Entertainment Editor

His résumé is, appropriately enough, out of this world.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a renowned astrophysicist with his own science show on PBS and he is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. People Magazine voted him the sexiest astrophysicist alive in 2000 and he was named to Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2007.

But Tyson will probably always have one asterisk next to his name: He's the guy who got Pluto kicked out of the solar system.

Tyson was at Harmony High School last week, the featured guest speaker at the first Nature Science Conference and Competition. Several Osceola County students received college scholarships at the awards ceremony.

Tyson never shies away from the Pluto discussion. It is inevitable it will be brought up no matter where he goes.

“Yes, we have one less planet in the solar system,” Tyson told the group of students and invited guests. “And Pluto got what was coming to it so get over it. We have Pluto counselors if you can't deal with it.”

The audience laughed, of course. Tyson knows how to “sell science” and talking about Pluto's planetary disgrace is a great icebreaker with a crowd.

The exiting of Pluto from the solar system created such a sensation that Tyson wrote a book (he has written nine books) explaining why it was banished. You can find out more about Pluto online at www.

pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pluto/, Tyson's hour-long streaming PBS video on Pluto, “The Pluto Files.”

Tyson has an apparent unbridled passion when it comes to talking about science, the planets and all things involving our universe.

He wants to see more exploration of the solar system for sure.

“I want to go ice fishing on Europa,” Tyson said.

Europa, the sixth moon of Jupiter, is one of the most likely places to find life in our solar system.

Most scientists agree that there is a layer of liquid water on the satellite, underneath a layer of solid ice. The possibility for life existing on Europa seems likely, the same way life exists under the ocean on Earth in volcanic thermal vents.

One of Tyson's greatest talents is how to explain to those with average intelligence the scope of the universe.

It is hard for most of us grasp the significance of numbers, whether it is the distance to a planet or relative wealth.

Tyson used multi-billionaire Bill Gates as an example to explain the science of numbers.

Gates, of Microsoft fame, is currently worth about $50 billion, Tyson said.

If the average adult, walking on the street, saw a nickel or a dime on the ground, they probably wouldn't even stop to pick it up if they were in hurry, but would be more likely to stop if it were a quarter.

For Gates to take the time to pick up a corresponding amount, with regard to his wealth, it would have to be about $25,000, Tyson said.

Tyson covered many topics during his 45-minute presentation, including an asteroid that may be heading in our direction and what we can do to prevent a collision.

The dinosaurs met a similar fate 65 million years ago, he said.

“They just had bad luck, and no space program,” he said.

Much of Tyson's presentation was geared toward his younger audience, and a lot of it dealt with the state of science today, particularly in the United States.

And the state of science is not particularly good right now, he said.

With regard to that asteroid — Apophis, a near-Earth asteroid that came close to our planet in astronomical terms in 2004, and will return for another close encounter in 2036 — the United States isn't even taking the lead to “save the planet.” Russia is taking the lead, he added, and is asking the U.S. to join it.

“The Russians announced last year that they were starting that project,” Tyson said, adding that the U.S. is failing in may areas of science now.

The scientist said he recently asked on Twitter “if two trains were traveling toward each other at 80 mph, what country would you be in?”

The answer, he said, would be the United States, because it is one of the few industrialized areas where trains travel that slowly.

The fastest trains in the world are now in China, traveling at speeds of up to three times faster than their American counterparts, he said.

If there was one message Tyson had for this younger audience, he said after his presentation, it is one of urgency.

The United States needs to take science more seriously, the way the rest of the world does, or the country will find itself lagging even further behind in the future, he said.

In Europe, almost every country has currency honoring scientists.

The only currency in the United States honoring a scientist is the $100 bill, which features a picture of Benjamin Franklin, and Franklin is honored as a founding father, not as a scientist, he said.

Tyson looks to youth as the future for science here.

“Adults usually feel like they can't change anything, but students feel like they can make a difference,” he said.

Tyson is hopeful that maybe, just maybe, there will be students he can influence the same way another noted scientist – astronomer Carl Sagan – influenced him when he was in school.

“If I can have that kind of influence, it would be great, but it's just doing my job,” Tyson said. “My greatest achievement is to communicate and leave them motivated.”