several pseudoscientific theories related to space and astronomy, such as the "Planet X" cataclysm, Richard Hoagland's theories, and the Moon landing "hoax". It received a considerable amount of traffic after Plait criticized a Fox Network special accusing NASA of faking the Apollo missions. Astronomer Michelle Thaller has described Badastronomy.com, as well as Plait's book and essays called Bad Astronomy, as "a monumental service to the space-science community". Blog In 2005, Plait started the Bad Astronomy blog. In July 2008, it moved to a new host, Discover Magazine. While it is primarily an astronomy blog, Plait also posts about skepticism, pseudoscience, antiscience topics, with occasional personal and political posts. On November 12, 2012, the Bad Astronomy blog moved to Slate magazine. Plait told Richard Saunders in an interview that "they [Slate] are very supportive... a new community." Revisiting old posts, Plait stated, "I've written about everything, when you've written 7,000 blog posts you've pretty much written about every topic in astronomy." On February 1, 2017 the Bad Astronomy blog moved to SyfyWire where it was hosted until October 2022 Online video In September 2011, Plait spoke at a TED (conference) in Boulder, his hometown. His conference explained how to defend Earth from asteroids. Plait taught Astronomy on the YouTube educational series Crash Course for 47 episodes, from January 15, 2015 to February 12, 2016. Books Media appearances Awards and honors The 2007 Weblog Awards – Bad Astronomy was awarded "Best Science Blog," having tied with Climate Audit. In March 2008, Plait had an asteroid named after him by the late astronomer Jeff Medkeff. Asteroid was named 165347 Philplait. In 2009, Bad Astronomy was named among Time.com's 25 Best Blogs. In 2013, Plait received the National Capital Area Skeptics' Philip J. Klass Award In 2016, Plait was awarded the David N. Schramm Award for High Energy Astrophysics Science Journalism by the American Astronomical Society for his 2015 article entitled "A Supermassive Black Hole's Fiery and Furious Wind." References External links Bad Astronomy Blog Bad Astronomy Archived Website 1964 births American astronomers American science writers American skeptics Critics of conspiracy theories Living people Science bloggers Sonoma State University faculty Space advocates University of Michigan alumni University of Virginia alumni