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Last login: 10 hours agoLaodan: laodan is a guy from Milford, Pennsylvania, USA.; Likes 1,599 pages, 24 videos, 8 photos • 228 fans • Received 65 reviews; Member since Aug 08, 2005

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USGS Astrogeology: Digital Geologic Maps of the Planets: Oct 25, 2007 9:15am 1 review astronomy, science, visualization, reality
http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/PlanetaryMapping/DIGGEOL/index.html; Digital Geologic Maps of the Planets via info aesthetics, in astrogeology.usgs.gov
a collection of visually stunning maps of the geological composition of the lunar surface, based on data from lunar missions in the 1960's and 1970's. the contrasting colors & seemingly random shapes of the clusters of craters transform normally boring looking informational maps in objects of visual art. Digital Geologic Maps of the Planets Visualization, visualization! - The more complex the knowledge, about anything, the more we seem to transform it in visual terms in order to get a more instantaneous grasp of its usability. - This process of late-modern visualization is similar to the visualization offered by the visual arts in earlier periods (animism, religion, modernity). In other words the men of knowledge in each historical epoch produce knowledge about phenomena that are not directly accessible to the human retina. All knowledge that is not directly accessible to the retina is converted into visualizations. Such visualizations are transmitted by the retina to the brain for integration in the representation of reality operating in the brain of the observer. But one clear difference distinguishes late modern visualizations from its earlier artistic forms. In earlier epochs artistic visualizations were meant to unify the worldview of all citizens within any given society. Late modern visualizations are not concerned with this kind of societal unification they appear as mere tools for letting late modern men of knowledge gaining a more instantaneous grasp of the implications of the sum of knowings he has accumulated. This distinction between the societal functionality of artistic visualizations in earlier epochs from the late modern individual, or sectoral, functionality begs us to differentiate the nature of the knowledge in earlier epochs from its late modern version. In earlier periods knowledge had the societal function of unifying the individuals behind a common worldview. This kind of knowledge was holistic. It gave an interpretation of reality for all to share. The resulting sharing of a common worldview by the citizens of any society before high modernity assured the reproduction of those societies. Societal change was thus naturally slow as it privileged conservation of the societal order over the innovation spurred by individuals. In late modernity visualizations are meant to help those who research a particular segment or aspect of reality to make more instantaneous sense of the profusion of data their research returns. Such profusion of data should not be confused with knowledge (understanding of the whole of reality). It merely corresponds to an accumulation of knowings (one data added to another at the level of a particular segment of reality). This distinction between: - knowledge as an understanding of the whole of reality - and knowings as an accumulation of data at the level of a particular segment of reality is shaping the nature of the difference between: - art (as visual representation of the whole of reality) - and scientific visualization (as the visualization of an accumulation of data gained through the observation of a tiny segment of the whole). Art served societal reproduction but what do late modern scientific visualizations serve? Not the reproduction of societies for sure but what else could it be?

APOD: 2007 October 8 - Galaxy NGC 474: Cosmic Blender: Oct 8, 2007 1:48pm 1 review astronomy, visualization
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071008.html; Unexpectedly high complexity in Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day
Credit & Copyright: Mischa Schirmer Explanation: What's happening to galaxy NGC 474? The multiple layers of emission appear strangely complex and unexpected given the relatively featureless appearance of the elliptical galaxy in less deep images. The cause of the shells is currently unknown, but possibly tidal tails related to debris left over from absorbing numerous small galaxies in the past billion years. Alternatively the shells may be like ripples in a pond, where the ongoing collision with the spiral galaxy to the right of NGC 474 is causing density waves to ripple though the galactic giant. Regardless of the actual cause, the above image dramatically highlights the increasing consensus that the outer halos of most large galaxies are not really smooth but have complexities induced by frequent interactions with -- and accretions of -- smaller nearby galaxies. NGC 474 spans about 250,000 light years and lies about 100 million light years distant toward the constellation of the Fish Pisces. Galaxy NGC 474: Cosmic Blender
Two Million Galaxies Credit & Copyright: S. Maddox (Nottingham U.) et al. APM Survey, Astrophys. Dept. Oxford U. Explanation: Our universe is filled with galaxies. Galaxies -- huge conglomerations of stars, gas, dust -- and mysterious dark matter are the basic building blocks of the large-scale universe. Although distant galaxies move away from each other as the universe expands, gravity attracts neighboring galaxies to each other, forming galaxy groups, clusters of galaxies, and even larger expansive filaments. Some of these structures are visible on one of the most comprehensive maps of the sky ever made in galaxies: the APM galaxy survey map completed in the early 1990s. Over 2 million galaxies are depicted above in a region 100 degrees across centered toward our Milky Way Galaxy's south pole. Bright regions indicate more galaxies, while bluer colors denote larger average galaxies. Dark ellipses have been cut away where bright local stars dominate the sky. Those 2 images give us a good visualization of the utter complexity of our universe, or better, of our island universe in Villenkin's terminology.

APOD: 2007 September 28 - A Hole in Mars Close Up: Sep 29, 2007 8:22am 1 review astronomy, visualization
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070928.html; A Hole in Mars Close Up in Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day
Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA Explanation: In a close-up from the HiRISE instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this mysterious dark pit, about 150 meters across, lies on the north slope of ancient martian volcano Arsia Mons. Lacking raised rims and other impact crater characteristics, this pit and others like it were originally identified in visible light and infrared images from the Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. While the visible light images showed only darkness within, infrared thermal signatures indicated that the openings penetrated deep under the martian surface and perhaps were skylights to underground caverns. In this later image, the pit wall is partially illuminated by sunlight and seen to be nearly vertical, though the bottom, at least 78 meters below, is still not visible. The dark martian pits are thought to be related to collapse pits in the lava flow, similar to Hawaiian volcano pit craters. A Hole in Mars Close Up This picture comes as a follow-up on an earlier post when I wrote "Amazing how the unknown behind this image of a hole is driving our imagination... ".

APOD: 2007 September 24 - A Galactic Star Forming Region in Infrared: Sep 24, 2007 7:02am 1 review astronomy, visualization, reality
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070924.html; A Galactic Star Forming Region in Infrared in Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day
Credit: S. Carey (SSC/Caltech), JPL-Caltech, NASA Explanation: How do stars form? To help study this complex issue, astronomers took a deep image in infrared light of an active part of our Milky Way Galaxy where star formation is rampant. In IRDC G11.11-0.11, thick clouds of dust and gas are congealing into stars that are so dark that humans living there would see an empty night sky. The image, though, taken last year by the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared light, shows vast glowing fields of gas and dust, indicating that much of this dust is heated by forming stars. The centers of some clouds, such as the snake-like structure on the upper left, are so thick and cold that they are dark even in infrared light. Many of the red dots are glowing dust shrouds centered on very young newly formed stars. The unusual red sphere below the snake is actually a supernova remnant, the glowing shell of a young star so massive it evolved rapidly and exploded. The region spans about 150 light years and lies about 10,000 light years away toward the constellation of Sagittarius. A Galactic Star Forming Region in Infrared Another great realist visualization... Visual realism means illustrating reality. There is no reason to limit our vision of reality to what our eyes give us to see. Reality is vaster than our personal environment. The image given by our eyes is the first degree image of reality. It is the level at which individuals strive to reproduce their existence. But this first degree reality has since long been thwarted by new dimensions opened to us by culture, economics, science and so on. Reality has thus developed in our consciousness as our being a tiny particle into an infinite whole. Finite or infinite fact is that the whole is simply unattainable to us particles. Within the confines of this understanding of our limitations realism takes indeed another form

APOD: 2007 August 27 - Huge Void Implicated in Distant Universe: Aug 27, 2007 9:32am 1 review astronomy, visualization
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070827.html; Huge Void Implicated in Distant Universe in Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day
Drawing Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO, AUI, NSF NASA Explanation: What has created this huge empty volume in the universe? No one is yet sure, and even the extent of the estimated billion-light year void is being researched. The void is not a hole in space like a black hole, but rather a vast region of the universe that appears to be mostly devoid of normal matter and even dark matter. The void is still thought to contain dark energy, though, and is clearly traversable by light. The void's existence is being postulated following scientific curiosity about how unusually cold spots came to appear on WMAP's maps of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. One possibility was that this CMB region was not actually very cold but light from the spot somehow became less cosmologically redshifted than normal along the way. Other voids in the universe are known to exist, but this void appears to have an unusually large gravitational effect, and so might possibly be the largest in our entire visible universe. Investigating this, a recent study found an unusually low number of cosmic radio sources between Earth and the CMB cold spot, which led to the inference of this giant void. Huge Void Implicated in Distant Universe Great visualization of news that made the headlines in most science magazines recently.

APOD: 2007 August 5- The Dotted Dunes of Mars: Aug 5, 2007 7:51pm 3 reviews astronomy, visualization
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070805.html; The Dotted Dunes of Mars in Nasa's Picture of the Day
The Dotted Dunes of Mars
Credit & Copyright: Malin Space Science Systems, MOC, MGS, JPL, NASA Explanation: What causes the black dots on dunes on Mars? As spring dawned on the Northern Hemisphere of Mars in 2004, dunes of sand near the poles begin to defrost. Thinner regions of ice typically thaw first revealing sand whose darkness soaks in sunlight and accelerates the thaw. The process might involve sandy jets exploding through the thinning ice. By summer, the spots expanded to encompass the entire dunes that were then completely thawed and dark. The carbon dioxide and water ice actually sublime in the thin atmosphere directly to gas. Taken in mid-July, the above image shows a field of spotted polar dunes spanning about 3 kilometers near the Martian North Pole. Today, the future of Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity remains unknown indy dust storms continue to starve them of needed sunlight. The Dotted Dunes of Mars Amazing how such images are opening our minds to ever evolving possibilities.

APOD: 2007 July 21 - Infrared Andromeda: Jul 21, 2007 6:11am 2 reviews astronomy, visualization
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070721.html; Infrared Andromeda in Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day
Infrared Andromeda
Credit: Pauline Barmby ( Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) et al., JPL, Caltech, NASA Explanation: This wide, detailed Spitzer Space Telescope view features infrared light from dust (red) and old stars (blue) in Andromeda, a massive spiral galaxy a mere 2.5 million light-years away. In fact, with over twice the diameter of our own Milky Way, Andromeda is the largest nearby galaxy. Andromeda's population of bright young stars define its sweeping spiral arms in visible light images, but here the infrared view clearly follows the lumpy dust lanes heated by the young stars as they wind even closer to the galaxy's core. Constructed to explore Andromeda's infrared brightness and stellar populations, the full mosaic image is composed of about 3,000 individual frames. The data confirm that Andromeda (aka M31) houses around 1 trillion stars, compared to 4 hundred billion for the Milky Way. Infrared Andromeda Imagine, just imagine what the following really means. Our Milky Way contains 400 billion stars and our solar system is one of them. And we are a grain of dust on the skin of Gaia and we look at an image of our Milky Way's neighbor galaxy Andromeda. What are we?

APOD: 2007 July 1 - Steep Cliffs on Mars: Jul 1, 2007 7:28am 1 review astronomy, visualization
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070701.html

APOD: 2007 June 13 - Warped Sky: Star Trails Panorama: Jun 13, 2007 6:30am 3 reviews astronomy, visualization
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070613.html; Warped Sky: Star Trails Panorama in Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day
Credit & Copyright: Peter Ward Explanation: What's happened to the sky? A time warp, of sorts, and a digital space warp too. The time warp occurs because the above image captured in a single frame a four hour exposure of the night sky. Prominent and picturesque star trails are visible. The space warp occurs because the above image is actually a full 360 degree panorama, horizontally compressed to fit your browser. As the Earth rotated, stars appeared to circle both the South Celestial Pole, on the left, and the North Celestial Pole, which occurs just below the horizon on the right. The above image captured the sky over Mudgee, New South Wales, Australia, including the domes of two large telescopes artificially lit by red light. A horizontally unwarped image is visible by clicking on the above image. Warped Sky: Star Trails Panorama Another excellent visualization.

APOD: 2007 May 28 - A Hole in Mars: May 28, 2007 8:00am 6 reviews astronomy, life
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070528.html; A Hole in Mars in Nasa's Astronomy picture of the day
Credit: NASA, JPL, U. Arizona Explanation: Black spots have been discovered on Mars that are so dark that nothing inside can be seen. Quite possibly, the spots are entrances to deep underground caves capable of protecting Martian life, were it to exist. The unusual hole pictured above was found on the slopes of the giant Martian volcano Arsia Mons. The above image was captured three weeks ago by the HiRISE instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars. The holes were originally identified on lower resolution images from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, The above hole is about the size of a football field and is so deep that it is completely unilluminated by the Sun. Such holes and underground caves might be prime targets for future spacecraft, robots, and even the next generation of human interplanetary explorers. A Hole in Mars

Amazing how the unknown behind this image of a hole is driving our imagination... As the commentary states "Quite possibly, the spots are entrances to deep underground caves capable of protecting Martian life, were it to exist." So here we go. But what if life were really present in those deep caves? If Martian life forms were becoming "prime targets for future spacecraft, robots, and even the next generation of human interplanetary explorers" what would be the impact of our encounter with them? Do you really believe that we could handle such an encounter any more gentler than our earlier encounters with other civilizations, human societies and other animal and plant species? Would our encounter not be a threat to the survival of Martian life? And if we think this could be a possibility what about our moral responsibility?

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