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Philip Plait

Philip Plait

I write about the Universe.

I'm an astronomer, blogger, father, dork, husband, author, biped, late adopter, public speaker, skeptic, punster, and science evangelizer. I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Stargate. 
I suppose I could've just said "I'm a geek" and been done with it. 

I write the Bad Astronomy Blog for Discover Magazine, and have two books: "Bad Astronomy", and "Death from the Skies!". I also hosted the three part mini-series documentary "Bad Universe" on Discovery channel, and I've done a bunch of talking head stints on various science documentaries like "How the Universe Works", "Engineering the Universe", and others. 
In short: I love thinking about astronomy, I love talking about astronomy, I love writing about astronomy, and I love doing astronomy.



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Blogger public speaker author English Boulder Colorado United States Slate Magazine University of Virginia Person

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Date Following Followers Gained
Recent Popular Posts
+1,192
415 Shares
About 14 weeks ago BREAKING: HUGE meteor over Russia

A tremendous meteor burned up over Russia around 09:30 local time. It was as bright as the Sun and the sonic boom shattered windows. There are reports of injuries from shattered glass, and preliminary reports (unconfirmed) of pieces hitting the ground. Here's what I have so far:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/15/breaking_huge_meteor_explodes_over_russia.html

Note: This is almost certainly unrelated to #2012DA14 . I explain in the post.

#RussianMeteor  
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+1,159
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About 9 weeks ago Great illusion!

This is a wonderful illusion, and it's fun to switch your brain back and forth between seeing it and seeing how it's done. Apparently, these girls thought of this themselves and did the costumes and choreography, too. 
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+562
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About 11 weeks ago No, the Sun's motion is NOT a vortex

There's a video going somewhat viral claiming the solar system's motion through the galaxy is a "vortex", and that heliocentrism is wrong. To phrase it carefully, this video is wildly inaccurate. It's very pretty, and seems compelling, but the ideas it's based on are way, way wrong. Here's my debunking of it:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/04/vortex_motion_viral_video_showing_sun_s_motion_through_galaxy_is_wrong.html
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About 12 weeks ago Mars may get hit by a comet in 2014. Seriously.

In October 2014, the comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will pass within about 100,000 km of Mars. Comets have huge clouds of debris surrounding them which can easily get this big, so it seems likely the red planet will at least suffer a pelting. And though it's unlikely, a direct collision with the nucleus of the comet — a 15-50 kilometer-wide chunk of ice and rock — may occur. At 55 km/sec, an impact would generate an explosion difficult to comprehend: the equivalent of a million billion tons of TNT exploding.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/28/mars_impact_the_red_planet_may_get_hit_by_a_comet_in_october_2014.html

[Image below is a composite made by me.]
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About 1 week ago Overwhelming consensus

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/17/global_warming_climate_scientists_overwhelmingly_agree_it_s_real_and_is.html

A new study looked at 12,000 climate science papers. Of those papers taking a stance on the cause, more than 97% agree the cause is humans.
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About 14 weeks ago Philip Plait hung out. #hangoutsonair
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About 9 weeks ago The Universe is 13.82 billion years old!

New results from the #Planck  mission were just announced, and we just learned a whole lot about the Universe, including its age, what it's made of, and that it's actually a little bit wonky. That last bit is...amazing. My promise to you: reading this article will melt your brain.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/21/age_of_the_universe_planck_results_show_universe_is_13_82_billion_years.html
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About 3 weeks ago A glowering storm on Saturn in fantastic detail

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/04/30/saturn_storm_incredible_photo_of_a_hurricane_at_saturn_s_north_pole.html

Cassini sends back gorgeous pictures all the time, but this is a show-stopper: an infrared shot of a storm squatting over the planet's north pole. The close-up is incredible, but the wide angle is simply stunning. I have details in the link above. 
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About 9 weeks ago Black hole tosses its companion star around at 2 MILLION KPH!

This is a ridiculously cool story: A black hole has been found with a binary companion star so close that the star makes one complete orbit ever 2.4 hours - that means it circles the black hole 600 times faster than a rifle bullet! Not only that, but the star's fate is not a happy one: It will eventually be torn apart by the black hole; shredded and eaten while simultaneously violently exploding. Craziness.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/03/20/record_black_hole_binary_star_orbits_black_hole_in_only_2_4_hours.html
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About 2 weeks ago The Sun erupts!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/04/solar_flare_a_magnetic_eruption_on_the_sun_blows_off_a_towering_spire_of.html

Yesterday, the Sun had a minor solar flare, but it triggered a magnificent towering plume of plasma, dozens of times larger than Earth, I have pix and a very cool video of the event.
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