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NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope has captured a beautiful picture of several nebula, including NGC 6726, NGC 6727, NGC 6729, IC 4812. The area in the image is located between the constellation Sagittarius and Corona Australis. The image to the right then covers more than the are of twelve full moons.

The green nebula at the top of the image, which reminds me of the Northern Lights, is a star forming region. The dust in the area is being warmed by the light of new born stars.

The bright region in the lower center is called the Coronet Cluster. It is located approximately 420 light-years away. That makes it 3.5 times closer to Earth than the Orion Nebula.

To the left of center is a circular region of blue dots. This is a globular star cluster called NGC 6723, which is approximately 29,000 light-years away.

All four infrared detectors aboard WISE were used to make this image. Color is representational: blue and cyan represent infrared light at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.6 microns, which is dominated by light from stars. Green and red represent light at 12 and 22 microns, which is mostly light from warm dust.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team

via WISE – Multimedia Gallery: NGC 6723.

Science astronomy, nasa

OnlineSchools has an infographic online that shows the unbelievable growth of Blizzard’s popular World of Warcraft Massive Multiplayer online game.  Some interesting statistics:

• 16.6 Million Quests completed a day
• More Players than the population of New York City or Cuba
• The Servers contain 1.3Terabytes of Storage, and 75,000 CPU cores
• Server Upkeep is $136,000 a day

See the full-size graphic after the break.

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Graphics infographic, mmo, warcraft

The Chicago Tribune has published a story over the weekend about the mounting debt that the United States is incurring. If you do not count intra-government loans, the United States has a debt to GDP ratio of 52%, according to the CIA (the graphic says 53%). If you do not ignore the United States Treasury bonds held by Social Security, Federal Employees, Medicare and Medicaid, then the debt to GDP ratio rises to 89%, based on the U.S. National Debt Clock.

The biggest immediate danger posed by the debt, Sawhill said, is that U.S. Treasury securities, the world’s favorite “safe” investment, won’t be seen as quite so safe by foreign lenders, who currently own more than half of all publicly held U.S. debt. If those foreign lenders decide to invest elsewhere — last December foreign demand for U.S. Treasuries fell by the largest amount on record — it could force the government to raise interest rates in order to make its debt more attractive. That could have a ripple effect on interest rates domestically, making it more expensive to borrow money to buy a home or a car, or for businesses to borrow money to expand.

via National debt: A tsunami of red ink @ chicagotribune.com.

Graphics infographic

Toshiba Mobile Display announced today that they have developed a 21-inch autostereoscopic high-definition display. This means that the display does not need any type of glasses for the viewer to see in 3-D. Most of the time, a person needs a left eye and a right eye image in able to see in 3-D. However, Toshiba accomplishes it in a different way. They accomplish by using an imaging system with a 9-parallax design. That means that this new display creates image data viewed from nine directions. The high-definition display itself has a resolution of 1280 x 800, while the viewing angle of the display is ±15 degrees in the horizontal. From the company’s press release:

The integral imaging system offers a significant reduction in eye fatigue during long periods of viewing, and features a multi-parallax[1] design that enables motion parallax, which cannot be achieved by systems using glasses. The multi-parallax approach results in images that change depending on the viewer’s position. In addition, the viewing angle is wide, and the resulting stereoscopic image is natural and smooth.

via Toshiba Mobile Display.

Hardware 3d, hdtv, toshiba

Google has just rolled out a new feature for Google Maps users that appeals specifically to fans (And users) of Google Earth.  Now in the upper right next to the usual “Maps” and “Satellite” views, there is an “Earth” view button that loads in the 3D terrain data and any available buildings to render it all in 3D glory.  It does require installation of the Google Earth Plugin (an external download that requires administrative priveledges, doh) but the results support all the features you’ve come to love of Maps and Earth.

So if you’re one of the hundreds of millions of people who use Maps worldwide, you can now explore the world in luxuriantly-detailed, data-rich 3D imagery and terrain from Google Earth. If you’ve already downloaded the Google Earth Plugin, you should be able to see Earth view in Maps right away. Otherwise, you can just install the Plugin to enjoy a Maps experience that includes angled Earth views, 3D buildings, smooth panning and zooming and a great introductory showcase of places to visit and things to see.

via Official Google Blog: Earthly pleasures come to Maps.

Science gis, google, google earth

The United States Treasury Department recently unveiled the new $100 bill in order to combat counterfeiters. Specifically they are targeting the Superdollar, a high quality counterfeit United States $100 bill. The new bill will be released to the public on February 10, 2011. Financial Infographics has created a new graphic showing all the changes that have been implemented into the redesign of the one hundred dollar bill.

The US Federal Reserve is rolling out a new hundred dollar bill in an effort to combat the circulation of counterfeit bills that are virtually undetectable.

You can view the full graphic after the jump.

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Graphics infographic

We covered before where Kentucky has the highest average credit card balance of any state, coming in at $10,181.08. What should you do if you live in Kentucky (or anywhere else) and are being crushed by debt? The simple answer is to spend less than you make, but that is like telling someone who is overweight that they need to eat less. It is easy to say, but harder to do. Mint has published a funny infographic that covers what to do when you have too much debt.

Even as consumers have reduced their credit-card spending in recent months, many struggle under mountains of debt. In 2008, Americans household that had credit cards owed an average of $10,691 on them, according to CardWeb.com. More than half carried balances of $7,000 or more. If you feel trapped under your credit-card debt, check out our latest infographic. We walk you through three possible solutions: credit counseling, debt settlement or consolidation and, as a last resort, bankruptcy. Which option may work for you will depend on your individual circumstances and, chances are, you will need to do a lot of research before making a choice. Ultimately, however, the real key to getting out of debt is universal: make sure you never use your credit cards to purchase things you cannot afford.

You can see the full graphic after the jump.

Read more…

Graphics infographic

Recently we have talked about Apple’s new MacBook Pro line. What is interesting about the new laptops is that they can switch from Intel’s graphics chips (which are low power and thus are good for long battery life) to Nvidia’s GeForce GT 330M. The Nvidia chip uses more power, which cuts down on battery life, but it is also more powerful in terms of graphics capability. Anandtech has looked at this graphics switching technology, and found some problems with it.

The fact that the new MacBook Pro’s discrete GPU won’t power down if you have an application like Photoshop open flies in the face of this leave-your-apps-open usage model.

In other words, if you leave an application open, even if it is idle and in the background, that is using the Nvidia GPU, then your battery life will suffer. This can occur not only with Photoshop, but also sometimes happens with a web browser like Firefox.

via Apple’s 15-inch 2010 MacBook Pro: More Battery Life Tests, High Res Display Evaluated @ AnandTech .

Hardware apple, mac, nvidia

NASA’s Aqua satellite  captured this image of the Gulf Coast oil slick resulting from the explosion & sinking of the Deepwater Horizon platform.  It was captured with the “MODIS” (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument, and shows the oil as it follows the gulf currents across the region.

The oil slick may be particularly obvious because it is occurring in the sunglint area, where the mirror-like reflection of the Sun off the water gives the Gulf of Mexico a washed-out look. Oil slicks are notoriously difficult to spot in natural-color (photo-like) satellite imagery because a thin sheen of oil only slightly darkens the already dark blue background of the ocean. Under unique viewing conditions, oil slicks can become visible in photo-like images, but usually, radar imagery is needed to clearly see a spill from space.

On NASA’s site, you can view the entire 3840×2880 image, although the detail area isn’t much better than the image above.

via NASA – Oil Slick Spreads off Gulf Coast.

Science nasa, oil, photography

NPR has an article on Virtual world technology in sue by the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) to create reconstructions of various nuclear laboratory environments.  The main benefits are that such environments are rare and dangerous, so training is hard to come by.  By training such people in virtual space with photorealistic environments, people can see areas typically reserved for only the most adventurous of personnel.  The project, called VISIBLE (Virtual Simulation Baseline Experience) has been underway for about three years, with their big claim to fame being the virtual version of the Idaho National Lab reactor.

Birch Hayes, the project’s key software expert, says response from the Idaho lab was positive.

“We gave this to them and they’ve used it in a number of ways — for visitors, trainees, new employees. We showed it at a workshop and then the following day took people out to the facility, and they felt like they had been there before, which was exactly the effect that we were looking for,” Hayes says.

via Using Virtual Reality To Make Nuclear Reality Safer : NPR.

Science doe, lanl, training, virtual worlds