Neil DeGrasse Tyson Weighs In On Thor’s Hammer
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Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has often times bridged the gap between science and science fiction. Whether it’s pointing out the scientific plot holes in movies like The Avengers or Prometheus, Tyson strives to make science as accessible as geek culture. So this week, Neil deGrasse Tyson took to Twitter to weigh in on the strength of Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir. Read his tweet below.
If Thor’s hammer is made of neutron-star matter, implied by legend, then it weighs as much as a herd of 300-billion elephants
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) February 5, 2013
The good people at Slate took Mr. Tyson’s claim and ran with it. Considering the maximum weight of an elephant is about 15,000 pounds, Thor’s Mjölnir would weigh in at a whopping 4.5 quadrillion pounds. Now that’s heavy!
Tyson later tweeted photographic evidence of Thor’s Mjölnir to back up his claim. Tyson must be a strong guy to lift Mjölnir, seeing that The Hulk had trouble picking it up in The Avengers. Check out Neil deGrasse Tyson’s TwitPic below.
This isn’t the first time Neil deGrasse Tyson has weighed in on comic book folklore. A few months ago, Tyson appeared in an issue of Action Comics. In the issue, Tyson explained that the star system LHS 2520 housed Superman’s proper birth planet, Krypton.
He also stated that the original Starship Enterprise from Star Trek was the best starship of all-time, because of how it changed the entire landscape of science fiction when it was introduced in the 1960s.
Watch Slate.com’s video on “How Heavy Is Thor’s Hammer Mjölnir” below.
