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Phil Plait
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Phil Plait is an astronomer and author. He writes the Bad Astronomy Blog for Slate magazine, where he frequently discusses asteroids and other threats from space.

Blog Entries by Phil Plait

How to Defend Earth From Asteroids

(1204) Comments | Posted December 21, 2012 | 9:00 AM

TED and The Huffington Post are excited to bring you TEDWeekends, a curated weekend program that introduces a powerful "idea worth spreading" every Friday, anchored in an exceptional TEDTalk. This week's TEDTalk is accompanied by an original blog post from the featured speaker, along with new...

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Why does John McCain hate planetariums?

(30) Comments | Posted October 9, 2008 | 2:21 AM

[Note: this is a shortened version of what I wrote on my own blog. Feel free to drop by there for a longer rant.]

As an astronomer and educator, I had a slap-in-the-face moment last month when I read that John McCain called funding planetariums (in the biz we...

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Human triumph on Mars

(15) Comments | Posted May 26, 2008 | 4:28 PM

Forget, for a moment, about Obama.

Forget about Clinton's latest gaffe. Forget about idiot Fox commenters and their "slips of the tongue". Forget about Bush, about the economy, about gas.

Just for a moment, forget about all that.

Instead, look at this picture:

2008-05-26-hirise_phoenix_chute.jpg

...
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The Cost of Terror: $6,000 Per Second

(8) Comments | Posted December 31, 2007 | 1:00 PM

Whenever the Bush administration balks at spending money on some needed issue, I always mention on my blog that the Iraq war is costing us 11 million dollars per hour.

I am embarrassed to admit that this figure is wrong. I apologize. It has recently come to light...

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Best Astronomy Pictures of 2007

(3) Comments | Posted December 24, 2007 | 2:57 PM

Tonight, while you're pondering, weak and weary...

Oops! Wrong poem!

Before you settle down for a long winter's nap, let me suggest something a lot cooler than visions of sugar plums dancing in your head.

2007-12-24-Arp87.jpg

Astronomy may be the most visual and beautiful of...

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Weblog Awards 2007: Vote For Real Science

(0) Comments | Posted November 8, 2007 | 12:42 PM

Permit me a moment to toot my own horn, if you will. It's for the greater good, anyway.

The annual Weblog Awards are here again. This year, as they had last year, there is a category for Best Science Blog. My own

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Hubble: Tentacles of Galactic Doom!

(2) Comments | Posted October 30, 2007 | 1:52 PM

The Hubble Space Telescope never disappoints. The latest is a spectacular image of two galaxies in a near hit:

2007-10-30-arp87.jpg

These two galaxies are named NGC 3808A (the face-on spiral on the right) and NGC 3808B (the edge-on cigar-shaped galaxy on the...

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Extremely Cool Naked-Eye Comet

(4) Comments | Posted October 29, 2007 | 12:26 AM

Take a break from stances, finances, and romances, and go outside.

Seriously. Right now, there is a naked-eye comet gracing our skies. Usually, comets are far too faint to see. Comet 17/P Holmes, more than 150 million miles from Earth, is usually no exception. Up until October 25 it was...

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Glenn Beck: global warming idiot

(4) Comments | Posted October 26, 2007 | 2:56 PM

I wonder: is nationally syndicated radio talk show host and CNN blowhard Glenn Beck vying with Rush Limbaugh to see who can pack more stupid statements into one segment?

Beck's latest bloviation is on global warming. It was on his radio show, not CNN, so it's possible a few people...

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Vitter's $100K violation of the First Amendment

(7) Comments | Posted October 16, 2007 | 12:54 PM

Remember Louisiana Senator David Vitter, the one who cheated on his wife with a woman and not a man, so he's still AOK with the GOP?

Yeah, him. Turns out he's slimy in more than one way. He has inserted an earmark into a Senate appropriations bill to give...

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Stephen Colbert: You're on Notice!

(17) Comments | Posted August 31, 2007 | 2:21 PM

Stephen Colbert: I am putting you On Notice!

On the August 21st show, Mr. Colbert made allegations that the Apollo Moon landings were faked. As an astronomer, Apollo fan, and scienciness guy, I cannot let such allegations, such slandericious statements go unchallenged.

So Mr. Colbert, I challenge...

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Is Global Warming Solar Induced? Not According to the Planets

(56) Comments | Posted May 1, 2007 | 4:09 PM

There's a meme going around the internets and in the MSM that Earth is not alone in global warming: other planets, according to this story, are experiencing it too.

marsonfire.jpg

The usual crowd, along with many others, are taking this idea and running with...

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Earth Day? How About Alien Earth Day!

(10) Comments | Posted April 24, 2007 | 10:45 PM

With all the hullaballoo going on down here on Earth - and so much of it sequestered in Washington's 68 square miles - it's easy to forget that there's a whole Universe out there. But sometimes our neighbors remind us of things bigger than just us.

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The House <3 Science

(2) Comments | Posted March 15, 2007 | 8:44 PM

Score one for the good guys: the House recently passed H R 985: the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act!

Scientists in government agencies (NASA, NOAA, FDA, etc), laboring for years under the heavy cloud of scientific suppression, can now feel safer if they want to call foul. And call foul...

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Top 10 Astronomy Pix of 2006

(10) Comments | Posted December 28, 2006 | 4:28 PM

Even as a dyed-in-the-wool political junkie, I can get weary of the unending stream of horror from that arena. How long can you listen to people talking about Iraq, elections, surges, torture (and it's torture to hear about torture), and the wingnuts before going a little wingnutty yourself?

Of course,...

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NASA to fix Hubble!

(6) Comments | Posted October 31, 2006 | 1:38 PM

NASA announced today that they will be sending up a mission to repair the ailing Hubble Space Telescope.

Cool!

Hubble was launched in 1990, and was designed to be periodically upgraded as technology improved (it was originally launched with a processor that was designed in the 1970s-- even when...

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Lord of the Rings

(3) Comments | Posted October 12, 2006 | 1:07 PM

I know I just posted about cool Mars pictures a few days ago, but when Cassini delivers, you kinda have to pay attention.

Cassini is a space probe that has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, and has been sending Earthward a nearly unending stream of images that awe and...

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Need a break from GOP insanity? Look to Mars!

(12) Comments | Posted October 9, 2006 | 1:19 PM

Sometimes, local news (meaning stuff on Earth) gets depressing. You need to lift your eyes to the heavens to get better news... literally.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a NASA probe that got to the Red Planet a few months ago. It began a series of maneuvers that put it...

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Far-Right Planets: What's Next, Neoconstellations?

(16) Comments | Posted September 14, 2006 | 3:17 PM

As a scientist who dips daily into the festering cesspool of far-right antiscience (evolution deniers, creationists, Big Bang naysayers, and so on), I sometimes think I'm beyond the capability to be shocked by neocon wingnuttery.

Then something comes along that's so dumb I wonder how much lower the...

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Pluto to Officially Become a Planet-- and Now we have 12!

(13) Comments | Posted August 16, 2006 | 3:45 AM

Astronomers meeting in Prague today have announced that they have drafted a set of rules that declares Pluto will officially be recognized as a planet (Goofy was unavailable for comment, badda bing!).

Not only that, but these rules add three more planets to the roster: Ceres (up until now...

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