HeyJaredPhil Plait
- Indexed articles, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 25, 2026
- Outlet visibility, for Scientific American
- Top 50K sites
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 10, 2026
Latest articles
What’s the point of the interstellar Fermi Explorer mission? (opens the original)
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Fermi Explorer, a proposed low-cost private mission to Alpha Centauri, seeks to address a question that’s already been answered
This is how the sun will die (opens the original)
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Our sun is on a long, strange trip to its eventual demise. Here are the key stops along the way The sun seems unchanging—a constant source of light and warmth for Earth and the most fundamental necessity for life as we know it. But nothing in this universe is unending. Eventually the sun will cease to be the nurturing star we know as it undergoes a series of dramatic—and, in some cases, cataclysmic—changes that will ultimately lead to its demise. These won’t happen for eons yet, but the seeds of
A mighty space telescope is dying. Here’s why it mattered (opens the original)
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A mighty space telescope is dying. Here’s why it mattered NASA’s formidable gamma-ray burst hunter is doomed to soon reenter Earth’s atmosphere, leaving a glaring gap in our view of the high-energy sky Sometime soon—no later than December and likely earlier—one of NASA’s most successful astrophysical missions will be destroyed, doomed to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has spent nearly 22 years orbiting Earth and keeping a watchful eye on the sky to detect gamma
This star has the strangest sky in the galaxy (opens the original)
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The newfound star S301 orbits the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole so closely that its view of the heavens gets twisted There are a lot of weird stars in the universe, but if I had to pick the very weirdest, it would be S301. The name is prosaic, but it hides profundity. Ironically the star itself isn’t really peculiar at all. It’s much like the sun, though somewhat more massive, hotter and more luminous. There are billions more just like it in the galaxy at large. If this star was almost any
To see exoplanets, NASA’s Roman Space Telescope will throw shade on stars (opens the original)
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To see exoplanets, NASA’s Roman Space Telescope will throw shade on stars NASA’s newest major observatory will include the most advanced planet-imaging tech ever flown in space. Here’s how it works When you’re looking for exoplanets, stars are irritating. Now, I have nothing against stars! I live near one and have deep appreciation for the light it provides. Stars are interesting scientifically and also happen to be very pretty. And, certainly, they’re necessary. Planets form around stars, and t
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