In remembrance...

US COVID death toll has just passed 675,000, the number killed in the US by the 1918 flu pandemic. My Copernican formula (Nature, 1993) implied a 50% probability that a pandemic this deadly would recur in the US between 2018 and 2218--I am sad to say. youtu.be/NMre6IAAAiU

Our flat, double-sided map of Earth, the Gott-Goldberg-Vanderbei Projection, is on TIME’s list of the Best Inventions of 2021! #TIMEBestInventions TIME time.com/collection/bes… @askaphysicist Robert Vanderbei

Our new, double-sided world map (like a vinyl record), the Gott-Goldberg-Vanderbei Projection, made the cover of TIME 's 2021 Best Inventions special issue! time.com/6113028/how-we… #TIMEBestInventions

Happy Pub Day to Welcome to the Universe 3D: A Visual Tour by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, J Richard Gott, and Robert Vanderbei! This fun and insightful book with built in 3D viewer is sure to dazzle and inspire wonder for readers. princeton.press/gcfwgd

Publication day for our new book, WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSE IN 3D by Neil deGrasse Tyson, me, Michael Strauss, and Robert Vanderbei ! Neil is on The Late Show tonight, as our book is being released!

The Planets POP In Neil deGrasse Tyson's New Book, "Welcome to The Universe in 3D" youtu.be/MA9whGnisvA via YouTube Neil deGrasse Tyson The Late Show

#WelcometotheUniversein3D is the #1 book on Amazon! Explore the universe with this visual tour 🔭🚀🪐 Princeton University Press

I want to note with sorrow the passing of Bill Russell. I saw him win one of his championship rings in Boston Garden when I was a student at Harvard. I sat near him when he received an Honorary Degree from Princeton. A great man.

I also note with sadness the passing of Nichelle Nichols. Am I a #StarTrek fan? Well, I DO have a 1/1000 scale model of the Enterprise, which I assembled myself, on display in my house! I thank her for her essential contribution to Star Trek and for her support of space travel!

Enjoy this wonderful interview that Neil deGrasse Tyson did with Nichelle Nichols. A Conversation with Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols [July 18, 2011] youtu.be/WmwuJI6n6rc via StarTalk

My friend Maarten Schmidt died today at age 92. I remember many wonderful lunches together at CalTech and IAU meetings. He discovered the redshift of Quasar 3C273, showing it was at a cosmological distance (over 2 billion light-years away). content.time.com/time/covers/0,…

WINNER TAKES ALL: Ding and Nepomniachtchi Are BOTH One Win Away From A FIDE World Champion's Title youtube.com/live/4O0dkOKBV… via YouTube

This StarTalk episode is the best discussion I've seen of NASA's UAP (aka UFO) project ==>> Inside NASA’s UAP Report with Commission Chair David Spergel & Neil deGrasse Tyson youtu.be/MUQgQlWw5b4?si… via YouTube

Hubble Space Telescope observed the Venus transit "from the Moon" by measuring the diminution in the Moon's luminosity as Venus passed. I planned to do this as an amateur astronomy project from New Jersey but didn't get the chance. youtu.be/IEviJlL3Cxs?si…

In memory of astronaut Ken Mattingly, here is a picture of him performing Extravehicular Activity task during the flight back to Earth on Apollo 16 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S72-…

Astronaut Frank Borman, age 95, has died. He was one of the TIME persons of the year for the first human flight to the Moon! content.time.com/time/covers/0,…

Apollo 8 followed a figure 8 flight path. While orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve, 1968, Borman, Lovell, and Anders took turns reading from Genesis. This was the most watched telecast to date. discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/w…