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MEMO TO BILL NYE

If the sun is so hot, why is space so cold?

Reuters/NASA
Boiling into space.
By Gideon Lichfield
Published Last updated on This article is more than 2 years old.

Apparently, this is a question people ask, and they don’t like it when you make fun of them.

On Nov. 8 Bill Nye, America’s iconic “Science Guy,” was torn to shreds on Reddit while holding an online discussion to promote his TV show on Netflix. The show, modestly titled Bill Nye Saves the World, has been panned as shallow and out-of-touch, and so when Nye posted on Reddit, ”I’m Bill Nye and I’m on a quest to end anti-scientific thinking. AMA [Ask Me Anything],” the sound of knives being sharpened was deafening.

Some of the greatest scorn concerned his flippant response to the question: “If the Sun is hot, why is space cold?” Nye’s full answer:

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