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Under Alien Skies review: A terrific guide to our spectacular universe

Phil Plait, the man behind the Bad Astronomy blog, is a great guide to the wonders of the cosmos. But would it be a bad thing if his new book created a fresh reverence for our home planet among some readers?

7 June 2023

Orion Nebula in Infrared NASA ID: PIA25434 This new image of the Orion Nebula produced using previously released data from three telescopes shows two enormous caverns carved out by unseen giant stars that can release up to a million times more light than our Sun. All that radiation breaks apart dust grains there, helping to create the pair of cavities. Much of the remaining dust is swept away when the stars produce wind or when they die explosive deaths as supernovae. This infrared image shows dust but no stars. Blue light indicates warm dust heated by unseen massive stars. Observed in infrared light ? a range of wavelengths outside what human eyes can detect ? the views were provided by NASA's retired Spitzer Space Telescope and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), which now operates under the moniker NEOWISE. Spitzer and WISE were both managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, ...more 508 Description:This infrared image of the Orion Nebula features plenty of dust but no stars. In these infrared wavelengths, it's possible to see hot spots where new stars are forming, while unseen bright, massive stars have carved out caverns of empty space. Date Created:2022-11-22 Center:JPL Keywords: Herschel Space Observatory , Spitzer Space Telescope , Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) , Orion Nebula Secondary Creator Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech Visit JPL Website — This new image of the Orion Nebula was created from previous images taken by three telescopes
ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech

Under Alien Skies
Phil Plait (W. W. Norton & Company)

YOU may know him from his Bad Astronomy blog, which demolishes misconceptions and fraudulent claims about the cosmos. Now, in Under Alien Skies: A sightseer’s guide to the universe, the tireless Phil Plait is taking us on the most spectacular journey. We sail past our satellite moon, past Mars, Saturn and Pluto on to other stars, binaries and clusters, to nebulae and to the end …

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