In his new book, 'Under Alien Skies', out today, Phil Plait explores 10 fascinating spots in our solar system by going beyond what telescopes and space photography can tell us about these strange worlds.
It was interesting to write down what objects would be interesting to see up close. I had this huge list and I had to pare it down to 10 for the book, because I knew nobody would want to publish a book that’s 400,000 words. That was tough.If there’s an overarching concept—where I’d want people to close the book and go “For the first half of the book, it’s all solar-system places that we’ve visited with spacecraft. Saturn is a real place; it’s not a dot in a telescope.
We know a lot about the moon, but there’s a whole generation that thinks about that like how I think about World War I: It was a long time ago. They don’t know all the particulars. They may not understand what it’s like to stand on the moon. It would be fun to talk about what an eclipse would look like on the moon. I thought:Then, we’re talking about going to Mars, so why not [write about] Mars?
I added Pluto. Not necessarily because it’s a weird place, which it absolutely is, but because it’s sort of a signpost at the edge of the solar system. When I thought about all the images we got from theIf you look one way, the solar system is this way, and the rest of the galaxy is in that direction.is one of my favorite objects to look at through a telescope. They’re really gorgeous. It would be ridiculous if you were inside one.
Let’s talk about some of the other locations. Tell us what it would be like to go to a planet orbiting around a red dwarf star. Red dwarfs at first don’t seem like they’re very interesting: They’re these stars that are half the size of the sun, they’re cool and faint. There are no red dwarfs visible to the naked eye. One of the interesting things about them is that they’re really good at making small rocky planets like Earth, but it’s hard to detect them. I just wrote about this in an article in
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
What Would It Take to Imagine a Truly Alien Alien?Even if aliens evolve intelligence as we do, even if they speak a language we can learn to understand, even if we can befriend them and love them, the alien heart may still be unknowable. 🎨: WIRED Staff/Getty Images
Read more »
Jessica Chastain Leads Audible’s Alien Abduction Thriller ‘The Space Within’Bobby Cannavale, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Stuhlbarg, Shea Whigham and Carmen Ejogo round out the cast.
Read more »
Denver weather: Sunny blue skies with light breeze in the afternoonSunny blue skies with temperatures in the 70s await metro Denver residents this week, and nighttime temperatures are expected to stay above freezing, according to the National Weather Service.
Read more »
Stranded: Alien Dawn Reveals Military Outpost ScenarioFrontier Foundry has a new Military Outpost addition coming to StrandedAlienDawn, which will be released with the game's launch. indiedev indiegame
Read more »
Pump Rules' Ariana Madix Gets Alien Tattoo at Camp Poosh's Coachella PartyAriana Madix unveiled a new tattoo while attending a Coachella 2023 bash that was hosted Kourtney Kardashian’s Poosh brand — see photo
Read more »