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Gravity set records at the box office this weekend and is considered a frontrunner for several Oscar nominations.
But one person who was less than impressed is astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who hit Twitter on Sunday night to question several of what he called the “Mysteries of #Gravity.”
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Among his series of nearly 20 tweets, Tyson griped that the Alfonso Cuaron-directed movie — which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney — should be renamed Zero Gravity or Angular Momentum, the latter of which he helpfully explained as “the tendency, once set rotating, to keep rotating, unless another force acts to slow or stop it.”
He also questioned “why anyone is impressed with a zero-G film 45 years after being impressed with 2001: A Space Odyssey” and criticized the fact that Bullock’s hair did not “float freely on her head” during zero gravity scenes. He also helpfully suggested simple at-home experiments for his Twitter followers that would demonstrate the errors in Gravity‘s science.
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But still, he did admit that he “enjoyed #Gravity very much.”
Read his tweets below:
The film #Gravity should be renamed “Zero Gravity”
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
The film #Gravity should be renamed “Angular Momentum”
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
The film #Gravity depicts a scenario of catastrophic satellite destruction that can actually happen.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock, a medical Doctor, is servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: How Hubble (350mi up) ISS (230mi up) & a Chinese Space Station are all in sight lines of one another.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: When Clooney releases Bullock’s tether, he drifts away. In zero-G a single tug brings them together.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why anyone is impressed with a zero-G film 45 years after being impressed with “2001:A Space Odyssey”
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock’s hair, in otherwise convincing zero-G scenes, did not float freely on her head.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: Nearly all satellites orbit Earth west to east yet all satellite debris portrayed orbited east to west
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: Satellite communications were disrupted at 230 mi up, but communications satellites orbit 100x higher.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why we enjoy a SciFi film set in make-believe space more than we enjoy actual people set in real space
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
FYI: Angular Momentum — The tendency, once set rotating, to keep rotating, unless another force acts to slow or stop it.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013
My Tweets hardly ever convey opinion. Mostly perspectives on the world. But if you must know, I enjoyed #Gravity very much.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013
Earth’s gravity extends to infinity. To experience “zero-G” simply requires you move through space without rockets firing.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013
Fall towards Earth. Fall towards the Moon. Fall towards Mars. Fall towards anywhere at all, you’ll be weightless in zero-G
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013
An Orbit is a continual state of free fall, but while moving so fast sideways that the surface curves away at the same rate.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013
Mysteries of #Gravity: Astronaut Clooney informs medical doctor Bullock what happens medically during oxygen deprivation.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013
Cool Experiment: Poke a hole anywhere in a paper cup of water. Drop cup. Water, while weightless in free fall, stops spewing.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013
Thought Experiment: Stand on a scale in an elevator. Cut the cable. You, the scale, and the elevator fall — scale reads zero
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013
That was three-weeks-worth of Tweets in one evening. Sorry to overload your Twitter streams. Good night universe.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 7, 2013
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