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According to Neil deGrasse Tyson, one can cook a 16-inch pepperoni pizza on Venus by holding it in the air for 4 seconds. However, no detailed calculations were given to demonstrate this.

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    If you want someone to actually do the calculation to check whether the claim is scientifically plausible, the folks over at physics.se often like to think about questions of this type. – Dan Romik Sep 10 '21 at 06:51
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    In the interests of 100% accuracy, his tweet does say "probably cooks". – Laconic Droid Sep 10 '21 at 12:16
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    No calculations either, but Neil deGrasse Tyson elaborates on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvWSLPgyPHU – GSerg Sep 10 '21 at 12:34
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    This would be much better suited for physics.se – Rob Watts Sep 10 '21 at 16:19
  • I was trying to determine whether the pizza would survive the corrosive atmosphere, but it turns out to be "only" 150ppm sulphur dioxide so unless you stand in the acid rain it will merely smell bad rather than being rapidly oxidised away. – pjc50 Sep 10 '21 at 16:23
  • I have a hard time accepting this. It seems to me he's looking at the time it would take to absorb sufficient energy to cook, but there is still the issue of heat **distribution**. I think our astronaut will end up with a pizza that's burnt on the surface and raw inside. – Loren Pechtel Sep 11 '21 at 02:06
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    Reminder to potential answerers: Your own personal back-of-the-envelope calculations are not acceptable here. Your own personal models of how pizza cooks are not of interest to us. Ideally, this would be resolved with an empirical experiment, but as this is extremely unlikely, you should at least be referencing an authoritative calculation (peer review would be strongly encouraged too). If you think that is over the top for this frivolous hypothetical, yes, this question isn't a great fit here. – Oddthinking Sep 12 '21 at 04:34
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    @LorenPechtel I'm guessing that the 93 bar pressure on the surface of Venus would do wonders to increase heat conduction. To start with, the pizza would no longer have a "surface" and an "inside" section anymore, only a thin flat tortilla-like thingy. :D – Rekesoft Sep 13 '21 at 11:10
  • @Rekesoft The pressure would prevent any rise of the crust but would have basically zero effect on the rest of the pizza. – Loren Pechtel Sep 14 '21 at 02:34
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    It appears Neil deGrasse Tyson first made this claim in his 2007 book "Death by Black Hole" on pg. 80. Not much more detail is given there either. – TimRias Sep 15 '21 at 09:16
  • [Relevant TVTropes article](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OvenLogic). – Mark Sep 21 '21 at 02:38
  • There is a [pizza calculator](https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/perfect-pizza) - it apparently takes 1 minute 40 seconds at 900F – Juliana Karasawa Souza Sep 22 '21 at 14:46
  • So many hanging threads... What would 'an astronaut on Venus' be like? Can we answer the question without knowing what a safe enclosure for a human on Venus would be like? Is it even possible? Does it matter if the venus-suit allows the astronaut to reach the pizza and extract it from a safe enclosure and hold it in the Venusian air? How is the pizza stored before cooking? Does 'cook' mean "prepare for human consumption?" What if the pizza is burned and/or absorbs gas poisonous to humans? Is this like asking questions about what warp drive could do or Star Trek vs. Star Wars? – Paul Sep 26 '21 at 06:45

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