What happens when you give a brainy, hyperactive astronomer his own TV show? Well first off, explosions happen.

The excitement here at Discover headquarters is palpable–only three days until we get to watch our Bad Astronomy blogger, Phil Plait, tear up the Discovery Channel with his new TV show, Bad Universe. In the inaugural episode Phil examines the threat of an asteroid impact on Earth, and gets his hands on a whole lot–seriously, a whole truckload–of explosives to model the potential disaster. But it’s not all doom and gloom; he also explains what we can do “to keep an impact from ruining our whole day,” as he says.

The show premieres this Sunday, August 29th at 10 p.m. Here’s a sneak peak:

DISCOVER CEO and Publisher Henry Donahue is sporting some fresh ink! You may recall that he made a pact with Bad Astronomy blogger Phil Plait that Henry would get a tattoo if traffic for DISCOVERmagazine.com topped 5 million page views per month. The catch was that Phil had to get 2 million views on his blog alone.

Being a good sport, Phil stepped up to the challenge and offered to get a reader-suggested tat himself if he achieved his traffic goals.

Well, thanks to you, dear readers, both goals were met back in March of 2009, and Henry has followed through on his end of the deal. The tattoo, seen at left, was inspired by the Book of Kells, a famous illustrated Celtic manuscript from 800 A.D.

Stay tuned to Bad Astronomy for details on Phil’s tattoo.

(Note: According to Phil, no alcohol was involved in their bet. Rather the idea was inspired by Carl Zimmer‘s fantastical Science Tattoo Emporium.)

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