Sheesh. Why can’t Neil deGrasse Tyson just say “Happy New Year!” like everybody else? Here is one of his final thoughts of 2014:
By 2015, Apollo 11 will be as long ago as 1923 was to the Moon landing itself. And I don’t know what we have to show for it.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 1, 2015
He doesn’t “know what we have to show for it”? Well, the U.S. might not have a colony on the moon, but that doesn’t mean science hasn’t advanced since 1969 in a lot of incredibly important ways:
@neiltyson The ISS and a rover on Mars, for one.
— Superstitious Native (@carollafan) January 1, 2015
@neiltyson We have the Hubble Space Telescope for one! #Hubble25
— John Grunsfeld (@SciAstro) January 1, 2015
@neiltyson We've peered billions of years into the past, we've discovered nearly 1,000 confirmed exoplanets, just in 1 small patch of sky…
— Scott Sutherland, Science Writer ?️⛈️?️?️??? (@ScottWx_TWN) January 1, 2015
@neiltyson we've had continuous human presence in Earth orbit for >14 yrs now, and continuous robotic presence on Mars for nearly 11 yrs…
— Scott Sutherland, Science Writer ?️⛈️?️?️??? (@ScottWx_TWN) January 1, 2015
@neiltyson we've discovered that the closest Earth-like planet is right next door to us (Mars), although off by a few billion years or so…
— Scott Sutherland, Science Writer ?️⛈️?️?️??? (@ScottWx_TWN) January 1, 2015
@neiltyson we know more about the Sun than any time before, we have stunning closeup images of Jupiter & Saturn, & we're about to see Pluto
— Scott Sutherland, Science Writer ?️⛈️?️?️??? (@ScottWx_TWN) January 1, 2015
@neiltyson and… we even have a spacecraft that has flown into interstellar space. No moon base yet, but not too bad, I'd say. 🙂
— Scott Sutherland, Science Writer ?️⛈️?️?️??? (@ScottWx_TWN) January 1, 2015
Recommended
https://twitter.com/EdwardFalzon/status/550499233564872706
https://twitter.com/chicspace/status/550506407548555264
And what about this, Dr. Tyson?
https://twitter.com/sophistifunk/status/550499052626784257
@neiltyson you are tweeting about it to 3 million people is a big diff
— Kevin Bradley (@DCyetti) January 1, 2015
@neiltyson um supercomputers in the palms of our hands?
— Sympathy, Empathy, Dignity. (@liberrocky) January 1, 2015
As for what could have been regarding human space exploration, this Tweeter makes a valid point:
@neiltyson We didn't fund a large scale effort to colonize space and therefore we saved up tons of money. Oh wait…
— Ronny Hugo Warelius (@ronnyhugo) January 1, 2015
Let’s not forget that the U.S. lost the Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttles during this time period, too.
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Related:
Twitchy coverage of Neil deGrasse Tyson