Starquake
by Eric March on November 6, 2008 at 3:44 pm
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App Name: Starquake
Developer: Magnificent Library
Category: Educational
For one brief, shining moment, I thought someone had ported the classic 8-bit adventure/platformer Starquake to the iPhone. Then I remembered I was browsing the educational category and my hopes were heartlessly dashed.
What it is however, is an app that any armchair astronomer will enjoy, especially ones with a particular interest in our own little star. This rather large app features 10 videos covering various aspects of the sun — solar flares, close-up videos, even a lunar transit.
Footage is largely taken from the STEREO-B satellite, plus some ground-based scopes and possibly some SOHO footage as well, all taken using narrow-band UV filters at various wavelengths. (Those are the green and blue-coloured suns you see; they are represented in “false colour,” each colour representing a specific common UV wavelength.).
Tucked in amongst the videos are also 3 red-cyan 3D-imaged videos of the sun in action. You will naturally need red-cyan glasses to view these in their proper perspective. Each video is accompanied by a brief info page (accessible through the “i” button on each page) that tells you a bit about each video.
Perhaps most intriguing though — largely because this isn’t something you come across — is the fact that most of the videos have their soundtracks provided by the sun itself. Yes, you can actually hear the sun, after a fashion. It’s not like they just pointed a giant parabolic dish at the sun and hit “record” though; there’s virtually no medium for sound to travel through so that wouldn’t work out very well. Instead, the sound is processed from helioseismological readings of the sun’s own pressure waves. (Kind of like earthquakes, only they’re constant and much, much bigger.)
It’s a fascinating animated look into that big bright ball in the sky, and anyone who has any interest in this sort of thing should get a kick out of it. It would be nice if a little more detailed information could be given no each video though.
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Posted in Educational, Games: RPG & Adventure
