Hayden Planetarium's Digital Universe: The Extragalactic Atlas
Abstract
The Hayden Planetarium is compiling 3-D data from the solar neighborhood out to the CMB to place in an atlas of the universe. The Milky Way Atlas has been available for free from our website (http://www.haydenplanetarium.org) for almost two years and has been downloaded over 20,000 times. We now announce the release of our Extragalactic Atlas, expanding the Digital Universe from our home galaxy to the WMAP image of density fluctuations in the early universe.
Using the Partiview software to display the Atlas, users can simultaneously examine a variety of data sets from multiple sources together in shared 3-D space. Relationships of large-scale structure between surveys are clearly demonstrated with control across a range of scale, from galactic to the entire visible universe. The Digital Universe Atlas has great potential in outreach and educational applications. We currently use the Atlas interactively to explore the universe in our planetarium and classrooms. We also collaborate with E/PO teams, educators, scientists, and the NVO to provide data visualization in the context of the Atlas. We gratefully acknowledge support for the Digital Universe from NASA and the NSF.- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003AAS...20311807A