Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains What Would Happen If You Fell into a Black Hole

Per­haps you’ve pon­dered your own mor­tal­i­ty. But have you ever imag­ined per­ish­ing as you fall into a black hole? Prob­a­bly not. But if you’re intrigued by this admit­ted­ly unlike­ly sce­nario, then watch the clip above. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astro­physi­cist who heads up the Hay­den Plan­e­tar­i­um in NYC, breaks down the scene for you step-by-step and in a fair­ly humor­ous way. This talk is based on his well-reviewed book, Death by Black Hole: And Oth­er Cos­mic Quan­daries.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!