Rays

Let’s unravel the math behind 3D rays and demonstrate that it’s not significantly more challenging than the conventional 2D case.Photo by Tobias Cornille on Unsplash1. IntroductionMotivationIn fields like computer graphics, autonomous vehicle navigation or augmented reality, where immersive experiences are created through the manipulation of 3D environments, a deep understanding of ray intersection and triangulation algorithms empowers data scientists to craft lifelike simulations and interactive virtual worlds.It also…

Most of the light streaming through our Universe is invisible to human eyes.The spectrum ranges from long radio waves to short gamma rays, with the visible part occupying just a tiny slice in the middle. But, thanks to telescope technology, we're able to peer into other slices of the spectrum, and see all the light in the sky.NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope is one such instrument. Gamma radiation is the most energetic light in the cosmos, and it's produced by energetic sources such as supernova remnants, pulsar…

A space telescope scanning the skies for gamma rays has added hundreds of new powerful dead stars to its catalog.The addition of 294 previously unidentified stars means that the Fermi catalog of gamma-ray pulsars now contains more than 340 objects – a significant step up since the Fermi Large Area Telescope started observing in 2008, when there were fewer than 10 known such pulsars.The newly released Third Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-Ray Pulsars is a real treasure trove of information that will help us…

Archaeologists excavated a Bronze Age stela that challenges longstanding interpretations of how the carvings represent gender and social roles in prehistoric times. Credit: Durham University This week's news roundup includes a Bronze Age discovery that calls into question existing ideas of gender representation from the period. More research confirms that bonobos are actually nice. Plus: Actual good climate news?…

Earlier this year, it was reported that the Earth was hit by the brightest gamma-ray bursts seen since the dawn of civilization. Now, a team of astronomers has assigned a value to the energy contained in those blasts and it's staggering to say the least.The gamma-ray burst (GRB) reported in April of this year was actually confirmed by NASA as having struck Earth on October 9, 2022, and having originated about two billion light-years away. The space agency called the occurrence a "1-in-10,000-year event" and said that it…

Somewhere out in the depths of the Milky Way galaxy, something stirs. Powerful forces whip charged particles into an energetic frenzy of cosmic rays, launching them at velocities that near the speed of light.We may finally be close to pinning down their origins.A reanalysis of 10 years of data collected by the the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica has returned the most solid evidence to date of neutrino emissions from the center of our galaxy that point to long-sought sources of cosmic rays."Confirming the…

Rachael Ray’s ending her longtime talk show after more than a decade, but food content will still be her meat and potatoes. CBS announced Friday that the “30 Minute Meals” star will conclude her self-titled talk show after its current 17th season. “In my more than 20 plus years in television I have had 17 wonderful seasons working in daytime television with ‘Rachael,’” she said in a press release. “However I’ve made the decision that’s it’s time for me to move on to the next exciting chapter in my broadcast career.”Ray’s…

The fragment of the translation of the New Testament is visible under UV light. Credit: © Vatican LibraryIt is an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle in New Testament history and one of the oldest textual witnesses of the Gospels: a small manuscript fragment of the Syriac translation, written in the 3rd century and copied in the 6th century. A researcher from the Austrian Academy of Sciences discovered the fragment with the help of ultraviolet photography.About 1,300 years ago a scribe in Palestine took a book of the…

Most of the light streaming through the Universe is invisible to human eyes. Beyond the mid-range wavelengths we can see, there's a whole cosmos shining in high- and low-energy radiation.But we humans are clever little animals and have managed to build instruments that can see the light we cannot. One of these is NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, an observatory hanging out in low-Earth orbit, monitoring the sky for gamma rays, the highest-energy light in the Universe.Fermi constantly surveils the entire sky,…

In its long and remarkable tenure on Mars, the NASA Curiosity rover has reached some significant milestones and discovered some really interesting things. The rover was first deployed on the red planet in 2012 and it continues to collect samples and look for signs of life on the planet. Recently, it discovered a bizarre rock formation that looked just like a duck. And now, it has captured a stunning image of a phenomenon which is extremely rare to see on Mars — visible Sun rays.It should be noted that while sunlight…