We’re Nerding Out Over Colbert And Degrasse-Tyson Discussing New Horizons, Pluto

It’s a good thing I watched this encounter as a video, because had I seen this conversation happening live I might have fainted from sheer amazingness. On a scale of one to awesome it was definitely more than “awesome minus ten percent,” as Neil degrasse Tyson described the new photos we’ve been seeing of Pluto taken from New Horizons. The satellite had a flyby of Pluto this past Monday and the scientific data has been pouring in by the truckloads ever since.

Stephen Colbert, on the other hand, is not at all unexpectedly excited about these new photos. He described Pluto as “a malted milk ball left in the rain 4.7 billion miles from the sun.” He’s a perfect human.

Hearing the way Tyson and Colbert talk about Pluto and why this is such an exciting time is magnificent. They’re not only entertaining and hilarious, they’re explaining how stuff works in space, which is fascinating (to me, at least.) The interview is a little long, but definitely worth your time.