All astronomers, whether they be professional or amateur, must live with the sad reality that our perception of the Universe is confined to one tiny corner of space.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s because of this that the question of what things would look like from other points of view remains a subject of perennial fantasy and fascination.<\/p>\n
What would it really be like to walk on another world in our Solar System? Or, what would you see if you could view a distant star from an orbiting exoplanet<\/a>?<\/p>\n This other point of view forms the focus for Phil Plait\u2019s new book Under Alien Skies<\/a>, a journey across the space from our cosmic doorstep to some of the most extreme environments in the Universe.<\/p>\n Perhaps better known as the internet\u2019s Bad Astronomer, Plait has a well-deserved reputation as a lively and accurate communicator of cutting-edge science.<\/p>\n We got the chance to ask Phil more about what it would be like to travel across the cosmos if time, space (and safety) were no object.<\/p>\n Oh, that\u2019s easy: Saturn<\/a>. What a sight that would be!<\/p>\n Just seeing Saturn\u2019s rings<\/a> up close would be an amazing thing.<\/p>\n They\u2019re not solid, or even one ring, but thousands of individual ringlets made up of countless chunks of glittering water ice.<\/p>\n The gravity of the moons sculpt them into amazing waves and bizarre patterns that would be utterly gorgeous as well as profoundly weird.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s not even getting into the moons, from tiny ones shaped like ravioli to Titan, which has an atmosphere and lakes of liquid methane.<\/p>\n An adventurer\u2019s absolute dream.<\/p>\n That depends on the nebula<\/a>. If it\u2019s a dark nebula<\/a> like Barnard 68, you\u2019d see\u2026 nothing.<\/p>\n The material is so dense and thick it would be completely black inside it, with no stars visible at all.<\/p>\n But the Orion Nebula<\/a>\u2026 now you\u2019re talking.<\/p>\n A huge wall of light on one side, and multicoloured streamers and filaments and waves on the other, seemingly structured out of cotton candy.<\/p>\n And in the middle a cluster of brilliant stars illuminating the gas around you.<\/p>\n An astronomer would give anything to see that up close.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t have a favourite in particular, but I\u2019m fascinated by the TRAPPIST-1 system, a series of seven Earth-sized worlds that huddle close in to a faint, cool, red dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth.<\/p>\n Three of these planets are at the right distance from the star to potentially have Earth-like temperatures.<\/p>\n The star would loom huge in their sky, and the other planets visible as actual disks to the eye.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the most Star-Trek-like system I know of.<\/p>\n I would love to see the birth of our Solar System, assuming I could set my time machine into time-lapse mode.<\/p>\n It took millions of years, but seeing the nascent Sun switch on for the first time as the planets form around it would be awe-inspiring.<\/p>\n If I can have two, then add the formation of the Moon<\/a> as debris splashed out from Earth after another planet collided with it.<\/p>\n This was an apocalyptic event that nevertheless gave us the lovely Moon as we see it today.<\/p>\n All of them<\/em>.<\/p>\n How did the Universe come to be?<\/p>\n How did supermassive black holes<\/a> grow so rapidly?<\/p>\n What are dark matter<\/a> and dark energy<\/a>?<\/p>\n How exactly<\/em> do stars and planets form?<\/p>\n What happens in detail when a massive star explodes as a supernova<\/a> at the end of its life?<\/p>\n And what is the eventual fate of the cosmos; will it expand forever, or is there some aspect of physics we don\u2019t know yet that will prevent that chilling fate?<\/p>\n We understand a lot, but there\u2019s a lot more we still don\u2019t know yet.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I love astronomy so much.<\/p>\n Visit Phil\u2019s website badastronomy.substack.com<\/a> or follow him on Twitter @BadAstronomer<\/a> and Instagram thebadastronomer<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Phil Plait reveals his dream destinations in the Universe, and what it would be like to be stuck in a cosmic cloud. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":47657,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/07\/what-would-it-be-like-to-tour-the-cosmos-interview-with-bad-astronomer-phil-plait.jpg",1200,781,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/07\/what-would-it-be-like-to-tour-the-cosmos-interview-with-bad-astronomer-phil-plait-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/07\/what-would-it-be-like-to-tour-the-cosmos-interview-with-bad-astronomer-phil-plait-300x195.jpg",300,195,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/07\/what-would-it-be-like-to-tour-the-cosmos-interview-with-bad-astronomer-phil-plait-768x500.jpg",768,500,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/07\/what-would-it-be-like-to-tour-the-cosmos-interview-with-bad-astronomer-phil-plait-1024x666.jpg",800,520,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/07\/what-would-it-be-like-to-tour-the-cosmos-interview-with-bad-astronomer-phil-plait.jpg",1200,781,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/07\/what-would-it-be-like-to-tour-the-cosmos-interview-with-bad-astronomer-phil-plait.jpg",1200,781,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Phil Plait reveals his dream destinations in the Universe, and what it would be like to be stuck in a cosmic cloud.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/47656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""Artist's\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2021\/04\/Proxima-Centauri-b-bc0a80b.jpeg?quality=90&resize=620%2C349"\" "\\"\"Artist's\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\""Philip\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/07\/Philip-Plait-author-photo-credit-Marcella-Setter-8a2e992-e1689070198146.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C404"\" "\\"\"Philip\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Which Solar System body would you love to visit?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2020\/07\/Cassini-Saturn-rings-115c2e7-e1689070781910.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C320"\" "\\"\"A\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>If we could transport ourselves into the middle of a nebula, what would we see?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What are your favourite exoplanets?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\""An\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/07\/pia21751-49fe45f-e1564126910761.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C349"\" "\\"\"An\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>If you could travel anywhere and anywhen in the Universe, where would you go?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Which mystery about the Universe would you most like to know the answer to?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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