Astronomical visualization goes big

i think this is the first time i'm promoting something developed at microsoft, but i really gotta give them credit here. the worldwide telelscope (WWT) is an interactive piece of software, with god knows how many layers of astronomical data embedded, that allows its users to navigate through the universe and experience decades of astronomical observations first-hand. i had the privilege of meeting curtis wong (the creator of the software) in december in kicp's cosmology short course, which i helped organize (i even "graded" his assignment for the course, for which he of course submitted WWT). he is a wonderful person and WWT is really an amazing project.

i gotta mention though, at the same cosmology short course, carter emmart from the hayden planetarium of the american museum of natural history presented digital universe, which does essentially the exact same thing as the WWT. in fact, it is almost more impressive than the WWT, AND it's available for free download (i doubt microsoft would allow such a socialist move). having played around with both pieces of software, i have to say i prefer the latter.

below is curtis wong and mike turner playing with the WWT on curtis' laptop, and a group of us - with long-haired and generally amazing carter emmart - awed by digital universe.

South Pole Telescope

great, great news. the south pole telescope (SPT), headed by our own john carlstrom here at the university of chicago kavli institute, saw its first light on february 16th (i'm clearly still a bit behind the news, but i'm catching up!). SPT is a 10m telescope operating in the submillimeter wavelength range (between infrared and radio in the electromagnetic spectrum), with its camera cooled to a mere 1/4 of a degree above absolute zero. the first observations were made of jupiter at wavelengths of 2 and 3mm, and demonstrated that the scope was working as designed. ultimately, the goal of the telescope is to help astronomers understand the nature of dark energy by using the S-Z effect to map galaxy clusters, and to make measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. here is the SPT blog with stories of the assembly of the telescope and lots of nice pictures. here is the nsf press release.

oh and fyi, from march 2007-march 2008 is the international polar year. what a great thing that it's starting off on an astronomical note. see this page for wonderful images from the polar regions.

[ryan, who is part of the SPT team, was in the office the other day telling stories of the assembly of the telescope. i clearly immediately asked if they had seen any penguins, but apparently penguins don't live on the south pole. huge disappointment!]