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Interactive Planetarium Celestia serves as a planetarium – for an observer on any celestial object. You can easily navigate to any world and land on its surface. When used as a planetarium, Celestia shows accurate positions of solar system objects in the sky. You can switch labels and other supporting features on and off with hotkeys, or zoom in and out on an object of interest, for example Jupiter’s system of moons.
When you write tests against a web page, you need to refer to elements within that web page in order to click links and determine what's displayed. However, if you write tests that manipulate the HTML elements directly your tests will be brittle to changes in the UI. A page object wraps an HTML page, or fragment, with an application-specific API, allowing you to manipulate page elements without digging around in the HTML. The basic rule of thumb for a page object is that it should allow a softw
Interactive Planetarium Celestia serves as a planetarium – for an observer on any celestial object. You can easily navigate to any world and land on its surface. When used as a planetarium, Celestia shows accurate positions of solar system objects in the sky. You can switch labels and other supporting features on and off with hotkeys, or zoom in and out on an object of interest, for example Jupiter’s system of moons.
Another day, another adorable game that I've become completely obsessed with. I came across Roly-Pony this weekend during a particularly soul-sucking bout of doomscrolling, and it's turned out to be the perfect little temporary respite from the horrors. (Shoutout to Alice Ruppert of The Mane Quest for always keeping us informed about the latest in horse games). Roly-Pony is a Suika-style game, meaning it involves dropping and stacking round objects in order to create matching pairs that combine
NASA has thrown cold water on Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb's theory that interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS was sent to us by an extraterrestrial civilization — a sobering albeit unsurprising conclusion that just might put the captivating hypothesis to rest once and for all. In early July, astronomers first discovered the object, which was only the third interstellar visitor ever detected in the solar system. Since then, Loeb has advanced the "tantalizing possibility" that 3I/ATLAS was "sent tow
A mysterious object from interstellar space is screaming through our solar system right now, and is expected to rip past Mars and Jupiter over the coming months before exiting back into the void between stars. Astronomers have been fascinated by the unusual visitor, dubbed 3I/ATLAS after its discovery in July, and have broadly come to the conclusion that it's a comet comprised of ice and dust particles. As the object approaches its closest point to our Sun, its activity is steadily picking up
As interstellar object 3I/ATLAS approaches its closest point to the Sun next month, the mysterious visitor continues to fascinate astronomers. The object, which is broadly believed to be a comet that came to us from outside the solar system, has already been observed changing shape. Its tail has grown longer, and its coma — a large atmosphere of gas and dust that surrounds its nucleus — has become more pronounced. Those are expected characteristics from a comet ripping by the Sun at ludicrous s
Ever since a mysterious interstellar object, since dubbed 3I/ATLAS, was first spotted screaming into our solar system this year, famed Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has been raising the possibility that the interstellar interloper is an "extraterrestrial artifact" that was sent to us by an intelligent alien race. Researchers have broadly come to the consensus that 3I/ATLAS is a comet. Most recently, observations by the Gemini South telescope in Chile confirmed that its tail is growing longer,
"Even the most fleeting visitors can leave a lasting impact." Astronomers have been racing to get a better look at 3I/ATLAS, a mysterious object screaming into our solar system from far beyond. While there's a broad consensus among experts that the object is a comet, observations by four NASA telescopes have defied expectations, showing that it bears a much higher proportion of carbon dioxide gas than expected. Now, as the BBC reports, new observations by the Gemini South telescope at Cerro P
By definition, scientists don't know what to expect as they inspect the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, since it's only the third object detected from beyond the solar system in human history. But the surprises just keep coming. The mysterious entity, which was first spotted hurtling towards the Sun from far beyond in early July, has fascinated researchers ever since. As Science Alert points out, a quartet of powerful telescopes — NASA's Hubble, SPHEREx, Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TES
Meschers: Geometry Processing of Impossible Objects Fig. 1. The mescher is a geometry representation that allows rendering and relighting impossible objects (left), as well as performing intrinsic geometry processing operations like heat diffusion (center) and geodesic distance queries (right). Abstract Impossible objects, geometric constructions that humans can perceive but that cannot exist in real life, have been a topic of intrigue in visual arts, perception, and graphics, yet no satisfyin
Ever since interstellar object 3I/ATLAS streaked into our solar system, astronomers have been scrambling to understand how this likely comet got here—and more importantly, perhaps, where it came from. As only the third interstellar object ever discovered, 3I/ATLAS offers a rare chance to study remnants of solar systems beyond our own, briefly bringing the distant galaxy within reach. But before we get into the new study, imagine the Milky Way as a kind of celestial sandwich: Inside is a thin d
Rasterizer Inspired by my love of Adobe Flash, I started to work on a GPU-accelerated 2D vector graphics engine for the original iPhone, and then the Mac. Three iterations, and many years later, I have finally released Rasterizer . It is up to 60x faster than the CPU, making it ideal for vector animated UI (press the T key in the demo app to see an example). The 10-year gestation was the result of endlessly iterating over the core problem of efficiently turning vector paths into reference-qual
In June, a mysterious object was spotted hurtling through the inner solar system on a hyperbolic path. It was later confirmed as an interstellar object, the third such entity from outside our solar system to be seen in the night skies. The rare discovery has prompted a scientific scramble to understand the object and its origins, including potential probes to study it up close. Scientists at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) put together a mission study that outlines how a spacecraft coul
Fluid Simulation (Demo) 2025 I wanted to see what happens when a fluid simulation collides with real objects. To test this idea I created this demo. To capture the shapes of objects, I mounted a webcam above the screen. A polarization filter blocks the image displayed on the screen, preventing a feedback loop, while still allowing the camera to see anything placed in front of it. The video feed is then aligned with the computer-generated simulation, so the fluid can react to those cutout obj
Incoming! Earlier this year, astronomers spotted a mysterious interstellar visitor, widely believed to be a comet, screaming into our solar system. With the help of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers recently got a closer look at the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, that revealed an unexpectedly high ratio of carbon dioxide to water for a comet, as well as a highly irradiated ice core. Ever since astronomers spotted the object, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb has suggested the tantalizing pos
Well, here’s something you don’t find floating in the water every day: a giant piece of metal from an offshore wind turbine. The Swedish coast guard recently identified the so-called UFO—and it’s the second rogue object spotted within a month. Last week, the Swedish Coast Guard received a tip about a mysterious UFO, in this case an “unidentified floating object,” bobbing up and down near the country’s border with Norway. The Marine Corps and the Smögen Sea Rescue Company expressed their concern
Child groups That's a useful rule, and it can get us pretty far. But let's make it even more specific, so we can prove more programs memory-safe. For example, look at this snippet: rs ref hp_ref = d.hp # Ref to contents damage = a.calculate_damage(d) a_energy_cost = a.calculate_attack_cost(d) d_energy_cost = d.calculate_defend_cost(a) a.use_energy(a_energy_cost) d.use_energy(d_energy_cost) d.damage(damage) print(hp_ref) # Valid! The previous (invalid) program had a ring_ref referring to an ele
Child groups That's a useful rule, and it can get us pretty far. But let's make it even more specific, so we can prove more programs memory-safe. For example, look at this snippet: rs ref hp_ref = d.hp # Ref to contents damage = a.calculate_damage(d) a_energy_cost = a.calculate_attack_cost(d) d_energy_cost = d.calculate_defend_cost(a) a.use_energy(a_energy_cost) d.use_energy(d_energy_cost) d.damage(damage) print(hp_ref) # Valid! The previous (invalid) program had a ring_ref referring to an ele
My scheduler operations implementation A benefit of working on your own operating system is that you’re free from the usual "restraints" of collaboration and real applications. That has always been a major factor in my interest in osdev. You don’t have to worry about releasing your program, or about critical security vulnerabilities, or about hundreds of people having to maintain your code. A benefit of working on your own operating system is that you’re free from the usual "restraints" of co
I don’t think we have any actually good programming languages, and I don’t think I’m alone in believing this. Programming is hard, and language design is harder. We’re still learning. But I think they’re all failing us in a shockingly fundamental way. The root of the trouble is a distinction I’d like to draw between data and objects. Let me know if you think there are better terms to use. Programming languages give us tools to represent things. Sometimes these things are values: the integer 1.
Last month, astronomers made an exciting discovery, observing an interstellar object — only the third ever observed — hurtling toward the center of the solar system. The object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, has caught the attention of Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who has a long track record of making controversial predictions about previous interstellar objects being relics from an extraterrestrial civilization. While there's been a growing consensus among astronomers that the latest object is a comet, Lo
Last month, astronomers made an exciting discovery, observing an interstellar object — only the third ever observed — hurtling toward the center of the solar system. The object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, has caught the attention of Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who has a long track record of making controversial predictions about previous interstellar objects being relics from an extraterrestrial civilization. While there's been a growing consensus among astronomers that the latest object is a comet, Lo
Below is a list of various drawing applications that are available to use with System 7 (68K). I’m mostly interested in apps that can do both pixel and vector, and that support layers and transparency. The table below might be useful for at-a-glance comparisons. Apps run in both mono or colour, unless stated otherwise. Deneba artWORKS can do both pixel and vector, has layers and partial transparency. The bottom layer is opaque and all layers on top are transparent. Collections of pixels are ma
A strange object hurdling through our solar system from interstellar space may, according to one of academia's most controversial astronomers, have been sent by aliens to see how smart we are. The newly-discovered object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, is only the third interstellar object of its kind to have been observed visiting our solar system. While most astronomers, including those at NASA, believe it to be a comet, Harvard's resident alien-hunter Avi Loeb has repeatedly suggested that it was sent to
Authors: Moussa Koulako Bala Doumbouya, Dan Jurafsky, Christopher D. Manning Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11035 Once a year, some interesting architecture inevitably appears where they change some fundamental building block. This happened with KAN last year, where they changed the parameterization of the neuron activation function (though it's unclear what the outcome is after a year — many follow-up works seem to have appeared, but KANs haven't displaced anyone anywhere yet). The same is
So much for heliocentrism. An international team of astronomers using observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope have found evidence of massive planets out there that're capable of forming their own planetary systems — without a star. These planets would be the center of something like a mini version of our solar system where other, smaller planets revolve around it. But without the light of a star, these systems, if they exist, would go largely overlooked by our telescopes, lost to
Earlier this year, astronomers spotted a mysterious interstellar object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, hurtling through the solar system at a blistering speed. It's only the third confirmed interstellar object to have ventured into our solar system — all over the past few years, owing to more sophisticated space-observing technology — and scientists are eager to have a closer look. Besides detailed observations by the Very Large Telescope in Chile and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Harvard astronomer and a
As evidence continues to mount that the mysterious object with interstellar origins currently speeding toward the inner solar system at a breakneck speed is a comet, not everybody's convinced quite yet. Harvard astronomer and alien hunter Avi Loeb raised the far-fetched, yet tantalizing possibility that the object, which was first spotted by astronomers earlier this year, could have been sent by an extraterrestrial civilization. While he admitted in a blog post last month that it's most likely
Meet “impossibagel,” a physically impossible bagel that mathematicians use to resolve intricate geometry problems. But impossibagel—and other “impossible objects” in mathematics—is notoriously difficult to replicate, and researchers haven’t been able to fully tap into their mathematical potential. That may no longer be a problem, thanks to a new tool. On Monday, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) announced “Meschers,” software capable of visuali