https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. In 1838, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel won the race to measure the first distance to a star other than our Sun via the trigonometric parallax—setting the first scale of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-long-standing-mysteries-parallaxes-astronomy.html Astronomy Fri, 20 Nov 2020 11:20:01 EST news525091263 For the first time, a spacecraft has sent back pictures of the sky from so far away that some stars appear to be in different positions than we'd see from Earth. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-horizons-interstellar-parallax.html Astronomy Fri, 12 Jun 2020 10:06:58 EDT news511175191 The path of a light beam is bent by the presence of mass, as explained by General Relativity. A massive body can therefore act like a lens—a so called "gravitational lens"—to distort the image of an object seen behind it. Microlensing is a related phenomenon: a short flash of light is produced when a moving cosmic body, acting as a gravitational lens, modulates the intensity of light from a background star as it fortuitously passes in front of it. About fifty years ago scientists predicted that if it ever became possible to observe a microlensing flash from two well-separated vantage points, a parallax measurement would pin down the distance of the dark object. The Spitzer Space Telescope, orbiting the Sun at the distance of the Earth but trailing behind the Earth by about one-quarter of the orbital path, had been working with ground-based telescopes to do just that until it was shut down last month by NASA as a cost-savings measure. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-free-floating-stars-milky-bulge.html Astronomy Mon, 30 Mar 2020 07:25:23 EDT news504771919 The Cygnus Loop (also known as the Veil Nebula) is a supernova remnant, the detritus of the explosive death of a massive star about ten to twenty thousand years ago. Detailed modeling of its spectacular filamentary shape suggests that the explosion occurred inside an interstellar cavity created by the progenitor star. As is common in astronomy, many of the precise physical properties of the object are rendered uncertain by the uncertainty of its distance. For decades scientists used a value of about 2500 light-years based on analyses of its gas motions by Hubble in 1937 and Minkowski in 1958. Many recent distance estimates have varied over a wide range generally consistent with this one, but the most cited value is a 2005 measurement of between 1500 and 2100 light-years. https://phys.org/news/2018-11-cygnus-loop.html Astronomy Tue, 27 Nov 2018 07:11:11 EST news462525064 3-D movies immerse us in new worlds and allow us to see places and things in ways that we otherwise couldn't. But behind every 3-D experience is something that is uniformly despised: those goofy glasses. https://phys.org/news/2016-07-prototype-enables-viewers-d-movie.html Hi Tech & Innovation Mon, 25 Jul 2016 08:42:06 EDT news388654909 The distance to celestial objects is key to calculating their intrinsic properties like mass and luminosity. Distance, unfortunately, is also one of the most difficult parameters to measure. The most direct method is called parallax: When a celestial body is viewed from different, widely separated vantage points, its angular position with respect to background stars appears different. Parallax is traditionally used to triangulate the distances to nearby stars by measuring their apparent angles six months apart, at the two opposite sides of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. https://phys.org/news/2015-04-distance-microlensing-event.html Astronomy Mon, 06 Apr 2015 06:02:13 EDT news347518914 (Phys.org) —Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers now can precisely measure the distance of stars up to 10,000 light-years away—10 times farther than previously possible. https://phys.org/news/2014-04-hubble-stellar-tape-space.html Astronomy Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:37:20 EDT news316363002 (Phys.org) —Astronomers are constantly on the hunt for ever-colder star-like bodies, and two years ago a new class of such objects was discovered by researchers using NASA's WISE space telescope. However, until now no one has known exactly how cool their surfaces really are - some evidence suggested they could be room temperature. https://phys.org/news/2013-09-coldest-brown-dwarfs-blur-lines.html Astronomy Thu, 05 Sep 2013 14:43:58 EDT news297611025 Stereoscopic panoramas promise an inviting, immersive experience for viewers but, at high resolutions, distortions can develop that make viewing unpleasant or even intolerable. A team at Disney Research Zurich has found methods to correct these problems, yielding high-quality panoramas at megapixel resolutions. https://phys.org/news/2013-06-team-techniques-high-quality-resolution.html Computer Sciences Fri, 21 Jun 2013 11:32:21 EDT news291033130 (Phys.org) -- NLT Technologies has announced its development of an autostereoscopic multiview display based on the success of its HxDP technology. HxDP stands for Horizontally x times Density Pixels. The company reports impressive end results as improvements in 3-D and 2-D viewing. NLT Technologies together with its sales and marketing channels in the Americas and Europe, Renesas Electronics America and Renesas Electronics Europe GmbH, announced the autostereoscopic multi-view high resolution display earlier this week. https://phys.org/news/2012-05-nlt-naked-eye-d-view.html Hardware Fri, 18 May 2012 04:40:01 EDT news256533021 (PhysOrg.com) -- Numerous 3-D displays that went on parade at last month's CEATEC 2011 in Japan touted glasses-free features, but one 3-D display presentation used a technique of special interest. Researchers at Tsukuba University in Japan showed a 3-D display prototype using multiple layers of lenses for focal depth and enhanced depth perception in the 3-D image. When objects at the front are in focus, those at the back are blurred. When you view objects at the back, those in front are blurred. https://phys.org/news/2011-11-prototype-multi-lens-d-depth-video.html Hi Tech & Innovation Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:00:01 EST news239863401 (PhysOrg.com) -- Lonely gamers who have felt the pain of being separated by a screen from their favorite personalities now have a way to reach out and touch their game characters, and that new way is RePro3D. A group of researchers from Keio University in Japan have come up with a 3-D screen that lets the user, glasses-free, see and "touch" characters on the screen. The word "touch" is in quotes because the technology is about a 3-D parallax display with infrared camera that recognizes the movements of the user's hand and the character on the screen reacts to the movements instantly. https://phys.org/news/2011-09-lonely-gamers-repro3d-characters-video.html Hi Tech & Innovation Sat, 17 Sep 2011 03:53:51 EDT news235450407 Nintendo's 3DS portable gaming system, the first commercial device with a glasses-free 3-D screen, has been available in the United States for barely a month, and it’s already sold more than a million units. Its three-hour battery life, however, is less than half that of its predecessor, the 2-D DS device. https://phys.org/news/2011-05-glasses-free-d-fundamentally-approach.html Engineering Wed, 04 May 2011 07:23:14 EDT news223712536 (PhysOrg.com) -- Microsoft has unveiled "Street Slide," which gives viewers 360-degree multi-perspective panoramas ("bubbles") of a city streetscape. The system should rival Google's Street View and Bing Maps' Streetside. https://phys.org/news/2010-07-microsoft-street-threatens-eclipse-view.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:50:01 EDT news199601621 (PhysOrg.com) -- After a wave of 3D movies such as Alice in Wonderland and Avatar, and a number of television manufacturers producing 3D TVs this year, there is growing interest in a three-dimensional viewing experience. The usual 3D technology uses a stereoscopic principle in which a slightly different image is presented to each eye, thanks to the special glasses the viewer has to wear. Now a device named pCubee gives you the experience of 3D without the need for the glasses. https://phys.org/news/2010-03-3d-glasses-pcubee-video.html Consumer & Gadgets Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:00:01 EDT news189235880 (PhysOrg.com) -- Even with "active shutter" 3D technology for television sets, the wearing of special glasses is still required in order to get the proper experience. They aren't those red and blue or red and green 3D glasses that we are used to seeing from the 50s and 60s, but you still have to wear glasses. Now, though, efforts are being made for a 3D television viewing experience without the glasses: the Full Parallax 3D TV. https://phys.org/news/2009-10-3d-tv-glasses-video.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:57:35 EDT news176036144