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Neil deGrasse Tyson Pinpoints Superman's Home Star System
kmoser writes "Everybody's favorite astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, makes an appearance in upcoming Superman #14, in which Superman visits the Hayden Planetarium to view his original planet. Meanwhile, back in reality, DC Comics explains that NdGT has used his 'astronomical' powers to select the red dwarf LHS 2520 as the most likely real-life red star to fit with Superman's back story."
More science stars please.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
What's with the trend of these guys spending time calculating fictional things? Wasn't there a mathematician last week who tried calculating some Cthulhu/wormhole fantasy? Waste...of...reputation.
they used a real scientist to lie about a fake planet?
Be seeing you...
If you look at the actual comic, they are trying to help Superman determine if his planet of origin, Krypton, is still intact or detectable.
What they forget is that any light from Krypton's system is so many light years away that we would effectively be seeing Superman's homeworld *before* it was destroyed. NDGT didn't think of this?
The Badass Tronomer's blog hints that that time delay plays a role in the plot.
What I don't get is, if just a handful of kryptonite brings Superman to his knees, how did his parents survive on a whole planet of the stuff?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
What I don't get is, if just a handful of kryptonite brings Superman to his knees, how did his parents survive on a whole planet of the stuff?
I am not at all a comic-book-guy; however I was under the impression that kryptonite was radioactive chunks of his home planet created in the destruction of the planet.
So there wasn't kryptonite on krypton while people lived on it.
But I'm sure some comic-book-guy can give you half a dozen arguments about 'canon' and likely as it applies to various timelines or whatever given that they've retconned and rebooted the franchise plenty over the years.
Me? I saw the first 3 movies with Reeves, the new one with Kevin Spacey as Lex, and read the comics casually for a couple years 20 years ago...
Superman’s ship traveled faster than light to get to Earth.
The explanation of all the kryptonite getting to Earth was that the ship created a wormhole to get from Krtyton to Earth and a fair amount of debris got sucked in and followed. Now, mind you, this was 90s comic books science. I don’t know what the start of the art is today.
I have to post this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me3-r5rsUSI
"Hey at least I didn't declassify Pluto from planet status. Way to make a the little kids cry Neil. That make you feel like a big man?"
~ Dr. Rodney McKay
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
In some versions of the story, Jor-El knows that his child will have vast powers under a yellow Sun, and selects a yellow Sun for that reason. (This begs the question of how Jor-El knows that.)
Not long before the "52" reboot, there was a storyline with a bunch of aliens (who turned out to be police of sorts for an alien 'war crimes' tribunal) looking for a Kryptonian (who turned out not to be Kal-El). Seems that the Kryptonians had actually gotten out of their solar system at one point (not just to another planet in the same system), and they proceeded to do nasty, brutish, colonization and exploitation of worlds in yellow star systems. Then, for whatever curltural reason (xenophobia, like the Daxamites would also have?), they retreated to their own solar system, where they stayed (despite their space travel technology) until The End. Except for a few random ex-soldiers, mercernaries, etc. who had stayed on some of the colonized worlds, but who were MUCH-hated and hunted down like dogs whenever the locals had the opportunity...
Jor-El, as a brilliant scientist, knew that the yellow sun would give his child super powers.
Look, Superman been around for almost 75 years. During that time a lot of above average people have had these types of questions and the writers have answered them. Sometimes with poor science, sometimes they contradict themselves.
On the flip side, there is some good stuff out there.
James Kakalios is my favorite example. Physicist (PhD., Professor.) and lover of comic books. He has done some cool stuff.
http://www.physicsofsuperheroes.com/intro-physics-book.php
http://www.physicsofsuperheroes.com/videos.php
But I'm sure some comic-book-guy can give you half a dozen arguments about 'canon' and likely as it applies to various timelines or whatever given that they've retconned and rebooted the franchise plenty over the years.
And once we've worked out the answer to this, we can get back on whether balrogs have wings.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Well, Gandalf and Saruman and Sauron and the Balrog are all the same kind of being: Maiar. The Maiar are supposed to be shape-shifters or at least wear the forms mere mortals perceive them as like a kind of disguise, so the Balrog may be able to have wings some of the time and not have wings the rest of the time (and be man-sized or gigantic as required). Sauron was described as being able to directly shape-shift, for example. That was before he put some of his power into the One Ring and lost it, however, so that doesn't say whether all of the Maiar can do it. There is some evidence that the form they took was handed out when they entered the world and that they therefore might not be able to change it without leaving the world and coming back in, which would be pretty hard for the Balrog to do with Morgoth banished... So, still inconclusive.
Anyway, is that more like it? :)
Never mind, should have just looked it up for myself. Another reboot of the whole DC Universe. Looks like they did it without a Crisis event this time, they just editorially declared "everything is different now, except for some stuff that isn't" and restarted the issue numbers.
And Stephen Hawking, a real physicist with impeccable credentials, is used to become part of the fictional worlds of "The Big Bang Theory", Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Simpsons, and Futurama. So that's another case where they use a real scientist to lie about a fake fictional world. It's part of entertainment; and the fact that someone like Hawking can become part of the mass culture and reach to people who may have to ask people like "us" who that person is. Seriously, Hawking on "Big Bang Theory" is pretty cool beans.
I had been reading comics around the reboot and just gave up on DC. Marvel does a variety of reboots to a point and restarts numbers at #1 on a near regular basis but that's a series not a whole continuity change. But the crossover mania, even not having to err.. pay much.. for comics got so it wasn't worth the time. Last year's Fear itself storyline was over 100 comics. That'd be a lot of money shelled out to follow one storyline.
Oohh, and if they have good enough resolution (They do not in real life, but hey, comics!) they could see the escape pod travel toward the planet/away from the planet and meet up with itself as it reaches FTL speeds. My brain hurts from the relativity of that sentence, but I think I got it right.
What if the flying is explained by properly timed superfarts?
Superman can do anything, so full control of his sphincter isn't beyond the realm of possibilities.
It would also explain why the cape always flutters while he is "floating" in midair.
This is the sig that says NI (again)