AAS WorldWide Telescope: Seamless, Cross-Platform Data Visualization Engine for Astronomy Research, Education, and Democratizing Data
PubDate: Jan 2018
Teams: American Astronomical Society;National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences;Christenberry Planetarium, Samford University;Aperio Software Ltd;Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Writers: Philip Rosenfield (1), Jonathan Fay (1), Ronald K Gilchrist (1), Chenzhou Cui (2), A. David Weigel (3), Thomas Robitaille (4), Oderah Justin Otor (1), Alyssa Goodman
Abstract
The American Astronomical Society’s WorldWide Telescope (WWT) project enables terabytes of astronomical images, data, and stories to be viewed and shared among researchers, exhibited in science museums, projected into full-dome immersive planetariums and virtual reality headsets, and taught in classrooms from middle school to college levels. We review the WWT ecosystem, how WWT has been used in the astronomical community, and comment on future directions.