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Neil deGrasse Tyson Tries To ‘Learn Something New Every Day’

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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

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 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.

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com