Venus is a gorgeous nakedeye planet, hanging like a diamond in the twilight but its beauty is best looked at from afar. Philip cary plait born september 30, 1964, also known as the bad astronomer, is an. I know i left my bluray of contact around here somewhere. He writes the bad astronomy blog where he covers the entire universe. Their joint work on the infrared spectra of interstellar grains led to developing the hypothesis of panspermia, which proposes that cosmic dust in space and comets is partly organic and may have.
In an earlier blog post about christopher nolans latest blockbuster movie, interstellar. In july 2008, it moved to a new host, discover magazine. Your host for this intergalactic adventure is the bad astronomer himself, phil plait. A lot of people have accused me of disliking the movie because i thought the science was bad. Welcome to the first episode of crash course astronomy. What what interstellar gets wrong pieces get wrong screencrush. The book was published in 2002 and deals with various misunderstandings about space and astronomy, such as sounds being audible in space a misconception because in the. Yeah, but the visuals they used for interstellar took a staggering amount of time to render and data storage. He wrote and hosted crash course astronomy, was the head science writer of bill nye saves the world on netflix, and has appeared as a talking head on approximately a bazillion discovery channel shows. Christopher nolans new film, interstellar, is a nearfuture tale of astronauts departing a. How do shock waves cause local density enhancements, and what even are those. Discover magazine picked it up in 2008, and in 2012 i moved it to slate. We talked about various topics for a whilethe movie interstellar. The bad astronomy blog is all about realworld science it covers the entire universe, from subatomic particles to the big bang itself.
Join slate plus to continue reading, and youll get unlimited. Interstellar objects have been roaming the frigid depths of space for eons, with few evolutionary forces acting upon them. In the movie interstellar, is the time dilation the team suffers on the water planet miller caused by the proximity of the planet to gargantua or by the planets gravitational pull. Understanding black holes through science fiction sci. The scifi epic interstellar is just a movie, but it throws a lot of science on the screen for space geeks to sink their teeth into. An exploration and examination of all things related to kic 8462852 also known as boyajians star. The iconic ring nebula may seem like just a stunning circle of wispy interstellar gas, but new images from the hubble space telescope reveal it to be more like a deepspace jelly doughnut, scientists say. And in the meantime extreme weather keeps occurring. The bad astronomy web pages are devoted to airing out myths and misconceptions in astronomy and related topics.
Again, ian goddards work has more about this, including images that show how crosshairs can fade out in a bright background. The amateur hobby of man since the dawn of time and scientific study of celestial objects. As someone whos dabbled in 3d modeling and animation from time to time, my mouth literally dropped open when i heard the figures. Misconceptions and misuses revealed, from astrology to the moon landing. When such shock waves propagate through interstellar space, they can cause local density enhancements, which can lead to the birth of new stars. Phil plait is an astronomer, author, and science communicator. In other words, they are objects that have been stored in. The high density of these filaments was probably caused by shock waves from a neighboring starforming region. What makes it worse is that the movie could have been truly great. Why scientists are in a lovehate relationship with. Harnesses power of resident galaxy intergalactic species.
Theoretical physicist kip thorne writes about his work keeping the science fiction epic within the realm of possibility. At the moment, i have no desire to tackle here such thorny topics as astrology, alternate views of the universe that are clearly in contradiction to observations, and the like. Because of astronomy, i know were standing on a sphere of mostly molten rock and metal,000 kilometers across, with a fuzzy atmosphere about 100 km high, surrounded by a magnetic field that protects us from the onslaught of subatomic particles from the sun 150 million km away, which is also flooding space with light that reaches across space, to illuminate the planets. Gammaray bursts grbs represent the most powerful explosions in the cosmos, sending out as much energy in a matter of seconds as our sun will give. How much of the movie interstellar is fiction, and how much is based in fact. His popular blog, bad astronomy hosted at different times by discover magazine and slate, and now at syfy wire covers a lot of ground, from interesting. The ring nebula also catalogued as messier 57, m57 or ngc 6720 is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of lyra.
About the only redeeming features of this movie were that the visuals were generally decent particularly for the oneill cylinder at the end and the soundtrack was ok and pitched at a normal level that doesnt sterilize laboratory rats, unlike blade runner 2049. What interstellar gets wrong about interstellar travel. Alongside the energy use and travel, each jump up the ladder is presented with new challenges. Astronomers astronomy new research outer space universe.
Interstellar didnt get all the science right, but some scientists are willing to forgive. Even though mercury is closer to the sun, venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, due to a runaway greenhouse effect. This spectacular image of the carina nebula reveals the dynamic cloud of interstellar matter and thinly spread gas and dust as never before. What the movie gets wrong and really wrong about black holes, relativity, plot. Ive been writing at discover magazine for over four years, and its been. I make it a policy to correct bad astronomy based on facts, not personalities.
Astronomy, space exploration, the effect of politics on science. The massive stars in the interior of this cosmic bubble emit intense radiation that causes the surrounding gas to glow. Astronomers finally tracked a strange radio wave burst to its source. Bad astronomy is moving to slate magazine discover. Is the interstellar visitor oumuamua a fragment of a shattered alien world. Watching interstellar again i noticed the orion nebula in the background of the black hole.
I was really looking forward to seeing interstellar but i thought it was awful. The spiral arms of bright galaxy m106 sprawl through this remarkable multiframe portrait, composed of data from ground and spacebased telescopes. Interstellar spectacularly stupid movie physics forums. Or a lot, according to phil plait of slate s bad astronomy blog, who just posted this video detailing all the reasons that the science of jurassic park is just awful. While it is primarily an astronomy blog, plait also posts about skepticism, pseudoscience, antiscience topics, with occasional personal and political posts. Parsing the science of interstellar with physicist kip.
On november 12, 2012, the bad astronomy blog moved to slate magazine. Some interstellar material is concentrated into giant clouds, each of which is known as a nebula plural nebulae, latin for clouds. Harnesses power of local star interstellar species. The main premise of interstellar is that earth is dying and mankind needs to find a new home before the last crop corn is entirely used. Also known as ngc 4258, m106 can be found toward the northern constellation canes venatici. In the first two cases, this is what is known as interstellar medium or ism, the matter that fills interstellar space and blends smoothly into the surrounding intergalactic space. Second study finds extraterrestrial fossils in meteor.
The bestknown nebulae are the ones that we can see glowing or reflecting visible. In the beginning i thought it was caused by the black hole, but later i was reading this article and the guys said it was caused by the planet. The slate article was written by phil plait of bad astronomy, by the way. Still, weve come a long way in how accurately black holes are depicted in science fiction. Hes an astronomer and author, and he runs slates astronomy blog. Phil plait writes slate s bad astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of death from the skies. What is the averae temperature of imterstellar gas and dust. What the movie gets wrong and really wrong about black holes, relativity, plot, and dialogue. Website, bad astronomy blog earlier blog posts archived on slate. The overall plot isnt bad if a rehash of an old science fiction idea, and some of the ideas in it were solid.
The bad astronomy blog is all about realworld science it covers the entire. Astronomers refer to all the material between stars as interstellar matter. Astronomers finally tracked a strange radio wave burst to. Bad astronomy climate change deniers lose their cool. Misconceptions and misuses revealed, from astrology to the moon landing hoax is a nonfiction book by the american astronomer phil plait, also known as the bad astronomer. Parsing the science of interstellar with physicist kip thorne. Bad astronomy voyager 1 spacecraft on the doorstep to interstellar space.
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