Museum Blog

Articles for author Ka Chun Yu: 8

Kepler Orrery II

Posted 04/02/2012 by Ka Chun Yu | Comments
Last year, a couple of animations showing solar system candidates from Kepler were posted to Youtube. The sequel is now back! Created by Daniel Fabrycky from the Kepler science team, here are all of the planetary system candidates with more than one planetary companion orbiting the parent st…
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Astro: WISE All Sky Survey

Posted 04/02/2012 by Ka Chun Yu | Comments
All sky surveys provide a sort of fundamental baseline to astronomical observational science. Such surveys are done using the same telescope and/or instrument, or at least instruments that are similar enough that the differences between them are well understood. (The latter occ…
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A New Scenario for Forming Planets

Posted 06/01/2011 by Ka Chun Yu | Comments
The disk-shaped nebula around a young star contains all of the raw materials -- gas and dust -- which can eventually accumulate into planets. How this matter actuallly ends up in planetary form is still a matter of debate. Our observational technology is not good enough yet to …
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Astro: Kepler Orrery Movies

Posted 04/27/2011 by Ka Chun Yu | Comments
The Kepler mission discovered more than 1200 solar system candidates around other stars. Here is a video showing the orbital motions of all of the systems that show evidence of multiple planets as of February 2011: The size of each planet is not shown relative to scale to the size of their orb…
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Astro: Hubble 21st anniversary image release

Posted 04/27/2011 by Ka Chun Yu | Comments
To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, a spectacular image of the pair of colliding galaxies Arp 273 was released. Click on the image to get a super-enormous 4000-pixel wide version of the image (or this link for the full-size TIFF at roughly 8000 pixels across, and 1…
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Astro: Mid-IR Imaging of M82 from Subaru

Posted 03/31/2011 by Ka Chun Yu | Comments
March 31, 2011 -Our ability to understand the Universe has been enhanced immensely by technology that allows us to detect electromagnetic radiation at wavelengths far beyond what our eyes can sense. For instance when we look out into the night sky and behold the Milky Way, we are seeing …
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Link: Wifi Light Painting

Posted 03/08/2011 by Ka Chun Yu | Comments
March 8, 2011 - Here's a project that explores and maps the topology of wifi signals. Using a 4-meter long rod whose LED-driven glow correlates with signal strength, the artist creates long exposure photographs showing Tron-esque light walls that traverse across the landscape. Thes…
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Link: Castle of Shadows

Posted 03/08/2011 by Ka Chun Yu | Comments
March 8, 2011 - This posting at BLDGBLOG points to a paper by Philippe Codognet who mentions a 600 year old precursor to a virtual reality CAVE. This castellum umbrarum or castle of shadows was described in a volume by Venetian engineer Giovanni Fontana from 1420. Codognet writes …
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