Phil Plait's Five Guides to the Universe

By Nancy Atkinson - February 10, 2012 at 9:00 PM UTC | Site News

All writers love to read, and our friend Phil Plait, the

Bad Astronomer

is no exception. And since we often get asked what space and astronomy books we'd recommend, let us point you in the direction of a new interview with Phil where he shares five of his favorite books about the Universe. It's on a website called "The Browser" which has a series of interviews called Five Books, where they ask various experts what five books on a subject they recommend. It's a great interview, and I'd recommend going to The Browser website anyway, just to see their banner. Their mascot looks like a

tardigrade,

the tiny aquatic invertebrates that have been sent into space.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com