APOD: An Immersive Visualization of the... (2018 Jan 22)

[APOD Robot]

An Immersive Visualization of the Galactic Center

Explanation: What if you could look out from the center of our Galaxy -- what might you see? Two scientifically-determined possibilities are shown in the featured video, an immersive 360-degree view which allows you to look around in every direction. The pictured computer simulation is based on infrared data from ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile and X-ray data from NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. As the video starts, you quickly approach Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center. Then looking out, this 500-year time-lapse simulation shows glowing gas and many points of light orbiting all around you. Many of these points are young Wolf-Rayet stars that have visible hot winds blowing out into surrounding nebulas. Clouds approaching close become elongated, while objects approaching too close fall in. Toward the video's end the simulation repeats, but this time with the dynamic region surrounding Sgr A* expelling hot gas that pushes back against approaching material.

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[Ann]

Nice, but.... Everything would be pretty black and red near the galactic center?

It's as if everything at the galactic center would be choking in extremely thick dust. As a concept, that is not unreasonable. So maybe many of those who watch today's APOD video really believe that everything is dark red and very murky at the galactic center?

Click to view full size image

A yellowish foggy night in London (or Vancouver?).
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comm ... thousands/

Click to view full size image

Eternal red foggy night at the galactic center.
NASA/CXC/Pontifical Catholic Univ. of Chile /C.Russell et al.

This picture gives some information on what we are seeing.

Ann

[bystander]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=37920
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=37947

[distefanom]

Probably I'm really the dumbest here, So I *CANNOT* realize in my mind what I'm seeing (also happening) in this video.
Or probably i's clear only the movie author's mind...
A 360°view... for me it's like to pretend to have a clear idea of the surroundings, staring through the windscreen AND the back view mirror simultaneously...
And what's about UP and DOWN?
Also those "stars" which, while moving, become elongated blobs and resemble to me, bonfire sparkles...
Have you seen that "black funnel" (I've no other words to describe it) can be seen in the beginning of the video.. what is it?
I would expect to "see" some central element (the supposed to be Massive Black Hole), around which most of the "stars" will "orbit" in some way, instead I see... chaos?
Furthermore, what are those curved writings, I have (as Italian) no time chance to read....and why is repeated all around???*
wouldn't be easier to simply put it just under the images as a footnote??
Finally, why replay the whole thing backwards?
Probably the purpose of this video is another, I really can't catch.

[distefanom]

Oh well. The link http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/01/ ... 277581.jpg posted by Ann, clarified me a bit whats' happening there. Thanks Ann

[Boomer12k]

Is the screen supposed to be split????

:---[===] *

[distefanom]

...yes... crazy...

[heehaw]

Hey, way cool!

[Chris Peterson]

A 360°view... for me it's like to pretend to have a clear idea of the surroundings, staring through the windscreen AND the back view mirror simultaneously...
And what's about UP and DOWN?

Are you utilizing all the available dimensions? The video itself runs through the time dimension. You need to manipulate your rotation and up/down within the virtual sphere by dragging the screen around with your mouse.

[Cousin Ricky]

Is there some way to identify Sgr A* itself? Just being able to identify that object would be immensely helpful to see what is going on.

[Chris Peterson]

Is there some way to identify Sgr A* itself? Just being able to identify that object would be immensely helpful to see what is going on.

I think that for most of the video, we're centered on Sgr A*. Notice as we look around how everything is orbiting around our POV. We zoom in on it in the first few seconds, but it's invisible because it's not currently consuming enough matter to be very bright.

[JohnD]

I also found it most difficult to imagine what I was seeing and where from. Is this a "Black Hole's Eye View"? Many of the ?stars? passing by close to my PoV seemed to be distorted, as if by tidal forces.

John

PS Will non-residents PLEASE stop using "a foggy night in London" as the metaphor for visual obscurity? There haven't been any 'pea-soupers' in London since the early 1950s, thanks to government legislation on clean coal fuels. That London air is now polluted with the products of vehicle fuels is possibly as hazardous to health but NOT to clear vision! J.

PPs I see that Chris has confirmed that this is a Black Hole PoV.

[distefanom]

Hi Chris, Maybe that's the problem:
My browser shows the video as two screens one over the other with distorted prospective.
Nothing more. I cannot move/see the image in any direction
Chris, if you say that you can pan left-right and up-down, I think I don't have the right browser plugin.
But, when this happens, usually my browser claims that a plugin is needed to see it correctly.
But this isn't. It shows me the movie as a strange double-panel movie with very distorted images.
so I still wonder where's the mistake...

[pbrox]

Giygas, is that you?

[Chris Peterson]

Hi Chris, Maybe that's the problem:
My browser shows the video as two screens one over the other with distorted prospective.
Nothing more. I cannot move/see the image in any direction
Chris, if you say that you can pan left-right and up-down, I think I don't have the right browser plugin.
But, when this happens, usually my browser claims that a plugin is needed to see it correctly.
But this isn't. It shows me the movie as a strange double-panel movie with very distorted images.
so I still wonder where's the mistake...

I have no plugins being used. It's just HTML5, which should work natively with any modern browser. On my PC the interactive video is working fine with Chrome and Firefox, and on my Android phone it's working with Chrome (and on the phone, it isn't just responsive to touch, but moving the phone around lets me look up/down and left/right.

Maybe you have some plugin that's interfering with the operation. Or just a very old operating system or browser.

[OriEri]

I am using Chrome 63.0.3239.132 as my browser and I also cannot drag perspective around: I see a split screen video only. This APOD description is not useful readers who end up with what appears to be a fairly common experience trying to view the animation. Some plugin clearly is not working properly. Weakest APOD I have seen in quite a while: they are generally very good.

[Chris Peterson]

I am using Chrome 63.0.3239.132 as my browser and I also cannot drag perspective around: I see a split screen video only. This APOD description is not useful readers who end up with what appears to be a fairly common experience trying to view the animation. Some plugin clearly is not working properly.

As noted, no plugins are required. It is possible that some plugin you have is interfering. You can easily test this by temporarily disabling any plugins and seeing if anything changes. And if you can identify the problem, you'll do us all a service by helping prevent it in future APODs.

[distefanom]

Ciao Chris, Also to OriEri,
nope, it's not the operating system, it's the browser.
I tested this solution, with chrome and firefox browser's: it's the same native plugin.
it works this way:
1) open a new tab in browser (any: I tested with chrome and firefox it's the same)
2) type in the URL bar https://apod.nasa.gov/ the usual apod page addres and [ENTER]
this way it works well... but you have to have a very fast connection and a powerful computer to see the movie correctly.

conclusion: the movie will not show properly if it's the homepage... you have to open it as a second page tab.

[Chris Peterson]

Ciao Chris, Also to OriEri,
nope, it's not the operating system, it's the browser.
I tested this solution, with chrome and firefox browser's: it's the same native plugin.
it works this way:
1) open a new tab in browser (any: I tested with chrome and firefox it's the same)
2) type in the URL bar https://apod.nasa.gov/ the usual apod page addres and [ENTER]
this way it works well... but you have to have a very fast connection and a powerful computer to see the movie correctly.

conclusion: the movie will not show properly if it's the homepage... you have to open it as a second page tab.

Well, it's not clear where your problem lies. I'm not sure what you mean by "native plugin". I did test the video in a clean install of both Firefox and Chrome, with no plugins or extensions, in a Windows 7 and a Windows 10 VM. In both cases the video ran just fine, with its interactive features, right on the APOD main page. In both cases, in the first and only tab, the same whether I type in the URL or click on a shortcut to open the browser.