Answering Fan Queries About Multiverse Nesting Dolls, Black Holes, & Gravity Assists

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What if our universe is the inside of a black hole… inside another black hole? Neil deGrasse Tyson and Paul Mecurio answer a grab bag of fan questions about black hole mergers, the misconception about gravity assists, and if there’s such a thing as laws of physics.

Could you see the merger of two black holes from inside one? What would the collision even look like without outside reference points? Neil breaks down nested universes, warped timelines, and what falling through the event horizon really means for your perception of the outside world.

Listeners ask whether we could detect when we crossed an event horizon, how spaghettification feels moment to moment, and whether time dilation means the universe outside would speed ahead as you descend. We explore Hawking radiation, particle pairs, and whether black holes truly evaporate. Plus, the practical question: what observational evidence do we actually have? Neil explains accretion disks, X-ray emissions, and why telescopes see what they see.

Can a black hole swallow another without collapsing spacetime? Are wormholes theoretically stable? Could information ever escape a singularity? One listener wonders how gravity assists really work. We get spaghettified: what happens to time, perception, and an object as it meets a black hole? We tackle science education for distracted learners and whether science is made up of laws or theories. Wormholes, white holes, and the fate of information in black holes get cosmic attention, and listeners ask whether repetition makes our lives inevitable.

Thanks to our Patrons Beth, Rebecca Yoswein, Leigh, Desiree Doporto, Bao Le, Thomas Alvarez, Eric Venus, Max And Gaz, Angel, Rebecca Schatz, Micheal Booth, Bruce Walton Jr, Rhea Rosier, Blake Rottmann, Patrick Clark, Cap, Paul Porter, Matthew Walton, Tiffany Brown, Brenda Eaves, Nash Bosworth, Billy Smith, Mike, Frenchy (Michael French), Teddy Funk, Randall Napier, Mary Zoellner, Carl L. Blackwell, Boris Barberic, Dexter Blackman, Joel Barjon, Kev, Abhay Joshi, Catherine Mary Darensbourg, Dav W, Brian Loop, cryHAVOC884, Daniel Bernal, Brian Page, Brendon Dougherty, hello hello is this thing on, Randy, Mary, Max, lo-res file, "CK" with th maual curly quotes, Draszje, David Szacik, Jason Nowak, Charlie Waddell, Danielle Taylor, Guillermo Gonzales, Gary in SD, Ohana, Jesse Abelson, Alex Nijman, Thorigrim, Peter J. Kushar, Kerry Lamb, Lengua Franca, Pamela Diane Carls, Jon, L Moore, RobbaYaga, Vilius Kazakauskas, Bjorn Nelson, Bob Watson, Shawn, MadWarrior, Devin, Brady Tomberlin, Micheal McEvoy, Pat, Kevin B, Tyler, Blaine Willick, Matthew CRessman, Zac, Julius Chatterjee, and Rigel Lopez for supporting us this week.

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction: Grab Bag
03:22 - The View of Black Holes Merging from the Inside
07:40 - Universe Favoring Black Holes
11:57 - Proving Hawking Radiation
17:39 - How Gravity Assists Work
24:29 - Time From Inside a Black Hole
29:27 - Astrophysics for People with ADHD
36:46 - The Multiverse
42:20 - Laws v. Theories
47:23 - Are Black Holes Collapsed Wormholes?
50:40 - Keeping Humanity Alive
54:50 - Closing Thoughts


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About StarTalk:
Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!

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