Speakers Phil Plait: Astronomer

Phil Plait blogs at Bad Astronomy, where he deconstructs misconceptions and explores the wonder of the Universe.

Why you should listen to him:

Phil Plait is the Bad Astronomer. Not a bad astronomer, but a blogger for Discover Magazine who debunks myths and misconceptions about astronomy -- and also writes about the beauty, wonder, and importance of fundamental research.

He worked for six years on the Hubble Space Telescope, and directed public outreach for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. He is a past president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, and was the host of Phil Plait's Bad Universe, a documentary series on the Discivery Channel.

"I now know how many gallons of milk would be produced by a supernova, and that experiencing death by asteroid has a 1 in 700,000 chance of happening per lifetime."
Nancy Atkinson, Universe Today

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Quotes by Phil Plait

  • “If you took every nuclear weapon ever built at the height of the Cold War, lumped them together and blew them up at the same time, that would be one one-millionth of the energy released at that moment.” — on the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs

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  • “Sixty-five million years ago the dinosaurs had a bad day.”

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  • “The difference between the dinosaurs and us is that we have a space program and we can vote.” — quoting Larry Niven

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More TEDQuotes…

Phil Plait: How to defend Earth from asteroids

Phil Plait on the Web

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