"At the moment, mansion-sized Asteroid 2024-YR4 has a one-in-fifty chance of hitting Earth in the next eight years. Now might be a bad time to reduce spending on Science. Just sayin'," Tyson said on X.
The National Science Foundation, an independent government agency and the nation's largest funder of scientific research has frozen its grant approval process and new spending following an executive order from President Donald Trump pausing all federal grants.
That order has been put on hold by a federal judge, but the NSF has not resumed its funding, after warnings in February that it should be ready to lose two-thirds of its funding and half of its staff.