In an exciting development, students from Pune can now set out on a virtual astronomy tour thanks to Alyssa Goodman, a renowned astronomer from Harvard. The tour will show and explain how dust in the Milky Way Galaxy concentrates to form planets and stars. With the help of a novel technology called the World Wide Telescope (WWT) a computer screen can now be turned into a virtual telescope which can show the entire universe with minute details. As far as the vocal part is concerned, a user can select his/ her preferred language for the explanation.
The Inter-university Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) is hosting a workshop in Pune on the WWT technology in association with Microsoft Research. The workshop will be organized on September 4 in which astronomy enthusiasts will get useful information about the WWT and its usage.
Mr. Arvind Paranjpye who is one of the scientific officers working in the Public Outreach Programme of the ICUAA was talking to the correspondents on Friday. He said, “When astronomers look at the sky through a telescope, some images are taken, for instance, to study a planet. However, this frame may contain various other things besides the planet. For the scientists, the planet could be important, but for others, there could be things besides the planet in the frame that are important. In the WWT, many such images have been stored in such a manner that users can extract extra information from them.” The WWT is a user friendly technology specially designed to enhance user's virtual experience. This will help the user in astronomical research and science education. Moreover its entertainment value too is indisputable.
Mr. Paranjpye also said that different views [...]
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