Watch Al Roker and Neil deGrasse Tyson Team Up on 'Today'
Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the world's most famous astrophysicists—but can he beat the TODAY show's space quiz?
Al Roker found out during Thursday's show, testing Tyson's knowledge with a lunar edition of the segment "Who's Warmer?" The weather anchor started out with a question that Tyson easily aced: "Who's warmer, Death Valley, California or the Apollo 11 landing site?"
Tyson pointed out that it depends on whether it's daytime or nighttime, because "in the daytime, it's way hotter" than anywhere in the state of California—even Death Valley, where temperatures can rise to 109 degrees. When he got it right, the 64-year-old shimmied to celebrate his victory.
The StarTalk host explained why there's such a "big swing" in the moon's temperature, which rises up to 250 degrees during the daytime and lowers up to -208 degrees at night.
"There's no atmosphere to smooth out the warm and the cold places," he said. Tyson added, "The moon does not have a dark side. Pink Floyd messed us all up in 1973 with that album [The Dark Side of the Moon]."
He also taught viewers another surprising fact about the moon: blue moons occur once every 2 to 3 years, so "once in a blue moon is not all that rare. It's more common than the Olympics and presidential election."
Additionally, he shared that February can never have a blue moon because there are approximately 29 and a half days between full moons, so it would be impossible for it to happen within a 28-29 day month.