Bad Astronomy

Sci Am what Sci Am

Note: The 38th Tangled Bank (a collection of science blog entries) is now up, hosted by GrrlScientist. My own essay about rocks on Titan is featured. Now back to your regularly scheduled entry.

Sure, you might think I’m jealous, because why else would I want to make fun of Scientific American confusing light years as a time and not a distance in their review of Amazing Space, a website they chose for their Science and Technology 2005 Web Awards, noting that they did not include another excellent astronomy site on their list?

Maybe my run-on sentences were the problem.

Anyway, here’s the offending passage:

Welcome to Amazing Space, where starstruck students of all ages can while away light-years pelting comets at Jupiter, falling into black holes and building the Milky Way piece by piece.

Maybe I should send them here. Ironically, had they chosen my site they might have gotten that passage right. ;-)