WorldWide Telescope in Research and Education

TL;DR

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a free, interactive visualization tool that enhances astronomical research and education by integrating multi-wavelength data, supporting research applications, and improving science learning experiences.

Contribution

This paper highlights the development, integration, and educational impact of WWT as a versatile tool for research and teaching in astronomy.

Findings

WWT enhances student science learning experiences.

WWT integrates multi-wavelength astronomical data.

WWT connects with research applications via standards like SAMP.

Abstract

The WorldWide Telescope computer program, released to researchers and the public as a free resource in 2008 by Microsoft Research, has changed the way the ever-growing Universe of online astronomical data is viewed and understood. The WWT program can be thought of as a scriptable, interactive, richly visual browser of the multi-wavelength Sky as we see it from Earth, and of the Universe as we would travel within it. In its web API format, WWT is being used as a service to display professional research data. In its desktop format, WWT works in concert (thanks to SAMP and other IVOA standards) with more traditional research applications such as ds9, Aladin and TOPCAT. The WWT Ambassadors Program (founded in 2009) recruits and trains astrophysically-literate volunteers (including retirees) who use WWT as a teaching tool in online, classroom, and informal educational settings. Early quantitative studies of WWTA indicate that student experiences with WWT enhance science learning dramatically. Thanks to the wealth of data it can access, and the growing number of services to which it connects, WWT is now a key linking technology in the Seamless Astronomy environment we seek to offer researchers, teachers, and students alike.