Jane to NYC: Our Astronomer Can Beat Up Your Astronomer

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, so let's take a moment to consider the region's place in the professional astronomical universe. You might also want to take in the Galileo exhibit at the Franklin, as well as their forthcoming Star Trek exhibit. The Fels Planetarium there is the nation's second oldest. On March 30th, Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer at the Franklin, was on the Colbert Report to talk about the Galileo exhibit. During that segment Colbert made a joke about a cage match between Pitts and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York. Tyson may have taken on Pluto and won but I think our guy can take him.

This is Derrick Pitts:



This is Neil DeGrasse Tyson:


Note the pink shirt, and the fact that in 2000 People Magazine named Tyson the "sexiest astrophysicist alive."

I say our guy wins in thumb wrestling, arm wrestling, chess, or any of the other standard duels that Colbert arranges.