APOD: Visual Effects: Wonders of the Universe (2011 Apr 18)

[re.tires@charter.net]

APOD is the treasure of the internet! I have it as my home page and on a 27" iMac, it is spectacular. I read the descriptions and if I'm not pressed for time, I follow the links.
As an aside, I would like to see K-12 classes get into regular viewing.
Thanx Jim Weir

[JamesF]

13.00 is the death of a star. Not our own sun, as that is not big enough to go supernova, but a star 30 times more massive. As the hyper massive star reaches the end of its usable fuel, it begins to expand slowly, becoming greater in size then our own solar system. When all its fuel has been converted into iron (last stage of nuclear fusion), it rapidly contracts in on itself, billions of tons of matter contract down to less then the original size of the star forming massive amounts of heat and pressure. As these pressure waves reach the core of the star, the rebound and create a massive explsion - a supernova. Most of the original star is blown away creating beautiful nebulae, leaving behnd a tiny, super dense fragment. For a 30 solar mass star, this fragment is called a blackhole. In the video after 14.00 you can see a binary system where one star has gone supernova and created a blackhole which is now feeding off the other star. The blackhole funnels the matter from the other star to its poles using its super dense magnetic fields, "pillars" of super high energy electromagnetic rays (mostly gamma ad x-ray) are created. We can detect these from earth with gamma ray telescopes and are called 'gamma-ray bursters'

[IleneK]

I love APOD, am new to the wonders of astronony, and am clearly in the minority. I found the soundtrack to be hideous, so not in keeping with the feeling of the images.

And I suppose I am spoiled. My first exposure to astronomy video was the Hubble anniversary film in IMAX and 3D that was released last year. Today's video bored me. Too much flash. But I give the creators kudos for the idea and effort.

[pcmusic]

Couldn't watch because of the horrible, horrible "music".

[rstevenson]

I'm not sure what the purpose of the video is. Without context -- a voiceover, or seeing the original programs, or some other indicator of what each scene is about -- it's not much more than musical wallpaper, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".

The music, as evidenced by comments above, is a matter of taste. It can be turned down or off.

Rob

[americanbison]

there are two depictions of the Homunculus Nebula (about 5:30 and again about 6:20). i also noticed that there seemed to be alot of imaginary material on the imaginary lens itself. it made spots on the images.

[bystander]

I liked the music. A lot of the viewers seemed to have missed the point that this was a video of the visual effects produced by BDH for the BBC special Wonders of the Universe narrated by Brian Cox. If you want narration, watch the special, if you can get it. And, as Rob said, if you don't like the music, turn it off.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

BBC - Wonders Of The Universe - Season 1, Episode 1: Destiny

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

BBC - Wonders Of The Universe - Season 1, Episode 2: Stardust[/i][/b]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

BBC - Wonders Of The Universe - Season 1, Episode 3: Falling

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

BBC - Wonders Of The Universe - Season 1, Episode 4: Messengers[/i][/b]

[tripllel]

Dirty visor on the radiation shield..
Pixel bleed and
Lens bloom..
Dennis Hopper would be proud indeed

[skootertrash]

Great, I, for one, loved it! I'd like to mention a nice touch that we don't usually see in such vids: They made it look like we were seeing this through the eye of a real camera lens flying through space. They made it look like so by adding fake dust specs on the lens and fake light refractions from the lens. Realism!

I actually thought of this as negative point. I don't get why CGI artists spend so much time and effort to add flaws that real photographers spend a lot of time and effort to eliminate. Video game programmers do it too to make them look "more realistic." But when I'm outside and I look toward a light source, I don't see a string of colorful hexagons radiating from it, so why add it to a game charachter whose eyes I'm supposed to be seeing through?

If adding these flaws makes it look more realistic, they should also simulate the lens melting in the scenes near stars.

I wonder if humans are just so used to seeing these flaws, that even if we were able to produce a perfect, glare-free lens, we would subconciously reject the realism of films that use it.

While I do like the visuals, I think it would have been much better without added lens flaws and dirt. It also could have benefitted from small, unobtrusive subtitles in the lower corner that say what each scene is.

[sadiej]

Hi, Is there a way i can get my hands on this video for outreach purposes in our planetarium at Uni. of Southampton ???

[bystander]

Hi, Is there a way i can get my hands on this video for outreach purposes in our planetarium at Uni. of Southampton ???

Contact BDH - Burrell Durrant Hifle

[skootertrash]

It's interesting to me (and I'm not trying to start a debate here... just making and observation about people) how differently people are inspired by the awesomeness of the Universe.

I notice several people on here talk about it in a spiritual sense, saying things like:

• "God's work is beyond the human thought."
• "its easy to believe that SOMEONE out there engineered the whole universe."
• "Play the video at church and ask whether it inspires an understanding of how small we are relative to the universe."

I'm by no means criticizing the people who feel this way. I just find it interesting that I get the exact opposite feeling from this type of thing. Obviously a powerful video if it can inspire different people in different ways.

[TomKF]

13:00 looks like the effect of the neutrino flashover of a Type-1a supernova.

[somebeach]

It seems as though some people will complain about anything.

[AC]

What video? There is no video, just a blank spot where a video should be. It's nice you posted the mp4, too - so everyone can see it.

[geckzilla]

It seems the video has been made private.

[XME]

Earlier I could view it...now the video is password-protected!

[Quigley]

Why can I not view this video? Vimeo site said it's been deleted? Help--

[Guest]

This is a password protected video. The password was not posted in the article so, I was just wondering wtf you are all talking about? And who the fuck password protects a video AND THEN UPLOADS it to vimeo. The height of selfishness and schadenfreude.

And in all of these posts no one has posted the password!!

[BMAONE23]

Looks like the VIMEO was deleted from the source site. TOO bad it was great.

[nstahl]

Now at the APOD page I'm getting "Sorry This video does not exist."

I wonder if the APOD traffic overwhelmed their server, or what?

[AJsWinner]

At the 13 minute mark it is obviously a nova which degrades into a black hole. The outer layers of the star are being thrown off as the hydrgen is used up and the star collapses upon itself to become a singularity. The event horizon forms and the debris which lies within the horizon is consumed by the black hole. The black hole becomes part of the vacuum force (dark energy) and speeds up the expansion of the universe.

[random walker]

Perhaps this will help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_9a8OnMS4c

[Chris Peterson]

Looks like the VIMEO was deleted from the source site. TOO bad it was great.

This is exactly why APODs should not be videos! Ot at least, if they are videos they should be a standard format (mp4), hosted locally, and linked from a static image (not embedded).

This is a worse problem than usual, but EVERY time that video APODs are posted they cause people assorted problems.

[Indigo_Sunrise]

>snip<

The height of .... schadenfreude.

(in my best Inigo Montoya voice), "I do not think that word means what you think it means".



P.S. schadenfreude is finding joy in other's misfortune.
You're welcome.