Thaller, assistant director of science at Goddard Space Flight Center, appears in a new National Geographic Channel series, “Known Universe.” She plans on celebrating Yuri’s Night on April 10, a party for space fans the world over in honor of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in outer space.
Is this your first time being in a space documentary?
No, I sort of come whenever NASA calls. When someone wants to talk to a NASA scientist I usually show up. I’ve done a lot of television before.
You talk about the immense size of the universe in the series, so how big is it?
That’s actually quite a matter of debate right now. … In one sense it’s very easy, there’s the visible universe. The universe began about 13 billion years ago and the visible universe is basically anywhere that light has had a chance to travel to us from that time. … We actually don’t think that’s the whole extent of the universe; that’s just the amount we can see. The universe if probably much bigger than that, it may be infinite it may be not. Some of our data suggests there may be other universes, parallel universes.
What is an exoplanet?
An exoplanet is a planet outside our solar system. … NASA actually now has honest to goodness real data on what the weather is like on some of these planets. In a real way we’re becoming the first sort of interplanetary weather forecasters.
“BattleStar Galactica” or “Star Trek”?
Or lord, how can you decide between those two? I did get addicted to “BattleStar Galactica,” but I have to say I’m a Trekkie by heart. I’ve been a “Star Trek” fan all my life. I not only have a full Klingon costume, I’ve got a an Enterprise costume, I’ve got a “Next Generation” costume.
— Alan Suderman
