Planet

As a wise frog once remarked, it’s not easy being green. Not only are the emerald-colored extraterrestrials in “Planet 51’’ terrified by the appearance of a human astronaut on their home turf, they’re imprisoned in a cruddy, reductive version of “Happy Days’’ and forced to spout inane dialogue. Young children and adults with high pain thresholds will enjoy the movie during its brief pause on the way to your On Demand menu. The planet of the title is home to a complacent race of noseless humanoids who speak English and whose culture has made it up to the “Grease’’ era of drive-in restaurants and...

PICK OF THE DAY On the avenue This Tony-winning show is a great way to introduce your teens to a Broadway musical. "Avenue Q" has the right amount of adult language, songs like "It Sucks to Be Me," dialogue about what to do after college, and life in general. And the puppets are adorable. 8 p.m. (through June 24). $25-$60, $5 senior discount. The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon St., Boston. 617-585-5678. www.lyricstage.com FRIDAY It's all Greek The Boston Modern Orchestra Project ...

*** RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Directed by: Rupert Wyatt Written by: Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, David Oyelowo, Tom Felton, Brian Cox At: Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs Running time: 105 minutes Rated: PG-13 (intense and frightening scenes of action and violence, CGI animal abuse) Excuse me while I revert to my 13-year-old self.

Three bright planets now shine in the evening sky, and each is paired with a star next to it. If this isn't the kind of thing you normally pay attention to while out walking the dog or waiting for the bus, you're missing out on a connection to the natural world around you, and to the gigantic cosmos hanging over your head. To start, face south or southwest after dusk and look very high. You'll find yourself looking at fire-colored Mars and, a bit to its right, Regulus, shining icy blue-white.

Mike Brown, a professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, has written the strangest “addiction’’ memoir you may ever read. Brown’s personal narrative doesn’t explore demons like drug or alcohol abuse, nor does he offer any shocking private revelations. Brown’s addictions are twofold: first, finding faraway objects in the sky, and second, understanding the difference between planets and other large objects in space. In his Ahab-like search for a 10th planet, Brown would transform our understanding of what a planet is, thereby triggering a historic reexamination of...

WASHINGTON — Scientists have discovered the first planet from another galaxy, sort of. While some 500 planets have been identified in other parts of our galaxy — the Milky Way — none has been reported in other galaxies. Now one has been discovered orbiting a star called HIP 13044, located about 2,000 light years away. While this star is now in the Milky Way, researchers reported in Thursday’s online edition of the journal Science that it originated in a separate galaxy that was later cannibalized by ours.

It's billed as the Greatest Party on Earth, and as anyone knows who's ever attended the annual throwdown at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in South Boston, it pretty much is. The event Saturday celebrating the earth - the food this year is inspired by the vanishing bees - is typically crowded with artists, innovators, and sustainable designers. (It's also a benefit for AFH's Youth Arts Enterprise program.) Supporters include Max Ultimate Food's Neal Balkowitsch and Dan Mathieu, Summer Shack's Jasper White, Mel King, John Henry and Linda Pizzuti Henry, Bob Beal, Barbara...

You could argue that the social issues that once informed the "Planet of the Apes" franchise aren't as incendiary now as they were in the series' heyday back in the late '60s and early '70s. You could also argue the opposite. Either way, there wasn't a whole lot to justify Tim Burton's stunningly unimaginative redo of a decade ago. That's a large part of what makes "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (2011), such a cool surprise: It feels contemporary in a host of different ways. "Rise" casts James Franco as a scientist whose pioneering brain-boosting...

Discovery Channel's documentary series "Frozen Planet" will premiere March 18, and will encompass seven episodes including a program on climate change hosted by David Attenborough. On that seventh episode, the famed British naturalist will investigate what rising temperatures will mean for the planet and life on it. The network made the announcement Tuesday. "Frozen Planet" is described as "the ultimate portrait of our Earth's polar regions. " A co-production of Discovery Channel and BBC, it was four years in the making and comes from...

Courtesy photo Salem State biology professor Lynn Fletcher, left, reviews a comparison chart for a CO2 reduction project with students Danielle Downing, Sarah Frazier and Libby Georges. By Justin A. Rice, Town Correspondent From holiday parties to shopping, the holidays tend to be a season of consumption for most Americans.  One Salem State University class, however, has pledged to give the planet a Christmas present by cutting their carbon dioxide emissions by 50,000 pounds before Christmas.

It's billed as the Greatest Party on Earth, and as anyone knows who's ever attended the annual throwdown at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in South Boston, it pretty much is. The event Saturday celebrating the earth - the food this year is inspired by the vanishing bees - is typically crowded with artists, innovators, and sustainable designers. (It's also a benefit for AFH's Youth Arts Enterprise program.) Supporters include Max Ultimate Food's Neal Balkowitsch and Dan Mathieu, Summer Shack's Jasper White, Mel King, John Henry and Linda Pizzuti Henry, Bob Beal, Barbara Krakow, and Dennis...

Planet Green is changing course. Its corporate parent, Discovery Communications, announced Wednesday that the cable channel will change its emphasis on nature and ecology and focus instead on the country's spirit and culture under the new name of Destination America. The changeover happens May 28. Destination America will tackle subjects including American cuisine — from Tex-Mex to barbeque — and American mysteries from Jesse James' lost fortune to Area 51. Other shows will visit amusement park thrill rides and Western ghost...

Animal Planet has a menagerie of new shows for the season ahead that promise real-life drama, monstrous mystery, unusual human creatures and a new breed of cute. Also look for the network's first competition show, with the provocative title "Top Hookers. " (Relax. It deals with fishing.) The slate of new programming, most of which will launch next year, is scheduled for unveiling to advertisers Thursday in New York at the upfront presentation of parent company Discovery Communications.

LOS ANGELES - Actor Warren Stevens, whose most memorable role was his portrayal of "Doc" Ostrow in the 1956 science fiction movie "Forbidden Planet," has died in Los Angeles at 92. Publicist Dale Olson said Mr. Stevens died Tuesday of respiratory failure complicated by lung disease at his Sherman Oaks home. Mr. Stevens's career in stage, film, and television spanned 60 years. He costarred with Lou Diamond Phillips, Ernest Borgnine, and Lee Majors in the 2004 western "The Trail to Hope Rose" on The Hallmark Channel.

PlanetShoes.com is running a semi-annual clearance sale through Jan. 30th, with markdowns on men?s, women?s, and kids? footwear from Clarks , Jambu , Aerosoles , Bogs , Blowfish , Merrell , FLY London , and others. Styles range from boots of all sorts to sandals, with lots of athletic and casual shoes and some heels in the mix. Accessories including backpacks, handbags, hats, and SmartWool socks are marked down as well.

For Michelle Kane, it's one of the best parts of her job. A woman at a nursing home in Needham contacted Kane, saying she had been saving newspaper articles of historic events for more than 40 years. The woman was afraid the same fate might befall her collection as that of a neighbor's: thrown out after her passing. When Kane and Kathy Cormier "went to see her in the nursing home, she was so happy to know that we were going to do something wonderful and rewarding with her papers," Kane said.

PICK OF THE DAY On the avenue This Tony-winning show is a great way to introduce your teens to a Broadway musical. "Avenue Q" has the right amount of adult language, songs like "It Sucks to Be Me," dialogue about what to do after college, and life in general. And the puppets are adorable. 8 p.m. (through June 24). $25-$60, $5 senior discount. The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon St., Boston. 617-585-5678. www.lyricstage.com FRIDAY It's all Greek The Boston Modern Orchestra Project ...

GENEVA -- Humanity's reliance on fossil fuels, the spread of cities, the destruction of natural habitat for farmland, and exploitation of the oceans are destroying earth's ability to sustain life, the environmental group World Wildlife Fund warned yesterday. The biggest consumers of nonrenewable natural resources are the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Kuwait, Australia, and Sweden, who leave the biggest "ecological footprint," the group said in a report. Humans currently consume 20 percent more natural resources than the planet can produce, the report said.

A team led by Harvard astronomers announced yesterday a major milestone in the long-running hunt for worlds capable of supporting life elsewhere in the cosmos: the detection of a planet the size of Earth. The rocky planet, and another they found that is a bit smaller than Earth, are the smallest ever discovered orbiting another star. They provide the powerful proof astronomers have been waiting for that it is possible - using a space-based telescope - to detect planets that fit the profile that has successfully spawned life in our own solar system.