Bad Astronomy May Class

Each year I teach a two week May Term class titled "Bad Astronomy" which is based off Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy book and website.  We watch nine movies over the two weeks and I always start with Armageddon which is filled with bad science.  I'm not sure a full 60 seconds goes by at any point in the movie without some bad science.

Each year I try to pick up a couple of new movies to show.  This year's new additions include The Martian, Dune, Europa Report, and Galaxy Quest!  To be clear, The Martian has a lot of good science in it.  The bad science moments are limited, but there are a couple, so it'll be interesting to see if my students spot them.

You can look forward to a blog post on each movie after the two week course ends.  I did this last year and plan on doing it again this year since there are a couple of new movies.