At the BBC?

I’ve always admired the fact that the BBC carried a show called The Sky at Night, formerly hosted by the late and beloved astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, OBE. At his passing, BBC brought on new hosts Lucie Green and Chris Lintott. A few weeks back, the BBC announced that it was reviewing whether to keep the program, which has alarmed long-time viewers in the UK.

Frankly, I think that we could all do with MORE astronomy on TV. It’s the ultimate reality TV, giving viewers a chance to explore the universe with knowledgeable guides. The Sky at Night regularly garnered a million viewers, which is quite respectable for a TV show. But, perhaps BBC has decided that education is a bunch of fluff and astronomy is for eggheads. Maybe it wants to Kardashianize its offerings. Maybe its editors don’t “get” astronomy.  Maybe the bottom line isn’t as good as it is for other types of programming. Maybe they wanted to dump it all along but waited a respectable time after Sir Patrick died to can it. If so, it’s hardly a respectful tribute. It’s hard to tell why the venerable program liked by so many is suddenly facing an uncertain future. I sincerely hope the BBC brass take another look and decide to keep it on.

Here in the U.S. there aren’t many (if any) regular shows devoted to astronomy, unless you count the upcoming Cosmos remake featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson in the coveted Carl Sagan role. I have to admit, having come to adulthood on a solid diet of the original Cosmos, I’m a bit leery of what has been done to the show to make it current. Neil is certainly an enthusiastic supporter of science and bringing science to everyone, so that’s not an issue. I’m just… leery. But, willing to give it a chance when it finally comes out.

Of course, there ARE lots of places in the U.S. (and around the world) playing astronomy programming day in and day out. They’re called “planetariums” (or fulldome theaters, or star theaters). If you haven’t been to your local planetarium lately, check it out. If you don’t know where you local one is, here are two listings for you to peruse: fulldome theaters and classic planetariums. Fulldome theaters are those that have converted to showing fulldome video programs and star talks. Classic theaters are those that have not, and use star projectors and other systems to create their shows. If you want to learn about astronomy, either type is great — so check ’em out!

It Orbits No Star, Yet Exists in Space

There’s a lonely planet out there floating in space, no host star in sight. Now, how did THAT happen? Astronomers using the Pan-STARRS-1 survey telescope on Haleakala (Maui), found this newborn planet (only 12 million years old!) in interstellar space some 80 light-years from Earth.

Nobody’s ever seen something like this before, but there it is. Astronomers found it while searching for brown dwarfs (objects to hot to be planets and too cool to be stars). The planet, called PSO J318.5-22 popped up, looking redder than any red brown dwarf so far found.  Follow-up observations using other telescopes in Hawai’i show that it has properties similar to those of gas-giant planets found orbiting around young stars. And yet PSO J318.5-22 is all by itself, without a host star.

So, how does a planet get away from its star? There’s no explanation for this one yet, but we can speculate. Perhaps this gas-giant-type world was ejected from its original planetary system by its star.

Perhaps it was on the very outskirts of a stellar system and was pulled away by the gravitational pull of a passing star. Maybe it was part of a binary star system’s planets, and the gravitational dance of the two stars gave it a push out to space.

Starbirth is a very active process, so perhaps something happened as this planet and its siblings were forming, and it somehow got knocked out to space. It’s a very young star after all, and now that it has been pushed from the  nest, it’s fate is to wander interstellar space forever.Read more about this discovery here: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/LonelyPlanet/