Neil deGrasse Tyson Doesn't Think 'Gravity' Holds Up

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Alex Moore for Death and Taxes 2013-10-07 15:45:27 UTC

Everyone’s favorite astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson saw Gravity over the weekend and, unlike you, he thought it was totally dumb.

Which is part of the problem with being too smart: You lose the capacity for the willing suspension of disbelief. Dennis Overbye wrote for the New York Times about seeing “Gravity” this weekend with astronaut Michael J. Massimino, who actually serviced the Hubble Telescope in the earlier part of this decade:

After they stop tumbling and find the shuttle destroyed and their colleagues all dead, Mr. Clooney tells Ms. Bullock that their only hope for rescue is to use his jetpack to travel to the space station, seen as a glowing light over the horizon. “It’s a long hike, but we can make it,” he says.

At this point, space fans will groan.

As we recall from bitter memory, the Hubble and the space station are in vastly different orbits. Getting from one to the other requires so much energy that not even space shuttles had enough fuel to do it. The telescope is 353 miles high, in an orbit that keeps it near the Equator; the space station is about 100 miles lower, in an orbit that takes it far north, over Russia.

But Neil deGrasse Tyson had far more gripes than the one “gaping plot hole” that bugged Massimino. He enumerated them on Twitter last night:

But in the end, Tyson was able to check his genius at the door and have some fun with the movie:

Which is why we love him. And now, enjoy “Onward to the Edge!” below:

Image: Flickr, NASA HQ Photo