Star and Planet Formation through the WorldWide Telescope

Abstract

The WorldWide Telescope is a Universe Information System that can display and access nearly all astronomical images and literature available online. In the five years since its initial release, the program has been downloaded more than 10 million times, but only a very tiny fraction of those downloads, so far, are by professional research astronomers. While WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a fantastic tool for education and outreach (see wwtambassadors.org), it is also a tremendously valuable research tool, especially for putting results into their astronomical context. In this poster, we demonstrate how the WWT can be used to: 1) put surveys into context, on top of more than 40 different all-sky images, spanning the electromagnetic spectrum; 2) perform literature searches from the sky; 3) compare images and catalogs at different wavelenghts, on-the-fly in seconds; 4) show your own online data to the world, in an API that allows users to see it on the sky in their browsers; and 5) communicate to colleagues and learners about the sky using interactive Tours of your data and ideas. Examples of data distribution can be found at http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/COMPLETE/WWTCoverageTool.htm and a star-formation-related educational tour sample is at wwtambassadors.org/wwt/tours/dust-and-us.