Don't you dare take potshots at The Stand, because then I'll have to... have to... admit that you're right and that one of my favorite books is padded with miles and miles of unnecessary back story. And that would be humiliating.

Probably the most misunderstood aspect of space photography is that most of what you see are tiny specks in the sky you can only see with a huge telescope. The famous image of the Andromedia galaxy is my favorite example: We see that image and think that somewhere in the sky there's a tiny spot where we can aim a…

I also found The Fountain to be one of the best films I've seen. I understand why it doesn't appeal to everyone, and as such I can even understand the article author's decision to include it on this list. I'm certainly not saying you need to be on some certain "level" to appreciate it, but I liken it to the appeal of…

What you're going to see in the next 15 years will be the realization that the sun's radiation scatters in the Oort Cloud, bouncing radiation back to Earth that disturbs a correct picture of the CMB. The backscatter of radiation, viewed from inside the Oort Cloud, would appear most intense along the Sun's ecliptic,…