Exoplanets Data Visualization in Multi-dimensional Plots using Virtual Reality in DACE

The Data and Analysis Center for Exoplanets (DACE) is a web platform based at the University of Geneva (CH) dedicated to exoplanets data visualization, exchange and analysis.

This platform is based on web technologies using common programming languages like HTML and JavaScript. During the past 3 years, the plotting tools has been improved in order to display large datasets on the platform, dealing with browsers performances constraints.

The next challenge is to display the exoplanets data in multi-dimensional plots. The web virtual reality technology has been added on DACE, and allows the user to display the data in virtual reality devices like cardboards and headsets.

The virtual reality is used for displaying 3D plots of synthetic planetary populations, discovered exoplanets from different archives, and 3D planetary systems with a star and its orbiting planets.

The used technologies are webVR, external GPUs called eGPUs in order to increase laptop performances, HTC vive pro headset and google cardboards.