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...
I was tempted to make this post "Avi Loeb Claims Millions of Spaceships Found" but decided against it.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/alie...
🔭 🧪
www.scientificamerican.com/article/alie...
🔭 🧪
Alien Comets Swarm around Other Stars
Comets don’t just orbit our sun. “Exocomets” are common around other stars in the galaxy, too
www.scientificamerican.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:09 PM
I was tempted to make this post "Avi Loeb Claims Millions of Spaceships Found" but decided against it.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/alie...
🔭 🧪
www.scientificamerican.com/article/alie...
🔭 🧪
Fully Sated Draculasaurus Fossils Found Nearby
Long-Necked Titanosaur Skeletons Have Surfaced at a Dinosaur Fossil Site in Transylvania www.discovermagazine.com/long-necked-...
Long-Necked Titanosaur Skeletons Have Surfaced at a Dinosaur Fossil Site in Transylvania
Learn about a fossil site in Transylvania that contains hundreds of vertebrate remains and was once an island full of dwarf dinosaurs.
www.discovermagazine.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Fully Sated Draculasaurus Fossils Found Nearby
We made it to Dunshire!
November 21, 2025 at 11:59 AM
We made it to Dunshire!
Oh this hadn't occurred to me. Yikes. Another reason to throw AI into the Sun.
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
November 21, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Oh this hadn't occurred to me. Yikes. Another reason to throw AI into the Sun.
This is an incredibly difficult but incredibly important article by Rebecca, involving Epstein, Lawrence Krauss, and others. I ocassionally get asked why I don't do skeptic events anymore, and if you read this you'll get a pretty good idea of one big reason why.
Mainstream news covered the Jeffrey Epstein emails related to ppl like Trump. Today, I want to take a look at Epstein's correspondence with prominent atheist and physicist Lawrence Krauss, who asked the pedophile's advice on responding to accusations of sexual assault skepchick.org/2025/11/so-i...
So I’m in the Epstein Files
Transcript: Look. I know that on this channel, I often criticize prominent people for actions that I find detestable: accepting dark money and failing to disclose it, producing propaganda for Big O…
skepchick.org
November 20, 2025 at 8:54 PM
This is an incredibly difficult but incredibly important article by Rebecca, involving Epstein, Lawrence Krauss, and others. I ocassionally get asked why I don't do skeptic events anymore, and if you read this you'll get a pretty good idea of one big reason why.
This tracks. Also, uniforms will be replaced with brown shirts, though anything designed by Hugo Boss is acceptable.
Now that’s a lede.
Story by @taracopp.bsky.social and @michelleboorstein.bsky.social.
Read here: www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Story by @taracopp.bsky.social and @michelleboorstein.bsky.social.
Read here: www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
November 20, 2025 at 8:39 PM
This tracks. Also, uniforms will be replaced with brown shirts, though anything designed by Hugo Boss is acceptable.
Its very very bad that the President publicly posts a statement that, were I to post the same thing about him, would have the FBI knocking on my door.
November 20, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Its very very bad that the President publicly posts a statement that, were I to post the same thing about him, would have the FBI knocking on my door.
What happens when you combine the most powerful infrared telescope ever built with the most powerful X-ray telescope ever built?
Absolute, astonishing gorgeousity.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/powers-of-...
🧪 🔭
Absolute, astonishing gorgeousity.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/powers-of-...
🧪 🔭
Powers of Chandra and JWST unite!
The two great telescopes combine to make amazing science and gorgeous images
badastronomy.beehiiv.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:07 PM
What happens when you combine the most powerful infrared telescope ever built with the most powerful X-ray telescope ever built?
Absolute, astonishing gorgeousity.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/powers-of-...
🧪 🔭
Absolute, astonishing gorgeousity.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/powers-of-...
🧪 🔭
For the astronomers: I found an accretion disk diagram cheese. A quesar.
November 20, 2025 at 12:47 PM
For the astronomers: I found an accretion disk diagram cheese. A quesar.
Jesus wept
CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”
November 20, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Jesus wept
Reposted by Phil Plait
I haven’t checked, but, I can’t believe there isn’t a confirmation bias day.
November 19, 2025 at 8:45 PM
I haven’t checked, but, I can’t believe there isn’t a confirmation bias day.
A reminder that inside that soft, spongey skull is a big scoop of cottage cheese and hatred and nothing else.
Trump on AI: "You can't go through 50 states. You have to get one approval. 50 is a disaster. Because you'll have one woke state and you'll have to do all woke. You'll be back in the woke business. We don't have woke anymore in this country. It's virtually illegal. You'll have a couple of wokesters"
November 19, 2025 at 9:46 PM
A reminder that inside that soft, spongey skull is a big scoop of cottage cheese and hatred and nothing else.
These really crack me up
are you sick of generative AI slop?
why not fight back by adorning your home with gorgeous birds that only an attentive birder could draw? www.tommysiegel.net
why not fight back by adorning your home with gorgeous birds that only an attentive birder could draw? www.tommysiegel.net
November 19, 2025 at 8:15 PM
These really crack me up
So shines some happy news in a weary world(s).
KREE!
KREE!
[Ongoing thread] New Stargate TV show
We knew it was coming!
"Amazon MGM Studios has greenlighted another series based on popular MGM IP, giving a series order to Stargate for Prime Video. The new installment in the classic sci-fi franchise comes from Martin Gero, a Stargate veteran and...."
We knew it was coming!
"Amazon MGM Studios has greenlighted another series based on popular MGM IP, giving a series order to Stargate for Prime Video. The new installment in the classic sci-fi franchise comes from Martin Gero, a Stargate veteran and...."
a dark room with a light coming out of a hole in the wall
ALT: a dark room with a light coming out of a hole in the wall
media.tenor.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:33 PM
So shines some happy news in a weary world(s).
KREE!
KREE!
This is wonderful, and shows where curiosity can take you and others (including professionals!) even if you're 8 years old. It helps too that the Astronomer Royal is aces.
Enquiry from an 8yo asking what the Fulton Orrery planets were? Apparently the #Kelvingrove museum staff didn't know, so he e-mailed the Astronomer Royal to find out! I also didn’t know, but the AstroSociety of #Glasgow did (after watching an old VHS recording on the topic!) 🔭 #histsci 1/2🧵
November 19, 2025 at 5:12 PM
This is wonderful, and shows where curiosity can take you and others (including professionals!) even if you're 8 years old. It helps too that the Astronomer Royal is aces.
Reposted by Phil Plait
Hi. I’ve started a go fund me page for some waterproof converse. My dog makes me walk him rain or shine. My go fund me page is my etsy shop. Surly.etsy.com Support your local artist. 😂😭🌧️
November 19, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Hi. I’ve started a go fund me page for some waterproof converse. My dog makes me walk him rain or shine. My go fund me page is my etsy shop. Surly.etsy.com Support your local artist. 😂😭🌧️
Reposted by Phil Plait
I've written about Rolf's work many times back on the old blog. He's amazing.
Messier 20: A Deep Look at The Trifid Nebula and Surrounds - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/2ky4FU3
November 19, 2025 at 3:17 PM
I've written about Rolf's work many times back on the old blog. He's amazing.
It's been bugging me too. I think it's because it's more personal, more slimy and gross than his usual evil bigger stuff.
Because it should have provoke a reaction from her peers and colleagues and in general adults in the room and it didn't because its grandpa Trump, and that's morally and ethically wrong, and staring at it and sitting in it doesn't help any of that
I don't know why the "Piggy" thing is bothering me so much. It's one more unforgivable thing in a list of 20,000 unforgivable things, but I've been mad about it for like 12 straight hours.
November 19, 2025 at 1:55 PM
It's been bugging me too. I think it's because it's more personal, more slimy and gross than his usual evil bigger stuff.
Reposted by Phil Plait
I’m 250 paid subscribers away from a major goal. Think we can get there tonight? www.thehandbasket.co/upgrade
New — I wrote about the myriad ways journalism’s moral rot manifests, and how our crumbling institutions have created the conditions for it to fester:
Moral rot in elite journalism is killing the whole field
The Nuzzi/RFK Jr. mess and the revelation of Esptein's journo pals lay bare a profound moral absence at the heart of our free press.
www.thehandbasket.co
November 19, 2025 at 1:26 AM
I’m 250 paid subscribers away from a major goal. Think we can get there tonight? www.thehandbasket.co/upgrade
Hello, front desk? Thanks, but you have grossly overestimated the width of my head.
November 18, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Hello, front desk? Thanks, but you have grossly overestimated the width of my head.
Reposted by Phil Plait
Last call! Join our #AsteroidInstitute End-of-Year Progress Briefing this Thursday, Nov 20 at 11am PT. Hear from Dr. Ed Lu, Danica Remy, and our team as we recap the 2025 milestones and share what’s ahead in 2026. RSVP today for joining details bit.ly/4r2xy1p
November 18, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Last call! Join our #AsteroidInstitute End-of-Year Progress Briefing this Thursday, Nov 20 at 11am PT. Hear from Dr. Ed Lu, Danica Remy, and our team as we recap the 2025 milestones and share what’s ahead in 2026. RSVP today for joining details bit.ly/4r2xy1p
This is what happens when science gives you very clear warnings but you stick your fingers in your ears and go "LALALALA".
You can't vaccinate against reality.
You can't vaccinate against reality.
After a bird flu outbreak tore through Midwestern barns, killing millions of chickens and spiking egg prices, the federal government didn’t investigate if the virus was airborne.
So ProPublica did.
Absolutely terrifying reporting from @natlash.bsky.social:
www.propublica.org/article/bird...
So ProPublica did.
Absolutely terrifying reporting from @natlash.bsky.social:
www.propublica.org/article/bird...
What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic
Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed. Vacci...
www.propublica.org
November 18, 2025 at 8:25 PM
This is what happens when science gives you very clear warnings but you stick your fingers in your ears and go "LALALALA".
You can't vaccinate against reality.
You can't vaccinate against reality.
Reposted by Phil Plait
Mechanic [sliding out from under Optimus Prime]: I think I see what the issue is. This truck is also a big guy somehow
November 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Mechanic [sliding out from under Optimus Prime]: I think I see what the issue is. This truck is also a big guy somehow
Reposted by Phil Plait
A reminder that seven years ago almost to the day, the CIA determined that Mohammed Bin Salman ordered the killing of @washingtonpost.com journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
I hired and worked with Jamal for a year.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/nation...
I hired and worked with Jamal for a year.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/nation...
CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination
Audio recordings, intercepted phone calls and other intelligence link Mohammed bin Salman to killing that Saudis say was conducted by rogue elements.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:05 PM
A reminder that seven years ago almost to the day, the CIA determined that Mohammed Bin Salman ordered the killing of @washingtonpost.com journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
I hired and worked with Jamal for a year.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/nation...
I hired and worked with Jamal for a year.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/nation...