Paul M. Sutter is an American astrophysicist and science communicator who works on cosmology, particularly the large-scale structure of the universe, cosmic voids, and the early cosmos.
He took his doctorate in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has held research positions at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, the Ohio State University Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics, the Flatiron Institute, and Stony Brook University. His research output is genuine and continuing, which distinguishes him from a substantial number of people who write popular astrophysics.
He is unusually committed to public communication for a working researcher. He hosts the Ask a Spaceman podcast, has written a long-running column for Space.com, appears frequently on television science programming, and has served as chief scientist at the COSI science center in Columbus.
How to Die in Space, published in 2020, is his best-known book. It is organized as a travel guide for somebody planning a journey through the universe, working through cosmic rays, micrometeoroids, supernovae, neutron stars, magnetars, black holes, gamma ray bursts, cosmic strings, and vacuum decay, and explaining for each what it would do to a human being.
The conceit forces specificity, which is why the book works. A chapter about magnetars can stay abstract; a chapter about what a magnetar's field does to the iron in your blood at a stated distance has to supply numbers. He is also careful throughout to distinguish well-established physics from estimates on the edge of current theory, which makes the book unusually useful to science fiction writers.
His other books include Your Place in the Universe and Rescuing Science.
Paul M. Sutter
Professional ghostwriting for executives, founders, coaches, and authors who want to get the book done right. 113+ books authored. 54+ ghostwritten for clients.
Ready to discuss your book?
BOOK YOUR PRIVATE CONSULTATIONNo pitch. No pressure.
© 2026 Richard Lowe. The Writing King. All rights reserved.
Four short, practical guides on writing, publishing, and selling your book, plus the occasional note when there's something worth your time. No fluff, no daily inbox clutter. Drop your email and they're yours.
We use MailerLite to manage our list and send these emails. Your address is used only to send you what you signed up for. We will not sell it, share it, or use it for anything else, and you can unsubscribe anytime.