An exciting new brown dwarf planetary system

The discovery of a planetary-mass system to a brown dwarf in Taurus has just been announced complete with a explanatory press release for the public. The new system reminds me of my favorite 2M1207AB system in TW Hya except this one is much younger -- just a million years old -- and somewhat closer (15AU) together. Like 1207A, the primary (2MASS J04414489+2301513) has a circumstellar disk and secondary is 5-10 times the mass of Jupiter. However, since this system is less than a million years old, it's clear that the "planet" must have formed from a collapse like a "star" or "brown dwarfs" rather than being slowly accumulated in a disk. Above is an artist's conception of the system. Here's the actual Hubble Space Telescope discovery image:

I talked to Kevin Luhman about the system and he was excited the possibility that this is actually a quadruple system. Not too far away (12.4 arcseconds) there's a pair of stars. Many brown dwarfs that are distant (>1000AU) companions to stars are doubles so perhaps this fits in. Here's a 2MASS survey image (in J band) of the field -- the brown dwarf is inside the magenta circle and the possibly related star is the brighter object to the upper left. They both look single because you need Hubble-quality resolution to tell they are binaries. The other star to the lower right is not related.

President Obama on NASA's future

President Obama's April 15th, 2010 speech on NASA's future:

More here. I think an asteroid mission makes a lot more sense than returning to the Moon. The space station will be continued which also makes a lot of sense. More thoughts later.

Delaware: the MUSICAL

Oh my:

My Governor, Chris Christie, is an alumnus of the University of Delaware, but I guess he's not famous enough yet to attract students.

Update: One of my college friends points out our college did it first: That's Why I Chose Yale:

Best Jazz of 2009

Now that we're three months into 2010, I can say what I found to be the best new jazz of 2009. No, I'm not a critic, as will be obvious, and of course it's just what I happened to find. Some I heard on WRTI and bought on iTunes. Sometimes I was already a fan of the artist. One is from a blog. Anyway, here's my best seven albums:

1. Charlie Sepulvelda & the turnaround: Sepulveda Boulevard. I had the good luck to hear them perform this live at the 2009 L.A. Latin Jazz Festival. The whole album is great but the title track and Amigos del Pincel really stand out to me. It's the best jazz album of the year. Speaking of that, I saw Charlie Sepulveda, who is a very nice man, in Puerto Rico, and he told my wife Jazz Times didn't even review the copy he sent them. Imagine life as a jazz artist nowadays.

2. Gerald Wilson Orchestra: Detroit. I didn't realize Gerald Wilson played in Jimmie Lunceford's big band. I think I've spotted in him in the 1941 movie Blues in the Night, even if Jack Carson absurdly steals the trumpet solo. In any case, this is a wonderful big band, and the song Everywhere gets constant play on my iPod.

3. Manuel Valera: Currents. Just a beautiful album, with my favorite tracks being Dienda and Ode to Kenny (Dedicated to Kenny Kirkland). But I loved Kenny Kirkland's playing, so perhaps this is no surprise. To tell you how highly I value it, I gave a copy to my brother along with a Coltrane album.

4. Roy Hargrove Big Band: Emergence. I understand a lot of critics have this on their lists and they're right. I love the songs Requiem and Ms. Garvey, Ms. Garvey. (Though my wife loves the former and dislikes the latter, so your mileage may vary.) I could definitely do without the singing, but the instrumental parts of the album are wonderful.

5. The Chris Kelsey 4: Not Cool (...As In, "The Opposite of Paul Desmond"). I decided to buy his album when I found myself reading three months of archival posts on his blog after following a link from Nate Chinen. Spending a little money on his music just seemed like the right thing to do. Fortunately, I loved it. While some free jazz just sounds unpleasant to me, Kelsey's music sounds exciting, strong and alive, like Ornette Coleman's. I'm not a critic, and so I don't have the right words to describe it, I just liked it.

6. Eric Alexander: Survival of the Fittest. A very good album that I have listened to a lot.

7. Barbra Streisand: Love Is the Answer (Deluxe Edition. The deluxe edition has "Quartet Versions" of the songs and they're much better, to my ears, than the standard "Orchestra Versions." But then again, I don't know why Charlie Parker wanted to play with strings. In any case, the quartet version of Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most is worth the entire album price. Barbra can sing.

I also liked to Vijay Iyer Trio (Historicity, Somewhere was an WRTI hit) and Robby Ameen Days in the Life, but I'm not prepared to rank them. The free amazon.com Ropeadope Label Sampler had some good songs, like the Dred Scott Trio's song This Ain't No Russian Novel, Baby.

The only other 2009 album I bought was Jeff "Tain" Watt's Watts album. It pains me to say this since Superwatts (with Kenny Kirkland) is one of my favorites, but this did nothing for me and was a big disappointment. I guess I'm saying I hated it. The dialogue in Devil's Ring Tone: The Movie is funny though.

I understand jazz albums don't sell much, so it seemed to me I should "speak up" and say that I loved these ones, even if I don't have the skills to say why I liked them so much.

Late update: I should include Peppe Merolla's album Stick With Me.

Greek Independence Day

President Barack Obama, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, and His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America speak at a reception celebrating Greek Independence Day at the White House.

Unemployment by Education

I tell parents and students that their physics degree will have value to them. The statistics for how the more educated have fared in this recession have been striking. A good visualization is this chart made by the blog Calculated Risk of the data for the last two decades. Actually, it goes back to my college class graduation year, which was a tough one for everyone trying t get jobs.

42-meter optical telescope site recommendation

It's not the actual decision, but here's the ESO press release declaring that the "E-ELT Site Selection Advisory Committee Recommends Cerro Armazones in Chile." Imagine a 42-meter telescope at this site: Wow!