They Came From Outer Space

They Came From Outer Space

They Came From Outer Space

Bad Astronomy
The entire universe in blog form
Oct. 31 2012 6:00 AM

They Came From Outer Space

Space is scary.

Phil Plait Phil Plait

Phil Plait writes Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of Death From the Skies!  

Supernovae explode, flooding their neighborhood with deadly high-energy light and blasting superheated matter outward at a large fraction of the speed of light. Black holes gobble down everything around them, and they're sloppy eaters, spewing out deadly radiation and belching vast winds of gas. Galaxies collide, asteroids impact, entire worlds are chewed to dust by their violent stars.

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And since 'tis the season, here's a gallery of spooky pictures of nature: moaning nebulae, screaming stars, ghastly volcanoes, and more. Y'know, we humans love to make up stories about vampires and goblins to scare ourselves, knowing they're just stories... but the Universe is real, and really, really terrifying. Mwuhahahahahaha!

Happy Halloween from the BA Blog!