Daily Archives: February 18, 2023

The year 2021 was one of major scientific expansion. Thanks to a variety of exploratory missions and their cutting-edge instruments, astronomers have been able to peer into the cosmos like never before.

Researchers have turned the Earth into a giant telescope to view powerful jets from a black hole. Solar system surveys have revealed new moons and massive comets previously lurking undetected by scientists. The sun has also been a main attraction for research as it reawakens from its recent slumber.

Here's our look back at the 10 biggest space stories of 2021.

Two researchers unexpectedly discovered the largest-known comet to date.

Graduate student Pedro Bernardinelli was looking through Dark Energy Survey data to find objects that live beyond Neptune's orbit when he noticed an object significantly farther from the sun than the objects he planned to study. He asked his advisor, cosmologist Gary Bernstein, to have a look.

They had actually detected a comet that is much larger than any of the ones known so far to science: It may be 10 times wider and 1,000 times more massive than a typical comet.

On top of that, this comet has not swung around the sun since the hominid ancestor Lucy walked on the Earth approximately 3 million years ago.

Their finding was officially designated a comet on June 23, 2021 and named Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein after its discoverers.

In a big sweep of scientific luck, astronomers will only have to wait a decade to see this comet approach the sun. Comets come from very far away, originating from one of the outermost regions of the solar system known as the Oort Cloud. Comets journey through our cosmic neighborhood in long elliptical orbits and can take thousands of years to complete one trip around the sun.

Scientists should be able to get a more accurate reading of Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein's size and composition when the comet makes its closest to Earth in the year 2031, although it will still be beyond Saturn's average orbit when it swings nearby.

A previously-unknown moon has been detected around the largest planet in the solar system.

Jupiter is a giant, so it gravitationally attracts many objects into its vicinity. Earth has one major moon, Mars has two: but Jupiter boasts at least 79 moons, and there may be dozens or hundreds more of them that astronomers have yet to identify.

The latest discovery was made by amateur astronomer Kai Ly, who found evidence of this Jovian moon in a data set from 2003 that had been collected by researchers using the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Mauna Kea. Ly they confirmed the moon was likely bound to Jupiter's gravity using data from another telescope called Subaru.

The new moon, called EJc0061, belongs to the Carme group of Jovian moons. They orbit in the opposite direction of Jupiter's rotation at an extreme tilt relative to Jupiter's orbital plane.

Mars is a popular target for space agencies, but Earth's other neighbor has been garnering more attention recently.

In 2020, researchers announced that they had detected traces of phosphine in Venus' atmosphere. It is a possible biosignature gas, and the news certainly reawakened interest in the planet.

In early June 2021, NASA announced it will launch two missions to Venus by 2030. One mission, called DAVINCI+ (short for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging, Plus) will descend through the planet's atmosphere to learn about how it has changed over time. The other mission, VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) will attempt to map the planet's terrain from orbit like never before.

Venus has been visited by robotic probes, but NASA has not launched a dedicated mission to the planet since 1989.

The interest in Martian exploration may be one reason why Venus has been neglected in recent decades, but the second planet from the sun is also a challenging place to study. Although it may have once been a balmy world with oceans and rivers, a runaway greenhouse effect took hold of Venus around 700 million years ago and now the planet's surface is hot enough to melt lead.

The sun was experiencing a quiet time in its roughly decade-long cycle, but it is now exiting that phase.

The sun has had very little activity in recent years, but the star's surface is now erupting in powerful events that spew out charged particles towards Earth. In early November, for instance, a series of solar outbursts triggered a large geomagnetic storm on our planet.

This eruption is known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. It's essentially a billion-ton cloud of solar material with magnetic fields, and when this bubble pops, it blasts a stream of energetic particles out into the solar system. If this material heads in the direction of Earth, it interacts with our planet's own magnetic field and causes disturbances. These can include ethereal displays of auroras near Earth's poles, but can also include satellite disruptions and energy losses.

A whole new era of space science began on Christmas Day 2021 with the successful launch of the world's next major telescope.

NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency are collaborating on the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a project more than three decades in the making. Space telescopes take a long time to plan and assemble: The vision for this particular spacecraft began before its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, had even launched into Earth orbit.

Whereas Hubble orbits a few hundred miles from Earth's surface, JWST is heading to an observational perch located about a million miles from our planet. The telescope began its journey towards this spot, called the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 2 (L2), on Dec. 25, 2021 at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) when an Ariane 5 rocket launched the precious payload from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The telescope will help astronomers answer questions about the evolution of the universe and provide a deeper understanding about the objects found in our very own solar system.

In July 2021, the novel project behind the world's first photo of a black hole published an image of a powerful jet blasting off from one of these supermassive objects.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a global collaboration of eight observatories that work together to create one Earth-sized telescope. The end result is a resolution that is 16 times sharper and an image that is 10 times more accurate than what was possible before.

Scientists used EHT's incredible abilities to observe a powerful jet being ejected by the supermassive black hole at the center of the Centaurus A galaxy, one of the brightest objects in the night sky. The galaxy's black hole is so large that it has the mass of 55 million suns.

Just 1,500 light-years from Earth lies the closest-known black hole to Earth, now called "The Unicorn."

Tiny black holes are hard to spot, but scientists managed to find this one when they noticed strange behavior from its companion star, a red giant. Researchers observed its light shifting in intensity, which suggested to them that another object was tugging on the star.

This black hole is super-lightweight at just three solar masses. Its location in the constellation Monoceros ("the unicorn") and its rarity have inspired this black hole's name.

An object dropped into Earth's orbit like a second moon, and this year, it made its final close approach of our planet.

It is classified as a "minimoon," or temporary satellite. But it's no stray space rock the object, known as 2020 SO, is a leftover fragment of a 1960s rocket booster from the American Surveyor moon missions.

On Feb. 2, 2021, 2020 SO reached 58% of the way between Earth and the moon, roughly 140,000 miles (220,000 kilometers) from our planet. It was the minimoon's final approach, but not its closest trip to Earth. It achieved its shortest distance to our planet a few months prior, on Dec. 1, 2020.

It has since drifted off into space and away from Earth's orbit, never to return.

This year, NASA's sun-kissing spacecraft swam within a structure that's only visible during total solar eclipses and was able to measure exactly where the star's "point of no return" is located.

The Parker Solar Probe has been zooming through the inner solar system to make close approaches to the sun for the past three years, and it is designed to help scientists learn about what creates the solar wind, a sea of charged particles that flow out of the sun and can affect Earth in many ways.

The spacecraft stepped into the sun's outer atmosphere, known as the corona, during its eight solar flyby. The April 28 maneuver supplied the data that confirmed the exact location of the Alfvn critical surface: the point where the solar wind flows away from the sun, never to return.

The probe managed to get as low as 15 solar radii, or 8.1 million miles (13 million km) from the sun's surface. It was there that it passed through a huge structure called a pseudostreamer, which can be seen from Earth when the moon blocks the light from the sun's disk during a solar eclipse. In a statement about the discovery, NASA officials described that part of the trip as "flying into the eye of a storm."

Last but not least, this year marked the arrival of NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars.

The mission has been working hard to find traces of ancient Martian life since it reached the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021. Engineers have equipped Perseverance with powerful cameras to help the mission team decide what rocks are worth investigating.

One of Perseverance's most charming findings has been "Harbor Seal Rock," a curiously-shaped feature that was probably carved out by the Martian wind over many years. Perseverance has also obtained several rock samples this year, which will be collected by the space agency for analysis at some point in the future.

Perseverance is taking its observations from the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater, which was home to a river delta and a deep lake billions of years ago.

Follow Doris Elin Urrutia on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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From Cleveland to the moon and even Mars: NASA Glenn adds thrust to space exploration – cleveland.com

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From Cleveland to the moon and even Mars: NASA Glenn adds thrust to space exploration cleveland.com

From Cleveland to the moon and even Mars: NASA Glenn adds thrust to space exploration - cleveland.com

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The US should insist that Russian and Belarusian athletes be banned from the 2024 Olympics – The Hill

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The US should insist that Russian and Belarusian athletes be banned from the 2024 Olympics The Hill
Ukraine, Russia Olympic presidents, once teammates, now on opposite sides of war Home of the Olympic Channel
Klitschko accuses Bach of representing Russia, rather than Olympic values Insidethegames.biz

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The US should insist that Russian and Belarusian athletes be banned from the 2024 Olympics - The Hill

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California Casinos: List and Gambling Locations in CA

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The best VR apps for 2022 | Digital Trends

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If you think virtual reality apps are designed just for gaming, think again. VR headsets are more accessible than ever before thanks to products like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or Sony PlayStation VR. Developers are creating VR apps that deliver fantastic experiences, from playing immersive video games to exploring landmarks in stunning 360 environments.

If youre looking for inspiration for new apps to try with your VR headset, weve put together a few recommendations. Read on to find out more about our favorite VR apps available right now.

Travel is one of the joys of globalization, opening up countless avenues of experience and culture to people who, a century ago, wouldnt have had access to them. Travel can also be expensive, however, and dreadful for the environment. Rather than fly out to Everest to stand in line behind a cavalcade of wealthy tourists employing sherpas to carry them up the mountain in search of a killer selfie, why not take a trip in Googles Expeditions app? Expeditions offers VR tours of iconic landmarks like Mount Everest or Teotihuacan, as well as educational tours built around subjects like the recycling industry or even the anatomy of human skin. The 360-degree images involved are intensely detailed. While Expeditions cant capture the aura of ancient ruins or towering mountains, it does provide excellent learning experiences that wont gobble up your travel budget or pump carbon into the atmosphere.

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Google

Penrose Studios free-to-play, stop-motion VR film experience chronicling the story of a young girl in a cloud-borne village is absolutelybreathtaking. InAllumette, you act as the camera, exploring the gorgeously drawn world however you please even ignoring the main storyline, if you so desire. Make no mistake: This is a narrative, not a game. Though none of the characters inAllumette actuallyspeak, per se, the forms of communication they douse (emotive,Sims-like noises, mostly) do an effective job of conveying emotion and intent.

The story itself based loosely upon a poem by Hans Christian Andersen is both charming and heartrending, though we wont spoil too much here. Few VR experiences create the same sense of weight and presence for the viewer, and in Allumette,youll truly feel likeyouve been transported into astorybook world. The 20-minute runtime is an eternity in comparison to mostnarrative-based VR experiences few even reach the 10-minute mark butPenrose CEO and founder Eugene Chung considers virtual and augmented reality to be the future of storytelling, and pushing boundaries is the only way to break paradigms.Allumette lies somewhere in the murky realm between filmic narrative and video games, but somehow it rises above genre as asimplydivine experience.

If you enjoyed Allumette and you have access to an Oculus Rift,Henry is also worth checking out.

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Steam Oculus

Top-notch sound design and wonderful,Samurai Jack-esque animation are the driving forces behindColosse, a short-story VR experience that responds to the rooted players gaze, moving the narrative forward seamlessly.Described by developer Fire Panda as a real-time virtual reality storytelling experience,Colosse revels in its sense of scale, with clever details throughout. For instance, the hunter characteris rendered at just 12 frames per second, while the rest of the film is in 60, contributing to its unique atmosphere.

Audio and visual cues direct the players gaze,and certain objects wait to activate until you look at them, which provides a natural sense of pace. Certain events will occur depending upon the direction youre facing, so youll never be stuck searching for the next piece of the puzzle. Originally designed as a demo for the Oculus Mobile VRJam,Colosse isnt quite as fleshed out asAllumette, but its certainlya sight to behold, and a fun display of the ways VR can change storytelling. Oh, and its free.

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Steam Oculus

When you look up at the night sky and gaze into the vastness of the universe, marveling at the infinite nothing and everything of creation, time, and space, youre probably wonderingdid someone make a VR app for this? Youre in luck because they did!

Titans of Space is an immersive journey through the planets and moons of our solar system. It is a highly educational app but dont let that deter or bore you. Flying through the cosmos on your VR headset is as exciting as it is informative. Youll be taken through guided educational activities, but are also free to drift through the stars performing your own EVA (Extravehicular Activity). Bet you didnt think learning about Saturns 82 moons could be fun? Well, it is.

Take a journey with your Flying Professor tour guide as you experiment with the gravitational pull of different planets. Youll analyze each planet with radar, topographic maps, and more. Explore the wonders of our solar system from the comfort of your living room.

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Steam OculusGoogle Play Store

When VR began to blossom as an entertainment medium, one of our first thoughts was: Google Earth is going to be super freaking cool. Turns out, we were right. Flying around the planet like some kind of hypersonic eagle is both enjoyable and educational, at least if you happen to like geography. And even if you dont, you can still use the quick-nav menu to visit landmark sites like the Sphinx or the Golden Gate Bridge or pay a digital visit to the capital of Djibouti.

Unsurprisingly, lots of landscapes and areasappear to be little more than colorful smudges (especially if youre using Google Cardboard), but its a free app, so what are you gonna do? Zooming across vast distances in a matter of seconds and descending upon mammoth structures like the Hoover Dam is exhilarating, even if you cant make out the individual cars driving across it. Chances are, youve used Google Earth before, so you know the drill. It only gets more fun in virtual reality; just dont expect too much detail.

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Steam OculusGoogle Play Store

Ever fancied yourself a street artist? No, not like the guy who paints himself gold and stands still for several hours. Atrue street artist think Banksyor Shepard Fairey, scaling freeway overpasses and windy rooftops to unleash your inner Rembrandt for urban passersby to appreciate (or scoff at, as the case may be). InKingspray, you can (legally) live out those dreams, using (virtual) spray paint to make your mark on one of five digital walls, from laboratoriesto rooftops.

Whether you prefer to tagalleyway walls or train cars,Kingspray features realistic drip and spray effects, complete with different can caps and pressures to fully customize your masterpiece. You can load up images and project them onto paint surfaces to act as stencils, save 360-degree screen captures, and even paint online with up to three friends. What more could you want? Oh, yeah, in true VR fashion, you can pick up loose objects like bricks and bottles to throw at each other. Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta.

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Steam Oculus

Using your VR headset to watch content from Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube is fun. Its like having your own personal IMAX movie theater to visit any time you want, without dropping obscene amounts of coin on popcorn and cookie dough bites. Littlstar VR Cinema changes the game by offering a full library of 360-degree videos designed to make you feel like youre the cameraman. Whether youd prefer to educate yourself about the state of Nepal post-earthquake or simply jam out to some music videos, Littlstar provides a point of view that you just cant get anywhere else.

Theres Broadway theater content, sports content, and content for kids, making this one of the best VR experiences out there. Its also absolutely free. The user interface is smoother on some platforms than it is on others looking at you, Rift but thats a minor complaint. If youre the creative type, you can even film and upload your own 360-degree content for others to view and enjoy.

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Steam Oculus

The open ocean is a terrifying yet wondrous place, and its full depths are on display inOcean Rift. The experience is akin to an African safari, except youre free to roam wherever you please and youre underwater, of course. Explore any of the 12 huge open habitats at your leisure, observing marine wildlife that includes dolphins, manatees, sharks, and more. Head toward the surface to cavort with sea turtles, or dive into deeper waters to encounter more dangerous and potentially deadly animals.

If you want to simply sit back and watch the fish pass you by,Ocean Rift can be a calming, therapeutic experience. If youd prefer to explore the game to its fullest, it can almost become a survival horror game with a few surprises up its watery sleeve. Little touches,like the outline of a diving mask around the screens edges,help to make this a trulymemorable experience. If you dont want to pay for the full experience, check out the Gear VR demo here.

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Oculus

Of all the fantastical possibilities that the commercialization of virtual reality affords, talk shows are extremelylow on the list.After all, who really wants to step into the shoes of an audience member onOprah, without even receiving a freegift?

As it turns out, though, it can be cool. The Foo Show hosted by Tested co-founder Will Smith, aka Foo istechnically a talk show, but its so much more than that. The show, funded viaKickstarter and powered by motion-capture, features a digitized Smith speaking with digitized guests about games and tech culture.

You might be wondering: Why is this in VR? Thats a good question!The coolest thing aboutThe Foo Showis its creative use of VR to transport viewers directly into the game environments that are being discussed onscreen. For example, the first episode (technically, Episode 0) transports viewersinto the watchtower fromFirewatch, where you can walk around, examine your surroundings, and interact with objects, all while enjoying insightful commentary. The following episode depicts Smith interviewing Blendo Games Brendon Chung about hacker-puzzle gameQuadrilateral Cowboy, with part of the interview taking place in one of the games environments. Frankly, were not sure what kind of schedule the show will adhere to if any but its a creative concept that gamers should love.

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Steam Oculus

If youre not the artsy type,Tilt Brush might surprise you. Using the motion sensors for the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift Touch controllers, the app allows you to paint in a three-dimensional space to create absolutely stunning works of art, in any color imaginable. The motion controls are surprisingly accurate, and the digital medium means you can simply go back to delete any mistakes you might have made. Even if youre not naturally creative, Tilt Brushwill bring out a new side of you.

In addition to painting, you can add cool effects like sparkling stars or smoke trails to accentuate elements of your painting. The Oculus Rift version boasts a cool preview feature, but the app is equally enjoyable on either platform. Currently, Google (the creator) has chosen not to bring Tilt Brushto PSVR, citing a lack of precision in the tracking software. If you own a Vive or Rift, though, you absolutely have to getTilt Brush. For now, its one of the bestVR experiences out there, introducing an entirely new artistic medium for creatives and non-creatives alike to enjoy.

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Steam Oculus

Platforms: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, OSVR

Have you ever fantasized about navigating your computer in virtual reality, like that episode ofThe Fairly Odd Parents where Timmy actuallygoes inside the internet? Neither have we. If that sounds interesting, though, boy, do we have some good news for you!Virtual Desktoplets you use your computer in VR, whether youre browsing the web, watching Netflix, or playing games. Hell, you can even manage spreadsheets in VR, though we think thatmight be more of a hindrance than anything.

The app works wellwith multiple-monitor setups, and using your headset to swivel back and forth between screens is prettycool.

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Steam Oculus

Within provides a platform to view amazing content from VR creators across the world, from crazy on-rails fantasy ridesto 360-degree music videos. New experiences are added regularly, including a 13-minute, 360-degree video based on the hit TV showMr. Robot,to entertain and educate you in the most immersive manner possible. View content from news outlets like NBC, Apple, the New York Times, and Vice Media, as well as musical groups and movie studios.

The Possible, a video series from the Within team, explores technology through the lens of your VR headset. Each episode brilliantly touches on different tech-centric topics, like hovercrafts and robotic dogs. The show is directed by David Gelb (Chefs Table), and new episodes are released regularly. If you dont download Within, youre doing yourself a disservice for a few reasons, least of all that the app is free. So, even if some of the current content doesnt pique your interest, the available library is only going to get bigger over time. Video quality varies slightly, and it seems like the animated content is smoother than the live-action content. But thats no reason to deny yourself the Within experience (especially when it is free!).

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Steam Oculus Google Play Store

Fulldive VR calls itself a Social All-in-One VR Platform that promises an immersive mobile VR experience for everyone. Gamers can browse VR content from many different sources on the Fulldive platform, and the social aspect includes the ability to share content with your friends. The game also happens to be compatible with Google Cardboard, so accessing it is incredibly easy. You can download the Fulldive VR app through Google Play or the App Store.

The apps 3D interface lets you browse menus, adjust settings, and view your friends lists. As with many Cardboard apps, you can look at a particular icon in order to navigate. It includes a Trending category to get you started, but Fulldive takes a unique approach to sorting content. In addition to the Trending category, you can also search for other themes like Cute or Scary, though youll find that the themes are pretty subjective.

The content itself comes from a wide swath of sources, including The New York Times and Discovery. You can jump from a short, CGI film in which they flee a giant squid to first-person documentary footage of elephants in Fulldive, making it an excellent resource for keeping a wide selection of VR content at your fingertips. If youre new to VR, you might find the platforms interface difficult to navigate, but you can learn it with some time and practice. Your effort will pay off in the long run.

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Google Play Store

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What is virtual reality? – TechTarget

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What is virtual reality?

Virtual reality is a simulated 3D environment that enables users to explore and interact with a virtual surrounding in a way that approximates reality, as it is perceived through the users' senses. The environment is created with computer hardware and software, although users might also need to wear devices such as helmets or goggles to interact with the environment. The more deeply users can immerse themselves in a VR environment -- and block out their physical surroundings -- the more they are able to suspend their belief and accept it as real, even if it is fantastical in nature.

The VR industry still has far to go before realizing its vision of a totally immersive environment that enables users to engage multiple sensations in a way that approximates reality. However, the technology has come a long way in providing realistic sensory engagement and shows promise for business use in a number of industries.

VR systems can vary significantly from one to the next, depending on their purpose and the technology used, although they generally fall into one of the following three categories:

Collaborative VR is sometimes cited as a type of virtual reality. In this model, people from different locations come together in a virtual environment to interact with one another, with each individual represented by a projected 3D character. The users typically communicate through microphones and headsets.

Augmented reality also is sometimes referred to as a type of virtual reality, although many would argue that it is a separate but related field. With augmented reality, virtual simulations are overlaid onto real-world environments in order to enhance or augment those environments. For example, a furniture retailer might provide an app that enables users to point their phones at a room and visualize what a new chair or table might look like in that setting.

Another category that is sometimes considered a type of virtual reality is mixed reality, which blends the physical and virtual worlds into a single space. Like augmented reality, however, it is more often considered a separate but related field. In fact, there's been a growing consensus to group virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality under the umbrella term "extended reality," which provides a handy way to reference all three, while still distinguishing among them.

Today's VR technologies and applications have inspired multiple companies and experts to advocate for advanced uses of the metaverse.

Virtual reality is often associated with gaming because the industry has been at the forefront of the VR effort, as evidenced by the popularity of products such as Beat Saber, Minecraft VR and Skyrim VR. Even so, there has been a growing interest in the potential of VR across a number of other areas:

The simplest form of virtual reality is a 3D image that can be explored interactively through a personal computer, usually by manipulating keys or the mouse so that the content of the image moves in some direction or zooms in or out. More sophisticated efforts involve such approaches as wraparound display screens, physical rooms augmented with wearable devices, or haptic devices that let users "feel" the virtual images.

See also: VR room, virtual reality cloud, immersive virtual reality

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What is virtual reality? - TechTarget

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Forget the metaverse, Sony’s PlayStation VR2 will make you a virtual reality believer again – British GQ

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Forget the metaverse, Sony's PlayStation VR2 will make you a virtual reality believer again British GQ
Sony PlayStation VR 2 Review | 2023 Best Virtual Reality Headset Popular Mechanics
Playstation VR 2: Sony announces 5 new VR games MIXED Reality News

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Forget the metaverse, Sony's PlayStation VR2 will make you a virtual reality believer again - British GQ

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Daily Archives: February 18, 2023

House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan subpoenas big tech CEOs over user speech – CBS News

At Tesla and Other Big Tech Firms, Its Not the Machines But the Assumptions Behind Them Causing Problems – Forbes

Ted Cruz launches Big Tech censorship investigation, says Elon Musk ‘changed the terrain’ in Silicon Valley – Fox Business

The 10 biggest space science stories of 2021 | Space

From Cleveland to the moon and even Mars: NASA Glenn adds thrust to space exploration – cleveland.com

The US should insist that Russian and Belarusian athletes be banned from the 2024 Olympics – The Hill

California Casinos: List and Gambling Locations in CA

The best VR apps for 2022 | Digital Trends

What is virtual reality? – TechTarget

Forget the metaverse, Sony’s PlayStation VR2 will make you a virtual reality believer again – British GQ

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