Visualizing the Universe

Author

Geller, Margaret J. ; Falco, Emilio E. ; Fabricant, Daniel G. ; Estus, Boyd

Author_Institution

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophys., Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

1992

fDate

19-23 Oct 1992

Firstpage

390

Lastpage

397

Abstract

A Universe mapping project at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), called the CfA Redshift Survey, is described. The line-of-sight recession velocities of galaxies are measured by identifying absorption and emission lines in their spectra. With the two angular positions of a galaxy on the sky and a measurement of its red-shift, each galaxy can be placed in a three-dimensional (3-D) map of the Universe. It is shown that visualization techniques are important for exploring and analyzing the data, for comparing the data with models, and for designing the future. Computer animation of the data is a way of bringing the maps before the public

Keywords

astronomical spectra; astronomy computing; clusters of galaxies; computer animation; cosmology; data visualisation; galaxies; red shift; 3D map; CfA Redshift Survey; Universe mapping project; absorption lines; animation; astronomical spectra; emission lines; galaxies; line-of-sight recession velocities; red-shift; Astrophysics; Detectors; Extraterrestrial measurements; Laboratories; Reactive power; Space technology; Telescopes; Velocity measurement; Visualization; Wavelength measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Visualization, 1992. Visualization '92, Proceedings., IEEE Conference on

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

Print_ISBN

0-8186-2897-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/VISUAL.1992.235181

Filename

235181