Astrophysicist Explains Critical 'Gravity' Twitter Posts via Facebook

Warner Bros. Pictures' thriller "Gravity" topped the box office its opening weekend with $55.6 million. (Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures)

Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson wants you to know that he really did like the movie "Gravity." The host of TV's "Cosmos" reboot took to Facebook on Oct. 9 to add a little context to the somewhat critical series of updates about "Gravity" he posted to Twitter Sunday (Oct. 6).

Tyson explained that "Gravity" has actually earned the right to be criticized because of its scientific merits. The movie strives for accuracy by portraying a "physical reality," but its missteps shouldn't necessarily discount what it does right, and Tyson regrets not explaining his opinion of the movie more fully via Twitter.

"I came to regret not first tweeting the hundred things the movie got right," Tyson wrote on Facebok. "1) the 90 minute orbital time for objects at that altitude; 2) the re-entry trails of disintegrated satellites, hauntingly reminiscent of the Columbia Shuttle tragedy; 3) Clooney's calm-under-stress character (I know dozens of astronauts like that); 4) the stunning images from orbit transitioning from day to twilight to nighttime; 5) the Aurorae (northern lights) visible in the distance over the polar regions; 6) the thinness of Earth's atmosphere relative to Earth's size."

Read Tyson's full Facebook post here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/neil-degrasse-tyson/on-the-critique-of-science-in-film/10151673927570869 Read more of Tyson's tweets here: https://twitter.com/neiltyson

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+.

Miriam Kramer joined Space.com as a Staff Writer in December 2012. Since then, she has floated in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight, felt the pull of 4-Gs in a trainer aircraft and watched rockets soar into space from Florida and Virginia. She also served as Space.com's lead space entertainment reporter, and enjoys all aspects of space news, astronomy and commercial spaceflight. Miriam has also presented space stories during live interviews with Fox News and other TV and radio outlets. She originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee where she and her family would take trips to dark spots on the outskirts of town to watch meteor showers every year. She loves to travel and one day hopes to see the northern lights in person. Miriam is currently a space reporter with Axios, writing the Axios Space newsletter. You can follow Miriam on Twitter.