Rebooting 'Cosmos': Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains Why Iconic TV Series Returns in 2014

[proflaser]

Two big changes for old Astronomy books :
1 there are planets around other stars, and
2 Pluto is not a planet

 

[boomtube]

I had a science textbook in High School that stated that Mercury was tide-locked and always presented one face to the sun.

This in 1975.

 

[JStarStar]

Two big changes for old Astronomy books :
1 there are planets around other stars, and
2 Pluto is not a planet

Well, even until the 1990s the estimates of the size of Pluto were constantly changing (and usually shrinking). If I recall my high school astronomy classes (which basically I spent sitting at the back of the room and correcting about every third thing the teacher said, since HE was reading out of books written in the 1940s and 1950s) the general assumption was that Pluto was bigger than Mars but not quite the size of Venus/Earth.

Since then we have determined those estimates were wildly high -- Pluto is smaller than the Moon.

 

[Coop]

There's enough new data for a new series, sure. And EVEN IF there isn't... look around you. Look at the top of the page. WWW.ROCKETRYFORUM.COM ... ain't any of us exactly the middle-of-the-bell-curve when it comes to science matters --yes, we're (relatively) up on it, but is Joe Average? How about Joe's kids?

The old series is dated not only in terms of data, but also in sensibilities and delivery. Dr. Sagan's "Spaceship of the Mind" was being delivered to a generation of children exactly one bong hit away from being named "Moonbeam," or "Brown Acid," and thus, was much more palatable and identifiable to them. Today? Kids don't get the whole dandelion seed thing. To have a charismatic scientist, who excels at public speaking and is FUNNY, deliver it to the kids today, I think, is a great thing. Maybe they'll get excited enough about science to argue on a future forum whether one should fly Aerotech or CTI.

My point is, the series isn't for us --though we'll be most eager to have it be stellar (pardon the pun) and hypercritical if it doesn't meet expectations. It's for some nine or ten-year-old who looks up at the sky sees Rigel, and says to themselves... "Wouldn't it be cool if...?"


Later!

--Coop

 

[shrox]

...My point is, the series isn't for us --though we'll be most eager to have it be stellar (pardon the pun) and hypercritical if it doesn't meet expectations. It's for some nine or ten-year-old who looks up at the sky sees Rigel, and says to themselves... "Wouldn't it be cool if...?"


Later!

--Coop

I can agree with this.