AAS Special Session on Astronomy Visualization

Session Description

Astronomy Visualization: The State of the Art

Wednesday, 11 January, 2:00-3:30pm
Organized by Frank Summers, summers@stsci.edu and John Stoke, stoke@stsci.edu

Scientific visualization is a fast developing field. The rapid developments in computer graphics, though done primarily for movies and video games, has enabled scientific graphics to achieve a level of polish never before seen. Astronomy, being the most visual of the sciences, has benefited more than any other from computer graphics. In addition, the current transition from traditional optical star ball based planetariums to full-dome digital theaters has increased the demand, supply, and quality of astronomical visualizations.

This special session will bring together the best astronomy visualizations done for research, outreach, and public presentation. Speakers were invited based on a juried selection of visualizations during the fall of 2005. Join us for a look at the coolest animations, details of how they are made, and the scientific stories that they tell. The goal is to foster communication and collaboration between astronomers and artists to increase the breadth and depth of stunning astronomical visuals available.

Confirmed Speakers:

Dana Berry, SkyWorks Digital Animation, Flying through Valles Marineris, from "Cosmos 25th Anniversary"
John Dubinski, U Toronto, Klemperer's Dream
Andrew Hanson and Priscilla Frisch, U Indiana and U Chicago, Galactic Center Fly-in
Andrew Hamilton, U Colorado, Voyage Into and Through a Black Hole
Robert Hurt, Spitzer Science Center, Strange New Worlds
Michael Norman, UC San Diego, Population III Star Formation and Supernovae
Mark SubbaRao, Adler Planetarium and U Chicago, Mapping the Universe with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Frank Summers, STScI, Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time
Simon White, MPIA Garching, Flight Through the Millennium Simulation

Session Results

The session was an overwhelming success. Although we were able to get the seesion moved to a larger room, even that was not big enough. We had a standing room only crowd for the entire ninety minutes. Many AAS attendees thanked us afterward for running such a wonderful session. Several said it was the best session of the entire metting.

Some pictures from the session

At the session, we distributed a DVD with 40 of the submitted visualizations. Over 400 DVDs were distributed, which has drained our entire supply. We are trying to get the ISO file of this DVD posted so that everyone can download and burn a copy.