Half of Sol Type Stars May Be Binary?!

In a new study, astronomers have concluded that half of all sun like stars are in a multiple star system.   This comes from scientists using  the upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array.   These conclusions from scientists that observed a previously unseen companion star.  

The standing theory as to how such a strange formation could have taken place is that the companion must have occurred as the primary star formed and then fractured into two separate bodies during formation.

John Tobin, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory stated that:

• "This fits the theoretical model of companions forming from fragmentation in the disk"
• The new observations add to a growing body of evidence supporting the disk-fragmentation idea.  This showed that disks are present early in the star formation process, a necessity for binary pairs to form through disk fragmentation.

For more, read the complete Daily Galaxy article HERE

Also Science 2.0 for some detailed information HERE

Andromeda is FULL of Black Holes!

And ones more from my little motorcycle dude..

Discovery.com website writes about a section of the Andromeda galaxy that has recently been under the scrutiny of NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope.

From the article:

• 26 new stellar-mass black hole candidates have been identified, adding to nine previously known and bringing the grand total to 35.

 The photo shows the core of Andromeda's X-Ray candidates and the core.

Check out the complete Discovery article here

Planet Photographed 300 LY from Earth

First, lets do the math light travels at 186000 miles a second, times 60 for a minute and 60 again for an hour.  Now 24 for 1 day and 365 day and we find that a light year is almost 6 trillion miles.   So when it was reported that the European Southern Observatory had taken a photo of a planet 300 light years, we should all be gasping in awe!  News articles really marginalize the stupendous distances involved because 300 light years is about 17000 trillion miles and it was a planet not the parent star!  I mean, it has got to be like someone in Boston taking a picture of an ant on top of the Seattle spire!  I had trouble with 3 light years....300! Someone check the math...I may even have dropped a zero or two....

The Space.com article points out also that even though it is a gas giant, it is the smallest planet photoed outside our Solar System.   The planet in question is named called HD 95086 b  orbiting as you might expect HD 95086.   The picture was taken in infrared light which allowed the planet to be seen easier.  

This pic here has the parent star removed so the planet shines out as a brilliant blue dot at the bottom of the photo to the right.

 Astronomers estimate that the exo-planet to be only 4 or 5 times larger than Jupiter.    One thing did help in photographing the planet.  It orbits the central sun at twice the distance of Neptune's orbit.   The top photo has a ring noting Neptune's orbit.

Thanks to Carole for the initial heads up.  Here is the link to the Space.com article

BMU 362 is Now Online

This week on Beam Me Up episode 362

Kallamus joins us once again for his entry in the blog for his weekly round up.

I review the anime dvd series Gantz

I found a small article that deals with a large subject Book Banning.  In this case it is the top 10 banned and challenged SF book! I may have run on a bit here......

It seems everyone is excited about the possibilities of if not life at the very least all the needed parameters needed to support life on the newly discovered Kepler 62e and 62f are Earth like rocky worlds that contain liquid water possibly on their surface..... Very exciting indeed!

A dig in china has yielded some very exciting embryonic dinosaur fossils that may radically change our understanding of many of the up to now animals of little know about their early stages.  

The story this week is "The Hunted" by Robert Lee Fraizier concerning a bounty hunter and his "prey" who develop a most unusual relationship.

And that is it for this week.  Enjoy

BMU # 345 Land of fire & ash con - Davies

Seasons greetings one and all.    Plenty of fun stuff this weekend.   Didn't get all done that I wanted, but I think it was a fun episode.

First I start with a fine piece of music that is the closing music for the anime series  called Btoom! which I review later in the program.  The song is Aozora and is performed by May'n.  

After the music I do indeed explore and review the 12 episode anime series called Btoom!

The story of the day is the conclusion to Colin P. Davies Land of Fire & Ashes.  A thoroughly entertaining and exciting tale.

Next are a few articles from Earth Sky, this week, spider webs, giant bugs and the Milky-way is truly HUGE!

Then some Trek Trivia with questions about  James T. Kirk.  Much better!

From the blog  The Grail Sats crashed, but not before they did excellent science.

Kall, describes his plans for world domination after the apocalypse   Then I take a moment to pass on some observations about copyrights.  

Another review takes the form of the abysmal "Class of 1999"  It shows that some good actors can not save a steamer....nope....

Oh you know the song Gundam Style...well I play the music here for a parody called NASA Huston Style, but you have to see the compete video for comic effect!

Brighton may want to check out their lights...someone was a bit upset.  Check out the vid on the beam me up blog.

Will we ever return to the moon.  Well  if we plan on going to the moon or the asteroids, the moon is close and copies many of the features of where we plan to go.

This week's program direct url

Beam Me Up episode 307 now online

This week on Beam Me Up episode 307 I try to keep everything moving along as easily as possible with enough of a mix to keep everyone happy. I think you will find I hit the mark fairly well.

I start with Mr. Spaceman from the Byrds which is live, so you can make up your own mind about that. Next it is two from Earth-Sky that talks about the new m95 super-nova that was first see earlier this month. Also an innovative way that we may be able to spot alien cities in the future - look for their bright lights at night. Now I know we don’t have anywhere near enough power to do that now, but in the future it is very likely. Next Ron sends me the url to a couple of rather strange websites, one will teach you the ins and outs of construction and wearing the AFDB or the aluminum foil deflector beenie! The next is software that purports to counter electronic mind control! I didn’t realize that the “electronic” book reader has roots back to 1935! It is true and the plans are pretty damn inventive! On March 26th film director and James Cameron became the third person to bottom of the deep, in the submarine Deepsea Challenger . Cameron's attempt is even more unusual in that he did the dive solo and there-for the first and only person to do so. New research from scientists at the University of Chicago, suggests that the impact hypothesis on how the Earth’s Moon was created, might be wrong! Here is a new one paleoclimatologists. The study of ancient even prehistoric weather. And it seems they are interested in raindrops from close to the beginning of the Earth.

And I close with a tale of Aliens on the lamb....on Earth. “Trath” Sometimes, very sadly preconceived notions are altogether wrong. When two aliens prisoners crashland on Earth, Human xenophobia kicks in full blast. Now the situation is likely beyond repair. David Scholes Trath tells the tale of companions of war lost and dying on an alien shore.