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Phil Plait

@philplait.bsky.social

79K followers 310 following 15K posts

Bad Astronomer (formerly @BadAstronomer), SciCommer, Dork. Crash Course Astronomy guy. He/him. Newsletter: badastronomy.beehiiv.com I'm self-employed so my opinions do in fact represent my company's.

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · Oct 10

Pinned post:

Wanna know where all my stuff is? about.me/philplait

My book Under Alien Skies: underalienskies.com

My newsletter (Monday issues are free!): badastronomy.beehiiv.com

My fave post here on BlueSky: bsky.app/profile/phil...

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 3m

Here's a fun one: can you see Earth and the Moon together with your naked eye... from Mars?

I do the math!

www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-...

🔭🧪

What Would Earth and the Moon Look like from Mars?

If you pick the right time, our home world and our moon could be easily visible from the Red Planet

www.scientificamerican.com

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 16h

So, a normal then

One of those carnival claw games with the name "Megamini". It's basically a box with plush toys inside you try to grab with a claw but you never can and it always makes kids cry.

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 17h

That's a lot of water

The Atlantic ocean at a beach in South Carolina. The sky is cloudy and some palms are in the foreground.

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 23h

So, yeah, a mind-vaporizingly huge explosion in space *may have been from a white dwarf ripped to shreds by a black hole*.

yeGADS

badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-white-dw...

🔭🧪

A white dwarf may have been torn to shreds by a black hole

Just writing that sentence made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up

badastronomy.beehiiv.com

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

I just signed this. I may write a letter to UVa as well.

P.S. *Always* investigate petitions before you sign. The group behind this, according to my own research, looks legit.

Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 1d

If you are an alum of:

Vanderbilt
UVA
UT Austin
U of Southern California
Dartmouth
Brown
MIT
U Penn
U Arizona

Your alma mater is RIGHT NOW weighing the costs and benefits of giving up its independence and abandoning academic freedom. SPEAK UP NOW:

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STAND WITH YOUR SCHOOL: Trump attacks 9 universities. Sign the alumni petition now.

Are you an alum from one of the 9 schools the federal government just attacked? Sign this alumni petition now to support your school, defend democracy, and build a grassroots movement for campus freed...

alumni.controlshift.app

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Why have their been no recall pushes?

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Let's just say not universally.

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

To phrase it extremely charitably, Loeb is wrong.

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

The guy on the left wants to legalize incest, because if you're gonna screw people it might as well include your family

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

I am very happy to see this! The fed compact takes away the university's freedom and is a draconian, nay fascist attempt to control how people think.

The state senate is 21 to 19 Dem/GOP. *Elections matter*. And we have a big one in VA coming up.

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 1d

I'll be updating next week's current-state-of-state-higher-ed-policy slides.

Left is an article about the VA senate dems telling UVA their state funding will be in question if they agree to that odious compact. On the right is the key part of the senate letter.

www.cbs19news.com/news/state-s...

Screenshot from the top of the article. Title is "State Senate Democrats tell UVA to not consider education compact." Published today.

Main text reads "RICHMOND, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- The University of Virginia could lose state funding if it signs onto an education compact it received from the federal government last week."

Screenshot from the letter from VA dems which reads "Therefore, we call upon you to immediately cease all consideration of signing this compact.
Furthermore, we want to be explicitly clear: if the University of Virginia signs this compact, there will be significant consequences in future Virginia budget cycles. As the leadership of the Senate with responsibility for appropriations affecting higher education, we will work with our colleagues to ensure that the Commonwealth does not subsidize an institution that has ceded its independence to federal
political control."

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

I vehemently agree with half this list and give extreme side eye to the other half

The Spaceshipper 🚀 @thespaceshipper.com · 1d

☝️Is there a sci-fi movie that you defend tooth and nail, but you feel a little alone in loving it?

When you're sad because you spent three hours defending a movie and clearly you're the only person in the world who likes it.

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Congress had to swoop in and save a mission that could literally help save humanity, which of course Trump wants to cancel

Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 1d

One NASA science mission saved from Trump’s cuts, but others still in limbo arstechnica.com/space/2025/1...

One NASA science mission saved from Trump’s cuts, but others still in limbo

“Damage is being done already. Even if funding is reinstated, we have already lost people.”…

arstechnica.com

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

JFC

darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 1d

"we are going to murder americans without due process"
~pam bondi, US attorney general

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa."

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Reposted by Phil Plait

🇨🇦 Zoë Keating @zoekeating.com · 1d

She lives in Canada, you wouldn’t know her

Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly @rtodkelly.bsky.social · 1d

"the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa"

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Congrats Morgan!

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Yup!

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Partial halo over the Sun today. I've written about these so many times! Search on Phil Plait ice halo and you'll find 'em.

Blue skies and feathery clouds, with an arc of rainbow colors near the top

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Yup! Those are rare, so nice shot!

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

Little lizard lounging lazily

A small brown lizard,maybe a skink, on the hood of a car

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Reposted by Phil Plait

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 2d

🇬🇧 London friends! I will be in town later this week for a cool public event with @chrislintott.bsky.social (wegottickets.com/event/676292) and will be hanging out a few days. Come to the event and say hi if you can!

The End of the Universe

After a magnificent* 13.8 billion years** astronomer Chris Lintott (Sky at Night) and Steve Pretty (Hackney Colliery Band) lead a funeral and wake for the universe, as it sadly heads into heat death. ...

wegottickets.com

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Reposted by Phil Plait

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 2d

Today is the day!

The Grand Cosmic Story, my newest book (with Jon Lomberg, Mark Garlick, and Will Lidwell), from National Geographic, is released!

Get the history of the whole Universe, one page and 100 Myr at a time, today!
amzn.to/46GsS9d

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/789623...
#space #book

An inside look at four individual page spreads from the book The Grand Cosmic Story, featuring artwork, page titles, intricate text, and statistics about the Universe.

Cover image and a look at the introduction inside to the book The Grand Cosmic Story, telling our cosmic history 1 page and 100 million years at a time.

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Reposted by Phil Plait

Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.bsky.social · 2d

See that small, moving splotch?

That's 3I/ATLAS, a comet that formed in a different star system, photographed from Mars orbit by the ESA Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter.

A comet from a DIFFERENT SOLAR SYSTEM photographed by a ROBOT ORBITING MARS

last Friday

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

In case you still subscribe to the NYT. I checked; this is real. By the way the author wrote a book called "The Age of Entitlement", because you cannot make this stuff up.

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 3d

Despite appearances, this is not a @nytpitchbot.bsky.social joke, it's an actual @nytimes.com column by some Claremont hack who praises Hegseth for his "nuanced vision of the military’s purpose and its relationship to civilian society."

Opinion
Guest Essay

That Hegseth Speech Was Actually Pretty Good
Oct. 7, 2025, 5:01 a.m. ET

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

Zoodonym

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

Today's BA newsletter: NASA is trying to save its premier gamma-ray burst observatory which is in a dangerously decaying orbit, and astronomers find gaseous methane on Makemake, a small world past Neptune!

badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/private-sp...

[Premium subbies only today]

🔭🧪

Private space company may save Swift, Is Makemake geologically active?

Katalyst Space looks to boost Swift, and methane gas has been found on a distant icy body

badastronomy.beehiiv.com

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