Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice decode the Mercury retrograde phenomenon on their hit science podcast StarTalk, using humour and facts
Neil deGrasse Tyson (left) in conversation with Chuck Nice. Pic courtesy/startalk on Youtube
Feeling stuck? Or moody, or maybe just lazy, and unworthy, or whatever you are trying to put your mind to? It is fairly understandable, as the planet Mercury just decided to park itself in retrograde.
Ever wonder what this means? Before getting into the science of it, the hosts set the stage on their weekly podcast StarTalk, where astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down cosmic misconceptions, and Chuck Nice adds humour and everyday context. According to Tyson, “most of human history or civilisation pre-science as manifested by methods, tools, and hypotheses, which is about 400 years, people usually believed what was told to them, without actually physically testing any theory.”
What is it?
It was the Greeks who initially noticed that some stars were moving along their regular path. These included Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon, calling them the wonders. And would it not be strange if all of them kept moving but one suddenly appeared to derail and head the other way? Because Mercury followed this unusual backward path more often than the others, the Greeks named the phenomenon retrograde.
It’s not that complicated
Now, in modern times, it is certain that the Sun and Moon are not planets, but the Earth is, and that the Earth is rotating. And since Mercury, being closer to the Sun, moves faster than the Earth, the illusion of backward motion appears — which is what the Greeks thought were the wanderers. As Tyson explains in the podcast, “it is just like when you are on a train and it feels like the other train is going backwards, but in reality it is you who is speeding up from a different perspective.”
Experiencing it
As mentioned in the podcast, astrology predates scientific methods, and all the astrological vocabulary, representations, and assertions are traced to a time when Earth was believed to be the centre of the universe. Hence, any unusual planetary behaviour felt weird, awkward, or completely out of the blue for people. Mercury’s retrograde is not cosmic chaos, says Tyson and co-host Nice — it is simply an optical illusion. They remind listeners that astrology was born long before science, so the dramatic moods people blame on retrograde stem from ancient misunderstandings, not planetary mischief. In short: do not panic — it is perspective, not destiny.
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