Phil Plait
@philplait.bsky.social
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.
I'm self-employed so my opinions do in fact represent my company's.
Pinned
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...
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...
Huh. HUH.
Trump, who says he had "no idea" at the time that Epstein sexually molested girls, told the police in 2006 that "everyone has known he’s been doing this.” That's according to an FBI interview with the then-Palm Beach police chief.
Here's a gift link to Julie K. Brown's article in the Miami Herald.
Here's a gift link to Julie K. Brown's article in the Miami Herald.
Trump told Palm Beach police chief ‘everyone’ knew about Epstein, Maxwell was ‘evil’
The new information comes as Ghislaine Maxwell was summoned to appear Monday before a Congressional committee.
www.miamiherald.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:23 PM
Huh. HUH.
STRONGLY endorse
Yesterday marked Stand Up For Science's first birthday! We want to keep fighting for science for years to come, but that comes at a cost. If you would like to make a birthday donation, please visit this link: standupforscience.net/donate
Thank you for helping us Stand Up For Science!
Thank you for helping us Stand Up For Science!
February 9, 2026 at 8:18 PM
STRONGLY endorse
Reposted by Phil Plait
Oh! And what’s this? A new 5th Doctor box set, with stories by Lauren Mooney, Stewart Pringle, and a handsome, talented writer called… oh, how embarrassing! It’s me! Mine had the working title of “Tegan Jovanka’s Bloody Annoying Groundhog Day”, so you know the vibe:
FIVE STAR! ✨ Click https://bgfn.sh/rough if you can't wait another minute to find out more about April 2026's full-cast audio drama box set starring Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson.
February 9, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Oh! And what’s this? A new 5th Doctor box set, with stories by Lauren Mooney, Stewart Pringle, and a handsome, talented writer called… oh, how embarrassing! It’s me! Mine had the working title of “Tegan Jovanka’s Bloody Annoying Groundhog Day”, so you know the vibe:
My free subscriptions have plateaued a bit lately, so why not sign up? You get a free issue every Monday, with cool science and pix and stuff. It's essentially a whole science book per year, and costs nothing!
👉 badastronomy.beehiiv.com/subscribe
👉 badastronomy.beehiiv.com/subscribe
February 9, 2026 at 4:12 PM
My free subscriptions have plateaued a bit lately, so why not sign up? You get a free issue every Monday, with cool science and pix and stuff. It's essentially a whole science book per year, and costs nothing!
👉 badastronomy.beehiiv.com/subscribe
👉 badastronomy.beehiiv.com/subscribe
We can now take *1,500-color* images of galaxies! Here's a gorgeous nearby spiral to sculpt your interest.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/the-specta...
[words by me; this issue is free for all!]
🔭 🧪
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/the-specta...
[words by me; this issue is free for all!]
🔭 🧪
The spectacular Sculptor spiral galaxy in 1,500 colors!
Picking your colors carefully reveals rich science
badastronomy.beehiiv.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:07 PM
We can now take *1,500-color* images of galaxies! Here's a gorgeous nearby spiral to sculpt your interest.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/the-specta...
[words by me; this issue is free for all!]
🔭 🧪
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/the-specta...
[words by me; this issue is free for all!]
🔭 🧪
Of *course* she didn't. She was moved to a cushy minimum security prison as an obvious bribe by Trump to stay quiet. Taking the 5th is safe; naming names could get her killed.
ALERT: Rep Robert Garcia (D-CA) says Ghislaine Maxwell has appeared for virtual deposition with House Oversight Cmte and “said nothing. She answered no questions and provided no information about the men who raped and trafficked women and girls”
February 9, 2026 at 3:53 PM
Of *course* she didn't. She was moved to a cushy minimum security prison as an obvious bribe by Trump to stay quiet. Taking the 5th is safe; naming names could get her killed.
I'm always amazed when a see a truly dark splotch in a JWST image. The 'scope detects infrared light which can get through dense dust that's opaque to visible light, so how dense is that little cloud such that it can *entirely block the light from material behind it*? Yikes.
🔭 JWST Program 5437 - A Census to the Bottom of the IMF in W3: Atmospheres, Disks, Accretion, and Demographics: www.stsci.edu/jwst-program...
data: W3-JWST-3A-FINAL, released: 2026-02-08
NASA, ESA, CSA, STSci/ #JWST NIRCAM 440, 360, 182
data: W3-JWST-3A-FINAL, released: 2026-02-08
NASA, ESA, CSA, STSci/ #JWST NIRCAM 440, 360, 182
February 9, 2026 at 3:37 PM
I'm always amazed when a see a truly dark splotch in a JWST image. The 'scope detects infrared light which can get through dense dust that's opaque to visible light, so how dense is that little cloud such that it can *entirely block the light from material behind it*? Yikes.
Reposted by Phil Plait
[Elon’s voice over the Mars habitat intercom]
I have some important news about our oxygen supply.
I have some important news about our oxygen supply.
July 1, 2023 at 10:16 PM
[Elon’s voice over the Mars habitat intercom]
I have some important news about our oxygen supply.
I have some important news about our oxygen supply.
Reposted by Phil Plait
I'm hardly the first person to note this, but it's enormously instructive that our President and his followers saw the message "THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE" and understood it, correctly, as an attack on them
February 9, 2026 at 2:11 AM
I'm hardly the first person to note this, but it's enormously instructive that our President and his followers saw the message "THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE" and understood it, correctly, as an attack on them
A friend of mine since we were undergrads just announced he's retiring and if you need me this will be me
a pile of brown powder on a white background
Alt: Animated GIF of a screaming emoji turning to dust and blowing away
media.tenor.com
February 8, 2026 at 10:59 PM
A friend of mine since we were undergrads just announced he's retiring and if you need me this will be me
Reposted by Phil Plait
I’ve caught glimpses of a decent aurora once, nowhere near this spectacular, but the thing that struck me most was that the light flowed in a way that was very conspicuously NOT like a liquid but like electricity. It felt like being inside one of those plasma globe lamps. Eerie and breathtaking.
The aurora last night in Beaver, Alaska was just incredible. This is a real-time video (not sped up) of the crazy motion I saw. Also, look how BRIGHT it is, wow!
February 8, 2026 at 2:47 AM
I’ve caught glimpses of a decent aurora once, nowhere near this spectacular, but the thing that struck me most was that the light flowed in a way that was very conspicuously NOT like a liquid but like electricity. It felt like being inside one of those plasma globe lamps. Eerie and breathtaking.
"Epstein class" has the stickiness to it to become an amazing slogan for democrats to use that will land solidly with people. It's perfect and whoever wrote it should be very proud.
Ossoff: We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich. It’s the wealthiest Cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class. They are the elites they pretend to hate.
February 8, 2026 at 12:46 AM
"Epstein class" has the stickiness to it to become an amazing slogan for democrats to use that will land solidly with people. It's perfect and whoever wrote it should be very proud.
Reposted by Phil Plait
Long but good analysis of recent Science editorial.
Organizations like AAAS (and so many more) are failing to meet the moment because they cannot imagine the status quo collapsing. They have no "crisis mode."
Organizations like AAAS (and so many more) are failing to meet the moment because they cannot imagine the status quo collapsing. They have no "crisis mode."
Science EIC Thorp would like to have it both ways:
1) Credited for being reasonable in acknowledging the importance of (i) quiet insiders & (ii) activists in confronting cuts to science.
2) Clear on who he thinks really deserves the credit for the wins: insiders.
🧵
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
1) Credited for being reasonable in acknowledging the importance of (i) quiet insiders & (ii) activists in confronting cuts to science.
2) Clear on who he thinks really deserves the credit for the wins: insiders.
🧵
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A tale of many twos
For the American scientific enterprise, the past year has seemed awash in contradiction. On the one hand, it has produced great upheavals and losses for US science. Many universities experienced some ...
www.science.org
February 6, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Long but good analysis of recent Science editorial.
Organizations like AAAS (and so many more) are failing to meet the moment because they cannot imagine the status quo collapsing. They have no "crisis mode."
Organizations like AAAS (and so many more) are failing to meet the moment because they cannot imagine the status quo collapsing. They have no "crisis mode."
Holy dilithium crystals she's talented. I'd love to have this on my wall.
SHE’S FINISHED! My 5-foot-long Enterprise D oil painting is complete after nearly 100 hours of work!
I remember being 13 years old or so and trying to draw her and it was so hard, and all I wanted was to be able to do something like this. Truly a dream come true. 🥰🖖
I remember being 13 years old or so and trying to draw her and it was so hard, and all I wanted was to be able to do something like this. Truly a dream come true. 🥰🖖
February 7, 2026 at 11:43 PM
Holy dilithium crystals she's talented. I'd love to have this on my wall.
At *the very least* RFK Jr. should be tried for manslaughter. At the *VERY* very least he shouldn't be running the goddamned US health service.
Of course RFK Jr. lied about the Samoan people whose deaths from measles he is responsible for.
Literally no one believed his lies except people like Bill Cassidy who chose to believe him in order to please the King.
And now RFK Jr. will continue to get people killed by preventable diseases.
Literally no one believed his lies except people like Bill Cassidy who chose to believe him in order to please the King.
And now RFK Jr. will continue to get people killed by preventable diseases.
Newly revealed emails undermine RFK Jr testimony about 2019 Samoa trip ahead of measles outbreak
Kennedy later said the purpose of his trip had nothing to do with vaccines. US embassy and UN staff at the time said otherwise, emails show
www.theguardian.com
February 7, 2026 at 9:39 PM
At *the very least* RFK Jr. should be tried for manslaughter. At the *VERY* very least he shouldn't be running the goddamned US health service.
Yeah we kinda knew this for a coupla years here.
This is why I will not repost links to substack.
This is why I will not repost links to substack.
February 7, 2026 at 6:04 PM
Yeah we kinda knew this for a coupla years here.
This is why I will not repost links to substack.
This is why I will not repost links to substack.
Update:
I am now ready to try out for the Olympics
I am now ready to try out for the Olympics
February 7, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Update:
I am now ready to try out for the Olympics
I am now ready to try out for the Olympics
Reposted by Phil Plait
ok. does anyone know if it's twice per athlon or every two athlons
February 7, 2026 at 2:44 PM
ok. does anyone know if it's twice per athlon or every two athlons
Kowtowing to this President means you get some very short-term gain only to be stuck groveling before him repeatedly until he betrays you anyway and takes away what you begged for. Better to defy early and defy often.
MERE HOURS after the President of the United States posted an AI video of the Obama’s as monkeys, the Science Tech Action Committee (led by @aaas.org and @researchamerica.bsky.social) posted a THANK YOU to TRUMP for SIGNING THE BUDGET.
Shot. Chaser.
sciencetechaction.org/aboutus/
Shot. Chaser.
sciencetechaction.org/aboutus/
February 7, 2026 at 1:26 PM
Kowtowing to this President means you get some very short-term gain only to be stuck groveling before him repeatedly until he betrays you anyway and takes away what you begged for. Better to defy early and defy often.
Were they saying "boo" or "we have bootiful couches"?
JD Vance should be booed everywhere he goes for the rest of his life.
February 6, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Were they saying "boo" or "we have bootiful couches"?
Oh, very much this.
Here’s a message to Republican lawmakers who enable President Donald Trump and every American who still supports him: You own the deeply racist video he posted to his social media account in the late-night hours of Feb. 5.
My column on the complicity of silence:a
www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
My column on the complicity of silence:a
www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Republicans, you own Trump's racist video about the Obamas | Opinion
Republicans own the deeply racist video President Donald Trump posted to his social media account in the late-night hours of Feb. 5.
www.usatoday.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Oh, very much this.
Don't use AI! You'll shoot your eye out!
The fact that AI boosters always go to “but art is EXPENSIVE” is telling.
Most people started with crayons, lined school paper, cheap pencils, ballpoint pen, the back of junk mail and misprinted pages.
Art supplies can be outrageous but you can make art with literal trash
Most people started with crayons, lined school paper, cheap pencils, ballpoint pen, the back of junk mail and misprinted pages.
Art supplies can be outrageous but you can make art with literal trash
"I need AI to make art, human art is only for the rich and privileged-"
February 6, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Don't use AI! You'll shoot your eye out!
And this, by @danvergano.bsky.social
Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show
Epstein files show a complicated relationship with science and journalism
Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show
www.scientificamerican.com
February 6, 2026 at 8:31 PM
And this, by @danvergano.bsky.social
I suspect there's still a lot more to learn here. It's awful, but science itself shows us not to flinch in the face of reality. Be horrified, yes, but also be honest about the impact.
Sorry for the preview pic in your feed, but we've posted a thoughtful story by @dangaristo.bsky.social that delves into the tangled web of relationships between Jeffrey Epstein and various scientists: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Epstein files reveal deeper ties to scientists than previously known
Latest batch of documents show researchers consulting the financier and sex offender on publications, visas and more.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 8:30 PM
I suspect there's still a lot more to learn here. It's awful, but science itself shows us not to flinch in the face of reality. Be horrified, yes, but also be honest about the impact.