Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson just pointed out a huge flaw in the new Star Wars

This post does not contain spoilers

Astrophysicist and host of podcast StarTalk, Neil deGrasse Tyson, has never made a secret of the fact he's more of a Trekkie than a Star Wars fan.

He's said in the past:

I never got into Star Wars. Maybe because they made no attempt to portray real physics. At all.

One of his major grudges is that even though space is a vacuum, through which sound can't travel, the Millennium Falcon (and every other spaceship for that matter) makes noises as it whooshes through space, jumps into lightspeed, or fires lasers.

Now Tyson's been to see the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but apparently the franchise reboot doesn't pass scientific muster either:

The very cute sidekick droid, BB-8, is basically a robot ball - the filmmakers created a working prototype while they were making the movie, and there's a whole website dedicated to explaining how it works.

None of this has impressed Tyson, though. He's pointed out that BB-8 would have real trouble getting around the Star Wars universe unless all the surfaces were flat and uniform - and it certainly wouldn't be able to keep up with the other characters - particularly in sand.

(Looking at this scene, he might have a point.)

Roll, BB-8! Roll!

Even if BB-8 isn't a very effective robot, Tyson had to admit it's still lovable though:

Watch his full take on Star Wars science below:

HT: Tech Insider

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