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Two Galaxies Colliding

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Image credit: (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UC Irvine/STScI/Keck/NRAO/SAO)

When it comes to massive events, Galaxies colliding is pretty high up on the list. Imagine billions of stars from two galaxies intermingling as two systems merge.

This is exactly what the Herschel space observatory has taken images of in this relatively rare event. The two galaxies together are called HXMM01 and are located about 11 billion light-years away from Earth. The merging galaxies are creating some 2,000 stars per year which is a lot when compared to our Milky Way galaxy which only creates about two to three stars per year.

This discovery is important as it gives us a rare glimpse into the early years of the universe and actually helps give us a clearer picture of how the largest galaxies in the universe are created. The most popular theory is that these massive systems are created by a larger galaxy picking up smaller ones, but this discovery shows us that they may actually be created by two massive galaxies colliding instead.

You can read the full article in detail on this subject from JPL/NASA.

 

Xbox One Specs

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Microsoft did a great job revealing to us the new Xbox One, here are some of the specs that will be in this system coming later this year:

This “all in one” system will work seamlessly together for games, entertainment and television.

Microsoft promises that you’re “going to have a relationship with your TV.”

Voice commands can be used to go from TV to game to internet without any lag, as was demonstrated. You will be able to use universal gestures such as swipe, and grab and pan. Skype will also be a part of Xbox One.

With the new Kinect, you won’t need to log in manually, it will recognize you and log you in. Microsoft says that it will be able to read your heartbeat and has a better understanding of rotational movement.

TV on Xbox sounds like its going to be pretty cool. Not only can you use it to watch regular channels it seems as though they are creating a channel of their own, as Steven Spielberg announced  a new Halo TV series. The NFL has also joined Xbox and showed us some interaction with fantasy stats and using Skype with NFL broadcasts.

There will be 15 new games within the first year, eight of which will be brand new franchises. Forza 5 was shown, and a new game called Quantum Break.

For XboxLive they promise 300,000 servers for Xbox One

This is all just some of the info we got, more coming at E3 June 11-13.

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The Next Generation Xbox, We Have Questions

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(Image Credit: International Business Times)

We are now only one day away from Microsoft’s May 21st event that will begin at 10 AM PDT on Xbox Live, Xbox.com and Spike TV.  This event is where the next generation Xbox is to be unveiled and of course we are all just filled with anticipation and feeling anxious as we await any new details about the PS4’s competition. If you haven’t already you can check out Major Nelson’s latest podcast which will fill you in a bit on how things are going come together in the next few weeks for Xbox.

Here’s few questions to get us thinking about the next-gen Xbox:

Many Xbox fans are hoping that the new Xbox isn’t “Online Only” and there are a few rumors that say it won’t be and hopefully that’s the case. I think a console that locks you into online only mode at this point in time is self destructive, I don’t think that the gaming community is ready for that yet.

Will Microsoft include a Blu-Ray player in the Xbox (infinity, 720)? There’s no way to know unless they tell us but I’m rooting for “yes”, because it makes sense and it would be nice to have the extra benefits of being able to play Blu-Ray movies on your console along with having the extra capacity for gaming media.

Will there be Skype integration? This would be a great social feature to add into the mix and I hope it makes it’s way in. Besides, Skype and Microsoft are now one in the same.

Will there be Solid State Drives? I haven’t heard any rumors on this but it would be really nice to have an SSD onboard especially with an increased focus on downloadable content. Faster load times and just overall better performance, let’s keep our fingers crossed.

What about a new version of Kinect, what will it look like and how will it be integrated? Some rumors say it will be built into the console itself. If you missed our earlier post you can check out Illumiroom, which is an augmented reality device that projects images around your television and it works with Kinect technology. This could very well be an accessory for the new Xbox.

Finally, what will it look like and what will be under the hood? Will Microsoft show off the goods? How much muscle with the new console have and will it best the PS4?  Maybe we will see a console this time, Sony has yet to show us the PS4’s hardware, which is kind of a let down, even though it probably shouldn’t matter but heck, we want to see it!

Be sure to check back with us as we will be rolling out a rundown of the next-gen Xbox in the days to come.

 

Chris Hadfield Leaves the ISS With A Cover Song

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Commander Chris Hadfield has made an awesome video, actually he’s made quite a few awesome videos, but in this last one he says goodbye to the International Space Station as he gets ready to land back on Earth by creating an performing an amazing cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. The video offers something to this song that no other video can and it fits his situation perfectly, it simply captures the moment and the view of Earth is stunning.

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The International Space Station (Credit: NASA)