Betelgeuse Could go Supernova at any time!

Red super-giant Betelgeuse is set to explode into a supernova at any time withing the next 100k years. When that even occurs, it's brightness would possibly outshine the moon and last for up to a year!

Betelgeuse was at one point so huge that it would reach out to Jupiter's orbit. Over the past 15 years the giant has begun a massive contraction. It's size has dropped by 15% although the brightness has not diminished perceptibly.

Red giants often have very short lifespans, mostly only a few million years. They go off main sequence and start their helium, carbon and on to more massive elements until they reach iron where fusion stops. But between the first contraction and the end of fusion, series of contractions often take place which re-energizes and restarts the fusion process. Though scientists do not know why Betelgeuse is contracting, it could be one of these contractions that happens as the massive stars switch fuels for fusing.

A supernova happening in Earth's vicinity is scientifically interesting but too close could prove to be a disaster to Earth, as a gama-ray pulse could end life on Earth. Betelgeuse however is 600 light years distant and so is too distant to do any harm.

Check out the full Daily Galaxy article

Could Galactic Flashes be Signal Transmissions by Other Civilizations?

Astronomers are looking at a strange occurrence in deep space, the occasional celestial flash. According to astronomers "These flashes can be anything from explosions on surfaces of nearby stars, deaths of distant stars, exploding black holes, or even perhaps transmissions by other civilizations."

The scientists will use the Long Wavelength Array, designed to survey the sky over a wide range of frequencies. The hope is to combine the power of 13,000 antennas and apply them to the survey.

The first added to the array will consist of 256 antennas and will star surveying the sky in the summer of 2011. However the New Mexico Long Wavelength Array when complete will consist of 53 stations, with a total of 13,000 antennas covering an area of 248 miles.

The array will produce radio images that may reveal radio waves in the 20 to 80 MHZ range coming from planets outside our solar system. These frequencies represent one of the last and most poorly explored regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. In addition to planets, the telescope will pick up a host of other cosmic phenomena.


One phenomenon in particular is radio flashes that previous experiments had proved existed. However all the flashes so far seemed to have been non-astronomy targets -- either the sun, or meteors reflecting TV signals high in Earth's atmosphere. But just showing that they can be detected means searches using the Long Wavelength Array technology might lead to new discoveries.

The Daily Galaxy

Review: Despicable Me

Despicable Me

Directed by Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud
Written by Ken Daurio & Cinco Paul
Story by Sergio Pablos
Starring Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig,
Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fisher
Run time 95 minutes

Despicable Me is everything you expect an animated feature to be and certainly the Blu -ray release really shows how the medium can shine. The movie itself manages to take some pretty bold chances and still manages to catch the watcher’s heart in the end.

Steve Carell does the voice of the main character and super-villain, Gru. Gru it seems finds himself on the waning side of his abilities. It appears that he is being upstaged by younger more flamboyant super villains. So in a desperation move, he plans the biggest caper of his career. Since boyhood he has dreamed of going to the moon, now he will steal it.

It soon becomes apparent that he lacks the capital to fund the caper so must debase himself and ask for a loan. At the Bank OF Evil he meet his soon to be arch rival Vector voiced by Jason Segel. Vector is much younger and much brasher than Gru and ultimately the bank decides to back Vector for the heist instead of Gru. The bank will capitulate if Gru manages to secure a shrink ray.

Through many misadventures, Gru manages to obtain then lose then reacquire the shrink ray, but in his master plan to foil Vector he finds himself adopting and caring for 3 orphaned girls voiced by
Miranda Cosgrove as Margo, Dana Gaier as Edith, and Elsie Fisher as Agnes. The girls are able to aid Gru in getting the shrink ray but are also working their way into Gru’s heart. Also managing to endear themselves to Gru’s genetically altered “minions” and a genetic horror that Gru identifies as a dog.

Ultimately Gru gets everything he wanted but not all of what he needs. The girls quite predictably have managed to more important than all his other machinations combined. And as you can expect from this type of movie, he gives everything up to have a life with the girls.

Despicable Me holds no surprises in its plot. It is predictable me in everything except a truly unlikeable main character in Gru. It’s only through his growth and flash backs that we discover what motivates him and once you start to identify with Gru, you will basically go for anything that the writers and directors throw at you in Despicable. That is not such a bad thing really. Despicable Me is a blatant feel good film and as such feeds you every cliche with great gusto.

What is even more fun about this film is the brilliant use of the Blu-ray medium. There are 3 ways to watch the film. Straight up as they did in the theater, you can choose to turn on some full blown zaniness as you watch the film with Gru, his minions and Vector or you can settle back and watch the film as the directors and two minion comment on the film (and basically raise hell). To add to the fun is the extras on disk! 3 short films with some of the same cast, several games for the youngsters that are bound to be watching and a variety of making of snips that are fascinating.

As far as a nonsensical rating goes, 9 for the film (one off for predictability) and you have to go 10 on the extras. yeah there may be some you can’t use, but there is something for everyone! so that's 19? Yeah, they may not have pushed the envelope to much, but the made a damn fine animated feature.

Hubble Discovers Oldest Object in the Universe

According to NASA's website, the Hubble Space Telescope has found what could be the most distant object ever seen in the universe. Light first left this object 13.2 billion years ago. That makes it about 150 million years older than the previous record holder. That makes the age of the universe a bit older than 13.5 billion years old and somewhere nearer 13.7 Billion years.

The extremely dim object is a compact galaxy of blue stars. This small dim galaxy would have existed 480 million years after the big bang, very exciting news when you consider that this finding puts our understanding of the early universe and when the first stars arrived. This also means that there is now evidence that the rate of star birth in the early universe grew dramatically, increasing 10 fold from 480 million years to 650 million years after the big bang.

One thing is very evident however. There were big changes during this early period of the universe. It's clear that as astronomers peer further back and further out in time and space, they're going to see even more dramatic changes, closer to when the first galaxies were just starting to form.

IBM Centennial Film: 100 X 100

The full name of this short film is "IBM Centennial Film: 100 X 100 - A century of achievements that have changed the world" it may sound a bit self serving, IBM's achievements over the past 100 years are nothing short of amazing. I am not suggesting that we go and deify the company, it is just put into chronological order, it is hard to imagine what the world would have been like without some of the equipment that by today's standards is quaint, but at the time of inception was noting short of ground-breaking. IBM uses a rather unique method of describing their innovations. Many of the narrators were born when IBM was creating their innovative breakthroughs. I think it is a clever use of resources. You don't have to be a wild eyed supporter to appreciate the images and history.