The Central Arkansas Library System and Central Arkansas Astronomical Society present an evening with Phil “Bad Astronomer” Plait.  The program is at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater at 7pm.

Our search for exoplanets, planets outside our own solar system, has so far yielded thousands of strange new worlds but, none of them appear to be anything like our blue-green Earth. Is our world truly special? Or, maybe, the question should be: how Earth-like does a planet need to be in order to be like Earth?

Come join us for an evening with Phil “Bad Astronomer” Plait, author of the Bad Astronomy blog and the books, Bad Astronomy and Death From The Skies.

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis.

For as long as he can remember, Dr. Phil Plait has been in love with science.

“When I was maybe four or five years old, my dad brought home a cheapo department store telescope. He aimed it at Saturn that night. One look, and that was it. I was hooked,” he says.

After earning his doctorate in astronomy at the University of Virginia, he worked on the Hubble Space Telescope as a NASA contractor at the Goddard Space Flight Center. He began a career in public outreach and education with the Bad Astronomy website and blog, debunking bad science and popular misconceptions. The book Bad Astronomywas released in 2002, followed in 2008 by Death From The Skies! He can most recently be seen in Crash Course Astronomy, a 46-part educational web series he wrote and hosted that has over 20 million views. He hosted the TV show Phil Plait’s Bad Universe on the Discovery Channel in 2010 and was the head science writer for Bill Nye Saves the World on Netflix, due out in 2017. Dr. Plait’s blog has been hosted by Discover Magazine and Slate, and is now on Syfy Wire.

Dr. Plait has given talks about science and pseudoscience across the US and internationally. He uses images, audio, and video clips in entertaining and informative multimedia presentations packed with humor and backed by solid science.

He has spoken at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, the Space Telescope Science Institute (home of Hubble), the Hayden Planetarium in NYC and many other world-class museums and planetaria, conferences, astronomy clubs, colleges and universities, and community groups. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Pax TV, Tech TV, Syfy, Radio BBC, Air America, NPR, and many other television and internet venues. His writing has appeared in Discover, Sky and Telescope, Astronomy, Night Sky, Space.com, and more.

This event brought to you by the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society and the Central Arkansas Library System and made possible by funding provided by the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium.