As the director of the Hayden Planetarium, the new Carl Sagan in a rebooted version of Cosmos, and cult hero to nerds everywhere, Neil deGrasse Tyson is a very busy man. So all was forgiven when one Redditor spotted the rock-star astrophysicist “taking up space” (heh) on the subway. “This guy bumped into me while rushing to get on the train,” wrote the user who snapped this candid photo. “I turn around ready to give him the stink eye and realize it [was] Neil deGrasse Tyson. Went from angry to happy in a split second.”
“Yup. That’s me,” Tyson confirmed to Daily Intelligencer in an e-mail. “I take the subway when I can — fast, cheap, and easy. And when I do, I am always working. In fact, en-route to and from the Planetarium, I take less-crowded trains and routes, even if longer, assuring a seat for me to get work done. The universe can be quite demanding of my time.”
