--- title: Pluto New Horizons FlyBy: Stephen Colbert Talks to Neil DeGrasse Tyson description: Stephen Colbert interviews Neil DeGrasse Tyson about Pluto and the NASA New Horizons spacecraft flying by it. canonical: https://time.com/3958683/stephen-colbert-pluto-new-horizons/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-15T16:28:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:43.081Z og:title: Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson Tell Stephen Colbert Why He's Not Impressed by Pluto og:description: Stephen Colbert interviews Neil DeGrasse Tyson about Pluto and the NASA New Horizons spacecraft flying by it. og:url: https://time.com/3958683/stephen-colbert-pluto-new-horizons/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson Tell Stephen Colbert Why He's Not Impressed by Pluto twitter:description: Stephen Colbert interviews Neil DeGrasse Tyson about Pluto and the NASA New Horizons spacecraft flying by it. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson Tell Stephen Colbert Why He's Not Impressed by Pluto > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=fdfa2890-f9e3-43f9-9dd3-b6b587c00c51&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: NASA Celebrates Historic Pluto Mission [Watch (HLS stream): NASA Celebrates Historic Pluto Mission](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WkGiVtGO.m3u8) (1:36)  _Published 2015-07-15. NASA is celebrating an historic first mission to Pluto as the world anxiously awaits more images of the dwarf planet._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jul 15, 2015 4:28 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jul 15, 2015 4:28 PM UTC In the latest clip from _The Late Show with Stephen Colbert_‘s YouTube channel, Stephen Colbert describes Pluto as “a malted milk ball left in the rain 4.7 billion miles from the sun” based on photos that NASA New Horizons spacecraft took during its flyby this week. He interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson, who says he is not as impressed by the news because the recent space mission proves Pluto is not as big as we thought — to which Colbert calls him “Neil _Blasé_ Tyson.” The comedian also refers to Pluto’s moon Charon as a “girlfriend,” and then offers deGrasse Tyson some Tang and a Klondike bar. ### See 13 Stephen Colbert Cameos You Might Have Missed  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Lake-town Spy Todd Eyre—Warner Bros.  Exit 57 - Various Characters (pictured top left) Comedy Central  Dana Carvey Show - Various Characters ABC  Strangers With Candy - Chuck Noblet Comedy Central  Missing Persons - Chet Davies ABC  Saturday Night Live - Ace, The Ambiguously Gay Duo (pictured left) NBC  Spin City - Frank ABC  Simpsons - Colby Krause (pictured right) Fox  Curb Your Enthusiasm - Tourist HBO  American Dad! - Dr. R. Dandliker (pictured left) Fox  Bewitched - Stu Robinson (pictured left) Columbia  Mr. Peabody & Sherman - Paul Peterson 20th Century Fox  Monsters vs Aliens - President Hathaway Dreamworks ## Transcript We have a healthy space craft. We've recorded data of the Pluto system, and we're outbound to Pluto. It was a nine year, 3 billion mile journey to Pluto so there was quite a bit of excitement when New Horizon's team members of the John Hopkins applied physics laboratory finally got that mission accomplished message. And lift off with NASA's New Horizon spacecraft. After launching January 2006, New Horizons flew by the dwarf planet and collected more data than scientists have ever had before. NASA had already seized a hi- res image that New Horizons was able to. To send back before its flight around the planet. But that's nothing compared to the treasure trove of data expected to come in. It takes around four and a half hours for a single signal to travel from the spacecraft to earth. It will be 16 months before New Horizons transfers everything it collected. The project will give scientists a better look at Pluto than they have ever had before. Researchers hope to learn more about it's atmosphere, it's geology and it's five moons. When it's done sending data back home, New Horizons next task is to check out the Kuiper Belt, the region beyond Neptune of more than 100, 000 comets and asteroids. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3958683/stephen-colbert-pluto-new-horizons/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3958683/stephen-colbert-pluto-new-horizons/"},"headline":"Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson Tell Stephen Colbert Why He's Not Impressed by Pluto","datePublished":"2015-07-15T16:28:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:43:43.081Z","description":"While drinking Tang and eating ice cream","url":"https://time.com/3958683/stephen-colbert-pluto-new-horizons/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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