From 1989 to 1995, astronomers discovered the first exoplanets. 1056 exoplanets later, they probably discovered the first exomoon, located at 1800 light-years from the Sun. Pandora could have finally a cousin ...

To see exommons (in the fiction), you just have to search "space wallpaper" or "planets wallpaper" on Google. Or, re-watch the films Avatar (Pandora) and Return of the Jedi (Endor).

But here, we are approaching reality. David Bennett (of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana) and his colleagues report on 13 December that they spotted a microlensing event in 2011, named  MOA-2011-BLG-262, using several telescopes in the world. First, they saw the star's light amplified to 70 times its normal brightness. And an hour later, a second came, smaller increase in brightness. So that would mean that a great object passed in front of the star, followed by a smaller object.

The first scenario that fits in the microlensing data is the following : it's an exoplanet followed by its moon, and both are at a distance of 1800 light-years from the Sun. The exoplanet's mass is about 4 times the mass of Jupiter, while the mass of its moon is half Earth's mass, that is to say 3 x 10^24 kg, so 20 times the mass of Ganymede (which is the heaviest moon of the solar system).
Even weirder : according to this model, the exomoon would be orbiting at about 20 million km from its host planet, while Ganymede orbits at 1,070,000 km from Jupiter. If the scenario is correct, we would have to explain why it is possible that there's a great distance between the planet and its moon.

The second scenario which could work is that the two detected objects are much further away and consists of a very small star or a failed star known as a brown dwarf, orbited by a Neptune-mass planet.

Today we can't confirm any of the 2 scenarios. However, exomoon research interest astronomers because exomoons in more normal planetary systems might even support life. If it is true, we could find then "cousins" of Pandora (whose Jake Sully could explore the oceans in Avatar 2).

Sources : NewScientist and International Science Times...

Goodbye Matt Smith, hello Peter Capaldi. Doctor Who's 2013 Christmas special "The Time of the Doctor" was broadcast on BBC One at 7:30 PM (London Time). Matt Smith was on his last episode as the Doctor, and what better than Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) to finish the special ?

The plot is already on Wikipedia. Don't read it if you didn't watch the special. For fans who watched it, you certainly retained the highlights.

First, the Doctor was ... naked. Even if we see he wore clothes at Oswald's house and in Tasha's church. Strange and funny moment between the Doctor and Clara, same thing in "Journey's End" when the other Tenth Doctor was naked in front of Donna Noble, remember ? "You're naked ! - Yes !"

Second, a town called Christmas. Certainly because the episode was broadcast on Chirstmas Day. "How can an Isle be called Easter ?"
But a town called Christmas in a planet called Trenzalore. If you understand, the Doctor and Clara come to Trenzalore a second time, but years before they see graves and the giant TARDIS and before they killed the Great Intelligence ("The Name of the Doctor"). That's why the Doctor managed to land the TARDIS on the planet. At this period (probably) the Doctor's timeline didn't exist yet.

Third, the crack of Amelia's wall is back. It appeared on several episodes, first time in "The Eleventh Hour". Actually, the Time Lords use this crack in the universe, to demand help to the Doctor, and this from the pocket universe in which Gallifrey was trapped (created by the 13 Doctors in "The Day of the Doctor"). And it is from the crack that a message comes : "Doctor who ?" You know the story : if the Doctor answers the question, Time Lords will be saved, but a new war will be born, in which the Doctor will die. Instead of this, Time Lords give to the Doctor a new cycle of 12 regenerations through the crack. So 24 regenerations available in all, so 25 Doctors.

And fourth, the surprise by Steven Moffat. We had Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor) as the Curator in "The Day of the Doctor", now we have for (only) twenty seconds Karen Gillan as Amelia Pond, before the Doctor's regeneration. "Raggedy man ... goodnight.", she said.

Now we have to wait several months before watching the eighth series, planned for late summer/autumn 2014. We are sure that the first episode of this series will be written by Steven Moffat, and that the beginning of it will be probably the moment where the Doctor and Clara are in the TARDIS, crashing ...
Last thing. First words of the 12th Doctor : "Kidneys ! I've got new kidneys ! I don't like the color." First appearance and first funny sentence. Do you think that this new Doctor will be great ?

See also : 12 quotes we loved from "The Time of the Doctor" on doctorwho.tv...

This masterpiece marked the beginning of 3D era in cinema. And movie's fans will be happy : Avatar will have three sequels which will be released between 2016 and 2018.

Avatar, released on December 2009, became the heighest-grossing film, with 2.78 billion dollars gross, surpassing Titanic (released in 1997). A 2 hours 40 minutes movie showing Jake Sully, coming to Pandora, rebelling against his people with Norm Spellman, Dr Augustine, Max and Trudy, to protect Neytiri and the Na'vi.

On August 1, Cameron announced that the movie will have 3 sequels, planned for 2016, 2017 and 2018. And on December 16, after reaching an agreement with the government in Wellington, he revealed that these sequels will be filmed on New Zealand from October 2014. The New Zealand government would raise its tax rebate system for filmmaking between 20 and 25 %. Each film will have a budget of 500 million dollars, while the budget of the first movie was 237 million.

An idea for Avatar 2, launched by the Canadian film director, is that Jake Sully's adventures will be in aquatic environment, in Pandora oceans. This idea comes from the fact that Cameron was on 26 March 2012 the first man to explore the Mariana Trench in a submarine called Deepsea Challenger, at about 10,900 meter deep.

Sources : Europe 1 (french) and Wikipedia...

To end 2013 in music, we selected for you 10 albums/EPs/singles of 10 artists. You probably don't know all of them, so it's time to discover some new music.

1. The Crash Bandits : Better Off

This 3 piece band from Minneapolis, MN, Blink-182 fan, knows the definition of pop/punk/rock. After their first EP The Mutt out last year, The Crash Bandits revealed in July their first album Better Off. 14 punk-rock tracks to move your head.
A 2nd EP will be released soon.

Listen to the album here (free download) : thecrashbandits.bandcamp.com

 

2. Carbon Airways : Black Sun EP 

We already talked you about Carbon Airways, a brother and a sister from France who make huge electro-rock sounds. The EP Black Sun is a proof. It revealed, 4 months after "Black Sun" and "Conquest" songs releases, 2 new songs called "DNA Providence" and "Grace And Virtue", plus 3 remixes of "Black Sun".
The songs of their first album are currently in final mixing, and the album will be out April 2014.

Listen to the EP on Deezer : deezer.com/album/6990416

3. Nobody Takes Vegas : No Respect EP

The 5 guys from Long Island, NY, continue they Alternative Rock journey. The 2nd EP No Respect follows first one, Nobody Takes Vegas, with 6 new songs and a video, with the same energy.
Two good news : band's lead singer Nick LaGreca is 21 years old since December 7, and new songs are coming for 2014.

Listen to the two EPs on SoundCloud : Nobody Takes Vegas EP | No Respect EP
Discover Nobody Takes Vegas official website : nobodytakesvegas.com

4. Half Moon Run : Dark Eyes

If the Canadian band Half Moon Run begins to be known in 2013 (one year after releasing their first album Dark Eyes), it is because their debut single "Full Circle" has been used on the "Horizon" trailer for the game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (out October 29). The debut album' 12 tracks are calm, between Indie-Pop and Indie-Rock.

Listen to their debut album on Deezer : deezer.com/album/6651499

5. Madeon : Technicolor Single

19. French. The prodigy of electro music continues to surprise us, with Technicolor out August 3rd (following The City EP). After producing Two Door Cinema Club's "Changing Of The Seasons", Leclercq is working on his first album, and it will be released on early 2014 (according to one of his Tweets).

Listen to "Technicolor" on SoundCloud : soundcloud.com/madeon/technicolor-original

6. After Lilly : Please Wake Me Up Tomorrow !

Between french and english songs, the French band After Lilly revealed on July 20 twelve pop-rock songs in their debut album Please Wake Me Up Tomorrow!, following the EP Lost Your Way (2011). A little beginning for a great following, we hope that.

Listen to the album on BandCamp : afterlilly.bandcamp.com

7. Phoenix : Bankrupt!

The French band Phoenix come back is succeded : their 5th studio album Bankrupt! surprised some fans, starting with the album teaser. The 10 tracks remember a bit Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, however the sounds are more varied : synthpop, new wave. Indie-rock is still here.

Listen to the album on Deezer : deezer.com/album/6488062

8. The Strokes : Comedown Machine

No tour for The Strokes' fifth album. However Comedown Machine, containing 11 songs sounding like their first albums, received generally good critics. The single "All of Time" had its video including the band's good moments in touring (check out post about "All the Time" here).

Listen to the album on Deezer : deezer.com/album/6414905

9. Paramore : Paramore

Four years after Brand New Eyes, Hayley William's band Paramore revealed their self-titled album, acclaimed by fans and many music magazines (by examples Metacritic, NME). The album shows 17 great songs, sometimes powered, sometimes alternative rock, sometimes punk. And the self-titled Tour isn't finished, to people who want to see Paramore.

Listen to the album on Deezer : deezer.com/album/6443604

10. Bring Me The Horizon : Sempiternal 

The album name is definitively smaller than previous one. Anyway, Bring Me The Horizon don't stop making huge metalcore songs. Proofs ? "Can You Feel My Heart", "Sleepwalking" and "Shadow Moses". And the best place to see them was Reading Festival.

Listen to the album on Deezer : deezer.com/album/6412093



...

A surprise that throws a wrench in planet formation theories : an international team of astronomers in the University of Arizona discovered the most distantly orbiting planet found to date, HD 106906 b, orbiting at ... 654 AU around its star.

We know a few things about this Super-Jupiter. Detected by imaging, HD 106906 b mass is 11 times Jupiter's mass. Its star has approximatively the same size as the Sun but has 1.5 times its mass. Both (planet and star) are only 13 million years old.

Now the problem is how the planet can be so far from its star. 654 AU equals 98 billion kilometers. In our solar system, the distance Sun-Neptune is 30.11 AU (4,5 billion km) and Sun-Pluto 39.48 UA (5.9 billion km). How can the planet be so far of HD 160906 ? The answer is in the moment the star was born, but what is it ?

According to Vanessa Bailey, 5th-year graduate student in the University of Arizona's Department of Astronomy, no model of planet or star formation can explain it completely. However a theory to explain it is about the formation of a binary star system. "A binary star system can be formed when 2 adjacent clumps of gas collapse more or less independently to form stars, and these stars are close enough to each other to exert a mutual gravitation attraction and bind them together in an orbit. It's possible that in the case of the HD 106906 system, star and planet collapsed independently from clumps of gas, but for some reason the planet's progenitor clump was starved for material and never grew large enough to ignite and become a star."
The problem in this stuation is that the mass ratio of the 2 stars in a binary system is normally no more than 10-to-1. And here, the mass ratio is more than 100-1, rejecting the binary system theory.

Other strange thing. You probably think that, because it is so far from the star, HD 106906 b is cold (maybe -100 or -150°C). False. Because the planet is very young, it glows from the residual heat of its formation, and, indeed, the planet is very hot, approximatively 1500°C, but the host star is much hotter. By the way, the planet emits most of its energy as infrared rather than visible light. We could think that the planet is a hot Jupiter, except that it doesn't orbit very close to its star.

We see a new time that discovering new exoplanets with incredible particuliarities leads us to rethink planet formation theories, and to see what universe is able to do.


Source : phys.org...

"The Rock Show" guys will come back in the UK next year. BBC Radio 1 revealed on December 3rd at 7:00 PM UTC that Blink-182 are the first headliners for Reading & Leeds Festival in 2014.

The band will be in the festival for the fourth time, after 1999, 2003 and 2010, and it will be the only UK show in 2014. "I’m stoked to play Reading & Leeds 2014. It’s our 4th time playing the festivals, and we’re very honoured. The new year will see us in the studio preparing new music, getting ready to rock the fine people of the UK. Prepare for the fury", Mark Hoppus said, according to Reading Festival website.

Blink-182 is preparing their seventh studio album planned for next summer, following Neighborhoods and Dogs Eating Dogs (view article about the EP). On 29 March 2013, they released a compilation album called Icon, including 11 of the band's best songs, like "First Date", "Josie" and "All The Small Things".

About Reading & Leeds 2014 (from 22 to 24 August), BBC Radio 1 and the festival's website announced 6 other bands joining Blink-182 : Jake Bugg, Disclosure, Metronomy, Of Mice & Men, Wilkinson and I Am Legion. 2014 Tickets are available here....