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Phil Plait

@philplait.bsky.social

79K followers 310 following 14K 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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Reposted by Phil Plait

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 16h

🇬🇧 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 · 16h

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 · 17h

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 · 18h

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 · 22h

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 · 18h

Zoodonym

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 18h

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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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 18h

Nice

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 20h

Wow! Link to more info on thread.

Colette Delawalla @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 20h

This is incredible!

Jonathan @renewableenergy.bsky.social · 20h

Huge historic turning point — Renewables surpassed coal as the world’s leading electricity source for the first half of 2025!

#greensky #energysky #renewableenergy

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 23h

I'm not aware of it, and I don't speculate especially when I have zero data.

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 23h

Wow. Just like the one I saw!

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

*Very* Space:1999

Chris Becke (aka BeckePhysics) @chrisbecke.bsky.social · 1d

Full Harvest Moon

Moonstreaks inspired by @bryanminear.com

#Fujifilm X-M5, XF150-600mm

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

I don't know anything about that.

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Oh very cool!

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Wow! I love that sort of thing.

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Surprise sundog today in some feathery cirrus. Been a while since I've seen one.

$A cotton candy like feathery cloud is strewn across a blue sky. A spot on it is brighter and lit with rainbow colors from sunlight refracted through ice crystals.$

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Dr Oz speaks from looooong experience here

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Dr Oz: "We have an advantage with AI. You know why? We don't think the way fraudsters think. That's just not what our minds do. The bank managers don't think about bank fraud. They want to do loans and help businesses. Fraudsters think about fraud. So the AI can think the way a fraudster thinks."

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

MAGAebbels

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Stephen Miller claims that in Portland "ICE officers have to street battles against antifa, hand to hand combat every night, to come and go from their building"

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Because of course, asteroids from the vicinity of Venus may threaten Earth.

badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/asteroids-...

🧪🔭

Asteroids from Venus pose an invisible — but uncertain — threat

Bottom line: we need to look for them

badastronomy.beehiiv.com

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

I'd watch this if someone paid me to write about it. But they'd have to pay me a LOT.

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

I mean the original poster should copy the text and put it in ALT.

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

The more parsimonious conclusion is that not enough people use ALT text

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

A generalization i learned from my years as a skeptic: Educated people tend to be easier to fool because of that confidence, and also because they're smart enough to look up evidence that supports their belief but not experienced enough in critical thinking to look up how they might be wrong.

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

There are a lot of important posts quoting images of government officials saying horrid things, but they don't have ALT text. C'mon folks, it's easy when you're posting a screencapped tweet; just copy and paste the text from the tweet itself!

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 3d

Cute!

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 3d

Long day

My medium sized dog Daisy, a white mutt with big light brown patches, sleeps curled up in an easy chair

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