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ESA's Gaia satellite mapped a billion stars in the Milky Way
The European Space Agency launched the Gaia satellite and its one-billion-pixel camera to space back in 2013. Gaia has been mapping the Milky Way ever since, and now the ESA has released a 3D map featuring over a billion stars -- we've never seen 400 million of those before -- based on the data it collected from July 2014 to September 2015. As you can see above, it shows how dense a billion stars look. Don't dwell on those weird lines cocooning the structure too much: they're merely artefacts from the way the satellite scans the galaxy.
New EVE video takes you behind the core technology curtain
Holy cow, would you believe that CCP has put out another positive press blurb? We know, it shocks us too, and the unfailingly chipper Icelandic development firm is winding down a week full of dev blog updates with a behind-the-scenes look at EVE Online's core technology team. Thankfully there's a video involved, as a text-based behind-the-scenes look would be almost as boring as a New Eden mining run. Also, flying-in-space fans, beware: There are some stretches of the clip that focus on full-body avatars and other "non-essential" gameplay elements. Aside from that, there are bits dealing with ship shadows, readability and usability issues with the star map, and some details on the new open source crash reporting system. Click past the cut for the full clip.
Twelve iPhone apps for students
It's been a while since we were in school, but with spring break almost done with, it's time to settle back into that last long stretch of school before it warms up and summer starts. You've got your handy iPod touch or iPhone with you on campus, and of course, you'll download some games, music, and apps that help you figure out where to go Saturday night, but there are also dozens of useful apps for the college student that are sure to be beneficial to you and your education. Here's twelve good ones to check out. Chemical Touch Lite College chemistry is never easy, and students will be required to memorize the periodic table of elements and use chemistry mathematical formulas. Chemical Touch Lite will let you do exactly that -- it has a fully interactive periodic table of elements, as well as information on all of the elements and their symbols. It won't guarantee you an A, but it will help you remember Au (and all of the other elements you need to know). Eleven more after the break!
Starmap up for Arthur Clarke award
We've posted about Starmap before -- it's a full-featured map of the sky on your iPhone that will let you find stars, constellations, and "deep sky" objects in the blanket overhead. Despite a few glitches and slowdowns, the app is pretty popular, and now it could be the only iPhone app nominated for a Sir Arthur Clarke Award. The yearly awards ceremony recognizes notable contributions to space exploration, and this year's list of nominees includes Frederic Descamps, creator of Starmap, for Best Individual Achievement. He's got some rough competition: Richard Garriott, creator of videogames like Ultima Online and Tabula Rasa, is also in that category, presumably for his recent trip into space. But Garriott's in quite a few other categories, so the iPhone developer has at least a fighting chance.But we're sure that, as the creator of an iPhone app, it's an honor just to be nominated. It's doubtful this is the last non-software award something released for the iPhone will be winning.Thanks, Howard B!
