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3D stereoview 'VR' hellscapes from the 1860s
Not long after photography was born, someone figured out that showing each eye slightly shifted views of the same image makes you think you're seeing a three-dimensional scene. That idea gave birth to stereoscopic imagery, 3D movies and, eventually, VR. (Victorian stereoscopes even look like steampunk versions of modern VR headsets).
A one-man protest at Mobile World Congress
Conferences like Mobile World Congress are typically exciting times. Details of glitzy product launches and demos fill websites and newspapers with promises of a better tomorrow. While the world watches Barcelona, though, groups are taking the opportunity to highlight other causes. Public transport workers, for example, are striking this week in the city, causing widespread disruption. It's an effective bargaining chip for those upset with their contracts, as attendees at the world's largest mobile conference have seen simple 10-minute subway journeys turn into two-hour traffic jams.
The Big Picture: Mars' fractured surface underneath the dunes
The dune images Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sends back to Earth helps NASA study erosion, wind, weather and movement of materials on the red planet. But this image taken by the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on July 30th shows the fractured surface underneath sand dunes more prominently. According to the agency, the textured ground could be bedrock that has cracks all over due to extreme temperature changes. Or, it could be a sedimentary layer that developed fractured after it dried up. Either way, NASA can use this photo (among the others that HiRISE took) to take a closer look at the planet's surface.
The Big Picture: NASA shows off Pluto's largest moon
As the long, slow download of data from the New Horizon's mission continues, NASA has posted some new high-res enhanced color pictures of Pluto's largest moon, Charon (shown above in the upper left corner). Other than a reddish polar region, the images also reveal a surprisingly detailed landscape with canyons, mountains and more. A video composite of images (embedded after the break) takes us flying over a canyon NASA says is four times as long as the Grand Canyon, and twice as deep. NASA says even better pictures are on the way, although with the spacecraft 3.1 billion miles away and still going, we'll be waiting a year to get everything.
The Big Picture: A colorful and dazzling view of Pluto
While NASA has already shown us Pluto's best images yet, the administration is anything but done blowing our minds. What you see above is an enhanced high-resolution color view of Pluto, created with a combination of blue, red and infrared images. NASA says this photo, taken by New Horizons spacecraft, highlights Pluto's diverse landforms and shows us its complex geological and climatological story -- as much as scientists have been able to figure out, anyway. Over the past few months, NASA's shared many things related to Pluto, including a closer look at its desolate surface and icy mountain range.
The Big Picture: Los Angeles' light pollution, as seen from space
What you see above is a stunning image of California (and surrounding areas), captured from space by astronaut Scott Kelly. But what quickly stands out is Los Angeles, with its bright lights shining through and morphing into one massive, glowing spot. As Quartz points out, this shows the city's massive light pollution problem -- which, in the past, has been subject to countless research pieces and even a Kickstarter book/video series. City of Angels? More like City of Lights.
The Big Picture: It's always sunny in Brooklyn
Google isn't the only company looking to map out urban skylines ahead of the solar revolution. The folks at MapDwell create surveys similar to Sunroof using technologies developed at MIT, and for more cities to boot. The company has already mapped out New York City, as you can see above, as well as Boulder, Colorado(for growing solar-powered hydroponic kush, obvs), all of the confusingly-named Washington County, Oregon and now San Francisco. "We range irradiation (energy that falls onto the surface) for each city," MapDwell wrote to Engadget. "From zero (dark brown) to maximum or ideal (bright yellow), we call this Solar Access Index or SAI." As such, the southern tip of Manhattan probably isn't the best place for a solar installation. And unfortunately, the service does not also extend to solar-powered food carts.
The Big Picture: A nebula with the grace of a butterfly
Nebulae tend to be stunning by their very nature, but the Twin Jet Nebula might just take the cake. The Hubble Space Telescope team has captured an updated image of the dying binary star system (the last shot was from 1997), and its namesake twin jets of ejecting gas are unfurling like the iridescent wings of a butterfly. The seemingly magical effect stems from the stars' unusual interaction with each other -- while only one star is ejecting its outer layers, the other (an already-shrunken white dwarf) is pulling those layers in opposite directions. You won't have to worry about this light show disappearing any time soon, by the way. The nebula only got started around 1,200 years ago, so it's going to be visible for many, many years to come. [Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA]
The Big Picture: 'Mass Effect' Reapers invade Los Santos
It's a mod, mod world when a universe-destroying Reaper from the Mass Effect series invades Grand Theft Auto V's Los Angeles stand-in, Los Santos. What you see up above is the result of Flickr user berdu applying the pretty self-explanatory "Mass Effect 3 Reaper as Blimp" modification to the PC version of Rockstar's stick-up simulator. It looks awesome and there's video of it in action after the break. As creator JJxORACLE writes on the (currently in beta testing) tweak's download page, sometimes the vanguard of our destruction will disappear from the skies completely and there doesn't seem to be any collision detection here. Oh, and its legs can touch the ground while it moves every now and again, because, you know, it's replacing Los Santos' legless blimp.
The Big Picture: Saturn illuminates the surface of its icy moon
Saturn's moon Enceladus is covered in ice. We already knew that. But what you see above is evidence of just how icy it actually is. The right side of the celestial body isn't illuminated by the sun. Nope, that's actually brightened by the light reflecting off of the adjacent ringed planet according to NASA. If you're looking for something a bit more solar in nature, take a peek at the bright wedge on the moon's left side. The aerospace outfit says that these types of pictures from Cassini are "designed to capture the extended plume of icy material" coming off the moon's south pole.
The Big Picture: Curiosity takes a 'belly selfie' on Mars
You really shouldn't take selfies from a low angle -- it could lead to unflattering images that emphasize double chins, chubby cheeks and big nostrils. That is, unless you're the Curiosity rover, because it still looks good despite showing its belly in the photo above. This is definitely not the rover's first self-portrait, but it's the first one wherein the camera was positioned lower than its body. The image is a composite of 92 photos taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on August 5th as the rover was facing northeast, with Mt. Sharp and the Gale crater visible in the background.
The Big Picture: VHS monstrosities invade Iceland
French artist Ob Rey mashes together a number of different media for his latest series, dubbed "V"HS. The five apparitional black and white images, each of which is accompanied by a short film, is supposed to represent a post-human world in which monstrous beings burst forth into a confusing and frightful existence, their skeletal frames clad in VHS ribbon and whatever detritus could be found during the Icelandic production. Their visages are meant to invoke thought and questions regarding the forced obsolescence of humans and their electronics in our ever-accelerating march of technological advancement. Or something like that, at least. It's art -- it means whatever you think it means.
The Big Picture: U2's tour art takes a page from particle physics
Who said that science can't be pretty? Certainly not artist Jeff Frost. When U2 asked Frost for tour art that reflected a "neural net of humanity," he went to CERN's Large Hadron Collider to capture timelapse footage and otherwise treat the particle smasher as a creative tool. As you can see above, the result is dazzling -- it looks like the internet made manifest in a painting. And while you'd think that physicists would be annoyed by this kind of interruption, they actually went out of their way to give Frost access to areas that even they couldn't always see. This doesn't quite make up for U2 foisting an album on millions of people, but it does give Bono and crew some extra geek cred.
The Big Picture: NASA posts DSCOVR's epic first image of Earth
What does Earth look like from a million miles away? Well, NASA provided the masses with a glimpse today, thanks to the first photo snapped from the Deep Space Climate Observatory Satellite (DSCOVR) launched by SpaceX's Falcon 9 in February. More specifically, the image is constructed from three separate photos taken with NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). The camera captures a series of ten images ranging from ultraviolet to near infrared narrowband filters. For the visual you see above, the red, blue and green channels were used to create the view. What's more, once the instrument is to put a regular work schedule, it'll send new images to Earth every day -- 12 to 36 hours after they're taken. And yes, you'll be able to see them as NASA is planning a dedicated web page to house them all in September.
The Big Picture: 'Dark Souls' gets creepy with 'Limbo'-like mod
The Dark Souls series might not be the game for those folks who lack patience, but what you see up above is something just about anyone can appreciate. Reddit user CystisomaMagna was fooling around with the Reshade mod for the game and happened across some settings that turned the world of Lordran into a monochromatic, but still absolutely dangerous, wonderland. The user notes that the Limbo-esque modification isn't just for show, and that it's even possible to keep the game's HUD intact with it active. It might not get you soft-banned, either. Wanna know how to activate it on your system? That's what the videos embedded below are for.
The Big Picture: Google wants to build a futuristic see-through dome
The curious structure above blanketed with transparent, undulating glass isn't someone's concept of a futuristic high-tech habitat on another planet. It's actually Google's latest design for the dome it plans to build on the 18.6 acres of land it's leasing from the government right across its headquarters. The four-story 595,000 sq. ft. edifice is called Charleston East, because the company wants to build it right next to Charleston Park. According to the application Google has recently submitted to Mountain View's local government, it will house not only offices, but also a 72,000 sq. ft. of space for retail shops and amenities, as well as underground parking.
The Big Picture: Ultraviolet strands form this celestial tapestry
Sometimes you just need to grab 18 miles of fluorescent string, coat it in ultraviolet paint and stretch it along an art installation and hit it with black lights. At least that's what artist Julien Salaud did recently with his "Stellar Cave" series. As My Modern Met observes, the threads are wrapped around nails to create images of animals, humans and other stuff in a way that'd evoke "mythology and mysticism." The exhibits were on display at Israel's Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art and you can check out more images at the links below.
The Big Picture: Chevy's self-driving concept car is straight out of sci-fi
Thought that Mercedes' F 015 self-driving car was futuristic? It looks old hat next to GM's autonomous electric concept, the Chevrolet-FNR. The pod-like design appears ripped straight from a sci-fi flick, complete with crystal laser lights, "dragonfly" swinging doors and sensors (including radar) that aren't as conspicuous as they are on other robotic vehicles. And that's just the outside -- inside, it's touting magnetic hubless wheel electric motors, wireless charging, swiveling front seats and eye recognition to verify the owner. As with most out-there concepts, the chances of driving what you see here are slim to none. However, it won't be at all shocking if the technology in the FNR eventually trickles down to more practical (if far less adventurous) cars.
The Big Picture: This missile can knock out warheads in space
Rising from a wall of flames, a Raytheon RIM-161 Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) takes flight from the Deveselu missile defense base in Romania. Designed to intercept short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles before the inbound threats re-enter the atmosphere, the SM-3 has been likened to "shooting a bullet with another bullet." The armament is deployed both on land and at sea where it is utilized as part of the Navy's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense.
Here's an unprecedented peek into an interstellar nursery
This is where stars are born. Nearly 30 infant blue-white stars (100,000 times brighter and 50 times bigger than our own Sun), which are formed by collapsing hydrogen gas clouds in the southern Ara constellation, constitute star cluster NGC 6193. The European Southern Observatory's VLT telescope, the first telescope to ever directly image an exoplanet, captured this unprecedented shot. You can revel in the full, uncropped glory of star formation over at the ESO.
