Neil deGrasse Tyson has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the true rock stars of contemporary science – a distinction he shares with the likes of Bill Nye, Brian Cox and Chris Hadfield.

But even in that exclusive firmament, the 57-year-old physicist's star seems to be burning the brightest.

He appears to be everywhere – in books, on TV, radio and online – explaining the complexities of the universe with his trademark avuncular ease.

"When I wake up in the morning and see that I have 4.5 million Twitter followers, I wonder, 'Do they know I'm an astrophysicist?'," he says.

He's joking, of course.  His fans know exactly what he is – and they can't get enough of it.

The secret behind much of his popularity is, he says, down to his smart tactic of connecting science to pop culture.

You'll often seem him on high-profile talk shows, such as The Daily Show, and his Star Talk TV program has featured the likes of George Takei​ (Star Trek's Mr Sulu), Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Family Guy's Seth Macfarlane and comedian Larry Wilmore. Recently, he caused a major sensation online by explaining exactly why the Starship Enterprise is a better craft than the Millennium Falcon. There's even a popular deGrasse Tyson meme.

"I can hang science on pop culture the way ornaments would hang on a tree," he says.

"I have found that to be particularly potent as a way to get inside of people who might otherwise have barriers to learning about science if the whole point of the session was a science class."

DeGrasse Tyson is also candid about cherrypicking material he knows will engage his broad audience.

"Since I'm not following a curriculum, I pick whatever the hell I want and talk about it," he says. "So, I'm going to pick the fun stuff.

"I can make it fun because I think the universe is a hilarious place."

And if his audience wants to delve deeper into the topic, he'll happily take them as far as they want to go.

"I say, well, now, come a little closer," he says. "Now take a look at this behind-the-scenes calculation, and if you're ready to go that deep, I've got other stuff for you. I have lecture courses that I've given, books I've written on this stuff. So, I can feed you all the way down the rabbit hole, if that's how you get attracted to it."

DeGrasse Tyson, whose "other" job is as director of New York's Hayden Planetarium is also passionate about giving people the tools to think critically when presented with pseudo-science, from climate change denialism to homeopathy.

"The task for me as an educator is to train you how to think about information and how to analyse information and how to question information and know ... what constitutes a good answer and what constitutes a lame answer, so this is a form of empowerment.

"It kind of inoculates you against people who would otherwise exploit your ignorance of the laws of nature to sell you something."

But that doesn't mean that he seeks confrontation, instead preferring to let the elegance of scientific truth speak for itself.

"I don't hit people over the head," he says. "I present information. I present a way for people to have deeper insight, and then I just go home.

"In a free country, you can think and believe whatever you want.

"It would just be nice to know that, whatever is your belief system, that you don't force it on others if it has no foundation in what is objectively true. You just keep it to yourself."

StarTalk airs on Mondays at 10.30pm from January 18 on National Geographic Channel