WWT in Research, Education, Outreach, and Planetariums

WWT was originally created as a tool for education and outreach. But, its inclusion of so much research-grade astronomical imagery quickly made it valubale to resarchers too. The examples below are just a small sample of the ever-growing list of WWT's us in Research, Education & Outreach, and Planetarium settings.

WWT is a powerful, yet flexible visualization tool that is enabling advances in astronomy research across multiple scientific domains and across a variety of analysis platforms. 

• The open-source software repository allows scientists and educators to embed WWT views into research analysis tools, project websites, and interactive explainers. github.com/WorldWideTelescope

• WWT is the astronomical image viewer used in LIVE Environments, a suite of data science tools used for exploratory data analysis. LIVE-env.org

• WWT provides contextual sky views in glue's linked multidimensional data analysis tools. glueviz.org

• WWT can be used in Jupyter Notebooks by scientists and students to visualize catalogs, images, and 3D data directly from Python workflows. pywwt.readthedocs.io  (and more of the story!)

• WWT provides interactive 3D visualization of the local Milky Way, dust, and structures. milkyway3d.org

• WWT powers a Chandra Source Catalog that allows users to explore X-ray sources spatially and contextually. cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/csc2.1/wwt.html 

• The ADS All-Sky Survey enables visual exploration of the astronomy literature mapped onto the sky using WWT context. adsallsky.org

WWT provides compellingly beautiful visualizations that elicit those "aha" moments where the whys and hows of astronomy concepts become clear to non-experts. (Astronomy experts even report finally understanding certain topics after seeing them in WWT!)

• The WWT Ambassadors (WWTA) Program was founded with the explicit purpose of training scientists and educators to teach astronomy with WWT. WWTA resources have been used by many hundreds of thousands of students to explore the Solar System, understand moon phases and the life cycle of stars, and visualize how parallax lets astronomers measure distances to objects in space. wwtambassadors.org

• Cosmic Data Stories (CosmicDS) is a NASA-funded extension of WWTA that combines WWT views with glue and other analysis tools to teach data science skills to the public. Interactive science narratives use WWT to help students truly understand the reason for seasons, how solar eclipses work, and how to estimate the age of the universe using Hubble's Law. cosmicds.cfa.harvard.edu  

• The AstroPix Image Explorer makes beautiful NASA imagery from the Great Observatories easily discoverable and viewable in WWT's sky context. astropix.ipac.caltech.edu 

• China's Virtual Observatory uses WWT as a national-scale public astronomy outreach and education platform in China. nadc.china-vo.org/wwt 

WWT has been used to create multimedia presentations for planetarium domes and museums around the world.

• WWT opened up new ways of visualizing astronomical imagery in the planetarium dome when the Adler Planetarium used WWT to create their Cosmic Wonder show that has been viewed by hundreds of thousands of visitors. WWT's tour-authoring features and full-dome mode enables inexpensive setups for smaller planetariums.

• WWT complements OpenSpace's 3D visualizations in planetarium domes through a plugin that allows OpenSpace presenters to easily display sky-based views of WWT imagery. The combination of WWT + OpenSpace + glue has been used in the planetariums at the American Museum of Natural History and Boston Museum of Science to help scientists showcase their research in live dome shows.  (Visit this MilkyWay3D page to learn more.)

• WWT is used at the INTUITIVE Planetarium at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center to create "dome to phone" resources that planetarium guests can continue to engage with after they leave a show. For example, the Rubin Observatory First Look Images were being dome-cast live to 60 planetariums around the world, with links to a WWT interactive featuring the images. projects.cosmicds.cfa.harvard.edu/rubin-first-look