Philip Plait author page

Philip Plait biography

Philip Plait, Ph.D., is an astronomer and science writer. He has more than ten years of professional experience as a NASA-funded research astronomer. His astronomy articles have been published in magazines including Astronomy, Muse and Space Illustrated, and his writing has also been published in the Boston Globe.

Plait gained his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Virginia in 1994. He began his career with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. His writing about misconceptions in astronomy led to Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing “Hoax”, published in 2002.

Plait wrote Death from the Skies!, an astronomy book published by Penguin Random House. He has appeared on national radio and television programmes, including the Sci-Fi Channel documentary Countdown to Doomsday.

Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe is a non-fiction astronomy book by Plait that describes imagined viewpoints from places including the Moon, Mars, a nebula and a black hole. The book was released on 18 April 2023 by Norton.