Maverick will survive the ejection – but then the fall turns deadly hot.
Veteran astronaut Scott Kelly on Monday debunked the theory that astrophysicist and television personality Neil deGrasse Tyson swam about a scene in “Top Gun: Maverick” over the weekend: He was Pete “Maverick” Mitchell “to a worm”. Swallows splattered like a chainmail glove” as they entered the atmosphere at Mach 10.5.
Then on Monday, Kelly tweeted that to be able to fly Mach 10.5 in the first place, a jet has to be at such an altitude that the thinness of the air makes the ejection a breeze:
The problem, added Maverick, a former International Space Station commander, would then begin to fall to Earth. Have you ever observed what happens to large pieces of rock when they enter the atmosphere? It’s awesome!
But in a way Pete “Maverick” doesn’t fit Mitchell’s existence.
Still, descending into the meteorite glow is a far cry from deGrasse Tyson’s insanely dreary and slightly nauseous “chain mail gloves swatting a worm” reference.
But unless a secret hand moved to smash Maverick out of the sky, deGrasse Tyson’s result for Maverick – “he died” – was technically correct.