{"id":87157,"date":"2022-12-09T16:06:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T20:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=87157"},"modified":"2026-04-26T16:56:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T20:56:02","slug":"astrophysics-for-people-in-a-hurry-by-neil-degrasse-tyson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/astrophysics-for-people-in-a-hurry-by-neil-degrasse-tyson\/","title":{"rendered":"Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why should we study astrophysics? What’s dark matter<\/a>? Are we stardust<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Astrophysics for People in a Hurry,<\/em> Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the current state of astrophysics in layman\u2019s terms. He argues for the real-world benefit of looking at ourselves as part of a larger universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading for an overview of this fascinating book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry<\/em> by Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since humans first looked up, we\u2019ve wondered about the sun, the stars, and where we fit in the universal scheme. In the last century, we\u2019ve developed the tools to look farther out into the night sky than our ancestors ever dreamed possible. Our instruments are powerful enough to detect images of the very early universe, yet everything we\u2019ve learned has taught us that our ignorance about the universe still outstrips our knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That may seem disheartening. But, in Astrophysics for People in a Hurry<\/em><\/a>, Neil deGrasse Tyson suggests that it\u2019s not. Instead, he says it\u2019s exciting to know that there\u2019s so much left to discover about the universe. When we ponder the vastness of the universe and how tiny our place is within it, we realize how trivial our differences are and how much we should value this one world we have. The study of astrophysics is important<\/a> because it teaches perspective and humility.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often describing himself as \u201cyour personal astrophysicist,\u201d Tyson is a popular science essayist and public speaker, director of Boston\u2019s Hayden Planetarium, and host of the podcast StarTalk. After he starred in two seasons of the science program Cosmos<\/em>, many people came to see Tyson as famed astronomer Carl Sagan\u2019s successor in the field of popular science education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Carl Sagan came to fame as the author and host of the original 1980 book and TV program Cosmos<\/em><\/a>, as well as other works such as The Demon-Haunted World<\/em><\/a>. After Sagan\u2019s death in 1996, Tyson worked with Sagan\u2019s wife, Ann Druyan<\/a>, and producer Seth MacFarlane<\/a> of Family Guy<\/em> fame to create an updated version of the program, which was broadcast in 2014 on FOX<\/a> and went on to win four Emmys<\/a> and the Peabody Award for Education<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our overview of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry<\/em> explores Tyson\u2019s arguments as to why the study of astrophysics has value. We\u2019ll detail the assumptions underlying the science and the way that astronomers use the full spectrum of visible and invisible light to study the reaches of space. After that, we\u2019ll explore the three major areas of modern astrophysical study\u2014the origin of the universe<\/a>, dark matter, and dark energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Study Astrophysics?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that applies discoveries in chemistry and physics to observations of the stars.<\/strong> Tyson argues that the study of the cosmos provides the human race with a crucial sense of perspective while answering our fundamental drive to understand where we came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We humans like to think that we\u2019re special, but Tyson describes how, over and over, science knocks us off whatever pedestal we climb on. Better than any other science, says Tyson, astrophysics teaches humility.<\/strong> In the grand scheme of things, our differences are trivial compared to the things we have in common as a species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Basic Assumptions of Science<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Science relies on basic, grounding principles and assumptions that have been confirmed through repeated tests and observations. Tyson explains the most fundamental assumptions that lie at the heart of astrophysics\u2014specifically, that science is universal\u2014while also talking about what happens when science meets the unknown and has to be reframed to include new information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first general assumption that physicists make is that the same laws of physics apply everywhere in the universe.<\/strong> The rules of chemistry that we confirm in earth-bound labs hold true when we explore other planets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second assumption scientists make is that laws of physics don\u2019t change over time.<\/strong> Tyson explains that we can confirm this by looking deeper and deeper into space. With our newest telescopes, we can look billions of years into the past, and we can see that the rules of gravity, chemistry, and relativity were just as true back then as they are in our world today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyson points out that a true law of nature is <\/em>universal, but that doesn\u2019t mean that we fully understand it. Tyson says there\u2019s plenty of precedent for reevaluating our knowledge in the face of the unknown. Scientists recognize that our best current theories are still close approximations <\/em>of nature, to be added to and refined as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists regularly debate their hypotheses, but only on the questions that science hasn\u2019t solved. Our confidence in scientific laws that have been confirmed by experiments and repeated observation is very high.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Full Spectrum of Light<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In order to establish physical laws, the scientist\u2019s primary tool is observation. Today we have access to a whole invisible spectrum of light beyond what our eyes can perceive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact there\u2019s such a thing as invisible light was discovered by William Herschel in 1800. Herschel had found infrared light at a frequency below what the eye can detect. Later, many other types of light were discovered, from radio waves, to microwaves, ultraviolet light, x-rays, and gamma rays. All these forms of unseen light differ from each other only in wavelength and frequency, from the low end (radio) to the high (gamma).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visible light we see every day represents only a tiny sliver of frequencies between the ultraviolet and the infrared.<\/strong> Yet, it took astronomers quite a while to realize these other frequencies were useful tools for looking at the sky. When they did, says Tyson, a whole new universe opened up before them. Taken altogether, our tools to see the sky paint a picture of a universe we\u2019re only just beginning to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Big Bang<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By observing the sky in all available wavelengths, astronomers have worked for the last century to answer one of humanity\u2019s most basic questions: \u201cWhere do we come from?\u201d<\/strong> The branch of astrophysics that tackles this subject is the science of cosmology<\/em>, the study of the origin of the universe itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Big Bang theory of cosmology, the universe began as a microscopic point that contained all the matter and energy that would ever exist, as well as all the fundamental forces, such as gravity, that would govern the universe\u2019s development. From that one tiny dot, the universe expanded into the vastness of space that we currently see, 13 billion years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding the first few moments of the cosmos is crucial to unlocking one of the biggest riddles science faces. The chief problem in physics today is that we have two working models of how the universe functions that are incompatible with each other.<\/strong> Einstein\u2019s theory of general relativity<\/a> is great at describing the universe at the macro level, but it doesn\u2019t work at the level of atoms and electrons<\/a>. Quantum mechanics<\/a> effectively describes the realm of the very small, but it in no way relates to how physical objects move and interact at the scale that we can see with our eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of the Big Bang to unraveling this mystery is that, in the universe\u2019s first few instants, the realms of relativity and quantum mechanics overlapped. If we can discover how matter, energy, time, and space behaved during the initial moment of inception, Tyson argues that we should be able to resolve the discrepancies between the two theoretical systems. This is the research being done now at the Large Hadron Collider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Forces of Nature<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In order to unravel the riddles of the Big Bang, relativity, and quantum mechanics, we need to start with the fundamental forces that govern how matter and energy behave. As we currently understand them, there are four: Gravity <\/strong>is exerted by anything with mass. Electromagnetism <\/strong>governs the motion of particles with an electrical charge. The weak nuclear force<\/strong> holds protons and neutrons together in the nucleus of the atom, while the strong nuclear force<\/strong> glues quarks <\/em>together (the subatomic particles that make up protons and neutrons).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Tyson, physicists believe that, in the universe\u2019s primordial state, all four forces were combined into one. Within the universe\u2019s first trillionth of a second, gravity untangled from the others, the strong nuclear force split apart, and then a third force, dubbed \u201celectroweak,\u201d quickly divided into the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matter\/Antimatter<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

 The universe kept on expanding and cooling. A millionth of a second later, the universe had grown to the size of our solar system. A slight imbalance in the early universe led to there being more matter than antimatter. As the universe\u2019s temperature dropped due to its expansion, so did the energy density needed to create more particles. The matter and antimatter<\/a> already created continued to annihilate each other, but, because of the slightly higher amount of \u201cnormal\u201d matter, that\u2019s what was left when this period was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next two minutes, the first atoms condensed out of the primordial chaos. What formed were the two simplest elements\u201490% are hydrogen and 10% are helium. The universe\u2019s temperature fell to a mere one billion degrees, and all the universe\u2019s matter comprised a sea of hydrogen and helium gas so dense that any light it gave off was quickly reabsorbed. Tyson says that a universal dark age began that would last nearly 400,000 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cosmic Microwave Background<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

During the dark age, the universe kept cooling. When at last it fell to 3,000 degrees, it was possible for photons of light to travel without being reabsorbed back into atoms. The universe began to glow. Therefore, from 13 billion light-years away in every direction, we can detect the cosmic background radiation\u2014a snapshot of the universe as it was when the clouds first broke after the Big Bang. Because those ancient photons of light have lost a lot of energy since the time they were emitted, they now come to us in the form of low-frequency microwaves. Hence, this glow from the early universe is commonly referred to as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the microwave background\u2019s discovery, all our theories of the universe\u2019s origin were guesses. Tyson argues that the CMB gives the science of cosmology a solid observational grounding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stars and Everything Else<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For the next billion years, the densest clumps of gas collapsed under their own gravitational pull until the pressure inside them grew high enough for nuclear fusion to ignite. The first stars began to shine, and the galaxies were born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Big Bang gave birth to hydrogen and a fractional amount of helium, but all the other elements we know of today were created in the hearts of burning stars.<\/strong> Every hydrogen atom in the water in our bodies was created by the Big Bang. Every other atom inside us came into being in the heart of a star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dark Matter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In addition to expanding what we know about the universe, our deep space observations also reveal that there are major gaps in our understanding of the cosmos. The first of these is the \u201cdark matter\u201d problem\u2014the fact that there appears to be far more gravity in the universe than all the matter we observe can account for. 85% of the gravitational attraction we measure on the cosmic scale seems to come from invisible sources. This \u201cmissing mass\u201d problem was first discovered in 1937.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date, we can tell only what dark matter is not<\/em>. We don\u2019t know what dark matter is, or even if it\u2019s a form of matter at all. The name \u201cdark matter\u201d is merely a placeholder for something we know is there only because of its effects on what we see. Our best guess is that dark matter consists of an undiscovered type of particle that interacts with others via only gravity, ignoring the other three fundamental forces. Whatever it is, dark matter\u2019s effects show that the so-called \u201cnormal\u201d matter we know is only the tip of the universal iceberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dark Energy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In recent decades, astronomers have witnessed a mysterious force they\u2019ve named \u201cdark energy\u201d that\u2019s accelerating the universe\u2019s expansion. No one understands where the energy comes from that drives the galaxies farther apart, but Tyson writes that there\u2019s already a place for it in relativity\u2019s equations\u2014Einstein\u2019s cosmological constant, which astrophysicists now refer to as \u201cdark energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more so than dark matter, Tyson reiterates that we don\u2019t have a clue what dark energy is. However, current estimates suggest that dark energy makes up almost 70% of the universe, with dark matter taking up a little more than 25%, and the regular matter and energy we know of comprising a mere 5% of the observable cosmos. Clearly, there\u2019s a lot that we don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Current Frontier<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tyson reminds us that climbing out of ignorance is an adventure and that there will always be something new to discover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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