own fuel in the US or drill in Arabia which is several million per drill site then transport it in a tanker to the US then refine it in the U.S. where we do not have enough refineries to do the job to start with plus adhear to all the EPA standards and then transport the fuel across the US to each station. Is it not cheaper to make the fuel in your state and then distribute it in that same state?

Just do an honest story on bio fuels.

We need to concerve this plant...
" If we could, Which we can't" go elsewhere the odds
are we will become inbread...
If our solar system was as small as a grain of sand...
not sand on a beach...just a grain in space...
The distance to the next grain "of sand" is so vast...
It will take most all of the resoarces of our Sun to send
a small party of say 100 towards any direction which
we feel might work. ...(100% sure there's one more
grain of sand right there)
We all might just better feel lucky were here...
And take care of here!
Yours,
MSC

Unfortunately, you'll never see your show featuring "What if the U.S. produces energy like Brazil." You see, the U.S. is in the crosshairs of the internationalists, since we're still hung up on the traditions of individual liberty and freedom of conscience. Still, I enjoy the Nova programs...compared to the wasteland that is television these days, it is superior entertainment. But never forget, it is just entertainment: in the name of "national security" science and technology have marched, under the direction of the Pentagon, into the year 4000 A.D., without you and I having any of the benefits. We just get to pay for it all as its guns swivel in our direction. Some of us still remember what science can be without government meddling. God bless.

point
Can the people govern themselves... and get along both...
I have a bad feeling that human-nature...(greed)
has over-taken our gov't and our people both.

What would happen during a polar shift? Would be realize it was happening? Would it destroy life? Would there be earthquakes, tsunams, weather change etc?

What if...a baby was born under water (if possible to stay) and stayed underwater?

With Jupiter being so large, if we ever visited Europa would you weigh less on the side facing Jupiter than you do on the opposite side?

What if you travel back in time and meet your teenage mother who falls madly in love with you...would you then slowly begin to disappear (al la Back to the Future)?

What if fractal geometry could be used in the study of the movement of time? I'm sure it is, just really curious to know to what extent and possibly where (which institutions are currently involved with or in similar studies). Would be awesome if someone could let me know. Thanks.

What if a gamma ray bust hit a nearby solar system? What would we observe? How would it affect us?

What if I have 150 students with 150 "What if" questions? Can I post them here and maybe get answers?

What if we had an interstate pipeline for raw water (e.g. river/lake water) which could pick up water from areas of excess (e.g. flooding areas) and redirect it to areas of drought (e.g. man made reservoirs or drying up rivers). We could lay the pipeline next to the interstate highways (which turned out to be a great system for transporting about everything by vehicles from about anywhere to about everywhere). Pumps and valves could be used to change direction of flow if the need arose or to channel the flow through certain sections. I'm sure that potential flood victims and drought victims would like a system like this. It would help avoid the 'mega drought' the National Drought Mitigation Center is predicting. I suppose meters could be installed too so that places that need the water could pay something for it (to be applied toward the system's maintenance). Is it possible?

Besides the interstate highway system, we have electrified the U.S. with power lines, and made communications possible all over with land lines and cell towers. Maybe it is time for a national water pipe line too! If started now, it might even help the economy too!

What would happen if you fired a massive laser into a black hole would it be able to hit and measure the surface?

What if pandemics were bioengineered? Considering the potential risk of the A/H1N1/09 virus, I found the following study strangely coincidental. On June 17, 1996, the U.S. Air Force released Air Force 2025 "a study designed to comply with a directive from the chief of staff of the Air Force to examine the concepts, capabilities, and technologies the United States will require to remain the dominant air and space force in the future." In the unclassified study, the College of Aerospace Doctrine, Research and Education at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama posed several "fictional representations of future situations or scenarios" likely to arise. In Chapter 5, page 55, the authors present a time line figure representing "plausible history". In 2009, according to the report, influenza will kill 30 million people.

The study also suggests that no one determined if the virus was a natural mutation or bioengineered.

Alternate Futures for 2025: Security Planning to Avoid Surprise
http://web.archive.org/web/20070802020816/http://csat.au.af.mil/2025/a_f.pdf

Is the earth heavier today, 2009, than it was in 300 BC? There are more people alive today, thus more weight! How does this effect the earth's position in the solar system?

Please e-mail my answer as I work a lot and don't get to watch too much TV.

Thanks.

Just want to give my praise for one of the best programs you air with Tyson as the host!

Which area of science has more unsolved mysteries, biochemistry, particle physics or astrophysics?

I was just wondering what would happen if a huge bomb filled with CFC's would be set off, and would break down all of the ozone layer.For how long would life on earth exist after the explosion?Is there a way to remake the ozone layer?What would be the chain reaction that would lead to the demolition of all living things?What would the world look like afterwards?
Thank you

I was just wondering what would happen if the ozone layer would be demolished by a huge CFC bomb.For how long would life go on after the explosion?What would the sequence of the unraveling of events that would lead to the discontinuation of the last life function be? Would humans be the first to go? Is there a way to recreate the ozone layer? What would the world look like a million years after the event?
Thank you ahead of time!

Sorry, I have an other question.What if the scientists who are studying the ancient water deposits from the underground salt mines actually find the virus that caused the extinction of dinosaurs?What if it gets out somehow, and it will cause our extinction also? Would an other species develope just like we did after the dinosaurs?Would there be survivors like cockroaches and other organisms?
Thanks again

Love the show, Babe! You are putting the learning channel and Discovery to shame. Please keep up the good work.

What 1f:

We had AI that works better than are own intelligence?

What if TV offered advance learning courses and other shows to explain how to build equipment for learning, testing, and manufacturing?

We brought back shows like connections? Knowing how we got to this point is critical.

Everyone had a machine like a CNC router in there home like printers?

What would happen if we had a democracy instead of a republic? If votes counted and could be verified on a web site? And our system of governing had a self correcting feedback loop.

Thanks for the show. What if it was on everyday instead of once a week?

What if 2 tornados crashed into each other? What would happen then?

Hi Neil and PBS,

What if galaxies are structured like hurricanes, sympathetic fractions resonating with natural elemental forces of the universe? What if black holes are like the eye a storm as it picks up partials/moister and disperses as rain drops/planets/stars structures consists of electromagnetically charged atoms that are resonating structures into larger and larger scales of it's self? Thank you for the "AWE" Guy

Irene
"is the earth heavier now, 2009, than it was in 300 B.C... [because of more people]..." People are made from the same matter that has been on the earth since its formation, so, there is no displacement with an increase in a species' population. Maybe the earth is heavier from space matter impacting it over the eons, but people would only have an effect on the earth's weight if we came from outer space and landed here. It is even possible that the earth is lighter because of indigenous matter being sent out to space, e.g. satellites, space stations, etc.

What if the Earth's core suddenly went cold/solid?

What if... I could travel backwards in time?

What if we had all the genetics of a certain organism (squirrel, elephant, human, etc) being alive of course at certain various intervals in time what could we figure out? After, possibly apply it or include it with population growth and density, and land mass to determine when its environment will act naturally to equal out a rapidly growing organism (reduce population?).

What if we applied fractal technologies to crop circles, could they be read or perhaps changed into another picture, noise, smell?

I just watched a "what if" about falling into a black hole.

eh, I don't think so.

First off, most things follow an elliptical spiral path, or decaying orbit as they "fall in."

Question #1. Would the shape of the "event horizon" where nothing escapes be elliptically shaped?
Question #2. Would the falling object know it passes into the "event horizon," or is that something that can only be observed from outside the horizon?
Question #3. As things spiral in, they accelerate to enormous velocities. Is there a maximum speed? Would they continue to gain in mass as their velocity increases per Einstein's theory?
Question #4. The temperature must rise as matter is compressed into the hole. Is there a limit to the temperature?
Question #5. There is an enormous black hole at the center of our galaxy. Given enough time, won't everything in the galaxy be sucked into the hole?

I think an interesting "What If" scenario for the show would be the effects on a human body of being in space without a spacesuit or ship. What would happen to the gases and fluids in the body in the vacuum of space? What would be the effects of cosmic and solar radiation exposure without shielding? What would happen to the temperature of the body? How long could a person survive and what would happen if they returned to to a pressurized suit or ship before they suffocated?

What if you pointed your spaceship out away from everything? You leave this galaxy and then every other galaxy behind until the entire universe appears as nothing more than a single star in an empty black void.

Does such a place even exist? if not, why not?

Furthermore, if you could go out far enough to fully escape the gravitational pull of the universe and then brought your spaceship to a full stop what would happen? If your movement through time is relative to your movement through space and you move through time slower the closer you get to the speed of light, how much faster could you move through time if you managed to stop all movement?

"What if all that cosmic and theoretical stuff that Neil Tyson appears to explain so scholarly and at much expense is just accepted foolishness and as wrong as such assumptions as "the Earth is flat"?"

What if they used this as the basis for a new episode and explain in plain english all the evidence for "that cosmic and theoretical stuff".

"If it was wrong then we would not have this evidence..."

Feel free. We'd love to see the questions, although not all can be answered.

Rachel VanCott
NOVA Online

What if there was another planet?

what if were possible to emulate earths magnetic feild on a space craft in the same way it is done naturally? Could it protect the people abord?
Would it be possible to construct a large wheel in space and spin the center as fast as you could, Couldn't you get the outside rim if large enough to,or past the speed of light?

What if all the other planets in our solar system did not have any moons, how would those planets be affected? Would earth be affected as well? If so, how?

What if their was no dark matter in the universe? what would the differences be between that universe and our current universe?

good idea but actually the light will hit one of the mirror and reflect and some of it will get converted into heat. so this will happen untill all the light is converted into heat that is now in the mirrors. (remember energy doesnt always stay in one form)

good idea but actually the light will hit one of the mirror and reflect and some of it will get converted into heat. so this will happen untill all the light is converted into heat that is now in the mirrors. (remember energy doesnt always stay in one form)

good idea but actually the light will hit one of the mirror and reflect and some of it will get converted into heat. so this will happen untill all the light is converted into heat that is now in the mirrors. (remember energy doesnt always stay in one form)

u could but the shaft wont hold off all of the volcano. and it also depends on the force of the volcano erruption, which u cant know.

well the what if segment is purelly a sceintific hypothetical question, so bringing religion into the equation is not something that will have a sceintific outcome.

well, water would be harder to maintain so, maybe more waves, people and animals get weaker since they need gravity to build resistance, the moon will have greater effects on earth since it is now heavier by comparison, and finally jumping is alot easier

well it doesnt keep burning, because infact when the lava cools, it froms the islands. And remember magma(lava under water) is very compressed and that's what makes it really hot so it takes really long to cool something that's 1000's of degrees by something thats like 70-0 degrees at most.

dumping it into volcanoes may help but its not reliable since there tends to be people living near them and plus, volcanoes have will send debree and the waste can get into the atmosphere simillar to what happend in chernobyl . sending them to space is the best idea so far the only problem is money since everytime u send a batch u need about 10 billion dollars to send one rocket, just for one trip.

well u would slowly drift upward and slightly to an angle due to air, and the rotation of the earth. for you u will see that earth is moving and for people affected by its gravity that are on the surface u will look like u are drifting to an angle.

ok so life started with molecules that formed cells, these cells eventually evolved to the first plant, another seprate branch of this evolution led to bacterias. There is no way that any plant evolved into animals because if thats true scientists will have to rearange the whole idea of evolution. so to sum up, plants and animals arose from cells but into different branches.

good question probably not so what would happen is that u would not get out of the "bubble" that is our universe but only further expand it. so in a sense u would only stretch it.

the fish that live in deep water have no blatter therefore have no airpockets in them, unlike other fish that live near the surface.

galaxies wont form as easily since dark matter accomidates for most of the gravity in the universe.

moons dont affect planets very much unless they were really clost so most of the planets would be almost the same as they would have been with them. Earth is not affected by the other plantet's moons other than its owns so it too would be unaffected.

well unless ur talking about the spacecraft being 1000's of miles away from earth they already are because the earth's magnetic field is huge. If you did that the magnetic field will only protect you from radiation from stars not from heat or freezing temperatures or astroids. And as for the wheel nothing can exceed the speed of light, but u can surely get it pretty close to the speed of light, just keep in mind we are not even close to this type of technology, even if it is in space.

sorry about the other comment, i sent the message to u accidently but to answer ur question, Europa(one of jupiter's moons) is next on the list since it might have ice, or even water running under the ice.

first of all, the event horizon is not eliptically shaped, the only reason bodies orbit it eliptically, is becaue of the angel in which it countered the dark hole. second, the one falling might have a slight chance seeing it since he is closer to the light that is trapped observers have no way to see it. third, the maximum speed is the speed of light. fourth, it depends how much debree got in the dark holes and it depends on the size of the dark hole that being said the answer is no there is no limit. Dont forget though, that the dark hole sends out enormous jets of energy from its center as it eats up more matter. No Dark hole is big enough to suck in an entire galaxy, and as for our solar system, it has an odd cycle as it rotates around the galaxy so that it never will reach the center( where the dark hole lies).

actually there are many women that give birth underwater. they can't breath under there but they can definatly swim and float.

no because space is a creation from the big bang. think of it like a ballon. it starts from a small piece of rubber, then forms into a bubble that grows bigger and bigger. Our whole universe is the inside of the balloon. what ur asking ( if i understood it right) would be wanting to be outside the balloon/universe which is impossible.

no, this is hard to explain so just stick with me. first to be able to point to the center you would have to assume that the bigbang started in the universe, but the bigbang wasnt, in it, it was the universe it's self. think of a an inflated balloon with dots on its surfact. now none of the dots is in the center since its a rounded figure(think of the dots, as planets and stars) thats kid of how the universe works.

they form a bigger tornadoe only if they are about the same strength, if they are not, one will absorb the other and gets stronger by doing so.

thats a good question. Scientists know this because the whole universe is made by elements that are on earth. how do we know this? well every star fuses hydrogen into other complicated elements,such as helium, and carbon, and these elements are spread out. so there is no way that the other life forms are used to anything completely different from earth's because they are exposed to the same material that made our bacteria, etc. Maybe there are subtle differences, like being silicon based, rather carbon, but that won't be that shocking, since the elements are close enough in properties.

that's not the smartest idea to collide to huge astroids since they will shatter and now we have a rain of burning rocks. The atmosphere can't eliminate all of them specially if there are more of them than normal.

well the energy from the new bigbang could definetly affect us, it could just add energy to our universe. By that I mean that earth will be inveloped in imense heat. or the second big bang just bends around our universe( like water and oil)

if there was no moon not much would change, ur right there will be no high tides, and low tides but other than that its pretty useless to us. The moon shows no evidence of protecting earth from astroids. nocturnal animals don't need the moon to be active during the night, infact it's no visable all during the year. and lastly i guess it would have affected the existance of thing named after it.

good question, space was created instantanously with matter and energy. and the canvas of it is the bigbang its self

actually the jupiter weights much much less than the moon since all it is, is gasses and parts of ice and debree. so no i doesnt matter which side u are on.

well first we would realize it was happening thanks our technology. I would expect volcanoes to erupt since the shift is due to the flow of magma. These volcanoes could form tsunamais. most won't die though.

well first of all thats the end of our magnetic field, second tempretures might plumit abit. Without the magneticfield plants and animals can't survive unless humans think of something.

first there is no such place in the universe where u can see everything as a point. The universe is too evenly divided. This brings me to my other point, there is probably no place in the universe that does not have a small gravitational influence since, again the universe is even with stars and debree even though the universe is large.

that is a paradox since inorder to go back in time to fall in love with your mother, it means that you in the future will not have the same relationship as before you went back in time. this means that u never went back in time, which means that u never fell in love with your mother.

well this happened in real life in the cold war. It was scary but very functional.

partical physics, since it is the newest and there are some phenomenons in it like in the branch of quantum, that some cant comprehend.

if u do post the questions i will try to answer all of them. keep in mind that im just a smart volunteer and i dont work for pbs.

well unless u have gamaray sensors we wouldnt know since gamma rays are invisible to the human eye. and the magnetic field protects us from gamma rays so we wouldnt notice and we would be protected.

no because light can't escape from dark holes there too strong. so you wont get the message from the reflection of the laser since in can't reflect.

well no it wont restore anything but if it still has the virus intact it could infect people too.

I've always wondered, what if we had learned to harness electricity, but never invented the combustion engine? What would the world look like with light bulbs, but no cars?

What if 2 black holes collided? Because they are both infinitely massive, would they merge? Would the collision occur at the speed of light? Could the resulting collision free some of the mass to unlock the black holes?

what if uniplanetary theory is correct wat could we do ? could we perhaps change the supposed cycle that i believe doesnt exsist

If there was a 'plane' of pure existence, where everything that will ever be, is and has always been. Could the Big Bang theory be a collision of waves of existence? Is is possible that like the fabric of space-time, there is a fabric of existence that all things are apart of. When these waves collide they spark a process that leads to the creation of a universe?

I suppose like a boiling pot of water. The multi-verse is in the pot, and every bubble is the effect of a collision of these waves creating a universe. As the bubble expands entropy runs it's course and it pops.

Not the perfect metaphor, but I'm sure you get the idea.

You could in theory stop moving relative to other celestial objects, but you can't just stop. What ever momentum effected you to move would continue indefinitely since there are no particles in space to create friction.
Although time is relative short of moving at Tachyon speeds, anything less than the speed of light, or close to it would not have too much of an effect on your age, or time. Yet anything under the speed of light would take so many years to get to that point in the universe it wouldn't much matter for a living organism, you'd be long dead.

What an Einstien's is correct about an object being EVER EXPANDING as it travels at or above the speed of light, AND if black hole theory is correct, as of the effect of spagettification. Wouldn't one counteract or solve the problem of the other? What if you could travel through a blackhole, at or above the speed of light? Becuase as one effect tries to pull you apart the other makes you grow and expand, correct? Is that feasble?

Is the Earth's core cooling? And if so, how long before it is no longer molten? And what effect will this have on the Earth's rotation?

Hi,
I was wondering 'if' one were to put carbon based life forms on earth into a giant blender and then, analyze the chemical compositions of the mix, would they average out the same?

What I mean to say is, are all life forms on earth composed of approximately the same stuff? Roughly speaking, of course.

Thank you.

what if race wasnt exsistant and everyone was blue(women)or green(men)?

Your August 18 show generated a big what-if for me. What if Earth was a moon of a giant gaseous planet? What would it be like to have that monstrous thing over your head much of the time? Would there be significant gravitational differences between the "near" side and "far" side of the moon?

I have a what-if question for your show.
What if we could travel, in space, faster than the speed of light? Would that have any effect on time as we perceive it? Or would we just disintegrate? Hungry minds want to know!

I have a Big Bang question. The Big Bang, as I've understood, can be traced back to a singular moment and the WMAP gives us the age of the universe.

So my 2 questions are... Can we determine where the Big Bang took place? And does matter (or our universe) only exist in an approximate 13 billion light year bubble?

Love the show. Grandaughter and I watch all the time!♥ You make the show very interesting and exciting to watch. Keep up the good work! Pandora and I will be learning many new facinating things that you show us. We especially enjoy the space episodes!

Here's a "What if" question:

Why do we cough while eating ice cream, and also get thirsty?

Could fractal geometry explain missing puzzles of DNA?

Since our universe is expanding and I'm figuring our galaxy is probably also expanding and I'm figuring that other galaxies and other universes are probably also expanding. What if our universe expands into another universe? What if our galaxy expands into another galaxy?
Thank you and it is T- 1 hour and 9 minutes until Nova Science Now and so I will be signing off and I understand that I am number one on the launch pad.

What if Einstein and Rosen are correct about their wormhole theory?

To the people who makes NOVA Science Now Posible,

Thank you for making a science show that is as exciting as Bill Nye the Science Guy. You have gotten me re-interested in science when times where hard for me. I was wondering about the show you did with the blackholes. (unless I saw it on another show) If there was a big bang, and little bangs caused galixies to form but the explotion left blackholes, then shouldn't there be a blackhole left by the big bang?

I asked my dad about demestacated animals some time ago and I would like to have some things cleared up. Why do demestacated dogs looks different then wolves? What happens in their genes that causes them to change? My dad told me that when wolves let themselves become tame then their offspring would look more like today's dogs rather than wolves.

I would love to ask/tell you all of the questions that are in my head but it would probably be to long.

I probably got somethings wrong but it doesn't hurt to ask... right? Speaking of asking, would it be posible for me to meet Mr. Tyson in person, for a day?

Thanks for reading what I wrote (sorry for all of the misspelled words) and I hope to have a message from the show soon.

I have a cool scenario: "What if we recieved a signal from an alien culture?"

it was kool
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What if....Instead of an object trying to escape a Black Hole... The object went directly into the black hole at the speed of light? Or at a speed faster than spagettification or gtravity would take a hold onto it? Would it break through the other side unaffected by the black hole?

wow that was awsom