--- title: Neil deGrasse Tyson Tries To Learn Something New Every Day description: The astrophysicist can't get enough canonical: https://time.com/82026/neil-degrasse-tyson/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-30T01:36:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-21T07:15:12.448Z article:section: Science og:title: Neil deGrasse Tyson Tries To Learn Something New Every Day og:description: The astrophysicist can't get enough og:url: https://time.com/82026/neil-degrasse-tyson/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c0a0f4bb05053c9/69868d1735ba6f26a3c01c1b/neil-degrasse-tyson-time-100-gala.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: From left: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dr. Mehmet Oz attend the TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 most influential people in the world, at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 29, 2014 in New York City. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Neil deGrasse Tyson Tries To Learn Something New Every Day twitter:description: The astrophysicist can't get enough twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c0a0f4bb05053c9/69868d1735ba6f26a3c01c1b/neil-degrasse-tyson-time-100-gala.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Neil deGrasse Tyson Tries To 'Learn Something New Every Day'  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 30, 2014 1:36 AM UTC  From left: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dr. Mehmet Oz attend the TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 most influential people in the world, at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 29, 2014 in New York City. From left: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dr. Mehmet Oz attend the TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 most influential people in the world, at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 29, 2014 in New York City.Larry Busacca—Getty Images for TIME  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 30, 2014 1:36 AM UTC There’s never enough knowledge for rockstar astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. “I try to learn something new every day or else the day is wasted,” deGrasse Tyson said during a brief interview at [the TIME 100 gala](http://time.com/81117/time-100-gala-time-magazine/) Tuesday in New York. Arriving in a starry-night waistcoat and chatting with TV talk show host Dr. Oz, deGrasse Tyson said he was most looking forward to meeting “the people I’ve never heard of who are changing the world. The famous people we already know about.” So what’s the last thing deGrasse Tyson learned? Well, it’s something he thought he already knew, but the rate of supernovas exploding in our galaxy is actually twice what was reported on his show _Cosmos_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/82026/neil-degrasse-tyson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/82026/neil-degrasse-tyson/"},"headline":"Neil deGrasse Tyson Tries To 'Learn Something New Every Day'","datePublished":"2014-04-30T01:36:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:15:12.448Z","description":"The astrophysicist can't get enough","url":"https://time.com/82026/neil-degrasse-tyson/","keywords":["TIME 100","TIME 100","TIME 100 Gala"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c0a0f4bb05053c9/69868d1735ba6f26a3c01c1b/neil-degrasse-tyson-time-100-gala.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c0a0f4bb05053c9/69868d1735ba6f26a3c01c1b/neil-degrasse-tyson-time-100-gala.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"From left: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dr. Mehmet Oz attend the TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 most influential people in the world, at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 29, 2014 in New York City.","caption":"From left: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dr. Mehmet Oz attend the TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 most influential people in the world, at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 29, 2014 in New York City.","creditText":"Larry Busacca—Getty Images for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-100/","name":"TIME 100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/82026/neil-degrasse-tyson/","name":"Neil deGrasse Tyson Tries To 'Learn Something New Every Day'"}}]}] ```