207. Philip Plait: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe

<p data-aura-rendered-by="63100:0"><strong><em>On a starry night, nothing inspires such deep wonder as staring into the vastness of space, imagining what curiosities might lie beyond our reach.</em></strong></p> <p data-aura-rendered-by="63100:0">This year we have seen several space-related news stories that managed to break through the usual slew of politics and economics. In February, we were met with headlines that reported a piece of the sun had broken off its surface and formed a swirling vortex around its north pole. In January, we were told that the Earth’s perpetually spinning core may have stopped turning altogether. While these stories are certainly eye-catching and likely to excite the imagination upon reading them, you might feel that you are being left with more questions than answers.</p> <p data-aura-rendered-by="63100:0">Luckily, experts like Philip Plait make it their aim to present the universe and all of its oddities in a wonderfully creative, and deeply comprehensible style. In his new book, <em>Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe</em>, Plait acts as our tour guide through a variety of exotic worlds outside of our own. With vivid, inventive, and often humorous prose, he allows us to imagine ourselves stargazing from the rim of an ancient volcano, catching a glimpse of the frigid mountains and plains of Pluto, or glancing down to see the shadows cast by stars on a planet that is trillions of miles from Earth.</p> <p data-aura-rendered-by="63100:0">Plait paints each of these scenes with a uniquely imaginative description informed by real science and observations. For anyone who ponders what wondrous things might lie out there beyond our horizons, Plait is of the rare few that can offer a starkly real and captivating answer.</p> <p data-aura-rendered-by="63100:0"><strong>Dr. Philip Plait </strong>is an astronomer, science communicator, author, and all-around science nerd. After getting his Ph.D. using Hubble Space Telescope data, he started a career debunking bad science and pr